As someone with one of the underlying health conditions that have been flagged as being a major concern, I am a bit worried. As far as I know reading the news every day our area is so far unaffected, but at the first sign of it we shall be battening down the hatches.
Same here, over 50 and with my health history I wouldn't fancy my chances much. Time to crack on with those outstanding games /books I think
Not starting any trilogies though.
In theory, you should build immunity by getting it just like standard flu until it mutates.
If you get it early you really have more chance of being able to get any care before the system starts to feel the strain.
There have already been several cases of re-infection so it looks like the ability to build up immunity is much lower with Covid-19 than other similar viruses.
I'm currently in Athens and it was crazy to see a good 10-20% of people at the airport wearing masks. Clearly they have not yet heard how useless they are.
that is another big fucking headache. Summer holidays. I paid a down-payment and at least I have until end of May to decide whether to pay the balance and go.
Also I am now getting genuinely confused. People who have had it said it is like the flu but without the sneezing. At best its an annoyance. The kill ratio is 3% but mostly people who are dying seem to be over 60. The young seem to be quite resilient to it which makes a very odd virus indeed. So if I do get and its drains my energy and gives me a fever and I recover after 2 weeks - well then its not that bad....I suppose. I can see the need for isolation as the old are the biggest risk and I would hate to pass it on.
The best option is to stock up for at least 1 month (dry food is best) and go about your business and if you do get it - Netflix and all those games you wanted to play because personally I am self isolating in my study / man cave !
The govt said that worst case 80% of the population will catch it. I was reading about the Spanish Flu 100 years ago and that had similar symptoms and they put that death toll at a medium estimate of 17M worldwide. I have no idea if that is good/bad in the normal scheme of things.
Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4
I've had real flu once when I was 14 - it was fucking awful and I thought I was dying but I recovered. I'm (much) older now but in fairly decent knick so I'm not that worried about it killing me. I don't have kids so that's one less headache.
I'll repeat this one time - death is not the danger here. If 80% of our population catch it and we assume at peak that that might be 30% at once then everything will grind to a halt. Our entire infrastructure is based on JIT and shit might get very hairy for a period of time as large chunks of the workforce is missing.
I don't think it's "just like flu but with less symptoms" either. It might be for some but depending on how badly it affects you, it could potentially lead to you requiring machine assistance just to breathe.
If cases in the UK start hitting a few thousand I might petition my boss to let me work at home for the duration of the outbreak. Until then I'm just washing my hands more and trying to touch as little as possible when I'm out and about.
We also played Pandemic last night and managed to eradicate the Chinese virus only to lose to a huge outbreak of blue scurvy in America. It's those dirty yanks we should all be really watching.
The national health institute said the average age of those who have died was 81, with the majority suffering from underlying health problems. An estimated 72% of all those who have died were men.
According to government data, 4.25% of individuals confirmed to have the coronavirus in Italy have died, the highest rate in the world.
Me - Italians tend to live in big family units from grand parents to grand children so the fact it is hitting the elderly hard is expected
Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4
Yeah, that's a pretty big step. I suspect most governments will be watching to see how it works out, as I dare say it'll be happening to us all eventually if it works.
Me - Italians tend to live in big family units from grand parents to grand children so the fact it is hitting the elderly hard is expected
I've been reading some theories about the differences that could have speeded up the outbreak in Italy. Someone was talking about how Italians are more into physical greetings, like cheek-kissing, every day. They are generally a much more communal, physically close people than the British I think.
Perhaps being anti-social miserable sods has slowed it down a bit over here?
yeah fuck off. I spoke to my friend who lives just outside Venice. The dude is so chillaxed about this he took his family on a skiing holiday these last days. He is like "nah - its alright - we needed something like to slow down the pace and reset priorities" So Italian
Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4
Quite a few supermarkets are already selling out of toilet paper. People are bonkers.
Meanwhile I was talking to someone the other day who suggested that they might book a holiday to Italy because the flights are dirt cheap at the moment.