Wuhan China Coronavirus.

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jackof8lades wrote:

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Xavderion wrote:

I can't believe people are still stressed out about this nothingburger of a virus. Daily reminder that the flu kills over 100.000 people every year.

50 milion+ ppl in quarantine, damage to the economie if this goes on for to long will be in the hundreds of billions worldwide.
And all that for a "nothingburger" of a virus.

Lmao! Are you associating the danger of the virus with the policies taken to combat it? If you quanrantine any of the more densely populated regions of China, you're going to be containing millions of people. And the economic damage is mostly caused by the actions taken to stop the virus (including said quarantine), not the virus itself destroying all that much. Your average hurricane season causes billions in damage - but in that case at least it's cos of the storms themselves.

You might retort that such strong actions are due to how much of a threat the virus is. No, they aren't. We respond to every potential pandemic with massive shutdowns and global mobilization. Why? Firstly cos it's new and hence could potentially be a major threat (like the 1918 Spanish Flu was), until we know better. So far this virus isn't looking like that.

But secondly, and more importantly, cos a new disease is also a brief and precious opportunity - it's pretty much our only real chance to nip it in the bud before it becomes established and endemic. Diseases like malaria, TB, cholera, schistosomiasis, etc. kill millions every year, but we're used to them and hence can only upgrade our health services to deal with them. Even in the first world, heart disease, cancer or even traffic kill way more. Our infrastructure is built to handle and slowly fight back this stuff, but except for smallpox (where we had a very unique opportunity) we haven't managed to permanently get rid of any human health challenges. They're everywhere, and they're here to stay. But new bugs? Those we can eradicate, if we act fast and hard enough. Hence the reaction. It's to prevent potentially hundreds of thousands or even millions of possibly avoidable deaths - not from armageddon occuring this year, but from these diseases becoming yet another entry in that long list of 'normal' illnesses that future generations fall sick to in the decades (or maybe even centuries) to come. It's to deny them a foothold, to slam the door in their face and crush them underfoot while we still have the chance.

And that has nothing to do with how much of a danger the virus itself is, but simply with being cautious and prudent. The world isn't gonna end tomorrow, we're just trying to ensure it doesn't get any worse than it already is.

How to completely miss the point, i was merely replying to him and his idiotic assertion that this virus isn't a big deal and less harmfull then the flu which it obviously isn't.
Also we have no idea what the actual numbers are anyway.
The rest of your "points" are in response to what exactly? Certainly nothing i said.

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elesham4ever wrote:

health department waiting on confirmation of 4 cases of china death plague in Charlotte, NC.

incoming coast-to-coast US epidemic.

Hopefully. I've always wanted to see a serious epidemic happen. I'm tanky as hell to all kinds of sick, I'd just shrug it off.

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BloodPuddles420 wrote:

Hopefully. I've always wanted to see a serious epidemic happen. I'm tanky as hell to all kinds of sick, I'd just shrug it off.

I hope that's you being socially innept and attempting a poor joke.

If so, kudo's for trying but nope.

Peace,

-Boem-

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Boem wrote:

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BloodPuddles420 wrote:

Hopefully. I've always wanted to see a serious epidemic happen. I'm tanky as hell to all kinds of sick, I'd just shrug it off.

I hope that's you being socially innept and attempting a poor joke.

If so, kudo's for trying but nope.

Peace,

-Boem-

That was mostly serious, it was partially a joke I didn't intend for anyone to find funny.

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elesham4ever wrote:

well thing is man if there was a mass epidemic ...even if you survived it you wouldnt be free and clear. economies would crumble, trade and supply lines would break down, government would likely fall apart, and as we see time and time again society doesnt handle these things well even when theyre minor and short lived, so add mass rioting roaming gangs basically a total disintegration of law & order to the list.

so ya you might be 'tanky' enough to endure the virus part of a world wide epidemic. but unless youre living in some well stocked well defended remote self sustaining community then it would probably be 50/50 on whether or not youd make it to the next season.

The nice thing about the movie Contagion is that, contrary to the usual Hollywood style, it avoided this kind of hyperbole. Public health management is one of the most established and ordered administrative systems we've got, second only to the army (which is itself part of that response system, if and when things get really bad). You'd probably be surprised how non-explosive and quiet a national health emergency will be, at least off the interwebs. China is handling one right now and by all accounts there's no roaming death gangs or complete collapse of social order. And that isn't just cos of them being authoritarian, in fact you'll find even democratic govts. implement stringent controls during times of emergency. For instance, consider the nuclear meltdown in Japan and how little social breakdown resulted. Or the many countries with ongoing civil wars that are still functional. Or even recall the Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed several hundred thousand people and that too in developing nations with weaker systems, yet still didn't cause social collapse. Even the Spanish Flu, which killed over 100 million people and that too after the largest war in history up til that point, didn't collapse all the nations it ravaged. Unless we're literally facing the superplague to destroy human civilization (which this hardly looks like it is, hell viruses that are too deadly actually hurt themselves!), an epidemic is not going to be anything like the movies (well, except for that one movie I mentioned at the start). The US isn't gonna turn into Somalia just cos of a run-of-the-mill epidemic.

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elesham4ever wrote:

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Exile009 wrote:

The US isn't gonna turn into Somalia just cos of a run-of-the-mill epidemic.

that post was in response to another user hoping for a "serious epidemic" that i take to mean something like the bad days of cholera or smallpox or what wuhan china death plague might turn out to be.

Even cholera and smallpox didn't turn the nation into what you described though.