I was listening in to a conversation between two co-workers today.

[smirkymonkey]

There was hardly anyone in the office (A lot of ppl. WFH on Friday) so it was quiet, and he sits in my corral (4 cubes to a corral) and she sits in the one next to us, so I wasn't exactly eavesdropping. I wasn't really paying attention to their conversation until I heard him say, "The Coronavirus is really just the flu. It has the same symptoms and it hasn't really killed that many people, so I just think the media is over-reacting."

She agreed with him and they were kind of just laughing over the whole thing and thought it was completely blown out of proportion. It surprised me coming from her especially since she has a 2-year-old toddler and is about 4 or 5 months pregnant. I would think she would take it a little more seriously.

I don't know their political affiliation and they didn't really get into it - I couldn't really hear some of the other things they were saying because there were some other people having a conversation nearby so I couldn't catch everything, but these are very well educated people so I was surprised that they were so, well, what I would consider ignorant about the topic.

I am certainly not panicking, or even very worried at this stage, but I trust that doctors, health professionals and scientists probably know a lot more about this than any of us and I don't see any reason to dismiss their concerns.

It just really surprised me. I think it's going to be a tough sell convincing many people that they need to take precautions over the next few months. Trump and his team of idiots are not helping things at all.

[MFM008]

1. they will most likely find out

soon enough.
I wonder will they laugh then.

[Just_Vote_Dem]

2. So it's basically a flu more virulent than our usual strains? n/t

[summer_in_TX]

28. The coronavirus is a different family from the influenza viruses.

There are the common cold alpha-coronaviruses. Mostly mild symptoms unless individuals develop pneumonia. Then there are beta-coronaviruses that seem to be more virulent. SARS, MERS, COVID-19. They apparently are crossing over from other species and may originate in bat populations.

There are three other families of coronaviruses but humans are not susceptible to them, as I understand it from rather limited research I did in the last couple of days.

I'm very glad this isn't MERS. Scary, scary numbers, but apparently not very easy human-to-human transmission.

Not that this one isn't serious.

Sure wish we had a competent president relying on experts in heading up the response.

[summer_in_TX]

32. It's unrelated to the influenza virus.

The common cold comes from various alpha-coronaviruses.Mostly mild symptoms unless individuals develop pneumonia. Maybe 1-2 in a million die from side-effects.

Then there are beta-coronaviruses that seem to be more virulent. SARS, MERS, COVID-19. They apparently are crossing over from other species and may originate in bat populations.

There are three other families of coronaviruses but humans are not susceptible to them, as I understand it from rather limited research I did in the last couple of days.

I'm very glad this isn't MERS. Scary, scary numbers, but apparently not very easy human-to-human transmission.

Not that this one isn't serious.

Sure wish we had a competent president relying on experts in heading up the response.

[dawg day]

3. The fear for me is that there is no one-- no one-- worse for a crisis like this than Trump

And his useless, thoughtless, careless lackeys, who care about NOTHING but pumping up his impotent ego.

All he can think about is lying and blaming everyone else. The worse this gets, the worse he'll get.

[Skittles]

6. yes

no one in TRUMP INC is working for America, they're all desperately trying to please their manbaby

[Skittles]

4. I bet neither one of them gets the flu shot

yup

[appalachiablue]

5. Look at this new Coronavirus post; wish you could leave it on

their desks somehow!

Business Insider: The Trump administration has barred the top US disease expert from speaking freely to the public after he warned the coronavirus may be impossible to contain, https://www.democraticunderground.com/~mpreorder

[smirkymonkey]

9. So do I. I really don't think public health experts would be sounding the alarm if they didn't

think this was more serious than the flu. I'm not a doctor or a scientist, so I am going to defer to the experts on this one. And the last people I am going to listen to are any members of the "know-nothing" Trump administration.

[gratuitous]

7. Quick response

"Boy, I don't know about that. From what I've read and researched on line, public health folks aren't sure how the virus is spread, what its incubation period is, or even how many people have been exposed. Not a lot of certainty out there, and a number of people have died. I know I'm going to wash my hands frequently with soap and hot water, and avoid touching my face. Precautions that are easy enough to take."

[keithbvadu2]

20. People cant shake hands in China due to Coronavirus. So they found another way.

People cant shake hands in China due to Coronavirus. So they found another way.

Genuine or just a prank?

https://i.imgur.com/X6ZyJFg.mp4

[Totally Tunsie]

38. Genuine. Elbow bumping is another alternate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbow_bump

The elbow bump is an informal greeting where two people touch elbows. Interest in this greeting was renewed during the avian flu scare of 2006 and the 2009 swine flu outbreak, and the Ebola outbreak of 2014 when health officials supported its use to reduce the spread of germs

[dewsgirl]

8. My DIL is 7 months pregnant and my step granddaughter

is 6, I am living with them while my son is deployed in Qatar. I haven't really mentioned how alarmed I've been lately about CV, I didn't want to worry her. To my shock, she brought it up earlier, followed by but the flu. I just kind of let it go, but was stunned by her comments.

[smirkymonkey]

10. I suppose some people won't be convinced until there is a higher body count, unfortunately.

Hopefully, things won't get that out of control. For everybody's sake.

[dewsgirl]

11. I hope not. I keep telling people, I hope you are right and I truly

hope they are.

[CaptYossarian]

13. America won't react until a celebrity gets it.

The next Arthur Ashe or Rock Hudson.

Meanwhile, we'll just be hearing a polite chorus of "Isn't that a shame?"

[lostnfound]

12. I heard the exact same thing today. Nt

[tblue37]

14. The 1918 Spanish flu killed at least 40-50 million people, possibly as many as 100 million.

It had a 10%-20% mortality rate. The swine flu had a 10% mortality rate.

https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-mortality-rate-covid-19-fatalities-ebola-sars-mers-1489466

snip

SARS and MERS —fellow members of the large coronavirus family of viruses which now includes COVID-19—have mortality rates of around 10 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

snip

Each year, at least 29,000-80,000 people in the US die from regular seasonal flu, and about 500,000 did worldwide. That's with just a 0.1% mortality rate.

The 1918 Spanish flu, with a 2%-3% mortality rate (the same as CoVid-19!) killed 3%-6% of the entire global population!

The flu can also have long-term effects in those who don't die from it.

So even seasonal flu is nothing to sneeze at (joke intended). CoVid-19, with 20-30 times the mortality rate is much more dangerous.

[smirkymonkey]

16. I have a feeling that by the time people start taking this seriously, it will be too late to

effectively contain it.

[StarryNite]

22. Kinda like Climate Change.

For so many people if they don't think it affects them directly then they just go about their merry way...until...

[Mariana]

23. I think that ship has already sailed. nt.

[maxsolomon]

15. It is not Influenza.

It is in the same family as the Cold Virus.

Like SARS.

[smirkymonkey]

17. I know that. But a lot of people don't believe that.

They refuse to believe that there is any real danger and are not taking the warnings seriously.

[maxsolomon]

18. Downplaying risk is Human Nature.

Given basically all of Human History, it is unlikely that most will change their self-destructive behavior until they are forced to, or it is too late.

After all, bad things only happen to the undeserving!

[Different Drummer]

31. If Trump doesn't take it seriously--and, obviously, he doesn't--they don't.

[keithbvadu2]

19. Dr Trump can diagnose it as just another cold like he diagnosed TBI to be just a headache.

[barbtries]

21. i work with a chemist with a PhD.

he mentioned how many thousands of people die from the flu every year, as if to expect this to be no different. i say it's fox news. this guy is a scientist yet he'll take trump's word over other scientists. go figure.

whistling past the graveyard.

at least we can discuss our differences. his boogeyman is taxes; he apparently thinks he shouldn't have to pay any. it burns him up that he does. but how this pet peeve of his translates into trump worship can only be explained by years of limiting his news viewing to fox.

kinda funny the other day: we were about to have a zoom meeting with a 3rd party and as i sat down to my computer i realized I'm wearing a t-shirt that has "RESIST" plastered across the front of it. so i told him i did and he was immediately, we won't do the video.

[smirkymonkey]

24. That just baffles me. I cannot understand how a scientist would think that way.

There is some serious cognitive dissonance going on there.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

27. Are you saying that thousands of people don't die from the flu every year?

Huh.

[smirkymonkey]

29. No. Not at all. What I am saying is that just because thousands of people die from the

flu every year doesn't mean we shouldn't take this virus seriously. There is still so much we don't know about it and we don't have a grip on it yet. The two should not be compared. They are different viruses and behave very differently in the human body. There is a vaccine for the flu and we don't have one yet for the coronavirus.

It still doesn't mean that the common flu isn't a killer. It is. But it is more of a known quantity, whereas this virus is not. We still don't know the potential yet.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

30. While there has been a spread of this coronavirus around the world,

we're not really seeing a spike in death rates. Yes, it seems to have a fatality rate somewhat higher than regular influenza, although what that really is we don't know yet.

[smirkymonkey]

33. Hopefully, the panic is overblown.

The only thing that concerns me is that health experts seem to be much more alarmed than you would expect from the statistics that have been presented. I don't get it. I really don't. It seems incongruous. Which is why I think we aren't being fully informed. Still, I'm not worried yet. I guess we will have to just wait and see.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

36. You're right about the health experts, or at least some of them.

Others have said that while it seems to have a higher death rate than regular flu, it's not really so far out there.

There's also a bit of a problem of the boy who cried wolf. The drumbeat of "The next flu season could be as bad as 1918" has been in the air for several decades now. I honestly think that in first world countries at least, a comparably lethal flu still wouldn't be as awful given improvements in things like indoor plumbing.

And of course, the biggest thing with the 1918 flu is that it struck down young adults the way it did. That's the big anomaly. But again, to keep numbers in perspective, this country's population back then was about 105 million people. From what I find on line, about 28 million are believed to have gotten sick, and about 675,000 died. My little calculator says that's about 2.4% of those who got it, and about six tenths of one percent of the entire population. Not to trivialize those numbers, far more people didn't get it than did, and far more survived than died.

Oh, and that 2.4% is real close to what the current published death rate for the corona virus is.

[ibegurpard]

25. And what good will running around hair on fire do?

What is it you expect people who aren't taking it seriously enough to do?

[smirkymonkey]

26. Like I said, I am not terribly worried about it personally.

But I think it's foolish to ignore the warnings of public health experts completely. People should take it seriously, but not panic. However to dismiss it out of hand is kind of foolish especially when we don't have all the facts. It can't hurt to err on the side of caution.

[Ziggysmom]

34. It's a Witches Spell, just like the Witch Hunt going after Trump (LOL)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/25/limbaugh-coronavirus-trump/



Rush Limbaugh on coronavirus: ‘The common cold’ that’s being ‘weaponized’ against Trump

[smirkymonkey]

35. Too many people believe that.

It's kind of sick. There are just too many stupid people in this country. Do they really believe that this is a worldwide conspiracy?

[lunasun]

37. Maybe at trumps rallies they can cough in each other's faces to prove it and stick it to the liberal

media helping spread this hoax . Yep they will show us
Lock her up is so old school maybe Cough it out no trump virus chant
Or something

[Duppers]

39. You don't know their political affiliation?

I do. Anyone ignoring warnings and diminishing the severity of this virus is listening to GOP/Christofacist RW
propaganda. You can bet on it.

I urge everyone to read and listen to this most informative interview:


Rachel Interview with NYT Medical Journalist on the CoVid-19 virus

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/maddow-guest-predicts-one-third-of-congress-will-catch-coronavirus-and-capitol-hill-will-close/