Coronavirus outbreak

[cheapthrills]

I would never have thought a rat would encourage people to eat another rodent. I'm calling it as self-preservation.

Honestly, not sure what to think about the virus. I feel like this must be a bigger problem in China than we know.

[BeeBoy]

Why are we acting as if bats are these evil creatures when there is swine flu, mad cow disease, Avian (bird) flu and the list goes on and on. It's what humans deserve for craming animals into small spaces and eating everything that breathes.

[Hejira]

Why are we acting as if bats are these evil creatures when there is swine flu, mad cow disease, Avian (bird) flu and the list goes on and on. It's what humans deserve for craming animals into small spaces and eating everything that breathes.

True.

[aRat]

I would never have thought a rat would encourage people to eat another rodent. I'm calling it as self-preservation.

Honestly, not sure what to think about the virus. I feel like this must be a bigger problem in China than we know.

Bats are not rodents

[Wayne]

Why are we acting as if bats are these evil creatures when there is swine flu, mad cow disease, Avian (bird) flu and the list goes on and on. It's what humans deserve for craming animals into small spaces and eating everything that breathes.

As rat pointed it out, it’s different cultures - I personally find that bat soup to be the most revolting thing I’ve ever seen. But who am I to say that as I munch on my chicken noodle stirfry?

[heppolo]

strange name for a virus though

[KEY9481]

strange name for a virus though

I have Rhythm of the Night stuck in my head since Friday.

[heppolo]

I have Rhythm of the Night stuck in my head since Friday.

It's interesting that there was a russian 90s eurodance band called Virus.

[clh_hilary]

Do you think it's possible to get that virus from a bat soup?

I believe it's possible, but I do question why it's happening now but not before. It appears that it's even an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine.

There are now more and more claiming it might have been a biological weapon that's leaked. There are claims that something from Canada and Hong Kong were stolen to create it.

[SpyVsSpy]

It doesn’t sound like anyone is sure of the virus’ origins

[spiritboy]

The fact that nobody died (yet) outside of China is giving me hope, let's hope it stays that way.

[KEY9481]

They started building this hospital like 10 days ago, this is insane.

[spiritboy]

I saw some horrible videos from China where a man says 8 people died in 5 minutes and were put in body bags. I do believe real fatality numbers are much higher there.

[LittleLinda]

I saw some horrible videos from China where a man says 8 people died in 5 minutes and were put in body bags. I do believe real fatality numbers are much higher there.

Just to give you some perspective:
In Germany - a country with high medical standards, mind you - almost 428000 people died in 2017 in hospitals (counting every single case, regardless of the cause of death). That's nearly one person per minute. However, keep in mind that China has 1.4 billion inhabitants versus Germany's measly 80 million, so by German standards, China would have roundabout 17.5 hospital deaths per minute (87.5 to stick with the 5 minute timeframe you mentioned). Of course this is merely an average, so there's bound to be several peaks during the year, where the actual number is way higher than that. Taking the amount of hospitals into consideration is tricky, because depending on the type of hospital, there are some who naturally have a much higher death toll than others. But just for the heck of it: For Germany, the number would be 0.003 people per 5 minutes per hospital... so if you apply the same standards to China (blindly assuming that China has a similar "hospital per capita ratio"), that's 0.06
Again, that number is kinda distorted and not really saying much, because the death toll in hospitals isn't evenly spread out amongst them, nor are we accounting for "peak times".

So, as shocking as this might be to you, 8 people in 5 minutes in 1 hospital might be high at first glance, but doesn't seem outrageous. What would be interesting to know is what the average number was in China before the corona outbreak, but I don't think you'd get accurate figures for that anywhere.

And putting dead people in body bags... well, that's what you do with dead people. Why is that even worth mentioning?


Regardless of playing around with statistics: People seem to be forgetting that this kinda thing is pretty normal and occurs in waves every few years (MERS, SARS, H5N1, the list goes on).
China's drastic measures are the sensible thing to do and considering that the incubation time is 10-14 days and millions of people flew from and to China every day before measures where taken, it is actually amazing how few cases there have been outside of China. Which further proves that this virus is quite harmless by comparison. The reason media is freaking out and China is taking rather drastic measures is because it is "new" and there was (and still partially is) a lot of uncertainty regarding its origin, transmission path, etc.
Considering that there are 20.000 people per year dying from influenza in Germany (sorry about pulling up Germany all the time, but those are the figures I know), I actually wish the world would be more rigid in their countermeasures against that, too. But unfortunately influenza has been accepted as a "common" disease, whereas Corona is the new kid on the block that everyone's talking about.

Public and media reaction is borderline hysterical.
If you stick to the basic rules of hygiene and stay out of the high risk areas in China, chances are you won't catch it. If you do catch it, but you have an intact immune system, you have nothing to worry about. Will feel like shit for 7-10 days, and that's it. Just pray that it's actually the current Corona virus and not it's older brother SARS - because that one is much more deadly.

Sorry for the essay, but by now the mass hysteria is starting to really annoy me... and I actually had infected "at my doorstep" (11 out of 13 infected Germans are from here - several of them are employees of Webasto, which is one of our customers).

[spiritboy]

It was a relieving and educating essay so thanks. So it's basically media and social media doing fear mongering.

[LittleLinda]

It was a relieving and educating essay so thanks. So it's basically media and social media doing fear mongering.

Yes, basically. You see, whenever there is a new mutation of a virus, efforts are made to contain it, so that it doesn't spread worldwide - because the more it spreads, the less controllable it becomes and the lower chances are that you'll be able to eradicate it entirely. Meaning we'll end up with yet another widespread form of disease that we'll have to deal with on a regular basis.
However, such containment measures often lead people to assume that "it must be very dangerous", when that is not necessarily the case.
The reason that nobody "closes down a country" due to an outbreak of "regular" influenza is not that it is less dangerous, but that the ship has sailed in terms of containment or eradication - a VERY long time ago.

So far, the new corona strand has caused the death of people with weak immune systems (very old, very young or already sick). For the average human being it is no danger. Symptoms are those of a rather mild influenza and in fact several infected are experiencing no symptoms at all (but of course are still quarantined, to avoid them passing it on to others).

Not saying that the deaths aren't tragic, but it's a classical case of selective outrage (or in this case, selective fear).

[Hejira]

Exactly LittleLinda !!

[abi]

Rest in peace.

[TIfan]

He needs to be honored by the world. We need to know his name.

[abi]

Total number is 30 now in Singapore. Damn, Singapore is such a TINY country, when you are there you're practically bound to meet everyone. Hope this ends soon really, I'm starting to think to cancel my flights in March if the situation doesn't get any better in the next 2 weeks cause I'm bringing my mom & dad as well.

[KEY9481]

[abi]

Urgh make it stop.

[abi]

ABsbjkjabnd stop pls. 58 in total in Singapore.

[dylonj]

^^I wonder if they know the connection to the ship. I mean was there someone who visited china? It would be interesting to know.

[SpyVsSpy]

maybe this virus is a glitch and we’re really in a computer program