SALUTE Cuba, they have allowed an infected ship to visit their island and keep their economy going. This nonsense about a pandemic is a conspiracy from the insurance companies to avoid claims, and capitalist profit making organisation that rely on ignorance of most normal citizens. The stats of Cuba infection rates will be critical in limiting more messing up by panicking politicians, who are protecting themselves by saying their health systems don't have enough ventilators to meet the crisis.
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.
The coronavirus raises the question: whatever happened to telecommuting? It was touted as the next big thing back in the 1990s but it didn't seem to materialise.
A few years ago a Job Centre advisor stated that they didn't have any telecommuting jobs on their database, and that the vast majority of jobs offered through the Job Centre require a physical presence in the workplace.
I think many employers have suddenly discovered it. My employer has been gathering together every laptop they can find, installing the VPN software and handing them to staff who normally work in the office.
Have a look at the website https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/ This age profile clearly shows that people over the age of 60 and anyone with breathing difficulties should self isolate. However, children need to go to school and workers under the age of 60 should be encouraged to return to work using a mask, if unable to get a 2 metre separation, as even if they are the 1 in 5 that develop a temperature only less than 1 in 500 will need to go to hospital.
NOTE The WHO advice was that the global community should take precautions to limit the effect of virus. Lockdowns were never mentioned.
Have a look at the website https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/ This age profile clearly shows that people over the age of 60 and anyone with breathing difficulties should self isolate. However, children need to go to school and workers under the age of 60 should be encouraged to return to work using a mask, if unable to get a 2 metre separation, as even if they are the 1 in 5 that develop a temperature only less than 1 in 500 will need to go to hospital.
NOTE The WHO advice was that the global community should take precautions to limit the effect of virus. Lockdowns were never mentioned.
It might help if you didn't completely misrepresent the statistics that you are supposedly basing your post on. According to that site, the death rate is about 1 in 500 for people under 40. First, that's under 40's not under 60's. Second, that's the death rate, not the number of people who needed hospital treatment, but then survived.
NO, Simon that is totally incorrect. For the people that paramedics take to hospital and are admitted the death rate is as you state. But most people under 60 will not even know that they have had the virus as the effects are minimal to the average fit person unless you have underlying medical breathing problems.
It might help if you didn't completely misrepresent the statistics that you are supposedly basing your post on. According to that site, the death rate is about 1 in 500 for people under 40. First, that's under 40's not under 60's. Second, that's the death rate, not the number of people who needed hospital treatment, but then survived.
Absolutely right, Simon. The death rate is about 50% of those who need Intensive Care, which itself is about 50% of those who need hospital treatment. Therefore about 1 in 125 people under 40 will need hospital treatment (call it 1% to make the sums easy). This means that if you infect at say 50% of those under 40 then 0.5% of the under 40s will die, or about 0.25% of the total population, and about 1% of the population will need hospital treatment. The is around 650,000 in hospital with around 160,000 deaths. Bear in mind that the advice was that if nothing was done, 80% could be infected so I have been conservative in the figures here.
Also bear in mind that the hospital workers are at a much higher risk of death due to the high virus exposure they encounter. We should not be ignoring their plight.
most people under 60 will not even know that they have had the virus as the effects are minimal to the average fit person unless you have underlying medical breathing problems.
Not true. There are many medical workers being over-exposed to the virus who are at least of average fitness and with no underlying medical problems (and they are in a position to know) and yet they are dying. If the virus is allowed to spread so that the majority have it then those who catch it later will have the same over-exposure from many around them and will be more likely to have complications.
The Imperial College modelling is pretty stark. I don't agree with everything the UK government is doing by any means, but at least they are listening to scientists and they are trying to stop people dying.
