Citizen from Denmark here giving my advice to my fellow Panthers friends abroad.
You guys need to understand this and understand it now - STAY AT HOME NOW! Quarantine yourself if you can - very soon you will be told so anyways!
I will paste a link later in this Thread why (If you hate long posts, i urge you to at least scroll down and click the link provided - it hopefully will make you understand that YOU are part of the solution here. It really is the best graphical illustration I have seen of the problem/solution)
All european countries are closing down while I write this! Here in Denmark, everything has been shot down more or less. Borders and airports are closed for people not danish citizens, and everyone one has been told to stay inside in your home unless getting food for your family. And even then, keeping a distance of at least 2 meters to everyone else. This means all smaller shops, bars etc in effect is closing down and dying right now. This is going to financially ruin an unbelievable amount of people in Europe. ..All personel in private companies have also been sent home/working from home except those working in production. All schools, institutions etc. has been closed.
So, why these drastic measures??
THE CORONA PROBLEM:
This is also really not very complicated to understand when you know a few vital numbers. In Denmark we only have 872 respirators IN TOTAL in our danish health care system. YES - ONLY 872!!! Keep in mind we are a small country with approx. 5 Million citizens... The health care system is totally not geared for a virus like corona which mainly attacks the lungs and hence people with respiratory problems will need help from these respirators to survive. Add to that, a lot of the 872 respirators is already in use for critical operations as usual (car accidents, cancer, etc patients) - so the real number of respirators free to help corona virus patients is even far less. Add to this that each respirator needs at least 4 SPECIALIZED nurses to operate the respirator. Do we have - let's say 1500 - extra SPECIALIZED nurses ready waiting for this! No of course not!
So now, you hopefully better understand that this is NOT because Corona is more deadly than other viruses or flues, because it is not. No, it is because of it's nature attacking the lungs - and countries do not have the respirators and personel ready helping a big amount of people AT THE SAME TIME with breathing.
THE SOLUTION TO AVOID CORONA HELL:
A few here already mentioned it, but it cannot be said enough. The key is to "flatten the curve" to avoid corona hell as seen in China and Italy (Spain will soon be even worse condition). You can do this by social distancing and quarantine yourself/your family. It really is that simple!!!!
But human nature - and money - makes it very difficult for us to actually live like this, even for a relative short period, unless we have seen - and is convinced - it is working. We still see people here in Denmark not staying at home, because they don't understand they are part of the solution. Due to this, I predict that no later than tomorrow our prime minister will inform that leaving the house will result in huge penalties or arresting people (as introduced in Spain, Italy and China).
Here is the link to the Washington post I promised earlier - it shows 4 different scenaries depending of our social behaviour. Scenario 4 is what we all want to achieve. It requires your help.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/?fbclid=IwAR03f3Cr3t2AO40sC6YM5KcL2RY-GICJWMuowy6-HfWwdvImIFHr2qEbyfM&itid=hp_hp-banner-low_virus-simulator520pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
I know that half of you hate everything about Trump, but when he is going to ask you to stay at home (he WILL be forced to do this within the next week or so) I really hope you will put your political belief aside, and do what is right for your great country. I hope all you americans is learning from us here - IN TIME - then you will be just fine...Good bless!
PS: I see a lot of you talking about death rate. You CANNOT compare death rate in Denmark with the death rate for China or Italy. Here in Denmark we ONLY do the corona test of the persons being hospitalized and VERY ill. So if you calculate the death rate as a percentage of positive tests divided på casualties, it will be higher in Denmark than in the countries where they test people positive with mildly symptoms and not hospitalized. Again, this is due to the fact that we DO NOT have a lot of personel available to do the testing...