Be safe, everyone

[sboerner]

Just a nod to the Terragen global community and those in it who are affected by the coronavirus crisis, and all of their loved ones, friends and families. Especially those in China, Italy and other places that are particularly hard hit. 

It's suddenly a much different world. Be careful out there.

[WAS]

I hope everyone does well. I'm not too worried about SARS, which has been around for a looong time (a lot of the world already has antibodies which explains high recovery rate). I hope those with compromised immune systems and the elderly are kept safe. I'm more worried about 179k worldwide cases and nearly 8 billion people in hysteria and martial law being enacted across the globe. Several mob fights have broken out over supplies in our state, and the NG has been mobilizing and setting up.

[DocCharly65]

I'm more worried about 179k worldwide cases and nearly 8 billion people in hysteria

Thanks for the wishes and same to all of you!

I hope that the selfish pack of hamster buyers is not representative of humanity - or people who try to persuade pharmaceutical companies to deliver vaccines exclusively to their nation - then good night mankind! 

...I should make some tests how to render toilet paper and bread... in the supermarket it was already empty today...

[Hannes]

I think the worst thing is indeed hysteria. Yes, it's a serious disease. Other diseases are even more dangerous. People are totally freaking out. Apart from desinfection stuff you can't get any flour, noodles or toilet paper anymore in our super markets. So it seems everything is about cooking noodles, baking numerous cakes and taking comfortable dumps.

[WAS]

I hope that the selfish pack of hamster buyers is not representative of humanity - or people who try to persuade pharmaceutical companies to deliver vaccines exclusively to their nation

Seriously. I have little confidence in world governments right now whose responsibility is to keep the publics composure, and they're right on board with media hysteria. The Health Department of our state and our health plans had to send out PSAs trying to educate people on SARS Coronavirus and it's real risks over media hyperbole, but doesn't seem to be having any impact. And sorry, I'll always go to peer reviewed and cited info before CNN or some journalist trying to reiterate things for a buzz.

[WAS]

So it seems everything is about cooking noodles, baking numerous cakes and taking comfortable dumps.

I have to clean my desk of coffee now, thanks. LOLOL

[Dune]

Thank you, and I also wish eveyone would keep their calm and use their brain. But mass hysteria is indeed luring, especially when frightening words go viral. People should listen to Governments and scientists, not FB 'friends', or whatever crap.

Sorry, have to go now, get another load of toiletpaper, asap!

Stay safe, guys and girls!

[René]

It has been clear for years that this was going to happen one day. There are dozens of books and films on the subject, and now it has finally happened. It's probably also sheer luck that we were spared from a pandemic for a century, although a few times it was a close call. The last Ebola outbreak almost reached the Congolese metropolis of Goma. It's not that we weren't warned: in recent decades we've seen outbreaks of the birds flu, swine fever, mad cow disease, and whatnot. Despite all this, we were not really prepared.
On a positive note: perhaps the coronavirus is a last warning, and the current measures taken are a kind of rehearsal for when a really deadly virus emerges. Since the whole world population is now affected by this, it might also lead to the realization that we are all very dependent on each other.


In any case, I hope that everyone will get safe and sound through this ordeal.

[Dune]

One good thing; CO2 production will go through a nice dip. We just went out and it's very quiet everywhere, hardly any traffic (and from the news; much less CO2 costly flights).

[Hannes]

...and after I spent half of the day visiting supermarkets I finally found one package of toilet paper. Made my day...

[René]

One good thing; CO2 production will go through a nice dip. We just went out and it's very quiet everywhere, hardly any traffic (and from the news; much less CO2 costly flights).

That's true! Air pollution's gone down quite a bit, too. So we can do it, if there's a big stick, and if the result is immediately noticeable.

[WAS]

One good thing; CO2 production will go through a nice dip. We just went out and it's very quiet everywhere, hardly any traffic (and from the news; much less CO2 costly flights).

That's true! Air pollution's gone down quite a bit, too. So we can do it, if there's a big stick, and if the result is immediately noticeable.

They are saying airlines may go bankrupt because of cost of maintenance of planes sitting there not making money.

[Ariel DK]

I was about to open a thread about this asking how is everyone out there. there is a lot of things happening in all continents, and a lot of news (mostly alarmist or fake news) in the internet. some of you already know my opinion about this kind of misinformation. the best way to keep well informed is in scientific portals or journals. hope everyone can be safe and healthy. the only good things i see in this are the decrease in CO2 emissions, and the fact that some of us probably could had more time for TG 

[WAS]

My worry is all this becoming norm. Seems like a very interesting thing to go haywire over. SARS has been around and this novel strain of SARS is just a substrain, nothing new altogether. As it stands Influenza has killed more in 2020 alone, and upwards 150 million since the Spanish Flu, if this is a pandemic than influenza must be a epidemic.

I understand the need, like with swine flu and bird flu that we can try to prevent population integration, but the way things are handled are insane. The needs of the literal few shouldn't outweigh the needs of the many. To quote Star Trek.

[sboerner]

So we can do it, if there's a big stick, and if the result is immediately noticeable.

This experience may teach us that there are a lot of things we can do without. If there's an upside that could be it.


As for mass hysteria it seems pretty low-key so far. People mostly seem to be looking for national leadership which has been sorely lacking. Instead we get xenophobia and finger pointing. Our local leaders are doing their best to take charge. Supermarkets have been cleaned out, something we haven't experienced here before. People's behavior could get worse as this drags on, of course.

I heard an interesting idea the other day, that we erased the 1918 influenza pandemic from our national memory because the survivors simply wanted to forget how poorly they behaved.

But consider this. The 1918 pandemic infected one-third of the world's population and killed 50 million people. In the U.S. it killed 675,000, about 0.6 percent of the population. At the time only about half the people lived in urban areas, where the disease easily spread, and there was no such thing as air travel.

So, no, I don't think any of the national and state governments are overreacting. We're all going to be touched by this.