A place to discuss the now-global coronavirus outbreak.
What Pred said.
EDIT: My original post was way, way too glib, so I apologize. Everything doesn't deserve to be soaked in 2020 ironic detachment and sh*tposting.
'Hero who told the truth': Chinese rage over coronavirus death of whistleblower doctor
The death of a whistleblowing Chinese doctor who was punished for trying to raise the alarm about coronavirus has sparked an explosion of anger, grief and demands for freedom of speech among ordinary Chinese.Li Wenliang, 34, died in the early hours of Friday local time after he was infected during the fight against the outbreak, said Wuhan central hospital, where he worked, in a statement.
Li warned colleagues on social media in late December about a mysterious virus that would become the coronavirus epidemic and was detained by police in Wuhan on 3 January for “spreading false rumours”. He was forced to sign a police document to admit he had breached the law and had “seriously disrupted social order.”
“They owe you an apology, we owe you our gratitude. Take care, Dr Li,” said a Weibo post from Xiakedao, an account under the overseas edition of Communist Party People’s Daily.
“Good people don’t live long, but evil lives for a thousand years,” said another post mourning Li’s death, with a candle emoji. An image also posted on Weibo showed a message, “farewell Li Wenliang”, carved into the snow on a riverbank in Beijing.
His death crystallised the outrage and frustration felt across China over the initial cover-up of the deadly virus. On Friday, China’s social media was awash with posts expressing immense anger and grief.
Li’s death became the top-read topic on China’s microblogging site Weibo overnight on Friday, with more than 1.5bn views, and was also heavily discussed in private WeChat messaging groups, where people expressed outrage and sadness.
Even blog posts from state media outlets mourned his death and issued veiled attacks on the Wuhan authorities who censured him.
In Li’s last blog post on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog, on 1 February, Li poignantly wrote: “The test results come out positive today. Everything is settled. It is confirmed.”
The strong public reaction to Li’s death appeared to have drawn the top leadership’s attention. The central commission for discipline inspection, the Communist party’s powerful internal anti-corruption body, and the national supervisory commission, the country’s highest anti-corruption agency, issued a one-sentence statement on their joint website that investigators will be sent to Wuhan to carry out “a comprehensive investigation into the problems reported by the public concerning Doctor Li Wenliang”.
Li was one of eight people who were detained for “spreading rumours” about the deadly disease’s outbreak – the fates of the other seven, also believed to be medical professionals, are not known.
My friend was asking me if the outrage over Coronavirus might turn into something larger in China. I say perhaps, but that the larger likelihood is that the local authorities will get scapegoated, but the larger structure that enabled a situation like this to happen will remain.
Wuhan facing 'wartime conditions' as China tries to contain coronavirus
Increasingly desperate officials in the quarantined centre of the coronavirus outbreak have tightened controls on an already frightened population, likening the growing crisis to “wartime conditions”.Authorities in Wuhan city have started going door to door checking temperatures, rounding up suspected coronavirus patients for forcible quarantine in stadiums and exhibition centres that are serving as warehouses for the sick, the New York Times reported.
The city and country face “wartime conditions”, the paper quoted vice-premier, Sun Chunlun, who has been put in charge of the national campaign against the virus, saying on a visit to Wuhan: “There must be no deserters, or they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever.”
More than 31,000 people have now been infected around the world, the vast majority inside China and two thirds of them in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province. There have been 638 deaths, all but two of them in China.
Chinese scientists claimed they may have found the animal source of the outbreak, based on genetic analysis, though their results have yet to be published. The coronavirus is thought to have originated in bats but passed through an intermediate host before infecting humans. The researchers identified a coronavirus in pangolins which is 99% similar to the one causing the current outbreak.
The only scaly mammal, pangolins are endangered, but the long-snouted, ant-eating animals are often hunted for meat or use in Chinese medicine.
The World Health Organization on Friday hailed a fall in the number of new infections, for a second consecutive day, which could signal some progress in containing the outbreak.
But Sun’s dramatic visit to Wuhan, stepping up efforts on the ground there, and promises of more help from Beijing, suggest that party officials in China fear the epidemic is still not under control.
Pangolins are adorable and already endangered and if anything bad happens to them because of all of this.....
Huge jump in coronavirus cases and deaths in China
Doctors in China have adopted a new way of diagnosing the novel coronavirus, leading to a huge jump in both the official number of deaths blamed on the disease and the tally of confirmed cases in the country at the heart of the outbreak. Officials in Hubei province, the Chinese region where the virus is believed to have jumped into the human population from wild animals, reported 254 new deaths and 15,152 new cases of the flu-like virus.
The increase brought the worldwide death toll to at least 1,359 and the number of confirmed cases to more than 60,000. Only about 400 of those patients, and just two of the confirmed fatalities, have been outside of mainland China.
The sharp increase came after two days of reported declines in the number of confirmed new cases in China. It was the result of Chinese doctors starting to use lung imaging to diagnose the disease, in addition to the standard nucleic acid tests they had been using.
I saw a tweet in my timeline sometime last week where a doctor was marveling about how the number of new cases reported each day was remarkably consistent and wondered if they were consistent because of a limitation in the tools/process they were using to diagnose new cases. Guess they were right.
WHO says fake coronavirus claims causing 'infodemic'
Maximum Zuckerberg Voice: bUt We DoN't WaNt To Be ThE aRbItRaToRs Of.....
(I actually think they have a point when they make that argument, but I am also profoundly skeptical about hearing it coming from a company that both encourages and profits off the spread of misinformation.)
The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging tech companies to take tougher action to battle fake news on the coronavirus.The push comes as a representative from the WHO travelled to Silicon Valley to speak directly to tech firms about the spread of false information.
The WHO has labelled the spread of fake news on the outbreak an "infodemic".
Over 1,000 people have died as a result of the outbreak, which began in central China but has spread globally.
Andrew Pattison, digital business solutions manager, for the WHO said false information was "spreading faster than the virus".
Bogus claims that the virus was spread by eating bat soup or could be cured by garlic have already swept the web.
Sinophobia: How a virus reveals the many ways China is feared
Speaking as someone who works in news in New York City, much like Ebola, the level of freakout over Coronavirus vs. the reality is.... disappointing.
I don’t get the extreme opinions either way. I’m cautiously following the news, ready to take precautions if need be. No need to freak out but not something I’m prepared to ignore. I do find the rate of spread aboard the cruise ship in Yokohama alarming. I wanted to try to convince my parents to skip the cruise they are currently on but I knew they would go ahead regardless.
As someone who works in kindergartens and day care I also follow reports on other contagious diseases such as flu, norovirus etc. and try to protect myself best as I can.
It might have been a pre-existing policy but my office just sent out a notice that anyone who travels to Asia or takes a cruise is required to work at home for two weeks before returning to the office. They also doubled down on "if you feel sick, STAY HOME". It feels more like "abundance of caution" than "really worried" but it is unusual.
I do like that WHO named the virus disease COVID-19 specifically so it "did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people".
edited: corrected the name of the disease, thanks to deftly
I do like that WHO named the virus COVID-19 specifically so it "did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people".
The disease is COVID-19, the virus is SARS-CoV-2, but it seems common that one name ends up getting used for both. It's similar, for example, to the distinction between AIDS and HIV.
Yeah, I am sure we don't want to insult the Chinese but I also believe that most scientific names for diseases are not named for the region they were first discovered in.
You're a disease and I'm the cure. I'll cure with my kisses.
A 70-year-old man in China's Hubei Province was infected with coronavirus but did not show symptoms until 27 days later, the local government said on Saturday, meaning the virus' incubation period could be much longer than the presumed 14 days.
Meanwhile, South Korea said on Saturday that the number of new coronavirus cases in the country had doubled to 433.Of the new cases, most have been linked to outbreaks at a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu and a hospital in Cheongdo county.
In particular, more than half of the national cases are linked to a 61-year-old woman known as "Patient 31" who attended religious services at that branch, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony.
The woman had no recent record of overseas travel, authorities said.
Officials suggested that the tally could rise significantly as of 9,300 people who had attended church services, around 1,200 had complained of flu-like symptoms.
Related:
New coronavirus cases fall in China but fears grow over global spread
But new, albeit isolated findings about the coronavirus could complicate efforts to thwart it, including the Hubei government’s announcement on Saturday that an elderly man took 27 days to show symptoms after infection, almost twice the presumed 14-day incubation period.That follows Chinese scientists reporting that a woman from Wuhan had traveled 400 miles (675 km) and infected five relatives without showing signs of infection.
State television showed the arrival in Wuhan of the “blue whale” on Saturday, the first of seven river cruise ships it is bringing in to house medical workers, tens of thousands of which have been sent to Hubei to contain the virus.
Not sure how that last part is going to work out...
This is more local for me:
Schoolteacher tests positive
A teacher at a public junior high school in Chiba Prefecture has tested positive for the virus. The woman who is in her 60s had complained of feeling nauseous.The mayor of Chiba city says the school will stay closed until next Wednesday. The teacher had not recently been overseas.
Elsewhere in Japan, prefectures that have reported cases include Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi, Ishikawa and Kumamoto. On Saturday, Hokkaido Prefecture said the number of infections there had risen to 16.
Authorities say including cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship the total number of infections now stands over 750.
If I was a parent of a student at that school I would consider keeping my kid home for a bit longer to see how it shakes out. Wednesday is just 5 days away.
Sounds like it is spreading quite fast in Italy now. Supposedly the first carrier also only got sick after 14 days had passed.
The Trump administration, over the recommendations of the American Center for Disease Control, flew 14 patients infected with the virus home from Japan on the same flight as more than 300 uninfected passengers. The uninfected passengers didn't know about this until after the plane had arrived.
I believe all the passengers are being held on military bases at this time.
Untraceable coronavirus clusters emerge outside Asia, worrying health officials
In South Korea, Singapore and Iran, clusters of infections are leading to a jump in cases of the new viral illness outside China. But it’s not the numbers that are worrying experts: It's that increasingly they can't trace where the clusters started.
(edit)
Untraceable coronavirus clusters emerge outside Asia, worrying health officials
In South Korea, Singapore and Iran, clusters of infections are leading to a jump in cases of the new viral illness outside China. But it’s not the numbers that are worrying experts: It's that increasingly they can't trace where the clusters started.
It's looking likely that my company will cancel our May conference in Barcelona. It's already well behind last years pace for registrations and we're 100% sure its Coronavirus fears. Nobody really wants to be in a hotel surrounded by mostly strangers from all over the world.. especially if its looking like the incubation time is all over the map.
I was watching some news show and they said the trump administration sent multiple people with the virus on a plane with hundreds of other people that didn't know they were flying with carriers. I believe the plane was going to Japan. They did this against the advice of the CDC.
Kind of reminds me of something that happen in The Stand. Once the virus broke out and couldn't be contained people with the virus were purposely sent to other countries that weren't hit yet. Not the same here since Japan already had cases.
I was watching some news show and they said the trump administration sent multiple people with the virus on a plane with hundreds of other people that didn't know they were flying with carriers. I believe the plane was going to Japan. They did this against the advice of the CDC.
Kind of reminds me of something that happen in The Stand. Once the virus broke out and couldn't be contained people with the virus were purposely sent to other countries that weren't hit yet. Not the same here since Japan already had cases.
The plane was going to the US, from Japan. Germophobe Trump was supposedly out of the loop on the decision and pretty upset when he did find out (though I wouldn’t be too surprised if that was a ‘fake’ leak trying to displace responsibility)
How much of an excuse can you make when you've been so proactive in eliminating competent people from your administration.
Guys, let's be clear. Containment at this point is not a realistic factor. The infection is, and will continue to be, global. The question now becomes one of severity. Coronaviruses are one of the common-cold viruses, so it's not like we haven't been exposed to this kind of virus fairly frequently. The question is really one of symptom severity, which at this point seems to point mostly to a danger to elderly people or those with significant comorbidities. We'll find out in the next 2-3 weeks whether all of the fear was justified or overblown.
That's true but by allowing health services to be less overwhelmed you can increase the survivability of those who do contract it.
We'll find out in the next 2-3 weeks whether all of the fear was justified or overblown.
Or option C :p.
Iran's coronavirus death toll reaches 12, raising fears of new stage in global spread
Authorities say 12 people have died in Iran from coronavirus, but local media reports have quoted a local official saying as many as 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom.A parliamentarian representing Qom, Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, said on Monday 50 people had died in the city in the past two weeks from coronavirus, noting the Government was late in announcing the outbreak and that the city did not have adequate equipment to deal with the health crisis, Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency reported.
He said the 50 deaths date as far back as February 13. Iran, however, first officially reported cases of the virus and its first deaths on February 19.
Kuwait announced on Monday its first cases of the virus, saying three travellers returning from the north-eastern city of Mashhad, Iran were confirmed as infected.
Afghanistan reported its first case on Monday, in the western border province of Herat, again involving someone who had recently been in Iran, officials said.
The company for which I work is HQed in New York City, which has around 100 staff. We're issuing laptops (encrypted, VPN, etc.) to anyone who can conceivably work from home in anticipation of the transit system possibly being shut down.
You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus
The Harvard epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch is exacting in his diction, even for an epidemiologist. Twice in our conversation he started to say something, then paused and said, “Actually, let me start again.” So it’s striking when one of the points he wanted to get exactly right was this: “I think the likely outcome is that it will ultimately not be containable.”Containment is the first step in responding to any outbreak. In the case of COVID-19, the possibility (however implausible) of preventing a pandemic seemed to play out in a matter of days. Starting in January, China began cordoning off progressively larger areas, radiating outward from Wuhan City and eventually encapsulating some 100 million people. People were barred from leaving home, and lectured by drones if they were caught outside. Nonetheless, the virus has now been found in 24 countries.
Despite the apparent ineffectiveness of such measures—relative to their inordinate social and economic cost, at least—the crackdown continues to escalate. Under political pressure to “stop” the virus, last Thursday the Chinese government announced that officials in the Hubei province would be going door to door, testing people for fevers and looking for signs of illness, then sending all potential cases to quarantine camps. But even with the ideal containment, the virus’s spread may have been inevitable. Testing people who are already extremely sick is an imperfect strategy if people can spread the virus without even feeling bad enough to stay home from work.
Lipsitch predicts that, within the coming year, some 40 to 70 percent of people around the world will be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. But, he clarifies emphatically, this does not mean that all will have severe illnesses.
Pages