I've got sick a lot less often since implementing that, maybe once a year now on average.
I honestly don’t understand the particular level of fear around COVID-19 when compared to other flu outbreaks. Can anyone point me to a concise explanation? I mean, I get that it’s a new virus we’ve never seen before, but what distinctly sets it apart? Everything I’ve read says that it affects older people and those with a compromised immune system the worst, which is just like any flu. Is it mostly that we’re worried about what we don’t know that we don’t know? Not trying to be dismissive, I just feel like I’m missing something. I don’t remember the panic around swine flu or bird flu being like this.
Also does anyone know why people are panic-buying toilet paper in my country?
Normal flu is about 0.005%, estimates on this are about 1%, assuming that your country can rapidly expand its Intensive Care Units to handle the influx. R is estimated between 2-6, evidence in the last 2 weeks from Europe suggests the higher end of that scale. It is spreading very rapidly.
Although we can´t really trust the figures from China, we know that whatever was happening in Wuhan in early December/January was sufficiently bad for them to put half the country under strict quarantine. Even a bad flu season, would not have triggered that kind of reaction.
The reason I think countries are still trying to contain it is because if we allow the this flu strain to become seasonal because of lack of containment, it becomes an ongoing price that we have to pay each year. Within each new strain of flu that we encounter in the future, if we successively fail to contain each one, there will be many more strains of flu seasonally. Of course， a technological breakthrough may alter such a course.
I estimate my probability of dying from COVID-19 this year to be higher than from all other reasons combined, and I'm not that old yet.
You're not wrong in that old and sick people are the affected the most, but it's significantly worse compared to e.g. Influenza[2].
[1]: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-...
[2]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbloom/CoV_vs_flu_CFR/mast...
Panic buying is just like a rush on the bank; if everyone buys more than usual there will be a temporary shortage of stock, and no-one wants to be caught short on the loo. People are anticipating needing to self-quarantine for 2+ weeks (probably more if you need to isolate your whole family), but without knowing which two weeks the timer starts. And people are probably vaguely aware that there will be a supply crunch in a few months because China's manufacturing lines have been slowed and the knock on effects haven't fed through yet.
If that happens, then everyone is more likely to die when they need the hospital for unrelated reasons and can't get treated because its doors are shut.
You may be young and healthy and not be concerned, but if you're spreading it around carelessly you're facilitating the nightmare scenario of a collapsing healthcare system.
I don’t think it has anything to do with the mortality of this particular one. The problem here is that about 10% of the patients require ICU and potentially mechanical ventilation. This, togerther with the short in supply of desinfection and sanitizsrs, poses the risk that other ilnesses can’t be treated. People don’t die because of covid-19 infection. People die because of complications because the immune system is destabilised and usually curable deaseses become mortal because: there are no drugs, no protection, no staff, too many people require treatment at once.