- people are afraid to get tested because of the cost - people can’t get tested because there are no tests - people are afraid to stay home - people think corona is just slightly worse than the flu - people think it will just peter out
That’s terrifying.
It is only somewhat worse than typical flu, Heck lesser than Spanish Flu. Nowhere near plagues humanity weathered already. Much less terrible then wars too.
Tests have some 15% false positive rate and are not useful in a viruses that propagate this fast for any other intent than confirmation. They are getting improved.
Treatment is supportive, if you're afraid care will be overloaded, get a pulse oximeter, oxygen tanks, reduction and mask, disinfectants (esp. water treatment) and about month store of easily digestible, easy to prepare food, and certainly water to smooth over any interruptions. (Don't kid yourself, you cannot store a month of water. Maybe drinking water, but not technical. Still bulky.)
Multivitamin and extra vitamin C which maybe will help. (It is slightly effective in colds, which it is a kind of.)
If you're really rich, get some hydroquinone synthesized. Useful chemical even if you won't use it for this epidemic.
This, and quarantine, is the most anyone can do. Walking around in protective gear is a joke as operator error will kill effectiveness.
The sickness is not very serious for the young and healthy, it is quite deadly or the elderly (21%+ for 80+ people https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-se... ) - speaking as someone who live and work with elderly and/or compromised people, the long asymptomatic period is worrying enough on its own, the thought that there are people who are showing symptom but are still walking around going to work / movies / etc is scary.
but then I just discovered my co-worker is antivaxx. the world seems bent on disappointing me lately.
For example:
Yes, and that's why Italy is in full lockdown, and the world economy in tanking for a week now, because "it's just the flu bro".
> get a pulse oximeter, oxygen tanks, reduction and mask, disinfectants (esp. water treatment) and about month store of easily digestible, easy to prepare food, and certainly water to smooth over any interruptions.
The majority of americans are living paycheck to paychek and you're telling them to setup a basic hospital in their living room. People are dying of diabetes in that country, do you think they can afford all that and a month of supply if they can't afford insulin to literally save their life ?
Some of you are so out of touch with reality, that's the terrifying part for me. Recommending vitamin C is laughable at that point.
Hospitals get overloaded with about few hundred cases, give or take.
Coronavirus tests are not effective preventative measures. (Not yet anyway.)
Good pulse oximeter costs maybe $20, an O2 tank with hardware and mask $80-100. If you cannot afford that, you're literally screwed. I bet you would pay more off a copay for a bed in the US. If that's the case, good luck.
If you cannot afford food, you're also screwed, there's no charity that will help. As a reminder, many people died from Spanish Flu due to malnutrition. And old age. This combination is also problematic for COVID-19. Strict isolation measures do not work reliably against this kind of virus. They did not work for flu nor for cold, they won't for this one. They can at best slow it down a bit and delay, which is ok if you use this time to do something meaningful - China did, others cannot.
Government could try to help with this but US is allergic to handouts. There is enough food and production capability to distribute rations if need be. I hope they're being stockpiled. Probably are not.
The whole point of slowing down (or stopping) movements is to slow down the spread enough to let hospitals handle as few sick people at once as possible. Western europeans countries have very good health systems as long as they're not overcrowded. It really isn't rocket science. If you have 2000 beds and 6000 sick people you're fucked, if you have the same amount of beds and a continuous flow of low amount of sick people spread over weeks or months it's just a bit worse than business as usual.
It's not panicking, it's taking steps to ensure the virus doesn't get more serious than it is.
The hospitals explode almost immediately with medium to hard cases.
(We know thanks to Chinese data that recovery can easily be a month for harder cases. We know how fast medical systems get overwhelmed, and how much overcapacity would be necessary.)
It might sound callous, but likely not enough to cause even a momentary pause... Because worst case here seems to be a few millions.