Coronavirus - the new pandemic

[clearspira]

Thoughts?

You know what I find interesting? With all of our tech, with all of our knowledge, a little bug or virus is still capable of kicking our ass.

I think the end of civilization as we know it is currently a straight toss up between antibiotic resistant diseases and climate change.

[Mecha82]

Do you what else is scary? That CCP was actively trying to cover it up when there still weren't that many cases in mainland China.

[TGLS]

Yeah, 50 people is truly a horrible pandemic.

[Robovski]

It is easy to be scared of this because the possibility is real. It has killed 56 in China (admittedly elderly, mostly men) that we are aware of, it is contagious before people show symptoms, it is in 15 countries... On the flip side it might be fairly under control and not really be a big deal. Plague is historically a big problem for high populations and some would argue we are overdue and it can go from under control to out of control very quickly. But unless there is a malicious mutation this probably won't be worse than a new influenza, which kills, but is not apocalyptic or really a threat to healthy adults but your elderly relatives and those with underdeveloped/compromised immune systems would be at risk.

[Darth Wedgius]

We have really high populations, high population density is frequent due to urbanization, and global travel means a disease can spread rapidly.

I'm on board with a new plague popping up that is particularly nasty (EDIT: "on board" meaning I could see it happening, not that I find it desirable). If something airborne is easily infectious but takes a few months to go from sniffles to blood gushing from every orifice -- so it spreads easily but doesn't trigger the keep-these-people-isolated reaction until too late -- we might see a significant die-off as emergency and medical services are overwhelmed.

It might change the political landscape, too. Border control might be considered a lot more important if people are fleeing plagues, and if the urbanized, coastal areas are hit harder, the political demographics may shift.

Assuming any of the countries we're in are still around after this in a recognizable form, which I suppose depends on how lethal or disabling it is, and of whom. If it killed off 3 to 5 percent of the global population, well, the Spanish flu did that, and it hit young adults particularly hard, but I don't know if most people nowadays have even heard of the Spanish flu. If something left a third of the healthy adult population dead or severely disabled (blind, badly paralyzed, etc.), economies could collapse, governments could collapse, and the death toll could rise by a lot. On the other hand, if something killed mainly the very old and the very young, as diseases often do, I doubt there'd be a lot of economic or structural fallout. Yay?

I don't think this coronavirus is it; I think we caught it early enough. But who knows what's lurking in the next bush meat or bug bite? Or in some lab somewhere...

Be afraid. Be very.... Well, be a little afraid. We're overdue for a plague in part because we've gotten better at handling these nasty little critters. If medical science advances enough in the next century, maybe in cooperation with machine learning (it's already making diagnoses as well as doctors in limited situations), then maybe tailored antibiotics and antivirals will change the battle decisively in our favor.

[cilantro]

Looks like it is starting to spread in the US community. Which means we are in a pandemic:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coronavirus-cdc-didn-t-immediately-test-covid-19-case-n1143996

[AlucardNoir]

For people that don't understand the pandemic thing, it's a pandemic because it's an epidemic that has crossed international borders. It's an epidemic in China and since it's crossed international borders it's qualified as a pandemic, it really is that simple. That doesn't mean it will result in epidemics in every country where an infected person is found.

[cilantro]

For people that don't understand the pandemic thing, it's a pandemic because it's an epidemic that has crossed international borders. It's an epidemic in China and since it's crossed international borders it's qualified as a pandemic, it really is that simple. That doesn't mean it will result in epidemics in every country where an infected person is found.

It's also found in Italy (Europe) and Iran (the Middle East), currently and the infections seems to be from the community.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

So Trump and Admin asked for a billion dollars to research the vaccine and got grilled for being trite apparently. All good, but then they found out that they haven't taken a course to socialize the vaccine, just make it available through the private market subject to a floating price set by the developing company.

I'm not sure why Congress wouldn't proceed to socialize the vaccine themselves thereafter.

It seems like Trump moreover trying to make a positive example of the private market, but I'm curious about how the developing companies fair.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-says-coronavirus-vaccine-may-not-be-affordable-2020-2?fbclid=IwAR0nZCUrSTXm9oDoCSDeetX8H3U4AaBzZ-Np0M-FLz0Pneg0xxmY-B519uA

[Darth Wedgius]

SARS-CoV-2 spreads easily and can spread when people are asymptomatic. WHO doesn't consider it a pandemic yet, but give it time...

It's not all bad news. It may have reduced China's CO2 emissions, and has caused them to move to outlawing eating cats and dogs in some regions.

It may have caused a drop in sales in Corona, a brand of beer popular in the U.S.

Edit: It looks like we probably have spread within the U.S. on the west coast now, vs. people coming from overseas with infections. If it gets into the homeless population in San Francisco or Los Angeles in any significant way, I think things could get really bad, really fast