SimperingToad wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:video footage of people standing in the holes the planes made

Those were fire elementals, possibly mephits.

SimperingToad wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread: I never found out if it was the case, as I lost track of things at that point.

Don't worry, I lost track a few sentences into your post...but if you really want to talk conspiracy theory, what if China deliberately exaggerated the deadliness of the new virus, in order to cut trade ties. After all, it would be difficult to start a world war if our societies are too entangled with peaceful pursuits of commerce.

Sadly we will never know the true devastation that this virus has done to china.  Any real numbers we could have extrapolated from them being transparent about transmission and death rates have been incinerated along with their citizens.

-SKA

Found this interesting - WHO putting together some info on the limited access they had.

This has the link to the PDF and Video of the press conference

The WHO sent 25 international experts to China and here are their main findings after 9 days : China_Flu

5% of people who are diagnosed with Covid require artificial respiration. Another 15% need to breathe in highly concentrated oxygen - and not just for a few days. The duration from the beginning of the disease until recovery is 3 to 6 weeks on average for these severe and critical patients (compared to only 2 weeks for the mildly ill). The mass and duration of the treatments overburdened the existing health care system in Wuhan many times over. The province of Hubei, whose capital is Wuhan, had 65,596 infected persons so far. A total of 40,000 employees were sent to Hubei from other provinces to help fight the epidemic. 45 hospitals in Wuhan are caring for Covid patients, 6 of which are for patients in critical condition and 39 are caring for seriously ill patients and for infected people over the age of 65. Two makeshift hospitals with 2,600 beds were built within a short time. 80% of the infected have mild disease, ten temporary hospitals were set up in gymnasiums and exhibition halls for those.

The vast majority of those infected sooner or later develop symptoms. Cases of people in whom the virus has been detected and who do not have symptoms at that time are rare - and most of them fall ill in the next few days.

The most common symptoms are fever (88%) and dry cough (68%). Exhaustion (38%), expectoration of mucus when coughing (33%), shortness of breath (18%), sore throat (14%), headaches (14%), muscle aches (14%), chills (11%) are also common. Less frequent are nausea and vomiting (5%), stuffy nose (5%) and diarrhoea (4%). Running nose is not a symptom of Covid.

An examination of 44,672 infected people in China showed a fatality rate of 3.4%. Fatality is strongly influenced by age, pre-existing conditions, gender, and especially the response of the health care system. All fatality figures reflect the state of affairs in China up to 17 February, and everything could be quite different in the future elsewhere.

Healthcare system: 20% of infected people in China needed hospital treatment for weeks. China has hospital beds to treat 0.4% of the population at the same time - other developed countries have between 0.1% and 1.3% and most of these beds are already occupied with people who have other diseases. The most important thing is firstly to aggressively contain the spread of the virus in order to keep the number of seriously ill Covid patients low and secondly to increase the number of beds (including material and personnel) until there is enough for the seriously ill. China also tested various treatment methods for the unknown disease and the most successful ones were implemented nationwide. Thanks to this response, the fatality rate in China is now lower than a month ago.

Pre-existing conditions: The fatality rate for those infected with pre-existing cardiovascular disease in China was 13.2%. It was 9.2% for those infected with high blood sugar levels (uncontrolled diabetes), 8.4% for high blood pressure, 8% for chronic respiratory diseases and 7.6% for cancer. Infected persons without a relevant previous illness died in 1.4% of cases.

By-Tor & SnowDog wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:The WHO sent 25 international experts to China and here are their main findings after 9 days : China_Flu
"Running nose is not a symptom of Covid."

Finally, some real information that will help us make responsible decisions!

Wow, thanks a bunch, Allan! I had meant to check into BP a long time ago and forgot!
I made plans a few weeks ago to have a viral outbreak in our D&D campaign. I have a few ideas, but the one I think I'll go with is a disease which lowers intelligence by 1 point daily for 1-12 days, with 0 meaning death. Most clerics will have a hard time getting spells, especially cure disease, as the deities will be a bit overworked. An excellent way to strip out excess treasure when they pay 10K for a cure disease scroll.
I'm thinking the name should be Moronavirus. Thoughts?

I'm no conspiracy theorist and I am not into hysterics.  But this covid thing is not just the flu.  The actions of the authorities do not match their words.  The flu happens every year all over the world.  Whole countries dont shut down because of it.  Entire cities and regions are not quarantined for the flu.  The flu doesnt trigger travel bans. Medical staff dont wear full hazmat suits to transfer flu patients.  2 + 2 is not equaling 4 here.

There won't be a vaccine for at least a year or more.  And the flu vaccine is only barely effective.  It's totally hit or miss.  Some years it works, some years it's worthless.  Because it mutates.  The Covid that hits next year could very well be a different strain by then.   We'll have a nice vaccine for THIS year's Covid ready by 2021 though.  Which is nice I guess.

sauromatian wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Finally, some real information that will help us make responsible decisions!

I'm hearing of stores running out of hand sanitizers, toilet paper and hand wipes.  Now is the time to stock on D&D supplies before they run out!!!!  

Agent Cooper wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I'm no conspiracy theorist and I am not into hysterics.  But this covid thing is not just the flu.  The actions of the authorities do not match their words.  The flu happens every year all over the world.  Whole countries dont shut down because of it.  Entire cities and regions are not quarantined for the flu.  The flu doesnt trigger travel bans. Medical staff dont wear full hazmat suits to transfer flu patients.  2 + 2 is not equaling 4 here.

They are now saying that the international death rate for those who get it is 3.4%, not the 2.3% being reported before. What will they say tomorrow?