Please stay safe

[Celestial]

Originally Posted by Vierville

To be honest, at the moment the only thing I have right now to calm me are my hamsters.

Vierville, that is how I feel too! And I’m glad that I’m not the only one who feels a bit confused. From the other people’s comments it seems like there’s more information out there we can’t find?

I am sorry if my previous post seemed to accuse people of overreacting, thats not how I meant it! I am mostly confused and curious. What makes this the one virus to shut down cities? Why not other viruses?

I am glad China’s quarantine efforts have helped, and I hope we can find a vaccine! It is good people are working on it, and hopefully they are close to finding a solution! (Maybe it will even help with another vaccine, who knows! )

~ Think about our fluffy friends, and may they help us hold together ~

[Pebbles82]

No need to apologise. The governments info has been confusing and vague at times. I have just been researching and reading from the start, particularly about the situation in Italy. This is a new virus and no-one in the world has immunity to it. The only thing that will guarantee giving immunity is a vaccine and that won't be read for quite some time. So if they don't stop it spreading like wildfire it could kill millions of people before a vaccine is ready. The last major nasty pandemic was spanish flu after the first world war, which killed 50 million people -more than were killed in the whole of WWI.

That was a long time ago when they didn't know what flu was. In this case it's a virus that has jumped species - lives normally in bats but due to some illegal exotic animals all being kept together in a spanish market they think that a bat infected another animal that was then eaten in China. That is one interpretation of how it happened.

As such it is different to a strain of flu and is a whole new disease. It is similar to the Mers and Sars outbreaks but they were contained and didn't spread all over the world.

There was an Italian doctor on Facebook a couple of weeks ago who described exactly how it affected people and how they couldn't handle the number of sick people that kept going down with it so fast. At that point it might have been helpful if we had had more measures - eg quarantining at airports, to prevent it spreading here but that didn't happen and suddenly it took off.

The only way to stop it spreading and bringing the country to its knees is to keep people away from each other so the infection can't spread. And yet doing that also brings the country to its knees, but hopefully only temporarily and it will save an awful lot of lives.

My sister works with seriously sick children and they are also at risk due to their existing health conditions.

Hope that helps explain a bit more

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Just to cheer everyone up, Moo has stolen a teaspoon. I put one in his cage with a bit of rice on and it has disappeared. Our hammies at least do not understand what is going on.

Has Moo returned your spoon yet? I wonder what he's done with it.

[Pebbles82]

Nope! I shall investigate this week-end.

[Pebbles82]

Just to add - I personally am high risk and don't consider myself old In my early sixties with asthma and a compromised immune system. I am very thankful for all the social distancing and self isolation measures. I have an elderly Father, recently bereaved, who needs me to stay around, for ongoing support. And a stepson who will need us in future. So we need to take care.

[Celestial]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

The only way to stop it spreading and bringing the country to its knees is to keep people away from each other so the infection can't spread. And yet doing that also brings the country to its knees, but hopefully only temporarily and it will save an awful lot of lives....

Hope that helps explain a bit more

Thank you for explaining in some more detail! I did not realize how dangerous it was! I wonder if my news is trying to downplay things so people don’t panic... they’re already panicking thinking about maybe being stuck at home! (Being one of those people whose vacations are just staying at home is working out as a benefit for me haha.)

I hope all of you and your families stay healthy and avoid catching anything, be it the coronavirus or anything else!

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Just to add - I personally am high risk and don't consider myself old In my early sixties with asthma and a compromised immune system. I am very thankful for all the social distancing and self isolation measures. I have an elderly Father, recently bereaved, who needs me to stay around, for ongoing support. And a stepson who will need us in future. So we need to take care.

I'm also in my early sixties with a dodgy ticker but try not to worry too much in advance because stress in itself lowers the immune system. I tend to wait till it happens because it may never happen. At the moment i'm more worried about where my next loo roll comes from and getting stuck at work. As a careworker i can't distance myself from people because some totally rely on me but some staff panic and self isolate as a precaution rather than feeling ill with corona virus symptoms and as a consequence leave homes seriously understaffed. Handwashing and infection control has always been an important part of my job so i don't feel any more at risk than anybody else. If it gets me it will and there's not an awful lot i can do about but until then i will carry on with life as normal as possible.

[Matildasmom]

Thanks so much for the best wishes for our family in Italy. I needed to update as I'm following the thread. First, our family is heartbroken. My husband left his family to come here to the US with us a few years ago. This is extremely difficult for him. Besides losing his cousins, Patrize and Anna, we have found through another cousin, Pietro, and a neighbor of his mother's that she went to stay with Patrize 10 days ago. She was showing signs of pneumonia and taken to Lazio (an area that is only recently being hit harder) but we have learned she passed as well.

Pietro lost his mother this week as well and there are no other family members to even try to find her body for any kind of arrangements. We were told by friend in Umbria that there are so many deaths now, many not even near a hospital, that the military is disposing of as many bodies as they can by cremation. This is heartbreaking to me. Our family is grieving and I have no words to express the state my husband is in right now.

We are in central NY. My husband's factory has shut down now and we have cases confirmed in our county as well as surrounding counties. Everyone outside of the hospital is told to stay home and not being tested so I am very skeptical of the accuracy of results. I did hear on the news that a state representative came to talk to officials in our county on Thursday after having been exposed to a positive case in another representative (Utah) and has tested positive as well. Skype, people!!! So we have another new factor here that we won't known anything about for another week or so likely.

My son and I have been sick and I received an email from my professor that she has been sick with a low grade fever and flu symptoms as well. My son and I have been sick now for about a week with it not progressing further and I am going through menopause (sorry men) so it's pretty normal for me to get these symptoms certain times and I am not very worried right now. We also live in NY and the weather is freakin wonky .

I did learn something new, just to give maybe new info? My husband's factory did say that it takes some time for this to travel through a group; possibly up to 30 minutes before infection can kick in. They average it to be 10 minutes or more around an infected person. We are taking precautions at home; all of us have been in the house except for my husband until yesterday. This is just a precaution but for households, the knowledge in the time of spread can be very helpful. We are staying in separate rooms, etc. but there can still be some momentary proximity. Also, the latest reports from Italy conclude that, in cases over 50; men are twice as likely then women to become severe or critical cases. These are only factors from their country and should, in no way, be taken as an absolute variable.

While China is showing improvement, there are some concerns that accurate numbers are not being reported or can be withheld. I believe scientists are working hard to share what they can but they do have a very restrictive government. Without being paranoid, the thought is to keep a reasonable doubt when relying solely on the reported outcomes from China. Other countries can be more reliable in watching the outcome.

Italy is an extreme for many reasons and can't be a reliable predictor. Their culture is completely different. It has to be also reported that as early as yesterday, il polizzia gave out more then 9600 citations to violators of the social distancing law in public throughout the state; despite the knowledge of the consequences.

Yes, stay away from children and younger generation if you have any kind of risk factor. It goes without saying that everyone should just be responsible now because each person has that responsibility. Period. The largest reason for infection, at this point, is said to be from the spread of asymptomatic people.

Even if you are younger and at a low risk for critical situations, this is not a fun type of flu to have. It's really best to just play it safe. They have also been finding underlying conditions in some younger people that were unknown and this has proven fatal. We are not talking about a percentage of the population; risking any person's life is not a gamble, to put it mildly.

All the best in all sincerity to everyone here; this is affecting everyone regardless of immunity and the stress is not helpful. Everyone is feeling that. These days are not going to go better for awhile but if we are very cautious, this can resolve in a shorter time then has been estimated.

[Ria P]

Matildasmom your story is absolutely shocking and tragic.

All i can do is offer my sincerest condolences to you and your family in NY and Italy.

[Pebbles82]

Thank you so much for the update Matilda’s Mom and I am sorry to hear you have had such awful news about your husband’s family’s. I know the statistics in Italy are very bad at the moment. More later ..