# 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:** 29
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/564 "2020-03-09T20:16:51Z")
Matt Gaetz just self-quarantined himself. Slightly over an hour ago, he was on AF1 meeting with Individual-1: [https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1237107093548740608?s=20](https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1237107093548740608?s=20) The three front runners for the Presidency (Trump, Biden, Sanders) are all in the danger zone for this thing. Can y’all just imagine the chaos if any of those three catches it? ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/565 "2020-03-09T20:32:23Z")
If enough Republicans self-isolate could the Democrats win an impeachment vote? ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/566 "2020-03-09T20:35:10Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Matt Gaetz just self-quarantined himself. > > Slightly over an hour ago, he was on AF1 meeting with Individual-1: [https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1237107093548740608?s=20](https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1237107093548740608?s=20) > > The three front runners for the Presidency (Trump, Biden, Sanders) are all in the danger zone for this thing. Can y’all just imagine the chaos if any of those three catches it? Imagine if there’s breaking news about how artificial tanning products help absorb COVID-19 through the skin. The touch your face rumors will be true! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/567 "2020-03-09T20:46:58Z")
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo: [I wish all these quarantined officials the best. But the turnabout of this year’s CPAC from a multi-day COVID-19 trolling event to a vector of the contagion is something that would scarcely be believable in a movie script.](https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1237115980532322304?s=20) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/568 "2020-03-09T20:49:45Z")
Fascinating that the ones self-quarantining themselves are the ones who may face the hardest questions from a disbelieving press and constituents. I’m talking to _you_, Gosar, Gaetz, and Cruz. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/569 "2020-03-09T20:50:59Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Matt Gaetz just self-quarantined himself. > > Slightly over an hour ago, he was on AF1 meeting with Individual-1: [https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1237107093548740608?s=20](https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1237107093548740608?s=20) > > The three front runners for the Presidency (Trump, Biden, Sanders) are all in the danger zone for this thing. Can y’all just imagine the chaos if any of those three catches it? Isn’t this the same one who walked around in a gas mask on the floor of the House a few days ago? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/570 "2020-03-09T20:51:28Z")
Why, yes! Yes it was! Campaign commercial fodder the likes we have never seen. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/571 "2020-03-09T21:49:38Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Matt Gaetz just self-quarantined himself. > > Slightly over an hour ago, he was on AF1 meeting with Individual-1: [https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1237107093548740608?s=20](https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1237107093548740608?s=20) > > The three front runners for the Presidency (Trump, Biden, Sanders) are all in the danger zone for this thing. Can y’all just imagine the chaos if any of those three catches it? > [@Aspenglow](#): > > Isn’t this the same one who walked around in a gas mask on the floor of the House a few days ago? Oh, it just got worse for Covfefe-19: Gaetz was in the limo with Trump before he boarded AF1 with Trump. Also in the limo? FL Governor Ron DeSantos. > ---
**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 10, 2020, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/572 "2020-03-10T03:53:44Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > That sounds like bad history combined with bad medicine. > > You don’t need to sequence viral DNA to understand that infectious respiratory diseases are transmitted by people coughing on you and other surfaces. Germ theory was well-established decades before 1918. > > The name influenza comes from the 18th century, not the 20th, and while there are etymological links to pre-scientific theories of disease, the idea that most people 100 years ago thought “gee, I don’t know what’s going on with all these sick people, maybe it’s the moon?” is foolish. Yes, sure! Because the 1918 Spanish Flu only affected the United States and Western Europe, not India, China, Africa, South America, Russia, etc. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/573 "2020-03-10T04:06:44Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Oh, it just got worse for Covfefe-19: Gaetz was in the limo with Trump before he boarded AF1 with Trump. Also in the limo? FL Governor Ron DeSantos. > > [https://twitter.com/File411/status/1237127257879203841?s=20](https://twitter.com/File411/status/1237127257879203841?s=20) Don’t gloat too soon. Infectious diseases tend to be non-partisan. The politicians who are running for office have to be at unusually high risk of anything infectious, too. Moreso than the sitting president, who doesn’t have as much need to “press the flesh”. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/574 "2020-03-10T05:00:50Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Don’t gloat too soon. Infectious diseases tend to be non-partisan. The politicians who are running for office have to be at unusually high risk of anything infectious, too. Moreso than the sitting president, who doesn’t have as much need to “press the flesh”. Biden said in an interview today that they were evaluating holding rallies on a daily basis. The disease may be non-partisan, but it will affect science deniers more strongly. And science denial seems to have a partisan bias. ---
**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 10, 2020, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/575 "2020-03-10T05:04:03Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > X = Corona virus. > Y = ordinary influenza. > > This really doesn’t take much to see. You made it esp. easy for me. And your response to the rest of my post, where I explained how I have done nothing like claim “Ignore X because Y”, and indeed took great pains to express how serious corona virus is? I guess thinking of a glib response _is_ esp. easy, if you’re not bothering to read what people have written. ---
**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 10, 2020, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/576 "2020-03-10T08:39:24Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > So the same people who would laugh at the need to be vaccinated for flu are freaking out about this magical, bioengineered mega-plague. And it’s having a real effect on the availability of medical supplies, masks, toilet paper (😕), and so on. I can’t tell if you’re sarcastic or not here, but no, it’s not bioengineered, it’s not a mega-plague, and yes it really is having an effect on medical supplies and toilet paper. On top of people getting ill, this is also having serious repercussions on supply lines and economies world-wide. Maybe you feel better as you smugly claim this is nothing to worry about and all a lot of to-do about nothing but reality doesn’t care much for how you see the world, it is what it is. The realities are 1. There is a new virus 2. It is affecting the behavior of people world-wide 3. It will certainly, at some point, affect you I very much hope that the effect on you will be minimal, more inconvenience than anything else. > [@Knavette](#): > > I am concerned about the rich people in St Louis who decided to go to a school dance, breaking quarantine. That is the kind of thing that causes a virus to multiply. Now I hear of another possible case near that area, which is very affluent. Everyone incensed here about this issue, maybe the moreso because these are people of privilege, and one expects more out of them, but probably shouldn’t. Not when Trump tells everyone to go to work, etc. A certain type of rich person is convinced the rules don’t apply to them. I’ve read about a good half-dozen cases around the world of some wealthy person or other breaking quarantine and gadding about infecting others. Wealth, power, and privilege has no impact on viruses. ---
**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 10, 2020, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/577 "2020-03-10T08:51:37Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I can’t tell if you’re sarcastic or not here, but no, it’s not bioengineered, it’s not a mega-plague, and yes it really is having an effect on medical supplies and toilet paper. Yes, that’s what I’m saying. You’ve read my statement exactly the opposite way it was intended. _Of course_ mega-plague was hyperbole and of course the things I listed being real repercussions of the panic are indeed real repercussions. > [@](#): > > Maybe you feel better as you smugly claim this is nothing to worry about and all a lot of to-do about nothing but reality doesn’t care much for how you see the world, it is what it is. This is in response to me? When have I ever said such a thing? > [@](#): > > I very much hope that the effect on you will be minimal, more inconvenience than anything else. I live in China, so yes, it has had an effect on me. In fairness, the effect on me personally has just been (significant) inconvenience so far though. I am aware of the hell that some people are/have been going through, and I’ve tried to do my bit to help. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/578 "2020-03-10T10:02:03Z")
We’re in Italy, Tuscany, and it’s affecting the life blood of this area, tourism. You go out and it’s lifeless. We’re here a week more… hope we can get out. I feel great though. ---
**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 10, 2020, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/579 "2020-03-10T10:21:25Z")
Okay, this seems worse than we thought. The latest research shows a median 5.1 day incubation period, but an exceptionally high viral load even before symptoms manifest, and it can still be spread for up to 12 days after recovery.   The bad news is that it can be spread simply through breathing, even without coughing,   [Study highlights ease of spread of COVID-19 viruses](http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/03/study-highlights-ease-spread-covid-19-viruses) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/580 "2020-03-10T11:56:29Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Okay, this seems worse than we thought. > > The latest research shows a median 5.1 day incubation period, but an exceptionally high viral load even before symptoms manifest, and it can still be spread for up to 12 days after recovery. >   > The bad news is that it can be spread simply through breathing, even without coughing, >   > [Study highlights ease of spread of COVID-19 viruses](http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/03/study-highlights-ease-spread-covid-19-viruses) Neither the linked article or the preprint it links to actually says those precise things. The difference is more than pedantic. “In sputum” is still droplet, not anything about “just breathing.” Just not only fomites. It is specifically looking at a subset of case with predominately URI symptoms. Shedding ≠ contagiousness and the preprint explicitly states that beyond day 10 of symptoms may be considered as “little residual risk of infectivity.” None were tested when no symptoms, but while minimally symptomatic. Still the implication re containment are significant. ---
**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 10, 2020, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/581 "2020-03-10T12:26:10Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Neither the linked article or the preprint it links to actually says those precise things. The linked article most certainly says that it can be spread by breathing, quoting a well-qualified authority: > [@](#): > > Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, which publishes CIDRAP News, said that the results challenge the World Health Organization’s assertion that COVID-19 can be contained. > > The findings confirm that COVID-19 is spread simply through breathing, even without coughing, he said. Did you read BOTH linked papers? ---
**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 10, 2020, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/582 "2020-03-10T12:42:43Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > And your response to the rest of my post, where I explained how I have done nothing like claim “Ignore X because Y”, and indeed took great pains to express how serious corona virus is? > > I guess thinking of a glib response _is_ esp. easy, if you’re not bothering to read what people have written. _You_ are not paying attention. So that’s it for me. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164/583 "2020-03-10T13:29:15Z")
I did read both. Mea culpa on missing that claim but the preprints don’t support the claim. One article is about timing. The other is documenting viral counts in sputum in those with URI presentation. Sputum presence doesn’t not equal breathing it out. Does not disprove either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164.md?page=28) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-concerned-are-you-about-this-coronavirus/847164.md?page=30)