Checking out the available reports via the World’s Health Organization and finding the numbers interesting.
As of yesterday, the death rate in China alone was 1.92 %. For the rest of the world sans China, it dropped to 1.5%. Iran ha the largest body count outside China with 22 and the highest death rate in the world at 15.6%. Next would be Italy with 12 deaths and only 3% death rate. Korea who carries the most people affected by the virus outside China with 1766 cases, only had 13 deaths or 0.73% rate.
So I removed Iran from the calculations and I ended up with 3523 China-Less World cases and 35 deaths which gives us a death rate of 0.99%.
I believe that Iran is an statistical aberration compared to other countries. The death rate probably can be attributed to a crappy health care system. The good news is that the virus has not invaded Africa or Central & South America (only tone case reported in Brazil, Egypt and Algeria each.) With the crappy health care situation in Venezuela, I don’t want to even know how bad it would get there if it starts spreading.
But as of now here in the US we stand at 59 cases with zero deaths. Even if we apply the China odds, you would stand a 98% chance of recovery if you get infected by the virus.
If the number of infections suddenly start to climb, there will be an initial period of Media-driven panic (If it bleeds, it leads) and I figure it will take about a month for the panicky waters to recede, don’t forget there is an election to be had in November and yes, I do believe the Democrats will use the virus as political weapon if they can get away with it. Prepare accordingly and don’t fall for the gregarious panic.
PS: If you have sites that give smart ideas and advice about how to avoid and prep for the spread of contagious diseases, post them in the comments and I will update this post.
I heard on the radio that a case has been reported in Nigeria now.
Prep for this is like prep for just about anything else.
3 minutes without air. Medical. Make sure you have all of your prescriptions refilled so you don’t have to visit the pharmacy. Make sure you have the standard meds for dealing with flu like symptoms. Make sure you have the correct types of masks. (If you can’t find the cheap masks, go for the respirator style). Make sure you have a supply of alcohol based hand sanitizer. Make sure you have enough cleaning supplies and hygiene supplies to last six weeks.
3 hours without shelter. Make sure you have the ability to keep your home warm if need be. You might be spending a couple of weeks in your home. For us that’s wood for the wood stove and a full tank of heating oil and all the propane tanks are filled.
3 days without water. Spend a bit and get yourself a good water filter, pump type, so you can filter any water you might have to use if the water supply is contaminated (NOT soluble contaminates, those don’t filter. You can’t filter salt water for example, into drinking water). Get a few 5 gal water jugs and fill them. Have that set aside in case you have to spend an extended amount of time your house. Yeah, you can buy the bottled water, but just buy the cheapest, not expensive.
3 weeks without food. Make sure you have staples that you know how to prepare that will last without refrigeration for an extended time. Prepare some now! Don’t wait until the emergency to learn you don’t know how to prepare rice and beans from scratch.
3 months without hope. Make sure you have things to do to keep your mind occupied. That includes card games, board games and such. All things that do not require power.
In preventing getting sick: Get a small bottle of hand sanitizer. Use it every time you touch something that somebody else touched. You opened the office door, sanitize your hands. You pushed a shopping cart, sanitize the push bar of the cart and your hands before you begin, sanitize your hands when you are done. Handle money, sanitize. Plan on going through a bottle every two weeks.
I catch a cold/flu about twice a year. The ONLY year I didn’t catch the flu was the year of the Ebola scare. I used the sanitize hands every time rule and didn’t get sick.
I already died from SARS, MERS, avian flu, swine flu, ebola, and the net neutrality repeal.