General Chat

During the 1990s we had a visit at the hotel from the men in dark suits. In the case of a pandemic we were designated the operations centre,

The MOD base where my hubby was posted was designated as the morgue!!!

That was the level of preparedness :-0

The Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918.

a wildfire virus that killed thousands upon thousands worldwide.

The Spanish Flu pandemic infected 500 MILLION people between January 1918 and December 1920. It is believed that 50 million, or possibly as many as 100 million, died.

They now know that it was caused by the H1N1 virus, and that it originated in northern China in late 1917 (EDIT to correct Date) before travelling around the world.

EDIT:- it seems that it is still not certain where this virus originated! It is called the Spanish Flu because Spain was not involved in WW1 and therefore newspapers were free to report anything. Media in the countries involved in the war were not permitted to print certain things, including the number of dead and affected by this new flu. Therefore it was assumed that the virus originated in Spain because that was the country reporting it!!


My grandfather was in what is now modern Iraq with his MGC unit when he was hospitalised with "flu" in very late 1917. He was only in hospital for about a week then went back to his unit in the field. I've occasionally wondered if he was one of the lucky ones who got "Spanish flu" and survived, or whether it was "ordinary" flu. He was taken from the Field Hospital to a proper Hospital in Basra.

Havnt we had the Hong Kong Flu or some such name in recent years.?

Kay .......

yes

Plus there was the H1N1 outbreak in ver recent years.

MERS is another one, that originated in the Middle East (hence the ME), and was a few years after SARS

This has only reached the local rag so far:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/18224218.st-marys-independent-school-southampton-closed-evacuated-coronavirus-fears/

The school has been evacuated. The children (and parents) potentially with coronavirus are self-isolating - but the other children are being sent home :-S
How many of those children are in the (undetectable) early stages?

I couldn't find this thread before so I will delete my other one now and add what I said to here.


Does anyone else find it really quite frightening how many people one man has been able to potentially infect with the virus

. And I was also amazed that the virus can live on things like door handles and bus poles etc for 9 days, much longer than the flu virus

Not too good for those of us who use public transport :-(

No it isn't We use buses when we go to town but feel very unsure whether to go or not at the moment, Not only the transport of course but people are so careless when they cough and sneeze. We actually wear gloves when we use the bus, even before this latest virus. But if you have to use public transport for work it must be a nightmare. This latest in the southampton area is a worry for us as we have family in Swaythling.

was your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands

keep your fingers away from your face, keep your fingers away from your face

wear gloves, and keep your fingers away from your face.

wear a mask if you want to, but it isn't much use unless it is a respiratory mask ........ the ordinary cheap paper ones are not much good for protection.

Just be sensible, and carry on your life as close to normal as possible.


and yes, I'm also living in an area where we've had someone arrive here and pass on the virus.

Handshaking & kissing to be temporarily suspended during the 'emergency'. :-D

Dermot

also No hugging :-D

so WHO has announced the name of the disease ........

......... Covid-19.

Co and Vi come from coronavirus,

D means disease; and

19 stands for 2019, the year the first cases were seen (in December).

Bang go all the beer jokes in Australia :-D

:-D :-D :-D

Allan - There is a little seaside town/village in East Devon (UK) called 'Beer'.

Lovely place too. :-D

Dermot, trying to delve back into the mists of time, I believe that I may have visited there way back in 1963 (?) Anyway, It was the year of the Great Train Robbery and I went to Dawlish with my parents for a holiday.

Fond memories and it was the first time that I saw black swans, and now, so many years later, I live near one of their breeding habitats :-)

What I can’t understand is why there been no adverts on tv like there was for AIDS when that first became known

were there ads on TV for SARS or MERS .............. which are much more relevant to this virus than AIDS

or were you meaning anti- and/or racist ads?

I know that we had ads on TV for SARS, from the health authorities on prevention and taking care, and on what to do if you think you have symptoms..

We have exactly the same ads, and same interviews, now.

'Britons stranded on a cruise ship in Japan by the cornoavirus emergency have accused the Foreign Office of refusing to repatriate them - a claim that the Foreign Office declined to deny'.

{From today's Times}..