Novel Coronavirus

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Waterfall

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This thread is for anything related to the Novel Coronavirus.
Let's talk and share.
 
This is a live app for updates on the spread of the virus. Use two fingers to move map to view other countries. Place curser over circles to reveal current number of infected, deaths or recovered in those areas.
coronavirus.app

The Coronavirus App

Track the spread of the Coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic, browse an interactive map, view fatality rate and recoveries, check affected regions in real-time and more.
coronavirus.app coronavirus.app
 
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I found this story very sad but it does open the question of how many could be left unattended during an outbreak of any kind. Is it better to seek out support from family or stay isolated when a global emergency is declared. Who is responsible for the children, elderly, etc... if only the parents are affected? What do you think?

www.theguardian.com

Disabled teenager in China dies at home alone after relatives quarantined

Boy with cerebral palsy was left without a carer after his father developed a fever
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
As mentioned in another thread, SciShow did a piece on the science (as far as we know at this point). I imagine they may update it or do followups as things develop, esp. if there are any major discoveries. Hank emphasizes the importance of the getting the genome out there so quickly. Makes learning how the thing ticks and figuring out vaccines and antivirals easier with that basic bit of information out there.

 
Mendalla said:
From CBC this morning, a Chinese immigrant in Quebec talks about what her family are going through in the Wuhan lockdown.


Very much similar to Mrs. M keeping in touch with her family, though they haven't been affected this drastically yet (they are in Shanghai).
Click to expand...
Have to give the Chinese people credit for obeying the isolation orders, but it must raise alot of fear because you would really have to rely on what the gov't tells you. From what I understand they are more of a social community than we Canadians are, so it must be intensely trying.
Loved the singing from the balconies....it would be good and a brilliant way to account for those getting sick on their own, if they noticed someone stopped coming out to sing and then check up on them.
Now I hear the Chinese communities in Canada are experiencing a prejudice against them and people are avoiding their businesses also. I'm not sure that there isn't some warrant to that, not the prejudice, but the geographical beginnings of the disease were in China....so some of it might be a prejudice, but some may just be just trying to avoid who may have returned from the Wuhan area and because we don't know who they are....we might feel it's best to avoid all Chinese businesses. Whether that's right or wrong, just stating it may be one rationale when fear takes over.
 
Waterfall said:
Have to give the Chinese people credit for obeying the isolation orders, but it must raise alot of fear because you would really have to rely on what the gov't tells you. From what I understand they are more of a social community than we Canadians are, so it must be intensely trying.
Loved the singing from the balconies....it would be good and a brilliant way to account for those getting sick on their own, if they noticed someone stopped coming out to sing and then check up on them.
Now I hear the Chinese communities in Canada are experiencing a prejudice against them and people are avoiding their businesses also. I'm not sure that there isn't some warrant to that, not the prejudice, but the geographical beginnings of the disease were in China....so some of it might be a prejudice, but some may just be just trying to avoid who may have returned from the Wuhan area and because we don't know who they are....we might feel it's best to avoid all Chinese businesses. Whether that's right or wrong, just stating it may be one rationale when fear takes over.
Click to expand...

Fear is precisely what we need to avoid. If people are afraid of their Chinese neighbors, the social media spammers and trolls will play on that to promote that fear and escalate it. The fact is, there has never been much traffic between Canada and Wuhan. There are no direct flights (you have to connect in Beijing or Shanghai) and no real tourism in that area. And the city has now been shuttered long enough that anyone here who has been there recently will be close to the 14 day mark and likely has either had it or did not get it.

Also, the Chinese here have been very good about self-isolation. The couple in Toronto did it, the university student here did. So that further reduces the likelihood of someone meeting a carrier casually in a store.

So, I have no qualms about shopping in our Chinese stores.
 
Mendalla said:
As mentioned in another thread, SciShow did a piece on the science (as far as we know at this point). I imagine they may update it or do followups as things develop, esp. if there are any major discoveries. Hank emphasizes the importance of the getting the genome out there so quickly. Makes learning how the thing ticks and figuring out vaccines and antivirals easier with that basic bit of information out there.

Click to expand...
Good Video.....just a few things, when this was recorded there were 4500 infected cases, that number has now jumped to over 14,000 as of today. If we check the map I posted every morning we will most likely see the number has jumped by 2,000, which seems to be the trend. Yesterdays infected cases was 12,025.
The virus has now been confirmed to go from human to human and does not need an animal host. Asymptomatic(without symptoms) transmission has been confirmed from a case study in Germany but as in MERS it is at this point considered very rare. This is still concerning to scientists because this means it can be transmitted by something other than droplets or an airborne Flu....this would be a transmission pattern not seen before.


The required incubation period is still undetermined and countries vary anywhere from a 2 day period to a 14 day period.
The mortality rate of this virus compared to SARS and MERS really can't be determenined until this virus is over.
 
Mendalla said:
Also, the Chinese here have been very good about self-isolation. The couple in Toronto did it, the university student here did. So that further reduces the likelihood of someone meeting a carrier casually in a store.
Click to expand...
Personally, I really wonder about self isolation......what does that look like and how often is someone checked about it? Honestly, I wonder if I would be tempted to run to the store or something....
 
Waterfall said:
Personally, I really wonder about self isolation......what does that look like and how often is someone checked about it? Honestly, I wonder if I would be tempted to run to the store or something....
Click to expand...

So would I. I imagine where there's an actual identified probable case, public health would be checking in regularly but for people doing it on their own, it would be hard to know how rigorous they were.
 
Pneumonia – 3 million+ deaths a year

Pneumonia is the end point for a lot of severe respiratory illnesses, and can be caused by viral, bacterial and even fungal infections. It is the leading cause of death among children under 5 around the world, and along with other lower respiratory infections, is the biggest killer among communicable diseases.
 
Ritafee said:
Pneumonia – 3 million+ deaths a year

Pneumonia is the end point for a lot of severe respiratory illnesses, and can be caused by viral, bacterial and even fungal infections. It is the leading cause of death among children under 5 around the world, and along with other lower respiratory infections, is the biggest killer among communicable diseases.
Click to expand...

That's what causes a lot of flu deaths, too. But to prevent that pneumonia, you need to prevent the root infection, in this case 2019-nCoV. Pneumococcus vaccine can help prevent a lot of secondary bacterial pneumonias, but not viral ones caused by things like the beta coronaviruses (the group that includes SARS, MERS, and 2019-nCoV).
 
Ritafee said:
Pneumonia – 3 million+ deaths a year

Pneumonia is the end point for a lot of severe respiratory illnesses, and can be caused by viral, bacterial and even fungal infections. It is the leading cause of death among children under 5 around the world, and along with other lower respiratory infections, is the biggest killer among communicable diseases.
Click to expand...
Is it the biggest killer for developed nations?
 
Mendalla said:
Fear is precisely what we need to avoid. If people are afraid of their Chinese neighbors, the social media spammers and trolls will play on that to promote that fear and escalate it.
Click to expand...

At present fear concerns me more than the virus itself....

We have 12 cases in Australia, hospitalised and ALL STABLE. Of the four in Sydney two have recovered sufficiently to be returned home.
I heard a professor of infectious diseases speak on our national radio. (Her message differed markedly from the fear mongering, headline grabbing lazy reporting commercial media).
She said, things may change, but at present this appears to be not a highly life threatening virus. (only one death reported out of China.) She suspects that the high number of cases in China may have something to do with many affected people not being terribly ill - thus not ill enough to stay in bed. Those that die are those that would be most affected by any virus - the elderly, immune compromised, etc. When she was asked could this be like the Spanish flu that killed more people than WW1 she replied that many who died of the Spanish flu died from secondary bacterial infections - and there wasn't antibiotics available. A weakened immune system - battling the flu -led to the subsequent bacterial infections.

I'm very concerned with fear mongering. After our recent bushfires, a friend in England contacted me in a panic because her local newspaper reported than 10,000 homes could be lost in Sydney.

Panic when you need to panic. folks......
 
PilgrimsProgress said:
At present fear concerns me more than the virus itself....

We have 12 cases in Australia, hospitalised and ALL STABLE. Of the four in Sydney two have recovered sufficiently to be returned home.
I heard a professor of infectious diseases speak on our national radio. (Her message differed markedly from the fear mongering, headline grabbing lazy reporting commercial media).
She said, things may change, but at present this appears to be not a highly life threatening virus. (only one death reported out of China.) She suspects that the high number of cases in China may have something to do with many affected people not being terribly ill - thus not ill enough to stay in bed. Those that die are those that would be most affected by any virus - the elderly, immune compromised, etc. When she was asked could this be like the Spanish flu that killed more people than WW1 she replied that many who died of the Spanish flu died from secondary bacterial infections - and there wasn't antibiotics available. A weakened immune system - battling the flu -led to the subsequent bacterial infections.

I'm very concerned with fear mongering. After our recent bushfires, a friend in England contacted me in a panic because her local newspaper reported than 10,000 homes could be lost in Sydney.

Panic when you need to panic. folks......
Click to expand...
Just a couple things....its a myth that its mostly the elderly that are being affected. All age groups are vulnerable but yes the ones who are physically compromised are more so but not necessarily.
Also antibiotics do NOT work on viruses...only bacteria. Some may receive antibiotics because of a secondary bacterial infection.
 
Kimmio Laughterlove said:
The third case in Ontario, a woman in her 20's, recovered from symptoms in 3 days.
Click to expand...

Yep. For some, perhaps many, people it will probably be just another seasonal flu. The higher death rate is worrisome but as some have pointed out, we don't actually know the true death rate since there may be many undetected cases; people whose symptoms are so mild that they don't seek medical attention. If we could account for those, then maybe it won't be any worse than flu. Still, given current circumstances, some care and concern is merited.
 
China's central bank has announced that it will inject 1.2 trillion yuan ($173bn) into the economy to help deal with the outbreak of coronavirus
 
Waterfall said:
Just a couple things....its a myth that its mostly the elderly that are being affected. All age groups are vulnerable but yes the ones who are physically compromised are more so but not necessarily.
Also antibiotics do NOT work on viruses...only bacteria. Some may receive antibiotics because of a secondary bacterial infection.
Click to expand...

Well, not ALL elderly - but why the elderly are mentioned is because many (but not all) elderly have other illnesses they're dealing with.
I know antibiotics don't work on viruses - my point was that if you're fighting a virus, you're more susceptible for acquiring a secondary bacterial infection.
It concerns me when we -who are not medical specialists - feel entitled to our opinion. It's like we don't trust our medical experts anymore. Our Australian government is playing the fear card -sending those from the affected area in China to Christmas Island, when our medical authorities have said that, medically speaking, that is not the best option.
 
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