I do agree with the point that was made about social distancing being an awkward term. It certainly is stigmatizing, as though we all have to tiptoe around each other, even from afar, for fear of being dirty. I know that's not what's meant by the term, but the statistics would say otherwise. While there is literally nothing we can do about the declining mental health of the general public due to this outbreak, it's going to create waves where there otherwise wouldn't be. I would be willing to bet that, right now, crisis lines are either so swamped that they can't handle much of anything, or they're closed altogether. Plus, those who are currently in therapy must put their sessions on hold, presumably. And if you're seeking out such services, I'd imagine you're shit out of luck. I thought, before, that there was actually something to be done about this state of affairs, but now I understand that we have to sacrifice the well-being of the masses in order to save their physical vitality. What a shame. And yet, since things got personal for me over the past week, I would certainly rather save lives than try to analyze the degrading mental health of said lives.

Remember again that even if the vaccine is made, it will still be at least another half a year before it becomes public, and that's the shortest time possible!
@375, if we'd paid attention to that pandemic instead of viewing it as an irrelevant historical event, I think we may have been able to be braced for future pandemics of similar proportion. It also serves as a reminder to those people like me that however desperate the situation feels that we have gone through similar and will again.

Okay several things here.
Firstly, the Spanish Flue epidemic happened at a vastly different time and culture when a lot in society and in medicine was different. For example, no modern antibiotics (penicillin wasn't discovered until 1928), as well as fewer modern vaccines, heck even flush toilets were not universally available. There is also a little thing called the first world war that had just finished, meaning firstly that a lot of people had pretty crappy resistance anyway, and secondly, that there was a hell of a lot more mixing of populations around the world than normal. So, any direct comparisons probably aren't helpful, neither is trying to decide if Corona virus is or is not worse than the Spanish flue.

On the other hand, the Spanish flue does tell us that yes, large populations can fall prey to a virus pretty damn quickly, which means complacent attitudes about Corona probably won't help anybody at all, so yes, irritating as it sounds, social distancing probably will and should go on.

As regards other points. Personally, the UK government have told everyone on the at risk list to expect 3 months in, that is pretty much what my lady and I are looking at. No, it's not a good thing, and Turtlepower is doubtless right that it will cause problems for people's mental health, however, if the alternative is increasing spreading the virus and being a danger to yourself and others, then personally I'm quite content with viewing social distancing as something which just needs doing.

One thing I will say, is it always pays to maintain  courtesy, for example, last night my lady and I ordered a take away (from a place who practice contactless packing of food), and we left cash for the driver outside the door and asked them to pick the cash up (their card processing machine was broken).

The driver came, dropped the food, banged on the door, picked up the cash and went. we then rang the place back to say thank you. We'd normally thank the driver in person, but with my lady on the at risk list, we're just plane not taking chances.

This is the sort of thing I mean, just because one has to stay at a physical distance from others, doesn't translate into turning into a paranoid arsehole, especially in a world of online mass communication.

As regards countries and responses, what Jaiden describes as happening in the Caribbean, is what's already going on in Britain, everything bar food shops and other essential services closed, limited numbers allowed inside, gatherings of more than two people prohibited, and as many measures as can be taken, being taken, indeed the NHS have just developed a new ventilation system for patients which they're rolling out at the moment.

No, All of this isn't a reason to panic or expect everything to turn into mad max over night, however being calm and taking precautions for as long as it takes will go a long way.

Actually, the rather ironic thing, is that my lady and I are pretty much okay. Food shopping is a bit of a pest, but honestly, one advantage of being a pair of introverts more than happy with each other's company who have completely failed to make friends in our local area, is that social distancing is really easy. Yes, it'd be nice to be either closer to the friends we do have, or have more things to get out and actually doo, but at the moment it just makes coping even easier.

of course, I realise that I have been amazingly luck yin whom I'm married to, especially in terms of the fact that we really are! just happy with each other's company and rarely if ever disagree, let alone argue, and that we have no dependants to worry about accept our dogs, indeede that's one reason I'd like to see aobut the NHS volunteer ap, assuming it's accessible, since provided I can do it from the comfort of my living room, I'd like to do what I can.

One thing I do approve of over here, is that the news is trying to walk the line between remaining calm, and making people complacent. Thus we don't have too many superlatives being chucked around, and only confirmable numbers and estimates, with actual measures undertaken being mentioned.

I don't personally see it worth debating either whether this is the worst virus ever or whether there have been ones that are worse in the past, or to what extent the death toll may or may not rise in the future.
The fact is, this is the situation we ourselves have to deal with, and whichever way you cut the cookie, lots of people have died and likely are going to in the future, and the best thing everyone can do is stay calm and deal with the situation as best they can.

@derekedit, by "get worse before it gets better" I personally just mean the obvious, more people getting ill and more people dying, then at some point there will be gradually less and less, at which point like china, countries, governments and individuals will start lifting restrictions and trying to recover.

Obviously this is a bad thing, though it's also worth remembering a lot of people are doing what they can and also putting time into helping others, just as obviously and inevitably, there are people who are helping themselves and behaving like greedy arseholes, but that's how the human race generally works.
Whether you think it's more of one than the other, or indeed whether you concentrate more upon one than the other likely depends upon your experience and perspective as an individual.

I think that the lockdown maybe extended in India
because of a sudden rise in the number of cases

Right behind those sentiments, turtlepower. I just read thatmy own province is going to have zero chance of anything changing in the next month, and only slight chances into may and june. And at the oment,with the lack of changes these measures are showing in the cases reported, I'm having a very hard time seeing them as affective, whatever the politician's offices may be trying to tell us. More than for myself, I'm worried for all the international students I work with who are litterally stuck here with nowhere to go, and are here on limitted amounts of time, some on orking visas which are now useless because they can't work while still needing money to at least survive. And I'm still seeing other cuntries, namely Asian countries surprisingly, doing things that are preventing the spread while still managing to let people live with some degree of normal.

Wall Mart was horrible..
I'm thinking I should go early in the morning.

what about spreading this virus from laboratory?
scientists were testing somethings on bats and snakes and then well big fail

The Chinese government may not have spread it, but they sure as hell didn't help things by distributing false information. If you're going to criticize them for something, keep it within reason... and keep it to the Chinese government. Speaking as someone with Chinese heritage livin in North America, I've heard and seen more than enough counts of unreasonable racism towards Asians to make my blood boil. Yes, the Chinese government may have lied bout numbers... but the man and his children who got stabbed in Texas had nothing to do with it. So acknowledge that it happened and move on. Don't hate China because people in power did stupid things.

Yeah I'm with 394 here. I know that views like those are the kind that promote racism and hatred within human kind. Heck I'm not even Chinese, but I am asian, and when people treat you horribly because of the tone of your skin or what someone who looks like you is responsible for, its bloody annoying. Many countries do not have a diverse group of people, so some people may never experience this feeling, but it's like someone looking down on you for being blind, because maybe you did something horrible in your supposed past life. That's what it feels like, and I have experienced both and would not wish it on anyone else.

As for where the virus came from, it is not a man made thing from a lab like some resident evil scenario. It comes from the wet markets of asia, where exotic animals are kept in closed quarters and slaughtered on the spot before being prepared as a meal. This is something that has been happening in different parts of the world, primarily parts of asia, and now we are reaping the consequences. Still, pointing fingers and playing the blame game is not going to solve anything, and it saddens me horribly to see that even in the 21st century, such feelings of racism still exist in the world, even such a diverse country such as my own.

@392, I ask you to think carefully about what I jist said. Put yourself in the shoes of the chinese person who wasnt even involved in this whole mess, but people spit at you and won't talk to you or do business with you, won't even look at you, or acknowledge your presence because of something someone far away that you don't even know did. Consider how you would feel if that were you, then take a good long words that you wrote and think of what you just did to that person you're imagining yourself to be.

@398 I am half Vietnamese from my father's side, and I am half Hmong from my mother's side. So even when my parents were just getting started with one another, there was already racial tension within the two families, but over the years things have gotten much better between them.