Coronavirus: When should we be concerned?

[In2ition]

Well 20% of the worlds' population lives there. And the poor vs rich gap is even bigger than it is in the US. And there are plenty of places there where the conditions are similar to what the US had during the industrial revolution. Lots and lots and lots of opportunities for viruses to multiply and mutate.

Well, to that logic, there are twice as many people in Africa and India(if you combine their populations), yet we're not hearing about a deadly new virus that could become another pandemic coming out of either of those locations every yr. True or False? Then you could add in all other populations that have a large gap between poor vs rich, and still all those places combine don't produce 1/5th the number of alleged naturally occurring viruses.

[Indy]

There are certainly places in Africa, and a lot of India, that have high population densities, but nothing like in China.

[In2ition]

So China is the gold standard in high population densities, and nowhere else has it like they have it? Not Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Singapore, Bahrain, Macao, Burundi, Rwanda, etc.?

I'll have to take your word for it, since I've never been to any of these countries.

[Indy]

It isn't just density (people divided by land). It is multifactorial including the number of people, how much space is used for living, how much interaction does each person have with the environment/other animals, what type of infrastructure they have to even detect a new variant of a flu/cold/any virus. If this popped up in Indonesia, I highly doubt they would have bothered to gene sequence it. Honestly, if we weren't in a global pandemic right now, I don't think anyone would have bothered to gene sequence this since the guy didn't appear to be that sick.

[Nodack]

This Republican memo went out a little over a year ago and Republicans have stuck to their guns with it. Blame China for everything and tie Democrats to China as much as possible. That’s the game plan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... not-trump/
A Republican strategy memo advises Senate candidates to blame China for the coronavirus outbreak, link Democrats to the Chinese government and avoid discussing President Trump’s handling of the crisis.
The 57-page memo, drafted by a D.C.-area GOP strategist, was distributed to campaigns this month by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It’s existence was first reported Friday by Politico.
If asked whether Trump is at fault for the nation’s unpreparedness as the virus spread, the candidates are told, “don’t defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China,” according to the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. The memo urges Republicans to acknowledge that U.S. public health officials “acted late,” then say that is China’s fault.


If you have ever watched FOX News you know the plan.

[Superbone]

How about now with the Delta variant ravaging the world?

[Split T]

I wish people would be more concerned than they are…the hospital I work at is filling up with Covid patients again…if only there was a simple solution that would make this disease fairly harmless and unconcerning…

[Nodack]

If only…

[Superbone]

I wish people would be more concerned than they are…the hospital I work at is filling up with Covid patients again…if only there was a simple solution that would make this disease fairly harmless and unconcerning…

If only…

Lazy scientists!

[Superbone]

I'd be pissed if I busted my butt to be a part of the solution and then half the country didn't take advantage.

[Nodack]

I feel sorry for our country. Nobody believes in anything or anyone anymore. People are super suspicious of everything and with good reason. There are so many people lying, cheating, scamming, extorting others and propaganda is everywhere. I don’t answer my phone unless I know the person because of so many spam calls. Now I even get a lot of text massages from people I don’t know wanting to buy my house or right wing political messages about evil Libs.

[Nodack]

Could DNA vaccines be the next tool in the world’s battle against COVID-19?
https://www.jpost.com/international/cou ... -19-680371
India last month said that it had created the world’s first DNA vaccine, ZyCoV-D. While standard vaccines use actual 'hardware' protein, DNA vaccines use the 'software' blueprint of the virus.

A software vaccine is one in which scientists vaccinate with the blueprint of the virus – just the DNA or the RNA corresponding to the genes that code for the spike protein – injecting it in a palatable and effective way into the body. The cells then synthesize the viral protein, which leads to the production of antibodies against the viral spike.
This is as opposed to a hardware vaccine, which actually contains hardware, that is physical bits and pieces of the virus protein.

[Nodack]

Meatloaf dead at 74 from Covid. RIP rocker.

https://www.tmz.com/2022/01/21/meat-loa ... es-singer/

[Superbone]

Whoa. Didn't know Meatloaf's death was due to Covid.

[Nodack]

Celebrities Who Have Died From the Coronavirus
https://www.thewrap.com/celebrities-dea ... ble-stars/

[Indy]

Celebrities Who Have Died From the Coronavirus
https://www.thewrap.com/celebrities-dea ... ble-stars/

Crazy how you see people on there in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

[Nodack]

All the people I know and lost were in their 40’s- 50’s.

[In2ition]

We do have some data. The flu kills about .1% and Covid kills at least 1%. At minimum it’s 10 X’s more deadly.

https://www.washington.edu/news/2020/05 ... -symptoms/
The national rate of death among people infected with the novel coronavirus — SARS-CoV-2 — that causes COVID-19 and who show symptoms is 1.3%, the study found. The comparable rate of death for the seasonal flu is 0.1%.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-covid-death.html
U.S. COVID-19 death rate is 1.3%, study finds

13Xs more deadly.

"The 1.3% rate calculation is based on cumulative deaths and detected cases across the United States, but it does not account for undetected cases, where a person is infected but shows few or no symptoms, according to researcher Anirban Basu.

If those cases were added into the equation, the overall death rate might drop closer to 1%, Basu said."

I read both reports that you linked. Here's the problem, we don't know what the infection rate is. Some believe it's already over 20% of the population, but many more are asymptomatic or even somehow immune to it.

The last part I bolded is just a guess by Basu, unfortunately. We do certainly know that the infection rate is much higher and easier to spread, due to the nature of it being infectious without symptoms.

Correct. Nobody really knows. It’s a crapshoot.

It’s totally reasonable to ask people in close encounters to wear masks and keep distance for a year until we can gather hard evidence over time. There’s just no way we learn everything we need in a few months of a brand new Illness. It takes time.

I had a nurse offended that her nail salon required her to wear a mask and threw a fit on Facebook about it. Seriously? The poor employee has to be at your feet, then go home to their family that you don’t know their health conditions. How is that a liberal or conservative issue?

You're right, this shouldn't be a left or right issue. It doesn't seem like it should be that big of deal to wear a mask out in public and practice social distancing for awhile until we get better data. Of course it's becoming political though, as seen in Michigan & NY and to the opposite Florida. Maybe there is something to this Vitamin D deficiency thing after all.

Lol vitamin D for all!

Any possibility that this could help people?

[Nodack]

I just had a discussion with a friend about this just yesterday. I have no idea if it’s true or not but can’t hurt. The sun also gives you vitamin D.

[Indy]

Vit D helps with a lot of things. Like you said, it can't hurt (as long as you don't take too much).