Coronavirus Part II - Its arrived - We're Doomed!!! See OP for Mod warnings

BanditLuke wrote: »

Yeah like they did in Wuhan :rolleyes:

So Germany, France, Austria Switzerland and the UK have all stopped functioning?

Duke of Url wrote: »

So Germany, France, Austria Switzerland and the UK have all stopped functioning?

Do any of those countries have the number of cases that China currently has, yet?

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

Do any of those countries have the number of cases that China currently has, yet?

No. What’s your point.

Duke of Url wrote: »

No. What’s your point.

So come back to us when they do and ask your question again.

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

Yes. It just got seriously ****ed up this afternoon. I am ****ing furious that the game is cancelled. Political. Correctness. Gone. Mad. Taking high profile action, and hitting innocent rugby supporters, just to be seen to be doing something. We are still going to have 5000 Italian fans in Dublin, cramming into the pubs and restaurants, shops, and Guiness Storehouse. So thats all fine and dandy. But letting them into the open air stadium of Lansdowne Road is a health risk too far.
Depressed is not the work. ****ing. ****ing Furious !

Totes bro. Me and the goys are devo. Oisin and Senan are totally talking about giving up completely on the rugger. I reckon it’s just cause they’re totes apoplectic at the mo. Cormac's dad flies with the highest level legal eagles and he’s poring over the statute books to see if he can force the game to go ahead, so keep the faith bro, we’ll be sending heino’s and having some of the finest horseplay the Aviva has ever seen before you know it.

Interesting piece from Gareth O'Callaghan today..
Covid-19, or coronavirus, is currently sweeping its way across the world. That is a fact. It was confirmed this morning by a number of trusted medical sources. It’s only a matter of days, possibly hours, before cases of the virus are identified here in Ireland.

Here’s a photograph taken this week of the city centre of Wuhan, in China, where the coronavirus, Covid-19, started. It looks like a scene from a science fiction movie. No one is working. Everyone has been advised to stay off the streets and to isolate themselves.

Government and health authorities have now practically shut down Wuhan, with a population of 11 million (something similar to London), in the hope of reducing the rapid spread of this relatively unknown virus. It’s fair to say that fear is spreading throughout the world faster than the virus, and that is not helpful.

What I thought might be helpful would be to do a little bit of research on this virus and share it here today, in the hope that those who are worried by all they are hearing up to now might feel more informed and less anxious.

So what exactly is Covid-19? It’s caused by a member of the coronavirus family that would appear to have been dormant up to now, or else it has mutated from another member of the family. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals.

Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.

The initial symptoms are a persistent cough, a high temperature and breathing difficulties. Wiping sweat from your forehead even though you’re not engaged in any strenuous activity is also a symptom. As this is a viral flu, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs available against flu in extreme cases will not cure Covid-19. Recovery over the next few weeks and months depends on the strength of the individual’s immune system.

Some people have been hearing that a vaccine will be available within the next couple of weeks. This is NOT true. Scientists are saying it will take between eight and twelve months before a vaccine for Covid-19 becomes available for humans to take.

Another myth doing the rounds is that there is already a vaccine available, but the manufacturers won’t release it because they are waiting for the spread of the virus to worsen before they set a price to charge for it. This is pure nonsense.

Doctors here in Ireland are saying today that if you have recently travelled back from areas affected by coronavirus and you are feeling unwell, you should stay indoors at home and avoid contact with other people as you would with the flu.

A number of schools in Northern Ireland have sent pupils who have recently been skiing in northern Italy home for a two-week quarantine period. However pupils in the Republic who were skiing in the same resorts last week are this morning attending school as usual. The schools in question may regret their decision to allow these students to return to school so quickly.

The general feeling is that Irish hospitals are not capable of dealing with an epidemic of coronavirus. World Health Organisation experts are warning that it’s not a case of ‘if’, but a case of ‘when’ this virus becomes a ‘pandemic’, which means it will sweep across the world, affecting the majority of countries.

Each person infected with coronavirus has been passing the disease on to between two or three other people on average at transmission rates recorded two weeks ago, according to two separate scientific analyses of the epidemic; but this is now increasing as the transmission rapidly gathers speed.

In the coming days, if you suspect you have the coronavirus – high temperature, persistent cough, difficulty breathing, do not go to your GP, or to the local A&E. There is nothing your GP can do for you except advice you to go home and isolate yourself from the rest of the household as much as you possibly can.

Better to ring your GP’s surgery and ask advice.
More and more doctors are now contracting the virus, because they are coming face to face with patients who already have.

Because there won’t be any vaccine available until much later this year, and none of the antiviral drugs they give to people with compromised immune systems and those with other underlying health issues have an effect on this virus, doctors are saying you’re best to avoid work or school and stay in bed; take paracetamol, or those familiar hot lemon/blackcurrant drinks containing paracetamol, and stay hydrated.

Remember, none of us is indispensable. If you go to work with this virus, then everybody you work with most likely gets the virus; thanks to your generous lack of consideration.

The World Health Organisation is saying that this virus is highly contagious. So we should avoid crowded places, and moving around within confined areas where we are mixing with a lot of people.

Many of us remember the MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) virus back in 2012, which was a member of the coronavirus family; and SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome), also a member of the coronavirus family, back in 2002. Both of these serious viruses were contained very quickly, preventing their spread from reaching the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, due to increased global travel, and cheaper and more frequent flights to almost every corner of the world, Covid-19 is now unstoppable. It is on the move.

Small children and elderly people are most at risk of getting the virus, as well as those with serious ongoing health issues. So it’s important that each of us does our part in trying to avoid it. Here are a few tips:

The virus gets into you through your nose and mouth. Pick up a bottle of sanitiser from your chemist or supermarket and keep it in your bag or your pocket. They cost only a couple of euros.

Rub in onto your hands frequently during the day, and even rub a hint of it under your nose; particularly if you use public transport, or you have to take a flight somewhere. Computer keyboards need to be sanitised. Also encourage young children to bring a sanitiser to school with them and show them how to use it.

Stop shaking people’s hands for a few weeks, and that includes the ‘sign of peace’ gesture during Mass, if you are a churchgoer.

Kissing is another risky gesture; unless you’re crazy about the person you’re kissing, preferably well-known to each other on an intimate level, and you don’t care if locking lips could mean a week sick in bed. (If French kissing is not your style, then please ignore the last piece of advice.)

Carry tissues with you. Blow your nose into the tissue and bin it. If you feel a sneeze coming on, then sneeze into the crook of your elbow if you can’t grab a tissue in time.

A sneeze travels at about 100 miles per hour. A single sneeze can send 100,000 germs into the air. That means a single sneeze from someone with coronavirus can infect everyone in a single classroom, office space, or most passengers on an average domestic airplane.

Sneezing in public with your mouth wide open, as if you’re shouting, is about as sociable as picking your nose. It’s revolting. Carry plenty of tissues.

Finally, don’t panic. It serves no positive purpose. Check in on your elderly neighbours and parents and reassure them.

And don’t believe the conspiracy theories. They will only make you feel unwell - even if you’re not. As Phil Esterhaus used to say in ‘Hill Street Blues’, Let’s be careful out there.