I actually have the Flu right now (confirmed by the doc and I'm taking tamiflu) and I really have no idea how I got it. I have a regular 9-5 office job with not many co-workers. My symptoms started Wednesday night and I went to to the doc Thursday morning. After telling my wife that I'm surprised I got it she said, "Didn't you go play poker on Sunday?"

Wife wins again.

This is seemingly an elderly/sick person disease in regards to mortality, with very few other people dieing.

The economic consequences appear far more worrisome than personal health to me (i’m 40’s/not sick) .... am I getting this right?

Ontario's 24th case is from a patient who recently travelled to Vegas. No idea if they caught it there or went there and spread it

100%

Skip to 1:18 in this video. It's not that big of a deal. But by all means please go buy your $300 bottles of hand sanitizer and raid every store in the country for TP because CNN said to lose your minds.

Are people in Las Vegas noticing decidedly less play due to the coronavirus fears? I have a trip planned for March 20 - 22 and am debating canceling if the rooms are going to be dead.

Check the bravo app

One would have to assume that any voluntary social activity will be affected until there is some sort of 'control' or comfort surrounding this issue. The influence of both those very close to us as well as the normal CYA mentality within most large organizations will impact everyone somehow.

The flu shot has been around for years and yet most people don't really understand how it 'works'. This is something totally new and moving at a pace much faster than probably anything ever encountered before in health care. While one can argue that information can be put out too quickly and definitely taken too seriously, we live in a world that tends to overreact, but in this case it may very well be worth it. Slowing the spread while health care scrambles to figure this out can only help.

We already over react to 'reports' about impending weather, political, food and other influences. Let's hope that this is just something that can be addressed timely and hope for the best to those that are most at risk. GL

Check the LVL forum there is a coronavirus thread there capturing observations/predictions about lots of industries affected (poker, strip clubs, buffets, etc).

Corona without any doubt whatsoever.

Well, do you have anyone in your close, or secondary, circle of contacts that is 1) elderly, 2) immunocompromised, or 3) having a pre-existing co-morbidity factor? I am not a terribly social person, and I can think of 4 people in my immediate circle that would by high risk if I were to expose them.

And remember, you are contagious before you are symptomatic. So, maybe I go play poker, 5 days later I have a birthday dinner with my parents, 3 days after that, I start running a fever and showing other symptoms. I have just put my 70+ year old parents directly in harms way.

People seem to misunderstand how dangerous COVID-19 could be. As a pandemic, it is orders of magnitude's scarier than seasonal flu.

The risk of a virus with no herd immunity, an Ro of about 2.5, and a 3% mortality rate is huge. H1N1 was a major problem, and it's numbers are not as bad as COVID-19's. Of COVID-19 reaches the same levels as H1N1, which it could reasonably (or even exceed them), the hospital system will be overrun, and we will lose patients that could have otherwise been saved (there are a finite number of vents in the world, and we can't exactly just go out and buy more).

This trope of 'We ignore a disease that routinely kills thousands a year, so we can ignore this one that has the potential to kill ten times that' is honestly confusing to me.

It's more like "The flu this past winter killed 100x more people than coronavirus has, so no big deal!" I just smh at these people. Um, it's been in this country what, a month tops? Come back in a year and see if you're still singing the same tune.

The heat kills viruses. That's why nobody gets the flu in the summer. The heat will kill this one very soon also. Will it come back next year? Maybe but they will have vaccines by then if it persists.

Remember Zika, MERS, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, SARS? Everyone freaked out about all of those viruses and nobody even mentions them anymore. Corona will be the same way in 2 months.

China is already saying the outbreak is under control. American basketball players who play in the Chinese league have been summoned back because play is resuming. And this is at ground zero in China. A Country where sanitary conditions are much worse than the US and it is already under control after a few weeks. The panic over this is ridiculous.

And Yes, the flu has killed 20,000 Americans this season and nobody bats an eye. Anyone want a prop bet that Corona kills less than 500 people in the US this year? It will probably actually be less than 100.

I am playing.. I am not worried about cinco de mayo at all... Let's go!

The top experts are hoping but don't know if this will be the case with this virus, but (whew!) MikeStarr on 2p2 knows for sure.
Huh? There have already been over 30 deaths in the US and you think it's already nearing its ceiling?

I think there will be less than 500 deaths in the US. That's a bold statement considering 20,000 have died from the flu in the US this flu season. They dont close schools every year for the flu. They dont play professional and college basketball games with no fans in the stands every year for the flu. They don't do anything special about the flu. They just accept that 10,000s will die every year.

But my main point is that this virus is no worse than past viruses. The media is just doing everything they can to put everyone into full on panic mode and its working.

The problem is most hospitals in the US run at or near capacity. If many people contract it at the same time then hospitals won’t be able to handle the influx. Mortality rates are unlikely to get out of control, however you have to think about all the other people who need to get to the hospital, but get delayed treatment. I.e. stroke patient, where timing is everything.

Maybe we could do what China did. Build a brand new hospital in 10 days....lol

How well do you think that thing is built? Probably about as well built as the hotel that collapsed a few days ago that was housing Corona patients under quarantine.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/07/china...pse/index.html
Most things in China are substandard from health care to building codes to sanitary conditions in all but the big cities. Why do you think this **** got out of control there? No way its going to be like that here.

What are you talking about? We can’t make hospitals and doctors out of thin air. Capacity and sanitation are different things. I hope you’re right, but it’s not a laughable percent that it won’t over inundate hospitals in the US. Believe what you want.

I'm talking about the fact that China's solution to everything is a joke. Like thinking they can build a major hospital in 10 days that wont have major problems.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/w...-hospital.html

They half ass everything. Substandard building materials. Sub standard healthcare. Lead based paints...ect. The problems they have over there with a virus like this are exaggerated compared to what it will be like here.

Sure, if the virus got out of control here it would put a major strain on our hospitals but our hospitals are able to handle the flu every year. in 2018-2019 flu season, we had 43 million people get the flu. 647,000 were hospitalized and over 61,000 died.

In 2019-2020 flu season, we've had around 40 million get the flu. Somewhere around 500,000 people hospitalized and 20,000-52,000 deaths (according to the CDC). If we can handle that many flu hospitalizations, we can handle Corona.

Why are we panicking over 1000 cases of Corona and 30 deaths? That's 0.1% of flu deaths.


PS...if the CDC's estimations of flu deaths this year is a range as wide as 20,000-52,000, can we really rely on much of anything they say? Surely they can narrow it down better than that? I don't trust very many of the numbers coming out. I sure as hell dont trust the numbers coming out of China.

They are able to handle the flu because it’s a predictable influx. I don’t know why you’re so triggered about this. All anyone is saying is be more careful than usual. Is that so much to ask?

I'm tired of the media blowing everything out of proportion. People aren't just saying be more careful than usual. They are going to extremes like running the entire NCAA tournament with no fans in the stands. How about just saying "stay home if you don't feel well"?

People are buying all the water, canned goods and toilet paper up from grocery stores like the apocalypse is coming...ect and its all because the media is panicking everyone.

I'm saying there basically no more danger to anyone than there is during flu season. Wash your hands. Stay away from people who are sick and if you are elderly and/or have a compromised immune system, stay home as much as possible.

China is reporting that new cases each day are only about 5% of what they were just a few weeks ago. The virus has basically run its course in just a few weeks in conditions that are drastically substandard to ours. Corona will be all but gone by July.

the media has to drive clicks, of course they will be sensational. That’s how they generate revenue. People are morons and panic no matter what. They bought out stores for Y2K. They bought out guns when Obama was elected. Etc.

Private businesses are making the decisions to shut things down, not the government. Do you want to tel companies how to operate?

I do think we should take it upon ourselves to avoid large crowds in an abundance of caution. For instance, I am likey going to eat the cost of a concert ticket in April I was very much looking forward to. Does it suck? Yes. Is it unnecessary? Maybe. But I’m not going to avoid much else. I won’t stop going to restaurants or buying groceries.

I think your last point is misguided. Especially if your local community has known cases. There’s likely to be a high influx of hospital patients if the virus spreads rapidly. that will have ramifications for everyone who needs a hospital bed.

And I would argue most of the disinformation/panic causing is from social media, not major news outlets. As much as I’ll get flack for this, our enemies want us to panic and will spread fake news in a concerted effort as they did in 2016 to try and attack our society. It would also help if our government had a solid plan and consistent message, but they don’t.

I wont argue with that at all.