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Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

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Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#361

Post by eveningcoffee »

pmoriarty wrote: post #320
eveningcoffee wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what use is of mask with a valve for a sick person? They are already sick and valve will let contaminated air straight out? Can healthy people at least buy these? I think that not recommending masks for everyone is very myopic considering that the virus tends to spread asymptotically.

Even if asymptomatic people transmit the virus "asymptomatic transmission likely plays a minor role in the epidemic overall, WHO says. People who cough or sneeze are more likely to spread the virus, the agency wrote"[1] [1] - https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/paper-non-symptomati...

WHO can say what they want but considering how the virus popped up in Italy tells a different story. Something has been overlooked.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#362

Post by 29athrowaway »

welder wrote: post #347

I've been going to the airport shaking hands with everyone arriving from China and Italy. That way I'll get infected before everyone else and get first pick on hospital beds.

And once you get to the hospital bed there will be no effective treatment for you.

And you will be quarantined in the hospital section with all the rest of the coronavirus patients, reinforcing your infection.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#364

Post by madengr »

vl wrote: post #304
ravenstine wrote: post #63

I've already been preparing as a hobby for the last 3 years, not specifically for coronavirus, but here's how I'm prepared for it: - I work remotely, so I can hunker down at home and have my income totally unaffected. - I've close to 6 months worth of food, and I've been buying more in the last month as the news continues. I can give some tips on what I think is good inexpensive food to get in case anyone is interest…

What about guns/ammo?

Regardless of the virus, now is the cheapest I have seen ammo in 15 years. Ammoman has 1k rounds of brass 5.56 for $289 shipped. I’d stock up before the election run.

https://www.ammoman.com/

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#365

Post by davidw »

8iterations wrote: post #188
nyolfen wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

significantly less deadly than sars but also significantly more contagious. sars was only contagious once you showed symptoms, which does not appear to be the case here. for covid, los alamos suggests a pre-intervention r0 of 4-6: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.07.20021154v... the fatality rate increases with age, up to ~15% for >80. i don't know about you but i have older people in my family that i'…

Yes I agree with you, I am concerned with the elderly & infants. As these are the demographics which usually have higher fatal outcome both in diseases, and even adverse effects from drugs/surgery.

Even 'healthy' age people can get hit hard. One of the first people in Italy to be diagnosed with it is just now coming out of intensive care.

If those beds start to fill up... people that might otherwise be helped through the worst might be in trouble.

https://www.lastampa.it/cronaca/2020/02/27/news/coronavirus-...

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#366

Post by pmoriarty »

hunta2097 wrote: post #128
dfsegoat wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> more lethal than flu/MERS/SARS WHO reports a 34% fatality rate for MERS, while at present it is around 2.4% for COVID-19 [2]. So it would be helpful if you provide sources when throwing down comments like this. I'll admit it's more contagious, as they state below, but again, most US cases are asymptomatic. 1 - https://www.who.int/emergencies/mers-cov/en/ 2 - http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/02/study-…

The mortality rate is likely to increase of health services get overwhelmed. This happened in China, hopefully current measures can prevent breakout infections. I worry what will happen if the outbreak reaches densely populated areas in India.

Speaking of overwhelmed health systems, here's a comment from Dr. Bruce Aylward (renowned expert who led the team of experts on the ground in China)[1][2]:

"The bottom line is this virus kills people... it kills our elderly and vulnerable... but this is not always the case - young people do die of this disease even in industrialized countries.

People are looking at this saying that but in China they don't have this, they don't have that, etc. If I had COVID-19, I'd want to be treated in China.

We'd go into these hospitals, how many ventilators do you have? 50-60. A scale we aren't used to seeing. How many ECMO systems do you have? 5. We don't have that in Europe.

When we look at how dangerous this disease is, we have to be careful looking at the China data. China know how to keep people alive from COVID - they are super committed to it and they are making a massive investment in it. That is not going to be the case everywhere in the world....

It is a serious disease and I worry that people are going to look at the China numbers and get a false sense of security."

[1] - https://old.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/f9mxwn/for_tho...

[2] - https://youtu.be/-o0q1XMRKYM?t=3058

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#367

Post by welder »

29athrowaway wrote: post #362
welder wrote: post #347

I've been going to the airport shaking hands with everyone arriving from China and Italy. That way I'll get infected before everyone else and get first pick on hospital beds.

And once you get to the hospital bed there will be no effective treatment for you. And you will be quarantined in the hospital section with all the rest of the coronavirus patients, reinforcing your infection.

I'll take those odds.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#368

Post by danudey »

kempbellt wrote: post #319
Recursing wrote: post #307

I'm really surprised there's 300 comments (with lots of panic) and nobody mentioned the official WHO guidelines https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2... especially the part about "How to cope with stress during 2019-nCoV outbreak"

Thank you for linking this. I commented below about doing what I am doing to not worry about it. Naturally it and was immediately dismissed by a panic induced response. FUD is extremely powerful people. If you want to stock up on some extra water and food - cool beans. But stay conscious of your own fears and manage your stress levels. Do what you can to stay calm about things and handle your emotions wisely.

> If you want to stock up on some extra water and food - cool beans

Honestly, more people should be doing this anyway. If you live in an earthquake zone and don't have an emergency preparedness kit, you're in trouble if significant infrastructure damage happens in an earthquake. Likewise for snowstorms, floods, power outages, etc.

It's probably not going to happen, and it's probably not a big deal, but if there is an emergency at some point I don't want to have to tell my neighbours they're on their own for a week because we (minimally) prepared and they didn't.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#369

Post by vkhn »

specialp wrote: post #100
dangom wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely good to be prepared, but AFAIK there is no such thing as being "statistically overdue" for an earthquake.

Yeah there is. It is not like saying that if black hit on roulette 10x in a row that one would be statistically overdue for red. Because those are completely independent events with equal probability on each trial. With earthquakes if statically speaking a massive earthquake hits on a roughly 1 in 500 year interval, the stresses at the plate boundary are much more likely to be greater at year 600 than at year 1 after…

There is no law of averages.
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