The Virus Outbreak Thread

@MagpulPony  
Probably. Well, Lenny at least said one thing true, though…

On the positive side, the United States has developed a new test that can provide accurate results in as little as 5 minutes.

This is my own scaling category on the number of new cases being recorded per day  

 
Right now we are on level V.
 
I came up with this idea myself. Like my list? Tell me any suggestions so I could improve it.

Is it the end of the world?

@Background Pony #BFCD  
Not really.

@CaptainXtra  
Why?

@Count Adramélekh Sear  
You missed the chance to make a dick joke.  
I’m disappointed that you didn’t categorize Level VI to be the size of your dick.

So my mother read that the virus dies at over 77 degrees due to it having a thin layer of fat keeping it alive.

It the end of the world. We are all gonna die.

@Meanlucario  
If that were true it would die as soon as it entered your body.
 
I hope your mother isn’t using that information to make any kinds of decisions about … well, anything.

@Background Pony #BFCD
 
Oh hush you, the Bubonic plague didn’t end the world, the Wuhonic plague won’t either
 
@Derpy Whooves
 
Like the lady who thought it would be a good idea to drink Fish tank cleaner.
 
please people, don’t panic so hard that you try to make your own cures when you don’t even have the illness yourself

@Derpy Whooves  
I’ll ask her for her source later.

@Meanlucario  
The virus also causes fever which cases the internal temperature to go above it, why would it kill itself? hahaha
 
Honestly I think that one is fake, unless very much specific to when it’s dormant outside a body.
 
Now I have been more scared with the economy results than the disease being honest, all these lockdowns might help (if people actually even do it) but it has been costing people’s jobs already…

@Derpy Whooves  
@Princess Trixie vi Equestria  
She said that it’s info from a hospital. If anyone can look it up and link a source, that would be great.

I’m now under quarantine.

@Meanlucario  
I’m sure your mother heard that information. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she heard it from someone at a hospital, maybe even a nurse.
 
And I understand that we’re all looking for more information. Many of us want to know what we can do, and want to know more about the virus and how to protect ourselves.
 
So when someone hears that the virus ‘dies at over 77 degrees due to it having a thin layer of fat keeping it alive’, that sounds like really good news.
 
But, it’s not true. If it were true, then the virus would be rendered inactive the moment it entered a human body. And bats have body temperatures of as much as 105° when they fly, so how would the virus thrive in them if this were true?
 
Maybe the whole ‘melt the fat’ idea came from what we know about how soap affects the virus. I don’t know.
 
But if what your mother is thinking is that turning up the thermostat will kill the virus, that’s a bad idea - in most circumstances, it will only make the virus able to remain active longer.
 
And the last thing we need is people turning up their houses to over 70° to ‘kill’ the virus because of a rumor they heard on the internet. With all the desperation so many people have to ‘find something to do about it’, or to try to get control over our lives with everything that is going on, false or even harmful information like that - information that is easily demonstratively wrong - can really hurt others.
 
The truth is that human coronaviruses really enjoys 70° and can survive on exposed surfaces at 70° for up to a month ( albeit most of the variants of it have a half life of under a few hours depending on other conditions ). And the new human coronavirus has been observed to remain viable for three days on stainless steel in those or similar conditions, and for as long as 17 days in examples like some of the cruise ships.
 
In fact, if you turn the temperature up even higher, it remains viable even longer, and you have to go up to 86° before you really start to shorten it’s life on most surfaces and 104° before you can get it to behave more like a flu virus.
 
So turning up your thermostats is not going to help.
 
What WILL help is disinfectants with 62-71% ethanol, or 0.5% hydrogen peroxide, or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite (bleach). Spraying or wiping surfaces with these can inactivate coronaviruses within a minute.
 
The CDC has a ‘how to disinfect’ worksheet that you might also find very handy.
 
Part of the problem with all of this is that the virus is not ‘technically speaking’, alive. It’s just a self-replicating molecule that is really good at rewriting the DNA of cells with it’s tiny strand of RNA.
 
It’s hard to ‘kill’ something that isn’t really ‘alive’ to start with.

@MethidMan  
Quarantine because you have the virus or have been exposed to people who have it?
 
Or on ‘shelter at home’ or other kinds of lockdown?
 
I hope it’s the later, not the former.

@Derpy Whooves  
Misread who that was meant for somehow.

@Meanlucario
 
Oh, ok. I thought you were correcting my spelling.

@Derpy Whooves
 
He said it’s very likely I have the virus considering I’m in a hotspot.
 
I can’t go to work for at least a week and must wait 3 days until after my symptoms have gone away before I can return to work.

Now the entire state of Kansas is under lockdown. We’re at 261 cases now. 133 of which (including the 4 deaths) were in the 2 counties of the KC metro area. However the statewide one is only 2 weeks, while many of the individual ones are 30 days. The local ones will go back into effect after the end of the state one.

602 cases in Utah now.

@MethidMan  
Ah, yeah - sorry to hear that :(
 
For a lot of people, if they leave their house they’re basically infected at this point.
 
I hope you get through it ok :)

@Derpy Whooves
 
I should be fine, thanks. It’s my parents I’m worried about. It’s more fatal for them. I hope I don’t infect them.
 
Also worried about my co-workers. I work in a pharmacy warehouse as a janitor…

@MethidMan  
Ah, yeah … it sounds like you have the right priorities. And it’s good that you work in an environment that has a reasonable respect for safety.