Nobody has made this post yet and since I care about you all (
) I'll put the same post here that I made on boomer social media (FB).Many of you are probably as autistic as me and have followed this virus since the beginning and as much as I meme it, it's still a somewhat serious situation.
I doubt I can tell any of you much of anything you don't already know but friends and family on FB are a bit different and more susceptible to... bullshit.
Do correct me if you find anything that's factually incorrect in the post below.
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Corona virus information 3.3.2020
The actual name of the virus is "SARS-CoV-2" and the disease it causes is called "COVID19" for corona virus disease 2019 but as the media keeps incorrectly calling it "the corona virus" I'll title it as such for people to know what I'm talking about.
As the virus creeps ever closer to our own regions there will be a lot of people trying to find information on this virus and unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation, conspiracy theories and people attempting to profit off the fear and panic the spread causes.
I have been following the virus and the developments out of interest since it was first reported in January and so I believe I can give a lot of accurate information.
Of course, you should never trust a single source and if you want to know more, you should study it on your own and look into what authorities say about it.
I will however keep this as factual as possible and avoid speculative information.
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SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus of the corona virus family that originated from bats and (possibly) jumped from another intermediary host animal to humans.
It is unknown exactly when the virus first appeared but "late 2019" is fairly safe to say.
The early epicenter of the virus was the city of Wuhan in China and it has since spread globally.
SARS-CoV-2 is a virus that infects the lower respiratory tract (lungs). It is not proven to infect any other part of the human body and it has not been found in the blood of infected patients.
Common early symptoms of the disease are fever, dry cough, shortness of breath and a feeling of tiredness.
Cold type symptoms like a runny nose or soar throat are NOT typical for COVID19, if you experience either of those it's unlikely that you're infected with SARS-CoV-2 as it does not affect the upper respiratory tract.
The virus isn't very dangerous for a young and healthy person. For individuals below the age of 50 the disease is comparable to a bad case of influenza.
Especially children tend to get very mild cases of the disease and also appear to be less contagious when infected than an adult, it is still unknown why that is.
However with increasing age the mortality rate increases rapidly. This is in part due to a weaker immune system and in part because the elderly often have underlying diseases that cause COVID19 to become more severe.
Proven risk factors include heart diseases, lung diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, a weakened immune system as well as being a current or former smoker.
Allergies have no effect on the severity of the disease.
Over 80% of all individuals infected by the virus will have a mild disease and are able to recover at home in approximately 2-3 weeks.
About 15% will develop a severe disease. The virus infection causes pneumonia that reduces the ability of the lungs to oxygenate the blood.
In order to keep up the oxygen levels these severe cases require medical care with additional oxygen provided.
The mortality rate among severe cases is still practically 0, all of these will recover as long as medical care is available.
The last 5% are critical and may suffer from respiratory failure, sepsis or shock.
These cases need to be in the intensive care unit of a hospital and some have to be put on mechanical ventilation to help them breathe.
The majority of these critical cases will also recover, but according to current figures about 1-2% of the total figure of infected will die from the disease.
Do however remember that these numbers are of ALL the infected.
The elderly with underlying diseases are the vast majority of all severe and critical cases while the young and healthy will almost all be among the mild cases.
As the virus is present within the lungs, it spreads in droplet form with the air exiting your lungs when you breathe, cough or sneeze. These droplets can either directly go into the mouth, eyes or nose of an uninfected individual or they can end up on everyday objects such as door handles, mobile phones, tables or anything else we touch in daily life.
If you touch a surface contaminated with the virus and then touch your face, the virus will infect you as well.
It is unknown how long the virus can persist on a surface and especially authorities are (overly) careful about going out with ANY information whatsoever on this subject.
What we do know is that studies have been done on other forms of human corona viruses and that these have been shown to survive ranging from a few hours on steel up to about a week on different metals, plastics or wood.
Disinfectants on a surface will kill the virus within a minute.
It is currently NOT PROVEN BEYOND ANY DOUBT, but there are suspicions that the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads through some form of aerosol.
I repeat again that this is not absolutely confirmed but I'm still mentioning it so that you can take precautions if you see fit.
Spread through aerosol basically just means even smaller droplets that can stay in the air for a longer time and can be spread further, for example with currents or through ventilation.
In regular droplet spread (from for example coughing) the safe distance from an infected person is considered to be about 2 meters.
However if it proves to be true that it spreads in aerosol form this distance will be much further.
Back to the confirmed information, it IS known that asymptomatic people are spreaders of this virus.
This means people that have been infected but are not showing or feeling any signs of disease, but they are still contagious.
It is still unknown if asymptomatic individuals are as contagious as symptomatic individuals.
The incubation time of this virus (the time from infection until symptoms appear) is officially between 2 days and 14 days depending on the individual.
There may be odd cases that have an even longer incubation time but these are very rare.
There is currently no vaccine against this virus and there will be none in 2020 due to the time it takes to develop one.
Neither are there any individuals immune as this virus is completely new to our immune system and therefore won't be recognized at first.
There is also no known working anti-viral medication, but there are multiple trials being performed to see if any existing medication has an effect.
The results of these trials will be known within a few weeks.
Unfortunately there is no medication to alleviate the symptoms either. You can take medication to lower the fever but this is not recommended unless absolutely necessary.
Fever is not caused by disease, fever is caused by your own body to defend itself and increases the efficiency of the immune system.
While you will feel very uncomfortable when you have a fever, the virus in your body is feeling far worse.
You may also be given antibiotics, but this has no effect on viruses, it is instead given to prevent a secondary bacterial infection of the lungs while your immune system is fighting the virus.
Any rumor you see on social media or elsewhere stating there's some kind of remedy, medicine or vitamins you can take to fight or prevent the virus is FALSE.
Defeating this virus is entirely down to your own immune system.
A good diet, exercise and enough sleep all strengthen your immune system so these are measures you can (and should) take.
The virus is highly contagious, although the exact number is still up for debate it spreads at least twice as fast as influenza and the first priority is to slow the spread and protect the elderly.
It is likely impossible to contain the virus and prevent a pandemic, however proper measures can and will slow the spread down and this is ABSOLUTELY necessary in order to lessen the pressure on the medical system.
The virus is unlikely to disappear anytime soon but what we want to avoid is everybody getting it at the same time as the hospitals would be unable to deal with so many patients at once.
Proper hygiene is the most important, frequently wash hands with soap and water and avoid touching your face as much as possible.
If you know or suspect you are infected, do NOT walk into a hospital but instead call and ask for directives in order not to infect others at the hospital.
Isolate yourself and wear a mask if you have the disease in order prevent spread and to protect others.
Further information about concerns I have seen:
- The virus has not been shown to have any adverse effect on pregnant women, nor does the virus infect their child.
- Pets have not been shown to catch or spread the virus, there is one case of a dog testing positive but it was not sick and likely merely contaminated with the virus by its infected owner.
This is no doomsday virus, it is inevitable for viruses like this to appear and it is neither the first nor the last time this happens. In our current interconnected world these events are only going to become more likely and frequent. There is no need for undue panic, deal with everything in a reasonable fashion and don't fall prey to those who would profit off your fear.
This is all the confirmed information I have and can think of. Anything beyond this is unconfirmed speculation, although I may have forgotten some things too.
I'll answer any questions to the best of my ability, but remember I'm no medical professional.
