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Comment by throwaway122378 | Hacker News Reader

Time to panic?

Edit: lots of downvotes but that was a serious question.

I've been living through it in Hong Kong for the past month, and this is just my personal view. Time to panic? Absolutely not, but do take proper precautions. Wash your hands more often, try to avoid touching your face after you've been out in public. Don't go to areas where there are usually a lot of tourists.

I've seen the panic mentality here in Hong Kong, and there's no real difference between the people who panicked, and the people who didn't. Panicking just makes it worse for everyone else.

>try to avoid touching your face after you've been out in public. What does it actually do? Is face or mouth more susceptible to contracting virus?

Not a doctor, but from what I've read, it's mostly transmitted through droplets, from coughing or sneezing. Especially when you use public transport, someone already infected might have sneezed or coughed, and then it's transmitted to you by you rubbing your eyes or mouth. I heard it's very low risk, but other than close contact with someone already infected, it's just another way.

Yes, you contract it via eyes, nose and mouth.

>Don't go to areas where there are usually a lot of tourists

If it is actually serious enough to avoid going near foreigners, why is international travel being allowed at all?

True. Shut down all planes for 14 days. Ships too. While it will be quite extreme, if the count gets towards 6-7 digits, it may be well worth it.

At 3000+, we are already inching towards 5 digits with one more city : area going bad.

Would doing this save more people than it kills?

People need food, healthcare, etc. Moreover, people are stubborn, selfish, and stupid. You will never manage to have everyone stay at home.

The best we can hope for is to reduce exposure, slow down progression, and thus spread the development over months.

This will allow the medical services to treat the 20% critical cases, without getting overwhelmed.

How would stopping cruises and air travel inhibit healthcare? of course its about slowing progression, that's why its so baffling that international travel has been full speed ahead. its shocking really. hopefully a wake up call about what our priorities are.

This may simply be a case of a 3 tests where the 2nd one was a false negative - what we may need is better tests (or better protocols - for example 2 negative tests on consecutive days to declare someone 'cured')

Or even the first one could have been a false positive.

In my country, the first person who was declared recovered was tested for several days (and coming up negative) before being discharged.

The NHK said that this woman had no contact with anyone after being released. I believe that, being one of the first cases, someone botched up the testing or she was discharged too early.

China panicked in Wuhan. People got welded inside their homes.

The buildings in the video you mention typically have multiple entrances. It is more probably they are sealing up these entrances to ensure people go through the obligatory temp check gate.

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