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(La Tasca) Coronavirus

175K views 3K replies 59 participants last post by  olivefarmer 
#1 ·
Coronavirus

I had an interesting conversation today about the spreading of the Coronavirus and the lockdown of whole cities, towns etc. The question posed to me was "Has it put you off going to the Chinese restaurants? " adding that some ingredients would most likely be imported from China. I must admit that it made me think about it....

Any opinions?

Steve
 
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#4 ·
My attitude changed with the news of the first death in Paris. From memory, the chinese woman who dies there had been in China up to mid January, became ill a few weeks later and eventually died in hospital mid February.

So presumably, she had been "OK" and mixing with people while carrying the virus for a couple of weeks at least.

At that point I started to wonder if mixing with people who had a higher probability of being in contact with others who had been in China recently was a good idea.

But that's as far as it went, just a though. In the end we ordered a Chinese takeaway this weekend anyway.

Being realistic, now that the virus in in Europe, it will spread regardless. We could maybe try to avoid Chinese restaurants, but avoiding Chinese AND Italian is just a step too far!
 
#5 ·
I ate at a Chinese restaurant recently, didn't get Coronavirus but got food poisoning.

Whilst I wouldn't do potentially high risk things like holidaying in Wuhan I'm not thinking of minimizing risk. There are so many ways you can meet your untimely end ranging from not looking when you cross the road to flying on dodgy eastern European airlines to eating pork and noodles at our local Chinese.

I think we tend to worry too much about things we really can't do much about.:)
 
#6 · (Edited)
If the virus could attach itself to dried noodles or the plastic tat you get in the bazaars I might think twice. But as far as I know you can only get it via airborne water droplets, i.e. from an infected person coughing or sneezing over you.

I had a horrible dose of "normal" flu after Christmas and at times I could hardly breathe. I'm sure all the kissing and hugging doesn't help. But how to avoid it without appearing rude?
 
#8 ·
Wear a mask;) I wonder if the virus is more widespread than we think. The sudden surge in Italy, Iran etc. A guy who has had it speaking on TV said it was unpleasant but no worse than other flu type winter bugs. Most do not go to GPs unless there are complications so the authorities would not know for a while. Hopefully it will lessen as the spring cometh.
 
#7 · (Edited)
From what I have seen just like the common cold virus, it can be transferred via objects which have been touched or coughed or sneezed on by an infected person. Hence advice to frequently wash hands

However, the life of the virus on objects is well below the time it takes to transport food products from China to Europe. Unless by air !

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-qu...o-bacteria-and-viruses-live-outside-the-body/

PS. I am avoiding unnecessary contact with Chinese shops, restaurants etc. We are aware that the owners and staff at establishments we use visit and have visitors from China. Maybe over the top but for me a bit like looking both ways before crossing the road. No need to take unnecessary risks. My Filipino wife has noticed people avoiding her
 
#9 ·
Yes, a Neighbour is Chinese, married to a Brit guy for over 30 years' She has been President of the WI for a while and is staying away as she had relatives over until late Jan. not necessary but she feels as if she should. I am avoiding everyone, have a touch of hypochondria. Went to our monthly womens dinner last week and there was definitely no kissy kissy;) Feel sorry for the health workers, bet they are overloaded.
 
#12 ·
Most of the masks I have seen being worn might possibly prevent ærosols being projected towards others in the event of a cough or sneeze but do little to prevent the ingress of airborne particles. I wear a mask when the olive pollen starts but it encloses my nose and mouth and has a filter to allow air to enter for breathing but pollen particles are huge by comparison with airborne germs.
 
#15 ·
Off topic but has anyone read Albert Camus book the Plague. Mainly deals with social unrest when there were pandemics. Studied it for A level Social and economic history. Could happen now if they don't get a grip. Was unrest during cholera outbreaks too. Then there was the Black death.

Adios:D
 
#66 ·
Perhaps you would do better using your time to learn Spanish. This reads for the most part like a basic travel advisory, except they have missed a fair few countries. There is nothing that is really significant in this article, except perhaps a little common sense. Maybe Google translate hasn't done a good job for you :confused:
 
#58 ·
The coronavirus is a form of flu virus. Seasonal virus flu can lead to death. The main difference is we have a vaccination for seasonal flu but not for the coronavirus. This means a much higher amount of people will be affected and a much higher number of deaths will occur. Flu virus cannot be prevented once you are affected so there is no cure. However every year many of us are not vaccinated against flu. Why not? Well simply because we dont feel it poses a huge risk to life and secondly its spread rate is controlled my many more vulnerable persons being vaccinated. So in reality this virus is in itself no more deadly than seasonal flu but its ability to spread is higher increasing the overall number of deaths which in turn, when reported incessantly, increases the sense of worry.
 
#59 ·
The coronavirus is a form of flu virus. Seasonal virus flu can lead to death. The main difference is we have a vaccination for seasonal flu but not for the coronavirus.
I think the flu vaccine is based on what's happened previously. It never fully vaccinates against the strain that's going around as they never know what strain of flu is going to hit each year.
I think a lot of the "worry" about Coronavirus is that it's new, so they don't know how it will develop and if it will mutate into something stronger before they can stop its spread
 
#61 ·
At the end of the day the real harm is the mass hysteria. The virus is new but it belongs to a well studied family of Corona- viruses so it is not a new unfamiliar virus. A vaccination will be found but the necessity to check its safety will take time. During this period a large number of deaths will be recorded and reported. However what wont be reported are the number of deaths occurring through other contagious diseases that exist out there.Ebola for example still has outbreaks in parts of Africa. It is far more dangerous and has no cure but as the media has grown bored with it our own feelings of fear have abated but for no logical reasons.
Funny how people are prepared not to inoculate their children against Measles and smallpox ( really dangerous) but no doubt will want to be first in the queue for a Corona vaccination I imagine.
 
#69 ·
At the end of the day the real harm is the mass hysteria. The virus is new but it belongs to a well studied family of Corona- viruses so it is not a new unfamiliar virus. A vaccination will be found but the necessity to check its safety will take time. During this period a large number of deaths will be recorded and reported. However what wont be reported are the number of deaths occurring through other contagious diseases that exist out there.Ebola for example still has outbreaks in parts of Africa. It is far more dangerous and has no cure but as the media has grown bored with it our own feelings of fear have abated but for no logical reasons.
Funny how people are prepared not to inoculate their children against Measles and smallpox ( really dangerous) but no doubt will want to be first in the queue for a Corona vaccination I imagine.
Not to mention Baldi's individual hysteria which he is trying so hard to spread via this forum :(
 
#62 ·
Consider also how news events are evaluated. Our perception of the world in very clearly shaped by information evaluation which in this day and age is vast. For example how would the British press have dealt with this during the Brexit- Election period? Or imagine how your perception toward this danger would alter if there was a large terrorist attack? In other words the level of danger is not always equatable to the perceived threat
 
#63 ·
Actually just looked at The Sun's front page: 80% of uk people will( could) be infected.Half a million to die. NHS brought to its knees. This is how news works. Make no mistake, The Sun has its eyes firmly on readership ( it needs it, it is losing readers and money). This type of reporting has nothing to do with responsibility . It is all about capturing readers and fuelling their fears. The Sun might be the worse offender but even papers like The Guardian do the same. Why not have a picture of, for example, a laboratory or an electron microscope image of a virus? Because a picture of a old Chinese woman running down a street ,arms flaying at her sides , wearing a mask is alot more emotionally attractive!!!
 
#64 ·
Replies to various posts:

EH:- I may not be a medical professional (t/g) some of whom are so set in their comfort zones that they are not prepared to consider anything that is different. If I were to take note of what a medical professional said I would be completely blind, instead of using my own intelligence and schooling to devise a way of coping with the damage caused by that same "medical professional." The cardiologist in Granada thinks that high levels of triglycerides when HDL and LDL levels are normal are still down to diet not hormones and enzymes. Many medical professionals do not adapt to new thought and if we were all like that we would be using abaci instead of calculators and computers.

MM:- you are, as you so often tell us a "medical professional" and you should be aware that the first line of defence is to put a barrier between healthy and sick which is why you wear surgical masks, gloves and scrubs, i.e. containment. Washing etc. (toilets, et al) is only decontamination after the first line has failed. As far as public toilets go, we only use cafeterías where we know that a high standard of cleanliness is maintained, even so, should I need to use their facilities, I always use toilet paper/hand towel as a barrier when handling anything (including door handles) which is then taken away and disposed of either by flushing down the toilet or incineration to prevent anything being passed on. I also carry sachets of wet-wipes and alcohol gel.

I can't remember who said it about going to UK - we don't. Haven't been there for 10 years and that was only for my mother's funeral.
 
#65 ·
Replies to various posts:

EH:- I may not be a medical professional (t/g) some of whom are so set in their comfort zones that they are not prepared to consider anything that is different. If I were to take note of what a medical professional said I would be completely blind, instead of using my own intelligence and schooling to devise a way of coping with the damage caused by that same "medical professional." The cardiologist in Granada thinks that high levels of triglycerides when HDL and LDL levels are normal are still down to diet not hormones and enzymes. Many medical professionals do not adapt to new thought and if we were all like that we would be using abaci instead of calculators and computers.

MM:- you are, as you so often tell us a "medical professional" and you should be aware that the first line of defence is to put a barrier between healthy and sick which is why you wear surgical masks, gloves and scrubs, i.e. containment. Washing etc. (toilets, et al) is only decontamination after the first line has failed. As far as public toilets go, we only use cafeterías where we know that a high standard of cleanliness is maintained, even so, should I need to use their facilities, I always use toilet paper/hand towel as a barrier when handling anything (including door handles) which is then taken away and disposed of either by flushing down the toilet or incineration to prevent anything being passed on. I also carry sachets of wet-wipes and alcohol gel.

I can't remember who said it about going to UK - we don't. Haven't been there for 10 years and that was only for my mother's funeral.
Speechless:rolleyes:
 
#70 ·
Again if you look at The Sun's reporting it is done in a classic way. Half a million deaths looks damn scary except.....this is a number picked to represent a possible scenario of infection so that planners can work on various models to deal with it. It does not represent any prediction and it does not have specific time frame.
I remember when swine flu happened. An eminent immunologist appeared on radio 4 news program and said that uk deaths would possibly be as high as 250,000. I then remember hearing him talk about it some years later where he stated that 150,000 people had died of flu related illnesses since the outbreak. True but over a number of years. Not over a matter of months during the initial hysteria
 
#75 ·
Also Dean Koontz The Eyes of Darkness actually has a flu virus starting in Wuhan province...prophetic??
I doubt it, more likely because Wuhan (in Hubei Province) is the major commercial centre in central China and the major transport hub - what better place for a virus to start in a work of fiction, especially given the importance of China and its manufacturing industries to economies around the world.
 
#80 ·
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