Excellent article, thank you for posting. I especially liked the chart showing how this virus compares to SARS, Spanish Flu, etc, and the graphic of what 6 feet really means. Well done.
Delta has joined the other airlines stopping all flights to China.
Looks like the virus is infectious before any symptoms develop. The spread of the virus to Germany occurred via an infected woman who showed no symptoms of disease until after she infected others.
Makes you wonder about the utility of screening air passengers for fever.
Screening still stops some carriers which is better than letting everyone through. Is there such thing as well transmission? Maybe when asymptomatic, the transmission is somewhat weaker? Need stronger contact?
From what I read, asymptomatic transmissions are weaker, in terms of toxicity. Apparently, thereâs never been a pandemic or epidemic in which asymptomatic transmissions played a dominant role. Additionally, secondary transmissions are also weaker, and tertiary transmissions are weaker still, etc.
First cases in Russia and the UK (2 each).
^^ Viruses can also morph though resulting in strains that present differently, sometimes stronger, sometimes not.
Just in case you were wondering. 
Kimchi, the spicy, fermented Korean cabbage dish, provides no protection against the coronavirus that has so far infected people 11 in the country. So said South Koreaâs Health Ministry Friday in a press release aimed at correcting misunderstandings about the disease, AP reports. The ministry recommended hand-washing.
Singapore closes borders to all Chinese nationals and anyone who has been in China the past 14 days.
Delta and American Airlines have halted all flights between the US and Mainland China. Not sure if that includes Hong Kong.
I wonder if more stringent screening is coming. That is, no person who has traveled to China in the last 14 or 28 days will be permitted to travel to the US.
Screening can stop the most contagious people. It is all about concentration of the virus. The higher the viral load, the higher the chance of transmission.
Coronaviruses apparently do not linger on surfaces for longer than a couple of hours.
Of the 368 South Koreans evacuated on a flight in the past 24 hours, 18 are hospitalized due to showing symptoms. All are quarantined for 14 daysâŠ
Thailand reports first person to person transmission.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz called Friday for the U.S. federal government to implement a ban on all travel to and from China due to the fast-spreading new coronavirus. (CBS)
Unfortunately as the virus continues to show up outside of China restrictions on travel to and from China may prove to be futile. All it will take is for an infected person outside of China to infect a dozen others and for a few of those people to do the same and this could become a truly global disease, beyond the isolated cases weâre currently seeing.
First confirmed case in Sweden.
Five new cases confirmed in Thailand bringing the total to 19.
From AP:
âA World Health Organization official in Africa says the new virus âcould overwhelm health systems we have in Africa.â
Dr. Michel Yao, emergency operations program manager in Africa, spoke to The Associated Press on Friday after WHO declared the new coronavirus a global health emergency and cited âcountries with weaker health systems which are ill-prepared to deal with it.â
Yao said WHO has listed high-priority countries with direct China flights or many visitors from China, where thousands of people have been infected.
The high-priority countries include Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Within the next few days, at least 20 countries in Africa will be supplied with the reagent needed to test samples for the virus, Yao said.
He defended the precautionary measures amid other urgent health crises in Africa including outbreaks of Ebola and measles in Congo. âIf turns out to be a mild virus, thatâs perfectly fine. If itâs dangerous and you let it go and decimate people, you have failed in public health,â he said.â
https://www.thedailybeast.com/coronavirus-has-europe-treating-chinese-people-like-the-plague
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-01-31/american-evacuated-from-china-still-wary-of-deadly-virus A first hand account from those being quarantined at the military base.
âThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the 195 U.S. citizens who were repatriated from Wuhan, China, on Wednesday have now been placed in federal quarantine over concern about the coronavirus outbreak. Wuhan is considered to be the epicenter of the outbreak. It is the first time that the CDC has issued a quarantine in 50 yearsâ
If these people are being quarantined by force, shouldnât all the people coming in from China over the past 14 days be quarantined as well? What am I missing (besides the easier ability to control these 195 people)?
DSâs stepmom said she wasnât even temp checked in Seattle yesterday when she flew in.
Was she coming from China, @cshell2?
In the German example, a woman from Shanghai traveled to Germany for a business trip. She was already infected with the virus before leaving China but displayed no signs of the disease while she was in Germany. (She later felt ill on her flight back to China.)
A German businessman who had had meetings with the woman while she was in Germany developed a sore throat, fever, chills, and muscle soreness. After a few days off of work, he began to feel better and returned to work. Later testing showed he had the coronavirus.
Later, three coworkers of the businessman tested positive for the virus. Only one of these patients had contact with the woman from Shanghai; the other two only had contact with the German man, after he âfelt betterâ and came back to work.
So an asymptomatic woman did infect a colleague in a business meeting; that colleague later infected others at work. Just another example: please stay home from work when you feel sick!
@scout59 â but the guy â felt betterâ when he returned to work and infected his coworkers. Sounds like screening will be much tougher with folks who have no symptoms able to infect others.