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- Jul 8, 2014
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To think of new viral pathogens is scary, yes. But this is certainly not the only one by miles to jump the species barrier. Swine flu, avian flu, Ebola, salmonella, anthrax, TB, lassa, rabies, plague, zika are all prime examples of zoonotic transmission. There are more...
(I am utterly fascinated by epidemiology and viruses).
But looking at this overall, it may be worth bearing in mind the media also is using headlines to pull people in and although it's absolutely necessary to know what's going on I (personally) don't think headlines screaming 'Killer Virus!' really do much to help. They just make people panicky and scared all the time. Look at the Ebola outbreak a couple of years ago : people were scared out of their minds and they lied about their travel etc. Normal human nature...
The mortality rates for the WN coronavirus (there are 7 strains of human coronavirus in the coronavridae family) are low, and they are in the cohort of patients who would be more likely than the general population to experience severe complications from normal seasonal flu and colds - they already have either long-term conditions or weakened immune systems or may be elderly and so on.
Around 98% of people with WN-CoNV19 will recover fully and not require any medical intervention.
For comparison purposes :
While the impact of flu varies, it places a substantial burden on the health of people in the United States each year. CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9.3 million – 49.0 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 960,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 79,000 deaths annually since 2010.
The incubation period for WN-CoNV19 is between 1-14 days. May also be a possibility that one of the reasons there are suddenly spikes in the numbers of confirmed cases, could be because people are panicking and presenting at hospitals etc when they may not need to do so.
(It has taken forever to write this as the cat keeps trying to knock the phone out of my hand, - I've been home more than 10 minutes and haven't fed them!!)
PS I don't mean to say we shouldn't worry at all or to belittle what's going on, but I just think being aware of things is useful. My worry would be something like Ebola as a worldwide outbreak. Now that would definitely be a zombie apocalypse scenario.
(I am utterly fascinated by epidemiology and viruses).
But looking at this overall, it may be worth bearing in mind the media also is using headlines to pull people in and although it's absolutely necessary to know what's going on I (personally) don't think headlines screaming 'Killer Virus!' really do much to help. They just make people panicky and scared all the time. Look at the Ebola outbreak a couple of years ago : people were scared out of their minds and they lied about their travel etc. Normal human nature...
The mortality rates for the WN coronavirus (there are 7 strains of human coronavirus in the coronavridae family) are low, and they are in the cohort of patients who would be more likely than the general population to experience severe complications from normal seasonal flu and colds - they already have either long-term conditions or weakened immune systems or may be elderly and so on.
Around 98% of people with WN-CoNV19 will recover fully and not require any medical intervention.
For comparison purposes :
While the impact of flu varies, it places a substantial burden on the health of people in the United States each year. CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9.3 million – 49.0 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 960,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 79,000 deaths annually since 2010.
The incubation period for WN-CoNV19 is between 1-14 days. May also be a possibility that one of the reasons there are suddenly spikes in the numbers of confirmed cases, could be because people are panicking and presenting at hospitals etc when they may not need to do so.
(It has taken forever to write this as the cat keeps trying to knock the phone out of my hand, - I've been home more than 10 minutes and haven't fed them!!)
PS I don't mean to say we shouldn't worry at all or to belittle what's going on, but I just think being aware of things is useful. My worry would be something like Ebola as a worldwide outbreak. Now that would definitely be a zombie apocalypse scenario.
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