by StokeySue » February 10th, 2020, 6:17 pm
My feeling is that Wuhan coronavirus is a real concern as a new illness, Which is what the WHO says, but the risk to any of us individually is very, very, very small at present
There isn’t enough data on the mode and frequency of transmission to calculate risks (betting odds if you prefer, same thing). But the impression is that it is unusually easy to catch, and unfortunately it looks as if people are infectious before they have the slightest sense of being ill
SARS, the 2002-2003 new coronavirus fizzled out quite rapidly, with medical intervention but this seems to be behaving a bit differently.
If you catch it, obviously your chances of being left permanently damaged are obviously higher if you already have respiratory illness, but who dies when they catch a virus always seems a bit random to me, maybe a virologist would know more, but it seems to be something that struck doctors during the post WW1 flu pandemic - you couldn’t predict who would make a full recovery. Different disease of course but I think the example works.
As aero says, Li Wenliang, a previously healthy 34 year old ophthalmic surgeon died, as have other healthcare staff
On the bright side, it looks as if a vaccine of some sort can be made quite quickly.
The other worrying thing is the amount of racism being displayed towards Chinese and other Asian people in the U.K. It seems to be an excuse for some very nasty xenophobia