i can say that what was helped by the SARS and MERS incidents is that hospitals took more precautions and retrained their staff to handle infectious people and their environments and that has helped reduce other infections that were taking a toll on patients.
so perhaps the net change in lives lost ended up being to the better in the end.
this current pandemic though shows how vulnerable the entire world is to an infectious agent of the right kind... will we learn anything from it? remains to be seen IMO. i guess then it would be business as unusual...
Good points. The SARS, Ebola, and MERS scares did mobilize & standardize our medical responses to emerging infectious diseases, and forge better cooperation between countries (though China has thus far rebuffed offers of outside help). But we have become such a mobile worldwide culture that a highly contagious disease can outrace efforts to contain it, as the current outbreak is demonstrating.
My apologies if this post goes a little long, I have been thinking of this issue for quite some time, and have a lot to cover.
Personally, I don't like the way that the media is whipping up hysteria over the corona virus. Time will tell if that level of panic is a justifiable warning, but I don't think we are there yet. That being said, like many others, I've been trying to cut through the hype & hysteria to learn more from reputable sources. Came across this page on the John Hopkins site which compares COVID-19 to influenza:
Corona virus vs. the flu
The numbers appear to back up what I've been telling others since the Corona virus became front page news. That the flu kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. each year (in spite of a vaccine) with no notice from the press, and no crisis response expected from the health system or the government... so from that perspective, the current threat is overblown.
Then I looked closer at the statistics, and did some math.
If you look beyond the numbers themselves to the
ratio of fatalities/infections, COVID-19 has a mortality rate much higher than that of influenza. That ratio is evolving on the Hopkins site as more numbers come in (they are updated often) but COVID-19 appears to have
at least 25 times the mortality rate of the flu (it was over 50 when I checked again before posting). There are a lot of variables which could influence the accuracy of that result plus or minus, especially the small number of deaths currently attributed to COVID-19, the initially low number of tests available, and what the ratio is of those diagnosed vs. those infected, but not tested. And consider that without a vaccine, the deaths due to influenza might be more comparable. Regardless, that number is sobering.
COVID-19 may force a change in our national attitudes toward illness & society. I worked as a volunteer at a nursing home several years ago, and was astonished at the number of coughing & obviously ill people who came to visit their weak & elderly relatives. I really wanted to give them an earful about consideration for others. The same could be said for those who "tough it out" by bringing the flu to work, or who attend church, eat out, or go shopping when ill. It is not that I don't feel sympathy for those who are ill, because I do... it is that I resent
their lack of sympathy for those around them.
More than any action or inaction involving this outbreak, it is this casual disregard for others by those who are ill which may pose the greatest threat. The initial research suggests that masks offer little protection when worn in the presence of those who are infected... but that masks worn
by those who are ill can help to limit the spread. It should not be embarrassing to do so in public, and it shouldn't require government mandates for those who are ill to isolate themselves from others who may be more vulnerable. When/if such behavior becomes no longer socially unacceptable, peer pressure may bring about that change... there are signs, in responses by some churches & business, that COVID-19 may be the agent of such change. Until then, as
@flowerbug stated, " in the meantime it is business as usual until everyone refuses to come to work to perform the business as usual."
One last note, concerning vulnerability. It has been reported that most of the fatalities have been those with existing pulmonary conditions, or those with weakened immune systems. For some time now, I have watched numerous commercials for new drugs, touting relief from several annoying but non-fatal conditions... but which weaken the body's ability to fight infections. I'm left wondering how many currently take those drugs, as those people are among those at greatest risk. Funny how there has been no mention of this in the current coverage.
like i would not want to be working in the hospitals right now...
