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Old 03-13-2020, 02:36 AM
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Gus Gus is offline
7/21/61
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North of Detroit
Posts: 2,223
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry Irvine
As a physician perhaps you can tell me if this Facebook meme is true?
Jerry,

That meme is utter nonsense. Do you really think the Chinese concocted this whole thing and closed down a significant portion of their country because it was an election year in the U.S.? How about the Italians? How about the South Koreans? Over 60 countries are currently reporting infections, all to influence the U.S. election? That's just ridiculous.

As for the infectivity reported on the meme, it means nothing. The real issue is severity of illness and mortality, which the current head of the CDC Infectious Disease, Anthony Fauci, reported to congress today as being 10 times the mortality of the flu. I know there is a concerted effort to convince people this is all just hype, but so far a large number of foreign countries have not found that to be true.

Final note. There is almost always some new disease out there, of varying concern. That list attributing one specific illness every election year is also ridiculous. Ebola has been around since the 70's. And what is the point of that, that some years someone drums up an illness to affect democrats and other years republicans? Just another piece of internet nonsense.

Here are the real dates for the diseases mentioned in the meme:

Zika - discovered 1947, first seen in humans in 1952, most recent outbreak 2007
Ebola - discovered 1976
MERS - 2002
Swine Flu - 2009 but similar H1N2 was first prevalent in 2000
Avian Flu - discovered 1996, most recent outbreak 2013 - 2017
SARS - 2003

Bottom line is that anyone telling you COVID-19 isn't really serious, isn't really serious, or they have a non-healthcare agenda they are trying to promote. That meme is utterly untrue and to the extent it encourages people to not take the current pandemic seriously, it is dangerous.

Steve
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