Coronavirus-What do we really know?

Little has changed since the plague when it comes to containment of a virus or epidemic. Test, quarantine, burn, public hysteria that correlates to violence and less than human acts and burn it, burn everything. The world has not seen an epidemic so widely scattered with such a high population effected for quite some time. It is easy to instill fear and with social media, information is fed in waves crashing in both the factual and fiction shores. So much information, that it took me an entire day to wade through just a glimpse of what is out there in order to form some kind of opinion. The information highway allow so much traffic, that it is easy to take a wrong turn and get lost.

I read through several sites, articles and Twitter feeds and created a timeline so I could create a path of the social climate and what is being said. There were a few things that I found astonishing and warrant more discovery. This obsession was sparked by my children asking what was going to happen. It was then that I realized, I had been paying attention to the news, but not applying it. Coronavirus was something distant, far away, not something to be concerned about. Now that a case is in Nevada, local - next to my children, I am more alert and felt a responsibility to inform them the best that I could.

Below is the timeline that I created. This in no means represents everything out there, but it is a sampling and I came away with this:

1. There is reason to believe that China has underrepresented the numbers of how many have died due to the virus. They have been overwhelmed and unprepared and it has taken it's toll. Bodies were stacking up before they could collect them and as the virus is transferred to animals, there are several cremations of medical waste, animals and human corpses. They do not examine the bodies after death, so there could be various reasons why they died. They simply lack the manpower and supplies necessary to contain the virus, supply and care for their people as well as battle the public unrest. Widespread panic had ensued and the forceful nature of authority with little care or explanation did not help. Right now, their numbers are decreasing in infected and they are on the mend; however, the rest of the world is in the fire now.

2. The CDC in the US has handed out guidelines on testing, treatment and basic human care to medical facilities. The biggest concern we have at the moment is testing supplies, manpower and supplies for medical facilities. Congress has passed a bill for emergency funds in order to meet these demands. With underrepresented numbers in China, I fear that we don't know the extent of what we are dealing with. Deaths do seem to be staying with the very young and the older genres with other health issues.

3. The virus moves differently across nations. The US and UK are relatively slow while places like Italy are following more closely to the speed in which the virus took China by storm. My question is why? It could be several reasons. It could be genetic makeup of a population (similar to the way sickle cell works), or it could be cultural differences (Americans are not very 'contact' friendly as other cultures), or it could simply be that we are more isolated from touring other countries (besides Canada and Mexico) as our borders are simply farther apart, or it could be Friday. No one really knows anything yet. We do know every country is collaborating on finding a cure because of the many that are affected, this gives me hope.

4. The global economy will take a hit. Life stopped in China under quarantine. Schools are opening next week for the first time. Apple and other industry giants have asked people to work from home and have cancelled world commerce events. If China is not working, the US is not receiving mass amounts of shipments. Similar pains will be felt by all countries.

It is more now, then ever, that I feel united with the rest of the world as one human race fighting for our right to be here. What is paramount is that we don't lose our humanity in this struggle. No, I don't believe it is the apocalypse come calling, but I do believe the world is going to feel this one if they haven't already. It is at everyone's front door, knocking. Stay vigilant, stay informed and take necessary precautions. Below is a real time website that shows C-Virus trends:

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Link to Corona Virus Timeline here: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Ac5ea50e1-9adc-4df0-8323-070916bdde35