General > General Technical Chat
Covid 19 virus
<< < (201/381) > >>
SiliconWizard:
If anything, this should teach us how fragile our whole society has become. Seeing how one small virus can wreak havoc, imagine anything worse than this (which is not at all unlikely)?

Sure we can take some temporary measures to go through this, but what in the long run? Many of us are saying we are unprepared, which is true. But what exactly being fully prepared would entail?

Does anyone here think (as I am unfortunately envisioning) that over time (if not this time, next time...) it may drastically change the way we all live our daily lives? To a point where it might really not be fun? Dunno. Possibly we'll forget about it all soon enough, but when it happens again, that's gonna be a different story.

drussell:

--- Quote from: Stray Electron on March 22, 2020, 04:30:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: not1xor1 on March 22, 2020, 07:12:33 am ---it is hard to realize how quickly this gets out of control

in 3-4 days US is likely to become the first country in the world for no. of cases
I think on next Sunday it will get 200-300 thousands cases and around 3-4 thousands deaths
in 2 weeks deaths might probably exceed 10'000 and might even get close to 20'000

--- End quote ---

  I wish that I could say that you're wrong.  I thought that the large number of new cases being reported might be due to previously untested individuals that they were just  getting around to testing but even after more than a week of large scale testing, the new case number is staying high so most of them probably really are newly infected individuals.
--- End quote ---

I would argue that the USA has not even begun what I would call "large scale testing."  The best data I can find shows that they had only tested 100,000 people by Friday, in total, across the entire country so far!  That is what, about a 15-20% positive rate after testing only about one in every 3300 of the population?  They haven't really even begun to test everyone that should be tested, those with possible symptoms or known exposure.  There are likely hundreds of thousands more people in the US infected already by this point, and sadly the stated control method is to play "Whack-A-Mole."   :palm:

Here in the province of Alberta alone (population about 4 million), we had tested 20,360 people by Friday.  That is one test for every 215 people.  Every person who has possible symptoms or has been known to be exposed has been tested.  There are no fees, no hoops to jump through, no backlogs.  If someone should be tested, they are tested.  To Friday, we had found only 195 cases province-wide, so less than 1% of those tested came back with a positive result.

Yet, even with apparently relatively low transmission here, we are taking no chances.  All bars & pubs have been closed, operating licenses suspended.  The staff have all be laid off and most will unfortunately never re-open as they will never be able to weather even a month or two of closure.  Restaurants are allowed to do take-out / delivery, with the option to open a dining room at up to half capacity, maximum 50 people, though few are choosing to.

Everyone else is supposed to stay home except for essential businesses.  Traffic is eerily light, even compared to the lightest, slowest summer traffic when everyone is away on vacation.  There is no "rush hour" commute.  It was nice yesterday, though, to see lots of people out for a walk now that spring weather is arriving, they're just being very cognizant and keeping their distance from others.  I guess we're pretty lucky here in Canada, our average population density doesn't even register on the sparse-o-meter, and many cities, like here in Calgary, are extremely "urban-sprawled" for the population size. 

Trying to control this in New York, especially leaving the transit system running?  Good luck.  :(


--- Quote ---Thanks to the irresponsible students and others that continue to party like it's 1999 this is is going to sweep through the US like a wildfire.
--- End quote ---

Sadly, it looks like it already has, and it looks like the response (both in the knowing-it's-coming phase and the OMG-it's-here phase) in the US has been, and continues to be, by far the worst in the world overall.  It's like a massive wreck in slow motion that you can't look away from.  It is unfortunately likely to be very bad.

Many have wished for the US to be "knocked down a peg or two" for many years, but I don't think anyone wanted to see a pandemic sweep through with mass deaths, etc. to wake them up.

So sad.

Try to stay healthy, everyone!
drussell:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on March 22, 2020, 05:06:41 pm ---If anything, this should teach us how fragile our whole society has become. Seeing how one small virus can wreak havoc, imagine anything worse than this (which is not at all unlikely)?

Sure we can take some temporary measures to go through this, but what in the long run? Many of us are saying we are unprepared, which is true. But what exactly being fully prepared would entail?
--- End quote ---

Good question.

Really, the saddest part for me was about 3 weeks ago when the spread started in Italy so forcefully, where I suddenly realized how trivial it would be for any major government or reasonably-well funded private entity to engineer and release a targeted virus to essentially wipe out some genetically related group.    :'(
engrguy42:
drussel, have you actually looked at the WHO data? I'm not sure where you get that the US is, by far, in the worst shape in the world??

As of yesterday Italy has had a total of 4,032 deaths, China 3261, Iran 1433, and US 201.

Now you're certainly free to wave your hands and predict whatever you want for the future, but since nobody has a clue what will happen I'm not sure it's helpful to stir the pot.
nctnico:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on March 22, 2020, 05:06:41 pm ---If anything, this should teach us how fragile our whole society has become. Seeing how one small virus can wreak havoc, imagine anything worse than this (which is not at all unlikely)?

--- End quote ---
Actually I think society is better equiped than ever. Imagine the Corona outbreak happened 20 years ago with the internet still in it's infancy? It is our modern communication systems which keep things going right now. All the data to stop the outbreak is shared quickly without risk of actually spreading the infection. And the Corona virus isn't the first outbreak ever.
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod