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Journal by khallow
Sometime today, there will be more active, reported coronavirus cases outside of China than inside. The cat is out of the bag for sure. I think at this point, it's only a matter of time till a good portion of us catch the disease, barring a vaccine in the next few months. Good luck to you and your loved ones.
Moving on, this appears to me to be a real world test of various countries' public health systems, with such things as how accurate the above reports are, or how many people are infected or die due to this coronavirus.
Moving on, this appears to me to be a real world test of various countries' public health systems, with such things as how accurate the above reports are, or how many people are infected or die due to this coronavirus.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Never use "etc." -- it makes people think there is more where there is not
or that there is not space to list it all, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 09 2020, @10:03PM (2 children)
We have three paths forward in the US:
1) Allow the virus to spread nearly unchecked. This means it spreads almost exponentially, eventually overwhelming hospitals and causing seriously ill people to not be treated. We've seen how this plays out in Wuhan.
2) Ban public gatherings, close schools and many businesses, and lock down freedom of movement. It's effective, but requires these measures to be in place for several weeks. This is China's and Italy's approach to the virus.
3) Don't restrict freedom of movement and have limited restrictions on public gatherings. Conduct testing for the virus on a massive scale, isolate infected individuals to prevent them from spreading the virus, and administer treatment as early as possible. This is also effective, with resources being shifted to testing instead of enforcing large scale quarantines. This is South Korea's approach to the virus.
So far, we're following the first path most closely. I find this quite alarming. I very much prefer the third option, because it prioritizes early detection and treatment while minimizing the impact on everyone's lives. I fear that we aren't going to do nearly enough testing and too many infected people won't be isolated soon enough. Out of panic, we'll end up with some form of the second option, which is already being considered to some degree. Our leaders are failing us, repeatedly promising to rapidly scale up testing throughout the country, then failing to do so. The obsession with minimizing panic is paralyzing us from responding. The absence of good information and the insistence on downplaying the threat are probably creating more panic than they're preventing.
We need to get through this crisis first, then we need to hold all of our leaders accountable. We need a change of leadership at many levels of our government so that those who are failing us don't have the opportunity to do this again. And we need to eliminate the sick culture in this country, which is the perception that it's frowned upon to take vacation or miss work when you're ill.
And, as Spock said, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. I'm very disappointed that the father of Missouri's first coronavirus case chose to ignore his quarantine and go to a school dance with his daughter. I understand the desire to enjoy those moments with children, but not at the expense of risking the exposure of many others to the virus. It's a selfish act that cannot even be explained by the fear of missing work and the need to pay the bills. I suspect there are many more people doing this, but we just don't hear about them. Just like during WW2, when we asked everyone to make sacrifices for the war effort, we need everyone to choose to put the interests of others ahead of their own selfishness. If our leaders weren't failing us, we'd test the family of the coronavirus patient instead of imposing quarantines for people who may not be ill. But we need to make the best of a bad situation and everyone needs to do their part.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 10 2020, @12:34AM (1 child)
I imagine the symptoms were pretty mild for the child. It's not people at death's door who go to dances.
And if the symptoms are mild or even nonexistent, then the disease must not be that bad. It's standard human logic and I bet a substantial contributor to the spread of the virus over the past few months.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:47AM
He has at least two daughters, one of whom returned from Italy and was undergoing testing at the time to determine if she had the coronavirus. Pending the outcome of the test, doctors told the father and anyone else in the family to self-quarantine. Rather than do as the doctors asked, he defined the order and went to the dance with the other daughter. When he was there, he found out that the daughter who had been in Italy tested positive. He may have no symptoms at all and may not even have the virus, but we don't know for sure. When the doctors asked him to self-quarantine, he should have done so. I suspect he's not alone in defying the orders. It was reported that an individual in New Hampshire who tested positive also defied a request to self-quarantine.
There's a woman in Omaha who tested positive after returning from the UK. She went to a doctor and was told it was just a cold. She wasn't tested for eight days and may have exposed others. But from what I've heard, she genuinely didn't know and was failed by a lack of testing. Now, she's fighting for her life, in critical but stable condition. If she exposed others, it was because she didn't know and nobody asked her to self-quarantine. There are some pretty ugly things being said about her on social media, none of which is warranted. Our leaders failed her because she couldn't get tested.
My objection is with people who are asked to isolate themselves as a precaution, then knowingly defy the quarantine. That's what I'm calling selfish, because the father in Missouri was told to isolate himself and chose not to do so. I suspect that there are many other people who ignore quarantines, he just happened to get caught.
In China, one of the issues with controlling the virus was the massive amount of travel for the Lunar New Year celebrations. I work at a state university here in the US. On a smaller scale, we're about to have a large amount of travel across the country from students on spring break. Some students will be traveling to places where community spread is occurring. International travel is being discouraged by universities but very little is being said about domestic travel. Once the virus arrives at a university, it's all too easy for it to spread rapidly across campus and into the surrounding community. Until today, the university I work at hadn't shared their plans for dealing with an outbreak of the virus in the city or on campus. They've been scrambling over the past few days to even make plans, despite being well aware of the risk for a significantly longer period of time. I'm very concerned about what may happen over the next 3-4 weeks and that our leaders seem to be incompetent at many levels of government. It makes me angry. It's not about politics. I don't care what party, if any, you support. They've all failed us. We all deserve better.
Be well.