Can countries respond to Coronavirus without Medical Aid for All?

[oldbadger]

Can countries respond to Coronavirus without Medical Aid for All?

Your news channel has already told you that there are already 8000 cases (yesterday). We are hearing that 40-70% of the World's population could be affected by this sickness.
Fatality rates vary from 5% (Wuhan) to about 2-3% elsewhere. The shops in N. Italy are cleared out daily for emergency supplies. In the UK it is impossible to purchase hand cleanser from retail stores. Stocks and Shares are mostly crashing apart from the Pharmaceutical Industry. A gold sovereign has risen in value from about £225 before Christmas last year to £310 today..... the price of gold is one of the best 'crisis' thermometers there is.

But folks are already asking how countries like the United States could cope with such a pandemic if many millions of its citizens are not provided for with automatic medical aid!

As people become ill or are exposed to the virus they must be quarantined AND looked after. This issue seems to be obscured by folks calling out about how this could influence politics, but the big question is:-

Are we all preparing for a Communal and United Effort to Save People in such a Pandemic?

 

[HonestJoe]

Can countries respond to Coronavirus without Medical Aid for All?

Yes. Specific treatment and management in an emergency is largely separate from standard day-to-day provision. Obviously having a well-established medical infrastructure (regardless of the political structures) will be highly advantageous in dealing with this kind of thing but if it does reach the scale you describe, no normal system would cope and government is always going to need to implement dedicated measures, policies and funding.

 

[oldbadger]

Yes. Specific treatment and management in an emergency is largely separate from standard day-to-day provision. Obviously having a well-established medical infrastructure (regardless of the political structures) will be highly advantageous in dealing with this kind of thing but if it does reach the scale you describe, no normal system would cope and government is always going to need to implement dedicated measures, policies and funding.

Thank you for your post.

The last great and worldwide 'epidemic' that I have read about was the Spanish Flu of 1919-1922 which killed about 21 million.

Medicine might produce a vaccine in time to halt this virus, but if not then the World is going to be in a state of upheaval, I think.

 

[Lyndon]

Thats not true, an american with poor insurance had been to China and thought he had the virus, was billed thousands of dollars from the hospital just to show he didn't have anything

Yes. Specific treatment and management in an emergency is largely separate from standard day-to-day provision. Obviously having a well-established medical infrastructure (regardless of the political structures) will be highly advantageous in dealing with this kind of thing but if it does reach the scale you describe, no normal system would cope and government is always going to need to implement dedicated measures, policies and funding.

 

[Terry Sampson]

We're not worried here in the U.S. Trump's in charge; he's got everything under control. According to him:

"It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear"
"... from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows."

 

[exchemist]

Can countries respond to Coronavirus without Medical Aid for All?

Your news channel has already told you that there are already 8000 cases (yesterday). We are hearing that 40-70% of the World's population could be affected by this sickness.
Fatality rates vary from 5% (Wuhan) to about 2-3% elsewhere. The shops in N. Italy are cleared out daily for emergency supplies. In the UK it is impossible to purchase hand cleanser from retail stores. Stocks and Shares are mostly crashing apart from the Pharmaceutical Industry. A gold sovereign has risen in value from about £225 before Christmas last year to £310 today..... the price of gold is one of the best 'crisis' thermometers there is.

But folks are already asking how countries like the United States could cope with such a pandemic if many millions of its citizens are not provided for with automatic medical aid!

As people become ill or are exposed to the virus they must be quarantined AND looked after. This issue seems to be obscured by folks calling out about how this could influence politics, but the big question is:-

Are we all preparing for a Communal and United Effort to Save People in such a Pandemic?

I don't think, on the evidence so far, that anything like this scale of provision will be needed. It looks like a nasty 'flu'. The young, including babies, apparently, do not get bad symptoms and get over it, by themselves, with a normal 'flu' regime at home.

It is the elderly and those with existing medical conditions (respiratory, heart) that seem to get ill enough - sometimes - to need hospital treatment. I read a couple of days ago that the expected extra load on UK A&E facilities is 1% extra admissions, even if it is rife in the population. I don't know how solid that estimate is, but it gives you an idea of what the load on hospitals due to 'flu' is like, compared to all the other emergency conditions that send people to A&E. What the UK NHS does not want is for this to arrive on top of the normal seasonal cold weather peak in admissions. If its spread can be delayed until late spring or summer, they will find it easier to manage - hence the quarantine etc.

Once the disease has spread everywhere, quarantine will be become pointless and will probably be abandoned. At that point the world will go back to work as normal, with an expectations of extra days or weeks off for sickness when people catch it - just like 'flu'. It is the quarantine measures, while countries try to slow down the initial spread of it, in order to buy time for a vaccine, that cause the economic disruption.

 

[danieldemol]

Why they trying create stuff when they got evolution and natural selection. Things will take care of themselves.

What “stuff” do you aledge is being attempted to be created and who is “they”?

 

[exchemist]

We're not worried here in the U.S. Trump's in charge; he's got everything under control. According to him:

"It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear"
"... from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows."

What a stable genius.

 

[exchemist]

What “stuff” do you aledge is being attempted to be created and who is “they”?

Illuminati, Lizard People, Catholics, you know, those sorts of people.

 

[Iymus]

What “stuff” do you aledge is being attempted to be created

Medical Aid for all

and who is “they”?

Countries.

I suspect from the OP that countries or more specifically the United States must create some type of Medical Aid for all perhaps that is what he is leaning towards.

Can countries respond to Coronavirus without Medical Aid for All?

 

[danieldemol]

Medical Aid for all



Countries.

I suspect from the OP that countries or more specifically the United States must create some type of Medical Aid for all perhaps that is what he is leaning towards.

So are you opposed to medical aid for all on the grounds that those with suitable immune systems will naturally survive anyway...?

 

[oldbadger]

I don't think, on the evidence so far, that anything like this scale of provision will be needed. It looks like a nasty 'flu'. The young, including babies, apparently, do not get bad symptoms and get over it, by themselves, with a normal 'flu' regime at home.

It is the elderly and those with existing medical conditions (respiratory, heart) that seem to get ill enough - sometimes - to need hospital treatment. I read a couple of days ago that the expected extra load on UK A&E facilities is 1% extra admissions, even if it is rife in the population. I don't know how solid that estimate is, but it gives you an idea of what the load on hospitals due to 'flu' is like, compared to all the other emergency conditions that send people to A&E. What the UK NHS does not want is for this to arrive on top of the normal seasonal cold weather peak in admissions. If its spread can be delayed until late spring or summer, they will find it easier to manage - hence the quarantine etc.

Once the disease has spread everywhere, quarantine will be become pointless and will probably be abandoned. At that point the world will go back to work as normal, with an expectations of extra days or weeks off for sickness when people catch it - just like 'flu'. It is the quarantine measures, while countries try to slow down the initial spread of it, in order to buy time for a vaccine, that cause the economic disruption.

Thank you!
If only our media would promote such calm as your post.

 

[oldbadger]

Thats not true, an american with poor insurance had been to China and thought he had the virus, was billed thousands of dollars from the hospital just to show he didn't have anything

Oh dear!
This is what could spread the virus more widely through some countries, where payforcare is the norm.

I'm sorry to hear about that.

 

[oldbadger]

Medical Aid for all
Countries.

I suspect from the OP that countries or more specifically the United States must create some type of Medical Aid for all perhaps that is what he is leaning towards.

Gosh! Medical Aid for all?
What Decent and Caring community would want anything like that?

Are you a Christian? I forget.

 

[exchemist]

Thank you!
If only our media would promote such calm as your post.

There is a quite informative summary in today's Grauniad, which gives some perspective on Covid 19:
'It's no worse than the flu': busting the coronavirus myths

So it does seem nastier than "normal" seasonal 'flu', but not nearly as bad as SARS or MERS, two previous coronaviruses that have arisen from animals in recent years.

I am calm but a little apprehensive, being 65 and having a minor heart condition. If there is an outbreak in London, I may stop using the Underground. As it is, I now always wash my hands when I get back from somewhere, even a trip to the shops. It's good practice in any case. But we need to wait, watch and learn, basically.

 

[Lyndon]

, The flu kills about point 1%, corona virus kills at least 2% of victims, that's 20 times as bad as the flu or worse

 

[exchemist]

, The flu kills about point 1%, corona virus kills at least 2% of victims, that's 20 times as bad as the flu or worse

"At least 2%" is not certain and may be an overestimate - see link in post 15.

But these numbers are approximate at this stage - main thing is to get the order of magnitude right. It is not SARS, which killed 10%, or MERS, which I think kills 35%. But on the other hand it is more easily transmitted......

Also it can change. Usually, though not always, these things tend to weaken because a virus that incapacitates the host won't spread so well. Though this one seems to spread before it makes you ill, so that may not apply here....

 

[BSM1]

Thats not true, an american with poor insurance had been to China and thought he had the virus, was billed thousands of dollars from the hospital just to show he didn't have anything

I thought Obamacare was suppose to take care of all this....

 

[Lyndon]

"At least 2%" is not certain and may be an overestimate - see link in post 15.

But these numbers are approximate at this stage - main thing is to get the order of magnitude right. It is not SARS, which killed 10%, or MERS, which I think kills 35%. But on the other hand it is more easily transmitted......

Also it can change. Usually, though not always, these things tend to weaken because a virus that incapacitates the host won't spread so well. Though this one seems to spread before it makes you ill, so that may not apply here....

of 80,000 infected in China, 2700 died you do the math, that's not 1%

 

[exchemist]

of 80,000 infected in China, 2700 died you do the math, that's not 1%

Yes but your number depends on the accuracy of Chinese data on how many people have caught it. From what I have read, the death rate outside China - where it has been accurately monitored since its arrival - is running lower than these data suggest. But we need more data to reach a conclusion, certainly.

P.S also bear in mind the cruise ships are packed with wrinklies, ready to drop off their perches, so one would expect a much higher than average death rate from those samples.