Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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I agree with what you are saying krafti. As usual you are a voice of practicality, reason, gentleness and maturity. If only there were more like you here.

If I'm honest this Coronavirus situation is worrying me a bit .

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned.

We have to be on top of this.

But measures are being taken. Quarantines are in place.

People coming to the US from China are quarantined for 14 days. I’m sure it’s similar in other countries.

At the best of times I'm a worry wort .

I would to into the World Health Organization website, and read the Q and A for basic information.

I have had a lifelong respiratory issue that has nearly claimed my life a few times to the point where I had to be resuscitated once. So there is probably a good chance this virus would kill me.

Which might be the reason why I have the attitude I do which got elk on a bridge jumping down my throat.

I think my attitude has been to my advantage in the face of adversity though.

Panic and Trauma are cause when an individual is trapped by a threat and unable to do anything about it. It is natural to fear. It is how the human species survives. But the answer to panic and trauma is "to do something about it" and not let yourself be trapped without any solution.

Therefore taking a proactive approach is a better solution than doing nothing at all. Worrying helps no one. So just look at the problem, look at potential solutions (big and small), the things you can do and then implement these solutions and the act of implementation will ground you and make you strong.

I ran across an interesting article this morning and thought I would share it. The article address who is at most risk for contracting the coronavirus.

Roughly two-thirds of 99 infected patients admitted to a Wuhan hospital last month were men, science writer Anjana Ahuja wrote, citing a Lancet medical study published on Jan. 30.

"It is an eye-catching discrepancy," Ahuja wrote. "A picture is emerging of 2019-nCoV [now COVID-19] as a novel pathogen that disproportionately affects older men, particularly those with existing illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes."

She said possible reasons for the differences between men and women could be smoking, a variation of hospital treatment and hormonal differences which could impact males' immune system response.

Females are prone to autoimmune diseases, which causes parts of their immune system to become stronger to compensate, resulting in a possible stronger response to the coronavirus. Women routinely outlive men by six to eight years and are more likely to reach their first birthday, according to the World Health Organization [WHO].

Stanley Perlman, an immunologist at the University of Iowa and his colleagues suggested that hormones, including Estrogen, could be a possible defense against the virus.

Perlman studied how SARS -- a disease often compared with coronavirus -- impacts male and female mice. He concluded that male mice were affected in greater number, while adding that his study was consistent across coronaviruses as well.

Two studies on SARS and MERS [Middle East respiratory syndrome] patients found that males had a higher death rate for both diseases.

One study showed that out of 1,800 Sars patients -- men had a 9 percent higher date rate. A 2019 study of 229 Mers patients showed found that males had a six percent higher death rate over females.

"Some scientists are now convinced that these sex differences in clinical data reflect a genuine male vulnerability to coronavirus, rather than a bias in exposure," Ahuja said. "The observations add to growing evidence that immunologically speaking, men are the weaker sex."

Source: Men appear to be more vulnerable to the coronavirus: report

As it says along with men being more vulnerable, it is men who are older and or already have potentially life threatening issues such as heart disease and diabetes etc.

I think it is probably extremely rare for a man who is under 60 with no serious health issues including alcoholism and drug abuse to die from the coronavirus.

I'm silently panicking. It's not the same thing ,but I've watched too many tv shows where heaps of people go down with a deadly virus . On such shows , a charismatic , ultra genius doctor saves the day . Life's not really like that though .

What about people on immunosuppressants?

Men might be the "weaker" sex when it comes to corona-type viruses----but that might not be the case with other disease-causing agents.

There seems to be a higher death rate, in the Hubei Province area, among "healthy" younger people when it comes to the Wuhan Coronavirus. But still, the deaths and serious illnesses/complications occur mostly among immuno-compromised persons.

One person has died in Japan. Now, the out-of-China death count is 3.

I am sure most people are at least a little on edge about it.

Immunosuppressed people are probably more prone to serious illness than others.

It doesn't mean immunosuppressed people in non-Chinese places will catch the Coronavirus---unless they come in contact with people who have been in China over the past 45 days or so. Especially people who have been to the Wuhan area.

Hi Kraftie. There were several articles out in the past few days that described this temporary pause.

In the first article:
The jump in cases comes after reports out of the country indicated that the virus may have leveled off. The latest increase was attributed to the country's new approach to counting patients. The Los Angeles Times reported that about 90 percent of the new cases were "clinically diagnosed." Doctors in the country previously relied on nucleic tests for the viral disease known as COVID-19.

The nucleic tests, according to reports, were criticized over their accuracy. The public has widely criticized local officials for their handling of the outbreak and Beijing has been accused of withholding key statistics in the virus' early days.

The Times reported that under the new guidelines, patients undergo a CT scan of their lungs and are observed by doctors to see if they're symptomatic.

Source: China sees 15K new coronavirus cases, change in counting procedure: report

So I do not think the coronavirus has yet peaked in Wuhan, China. But hopefully it will soon.

In the Second article: the Chinese are imposing restrictions on individuals purchasing over the counter flu medication. This really caused me to scratch my head. The hospitals are completely overcrowded and they advise people to stay at home but then the government limits their ability to get common flu medicine. Well in the end what the government IMHO was doing was to get a handle on the potential number of people with the flu. So they required exact identification data in order to buy common flu medicine. It wasn't that they were restricting the purchase but rather getting a handle on the extent of the pandemic.

Source: Chinese cities forcing coronavirus patients to come forward by restricting cough medicine sales

Thanks, Jimmy.