Coronavirus Updates

[Essence Lumin]

Someone mentioned this before but it bears repeating. All health care was required to be non profit into the '70s. Then Nixon changed that.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Letter in The Lancet from two nurses in Wuhan

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30065-6/fulltext

 

[Pamela]

Letter in The Lancet from two nurses in Wuhan

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30065-6/fulltext

That is heartbreaking and horrifying.

 

[Free]

 

[Beebo Brink]

Apparently the Trump announcement of putting Pence in charge was a complete surprise to Azar. He was blind-sided at the press briefing.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Apparently the Trump announcement of putting Pence in charge was a complete surprise to Azar. He was blind-sided at the press briefing.

 

[Arilynn]

From Moody Analytics: Coronavirus: The Mounting Global Threat

The coronavirus is a serious mounting threat to the fragile Chinese and global economies. It is hard to handicap how broadly the virus will ultimately spread and how virulent it will be, but it has already become highly disruptive to China and increasingly to the rest of Asia. The U.S. will not be immune to its ill effects.

Using our model of the global economy, we estimate that, in the most likely scenario for the spread of the virus, the disruption caused by the coronavirus will cut more than 2 percentage points from Chinese real GDP growth at an annualized rate in the first quarter of this year and 0.8 percentage point from growth for all of 2020 (although this may not show up in official GDP statistics from China). U.S. real GDP growth will be reduced by 0.45 percentage point at an an- nualized rate in the first quarter and 0.15 per- centage point for the year. Of course, there are many other scenarios, each one seeming darker than the last..
...
Before the pandemic, we were expecting the global economy to expand this year near its potential growth rate of 2.8%. But it is now expected to grow by 2.5%. This is below the economy’s potential and means that unemployment will begin to rise later in the year. Recession risks, which had receded after the truce in the U.S.-China trade war late last year, could become uncomfortably high again.
...
Conclusion

The 2019-nCoV pandemic has suddenly become a serious threat to the Chinese, global and U.S. economies. How serious is difficult to gauge given large unknowns as to how widespread and virulent the virus will be. However, there are no good scenarios, particularly given the fragility of the global economy even before the virus was on the scene, and the already-long list of significant geopolitical threats. We will continue to up- date our economic assessment of the virus as its trajectory takes shape.

 

[Arilynn]

From the Washington Post: US Sees First Sign Disease may be Spreading Here

A person in Northern California has contracted the coronavirus without traveling to regions hit by the outbreak or coming in contact with anyone known to have the infection, the first sign that the disease may be spreading within a U.S. community, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday night.


How the person acquired the respiratory disease is unknown.


“It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of covid-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States,” the CDC said in a statement. The health agency left open the possibility “that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.”
...

 

[eku zhong]

Woman treated for coronavirus again tests positive | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
Officials of Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, say a woman in her 40s, who had been treated for symptoms of the new coronavirus and left hospital early this month, has again tested positive.

14% of virus patients discharged in China's Guangdong re-test positive
Fourteen percent of patients infected with the new coronavirus and discharged from the hospital in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong after recovering have tested positive again, according to local health authorities.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Even with a technically lower mortality rate than other outbreak viruses like SARS, coronavirus is yet deadlier because it has infected vastly greater numbers of people.

 

[eku zhong]

All schools in Japan ordered closed until April over virus outbreak | The Japan Times

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday asked all elementary, junior high and high schools nationwide to close from Monday until the end of their spring vacations, which typically end in early April.

 

[Beebo Brink]

We’re All on This Sick Planet Together

The racist, right-wing isolationism favored by the Trump administration is as bad an answer to the coronavirus as it is to the climate crisis.

newrepublic.com

 

[OrinB]

They mentioned about the "still infected" status of some of the patients on the radio today. That's really concerning that the virus can either hide or revive itself once the symptoms have gone. Still so much to learn form this. But do we learn well in these states of panic? It seems so many conclusions are too easy to draw. I know my logic can be a little flawed sometimes, so i really do rely on the scientists to help explain these things rather than making my own conclusions. We require info and the media seem way too willing to fast feed everything.

There are a few companies in the UK that have shut down for an extended period due to staff being ill and having been in contact with others and having travelled through some of the hotspots.
Second London office sends staff home over coronavirus fears

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

As I understand it [and I probably don't] the common cold is a type of corona virus too. if its at all like a cold, a vaccine won't do much, because you don't develop an immunity to it.

Which is especially frightening.

 

[Rose Karuna]

This is exactly what I said to my husband as I watched Trumps address the nation on the news. "OMG, it's a f***ing clown car and these clowns are going to kill us all".

 

[Eunoli]

Everyone should be preparing with not just food, but trying to make sure you can afford bills (I know that for a lot of us this is almost impossible) when the economy tanks from this.

 

[Caete]

Let us not forget the 1918 pandemic that actually ran from 1918-1920. During those years, 500 million people were infected which was 27% of the world population at the time. It managed to wipe out villages in the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. The death toll is believed to be about 10%, 50 million but some estimates run as high as 100 million.

To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States but were free to report on Spain's epidemic as they were neutral at the time. This gave the false impression that Spain was especially hit hard gave the virus the nickname the Spanish Flu.

One thing governments do is try and maintain order and limit the chaos by controlling the information about drastic events such as this. How the Horrific 1918 Flu Spread Across America

I recall participating in a pandemic “war game” in Los Angeles involving area public health officials. Before the exercise began, I gave a talk about what happened in 1918, how society broke down, and emphasized that to retain the public’s trust, authorities had to be candid. “You don’t manage the truth,” I said. “You tell the truth.” Everyone shook their heads in agreement.

Next, the people running the game revealed the day’s challenge to the participants: A severe pandemic influenza virus was spreading around the world. It had not officially reached California, but a suspected case—the severity of the symptoms made it seem so—had just surfaced in Los Angeles. The news media had learned of it and were demanding a press conference.

The participant with the first move was a top-ranking public health official. What did he do? He declined to hold a press conference, and instead just released a statement: More tests are required. The patient might not have pandemic influenza. There is no reason for concern.

I was stunned. This official had not actually told a lie, but he had deliberately minimized the danger; whether or not this particular patient had the disease, a pandemic was coming. The official’s unwillingness to answer questions from the press or even acknowledge the pandemic’s inevitability meant that citizens would look elsewhere for answers, and probably find a lot of bad ones. Instead of taking the lead in providing credible information he instantly fell behind the pace of events. He would find it almost impossible to get ahead of them again. He had, in short, shirked his duty to the public, risking countless lives.

And that was only a game.

It is easy to project this outcome upwards unto a national government, especially one that keeps an iron fist on its population. So yes, imo China has been downplaying the numbers and identifying victims as of dying of other causes instead, much like in 1918 when soldiers were said to have the grip or meningitis when it was influenza.

The 1918 strain happened in three waves with the first being the mildest, the second wave being the worst but the third close to it in killing power.

Let us also not forget that China back in Nov 12 2019 announced they had 2 cases of pneumonic plague, later updated to 3 cases, he government publicly confirmed the illness on November 12. But Li Jifeng, a doctor at Chaoyang Hospital where the plague patients received treatment, wrote in a personal blog post that the infected couple was first transported to Beijing nine days earlier, on November 3 but his post published on China's popular messaging platform WeChat, was quickly removed by censors.
China Reports 3 Cases Of The Most Dangerous Type Of Plague

Anyhow, interesting read and facts about the 1918 pandemic
How the Horrific 1918 Flu Spread Across America
and
How to Stop a Lethal Virus

TL;DR It is worse than we're being told and about to get even more worse. I'm no conspiracy nut, just making projections based on historical data.

 

[Arilynn]

From The NY Times: Corona Patient in California was not Tested for Days

A California coronavirus patient had to wait days to be tested because of restrictive federal criteria, despite doctors’ requests. The patient, who has tested positive, may be the first person to be infected through community spread in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.
...
Doctors at the University of California, Davis Medical Center considered the novel pathogen a possible diagnosis when the patient was first admitted last week.

But the federal agency that conducts the testing did not administer the test until days later because the case did not fit the agency’s narrow testing criteria, university officials said in a letter to the campus community late Wednesday.

The C.D.C. has restricted testing to patients who either traveled to China recently or who know they had contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.
...

How do you know this isn’t spreading through the community if you don’t test possible community-acquired cases?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Thread

 

[Sid]

Let's try not to make more of it than it is. It is a flu like virus. No mega killer like the plague or ebola.
This is what I found out so far (mainly through German TV who cover the new outbreaks excellent IMHO):

Biggest difference we us that we had no vaccination for this one, so the more vulnerable people have to be more careful than in a 'normal' flu season. Death toll is higher than with a regular flue because of that.

Most infected people only have mild symptoms. Staying home (so you don't spread the virus further) wash your hands regular with soap for about 20 seconds (2x Happy Birthday song). No testing needed. Doctors can do nothing for you. You have to sit it out. Paracetamol or Ibuprofen is your friend.
When you have to cough or to sneeze never in your hand: paper towels and if not available: In your elbow to avoid spreading. Towels in a plastic bag right after usage. Wash hands ASAP.

Let family or neighbors get your groceries if possible (they can put it at your front door, but they can come in as well as long as you stay about 2 meters away from each other and wash their hands when they get at home, without touching their mouth before that).

If you get more severe symptoms like serious fever, breathing problems, chest pain: Call your doctors office or hospital for advise. Don't go there, you might only infect more people. The medics will take it from there and tread you as good as is possible.

It is basically the same as with the flu.

Some media and especially the social media are hyping as always.