Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[Dancefortwo]

Hand sanitisers of at least 70% alcohol are antiviral in this case actually very antiviral because this is an envelope virus if it was say a non envelope virus like norovirus your point would hold and you would require bleach or clorhexadine but yes soap and water is good too, anything that dissolves the protein coat is effective its just hand sanitiser is easier to lug around than a sink   I don't think the world is coming to an end by any stretch of the imagination but I do think this is the scariest most contagious virus I've ever seen in 30 years of experience (except for measles in terms of contagiousness) in spite of a relatively low death rate compared to say ebola  it's both largely an unknown quantity and so far more deadly than seasonal flu the most conservative estimate is 1% the WHO says it is 3.4% so between 10 and 34 times more deadly than seasonal flu, this may change either to worse or better, the leaning is better as the virus has mutated into two types the L type and S type and currently the less deadly type is more prevalent (but I cannot off hand tell you which is which) This virus is quite dangerous to those over 80 with a possible initial death rate of one person in seven irregardless of co-morbidity factors and worse for those who have significant co-morbidity. This isn't the apocalypse by any stretch of the imagination much to the chagrin of the religious as you mention but it is serious and complacency is as much our enemy as panic at least until more data is available.

This is totally anecdotal, probably even a bit silly,  but I'm a-gonna put this out there anyway.  I was the youngest of 8 kids and grew up with a very funny mother who didn't give a shit about housekeeping and wasn't at all interested in keeping anything sterile.  We lived in a cabin with no real indoor plumbing,  well except for freezing cold water from a lame kitchen sink faucet.  Needless to say I was not a clean child.  I was given a bath about every 7 or 8 days in a horse trough and I hopped in after a couple of my siblings had already (sort of) cleaned themselves in the water.  It was too much of a chore for my poor mother to empty the water, heat up more water up in a big pot and then mix it with cold tap water for each kid.   (We had no hot water heater in the cabin)  In the summer she gave us a bar of soap and sent us down to the nearby river to clean ourselves but most of the time I'd get sidetracked and climbed trees  or mess around with bugs or something.  I was pretty much a filthy kid, looked like something out of Tobacco Road.  But jezzuzchrist, I was hardly ever sick.  None of us kids were, but I was particularly healthy.  When chicken pox, or influenza or other crappy stuff was went through the school I was generally left unscathed.   My mother used to laugh and call me Typhoid Laura. 

When I got older and discovered boys that's when I started to clean myself more.....well as much as I could anyway,  and that's when I started to catch colds and the flu and other stuff.  

So fast foreward  a decade or so later to me becoming a mother.  I pretty much followed my own mother's cleaning routine.....which is to say.....not much cleaning has gone on in my house.  My kids were also pretty healthy.   Geeze,  I keep meaning to vaccuum the living room rug because it's been about a month since I last did it but I've got more interesting thing to do with my life.

As I say, this is all anecdotal and I know it,  but I've never lived a sterile life and I'm not gonna start now.    

Right now I'm going to go out to the store on my bicycle to pick some bread and milk.  Not gonna wear a mask, gloves nor use any precautions.   

Exposure to dirt is exposure to bacteria, and most are neutral to us or beneficial. Actually, the saying is that we are 1 percent human and 99% biome, with a brain attached. We are vessels for these other life forms, and they feed on stuff we don't want or can't break down. Early exposure to lots of bacteria populates our systems with beneficial bacteria and stimulates the immune system to get rid of harmful ones. The 40 trillion bacteria who call us home also help defend against harmful bacteria.

So, playing in the dirt is generally good for kids. Bacteria are generally good for us, with exceptions.   However, bacteria are not viruses.

I seemed to be rather immune to viruses as well.  The youngest in a large family is exposed to the most bacteria, scum and crap.  Parents generally start off being pretty clean with the first child but as each added baby comes along cleaning everything goes to hell. By the time I came along cleaning was a distant memory.  I remember several classmates came down with chickenpox and played with them in their homes and didn't catch it.  I never had pink eye, strep throat, bad flues.  I donno, I was a very skinny, dirty, healthy kid.