Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

@nessisonett always here to help.

@kyleforrester87 I do get into a twist about preventable deaths.

Heres a breakdown

Death by crime. I hate that
Death by cancer. I hate that
Death by dangerous driving. I hate that
Death by drug abuse. I hate that
Death by suicide. I hate that
Death by war. I hate that
Death by listening to too much venga boys. I hate that

See its not just corona virus I dislike. I hate everything apart from Yakuza Zero and Rocket League.

@LN78 no they don't. They do need a stern telling off though.

Luckily it seems corona is impacted by hot temperatures. Goodbye Aberdeen.

@themcnoisy sure, and I don’t mean to be saying you’re not vocal about that stuff, so you have no right to be vocal about this either since that’s not right. It would just be nice if we all cared as much about stuff like pollution as we seem to about coronavirus though - myself included.

I guess I’m just trying to be optimistic about this situation, since I don’t have a lot of control over it. Your solutions make sense, purely from a containment point of view, but I just wouldn’t expect the government to be doing something like that for anything less than a T-virus outbreak.

@LN78 Hmmmm. Makes sense it went viral on the slopes though.

Hmm methinks I need a chiral printer delivered soon......
In all seriousness, thoughts go to those in affected areas. I'm based in uk and strongly suspect that life is going to change quite quickly in a few weeks time, if we have outbreaks of sustained community infections without travel.
Probably worth remembering 2 weeks ago that Italy had less than 300 cases now 16 million people are in lockdown.

@kyleforrester87 I've came to the conclusion even if there was a t virus it would be exactly the same

When ebola struck up a fan base a few years back a Scottish Dr or nurse went out to help. She contracted it and was brought back. Had reports of her ongoing struggle for a few weeks and worse the potential for cross contamination. At that time the government line was, there was no risk to anyone else.

It was at that point I realised the people in charge have less experience of a killer human hopping strain than you or I. If someone is infected they are a risk, they should be quarantined at point of the infections origin. Not flown, chauffeured and looked after by people who were not at any risk prior.

It's common sense. You can mitigate risk of course but the risk is significantly multiplied when the sick are on the move.

When China locked down wuhan and upped the ante on procedure like quarantining, disinfecting paper money, quickly assembling hospitals and sending people on an extended holiday the situation has become relatively controllable. The public have knowledge on what to do, multiple arms of the PRC are working on the crisis, there are singular and defined rules to stop contamination.

As a yang to that ting, In Tesco last week when I stocked up on Pepsi max buying 2 crates (something I do once a month to take into work). The cashier gloatingly said all this panic buying is stupid. I informed him he was at a massive risk due to fronting thousands of customers every week, his reply 'I'm fine, I've had the flu jab'.

I'll informed, stupid response. No plan, no guide. May as well grab a tub of corona from a tropical medicines research unit and lick the interior lid.

@themcnoisy most healthy people are just pretty confident they won’t be killed by it even if they do get it, and the numbers are on their side so that’s understandable.

@themcnoisy It's a hard question for a government two-week holiday though. At the end of the day, they will have to pay for it. They'll have to pay for business who shut down, employees who don't get paid, make sure they all turn out okay. It would be a massive financial drain, one I would imagine would be hard to decide if the black plague wasn't literally upon. China is a bit different in that it just views it's people as a commodity to use and doesn't care as much. It'll violate human rights and start sacrificing people as it views beneficial. They had a doctor die after working 72 hours straight with no protective gear. The people deserve for the disease to go away, but not the government if that makes sense. (as in the government is horrible, but the people don't deserve to suffer further for it by having a plague upon them. They've already been shoved in vans and put in rooms kicking and screaming among other things.)

Here in Japan schools are closed until April - but that only applies to students. Staff still comes in and just does random bits of cleaning and stuff. Meanwhile students are out wandering the city all day because their parents are at work and they have nothing else to do beside stay home and game or wander around town.

@themcnoisy It doesn't help that certain world leaders go on TV saying how everything will be fine and people don't have to worry. Panic wont help, but acting like there is no risk and brushing it off as a non-issue in order to protect Wall Street and other stock markets is absurd.

@Jaz007 so heres the thing. Iran, Half of Italy, Israel and Wuhan are locked down. Japan as the commenter above notes is making headway and the likes of new York, Switzerland and loads of other places are worried.

Like my analogy of locking myself away for 2 weeks a couple of days ago, if other countries are trying things and retaking control - well we aren't, the uk is giving it the old suck it and see method. So we will be riddled as Italy gets a hold on the situation, one visitor from the UK to Italy and boom its back to square one. Crazy I know but there's no big plan, just a bunch of individual ones.

@themcnoisy I see. I think part of it also the fact that I'm thinking about this as an American, where we're twice as big as Europe (union, about the same as continental Europe) with half the population of the entire European union. While I imagine it's a bit of a nightmare in any country, trying to do that in America given our size and population would be even more of a nightmare than trying to do it on an island like the UK. Plus I'm not even sure how it work with regards to state/federal levels.

@kyleforrester87 These are brand new bunkers. Classy now - any of the previous stuff, that is right out. I want to create a safe space. Think Fallout but with Netflix.

I can see a lot of the concern on here and it is understandable but ultimately, there is no clear strategy.

It is hard to say what does and doesn't work. Containment works until it doesn't. Everything outside of containment is really just trying to slow down the rate of infection and better mitigate the standards. Social distancing, lock downs etc. - slow the spread, they don't stop the infection. Something this infectious will continue to spread and it will come in waves. We'll calm down by the summer and then it will all kick off again in the winter or next year.

I think there is very little we can do and in a lot of ways, little our government can do. You can't lock down huge areas for very long before it becomes unfeasible. If you locked down the UK, basic vital things won't happen. Food wont be shipped, fuel won't be shipped - heck utility networks and maintenace etc. i see a lot of people saying everyone should work from home - well they can't. There are things that need people to be on-site and working. there are also those that just can't afford to - lock themselves down, lose their house.

I would take comfort in that epidemics do naturally ebb and flow and also peak and decrease naturally. They tend to weaken rather than strengthen and from a global perspective, yes we are all more connected but it was identified quickly, tests made very quickly and a vaccine may be testing within a few months and in production by next year. This is a very natural (though horrible phenomemon) and it is important to note that yes, most people will just suffer mild disruption. A small minority will, unfortunately, be very ill and possible die from this outbreak. I say that as someone that has parents that are considered high risk.

My personal approach is what I do with all serious things - make jokes about, exclude the mother in law incase she is infected, and follow what little instructions there are.

@Rudy_Manchego Well said, hopefully we can get a bit of rational common sense thinking back and all the scare mongering and disinformation that seems to be rife can go away.

In other news I found some big roll today after being told it was out if stock for home delivery on the weekend, and in other places in the UK.

@ryall you'd be hard-pressed to get Statutory sick pay out of my employer!

@themcnoisy I do the exact same thing with Pepsi Max, except more frequently and for personal consumption. 33p a can! Unless it's on sale...

@johnnyshoulder hmm yeah a bog roll shortage is going to be a problem for me with my regularity, sorry if that's TMI

Boris did his speech today. I wasn't really worried about it before but I did a few jobs in London over the weekend and the amount of ill people on the train did scare me but I managed to comfort myself by noting they had sniffling colds rather than hacking coughs. I did cough (into my elbow) when I was walking down the street earlier and this woman a couple metres away whipped her head around so fast with the most horrified look I'd ever seen on anyone's face. I felt bad but it did make me laugh. It is weird to see London at the moment, the amount of face masks, coverings and scarves is very alarming to say the least.

Italy 9,172 +1,797
Iran 7,161 +595
Spain 1,231 +557
France 1,412 +203
Germany 1,224 +184
S. Korea 7,478 +165

4 out of the top 6 Countries with New recorded infections was in Europe today. Spain almost doubled up in 24 hours. Its coming people.

ACTIVE CASES
46,321

In Mild Condition
40,233 (87%)

Serious or Critical Condition
6,088 (13%)

CLOSED CASES
68,022

Cases which had an outcome:
63,997 (94%)
Recovered / Discharged

4,025 (6%)
Deaths

Deaths are still sat at 6% of closed cases. I was expecting this to drop at some point.

In other News, China had 18 new cases.

@crimsontadpoles

I sympathize. I'm a big time finger chewer (have been since I was a kid; nasty habit), and it's so hard to go for more than a minute without fussing over my face.

It's so damned hard, but maybe this is the thing that'll break me of some of my unfortunate habits.

@LaJettatura Awesome thanks for the share!

@Ralizah @LN78 Stay well people. Hope no one gets coronavirus from Pushsquare. Stop biting your fingers Rali, maybe get a substitute like chewing gum for a few weeks and LN is there nothing you can take like an antihistamine?

@LN78 at least i'm not the only one like that then, i have to take daily antihistamines during the pollen season just to get by

@themcnoisy Believe me, it has been a lifelong struggle. There were several times I had to wear gloves to school as a kid because I'd essentially stripped the ends of my fingers raw and would get blood on my papers. I tried covering them in the chemical substance you use to keep dogs from chewing on furniture (and that Nintendo used on their Switch cartridges to keep babies from swallowing them), but that didn't help: it just caused a lot of gagging as well. Only thing I've found that helps is practicing mindfulness techniques, but it's hard to do that when you're trying to pay attention to an instructor in a class. If I kick it, it'll be out of pure paranoia about the possibility of contracting the disease.

@LN78
I feel really bad for hayfever sufferers. I don't get allergic reactions often, but when I do, it's awful: my eyes feel like they're burning, and they water so much it can be hard to see anything. The compulsion to rub them is irresistable.