Hello from Seattle. Most of you don't seem to be taking this seriously enough. The experts who have studied the spread from the early infections in China are saying a majority of people in the US will get the infection. Most will have mild symptoms. Some will have no symptoms at all, but will be carriers.
The fucked up thing is people are contagious but not showing any symptoms for somewhere between 2 and 14 days (5 days average). Everybody looks and feels fine but that doesn't matter. It spreading around regardless.
Testing has been a big topic of discussion, but IMHO testing is only good for helping the experts track the spread. If you show symptoms (fever and dry cough) you should assume you (any anyone else you interact closely with) are infected. Maybe a test could show you aren't, but you really can't risk it. Sit it out at home, rest up and drink lots of fluids and wait for everyone you share space with to get better. Chances are you won't need medical intervention and will get better on your own.
The real problem is the ones that do end up needing medical intervention. Those are more likely to be the elderly, the chronicly ill, immuno-compromised and people with heart disease, diabetes and the like. A percentage of those get severe pneumonia and require a ventilator. Without a vent they almost certainly die. This is the important part.
There are only so many hospital beds with ventilator equipment. Estimates show if we do nothing to slow the spread, the number of people who need a vent immediately grows to around 30x capacity. Shit.
So, by closing gatherings and stores and implementing lock downs, they hope to slow the rate of infection with the hope that people on a vent get better (14 days?) before the next patient comes along that needs it. That's what flattening the curve is all about.
So, chance are you won't feel symptoms at all or just have a mild case that you get over at home like it was the flu, but if you don't do your part to slow down the spread then you put other people (those more likely to get bad symptoms like grandma, gramps and Chemda) at risk of death because a ventilator isn't available. Fuck!
Another bummer is is everyone is doing the right things, you won't really know because people just won't die. Kind of like how nobody notices the work that IT. professionals do until they stop and everything crashes.
In Seattle much has closed and a lot of restaurant workers have lost their jobs. The Uber drivers are fucked if they can't convert to food delivery. Grocery stores are constantly out of cleaning supplies, TP, milk and eggs. There are long lines to check out (1 hour plus) which is exactly how you spread COVID-19 around.
Buckle up buckaroos. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
Some links to info...
https://twitter.com/jeremycyoung/sta...75682643357696
https://mobile.twitter.com/jasonyano...77743653687296
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/a...23467b48e9ecf6
https://covid.idmod.org/#/
https://coronavirus.wa.gov/