Coronavirus - worldwide breaking news, discussion, stats, updates and more

[TopCat]

+60% is what's recommended

Cask strength

 

[Marty1]

Yes and your machine on which you get customers to sign for delivery will be a primary vector of contamination.

Yup, I doubt it’s anti-bacterial screen protector will be of much use either.

 

[Fez909]

Yup, I doubt it’s anti-bacterial screen protector will be of much use either.

No, you'd want an anti-viral screen protector to help here.

 

[weltweit]

I suppose if people are going to stock up they're going to buy buy canned foods milk face masks firewood and the like. Before the flood I bought extra milk, a tactic that backfired because the electric went and the fridge stopped working.

 

[chilango]

Driving down the M40 earlier we saw the Coronavirus convoy. Loads of police motorbike outriders, a couple of ambulances and several coaches full of people in biohazard suits.

 

[weltweit]

Driving down the M40 earlier we saw the Coronavirus convoy. Loads of police motorbike outriders, a couple of ambulances and several coaches full of people in biohazard suits.

Sounds like the emergency workers outnumbered the patients?

 

[Fez909]

I suppose if people are going to stock up they're going to buy buy canned foods milk face masks firewood and the like. Before the flood I bought extra milk, a tactic that backfired because the electric went and the fridge stopped working.

You want UHT milk if you're prepping

 

[chilango]

Sounds like the emergency workers outnumbered the patients?

I think the patients were in full biohaz suits too.

 

[chilango]

I think the patients were in full biohaz suits too.

BBC article.

Coronavirus: Evacuated Britons arrive at quarantine hospital

UK nationals evacuated from a cruise ship arrive at Arrowe Park, where they will spend the next 14 days.

www.bbc.co.uk

When we saw them all the passengers on the coaches appeared to be masked and suited.

There a LOT of police bikes.

Also is the M40 not a strange route to take from Wiltshire to the Wirral? Surely M5 then M6?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Why a convey of coaches, when they could all fit on one?

 

[weltweit]

..
Also is the M40 not a strange route to take from Wiltshire to the Wirral? Surely M5 then M6?

Yes I wondered about the M40 also.

 

[two sheds]

It is entirely understandable that some people on social media started going on about that sort of thing now.

Yesterday the US CDC started going on about pandemic possibilities, and have recently mentioned updating their existing flu-based pandemic plans in case they need to apply them to Covid-19.

That, combined with other indicators this week, is expected to trigger this sort of thinking. Indeed I was asked a question yesterday where part of my response was this:



And that sort of thing is a feature of the sort of pandemic advice that the USA has given to its citizens in the past.

I havent looked for any updated Covid-19 pandemic advice the US may have published yet, I'm assuming its still slightly too soon, but here is an example from their 'Get your household ready for pandemic flu' guide from April 2017.



From page 8 of https://www.cdc.gov/nonpharmaceutical-interventions/pdf/gr-pan-flu-ind-house.pdf

Of course this advice is not quite the same as hoarding all manner of things like water. But such messages and planning have long been given a higher profile in the USA, and probably some other countries, than has tended to be the case in the UK.

Actually thanks for that - it's really useful. I've just been a bit concerned because I don't go anywhere (retired now, haven't got a car so get milk and veg and things delivered, not that bothered about meeting people) and yet I've picked up a cold for no apparent reason. Has to be when I went to the dentist a few days ago.

Not really relevant yet but I shall bear it in mind :taps nose:

You want UHT milk if you're prepping

View attachment 199477

Don't be silly

 

[TopCat]

Driving down the M40 earlier we saw the Coronavirus convoy. Loads of police motorbike outriders, a couple of ambulances and several coaches full of people in biohazard suits.

That must have been some sight.

 

[weltweit]

elbows and others, just wondering about a time / duration for this virus. From what I can gather the virus could still be infecting people in years rather than months.

Just thinking about Hubei for a moment, how long do you think it could be active there?

 

[cupid_stunt]

elbows and others, just wondering about a time / duration for this virus. From what I can gather the virus could still be infecting people in years rather than months.

Just thinking about Hubei for a moment, how long do you think it could be active there?

 

[chilango]

That must have been some sight.

Yep.

First noticed a whole bunch of police bikes hanging around at the services. Then more and more appeared on the Northbound side and then the convoy.

It was a scary sight.

 

[weltweit]

cupid_stunt there must be other epidemics from which we might gather insight.

 

[cupid_stunt]

cupid_stunt there must be other epidemics from which we might gather insight.

I don't think so, this is totally different to both SARS & MERS, the previous two death threatening variants of a coronavirus, so what can it be compared with?

 

[Supine]

cupid_stunt there must be other epidemics from which we might gather insight.

SARS has essentially disappeared but MERS has occasional outbreaks still. It'll depend on the transmissibility and morbidity rates among other things so basically time will tell.

If it stays it'll go out of fashion in the media and just become one of the many things in life that can be caught and makes us ill.

 

[weltweit]

I don't think so, this is totally different to both SARS & MERS, the previous two death threatening variants of a coronavirus, so what can it be compared with?

I don't know hence my question. But wouldn't those hint at likely durations?

SARS has essentially disappeared but MERS has occasional outbreaks still. It'll depend on the transmissibility and morbidity rates among other things so basically time will tell.

If it stays it'll go out of fashion in the media and just become one of the many things in life that can be caught and makes us ill.

I do think it will still be part of the environment in at least a years time.

But then I suppose I am not factoring in in all the work various labs are doing to try to find antidotes and vaccines. Perhaps the situation could be changed significantly in the next six months. Let's hope so.

 

[baldrick]

I don't have anything to add really but I'm finding this thread really useful so thank you elbows and the rest of you for collating it all. It's extremely helpful, useful insights but not too much hysteria

 

[elbows]

elbows and others, just wondering about a time / duration for this virus. From what I can gather the virus could still be infecting people in years rather than months.

Just thinking about Hubei for a moment, how long do you think it could be active there?

I expect people that study this stuff and do it for a job will currently be faced with a mix of unknowns but also some expectations/assumptions about what might happen.

In terms of things they will be more sure about, I believe there are some basic rules about when epidemics in a particular location ultimately have to burn out. The timing is influenced by the human response, but even without an effective human response, the outbreak is limited by eventually running out of sufficient quantity of new victims (with no immunity) in that location. That doesnt necessarily mean a reduction to zero of new infections and cases, but at least a reduction down to background levels, where cases only pop up sporadically and arent really on the radar.

Some of that stuff also relates to theories about why some diseases are with us on a seasonal basis. A disease emerges where there is little or no immunity in the population, leading to widespread disease and spread. At this stage the seasonal factors may not be enough to significantly hamper the virus (eg UK first H1N1 pandemic wave, July 2009). Eventually the pool of people with little or no immunity is reduced to the point that the virus can no longer sustain itself in the form of large outbreaks, and it retreats to the margins. Gradually the pool of potential victims starts to grow again, for reasons such as virus evolution and also individuals natural immunity against that virus decreasing for other, less well understood reasons. At this stage, seasonal factors can make the difference between the virus remaining in the background or getting a significant foothold again, in the form of normal seasonal outbreaks or larger epidemics.

We still dont know what this pandemic will be like, or whether this virus will then become a seasonal one after the pandemic is over. Much of the speculation will come from what we think happens with other coronaviruses that follow these seasonal patterns. Or other things like flu. But its not like things like pandemic waves are easy to predict with better understood viruses like influenza. eg I believe there was a bit of a cockup with H1N1 swine flu pandemic in regards to some people downplaying the prospect of a third wave, but then one happened in various countries. This probably didnt make much difference in that case because thankfully as pandemics go, the 2009 one lacked the features that would be expected to overwhelm healthcare facilities. But it was a warning, including to experts, not to sound too certain when predicting things.

 

[two sheds]

I don't have anything to add really but I'm finding this thread really useful so thank you elbows and the rest of you for collating it all. It's extremely helpful, useful insights but not too much hysteria

Want more hysteria

 

[Supine]

This shit just got serious - my local Chinese takeaway is closed as the family got back from a holiday in China. They’re fine but self isolating to be on the safe side.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I don't know hence my question.

Nobody knows.

But wouldn't those hint at likely durations?

I doubt it, because SARS was different to MERS, and both are different to CoVid-19. It's probably going to some months before the experts can start making proper predictions about how this may or may not spread, and if it's likely to die out or just become something we have to put up with over the coming years.

 

[Supine]

So elbows is calling a pandemic. Let's wait for WHO / CDC / EMA etc to make the call before stating this as fact...

 

[two sheds]

So elbows is calling a pandemic. Let's wait for WHO / CDC / EMA etc to make the call before stating this as fact...

Surely they take their call from him

 

[cupid_stunt]

This shit just got serious - my local Chinese takeaway is closed as the family got back from a holiday in China. They’re fine but self isolating to be on the safe side.

The couple that run my local Chinese takeaway came back from China about 3 weeks ago, they told me earlier that they have seen a massive drop in turn-over since.

 

[elbows]

I don't have anything to add really but I'm finding this thread really useful so thank you elbows and the rest of you for collating it all. It's extremely helpful, useful insights but not too much hysteria

Cheers. Lets just make sure it doesnt end up with too much of me and not enough of everyone else, I'm always concerned about this possibility and it has happened in the past with things like Fukushima.

 

[cupid_stunt]

So elbows is calling a pandemic. Let's wait for WHO / CDC / EMA etc to make the call before stating this as fact...

TBF a pandemic can just be something prevalent in one country, which clearly it is in China, it doesn't have to be worldwide.