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Coronavirus discussion thread - NO POLITICS, or "POLITICS by PROXY"
- Thread starter Stewie26
- Start date
I
Don't know about "selfish" but certainly thoughtless and lazy would apply!
My greatest fear: people are going to cause themselves and others a lot of pain and misery because of unjustified fear and lack of common sense about this. Fear can sink the economy, cause hording of food, shortage of medicines, fill up doctor's offices and emergency rooms, cause increased mental illness among the anxious and depressed among us. Thanks to 24 hour a day tabloid news and the herd mentality. I'm not going to live hiding in my basement in terror watching CNN all day while bathing in hand sanitizer. I've got music to play and people to see
This what I'm the most nervous about. The 'doom and gloom' conspiracy stuff that was going around in January has been proven mostly untrue, but there are a lot of people that are stressing about this and that alone is enough to cause issues.
I’d say more along the lines of ‘inconsiderate’, which has one foot in ‘selfish’.
As of Monday evening, the entire country of Italy is on lockdown. My old drummer has a highschool friend who lives there with her family, in the north, and she reported to him that nobody is going anywhere.
I've just managed to score some toilet paper from a dealer, $400 on the ounce. It better be some good kit.
We just re-scheduled our cruise we had booked for early April. This was done solely because we don't want to spend 2 weeks in quarantine at an Air Force Base if somebody on the ship tests positive. Just not worth it.
Made a Home Depot trip today. Apparently the word got out they still had TP on the shelves.
There have been a number of cases in the Seattle area. It’s the lightest I’ve seen traffic since I moved here 8 years ago.
This is starting to get weird on a global scale. 2017/2018 Influenza resulted into 650.000 fatalities worldwide which didn't seem to raise much attention in the media. Actually Corona has resulted into approx. 4.000 fatalities worldwide. But the economical impact seems to become much worse than any event since 9/11, and may be even worse than that. Are we seeing the start of a global panic ?
- Dec 21, 2007
- 15,222
- 45,000
- Disclosures
- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
The Fortune 100 company for which I work just shut down offices in San Jose, San Francisco, Washington State, and NYC. We all get to work from home. Actually, I work from home anyway, but everyone else does too for a couple of weeks.
This is a company that is not inclined to panic and does a lot of risk analysis (well).
Just a data point.
This is a company that is not inclined to panic and does a lot of risk analysis (well).
Just a data point.
Here's another. My company, based in Chicago, is having a mandatory work-from-home day--you can choose this Thursday or next Tuesday--just to test capabilities in case we do move to a work-from-home arrangement, as our Shenzhen, China office has done since mid-January (no one's been diagnosed with it yet, fingers crossed).
I also have a business trip planned for the Bay area in mid-May. That company gave us the date 3 weeks ago but has yet to send an agenda (highly unusual). I think this trip is going to get cancelled. My company has also asked us not to travel for business the rest of this month or in April.
I don't regard this as panicking. No one's telling us to hoard MREs or anything else. These are simply manageable changes that make sense right now.
The part about media attention is funny to me, because I clearly remember at least one thread on TB where the media was accused of "overhyping" that flu season.
Now I hear media critics (this is not directed at you) claiming the media ignores the flu and is overhyping the coronavirus.
This is nothing to sneeze at. Good luck everybody. … Big pat on the back. Be safe.
The media has certainly hyped this up quite a bit. The death rate compared to the flu isn't astronomical, it looks like its maybe 5% compared to the flu which is i think i 2% or something.
The problem is I think how easily it is spread and the dangers it poses to higher risk groups hence the quarantines that are going on.
Ventilators, ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. There are not enough for everyone.
As context, 80% of people with coronavirus experience mild symptoms, but an acute form of the illness can lead to life-threatening pneumonia. The elderly are particularly vulnerable.
Dr Daniele Macchini, Intensive Care Unit physician in Bergamo:
"After much thought about whether and what to write about what is happening to us, I felt that silence was not responsible.
"I will therefore try to convey to people far from our reality what we are living in Bergamo in these days of Covid-19 pandemic. I understand the need not to create panic, but when the message of the dangerousness of what is happening does not reach people I shudder.
"I myself watched with some amazement the reorganization of the entire hospital in the past week, when our current enemy was still in the shadows: the wards slowly 'emptied', elective activities were interrupted, intensive care were freed up to create as many beds as possible.
"All this rapid transformation brought an atmosphere of silence and surreal emptiness to the corridors of the hospital that we did not yet understand, waiting for a war that was yet to begin and that many (including me) were not so sure would ever come with such ferocity.
"I still remember my night call a week ago when I was waiting for the results of a swab. When I think about it, my anxiety over one possible case seems almost ridiculous and unjustified, now that I've seen what's happening. Well, the situation now is dramatic to say the least.
"The war has literally exploded and battles are uninterrupted day and night. But now that need for beds has arrived in all its drama. One after the other the departments that had been emptied fill up at an impressive pace.
"The boards with the names of the patients, of different colours depending on the operating unit, are now all red and instead of surgery you see the diagnosis, which is always the damned same: bilateral interstitial pneumonia.
"Now, explain to me which flu virus causes such a rapid drama. [post continues comparing Covid19 to flu, link here]. And while there are still people who boast of not being afraid by ignoring directions, protesting because their normal routine is 'temporarily' put in crisis, the epidemiological disaster is taking place. And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists, we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us.
"Cases are multiplying, we arrive at a rate of 15-20 admissions per day all for the same reason. The results of the swabs now come one after the other: positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the E.R. is collapsing.
"Reasons for the access always the same: fever and breathing difficulties, fever and cough, respiratory failure. Radiology reports always the same: bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia. All to be hospitalized.
"Someone already to be intubated and go to intensive care. For others it's too late... Every ventilator becomes like gold: those in operating theatres that have now suspended their non-urgent activity become intensive care places that did not exist before.
"The staff is exhausted. I saw the tiredness on faces that didn't know what it was despite the already exhausting workloads they had. I saw a solidarity of all of us, who never failed to go to our internist colleagues to ask, 'What can I do for you now?'
"Doctors who move beds and transfer patients, who administer therapies instead of nurses. Nurses with tears in their eyes because we can't save everyone, and the vital parameters of several patients at the same time reveal an already marked destiny.
"There are no more shifts, no more hours. Social life is suspended for us. We no longer see our families for fear of infecting them. Some of us have already become infected despite the protocols.
"Some of our colleagues who are infected also have infected relatives and some of their relatives are already struggling between life and death. So be patient, you can't go to the theatre, museums or the gym. Try to have pity on the myriad of old people you could exterminate.
"We just try to make ourselves useful. You should do the same: we influence the life and death of a few dozen people. You with yours, many more. Please share this message. We must spread the word to prevent what is happening here from happening all over Italy.
"I finish by saying that I really don't understand this war on panic. The only reason I see is mask shortages, but there's no mask on sale anymore. We don't have a lot of studies, but is it panic really worse than neglect and carelessness during an epidemic of this sort?"
Invalid Link Removed
As context, 80% of people with coronavirus experience mild symptoms, but an acute form of the illness can lead to life-threatening pneumonia. The elderly are particularly vulnerable.
Dr Daniele Macchini, Intensive Care Unit physician in Bergamo:
"After much thought about whether and what to write about what is happening to us, I felt that silence was not responsible.
"I will therefore try to convey to people far from our reality what we are living in Bergamo in these days of Covid-19 pandemic. I understand the need not to create panic, but when the message of the dangerousness of what is happening does not reach people I shudder.
"I myself watched with some amazement the reorganization of the entire hospital in the past week, when our current enemy was still in the shadows: the wards slowly 'emptied', elective activities were interrupted, intensive care were freed up to create as many beds as possible.
"All this rapid transformation brought an atmosphere of silence and surreal emptiness to the corridors of the hospital that we did not yet understand, waiting for a war that was yet to begin and that many (including me) were not so sure would ever come with such ferocity.
"I still remember my night call a week ago when I was waiting for the results of a swab. When I think about it, my anxiety over one possible case seems almost ridiculous and unjustified, now that I've seen what's happening. Well, the situation now is dramatic to say the least.
"The war has literally exploded and battles are uninterrupted day and night. But now that need for beds has arrived in all its drama. One after the other the departments that had been emptied fill up at an impressive pace.
"The boards with the names of the patients, of different colours depending on the operating unit, are now all red and instead of surgery you see the diagnosis, which is always the damned same: bilateral interstitial pneumonia.
"Now, explain to me which flu virus causes such a rapid drama. [post continues comparing Covid19 to flu, link here]. And while there are still people who boast of not being afraid by ignoring directions, protesting because their normal routine is 'temporarily' put in crisis, the epidemiological disaster is taking place. And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists, we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us.
"Cases are multiplying, we arrive at a rate of 15-20 admissions per day all for the same reason. The results of the swabs now come one after the other: positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the E.R. is collapsing.
"Reasons for the access always the same: fever and breathing difficulties, fever and cough, respiratory failure. Radiology reports always the same: bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia. All to be hospitalized.
"Someone already to be intubated and go to intensive care. For others it's too late... Every ventilator becomes like gold: those in operating theatres that have now suspended their non-urgent activity become intensive care places that did not exist before.
"The staff is exhausted. I saw the tiredness on faces that didn't know what it was despite the already exhausting workloads they had. I saw a solidarity of all of us, who never failed to go to our internist colleagues to ask, 'What can I do for you now?'
"Doctors who move beds and transfer patients, who administer therapies instead of nurses. Nurses with tears in their eyes because we can't save everyone, and the vital parameters of several patients at the same time reveal an already marked destiny.
"There are no more shifts, no more hours. Social life is suspended for us. We no longer see our families for fear of infecting them. Some of us have already become infected despite the protocols.
"Some of our colleagues who are infected also have infected relatives and some of their relatives are already struggling between life and death. So be patient, you can't go to the theatre, museums or the gym. Try to have pity on the myriad of old people you could exterminate.
"We just try to make ourselves useful. You should do the same: we influence the life and death of a few dozen people. You with yours, many more. Please share this message. We must spread the word to prevent what is happening here from happening all over Italy.
"I finish by saying that I really don't understand this war on panic. The only reason I see is mask shortages, but there's no mask on sale anymore. We don't have a lot of studies, but is it panic really worse than neglect and carelessness during an epidemic of this sort?"
Invalid Link Removed
THIS IS NOT A FLU!
It's not even the same virus!
Flu is caused by Influenza virus!
The problem here is it's spreading very fast and +-15% of the cases develop SEVERE RESPIRATORY SYMPTOMS! There are not enough ventilators for every patient, in case of an outbreak like in Iran or Italy!
It's not even the same virus!
Flu is caused by Influenza virus!
The problem here is it's spreading very fast and +-15% of the cases develop SEVERE RESPIRATORY SYMPTOMS! There are not enough ventilators for every patient, in case of an outbreak like in Iran or Italy!
Somebody woke up on the cynical side of the bed yesterday morning.
What idiot is telling people to go to work sick?
1) It's a joke. Relax.
2) What, exactly, is toilet paper going to do to prevent the spread of a disease?
3) Honestly, how much toilet paper do people go through in a month? We buy the Sam's Club pack and we're set for well over a month. Three females and on male in my house. My wife and daughters use the stuff for everything, including makeup removal to blowing their noses. And we can't go through a Sam's Club pack in a month. When my wife tells me toilet paper is on the list I wonder if it's time to check the batteries in my smoke detectors.
4) People who bought a six-month supply of toilet paper are idiots. Period.
1) It's a joke. Relax.
2) What, exactly, is toilet paper going to do to prevent the spread of a disease?
3) Honestly, how much toilet paper do people go through in a month? We buy the Sam's Club pack and we're set for well over a month. Three females and on male in my house. My wife and daughters use the stuff for everything, including makeup removal to blowing their noses. And we can't go through a Sam's Club pack in a month. When my wife tells me toilet paper is on the list I wonder if it's time to check the batteries in my smoke detectors.
4) People who bought a six-month supply of toilet paper are idiots. Period.
But there is no need for the store to post that ridiculous note. It sure wasn't the owner, I'll tell you that.
