Coronavirus. AIBU please calm me down

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Hi guys. So we're down in South Africa at the moment and so far no reported cases. We're flying to attend a wedding next week and im so worried its making me physically ill :( the AIBU part is that we're just flying 2 hours to another province but like lots of counties we have a huge Chinese population and im only scared because of our baby. I'd really not like to go though hubby and other son couldn't give a shit and thinks im stupid but this virus is spreading so rapidly. Please tell me to calm the Ef down :(

OP this isn’t a virus that only Chinese people carry. Are you going to China? Are you going to somewhere where you’ll be coughed on by someone who’s actively ill with the virus? Are there any cases of corona virus in South Africa?

I suspect the answer is No to all those questions

Good lord the silliness and the racism!

Why is it people weren't battening down the hatches with Ebola in west Africa or losing their shit

Oh but don’t you realise @MyuMe that Ebola just killed poor brown people? So who cares?

I maybe being sarcastic here. But it’s not far from the truth of the way some idiots think, frankly.

Actually, fwiw, I remember lots of threads on mn about the ebola virus. And in terms of distinguishing between the two, we know that the coronavirus is contagious prior to symptoms and can be spread fairly easily and we know that the ebola virus is only contagious upon onset with symptoms and is harder to spread.

So I can see why people might be more concerned about the coronavirus.

I have pretty impaired lung function due to a lifetime of poorly controlled asthma, lots of scarring and frequent chest infections. The fact that I'm not an old man isn't really filling me with much comfort. And no, I'm not very worried about the ebola virus.

@ragged yes but there are vaccines for that and pills to stop malaria. The big fear is that this virus gets into counties (where 1000s die from TB for example) then we have a major global crisis. Healthcare in poor countries wouldn't cope 😔

My immune system and asthma mean that an ordinary “common cold” can put me in bed for 3 days and have me under the weather for about a fortnight. I was in China in late December and have a heavy cold now. But I’m sensible and rational and know I was nowhere near Wuhan (although I teach students from there). I think we need to be proportionate in our fears. I’ve been very ill (both pleurisy and pneumonia) with side effects from full on “ordinary” cold viruses which I’m far more likely to catch because most people don’t suffer badly with colds and just keep going out and about and sneezing or coughing everywhere.

More people will become seriously ill from so-called “ordinary” cold and flu viruses than the corona virus. Particularly elderly people with compromised lungs or immune systems.

Well this is true enough but I was talking about the differences between coronavirus and ebola and the level of risk of contracting each and demonstrating that factors other than a disregard for 'poor brown people' in poor countries might inform your decision.

Oh ok, fair enough. I think we probably disagree about the unconscious xenophobia around Corona virus at the moment, but I can see your point.

The death rate is not that high and mostly it is people who are already vulnerable or are health compromised. You are BVU.

Sigh. I'm glad I'm into males as the non-issues that some women on here panic about are mind-boggling. The plague was a global crisis. Smallpox. Coronavirus not so much.

You should be panicking more about the stupid people who refuse to vaccinate their small children.

Sigh. I'm glad I'm into males as the non-issues that some women on here panic about are mind-boggling.

What is this misogynistic crap? Men can be just as anxious as women

Maybe it was just women who declared a state of emergency in Italy after two confined cases today and stopping all flights to and from China?

All the men are too cool and sexxxxy to care.

I feared for my life at all time in SA, can't believe you are afraid of your baby potentially getting a virus that he is very very very unlikely to get where you are at (let alone die from) to the point of wanting to cancel a wedding when you are WAY more likely to get carjacked and be a victim of petty crime on your way to the airport just by living where you do.

This was my immediate thought when I read the OP. You live in a country with one of the highest rates of rape, murder and other violent crime in the world. And those rates are increasing year in year. But you’re worried about coronavirus because there are Chinese people around?

i think we are doomed and this is it.....we have to die out at some point

Don't worry LoveNote, it only kills sick and old people so, it's cool. Think of it as the inheriter's virus.

thats the thing....i'm not worried!

It seems men are more vulnerable to it

HJ82, I guess they didn’t know at the time how many would be affected - it was fairly early in the outbreak. Some schools here have delayed their start dates and my daughter’s uni has put back the start of their new year. People have been asked to keep their kids at home for a week or so if they’ve travelled to China, but there doesn’t seem to be much direction from the federal govt.

FFS OP all this fuss over a JHB to CPT flight? Relax

I think you just have to be sensible and make sure you take precautions. My mum just flew on a flight from HK back to a London last night and quite rightly everyone was nervous but life goes on. Just make sure you hand wash regularly. I'm sure you will be fine.

If you're worried then you're worried. Any new mum would be ( if they had any maternal instinct).

I've read it seems to affecting adults more than children. Like flu different strains can have different effects upon different age groups.

I personally would be more concerned if I had an underlying health problem like asthma. Probably many of the deaths will be from high risk groups ( ie those with chronic health conditions or immunocompromised individuals).

Also can't believe some of the answers you have received on here. It's almost like the thread has been taken over by a bunch of 10 year old children!

@EagleSqueak my friends child goes to school with the child of an infected person who was on the tigerair flight MELB-GC she's been taken out of school. I don't think it's over reacting. You just don't know so Better to be safe. What I find worrying and very strange... is that 10000+ people got it within 2 months. Possibly 1000s more. It's a bit odd.

I agree that it does not add up

A recent Lancet paper suggests actual figures are about 10x what was reported officially. I've seen it reported but I haven't read it yet.

"In our baseline scenario, we estimated that the basic reproductive number for 2019-nCoV was 2·68 (95% CrI 2·47–2·86) and that 75 815 individuals (95% CrI 37 304–130 330) have been infected in Wuhan as of Jan 25, 2020. The epidemic doubling time was 6·4 days (95% CrI 5·8–7·1)"
(I think it was supposed to be about 7000 then)

"If the transmissibility of 2019-nCoV were similar everywhere domestically and over time, we inferred that epidemics are already growing exponentially in multiple major cities of China with a lag time behind the Wuhan outbreak of about 1–2 weeks."

www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30260-9/fulltext

I hope they're wrong and this is the worst case scenario.

I also hope that the initial death rate was due go lack of knowledge, but it can cause a serious respiratory disease.
What we call morbility can also have a huge impact on people's lives and the economy.