Coronavirus

[Enzo]

Well, I wasn't going to, but now...


What goes well with Corona virus?


Lime disease.


Thank you, thank you, I'll be sick all week, try to heal.

[Arneb]

Gawd, that hurts.

[wring]

try living with him...

[Мастер]

I went into the chemist and asked;
What kills the Corona virus?
Ammonia cleaner.
Sorry, I thought you worked here . . .

Sailed right over my head . . . I get it now, though.

[Blue Monster 65]

Humor helps alleviate tension ... and then there are the jokes above.

[Richard A]

Catching up now. Yes, a Belgian friend also sent me the 2 bottles of Corona and a free Mort Subite joke. We're certainly feeling the impact of the outbreak here. A couple of weeks ago, two weeks' teaching I was due to do in Singapore got moved online: I record the lectures in London and post them as well as setting class exercises for what would have been the tutorials. That's a simple inconvenience - although the students don't see it that way, they may do as more and more universities in Singapore are going over to online lectures. In London itself, the nastiest aspect has been the increase in anti-Chinese racism. Thankfully, Yi hasn't personally experienced any of it, but some of our students have, including one assaulted in a shopping centre less than 10 minutes' walk from campus. And that's not an isolated case.

[Richard A]

On the other hand, we are - so far, at least - nothing like the situation in Italy. A friend posted a blog from a doctor working in a hospital in Bergamo - which made me think of Arneb. Good to see from earlier posts that Arneb's hospital hasn't been too badly affected - if patients needing treatment are being sent to the Charité, it must be a different story there.

Oh shit - just seen breaking news that someone's just died of covid-19 in Bali. And Indonesia hadn't so far been on the Public Health England hot spot list (unlike pretty much all other SE Asian countries). Let's see how that develops.

[Arneb]

if patients needing treatment are being sent to the Charité, it must be a different story there.

That was, what, two weeks ago? The new situation is that Germany has gone from the isolated cases, herd in all contacts scenario to the start of an epidemic. We may be able to still transfer our first patients into bigger hospitals, but this will have to be taken care of locally.

[Lianachan]

First covid-19 death in Scotland confirm today, in Heid’s half of the country. We’re up to 60 confirmed cases now.

[Lianachan]

Case in the Highlands now, and I know people who are self-isolating due to symptoms. Conference in a fortnight cancelled, as is the university trip to Shetland in April.

[Heid the Ba]

I’m not self isolating yet, but plans are in place for if/when we have to shut the office. Speaking of which our female partner is planning to get married in Italy in the summer and flew out to Rome three weekends ago when the virus was apparently confined to the North. This caused some outrage in the office, particularly with one of the older women. The partner was very blasé about risks. This week, when the partner’s brother was running a fever and had a cough but wasn’t eligible for a test she was appalled. The older woman who had disapproved of the Rome trip flew out to Spain on Friday . . .

[Arneb]

It isn't irresponsible when I do it, right?

[Heid the Ba]

Exactly. Older woman may well be stuck there for a while.

The Mem’s parents spend their winters in Spain and are due to fly back in a couple of weeks, my suggestion is that even if they can they should stay since hopefully Spain should be on top of it by then and the UK will just be hitting its stride. They are in their 80s with underlying health issues.

[Arneb]

I'd support this suggestion. Although we don't even know if there will be any flights in a few week's time. If there are, they will be quite the virus-slinger. So I'd say either come home right fucking now and hope for the best or try to tough it out in, well, at least reclusion in Spain and hope not to have to be admitted into a Spanish hospital when Corona is in full swing.

[Heid the Ba]

Their nearest big hospital is Benidorm, which has a great A&E for patching up casualties and a great geriatric department for the snowbirds with their heart attacks and broken hips. Anything else is a bit hit and miss though the Spanish health service is pretty good.

[Arneb]

If you feel you need a bit more viral load closer to home, the English National Leagueis having none of the recent sissy stuff and bravely continues to play. Sweaty, panting men frolicking together after a goal, exalted football fans sharing a bear hug, strong and valiant men sharing close quarters in the sanitary facilities during the interval - if you love all this, English Fourth League football matches are the place to be, next match day starting tomorrow.

[Lianachan]

Coronavirus is for darkies and krauts, not for plucky Brits who survived the blitz and by Jove will survive this too.

[Enzo]

Raw thuh

[Arneb]

Coronavirus is for darkies and krauts, not for plucky Brits who survived the blitz and by Jove will survive this too.

Here's to keeping the upper lip stiff! True Englishmen will not let a few molecules of RNA, protein and lipid junk get in the way of a splendid afternoon out with the lads.

[Lance]

Hey Arneb, can I get your thoughts on this? It makes sense, but unlike most people, I'd like to know if it's true before sharing it out.

Feeling confused as to why CoVid-19 is a bigger deal than Seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell.

It has to do with RNA sequencing...i.e., genetics.

Seasonal flu is an “all human virus.” The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year and you get immunity through one of two ways...either through exposure to the virus (herd immunity) or by getting the seasonal flu shot.

Novel viruses, on the other hand, come from animals...the World Health Organization (the WHO) tracks novel viruses in animals (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1 and birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But once one of these animal viruses mutates and starts to transfer from animals to humans...then it’s a problem... But, why? It is because we have no natural or acquired immunity. The RNA sequencing of the genes inside the virus isn’t human, therefore the human immune system doesn’t recognize it, and so our immune systems basically have to work from square one in order to fight it off.

Now sometimes the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human and for years its only transmission is from an infected animal to a human before it finally mutates so that it can transfer human to human. And, once that happens, we have a new contagion phase. Then, depending on many factors of the new mutation, attributes like "how contagious" or "how deadly" vary in the new mutation. Those effects take time to measure.

H1N1 was deadly...but it did not mutate in a way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. Its RNA was slower to mutate and it attacked its host differently, too.

Fast forward.

Now, here comes this CoVid-19...it existed in animals only (for who knows how long) but one day, at an animal market in Wuhan China, in approximately November/December of 2019, it mutated and made the jump from animal to human. At first, only animals could give it to a person. But here is the scary part. In merely TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability, “slippery”.

CoVid-19, not being in any form a “human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or acquired immunity), took off like a rocket. And this was because humans have no known immunity and doctors have no known medicines for it. And this particular mutated animal virus changed itself in such a way that it causes great damage to human lungs.

That’s why CoVid-19 is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1 or any other type of influenza. This one is slippery AF. And it’s a lung eater...And, it’s already mutated AGAIN, and we now have two strains to deal with, strain S and and strain L.

We really have no tools in our shed to deal with this. History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places has helped in the past pandemics. Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918 and they were the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu.

Factoid: Henry VIII stayed in his room and allowed no one near him, till the Black Plague passed. Just like us, he had no tools in his shed, except social isolation.

And right now it’s hitting older folks and the immunosuppressed harder...and this genome is so slippery...if it mutates again (and it will) who is to say what it will do next.

Be smart people...acting flippant is not sexy right now. And panicking is equally as gross.

#flattenthecurve. Stay home, stay clean, stay positive...and share this to those that just are not catching on.

[Arneb]

I haven't gone through in detail, but there are lots of shaky generalizations, half-truths, nonsense, and a few correct facts. I see no merit dissimenating this. The CDC, or CNN, the WashPo, or NYT, they must have their well-checked, facts-based general-interest pages on this. Refer your pals to the pros. Theses musings are, at best, half-baked.

And don't forget to wash your hands.

[Heid the Ba]

The one that jumps out at me is that the Black Death was two centuries before Henry VIII.

[Lianachan]

The one that jumps out at me is that the Black death was two centuries before Henry VIII.

There was a mysterious "sweating sickness" then, but if that's what they mean they should probably say that.

[Heid the Ba]

Could a Mod change the thread title? Either to Covid 19 or Coronavirus? Thanks.

[Enzo]

Wait, wasn't the rebel base on Covid 19? We are leading the Empire right to them...