Mega-Thread: Coronavirus Pandemic

[Gamevizier]

To be frank, I don't care what Chinese people eat. Just as long as the animal isn't tortured to death beforehand.

*cough* *cough* dog festival *cough* *cough*

[Voidwielder]

Oh my god. Indian scientists have just found HIV (AIDS) virus-like insertions in the 2019-nCov virus that are not found in any other coronavirus. They hint at the possibility that this Chinese virus was designed ["not fortuitous']. Scary if true.

[the game]

[shadowmouse]

@sabe Just a small point from the article you linked:

The doctor added, “TO BE CLEAR: I am absolutely not saying it’s bioengineering, nor am I supporting any conspiracy theories with no evidence. I’m simply saying scientists need to do more research + get more data. And finding the origin of the virus is an important research priority. Goodnight.”

I can't say the source of the article (https://nationalfile.com/about/) gives me any particular confidence, nor does the fact that this "study" hasn't been peer reviewed and seems to be something mainly released on Twitter. That it apparently comes out of India, gives me even less confidence.

[xenogear3]

To be frank, I don't care what Chinese people eat. Just as long as the animal isn't tortured to death beforehand.

Unfortunately, it is common knowledge that the meat from a living animal tastes the best.
The animal are cut while they are alive. Sometimes, they heal the animal, then cut it again.

If you believe in Karma, the people in that market got what they deserve.

[Heran]

Unfortunately, it is common knowledge that the meat from a living animal tastes the best.
The animal are cut while they are alive. Sometimes, they heal the animal, then cut it again.

If you believe in Karma, the people who work on that market got what they deserve.

That's not what karma is.

[breadisfunny]

what does this mean?

it's conspiratorial bullshit.

[shadowmouse]

Unfortunately, it is common knowledge ...that as soon as someone makes their argument in this form they are probably completely pulling something out of their ass.

Fixed that for you: http://fallacies.ca/anon.htm

[Zatheyll]

I don't think that's true. Based on the footage I've seen there was a massive amount of animals laying around with different kinds of carcasses stacked on each other, some of them even laying right on the ground. It looked really bad.

The average wet market is not like that. I've been to plenty of them in China, and every one I've seen is mostly vegetables with a couple normal butcher stalls. The one in Wuhan that's on the news is both illegal and rare. I've never been to Wuhan, so I don't know culture much there, but the wildlife meat markets like that are not easy to come by.

[Graeham]

It's all getting a little surreal and too close to home for my liking. The site where the UK nationals are being put into quarantine is Arrowe Park Hospital. I used to live near there. Friends and family still do. I've an aunt who is a nurse working there. I went there twice - one to get a broken wrist fixed up and again to have an emergency operation to remove my appendix. It was a decade ago now, but the staff were hardworking and very pleasant. From what I'm told, that's still the case today.

The Wirral is also a peninsula. The cynic in me can't help but think it was deliberately chosen because it can easily be cut off from the rest of the country if things go south. I know I'm probably overthinking things, but I'm definitely worried now. I just hope the quarantine works.

[jonnysensible]

OZ seems to have gone full pandemic 'anyone coming from China will be barred entry to oz, except for oz citizens, permanent residents & their direct family + flight crews.'

Obviously if you are a citizen, permanent resident & their direct family + flight crew you must have a natural immunity which is why this move makes complete sense....

[Corvus]

OZ seems to have gone full pandemic 'anyone coming from China will be barred entry to oz, except for oz citizens, permanent residents & their direct family + flight crews.'

Obviously if you are a citizen, permanent resident & their direct family + flight crew you must have a natural immunity which is why this move makes complete sense....

Not quite. The Australian government has set up a quarantine station on Christmas Island and those evacuated out of China are to be sent there for two weeks.

[sabe]

@sabe Just a small point from the article you linked:



I can't say the source of the article (https://nationalfile.com/about/) gives me any particular confidence, nor does the fact that this "study" hasn't been peer reviewed and seems to be something mainly released on Twitter. That it apparently comes out of India, gives me even less confidence.

Yes yes, i like theories. They used AIDS drugs in early days of infection too, not idea how it worked out.

I found something else about how virus works
https://www.businessinsider.com/doct...mpression=true

[Daedius]

I work at Dublin Airport in Ireland, and there is absolutely ZERO precautions taken towards this outbreak. While I don't deal with any Asian flights I can imagine the reluctance of other companies that do with handling their luggage... with their ramp crew not given the basics such as gloves or sanitizer, etc.

And outside that, those that have been to Wuhan have been left to their own word to isolate ("quarantine") themselves.

Should the shit hit the fan this country is so ill equipped to deal with it with the whole over crowding of hospitals fiasco due to incompetent morons running the country, having closed down a number of hospitals.

Fun times ahead.

[Crispin]

Containing this is a lost cause at this point. China should have reacted much faster, and not yolo it with their new year holidays. There’s currently reported 2000 new corona incidents a day.

[shadowmouse]

China should have reacted much faster, and not yolo it with their new year holidays.

Let me see, let's guess what would have happened if it fizzled ... and so far it pretty well has. The same news sources saying that the CCP should have done more, come down harder, would have had a field day with how it proves the CCP is evil. Early on, for example, there were assertions that there was no virus and this was a ploy to quash the HK dissent. No, the main thing fueling this is it plays to perceptions about China, and at a guess China knows damn well that the idea of a corona virus is permanently linked to how they handled SARS.

Raw numbers are being played up for shock, but I say that as a threat it has fizzled because face it, nobody would give a good god damn if it were flu and returning these numbers:

[Quote]Doctors at the University of Alabama say this flu season, kids and young adults are at an increased risk. The Chief Medical Officer and associate Dean for Medical Affairs UA’s College of Community Health Science wants people to take the flu seriously.

“How do you know you have the flu? Well it’s like you got hit by a truck. You have a fever. You ache all over," explained Dr. Thomas Weida. He said this year nearly 5,000 people have died from the flu and it has sent 80,000 people to the hospital.

“This year, influenza B seems to be more dominant and the vaccine may not be quite as effective as others. But it’s about 50% effective,” Dr. Weida continued.[Quote]
Source: https://www.wbrc.com/2020/01/16/doct...ent-effective/

Read between the lines on that. Unlike the Wuhan virus, flu this year may be an increased threat to younger Americans and the vaccine may be less effective. Check against CDC numbers and you will see things are probably worse than the first article reports (it's unclear how "this year" was used):

CDC estimates* that, from October 1, 2019, through January 25, 2020, there have been:
19,000,000 – 26,000,000 flu illnesses
8,600,000 – 12,000,000 flu medical visits
180,000 – 310,000 flu hospitalizations
10,000 – 25,000 flu deaths

*Because influenza surveillance does not capture all cases of flu that occur in the U.S., CDC provides these estimated ranges to better reflect the larger burden of influenza. These estimates are calculated based on CDC’s weekly influenza surveillance data and are preliminary.

This web page provides weekly, preliminary estimates of the cumulative in-season numbers of flu illnesses, medical visits, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States. CDC does not know the exact number of people who have been sick and affected by influenza because influenza is not a reportable disease in most areas of the U.S. However, CDC has estimated the burden of flu since 2010 using a mathematical model that is based on data collected through the U.S. Influenza Surveillance System, a network that covers approximately 8.5% of the U.S. population (~27 million people).

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden...-estimates.htm

This stuff isn't even actually reported, this is a guess based on roughly 8.5% of the US population, and there are already 10-25k dead. Now look at the news and play a game, what do you think would be happening if media reported on flu in the US the way they've been handling the Wuhan virus?

Do you think Australia would be shipping Americans off to Christmas Island? I'm kinda betting ... nope. Is anyone going to ask why the US yolo'd it on Thanksgiving and Christmas with possibly tens of thousands dead? I'm gonna bet nope on that one too.

This virus sucks, and thank you very much I'd really rather have neither this, nor the flu, and in particular not this on top of the regular flu season. Still, I find much of the panic annoyingly overblown (I'd like to think it isn't just impeachment burnout). I just read a report on doctors from the Middle East going to help where it was described as a suicide mission (painfully poor choice of words). Nice of them, and I think it is an important opportunity since MERS is much more fatal and extra experience might help with future threats, but a couple hundred deaths out of 1.4 billion seems pretty trivial when the US CBA to know if there are 10K or maybe 25K dead.

[xenogear3]

I work at Dublin Airport in Ireland, and there is absolutely ZERO precautions taken towards this outbreak. While I don't deal with any Asian flights I can imagine the reluctance of other companies that do with handling their luggage...

The virus cannot survive without a host.
It dies in the air after a few minutes.
This is why China is still allowed to ship products.

[Heran]

Six more tourists in Phuket are under observation on suspicion of being infected with the Wuhan coronavirus, local officials have announced.

So far no people in Phuket have been confirmed as infected with the virus, Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol, Director of Vachira of Phuket Hospital, stressed at the mandatory “daily update” on the current situation regarding the virus in Phuket yesterday (Jan 31).

“They are only suspected of being infected, and are under observation only,” Dr Chalermpong said.

The six new cases brought to 29 the total number of people in Phuket held for observation since officials started scanning new arrivals for elevated body temperatures on Jan 5, he added.

Of those, 19 have been already discharged from hospitals, he said, adding that the remaining 10 are in hospital care, as follows: eight at Vachira Phuket Hospital, one at Patong Hospital and one at Thalang Hospital.

Officials are screening all people arriving on inbound direct flights from the risk areas designated by the Ministry of Public Health, namely Mainland China but not Macau and Hong Kong, Dr Chalermpong explained.

A total of 1,336 new arrivals from mainland China landing at Phuket International Airport on 43 flights were scanned on Thursday (Jan 30), he said.
MACNELS SHIPPING PHUKET

Meanwhile, while not screening all international arrivals, officials are screening all people leaving the island, Dr Chalermpong said

Officials on Thursday scanned 20,048 tourists departing the island on 107 international flights, and 10,113 people departing on 62 domestic flights, he noted.

One of the new six being held for observation was identified while boarding a flight departing Phuket on Thursday, Phuket Vice Governor Supoj Rotreuang Na Nongkhai confirmed at the meeting.

The scanning of tourists arriving in Phuket on cruise liners is continuing, Vice Governor Supoj said, with officers from the Phuket Provincial Health Office screening some 3,800 tourists coming ashore at Patong Beach.

So far no cruise liner tourist arrivals are suspected to be infected, he added.

https://www.thephuketnews.com/six-mo...uket-74636.php

- - - Updated - - -

The virus cannot survive without a host.
It dies in the air after a few minutes.
This is why China is still allowed to ship products.

We don't know if it dies after a few minutes in the air, stop spreading misinformation.

[Zatheyll]

We don't know if it dies after a few minutes in the air, stop spreading misinformation.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...virus-answered

There's no evidence at the moment to suggest that goods imported from China could transmit the virus, according to the CDC. The virus wouldn't make it through the trip from China to the United States on packing materials, says Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Mailman School of Public Health.

And the same goes for an object you might get in the mail, he adds. "Whether it's a phone or a piece of furniture, it's not going to survive."

The Wuhan virus, like others in the coronavirus family, "doesn't live for very long on surfaces," he says.

- - - Updated - - -

Containing this is a lost cause at this point. China should have reacted much faster, and not yolo it with their new year holidays. There’s currently reported 2000 new corona incidents a day.

China is the only country on Earth that can lockdown this many people and do it as efficiently as they have. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your viewpoint, but you can be damn sure no country would ever do a lockdown like this, which has never been seen in history.

There are faults with how local authorities in Wuhan tried to hide it early on, but the response since then has been more than any other country would be capable of doing. China sacrifices many personal freedoms to have the logistical and social grasp that it does, letting it build hospitals as fast as it currently is, shut down entire metropolises, and order everyone in the country to wear face masks.

Feel free to say China could have done better, but try and think of how you or the people around you would react if tomorrow your country blocked you from leaving your town or city, shut down all roads and fining or arresting you if you drove your car, and forced you to wear a mask going out anywhere. I doubt you would be all that happy personally, even if it is for the "greater good".

[derpkitteh]

China is the only country on Earth that can lockdown this many people and do it as efficiently as they have. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your viewpoint, but you can be damn sure no country would ever do a lockdown like this, which has never been seen in history.

There are faults with how local authorities in Wuhan tried to hide it early on, but the response since then has been more than any other country would be capable of doing. China sacrifices many personal freedoms to have the logistical and social grasp that it does, letting it build hospitals as fast as it currently is, shut down entire metropolises, and order everyone in the country to wear face masks.

Feel free to say China could have done better, but try and think of how you or the people around you would react if tomorrow your country blocked you from leaving your town or city, shut down all roads and fining or arresting you if you drove your car, and forced you to wear a mask going out anywhere. I doubt you would be all that happy personally, even if it is for the "greater good".

this is one thing i respect about china. being able to take the hardline stance on things and do something kinda bad for the greater good.

this also shows the stupidity of the average person, people complaining about being quarantined and trying to break quarantine. also showed there's some capability of rebellion still left in the chinese people, because there have been clashes at the entrances to towns, people trying to stop police from escorting sick people into their towns.