Public emergency declared by WHO on coronavirus

[JustonTime]

The extremes countries are going to in order to stop it spreading suggest that it is more deadly than we've been told i.e that it's like a flu? We don't shut down countries for flu. What are we not being told?

www.flightradar24.com/PLM8471/23b5120c

The evacuation plane is just landing at RAF Brize Norton :)

The placement of people on the Wirral is ridiculous.

Firstly, it is a good 3-4 hrs away from the airport via coach.

Secondly, they are using staff accommodation right next to the Hospital BUT will not have any staff, services or contact with that Hospital. In fact, if anyone gets sick, they will be transported to Liverpool about 40 minutes away by car.

The Hospital, including nursery are right next to the building and in a very busy and central location. The Hospital is not equipped for outbreaks.

The staff accommodation was full and staff were turfed out with very little notice and some have been sent to hotels for the duration.
Really odd choice.

It's all a bit bizarre tbh. One out of the 20 or so ground staff meeting the aircraft is wearing a mask!

Brave RAF Types eh;?..

Listening to people on the telly talking about the "specialist quarantine centre" on the Wirral.
Its just an accommodation block! No specialist anything!

Ok so of the handful of cases in north america, the first case diagnosed in Toronto has been discharged from hospital. His wife was diagnosed but never need hospital treatment and self isolated at home with mild symptoms. The patient in Washington State is expected to be sent home today or tomorrow. This supports the theory that most people dont experience severe symptoms and that there are also thousands of similar cases in china which are not being counted. This means that the fatality rate is likely a lot lower than 2-3%.

People, who pay rent thrown out of their homes for this.
A taxi driver picking up from the hospital was told by a member of staff leaving his accommodation that at least one person on the plane has the virus. Of course not sure if this is 100%.

I get we need to wash our hands a lot, avoid touching faces etc. But what on Earth do those of us with small babies do? My 6mo is constantly touching everything, putting his hands in his mouth, touching/mouthing my face. I'm irrationally worried, I'm sure, but about him, not me.

RainInJuly if it makes you feel better, there is evidence that this illness is much less severe in children. In one case I read about, the entire family were infected but the one child had mild symptoms and the other was completely asymptomatic. Also in the study released of the first 425 confirmed patients admitted to hospital, none of them were under 15.

Its supposed to affect men more than women and more so those in the over 55 ish age bracket. Most people are surviving with those who don't having underlying issues.

Well I couldn't get a coffee in a keep cup today due to the Corona virus. The barista was adamant that the hospital she worked in had banned them to prevent transmission of the virus

I doubted her credentials as an epidemiogist/barista and spoke to her boss. Five stars to barista for proactive behaviour, zero for knowledge of infection control. In a hospital where there is a cafe the guidelines in case of a severe outbreak include not handling keep cups...I don't know how they are going to take the cash for these coffees, only contactless pay?

Anyway the moral of this story is don't be ridiculous and wash your hands if you're that worried

Actually, it is way too early to say the mortality rate is only 2%. You don’t die instantly from respiratory failure, it typically develops over weeks or longer. It’s simply wrong to divide the number of fatalities by the number of known cases - you need to take into account the fact that the vast bulk of cases were diagnosed in the last few days, so too early to tell whether they will survive. A more sophisticated method puts the estimated death rate at around 11%. This would be similar to SARS.

Also consider this: the official death rate for SARS was 6% in China, versus 17% in Hong Kong. Which of the two do you think had better hospitals and data collection in 2003?

It would be naive to think that China is being fully transparent about this epidemic. It is now becoming more and more acknowledged that the first cases of human to human transmission were covered up. A doctor in Wuhan was even arrested in December and accused of spreading rumours about a new virus. The doctor has now been infected by the virus.

From a BBC report on the tracing of contacts:

"Public Health England (PHE) said anyone who had close contact - defined as being within two metres of those infected for 15 minutes or more - will receive health advice"

I can see why public transport was closed down in China