I don't think it's that simple at all. You'd see a whole other level of panic and chaos . Many more people would get sick than now, not "just" primarily the elderly and sick and there'd soon be shortages of food and medicine and gas etc and the world would become an increasingly very very dangerous place to be. This is nothing compared to that. I hope it never ever breaks out. And we don't have treatment for H5N1. Those few ventilators each country has would run out in five days or something.
I don't think it's that simple at all. You'd see a whole other level of panic and chaos . Many more people would get sick than now, not "just" primarily the elderly and sick and there'd soon be shortages of food and medicine and gas etc and the world would become an increasingly very very dangerous place to be. This is nothing compared to that. I hope it never ever breaks out. And we don't have treatment for H5N1. Those few ventilators each country has would run out in five days or something.
The flu is bad, but it's a completely different game than this novel coronavirus.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:19 am
by Matz
Really? Tamiflu is effective against H5N1? Cool, I could have sworn it wasn't very effective at all. Nice
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:44 am
by Matz
Ok, maybe I wasn't a complete idiot, from Wikipedia:
Treatment (H5N1)
Further information: Flu research
There is no highly effective treatment for H5N1 flu, but oseltamivir (commercially marketed by Roche as Tamiflu), can sometimes inhibit the influenza virus from spreading inside the user's body. This drug has become a focus for some governments and organizations trying to prepare for a possible H5N1 pandemic.[49] On April 20, 2006, Roche AG announced that a stockpile of three million treatment courses of Tamiflu are waiting at the disposal of the World Health Organization to be used in case of a flu pandemic; separately Roche donated two million courses to the WHO for use in developing nations that may be affected by such a pandemic but lack the ability to purchase large quantities of the drug.[50]
However, WHO expert Hassan al-Bushra has said:
"Even now, we remain unsure about Tamiflu's real effectiveness.
Ok, maybe I wasn't a complete idiot, from Wikipedia:
Treatment (H5N1)
Further information: Flu research
There is no highly effective treatment for H5N1 flu, but oseltamivir (commercially marketed by Roche as Tamiflu), can sometimes inhibit the influenza virus from spreading inside the user's body. This drug has become a focus for some governments and organizations trying to prepare for a possible H5N1 pandemic.[49] On April 20, 2006, Roche AG announced that a stockpile of three million treatment courses of Tamiflu are waiting at the disposal of the World Health Organization to be used in case of a flu pandemic; separately Roche donated two million courses to the WHO for use in developing nations that may be affected by such a pandemic but lack the ability to purchase large quantities of the drug.[50]
However, WHO expert Hassan al-Bushra has said:
"Even now, we remain unsure about Tamiflu's real effectiveness.
No, you're not a complete idiot. But I will point out that the information on Wikipedia, including that quotation, is from 2006. The article I linked you to is from 2010, and so should supersede the Wiki stuff. I could probably find more up-to-date data if you're curious.
The other thing to remember is that the issue with this coronavirus isn't its lethality, but its novelty. And like I said, one side-effect of our current reaction to Covid-19 is that other disease rates appear to be below seasonal norms.
I don't know who the hell that guy is, but that interview is full of nonsense.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:45 am
by Matz
It says in the beginning who he is. As to whether what he's saying is nonsense I can't judge, I'm no expert. You'd think he knows quite a lot about the subject given he holds the job he does
It says in the beginning who he is. As to whether what he's saying is nonsense I can't judge, I'm no expert. You'd think he knows quite a lot about the subject given he holds the job he does
There's something odd about it. He's not an MD. He's a PhD in biochemistry who works in biotech / drug discovery. I don't understand the description of him as a "virologist". See, e.g., https://selectbiosciences.com/conferenc ... nf=hca2014
That's not the same thing as being an epidemiologist or infectious disease specialist.
He also appears to have said almost identical things in some interviews about MERS 5 years ago, but doesn't seem to actually work on MERS or SARS (if he does "work on them" it would presumably be not the treatment / prevention side of things but the drug-development side).
I'm not saying be sceptical of expertise -- experts should be trusted to know what the fuck they're talking about. But in this case, I think it's misleading to call him an expert on the particular crisis going on right now.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 7:14 am
by Larry B.
I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that the head of the WHO is a position that is very much political. I’ve seen plenty of authorities or organisations saying that they would follow WHO guidelines, but these have been (for the most part) quite slow to address the threat to public health that is covid-19, due to political reasons.
It’s not a technical position that is assumed to be ‘scientifically right’.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:36 am
by Artemis
I haven't actually washed my cash but I have sprayed&wiped it with disinfectant.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:42 am
by SR
Ok, I get it. But I have been thinking of the people who truly suffer from more severe OCD...this must be pure evil to them.
I haven't actually washed my cash but I have sprayed&wiped it with disinfectant.
wtf use cash?
WTF not.......?
I use cash 90% of the time. There are dozens of reasons to.......
1. Reasons Artie states...and earthquakes/fires/stock crash/coronavirus...that's just a piece of plastic if there are no atms...people to people like paper better than plastic.
2. Gas is typicall 10-20 cents cheaper per gallon if you pay in cash
3. One of the biggest reasons is that I don't like my hard earned money (3% of it anyways) going to Visa, instead of the business I am a patron of... I am very conscious of where and how I spend my money.
4. I HATE those screens now that they flip towards you and then start with 20% tip option at takeout places....wtf.....they need to due away with Tips and start actually fucking paying their workers....That is a progressive talking point. More than half the states in the US have a minimum wage of $2-3/hr.....because they get "tips"
I haven't actually washed my cash but I have sprayed&wiped it with disinfectant.
wtf use cash?
WTF not.......?
I use cash 90% of the time. There are dozens of reasons to.......
1. Reasons Artie states...and earthquakes/fires/stock crash/coronavirus...that's just a piece of plastic if there are no atms...people to people like paper better than plastic.
2. Gas is typicall 10-20 cents cheaper per gallon if you pay in cash
3. One of the biggest reasons is that I don't like my hard earned money (3% of it anyways) going to Visa, instead of the business I am a patron of... I am very conscious of where and how I spend my money.
4. I HATE those screens now that they flip towards you and then start with 20% tip option at takeout places....wtf.....they need to due away with Tips and start actually fucking paying their workers....That is a progressive talking point. More than half the states in the US have a minimum wage of $2-3/hr.....because they get "tips"
And several other reasons.....
I don't know about the US, but many stores here aren't taking cash right now so that the cashiers don't have to handle it and to minimize contact. Some places accept cash if it's the exact change. The cashiers wear gloves and there's plastic barriers between the customers and cashiers.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:24 pm
by Artemis
Toronto just cancelled all public events and permits for public events until June 30th. Also, schools in my province will be closed for the month of April too. I wonder how the on-line classes are going to go.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:34 pm
by mockbee
I can see the benefits for plastic right now....but I was just generally speaking.
They still take cash here everywhere. There are people without cards/accounts and it would be really difficult if it was only plastic. If you only have less than $100-200 ...most of it is spent on fees in a bank account and only certain people are eligible for credit union account.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:40 pm
by chaos
In Massachusetts the shelter-in-place advisory has been extended until May 4th, and schools and non-essential businesses are closed until then. Our governor is expecting a surge of cases between April 7th - April 15th.
They are limiting the number of people allowed in grocery stores at one time. There are taped markings (six feet apart) where people can stand in line to check out their groceries. If you order take-out, you need to phone it in. No one can go inside of restaurants to order/pick-up food. People will bring the food to the door for customers to pick-up. You cannot go into a bank lobby unless you have an appointment. No church services and/or funerals. Family members cannot go into hospitals to visit sick/dying relatives.
Total cases in MA: 6620/deaths 89.
The Federal government keeps outbidding us for supplies.
Gov Cuomo it explained well. I'll paraphrased: It's like being on ebay with 50 governors bidding for essential supplies, then the Federal Government steps in and outbids everyone.
Shame on the states with no shelter-in-place advisories.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:18 pm
by Hype
I'd be doubtful anything in North America will start going even remotely "back to normal" (in terms of reopening things and actually allowing people to congregate) until at least the end of May.
It will probably be 2 or 3 years before the after-effects have more-or-less subsided.
854,000 cases now.
It will be over a million by the end of the week.
Re: Coronavirus
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:53 pm
by Matz
Denmark is talking about slowly opening the country beginning in two weeks, maybe. I just don't see how that can be a good idea. More people will just get infected.
We are going to continue being slaves to this fcuking thing until we come up with meds that can kill it.
COVID-19 measures could be in place for 12 weeks, Toronto’s top doctor says
TORONTO -- Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health says that measures adopted by the city to combat the spread of COVID-19 could be in place for months.
“Based on the experiences of other jurisdictions, it is my belief that these measures may need to be in place for up to 12 weeks,” Dr. Eileen de Villa said at a news conference on Wednesday morning.
“But I would tell you that how long these measures need to be in place, how successful we are in terms of controlling virus spread is entirely in our hands.”
“The more we are able to put these measures into place, the more we are able as a community to adhere to these measures, to adhere to the recommendations, the shorter will be the duration of these measures and the more effective we will be, most importantly, at reducing the loss of lives in our community.”
Public health officials say that as of Wednesday there are 628 confirmed cases in the city and 165 more probable cases. Of those 628, de Villa says that 65 patients are in hospital, 33 of which are in an intensive care unit.
“In the last two weeks we have seen a more than 500 per cent increase in these counts. This is a not a favourable trajectory and as your medical officer of health responsible for protecting the city’s health, your health, I am deeply concerned.”
