Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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Just been looking at the figures involved here.

Apparently, out of the approximately 34 million active workforce in the UK nearly 11 million are either self-employed ( 4-5 million ) or in the gig economy/paid for tasks done not a salary ( 6+ million ). That's a **third** of the workforce who don't qualify for/receive sick pay.

And according to the survey I mentioned above and a recent article at the New York Times the vast majority say that they do not usually stop working when ill if they can possibly manage it, because it would be a financial disaster for them and their families.

This means that a *third* of the workforce in the UK are extremely unlikely to self-isolate.

And then there's all the employed paid by the hour who are already struggling on current wages and for whom time off sick or self-isolating would also be disastrous. And the salaried in work environments where taking time off is not just frowned on but increases the risk of being fired/let go at next monthly meetings.

Self-isolation might work if so many people weren't on a knife edge financially.

this is all according to plan.

we've made them rich, now they're trying to wipe us out, they don't need us anymore.

Tamiflu is a non-specific antiviral, which would theoretically work against any virus.

But according to a rigorous study taken very seriously by the NHS, it has very little real effect, only reducing illness duration by 16 hours on average, less than a day.

https://www.nhs.uk/news/medication/effe ... uestioned/

*And* it may be actively a bad idea to use it as it significantly reduces the number of antibodies that your own body produces, among other side effects.

The researchers and medics recommend paracetamol instead for equally effective and safer treatment of symptoms ...

I don't even recommend that, unless losing too much sleep to aches and pains, because it reduces/suppresses fever, which the body uses to fight viruses etc.


Perhaps not a plan exactly, but the result of underlying intentions, yes!

Last edited by ouinon2 on 04 Mar 2020, 6:32 am, edited 2 times in total.

I think what has to be taken into consideration is that at the time of the Spanish Flu, life expectancy rates were low (M 47 F 54) and the mortality rates were high. There were many other communicable diseases back then and much poorer sanitation and personal hygiene.

War does have a way of shortening lifespan, and the impact of World War 1 on life expectancy didn't stop in 1918 when the "Spanish Flu" began, in the filth of the trenches of the Western Front. We live in very different times and conditions now.

The outbreaks of the polio virus in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s were another time in which confusion and fear abounded. Salk's vaccine breakthrough was a gamechanger, thank goodness. I am old enough to remember adults speaking of people avoiding public places like cinemas in the early half of the 1950s. But they didn't panic in the sense of stockpiling food and commodities and catastrophising in the way we are seeing happen now. Hysteria was not a socially acceptable response at the time; remaining calm in the face of adversity was a value that generation of adults preserved even under threat of contagion.

Things have changed so much. Values have changed so much. It was a different world.

I noticed the life expectancy rate was lower for 1918 compared to 1917 and 1919.

Here is where I got the info.

https://u.demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html

That is for the US. I imagine it was even lower between 1917 and 1919 in other places.

And I imagine outside of war the main cause was a much lower control over communicable diseases cupled with poorer sanitation and hygiene standards.

I remember my great grandmother who was born in 1928 talking about what it was like during the polio epidemic.

No doubt sanitation etc was one reason, though I think the historical issues impacting on people at that time were rather more complex than that.

People were still much more self-sufficient then. Many people still grew a lot of their own food, kept chickens, etc, or personally knew other people, farmers, bakers, etc that did, and generally had richer local community connections and support networks. They cooked very largely from scratch, made a lot of their own clothes, created a lot of their own entertainment, got more sleep, and dealt with most illnesses at home, etc.

It's no wonder that so many people are panicking now. Most of them are almost completely dependent on faceless and/or distant commercial or increasingly profit-oriented public bodies for most of their food and clothing and medicine, and obligatory national schooling has taught them very little that is helpful for staying healthy, for sustaining life, for cooking or maintaining and repairing buildings or clothing, etc.


That may indeed have increased the percentage fatality rate of the Spanish Flu, but the current death rate of Covid-19/this coronavirus is the percentage rate of death occurring under actual modern conditions, *now* in the USA, Italy, China and Iran. It is 3% in all of those four countries. It is "only" 1% in South Korea, but even if the USA and Italy etc eventually manage to match that level of containment, protection of the aged and ill, and overall treatment success that would still result in 43 million dead worldwide.

That may well be. That is also why we have a humidifier at home. We also heat an open pot of boiling water whenever we remember.

Anxiety and paranoia. I would have it too if I had been in Kirkland recently. A troubling thing with this situation is that it is perfectly normal to get sick this time of year. And every sore throat cough and sneeze that would normally not cause much concern is going to met with "oh s**t!".

I'm with EzraS on this. When every sneeze, every cough, and every tickle in the throat triggers the "OH.MY.GAWD.I.HAVE.IT!!" response, you know that it's the fear of the virus that's getting to you, and (likely) not the virus itself.

And allergy season has started to add to that. I have been sneezing and dry coughing and wheezing the last few days. But that always happens when the cherry blossoms start appearing.

And you just come to realize this, now?

See, people like Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have been saying this for years. Everyone knows Artificial Intelligence can cause riot. Everyone also knows that virus can be unleashed, or killer robots a la Terminator may be used in class warfare.

Why do you think I have been telling people to skill up in all these years? See, most of the parents think they don't listen to my words. Guess what? While my children plow ahead, their children become underdeveloped. I always tell people, we live inside the Technological Singularity already. This is the coming age for autistic children. They are supposed to grow up to be the leaders. Yet, most parents keep wanting to turn their children neurotypical. I keep telling parents that talking, social skills are all irrelevant, that these children will acquire all those skills on their own. Guess what? Those parents listen to me one moment, the next moment they are looking for social skills summer camp for their children. I am like, huh?

Sure, later these parents will whine about "they want to wipe us out." Look, at my age I still learn every day. I still create every day. I just don't know how other people can be so complacent. The only edge we have over robots, is that we are still better at creativity, and at solving complex problems.

People often think that I am only showing off, putting people down. Nope, guys, wake up. It's about your life and your survival, and the survival of your children.

So, go ahead guys, vegetate, keep wasting your time on politics. Meanwhile, my children will keep plowing forward. Each person makes their choices. Each person lives with the consequences of their choices. You want to get depressed and get anxious, that's your choice. Me, I was learning about DNA recombination and Holliday junction last week. Yeah, I watched the movie "Parasite," but it was not just for entertainment. I tried to correlate it with other thoughts inside my brain. https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=385140 See, I just never stop learning. Even just a movie was a learning opportunity for me.

Southern California is experiencing an early spring bloom. There is a hill covered in poppies outside my office right now. The winds coming off the desert are only exacerbating my symptoms. If I didn't dose up on anti-histamines every day, my boss would send me home ("... and don't come back without a doctor's clearance!").

One of the characteristics about modern society is the swiftness that technological change is occurring. There are many upsides but sometimes there are also hidden downsides in any change.

I read an article yesterday. One of the changes that has occurred recently in China was revolutionary. It was the way the Chinese people dealt with staying warm and surviving the winter.

Unlike western countries, where fumbling attempts at central heat began in the mid-19th century, there was no central heat in China until the 1950s. How did people stay warm before then? The short answer is that, like elsewhere in the world, Chinese people had over thousands of years learned to adapt their dwellings and lifestyle to local conditions.

In the northeast, for example, peasants typically had a 炕 kang – a heated brick platform used for sleeping, cooking and sitting. Sometimes the kang would cover the entire floor of the room (in which case it was called 地炕 di kang).

But outside of the northeast, most Chinese homes did not have a kang. When it came to heating a room, Chinese builders relied on sunlight alone: one of the traits shared with remarkable consistency by Chinese houses from Heilongjiang (in China’s far northeast) to Yunnan (in its southwest) is the positioning of south-facing doors and windows. This allowed the houses to take advantage of maximum sunlight. The depth of the structure could also be adjusted to keep the sun from shining too fiercely into the homes.

Even today, when browsing real estate apps, it is common to see a house’s window-facing direction listed prominently among the details, with south the most preferred direction (east-facing windows are also popular as they’re considered good feng shui.)

But the fact remains that for the most part Chinese people have, unlike Westerners, never felt the need to develop a way of heating the air around them (convection heating). If they developed heating systems at all, they developed radiant heating (kang). Most importantly, though, they have decided to deal with the cold simply by wearing a lot of layers. Come winter, it is common to see people walking around (or sitting in their homes) swaddled in layer upon layer of padded cotton jacket (棉袄 mian’ao) and long underwear (秋裤 qiuku), particularly small children and old people.



Source: Building China: Why Does Half of China Struggle to Stay Warm Indoors in the Winter?

So my thoughts here is that China has existed as a nation for a very, very, very long time. But currently it has undergone a rapid transformation into becoming a modern society. And along with very positive changes, there are still a few negative ones that need to be understood and corrected for. One of these is the effect of modern heating on indoor winter humidity levels which then has a follow on effect which relates to the infection rate of the Chinese population and which makes them as a society more vulnerable than previous generations.

Then my thoughts drift to other countries, such as the Scandinavian countries and their love of sauna's. What are in their words the health benefits of using a sauna. They will say saunas provide the following benefits:
1. Saunas improve cardiovascular performance.
2. Saunas aid in recovery after intense physical activity. Saunas relax muscles and soothe aches/pains in both muscles and joints.
3. Saunas Flush Toxins
4. Reduces incidences of Alzheimer’s by 65%
5. Saunas relieve stress.
6. Saunas Can Induce a Deeper Sleep
7. Saunas Can Help Fight Illness
8. Sauna Cleanses The Skin
9. Saunas Burn Calories
10. Saunas Bring Out Recreational and Social Benefits
11. Saunas Just Feel Good

Source: Health Benefits of Sauna

So lets drill down on number 7.

7. Saunas Can Help Fight Illness
German sauna medical research shows that saunas were able to significantly reduce the incidences of colds and influenza amongst participants. As the body is exposed to the heat of a sauna and steam (in the case of traditional saunas), it produces white blood cells more rapidly, which in turn helps to fight illnesses and helps to kill viruses. In addition, saunas can relieve the uncomfortable symptoms of sinus congestion from colds or allergies - especially when used with steam (tip: add eucalyptus to the water for added benefit and overall enjoyment). The steam vapor action helps to clear up unwanted congestion and is a wonderful aspect of the Finnish sauna experience.

The coronavirus is just one form of the influenza (the common flu). The name “influenza” originated in 15th century Italy, from an epidemic attributed to “influence of the stars.” The first pandemic, or worldwide epidemic, that clearly fits the description of influenza was in 1580. This disease has probably been around for a very long time, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years IMHO. Societies have developed means of remediating the severity of the flu throughout many generations. For example, saunas. If you take away the saunas there may be an uptick in the number of flu cases in the Scandinavian countries. The Chinese dealt with it by bundling up in the winter with many layers of clothing. That was how societies found a way of surviving. This is a type of tradition. But if you change the tradition, you also change the outcome.

Oooh, I could go for a good Sauna right now.