[Irinikus]

This Corona virus outbreak seems to be pretty serious and should not be taken lightly!

I'm certainly not opposed to a serious reduction of the number of people living on this planet, but I do believe that man should be given a fighting chance at survival, such a virus could strike anyone without warning, this makes it pretty scary, and definitely something to be concerned about.

What are your thoughts concerning this?

[Raion]

I believe China manufactured the virus from SARS and it accidentally got out of the lab.

They have a biowarfare facility right in Wuhan which in 2017 started studying SARS. It's my belief they made the virus mutate, and then sanitization procedures were breached and someone either got sick or carried contaminated material outside of the compound.

The "official" story is it transmitted somehow from animals like bats to people, but there's a lot of holes here:

Wuhan isn't in a bat eating area. The images circulating around online are from Palau, where bat soup is a delicacy.

Wuhan is a small but highly urbanized city compared to the rest of China so it's not like the rural areas where water buffalo, chickens, and other animals basically free-range through the streets. If anything, it's a cover-up.

This is why I believe we should destroy all known samples of eradicated viruses while keeping copies of the vaccines. Someone is going to want to test for biowarfare.

Now onto the risks. Unless you're either elderly or immunocompromised, chances are you won't get pneumonia. The virus eventually spreads in the severe cases to the liver where it shuts down the liver and this allows secondary infections to kill you, like fungus and bacteria.

I do have faith in the US healthcare system. It's expensive, but it does work, and I don't expect as many deaths stateside. The coming pandemic is a consequence of China's incompetence in handling any kind of crisis that requires fast mobilization. It'll mostly affect third world countries who don't have effective healthcare systems. Some people will die; I estimate the final death toll to be between 5,000-15,000 on the low end, and worst case 60,000-700,000. The virus only kills about 2% of its victims who develop serious symptoms. The percentage who develop serious symptoms is less than 1/3, so 2% of about 33%. It's trivial.

That is, if China is done trying to dupe us into feeding fake statistics. If they aren't and the fatality rate is more like 10-20% and symptomatic cases higher; we could be looking at millions or tens of millions dead.

[Irinikus]

I agree completely!

It's just too perfect!

The incubation period is long and the virus is shed during this period, allowing for it to spread easily and undetected.

Unlike with ebola, the host lives long enough for it to travel great distances!

China is definitely grossly underreporting, just look at the measures they have in place! (Hundreds of millions under quarantine and the widespread use of hazmat suits!) Definitely not an appropriate response to the numbers of deaths and infections they're reporting! (They're terrified of something!)

If it is indeed a weapon, then we're all in huge danger! (As if it's not natural, then a vaccine will be difficult to produce!)

---

The really big problem is the numbers of people that need to be put on Oxygen and mechanically ventilated (possibly as much as 13% of all of the cases, according to the data coming out of Italy), If millions in the US had to get infected, your health care system wouldn't be able to keep up in this regard! (No health system would!)

[Raion]

I do have an N95 mask I wear in high traffic areas like restaurants and grocery stores, so that is useful for this.

[Irinikus]

That will help, but just remember that your eyes are also mucus membrane, so they would have to be protected as well if an outbreak had to occur in your area!

[Raion]

I wear glasses most of the time, so that offers some protection.

[soviet]

if it is a bioweapon why it have such low mortality rates ?, as a weapons is not very good at all.

[Raion]

It makes sense that it would be an accidental release if it's not actually very deadly. Because it probably was not intended to be released.

That being said it already has killed more people than SARS in 2003.

[Irinikus]

if it is a bioweapon why it have such low mortality rates ?, as a weapons is not very good at all.

It depends on what they’re targeting, this thing is seriously going to weaken the already weak global economy, which will put many out of work, and lead to countless deaths in this way.

Most people are completely unaware of how fragile the global economy is at this point. An event like this could cause it to topple.

If this is this virus’s intended effect, it’s perfect, as it would be almost impossible to determine who the perpetrators are.

The core components of most of the generic drugs, used by Americans, and the world for that matter, are made in China, if this condition persists, we all could run out of generic medication, which would be potentially disastrous.

[Raion]

COVID-19 has claimed its first victim in the US, a man in WA in his 50s.

Be safe everyone, especially people in the major cities of the PNW since that appears to be where most cases are. I'm not a doctor; so all I can do is pray for people to stay healthy.