There is a lot of misinformation in this thread lately. So people reading these posts of late, take the info with a grain of salt. A lot of it is wrong. Or there are some accurate facts mixed in with inaccurate info so it seems somewhat plausible. Some of it is outright BS conspiracy theories.
So those of you posting unproven pseudoscience nonsense as absolute fact (and you know who you are), stop spreading misinformation! None of it is helpful and it can be downright dangerous.
Seasonal flu can be deadly, yes. But the
flu does not cause all those deaths to occur in a 4-6 week period overloading and perhaps collapsing healthcare systems. (
Even my own mother in her seventies was asked to come out of retirement because the hospitals are so desperate for specially-trained staff to run ventilators.) Plus the mortality rate of Covid-19 is in the range of 10-40 times deadlier than season flu. Do you recall hospitals around the world this desperate and overwhelmed every year with seasonal flu? I think not. Use some common sense here.
The mortality rate of C-19 is an estimate because this is a new virus. Also there are so many factors that influence mortality rate: age, region of the world, availability of ventilators , functioning healthcare system, etc.
Also, you are not taking into account all the deaths that were not attributed to coronavirus but should have been. In January and February, hospitals in Canada, and the US in particular, saw a noticeable spike in deaths caused by “pneumonia or unknown flu”. Many healthcare professionals believe most of those deaths were actually caused by Covid-19 and these deaths are not included in the death rate stats. Furthermore, in Italy many people are dying at home. Possibly because the hospitals are overrun and they are triaging. According to Italian mayors, this is happening in fairly significant numbers. These deaths are not included in the mortality rate because these people were not tested and did not die in the hospital. The mayors are fighting to have these included in the death count. Google it. You’ll find lots of news reports.
Yes labs can differentiate different types of Coronavirus. The term “Coronavirus” actually refers to a family of viruses. Covid-19 is just one virus within that family, the common cold is another type of coronavirus. When people are tested for Covid-19, the tests look for a specific marker unique to Covid-19. So no, as far as I know the test won’t pick up every coronavirus. And if someone is in the hospital with fever and cannot breathe, I think it is fair to say they do not have the common cold.
You are still extremely infectious after 3 days of getting Covid-19! An infected person is infectious for weeks. I don’t know where you got that information from, but it is absolutely untrue. Use some common sense here. The viral load would be massive when people are hospitalized. When the virus is raging through your body, of course you are shedding virus all over the place.
Everyone knows about that couple who ingested aquarium fish tank cleaner (contains chloroquine phosphate) because they believed the drug chloroquine prevents Covid-19 infection? The man died and the woman is hospitalized. Because they listened to someone who has no clue what they are talking about with incomplete or incorrect data.
Lecture over.