Great post. As of today with over 300 confirmed cases and 17 dead here in the US, the rate seems to be better than 5%. But as you said, there are probably 20 times more people who are infected and not counted. So on that assumption, this virus is very much prevalent and expanding at the moment,.. right in our own neighborhoods. Don't think it hasn't reached you yet. It has. This will effect the NHL. The flu regularly runs through teams, and this virus will be no different. The NHL will have some decisions to make fairly quickly. A letter to players won't cut it. Will the NHL play games in empty stadiums?
I have a couple of comorbitities. One is respiratory. Even the Flu can cause problems for me. Those older and/or with health conditions, I suggest you proactively give yourself the nutrients that protect us, so your body can fight off the virus. I haven't had a cold in years and I'm in my 60's. Ok maybe 3 in the last 7 years? Hard to tell. The symptoms are sometimes so mild, I hardly know if I have a bug. Quite a difference from years past when colds were so frequent and last a month. But since supplementing nutrients the last 7 years, no colds and my chronic ailments are very manageable.
This virus is taking those who's immune systems are weak. Build it up with what it needs to function properly.
Oh this will definitely affect the NHL. I can't see the rest of the season being played out in its entirety, at least not in front of full stands. The question right now is, are TV revenues going to be enough to keep the season going through June? Back here in my home country, there is a Biathlon World Cup going on right now... With ZERO spectators in the stands. Some Serie A football (soccer) games in Italy got postponed/cancelled. The final installment in Alpine skiing World Cup just got cancelled.
This will definitely go on. Right now, it is also affecting my studies. Aside from cancelling our school's ball, some clinical wards with particularly susceptible patients banned medical students from entering (in addition to banning visitors, which is something many more hospitals have already done). If it goes on like this, and it looks like it, they might cancel all clinical rotations altogether. Right now, I am wondering if they will let us do the exams and pass to the next year or if we will have to repeat the whole semester...
Btw taking care of your nutrients is not a bad call, just remember it is not omnipotent. It is much more critical to keep up your hygiene. As silly as it might sound, simple washing hands, avoiding large crowds and not touching your own face in public is the most effective measure for avoiding infectious diseases of this kind. Aside from vaccination of course, which in this case doesn't exist yet.
Anyway, I am just a med student, but I have it on really good authority, as I explained in the previous post.
On the bright side, we are really lucky that diseases like ebola or MERS (which is also a coronavirus) are not this contagious. As the current situation suggests, the world was not prepared to effectively contain such a contagious virus and prevent it from becoming a large scale pandemic. An ebola breaking out on this scale might have actually threatened the continuation of human civilisation as we know it.
Hopefully humanity learns from this and precautionary measures are put into place for when/if a more dangerous pathogen threatens to go... viral (sorry for the pun, I couldn't help it), similar to the likes of the Spanish flu (which is the best example from modern history I can think of).
