Is It a Pandemic Yet?

Of course it is. The officials at WHO failed us because they are more worried about the politics than the truth. This type of behavior will make us not trust them in the future.

Re: Is It a Pandemic Yet?

#5

Post by rdlecler1 » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 2:25 PM UTC

pgt wrote: post #2

Non-paywalled link?

It seems that a number of publications have lowered there paywalled for coronavirus articles. As an important public service article, it seems like a crappy thing for the NYT to keep it up.

Re: Is It a Pandemic Yet?

#6

Post by SolaceQuantum » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

rdlecler1 wrote: post #5

pgt wrote: post #2

Non-paywalled link?

It seems that a number of publications have lowered there paywalled for coronavirus articles. As an important public service article, it seems like a crappy thing for the NYT to keep it up.

I suspect because its an opinion piece, not actual news.

Re: Is It a Pandemic Yet?

#7

Post by _lffv » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 2:33 PM UTC

EdwinHoksberg wrote: post #3

pgt wrote: post #2

Non-paywalled link?

https://archive.is/8xopJ

Blocked at my school :/ you can use Firefox's (probably Chrome's as well) reader mode to bypass the paywall though.

Re: Is It a Pandemic Yet?

#8

Post by danmaz74 » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 2:35 PM UTC

I read a lot about this virus lately, and it looks like the mortality rate depends a lot on the availability of intensive care. If that's the case, slowing down the diffusion of the infection could be really important in keeping down the total number of deaths.

Re: Is It a Pandemic Yet?

#9

Post by est31 » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 2:36 PM UTC

> Some 152 cases (and at least three deaths) were confirmed in Italy on Sunday, up from three cases on Thursday. The number of infected people in South Korea jumped to 763 (and six deaths) in just days.

To add an important point: In both countries, they have detected covid-19 only well after it has spread inside the country. E.g. in Italy it started with one severely ill patient who went to the hospital and got tested positive for covid-19. Then they recursively traced people that person has been in contact with and found over a hundred cases. They still haven't found "patient zero" yet, the first person in that chain who entered Italy with the disease. Before, it has been all in the dark. There are likely many such pools of carriers all over the world. This aspect of covid-19 is its real danger: in many cases the disease is asymptomatic so you don't get a test and keep interacting with people normally, but it's still able to infect others.

Re: Is It a Pandemic Yet?

#10

Post by mytailorisrich » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 2:36 PM UTC

remote_phone wrote: post #4

Of course it is. The officials at WHO failed us because they are more worried about the politics than the truth. This type of behavior will make us not trust them in the future.

It's still actually quite limited according to official data.

They have to consider the reactions of the public and also the potential effects of declaring pandemics too often if it is not necessary.

I don't have many comparison points but a quick Google shows that we are still very far from the 2009 flu pandemic, for example.

Of course that may change...