Coronavirus are you worried?

[CountryGirl1234]

So this virus has infected 600+ already and seems to be picking up pace. It’ll be in the UK any day, if it’s not already. AIBU to think this is going to have a big fallout and are you concerned?

amp.theguardian.com/science/live/2020/jan/23/coronavirus-china-virus-flu-scotland-testing-wuhan-live-news-updates

I’m worried, but as others have said, we can only hope the experts in disease control are taking appropriate action

and the dead are mostly - though not exclusively - older people, some of whom have pre-existing conditions

Oh that’s ok then! Unless you happen to be ‘older’.

And actually, again from the i, only one third of those affected had pre existing conditions.

Truebeliever - if I were you I would monitor the situation and potentially cancel the trip. Sars took months to get under control when the weather turned warmer. We haven't seen the worst yet

bunnyfuller it was reported by the WHO yesterday in Vietnam.

twitter.com/BreakingIEN/status/1220860979304697857?s=20

@littlepaddypaws

Me too! And I’ve got a heart condition! But I just haven’t got the energy to get swept along for no reason again. I think the media feed into people’s need for excitement, and the minute by minute deluge of ‘developments’ raises anxiety levels, despite nothing that world changing (factually) being reported.

I might get a bit twitchy if it started to accelerate outside China, but no P2P transmission outside China has happened.

Early reports indicate the number of people infected has just jumped by ~1500.

It’s hardly surprising, given how overrun they are, there must be a huge backlog.

It also looks like they are finally going to give this virus a name.

Thanks @everythingthelighttouches

So one. Still not convinced.

My friends in China have asked me to ship masks - I think they are out! They say they need enough to last until May when the government are claiming it will be likely over.

My sincere apologies. Please IGNORE my last comment about the numbers jumping. That is an error.

bunnyfuller agreed. human to human transmission outside of China isn’t really surprising or any reason to be worried. It is just one of the criterion the WHO use to declare a global emergency.

Here is a map with confirmed & suspected cases
gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

It'll be interesting to see if that map's been updated tomorrow. There are already some confirmed cases that aren't showing on it.

No more than many other things.

I’m flying to Singapore and Japan this week. My main concern is that I always seem to pick up some sort of virus on holiday despite rarely even getting a cold back at home. It will be just my luck to be flagged by an airport as having a fever and tossed into quarantine for a bad cold

My mum is disappointed I don’t want to buy a mask for the flights.

@drcb83 - I live in China and masks can be purchased online.

No not worried.

Daily fail now have an article about a nurse who has posted a video claiming 90,000 have actually been infected. Video not verified, so probable scaremongering.

@shanghai Well I feel silly for spending an afternoon finding specific surgical grades they wanted for them! Wonder why they wanted 1000 high grade sent over?

Daily fail now have an article about a nurse who has posted a video claiming 90,000 have actually been infected. Video not verified, so probable scaremongering

In a country with a population density such as China, 90k isn't unbelievable, a week ago, UK scientists were say the numbers infected would be around 1700 possibly 5k, the Chinese were saying just a few dozen.

Also, don't get people saying its only really a danger to older/ill people, viral pneumonia is a very serious illness.

The Chinese are not known for their openness, so we don't really know the true picture, why is China building 2 prefab hospitals?
The UK Govt seem quite complacent at the moment, risk is very low and we are not repatriating our nationals from the area, just advising them to leave.... from a locked down area.... mmmmmm.

As of this morning, China is reporting over 1900 confirmed cases, more than 320 of whom are in critical condition. 51 reported deaths.

@drcb83 - to sell them at a profit , I imagine. Mask prices online have already increased in price.
In my city (280 miles from Wuhan) it is now compulsory to wear a mask in all public places - restaurants, supermarkets, metro etc and you can be reported to the authorities for not wearing one.
With regard to the Chinese covering up the real numbers affected - who knows?, but to avoid mass hysteria it's probably wise to be selective with regard to information released. Panic and hysteria will only make the situation more difficult to manage.
Follow basic hygiene rules, avoid congested public spaces, wear a mask, be vigilant with regard to your children's health - nothing else we can do.

The 'telling' information in my mind is that they are building 2 new hospitals, one for 1000 patients and one for 1300 patients. The first was to be up and running within a week and the second within 2 weeks.

I know this is not going to be a 'brick and morter' hospital, but they are expecting and planning for this to be a catastrophe. They will have more information that what they are saying to prevent people from trying to leave the area and spreading it further.

I suspect the downgrading of numbers is true. I think the fear is the spread and infection rate and perhaps naively I see this as if that is the case the seriousness of the infection is less but the risk is to infrastructure coping with the number of cases.
The problem is because it’s new no one has immunity so lots get it. Presumably though the body is able to react and cure itself of the virus

It wouldn't be helpful for China to keep the true figures from WHO and epidemiologists who need those numbers for modelling purposes.

I suspect that it has increased rapidly enough that it is now hard to count and even harder to keep up with the testing.

China is a closed society, their MO is to keep things secret.

However, two things, if there are just 1900 infections, then why the fuss?
secondly, 320 people are in a critical condition, that is 17% of total infections ending up hospitalised, if these figures are true, that's terrifying.

I think the fear is the infection and spread rate. My suspicion is that the critical and mortality rate are probably on a par with flu which can be high. But flu doesn’t affect that many people because of immunity. If it affects half the British population a death rate say of 0.5% would be 150000 a huge and scary number