Harvard Epidemiologist calling the Wu-Flu -“thermonuclear pandemic level bad"

Let me ease something off for all of you. Do you ALL realise that your ancestors survived the Spanish Flu, the Black Death, the Plague etc. etc. Why is this any different.
Except if it was man made to resist most cures.

a reply to: crayzeed

Our ancestors didn't have PHD's in biological technology

a reply to: khnum
Even a person with a PHD in biological technology can die from this. Or not.
Have you not heard the saying "King and pauper alike".

It would seem prudent to immediately ban anyone entering the USA who has been to China recently. I know that won’t stop all carriers from entering, but anything that slows its spread is good I would think.

If a vaccine or some kind of effective response isn’t devised soon, this is bound to hurt China economically. Normally, I’d be pleased with a decline in China’s economic juggernaut, but I don’t wish this kind of suffering on any nation or ethnicity. Not to mention it could end up hurting us just as badly ... an unsettling prospect.

originally posted by: crayzeed
Let me ease something off for all of you. Do you ALL realise that your ancestors survived the Spanish Flu, the Black Death, the Plague etc. etc. Why is this any different.
Except if it was man made to resist most cures.

Will you think the same way if your loved ones get infected?

originally posted by: Trueman

originally posted by: crayzeed
Let me ease something off for all of you. Do you ALL realise that your ancestors survived the Spanish Flu, the Black Death, the Plague etc. etc. Why is this any different.
Except if it was man made to resist most cures.

Will you think the same way if your loved ones get infected?

Dude, likely most all of us will get infected, but not nearly all of us will die. It was the same way with the Spanish Flu. Every time you get the flu in fact, you are risking death. It's just highly unlikely unless you are very old or very young or immunocompromised at which point it gets much likelier.

a reply to: ketsuko

I am in that list. Old and immunocompromised. That never stopped me, only slowed me down. My kids won't see me giving up.

originally posted by: ketsuko

originally posted by: Trueman

originally posted by: crayzeed
Let me ease something off for all of you. Do you ALL realise that your ancestors survived the Spanish Flu, the Black Death, the Plague etc. etc. Why is this any different.
Except if it was man made to resist most cures.

Will you think the same way if your loved ones get infected?

Dude, likely most all of us will get infected, but not nearly all of us will die. It was the same way with the Spanish Flu. Every time you get the flu in fact, you are risking death. It's just highly unlikely unless you are very old or very young or immunocompromised at which point it gets much likelier.

This, what are people not getting about this? You sure as hell didn't see everyone losing their s# over that measles outbreak last year in this manner, and guess what's more easy to spread around, and what's secondary infections kill just as easily? The rate people are willing to freak over something 4+ times less easy to go full plague with is asinine.

And no, I'm not particularly worried about catching either one, nor dying from either one. If I were very old, or immune compromised, I might consider clenching the ol' southern orifice a little in either case, and that's about it.

a reply to: Nyiah

So what your saying is, we're all going to die from this.

Well that's not very nice!

a reply to: DBCowboy




< rolls up the newspaper and smacks DB with it >
No. Nnnno. Bad jokes are bad!

originally posted by: Nyiah

originally posted by: ketsuko

originally posted by: Trueman

originally posted by: crayzeed
Let me ease something off for all of you. Do you ALL realise that your ancestors survived the Spanish Flu, the Black Death, the Plague etc. etc. Why is this any different.
Except if it was man made to resist most cures.

Will you think the same way if your loved ones get infected?

Dude, likely most all of us will get infected, but not nearly all of us will die. It was the same way with the Spanish Flu. Every time you get the flu in fact, you are risking death. It's just highly unlikely unless you are very old or very young or immunocompromised at which point it gets much likelier.

This, what are people not getting about this? You sure as hell didn't see everyone losing their s# over that measles outbreak last year in this manner, and guess what's more easy to spread around, and what's secondary infections kill just as easily? The rate people are willing to freak over something 4+ times less easy to go full plague with is asinine.

And no, I'm not particularly worried about catching either one, nor dying from either one. If I were very old, or immune compromised, I might consider clenching the ol' southern orifice a little in either case, and that's about it.

Of course, the Chinese are responding with such draconian measures because it’s nothing to worry about. This will be smashing their economy and will likely tanking it for some time. You really think they would do such a thing at a time of political instability without a very good reason? I don’t. They know something for sure. They are terrified. Seems the entire Party apparatus including the president have abandoned ship and evacuated to an island. But hey, maybe they’re all idiots and panicking over nothing.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Not going out of my way to get it, but I'm not going to run around like a chicken with my head cut off either.

The odds are much more in my favor than they would be with ebola.

But let's face it ... getting sick sucks.

a reply to: ketsuko

Oh tell me about it!

I work in a hospital, they have sick people there!

It's icky!

a reply to: DBCowboy

I did something worse ... worked with small children ...

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: DBCowboy

I did something worse ... worked with small children ...

Dear God. . . . . the horror.


. . . . . . . . . . The horror. . . . . . . .

And this is why, when there is a real outbreak , the majority of people wont blink an eye.

This is also why academic professors in fancy college's have become a joke.

They have steered away from logic and use a form of doomsday knowledge.

originally posted by: GreenGunther
Fear isn’t gonna monger itself.
I’ve survived worse, probably only the young and elderly with immune deficiencies that are at risk?

Or am I mistaken? This is flu right? Influenza virus?

People don’t contract it and start vomiting blood hours into the sickness?

From webmd:

Often a coronavirus causes upper respiratory infection symptoms like a stuffy nose, cough, and sore throat. You can treat them with rest and over-the-counter medication. The coronavirus can also cause middle ear infections in children.

It’s a cold...
I live in Africa, try again.

The issue is the likelihood of developing severe lung issues like pneumonia. Many scary things come from Africa but this virus can stay alive outside a host longer than the Ebola / Marburg type. Also it’s not influenza, it’s a different family of viruses. If I lived in Africa I’d be more afraid of paramyxoviruses.

I work in higher ed, and this virus was on the agenda for our senior leadership meeting this morning. I listened as the person responsible for briefing the group gave outdated information (a few hundred infections contained in Wuhan, people being screened for temperature so we were "safe," etc.). We were told the line that the seasonal flu is more of a threat and to focus on that as its peaking in our area.

When I countered with the actual numbers, the fact that people are contagious before becoming symptomatic, or that the reaction of the Chinese government is disproportionate to the official numbers being released, I was told to keep off twitter. I was not being alarmist, just saying that, as an institution, we need to be prepared to handle a situation that has the potential to go from zero to sixty in a matter of days or weeks.

No one wanted to listen or acknowledge the potential impacts of this thing getting worse. So, instead of gaming out how we could/should monitor this and prepare for the worst, we are sending out an email reminding people to wash their hands.

a reply to: LadyOfTheLake

That's still good advice. Remember, this operates like the cold or flu for contagious potential, so all that advice is still sound. It's just that the stakes are higher -- more severe illness with a higher chance of death. Even so, the odds are still in your favor to survive if you get it.

The major disruptions will be in how many it takes down all at once causing disruptions to normal flow of daily life, and it will kill more than the normal flu/cold infections and they will die all at once too.

And many severely ill will overwhelm medical infrastructure. Don't go to the doctor/hospital unless you really need to. They will have enough on their plates.

Working at a hospital or school I don't know, my wife works at a grocery store in the liquor and lottery department. Good thing bad thing.