Coronavirus / COVID-19
Is anyone else starting to worry about this also? CDC confirms first case in Seattla, WA area and they are going to start indirectly screening at international airports: O'Hare, ATL, JFK...
We need to get Dustin Hoffman and Cuba Gooding Jr. to team up again!
We need to get Dustin Hoffman and Cuba Gooding Jr. to team up again!
Comments
Ok, China. Time to stop using the fish market for the rare animal food black market before you fucking kill us all!
Just the current Disease-of-the-week™ for now.
source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
In the movie Contagion I believe it was Minneapolis put under quarantine....Roughly 400K people. Right now China has the entire Wuhan municipality under quarantine. That’s 10 million people. More than a million people more than NYC. No one can leave or enter. Public transportation cut off. If you go outside you’re required to wear a mask.
Enter into the fact that Lunar New Year travel has already started and in 2 days will begin 7 days of national holiday in China. Roughly 400 million people travel domestically and internationally with China estimating typically around 3 billion trips.
Monitoring.....
Oh also 33 unknown viruses from 13000 BC are being studied in the ice of a glacier in Asia. There is a concern with climate change that ancient viruses can one day be released again.
Current treatment for coronavirus is take some OTC's for a headache, get some rest and drink some water and wait to get better. If it's my fate to die in a dramatic scene while Dustin Hoffman searches for a monkey from a helicopter while another helicopter shoots at him so be it, but my guess is my commute home from work is far more dangerous.
I know the numbers say it is far less severe than the flu but I've never seen pictures of people collapsing in the streets from the flu.
The Chinese would never lie so I am confused.
1. The current treatment for a flu is always mild-sounding because we don't actually have treatment for viruses, except vaccines.
2. "Less severe" could mean it's not as transmittable or any other number of things not related to the moment of death.
But, China sucks, carry on.
Who else can equally protect me from both the flu and China?
Unrelated, my cousin, who is an English teacher in Jinan, showed me an English translation of the warning they sent to their citizens. It's pretty funny.
Here I'll show you. (Circle his)
I just really appreciate the idea that viruses won't abide with moisture.
There was also stuff about how it's patriotic to stay home if you're feeling ill.
But in 1-2 weeks we'll know our odds.
Saw an article yesterday that they've already sequenced the genome of the virus and will likely have have a human-trial vaccine ready within about 3 months. That in itself would have been a science fiction plot for a movie not more than a decade ago, now it's just plain old real-world science.
fast-forward a few decades and that 3 month turn around will be 3 days for those fun new viruses in the glaciers that are thawing out...
Since it becomes clearer every day how much the Chinese hid and lied about the virus I think we should forever marry it to them by renaming it The Winnie the Pooh Virus.
Well it's starting to hit close to home here. Luckily the Aggie in College Station turned out to be negative. But he had to be quarantined while his sample went to CDC Atlanta. There ain't no International Airport of Aggieland, so he definitely came in through Bush IAH. So that was the initial scare. They are screening at IAH now.
Lots of rumors in the Chinatown area of Houston. Word on the streets (direct source from my in-laws) is that seniors in the area are being told to stay away from Asian Supermarkets. Rumor 2 days ago was someone with coronavirus was at Jusgo and also Welcome Market. I think it turned out to be bogus but it got some friends and coworkers stirring.
My 4 year old has a cold and we couldn't take him over to his 'Ama' & 'Agong' who usually watch him. They're right in the mix of the Chinatown area. We couldn't figure out why his grandparents said no. Just thought 'Ama' was tired and had her own doctor appointments. No. Turns out my father-in-law, who still sells health insurance to seniors in his Golden years had a client over to sign up the day before, and she had just traveled back from Beijing. She was apparently acting sick and my mother-in-law was watching her the whole time. She was PISSED. She basically kinda scolded this woman how she should go to the hospital. The woman said she did and was discharged after 2 hrs after cleared as negative. We're skeptical because the Aggie had to have his sample sent to Atlanta. I know the CDC is emergency requesting the FDA to approve a quick test to check, but I don't think it has gone through and been distributed yet.
The potential for tensions to be high are growing at a large rate now.
A new giant 1/2 Asian 1/2 American supermarket just opened up near me. I was planning last week to check it out with some people but we all agreed to wait until summer.
I also think my bar for reasons to go to the doctor's office and ER were raised a little higher. Injury and illness that might have been a coin flip are now probably 80/20 towards not going.
I don't believe in living in fear but I do believe in playing the percentages when I have a little information on the odds. The wildcard for the odds in the 2 week incubation, that is stacking the deck for me right now.
Let's say there is any danger at the places you're avoiding. Thousands of other people are not avoiding those places. In ~2 weeks, the hundreds who got sick from that will be stinking up all the haunts you haven't even thought about and can't afford to avoid. And if it's that bad that emergency rooms are dangerous, it might be better to get sick now before the health care system is totally overwhelmed.