Is the coronavirus killed by heat and sunlight?

The statistics published suggest that in hot countries with a lot of sunlight the incidence of the coronavirus is much lower than in the colder countries. So the question “is the coronavirus killed by heat and sunlight.”

I don’t know the answer. I guess you don’t know the answer either. That’s the problem. There is little useful information in the common domain and that’s causing the panic about the coronavirus.

We have epidemics from time to time. I live partly in the UK and every winter there is some type of mini flu epidemic. There is no panic as we understand flu. There is some mortality too, but generally they are the old and frail. We know that too, so there is no panic. The mortality with coronavirus is not particularly high and is a touch below 4%. But who are they? The old and feeble? Or is it evenly spread amongst all age groups? Why do some die and others recover? We have no answers to a lot of questions. That is what is causing the panic.

Wake up medical fraternity

Our public health medical officers should wake up and tell us a lot more about the coronavirus. They should collaborate with the Chinese authorities and the WHO and collect all the information and tell us more about it.

We need to know

We all know how one can get Syph or Gon. So there is no panic if we rub shoulders with strangers in the bus as we know that it will not give us Syph or Gon or HIV.

But we don’t know how one gets coronavirus. Does the virus enter our body through the nose? Does it enter through the mouth and somehow save itself from being killed by the acid in the stomach. Or is the virus gay and entering through our butt? 

If it is through the nose why do we see the Chinese health workers looking like people from Mars in their all-encompassing garb covering their whole body? Is it because the virus can enter through the skin. We need to know.

The course of the illness A host of questions

What are the symptoms of coronavirus? Pain, fever (high or low)? If there is fever for how long? How should one treat the fever? Is it a cup of tea and panadols type of fever? How is it treated if one is hospitalised?

Is coronavirus a flu-type disease where 96% who get it recover in a few days, and only 4% who have other health problems die because the coronavirus aggravates pre-existing health conditions?

What is the complication that causes death? How should that complication be treated and is time a key factor in successfully treating the complication? Is the complication a pneumonia type inflammation of the lungs? What is the treatment and is it only possible in a hospital environment?

Move from panic to calm

There is panic now. Buying masks, running every time one sees a Chinese. Some friends went to the Chinese restaurant in a five-star hotel in Colombo. They were the only people and the staff said custom had dwindled sharply. What is the fear? The Chinese cook! There are a lot of possibly irrational fears. We need the medical authorities in the country to explain the facts and remove the panic.

We need the information mentioned and more to put it into the correct perspective.

Is coronavirus just another flu-like epidemic with very low mortality no more than dengue or flu?

Should we stay at home and watch television if all we have is a cough and fever and only ring for the ambulance if we gasp for breath? We mere mortals do not have the answers and we urgently need the public health government doctors to give us the correct perspective on the coronavirus.

Serendipity

If the virus perchance does not survive in heat and sunshine what a bonanza for our tourism. “Come to Paradise Island where the heat and sunshine ensure that there is no coronavirus.”