China Cases Top 20,000; U.S. Braces for Pandemic: Virus Update

[Warpy]

35. "Bracing?" Well, we're fucked.

Rich men will head to well guarded estates, leaving the rest of us with inadequate insurance, inadequate hospital infrastructure, inadequate stocks of antiviral drugs, inadequate staffing, and absolutely no plan to deal with any of it. Maybe we'll get tent cities to house the sick, what a great idea during the worst of winter!

Oh, rich men will get it, too, as long as they have staff running errands for them.

Since this thing seems to have such a long incubation period, we're likely seeing people who were infected up to 2 weeks ago showing up. We still won't know for another week how infectious this thing is to airline passengers. That will give us a better idea of how bad it's likely to be. So far, it looks less infectious than influenza. That can change, and the increase in new cases above 2000 after a week of holding steady is very worrisome.