Maybe “helpful” in this instance but creepy and dystopian IMO.
I ordered something from china a few weeks ago and just checked it. According to the shipping tracker, it’s been at the airport since 1/31. I assumed it was because of new year but now I’m wondering if it’s virus related.
Of course, I thought it was clear I was being twisted. Guess not.
I think this is a situation where there’s no way to win. Give people time to plan to buy supplies, make arrangements for pets, and get home where they can shelter in place and you’re giving people time to flee and spread the virus. Shut things down quickly so people can’t leave and spread the virus and you’re making it impossible for them to acquire what they need for a long public quarantine.
That opinion piece in post #764 seems to criticize WHO’s “admiration” and praise. Maybe it is my own biases but I think that a lot of it is the administration of WHO being political and pragmatic. The old you get more with honey than vinegar line of thinking. WHO needs access, it needs to be the moderate and apolitical voice and agent in fighting this. Sometimes, a little flattery helps grease the skids.
Plus, as much as we can still find plenty of fault for how China has handled this, it is much better than SARs and they have seemed to being doing some self reflection and looking at some modification going forward i.e. Xi’s comments from yesterday.
This article highlights some of the political, cultural, and systemic challenges China faces in fighting this challenge and a comparison to China’s approach to SARs.
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-healthcare-system-coronavirus-outbreak-2020-1
China’s Health Minister Ma Xiaowei told reporters last month there is evidence it’s already mutated into a stronger variation that is able to spread more easily among humans.
″[The] continued increase in cases and the evidence of human-to-human transmission outside of China are, of course, most deeply disturbing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news conference at the organization’s Geneva headquarters last week. “Although the numbers outside China are still relatively small, they hold the potential for a much larger outbreak.”
“A relatively mild virus can cause a lot of damage if a lot of people get it,” WHO’s Ryan said last week. “And this is the issue at the moment. We don’t fully understand it.”
Read for more…
There are reasons to criticize the Chinese government, but at the same time let’s not forget what a daunting public health and logistics challenge this whole situation presents. Imagine if on less than a day’s notice the US government tried to shut down all travel in and out of Chicago, a city with a population of about a quarter that of Wuhan. Can you imagine the chaos, lawsuits, panic, doomsday suicides, public unrest and civil disobedience that would ensue?
^Exactly. I’ve thought about that a lot. The issues would likely be different than China’s but we would have our share of issues. Hoarding and civil disobedience would be huge. And our health care system would be overwhelmed as well and I doubt we’d be able to react quite as quickly as China’s centralized government.
“We’re going to build a 1,000 bed hospital on a vacant lot in less than a month.”
Wait a minute! What about neighborhood safety?!
And zoning?!
And the rights of the homeless people encamped there?!
And a proper traffic study?!
And union contracts?!
and so on…
The lawsuits alone would have it tied up for years.
@greenwitch Well I wish I had never, ever read a book last year about the influenza pandemic. My family who lived in Boston in 1918 lost several members so I wanted to read about it. Now, I wish I knew less about how pandemics spread.
Here we go. German doctors question the NEJM report:
(Emphasis added)
This is not the time to antagonize the Chinese government, it is way more important to work with them in order to stop the epidemic.
Daily record today, unfortunately.
Death toll up by 65 to 490 in China, 492 worldwide.
China confirms 3,971 new cases for a total of 24,324 in China and 24,536 total worldwide (different trackers vary slightly).
Reports emphasis that undercounting is likely occurring due to the burdened medical care system and test kit shortages, although the newly built hospitals will start to offer some relief.
10 more people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in the Japanese port of Yokohama have tested positive for the coronavirus, Japan’s health minister said on Wednesday, a figure that could rise as medical screening of thousands of patients and crew continued.
The 10 confirmed cases were among 31 results from 273 people tested so far, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told a news conference on Wednesday morning.
Kato said all the 3,700 passengers and crew on the ship will be quarantined on board for up to 14 days under Japanese law.
Health screening began on Tuesday for everyone on board the cruise liner after an 80-year-old Hong Kong passenger who sailed on the vessel in January tested positive for the coronavirus. (Source: SCMP)
In addition to stopping flights to mainland China, United and American have both stopped them to Hong Kong as well.
Crazy crowds lining up to try to procure face masks in Hong Kong
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3049082/coronavirus-10000-queue-masks-hong-kong
3 new confirmed cases in Hong Kong reported today, all locally transmitted.
More color on the cruise ship situation from The Guardian:
“only passengers and crew who had been in close contact with the infected man or were feeling unwell had been tested. Of the 273 people tested, 31 results had come back – and of those 10 had tested positive, Kato said. The 10 infected passengers, who include three Japanese nationals, are being transferred to a hospital.”
So, that’s one third of those whose results have come back!
2 Australians, 3 Japanese, 3 from Hong Kong, 1 American and 1 Filipino crewmember.
The 13th confirmed case in Australia today is an 8 year old boy.
Germany confirmed two more cases of the virus: one an employee of an auto parts company that a Chinese colleague visited two weeks ago and the other in a child of an infected company employee who previously had another child test positive.
1 newly confirmed case in Vancouver today bringing the Canadian total to 5.
Tokyo Olympics organisers on Wednesday said they were increasingly concerned about the disruption the coronavirus is causing ahead of the games, which open in just under six months.