To all those asking what makes COVID-19 more dangerous than normal flu:
With normal flu about 70% of the population already have full or partial immunity (from the latest waves of the flu), which massively hinders transmission. In the end, perhaps 2-10% of the population will get sick (usually between 1 and 7 million people in Germany). The mortality rate for flu is about 0.1% of those who get sick (one in a thousand).
Consequently flu cannot overwhelm the health system, although a BAD flu with 3x the number of sick people can bring it close.
The swine flu “non epidemic” in 2018 (?) was a new type of flu virus that had the potential - like the coronavirus now - that there was no immunity in the population. All those who had some clue were VERY happy that it didn’t come to this - while conspiracy theorists said “it’s all just hype anyway”.
With the coronavirus now, we KNOW that there is no immunity in the population. It also spreads faster (it’s about twice as contagious as flu) and the mortality rate seems to be about 1% of ALL infected people (including those almost without symptoms), or 3% (South Korea, China) to 6.6% (Italy) of those who are seriously ill (the difference is in part due to the much older population in Italy, in part because Italy has predominantly been testing people with symptoms of a coronavirus infection, while South Korea has been testing basically everyone since the outbreak had become apparent. Consequently, South Korea has detected more asymptomatic, but positive cases of coronavirus than Italy, in particular among young people).
The mortality rate of the severely affected and especially of the elderly (over 60) is naturally higher, as with the flu.
That there is NO IMMUNITY (the herd immunity the UK government in a fit of madness tries to “create” by not doing anything) means that the case numbers will explode (to give you an idea of a geometric procession: put 1 cent on the first square of a chess set, and double that for each subsequent square, pretty much like Corona spreads. There isn’t enough money in the World to get to square 64). If you do not want to decide who lives or dies as more critically ill patients are there than breathing apparatuses, then you need to cut down transmission of the virus.
Btw “mild cases” covers everything from no symptoms to a full blown pneumonia (which is MUCH worse than a bad flu). Serious cases refers to the patient needing a hospital! So no, the 80% are not just like a “little flu”, there are seriously sick people included.
Here is how China (which is technically and technologically far superior to NZ) did get on top of it (you could watch the report in the video I posted further up):
In China, statistics show that almost 80% of infections occur at home - meaning someone is sick, stays home, and infects the rest of the family.
The conclusion of the Chinese: no isolation at home, no playing with the kids (who then have no symptoms and infect others at school etc.), no infection of the partner or the parents who then leave the house and infect others.
The Chinese have acted accordingly:
Temperature is measured everywhere: when leaving the house, when entering a house, when entering a bus/train station/etc.
Those who have a temperature come to special “fever clinics” (which were built next to the hospitals during the SARS epidemic in 2002 and then “mothballed”) with doctors and staff in protective clothing, not to the family doctor in order not to infect him/her and other patients.
In the “fever clinics”
- the temperature is measured
- asked about symptoms and how they could have been infected
- a blood test (30 min) determines the number of white blood cells to test for bacterial pneumonia
- quick flu test
- if you don’t have either, a quick CT scan of the lungs is done (with portable CT scanners, 200 people per day per scanner)
- if CT scan is positive: PCR test (Q-tip up into the nose), about 4 hours (in the Western World the Q-tips have to be send in, result after 55 hours at BEST. And yes, fifty-five)
- Patients sit about 2 m apart while waiting
- if the result takes longer, patients will be placed in quarantine hotels (NOT allowed to go home)
if positive: is it a mild (80%) or a severe course (20%)?
- patients stay in sports halls on beds, nurses in protective clothing
- with dancing: frees the lungs, who cannot stand up is probably a severe case (very simple but medically clever)
- more serious cases go to hospital and receive special care
If you consider how well the Chinese take care of their people compared to the USA, then the mortality rate in the USA and the UK is probably going to be much higher than in China … especially considering the state and preparedness of the UK and the US.
For comparison: got a message from an acquaintance in the UK where the doctors and nurses despair at the government: their hospital has 70 breathing apparatuses. That hospital serves a population of 400,000.
