Health professionals point out some important differences between the COVID-19 epidemic and other viruses like the flu. For a start, there is no vaccine for COVID-19 and one could take many months or years. And no medications for it either. And it could still mutate. And it doesn’t seem like there is cross immunity with this coronavirus as there are with the other coronaviruses. Additionally, while both the flu and COVID-19 may be transmitted in similar ways, there is also a possibility that COVID-19 is also spread through the air, meaning that tiny droplets remaining in the air could cause disease in others even after the ill person is no longer near. So there are several reasons it should be considered meaningfully different from seasonal flu.
I sent almost all my staff (where possible) to home-office. Already have the first quarantined ones. Shops (non-essential like food) will be closed starting Monday.
Where are you located, Lars - Germany, yes? In NYC there are over 600 reported cases (up from 421 the previous day) but that number is obviously an underestimate - it’s probably closer to 1500 or more. Using an SIR Epidemiology Model to project numbers through March, then using those projections with a conservative 10% severity rate to determine hospitalizations for critical patients, local open hospital bed capacity (1500-3000 beds) may easily be filled within 2 weeks
Given the lack of governmental urgency (eg public schools are still open) things here may get very very bad, and we may see a Lombardy-like healthcare crash. In the US overall:
Agree. This is far worse than many of us have thought initially. This is the most thorough and well documented article I’ve seen yet on Covid-19. A must read.
it and, okay, I want one for myself!