Coronavirus Part V - 34 cases in ROI, 16 in NI (as of 10 March) *Read warnings in OP*

Saint Ruth wrote: »

But it peaked and declined in China due to draconian measures, tens of millions of people in lockdown for weeks, people dragged off by the police if they broke quarantee, and a 17% fall in exports.

Sure, I've no doubt there would be 20-30 cases in Ireland if this country went into lockdown on that scale today, or soon enough, but there'll be a lot more than 20-30 deaths if we carry on as usual with a "it'll all be grand" or "sure it's only a bit of a flu".
E.g. Hong Kong's schools have been closed for a month and they've only had 114 cases

No two countries are alike.

Ireland is not Bologna or Wuhan - there can be all sorts of environmental reasons why a virus might transmit quickly in one region but not in another.

gabeeg wrote: »

It's good that they've had the bejaysius scared out of them, but they've wasted a couple of really valuable weeks.

While I think they’d done some work it’s was pretty clear that the seriousness of this only dawned on them over the weekend. Although I’m not sure what we could’ve done differently to be honest apart from stopping flights. Even if the science says it doesn’t make a difference it would have reassured people and the Italians are fcuked anyway so what difference does it make.

facehugger99 wrote: »

Go and enjoy yourself for God's sake.

90% of this thread are preparing for a zombie apocalypse so asking for advice here is an useless.

That was the exact advice given on RTE Radio 1 for people with holidays booked in Northern Italy at the end of last month. "Gwaaan way and enjoy yerself"

SusieBlue wrote: »

Have flights to NYC booked for April. Today is the last day I can cancel my hotel for free, what would Boardsies do?
We're getting a really good deal and I know I won't find a better price but at the rate this virus is escalating I don't think I'll be going regardless. I don't know what to do.

New York seems to have a very sizeable outbreak. I'd be very concerned about how it till be there by April.
I'd cancel. Especially if you can do it for free.

kilns wrote: »

164 new cases in Switzerland in the last 24 hours which mean 476 cases in total now

And they're 4 days ahead of us, getting their first confirmed case in the 25th of February, while we got one on the 29th.

With roughly double our population, will we expect c.250 cases in 4 days time?

I guess that's kind of a rhetorical question. Playing it out in my own mind. Either we will, and it'll follow those lines on a per capita basis.

Or we won't, and are actually doing an alright job of awareness and slowing spread, or there's some issue with tests.

Then there's other factors, Switzerland's proximity to Northern Italy, and I'm guessing a lot more transient population due to its central location/freight/free movement.

I'm not making any point as such, just a genuinely curious observation. Is Switzerland a good benchmark to base ourselves off? Or perhaps Slovakia is, given its similar population size, but then again they got their case later than us.

Human nature being what it is, the more drastic social distancing measures will only work on a large scale when people see an actual risk in their locality. That is obviously too late in a way, but I think that is just how many people react. Probably the same myself to be honest.
Just look at the lack of global response over the years to climate change. Until there is evidence people see or feel themselves it is easy to ignore.
Until we see neighbours down with the flu and hospitals turning people away it will be hard to enforce the more extreme measures.

The Italian population may accept the shutdown now but I guarantee the government would not have been able to enforce it 2 weeks ago. No EU country is a police state, draconian measures will require public buy in.

Wibbs wrote: »

I hate to break it to you, but long before this virus quite the number of dying people in hospitals ended up dying alone, mostly out of practicalities or just pure dumb luck, like passing away in the middle of the night, or when relatives weren't visiting.

In fairness, I think that in most cases if a grandparent died and then the father was in hospital with the same illness a daughter would be justified to be a little upset at not being able to get home.

Eliana Uptight Caterpillar wrote: »

I mean clearly from your previous posting here telling people they're overreacting, you think it's fine, so surely you can make your own mind up.

Aha! You will find I have been taking the piss out of a few hysterical folk who needed to be calmed/ridiculed a little, and will make no apologies for it either, and I might even keep it up when I've the time too.


This has always been a serious issue, you will not find a single post from me stating anything otherwise, go ahead - look for one.

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

Supposed to be going to Munich for the weekend for some boozin'/touristin', thoughts?...

give it a few more days. At the moment theres no community spread, so no need to overly worry. From the looks of it all cases around Munich are traceable to spins to Italy and those people and their families, and schools, are in home quarantine. They wont be on the p1ss in the pubs spreading the virus!

This weekend is 2 weeks since the end of the midterm break so any lingering cases among that surge of families coming back should be seen now in the next few days.

BTW, the parade is off (postponed actually) as well as the concerts afterwards, as it was banned by the city council as part of the moves against any event with over 1000 people attending.