I remember that. You were pretty sick IIRC. The worst luck!
Yes. I’ve never worried about the hotel rooms, but I will now, I’ve worried a lot about the planes. If you fly, don’t forget to wipe all that down, too. Buckle, tray table, controls, etc.
Up side is, I might be able to get my messy youngest son to clean up his room at college. It’s taken the threat of an epidemic to do that!
But, I’m not so peeved at him for forgetting to apply for on-campus housing & ending up in a house off-campus. If this gets a toehold in any college, with the dorms & cafeterias, they’ll have to close the school.
Unbelievably, Twitter. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff, for sure. I never read the actual news, not for anything really. Although the NYT has had some good articles. But, I don’t think this is a good time to necessarily believe science reporters, even the really good ones. Your really do have to go to the scientists themselves, and they post on twitter. They are posting a lot of articles that haven’t had time to make it to publication yet, epidemic modeling and new treatments.
Follow the scientific name of the virus- #nCov2019 or #2019nCov
Do not follow anything under #coronavirus or #WuFlu the ratio of idiocy to good info is far too high.
I’ve also followed FluTrackers and have for several years, but despite being professionals, they can get a little wacky. They are a very good source of news, though. A well-organized clearinghouse.
Epidemics don’t grow linearly in the beginning. They grow exponentially. So one day everything is okey dokey, and the next week it’s all over the place. If you have seen the modeling (which I have) it is a little terrifying. That stuff is not in the news, nor should it be.
What we hope is that interventions such as travel bans will bend that curve. I do think that eventually we will all be exposed over the course of the next couple of years. Hopefully after there’s a vaccine. I have a lot of sympathy right now for the Chinese people, for sure.
Something to keep in mind…part of the reason why coronavirus and other similar outbreaks seem like all hype is because it is the hype that makes people scared enough to adhere to protocols that keep the disease from spreading.
Look how fast governments have moved to contain this…and the reporting of the rate of spreading and risk of death helps to keep people willing to stay home, or be kept in isolation, etc.
If they hadn’t been able to move so quickly, this could have grown into epidemic proportions, and the ultimate death toll would be growing significantly higher.
So, I think a little sensationalism can actually help to reduce the spread, as long as coupled with a containment plan.
I think that’s true, but it’s also the swiftness of (at least our) government response that makes me sit up and take notice. There hasn’t been a travel ban like almost in my lifetime.
China, however, brought this on themselves, on all of us. They were not swift. Despite all the laud & platitudes you might hear on the news, they screwed up royally. Big time. They’ve known about the virus for months and suppressed the info, even from their own people. It’s tragic.
Most epidemiologists don’t believe one thing that comes out of there, not the case numbers, fatalities, nothing. The one good thing they did was publish the genetic structure of the virus, that at least was helpful. We will know a lot more about it as cases mount OUTSIDE of China.
I got diagnosis with the flu the day before we were scheduled to fly home from WDW. The doctor told me I couldn’t fly. Honestly, I didn’t feel like flying 5.5 hours home. All I wanted to do was curl up in bed after the nausea stopped. When I told people, I had to spend an extra 4 nights in Florida because I had the flu, they gave me funny looks and said they have all flown when they were really sick.
I wonder if that’s because, like me, you’re British.
There is no widespread flu vaccination here. Old and vulnerable people are offered it. But it’s not an exact science. They have to predict which flu strain to vaccinate against. A regular flu shot wouldn’t protect you against coronavirus.
Public understanding of risk is woeful. And not helped by sensationalist reporting, especially of the sort that is endemic in the US.
There are far, far, far greater risks in your lives than flu. Or terrorism.
Also, for those of you who are germphobes or would like to be, bring baggies when traveling. Put the TV remote inside it. It’s hard hard to debug all those little cracks and crevices.
Good point. My friend lived in U.K. for two years while husband worked at Amazon. She had to drive higher and yon and pay out of pocket for the flu vax. She also had to pay out of pocket for some preventative dentistry features that are widely considered basic here. It is different.
People that insist upon traveling when they are seriously sick with something contagious drive me crazy. That is quite literally how crap spreads. Having lived with two different people who are/were immunocompromised makes me pay a lot more attention.
Some people are unable or unwilling to pay the airline change fee, airfare price difference, and the hotel fee for the extra nights; and/or don’t have travel insurance. Some rather be recovering in theri own beds. They don’t or can’t think of others.
