Thama

11 hours ago, Bostonheelfish said:

The “common cold” is not “a COVID”.  

It actually is, just not COVID-19.

This virus is so stupidly named. Just needed to call it "SARS 2.0" or "Son of SARS" or "SARS EVOLVED".

18 hours ago, stirs said:

Many have been talking about it for a couple weeks.  Just depends on the trials.  Tons of companies with tons of trials already begun on many directions.

An antibody with high binding activity to COVID will likely work, just as the convalescent serum extracted from survivors will also probably work. The problem is in getting those treatments off the ground and produced in large numbers within a reasonable time frame. Monoclonal antibody production is not trivial, and I don't have a lot of faith that it will be widely available before 50-75% of the population has already been infected.

55 minutes ago, Ja Rhule said:

Also, I think China completely bs their info.. Italy 24k infected 2k dead.  China 80k infected 3k dead?  Since when China has better healthcare than Europe? 

A) China is far more draconian about quarantine than Europe.

B) China is also not reporting their real numbers or letting the outside world see how bad it is in many places according to Chinese national coworkers with family there. 

3 hours ago, stirs said:

A question from left field here, just thinking out loud.

Knowing that the virus is pretty minimally troubling to people in their 30's, would it be a good idea, or would it have been a good idea, for the military to purposefully infect those with very good health, so that when they are over it, they would no longer be susceptible and be able to fill in for nursing and police forces, etc.

My wife says I am crazy, she probably right

It's a horrible idea. While the death rate is much lower in that population, it is still substantial. Lots of reports from China and a few from Italy of young healthy physicians becoming critically ill and dying, many from what appears to be a delayed myocarditis-like illness. In France fully half of their critically ill patients are young and middle aged (under 60). Being young and healthy is a relative, not absolute, protective factor here.

Some of the largest clusters of SARS-CoV occurred in warm climates. Even the Chinese scientists are talking about a reduction in R0 of around 0.5, which would be huge for most viruses, but is a drop in the bucket here. 

The tides turned in China and South Korea because their populations and governments were willing to strictly follow measures that Americans would throw little personal liberty hissy fits about.

And warm weather is going to slow this down only slightly by current observations. It's spreading just fine in tropical/subtropical areas now.