I did write my lung doc about his thoughts about me and my family traveling now, as we all have lung conditions. He suggested that CDC has indicated spread is generally 6 feet, or 2 airplane seats or 2 rows. He says there is a LOT of talk among respiratory community about the novel corona pneumonia (NCP), but many unknowns. He suggests it may be good to carry N95 mask and put it on if folks close to you start coughing and/or sneezing for whatever they may have and be dispersing—regular flu, cold, or anything else.
We are deferring our leisure international travel for now.
Has anyone else read the item below? I’ve seen reference to it more than once now. Is aerosol transmission the same as airborne? The article goes on to differentiate between this and just being coughed or sneezed on in close proximity.
"over the weekend, an official in Shanghai confirmed the virus also travelled through aerosol transmission, which means it can float a long distance through the air and cause infection later when it is breathed in.
“Aerosol transmission refers to the mixing of the virus with droplets in the air to form aerosols, which causes infection after inhalation, according to medical experts,” Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau deputy head Zeng Qun said at press briefing on Saturday, according to the China Daily."
Coronavirus: 3 more cases in Singapore, 6 more infected on Diamond Princess cruise ship
Singapore’s health ministry also confirmed six patients are now in critical condition in intensive care, increased from four
None of the three new cases travelled to China so contact tracing is underway as authorities seek to establish link to clusters of local transmission
Singapore’s three new cases take the total infections to 43.
Singapore on Sunday confirmed six patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus are in intensive care, increased from four on Saturday. Of the 22 locally transmitted cases, epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between 15 of the cases with the three currently known cluster. Of the city state’s 43 confirmed cases, four more were discharged from hospital on Sunday, making a total of six patients to have fully recovered and left hospital.
" in Japan, six more people on the Diamond Princess cruise ship were found to have the new coronavirus…bringing the number who have tested positive on board to 70." (SCMP)
I was travelling on Southwest the other day, a nice lady from the Mayo Clinic was seated in the aisle seat wearing a mask, and I was sitting in the window seat with the flight being nearly full. We had a nice conversation, no one chose to sit between us, I’m thinking about buying a mask.
I still don’t know how a lot of you can stand to drive across town if you are this worried about everything. That is SO much more risky! Like thousands of times.
We touch literally hundreds of things daily…hundreds. I volunteer in a place where we all use the pens. It never crossed my mind to disinfect them. Or the handles on the sink in the bathroom. Or the doorknobs. Or even the merchandise that we all touch and move around. I guess i should wipe my mailbox off too as the mailperson and news paper folks touch that every day.
People fear the new and novel. There’s an evolutionary benefit to it. Car accidents kill 90+ people every day in the US. Yet, if we thought about those millions of car crashes every single time we got into our car, many of us would never be able to leave the house. So we ignore it.
Same with the flu. Upwards of 10% of the US population gets the flu each year - some years (like H1N1 years) it’s MUCH higher. Tens of thousands die every year and it is disturbingly easy to transmit. But since many people think of “the flu” as interchangeable with the common cold, if maybe a little worse, (until they have it), most people shrug it off.
But heaven forbid that a family of Chinese people, who haven’t been to China in two weeks and when they were, they were not in a high affected province, get off a ship with a sniffle and people want the entire ship quarantined.
It’s not logical, but it’s new and therefore scary. Add in the “exotic” component of racialized populations that have long since been deemed diseased in some way (I can give you the history of doing this especially to Asian and Latinx populations going back centuries) and you get a level of fear that makes it difficult for some people to function in their regular daily lives. Unfortunately, xenophobic media outlets prey on this fear to ramp up anti-immigrant sentiments.
I was in China when SARS broke out and there was no news about it in China. I didn’t even find out about it until I got back to HKG. For the Chinese government to take such an extreme measure of limiting movements and no get togethers (no wedding, no birthday parties) it must be serious. This has nothing to do with xenophobic media or anti-immigrant sentiments in the West. The Chinese knows what it is doing to their economy.
It’s rational to be concerned about the new and novel because most people take at least basic steps to avoid known risks. With the new and novel, there isn’t enough information to know what steps - if any - to take.
The car accident example is a good one. Nobody can eliminate all risk, but most people minimize their risk by wearing seat belts, perhaps choosing cars with good crash test ratings, not drinking and driving, not engaging in risky behavior while driving. And those things can, to some extent, reduce chances of injury or death.
When new diseases pop up, it’s reasonable to seek information that might enable one to avoid risk. It’s also reasonable to view the information being reported with a critical and skeptical attitude, since some of the reports are coming from a country with a longstanding history of covering up issues to save face. Some people react in irrational ways to the information, gossip and rumors, but the seeking of information itself is reasonable.
It is especially rationale to worry about any virus coming out of South China, with its history of close contact with and consumption of wild animals and cross contamination with poultry and swine. Even those in Northern China worry about disease from South China.
“We are all worried that sooner or later we will be infected because we don’t know the transmission route of the coronavirus, and not many of us have full protective equipment.” He said resources were stretched to the limit…had used the same face mask for three days. …most of the patients he saw now had pneumonia symptoms, with lung scans indicating a coronavirus infection…many could not be admitted because hospitals were already overwhelmed. Wei said his clinic had enough protective equipment for just five more days, and conditions were worse for smaller cities around Wuhan. "
Bill Gates and his wife have donated $100 million to WHO. I think it is less money and more lack of supplies. I did read several accounts that the Chinese government is having factories that supply such things working in overdrive. I think the numbers are just overwhelming. Can you imagine if that level of contagion spread worldwide ala the Spanish Flu?
“WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter …“I’ve just been at the airport seeing off members of an advance team…led by Dr Bruce Aylward, veteran of past public health emergencies,”…Aylward, a Canadian epidemiologist and emergencies expert, has previously led the WHO’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, as well as initiatives on immunisation, communicable diseases control and polio eradication.”
“Tedros has warned that confirmed cases of coronavirus being transmitted by people who have never travelled to China could be the “tip of the iceberg”. “Containment remains our objective, but all countries must use the window of opportunity created by the containment strategy to prepare for the virus’ possible arrival,” he said.” (SCMP)
Wow! This thing sure is contagious in close quarters. This is a lot for Japan to deal with. No wonder countries don’t want to accept cruise ships into their harbors in that region. And the poor passengers…
“Sixty more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed on the Diamond princess cruise ship…That brings total cases on the ship docked in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, to 130” (Guardian UK)
"China’s consumer prices rose at the highest rate in more than eight years… on the back of lunar new year demand and a deadly virus outbreak. The consumer price index (CPI)…with prices of pork and fresh vegetables pushing up costs. It’s the highest CPI rise since October 2011. The report showed that food prices spiked 20.6%, including pork which rose 116% from a year ago, up from the 97% rise in December. " (Guardian UK)
“The Journal of the American Medical Association has published a report on the clinical characteristics of 138 coronavirus patients in Wuhan…common symptoms included fever (99%), fatigue (70%), dry cough (60%). Less common …headache, dizziness, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea, and vomiting…a quarter … were admitted to intensive care because of complications, including acute respiratory distress syndrome. The median time from the first symptom to shortness of breath… five days, and eight days to acute respiratory symptoms. The median hospital stay was 10 days. …57 were presumed to have been infected in hospital, including 17 patients (12.3%) who were already hospitalised for other reasons and 40 health care workers (29%). This may go some way to explaining the rapid building of coronavirus-specific hospitals in Wuhan.” (Guardian)
