# How concerned are you about this Coronavirus? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [January 29, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164 "2020-01-29T15:23:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 26
**Author:** ![SuperAbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@SuperAbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperAbe)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/503 "2020-03-08T03:11:49Z")
> [@MaverocK](#): > > What specifically should we eat in order to better support our immune system? Food. That’s it. There are no diets, dietary supplements, teas, juices, vitamins, minerals, essences of various rare animals, tinctures, extracts, detoxification regimens, purgatives, cleanses, flushes, pomades, or tonics that will \*boost" your immune system. Period. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/504 "2020-03-08T03:14:54Z")
I wasn’t too concerned. Then it was just announced that Stanford has canceled in-person classes, because a faculty member has contracted Covid-19 and two students have been quarantined. Next to my cubicle at work sits an intern, and she sits a couple of feet away from me. She’s a student at Stanford three days a week she has been snuffling and clearing her throat the last day or two. Now it’s getting real. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/505 "2020-03-08T03:17:25Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > The biggest development that’s affected me, personally, was that a lot of really, really worried people have been stocking up on supplies. And where does one go when one needs large quantities of supplies in a pinch? Why, the friendly local wholesaler, of course. Preferably before it gets completely cleaned out. While I was shopping at Sam’s Club today, I noticed how incredibly depleted some of the aisles were. There were 10 Chef Boyardee variety packs remaining, the very bottom layer of Nutter Butters, 2 boxes of frozen chicken sandwiches, and maybe one-fifth of the bottled water. Some brands of staple items, like rice, beans, and noodles, were flat-out **gone**. The weirdest thing was an _incredible_ run on toilet paper, to the point where you couldn’t find any _anywhere_ until about a week ago, for which I can only assume that a great many citizens were afraid that the stress over this virus would give them massive, raging diarrhea. Having dealt with said ailment on far more occasions than I care to remember, including a couple of recent episodes which cost me two pairs of underwear and nearly an entire day of work, I find the notion that it’s somehow possible to be freaking _prepared_ for this as laughable as that ridiculous old wives’ tale about taking pork over the Pali causing a fully operational vehicle to suddenly develop catastrophic engine failure. But then, we’ve never been the model of reason when it comes to would-be disasters. I mean, see what happens every time there’s a hurricane warning, and people are running around all worried and stocking up on water and taping up windows and filling gas cans and this and that. Guys…listen to me. **What will happen is that it is going to get incredibly freaking humid for a few days. That is it. “Hurricane preparedness” means making sure your air conditioner still works.** All right? All right. > > Um, where was I…oh yeah. Concerned? Other than making shopping at certain venues more of a hassle, not very. Aside from the fact that there isn’t really anything I can _do_ other than the obvious (and trust me, _nobody_ in my family washes my hands more than me!)…well, I’ve _been_ sick as a dog many times in my life, and given what I know, how would I even _tell_ if I or someone I knew had this particular virus? There was one time I had a nasty case of bronchitis, and I didn’t know about it for weeks because it sounded exactly like every bad cold I ever had. > > Is there any reason to believe this virus is deadlier than, say, the flu, or pneumonia, or dysentery? If not, I don’t see the point of wearing a mask everywhere. My breath isn’t _that_ bad. Posts like this (and hearing commentary like this IRL) used to frustrate me; now it makes me happy. So, so happy! ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/506 "2020-03-08T03:30:49Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > We have about 400 cases in the entire country so hopefully we can stay ahead of needed test kits. Trump himself has told us the mortality rate is far less than 1%. Assume it is .5%. Given that there have been 19 deaths then 19/.005=3800 cases [and probably many more] For another article on the testing kit fiasco, see: > **[What went wrong with the coronavirus tests in the U.S.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/what-went-wrong-with-the-coronavirus-tests/2020/03/07/915f5dea-5d82-11ea-b29b-9db42f7803a7_story.html)** > > Glitches, missed opportunities and delays left the United States far behind. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/507 "2020-03-08T04:09:23Z")
Great links **RaftPeople**. They might shut down some of the debate on masks in parallel threads. * * * > [@monstro](#): > > “WE HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT BECAUSE IT’S NO WORSE THAN THE FLU!” Do you really think a person like this is going to willingly self-isolate themselves for weeks on end? I don’t think it’s as dumb as statement as you’re implying. I’d personally phrase it more as “We absolutely have something to worry about, because it appears to be at least as bad as the flu”. But memes like e.g. It kills 20 times more people, are based on dubious extrapolations. > [@SuperAbe](#): > > Food. > > That’s it. > > There are no diets, dietary supplements, teas, juices, vitamins, minerals, essences of various rare animals, tinctures, extracts, detoxification regimens, purgatives, cleanses, flushes, pomades, or tonics that will \*boost" your immune system. Well let’s say “a balanced diet”, because if you’re deficient in a nutrient, it’s possible that might be impacting some operation of your immune system in some way, even if in general you’re eating enough. And there are nutrients that as many as a third of the population are deficient in. Other than that I agree that it’s quakery. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/508 "2020-03-08T04:45:01Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/509 "2020-03-08T05:22:45Z")
Let’s just note the effect of ordinary flu in an ordinary year in the United States. The CDC [says](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html) that the normal yearly figures for normal flu for the the past few years have been: 9 million – 45 million illnesses 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations 12,000 – 61,000 deaths Nobody has panicked, or even cared very much about this. So far this year about 20,000 people have already died from _ordinary_ flu in the US. Isn’t the Coronavirus worse? Yes, but not by that much. With the huge amount of attention it’s getting, it will soon be under control. Here’s an article by the **Director of the US Office of Emergency Care Research** at the National Institutes of Health, who also wrote a book about flu: [The Coronavirus is no 1918 Pandemic](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/were-not-facing-second-spanish-flu/607354/) _The differences between the global response to the Great Flu Pandemic and today’s COVID-19 outbreak could not be more striking._ > [@](#): > > We have just commemorated the centenary of the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918, which lasted only a few months but claimed 50 million to 100 million lives worldwide, including 675,000 in the United States. That pandemic remains a benchmark, and many commentators have rushed to compare it to the current coronavirus outbreak. > > What’s most striking about these comparisons, though, is not the similarities between the two episodes, but the distance that medicine has traveled in the intervening century. Whatever happens next, it won’t be a second 1918. And here is another article with info by medical experts: [Coronavirus: nine reasons to be reassured](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/07/coronavirus-reasons-to-be-reassured) ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/510 "2020-03-08T09:06:12Z")
I finally have a solution to Trump and his worshipers. I’m booking a cabin on Carnival’s new cruise ship, the SS Petri Dish. Ah, luxury at last. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/511 "2020-03-08T09:10:29Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > Is there any reason to believe this virus is deadlier than, say, the flu, or pneumonia, or dysentery? If not, I don’t see the point of wearing a mask everywhere. My breath isn’t _that_ bad. Based on CURRENT information (meaning the conclusion could change with more information) Covid-19 is, definitely, more deadly than the flu if you catch a severe case. Between 5 and 30 times more deadly - the range is due to uncertainty about the data and course of illness as this disease is only a few months old. If the flu kills more people in a year it’s because _more people get the flu_. Hundreds of millions of people catch flu every year. Only about 100,000 have caught covid-19 so far - but more will. When there are a hundred million cases of covid-19 we’ll have a much better idea how it stacks up against the flu, but there is definitely reason to believe that it will have a higher death toll. It is not, however, the black death, smallpox, ebola, or anything like that level of death and destruction. It’s still going to be an uncomfortable year ahead. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/512 "2020-03-08T11:53:08Z")
Italy may not be typical but northern Italy’s (Lombardy’s) health care system is “[steps from collapse](https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-51789355)”. > [@](#): > > The health care system in the Italian region of Lombardy is on the brink of collapse, the head of its crisis response unit has said. > > “We’re now being forced to set up intensive care treatment in corridors, in operating theatres, in recovery rooms. We’ve emptied entire hospital sections to make space for seriously sick people,” Antonio Pesenti told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. > > “One of the best health systems in the world, in Lombardy, is a step away from collapse,” he said. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/513 "2020-03-08T12:06:57Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Italy may not be typical but northern Italy’s (Lombardy’s) health care system is “[steps from collapse](https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-51789355)”. No, this will be the norm for a lot of the world. Which is why it is so maddening to see over and over and over the “comparisons” to ordinary flu. Common flu doesn’t have this effect. Unless, of course, you want to talk about real flu: the Spanish one of a century ago. A death rate comparble to that one means ~200 million dead. And there’s a lot more people more densely packed now. Once this but hits a crowded slum in Rio, Lagos, Mexico City or whatever, the comparisons to common flu will go out the window. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/514 "2020-03-08T13:22:16Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Unless, of course, you want to talk about real flu: the Spanish one of a century ago. A death rate comparble to that one means ~200 million dead. And there’s a lot more people more densely packed now. I guess you missed my link (a few posts above) to an article by a leading medical expert on the subject who said, “Whatever happens next, it won’t be a second 1918” - and gave detailed reasons why. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/515 "2020-03-08T13:23:27Z")
I ride public transportation to work so this will be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/516 "2020-03-08T13:35:02Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > I guess you missed my link (a few posts above) to an article by a leading medical expert on the subject who said, “Whatever happens next, it won’t be a second 1918” - and gave detailed reasons why. Many of his reasons were based on the expectation that modern medicine would lower the mortality rate with things such as antibiotics and antivirals. Perhaps. But there is also reason to believe that when pneumonia in the setting of Covid-19 kills it is no so much from bacterial superinfection as it cytokine-mediated, i.e. the body’s response to the virus. And even the author admits, “. . . antiviral medications . . . are not as effective as we would like, but they have been given to a number of very sick COVID-19 patients. Whether those antiviral medications or the antibiotics that are often given in tandem are responsible for successful outcomes is hard to determine”. IOW, we don’t know if antivirals work. The author you cite also places great emphasis on the beneficial and possible life-saving role of modern critical care medicine - ICUs, ventilators, and ECMO. Fair enough, [if](https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-51789355) there are enough (but as **ftg** said, if you live in Rio, Lagos, or an American inner city, there probably won’t be). ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/517 "2020-03-08T14:05:43Z")
He also mentions low-tech measures. In 1918 they didn’t know the cause, or how it was transmitted, or how to limit the spread of the disease. We do. So we can use simple and effective measures like hand-washing, quarantine, covering our mouths when we cough, and basic hygiene in hospitals to greatly limit the spread. That in itself makes a big difference. In addition (from the other article linked), vaccine prototypes exist and are being rapidly developed and tested. A large range of drugs and treatments are currently being tested around the world. Even by mid-February, there were already more than 80 clinical trials under way for antiviral treatments. It’s likely that there will be effective vaccines and treatments within months. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/518 "2020-03-08T14:11:27Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Let’s just note the effect of ordinary flu in an ordinary year in the United States. > > The CDC [says](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html) that the normal yearly figures for normal flu for the the past few years have been: > > 9 million – 45 million illnesses > 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations > 12,000 – 61,000 deaths > > Nobody has panicked, or even cared very much about this. Millions of people, including the medically fragile, elderly people, and medical workers, get flu shots every year because they do care about this. We don’t have a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. So the medically fragile, elderly people, and medical workers have every right to care about what is going on right now. And so do the people who love them. Do you think governments who have been [quarantining their populations](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51787238) are overreacting? Do you think they are crippling their own economies for shits and giggles? Or is it possible that you do not have the right perspective to really judge how serious COVID-19 is? ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/519 "2020-03-08T14:19:40Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > …In 1918 they didn’t know the cause, or how it was transmitted… True. I read an interesting tidbit that, in 1918, there was a widespread belief that the alignment of the planets, and their _influence_ on Earth, caused it. From this came the word “influenza”. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/520 "2020-03-08T14:20:01Z")
Covid is like the Spanish flu in that both are respiratory infections. They differ significantly in death rate, which cases tend to be most serious (young vs old) and symptoms. It’s just a thing people say to cause, or wallow in, panic. > [@Broomstick](#): > > Based on CURRENT information (meaning the conclusion could change with more information) Covid-19 is, definitely, more deadly than the flu if you catch a severe case. Between 5 and 30 times more deadly - the range is due to uncertainty about the data and course of illness as this disease is only a few months old. Still disagree. You need to bring the low estimate down and take out the “definitely”. Plenty of Chinese provinces outside Hubei, indeed all of them, are reporting death rates lower than the lower bound of your estimate range. Yes, I know, it’s China and therefore we can just ignore what they’re saying, handful of salt, yadda yadda. But then why are we using the number from Hubei? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/521 "2020-03-08T14:23:06Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > In 1918 they didn’t know the cause, or how it was transmitted, or how to limit the spread of the disease. We do. We also know that the earth is round yet flat earthers abound. Trusting ‘people’ to do the right thing just because ‘we know’ is doomed to fail in the current environment of morons and conspiracy theories. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/522 "2020-03-08T14:30:34Z")
I read an interesting post on Reddit from someone in Italy. They think the reason the virus has been so virulent there is because the people have swamped hospitals. The hospitals have thus become sources of the virus, spreading it to patients and everyone else. Which is why I think China was smart to build all those extra hospitals. Direct folks with severe COVID-19 symptoms to those places, and you keep existing hospitals from becoming hotbeds of infection. On one hand, Americans might be reluctant to rush hospitals since a lot of us can’t afford the cost of the ER. But on the other hand, Americans might be prone to rush because it seems reasonable to go to the hospital when you might have the disease that has shut down entire cities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164.md?page=25) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164.md?page=27)