Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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I'm so worried about this. If I get any cold or flu symptoms would I have to go to hospital to get tested in case it's the coronavirus?

Thanks a lot China. I hate people sometimes, contracting these killer diseases and passing them on to other people.

Should I meltdown in a panic like I did with the swine flu scare?

The odds of catching it are like winning the lottery so far. Even in China the number of people who have contracted it vs the population of a billion is like 000.1%.

Another reason why going on a cruise at this time is probably not advised.

There is a cruise ship with no detected coronavirus patients on board which is sailing around in the ocean because no country would allow them to land. It is essentially stranded at sea.

The MS Westerdam cruise ship has been stuck at sea for nearly two weeks and will remain without a port after Thailand became the latest nation to block its entry amid possible fears of the coronavirus on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Holland America cruise line previously told Fox News the ship planned to dock at Laem Chabang on Feb. 13, but now it appears that won't be happening. Thailand's Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced on Facebook Tuesday that he refused permission to dock.

Some of the MS Westerdam's roughly 2,257 passengers have pleaded online about their situation to no avail. The ship has been denied entry in Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan since it left Hong Kong on Feb. 1. The U.S. territory of Guam has also refused the ship's entry.

"Definitely stressful.we have been at sea 14 days as of this Friday. We have no passengers sick in any way. Westerdam is a ship of primarily US, Australian, British cruisers with no contact with mainland China other than to land in Hong Kong and go straight to our ship.

Source: Cruise ship stranded at sea amid coronavirus fears, denied help by 3 countries and Guam

If there were 10,000 or 100,000 deaths, we would know about it. It would be obvious. There would be panic in the streets.

I believe China was trying to evade the coronavirus at the start-----but I also believe they were "caught" pretty early.

Imperial College London

I know a guy who works for our firm but he doesn't work in our office location. He apparently is on a cruise right now to Asia which is supposed to stop in Japan, Korea and China. He booked this cruise long before the virus scare. I have no idea why he decided to go. I have no idea if the ship he's on has been quarantined.

Another person I work with in my office told me today that he was flying to Las Vegas for a mini-vacation tomorrow. Perhaps I'm paranoid, but I was angered by that on my ride home. I wouldn't fly or take a cruise if you paid me vast sums of money right now. I was angered because what if he comes back and he contracted the virus? It shows no symptoms for two weeks yet the host can infect others. I have young children in my household.

I felt I was able to gain some perspective when I reminded myself that anyone I meet in public could be a carrier. At the grocery store, post office, etc. So by me going out in public, I personally run the risk of contracting the virus.

I was catastrophizing about this, however.

We should rely upon the actual amount of cases reported, in proportion to the amount of fatalities reported.

At this time it looks like adequate firewalls have been put in place to control the spread of the coronavirus outside much of China. Therefore it is not a time to panic if you are located outside the hotspots. But on the other hand, it is always a good move to be aware of the danger and plan accordingly. In reading through the headlines each day there are bits and pieces of important information that can be gleaned.

The first question is does the U.S. have a plan? The answer is YES. It is a very detailed plan 227 pages long called Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza from May 2006. It is a very long document. I skimmed through it and some of the key words I locked onto were "snow day", "social distancing measures" and "spatial separation". A snow day generally is a day on which a school or other institution is closed due to heavy snowfall or other extreme winter weather. From my perception a "snow day" in this document refers to a shelter-in-place approach. "Spatial separation" refers to the minimum distance or separation between people to avoid transmission of the virus which is the distance of around a yard. "Social distancing measures" are measures to limit the disease spread through a community (enforcing spatial separation). Some examples of "social distancing measures" are school closures, snow days, and quarantines. Social distancing makes a difference. Cities that implemented social distancing had a much lower incidence of infection spread than cities that did not. This limited frequency of and closeness of contact between individuals in a public setting.

There is some guidance at the personal level beginning on page 170 in the subhead "Protecting Personnel during a Pandemic", but most of the document relates to governmental responsibilities rather than individual responsibilities.

During "snow days," everyone would be asked to stay at home. All schools and businesses would be closed. This is essentially a shelter in place approach. This plan would be instituted for around an initial 10-day period. Anyone who has been infected with influenza should develop symptoms during that period without transmitting it to anyone outside their home, thereby slowing the spread of influenza in a community. Depending upon the new virus's incubation period and period of contagiousness, the period of snow days could be made longer or shorter. During snow days, each household would need a sufficient stockpile of food and other provisions. Emergency and essential workers would continue to work.

So if you look at what is happening in Wuhan, China at this time, individuals are directed to remain in their homes in the infection hotspots. So observing what is taking place in China can provide some valuable information. The Chinese government started to impose quarantine controls a couple days before the Lunar New Year celebrations were about to begin. On January 23 Chinese authorities put Wuhan, China under quarantine shutting down the city's public transportation, including buses, trains, ferries, and the airports. They also began sealing off transportation on the highways. Today is 12 February, and the spread of the virus is not completely under control in Wuhan, China at this time, 3 weeks later.

So from my perspective if the coronavirus breaches the firewalls that individual nations put in place and the spread of the contagion becomes uncontrolled regionally and the government adapts the approach of shelter-in-place, then individuals should plan for a duration of much longer than the 3 weeks presently observed in China.

So in a proactive approach rather than a reactive (panic) approach, individuals should probably obtain sufficient supplies to shelter-in-place for 2 months. So the next question is what supplies? A google search on the words ("pandemic", "preppers", "checklist") should give you several resources (some good and some bad) on how to prepare for a pandemic. I looked through several websites and found one that looked close.

So other than just food, what other things might be needed? One website offers the following advice: Pandemic Supplies You Will Need For Survival.

My cousin has the flu, I hope it isn't coronovirus.

I'm also hoping to God that the media is scaremongering, to get everybody worked up and adding another problem to all of our own problems, like they did with the swine flu.

What will I do if me or my boyfriend comes down with cold or flu-like symptoms? Assume it's the coronovirus and rush to the emergency room to be tested?

I hate living like this. Will it be as bad as the black plague?

I heard on the local news that businesses in Seattle's version of Chinatown are suffering because people are afraid to go there.

There’s been a decline in cases in Wuhan.

Very few people have masks in NYC—even in Chinatown.