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In reply to the discussion: All K-12 schools in Pennsylvania shut down for 2 weeks amid coronavirus outbreak [View all]BumRushDaShow
(128,916 posts)that places that became "hot spots" didn't spontaneously become so. It was because people who were infected, traveled to those locations.
And with the apparent potential that there have actually been positives found in asymptomatic people who might have only been tested because it was done during the earlier period of contact-tracing and testing that normally wouldn't have been done on them at the time, makes it all the more dangerous for exposure because probably 95% of the testing is ONLY being done (at least over here) on people who have symptoms and/or are healthcare workers/first responders. So it has been assumed that the virus is circulating a whole lot more than the current data is showing just because there has not been enough test kits to do general community testing. Meaning that there is potential that someone with a "light exposure" (vs a "heavy load" with a 5 day incubation period that might trigger symptoms early), might only need much more time than the 14 days for that tiny amount to eventually explode as it reproduces, and finally cause an obvious infection with symptoms.
In addition - you might recall that yesterday, Cuomo adjusted the number of COVID-related deaths in their state based on deaths that happened at home or at a hospital when no testing was done/available at the time, but apparently where they were able to go back and test (perhaps from earlier lab samples, etc) to confirm. That is something that is most likely happening everywhere.
Since this is "novel", no one knows the end game and there is potential (like seen in some past viruses like chickenpox/shingles) of reactivation and subsequent illness from it - perhaps even in initially-asymptomatic individuals. You also have the potential, which is apparently under investigation in Asia, of mutations of this virus.
So this cavalier simplistic dismissal of this virus, is idiotic. Rural people (many who may be at risk due to age, etc) will die at home or flee to places like here in the city bringing their infection HERE. If that type of selfishness is what they embrace, then they may be in for a rude awakening when it happens to them, although fortunately the "good people" who would care for them anyway, tend to outnumber the selfish. It is ridiculous to wave away what is happening, especially when we are seeing reinfections in China (including Hong Kong), South Korea, Japan, and other parts of Asia, who threw caution to the wind, and attempted to go back to normal too soon - even with their experience successfully handling SARS and other previous COVID infections.
I don't live far from historic Germantown, a place where post-colonial-era folks like the recently-formed U.S. Congress (and even George Washington) fled to when Yellow Fever hit this city. People often reference the 1918 Spanish Flu here but before that, you had an equivalent in the Yellow Fever outbreak (although in that case, spread by mosquitoes).
The common issue across all of these outbreaks? People fled to lesser-populated areas and there is no reason why they won't continue that behavior today. And that makes PA's rural areas ripe for infection from people fleeing there, if we don't knock this down now.