Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

Some good news and one of my ideas is coming to fruition. Mortgage holidays being an option. RBS have announced its customers can take upto a 3 month mortgage holiday. Go RBS.

@stuzster indeed, you are more than likely to experience a few days of sniffles and a bit of a cough. It does benefit everyone to be conscious though since there isn’t a vaccine yet, and some people will be hit hard, I guess the worry is the NHS will become overwhelmed with lots of serious cases faster than they would the regular flu, so it’s just about spreading it out to help manage the load.

The media reaction is of course over the top but they are making plenty of money from worried/interested people so it’s to be expected.

@LN78 they are a laugh those two, to be fair.

@stuzster No they don't. These stats are for just winter, but that's when most people die from it, and they're generally double digit death tolls. Over 150 people dying from October 2017 to the end of January 2018 was considered really high.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/25/three-times-m...

Anyway, it's the death rate that's the problem. Loads of people get the flu and are fine, about 99.998% survive where only 94% of coronavirus sufferers survive. That means that if everyone the the UK got the flu, a few thousand would die. If everyone got coronavirus, over 4 million would die. Also bear in mind we have a vaccination against the flu but not against coronavirus.

@Matroska There are 3 people off work at the moment where I am with coronavirus like symptoms, you have to be diagnosed for it to be counted so I think there is potential for a lot of it to go under the radar. So your 94% survival rate only counts if 100% of people infected are diagnosed.

It's still too many people dying, of course.

We are fairly certain at my work that the Govt guidelines will change in the next few days and that people need to self isolate if they have any health conditions for 7 days. We are fairly lucky in that we can normally work from home and get things done.

@kyleforrester87 Is absolutely correct - in theory there have only been a little over 114,000 confirmed cases worldwide (out of billions) but that is not a true statistic. Anyone that cannot trace where they got it from got it from someone who might not know they have it given that you do need some close contact. You would have to be super unlucky to get it from handrail on a train for example. Look at Iran - the have less cases than Italy yet their death rates are very high since they can't test.

Right now, you won't get tested unless you have a full set of symptoms and evidence that you have been exposed - such as family, close contact with someone etc. OR you need medical treatment and they test you then. So if you had mild symptoms and got better within a week, you might never know you had it. We know there must be more than 200 cases in the UK because people are getting it from somewhere!

It is sensible sending people home if they have any symptoms as it will slow the spread rate from close quarters spreading. I think schools closing won't help unless over the school holidays but hey that is my thoughts.

One thing that disturbs me is that at my work our cleaner was telling me we are getting through double the amount of soap in the mens toilets. Now no one here is panick handwashing so that means that people clearly WEREN'T washing their hands before all this. The dirty beggars.

@Rudy_Manchego

"@kyleforrester87 Is absolutely correct" tuned out there.

@kyleforrester87 Exactly - burn them all was your suggestion right.

@Rudy_Manchego brexit means brexit.

@stuzster yup flu is a big one. The wider implications of corona virus like our current versions of avain and swine flu, it can become a recurring virus to add to the plethora of crappy things you can get moving forward.

@kyleforrester87 There quite a lot of mixed information on this front, I've been reading the China morning news and Beijing locals which are available online. Coronavirus is a lot more difficult to contract than flu, approximate stats are at a 1.12 rate for coronavirus and 1.43 for swine flu. However if you have a high enough first point dose you suffer a ton worse than if you have a small dose (such as a water droplet talking) no one's quite sure why it works in this way. Maybe your natural resistance and white blood cells can get a grip early doors or when more is ingested your body struggles as it replicates quickly.

@kyleforrester87 Strong and stable

Getting crazy. My kids have had field trips and school events canceled, spring sports have been postponed for them, and they're meeting to discuss whether to close schools County wide and do online learning! I totally understand why but the hysteria is getting out of hand. Witnessed a literal fight over toilet paper at the store over the weekend lol!

@redd214 Yeah I am really bored hearing people talking about it now. I get the need to reduce the speed of the spread, it makes total sense, but walking around in a mask and fighting for resources? Come on now, this is going to be around for a long time, just be sensible and accept you're probably gunna get it already.

It does make sense to stop school events and public gatherings etc. though.

I am beginning to think that more and more of these social gatherings like E3 being cancelled are more of a preventative measure to avoid lawsuits more then anything else.

@Genrou that is absolutely part of it. I'm good friends with the commissioner of my oldest's basketball league and he straight up told me, part of it is for health/safety etc etc but a major reason is to avoid possible litigation. And that's just on a small scale obviously imagine a couple folks getting sick at E3

@redd214 Right. And all it would take is someone not even getting the coronavirus to file a lawsuit and waste everyone's time and money just cause the have a cold or something.

Heck the right now my allergies are running wild (I always get them this time of year) and the other day at work my nose started running so I wiped it and blew my nose. Before I could make my way to the rest room to wash my hands this woman started freaking out on lecturing me about how I need to go wash my hands, which I told her I am if you get of my way.

@Genrou Staff won't want to be going either. If your employer is trying to send you to another country/city where you might end up ill and stuck, you're just going to say no. It does make sense though, we should be limiting travel and gatherings to slow the spread.

Other than the specifics of employment law in varying regions and an employee being sent to a high risk area - the vast majority of companies hosting events would likely be covered by 'force majeure' if it ever came to litigation.

It's official, Covid 19 is the first human to human transmitted Coronavirus to become a Pandemic.

@themcnoisy does that make it more deadly?