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Originally Posted by TLO
Can you give us the cliff notes?
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Pretty grim. Long time health reporter who covers pandemics is saying this looks similar to the Spanish Flu of 1918. Saying if that is accurate everybody will at least know somebody who dies from it. The virus seems to be about as "transmissable" as the flu.
He says for reasons unknown, children seem to be less likely to contract this disease. Most people who are hospitalized are 30+. The older you are, the more likely you are to die. Elderly chinese men make up majority of fatalities. In China a lot of men are smokers, and smokers over 50 pretty much have crappy lungs so very susceptible.
One possibility is disease will go away for the summer, but hit U.S. in a big wave this fall. (Which happened in 1918.) Also notes that all of the medical advances with tamiflu and ventilators and such have been used in China, but people still die even with modern medicine doing all it can.
Right now they are testing a bunch of anti-viral drugs, no effective treatment known yet. A vaccine will take a year to produce.