What People Die From During a Pandemic
Surprisingly, in most pandemics, a large percentage of the mortality rate is due to "secondary factors".
Meaning, the victims were pathogen-positive, but the pathogen itself would not necessarily have killed them.
Secondary factors include:
Delays in seeking care. People who feel "a little off" don't seek care, or fail to administer self-care such as taking rest, hydrating, monitoring their temperature, using anti-inflammatories, treating the symptoms, etc. Or they would be willing to seek care but have no access to care professionals who can prescribe the regimen most likely to help their immune system fight the pathogen, and who can tell them the 'trigger symptoms" (such as a particular degree of fever, or a particular length of a symptom's persistence, etc.) to escalate treatment.
Delays in diagnosis. If there is a treatment protocol, the longer diagnosis is delayed, the longer the pathogen has to multiply, deplete body resources and immune response, and the less effective the treatment protocol may be.
Inadequate or incorrect care. With or without a known, effective treatment protocol, poor care can increase mortality rates by exposing people in crowded, poorly-designed care facilities to re-infection, or by shortages of needed resources such as fluids, medication, equipment and person power to administer treatment.
Sequelae and secondary infections. An already pathogen-compromised immune system is vulnerable to other infections and/or can respond in unhelpful ways to physiological events associated with healing and/or long periods of inactivity.
Those four factors are the culprits to a greater or lesser extent in almost all high pandemic mortality rates.
Once a pathogen is identified and an optimal treatment protocol is developed, mortality rates will decrease quickly even without a specific "cure" medication or vaccine, IF and ONLY IF, communities have in place the resources to decrease the influence of those four factors.
That is:
Awareness and encouragement for everyone to self-monitor and respond to even vague or minor symptoms quickly, supporting preventive measures such as taking time off work to rest, understanding the importance of hydration and helping the body fight inflammation, and knowing what "trigger symptoms" are, so that they can avail themselves of...
Freely available diagnostic screening. This should include triage for severity, education on the treatment protocol, monitoring and support for self-care, and prompt routing to...
No-cost, good-quality, meticulous medical and nursing care for moderate-to-severe infections and...
Careful identification of vulnerable patients and preventive care and isolation to prevent sequelae and secondary infections.
Even without a "cure" medication or vaccine, providing those four things will keep mortality rates in any pandemic much lower than they would be otherwise.
The first one is pretty low-cost to the taxpayer, as it is mostly public education work and perhaps a temporary regulation to prevent employers from firing employees for absenteeism and to provide subsidies for mandated sick pay.
The second one costs more, but is still comparatively cheap if you mobilize emergency services at the community level so that there are trained technicians at clinics, fire stations, shelters, and mobile care stations in every community. EMTs, emergency personnel, and public employees unable to pursue ordinary duties due to preventive quarantine shutdowns can be trained and mobilized at relatively modest cost levels (compared to the costs of dealing with large numbers of acute cases and dead bodies, anyway...)
The third one is costly but there are ways to reduce the cost without compromising quality. Offer free video-based training and teleconsults to family member caregivers and community volunteers, provide "treatment at home" resource packages freely at community care stations, and use your more professional, highly-trained and carefully-equipped caregivers to do mobile monitoring and telecare consults with careful protocols to prevent transmission in the process.
The fourth one is very costly, true. It would involve effectively commandeering hospital and acute care beds and transport resources and setting up a monitoring and care network that can gather and analyze data on vulnerability factors and sequelae and hopefully develop protocols to reduce severity and incidence. But again, it's less costly than dealing with overwhelming numbers of acute cases and dead bodies.
A competent national government would already be working to implement #1 and prepare for the other three.
Many state and large-city public health offices are already on this, but their efforts will not be as effective as they could be with national coordination and extra resources directed to them.
And so when the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in America we are likely to see a mortality rate considerably higher than necessary.
Because we allowed Russia to install an unelected moron to pwn the libs. Still happy about that, MAGAts?
Please read the foregoing carefully, and do your own preparations. Educate yourselves. Don't hesitate to treat physical symptoms, even vague ones, seriously. TAKE the time off work. You can't get another job if you're dead. Don't stockpile stupid stuff like masks, but DO make sure you have a good supply of clean water or filters, anti-inflammatories, nutritious and easy-to-prepare food that a pathogen-compromised system can deal with.
If you don't have one, invest in a good thermometer to monitor fever. Learn to count your own pulse and respiration rate. As soon as you feel unwell, track temperature, pulse and respiration a few times a day and record your results. Take notes on the development and severity of your symptoms.
Keep an eye on your family and loved ones. Encourage them to take care of any symptoms, share your monitoring protocol with them, be prepared to help them out.
We seem to be largely on our own, but that doesn't mean we can't survive this.
practically,
Bright
= new reply since forum marked as read
This is what should be coming out of the Oval Office, a clear message that can calm the overly anxious. Panic is the worst reaction we can have in the present situation. There's a lot we don't know about this outbreak but we do know the spread is coming, even with the best precautions. We as individuals and communities can prepare for that likelihood without pushing every alarm bell. I picked up a few things yesterday on my weekly shopping trip (extra water, a few extras in food) and will follow through next week. I did notice that sanitizers had been bought readily. The Purell shelves, for instance, were completely bare. I plan to purchase the item on line.
One important thing is to stock up on any prescription drugs you may take regularly. My husband is diabetic and has a 90-day prescription on most of his scripts. He assessed his supply and ordered accordingly, just in case there's a disruption in supply lines. These are things we can do in preparation rather than bunker down fearing the worst.
We'll get through this if we keep our heads and remember the practical stuff.
Btw, when I was out yesterday, I tried practicing not to touch my face, eyes, nose and mouth specifically. It's really hard, something that will require many practice sessions. 
yet to be able to train myself to STOP IT! I got a Vogmask N99 a few years ago (cancer) just to have during flu season - not to protect myself from the flu, but to protect myself from me! Alternately, I could wear big fluffy mittens
I think we all do this instinctively. As soon as you try to stop, you realize how often our hands fly to our face. Remarkable really.
Shackles might work. But that would make driving somewhat difficult.
Definitely requires practice.
that might be a game-changer during such disease outbreaks.
I am sometimes a dreamer......
