Chareidi community highly suceptible to coronavirus

[Dayeinu]

A new study in Nature shows that while children are unlikely to develop severe symptoms when infected by the coronavirus, they are no less likely to be infected if they are exposed.

As the Chareidi community has B.H. an unusually high proportion of children — young children put their fingers in their mouth and touch everything — this presents a serious issue with regards to containing the virus.

Italy had only 12 cases two weeks ago and now a third of the country is on lockdown.

I’m surprised at the apathetic approach by so many. This virus is estimated to kill about 0.5% of those infected and 1% of those who come down with symptoms. That is no flu.

We should not be going about our Purim seudos, Simchas etc, gatherings like normal.

[Goldilocks]

If/when I am told by a doctor or government authority to minimize my exposure to other people, I will do so willingly.
Until then, it’s life as usual.

[akuperma]

It’s a bad case of flu, with no flu shot to minimize the impact. Not the end of the world. If you panic each year over the “flu season”, feel free to panic now. If your response to flu season is to buy drugs to treat the effects of flu, and to stock up on chicken soup, now is the time to do so.

Since Chareidim are younger (since we have lots of children, Baruch ha-Shem) than the rest of the population, we are less affected. The hiloni Jews, who have few children, and therefore a high percentage of old people, are the ones who have to worry about dying off. Note that China, whose “one-child” policy resulted in a population with too many old people relative to children, is the center of the outbreak.

The major injuries will be economic policies caused by government efforts to keep the virus from spreading which are out of proportion to the damage the virus will cause.

[Speltchallah]

1 Jewish life even an “old person” is Precious and should be protected at all costs.
That being said the comparisons to flu are not so accurate. It seems that flu does not spread as rapidly. I had the flu and no one else in my large family caught it.
I don’t think we should panic. However we should daven for a our families and achenu beni Yisroel.

[Dayeinu]

This is NOT the flu because of:
⬤ ZERO population immunity
⬤ 1-0.5% case-fatality (>10-20 times higher than average flu)
⬤ Basic reproduction number = 2.2-4
(this means that, on average, an infected person will infect 2.2 to 4 other people. For average influenza epidemic the number is about 1.3)
⬤ Potential to overload ICUs and ERs, further increasing case-fatality

[Author]

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