Virus from China goes global

Originally posted by Osi: ↑

I should start a new thread on why this emergency is so urgent.

SARS was too deadly to take hold and it didn't spread between people that easily. As a result, only about a thousand people died of SARS world wide.

This latest pandemic corona virus does seem spread easily between people. Based on numbers so far this corona virus kills about 2% of people who catch it. So if 2,000,000,000 are eventually exposed to this virus we could expect 40,000,000 deaths world wide. About 85% of upper respiratory virus transmission is from coughing and sneezing. The stuff spreads around in closed vessels like aircraft, buses, trains and some office blocks (the sick building syndrome). Therefore the pictorials of hazmat clad cleaners spraying railway stations and the like is frigg'n nonsense. Also, not everyone who comes down with this sort of virus gets seriously ill from it. People without any symptoms from many virus infections are still quite able spreading them.

We know that viruses like this one don't do so well outside the body of a host. How long they last depends on whether the surface they land on is porous and or damp etc but most of it will be dead within 48 hours regardless. A few can last 72 hours. I don't know how long the current pandemic corona virus lasts outside the body.

I'm thinking that safety glasses and a quality mask are the best preventative options. You can't rub your eyes or mouth with your hands if you don't remove your safety glasses or mask. Hand disinfectant will also be must.

Again, this virus will be different to previous scares IF it is confirmed to sit in a mathematical sweet zone of transmissibility and (usual) severity. It could be that the numbers from China are dodgy and/or incomplete and/or don't cover most infected people whose symptoms are only in the mild to moderate zone. I don't know.

Depending on whether or not this virus sits in a mathematical sweet zone, its impact on global GDP could be catastrophic. In a bad pandemic people won't go anywhere, do anything or spend money on anything that isn't a basic.

I have no idea as to what (if any) planning federal, state and local governments are doing on this. Other than playing a slow follow the leader approach perhaps they don't either.

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I posted this on 24 January,. The thread heading speaks for itself.

The short story is that posters were raising the alarm and pleading for more action while politicians remained rudderless. This was before the WHO declared a Global Pandemic.

Back in January and into March, anti-vaxer, Trumpist and far right posters were hosing down the crisis and flaming the whistle blowers.

Moving forward, nobody can say that they knew nothing of the of the global risk in January because word did get out of Wuhan and we debated it. HC threads, many other social media posts and some MSM reports from that time are evidence.