Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Emergency #5

[Amonet]

And if that opinion piece in the NYPost was trying instead to say they 'surmise' that the bat escaped from the lab and the virus it carried hadn't been tampered with, then is it really so different from the virus coming from the seafood market? Are people going to interpret this as 'it came from a lab therefore it was made/designed/altered by humans'?

Of course the labs working on dangerous diseases should constantly be checking on their protocols for working with these things. Of course if they're going to be bringing things like this covid-19 into the lab to study they should make sure that the lab is capable of holding it and working with it safely. I don't find it a smoking gun if they put out a memo to remind the bosses and staff of the importance of this?

I feel like all of this is a distraction from the actual current scientific information on how easily these coronaviruses can go direct from bats into humans, and possibly into other animals as well and then go to a market in a huge city where they can then infect thousands or millions of people and then spread around the world.

If we just blame this on lax lab security, we're going to ignore all those natural virus reservoirs. It's a lot easier to lock up a lab than it is all those bats in the wild carrying their numerous coronaviruses, ebola or whatever else...maybe it's even comforting on some level to think that it's the labs that are the real threat?

 

[Henry2326]

Left out the cities......for now.

____________________

Italy, South Korea Work to Contain Coronavirus Outbreaks
The Italian government quarantined 10 small towns and ordered the closing of schools and businesses except for pharmacies and supermarkets
By
Eric Sylvers in Milan and
Andrew Jeong in Seoul
Updated Feb. 22, 2020 6:52 pm ET

Italy worked to contain an outbreak in two clusters that by late Saturday had left more than 70 people infected and two dead, as South Korea reported a surge in coronavirus cases centered on a church where a thousand people have been exposed to the disease.

Italy, South Korea Work to Contain Coronavirus Outbreaks

 

[otto]

Left out the cities......for now.

____________________

Italy, South Korea Work to Contain Coronavirus Outbreaks

The Italian government quarantined 10 small towns and ordered the closing of schools and businesses except for pharmacies and supermarkets
By
Eric Sylvers in Milan and
Andrew Jeong in Seoul
Updated Feb. 22, 2020 6:52 pm ET

Italy worked to contain an outbreak in two clusters that by late Saturday had left more than 70 people infected and two dead, as South Korea reported a surge in coronavirus cases centered on a church where a thousand people have been exposed to the disease.

Italy, South Korea Work to Contain Coronavirus Outbreaks

A little more about what is happening so suddenly in Italy:

"The victim was a female resident in Milan's Lombardy region, ANSA said. Her reported death comes hours after a 77-year-old man died overnight near Padua, in the nearby Veneto region. He was the first local person in Europe to die from the coronavirus.
...

In Casalpusterlengo, a large electronic message board outside the town hall read "Coronavirus: the population is invited to remain indoors as a precaution".
...

The first town to be shuttered was Codogno, with a population of 15,000, where three people tested positive for the virus, including a 38-year-old man and his wife, who is eight months pregnant.

The 38-year-old, who works for Unilever in Lodi, was in a serious condition in intensive care."​

First European coronavirus deaths in Italy send towns into lockdown

 

[margarita25]

I am watching the "Titanic" right now, they just hit the tip of the iceberg.

Why do I see a correlation between this movie and COVID-19?

Yep. That was my first thought about Wuhan’s brilliant new plan to house their medical workers...

Dr. Tedros, or one of the other WHO panel members, actually even used the phrase “tip of the iceberg”, iirc.

 

[What if...]

Whaaat??!!!

RIGHT? Nothing like watching the butterfly effect of repeated poor decisions!

 

[margarita25]

This ship disaster won't go away.....it keeps on giving.

_________________________

Just days after releasing nearly 1,000 passengers from the cruise ship quarantined for two weeks in the port of Yokohama that has been a coronavirus hot spot, Japan’s health minister admitted that 23 passengers had been mistakenly cleared to leave without taking a valid recent test.

In a news briefing on Saturday night, the health minister, Katsunobu Kato, apologized for the mishap, in which the passengers left the ship, the Diamond Princess, on Wednesday and Thursday although they had not been tested for the coronavirus since before the ship went into lockdown on Feb. 5.

In certifying that the passengers posed “no risk of infection,” the Japanese Health Ministry said it had tested them and checked for symptoms as they disembarked.

Mr. Kato said that all 23 mistakenly cleared passengers had left the ship and boarded some form of public transportation. He said none of them had reported any symptoms so far and 20 had already agreed to be retested, with three negative tests so far.

Coronavirus Live Updates: W.H.O. Team Heads to Wuhan as Its Leader Warns Africa

You know, I have to say I’m quite surprised about all the mistakes coming out of Japan...I thought they had their stuff together.

 

[otto]

I wonder if that is how it will happen everywhere - there will be a sudden announcement about 10s of people confirmed with the virus, followed by an invitation for everyone in the immediate area to stay home. Then school closures, travel restrictions in and out of the area, and so on. From there, the numbers multiply?

 

[margarita25]

RIGHT? Nothing like watching the butterfly effect of repeated poor decisions!

Have they even been watching the WHO briefings and listened to Dr. Mike talk about the known and expected transmissibility aboard cruise ships?! How can they do this considering what’s happened with the Diamond Princess??!!

I mean I know they’re likely desperate this moment, but surely there’s a better idea.

 

[Henry2326]

I wonder if that is how it will happen everywhere - there will be a sudden announcement about 10s of people confirmed with the virus, followed by an invitation for everyone in the immediate area to stay home. Then school closures, travel restrictions in and out of the area, and so on. From there, the numbers multiply?

Absolutely.....

 

[otto]

Absolutely.....

That's why a little early prep, even when it feels ridiculous, is probably the correct decision. If the warning to stay home happens in a day, there will be no time for casual loading up the shopping cart with choice items.

 

[Henry2326]

Untraceable coronavirus cells emerge in three countries amid pandemic
By Sara Dorn

February 22, 2020 | 8:46am

Untraceable coronavirus cells have emerged in three countries — and health officials say the elusive strands could be the first sign that the virus is spreading at an uncontrollable pace.

Doctors are unable to identify the source of coronavirus clusters in South Korea, Singapore and Iran, the World Health Organization said Saturday, urging a stricter approach to containing the virus.

“A number of spot fires occurring around the world is a sign that things are ticking along, and what we are going to have here is probably a pandemic,” said Ian Mackay, a researcher at Australia’s University of Queensland.

Doctors began floating fears of a pandemic — which occurs when a disease spreads to two continents — on Friday as two more died in Iran, the number of cases in South Korea doubled, and Italy saw its first death.

Untraceable coronavirus cells emerge in three countries amid pandemic

 

[MJPeony]

Wonder why Italy is being hit so hard all of a sudden (?). Has there been an identified “super spreader”?

I’m still caught up on why there are certain areas outside of China exploding with new cases and other areas where I would suspect to have more are relatively spared so far. I think it’s really interesting, and potentially useful of course, to try to understand the why behind the hotspots.

 

[What if...]

I’m having a hard understanding why the US has so few cases right now. It seems to be exploding in other areas.

California has a significantly large Asian population and the San Francisco Bay Area in particular has many people who travel to and from China all the time.

The travel ban from Wuhan certainly helped, but overall, there were still thousands of travelers from China that were (and are still) passing in and out.



MOO

I’ve been wondering the same.

IMO, there’s an oddity to the spread of this thing. It seems as though a handful of cases kind of “percolate” in an area, but once it gets going it spreads like wildfire. Almost like watching a ticking time bomb. But I can’t think of a single logical reason that would make that remotely possible(????).

 

[otto]

Untraceable coronavirus cells emerge in three countries amid pandemic
By Sara Dorn

February 22, 2020 | 8:46am

Untraceable coronavirus cells have emerged in three countries — and health officials say the elusive strands could be the first sign that the virus is spreading at an uncontrollable pace.

Doctors are unable to identify the source of coronavirus clusters in South Korea, Singapore and Iran, the World Health Organization said Saturday, urging a stricter approach to containing the virus.

“A number of spot fires occurring around the world is a sign that things are ticking along, and what we are going to have here is probably a pandemic,” said Ian Mackay, a researcher at Australia’s University of Queensland.

Doctors began floating fears of a pandemic — which occurs when a disease spreads to two continents — on Friday as two more died in Iran, the number of cases in South Korea doubled, and Italy saw its first death.

Untraceable coronavirus cells emerge in three countries amid pandemic

Here we go, I suppose ... within a couple of weeks? A couple of days ago the WHO announced that the window for stopping this was narrowing. Maybe it has closed?

I think that closing EU borders should be done immediately. The WHO seems to think that quarantined cities in China is a good thing, but that international borders should remain open.

Italians are reacting, angry that the borders were not closed. The EU should close borders now and deal with whatever they have in their own countries. Perhaps Canada USA border should be closed as well, but I fully expect that Trump and Trudeau will decide to illustrate their friendship and superior medical systems with open borders (politics before people).

 

[otto]

I’ve been wondering the same.

IMO, there’s an oddity to the spread of this thing. It seems as though a handful of cases kind of “percolate” in an area, but once it gets going it spreads like wildfire. Almost like watching a ticking time bomb. But I can’t think of a single logical reason that would make that remotely possible(????).

Maybe bird migration? Maybe this virus moved to other animals, and not just people.

Perhaps this isn't a simple situation of Ro = 2, but instead many super-spreaders who infect 2, they infect 2, and it multiplies for 2 weeks until many are diagnosed at once, and the leap is not two more, but 2 factor n in two weeks that then doubles every day.

 

[Henry2326]

I’ve been wondering the same.

IMO, there’s an oddity to the spread of this thing. It seems as though a handful of cases kind of “percolate” in an area, but once it gets going it spreads like wildfire. Almost like watching a ticking time bomb. But I can’t think of a single logical reason that would make that remotely possible(????).

CDC called it community spread and foothold. Sometimes conditions are right for the virus to get a foothold and community spread occurs. Take away the community aspect as China has done and it begins to share, although not disappear.

 

[mickey2942]

Staying out of politics, apparently there was some "misunderstanding", the airplane for the U.S. citizens trapped on the Diamond Princess, was supposed to be only for the healthy people. People who tested positive for COVID-19, were supposed to stay in Japan.

I spoke with a friend today, who has already paid for a cruise to Alaska in June. I don't know. I wouldn't go.

 

[otto]

I think the EU has one day to act fast regarding migration. What will they do? Will they sit around being politically correct until they each country has their own little pockets of infected people?

 

[JerseyGirl]

Iran’s government and media lied about coronavirus outbreak, riots erupt

Iranians are scared and angry. Their government has been lying to them and their media was instructed not to report on the coronavirus outbreak as it rapidly spread from the religious city of Qom to other cities. On Saturday, Tehran was awash with rumors and riots occurred in the city of Talesh on the Caspian sea due to a quarantine.

Yet Iranians were urged by their government to congregate in confined spaces on Friday to vote. The regime wanted the turnout to grow beyond the 11 million who were estimated to have voted. The government, seeking to censor information on the spread of the virus, likely contributed to misinformation by pushing the polls to stay open later with a national health emergency looming. Yet Fars News, Tasnim and other news outlets did not warn of the crises. The only information came later on Saturday when reports said that there was price gouging for protective medical masks. Anadolu, a Turkish news agency, photographed dozens of people in Iran already wearing the masks. The government sought to put price controls on masks so people could afford them.

 

[otto]

Staying out of politics, apparently there was some "misunderstanding", the airplane for the U.S. citizens trapped on the Diamond Princess, was supposed to be only for the healthy people. People who tested positive for COVID-19, were supposed to stay in Japan.

I spoke with a friend today, who has already paid for a cruise to Alaska in June. I don't know. I wouldn't go.

I think this is a good time to postpone travel and stay put. Insurance only kicks in when the destination is in quarantine, and a cruise will not be in quarantine until it's too late. Better to lose the money than end up sick away from home.