Originally posted by aslyfox my story is more directed to the fact that:
- not all exposed will get the disease
- not all who get the disease will get very ill
- not all who get the worse case of the disease will die
that is not to say that it isn't a health and economic problem it is a huge problem
We will take precautions
but I won't be isolating myself in my house
unless I have reason to believe that I am a danger to others because I think I have been exposed and possibly infected
I fear there could be a lot of boomer deaths in the upcoming months due to the cavalier approach by your generation to this pandemic.
And it seems many in your generation have this attitude too
Boomers Are Ignoring Coronavirus Risks, and Their Millennial Children Are Scared - VICE like teenagers you think you're invincible and it is no big deal... just a cold.. maybe a flu right? Right for most healthy young people (sub 40). But it is really more like a severe pneumonia for many who have weakened immune systems (such as the elderly; 60+). Once it gets into your lungs, it can fill them with fluid as your immune system works hard to fight the virus. The potential for ARDS (and a mechanical ventilator) increases if it gets lower in the lungs. I've seen many reports of people who have or do have this SARS-CoV-2 and they said it felt like they were constantly drowning due to all the fluid on their lungs and wouldn't have lived without the ventilator. And that's those that survived -- dead men tell no tales and some reports were by their now widows.
But even if you feel fine, you could be infected and contagious. So you likely won't know until its too late. Median time to show symptoms is 5.1 days!!
Coronavirus symptoms start about five days after exposure, Johns Hopkins study finds | Hub
Reported R0 (transmission rate) was reported at 3.6 in China (early before mandatory quarantine for everyone)
Study on SARS-COV-2 transmission and the effects of control measures in China | medRxiv though it lowered substantially when everyone quarantined (which makes sense -- it can't spread if there is no socialization).
"The death toll skews old even more strongly. Overall, China CDC found, 2.3% of confirmed cases died.
But the fatality rate was 14.8% in people 80 or older, likely reflecting the presence of other diseases, a weaker immune system, or simply worse overall health.
By contrast, the fatality rate was 1.3% in 50-somethings, 0.4% in 40-somethings, and 0.2% in people 10 to 39.The age-related death risk probably reflects the strength, or weakness, of the respiratory system. About half of the 109 Covid-19 patients (ages 22 to 94) treated at Central Hospital of Wuhan, researchers there
reported, developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), in which fluid builds up in the small air sacs of the lungs. That restricts how much air the lungs can take in, reducing the oxygen supply to vital organs, sometimes fatally;
half of the ARDS patients died, compared to 9% of patients who did not develop the syndrome."
"In the first large
study of the effect of underlying illness, researchers in China analyzed 1,590 patients from throughout the country with laboratory-confirmed disease. They calculated how “co-morbidities” — existing illnesses — affected the risk of being admitted to intensive care, being put on a ventilator, or dying.After taking into account the patients’ ages and smoking status,
the researchers found that the 399 patients with at least one additional disease (including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hepatitis B, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney diseases, and cancer)
had a 79% greater chance of requiring intensive care or a respirator or both, or of dying..."
Who is getting sick? A look at coronavirus risk by age, gender, and more
So I don't think it is panicking to really weigh the reality of the situation and look at the risk for your particular age group and health situation (are you diabetic, smoker, heart or lung disease, etc) instead of looking at the by line that says 'most people get better' because those 40 and younger with no underlying conditions are skewing the figures to make it look better than it is for the over 60+ers who are negatively weighing the scale down.
One can avoid this by simply staying home for a few weeks and letting the surge blow off. At the very least, if one does get it, maybe in a few weeks those who were cavalier will have caught it, been treated, or died. And a hospital bed with a ventilator will be available should one need it then.