Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius?
by bcrosby95 on Saturday March 14, 2020 @11:39PM
(#22581038)
Yes, the idea that only those 70+ are "at risk" is weird. But they probably can't afford to isolate everyone 50+ - both from an economic and herd immunity viewpoint - so they will risk losing 3.6% of people aged 60-69 and 1.3% of people aged 50-59.
According to https://www.statista.com/statistics/281174/uk-population-by-...
8.96 million aged 50-59, 7.07 million aged 60-69.
Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius?
by hedora on Saturday March 14, 2020 @09:59PM
(#22580522)
> unknown long term effects
Ultimately, it’s a just a really inconsistent cold. The vast majority of cases are mild. However, if it spreads to the lungs, it’s worse than the flu.
As far as I know, there’s no evidence that it’s any more exotic than that.
Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius?
by angry_octet on Sunday March 15, 2020 @12:54AM
(#22581384)
There are reports from China of significant lung scarring among patients who had to be hospitalised.
Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius?
by poooogles on Sunday March 15, 2020 @10:40AM
(#22583702)
This is the concerning thing for me, as an asthmatic if I stop taking meds I'm already 30% down on lung capacity, adding another 20% on top of that is scary. That 20% can't be mitigated by meds either.
Additionally, we know nothing of the long term effects even for the "young and healthy". Mortality rates for people 10-39 is 0.2%, 40-49 it's at 0.4%, 50-59 1.3%, 60-69 at 3.6%. Serious conditions develop in a bigger proportion of cases, so you are looking at 4-10% of under 60 population in ICU with unknown long term effects.
Translation: good luck!