Coronavirus

[dilla]

If it was natural, which is by far the most likely scenario, what could've been done? Coronaviruses are extremely common in bats and other animals, and transmissions from animals to humans is just a matter of time, and just more likely if you have more people. In particular people who eat exotic animals and have low sanitary standards like it's the case around rural China. There aren't any good solutions that I can think of apart from exterminating all natural hosts. Otherwise we're going to have more of those nasty things move from other mammals to humans over time.

If it's natural, then yeah, we just have to live with the risk of transmission. Maybe I stumbled across conspiracy theorist posts that made their way on to r/news on Reddit and thought that it was a legit possibility that it was lab-manufactured. I can still believe it was all for research and wasn't meant to get out; I know some loonies think China had plans to test and then use it on the world and I don't think there's evidence of that. But even if it was just done for research and meant to ultimately be destroyed, I don't see the rest of the world having its economy destroyed, lives lost, etc. just accepting it was a mistake and moving on. I know many citizens won't just forget that they lost their business, job, and family and friends to the outbreak, nor will they forget being shuttered indoors for almost a year.

I think whenever we come out of this, there's going to be a divide among the people about finding out about origins of the virus and there's going to be a lot of finger pointing. There will be one group that just wants to move on from it and continue living their lives and there will be people that feel that there's some big cover-up because their government didn't look to get to the bottom of all of this. And even once it's done, the virus will continue to be a political topic.

 

[Pittsey]

My friend's husband's covid symptoms started 9 days ago and now they both need respirators to breathe. They are in the hospital back home and he isn't doing that great as his lungs are wrecked. They are both 30 and very healthy and active. His work involves coming into contact with a lot of different people, and one of them was likely sick - he doesn't know who.

This thing is not as likely to mess you up if you're young, but it's not that uncommon either.

I wrote a long reply, but then I realised I don't care enough. I stand by my earlier point. Anecdotal stories don't do anything to change the statistics


Edit - I'm not saying everyone who is ill is old or unhealthy, just that most are. Therefore I'm not going to worry about it. Because statistically, I'm likely to be fine. My nan is 100 and had it and was fine.

 

[k69atie]

Yep another UK lockdown .....

 

[Da_Funk]

This winter starting to resemble the long night from game of thrones...

 

[yak pac fatal]

Yep another UK lockdown .....

Are the people for it? I don't think the lockdown will solve the problem, probably cause more unrest.

 

[k69atie]

Are the people for it? I don't think the lockdown will solve the problem, probably cause more unrest.

I am not for it. Think it is ridiculous!

Will cause more problems long term

More people have died from suicide in the same time period, people and their mental health is going to suffer even more.

More people dying because no cancer treatment or diagnosis

I could go on but it makes me so mad

 

[Pittsey]

I am not for it. Think it is ridiculous!

Will cause more problems long term

More people have died from suicide in the same time period, people and their mental health is going to suffer even more.

More people dying because no cancer treatment or diagnosis

I could go on but it makes me so mad

Watching Question Time this week and a relevant statistic popped up. In a country of 70m with nearly 2m confirmed cases of coronavirus, only 300 people have died who didn't have a morbidity

 

[k69atie]

Watching Question Time this week and a relevant statistic popped up. In a country of 70m with nearly 2m confirmed cases of coronavirus, only 300 people have died who didn't have a morbidity

Exactly . even when there is a vaccine doesn't mean that everyone will want to have it either

 

[Pittsey]

Exactly . even when there is a vaccine doesn't mean that everyone will want to have it either

Much like the influenza virus it should be taken by the vulnerable

 

[k69atie]

Much like the influenza virus it should be taken by the vulnerable

Yep agree

 

[Da_Funk]

I think the whole point of locking down is to avoid overwhelming the health system. There is only so much capacity in the system and if Corona Virus is allowed to spread like wild fire, it will fill the excess capacity.

So yes, while corona related deaths may be small statistically right now if you have no spare capacity in the system it means people who have heart attacks or cancer or whatnot will essentially receive no treatment and deaths will sky rocket.

And I'm not going to lie, a million deaths is a million deaths guys. Regardless if it's 2.5% of total infections that is a lot of bodies.

I think a lot of it comes down to government mismanagement. Here in Australia the entire country is about to open up internally and we haven't had any major outbreaks.

Also corona Virus is a virus. There will be no miracle vaccine

 

[masta247]

The husband of my university friend is in a critical condition at this point. It's really tough to hear about what they went through. Seeing statistics that most people survive is one thing, but hearing about how horrible the tough cases are and the often permanent complications don't show in the official numbers. At this point it's annoying to hear people say it's like a slightly worse common cold. Once there are enough cases that it reaches your immediate surroundings and you see people you care about get it, it often changes your perception of it.

Much like the influenza virus it should be taken by the vulnerable

Unless you'd like to try to exterminate the virus altogether. If too many people don't get the vaccine the virus survives in those who didn't get the shot. Especially if as they say, the antibodies stay only for months and the later doses aren't as effective. With what we know so far we may have only one shot at getting this right, and it'll be much more difficult to control later.
It's a question of whether we are able to accept just living with what's so far the most deadly and damaging common viral infection stay in the roaster in addition to the flu, while still having a shot at preventing millions of deaths over the years if we do this right. Main counterargument I see is risk of introducing potential unknown long-term side-effect of the vaccine itself to the entire population, should they exist, but with risks so low I still feel vaccinating everyone would be a net positive compared to the other alternative (accepting additional hundreds of thousands of deaths every year from now on).

 

[dilla]

Another good thing about Biden winning is now the other half of the US is going to start caring about COVID numbers in an effort to shit on Biden. All the mouth-breathers that used to parrot the "it's only a 1% mortality rate" are going to start caring a fuck-ton more if it's going to be pinned on Biden.

Sadly, I don't think that's going to increase the wearing of masks and taking precautions by these kinds of people.

I wonder how many Trump voters died from COVID in states like MI, WI, GA, PA, and even NV. The states where it came down to the wire and gave Biden the win.

 

[Pittsey]

I think the whole point of locking down is to avoid overwhelming the health system. There is only so much capacity in the system and if Corona Virus is allowed to spread like wild fire, it will fill the excess capacity.

So yes, while corona related deaths may be small statistically right now if you have no spare capacity in the system it means people who have heart attacks or cancer or whatnot will essentially receive no treatment and deaths will sky rocket.

And I'm not going to lie, a million deaths is a million deaths guys. Regardless if it's 2.5% of total infections that is a lot of bodies.

I think a lot of it comes down to government mismanagement. Here in Australia the entire country is about to open up internally and we haven't had any major outbreaks.

Also corona Virus is a virus. There will be no miracle vaccine

Especially in the UK. Our government has been underfunding our health service for years and now they see the value. I couldn't imagine living somewhere without a national health provision.

Also, I'm no expert by a long shot. But I thought vaccines had been developed for other coronaviruses and that covid-19 vaccine testing was looking promising

 

[Pittsey]

The husband of my university friend is in a critical condition at this point. It's really tough to hear about what they went through. Seeing statistics that most people survive is one thing, but hearing about how horrible the tough cases are and the often permanent complications don't show in the official numbers. At this point it's annoying to hear people say it's like a slightly worse common cold. Once there are enough cases that it reaches your immediate surroundings and you see people you care about get it, it often changes your perception of it.



Unless you'd like to try to exterminate the virus altogether. If too many people don't get the vaccine the virus survives in those who didn't get the shot. Especially if as they say, the antibodies stay only for months and the later doses aren't as effective. With what we know so far we may have only one shot at getting this right, and it'll be much more difficult to control later.
It's a question of whether we are able to accept just living with what's so far the most deadly and damaging common viral infection stay in the roaster in addition to the flu, while still having a shot at preventing millions of deaths over the years if we do this right. Main counterargument I see is risk of introducing potential unknown long-term side-effect of the vaccine itself to the entire population, should they exist, but with risks so low I still feel vaccinating everyone would be a net positive compared to the other alternative (accepting additional hundreds of thousands of deaths every year from now on).

I see anti vaxxer propaganda invading the UK from the far right US. It's all over social media. If they need 90% of the population to get vaccinated to eradicate it, I would happily take it. I made the assumption that it would be a seasonal vaccine for the vulnerable, similar to how we manage influenza

 

[Casey]

I've just had an alert from the NHS Track and Trace app saying I need to self-isolate for 14 days because I've been exposed to someone with Coronavirus.

This is weird, because I've barely seen anyone for weeks, and the people I have seen would have told me if they had tested positive.

The only thing I can think is that, because the app works via location, that one of my neighbours might have it. We have neighbours in the apartment above us, and the house is semi-detached, meaning there's close proximity to the neighbours on that side too.

 

[k69atie]

I've just had an alert from the NHS Track and Trace app saying I need to self-isolate for 14 days because I've been exposed to someone with Coronavirus.

This is weird, because I've barely seen anyone for weeks, and the people I have seen would have told me if they had tested positive.

The only thing I can think is that, because the app works via location, that one of my neighbours might have it. We have neighbours in the apartment above us, and the house is semi-detached, meaning there's close proximity to the neighbours on that side too.

Yep I would guess that is why as it works on your location.

At work we have sent out several loads of Bicarb which is being used in the new vaccine

 

[Casey]

Yep I would guess that is why as it works on your location.

At work we have sent out several loads of Bicarb which is being used in the new vaccine

Confirmed.

Just found out my upstairs neighbour has been in the hospital for a week with COVID

 

[dilla]

So the clinic I'm going to be at for the next three months has some real serious guidelines for facial coverings. You have to have a KN95 mask, a "regular" mask over that, and then a face shield to top it all off.

I'm going to look like a retarded Master Chief, if this holds up.

Also, the past two days I've been shitting my brains out and had a fear I was seeing the GI symptoms of COVID. Turns out I just ate too many Flamin' Hot Cheetos a few days back.

 

[dilla]

lol the second receptionist at my clinic tested positive. Got a call this morning from the nurse notifying me she tested positive. She hasn't been in the clinic since Wednesday but we're all getting tested next week before Christmas.

The first receptionist tested positive a month or two ago, before I got there, and they shut down one clinic entirely for 2-3 weeks. She came back earlier last week and still had some fatigue but was otherwise OK. We'll see how this one goes. The second receptionist has 4 young kids and it was their birthday on Wednesday, so surely there was a get together.