Winnie the Flu
 

I'M SORRY OK. I come from an older generation when making new threads was not seen as a big thing.

Also sorry: not influenza, but coronavirus. DEAL WITH IT.


Did China fuel Wuhan coronavirus spread with information crackdown? - Business Insider
So, #WinnieTheFlu


The situation:
The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak started sometime in December, at (probably) a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, Hubei province, central China. Although it seems less deadly than SARS (2003), and the apparent mortality rate may be inflated by more serious cases being diagnosed first, the death toll is around 41 and over 1,300 cases are known in mainland China and a small number in over 10 other countries.

Wuhan has been locked down, closed to travel in or out, and travel bans are being established in some other areas. Lots of people will already have travelled for the Chinese New Year, so it's bound to continue spreading. The WHO has not yet declared this a global emergency, but lots of airports now have fever scanners and other such checks.


Chinese city of Wuhan plans to build a 1,000-bed coronavirus hospital in just 10 days :damn:


China battles coronavirus outbreak: All the latest updates | China News | Al Jazeera
Curiously, it's not that long since wearing face masks was made illegal.

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

'I felt like ET': UK man describes surreal coronavirus quarantine | Science | The Guardian

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

We live pretty far away from all of this stuff, but yesterday it was brought home to me just have close everything really is.
In barely 36 hours, someone infected with this new bug in Wuhan, could be walking the streets of Boulder, Colorado. And before they even express symptoms, the bug could be all over the Denver Metro area.

Yesterday, I had to drop my car off at the shop, and caught an Uber back home.
The driver had a rather nasty cough that suggested either the last stages of a bad cold/Flu, or the beginning of one. Every time he coughed, he covered his mouth. Very considerate, of course but then when we arrived at my location, he reached out that very hand to shake. I politely busied myself with getting out of the vehicle and avoided that handshake, and said, "you really should see to that cough."

The only defense is to do whatever it takes to keep one's immune system in good shape, and avoid random human contact.
But then half the fun of being human is interfacing with other humans. So, where'd I put my Zinc tabs?

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

One of the students in my school has traveled to Wuhan. They apparently haven't come back.
My students were saying someone called her parents in China and they just said, "she's sick" and hung up.
Nope. Not concerning at all

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

So, BBC posted that the bug is contageous long before symptoms express themselves.
I don't see that as news. Many viruses and bacteria are that way.
By the time you feel any symptoms, you have likely passed it on to your closest contacts. And the cough is often the first symptom, which helps spread the shit in a crowd.
And there are already a number of other things going on that will cause sneezing, coughing, sniffling, and even before those, people are putting shit in their mouths and breathing on their hands, scrathing a nose, sucking on fingers, putting their hands on all sorts of items and furniture, handrails, door handles, passing the bugs off for others to collect.

When you think about it, the human immune system is a fucking fantastic creation. We really have no idea just how many potential deathly illnesses our system fends off in any given day.

We are frigging lucky to be alive.

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It was not the case with SARS, apparently.

Coronavirus's ability to spread getting stronger, China suggests | Science | The Guardian

And
because Brexit means we don't need to...

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

Woo southern california with its first three cases!

Because the mask things confuse people, masks are useful to either catch your exhaled spittle so you don’t spreads it around, or to reduce how often you directly touch your face/mouth/nose which is one of the main vectors for getting sick in general. While a virus can pass through most masks, it’s often riding on something larger so a barrier is helpful but not perfect.

This means wildfire smoke masks are only partially useful since they have an unobstructed outward flow, and clinical masks or even multi layer fabrics are better.

It won’t be long now till we’ll be choosing which mask to walk outside with, smog or contagion.

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

Looks like we got one in Colorado, too. Not confirmed yet, but it looks likely.

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I can't quite get the resoning for "evacuating Wuhan", especially with the news about the delay in symptom expression.

Seems to me that the best way to handle it is to assume everybody there has been exposed, and should be treated in residence.

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

Some gigantic totalitarian flex?

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

That is a very good point which I hadn't given much thought to.

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Only guessing, but

1. Foreign governments have to be seen to be doing something
2. Foreign governments and people do not trust the Chinese state to provide the best care for its own citizens, let alone foreigners; and even when the 2 new 1,000 bed hospitals are fully operational, they may well be overwhelmed

I hope & assume the people being evacuated would be handled by fully suited and filtered medical staff, and the planes used are disinfected afterwards; full biohazard protocols. I doubt they would be evacuated on any assumption that this would prevent them getting infected.

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

If it's true about the transmission rate being ~2 and it can be transmitted during the up to 14-day incubation period when victims show no symptoms, then it will soon spread worldwide. I'm waiting for the first detected cases to appear in India and Africa - at which point I expect the authorities to give up on attempting to contain the outbreak and revert to the, "Keep washing your hands, and try to keep away from other people" advice.

What we don't know yet is the mortality rate - it could be anything from less than 1 in 10,000 up to several percent, depending on how many people in China really have the virus but aren't showing symptoms, and how many of those who are already sick go on to die.

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

Surely only the USA matters?

(1:20 - 1:27)
(adding the time offset breaks it I THOUGHT WE HAD FIXED THIS)

Attachment 11024

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Trapped in Hubei: A family under unexpected quarantine | Coronavirus outbreak | Al Jazeera

This article kind of brings it home.

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Meanwhile: Coronavirus: Germany confirms first human transmission in Europe – live updates | Science | The Guardian

Travel restrictions in China no longer enough ...

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And also:

https://i.redd.it/hg2aymvyeid41.jpg

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In regard to which:

https://i.imgur.com/mZksL5F.jpg

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

Australian government: Hey, why is the Chinese government getting all the "asshoe" reputation? Remember we can be shitty too!

Coronavirus: Australia plans island quarantine as foreigners leave Wuhan - BBC News

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British government: I say, us too, what

'Our worst nightmare': UK family face being split up as coronavirus evacuations begin | World news | The Guardian

Re: Winnie the Flu
 

So this is going to be a real bugger.
Developing a vaccine is really going to prove the best defense.
Until then, it's going to get a bit ugly.


The Coronavirus Questions That Scientists Are Racing to Answer - Scientific American

Now that the virus appears to be spreading effectively among people, tracking down the initial source has become secondary to trying to contain the outbreak. But both as a scientific curiosity and for possible insights about how to prevent the next outbreak, it’s useful to know when and how the virus started infecting people.

Early in the outbreak, local authorities in Wuhan said that most of the early cases were linked in some way to a large seafood market that also had live animals for meat. This seemed like a logical source for the outbreak; coronaviruses can jump from animals to infect people. These viruses are thought to originate in bats, but can use a middleman as they hopscotch to humans. The 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, for example, was traced to palm civets, while MERS infections come from camels.

But then last week, in some of the first analyses of the initial cases, a team of researchers reported that the first patient in Wuhan hospitalized with pneumonia caused by the virus had no tie to the market. The patient’s symptoms also started a week earlier than later cases who were tied to the market.

That raises several possibilities: Perhaps the virus was spreading among people earlier than first noticed or reported by Wuhan health officials, and that one of these patients brought the virus to the market. Or, perhaps there was a group of infected animals that could have seeded the outbreak at different locations.
Republished with permission from STAT. This article originally appeared on January 28, 2020

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My colleague, with school age kids commented that a note came home from her child's school noting bullying has started against oriental kids in the fashion of "you have cooties" but more serious and to teach the children about cultural sensitivity.

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Couldn't see if this helpful map had been posted yet.

Works ok on mobile, but really best on desktop browser.

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Mum just calling to check you don't have coronavirus - The Beaverton