TomAiello wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2020 10:38 amI think the concern is the impact on the elderly, when we run out of hospital beds and especially when we run out of ventilators. In the USA, projections are that the hardest hit areas (even after sharing ventilators between patients) will end up with something like 5-7 extra patients waiting for each ventilator. That means the doctors will have to do battlefield triage, and essentially give up on the people who are least likely to recover and abandon their care. That's a really hard position to put a doctor in, having to choose who to let die. There are credible firsthand report from physicians in Italy (not just internet rumors that they are pretty much just not providing ventilators to patients over 62 years old, essentially letting them die. It's terrible, and unfortunately necessary, but if we all just stay home and don't freak out we can greatly reduce the chance of that happening here (by which I mean the USA). We have fewer hospital beds (per person) available than Italy, but we also have a younger population that's less likely to need them.Wartstein wrote: ↑Fri Mar 13, 2020 1:32 pmBut then... One of my brothers is a Physician, he thinks that everbody is totally overreacting. He is of rhe opinion, that if "we would not know about Corona virus we would not know" - meaning, that without all the dark scenarios and the hype, the Virus would just blend unnoticed into the regular flu... he also says, MORE people will die from all the restricions than would from the Virus WITHOUT the restrictions... I can´t tell what´s true. I am really not worried for myself or other rather healthy, strong, not too old people. But sure a bit for my old, and weakened mother.
If we're all locked down for a month, then people who have inadequate food supplies are going to need help from their neighbors. Fortunately, I live in an area where the dominant religious group requires their members to stockpile a year of food, and most of them are willing to share with their neighbors, so I think that here (rural Idaho, one of the latest points on the curve, and also a place with a lot of normal personal space and a low population density), we are unlikely to see panic.
I definitely think that panic is the real enemy here. Stay calm, take reasonable precautions, and don't lose touch with your own humanity when others are in need. :)
True...
It would be a real shame to see people die needlessly.
I think the ones that are in denial now will be the biggest danger to others because they aren't going to have what they need once reality sets in.
Once the mitagation and other efforts to contain it start they will be the ones in total panic mode so we need to watch out for those people.
Hopefully they get the testing ramped up soon to were it needs to be so they know the real scope of how far it's spread etc.
Then they will have an idea of what they have to do and were they have to do it.
The faster they can get a handle on this the quicker they will be able to get it under control and the quicker we will all be able to get back to normal.