How could the spread of coronavirus affect you?

Kove in nineteen, the deadly virus that

spread

s to every continent in the world except Antarctica, so how

could

coronavirus

start to

affect

you? A science correspondent, Thomas More, is here along with a panel of invited experts to answer his questions. After midday, we have retail analyst Kate Hardcastle. Senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter dr. Barrett pan carnea and Simon called their independent travel editor, we'll see them shortly. First I want to talk to Thomas, although Thomas, many people get in touch with their questions, let's first talk about the World Health Organization before we say the The word pandemic is not useful and is likely to aggravate the situation, but first we listen to the Health Secretary Hancock in the House of Commons gave us an update using the P word a lot, the EU, their processes, they also call it a pandemic, Paul.

With you on Twitter he asks: hasn't the time come for the WHO to classify the

coronavirus

as a pandemic given how we have seen it

spread

in the last 24 hours? Certainly some doctors I've spoken to have called this a pandemic in general. but naming it clearly has a dictionary definition: it is the global spread of a serious infectious disease and many people would say we have reached that point now that the World Health Organization is very cautious about calling it a pandemic because they got into so many problems in the past. In 2009, with the swine flu pandemic, many countries were waiting for the call, which did not come for a long time and therefore delayed action, and so on, this time they are not going to get into that mess. what they are saying is that each country should be able to make a risk judgment for itself about how serious the outbreak is in their country and take appropriate measures there and it is interesting that many people get in touch saying they know the message of the Health Secretary Matt Hancock was essentially keeping calm and carrying on when speaking about the comments this afternoon and the advice being instilled in people is that if you have concerns, call the NHS one-on-one and self-isolate.

What does it mean to self-isolate? It's a really good, good question, I mean, the moment the test is a swab of mucus in the throat and it looks for genetic material from the virus, it will identify people who have an active infection, if that result is then positive, They will ask you to stay at home for 14 days, which is the period during which you are believed to be contagious and that will basically mean that you don't go out, you don't go to work, you don't take public transport, you don't go to the shops, but You can still make deliveries to your home so your friends and family can do your shopping.

You can still get someone to bring you takeout. That kind of thing can still go on, but you should minimize contact. with other people because the more time you spend around other people, the greater the chance they will transmit the virus. Okay, Thomas, let's bring in our panel that I mentioned earlier, we have a travel expert, a business and retail expert, and a public health expert. expert too and simonkal, our travel expert, i will come to you first. We've just heard that the Six Nations rugby match in Dublin has been cancelled, so people who are likely to be traveling to Dublin will think twice.

I have a question here. from Nicola Beverage on Twitter, says I'm going on a cruise on March 6th. I fly via Edinburgh Heathrow Rio in Brazil Brazil, of course, I'm confirming their first case and then I arrive in Tenerife Lisbon Cádiz. I mean, it sounds like an amazing cruise, she says I should cancel because it's effectively hitting all the hot spots here, she says, although if I don't cancel I lose about 4 grand, of course I shouldn't cancel, what an opportunity wonderful, but I would be very careful with what you are going through. the busiest airport in Europe London Heathrow you will change planes there and airports are the places that I think present the greatest biological risk it is a microbiological party everyone from all over the world converges with their own personal germs and everyone mixes especially in the area Security at airports be very careful in terms of not getting too close to people.

I know that's hard when you're in lines and certainly after the security check, especially if you've been handling the tray you put where your liquids were and your Call on the phone, go and have a good time, I'll wash up and with proper soap and water because that's probably the biggest danger you'll encounter on all your wonderful vacations and then you know things like keeping a distance from anyone looking. Sick everyone makes wake ups you are a sensible person and if you can pay for food and drink contactless instead of handling cash but other than that it sounds like a big trip and I should pick you up you said hot spots well yes there are some. unfortunate cases in Tenerife, but the chances of any of us going to places where there are cases and actually being around people who have the virus long enough to contract it are fortunately extremely low and even if you did contract it, you would say the most danger to the vast majority of people, leaving aside the over 70 cohort and people with woefully weakened immune systems, the biggest danger is that you bring it back and spread it, that's what worries me, not in I'm actually having it. the nasty virus, but for most people it is not not fatal, it is wisely noted because we keep hearing about the NHS while we hear about self-isolation but also about personal hygiene, we cannot emphasize that enough.

Thanks drinks Simon and Nicola just tweeted. me a few minutes ago Oh Kate, this

could

be mine oh, this is Hannah. I apologize, Hannah Kell, so this one's for you. Kate and it's about employers' duty of care. Hannah says I am a university student doing a clinical internship at a large hospital for 40 weeks this year, one of my rights in terms of going on placement during a pandemic and what is my employer's duty to care for me. I think the important note is that we have information through many people, our beam acetate is 14. two day isolation period and there are certainly some questions about where people stand, it is very important to talk to your employer and understand their contractual rights when it comes to things like this because unless you are actually sick with an illness, you may not feel the pain of the illness.

You think the time is right and you have to talk to them, many large companies may make the decision that they are going to address the wellbeing of their staff, but in the office, work is a workplace and at home alike. too and will probably cover that 14 day period. However it is not always so. It is so important to verify that detail. Also work with your organization to see what information they need from you. How often do they need you to update them. Talk to them constantly. hold briefings on bulletin boards and another quick point to mention as well is if you can work if you are in a 14 day isolation period if you can work with your organization maybe do some work from home for them.

Responsibly trying to fulfill your job while you are away from work is not always possible where we have rules that depend entirely on the location of your activities, but it is important to speak with the employer throughout the process and with Dr. Pan Carney, I have a question for you. Many people are very concerned about a leaked UK government document that talks about a reasonable worst-case scenario when it comes to coronavirus. Many people talk about this on social media. Maybe you can shed some information. I'm not clear, it says that in a reasonable worst case scenario, 80 per cent of British citizens could be infected with the coronavirus cave in 19 and around 500,000 would die.

Can you put that into perspective for us? Is there any truth in that? I'm happy to do it. I haven't looked at this legal document, but I think empirically and from first principles, so if you gave me that scenario, my answer is very simple, it's easy to answer, this is a new virus and because it is a new virus, we hope that people get infected. That's nothing new, it's not a big deal. I want to reassure our listeners that this is, and you heard it before from our other commenter, that most people who get infected will get better and most people will suffer mild illness, only a few will actually do so.

I need to see a doctor and even fewer go to the hospital and even fewer go to the hospital. Now, when we talk about what is a technical term called lethality, it means of those people who get sick, how many die and when. We are talking about large percentages, large numbers and then a small percentage of a very large number. Obviously, it sounds alarming that, gosh, so many people are going to die, but if you put it into perspective with seasonal influenza infection, a lot of people die every year. year due to seasonal influenza infection which, by the way, is preventable, so we need to have that perspective and when you start thinking about big numbers, it's unnecessarily worrying and I wish our listeners weren't dr.

Can I just not ask you a question because we're seeing here a huge effort being done globally now driven by the World Health Organization to try to contain this virus. If the flu is a much bigger problem, we let it go every year. We didn't take this extreme action, so is this something they don't tell us about this cove in outbreak nineteen? No, no, why would we want to lie and why would we not want to tell them the truth? My Exeter University has never done it. censored me and I don't have a quick pause, go here, go there or don't go there, so let me share with our listeners what I would like to share with anyone, which is why everyone is excited and concerned about this.

This is a new virus that emerged in China and is now spreading to cause disease, but the excitement in and and and the worries is because it's new, it's brand new, and because it's brand new, we don't know much about it. Put it in context and do a balancing act. I would say that the corona virus seems to be a little bit worse than the seasonal flu virus, but it is only a little bit worse than the seasonal flu virus. It's not something completely different. It's going to be a shock to the system, we don't see that evidence, so I hope we can give those reassuring messages or to our listeners, sorry, we assigned another question for you and it's interesting that a lot of people get in touch saying, look, I'm looking .

Because of what's going on, I've planned a holiday to, say, Tenerife or Italy, and although the risk may be low, the government says you can still travel to those areas, I just don't want to go, what are your rights? I don't have any actually, I mean, there is a snub, there are some strange cases, for example, if you were going to rugby in Dublin and you booked a package that included tickets for the match and it was clear that you were going there for the purpose of watching rugby. The same applies to England rum in Rome, so you will be able to claim a full refund if the match doesn't go ahead, but for everyone else, and I have spoken to many, many people I have never met with such concern. about this go to Florence go to Venice go to Milan how nice to ski in the Italian Alps absolutely great the attitude of the travel industry is that we are still flying your vacation still exists there is no foreign affairs office water you get going this inclination to Traveling doesn't mean anything, you will lose most of your money, most of your money and your trips.

That sounds very harsh and I'm sorry, but that's the attitude, the only flexibility I've seen so far. British Airways says that if you're booked to go to northern Italy next week you can postpone it, but only until the end of March, and a lot of people won't be happy about that, and of course if I have flights, car hire, skiing , butch, besides that, that won't help either, so it's very direct, you know that the holidays continue if you don't want to be unlucky. Sorry and yes, bad luck, but you know. Good advice, those are the facts for people to understand and make those decisions.

Well, let's get back to retail and what will be the knock-on effect that we're seeing. We are seeing people asking about shortages in British stores because of the disruption in China and perhaps also potential price increases, I think it is really important to set the stage as far as China is concerned. It is quite understandable that many people cannot understand exactly how many of our products come from China or in fact have components that come from China, in fact it was 20 years ago when I started working in the factories there and only then was I able to understand the size and scale.

Now what is happening with the factories in China is a total closure and that includes the end of the 14-day quarantine. for the workers to recover many of those who actually live there, so production is greatly

affect

ed andAlso to put some perspective on this, retailer Walmart, one of the largest in the US, has 25 percent of its products coming from China, we've already heard there are profit warnings. and the challenges and stops and stocks have seen the challenge as economists try to understand how long this is not going to happen as surely when it comes to the supply chain that depends on components or products in China, although it probably will There will be shortage because shipping takes 8-10 weeks to UK if short sea or by air.

You also have to think about the prices that these organizations will have to take into account. with the fact that they have to catch up with what has been a very challenging period, I don't think sarah-jane we've seen the full effect yet because what happened with the beginning of this outbreak is that it was actually at the same time that there is a Chinese New Year, one of the only times when production sources actually shut down. so be very aware also start watching for stock shortages, things like panic buying on anti-back White and antibacterial liquids when it comes to the overall economy and businesses.

Yes, there will be a knock-on effect and it's not just because of that, but because This is an economy that has already faced challenges of political unrest, things like brakes, it's just not as strong as it could have been and that means that anything other than was planned and which you can't even speculate on is causing a lot of headaches and challenges, so definitely be aware of your finances and the implications, dr. Pan Konya is very concerned about the fact that people say that many people can get it over the age of 19 and not have any symptoms.

How dangerous is that in the spread of this? Because obviously, if you don't have any symptoms, you might not feel like you have them. self-isolate and that makes this a bigger problem than we currently know. Do you think we don't know much about the new range of coronavirus? American signs. Symptoms. Infection pattern. Having said that, of course, it is difficult. It is extremely difficult. you have no symptoms and yet you are infected and infectious, it makes life very difficult for us to contain it. Look on the bright side. So far we are managing to contain it in the UK.

Second point: If you are infected but without symptoms, that tells the story right away. that a lot of people will get infected and a lot of people will be fine even with the infection and recover fully, so in a roundabout way it's a reassuring message that while my job is to contain it, keep it away. keeping the numbers down, making sure our health services are not overwhelmed with too many cases, all of those things are very difficult, but the reassuring message for people, our viewers, is that in most cases, most people will recover completely and most people will not. being very sick and tamas, it's interesting that a lot of people get in touch saying they know the NHS is self-isolating, but they tell me if I'm worried how can I get a covert 19 test?

Well, you would have to do it. falls into one of the categories, you have been in one of the affected areas and have also shown these flu-like symptoms. That's when the NHS would come into action and for the last time asked you to come to one of these pods outside. hospitals where you can get tested without infecting other people in the waiting room or now we heard today from the health secretary that they are going to start pilot testing at home so that a team will come to your house and test you again to that You won't meet other people on the road and that's really what the NHS is trying to do to limit the spread of the virus from people who might be affected and Simon Jenny will touch you saying yes, if you have family.

In one of these quarantine areas, particularly in the quarantine hotel in Tenerife, what kind of information are they receiving? What kind of support should they improve? Of course we have heard some stories overnight of people being left without food or drink in their hotel and I imagine the Spanish authorities are dealing with that quite quickly because clearly that cannot continue as it is, there is so much anxiety , stress and worry in and around that hotel, but I think your question actually goes beyond that, which is that the people We're seeing that are in quarantine, we saw, of course, the Diamond Princess ship in Yokohama, as well as the h10 hotel in Costa, one day, hey, in Tenerife, and people's alarm certainly in terms of those who contacted me on social media.

Now it's veering towards Well, look, okay. I may not be able to act against the virus, but I am really worried that they will keep me in quarantine and I can't do it because my family depends on me. I have to go back. to run my business there are all sorts of reasons why people just can't afford to be delayed abroad. If you have a holiday, that of course is something you will take into account and I must say that it would be interesting to get a medical point of view on keeping people imprisoned on a cruise ship or inside a hotel when in reality the people who, very sadly, have had the virus that we know have been through airports, gone to restaurants, enjoying excursions and all kinds of things to keep people who may be on the seventeenth floor when the unfortunate Italian doctor was on the sixth floor.

I'm not sure how much that will do to restrict the spread of this and it's certainly causing a lot of concern and how horrible. What happens is that you are on one of the most beautiful islands in the world and you are trapped inside a hotel and this is coming from Aralia Lupton and this will be for your doctor, she says what is the survivability of the virus in the services because we 'I have seen many schools being deep cleaned if someone suspected of being infected has been there, how long can this virus survive in the services?' A reasonably good question and the answer would be: it depends on the humidity, in other words, the humidity in the air.

Therefore, in dry, hot and humid places where the virus may have landed through nasal or oral secretions, it dries nature and becomes ineffective, so in hot, humid and humid places, its survival period is longer and in dry, soft fabrics, where it dries a lot. faster you won't survive for long that's all we have time for that our panel of experts answers your questions about covid 19 Kate Hardcastle dr. pan cornea and Simon called Oh Anna because Thomas Moore thank you very much