Coronavirus

Today I learned the coronavirus can stay alive on a hard surface for up to nine days, that people are infectious for more than twice as long as they are with influenza, and that so far 14 percent of people who recovered from it have tested positive again after being released. (Source)

Combine all of that with some other things I already knew:

• Longer incubation time (two to 14 days, vs. two days for influenza)
• Mortality rate around 2 percent (vs. .1–.2 percent for influenza)
• 20 percent serious or critical cases (80 percent nonserious, which means equivalent to a cold or the flu)

I saw a table with death rates by age group and it starts going up noticeably with the 50–59 age group, increasing steeply after that:


(Source)

It sounds as though the biggest problem of all will be the potentially large number of people who need intensive care and respirators, over-matching the number available in our hospitals. (Not to mention the incompetence and duplicity of our government leaders, which goes without saying these days.)

It looks like John Oliver did a segment on the virus last night as well. I have to go watch that to see if there are any painful laughs within his insights.