Most people will be fine from this coronavirus—or have a passing, mild illness. But there are huge immediate risks to populations vulnerable to this coronavirus (elderly plus health-care workers) AND to everyone who may need medical attention because hospitals will be overloaded.
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There is a lot the authorities could've done, should've done and should still do. But we are where we are. Unlike the prepper subculture vibes, true resilience comes from how we respond as a community. Right now, we need to help "flatten the curve" of this epidemic.
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My piece explains why preparing is altruistic and pro-social and outlines the basics of what you should do.
@jonst0kes has a handy one-pager, linked in my piece, with the details: https://theprepared.com/wuhan-coronavirus/ … It's not hard but the time to prepare is before a local outbreak. So, now.Show this thread -
Yes, masks are hard to find right now. They are essential for health-care workers and good precaution for people who are already ill so that they don't infect others. For the rest of us, it's more a reminder not to touch our face and to keep our distance.https://twitter.com/rcrsv/status/1233129822852747264 …
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There isn't much more to be done to find masks at the moment—unfortunately, that's something the authorities should have prepared for. That said, clinical studies show hand-washing is the crucial step, not masks. We should make sure health-care people have enough masks.
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Yes, this is terrible. Just like our health insurance system. If we don’t improve conditions for everyone, things will eventually catch up even to those who are doing better.https://twitter.com/veronika_lime/status/1233140406948229120 …
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This is what we can help avoid, by preparing now.https://twitter.com/berthofmanecon/status/1233246520910049280 …
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Stay home if possible starts when first COVID-19 cases hit one's community. It's not that if you go out everything crumbles. The goal here is to slow the spread so that hospitals can handle the load of serious cases *over time*. That's key. https://twitter.com/arainert/status/1233219908038774784 …
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As the news of first US death comes in, keep in mind that we already know there is community transmission in the United States. The key goal for everyone remains the same: practice hand/face hygiene and community isolation to lessen the load on hospitals.https://twitter.com/npr/status/1233813638496083968 …
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If you can work from home with no adverse effects for you, sure, yes, now. If you can’t, then don’t worry about it and wait if/until employer allows. It’s not about decreasing personal risk (most cases are mild) but decreasing cumulative load on hospitals. https://twitter.com/sarahclaire20/status/1233648613575626752 …
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Can't imagine a worse way to handle the mask situation to simultaneously tell people they don't need masks *and* that health-care workers very much need masks so people shouldn't buy them. People aren't idiots. It's the age of mistrust already. Truth and transparency work better.
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Surgical masks aren't proper respiratory protective devices but they do lessen spread by infected people (some with few symptoms may not know they are) and yes may even protect the wearer some. (Eg: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195670113000698 …). But we didn't prepare and yes hospitals need them more.
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N95 masks of course, protect the wearer (See stark results from Wuhan: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.18.20021881v1.full.pdf …) and would've been appropriate to have a few at home to take care of milder illnesses to lessen load on hospitals but we didn't prepare and YES YES hospitals desperately need them more.
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Yep, as soon as we start testing US numbers are going to spike. It's pretty clear that there has long been widespread community transmission in the United States. Again, the risk we face is that hospitals will get slammed and we will run out of ICU beds.https://twitter.com/focused4USA/status/1234132657421766658 …
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Reminder that US cases will spike soon because we are finally starting to test not because of anything new. We are finally measuring what's been happening: community-transmission. The advice is the same: hand hygiene, don't touch your face, limit going out and mass gatherings.
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I logged onto Facebook for the first time in days and groups are full of people asking about travel. It’s unconscionable that there is no public messaging. The World Health Organization recommends people over 60 or with other conditions to avoid crowds.https://twitter.com/drtedros/status/1233695157888987137 …
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As Washington State announces four new coronavirus deaths, they’re also asking people to avoid emergency rooms. That’s where a lot of Americans get primary healthcare so this is going to be a mees. But this is also why people should try to stay home—to preserve hospital capacity.pic.twitter.com/7ShR8oZLFK
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Yes! Offering to shop for your elderly relatives or neighbors is a great thing to do right now. It may need to be something to organize everywhere. This coronavirus is mild for young and healthy people but strikingly dangerous for the elderly or ill folks.https://twitter.com/avizenilman/status/1234585552294498304 …
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Reminder that Chinese authorities knew there was human-to-human transmission in December when there were very few cases. They could have spared the whole world. Instead they punished whistleblower doctors & organized mass outdoor events till late January. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/02/coronavirus-and-blindness-authoritarianism/606922/ …pic.twitter.com/fQV7rZTORN
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Faced with the outbreak because of their own corruption and authoritarianism, Chinese authorities then imposed a draconian quarantine. Through massive suffering, hundreds of millions of Chinese people gifted us time to prepare. Then we blew that threw incompetence and corruption.
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Objective descriptions of what happened and what works are okay but nobody should be praising the Chinese government for the very pandemic they unleashed on the world. (They even knew dangers of wet/wildlife markets and let them be). Chinese medical workers though: true heroes.
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This would have been contained in Dec/Jan had Chinese authorities prioritized the health of their own citizens and the world rather than covering up the facts and punishing the medical workers who tried to warn us—some of them died from the virus. Leaders now want praise. Nope.
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That’s right. Cat is out of the bag. We probably will not contain this in the US but we can mitigate. We have to do what we can to slow spread in order to preserve hospital capacity for the elderly and other vulnerable populations. But it’s here.https://twitter.com/drmattmccarthy/status/1234833720424697862 …
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I’m seeing this myself in many articles—even in articles about not hoarding masks. Is there no way for
@Google to get a handle on this? Everything is covered in price-gouging N95 mask ads. Google is making money but this isn’t good. https://twitter.com/karenhanson/status/1234864257839370242 …This Tweet is unavailable.Show this thread -
Health professionals really need to stop telling people not to buy masks because they won't know how to wear them correctly. Can't think of a message more precisely designed to encourage hoarding. Folks, don't hoard them because there is a severe mask shortage for health workers.
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Reminder that there is a lot of historical and current evidence that social distancing works. Stay home as much as you can; if you are an employer allow people to work from home as much as possible. It's how we can protect people in high-risk categories.https://twitter.com/joshmich/status/1235906489921007616 …
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Confirmed cases two weeks ago: Italy 62, Hong Kong 69, Taiwan 26, Iran 28. Hong Kong and Taiwan acted early with social distancing, hygiene, closures and near universal mask wearing. Their numbers hardly budged. Italy and Iran each have ~6000 cases and are locking down millions.pic.twitter.com/F63zPIHQnI
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What's happening now in Italy is that they have run out of hospital capacity. That will mean death rates will go up, not just from the coronavirus but from all other illnesses as well. We look about two weeks behind this point in big population centers.https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/1237507100064047104 …
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All the comparisons with the flu have been terribly damaging and they did not just come from Trump supporters. One Washington Post headline mocked the alarm with "Get a grippe, America." Journalists compared contagion rates as if that mattered much. https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1232352734990520331 …?
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