lowenz on 31/3/2020 at 22:12
Are these people seriously stupid or acting/pretending ONLY for political reason?
heywood on 31/3/2020 at 22:28
Anecdotally, I also know several people who kept saying it's just another flu, but I noticed their opinion started to shift when the grim numbers and images started coming in from Italy and then Spain. People seemed to find it very easy to dismiss when it was primarily affecting China. One guy I work with continued to go on about how Italy was different because of whatever, and it wouldn't happen here. And then NYC blew up. We haven't had to listen to his shit for the last week because he stopped coming into work. :laff:
But I know from online forums I visit that there's a lot of people still in the denial stage. Also, I still see small groups of people congregating and not keeping safe distance. I see it happening too frequently at work despite multiple warnings. It's making me nervous.
And here's another case of extreme callous. I'm going to call this a religion-induced suicide, for lack of a better term. Six rabbis dead in a NJ Orthodox community who won't stop congregating:
(
https://www.app.com/story/news/health/2020/03/31/coronavirus-lakewood-residents-unfairly-singled-out-lawbreakers/5086904002/)
Renzatic on 31/3/2020 at 22:51
Quote Posted by lowenz
Are these people seriously stupid or acting/pretending ONLY for political reason?
Most of them are only pretending, but they know their constituency, and they know what sells.
SubJeff on 31/3/2020 at 22:59
There are a lot of ridiculous religious congregations still going on. It's a different way of thinking and sadly is hard to change.
Renzatic on 31/3/2020 at 23:10
For a lot of people who get it, it is just another flu. A goodly chunk of people who contract coronavirus will experience nothing more than a bad cough, achy joints, and generally feel like shit for a couple of weeks. They'll recover on their own, and feel no worse for wear. Not every case blossoms into pneumonia or ARDS.
What makes coronavirus so much more threatening is it's tendency to get a lot worse for a wider range of people. 20% of those who contract it will end up in the hospital, as opposed to the ~1% of people who catch the flu. That we have no vaccine for it, and that no one has a natural immunity against it due to exposure to previous strains makes that 20% a fairly hard number. Any nation that lets it run loose will end up being fucked by it.
Gryzemuis on 31/3/2020 at 23:14
This week the Netherlands will start treating patients with blood-transfusions. Last week recovered patients were asked to start donating blood. Hunderds of recovered patients have reacted and agreed. The idea is that the blood (or actually the blood plasma) of the recovered patients contains antibodies against covid-19. When you give patients that are ill plasma-transfusions from recovered people, they will also receive a number of antibodies. These antibodies can help the patients in their fight against covid-19.
It's not a real cure, but it can help. Trials are starting this week. A transfusion is only giving a patient a limited number of antibodies. The patient will not suddenly start producing antibodies by himself. The antibodies will not be valid forever. The "half-life" time of the antibodies is something like a month. So a month after a transfusion you'll have only half the antibodies that you had right when you got the transfusion. Blood-transfusions can also be given as precaution. E.g. you can treat all care-workers that are in daily contact with patients, but who have not fallen ill yet.
I think this is good news. Supposedly it's not easy to get good blood (plasma). New donors have to be healthy enough so they can give a (decent) amount of blood. And they should not be carriers of any other illnesses. Normal regular blood-donors are tested for these illnesses. But there are probably not enough regular blood donors who have already contracted covid-19 and have recovered already. And it takes time to approve new donors.
This is a good thing. It might be pricey. And in the early weeks we might not have enough plasma with antibodies. But in the long run, this might be an excellent method to control the impact of covid-19 on people who get ill. This might keep them alive until they start to produce antibodies of their own.
The bad thing ?
If this treatment is indeed successful, but not available for everyone, you know who will get it. Rich people. The 1%. People in rich countries. If this treatment can guarantee that you won't die, even if you get heavy covid-19 pneumonia, people will be willing to take more risks. Politicians will be less scared to push economy over people's health. It's simple: rich people want to push everybody back to work. Profits have to be made, targets have to be met, stock-prices have to go up, bonuses have to be paid. If you, or your parents or kids, or your rich buddies get ill, you just buy all the plasma and antibodies to recover. Meanwhile, the poor and others who have no access to the antibodies, can go and die. It's a risk they are willing to take .....
lowenz on 31/3/2020 at 23:18
Quote Posted by Renzatic
For a lot of people who get it, it is just another flu. A goodly chunk of people who contract coronavirus will experience nothing more than a bad cough, achy joints, and generally feel like shit for a couple of weeks. They'll recover on their own, and feel no worse for wear. Not every case blossoms into pneumonia or ARDS.
You forget one thing: still being infectious for 2 weeks after the symptoms remission.
Quote:
20% of those who contract it will end up in the hospital, as opposed to the ~1% of people who catch the flu.
Because it's a primary pneumonia contrary to the seasonal flu-SLOWLY-induced one.
It can strike directly to the lungs, it doesn't need to "evolve" or being helped by other pathogens to do that.
