Oh yeah...mom lives in N. FL and they're not as common up there, but they are definitely there.
I texted her that photo, just for grins. She bitches when it's under 65 degrees...and she's NORTH of Miami, by a long shot. She should be CHILLY tonight.
I read about the Seattle case. Let's hope he had limited contacts. If he's been coughing among the "street people" we might need to quarantine the city. ( like that would work. Sarcasm. I'd expect screams from SJW leftist groups.... It's White Privilege to not want to die of plague! Extreme Sarcasm based on truth )
First UK cases reported.
Looks like a 5% fatality rate, but that's from Chinese sources and they are notoriously dishonest.
The good news is this might not affect regular livestock production, which earlier waves of coronaviruses have done. Bad enough a mini plague, without starvation from having to slaughter all the livestock in a region and disposal of megatons of hazardous bodies. Plus the reluctance to do so which usually prolongs the infection "pump" as more humans keep getting sick. Snake farming isn't as vital to feeding the people as chickens, even in China.
The Bad news is the virus seems to be "well adapted" to people now.
A really well adapted virus, and we have many, doesn't kill the host. That's why Ebola hasn't wiped out the planet. It's very poorly adapted and in pre-modern times, seldom spread beyond a couple of villages.
The cultural custom of hand washing your deceased relative as a gesture of respect, before burial, which persists in areas often hit by Ebola outbreak drives the Western epidemiologist nuts as it's a major factor in outbreaks.
Overcrowding, sanitation, farming techniques, & customs of human contact are the factors in mutation & spread of disease.
I've read Americans like more space than most & Germans the most space. ( where we probably got the custom )
It can be funny. Watch at a party or other gathering where people are talking and other factors like loud music or forced crowding don't apply.
Often, Americans ( everyone, really ) get uncomfortable when guys from a closer space culture get close. Often (subconsciously?) thinking it's a gay come on, and keep backing away. OTOH the guy from a closer space culture senses the further space guy as kinda unfriendly and keeps closing in to his optimal distance. It can be like magnets chasing around the room.
Along with the personal space, one thing that I have observed is two person conversations in a corridor or narrow spaces at a party (say in the kitchen.) In a corridor, invariably the two people will stand on opposite sides and endure the interruption of others walking between them. I've been in that situation and shifted to the same side and the other person immediately went to the other side! At parties, groups seem to have magnetic attraction to narrow areas and again endure others having to say "excuse me, excuse me" to get to the beer cooler.
I keep people out of my immediate sphere. Arm's length or better.
When people in my office have a little scratch in their throat, and they walk in to ask me a question - as soon as I hear it, I ask "are you sick, even a little bit?"
They get the message and back way off. I use a separate door to enter the office than most do. I happen to have a key to the always-locked door.
To me, this sounds like another Ebola or Bird Flu scare tactic designed to control people.
Bottom line for me, and every day I believe this even more: If it's coming out of the TV, it's complete bullsh1t.
Scare tactic? Sure some papers in Britain & websites here are all about sensational scares & selling Airborne, ( good stuff ) gold stocks, survival food, and "how to buy that winning bond/stock/real estate".
This isn't the flu. The yearly, deadly for some, flu. It's the "could get massive" bad disease that's the reason every doctor and hospital visit starts with "have you been out of the country, or in close contact with someone who has?" . Real dead people, real nightmare to medical staffs.
Certainly some use scare tactics to try to control you.
That's why it's good to know what's going down. And my side comments on farming, personal space, and Chinese government dishonesty may or may not be useful to keep things in context.
So far this looks like a typical "could get bad unless public health & informed public acts with rational care" disease. The indicators are the Chinese Masters covering it up,then being forced to admit there's a little, no worries, problem, then using the Army to shut down a city, then another, and another...
LA, Seattle, UK, Philippines, Canada, typical spread. There's some hints it might get bad in Africa where the Chinese slow takeover has lots of travel to, and in crowded poor health care lands...
Ditto West Coast Progressive Homeless exploitation new ghetto zones, like Venice beach, where there is now premedieval levels of human waste on the streets and old plagues are brewing. ( fed by sanctuary magnets & unchecked illegals from Socialist Central & S. American crapholes. )
If a cold resistant disease ( unlike Ebola ) gets running through, say, Seattle tent cities? That could get BAD.
But odds are it's just another short term periodical wave. A few hundred dead and it fades away. If measures are taken. Sucks to be sick and killed, but not the end of the world.
But a century ago? They did have a Biblical proportion epidemic. It can happen again. It will happen again. We might be able to limit it...
So, yeah, the random airport pat down is partly to keep the peasants used to their place. Breathless panic on CNN, ditto.
But this is not an imaginary thing. It's smart to keep an eye out to see if it gets worse.
I would not worry more than usual about going to Seattle. China, Hong Kong? I'd reschedule a business trip. Vacation in Poland, instead of Hunan.