Coronavirus (COVID-19) Respiratory illness - Effect on Travel

[juddles]

To @teammongo , or anyone else with actual knowledge.....

A common thing I see with regard to various illnesses is that it is the "young, sick, and elderly" that are often stated by laymen as the most at catastrophic risk. Yet I recall also that some diseases kill due to the over-forceful reaction of fit humans. What is the case with this Coronavirus?

This is important to me personally as I am a super-fit human being. My body has bested everything from malaria to rabid dog and bat bites through to consuming even West Australian wine.....

Seriously though, is this an illness that can be more harmful to those with strong immune systems, or is it something that has worse effects on already-debilitated hosts??

 

[Quickstatus]

Worse on the young old and sick - less capacity to recover

 

[juddles]

Worse on the young old and sick - less capacity to recover

Quickstatus, I thank you for your answer, but I want to home into the medical nitty-gritty. Perhaps starting with how exactly this Coronavirus manages to kill people??

 

[PineappleSkip]

There is useful CDC advice here, which links to their travel advice also. All the authoritative sources are saying in effect 'emerging situation, much we don't know'. Including how bad it is.

You can find plenty of instant answers on social media, but I'm sticking with the authoritative sources.

cheers skip

 

[Quickstatus]

Quickstatus, I thank you for your answer, but I want to home into the medical nitty-gritty. Perhaps starting with how exactly this Coronavirus manages to kill people??

In severe cases it causes Acute respiratory distress syndrome - essentially a very bad form of pneumonia. Some end up on ventilator as their lungs fail. A few even had to go on a heart lung machine when their lungs completely fail.

The healthier you are, the fitter you are, the more reserve you have if the virus hits you hard,
There is no direct treatment, just supportive treatment to keep the body going - to buy time until the body can mount an immune response to rid itself of the virus. While the body does that it’s own immune response can also damage itself. The ones who die run out of time.

Here is some medical mumbojumbo from further down the webpage link given by Pskip :

Healthcare Workers

COVID-19 guidance, tools, and resources for healthcare workers.

www.cdc.gov

 

[teammongo]

CDC orders mandatory quarantine (first time in 50 years) for Wuhan flight..

CNN

 

[OATEK]

After hearing the opposition to using a detention centre in Australia, the Daily Mail has tried to up the ante with their arrangements referring to their Coronavirus Colditz: Coronavirus: Xboxes, Playstations and Barbies arrive at Wirral unit

 

[teammongo]

US Travel Ban - suspends entry into the United States for any foreign nationals who have traveled to China.

NYTimes

 

[Pushka]

US Travel Ban - suspends entry into the United States for any foreign nationals who have traveled to China.

NYTimes

Can’t get in unfortunately. Hopefully the US are good at tracking side movements.

 

[teammongo]

From the NYTimes -
"
Alex Azar, secretary of the United States Health and Human Services Department, announcing a travel ban on foreign nationals who have traveled to China, during a news conference at the White House on Friday.T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
President Trump has temporarily suspended entry into the United States for any foreign nationals who have traveled to China, the administration announced on Friday.
The action will restrict all foreign nationals who have been to China — other than immediate family of American citizens and permanent residents — from entering the United States.
Beginning on Feb. 2, any United States citizen returning home who has been in the Hubei province of China within the past 14 days will be quarantined for up to 14 days, administration officials said. Those who have been to other parts of China within the past 14 days will be subject to “proactive entry screening” and up to 14 days of monitoring and self quarantine.
The United States will also funnel all flights from China to just a few airports, including Kennedy Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare and San Francisco International Airport."

 

[Melburnian1]

From the NYTimes -...The United States will also funnel all flights from China to just a few airports, including Kennedy Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare and San Francisco International Airport."

One other report says the airports are seven in number.

Given we are 'closer' to mainland China than the USA, will this US move be party or wholly copied by Australia?

 

[Quickstatus]

One other report says the airports are seven in number.

Given we are 'closer' to mainland China than the USA, will this US move be party or wholly copied by Australia?

Interesting concept - I presume it is to ensure consistency in management

How many China flights come into Australian cities each day?

 

[Melburnian1]

Interesting concept - I presume it is to ensure consistency in management

How many China flights come into Australian cities each day?

I've not counted them but other sources suggest a typical 40 to 50. Bearing in mind from smaller cities in mainland China there are often non-daily flights, the number is not identical on every day of the week. Looking them up today may give a slightly misleading picture as with China having a travel peak (well it was until the virus hit) and only just going 'back to work', there may be a few more flights operating than the norm.

It's also 'definitional': do we regard flights to/from HKG SAR as 'to/from China?' If a 'yes', that significantly bumps up the statistic. We don't have any nonstop flights to/from Macau as far as I know, but some other nations do.

 

[Melburnian1]

Interesting concept - I presume it is to ensure consistency in management

True, but also means that US Health Dept and other agencies can concentrate resources more, and perhaps in so doing lower costs. Larger cities may have busy hospitals but at least in theory there's more beds available.

 

[pauly7]

Travel restrictions are coming..

Corporates are already taking care of this, most of my network are employed by companies that require international travel and we have all had our wings clipped from travelling internationally ranging from complete bans on international travel to geographic bans and some companies now have domestic travel on ‘business critical’ only with additional layers of approval needed.

There are a lot of P1s and WPs looking nervously at their SC balance!! (Personally as previously posted I’m thrilled to be having an enforced travel break, though all the replacement video conferences are doing my head in)

Some of it may be overkill of course but it doesn’t matter really to the poor people who are working in all the associated travel industries...

I suspect the corporate reactions will be wound down faster than SARS though as it appears the virus isn’t particularly good at knocking lots of people off (hopefully it does not mutate into anything worse).

 

[Quickstatus]

Hospital capacity in US and in AU tend to operate at near capacity. ICU beds at close to 100% occupancy any day. Often elective surgery is cancelled due to lack of ICU and general beds.

However in AU anyway no one has required ICU treatment. I believe it’s the same in the US.

 

[Melburnian1]

..I suspect the corporate reactions will be wound down faster than SARS though as it appears the virus isn’t particularly good at knocking lots of people off (hopefully it does not mutate into anything worse).

I'm about to buy 'The Weekend Oz' and hopefully read it but the headline on its web page as at 1000 on Saturday 1 February implies that your latter sentiment above may be optimistic.

 

[Melburnian1]

Corporates are already taking care of this, most of my network are employed by companies that require international travel and we have all had our wings clipped from travelling internationally ranging from complete bans on international travel to geographic bans and some companies now have domestic travel on ‘business critical’ only with additional layers of approval needed...

Given you and colleagues might rarely travel at sale whY rates and often in J etc. at far higher tariffs per seat-kilometre, if that's a typical corporate reaction the airlines' revenues (and profits) will take an immediate hit, perhaps worse than some have publicly admitted. Of course it's an evolving situation.

 

[Pushka]

I'm about to buy 'The Weekend Oz' and hopefully read it but the headline on its web page as at 1000 on Saturday 1 February implies that your latter sentiment above may be optimistic.

You dont expect the media to let go the sensationalist headline this early do you?

Given the rate of compliance for border force control issues for people heading into Australia from China is hardly stellar, then the request from the Government to self-isolate is quite pathetic.

 

[Melburnian1]

You dont expect the media to let go the sensationalist headline this early do you?

'Weekend Oz' is hardly 'sensationalist.' It discusses issues more deeply than any other mainstream print media. Buy it and read the article.