Better safe than sorry.  I think people should take all the precautions.

To say this is a conspiracy is wrong.  Medical Dr or appropriately trained and educated in diseases control professionals and scientists  increasingly warn about this aggressive virus, rackless statements can

cause life-threatening damage.

Higher % of people who get sick from COVID 19 virus and die from it is high, this is an aggressive virus.

This is a pandemic no doubt about it.

Some professionals indicate that in areas with high temperatures and relatively high humidity the virus has hard time spreading this creates extremely unfavorable conditions for the virus.

Very high temperatures (>30°C) render the coronaviruses inactive.


Now if you check the weather in Havana Cuba you will see today there is 28.34 c and 75% humidity so this weather is making it hard for the COVID 19 virus to spread, but it still can.

Moshe,

I don't agree with your "Very high temperatures (>30°C) render the coronaviruses inactive" as the first location that is spread outside China was Singapore, which is practically on the equator and has a daytime temperature almost guaranteed to be above 30 every day of the year. It may make it harder to spread or even reduce its virulence (Singapore, despite being the most densely populated country in the world has only had 313 cases (as of today) but no deaths, though this may be as much due to their proactive contact tracing and excellent healthcare).

I do agree it is wrong to say it is a conspiracy. I also agree it is wrong to say it is not a pandemic as by any definition I have seen it fits what we see, and the WHO in calling it a pandemic are only stating what we all know. All we can do is wait and see what happens next and hope that as the weather gets warmer it slows the spread..

Alasdair,


For the "Very high temperatures (>30°C) render the coronaviruses inactive" I was just saying that some professionals in the field claim this.

So I agree, this is not a definitive statement.


Not arguing if this is pandemic or not.  In my opinion of nonprofessional in this field of disease control this appears to be at least like a pandemic.

Very sad and frightening.

"Italy ordered the army to move bodies from a northern town at the center of the coronavirus outbreak where funeral services have been overwhelmed as the government prepared to prolong emergency lockdown measures across the country.

An army spokesman confirmed on Thursday that 15 trucks and 50 soldiers had been deployed to move bodies to neighboring provinces. Earlier local authorities in Bergamo had appealed for help with cremations after they had overwhelmed its crematorium."


 

Moshe,

I agree it is very sad and frightening. I get the impression that most countries (and I include the UK and USA in this) have been too slow to react.

Keep well,

Alasdair

As with all subjects I'm not an educated in (and there's a lot), its best to seek out experts in the field. A good source of links for this subject is the Bill Gates Foundation website. Here they list numerous papers and scientific results of data taken by the professionals. Please follow the link below to find answers to your questions on COVID-19:

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/TheOptimist/coronavirus



Hope this helps. Stay safe

I must admit that when this all started I made the mistake of confusing this with, say, flu, and couldn't see what the panic was about. The problem at the moment is that the death rate is much higher than flu, and that there isn't a vaccine. So for the moment it's a case of trying not to overwhelm the medical facilities until a vaccine can be made available.


Data from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/ which comes from WHO data gives the probability of dying from an infection for those aged 80+ as 15-20%. Since I have close relatives who are that age (and who are not fit for other reasons) those aren't odds I particularly like. 


Or to take another angle - Western governments do not trash their economies without incredibly good reason. In the UK the people who are going to be worse hit are largely the core target voters for the current government: the self employed, the entrepreneurs, and the retired. When a government puts its main supporters out of work, or suggests locking them in their houses for three months, it's probably time to accept that something serious is going on.


The big challenge is to get the majority of the population to accept that this is serious, we might be in this for the long haul, and that it might need some changes to how we work as a society.


Andy

Thanks everyone for your responses.   I agree that this is a pandemic and we all need to take extra care by distancing ourselves from other people, washing hands etc. BUT NOT PANIC which will wreck the economy whilst we are being extra careful. 

A sensible approach may be.

1]  Advise over 70's to be extra careful and try to avoid close contact with ordinary people as they are most at risk.

2] Ordinary people and children should be aware that they need to keep extra clean

3] Workers who can; should work at home without reduction in pay.

4] Workers who work in food, entertainment, hospitality, tourism etc. should be given masks and protective areas to work in where possible BUT not become unemployed and face most terrible hardships.

5] No projects, building works, should be delayed by the virus; just continue as carefully as possible to avoid contact with others

NOTE.    If unemployment rises above 10% then devastating inflation is unavoidable

CliveS

Cancelling GCSE and A Level exams was not an intelligent move at this point in time.

CliveS:

NOTE.    If unemployment rises above 10% then devastating inflation is unavoidable

Another concern is that unemployment and poverty will result in a crime wave. There's a temptation to loot shops and businesses that have closed because of coronavirus, but later it could extend into violence and large scale arson.


The government hasn't seriously considered the effect of coronavirus on prisons and may be forced to (temporarily?) release prisoners to reduce the spread of the disease. This combined with court trials potentially shutting down and overstretched police could mean that many criminals get away scot free.

UK is not the only country trying to stop hospital admissions . We in New Zealand have the same sort of panic and a government 5 billion dollar package here will not in fact help Kiwis going out of work.

BUT our local church is praying that we will     "Let God decide who lives and who dies and pray that panicking politicians will do what is for the common good of the nation."

To keep the life of the nation ticking over we need to give priority to the use the ventilators for those most critical to the economy such as young sewage workers, health care workers etc but not cause great stress and hardships by closing down everything; thus increasing unemployment resulting in financial instability and rampant inflation.

But do please keep away from crowds and the over 70's as they will be low on the list for the use of NHS ventilators if they get covid19 which is why they will most probably choose to self isolate.