Which is why we need a cheap and easy test for anyone with potential exposure, even those who are asymptomatic, and whose exposure was fleeting.
Yup. And why, in the absence of this, we need to isolate ourselves as much as possible.
I was addressing nelliebly’s* comment: “But it’s good to know so many people will be asymptomatic.”
*Whom I love. 
Which is true, but those rates of 2-3% dying, 10% needing to go to the hospital are hopefully among people who are not only symptomatic, but symptomatic enough to seek treatment.
If the vast majority of patients either have no symptoms or have mild symptoms, then the total death rate and hospitalization rate may be much lower than was expected.
A 3% death rate for 60% of humanity is about 144 million people. But the total death rate will hopefully be a lot lower, maybe even lower than South Korea’s 0.6% death rate.
You mean like this?
I would expect influenza cases to plummet since schools are closed and most people are attempting the social distancing idea.
Could someone please provide a link to the Economist.com article “SARS-CoV-2 and the drugs that might lessen its power”? It’s a great read, much more detailed than much of the paper pap, and offers a considerable amount of hope and direction for current research. Many thanks.
The televangelist Kenneth Copeland has already cured his followers through the television. We can stop depending on those pesky scientists now, and just contribute to him directly.
Seriously – why can’t we imprison people like this?
I don’t have a link to that, but one promising drug is camostat mesilate which inhibits the entry of the virus into lung cells in in vitro experiments. Googling did not find anything significant about this other than the initial report that came out in early March.
I have no statistics for this but it seems…
As a result of AIDS there was more people practicing safe sex, which would help with other sexually transmitted diseases. And the abortion rate dropped, which should be a positive for a lot of people.
We could continue practicing safe practices, such as washing hands.
On the lighter side of this epidemic, there’s coronacoinages. All the new words (mostly portmanteaus) invented about it.
Yeah, all this hygiene should keep down regular flu, too.
We’ll be having great Cinco de Mayo parties with all that discounted Corona beer we were able to stock up on.
Apparently in Singapore there is an anti-body test that can detect people that have gotten the virus and recovered. That would be awfully useful:
I know we can’t get away with everything they did in Singapore,but the US is also not a tiny city state.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
And something promising from China:
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
From the Whatcom Transit Authority:
All WTA buses will be Fare Free until further notice.
This applies to Fixed Route and Paratransit buses.
By not collecting fares on board, and not selling passes, we’re able to increase Social Distancing on buses and at pass outlets.
For everyone’s health, we ask that you please keep six feet between yourself and the driver, and between yourself and other passengers, whenever possible.
A super computer to the rescue?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Those who follow Jerry Coyne, blogger and biology professor at the University of Chicago, know that there’s a flock of ducks on campus that he routinely feeds and posts pictures of, including a special duck that he named Honey. The campus is likely to be completely shut down soon, with everyone other than essential staff banned.
This Wired article (apparently not paywalled) says George R. R. Martin is finding the time and the isolation needed to sit down and continue to write Winds of Winter, the final book of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Sorry to dash a good news thread, but it’s the penultimate volume. The final book is A Dream of Spring, due out in true post-apocalyptic fashion in the year 20XX.
IF true…
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk