4 ms·

PSA: spreading FUD and panic isn't helping anyone. The common flu is a "pandemic" every year, so should we freak out and buy 1000 kg of wheat while inconsistent

PSA: spreading FUD and panic isn't helping anyone. The common flu is a "pandemic" every year, so should we freak out and buy 1000 kg of wheat while inconsistently not having any means of food production? Don't act out of fear; act out of reason, honesty and proportionality.

jopsen 7y ago
To be fair the common flu has a fatality rate around 0.01%, sars-cov-2 is around 2%. (Not sure there is much we can do in the long run though)
- dom96 7y ago
  Does it though? COVID-19 may actually have a much lower fatality rate as we are only getting reports of people that get symptoms, maybe that's only 10% of infections, maybe even less.
  - jopsen 7y ago
    Indeed, it could also be higher.. Wishful thinking doesn't really make it so :) (Even though I really wish it did) Whether it matters in practice I don't know.. how much can we really do ?
dredmorbius 7y ago
The common flu has a total case fatality rate of ~<10% to 0.1% that of 2019-nCoV, based on still-evolving data. A key point of actions to date has been an attempt to prevent 2019-nCoV from achieving pandemic status, so that it doesn't recur on an annual basis. If sufficiently widespread, and affecting a quarter to half the globe's population, we're looking at tens of millions of deaths. Contrast 12,000 - 61,000 deaths in the US from influenza (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html), and 291,000 - 641,000 worldwide (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/cdc-global-annual-flu-deaths-greater-than-previously-estimated.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/cdc-global-ann...). That's with effective vaccines and antivirual treatments, neither of which exist presently for 2019-nCoV. Preventing this coronavirus from becoming "just another flu" would be a Very Good Thing.

4 ms·

PSA: spreading FUD and panic isn't helping anyone. The common flu is a "pandemic" every year, so should we freak out and buy 1000 kg of wheat while inconsistent

by anonsivalley652 7y ago

jopsen 7y ago
To be fair the common flu has a fatality rate around 0.01%, sars-cov-2 is around 2%. (Not sure there is much we can do in the long run though)
- dom96 7y ago
  Does it though? COVID-19 may actually have a much lower fatality rate as we are only getting reports of people that get symptoms, maybe that's only 10% of infections, maybe even less.
  - jopsen 7y ago
    Indeed, it could also be higher.. Wishful thinking doesn't really make it so :) (Even though I really wish it did) Whether it matters in practice I don't know.. how much can we really do ?
dredmorbius 7y ago
The common flu has a total case fatality rate of ~<10% to 0.1% that of 2019-nCoV, based on still-evolving data. A key point of actions to date has been an attempt to prevent 2019-nCoV from achieving pandemic status, so that it doesn't recur on an annual basis. If sufficiently widespread, and affecting a quarter to half the globe's population, we're looking at tens of millions of deaths. Contrast 12,000 - 61,000 deaths in the US from influenza (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html), and 291,000 - 641,000 worldwide (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/cdc-global-annual-flu-deaths-greater-than-previously-estimated.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/cdc-global-ann...). That's with effective vaccines and antivirual treatments, neither of which exist presently for 2019-nCoV. Preventing this coronavirus from becoming "just another flu" would be a Very Good Thing.