I mean, it should be taken seriously, and it is important that people practice good hygiene. Still, I don't think we should worry ourselves to death over it, and I don't understand people buying the stores out of toilet paper. Since when does coronavirus cause uncontrollable bowel movements?

^I'd imagine people are stocking up so they can stay home as long as possible.

Media manufactured chaos.
People are overreacting to Corona virus. To Everyone taking all the TP and cleaning supplies is unintelligent. You should be more afraid of the flu than this virus. Learn to wash your hands/keep clean and eat things you are supposed to eat, not what you not supposed to eat. Stay home when you are sick,rest/hydrate/wash hands/shower and eat soup.
Awareness and vigilance are different from mass hysteria. The majority of people who are clearing the shelves aren’t the ones that will be most affected. Not to mention if there is nothing left for anyone else, it won’t stop the spread. It is comical that people think 400 rolls of toilet paper have anything to do with a respiratory disease. It’s not comical that people can, will, and have died. I hope you guys stay safe.

^ Couldn't of said it better myself. Also wearing face masks only work on sick people since they help the droplets from spreading, but if an infected person isn't wearing a mask, it'll spread everywhere and the droplets can still go up someone's mask.

I would agree that it should be taken seriously and that it is always a good thing to have good hygiene and to do whatever you can to avoid illness. I also think that people should be cautious and careful, especially when it comes to serious viruses.

I also don't mind events being postponed and schools being cancelled, as I very much operate on a 'better safe than sorry' basis. I think that the government, at this point, is trying to take preventative steps as it is easier to avoid/prevent contraction than it is to cure it and/or reverse a full-blown outbreak.

But I do think that it's rather much to buy such an excess of things like toilet paper.

^Yep

Individual people are overreacting by being dumbshits and buying out the supermarket's entire stock of bog roll. And we shouldn't be worried about dying, as we're (presumably) not elderly or suffering from serious chronic disease. But on a societal level? No, we're not overreacting by implementing social distancing and postponing events. In fact some governtments are sitting on their laurels a bit too much, too scared about the effect on the economy to take more decisive action... short-sighted, seeing as the economy will be in even worse shape if our healthcare system is collapsing under sheer numbers. We really really need to decrease the current rate of transmission. Right now it's spreading so fast that there's a very real chance our hospitals will be overwhelmed in a month or so. That's when it becomes a catastrophic problem: when there are no more ICU beds because of the sheer volume of sick people. That's when covid-9 becomes deadly (seems that the fatality rate rises to 15% wth substandard medical care) AND other routine medical conditions can't be treated. Heart attacks, appendicitis, births, trauma don't stop when the hospital's full to the brim of covid-19 patients. It's also what's happening in Northern Italy atm, which is among the richest/most developed regions in Europe... 100 people died within a 24 hour time span. link what a one Australian doctor had to say about our (miserable) propspects.

Also, Australian health authorities have just stated that it's likely 25% - 50% of the population will eventually get it following current projections... that's up to 12.5 million people. Even if the fatality rate is just 3%, that's a lot of people dying. And if it jumped to 15% of that number coz our health system was overwhelmed... well yeah, catastrophe. That's why we desperately need to slow the spread right now. And we we shouldn't bitch and whine about the government cancelling things (they're doing less than they should) and carrying on that it's "just like the flu" lol (it's orders of magnitude more deadly than the flu, and unlike the flu, we don't have a vaccine)

link that I'll try and summarise when I have time: "Global authorities have downplayed the health and economic threat of coronavirus — until now". The US and UK have been particularly shit on testing people - there are probs thousands of people out there that are spreading it but don't know. Classic Trump was like "DeMoCrAts and FaKe NeWs are exaggerating to make me look bad" -_-

link by a doctor in the middle of the crisis in Northern Italy. Medical lingo: "OR" = operating room, "ITU" = intensive treatment unit.

I'll elaborate tomorrow when I have time lol and I don't mean to alarm, but from an epidemiological/social/economic perspective, the next few months ain't looking too great

Dude! Thanks for posting that. It perfectly explains my point. I mean I make my fair share of dumb jokes about the matter but it's kind of annoying when people write anyone who shows slight concert off as being over-dramatic.

Nah haha thanks for the poll, I needed that little rant. I get also get a bit annoyed at those people, they're all over facebook and I'm like omg dudes: proactive action ≠ panic.

I wanna talk more about this but have work so I'll just drop two more pics lol: link ; also link illustrates what I was trying to say about slowing the spread so that cases are spread out rather than peaking all at once

And one more thing coz I can't frickin help myself: just saw link, looks like Italy's hospitals are so overwhelmed that they're making the very hard (and bioethically challenging) decision to basically forego normal care for people over 80 yo in favour of younger people. Grim.

Not gonna lie, this one was inspired by my mom making fun of schools begin shut down and complaining about all of the emails she was getting. Like calm down mom, they're just trying to keep you informed so you don't try to go to xyz event you had planned only to find that it has been postponed. And they're just trying to prevent kids (you know the venerable ones) from getting sick. Granted I can understand her outrage about the toilet paper as we needed some and we literally had to hunt for just one roll. But other than that...cut cautious people some slack.
And with numbers like in that first pic it's no wonder they're trying to minimize contact and putting up quarantines. I think that some people underestimate just how efficiently a virus can spread. It's almost like, idk, that's what viruses are designed to do!

And Jesus, Italy is brutal.

I just find some people to be annoying over little things like washing their hands like a psychopath it becomes a phobia lmao

"I think that some people underestimate just how efficiently a virus can spread. It's almost like, idk, that's what viruses are designed to do!" haha yeeeeeep

My mum got a roasting yesterday from me and my brother when she came home from the supermarket: "Mum that volume of flour is gonna last us five years... they said stockpile for three weeks, not stockpile for the apocalypse"

Also rip @the markets. I was playing around on MarketWatch AU and:
- For 20 solid seconds, was very confused at this link chart, thinking "why is it at zero?".... Then I looked at it closer
- Six years of stock market growth just got wiped in a week (per link), it's actually amazing in a morbid sort of way lol