Coronavirus

[DuckIII]

This is what I hate about this forum. People like me who are under the Chinese Communist rule trying to warn other posters about how the Chinese government is accountable for this whole mess - and no, I am not talking about conspiracy. Even if the Chinese government did not manufacture the virus, their attempt trying to cover up the pandemic is already an indirect action to make the virus spread to other countries in the world.

And a retired mod come to make a joke about Communist rule - not to mention it is an extremely bad joke because the exact some things are happening in the Xinjiang concentration camps (i.e. reeducation centers) where the Uighurs are forced to admit that there are Chinese instead of Uighurs and some of them are forced to change their sexual orientations.

PS: For the record I have reported this post by pressing the "!" icon stating that your post is offensive / inappropriate content. But knowing it comes from a retired mod, I fully expect it not to be dealt with.

Welcome to America, where we can say anything we feel like saying. Censorship is censorship my man.

I’m not sure if I read Ducks comment correctly but it seemed underhanded racist tbh. But I’m going to give him the benifit of the doubt and assume he didn’t mean it that way.

Racist? Oh boy. It was satire against racism, homophobia, fear mongering and oppression. Believe me, I regret posting it at all. I should know better.

And with that, my fellow posters, I promise I am completely and utterly done with this thread. Best of health to you all.

[HomoSapien]

Guys, I think we've all known Duck here long enough to give him the benefit of the doubt. Clearly this was meant to be a joke, and wasn't intended to offend anyone.

[dice]

supposedly the best resource for virus tracking:

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

can use map to zoom in and click on red dots for additional info

it should also be noted that the US is very under-tested. scientific estimates suggest that there are probably around 600 cases in washington state alone right now. also, given 10 deaths reported in washington state, combined with the low fatality rate of the virus, suggests that there are far more than the 70 reported cases in the state overall

p.s.: those secretive chinese commies sure are providing a lot of infection data to us!

[BahamaBull]

I've done nothing different! I don't even think about this. I find the overreaction to be mind boggling!

I'm out and about everyday. I workout 5 times a week and work with a hundred plus people daily. Nothing for me has changed one bit!

People are just being dumb.

I agree 100%!

Nothing changed or will change in my life...Every 5 years we have something like this...In july nobody will be talking about it...And people here are saying: "3k people died from it..." How many people die from regular flu everyday??!

This is just pathetic...Here in the islands the cruise ships are all empty and people are walking around with masks...crazy

[ImSlower]

Saying it's pathetic and crazy is not helpful. This is not a world-ending event, no. It is likely very similar to influenza in its transmission and its effects/mortality rate. But, unfortunately, the vaccines being worked on at a fever pace (puns!) still need many months of testing, and scientific articles are reminding the Fox News crowd that the very nature of the coronavirus' mutation likelihood is unknown - if it's like influenza, that has dozens of strains, these current vaccines may work on some cases and fail utterly on the vast majority. People are dying on seven continents, not just equatorial Africa. For now, the populace of the world can hopefully just wash our collective hands 50% more for awhile.

I'm not sure what people with this mindset expect - do you think you should see vomit-spraying zombies stumbling down the street before the situation becomes less than pathetic? A careful response including buying an extra container of hand sanitizer and washing your hands for 15 seconds instead of 1 is the right thing to do. The end-is-near types buying up a garage full of canned food are possibly a little crazy, sure. The rest of us monitoring the spread and being careful are not. Good day.

Edit: 6 continents, Antarctica is likely to stay unblemished. Lucky penguin zoologists!

[SimonFish]

By the way, apart from the Chinese Government, the WHO is also indirectly responsible for this worldwide outbreak:

https://globalvoices.org/2020/03/01/world-health-organization-officials-criticized-for-slow-response-and-pro-china-bias-as-covid-19-spreads-across-the-world/

WHO is another paper tiger like the United Nations. And of course there is no evidence, but it wouldn't surprised me if the Chinese Government and WHO has certain under the table dealing (which is possible especially considering that Tedros' predecessor, Margaret Chan, was "nominated" by China as the Director-General) trying to talk down China's responsibility in this whole pandemic.

[dougthonus]

Obviously, I hope you're right, but It is worse than the flu. The death rate is at 3.4% (and appears to be rising), whereas the flu is less than 1%. Additionally, it's already causing a change in life (items being sold out, medicine shortages, flight reductions, work cancelation, etc.) because we have no vaccine for it.

That's somewhat interesting, I don't follow the news that closely around it. I remember reading about a week ago that the death rate was expected to be ~1% or less when finalized because confirmed case numbers were likely very low relative to actual case numbers and a few other factors. A quick google search now confirms many people still seem to believe that is true and while it may not go that low, the 3.4% number is highly likely to be inflated.

Here's a look at the demographics on death rate though based on the information that is available. As stated, it appears quite dangerous for older people but not particularly dangerous for younger people and my guess is a lot of younger people whom have been exposed have not been counted because they didn't seek medical attention.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/

I agree that it has caused a change in life in some areas and that may continue (and get worse), but that feels like a people problem to me more so than a disease problem.

[Flopper]

I've done nothing different! I don't even think about this. I find the overreaction to be mind boggling!

I'm out and about everyday. I workout 5 times a week and work with a hundred plus people daily. Nothing for me has changed one bit!

People are just being dumb.

I agree 100%!

Nothing changed or will change in my life...Every 5 years we have something like this...In july nobody will be talking about it...And people here are saying: "3k people died from it..." How many people die from regular flu everyday??!

This is just pathetic...Here in the islands the cruise ships are all empty and people are walking around with masks...crazy

COVID19 has a transmission rate double that of the flu and a mortality rate that's significantly higher at 1.4% versus .1% for influenza. Aside from increased severity of the illness, the real impact of the pandemic in the US will be when it overwhelms our pay-to-play healthcare system and we're stuck counting on a group of under qualified, science denying sycophants at the top of our government to lead us through a very serious and complex problem.

I'd recommend NOT burying your head in the sand and instead taking precautions to slow the spread as much as possible. The US probably won't be able to isolate massive chunks of infected population the same way China did for a variety of reasons, so the best we can do is take all possible precautions to delay acquisition of the virus and limit the spread if you do get sick.

[dice]

best case scenario is that coronavirus will actually contribute to a LOWER than average virus infection/fatality rate this flu season

[Dresden]

I've done nothing different! I don't even think about this. I find the overreaction to be mind boggling!

I'm out and about everyday. I workout 5 times a week and work with a hundred plus people daily. Nothing for me has changed one bit!

People are just being dumb.

I agree 100%!

Nothing changed or will change in my life...Every 5 years we have something like this...In july nobody will be talking about it...And people here are saying: "3k people died from it..." How many people die from regular flu everyday??!

This is just pathetic...Here in the islands the cruise ships are all empty and people are walking around with masks...crazy

COVID19 has a transmission rate double that of the flu and a mortality rate that's significantly higher at 1.4% versus .1% for influenza. Aside from increased severity of the illness, the real impact of the pandemic in the US will be when it overwhelms our pay-to-play healthcare system and we're stuck counting on a group of under qualified, science denying sycophants at the top of our government to lead us through a very serious and complex problem.

I'd recommend NOT burying your head in the sand and instead taking precautions to slow the spread as much as possible. The US probably won't be able to isolate massive chunks of infected population the same way China did for a variety of reasons, so the best we can do is take all possible precautions to delay acquisition of the virus and limit the spread if you do get sick.

The two key pieces of advice I've heard given by health professionals are : 1). wash your hands a lot, and 2) if you get sick or have been in contact with someone who has gotten sick with flu like symptoms, self-quarantine. This is the only way to stop the spread until a vaccine is developed.

[Dresden]

The issue is that you made a terribly bad joke (the bold part) about how Chinese Communist party is oppressing its own people.

I don’t know what to tell you, man. That is not what the joke was about at all. It was about American right wing paranoia applied to two common targets, in America, of that paranoia.

It was not about China at all. Nothing in my now deleted post was. You subjectively interpreted it that way, understandably it appears, due to your own circumstances.

I agree with Duck- I read his post and immediately recognized it as satire and found nothing offensive about that.

[Michael Jackson]

So I am flying out to AZ today because my Father is sick. Anyway I was hustling back to Chicago to work the Ace Hardware show at McCormick next week. Just got the email they cancelled the show. I am I. The middle of trade show season this will be interesting if it is a trend. This one is an international show so maybe that has something to do with it.., maybe.

[drosestruts]

So I am flying out to AZ today because my Father is sick. Anyway I was hustling back to Chicago to work the Ace Hardware show at McCormick next week. Just got the email they cancelled the show. I am I. The middle of trade show season this will be interesting if it is a trend. This one is an international show so maybe that has something to do with it.., maybe.

It's definitely not just the Inspired Home Show, dozens of events have been canceled. Ad Age is keeping a list of events here: https://adage.com/article/digital/coronavirus-industry-event-tracker/2242341?utm_source=ad-age-news-alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200304&utm_content=hero-headline

[HomoSapien]

My wife's side has planned this family trip where we're all going to England, Jordan, Israel, and Qatar. Crazy trip, was really excited to go about it, but now I seem to be the only one who thinks this is a bad idea, which I'm finding very stressful. It'd be one thing if it was just my wife and I, but it's hard with my in-laws and no one else seems to be very informed about what's going on. I'm not even that worried about getting the virus, I'm just worried about getting stranded somewhere other than home.

[CBS7]

I've done nothing different! I don't even think about this. I find the overreaction to be mind boggling!

I'm out and about everyday. I workout 5 times a week and work with a hundred plus people daily. Nothing for me has changed one bit!

People are just being dumb.

I agree 100%!

Nothing changed or will change in my life...Every 5 years we have something like this...In july nobody will be talking about it...And people here are saying: "3k people died from it..." How many people die from regular flu everyday??!

This is just pathetic...Here in the islands the cruise ships are all empty and people are walking around with masks...crazy

Its spreading far faster and has killed for more people than any of the recent "every 5 years" (ebola, sars, etc) epidemics. Although the fatality % numbers are far lower, we're seeing exponential groth; coronavirus cases multiply by 2-3 every day. Experts saying between 40-70% of the world population can/will get infected. If 40% of the world gets it and only 1% die, we're still looking at ~32 million deaths from the virus.

Not to mention, we're still in the early stages. Just because you are okay now doesn't mean you will be in a week or two. Since it takes a week or two to start showing symptoms, you or someone you work with may have already contracted the virus.

Not trying to fear monger, and I still agree people are overreacting, but this isn't the same as the worldwide epidemics we seem to get every 2-4 years. Its not the end of the world, but it isn't nothing.

[TheStig]

So I am flying out to AZ today because my Father is sick. Anyway I was hustling back to Chicago to work the Ace Hardware show at McCormick next week. Just got the email they cancelled the show. I am I. The middle of trade show season this will be interesting if it is a trend. This one is an international show so maybe that has something to do with it.., maybe.

They cancelled the home show for next week. That is a huge show in McCormik place too.

[D1ckeyS1mpkins]

About all I'm doing is trying to call the bottom in the stock market crash, so I can go back in after pulling a bunch out in November since I thought it was overbought.

It looks most likely that in the long run, this virus will have no greater impact than the current flu. Sure, I wish we could contain it and stop it, so it never comes back, because adding one more opportunity to get the flu each year sucks for everyone, but there's not a lot of reason to think it will ultimately be more deadly or that if you get it that you are now in some death sentence type of situation.

+1 (though I didn't pull out in November)

The biggest thing I'm scared of is the media fearing us into a recession which will have way more of an impact than this flu.

[dougthonus]

+1 (though I didn't pull out in November)

The biggest thing I'm scared of is the media fearing us into a recession which will have way more of an impact than this flu.

Not sure if you mean the media will scare people into suppressing stock price or if you mean the media will scare people into changing behavior so much that there will be a real recession.

The second thing is happening for sure right now. Whether that fear is overblown or not is obviously up for debate, but people are absolutely changing behaviors in ways that are costing businesses huge amounts of money. Supply chain disruptions are doing the same.

[moorhosj]

The biggest thing I'm scared of is the media fearing us into a recession which will have way more of an impact than this flu.

What if over-reacting today leads to a lower impact tomorrow? If people start taking preventative measures, we can lessen the impact. However, if people suggest that things aren't so serious, then behavior doesn't change and the impact could be far worse.

[madvillian]

My wife's side has planned this family trip where we're all going to England, Jordan, Israel, and Qatar. Crazy trip, was really excited to go about it, but now I seem to be the only one who thinks this is a bad idea, which I'm finding very stressful. It'd be one thing if it was just my wife and I, but it's hard with my in-laws and no one else seems to be very informed about what's going on. I'm not even that worried about getting the virus, I'm just worried about getting stranded somewhere other than home.

airlines are already cancelling flights from Italy and other hot spots. I honestly would just wait. the last thing you want is to be stranded in a foreign country in a pandemic.