The corona virus era

[CharlieB]

Things to ponder.
I'm wondering how many times in my lifetime I've tried another person's horn or mouthpiece after just a quick wipe with a handkerchief or a tissue........
And what are the new dating rules? Six feet apart? No kiss goodnight? Makes the old "four on the floor" rule seem pretty tepid. Hmmmmmm. Wonder if generation X even knows what that means.
In 2014 there was an outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa. Those nations managed to contain the spread of the disease to their region. I wonder why China was unable to do the same.

[Burgerbob]

To answer your last question, Ebola kills far too many infected, and too quickly, for it to reach pandemic levels like Covid has.

[norbie2018]

I believe the out break was contained because a vaccine was in the works for years before.

[BGuttman]

Couple of differences:

1. Ebola is not contagious before symptoms appear. We have found that COVID is contagious 3 days before symptoms appear.

2. Africans travel a lot less than Chinese. Compounded by the fact that the initial outbreak was near the Chinese New Year, a time for extensive travel throughout China (and of Chinese from all over the world).

If you are looking for something to compare, look at the Spanish Flu epidemics of 1918 to 1920. By the time it was over, half a million Americans had died from a population that was 3/4 what it is today. Also, in 1918 our ability to fight flu was comparable to our ability to fight COVID now. One interesting difference between COVID and Spanish Flu was that Spanish Flu tended to be worse for young adults while COVID concentrates on older folks.

[sirisobhakya]

If the disease’s symptoms are violent, severe, and obvious, like Ebola, the sick will be taken to hospital, and has a high chance of death before transmitting to a large group of people.

Covid is the opposite: ambiguous flu-like symptoms or even asymptomatic, the symptom is largely mild so one can travel and live normal life with almost no problem. We in Thailand at one point ask ourselves and we even had hashtag and profile pic frame on Facebook “Say, do you think I contracted it yet?” because of the ambiguity of symptoms and also long incubation period creating extreme uncertainty.

And as Bruce pointed out it is contagious even before the symptoms appear.