Odd that there are countries where there are no known cases of coronavirus where the air pollution is just as bad as China and the nutrition levels are bad.
Something definitely doesn’t add up here. Countries with high sanitation levels in Asia (ie Singapore) have large numbers of coronavirus. South Korea and Japan could be seriously affected. Either those countries are extremely aware or this virus isn’t something that just jumped from animals to humans. Adjusting my tinfoil hat…
It jumped from animals to humans in China, not Singapore. It is now being spread human to human. Save your tinfoil for leftovers. Germs spread in places and people with good sanitation ALL THE TIME.
All of these places have one thing in common: very high urban population density. That, and very high percentage of smokers.
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You don’t get positive results when you don’t test. ?
“Odd that there are countries where there are no known cases of coronavirus where the air pollution is just as bad as China and the nutrition levels are bad.”
I was talking about the severity of symptoms once you get the illness. Coronavirus is a cold virus, so most people will get some upper respiratory congestion and get better after a few days. I suspect that is the case in China as well. So the cases we see are probably the tip of the iceberg ( maybe more than that now, with all the hysteria ). It is reasonable to assume that in a population with no immunity to this virus, we diagnose one in 20 people infected. That may not be true for other countries with much lower numbers ( for now ). The mortality rate seems to be unusually high ( especially in the Wuhan area ) for a cold virus, so there must be other factors to explain it like pollution, untreated COPD and asthma, undiagnosed/untreated diabetes, poor level of nutrition ( poor quality ), lacking/overwhelmed medical system ( no nebulizer machines, oxygen tanks, steroid injectable medication, etc ). If you have an older person with a very low oxygen, cold compresses and hot tea won’t cut it and within a few days, that person will die. Unfortunately, for China this is the perfect storm to unmask the Golem.
Now, as far as the US, we should be bracing ourselves for more cases. The mortality rate won’t be near as high but the stress on the medical system will be significant. I suspect there will be shortages of some medications, just hope it is not going to be insulin and other life saving drugs.
Medical personnel are heroes and begging for masks.
What a nightmare
“I just wanted to cry,” he said at the end of his video message.
China’s Doctors, Fighting the Coronavirus, Beg for Masks
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/world/asia/china-coronavirus-doctors.html?referringSource=articleShare
Aren’t they all made in China? They should start mask making factories.
Several of those quarantined cruise passengers have been tweeting. It’s pretty interesting to see what it’s like inside. @yardley_wong and @mjswhitebread provide lots of updates. The second one is an American who does not want to be evacuated. OK then.
Face mask is a fairly mature industry with a good balance between supply and demand under normal circumstances. The corona virus outbreak is an extraordinary event that has triggered a jump on the demand side. China has shifted several large non-mask manufacturers, e.g. automobile, chemicals, etc. to start producing face masks.
For example, Major Apple manufacturer Foxconn is diverting part of its production line to make medical masks and clothing, rather than the usual iPhone parts.
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-51410700
^No existing amount of capacity can keep up with the demand from 1 billion+ people who all need masks all of a sudden.
Does a mask do any good? I thought at the beginning of the thread, someone mentioned it does not filter the virus. Or are we talking about surgical grade? For surgical masks, they probably should ration it, give priorities to medical personnel. Clearly, the shortage won’t stop any time soon.
France reports Covid-19 death, a Chinese tourist from Hubei province. An 80 year old who had been hospitalized since 1/25.
The Westerdam - you know the cruise ship that had been at sea for 2 weeks because several countries wouldn’t let it dock? The one Cambodia took in that supposedly had no one ill with Covid-19? The one where passengers were allowed to disembark then were allowed to jet home to places around the world?
"A US citizen who arrived in Malaysia after disembarking in Cambodia from the MS Westerdam cruise ship has tested positive for the new coronavirus, …The 83-year-old American woman flew to Malaysia on Friday from Cambodia along with 144 others from the ship…The MS Westerdam…had 1,455 passengers and 802 crew on board, had been stranded at sea for two weeks after being turned away from five countries – the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Thailand – over coronavirus fears, before docking at Cambodia on Thursday.
The ship arrived at an anchoring point in the port of Sihanoukville early on Thursday morning to allow Cambodian officials to board and collect samples from passengers with any signs of ill health or flu-like symptoms. The passengers were tested regularly on board, and Cambodia also tested 20 once it docked on Thursday. All the fluid samples came back negative for the coronavirus, Cambodian authorities said. They were then sent to a hospital on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. A test for the coronavirus came back positive for the 83-year-old woman on Saturday. Her husband tested negative although he remains hospitalised for observation." (SCMP)
Singapore reports 5 new cases, bringING the total number of infections to 72. All five cases were linked to previous clusters and cases.
Well the evacuation sounds a little sketchy. They’re going to take all the Americans 2-3 days before the quarantine expires and put them all together on a bus, then all together on a charter plane, then restart another 14 day quarantine once they land.
I could see how some passengers might prefer to just wait a few more days in their cabins until the 19th then disembark and be free. I’d probably just go with that option, personally.
The woman on the Westerdam was there for two weeks.
Did she visit China before boarding the ship? The incubation period must be longer than 14 days. If so, then the quarantine period should be lengthened.
The other possibility is that the test was a false positive.
79 newly confirmed cases in Japan 67 from Diamond Princess and another 12 infections in Japan – including taxi drivers in Tokyo and patients at a western Japanese hospital where two doctors had already tested positive.
Excluding the cases from the ship, Japan so far diagnosed at least 52 people with the virus.
67 new infections on Diamond Princess confirmed, bringing the total infected on the cruise ship to 285.
"reports came as the United States…announced it would send an aircraft to evacuate about 400 Americans…The US embassy said the government “recommends, out of an abundance of caution, that US citizens disembark and return to the United States for further monitoring”. (there are reports that Japan later said it would not be happening)
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said…the plane would leave Tokyo’s Haneda airport as early as Monday. “Passengers will be screened for symptoms and we are working with our Japanese partners to ensure that any symptomatic passengers receive the required care in Japan if they cannot board the flight,” “Should you choose not to return on this charter flight, you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time,”…some US nationals on the ship had urged their government to extract them from the boat, others on board criticised the plan. “Incredibly disappointed that the US Government has decided to throw a monkey wrench into the quarantine we have maintained here on board the Diamond Princess,” tweeted Matt Smith, an American lawyer. “The US Government … wants to take us off without testing, fly us back to the US with a bunch of other untested people, and then stick us in 2 more weeks of quarantine? How does that make any sense at all?”
There’s also talk in the article of new testing and the 2/19 quarantine deadline being moved back.
“Those who had close contact with anyone who tested positive would have to restart their quarantine from the date of their last close contact, the captain added. Crew on board will also go into a new quarantine period once the passengers have left”.
more details…
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3050801/coronavirus-67-new-infections-diamond-princess-confirmed-us
@anomander That assumes they are going to just be able to walk off at the end of the quarantine (the ship is saying the 21st at the earliest now, and in batches) after 67 new cases yesterday? That seems like a bad idea for the Japanese government. Maybe they plan on testing everyone before they get off the boat. It sounds like a large percentage of the people they actually test come back positive.
This is of more concern to me than the cruise ship passengers because we already know that these people have likely been exposed and that germs easily spread in tight corners.
Reports in several countries of cab drivers getting infected.
Honestly, some people are just ridiculous and entitled : if they want to stay on the ship, they stay. If they want to take the flight they should take the flight. I mean, really, what do you expect when you go on a ship with 3000 other people ? There are risks involved, especially when you are 80 and have a lot of medical problems. What should the poor people in Wuhan going to complain about ? Oh, the government did not send us meals on wheels or a charter bus to the hospital ?