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The King County press conference today included a Q&A where this very question was asked ("why this virus requires specific measures compared to other types of

by navels 7y ago

The King County press conference today included a Q&A where this very question was asked ("why this virus requires specific measures compared to other types of flu-like viruses"). According to Dr. Francis Riedo, Medical Director of Infection Control and Prevention at EvergreenHealth, to paraphrase, "The difference between this Novel Coronavirus and Influenza is (1) there is no innate immunity, it is a completely vulnerable population, (2) there is no vaccine to prevent it, and (3) there is no currently effective anti-viral therapy. It is a perfect storm for a novel virus to come out without a vaccine, population base protection, or an effective therapeutic agent."

bsaul 7y ago
I'm not even sure what this "no innate immunity" sentence means. Old and fragile people are getting vaccined for flu every year, because they aren't immuned to the new strain of the year. Now it is true that old and fragile people should be worried about coronavirus, but judging from death rates, it doesn't seem more deadly than the flu. So why put fear in the whole population ? also, most people only experience nothing more than a cold symptoms. Which means most people actually have an immune system able to fight this virus quite efficiently.
- navels 7y ago
  Where are you getting your information? According to the Chinese CDC it is 20 times more deadly than the flu. And why does "most people only experience nothing more than a cold symptoms" imply that they "have an immune system able to fight this virus quite efficiently"? Younger and non-vulnerable people have gotten extremely sick (and died), one theory being that the more of the actual virus you are exposed to the more severe your symptoms.
  - bsaul 7y ago
    influenza has 650k death over 3-5 million cases per year, according to wikipedia, which is around 16% casuality. according to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ coronavirus has 3k deaths over 86k, which is 3%. Or if you take the other metrics, which is 40k recovered, that's 3/43 around 7% death. still way lower than the flu. as for my remark about immune system, my point is that the vast majority of people experience very mild symptoms. Which means that their body was perfectly able to fight back and produce the antibody, just like against the other flus.
    - navels 7y ago
      Try again. That’s 3–5 million severe cases per year, not total cases.
      - bsaul 7y ago
        i suppose the people that got diagnosed for the coronavirus at the moment are people that felt bad enough to go to the doctor or hospital. We probably don't know about most of the cases..
        navels 7y ago
        Science: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-chi...

by navels 7y ago

bsaul 7y ago

I'm not even sure what this "no innate immunity" sentence means. Old and fragile people are getting vaccined for flu every year, because they aren't immuned to the new strain of the year. Now it is true that old and fragile people should be worried about coronavirus, but judging from death rates, it doesn't seem more deadly than the flu. So why put fear in the whole population ? also, most people only experience nothing more than a cold symptoms. Which means most people actually have an immune system able to fight this virus quite efficiently.

navels 7y ago
Where are you getting your information? According to the Chinese CDC it is 20 times more deadly than the flu. And why does "most people only experience nothing more than a cold symptoms" imply that they "have an immune system able to fight this virus quite efficiently"? Younger and non-vulnerable people have gotten extremely sick (and died), one theory being that the more of the actual virus you are exposed to the more severe your symptoms.
- bsaul 7y ago
  influenza has 650k death over 3-5 million cases per year, according to wikipedia, which is around 16% casuality. according to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ coronavirus has 3k deaths over 86k, which is 3%. Or if you take the other metrics, which is 40k recovered, that's 3/43 around 7% death. still way lower than the flu. as for my remark about immune system, my point is that the vast majority of people experience very mild symptoms. Which means that their body was perfectly able to fight back and produce the antibody, just like against the other flus.
  - navels 7y ago
    Try again. That’s 3–5 million severe cases per year, not total cases.
    - bsaul 7y ago
      i suppose the people that got diagnosed for the coronavirus at the moment are people that felt bad enough to go to the doctor or hospital. We probably don't know about most of the cases..
      - navels 7y ago
        Science: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-chi...