Coronavirus and traveling

[Oldgator73]

Me myself, even though I see a lot of opinions and advice around, am going to stay with the CDC recommendations for older people. Hopefully a vax will be developed soon.
CDC Advice For Older Americans

And always wear a condom. 

 

[chuckbear]

I believe everyone, and I do mean everyone, should quarantine themselves for at the very least the next two years. all campgrounds, national parks, and tourist attractions will be very dangerous until then. I have seen confirmation of this on the news and on the internet. Chuck

 

[Roy M]

Well, if it's on the internet it must be true.

 

[YoBenny]

After crunching the numbers for 4 days and measuring the spread in case numbers, the virus case population is growing by around 24% daily and going up . That does not include the cases that have not been formally diagnosed. Last night there were 416 cases, today at noon it's at 474, if it continues at this pace for 3 weeks, the number of infected in the US will be around 32,500. Evenly spread, which it won't be especially at first, that's 650 cases per state. It can live on paper money and coins, grocery baskets, gas pumps, etc. for several days. Also kids and grandkids can have it, be contagious and spread it, with NO symptoms. I imagine that 50% of this forum community is above 60. To these people, this stuff can be deadly 400% higher than below that age and there is no cure for it. I understand the gleeful cynicism among people below this age, but if that age and above is YOU, I would do the right thing and strongly encourage you to not pay attention to the skepticism about it. Listen to the CDC and what they tell you, they are the true professionals in this scientific field and their advice might just keep you alive.

 

[LarsMac]

After crunching the numbers for 4 days and measuring the spread in case numbers, the virus case population is growing by around 24% daily and going up . That does not include the cases that have not been formally diagnosed. Last night there were 416 cases, today at noon it's at 474, if it continues at this pace for 3 weeks, the number of infected in the US will be around 32,500. Evenly spread, which it won't be especially at first, that's 650 cases per state. It can live on paper money and coins, grocery baskets, gas pumps, etc. for several days. Also kids and grandkids can have it, be contagious and spread it, with NO symptoms. I imagine that 50% of this forum community is above 60. To these people, this stuff can be deadly 400% higher than below that age and there is no cure for it. I understand the gleeful cynicism among people below this age, but if that age and above is YOU, I would do the right thing and strongly encourage you to not pay attention to the skepticism about it. Listen to the CDC and what they tell you, they are the true professionals in this scientific field and their advice might just keep you alive.

There is good news in this.
Look at the data from China. Cases have been near stable at a little over 80 thousand cases for a week or so.
That is in a country of over 1 billion people.
The numbers we see are "Reported cases" meaning cases that required medical attention. And I suspect that there may well be a lot more saturation than that in the population.
The point is that there may be millions of people already exposed, who have not expressed significant/severe symptoms. Their immune systems have successfully dealt with the bug, and they are

I would even venture that within the US, there are far more people already exposed than those 500+ reported cases.
Rather than worrying about being exposed, I suggest we presume we have been, already, and that we work at Plan B - Not passing it on to others. Make sure that we have medecines to deal with the symptoms we might encounter, and maintain proper hygiene to avoid collecting more bugs, and passing the bug on to others.

 

[YoBenny]

They (we) have had scientist and doctors scouring the approach that China has implemented and deemed it a success, they are managing to control it after a fierce battle and fully aware that it can rise up again right where it was just quelled.
However, part of their tactic that is now being replicated by Italy and others is to quarantine millions of people, entire cities, restricting movement and travel manually.
I can barely imagine what would happen if America tried that with - say Atlanta.
Or Houston. Or any of them. Also the availability of testing kits to the states is simply pathetic, a few hundred tests for 3 million people. It's been deemed beyond containment and without some actions that many consider draconian, it's gonna be tough to match China's response.
6:00 PM - 537 cases reported up from 416 yesterday at 6:00 PM moving past 25% case increase daily.

 

[YoBenny]

Also worth mentioning is the fact that so far the deadliest hot spot in the nation is a nursing home in Washington state with numerous cases and at least 10 deaths. If your parents, grandparents or loved ones live in a nursing home, they are at the highest risk of dieing from Covid of anyone in the nation. It's something to think about.
Washington Post Article

 

[DennisK]

The so called "Nursing Home" is actually a Re-Hab Facillity in Kirkland Wa., my father had to spend at least 30 days there to meet med care requirements to be able to be relased to an assisted living facillity. There's alot more to that story.

 

[YoBenny]

The actual function of said facility seems irrelevant if the same variables are in place in others. You put a bunch of old as hell people in a small space and introduce this virus to it, a bunch of people are going to get dead. And I certainly hope that profits will not stop other facilities in the nation from taking the necessary precautions to prevent this.

 

[Roy M]

Well, I have no intention of stocking up and sealing myself inside my home for months. Yes it is a threat and I am certainly at risk but am not going to get paranoid about it. I could also get in a wreck or get hit by falling ice but that won't keep me living in fear, I got through 71 birthdays taking reasonable precautions.

 

[YoBenny]

I think reasonable precautions and no paranoia is a superb idea.
At least as long as the criteria that is used to make the decisions is based in fact.

The problem with that is we don't really have the facts and the CDC fully admits that.
It's a new pathogen, almost no testing has been done on it, and it is spreading so fast that the information needed to deal with it is coming at a pace that can't keep up with it.

"Reasonable Precautions" is a fluid compilation that is based on the information, true or not, that you use to make a decision on what that actually means.  But how can you make those decisions when even the CDC is openly admitting that they do not know enough to give you any guidelines outside of extreme caution?

Just wait until three weeks from now, paranoia will be run amuck because if you don't take all precautions, nobody is going to be able to tell you what is wrong. When it hits the fan, you won't know where to duck.
And uncertainty is the mother of paranoia.

 

[Chakara]

I agree, but.  For most folks this thing isn't that dangerous - us olders are at risk and should keep that in mind.  Healthy folks have low risk of long term consequences. 


  I'm stressed as my 76 year old father who is on oxygen wants to go the FMCA rally in Tuscon in a few weeks.  So far they are still planning on going, but I'm hoping they'll change their minds....


-Chak

 

[YoBenny]

In a few weeks it wouldn't surprise me if the Rally was cancelled.
If it's not I would whoop my old man up some and threaten him with duct tape in the lazy boy......

 

[John Stephens]

Paranoia wouldn't run as rampant if our leader would stop politicizing this topic and quit providing false and misleading information about the problem, forcing the doctors and scientists who know more than anyone else go on talk shows to discredit what was originally said.

This is not posted as a political statement, but one of history because our present leader is doing the same thing that the world leaders did in 1918 during the Great War. They didn't want the other side to know how bad off they were, so they didn't tell the public just how bad the illness had spread. Spain was neutral in that war and had nothing to lose by reporting the truth, so when the second wave hit that killed most of the virus' victims, it was blamed on Spain because they were the only country to state they had cases of the flu. Even our own president downplayed how bad the virus was decimating the populations around the world and within this country. Our current leader is doing the same thing, possibly for the same reasons or possibly from ignorance. In either case, it's wrong and should be stopped. If we have all the information available at any point in time, people will feel more in control of their own destiny because they can make more reasonable and intelligent decisions.

I'm still waiting to see if we make our trip beginning in late April, just about the time the doctors think this disease will be peaking in this country.

 

[YoBenny]

I think he is trying to keep the economy propped up, it's not war opponents it's the global economy struggling to deal with changes in production and consumption.
The market was due for a correction, this is the catalyst.
When people globally use less fuel due to lack of movement, lack of poduction, the oil industry glutes and price wars start. It's terrible for the market but it is pretty good for consumers.

Fuel will be cheaper this coming week than you have seen it in a good while.
Other things will go up in price. Others will be unavailable.

This could teter us into a full blown recession.

It may not kill you, but you are going to feel it....

 

[Isaac-1]

Paranoia wouldn't run as rampant if our leader would stop politicizing this topic and quit providing false and misleading information about the problem, forcing the doctors and scientists who know more than anyone else go on talk shows to discredit what was originally said...

Of course it does not help that these talk show doctors are also contradicting themselves, left and right, on what is going on, and what you should do if you suspect you have caught this virus. 

 

[YoBenny]

Of course it does not help that these talk show doctors are also contradicting themselves, left and right, on what is going on, and what you should do if you suspect you have caught this virus.

Why in the world are you relying on "professional epidemiologist" to appear in defiance of whoever says what about this, on a talk show that is profiting from telling you whatever you want, or don't want to hear?

The two sources that all Americans should be monitoring for information are the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, this is the data that any given news broadcast uses to chop it up and sell you soap and cars with it.

 

[Isaac-1]

I agree, the problem is when some spokesperson doctor from a major University comes on TV, and says something that differs from that information.  Or gives advice that can be seen as contradictory

A couple of days ago I saw two of these TV doctors a few minutes apart, with one saying if you think you are infected you should seek medical attention, and testing.  Then on came another that was a representative of a major medical center, saying stay at home, and don't come to the hospital because they can't do anything for you, and all you will be doing is spreading the virus, as well as forcing needed medical staff into quarantine.

 

[Oldgator73]

I agree, the problem is when some spokesperson doctor from a major University comes on TV, and says something that differs from that information.  Or gives advice that can be seen as contradictory

A couple of days ago I saw two of these TV doctors a few minutes apart, with one saying if you think you are infected you should seek medical attention, and testing.  Then on came another that was a representative of a major medical center, saying stay at home, and don't come to the hospital because they can't do anything for you, and all you will be doing is spreading the virus, as well as forcing needed medical staff into quarantine.

The reports I saw today say do not go to emergency rooms, doctors offices or emergent care facilities. Doing so only infects those medical professionals. COVID-19 testing facilities were supposed to be setup but due to our governments continuing weak response those testing centers are not coming to fruition. The other problem is the lack of testing kits. It is incumbent on the general public to become informed on how to combat this virus. The government is not here to help us. Italian officials were on NPR this morning. They stated they were two weeks behind the curve on this thing and now cities like Venice and Milan are shut down.

 

[chuckbear]

YoBenny, It seems to me that al great deal of your time is consumed around the coronavirus and researching it. Many others seem to be stuck in the same mode. I too would become anxious and somewhat fearful if I spent this much time dwelling on one issue. Many of us should take a deep breath, try to relax and tune out all the noise for maybe at least one day. The world won't end in that time, I'm pretty sure, and just maybe at the end of the day you might feel a little better. Chuck