Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says

Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by JulianMorrison on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @01:36PM (#22547964)

80-something percent of the time yes. The remainder is divided between "you need hospital, but will be fine" and "serious intensive care needed".

The trouble is that (1) the people who need hospital to be fine need hospital. They won't be fine if it isn't there, and (2) by being a selfish ass and treating it like just the flu, when it's a disease that grows exponentially in a no-immunity population, people are amplifying the speed and height of the peak, which means not enough hospital places.

If you get a situation where effectively nobody who needs hospital can get it - then those 20-ish percent just drop dead. And then there's your godly death rate.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by mcguire on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @03:10PM (#22549285)

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm#table1

2% of those infected with influenza (estimated, 4% of those who sought medical intervention) in 2017-2018 required hospitalization.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by abstractbarista on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @01:48PM (#22548179)

It's not selfish to treat something like the flu. This means I wash my hands, get vaccinated yearly, and take other common-sense precautions. That's not "being an ass", it's being rational.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by rsynnott on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @02:26PM (#22548705)

And which vaccine were you considering getting for this, precisely?

That's part of the problem; even if it was "just like the flu" (it is not; in particular the percentage of cases requiring advanced medical treatment is much higher, which will lead to a rise in mortality as that treatment is oversubscribed), the flu would be pretty scary if the annual vaccine didn't exist.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by abstractbarista on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @02:38PM (#22548850)

And isn't it amazing how many people neglect to get the flu vaccine (even when they can afford it - I don't look down on those who can't)?

The flu is actually quite scary - they are the frog in hot water.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by ionwake on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @02:53PM (#22549029)

are you talking to yourself?

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by Tyr42 on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @01:58PM (#22548337)

There isn't a vaccine yet.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by abstractbarista on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @02:37PM (#22548829)

Obviously. Which is why you do the other common-sense things you should always do. Wash hands, don't touch your mouth, etc.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by ionwake on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @02:55PM (#22549070)

You're being patronising and he aswell as others , did not understand your point.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by JulianMorrison on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @01:54PM (#22548258)

Common sense precautions here are much more stringent than the flu. Nobody is immune. There is no vaccination. Herd immunity is nil. And it's very infectious.

This is a new thing and you should treat it as a new thing. There has not in living memory been one this bad, against which we had no defense except to avoid catching it and spreading it.

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Re:Covid-19 is now officially a pandemic, WHO says by abstractbarista on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @02:42PM (#22548889)

Actually MERS was far more scary with a death rate around 34% (from WHO). It just didn't transmit so well.

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