All the Kung Flu posts for March from the other blog are now cross-posted here.
Anything applicable in future will also be posted here, from now going forward.
To recap:
This ain't "just the flu".
Bog-simple coronavirus (which is 2-4% lethal) is 20-40X more deadly than annual flu (which only kills 0.1%).
It's twice as transmissible as the flu.
It can incubate latent and asymptomatic for 2-14 days, and possibly as long as 24 days.
(Which means those idiotic kabuki theater spot checks at the airport are guaranteed to miss most all virus carriers entering this country infected, virtually guaranteeing us a full pandemic here.)
There are some reports that it shows signs of bio-engineering via Ebola and HIV DNA strings, at which point regarding previous info on lethality, transmissibility, etc., all bets are off.
There may even be two separate strains in the wild.
There is no vaccine.
There is no cure.
If half the country gets it, that's up to 4-5M dead, and probably 30-40 million additional hospital admits. Even if 97% of people infected just get a mild to moderate viral infection, we have 330M people here. 2-4% of that number, or even just half of them, is one helluva lot of folks.
In a country with only about 900K hospital beds, and 93K ICU beds, which are 75-90% full 24/7/365, even without this virus.
Unless we, as a country, are incredibly fortunate, this is going to seriously change your day a wee bit. For some time to come.
It may just be a major annoyance. (I wouldn't bet on that, though.)
It may -may- collapse health care for everyone, worst case.
Process that fully, please.
Get your rest. Take your vitamins. Wash your hands.
And even if you PPE up at work, nothing is protecting you from getting it at the mall, from your family, friends, or the last guy who pushed your shopping cart.
Use due diligence.
The only way out of this is through it.
Panic: NO.
Prepare, realistically: Hell yeah.
I'm an ER nurse: bringing order out of chaos isn't a superpower; it's my friggin' job.
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