Covid-19.

[cee-dee]

Reading and listening to the news reports about the spread of the virus, the common denominator seems to be travel?

Surely if travel was halted until the incidences of the virus have "died down", the spread to other countries wouldn't happen?

[upthecreekyetagain]

[cee-dee]

All the pubs in Ireland are to be closed at midnight and a "leak" claims they'll all be ordered to close here soon.

[fallen-archie]

I think many are already on the verge of bankruptcy!

[cee-dee]

That'll tip them over the edge?

I saw reports of two pubs re-opening after "major refurbishment", one after a "six-figure" spend. That won't be a very good start?

[suzieseaside]

No, tough timing

I worry for friends who run restaurants 'tho' maybe delivering good food to people staying in might be an option to try.

[vamo48]

Are they planning to ban fresh air and exercise?  Will we be dragged out of our allotment shed and arrested?

[suzieseaside]

On guard Mr Mannering, prod 'em with your garden fork - no-one should be prised from their shed!

I hope not, I'm planning a lot of fresh air and allotment digging time. After months of the wet stuff and gales it looks like 3 dry days ahead! Yay! Back willing!

[goldenwonders]

I've been watching the development with this for several months and could not understand the panic it appeared to be causing. 

When it began in China - I started calculating the percentages quoted and discovered it was so infinitessible my calculator stopped working!

I'm still a bit bemused by it all - not sure where reality starts and - what I hope is non reality (i'll stop short of fantasy!), caused by sheer panic ends.

I take on all the figures given to me by the government and quite frankly they still don't make sense! 

In a week on average 266 people die of the seasonal flu - possibly double that in Winter. 35 people have died in 11 days of CV19 and health related issues

Supposedly in China today its said 87,000 have the virus - not sure why its only grown since February by only 10,000. There is never any mention of how many must have recovered in that time??? Or is it now static at recovering cases being 87,000? All I do know is Screwfix have now said their items from China are now back to normal deliverywise - so things must have improved!

I check out my county figures and according to the BBC in 3 days Staffordshire has seen a rise from 4 cases to 6! ..and as the papers say "Its out of Control" - I'm struggling to get my head around this!

I hear of Tom Hanks, Arteta, some Chelsea player and others who leave flippant joking messages on their social media accounts laughing it off - some of them say they would have still been at work had it been possible?

I've watched the scenes of some poor lady in Italy refused entry to hospital and she can't breathe! It got to me as one who suffers from allergic asthma since a child It makes me feel immediately short of breath - tight!

Meanwhile the supermarkets are heaving, worse than Christmas - readymeals have disappeared with toilet rolls - what's that all about? Cut out the middle man and put the ready meals straight in the bin and save on the toilet paper.

As for a lot of people they are going into meltdown... ..and yes I'm worried, but not sure what about? The total number of deaths from Corona is now past 6,500 world wide out of over 7.5 billion - or 0.00000086% should I be worried?????

If I did not know better I'd say the people are being whipped into a frenzy on a worldwide scale? But why?

  ...there is more to this than meets the eye!

[the-blue-rose]

There could very well be more to it than meets the eye 🤔

The important thing is, don't panic, follow all health authority and government guidelines and be sensible in your choices of travel and daily living.

[cee-dee]

The first trial of a vaccine is under way:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51906604

[upthecreekyetagain]

Should you be worried?  Well yes if you have an ounce of humanity!

Comparing the numbers who have died from Covid 19 with those from flu, lightning strikes or falling down manholes is a pointless exercise.  Fatalities from the latter causes have remained virtually static over the years, deaths from Coronavirus related illnesses are growing exponentially. 

We have absolutely no resistance to this virus and we are incredibly fortunate that the fatality rate may be as low as 0.6% -  even so with it being projected that about 80% may become infected that means around 350,000 real people with families will likely die.  Imagine the casualties if Coronavirus had been as deadly as H5N1 bird flu at 60% - 100 times more deadly than Covid-19. 

[bankhaunter]

Covid19 has a mortality rate of about 3.5 times that of flu, remember too that a large proportion of the more vulnerable people are vaccinated against flu.

Supposedly in China today its said 87,000 have the virus - not sure why its only grown since February by only 10,000.

That is because of strict lockdowns that have gone a long way to containing the spread.

The biggest danger is people being complacent and not taking essential precautions.

possibly double that in Winter. 35 people have died in 11 days of CV19 and health related issues

Make that 55.

[cee-dee]

It seems some treatments have worked OK abroad:-

Doctors in India have successfully treated coronavirus patients with a cocktail of drugs developed to treat of HIV, swine flu, and malaria.

Doctors at Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital, Jaipur, treated an Italian tourist with a daily combination of two drugs useful in HIV treatment– Lopinavir and Ritonavir.

The doctors also gave the woman a malaria medication, chloroquine, and oseltamivir which was developed during the swine flu epidemic.

[mustard-tree]

Re Margarets message number 20

That puts it in perspective

[mustard-tree]

CD, I think the term bed blockers means people who are medically fit to leave hospital but have nowhere suitable to go.

Some scenarios I saw on a documentary recently.

A lady who lived alone before having a stroke.  Medically ok to leave hospital, but stroke has left her disabled and unable to take care of herself at home, so needs a care home, as no family.

A 40 year old man who had already had one leg amputated due to diabetes. He was living independantly until he had to have his other leg amputated.  It made his present home unsuitable as he couldnt get his wheelchair inside.  He was ok before as he stood on one leg while folding up wheelchair and pulling it inside.

A 3 year old boy born with a muscle wasting disease, now needs a purpose built house and a care package in place in order to go home, as needs to be watched 24 hours a day as breathing could stop at any time.

[mikes*corvettes]

Tomorrow(19/03/20)6 the government will announce that the UK will be in total lockdown.

Police and the army will be stationed at supermarkets to stop fights and unfair buying,and as soon as the queue reaches over 100 people they will turn people away.

[cee-dee]

Going back to your post at #6, the original 1981 edition of the book called the virus Gorki-400 in reference to a Russian locality but when the book was reprinted in 1989 the name of the virus was changed to Wuhan-400. I suppose that was to attempt to give some credence to the story as there are Chinese Labs around there?

[mikes*corvettes]

Possibly, but the year and symptoms are spot on though.

[cee-dee]

Total co-incidence. The change of name and "location" give it away as what it was always intended to be, total fiction.

[cee-dee]

The Scripps Research Institue have done a study of the genome sequence and concluded the virus was created by natural evolution:-

Dr Kristian Andersen, an author of the study, said: “By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes. The SARS-CoV-2 backbone differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.

Dr Josie Golding, epidemics lead at the Wellcome Trust, said: “[The findings are] crucially important to bring an evidence-based view to the rumours that have been circulating about the origins of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) causing COVID-19.