February 25, 2020

From the "we're screwed" file

As of yesterday afternoon, the fatality rate was 3.1%, so don't pick out the casket just yet over Covid-19. Picking it out because of the massive ignorance of a bunch of businessmen trying to run government as a business, as you were.

February 4, 2020

Virologists Find Coronavirus Is 80% The Same as SARS, Which May Help Us Neutralise It

The new coronavirus spreading in China appears to be similar to SARS in two important ways: They share 80 percent of their genetic codes, and both originated in bats.
(snip)
"In essence, it's a version of SARS that spreads more easily but causes less damage," Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading in the UK who was not affiliated with the study, said in a press release about the studies.

Those similarities offer a silver lining.

"This indicates that treatments and vaccines developed for SARS should work for the Wuhan virus," Jones added.

https://www.sciencealert.com/genetic-analysis-shows-wuhan-coronavirus-is-similar-to-sars

Slight caveat: a SARS vaccine was developed but not widely tested. However, that does give them a potential head start on this strain.

Takeaway: Bat should be permanently off the menu since they were also the reservoir for Ebola. Most species are beneficial, so it's doubly bad to use them as a foodstuff.