Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Pebble thats Stubby]

So I've got a slight sore throat that might be nothing or the start of a cold (I'm in no way stuffed or runny nose although for me that normally starts a day or two after the sore throat)

 

I've not visited a foreign country or mixed with people who have or even large groups.   

I'm basically working alone all this week as I'm on nights.  there will be other people in the office after I have left.

Should I be doing something?  The chances its Covid19 are minimal to none.

[RhaenysBee]

11 hours ago, Pebble thats Stubby said:

maybe do half your shopping online with one supermarket then use a different one for the other half.

I’m too cheap to pay for delivery twice and there’s no guarantee another service would have the stuff I order. I just need to go to a physical store and make do with what they have. It’s not I want to buy 30 cans of ready-to-eat meals. 
 

 

[RhaenysBee]

4 hours ago, Pebble thats Stubby said:

Should I be doing something?  The chances its Covid19 are minimal to none.

I’m sure you are fine, but you should follow the government instructions. As of right now, ours instructs people with flu and cold symptoms to stay at home and take care unless they have traveled to an infected region in the past two weeks or were in contact with someone who traveled to such place in the past two weeks or have severe symptoms that require hospital admission anyway. Having flu symptoms in itself or having travelled in itself is no cause for alarm or to contact authorities. 

[SerHaHa]

On 3/2/2020 at 11:40 PM, Fragile Bird said:

Every case in Canada has been travel related, the most recent 3 have been people who visited Iran, and a fourth travelled to Egypt. The first 3 or 4 in Canada were travel related to Wuhan.

All the people went to hospital and reported symptoms. All have been released and are self-isolating themselves at home.

There are no so-called community cases. (One has to say 'yet', of course, let's face it.)

Contrast this with the US, where almost all recent cases and all the deaths in Washington state were community cases, with no links found to travel.

Canada is likely more at risk from Americans crossing the border into Canada from Washington, or from Canadians crossing the border to do some shopping.

SerHaHa's friend wasn't very observant. The initial screening is done at entry. At Toronto's Pearson Airport everyone uses a machine for the initial step, and the questions are on the machine. I assume if they answered truthfully, they did not then go to another level of screening. I hope they answered truthfully.

eta: I think some of the screening done in the US was at first done by checking body temperature, looking for fever, using industrial thermometers. That equipment was quickly shown to be wildly inaccurate. I saw a news report that several of the East coast cases were detected when people showed up at hospital with symptoms. They had been giving an information card at the airport with a list of symptoms to watch out for.

Calm down, Ser.

SOME of the passengers on his flight had the machine pointed at them he said.  The majority, him and his father included, did NOT.  Relying on people being honest is a pretty piss poor security measure.  Honest or not, the majority of the people on his inbound flight had no screening whatsoever.  The story is breaking into the news in Canada now as well, there are several interviews on Youtube about this already. 

 

[The Anti-Targ]

5 hours ago, Pebble thats Stubby said:

So I've got a slight sore throat that might be nothing or the start of a cold (I'm in no way stuffed or runny nose although for me that normally starts a day or two after the sore throat)

 

I've not visited a foreign country or mixed with people who have or even large groups.   

I'm basically working alone all this week as I'm on nights.  there will be other people in the office after I have left.

Should I be doing something?  The chances its Covid19 are minimal to none.

Runny nose comes on later with Covid-19, but an early sign is dry cough. So sore throat alone is probably not a sign of Covid-19.

But lets assume it is Covid-19 and that you are part of the 80% who only get mild symptoms. Even if you are at a very low risk, if you are in a country where the disease is present then there's a non-zero chance you have it. If you go to a medical centre with your mild symptoms and lack of travel history or association with anyone who's traveled to risk regions, chances are you won't get tested and you'll be told to go home, rest, drink fluids and take painkillers, or suck on some throat lozenges. So you won't have found out anything new, but you would have exposed a bunch of people, some of them sick with other conditions, to Covid-19. If you assume it's not Covid-19 and the illness is mild enough that you would normally not take time off work then you will be going in to work and exposing people on your commute and at work to Covid-19 because you incorrectly, but reasonably, assume you don't have the disease. So I would say if you have the leave available, and a workplace culture that does not view taking sick leave as an almost sackable offense, take a day or 2 of sick leave and see what develops. If you're feeling better, it might still be Covid-19, but you took reasonable precautions based on your situation so going back to work is a reasonable thing to do. If you feel worse, but not sick enough to normally seek medical attention, then whether or not it's Covid-19 you should stay at home until you are feeling better. If you start coughing up a lung, seek medical attention, because even if it's not Covid-19 your will be in bad shape.

[rotting sea cow]

Some people here were accusing China for lack of transparency. Two tidbits about the situation from a leading nation of the Free World(tm).

1) The government site reporting the disease is not anymore reporting the number of cases per state. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html

2) The number of deaths being reported seems a bit high compared to other countries (like with Iran at the beginning) meaning that there is likely a lot of cases under the radar.

 

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

Good grief, Ted Cruz is on CNBC right now saying, hey, we only have 127 cases in the US.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

well I have spoken to my boss,  as my symptoms are really very very mild as just a slight sore throat and I'm on night shift he's going to set me up in our "harry potter room"   This is a mini little office that is used when one of us needs peace and quiet to get on with stuff instead of being in an open office.   Its also a very large cupboard under the stairs, right by the entrance. and next to my toilet.   Its key card entry so there is only 9 people who have access including me, those other 8 are not working on my shift.

He is even going to stock the fridge with drinks and snacks.  hand sanitiser, disposable gloves and a box of dust masks. should I need to leave the cupboard I can wear the mask and gloves.   but I'm only to leave for the toilet and if I need to go into the data center to reset a server.  any calls I get that require me to physically visit them I should just log and pass on to the morning.

as for infecting people on my commute, I drive so not going to infect anyone on public transport.  and if I infect anyone in a petrol station I got really big problems like gasoline on my backseat (I drive and electric) and park about 10 meters from the entrance I don't have to get out my car if people are smoking by the entrance.

 

if I develop any more symptoms then they will re-assess.

 

So yeah I will be going to work tonight.

[Zorral]

"Waive Fees for Coronavirus Tests and Treatment, Health Experts Urge
As the number of U.S. cases mounts, officials and advocates want to ensure that medical bills, especially for the poor or uninsured, are not an obstacle to seeking care."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/health/coronavirus-tests-uninsured.html?

Quote

New York is among the first states in the country to waive some fees and expenses for people who undergo testing for the coronavirus, as public health officials are increasingly worried that medical bills will discourage the poor and uninsured from getting medical care.

 

[Kalbear]

My work has encouraged anyone who feels anxious about it to stay home and work if they can do so. And anyone with any symptoms is strongly encouraged to work from home or take days off.

[Rippounet]

So if John Oliver's figures are correct, the virus should kill between 56 and 98 million people.

[DanteGabriel]

On 2/28/2020 at 12:09 PM, Tywin et al. said:

https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/corona-beer-sales-taking-hit-because-coronavirus-outbreak/ORXV24ZXMZAZDJCBIM7K55MRUE/

As a Modelo man I approve of this coronaphobia .

Late catching up on this thread but I just had to comment -- you're aware they are from the same company, yes?

[Toth]

1 hour ago, Rippounet said:

So if John Oliver's figures are correct, the virus should kill between 56 and 98 million people.

That's actually a very similar calculation to the one I made a few days ago when this The Atlantic article was posted, claiming that it will likely infect 50-60% of the world's population with a lethality of 2%.

Even at this point I'm doubtful though. It seems to have the exact same infectiousness as the flu and even with measures that seem to look more like signaling that something is being done rather than aiming at actual containment (at least here in Germany), the spread seems surprisingly slow and reminding me how many people are never getting the flu as it is. Then there is the question whether it is slow enough in its mutating that a widespread vaccination in three years can effectively kill it.

[ljkeane]

This corona virus outbreak has lead to me actually reading the fine print of my travel insurance. It's gotten out of hand now.

[RhaenysBee]

We now have two cases, Iranian students who were likely infected in Iran when they visited their families. That and the other two students who came down with the illness in Prague after spending two days here, we are bound to have new cases popping up in the upcoming days and weeks. 

I do feel like we are being rather kept rather fairly informed, though I must say very little was done to keep the virus out. We didn’t close boarders and we only screened Northern Italian and South Korean flights (with dysfunctional equipment) at the airports.

I suppose all we can do at this point as individuals is exercise necessary precautions, try not to panic and have faith in God, our luck and our immune systems.