Posted on 04/19/2020 6:24:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I don’t know why everyone is freaking out. The flu kills tens of thousands of people each year, and no one is shutting down borders because of that.
Sound familiar?
It’s a common refrain from the past few weeks as the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, made its way across borders from Wuhan, China. It’s something I (now shamefully) admit to saying, myself, when this all first started. And the confusion is understandable. So why is this one causing so much panic?
“We are familiar with coronaviruses because, for a long time now, strains of coronavirus have circulated in our community and caused respiratory illnesses such as ‘the common cold’. But COVID-19 is a different strain of coronavirus—one that we’ve not previously encountered,” says Dr. David Hirschwerk, an infectious disease specialist at Northwell Health. “It doesn’t happen often, but when we do discover a new or emerging infectious disease, we have to take it seriously until we better understand it.”
Here’s what we do know:
Though we won’t know the actual death rate until COVID-19 is contained and under control, we do know that it’s proving to have a higher death toll—or, in epidemiological terms, “case fatality rate.” According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the case fatality rate for the seasonal flu is approximately 0.1%. Thus far, the case fatality rate for COVID-19 has been cited anywhere between 1% and 4%—a death rate 10 to 40 times higher.
And though the elderly are the hardest hit by this virus, they aren’t the only ones at risk. One report in China found serious illness occurs in approximately 16% of cases. The average age of the patients studied—47.
“These numbers are preliminary, but there is a significant proportion of younger, healthy people who are receiving care in our intensive care units after developing illness from COVID-19,” says Hirschwerk. “While the elderly and immunocompromised are more vulnerable populations, there are still lots of young, otherwise healthy people who develop serious symptoms.”
Another concerning statistic: Each infected person spreads COVID-19 to an average of 2.2 other people. By comparison, those with the seasonal flu infect approximately 1.3. And since testing is still ramping up, we have no way of knowing how many people total are infected in the U.S.—especially since many show only mild symptoms and some are asymptomatic altogether.
“Even though we lose many people in the U.S. to the flu each year, we do have a vaccine for it and antiviral medication to treat with,” says Hirschwerk. “We don’t have any of that yet for COVID-19. And when a new infectious disease emerges in a community without preexisting immunity, there is a risk for more severe disease and for spread as a pandemic.”
Even though there are several strains of what we collectively call “the flu,” getting the annual flu vaccine helps us develop a type of herd immunity; without that, the case fatality rate would be much higher, as it currently is with this new virus. We also have prescription medications to treat it, while there is no antiviral drug (*as of time of print) for COVID-19.
The flu is also something that comes every season, which means it’s predictable in its patterns and symptoms. We know when it will occur, we know approximately how many people it will infect, and we know that it will die off in the warmer months. That gives us time to prepare. With this novel coronavirus, we’re learning all these lessons the hard way—trial and error—and we don’t have many of the answers yet.
In a time of “fake news” and rapid information-sharing through social media, we’re learning more than ever that words have power. Comparing the current novel coronavirus to the flu is irresponsible and dangerous because it creates distrust in the professionals who are advising us to take this seriously. It suggests that we shouldn’t be careful and don’t need to take precautions; it encourages us to ignore recommendations to be prepared for something much worse.
“Flu season has already peaked,” says Hirschwerk. "We’re seeing fewer and fewer cases as the weather gets warmer. So, at this point, flu-like symptoms are more likely to indicate infection with COVID-19. And given the higher infectivity and death rates, we need to take that seriously."
So if we have to acknowledge that this is serious—and we do—what does that mean? The recommendation across the board from our physicians and infectious disease experts has been not to panic, but to follow CDC guidelines: Wash your hands for a minimum of 20 seconds, avoid unnecessary trips to the store and other public places, and maintain a 6-foot distance from others. Stay home if you feel sick. And, of course, contact your physician if you’re feeling significantly under the weather. Even if you’re young and healthy, these precautions could save your life—or someone else’s.
Stanford Doctor John Ioadonnis disagress
and from the actual onntge ground collected patient data, the figure is .1 to .36
Apart from the original scientists who are now dead and had their notes destroyed I don’t think we can trust any information coming out of China.
“Apart from the original scientists who are now dead and had their notes destroyed I don’t think we can trust any information coming out of China.”
Except we know that hundreds of thousands if not millions are dead in China.
In other words, 84% of cases are mild.
do a search on the author, she’s a fiction book author, vegan, and general purpose lefty.
We have 20 dead in San Francisco
20.
This is insane.
it’s the flu bro.
sad to see all the FR who still can not comprehend the media/deep state agitprop. oh, well....
So it is roughly 4x as deadly as the flu.
Headline is accurate. But it’s not the Andromeda Strain.
https://twitter.com/CRGuarino?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
her twitter, complete with anti conservative and trump-hate
And that’s after Nanzi Jezebel Pelosi invited people to visit Chinatown. The body count should be in the thousands in Chinatown alone.
Yep, feed the hysteria keep the country closed.
Aren’t we all going to get it anyway? some sooner, some later
There is a conversation I saw between two doctors. One in the middle of dealing with two male patients with Wuhan Flu. One dose of Genentech medicine left and cant get more because Genentech sending out on a case by case basis
Let’s just say flu is far worse mortality wise. Fine
Drs don’t know how to deal with Wuhan and drugs they think might work..they can’t get.
Wuhan flu presents with all kinds of symtoms that make it hard to diagnose in the beginning when you really need to start treatment.
Here is a snippet of the convo
One Dr:
I do not think it is anemia. I think the virus messes with the rbcs ability to oxygenate. Which is also one of the theories behind hydroxychloroquine helping due to its effect on the porphyrin stuff in rbcs.
I might even consider drawing a couple of units off and transfusing a couple of healthy units. What can you lose?
Second Dr:
Only thing that disputes this. Their Po2 is damn low. and correlates with O2 sat. i.e. no “rogue COVID-Hgb” species. But who the hell knows. Damn thing is not natural. WUHAN.”
It’s not the nature of the disease that is up for debate, it’s the HANDLING of it on every level! Which is why you see such a disparity in fatality rates varied by country and government!
Bullshit.
Same symptoms and 30 years ago before we could have looked at it, DNA sequenced it, and made a test for it in a matter of weeks to months, that is EXACTLY what we would have called it, the flu.
The mortality rate is over inflated. In those countries where they aren’t playing the games as in the US where anyone who was “suspected” of having had corona and died was counted, where everyone already on their way out but still alive that tested positive was counted as a corona fatality even though they would have likely died anyhow, the mortality rates are far, far lower.
America, where movies (Contagion), bullshit news, and idiot politicians run things. Why was there a shortage of toilet paper? Did the production stop? Did corona cause a 300% increase in deification? Did the population double? It’s because someone on the news said people are running to the stores and there is a shortage. Then everyone really did run to the stores and there was a shortage. But it’s still just all crap (pun intended).
I’ve been going here https://www.bing.com/search?q=California+Coronavirus++map&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=california+coronavirus+map&sc=6-26&sk=&cvid=4DCF0DDD7E7E4D22B7552112AB54D314
Sato keep track of what is going on and I notice the last few days California claims 0 recoveries. All the recoveries they listed before disappeared.
Bull$hit
This virus hoax is killing us all by destroying the economy.
The number of flu deaths has mysteriously dropped to zero as all flu deaths are counted as Covid.
My guess re Chinatown is that Many of us have had and gotten over the thing already. Probably many of us have antibodies.
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