[quote=svelte]yes most of us will eventually get infected…the goal now is to flatten and widen the curve.
at this point that’s all we can do…that ensures those who need hospitalization get a fair chance at getting it, instead of having hospital staff pick and choose who they take in.[/quote]
Yup. Seems like the virus has been on US a lot longer than people thought. Some folks might have already had it and dismissed it earlier as a variation of the flu. Seeing infections come up in states where there’s typically not a lot of people from China and Italy going back and forth says it’s been circulating for some time. At this point it almost is pointless to test and assume most people who are sick have it, and just treat the ones with severe symptoms and the elderly
Nobody expected Italy or Europe for that matter to have a huge issue because of China’s failure to disclose the infection earlier to anyone including the EU. So Europe is as late to the preparation as just like the US, despite supposedly the superior public health system in many of those countries. Germany too needs to mobilize the private industry to build medical supplies and equipment as it too was caught underprepared. Spain is getting hit pretty hard too, also behind in their response.
The interesting part is the majority of the people getting sick and turning up in the ICU aren’t the older seniors. It’s mostly people younger than 60 and overwhelmingly men.