Since I hadn't lived thru anything that threatened my society, I never believed in stocking up on non-perishables.
However, the fact that I'm living thru a potential pandemic convinces me that we as a race aren't nearly as resilient as our modern amenities and high QoL suggest.
There’s a flu pandemic (several, actually), that are far more immediately threatening to you than this virus. Society has not yet fallen.
If things do start getting bad, I expect it might happen rather suddenly.
Also, not for nothing: most people don’t get the flu vaccine, despite endless begging on the part of health officials.
This virus disproportionately kills old and sick people. Aside from the fact that over 80% of cases are mild, the death rate in patients under 60 is well under 1%:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia...
Even these are based mostly on statistics from Wuhan, where a “confirmed infection” has to be severe to begin with; these rates are going to be overestimates of the real rates.
Why shouldn’t we care about a virus that mainly kills old and sick people? Especially when that alone can overwhelm our medical infrastructure.
Additionally, even a 0.5% mortality rate for young and otherwise healthy people is much higher than the flu, and serious cause for concern. I’ll take a 0.5% chance of dying over 2% any day, but I still will take a lot of actions if I can to avoid a 1/100 chance that my daughter has to grow up without one of her parents.
As long as we’re talking about facts and misinformation, let’s talk about your assertion that mortality rates are going to be lower than Wuhan. They may be, but it’s way too early to say. We don’t yet have reliable data on how many mild cases are missed in the official figures, how the remaining unrecovered patients will fare, or how many deaths have been caused by the virus but are not attributed to it in official figures.
Look, I get that you’re scared and lashing out at people who are saying you have reason to be, but you’re not going to make any difference here. This is a serious global issue, which is why every country with significant infections is going to incredible lengths to try and contain it. I’d suggest you stop trying to police people on the internet who aren’t meeting your personal standards for reacting to this and instead do some prep to keep you and your loved ones safe and secure.
Nobody said you “shouldn’t worry” about a virus that kills old people. But if you’re not old or sick, you should worry about it less than other things. Like getting the flu.
”I get that you’re scared and lashing out”
What manner of gaslighting is this? I am absolutely not scared, and I am trying to spread accurate information, in order to counter fear-mongering posts like your own.
I'm of course completely factually correct that there is no vaccine for COVID-19 (although there is a SARS vaccine that may help). Which, even if it is only as deadly as the flu, is still a huge issue. I have immune-compromised family members, so I get the flu vaccine. I have no such luxury in this case.
The fact that the symptoms are mild for most people only makes it more of a danger, because people are less likely to self-quarantine if they only have cold-like symptoms.
All the confirmed cases in the U.S. are currently under quarantine. However, the CDC does fully expect that the disease will spread free here in the states.
Northern Italian states have closed all public schools, universities, and public events.
You’re panicking, you don’t understand what you’re reading, and (assuming that you aren’t just trying to spread fear) you should stop posting on this subject.
You are paranoid. Stop pointing fingers, stop making accusations, and back up your points.
Also many at-risk patients are vaccinated against the flu.
Besides, even if you are likely to survive and all, it's still wise to plan for everybody else to panic ;)
Ironic that you should bring up flu vaccination...despite the risk of death from flu being the average person’s greater concern (by far), we still have to beg people to get vaccinated, and the rates are low.
I’d wager that most of the folks fear-mongering about covid-19 on this thread haven’t had a flu shot this year.
Also, I’m kind of horrified at how indifferent you are across many comments to the prospect of tens of millions of elderly and sick people dying. Just because you’re young and healthy, no one should be very concerned about this?
For those with no pre-existing medical conditions, 0.9%:
http://weekly.chinacdc.cn/en/article/id/e53946e2-c6c4-41e9-9...
Death rates for flu vary widely by age, race and location, but these numbers are not out of the ordinary for influenza.
I’m not “indifferent”, I’m calmly assessing relative risks. You, on the other hand, are simply spreading FUD. Go breathe into a bag.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm
So using your most optimistic number of 0.4%, that’s a fatality rate 20x as high.
And again, you have many comments downplaying the significance of this virus based on your own assessment that it kills young and healthy people at acceptably low rates. What about the billions of people who are older, sick, or have the misfortune of being born in a country without access to decent medical care? Pretty easy to calmly assess relative risks to other people, especially if you get them wrong by a factor of 2000%.
Maybe play some relaxing music and light a candle. (Be careful, though: you’re many hundreds of times more likely to start a fire with the candle than die from covid!)