re: Insanity...

quote:

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In conclusion I believe this will be like Ebola, Zika, H1N1, Avian Flu, etc. An exotic disease that while scary sounding will kill a fraction of the people that heart disease, the flu, will kill.

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While I don't disagree much with this, it confuses the issue. The issue is how rapidly this particular strain can spread, and the stress that rapid spread can put on healthcare systems. That is exactly what happened in Italy and doctors were forced to make decisions on which patients to treat and which ones to allow to die. Further, for healthy people it can either be asymptomatic or the symptoms mimic an everyday cold, so they have no idea they actually have it. It's also highly contagious so they can easily spread it to someone with a weakened immune system.

I also don't think it's fair to compare it to long known diseases and viruses. This is a new strain that just formed 4 or 5 months ago. While there are often new strains of the flu during flu season, they still generally respond to vaccines and flu medications. We're still at least a year away from a vaccine for this strain.