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People will start to wash their hands more, touch their faces less, and avoid sick people more because of checklists to avoid coronavirus that people are sharin

People will start to wash their hands more, touch their faces less, and avoid sick people more because of checklists to avoid coronavirus that people are sharing online.

giarc 7y ago
Except those same checklists were shared with H1N1, SARS, MERS-CoV and now nCoV. They are the same checklists/recommendations shared every year for season influenza. Nothing has changed.
- jbay808 7y ago
  I think that in Canada at least, the government launched an information campaign to get people to cough/sneeze into their sleeves instead of covering their mouth with their hands. From my anecdotal observations, it was pretty effective in changing many people's behaviour in a lasting way.
- acid__ 7y ago
  To be fair, none of those viruses received nearly the same level of news coverage nor had fear and awareness of them penetrated into popular culture in the way that 2019-nCoV has. And, many people today were only children during the 2003 outbreak of SARS (17 years ago!) so this will certainly help to reinforce it among the younger generation.
  - giarc 7y ago
    I work in infection control in a hospital. I did this work during all but SARS. So far I'd say H1N1 was the biggest since we had many cases in all parts of the world. Sure, access to news is different these days, but we don't get the same hysteria as we did during H1N1.
russdill 7y ago
Or hey, how about shutting down wildlife markets?
- soared 7y ago
  > Pinning Coronavirus on How Chinese People Eat Plays Into Racist Assumptions > The outbreak has had a decidedly dehumanizing effect, reigniting old strains of racism and xenophobia that frame Chinese people as uncivilized, barbaric “others” who bring with them dangerous, contagious diseases and an appetite for dogs, cats, and other animals outside the norms of Occidental diets. https://www.eater.com/2020/1/31/21117076/coronavirus-incites-racism-against-chinese-people-and-their-diets-wuhan-market https://www.eater.com/2020/1/31/21117076/coronavirus-incites...
  - big_chungus 7y ago
    Saying that a group of people in China made risky decisions and that others are suffering for them is not racist. Not all statements directed towards another culture are racist. Also, many Chinese don't eat bush meat, and no one is criticizing them. It's also not directed specifically towards Chinese; the same criticisms have been leveled at Africans for the same reasons when the same practices caused similar outbreaks, so it's not a specific dislike of Chinese. HIV, lassa fever, SARS, Ebola, and more have been caused by eating bushmeat. That's not racism, that's epidemiology.
    - crispinb 7y ago
      Facts can be used as weapons, sometimes for racist purposes. That's certainly happening here in Australia in relation to this.
    - soared 7y ago
      I'm not debating that food safety could be better in China and other developing nations, but saying we should shut down their markets is a big overstep and fails to understand the cultural significance. If a drug-resistant bacteria started in the US and spread to China they could just as easily say "Those supermarkets in the US need to be shut down" The US is making equally risky decisions, but no one here is clamoring about that. Bush meat is no different than wild-caught meat, yet you use a derogatory term for it simply because it doesn't align with your cultural values. > Even today, the U.S. is far from a paragon of food-safety regulations gone right. The routine use of antibiotics in factory farming has helped create drug-resistant bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses.
scruple 7y ago
I was at a baby shower recently. Of the ~30 participants, over a dozen came down with a cold the following day. We later learned that, indeed, someone there was sick, knew they were sick, and came anyway. I didn't get the brunt of it, I've just had some minor throat irritation for the past ~2 weeks, thankfully, but a few folks were actually quite sick and had to take time off of work. I'd love to avoid sick people. Can we make them wear signs saying that they're sick?
- thrwaway69 7y ago
  Make an app and track sick people to avoid /s
- jointpdf 7y ago
  >Can we make them wear signs saying that they’re sick? Not really, since people with viral infections (e.g. cold, flu, corona virus) are often contagious before showing symptoms.
- Galanwe 7y ago
  If the only possibility for sick people is to either come, or stay home, then I think there will always be some of them that would prefer to come even though they might contaminate others. In Asia, there is a culture of wearing face masks when you're sick. This serves as both a signal to others, and also helps reduce your infected droplet emission. Also it means you can still go to events and not have to stay home. Enforcing this habit in the west is the best solution IMHO. Currently, it's too uncommon for people to wear face masks there. Once the critical mass of people decide to do so, then people won't feel weird about it and will all start to take that habit.
  - scruple 7y ago
    My (Asian-American) wife wears a mask at work because half of the people around her are sick. A few of the other Asian folks in her office do the same thing. No idea about the effectiveness of wearing a mask as protection, but if I had to go into an office for work I would do the same thing during flu season, weird or not.
  - 7y ago
timbit42 7y ago
I'm hoping the handshake dies off.

People will start to wash their hands more, touch their faces less, and avoid sick people more because of checklists to avoid coronavirus that people are sharing online.

giarc 7y ago

Except those same checklists were shared with H1N1, SARS, MERS-CoV and now nCoV. They are the same checklists/recommendations shared every year for season influenza. Nothing has changed.

jbay808 7y ago
I think that in Canada at least, the government launched an information campaign to get people to cough/sneeze into their sleeves instead of covering their mouth with their hands. From my anecdotal observations, it was pretty effective in changing many people's behaviour in a lasting way.
acid__ 7y ago
To be fair, none of those viruses received nearly the same level of news coverage nor had fear and awareness of them penetrated into popular culture in the way that 2019-nCoV has. And, many people today were only children during the 2003 outbreak of SARS (17 years ago!) so this will certainly help to reinforce it among the younger generation.
- giarc 7y ago
  I work in infection control in a hospital. I did this work during all but SARS. So far I'd say H1N1 was the biggest since we had many cases in all parts of the world. Sure, access to news is different these days, but we don't get the same hysteria as we did during H1N1.

russdill 7y ago

Or hey, how about shutting down wildlife markets?

soared 7y ago
> Pinning Coronavirus on How Chinese People Eat Plays Into Racist Assumptions > The outbreak has had a decidedly dehumanizing effect, reigniting old strains of racism and xenophobia that frame Chinese people as uncivilized, barbaric “others” who bring with them dangerous, contagious diseases and an appetite for dogs, cats, and other animals outside the norms of Occidental diets. https://www.eater.com/2020/1/31/21117076/coronavirus-incites-racism-against-chinese-people-and-their-diets-wuhan-market https://www.eater.com/2020/1/31/21117076/coronavirus-incites...
- big_chungus 7y ago
  Saying that a group of people in China made risky decisions and that others are suffering for them is not racist. Not all statements directed towards another culture are racist. Also, many Chinese don't eat bush meat, and no one is criticizing them. It's also not directed specifically towards Chinese; the same criticisms have been leveled at Africans for the same reasons when the same practices caused similar outbreaks, so it's not a specific dislike of Chinese. HIV, lassa fever, SARS, Ebola, and more have been caused by eating bushmeat. That's not racism, that's epidemiology.
  - crispinb 7y ago
    Facts can be used as weapons, sometimes for racist purposes. That's certainly happening here in Australia in relation to this.
  - soared 7y ago
    I'm not debating that food safety could be better in China and other developing nations, but saying we should shut down their markets is a big overstep and fails to understand the cultural significance. If a drug-resistant bacteria started in the US and spread to China they could just as easily say "Those supermarkets in the US need to be shut down" The US is making equally risky decisions, but no one here is clamoring about that. Bush meat is no different than wild-caught meat, yet you use a derogatory term for it simply because it doesn't align with your cultural values. > Even today, the U.S. is far from a paragon of food-safety regulations gone right. The routine use of antibiotics in factory farming has helped create drug-resistant bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses.

scruple 7y ago

I was at a baby shower recently. Of the ~30 participants, over a dozen came down with a cold the following day. We later learned that, indeed, someone there was sick, knew they were sick, and came anyway. I didn't get the brunt of it, I've just had some minor throat irritation for the past ~2 weeks, thankfully, but a few folks were actually quite sick and had to take time off of work. I'd love to avoid sick people. Can we make them wear signs saying that they're sick?

thrwaway69 7y ago
Make an app and track sick people to avoid /s
jointpdf 7y ago
>Can we make them wear signs saying that they’re sick? Not really, since people with viral infections (e.g. cold, flu, corona virus) are often contagious before showing symptoms.
Galanwe 7y ago
If the only possibility for sick people is to either come, or stay home, then I think there will always be some of them that would prefer to come even though they might contaminate others. In Asia, there is a culture of wearing face masks when you're sick. This serves as both a signal to others, and also helps reduce your infected droplet emission. Also it means you can still go to events and not have to stay home. Enforcing this habit in the west is the best solution IMHO. Currently, it's too uncommon for people to wear face masks there. Once the critical mass of people decide to do so, then people won't feel weird about it and will all start to take that habit.
- scruple 7y ago
  My (Asian-American) wife wears a mask at work because half of the people around her are sick. A few of the other Asian folks in her office do the same thing. No idea about the effectiveness of wearing a mask as protection, but if I had to go into an office for work I would do the same thing during flu season, weird or not.
- 7y ago

timbit42 7y ago

I'm hoping the handshake dies off.