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Coronavirus - International stories and thoughts

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by G8trGr8t, Jan 20, 2020.

  1. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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    Appears to be spreading rapidly. Not good. Less deadly than SARS but still deadly. Real numbers hard to get from Chinese. Appears human to human transmission occurs. Now in South Korea and major Chinese cities.

    Coronavirus Is Spreading Quickly Across China, as Confirmed Cases Triple

    A newly identified virus originating in central China has spread quickly around the country and across Asia, infecting 156 new patients in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other densely-populated cities, and reaching South Korea for the first time—a major escalation in the pneumonia-like disease’s transmission.

    The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus—part of a class of pathogens that can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS—has more than tripled to 218 cases, according to Chinese state media and health authorities. It has claimed three lives.
    ………………………………..

    The sudden spread of the disease raises fresh concerns as tens of millions of Chinese citizens travel this week for the annual Lunar New Year, many of them to their hometowns. It is also likely to spark questions over the transparency of disclosures by Chinese health authorities.
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    Health authorities in Wuhan, the densely populated city of 19 million people at the epicenter of the outbreak, said Monday that the number of patients infected with the new coronavirus has jumped to 198, from 62 on Sunday. The statement said 35 of those cases were severe, while nine were critical.The death of a third infected patient occurred over the weekend, Wuhan authorities said Monday, without offering any specifics. In the case of the two earlier fatalities, authorities had previously said the men suffered from existing illnesses.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2020
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  2. lacuna

    lacuna The Conscience of Too Hot Moderator VIP Member

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    How vulnerable are tourists to this disease? Six members of my family ( 3 are children under age 12) are traveling to Beijing and several other cities and sites in March. Reservations are booked, tickets paid for and visas in hand. Should I be concerned they could be exposed?
     
  3. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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    That answer is unknown since the Chinese aren't exactly forthcoming with accurate information. The rate of spread appears to indicate that human to human transmission is likely but nobody seems to know if that is from sharing bodily fluids or just touching the same doorknob. I am sure you will have much more info before March. I believe that City is a relatively recently populated one so a lot of those folks will likely be traveling home for the Chinese New Year. If cases start popping up from those travels across China then it will be a good indicator as to just how contagious it really is.

    It seems to be a virus that is much worse for people with existing conditions from what I have read.
     
  4. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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    How Scared Should You Be of The Wuhan Coronavirus?

    A previously unknown virus, first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Dec. 31, is seriously worrying global health experts. The World Health Organization announced Monday that it was convening an emergency meeting on the virus, which is a coronavirus, a species common in animals that occasionally leaps to humans. In China, past cases of viruses passing from animals to humans have been relatively common thanks to close contact with domestic animals like chickens, as well as the consumption of wild animals such as civet cats, and sometimes because population and resource pressures have pushed people deeper into previously untouched forests and jungles in the south.

    The most notable of these in recent years was SARS, a coronavirus first reported in 2003 that eventually killed over 800 people and infected around 8,000; the government was widely blamed for covering up the spread of SARS—short for “severe acute respiratory syndrome”—until Jiang Yanyong, a retired surgeon, raised the alarm (and was briefly imprisoned as a result before eventually being hailed as a hero).

    Is this a deadly disease? How fast is it spreading?
    It’s hard to tell, because the information being released by the Chinese government is questionable. Wuhan itself is a city of 11 million people, and within China, the virus is confirmed to have reached major metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai, while it’s also traveled as far south as Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong. Outside of China, Japan, Thailand, and South Korea have all recorded cases—all Chinese travelers. While it was initially claimed to be only the result of animal-to-human transmission, doctors have just confirmed human-to-human transmission; 14 healthcare workers have also been reported as infected.

    The virus causes pneumonia, resulting in difficulty breathing. Only three people have been reported dead so far, but several dozen are in serious or critical condition. The majority of victims, though, had only mild symptoms, and some have already been discharged.
     
  5. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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    Coronavirus: China confirms new coronavirus can spread between humans - CNN

    eijing (CNN)A mysterious respiratory virus that has killed at least three people and sickened more than 200 in China can be transmitted between humans, a Chinese government-appointed expert has said, fueling fears about the possibility of a deadly epidemic as millions prepare to travel for the Lunar New Year holiday.

    Zhong Nanshan, head of the team set up by China's National Health Commission to investigate the pneumonia-like virus, confirmed that at least two cases had been spread from person to person and medical staff had also been infected.
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    "The current cases show there is definitely human-to-human transmission," Zhong told Chinese state-run CCTV, explaining that two people in China's Guangdong province were infected by a family member who had recently returned from Wuhan.
     
  6. chemgator

    chemgator GC Hall of Fame

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    The risks should not be too high in Beijing. Beijing recently opened Daxing Airport on the west side of Beijing to handle all domestic air travel through the capital, and a few regional routes. The international airport is on the east side of Beijing. So sick people flying in from Wuhan would be more likely to fly in through DAX, and not PEK. Beijing will have the resources to deal with the problem, and will be on the lookout for sick people in the tourist areas. Far western cities like Xi'an (Terracotta Army) should be fairly safe. Cities on the eastern coast should be reasonably safe. Have them wear an N-95 mask (available at Home Depot, I believe) when in crowded public areas, and try to avoid buses and other crowded forms of transportation. Bring anti-bacterial hand wash. Don't eat uncooked food (like salad), don't order American dishes (like hamburger-you'll be disappointed), and check the seal on your water bottle (and brush your teeth with bottle water only) to make sure it hasn't been refilled. If you stay at a western hotel, you'll be fine with the food there. Are they staying in western hotels or more affordable local hotels? The Residence Inns and Holiday Inns in Chinese cities are a world nicer than what they are here (usually high rise buildings), and the prices are lower. In many places, you can stay at a Westin or Intercontinental for less than $150 a night. Most Marriott properties and Holiday Inns are $75-90 a night, unless they are at the airport or at a major tourist location. If your hotel is $50 a night or less, you might be in for some surprises.
     
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  7. ThePlayer

    ThePlayer VIP Member

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    Those people eat the funkiest things on the planet.
    Good luck in changing their habits.

    upload_2020-1-21_11-4-13.jpeg
     
  8. lacuna

    lacuna The Conscience of Too Hot Moderator VIP Member

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    Thanks, Chem. They will be at the Legendale in Beijing for 4 nights then moving to 2 other cities for another week. I don't recall the names of the 2 cities they will visit but I know they are seeing the Great Wall and the mausoleum with the terra cotta soldiers among other places. They will be in country about 12 days.

    I would so like to go with them. China was on my bucket list for many years, but I can no longer fly or travel those distances. My wings are clipped : (
     
  9. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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  10. wgbgator

    wgbgator Premium Member

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  11. Claygator

    Claygator GC Hall of Fame

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    Yeah, their bizarre animal diets make them a breeding ground for diseases.
     
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  12. RealGatorFan

    RealGatorFan Premium Member

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    OMG, time to hoard beans, bullets, and toilet paper!!!!!!!! The stock market was hit hard today by the common cold. Seriously. Do you know the flu this year since October has killed 10,000 more people than this bug? That's not a typo. In the US alone, 10x as many people died from the flu since October 1, 2019 than this cold has infected globally. Snowflakes, the whole lot of the world.

    So this has the makings of the next SARS, which killed....drum roll....800 people globally in 2003. Not 800 million people, 800 people. Fewer than a typical bingo game holds. That's a 3rd of the flu deaths in the US in the last 2.5 months. To put this in perspective folks, the Spanish Flu of 1913 killed 25,000,000 worldwide, 1% of the global population. Now that's a true pandemic. Today, we go ballistic when 10 people die from a respiratory infection that is now communicable between people. Shocker. Measles by comparison is far scarier and it hardly illicit a response. To see an equivalent amount of deaths like in the Spanish Flu epidemic, we'd have to reach over 70,000,000 deaths worldwide.
     
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  13. ThePlayer

    ThePlayer VIP Member

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    Laugh if you like, but that Civet cat was killed on street alley's in China.
     
  14. chemgator

    chemgator GC Hall of Fame

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    The problem is that these viruses have the potential to kill tens of millions of people.

    People are generally smarter about it now than they used to be, so that should make it far less likely. In 1918, they were doing some kind of fundraising or promotional drive for WWI (maybe with an exhibition of the Liberty Bell), and scientists insisted that the mayor cancel the event after a large number of people had come down with the flu (Swine Flu). The mayor refused, and there was an immediate epidemic in the city within a week. All of the soldiers traveling back from the war increased the spread of the flu.

    That's why they make a big deal about the deaths--because no one knows what the total will be until it's over.
     
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  15. chemgator

    chemgator GC Hall of Fame

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    Five-star hotel--nice! The terra cotta soldiers are in Xi'an, towards central China (but far from Wuhan).

    My wings are almost worn out, but I still have to travel for work. I'll be headed to China in the not-too-distant future. I'm fairly certain I won't see any tourist sites, though. :)
     
  16. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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  17. NavyGator93

    NavyGator93 GC Legend

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    And? Someone tonight in the US ran over a possum and then threw it into a stew.
    Not much of a difference. Different types of dead animal, but some random dead animal nonetheless.
     
  18. gator_fever

    gator_fever GC Legend

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    Did patient zero really catch new Chinese virus by eating infected bat soup? It’s actually perfectly possible

    [​IMG]

    A group of Chinese scientists today reported that the likely source of the deadly 2019‐nCoV virus is snakes, based on genetic analysis. However, grisly images from a Chinese restaurant suggest bats may also be on the menu.

    Their findings were fast-tracked to publication yesterday in the Journal of Medical Virology, and report that infected people were exposed to various wildlife species at the market, where live poultry, seafood, bats and snakes among others, were present.

    A detailed genetic analysis of 2019‐nCoV revealed that it is a new strain which seems to be a mixture of two other coronaviruses; one of which is from bats and another unknown strain. The group presented evidence that the last place the virus resided before hitting humans was a snake species, based on certain biological markers in the virus’s surface proteins. These proteins are what allow viruses to invade host cells, and the mutated form is allowing 2019‐nCoV to easily attack human cells.....

    Different cultures eat exotic foods, and Chinese people are well known for having a taste for some meats that might raise eyebrows or even churn stomachs. But bat soup?! Amazingly, it is apparently very popular in China, and considered a delicacy there.
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    Sounds like the dang Chinese are getting this mess from eating bat soup. Trump might have to get involved if this starts spreading even more rapidly.
     
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  19. ThePlayer

    ThePlayer VIP Member

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    Rednecks don't live long either.
     
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  20. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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