Mega-Thread: Coronavirus Pandemic

[DarkAmbient]

complacency is what leads to disaster.

4 deaths outside China in 2 months - all of them Chinese people who'd traveled abroad. I'm not overly concerned at this point.

[Eviscero]

NA/ Europe is not that much different from Asia when it comes to farming meat for a food source. There might be some slight differences but it's equally as fucked up as the next,

People like to bash on eating dogs/cats but if the animal is not a pet for someone then I personally do not see the difference between eating a dog and eating a chicken. A farm animal is a farm animal and a pet is a pet. A dog with no owner is worth as a much as a farm chicken or a pig.

How about it doesn't taste good? I can only assume as I would never eat a dog because I'm not a monster.

[Muajin76]

@Muajin76 Thanks for that link! Are small community grocery stores in your area open, or just ones in malls? I prefer the old style, family run fruit and vegetable place, but it is further away and I'd rather not waste a hike.

As for the article you linked, can't say I have a good feeling about this:


Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/74034608.cms

Since I hope that we can all be a bit more careful to provide clear links and discussion, let me expand on that a bit. When the virus was first spotted in India, I mentioned that was one of my nightmare scenarios. This gives us some numbers on the conditions India might face in responding to an outbreak. There are 3,099 people on "home quarantine" meaning we have no idea if they are interacting with family members for example. Including the 45 in the hospital, only 330 have been tested and 288 are reported negative. Why are the other tests still pending? Testing was one of the bottlenecks in China. Are these tests that might have been positive that need to be reviewed? If so, that opens the door to a huge jump in cases there.

You're welcome for the links btw. Small grocery stores were closed a few days until last week. They closed earlier too, now their open/close times seem to be as normal. Vegetable prices have gone up a tad though, it's not much of a surprise as i heard about this on chinese media. It's right outside my apt, so the convenience is awesome.

As for India, it seems like it could turn very bad fast. Given that India has a more densely populated area than China, they're looking at a quickly growing pandemic.

[Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang]

1 death reported in France, but was an 80 year old tourist from Wuhan.

[shadowmouse]

Given that India has a more densely populated area than China, they're looking at a quickly growing pandemic.

More bluntly, India has a problem with human waste. To their credit, it is one that Modi has tried to address, but with limited success: https://www.businessinsider.in/scien...w/71401651.cms

Yet, one in every four people still prefer to defecate in public , revealed research.

A large proportion of people still choose to defecate in open

The increase in the number of toilets could not alter the age-old practice

As many as 40-50% of the rural people in four states -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar -- continue to defecate in public.

According to that article, 23% of people who own toilets still prefer defecate outdoors. For some reason this reminds me of bears and the Pope.

The complication is that the Wuhan virus may spread by feces: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regi...TLNOiYTVGJbRk0

WUHAN: The new strain of coronavirus in China may be spreading from person to person via the digestive system, Xinhua reported on Sunday (Feb 2), citing medical experts.

Experts from the Renminbi Hospital of Wuhan University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Science reported their findings after studying patient stool samples and rectal swabs, the news agency said.

Xinhua reported that many coronavirus patients suffered only from diarrhoea instead of from classic viral symptoms like fever.

Diarrhoea symptoms may make fecal-oral transmission of the virus more likely, especially if there is inadequate hand-washing or sanitary facilities.

Public squat latrines are common in parts of China.

Note that last line as potentially significant because squat toilets have no lid. Putting the lid down to flush is recommended to avoid "toilet plume" That might explain why certain environments seem to show a much higher transmittal rate.

[breadisfunny]

egypt has its first confirmed case:
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/ar...n-is-foreigner

[Poe]

How about it doesn't taste good? I can only assume as I would never eat a dog because I'm not a monster.

I've never eaten dog or cat before but I've eaten horse and honestly it tastes decent but I'm sure it all depends on how it was prepared.

I think it's pretty silly and hypocritical to be okay with eating chickens but call people who eat dogs a "monster". If the animal is not someone else's pet or possession and it is not endangered then it should be completely acceptable to be killed and eaten.

[Katie N]

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/18...er-coronavirus

Villages in Vietnam with 10,000 people close to the nation's capital were placed under quarantine on Thursday after six cases of the deadly new coronavirus were discovered there, authorities said.

The locking down of the commune of Son Loi, about 40 kilometres from Hanoi, is the first mass quarantine outside of China since the virus emerged from a central Chinese city late last year.

I hope it gets stopped before any further spread. Should have been massive actions earlier against it.

[sabe]

There is an article about kidney and testis damage. Cover your balls!

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....12.20022418v1

But hey, its just flu.

[Muajin76]

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/18...er-coronavirus



I hope it gets stopped before any further spread. Should have been massive actions earlier against it.

Vietnam was also in hot water recently for selling face masks made of TP. :P

- - - Updated - - -

Now my roomie is even spraying disinfectant on her paper money. hehe

[Val the Moofia Boss]

There is an article about kidney and testis damage. Cover your balls!

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....12.20022418v1

Good Lord I hope that the damage isn't permanent!

[Aurrora]

There is an article about kidney and testis damage. Cover your balls!

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....12.20022418v1

But hey, its just flu.

Conspiracy theory that it’s bioengineered population control intensifies.

[Eviscero]

I've never eaten dog or cat before but I've eaten horse and honestly it tastes decent but I'm sure it all depends on how it was prepared.

I think it's pretty silly and hypocritical to be okay with eating chickens but call people who eat dogs a "monster". If the animal is not someone else's pet or possession and it is not endangered then it should be completely acceptable to be killed and eaten.

Horses and dogs have a very different set of behavior, abilities, and which make them capable of forming bonds with humans. Chickens do not. Don't be so obtuse as to equate all animals. Obviously if someone wants a chicken as a pet it would be horrific to eat that particular chicken.

[Poe]

Horses and dogs have a very different set of behavior, abilities, and which make them capable of forming bonds with humans. Chickens do not. Don't be so obtuse as to equate all animals. Obviously if someone wants a chicken as a pet it would be horrific to eat that particular chicken.

I don't know anything about chickens but it was just an example, there are many farm animals that are capable of forming close bonds with humans. For example, a cow. Which brings me back to my point that it is hypocritical to look down on eating dogs.

And if the animal isn't a pet then it's kind of irrelevant what kind of bond they are capable of otherwise people would have more of an issue eating beef (and maybe even pork?).

[Belize]

Horses and dogs have a very different set of behavior, abilities, and which make them capable of forming bonds with humans. Chickens do not. Don't be so obtuse as to equate all animals. Obviously if someone wants a chicken as a pet it would be horrific to eat that particular chicken.

Now hold up, chickens can absolutely form a bond with humans, especially if raised from a chick by said human.

[Eviscero]

Now hold up, chickens can absolutely form a bond with humans, especially if raised from a chick by said human.

Yea, you're probably right. I suppose it's mostly just about what you're rasied to think is normal. How did we get on eating dogs anyhow? This virus is likely the result of very poor food safety standards. Thank you China for yet another entirely preventable outbreak.

[shadowmouse]

Now my roomie is even spraying disinfectant on her paper money. hehe

Why on earth is she handling paper money? Get Alipay or at least set WeChat up for payments! Handling paper money is like French kissing random people on the subway in terms of hygiene, seriously. Xiao Chen, busily digging in their nose and examining his/her finds for three subway stops is one of many who may have recently handled it.

Hopefully phone payments will catch on outside of Asia soon. Cash in circulation costs the government money to produce and retire, and the phone apps probably don't have any more downsides for privacy or security than credit/debit cards.

But hey, its just flu.

No, it isn't, but on my list of "bad things" I am much more likely to be exposed to flu -- which is more widespread and has already dinged way more fatalities this year. For extra fun, flu is known to be able to cause liver damage, so it isn't just fever and aches: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4941665/ That's just one of the possible kinds of organ damage flu can cause.

While the Wuhan coronavirus has drawn international attention in recent weeks, Poland encouraged people not to forget about the threat of influenza.

"Nobody worries about influenza, but my guess is far more people will die from influenza this year than from any coronavirus," Poland said. "If this were pandemic influenza but we called it something exotic like 'novel coronavirus,' people would be out of their minds. Yet people don’t give it a second thought. We can’t even get them get flu vaccines."

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...us/4563385002/

Nor is it Ebola, which is much nastier and there is still a significant outbreak that nobody cares about because hey, Africa: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...tbreak-in-2020

Part of China sending in military medics to respond to the Wuhan virus was that they were bringing in people with experience fighting Ebola. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/73606554.cms

[swiftowner]

Hopefully phone payments will catch on outside of Asia soon. Cash in circulation costs the government money to produce and retire, and the phone apps probably don't have any more downsides for privacy or security than credit/debit cards.

^This 100%. I’m amazed at how well integrated WeChat is for paying for things. One of the previous times I went to China, I had to leave a week early for work. My wife forgot to give me money, as she’d been holding onto all the cash. Me being me, a foreigner to China, I didn’t know how good WeChat is, so I didn’t have it installed. My wife called to talk to me before boarding my flight to leave, and tells me to buy some drinks. I’m like, I don’t have any money for the vending machines... she had me send her a picture of the machine’s barcode, and moments later out comes a drink.

Mind blown. It would be great if everything was that well integrated together.

[Tabrotar]

Why on earth is she handling paper money? Get Alipay or at least set WeChat up for payments! Handling paper money is like French kissing random people on the subway in terms of hygiene, seriously. Xiao Chen, busily digging in their nose and examining his/her finds for three subway stops is one of many who may have recently handled it.

Hopefully phone payments will catch on outside of Asia soon. Cash in circulation costs the government money to produce and retire, and the phone apps probably don't have any more downsides for privacy or security than credit/debit cards.



No, it isn't, but on my list of "bad things" I am much more likely to be exposed to flu -- which is more widespread and has already dinged way more fatalities this year. For extra fun, flu is known to be able to cause liver damage, so it isn't just fever and aches: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4941665/ That's just one of the possible kinds of organ damage flu can cause.


Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...us/4563385002/

Nor is it Ebola, which is much nastier and there is still a significant outbreak that nobody cares about because hey, Africa: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...tbreak-in-2020

Part of China sending in military medics to respond to the Wuhan virus was that they were bringing in people with experience fighting Ebola. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/73606554.cms

Will never be a thingin Germany bcs we value our freedom and don´t like to be at the mery of computers aka being able to have/get money and don´t be/can be forced to spend money when we don´t like it. Oh and also a nice side effect, we can get our money from the bankomats and just put it somewhere else if the banks deicde to have negative interests on parked money.

[sabe]

Seeing people getting beaten, tied and some of them behaved like animals by government officers are disgusting.
Whatever the reason.
Can't imagine someone try the same in my country. Probably such behavior would start a civil war here.

And now there is a locust thing in Africa and India. They say it will be problem if the locust doesn't return back to desert until April, there may be a food crisis. It is also said there is a small chance it may advance to China.
We will see.