Coronavirus: COVID-19

[Chips]

It is really pissing me off how governments are treating this as though it is nothing to worry about, and politicising it for their own nefarious means, rather than helping to combat something that is going to end up killing thousands of innocent people and they are doing it just to save a buck or two.

Wait, so what are they supposed to do? I'm genuinely curious as to your suggestions...

[Vertigo 7]

Well, defunding and dissolving the pandemic response units was obviously not the right thing to do. And then using "hunches" to refute factual data is another bad call. So... I would say whatever the US government is doing, do the exact opposite of that.

[Incubi]

I live in Roseville California where one of the deaths occurred. In less than a day, hand sanitizer virtually disappeared from the stores. Fortunately while hand sanitizer does not replace hand washing, hand washing does replace hand sanitizer. A little nervous about it being so close and five kids still in school for maximum exposure. But we are all healthy and so I am not toxically worried.

[Alan Phipps]

Now is a great time for adults to really teach infants and children always to properly wash their hands after doing or touching stuff .. and to do that teaching by the adults' own examples and by such as washing their own hands alongside the youngsters where appropriate.

[Chips]

Now is a great time for adults to really teach infants and children always to properly wash their hands after doing or touching stuff .. and to do that teaching by the adults' own examples and by such as washing their own hands alongside the youngsters where appropriate.

I'd be happy if they started with "cover your mouth if you cough and nose if you sneeze".

The only times i've been ill in the past 2-3 years are when my colleagues, being paid by the day, come in with colds - then proceed to sneeze and cough without remotely attempting to cover their mouths - all over the room. It. Drives. Me. Mad. They're ill and pass it on to everyone without making any attempt to prevent it.

And... just this last week, i've now got a cold again despite having a go at them this week for DOING PRECISELY THAT. I just plain don't get some people, they're just epicly selfish cnts. My dad is 80 and spent a month in hospital and is still recovering.
If i take colds back to him, it may well be the end of him.

[Masterbagger]

I sneeze and cough into the crook of my elbow and never into my hand. You don't touch things with the inside of your elbow and spread the funk. The times I have been sick I can usually pinpoint who got sick from the spawn of their crotch and spread it to me at work. It takes a long time for me to forgive each event. Nasty people and their disease ridden offspring. I get a cold about every other year and I don't like it. Every time I have a fever I have to choose between alcohol or medicine and that is not a good position to be in. You lose either way.

[felter]

I spent years working in catering and if you were ill you didn't go to work, that's because you aren't allowed to go to work and sneeze on someone's food, it's kind of frowned against.

What gets me is all of these people suddenly buying soap to wash their hands, just what were they doing before, were they not washing their hands.

I also have to say this. I love how America has running out of test kits for the virus, and what does Trump do turns around and blames it on Obama. He seems to forget that he has had months to prepare for this and he has totally screwed it up, not Obama, just what has the American government been doing these last few months, sticking their heads in the sand and hoping that it will all magically go away, HOLD ON I seem to remember Trump actually said that what was it he said April will come around and it will miraculously disappear and we will forget all about it and everything will be good for us. And while every other country in the world are testing their citizens for free, I hear the average price in the US is around $1,000, nice health system that you have there.

South Korea has been using a drive through system for testing everyone that wants it. It also looks like Wales are setting up a similar system too and I wouldn't be surprised if we see something along those lines here in Scotland soon, and the testing will be free fro everyone not just the rich and insured.

Seth Meyers has done a few good ones on how Trump's handling the Virus, if you watch it and don't go either OMG or WTF then you are obviously already dead, you will especially like the part at the end where he recommends that Americans go to work even of they are sick. Now that's you Presidents true colour.

[RegisterMe]

I think I'm right in saying that Scotland got the first drive through testing centre set up in the UK.

[felter]

I think I'm right in saying that Scotland got the first drive through testing centre set up in the UK.

YAY well done for us .

Found some advice for people with a compromised immune system like me, basically it was, don't catch the virus as you are probably screwed if you do.

[pjknibbs]

I'd be happy if they started with "cover your mouth if you cough and nose if you sneeze".

To be fair, doing that has approximately bugger all effect. If you have a cold then you're breathing out germs even if you're not currently sneezing or coughing, so just being in the same room as someone will probably be sufficient to pass it on to them. Doesn't stop them being inconsiderate swine, of course, because they're that just by turning up ill...

[brucewarren]

The current advice is to sneeze into the inside of your elbow. If you sneeze into your hand, even with a tissue you've now
got a hand full of virus all ready to transfer to a surface.

This damned thing isn't just infectious. It's contagious. It's spreads from hand to surface and surface to hand. Hence all the
hand-washing. Not many people open doors or press buttons with the inside of their elbow.

Compromised immune systems also includes smokers. Now might be a good time for anyone who smokes to try to quit the
habit.

[felter]

While smoking may or may not effect the immune system, that is not the issue with covid-19, this virus is a respiratory disease where it effects the lungs, which smoking really does badly effect that part of the body. Just suddenly stopping is not going to make any difference, as it takes years for your lungs to repair themselves and recover from smoking.

What they mean by compromised immune system is when someone has had their Immune system artificially medically damaged. There are a few ways this can be done, mainly radiation or chemically, I'm the later. Some examples would be radio/chemotherapy which is used to fight cancer but along with killing the cancer they also kills the immune system. When someone has a transplant say a lung, kidney, heart or whatever the bodies immune system knows that the new organ does not belong to that person and will try to kill the new organ, so they take medication which chemically attacks and kills the immune system so that it does not attack the new organ.

As I said I take the chemical version, a tiny little pill that is actually classed as a poison, here's the thing, I've never had a transplant, no for some reason my immune system does not like my intestines and attacks it whenever it's allowed to. It's interesting though that as the pill is classed as a poison, do you know what happens when you take poison you die so I have to be tested every 3 to 6 months just to make sure I'm not dying. It's also known to cause cancer.

This is what they mean when they are talking about a compromised Immune system, someone who is not able to fully fight against infections of any kind. Just want to throw in another side effect is hair loss, I'm slowly going bald and I don't mean I'm getting a bald spot/patch I mean all my hair is falling out, I'm getting very thin on top.

[brucewarren]

Sorry to hear that felter. Stay safe.

[Tamina]

From what I read so far in the newspaper, the virus is not "that" contagious. It can't survive outside the human body (up 2-3 hours in body fluids), you need to be in proximity of within 1 meter of a sick person (speaking), within 2.5 meter (coughing/sneezing) or be touched to get sick. Washing your hands for 30 seconds effectively reduces the virus to a non-infectious amount.

The real problem are all the people who should know better:
- sick people going to work - includes medical staff, sadly
- people coughing in every direction wherever they go
- parents dragging their sick infants and small children through public places

[Alan Phipps]

" It can't survive outside the human body"

WHO are saying " Studies suggest that coronaviruses (including preliminary information on the COVID-19 virus) may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days. This may vary under different conditions (e.g. type of surface, temperature or humidity of the environment)."

I suggest that this WHO FAQ site is a good place to get reliable information rather than to rely on journalists reporting subject matter 'expert' opinions or what they think they heard.

[Tamina]

Thank you for your source, I didn't know there is a FAQ
It leaves out a lot of information and it also does not say anything about the amount of detected viruses. As there needs to be a minimum amount of virus entering the body for a successfull infection.

Since everyone can source their national health organisations in the internet I am sharing the information by the German health organisations, my information was based upon:

- The BfR (Risk Assessment Organisation) states that even though the virus can survive a few hours up to a few days on dry surfaces, the virus is very unlikely to be transfered like that, and there is no proven case for such an infection. "Due to the low stability of the virus outside the human body it seems only likely in a short timeframe after contamination of a surface. However, getting infected by touching a surface that was contaminated with body fluids shortly after is conceivable, nevertheless.".
https://www.bfr.bund.de/de/kann_das_neu ... 44062.html

- The RKI (National Disease Control and Research Institute) says that there is no known case of an infection through dry surfaces. All infected people had direct contact to other sick people. "The best way to protect yourself is to wash your hands and keep a distance of about 1 to 2 meters from infected people"
https://www.rki.de/SharedDocs/FAQ/NCOV2 ... Liste.html

It is not that contagious. It is even less contagious then most colds or bacterial infections. The virus can even be killed by using sanitizers due to its low stability, something that doesn't even work for most viruses.
What makes this virus so infectious is that most infected people (80%) don't get any or only mild symptoms, yet are spreading the disease just by being in close proximity. You just have to be in the supermarket and the person behind you sneezes. The moment you are noticing it, it is too late.


*Also the WHO is not an "expert". They collect, share and coordinate information

[felter]

Holy Crap, 133 deaths in Italy in a single day, that's a lot, they really are not having a good time with it.

[felter]

So I was going to post this in the Trump thread as it started out mainly about him but it is more about America and the Coronavirus so here it goes. It's a little bit on the long side but it's worth the read. When this virus eventually hits America and it is going to do so you guys are screwed big time. What's with this only 1500 tests have been carried out so far, how many Americans actually have the virus and are openly spreading it around as they can't get tested or afford to take the time off of work. Also loved the part where Trump went onto Fox news to moan about those people on the cruise ship who have the virus and how he didn't want them coming back to America, compassionate guy you got as a President. I know I'm pretty much screwed if I catch the virus, so I'm so glad I don't stay in America, I would be dead for sure, at least here I have a chance of surviving it.

[Vertigo 7]

So I was going to post this in the Trump thread as it started out mainly about him but it is more about America and the Coronavirus so here it goes. It's a little bit on the long side but it's worth the read. When this virus eventually hits America and it is going to do so you guys are screwed big time. What's with this only 1500 tests have been carried out so far, how many Americans actually have the virus and are openly spreading it around as they can't get tested or afford to take the time off of work. Also loved the part where Trump went onto Fox news to moan about those people on the cruise ship who have the virus and how he didn't want them coming back to America, compassionate guy you got as a President. I know I'm pretty much screwed if I catch the virus, so I'm so glad I don't stay in America, I would be dead for sure, at least here I have a chance of surviving it.

If anything, this whole situation highlights the need for competent leadership and universal healthcare. Even if the US were to suddenly have sufficient supplies to test for the virus, how are the umpteen million of uninsured supposed to pay for it? Or even the untold amounts with ****** insurance?

Even then, what next? There's no treatment currently. Are the people that test positive being quarantined in an infectious disease ward? Overnight stays in a hospital are far from cheap. Something like this would keep you there for days, possibly even weeks.

And then along comes the Oompa Loompa to propose a "payroll tax cut" that's almost assuredly not going to benefit anyone except the businesses, as per usual, and a bailout for airlines - like that's what we really need right now.

It's like watching a train wreck in real time.

[felter]

If we are being blatantly honest, America is probably the worst country in the world right now to cope with this virus, and that is not taking into account that their current government, which if we are being totally honest are not capable of handling something of this magnitude.

I'm going to make another prediction, that by the time the virus has taken it's toll, America is going to be the worst effected country. I am predicting it will have the most cases of the virus and their death toll will be way higher than any other country on the planet.

Klei Entertainment (oxygen not included) are doing an interesting thing today, their staff are all going to be working from home. They are doing this as a dry run in case they have to do it for real due to being quarantined by the virus. It's a good idea lets them sort out any issues that may arise. Maybe more companies should be doing something similar.