Potential POSITIVE effects of corona virus

[Zaphod]

What? This thread still going. Amazing, the ill effects more than cancel out any perceived benefits. I think anyone commenting on this thread has bad taste and no empathy for those that have taken such a large hit and will still be suffering for some time to come. Come on lets hear it, no doubt the ignore button will be pressed a number of times now.

There's a certain irony when someone using the handle bottomfeeder is the one lecturing everyone on this topic. Made me smile

[allfromacell]

I've come to appreciate our wonderful public health system more as a result of this crisis. With its 10,034 bed capacity (including 176 in ICU), our Health system has been able to handle the covid patients without the need to build urgent new facilities like other countries have had to e.g. Wuhan, China. Currently 18 people are in NZ hospitals with the covid as of today.

It's great to know that so far, and I appreciate we haven't come to the other side of this, we have the infrastructure in place to deal with the crisis.

Honestly what's going on in Italy could have so easily been us, with our connection to China and massive inflow of tourists it's a wonder we didn't get any early clusters. We were fortunate enough to learn from Europe's disaster and put in place strict measures after seeing what occurred there. Our bed capacity to population is lacking, it's been underfunded for years we just got lucky.

[heisenberg]

Honestly what's going on in Italy could have so easily been us, with our connection to China and massive inflow of tourists it's a wonder we didn't get any early clusters. We were fortunate enough to learn from Europe's disaster and put in place strict measures after seeing what occurred there. Our bed capacity to population is lacking, it's been underfunded for years we just got lucky.

I agree we have been fortunate to learn from other country’s experiences. Just because our death rate is only 1/1200 does not mean the lockdown is too harsh. This is not the flu and we cannot compare it to the flu on a global level.

Let me present some figures from Kiwi epidemiologist Nick Wilson. Assuming undetected spread and no measures to stop the virus, he has estimated that 65% of the NZ population would get symptomatic illness. 146,000 would be hospital admission. 36,600 would need intensive care and 27,600 would die. Those deaths are also just from the virus alone, let alone all those other life threatening emergencies which may not get the appropriate care they need as the hospitals would be packed. Four weeks of lockdown to prevent that? I’d take it every time. Buying cheap shares is just a bonus.

[Airw0lf]

I agree we have been fortunate to learn from other country’s experiences. Just because our death rate is only 1/1200 does not mean the lockdown is too harsh. This is not the flu and we cannot compare it to the flu on a global level.

Let me present some figures from Kiwi epidemiologist Nick Wilson. Assuming undetected spread and no measures to stop the virus, he has estimated that 65% of the NZ population would get symptomatic illness. 146,000 would be hospital admission. 36,600 would need intensive care and 27,600 would die. Those deaths are also just from the virus alone, let alone all those other life threatening emergencies which may not get the appropriate care they need as the hospitals would be packed. Four weeks of lockdown to prevent that? I’d take it every time. Buying cheap shares is just a bonus.

Yeah, fingers crossed we emerge from lockdown having very few hospitalisations and deaths. At that point, a whole bunch of idiotic armchair critics will probably use this as "proof" that the lockdown was not necessary and a waste of time.

[Bobdn]

We have a lot to be grateful for, no question. 27,600 deaths is an unfathomable number and quite frankly would have changed our country for ever. The number represents around 5800 deaths per million and would put us ahead of Spain with 330 deaths per million currently and Sweden, which is doing a lot less mitigation, at 79 deaths per million. Of course these numbers will continue to go up, I appreciate it's early days in Europe.

Its the United States that is most concerning to me at the moment. Projected deaths, without mitigation, are 2.2 million (link attached). From what I can glean from various articles the United States Government was slow to respond to the virus threat. A 2.2 million death toll is almost unimaginable and to be honest if it reaches that sort of level I can't imagine the country will ever be able to return to what was considered normal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/u...ite-house.html

[Airw0lf]

We have a lot to be grateful for, no question. 27,600 deaths is an unfathomable number and quite frankly would have changed our country for ever. The number represents around 5800 deaths per million and would put us ahead of Spain with 330 deaths per million currently and Sweden, which is doing a lot less mitigation, at 79 deaths per million. Of course these numbers will continue to go up, I appreciate it's early days in Europe.

Its the United States that is most concerning to me at the moment. Projected deaths, without mitigation, are 2.2 million (link attached). From what I can glean from various articles the United States Government was slow to respond to the virus threat. A 2.2 million death toll is almost unimaginable and to be honest if it reaches that sort of level I can't imagine the country will ever be able to return to what was considered normal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/u...ite-house.html

Thankfully the USA will probably get away with much less deaths than 2.2 million, but it is still going to be a colossal mess. This article is a good summary of how it's been mismanaged: https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americ...-went-so-wrong

[kiora]

Tend
A new virtual consultation for doctors consultation
A good idea to protect front line health care workers
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...onavirus-fight

[Blue Skies]

Tend
A new virtual consultation for doctors consultation
A good idea to protect front line health care workers
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...onavirus-fight

Need to balance the benefits versus the very real risk or downside of this sort of app for patients in that in some countries private health insurance companies are already starting to demand access to all this personal data.
People may later find all sorts of illnesses which aren't related to something they once had in the distant past, aren't covered because the lawyered up insurance companies pick over this data looking for possible exclusions.
Obviously good for insurance companies but not so good for individuals.
Affordable insurance premiums rely on a broad spread of risk across the widest numbers of people possible, otherwise premiums and all the exclusions become impossible.

[bottomfeeder]

There's a certain irony when someone using the handle bottomfeeder is the one lecturing everyone on this topic. Made me smile

Didnt mean to lecture, just that already I have seen so much economic destruction, that is going to take years, for some people to recover, if they ever will. I know a young woman who worked so hard and spent so much money becoming a commercial pilot. She worked hard at secondary airlines, and finally started at Air New Zealand, domestic. It was starting to look as if it was all going to pay off. Now out of work, each day passing, no doubt will mean her skills will slowly subside, and if Air NZ ever recovers enough in the next 5 years, she will no doubt require full retraining. I could relate many such stories and I hardly know anyone. More deaths in NZ. When the government realises how much this has cost them, be prepared for, superannuation cuts and surcharges, less benefits, working for families cuts, GST increases to 20%, health system cuts and a whole lot more. That is where the depression will really hit.
You may think I am being negative, but it is just realism. If I dont buy shares as they reach an all time low, no doubt there will be many others to take my place.

[Bobdn]

You make some good points for sure. However even if we see something akin to the depression with a generation of people left with no income and no real hope, and a catastrophic decline in the health and well being of millions of New Zealanders and decreased life spans and increased mortality rates as a result of the economic collapse, even with that I think it could still be fairly argued that it would be worth it if it saves one life.

Not trying to be a Pollyanna and brightside what is a difficult situation, just trying to stay positive.