Phuket Opinion: Atishoo, Atishoo…

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Phuket Opinion: Atishoo, Atishoo…

By The Phuket News

 

An officer checks that a thermoscan camera at Phuket airport is working. Photo: TAC Phuket

 

PHUKET: Some chickens certainly came home to roost this week as Thailand’s – and Phuket’s – tourism industry started to reel from the fallout of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and the ensuing plunge in the number of Chinese tourist arrivals.

 

For those who believe the fallout is from nothing more than scaremongering in the media and overreacting by foreign governments, that raises a good question. Big numbers are being bandied about. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that since Oct 1, 2019 an estimated 19-26 million Americans have been infected with seasonal flu, resulting in 180,000-300,000 hospitalisations and an estimated 10,000-25,000 flu deaths. That’s just the US alone.

 

The trick with the Wuhan coronavirus in comparison is that we are only now learning its true fatality rate, and we still have no idea how contagious it really is – other than it seems to spread much faster than its viral cousins SARS and MERS. Put that virus in Asia, where close-quarters living in cities already poses a very high communicable disease risk, and the result could be devastating. Right now “better as safe as possible" seems to be an appropriate approach.

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-opinion-atishoo-atishoo…-74738.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2020-02-17

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[nausea]

I'm thinking they're worried about it mutating into something more serious. Only explanation I can think of for the hullabaloo over something that's, supposedly, like really bad flu.

[Tarteso]

There is a Interesting new information about coronavirus;

 

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Edited February 17, 2020 by Tarteso