how are people this stupid iām speechless
let me get this straight. this is a PANDEMIC (as officially declared by the World Health Organization), and itās notĀ ājust like the normal fluā, let me tell you why:Ā
itās HIGHLY contagious, as a matter of fact itās more than two times more contagious than the flu;
its incubation period is 14 days, which means you could be already infected and only start to show symptoms in two weeks which, in turn, means that you have two full weeks time to infect everyone you come in contact with;
we donāt have a vaccine or specific treatment yet;
it is potentially mortal for older people, people with pre-existing conditions, and immunocompromised people BUT itās also very dangerous for everyone else tooāa lot of younger people have died;
it attacks the lungs, which means a lot of patients will need respiratory aid, which means hospitals get full really fast and if thereās a shortage of machineries (which, there is), doctors might even have to choose to save a patient over another;
that 2% fatality rate is not confirmed, it was an initial hypothesis. if you look at the numbers of Italy the percentage is much higher. as of right now the number of infected in Italy is 12462, the number of victims is 827: now iām no mathematician, but iām pretty sure thatās more like 6,6%; (while iām on the subject, you may want to double check how your country is counting victims: a lot of countries are only counting people who died OF coronavirus, while the more accurate way of counting would be to consider those who died WITH coronavirus);
a lot of countries arenāt even testing properly yet, which means the numbers are highly debatable.
we all initially underestimated the situation here in Italy and now look at us. weāre all stuck at homeāwe canāt leave unless strictly necessary. no school, no uni, no cinema, no theatre, no weddings, no funerals. weāre queuing to enter supermarkets and pharmacies. our hospitals are full and our doctors are exhausted. weāre all doing this not because weāre overly dramatic or something, weāre doing this because itās the only way to prevent the virus from spreading (as the news from Wuhan show) and therefore to safeguard everyone and keep the hospitals going.Ā Ā
this is not a joke and, most importantly, this is not just about YOU. you may not care whether you live or die, as the tweet states, but you SHOULD care whether you jeopardize other peopleās health with your careless behavior. donāt be fucking idiots and travel just because itās cheap and because yolo. stop for a second and THINK
Medical professional here right on the front ass line of this shit, here to correct some inaccuracies on this fear mongering because yāall are doing my god damn head in.Ā
COVID-19, specifically the new coronavirus responsible for this mass panic, is equally as contagious as influenza, in that itās transmitted by droplet and fomites, meaning the SAME precautions are required for both [x]
The word youāre looking for isĀ āfatalā, notĀ āmortalā.Ā
Influenza is contagious within the first few days of an individual becoming sick, however can be transmittable up to 7-10 days afterwards. This means Influenza can spread faster than COVID-19 [x]
The prevention for both diseases is the same: cough etiquette, good hand hygiene and containment if unwell. The treatment is the same: rest, symptomatic management, and supportive measures in the case of severe disease.Ā
Death toll: the overall mortality rate for COVID-19 is 3.4% [x]. As of posting, itās March 12, so that number is likely to change with each day that the situation evolves. Itās likely we will see the number decrease as the virus spreads and the ratio of recovered people to people who have died evolves. This number is highly changeable and itās impossible to provide an accurate reflection of it given the rapidly changing nature of the knowledge we have.
Of these deaths, 14% have been people over the age of 80 (reflecting comorbidities such as lung or heart disease), as opposed to 0.4 of 40-50ā²s and 0.2% in people aged 10-39. So no, notĀ āa lot of young people have diedā. [x] Only one known case of someone under the age of 19 has died in China [x].
By comparison, this flu season, 136 paediatric patients have died with influenza associated pneumonia in the USA alone [x]. Influenza is far less discriminatory in who it infects and who is susceptible to severe illness, with several. strains targeting young, healthy and otherwise fit individuals in particular.Ā
Doctors never choose to save one life over another. If they do, they should not be a doctor, and you have a lawsuit on your hands. If a hospital is overwhelmed with equipment shortages, they will find a way to treat the patient anyway. My hospital for example has the capacity to look after up to five patients requiring intubation (a machine doing the breathing for you). In the case where we have had people needing ICUĀ and our ICU is full (which has happened the last few flu seasons), we have treated the patient anyway in the ER and then transferred the patient to a hospital capable of continuing their care. Iām so gobsmacked that youād even make a remark like this that Iām honestly wondering whether or not i should be offended.Ā
As of march 10, over 66 thousand people have recovered from the disease. That is more than half of those infected.Ā
I understand being afraid and uncertain because this is a new virus and the response to it is unlike anything weāve ever seen before with other pandemics (Hello SARS, hello MERS, hello Swine Flu, hello HIV/AIDS! A few notable mentions since the 00ā²s). But for everyone using this website, the OP of the tweet posted is right: you probably wonāt die from it. At most, youāll feel like youāve had the worst cold of your entire life and be stuck in bed for a few days.Ā
Take precautions! Wash your hands! Isolate yourself for 14 days if youāve been in contact with someone who has the virus.Ā
But please stop spreading misinformation about the virus because it is doing NO one any favours and it is only contributing to irrational fear that is putting MORE burden on health systems that are already struggling enough.
Sincerely, your local exhausted Emergency RN.Ā
genuine question: can i ask what would happen if there were no open beds in other hospitals to which to transfer patients in need of machine care if your hospital were full?
In situation like the one you described Doctors have to choose who gets the machine care (the one with more chances to survive), and the others gets a general treatment (they best they can provide) while they wait for other hospitals to step in and take them.
For example: One of my professors at university works in a rehab hospital for people with neural damage. They have special and brand new treatments who are really expencive (and in certain cases experimental), our National Healthcare System canāt guarantee this treatment (which is just for really bad cases) for everyone. She is the head doctor, so it means she has to choose who gets the treatment and who goes to a normal hospital.
She told us that one time she had to choose between a 25 yeas old boy and a 54 yeas old lady. The both had a severe neural damage but the woman had more chances to go back to ānormalityā, the boy was younger but he had a very few chances to rehabilitate is brain (i mean rehab it better than he would with normal treatments). So she had to choose the woman to not make a useless use of their machines and procedures.
Itās sad, but Doctors sometimes have to choose between two people.
When I was born both me and my mom where in danger, so my mom before they took her to surgery said to her doctors āIf you have save the babyā....everything went fine but....you know Doctors need to faces very difficult choices.