It is out there but if you watch your habits and the people around you for the most part it is avoidable. We know 4 people who have had it for sure and 1 was hospitalized. Very low occurrence in our area. This is from my family GP to me as we had to self isolate for a period of time.

The COVID-19 is a different kettle of fish as the saying goes and was much more virulent and lethal for the some of older population with other co-morbid conditions. This caused the furor and they called it a pandemic when all people had to do really was use discretion ie. physical distancing and hand washing before touching one's face or food which we were going to ingest. Their (politicians and media) approach caused a pandemic of fear which was/is far more devastating than the virus which causes a mild clinical picture in 95+% of patients. The stats in many countires were grossly overstated as deaths from other conditions were attributed to COVID-19 with a positive test or just someone putting it on the form as happened in Italy and Spain. The known number of cases was actually understated significantly because of limited and significantly delayed testing and no recording of those who were directed to stay home because of common viral infection symptomatology and or contact with known infections. This cause a fearful death rate calcualtion which the media made sure that they had given to not be out done by another outlet. They are working on a test to see if people have developed immunity either from having clinical disease or just having contact with someone that did. This is more for research purposes but there was speculation that perhaps we could get a "license" to travel if we were positive but the possibility of reinfectivity and whether or not this virus can mutate has not been clarified yet.

Bottom line: Wash/sterilize your hands to stay safe. Masks really only are good for those with disease and having droplet spread.

In terms of other effects -- Just the on-going press and social media fear factor has sent friends into isolation / fear modes, companies are sending people home for 2 weeks isolation with what is a common cold, multiple small businesses may not make it back, my wife suffers from OCD and is a germophobic -- she has said she was doing really well up until this and now she has gone full OCD / germophobic so it will be awhile before the house gets its balance back.

I worry on the economy and what the financial impacts will be. The recovery will not be pretty and there will be a lot of people hurt out of this away from the disease.


Hugh