Coronavirus: we separate myths from facts and give advice

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How likely are YOU
to die from virus?

With death rates from Covid-19 varying wildly around the globe, you might be wondering about your chances of survival if you contract the virus. There are no simple answers — but there are some things that put you at higher risk

It’s no surprise that people are confused as to how deadly the virus is, given the differing figures and conflicting information. In early March, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a global ‘snapshot’ death rate of 3.4 percent. Yet Italy — the epicenter of the pandemic in Europe — has reported a death rate of over 7 percent. Meanwhile, the death rate in Spain is hovering nearer the WHO estimate at 3.1 percent — and in some countries, it’s much lower than that.

There is much speculation about the reasons for the big variations by country (we’ll get back to that later), but a better way to estimate your chances of recovery is to look at some more personal risk factors.
How old are you?

It’s commonly known at this stage that the older you are, the worse the stats look. With the pandemic in full swing across the world and figures changing hourly, it makes sense to look at the latest figures from China, which has had the most experience with the virus (and has finally managed to contain it).

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) reported a death rate of 14.8 percent for patients over 80 years old and 8 percent for patients in their 70s. It dropped to 3.6 percent for people in their 60s and 1.3 percent for the 50-59 age group. Fortunately, the death rate for everyone under the age of 49 was below 0.5 percent — so clearly, age is one of the most major factors to consider.

Also on rt.com Covid-19 is defining global health crisis of our time, WHO warns, as more deaths & cases reported in rest of world than in China

Pre-existing conditions? Smoker?

The other certainty in all of this is that people with underlying medical conditions are also in the higher risk categories.

The CCDC study found a 10.5 percent death rate for those with cardiovascular diseases and a 7.3 percent fatality rate for those with diabetes. Sufferers of chronic respiratory disease and hypertension had a death rate around 6 percent, while the death rate for cancer patients was 5.6 percent. So, if you fall into any of those categories, it might be time to start ‘socially distancing’ or ‘self-quarantining’ yourself to be on the safe side.

Are you a man?

There’s some bad news in the Chinese stats for men, as the Covid-19 fatality rate was higher for men at 2.8 percent to 1.7 percent for women. Men were also slightly more likely to contract the disease than women, accounting for 51 percent of the total cases.

Experts are not exactly sure why this is, but there are plenty of theories. One is that generally speaking men smoke more than women (particularly in China) — another theory is that women have stronger immune systems for babies during pregnancy. The fact that men are also more likely to have high-risk pre-existing conditions might also be a factor.

Where do you live?

This is a tricky one. As we know, the death rates have varied significantly around the world and the most worrying numbers come from Italy, which has seen a 7 percent fatality rate — but of course, that doesn’t mean Italians specifically are somehow more susceptible or likely to die.

Some have speculated that Italy’s high rate is due to the country’s aging population, but the median age of Germans is higher than in Italy and Germany has experienced a death rate of 0.2 percent so far. Similarly, the theory that the high death rate is related to high prevalence of smoking in Italy doesn't make total sense, since China and South Korea have higher smoking rates.

Many experts have warned that Italy failed to take early action (urging ‘social distancing’ measures, canceling mass public events etc.) to “flatten the curve” of infections, which led to a flood of patients suddenly overwhelming the health system.

In the end, the numbers here may be more indicative of how a country acts to contain the virus more than anything else.

The real death rate: 7%, 3.4%, or much lower?

When the worst of the crisis is over, the real overall death rate will potentially be significantly lower than the reported one — since many people will contract the virus but remain asymptomatic or display only mild symptoms and will never get tested at all.

Indeed, Jeremy Samuel Faust, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital wrote in Slate that the frightening death rates are “unlikely to hold” as time goes on and that the true fatality rate is “likely to be far lower than current reports suggest.”

Yet, Italy’s experience seems to suggest that failing to get control of the spread early or “flatten the curve” could lead to unnecessarily high fatality rates in some countries.

https://www.rt.com/news/483260-covid19- ... eath-rate/

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Is reusable toilet paper
answer to panic buying?
By Stephen Corby an Australian journalist who has written news, features and columns for major national newspapers there, and edited magazines including Top Gear Australia

It’s being billed as the answer to all our needs in these coronavirus-induced stockpiling times that we now inhabit. But of all of the portents of doom, surely none is as deeply alarming as the emergence of reusable toilet paper

Follow link below for toilet roll pic:
https://cdni.rt.com/files/2020.03/xxl/5 ... 33a2d3.jpg

While it might sound like a product fit to sit alongside paper umbrellas and helicopter ejector seats, “washable/reusable toilet non-paper!” – as its creators at Handmade Australian Textiles dub it – is not only real, but zeitgeisty. What could be more environmentally friendly than, essentially, the grown-up equivalent of a traditional nappy?

As fever-brained shoppers wrestle over rolls of toilet tissue in supermarkets, a small and strong-stomached number of consumers have been handing over AUS $48 (£24) for a scroll of 20 squares of jauntily printed material with either a terry-towelling or microfibre backing.

So amid the frenzied worldwide rush for disposable rolls (we each use 57 sheets a day, apparently), I was chosen to be RT.com’s representative – thanks, guys – to trial the reusable variety. It’s a crappy job, but someone’s gotta do it. Always here to get to the bottom of what’s best for you, dear reader.

How bad could it be? After all, humans had lived without toilet paper for hundreds of years before the Chinese invented the disposable kind in the 14th century. Romans apparently employed a sponge on a stick, Eskimos used moss, the Greeks preferred clay and Native Americans utilised corn cobs. Anything splinter-free seemed good to me; my task, comparatively, should have been a breeze.

Demand for this new reusable product meant we were not lucky enough to have our choice of the “gorgeous” decorative designs (though we did opt for the optional plastic press studs, which allow you to form the world’s thinnest door snake). What we ended up with was jaunty buzzing bees on our backing, which seems a slightly strange choice for something you’re going to rub on your nether parts (perhaps it’s an oblique Winnie-the-Pooh reference, or ‘Bees means Hinds’?).

The arrival of the non-paper in our house caused a degree of shock and horror, with my children and wife recoiling as if I were waving an actual hive in their faces. There was much appalled pondering about how awful it would be if visitors mistook the squares for hand towels. Or, heaven forfend, face cloths.

Forced to go it alone, I must admit it took me some time to gird my loins – and hands – for the task. It was not just that I was put off by the general icky-ness, but I was also concerned about how best to navigate the plastic studs; things could go painfully wrong with one false manoeuvre.

But, as Alex Ferguson might say, it was squeaky-bum time. Having finally manned up and put my back(side) into it, I can tell you that the experience is very much like being in a friend’s bathroom, finding there’s no toilet paper, and concluding that the only option is to wipe your butt with one of their towels. Not much of a choice, really.

Is it unpleasant? Physically, no, but mentally it is about as disturbing as washing your face with sandpaper. And then there’s the question of what to do with the soiled squares, which go from pretty to s**tty faster than a two-year-old girl switching to tantrum mode.

Eventually, based on my experience of Asian toilets, I set up a tiny bin for my waste non-paper, but then my concerns turned to how I would ever get the little squares clean again once used. I decided to consult the product’s creator, and entrepreneur in the making, 26-year-old Australian Eloise Marsh.

“I’d been thinking of doing reusable toilet paper for a while, because I was already selling a reusable non-paper towel,” she explained, until I interjected with an “I’m sorry, but isn’t that just called a towel?”. “But,” she continued unfazed, “I wasn’t sure there’d be a market for it, and then the toilet-paper crisis hit, so I went for it, and now it’s going crazy. One woman bought seven rolls off me.”

And then things got a little awkward, as Ms Marsh admitted that she’d never actually used her own product for number twos, only number ones (not an option that occurred to me, as a man). Oh, and she’d forgotten to send me the accompanying Care Sheet, which would have explained that I needed to rinse my squares, and possibly my backside (it wasn’t clear), immediately after wiping.

Indeed, she sounded mildly disturbed by my careless disposal, pointed out that “most people use it with a bidet”, and then gave a low whistle and a “wow, your wife’s going to be annoyed at you - good luck getting it clean”.

Ms Marsh was also slightly vague about her claims that the softer option she offers is more environmentally friendly than flushing tonnes of paper down the loo over your lifetime. Even taking into account the water-heavy practices of cotton farming, and the colours and dyes used in her work, she believes that “if you use my product until the end of its life, it should be more environmentally friendly in the long run, and cheaper, too”.

So what exactly would the life of a roll of used reusable non-paper be? Having read through the comments on Handmade Australian Textiles’ Facebook page, I came across a clue in one succinct point: would I actually be able to put these in the washing machine and not get divorced? I can only tell you that, in my experience, the answers are almost certainly: vanishingly short, and no. So long as my local supermarket hasn’t run out of disposable rolls, that is.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/483308-coronav ... let-paper/

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Coronavirus in and
around London

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China:

1,386 billion people

81,000 infected

70, recovered

3,241 deaths

1 new case

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UK

66.44 million people

2626 people infected

103 deaths

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WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING

The media has no real idea what is going on and only seems interested in frightening the population

The media are entirely to blame for all the panic buying

The ONLY organisation that knows the TRUTH is:

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Main page with assorted links:

https://www.who.int/

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Myth busters:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease ... th-busters

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We listen to too many
so-called experts?

From mad cow disease to SARS to bird flu, the scientists and politicians have warned of impending catastrophes – and got it badly wrong. Now they are at it again, we should retain a degree of skepticism

For decades, scientists and politicians have warned us about ‘the big one’, a major pandemic on the scale of the ‘Spanish flu’ of 1918-19. A decade ago it was H1N1 ‘swine’ flu. Before that we were told that SARS in 2003 was going to be a major pandemic, or perhaps ‘the big one’ would be the H5N1 ‘bird’ flu outbreak in 2005. But these all turned out to be relatively minor events.

Moreover, there has been panic over a huge range of things. There was the Y2K ‘Millennium Bug’. The world's computers were apparently on the verge of shutting down as the year 2000 started because older systems only used two digits to store the year part of dates – so ‘99’ would be followed by ‘00’, creating chaos. But the problem was noticed well in advance and dealt with fairly easily.

In the UK, there were alarming stories of how variant-CJD, the ‘human form of mad cow disease’ – first reported in 1995 – was going to kill hundreds of thousands of people. From time to time, there have been renewed reports of a ‘vCJD time bomb’ about to go off. In fact, there have been just 178 deaths in total and only two since 2011.

All these exaggerations have led to a considerable degree of cynicism about public-health advice. Time and again, wild claims of catastrophe have turned out to be false. No wonder that many people's first reaction to Covid-19 – including mine – was ‘here we go again’. In the UK, the government has strengthened its advice this week to older people to isolate themselves for the next 12 weeks and for everyone to avoid pubs, clubs and restaurants.

But even the prime minister's 79-year-old father, Stanley Johnson, has declared:

‘Of course I'll go to a pub if I need to go to a pub!’

By Rob Lyons, journalist and author based in Scotland. He specializes in health and environment issues. He is the author of Panic on a Plate: How Society Developed an Eating Disorder

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AIDS, Spanish Flu, the PLAGUE?

Just how deadly is the coronavirus compared to history’s worst pandemics?

As the infection and mortality rates of the novel coronavirus continue to rise, people everywhere are growing increasingly concerned about the threat, but just how bad is the virus relative to past pandemics?

In a highly interconnected and globalized world, humanity is increasingly susceptible to outbreaks of disease. Recent decades have seen a slew of infectious illnesses spiral into epidemics and leave a trail of destruction in their wake.

Swine flu has claimed over half a million lives since it crossed over to humans in 2009; The West Africa ebola outbreak killed more than 11,000 people, and SARS, Bird flu and Mad Cow Disease also racked up hundreds of deaths and proved to be major causes for concern around the world.

HIV/AIDS (25 million killed) 1981-2012

HIV/AIDS was first identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo all the way back in 1976. The outbreak began in earnest in the early 80s, and it has remained one of the biggest scourges humanity has faced in recent decades. Nearly 25 million of the 65 million people infected during the pandemic died by the early 2000s, with 2.8 million people dying of AIDS in 2005 alone.

Both prevention and treatment for HIV infection have both vastly improved in the intervening years. According to the UN, some 37.9 million people were living with HIV by the end of 2018, of which 24.5 million were accessing antiretroviral therapy.

Asian Flu (2 million killed) 1956 - 1958

The Asian Flu virus originated in China in early 1956 before eventually spreading to Singapore, Hong Kong and the US. Though there are varying statistics for the exact death toll, World Health Organization data indicates that it claimed the lives of some two million people during its two-year rampage. Nearly 70,000 of the victims were in the US alone.

Research suggests the virus is a mixed species strain made up of avian flu and human flu viruses. Some scientists say the disease originated from a mutation in wild ducks that combined with a pre-existing human strain.

Spanish Flu (20 - 50 million killed) 1918

Arguably one of the worst pandemics to ever hit humanity, the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 spread from Asia, to Europe and North America, and even reached the Arctic and several remote Pacific islands.

Over 500,000,000 people were infected and between 20-50,000,000 people died before the pandemic ended in December 1920. Some researchers have estimated that the disease actually claimed 100,000,000 lives, which was roughly three to five percent of the Earth's population at the time.

What separated the flu from other influenza outbreaks was its unusual mortality pattern, which saw it strike down completely healthy young adults.

Black Death (75 - 200 million killed) 1346 - 1353

Perhaps the best known pandemic to ever hit humanity, the Black Death, racked up an obscenely high death toll of between 75 and 200 million people.

The plague completely devastated Europe, Africa and Asia, jumping continents via fleas living on rats that often travelled on merchant ships. In the seven years the Black Death lasted it killed between 30 and 60 percent of Europe's population.

Plague of Justinian (25 million killed) 541 - 542

A lesser-known pandemic, the plague of Justinian, afflicted the Byzantine Empire and is estimated to have cut Europe's population in half in just 12 months. Roughly 40 percent of Constantinople's population were killed and, at its height, the pandemic is believed to have killed an estimated 5,000 people per day.

https://www.rt.com/news/479956-deadlies ... ronavirus/

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Coronavirus Infection

New Study Reveals Taking Chloroquine Fights Off COVID-19 in 6 Days and Works as Preventative for Coronavirus Infection
By Jim Hoft

On Monday Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced that the first trial vaccine for the coronavirus is now being tested. The trial taking place in Seattle, which has been a hotbed for COVID-19.

The test includes 45 people age 18-55 and they are receiving two injections, one at zero days, one at 28 days. The individuals will then be followed for one year. The trial results is still months away.

On Monday night Laura Ingraham reported that a new study revealed the anti-viral medication chloroquine is successful in fighting the coronavirus.

An Effective Treatment for Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Laura invited Dr. Gregory Rigano, the co-author of the study to discuss the latest findings

Dr. Rigano said their study found that those COVID-19 patients who took hydroxy-chloroquine were found free of the disease in 6 days. The patients were testing negative for the coronavirus in six days!

Dr. Rigano also said taking choroquine could act as a preventative.

This is a remarkable study!

The Ingraham Angle:

Dr. Favini: The research suggests that coronaviruses can be inactivated within a minute by disinfecting surfaces with 62-71% alcohol or 0.5% hydrogen peroxide bleach or household bleach containing 0.1% sodium hypochlorite.

https://www.foxnews.com/category/health ... oronavirus

Lots of information on this site

https://www.foxnews.com/category/health ... oronavirus

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Link to the future:

https://www.facebook.com/basur.basur.58 ... 357724821/

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What kind of community do you live in?

What kind of community do I want to live in? what kind of community can you help to create? These are important questions raised right now during the Corona spread



Here in northern Iraq the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) implemented a two day quarantine, followed by an extension of 4 days and then another extra 5 days. However, even if they had announced the quarantine in one setting we would have not seen the scenes we are seeing in Europe. The empty supermarkets and Susan and Karen fighting over toilet paper is not something that you see here.

Let me tell you why

You do not see empty supermarkets here because this is not the kind of community we live in.

It may be strange to think that third world countries, war torn countries and developing nations are in a better position than some of the wealthiest nations in the Western world. After all, we have hundreds of thousands in refugee camps, our hospitals are in terrible conditions and we lack medicine, infrastructure and means to handling such pandemics.

Our humanity is not greater than yours; nor is your humanity any less than ours. However, we are a community who has experienced war, terrorism, hunger, genocide and ethnic cleansing. The politicization of our identity and our lives has created stronger community links.

After surviving Halabje, what is Corona to us? After Kobane, why should we fear that Corona is going to disintegrate our community bonds. After Dersim, Mehabad and Shengal and ISIS, and Saddam and Erdogan we have learned that community bonds save. Community is life. Community is help, support, survival. Community is unity. Community is strength; community is resistance against terrorism, against war, and diseases and capitalism.

A collective crises like Corona shows us who we are as individuals and as a community. If the Corona crises is disintegrating your community and your food shelves are empty and the most vulnerable of you are going hungry and at greater risk then you need to ask yourself "what kind of community do I want to live in". Then you need to everything that you can to make sure you live exactly in the type of community that you do want to live in.

Sometimes this is as simple as putting the extra loaf of bread back on the shelf

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