Virus time

[Frankie]

It seems that the general chatter about population sizes, global warming, cooling, freezing, climate changes, has now got another virus thrown into the mix. I know I watch far too much TV which involves these conspiracy threads.
But it seems strange that, we now have another big one on the horizon, caused by batman....bloody super heros you can't trust em! Flair up in one of the most populated countries on the plant. Which seems to allow at least 5 days grace of someone moving around the world before it shows..... not good.....
I need to stop watching these things. Also I was listening to an expert the other day about face masks, yeah, that does bugger all.....we are all doomed........

Just saying

Anyway, need to get the bike out, stop me watching crap on the telly

[Kwacky]

Let's see what happens. We tend to get a deadly outbreak every few years and nothing happens

[StMarks]

Let's see what happens. We tend to get a deadly outbreak every few years and nothing happens

Tend to agree.
Presumably one day, the "cry wolf" from all the attention these scares create will catch us all out.?

[D41]

I'm optimistic about the scares & panics, etc.
When I was a kid you heard about Spanish Flu, German Measles, etc. once they had actually crossed the Channel. These days it seems like they get the news out before the disease gets too widespread....both in terms of affected areas and the number of people hit. There's a bit of hysteria too, but there's ALWAYS hysteria....'tards.

[Jack]

When I was a kid you heard about Spanish Flu.

You must be really old Spanish Flu was 1918 and killed 50 - 100 million people worldwide , probably the last great pandemic .

[D41]

Well then, the Russian Flu, or the Hong Kong Flu, or the Wherever-the-fcuk-else-it-came-from Flu.
Something from the '60s or '70s, I guess.

OR!!.... I'm remembering something from my grandparents, who would've been around during the one you're on about.

[duke63]

When I was a kid you heard about Spanish Flu.

You must be really old Spanish Flu was 1918 and killed 50 - 100 million people worldwide , probably the last great pandemic .

World population at the time was circa 1.8 billion. The pandemic wiped out approx 5% of the world population.

If that were the same today, it would be close to 400 million people who succumbed.

[D41]

Yeah, but that's only if you assume that the pandemic had a percentage target, which is a bit unlikely, yes??
There's a whole host of diseases which have been wiped out, or eradicated completely in the last century or so....that's just one of the reasons why the population has flourished so successfully.

[Kwacky]

When do you think they'll start calling it the Kung Flu?

[duke63]

Even modern Medicine can’t beat a virus currently as it will mutate to defeat whatever is used against them. It appears this one mutated from wild animals to humans.

[C00kiemonster]

/drives to shops to fill van with tins of food.......

[D41]

When do you think they'll start calling it the Kung Flu?

They say if you catch it at an airport it's probably terminal.

Amish Flu - you'll get a little hoarse.

[Rossgo]

So many people were walking around the airport and on the plane wore those face masks, but what made me chuckle was when they all eat or drunk something in a big restaurant full of other strange people, they all came straight off we are doomed!

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[kiwikrasher]

So many people were walking around the airport and on the plane wore those face masks, but what made me chuckle was when they all eat or drunk something in a big restaurant full of other strange people, they all came straight off we are doomed!

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The stupid thing is the masks don’t prevent you being infected unless you are extremely close proximity to an infected person, with this virus that 2 m. but they do reduce all the chance of an infected person passing it to you if they are wearing one.

[Kwacky]

Face masks don't work for the coronavirus. It's a contact bug.

[StMarks]

So many people were walking around the airport and on the plane wore those face masks, but what made me chuckle was when they all eat or drunk something in a big restaurant full of other strange people, they all came straight off ...

I take on board what you're saying Rossgo, but it goes deeper than that.: I'm sure I'm not the only one on here who is aware that the hand basins in Mens toilets don't get used by a worrying proportion ?
Worse still, for the last year or so I've been in the unfortunate position of making very frequent visits to hospital. There are multiple hand washing facilities at every entrance & exit to every ward & every communal area and main entrance or exit from the buildings. These are there for a very good reason, and we all know about MRSA outbreaks etc.
I personally use those facilities whenever I enter and leave any ward as well as the hospital itself.
I almost never see anyone else using them.!!
So, with ^ that sort of mentality being so prevalent, we probably are indeed "all doomed".

Nonetheless I suspect that fear about the Coronavirus is less warranted. This latest media firestorm has caught the public's attention, but I doubt this will be the one to threaten humanity.:
The longer the infectious incubation period, and the higher the mortality rate, the greatest threat a virus would be (according to WHO). Yet AIDS has had little effect on population levels. Ebola is terrifying, but it's symptoms are evident almost as soon as it becomes infectious, so once again it has had little impact globally.
So the chances are that any virus that we should be concerned about will probably spread globally without symptoms, and then hit with a high mortality rate after that delayed incubation period. ( or as in Dan Brown's Inferno).
We may already all be carriers.

[D41]

Face masks don't work for the coronavirus. It's a contact bug.

Yeah, but if you make it a scary mask people will steer well clear of you, that ought to do the trick.

Darth Vader, here I come...!!

Or maybe Zorro??

[Kwacky]

Me covering my face is a blessing.

[duke63]

There are people wearing the masks on the trains into Brum.

[Monty]

How many people die from the common flu per year?