3 ms·

Sure, but we know the flu is deadly and relatively communicable and we certainly don't take this level of precaution. I'm suggesting that there is a spectrum b

Sure, but we know the flu is deadly and relatively communicable and we certainly don't take this level of precaution. I'm suggesting that there is a spectrum between "taking some cold meds and still going to work" and "locking down entire cities and treating people with robots" and that many considerations go into where we decide collectively (and individually) to be on that spectrum. I'm not arguing this isn't dangerous, that there isn't unpredictability or anxiey about something new, or even that the precautions aren't necessary, I'm just curious as to why this particular coronavirus has landed on the far right side of the serverity-of-precautions scale. -- (I mean there's also "no good reason" not to make sure the entire world has access to clean drinking water and antibiotics and those things kills a fair amount of people...)

llamataboot 7y ago
Also, there is always the chance of making things worse. ie; think about a hypothetical where some sick people are in the hospital, but such a big deal is made of something that many relatively healthy people come to that hospital with a cold or something, now you've probably increased the risk of exposure.
cowboysauce 7y ago
>Sure, but we know the flu is deadly and relatively communicable and we certainly don't take this level of precaution. The death rate for the flu averages around 0.1%. The Wuhan virus is currently just over 3%, the 1918 flu that killed millions had a death rate of around 2%. The flu is deadly, the Wuhan virus is currently 30x deadlier than the flu. Additionally, flu vaccines already exist as well as anti-virals that have been shown to work on the flu. There is no vaccine for the Wuhan virus nor am I aware of any anti-virals that have been shown to work on it.
Voloskaya 7y ago
> Sure, but we know the flu is deadly and relatively communicable and we certainly don't take this level of precaution. We know exactly how deadly the flu is (i.e. not very), how to prevent and treat it and we can accurately predict how it will spread. The coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, a virus that jumped from animal to human this doesn't happen every other day. Most of these diseases are very deadly, much more than your regular flu. We also don't know much about it or how to prevent/treat it. So again the reason why we take a lot of precautions is that a lot is unknown about this virus and its effects.

llamataboot 7y ago

Also, there is always the chance of making things worse. ie; think about a hypothetical where some sick people are in the hospital, but such a big deal is made of something that many relatively healthy people come to that hospital with a cold or something, now you've probably increased the risk of exposure.

cowboysauce 7y ago

>Sure, but we know the flu is deadly and relatively communicable and we certainly don't take this level of precaution. The death rate for the flu averages around 0.1%. The Wuhan virus is currently just over 3%, the 1918 flu that killed millions had a death rate of around 2%. The flu is deadly, the Wuhan virus is currently 30x deadlier than the flu. Additionally, flu vaccines already exist as well as anti-virals that have been shown to work on the flu. There is no vaccine for the Wuhan virus nor am I aware of any anti-virals that have been shown to work on it.

Voloskaya 7y ago

> Sure, but we know the flu is deadly and relatively communicable and we certainly don't take this level of precaution. We know exactly how deadly the flu is (i.e. not very), how to prevent and treat it and we can accurately predict how it will spread. The coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, a virus that jumped from animal to human this doesn't happen every other day. Most of these diseases are very deadly, much more than your regular flu. We also don't know much about it or how to prevent/treat it. So again the reason why we take a lot of precautions is that a lot is unknown about this virus and its effects.