Word from the steet on KCMO is that it's just another flu.

[leftyladyfrommo]

Nothing much you can do so just go on living your life.

Of course you have to remember that these are people that live where there are tornadoes. And floods. And blizzards.

Most people here are from farm people. They don't panic easily.

[beachbumbob]

1. human nature closes eyes to impending disasters, always have, always will

IF this virus is highly infectious AND 3% mortality rate, the impact will be felt thru out the world. Whether you believe the seriousness of it or not

[USALiberal]

3. Until it really starts spreading to every state it will not be a high priority. nt

[beachbumbob]

4. exactly and why we are weeks/months out from full scale impact on everyday living

[dewsgirl]

8. The thing is, with the testing being so restricted no one

will be aware until people around us start getting severely ill, which I fear is right around the corner.

[defacto7]

30. This is the truth.

[USALiberal]

2. It does seem pretty laid back here! nt

[Renew Deal]

5. That's the attitude of most people with decent health

“We’ll be fine.”

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. People here know how serious it is. People are paying attention.

But we have no cases in Missouri and Kansas yet.

People will do all they can to protect themselves. You can only do so much. And then fate takes over. Just like a tornado. You just hope it goes around.

I did read the prepper store was busy. So are the army surplus stores.

[Chainfire]

7. This threat may ease another problem

All those 70ish baby boomers, (like me) drawing Social Security. Dead men draw no checks.... In their final days or weeks under intensive hospital care, they can have their life's savings sucked out by corporate medicine. It is a win-win. Just think about all of the cheap properties that will become available to be bought at fire sale prices, with the lowest interest rates possible.

The situation could free up a lot of money for walls, and bailing out the economic crisis that will follow.

I don't think that denial can help the issue any more, the flu is here, growing and we can't stop it and we will run out of resources to be able to effectively treat the victims. On a personal level, I believe, that if, or when, I get this flu, with my preexisting respiratory and heart issues, it will most likely kill me. It is not longer an academic argument, but a matter of survival.

The only thing left to do is to assign blame for the failure of, what Trump has described, as the greatest medical system in the world. Trump has already been laying the groundwork to blame it on Obama.....I have watched this taking roots on some gun forums that I monitor.

You know that when politicians are saying don't panic, it is time to panic! It is said that a nation gets the government it deserves. Electing an idiot is coming home to roost. The next big development we may expect to see is a declaration of Martial law. That would solve a lot of Trump's personal problems.

[captain queeg]

10. I've thought that as well; save a lot on SS payments

Of course losing a lot of old white people might prove bad to the rethugs.

[FreepFryer]

9. Just another flu that appears to infect 40-70% of the pop w a 3.4% global mortality...

With disproportionately high mortality rates for the elderly/those with co-morbidities.

Since roughly 20% of the people infected become sick enough with pneumonia that they require ventilators, these numbers suggest an acute insufficiency of medical care during peak outbreak times.

That lack of access to overtaxed medical resources means many kinds of medical emergencies become more lethal.

This is not just a flu. This is a serious flu that can be very dangerous, and even more so under conditions of poor or unavailable health care.

[JCMach1]

12. And may do PERMANENT damage to the lungs

[FreepFryer]

13. And may reinfect the same patient repeatedly, each time with apparently more serious effects. nt

[dalton99a]

19. More likely a continuation of the original infection

in other words, it was a testing/detection issue (the patients hadn't completely recovered/their immune system hadn't cleared the virus completely)

The immune response against coronaviruses is long studied and well known, and there is no conclusive proof that those patients got reinfected with the exact same virus COVID-19 instead of developing an immunity

[FreepFryer]

20. True, and w L and S strains, etc., there is no clarity about the range of a potential vaccine.

I appreciate your informed and informative comments!

[dalton99a]

14. This info is incorrect

https://apnews.com/f8c382a5234bc12ec6d4f5430f8ec2e3

NOT REAL NEWS: An outbreak of virus-related misinformation
By BEATRICE DUPUY and ARIJETA LAJKA
February 28, 2020

CLAIM: The new coronavirus can cause 50 percent fibrosis of the lungs.

THE FACTS: False. Experts say there is no evidence that the new virus causes fibrosis. Dr. Robert Legare Atmar, an infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine, said patients have not been shown to have fibrosis, which occurs when lung tissue begins scarring. The virus has been known in more serious cases to cause pneumonia, severe respiratory syndrome or kidney failure, but not fibrosis. People who are suffering from coronavirus may see symptoms in as little two to 14 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-diseases expert at Vanderbilt University, said he has not seen studies indicating that after patients recover from the new coronavirus, they suffer serious lung damage. “The vast majority of people get better,” he said.

[FreepFryer]

16. This is good news, thanks Dalton. As mention pneumonia can result and indeed damage lungs.

I’m grateful for the clarifying info re fibrosis.

[Roland99]

18. Is Dr Dena Grayson incorrect here then?

Link to tweet

⚠️Chinese doctors say autopsies of #coronavirus victims suggest that #COVID19 is “like a combination of #SARS and #AIDS as it damages both the lungs and immune systems,” and can cause “irreversible” lung damage even if the patient survives.@thespybriefhttps://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/heal

[FreepFryer]

21. Thank you Roland! It's clear we are only beginning to learn about these virii. (Nt)

[moriah]

29. She's quoting an article that is from Australia...

... which links back to this article from February 29th China time (so possibly late Feb 28th in other places):

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1181121.shtml

All of them quote the same doctor, Peng Zhiyong, who does not do autopsies himself but was focusing on the paper that had come out earlier that week by Dr. Liu.

The 28th is when the NYT said that the claims of high levels of fibrosis were wrong, and the paper had come out on it.

Even that article from China quotes the paper as saying:

The patient, an 85-year-old man, exhibited similar pathological changes to those caused by SARS and MERS. Fibrosis in his lungs was not as serious as was seen in SARS patients, but an exudative reaction was more apparent, possibly due to the short course of his disease.

Now why a Chinese news agency would have a well-respected doctor say in state run media that the virus was like a "combination of AIDS and SARS"? Well, good motivation to obey curfews/self-isolation orders.

But GREAT panic-clickbait-conspiracy material that isn't really based on facts.

[Roland99]

31. Thanks for the digging....

[JCMach1]

23. So the Chinese team's autopsy reports were inaccurate...?

The good Dr. in your repost just said he hasn't 'seen' the studies.



There are multiple sources for this information.

[moriah]

28. And it all goes back to the same doctor who compared it to AIDS.

My dad died of AIDS, I know what AIDS looks like.

This is not AIDS. Or even AIDS with SARS, as that doctor tried to claim. An AIDS patient who got SARS would die fast yes, but their lungs would look like any other person with SARS unless they also had fungal pneumonia going on too.

Yes, any respiratory virus makes the lungs more susceptible to secondary infections. Yes, ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) can cause respiratory scarring. So does pneumonia, bacterial or viral. (They have to compare my chest x-rays with ones when I'm in good shape -- a bad radiologist will see my old scarring as a new pneumonia.)

So yes, there is fibrosis -- scarring -- and increased susceptibility to secondary bacterial infection.

That is not the same as the clickbait calling it "a combination of AIDS and SARS" that has spread so wildly and fed Alex Jones's conspiracy theories.

[uponit7771]

25. Feb 28 is old report IINM, report came out this week says different

[Paladin]

11. Such people ought to have Rand Paul as a U.S. Senator.

Ol' Rand isn't very concerned, either---he's the one Senator who voted against the $8.3 billion emergency health bill. Fucking asshole.

[Celerity]

15. those farmers will be amongst the loudest ones with their hands out if the shit really hits the fan

same as they do when Trump fucks them with his trade wars

gubmint handouts and aid for me but not for thee

[cbdo2007]

17. It's tough here in KC because we are actually having an extra bad Flu season...

so it's hard to know who has what and how serious it is.

I was sick a few weeks ago, they tested me for Flu and it came back negative though I was in bed for 2 days with fever and couldn't move. Just hard to know, but also probably 50% of the people I know right now have something or just got over something within the past month or so.

[leftyladyfrommo]

22. There was something going around.

I was in the hospital a couple of months ago. The hospital was full. I asked if it was flu and she said no thst it was some respiratory thing.

Does make me wonder.

[uponit7771]

26. +1, "it was some respiratory thing." Yep, I was on the floor after the game and I'm left

... wondering too.

Some people are evil enough to do some really shady crap

[ibegurpard]

24. People know how serious it is.

Yeah there are some Trump-humpers that wait for direction from his Twitter and Fox News but everyone else is seriously concerned. Now the question is: what are they supposed to do about it? That's what I don't get from everyone who is denigrating the people who refuse to fly into a panic. Take reasonable personal precautions and that's about it. What else can you do? Our government has already screwed the pooch. What else are we going to do but say "Nothing much you can do so just go on living your life"?

[MFM008]

27. Thats what they said

In 1918 .
pandemic came out of the fields of Kansas
On to infect the world.
"It was just the flu"....
Nobody worried.
They woke up sick and were dead by dinner.

[nolabear]

32. Isn't KC where the Russian station is?

[leftyladyfrommo]

33. I think I heard that. I haven't seen any thing on it.

What else are we supposed to do. There aren't any testing kits that I have heard of. They wouldn't know if you had it anyway.

So far we are just supposed to wash our hands frequently.

We are just in a wait and see mode.