Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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Yep. Keep calm and avoid making things worse. That's all one can do right now.

So far the US at least seems to be complying to just state recommendations.

Twitter reckons that people come back as zombies.
I seriously doubt that.

You seem to have a real problem with being hostile.

Already there.
Have been all my life.
What can they do? "Heck" me twice?

I think you need to ration your anxiety out to different areas.
If you are the anxiety embracing type of person.
What percentage are you going to channel towards the 600,000 or so people, who die each year from Influenza?

I believe Ezras is making this point: Keep things in perspective.
If he isn't, I am...errr...no offence.

NEWS FLASH! Tom Hanks has died of the coronavirus!
Hang on, no he hasn't.
Apparently, Trump almost posted that false claim on Twitter.
I think the stress might be getting to him.

We have to be able to work with each other.

People have different opinions. Different notions

When things happen which might run counter to someone's prediction, then one must still work with that person to help with attempting to alleviate the irritations and worse caused by what happened (i.e., the spread of COVID-19).

We must brainstorm, and work together, rather than criticize and attach blame to what occurred in the past. We must look to the future.

We are all in the same boat. We have to move forward.

I would say most people are immune to these sorts of viruses for a while after they "catch" them.

But there seems to be the possibility that someone who has had COVID-19 might pick it up again. A small chance---but a chance.

Apart from buying toilet paper, when you can get it!

2020: The year of the Great Toilet Paper famine!
Very appropriate, considering it is St Patrick's day here (a few minutes ago).

Trump and World Leaders: We have kept the number of deaths from coronavirus substantially lower than the number of deaths from influenza.
Pepe:You all should worry more about influenza.
Trump and World Leaders: OK, we will look more at influenza and not worry about coronavirus.

Two months later ...
Trump and World Leaders: Good news, Pepe. The number of deaths from coronavirus is now 15 times higher than the number of deaths from influenza.
Pepe:You all should worry more about coronavirus.
Trump and World Leaders: ???

"Pigs arse!"
Not me!
I'll knock down grannies who get between me and that last roll of toilet paper!

Holey Moley!
That is one heck of a straw man you built there!
Kudos.

Really what I meant is that I was afraid of what I was going to see, since the last time I looked a week ago. Afraid that I might get overwhelmed by it. So that is what i meant by underwhelmed.

I am surprised to see that my personal reaction met the attention of world leaders. Imgine their dismay if I decided to personally see it as rainbow unicorn poop.

It was a rude as f**k strawman. Seems whenever I see that guy's post in this thread he is jumping down someone's throat.

Last edited by EzraS on 17 Mar 2020, 8:57 am, edited 2 times in total.

I read an article by Josh Bloom this morning. It may be of some interest:

As the Wuhan coronavirus relentlessly engulfs the world, scientists are relentlessly looking for a way to treat the infection. A vaccine is more than a year away, but an antiviral drug called remdesivir is being evaluated in clinical trials by Gilead Science, the world's premier antiviral drug company.

Even if an effective vaccine for the Wuhan coronavirus is discovered, which is by no means a certainty, it will be at least a year (more likely two) before you'll be rolling up your sleeve. And it is by no means certain that an effective vaccine will be found at all. Despite years, in some cases decades, of research, there are still no vaccines for a number of important infections, such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, norovirus, Lyme and herpes simplex.

Although it is better to prevent an infection than treat one, sometimes drugs can be so effective in treating infections that the distinction becomes nebulous. For example, HIV/AIDS was an automatic death sentence prior to 1995, but it is now so well-controlled by very potent drugs that HIV+ people lead lives that aren't very different from those without the infection. And because of a massive 25-year drug discovery campaign, hepatitis C (HCV), which has infected more than 3 million Americans, can now be cured in 95+% of the time.

We should all cross our fingers and hope that remdesivir, Gilead Science's experimental antiviral drug which is now being evaluated in multiple clinical trials in China, will work even partially as well as the AIDS and HCV drugs. If so, Gilead will have pulled off another miracle.

His final conclusion is that:

Remdesivir is a fairly potent inhibitor of coronavirus replication with no obvious toxicity. It may or may not work as a pill but this is irrelevant at this time since it will probably be given IV. In another study in rhesus monkeys, data indicated that a significant concentration of the drug will be found in the blood and that an adequate quantity of the drug should be delivered to the sites where it is needed.

Given the properties of remdesivir and the desperate need for a coronavirus therapy, I would estimate that the drug has at least a 50% chance of becoming the first drug to treat the virus.

Source: ASCH newsletter of 17 March 2020, Can Gilead's Remdesivir Tame The Coronavirus? The actual article is quite extensive and the scientific underpinnings and logic is included in the article. So you may be interested in reading the entire article.

They are listening to me too!
Not happy, Jan. I'm like a cockroach. I don't like being in the spotlight.

The word "underwhelming" may have been a "curveball" which started the ball rolling.

But seriously, many people do seem to forget about the mortality rates in other areas.
Agreed, the coronavirus is much more contagious, but it has the odd characteristic of virtually not affecting people (terminally) under 50.

I also wonder how many people are saved as a result of having a vaccine for influenza.
If/when they discover a vaccine for the coronavirus, I think it will take a back seat to influenza.