While the frenzied hysteria around the coronavirus might be overdone (there’s only 5 cases in Australia, and none of them fatal), experts at the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering created a live map of infectious cases for you to obsessively check.
The map is regularly updated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and a bunch of other international health bodies.
The wacky thing about the real-time interactive map though is how much it reminds us of playing Plague Inc. Both maps include a count of infectious and fatal cases, and the number of cases per country. It’s pretty creepy to see it IRL.
The Plague Inc creators actually released a statement reminding people that their game is just a game, because after the virus outbreak the app had a huge surge in popularity. Um, what?
Don’t worry, our sense of humour isn’t that sick – people are just trying to understand how viruses spread and so are looking at how it works in the game, thinking the game is more scientific than it actually is.
The company behind Plague Inc. — a video game that teaches players about how diseases spread — is warning people to seek information on coronavirus from official sources, rather than the game https://t.co/UN1dnR8NRJ
— CNN (@CNN) January 27, 2020
In the case of coronavirus, it’s only spread through contact (like touching) or airborne pathogens (like if someone sneezed on you) and it’s a lot like the flu, so you’re not going to get infected unless you’re actually in contact with someone who has it or is around it. The virus leads to pneumonia, and is more of a bridge between that and flu-like symptoms.
Unless you’ve been around people who have recently visited infected areas, there’s no need to panic. I mean, more people die of influenza a year in America than coronavirus has even infected worldwide, and atleast 50 people have recovered safely and been discharged from hospitals in China – so just wash ya damn hands and be safe.
Image Sources: Twitter, Wuhan Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Global Cases, Ndemic Creations, Miniclip, Plague Inc.
