The feeling is that WHO downplayed the virus not that they should have directed China in one way or other. The US didn’t listen and banned the travelers from China. After the initial spike, the number of the infected in the US is stable now at 13. It’s been around 11-13 for over a week. Not many new cases. In a few weeks, they may all be cured and there won’t be any spreading the virus around. Had the US not banned travelers, would it the same? I don’t think sneaking out of China is that easy. Where would you go? Russia? Tibet? North Korea? Swim to Japan?
Japan only bans people who have been to 2 Chinese provinces: Hubei (where Wuhan is) and Zhejiang (south of Shanghai)
That too is ignorant; applying Western policies/ethics/morals to a (near?) totalitarian regime. Where did ‘they’ think WHO was getting its info? Ans.: from China. Of course, they downplayed it, as that is all the info that they were given. What, did they expect WHO to come out and publicly on the world stage and say, ‘China is lying’? Based on what, a ‘feeling’?
Any country can close its borders. WHO has no such borders, nor authority. All they can do is cajole and stand ready to help but only when requested.
Second US evacuee from Wuhan tests positive which brings the USA total to 14.
“New confirmed case at San Diego’s Marine Corps Air Station Miramar arrived from Wuhan on Friday.”
“Following the second case, officials on the base told evacuees on Wednesday that they would boost supplies of hand sanitiser and offer to deliver meals to each evacuee’s room to minimise crowding in one space, the source said.”
(Info from SCMP)
Where’s the eyes popping out of my head emoji?! 
Hubei Province Daily Tallies:
Hubei province reports sharp spike in new confirmed cases and deaths.
Today’s newly confirmed cases: 14,840 (not a typo), bringing the total for Hubei Province to 48,206.
Deaths: 242, more than double the previous daily record, bringing total deaths for Hubei Province to 1,310.
This is for Hubei Province ONLY. Not all of China.
Some 13,436 of the new cases announced on Thursday were confirmed in Hubei’s capital of Wuhan.
? here you go dos
Something is very weird about these numbers. Given the overwhelming numbers, how are they processing confirmations so quickly?
I don’t know when i turned into such a skeptic/conspiracy person. It’s not usually my personality at all.
Has something changed with the reporting/testing capacity? Goodness.
I do wonder if, with WHO arriving on the scene, this reflects catching up on some backlog to accurately reflect what is going on?
So much for a couple of lower growth days.
Seems like somehow the data capture and/or reporting processes must have changed.
There was mention in the last few days of getting new types of tests with quicker results and we know from reports that there was both a lack of staff and lack of tests allowing for people to get tested and treated. And the new hospitals adding thousands of beds were only finished or converted last week. Additionally, they just fired leaders in Wuhan in the past few days putting people in charge. To me, that could factor into the increase in reported cases and even deaths which were already existing and just now being counted.
This worldometer site explains there is new classification, which accounts for spike in reported numbers.
“There was mention in the last few days of getting new types of tests with quicker results and we know from reports that there was both a lack of staff and lack of tests allowing for people to get tested and treated.”
Yup. They should label the “new cases” not as such but as “newly processed test samples.”
@BunsenBurner It seems that ‘someone’ just recently stated the virus would decline when it got warmer. That someone was called an idiot by the predictable other someones’
The reference/explanation that @HImom is linking to in post #1252 is this:
In conformity with other provinces, starting today, Hubei Province will include the number of clinically diagnosed cases into the number of confirmed cases.
Of the 14,840 cases added, 13,332 are due to the new classification while 1,508 are new cases.
There were 242 new deaths (including 135 clinically diagnosed cases).
Well, that “someone” certainly got his info from reports from specialists. And it was one of the few times I agreed with “someone.” Viruses do have a seasonality to them for the very reasons stated in the yahoo article: “Three things the virus does not like: 1. Sunlight, 2. Temperature, and 3. Humidity”. This is true for common influenzas, too.
ETA: but there is a risk of it spreading now and potentially becoming a seasonal thing instead of dying out. In the Southern Hemisphere, flu season is April through October. Hence, another reason for a desire to contain it.
Yay, hopefully, we who live in sunny, warm, humid places should have lower numbers of viruses? I will keep my fingers crossed and wash my hands and keep them away from my face.
Even idiots can be correct every now and then. Especially when they have the best possible intelligence and spend 30 seconds listening to it.
But this is just one scientist’s opinion, and we can only hope that he is right, before too many people die.
so should we be concerned with these huge new numbers? not sure I understand the clinically diagnosed vs new cases.
I believe clinically means the diagnosis can be made without lab confirmation…just based on symptom presentation and clinical judgment.