We are official now

[Bmyers]

The World Health Organization has declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global "pandemic."
During a media briefing Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO, said there are now more than 118,000 cases of COVID-19 in 114 countries, with 4,291 deaths.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/who-decl ... l-pandemic
I guess better late than never

[David]

How does this compare with other illnesses like flu, measles etc? Not underplaying that the Corona virus is out there, but I’ve been hearing lately that it’s been ‘out there’ for the last 6 months and that the media sat on it to give more attention to the impeachment nonsense. Knowing how corrupt the MSM is I can’t discount this as being factual.

[Bob]

It was a pandemic since probably November.

[tom mac]

Stats are still skewed by alot as they
1) don't really know how many have it
2) high death rate in known victims ( all elderly )

Still thinking it will be around the Flu stats... rates already falling in China

[Bob]

For the "real" flu they actually do studies. They have not had tome to do that yet. However - it does not prevent the presenting of data they "have" yet not placing it in "context.

As I said - CDC is a political entity. Their funding depends on seeming important. This is an opportunity for them. They will not tell you any wrong "facts" but they will also not do their best to place the information in context.

They will talk about the known death rate. They will not discuss the infection or severity as they "do not know" about those facts yet.

Same reason FEMA recommends 3 Days. That's how long it takes them to show up. If everyone had 2 weeks, they would be a much smaller entity.

[Bmyers]

How does this compare with other illnesses like flu, measles etc? Not underplaying that the Corona virus is out there, but I’ve been hearing lately that it’s been ‘out there’ for the last 6 months and that the media sat on it to give more attention to the impeachment nonsense. Knowing how corrupt the MSM is I can’t discount this as being factual.

As it has been pointed out, the data is to fresh and we are making the best guesses. The normal 'flu' has a death rate of 0.1% on average. The COVID-19 is averaging around the 3.5%. Yet, realize there are a lot of variables since we have under reporting, under testing, and out right lying going on, it will take a while to get good data. Both Italy and South Korea can give us some of the best numbers. South Korea is showing that it is contagious, but not as deadly. Italy is showing it is contagious, but more deadly. So, is this different strands of the virus? Is it population makeup? Is it medical care? Lots of factors that have to be analyzed.

The biggest concern I have is the overwhelming of our medical system. If that occurs, the numbers go through the roof. China built two hospitals and activated 14 emergency centers to deal with their outbreak.

Italy has requested help from the EU and they all said no, we are keeping our supplies and medical personal. If we overwhelm our hospitals, it will be BAD.

[Bob]

And again - a death rate stratified by decade would be highly revealing.

Death rate under 30 is almost zero. Death rate over 60, still not bad. This is so over blown people are gonna feel like idiots when it passes.

I'll say it again - It was coming out of China long before you knew it existed.
The number of people in China that had it is huge - you only heard about the hospital cases - which in ovrecrowded cities was a large number, but you don't know the proportions.

Then - the number of people who get it, vs the people who show any symptoms, vs the people who actually get ill, vs the people who get so ill they need to go to a doctor, vs those who get hospitalized and/or die.

Most;y what you know now is based on "I was so sick I went to a hospital" and around 3% of those dies, of which 95% are over 81 with 2+ other conditions (COPD, heart disease, immune disorder, etc.)

I can't believe I'm gonna say this....but I would guess it is .Gov really pushing the envelope, at a good time, just to see how things will go knowing economy will spring right back in 30+ days.

[Bmyers]

Bob, I hope you are 100% right that this is completely overblown.

Watching what is going on in Italy, who has close to 6% death rate because their medical system has become overwhelmed is what concerns me. If the virus breaks out slowly across country, I think our medical system can keep up with it. Yet as Italy shows, if it breaks out fast, our system will be overwhelmed and more will die.

[Bob]

Yes - and their medical system was crap before, they still all smoke, and the medical system is overwhelmed because people who even vaguely think they have it are hitting the hospital.

And the main people who need to watch out are still the older flu likely crowd.

As with everyone - I'm not saying ignore it, or don't consider it a legitimate bad thing. But the panic associated with it like it is SARS or something (for which you did none of this) is ridiculous.

[Bmyers]

Well, actually it is SARS, to be correct, it is SARS-CoV-2.

SARS
MERS
SARS-CoV-2
All the same family of virus-coronavirus

SARS and MERS never spread like SARS-CoV-2, so making preps wasn't needed.