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?

[astrologica]

If by travel, you mean international travel, then it is probably too late.  Every continent except Antarctica already has the virus. Restricting travel within individual countries would probably help to restrict the spread, but I fear that it is going to get a lot worse. All the panic and scaremongering about Brexit ...Corvid 19 could possibly cause a lot more problems than Brexit!

[suzieseaside]

And you can bet that the NHS will be so strapped they won't be admitting us older folk who post on here for treatment if we get pneumonia. So may I wish everyone on here to stay well 😘

[cee-dee]

I read somewhere that if the virus gets a real hold, they're going to let "weaker people" die and they'll concentrate on "stronger people".

[astrologica]

A Pandemic of some type or other has been expected for quite some time? This planet is over populated, and people are living far longer than previous generations. Maybe Mother Earth, or Mother Nature, has plans to rectify that. In some countries, people live in squalid conditions, poorly nourished, and living in densely overcrowded communities. If the Coronavirus gets into those communities, it would be impossible for them to self isolate. I think I read yesterday that Turkey has 3 million refugees living in camps?😮😮
Regarding  CeeDee's point, once we hit 70 in this country, we are more or less written off anyway. They don't want to spend any money on us oldies. But maybe that is how it should be if resources are finite? 

[mikes*corvettes]

We were warned.

[cee-dee]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dean-koontz-predicted-coronavirus/

[cee-dee]

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/26/viral-image/book-end-days-described-illness-2020-n...

[upthecreekyetagain]

---

@cee-dee wrote:

I read somewhere that if the virus gets a real hold, they're going to let "weaker people" die and they'll concentrate on "stronger people".

---

Would make complete sense if it does spread beyond control and beyond available resources.

And I'm saying this as someone in three of the four at risk categories. 

[mikes*corvettes]

Wouldn't it be fairer to let children and those who are of working age and above, who have actually paid into the system, be treated first and then those that haven't. 

[upthecreekyetagain]

What if that meant that two people who were more likely to survive with treatment died because the available resources were used on one weak individual purely on the basis of money?

[cee-dee]

Where paying is concerned, it's a hard life! If a person has paid for a trolley full of shopping, they should be allowed to take it home and use it. Those that try walk out of a store with a trolley full of shopping without paying should get stopped and prosecuted.

By your analogy it'd be the payers being prosecuted and the freeloaders getting off scott free.

[**bustysbargains**]

Prioritising is sadly inevitable, it clearly goes on in the NHS with other treatments, where the elderly is concerned. In my opinion anyway 😥

[upthecreekyetagain]

Rubbish!

So the individual who has stayed at home to bring up the children, the disabled who can't gat a job, the worker who receives tax credits rather than paying tax, the millions below the NI threshold - these are all the equivalent of someone walking out of a shop without paying when they call on the services of the NHS?

[cee-dee]

Those people are part of the system and are credited as having paid like the rest of us.

[upthecreekyetagain]

So are those who sign on but either don't want or can't get a job.  So who are these individuals who haven't 'paid' into the system?

[cee-dee]

Those who don't sign on and pursue a criminal career and those who choose to drift around without a settled place plus those who decided to come here illegally.

[upthecreekyetagain]

I guess you mean those who are here illegally and don't pay tax/NI.

So an insignificant number then of the 60+ million in the UK.

[cee-dee]

I've been looking at "the statistics" for the number of people dying due to flu in the UK but they're a bit confusing to say the least.

A government paper on the subject shows a graph with around 10,000 having died 2018 - 2019.

A media report quotes :- 

"The average number of deaths in England for the last five seasons, 2014/15 to 2018/19, was 17,000 deaths annually.

"This ranged from 1,692 deaths last season, 2018/19, to 28,330 deaths in 2014/15."

Soooo, looking at covid-19, it almost seems "less deadly" than seasonal flu? What do you all make of it?

I was prompted to look in to it by comments to me today by a nurse who said she thought the current situation was being blown up by media hype!

[margaret*e]