Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[jimmy olsen]

As I understand the US fatality didn't travel and is unknown how he got the disease in Seattle.

Examples like this make me think its all over the place already and we will have a lot more cases very soon.

I saw this morning a WA nursing home had 27 residents with symptoms and 25 staff.

[Syt]

140+ persons tested in Vienna, an additional 4 came back positive, so 8 total in the city.

[Sheilbh]

Health Secretary was on the morning shows:

UK could shut down cities

Isolating UK cities, as the Chinese authorities did to Wuhan where coronavirus was first detected, may be necessary to stop the the spread of the outbreak, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has conceded.

Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Hancock also confirmed that the NHS was planning to bring doctors out of retirement if the coronavirus becomes more widespread.

Marr asked Hancock: "China, of course, isolated entire cities. Is it conceivable under any circumstance, you try and cut off the city in this country?"

Hancock replied: "There's clearly a huge economic and social downside to that. But we don't take anything off the table at this stage, because you've got to make sure that you have all the tools available, if that is what's necessary. But I want to minimise the social and economic disruption."

He said the government would be publishing its battle plan for the measures it would take under a worst case scenario for the outbreak.

He said: "It may be necessary to close some schools, but right now, people should not be closing schools if there isn't a positive case."

Hancock confirmed that other "population distancing measures" could include banning public gatherings of more than 5,000 people as the French government has announced.

He said: "We are looking at all those sorts of things, we do not rule them out."

Asked if retired doctors and nurses would be asked to come out of retirement, Hancock said: "We may do. That isn't something we need right now. But the big challenge for the NHS in the event of this becoming widespread here is NHS staff themselves not being able to come to work because they're because they're ill or they're self-isolating. So it's about having the people available."

He also played down a report in the Guardian that England only has 15 available beds for adults to treat the most severe respiratory failure.

He said: "I saw those figures published in the Guardian and they are wrong and out of date. We have 50 now, and we can ramp that up to 500. And then if necessary 5,000 beds that are able to cope with the worst impact of this virus but of course.

Hancock also confirmed that non-emergency surgery, including hip and knee replacements, may be cancelled.

He said: "I don't want to do that. But these have to be clinical decisions. Clinicians have to make decisions about what is the most important and effective use of NHS resources. They do this all the time."

[Iormlund]

Medical staff shortages have already happened in Spain after two doctors from a Basque hospital came positive and their colleagues had to be quarantined.

But the best is about to start. First the Valencian Fallas, then Easter. We're about to one up Iran.

[Hamilcar]

lmao apparently the kids are calling it the "boomer virus" because it is more lethal to old people

[Eddie Teach]

I like Mexican Beer Virus better.

[Hamilcar]

I like Mexican Beer Virus better.

ok boomer

[Tamas]

lmao apparently the kids are calling it the "boomer virus" because it is more lethal to old people

All viruses are more lethal to old people.

This edgelord culture the Internet breeds can be very tyring.

[Eddie Teach]

Gen X, tyvm.

[Legbiter]

Medical staff shortages have already happened in Spain after two doctors from a Basque hospital came positive and their colleagues had to be quarantined.

But the best is about to start. First the Valencian Fallas, then Easter. We're about to one up Iran.

Iran is just fucked, yeah. Medical staff is disappearing, police are infected, the leadership, etc. And hardly any control measures. I also wonder about countries not reporting any cases like Thailand and Indonesia, sure if you don't look for it you won't find anything. Here the health authorities are testing everyone with flu symptoms since it's that season anyway. But there's just massive failure with regard to air travel, the whole response is reactive. Which is nuts, we don't fully know the risks regarding the virus and won't see the full epidemiology until 3 weeks have passed. If then we find out that 20% of those infected require specialist care our health care system will be overwhelmed. Be paranoid early, not when it's too late. 

[Monoriu]

Medical staff shortages have already happened in Spain after two doctors from a Basque hospital came positive and their colleagues had to be quarantined.

But the best is about to start. First the Valencian Fallas, then Easter. We're about to one up Iran.

Iran is just fucked, yeah. Medical staff is disappearing, police are infected, the leadership, etc. And hardly any control measures. I also wonder about countries not reporting any cases like Thailand and Indonesia, sure if you don't look for it you won't find anything. Here the health authorities are testing everyone with flu symptoms since it's that season anyway. But there's just massive failure with regard to air travel, the whole response is reactive. Which is nuts, we don't fully know the risks regarding the virus and won't see the full epidemiology until 3 weeks have passed. If then we find out that 20% of those infected require specialist care our health care system will be overwhelmed. Be paranoid early, not when it's too late. 

Thailand is reporting cases and deaths.  Indonesia...nothing.  They claim praying keeps them safe.  Yeah. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8020111/Indonesias-claim-no-cases-coronavirus-unlikely-expert-warns.html

Indonesia's minister of health, Terawan Agus Putranto, said at a recent press conference that the country's disease-free status was 'all because of prayer'.

I am not making this up 

[DGuller]

I think it's time for all of us to pray.

[Legbiter]

Indonesia is a big tourist hub for China.

[Legbiter]

I think it's time for all of us to pray.

We might get very lucky and find out that there's a big underreported incidence of people with very mild or nonexistant symptoms.  The problem with the WHO guidelines is we don't know the risk hence let's ignore it. Until it's a catastrophe.

[Iormlund]

Indonesia...nothing.  They claim praying keeps them safe.  Yeah. 

I'd laugh, but I've heard similar comments from our own religious nutters: The hands of the Virgin are exempt from the virus [so we'll keep kissing them en masse].