And to hasten along sinophobia, let's classify social media chatter as "Chinese whispers".

And in Sydney, Chinese restaurants closing from lack of business, Chinese businesses reducing hours for the same reason, and a rise in resentment towards Chinese.
Not a good time to be Chinese in the world ATM.

Dan

Oh No!

Like the spread of too many Bushfire articles on OLO.

There will be an endless spread Coronavirus/COVID-19 articles.

The repeditive Coronavirus/COVID-19 article spread being the most dangerous symptom for most readers.

A virus that can live for a week on your phone, has the potential to kill 90,000 Australians? Is 20 times more lethal than the seasonal flu, which can and does kill some folk every year, is not to be taken too lightly! Face masks if worn, must cover the nose! Something you'd think the medical profession would have drummed in from day dot!

Washing hands properly under running water and making sure all bedding including mattresses, gets a full day out in direct sunshine (UV) is some of the things ordinary folk can do? Take your mobile phone out of your pocket and leave it out as much as possible, wipe with alcohol wipe daily.

Learn really deep breathing from the bottom of your longs to absorb maximised oxygen. Sneeze into a tissue or your inner elbow. Ditto your cough. Drum all this into your kids who are mobile virus factories that spread it everywhere.

Ask your Doctor for HIV/aids antivirals if you catch this contagion and have a compromised immune system through cancer or some such. Many Doctors will know bet and all the reasons you shouldn't have these more efficacious antivirals, well we don't have very much in our medical inventory and they're expensive, due mostly to price gouging by pharmaceutical companies.

Get a daily dose of full sunlight for no less than ten minutes and consume a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. Remember that the vitamin D you absorb from sunlight is an oil-based vitamin and needs some oil to be absorbed and fortify your immune system.

Lastly, avoid like the plague folk who think this is overhyped and they won't succumb, know all the reasons not to take common-sense precautions!
Alan B.

Dearest Al

One you missed, don't consume alcohol. Alcohol suppresses the immune system.
It's why drinkers are prone to cancer.

Apart from that omission, the rest were interesting.

Dan

Alan B: While you are right to be genuinely very concerned about the wuflu* (covid-19) some of your advice is rather pointless.

For example:
- "take your mobile phone out of your pocket and leave it out as much as possible, wipe with alcohol wipe daily."
Standard use of a personal mobile phone is not very likely to give you the wuflu. Because in normal use it is only the owner that handles it so unless you already have the virus, or you let someone else with it touch it, it is not very likely to be contaminated.

- "make sure all bedding including mattresses, gets a full day out in direct sunshine"
Typically random strangers never touch someone else's bedding. So there is little risk (basically nill) from the general public here but only specific risk based on your household circumstances. And in most households only those who are already in regular close contact with each other will touch another's bedding so the chances of getting it from bedding are considerably less than other ways that exist. For example, kissing is way more dangerous.

- "Face masks if worn, must cover the nose! Something you'd think the medical profession would have drummed in from day dot!"
I've never seen a face mask that is designed to only cover the mouth and not the nose. However, most masks people buy (eg. protective masks from bunnings) are actually dust masks. They should not be relied on to stop the virus from being inhaled. However, these masks do reduce droplets (which contain the virus) when you exhale which helps reduce the overall spreading- so the good that they provide is mainly for protecting others not yourself.

*Yes, I know it's not really a flu and that some people may find associating the virus with the place of first detection non PC. But I've been calling it "wuflu" since before the "covid-19" label was invented and couldn't be bothered changing just for technical/political correctness.

Right on Dan, and thanks for the assistance/reminder.
Cheers, Alan B.