As is the case with any new illness, there can be much genuine worry among citizens in relation to the dangers of contracting it, while there will be an expectation from the general public, that healthcare organisations will leave no stone unturned in their quest to have everything under control, or at least give that impression.

From a Co.Wexford point of view, Rosslare Europort sees numerous daily arrivals of ferries full of people and goods from continental Europe, while we have also been made aware that students from at least one of the secondary schools in the county have recently returned from a trip to Italy, which is the 3rd most affected country in the world behind China and South Korea. It should come as no surprise therefore if at some stage of the next few days, weeks or months if some people in Co. Wexford are be diagnosed with this virus.

In order to try reduce the chances of this happening, the HSE has issued advice which is included in the poster below:

Many will see the HSE advice as ‘common sense’. However, the current hysterical reaction to the outbreak of this illness has displayed that ‘common sense’ is not as common as we may have thought. Let us examine the reported facts and figures, to put the outbreak of this virus into perspective.

This virus was discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. More than two months later, over 85,,000 people worldwide have been confirmed as having contracted the virus. Almost 79,000 of these cases have been in China. The metropolitan area of Wuhan has approximately 19 million people. Even using the worst-case scenario that all of these 79,000 cases occurred in Wuhan (they haven’t); the following statistics might put this outbreak into perspective:

79,000 cases represent a 0.004% rate of infection in the world’s most affected city, Wuhan.

79,000 cases represent a 0.00005% rate of infection in the world’s most affected country, China.

Of the 85,000 confirmed cases worldwide, over 39,500 people have already been confirmed as fully recovered.

There have been 2,924 recorded deaths worldwide, with 2,727 of these occurring in Hubai Province in China, where Wuhan is located.

Coronavirus v Seasonal Flu

According to the HSE the seasonal flu (influenza) causes between 200 and 500 deaths in Ireland each year, while they report that between 3-5 million cases of influenza occur worldwide each year, leading to approximately 650,000 deaths.

There have been 79,000 coronavirus cases so far in China, while seasonal flu had approximately 800,000 cases in China in 2018.

Of greatest concern, as with most flu-like illnesses are the older generation, those will long term poor health and healthcare workers.

No person under the age of 9 yrs has died from the coronavirus while the vast majority of deaths have been amongst senior citizens. This is obviously going to worry those who fall into that category, and we will all instantly worry for our older loved ones, but people in this category are already in the high-risk category of acquiring serious illnesses.

To Conclude:

In recent days, worldwide figures are showing that the rate of recovery is significantly higher than the rate of new cases.

Unfortunately, as with any illness, case numbers will increase, while so too will the number of deaths. This is in part due to the lack of available medication or appropriate vaccine against the virus. However, based on the reported facts and figures, the coronavirus has a long way to go before it even begins to compare with the deadliness of the seasonal flu (influenza) both in Ireland and worldwide, yet how little attention is paid to this on a daily basis?

Joe Bloggs from Co.Wexford is far more likely to contract influenza than the coronavirus. Yet, no doubt if poor Joe does contract the coronavirus in the next few weeks, he will gain national notoriety.