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Regarding this virus issue, I have a friend who told me today that he's taking the 2.4k he's presumably getting from the government, paying off his car and then going on vacation with his wife. I told him, you know, it's none of my business and I don't want to scare you, but I sure wouldn't spend 2.4k on a car and then go on a trip. What if the banks go down? What if 1/3 of the population dies in the next year. If it were me I'd spend that money on food and water and soap.
This is not a temporary problem. The deaths and the overrun of the medical system have only begun. I'm very concerned. There's no place to go that's safe.
People are not taking this seriously. It's inconvenient but our lives have changed, quickly and dramatically. News outlets keep trying to reassure us, but things could get really bad. This is a monumental event. Hopefully it will unite the planet. That is possibly inevitable but millions of people are going to die.
But It didn't happen quickly. We've known about it since mid-November of last year. The problem is that we chose to ignore it. Some countries are STILL ignoring it. We had morons like Trump claiming that it was 'fake news' and Johnson with his idiotic 'herd immunity'. When it reached Italy and the first lockdown came, Italians treated it as a holiday and went to the beach. Here in Spain it was the same with now more than 600 people fined for ignoring the curfew that we have in place Only last weekend in the UK, the police were having to turn people back who were trying to get to a national park! Beaches in Australia have had to be closed because people have been ignoring instructions to stay at home. That's the sort of mentality we are dealing with here. I sometimes think this virus might not be a bad idea if we could limit it to the sort of people who are behaving like idiots during this crises.
On a more optimistic note. The number of people that have died from this virus globally so far, is still nowhere near the annual global death rate from influenza. Keep your chin up folks.
@Rafius: You're clearly one of those people who is diminishing the significance of this problem. Comparing this to influenza is irrelevant. We are only at the beginning. Current death statistics from Italy, France, Japan and the US tell the story of explosive growth.
It isn't going away, not in three weeks or three months.
In terms of my remark that it happened quickly, the reference was to recent events, the necessity for individuals to take action to protect themselves, not pre-knowledge of the likelihood of this happening, which was in the minds of many during the Obama administration and long beforehand.
Diminishing awareness by verbal denial is comforting in the immediate sense but is deadly, long term.
You misunderstand Raffia. It's the same as a comparison with car -accident deaths. Like Influnza, it is something that is really not uncommon and if we get influenza (or a car accident) we can hope to survive it. Yet they are massively higher in number than the shocking plane crashes that grounded airline fleets.
Of course, you are right (and Raffs knows this) that Covid hasn't even got started yet, but may be beaten by sheer national lockdown observed by all but potential 2020 Darwin -award winners, just as failure to ground all 737 Max aircraft might have resulted in a dozen more crashes.
I agree, by the way, that, though the virus was known since last year, the sudden spread globally in just a few weeks is astonishing.
Last edited by TRANSPONDER; 03-28-2020 at 08:39 AM..
Well, I calculate that we will get
ZERO DOLLARS from the stimulus. We make too much $ AndI spend too *#&$ much
The case load seems to double here daily.
AND This is what sucks: I cannot go out and make any money. One of our patients is under investigation f, which means we have to wait up to a week to get her test back, then if it is positive I have to get tested, IF we can get a test, and I cannot work until then So I am losing $ out the window here that I can never make back up
But I didn't compare it to influenza. Don't read in what isn't there. I said that the number of people that have died from this virus globally so far, is still nowhere near the annual global death rate from influenza...which is a true statement. Nowhere did I say that it was the same or similar to flu or that the death rate would not exceed the annual flu numbers.
My point was, that at the moment there have been (Globally) 621,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, resulting in 28,600 deaths.
Now compare that to the annual average global cases of influenza, which is 5,000,000 cases resulting in 646,000 deaths.
All I'm saying is that, we need to get things into prospective. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be worried about it or that it's not a serious problem or that by the end of the year everything will be fine...but if we were looking at influenza figures of 621,000 cases and 28,600 deaths rather than the normal 5 million cases and 646,000 deaths.... we'd be throwing street parties!
It may be that figures will exceed that of influenza, we don't know but at the moment it should be a case of 'Keep your head down and Keep Calm'...and I'm saying this as someone who is in the very highest risk category.
First you say you're not comparing them, and then you compare them. O..kay. I'm in the high risk category, too. And I'm not going to argue about it.
My point is that people are not taking this sufficiently seriously, and the more people who fail in this regard, the more the virus will spread. I'm thinking, from what I can surmise, 18 months before things begin to normalize, if we're lucky.
I would add, about two weeks ago I moved all my private students to online lessons via Skype. I just gave a piano lesson to a young woman who ardently wants to be a church pianist. She's a public school teacher, working with children with autism. She has a six month old baby, an adorable husband and a cute little Maltese. She was coughing during the lesson.
Italy's death toll just topped 10,000.
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