quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
While the typical flue virus can survive for up to 24 hours on an object, COVID 19 virus appears able to live for 72 hours in room temperature on surfaces where it lands. So use common sense avoid touching your eyes and mouth with your hands and wash your hands often, especially after touching high touch objects in public places like door knobs, shopping cart handles, etc.

It can live up to 9 days on inanimate surfaces under the right conditions.

https://www.journalofhospitali...(20)30046-3/fulltext

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
But read this Twitter thread about conditions in Italian hospitals because the spread wasn't stomped on early and hard:

https://twitter.com/silviast9/.../1236933818654896129

Yes, for anyone who is truly interested in what can happen, it is worth the read.
The thing that had thus far been given only slight attention, though, is that “stomping” on epidemics isn’t as easy in the West as it was in China. Even when I read about Italy’s response I can only wonder how the measures they took would be received in the U.S.

What's the over under on when the hysteria will die down?
Seems to me that it's too far out of the bag with a possible 2 week incubation, to stop it at this point.
Life needs to go on at some point and let the chips fall where they may.

Just got back from a conference is San Francisco. Downtown was a ghost town last week. The organizers of the conference were on the fence for canceling, but went with it anyways. The overseas folks were on flights before their institution's travel bans. Nobody was deeply concerned, many discounted the severity of the virus, calling it overblown.

The hotel folks said that we were the last conference of the month; everyone else cancelled, including many in April. I understand the other large hotels are facing similar cancellations. I was out in North Beach and it was almost deserted, very few pedestrians and cars on Friday and Saturday nights. Popular restaurants like the Stinking Rose and House of Nanking were almost empty.

Everybody needs to get a grip.

quote:

Just got back from a conference is San Francisco.

Did you see the Grand Princess come in?

^^^^ One of my favorite books as a kid!!

Damn you guys are quick, my post was meant to mean I really liked the book Andromeda Strain

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
The thing that had thus far been given only slight attention, though, is that “stomping” on epidemics isn’t as easy in the West as it was in China. Even when I read about Italy’s response I can only wonder how the measures they took would be received in the U.S.

Italy just went full Rainbow Six.

quote:

Coronavirus: Italy extends strict quarantine measures nationwide

7 minutes ago

Italy is extending its strict coronavirus quarantine measures, which include a ban on public gatherings, to the entire country.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that people would only be permitted to travel for work or family emergencies.

He said the measures, which come into effect on Tuesday, were to defend the most fragile members of society.

Italy's coronavirus death toll jumped on Monday by 97 to 463. It is the worst-hit country after China

In a televised address on Monday, Mr Conte said that the best thing for the citizens of Italy was to stay at home.

He added that all sporting events - including football matches - were being suspended nationwide.

The restrictions are similar to those earlier applied to the worst affected Lombardy region, and 14 other provinces.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51810673

These are the same people who imprisoned geologists for not being able to predict earthquakes. We're not talking about critical thinkers.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
What's the over under on when the hysteria will die down?
Seems to me that it's too far out of the bag with a possible 2 week incubation, to stop it at this point.
Life needs to go on at some point and let the chips fall where they may.

My totally un-educated and un-informed guess would be sometime in May when it warms up everywhere in the Northern hemisphere that it will die off just like the FLU normally does every year.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
These are the same people who imprisoned geologists for not being able to predict earthquakes. We're not talking about critical thinkers.

Better than successfully predicting earthquakes and being burned at stake as witches!

quote:

Originally posted by wreckdiver:
^^^^ One of my favorite books as a kid!!

Damn you guys are quick, my post was meant to mean I really liked the book Andromeda Strain

Mine too. Read most of his books. Sphere was my favorite.

I swear, in my adult life, I've never seen anything as shameful and idiotic as the reactions I'm seeing to this particular coronavirus.

I just want to shake the whole earth and smack it across the face like that hysterical woman in the movie Airplane!

If you haven't been by Drudge in the last couple days, don't go. A totally manic, visual representation of hair being on fire.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
What's the over under on when the hysteria will die down?
Seems to me that it's too far out of the bag with a possible 2 week incubation, to stop it at this point.
Life needs to go on at some point and let the chips fall where they may.

My totally un-educated and un-informed guess would be sometime in May when it warms up everywhere in the Northern hemisphere that it will die off just like the FLU normally does every year.

It was in the mid 90's in Singapore when it sprung up there. Might be wishful thinking.

Jim

In Italy...

463 deaths from about 9000 confirmed cases.

Pretty high death rate.

They just closed the whole freakin country.

Maybe an opportune time, with a lull in the action, for a brief primer on viruses, my POV only.  Viruses, as a biological species, are the most numerous "living" things on the planet.  And maybe anywhere else.  Except they may not be exactly "living," at least what we consider "life."  They consist, basically, of either a strand of DNA (double helix) or RNA (single strand), surrounded by a protein and sometimes a lipid coat.  That's it.  No brain, no head and no tail (as such), no heart (figuratively or literally), no lungs, no eyes, no hands, no feet, no legs.  No cells even - a hundred times smaller than a bacterium.  They don't eat, they don't sleep, they don't even move independently (except by some debatable mechanism that is probably artifact). Nothing that would make you in a passing thought think that they were alive.  So they probably can't die, since they are very arguably not alive.

They do only one thing, as far as we know.  They replicate their DNA/RNA strand.  And they can't even do that outside a living host cell - they're not even called viruses outside a cell, but virions.  They're like a defective Star Trek replicator, that can only replicate one thing - itself.  And sometimes imperfectly.  But they do that one thing astonishingly well, with an unbelievable variety of shapes and mechanisms designed for one purpose - to enter a host cell, plant or animal, subvert its function, and use its natural resources to build more DNA/RNA strands exactly like itself.  Then exit the cell, usually destroying it, to infect other cells, making more copies. And getting to the next host, through the air, through the ground, through exchanged fluids.  It's incredibly simple, yet incredibly complex.  Some virions are specific to a single species, a single type of cell membrane.  How does it "know" to do this? How did it evolve?  Why did it evolve?

No one knows how old they are - did single cells come first, or viruses?  A debate for decades, but now, very possibly, evidence may show they were the first.  The first "thing" that assembled bases from the primordial soup - or maybe the bases assembled themselves - to "create"...something else.  And maybe a few of those twisted bases, collectively at some time, aggregated into something more complex, and specialized functions, like building a cell wall to protect themselves.  And maybe their still-existing ancient relatives "learned" how to invade and prey on them.  We still don't know how life began - or begins - from a cooled ball of rock orbiting a star, with a little water on it and some chemicals floating around in it.  Maybe this was it.  Maybe - my own thoughts - they are us.

quote:

Originally posted by StarTraveler:
...Atlanta area Fulton County Georgia school employee...

I am not attempting to spin panic, I am simply sharing some truth based upon reported findings.

The problem with saying "Atlanta school employee," is that employee could live in a very large geographic area if said person commutes. This still holds true, however based upon it only being Fulton County at this time, chances are the employee is a resident of that county.

edited to add "area" for clarity

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ffips,

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
Italy just went full Rainbow Six.

ITYM full Executive Decisions, if you meant the Tom Clancy novel where President Jack Ryan shut the entire country down for non-essential travel.