Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Emergency #5

[otto]

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.

That had to be the case! A woman arrived in Canada with the virus. There were 2 deaths in Iran, announced before 5 infected were announced. It didn't add up. There must be thousands of cases in Iran based on the 2% transmission rate, 3 weeks to death, and the first announcement being 2 deaths.

How many other countries, especially ones in South America and Africa are doing the same?

For example, is Carnival in Brazil such a major tourism dollar that no virus would be reported until after the event is over? Was Japan acting relaxed about the virus to ensure the Summer Games go forward?

 

[Herat]

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.

That's a tough one. Say there were 1,000 pax onboard. And they had traveled on a total of say 200 different flights, each with 100 other people.

Some fuzzy math sorta says there's about 2,00,000 points of human contact there. Sorta like 2,00,000 chances to be in the perimeter of someone shedding COVID-19.

 

[Henry2326]

Of the 123 new cases in South Korea this morning, 75 are linked to the church and 48 others are unknown and under investigation.
BNO Newsroom on Twitter

BREAKING: South Korea reports 2 more deaths from coronavirus, raising death toll to 4
BNO Newsroom on Twitter

Summary of South Korea's update:
- 123 new cases, 2 new deaths
- 75 new cases linked to church
- 48 others with unknown link
- Total: 556 cases, 4 deaths
- 6,039 people being tested
BNO Newsroom on Twitter

 

[Amonet]

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).

How do you decide which countries to close borders to, and when?

Are there any countries that it's safe to leave the borders open with at this point?

 

[tabitha111]

If you want to indulge your obsession more with Sars-2, join us here. Very informative and we have a few experts onboard. Avian Flu Talk: Wuhan Coronavirus COVID-19 Forum

 

[otto]

Looking at numbers, left is today, right is Feb 13.



Coronavirus Update (Live): 78,770 Cases and 2,462 Deaths from COVID-19 Wuhan China Virus Outbreak - Worldometer

 

[Amonet]

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?

How many countries have already got these pockets developing, unknown to anyone? I think these decisions to close borders and lock down towns are not as easy as they seem.

 

[Amonet]

That's a tough one. Say there were 1,000 pax onboard. And they had traveled on a total of say 200 different flights, each with 100 other people.

Some fuzzy math sorta says there's about 2,00,000 points of human contact there. Sorta like 2,00,000 chances to be in the perimeter of someone shedding COVID-19.

Wow. That's pretty heavy...

And I think that adds up to 20 million. And that doesn't include all the places all those people have been in the previous five days! OMG.

No wonder it can crop up the way it is and create this mini-outbreaks in places where you'd never guess it would turn up next.

 

[otto]

How do you decide which countries to close borders to, and when?

Are there any countries that it's safe to leave the borders open with at this point?

That's easy. All, immediately. Anyone who is travelling right now is perfectly aware that the next announcement from the WHO is pandemic, just a matter of human to human contact in two other countries. My son is in Australia, I at least knew that there was a chance we wouldn't see each other again until the virus has run its course.

I need to apologize. I'm leaning a bit too far in this being a pandemic, and have for weeks, just watching, but most people are far more reasonable and conservative in their concern about how this will play out.

 

[What if...]

I watched one of Dr Seheult's medcram videos on YouTube today that discussed a study done on bats and coronaviruses in China, and wanted to know the nature of coronaviruses carried by the bats, and how easy it would be for those viruses to jump into the human population, and how 'ready' the viruses were for human-to-human spread.

The results, according to Dr Seheult...there are hundreds of different coronaviruses already in bats, and already spreading to humans in little villages in China. And they're going human-to-human already!

The only thing that's stopped them becoming epidemics and then pandemics, until now, is that they've been jumping from the bats to the humans in these little villages that aren't conducive to massive spread between humans.

And the bats in the study didn't even have a 'middle' animal in the bat-human transfer.

Sorry, that first one is just an opinion piece. It has zero scientific value.

I think this assumption that 'killer viruses' are made in labs is a result of our living further from nature these days, and not understanding just how easy it is for viruses to spread from animals to humans, combined with our love of Sci Fi thrillers where viruses only come from labs. People end up thinking that a virus that lives in humans can only live in humans, a virus that lives in bats needs help to infect a human and can't do it without the intervention of a human in a lab.

I'm sorry if I sound so annoyed about this, but it does hit a nerve. It gives me the same feeling as the anti-vax movement and the "eat a natural diet to cure yourself of cancer" webpages that are plastered in ads for 'natural cures' to make money, and in that way not so much different from the Big Pharma that they abhor.

IMO, I still won’t rule out the possibility that it escaped from a lab, but I totally agree that viruses don’t need human intervention to jump from animals to humans, and then human to human. The worst pandemics in recorded history didn’t have scientific intervention to get them started!

What’s really scary is the fact that China/bats aren’t the only places potentially pandemic viruses can emerge. There are viruses in the rain forests that humans have probably never encountered, but as the rain forests get destroyed/timbered, etc,.. the chances of encountering a potentially harmful one increases.

Then there’s this article from 2017...

There are diseases hidden in ice, and they are waking up

“Frozen permafrost soil is the perfect place for bacteria to remain alive for very long periods of time, perhaps as long as a million years. That means melting ice could potentially open a Pandora's box of diseases.”

"Permafrost is a very good preserver of microbes and viruses, because it is cold, there is no oxygen, and it is dark," says evolutionary biologist Jean-Michel Claverie at Aix-Marseille University in France. "Pathogenic viruses that can infect humans or animals might be preserved in old permafrost layers, including some that have caused global epidemics in the past."

 

[StarrChance]

If you want to indulge your obsession more with Sars-2, join us here. Very informative and we have a few experts onboard. Avian Flu Talk: Wuhan Coronavirus COVID-19 Forum

Ha, just when my hubby said “can’t you find something happy to read!

Put me on the prepper list too...

 

[galiuro1]

That's easy. All, immediately. Anyone who is travelling right now is perfectly aware that the next announcement from the WHO is pandemic, just a matter of human to human contact in two other countries. My son is in Australia, I at least knew that there was a chance we wouldn't see each other again until the virus has run its course.

I need to apologize. I'm leaning a bit too far in this being a pandemic, and have for weeks, just watching, but most people are far more reasonable and conservative in their concern about how this will play out.

I'm with you on this and man, having your son in Australia is maybe worse than California! Though I will not see him until Thanksgiving unless I take a run up there, can't do til May so...hoping that I am as wrong on this as I was Ebola but...

 

[otto]

Ha, just when my hubby said “can’t you find something happy to read!

Put me on the prepper list too...

I will also admit that when I thought about what to do in a pandemic, I knew nothing. I found these two websites:

30 Items You Need To Survive A Pandemic - Food Storage Moms

https://www.dartmouth.edu/hrs/pdfs/pfp_checklist.pdf

 

[margarita25]

Crazy? thought about how coronavirus might travel to Iran from China or anywhere- without direct person to person contact...
Could the virus droplets be rising into the atmosphere, "riding" in the smog, moving along and released?
Obviously complete speculation, imo.

Neat real-time pollution map..
AirVisual Earth - 3D Real-time Air pollution map

Watch air pollution flow across the planet in real time | Science | AAAS
''China’s air is notoriously toxic: Each year, it contributes to the premature deaths of some 1.6 million people. Concerned about how such pollution was affecting his family, Beijing-based data scientist Yann Boquillod founded AirVisual Earth, an online air pollution map that uses data from satellites and more than 8000 monitoring stations to display global air pollution in real time. The AirVisual Earth interactive maps prevailing wind patterns and shows color-coded concentrations of PM2.5—airborne particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that can penetrate deep into the lungs. Users can zoom in, tilt, and spin the globe for better viewing''
rbbm

Dude that’s intense

A brilliant new rabbit hole to go down.

Wow, imagine if that were the case, then what?

Definitely marking this post to trip out on.

 

[MJPeony]

Ha, just when my hubby said “can’t you find something happy to read!

Put me on the prepper list too...

And within that prepper list there are those who would gladly have jumped into a giraffe suit before boarding a plane if it had been in any way possible.... not that I would know anyone like that....

 

[margarita25]

Apparently Japan hasn’t been reading my “Japan file”.

—-

Any news on Chen Q?

 

[Wicked Strong]

The countries that put a travel ban need to put out a statement before they close travel into their country. They need to at least allow their citizens to return home or stay, but there need to be some time between "NO". I understand if you travel after that statement is made, then you're stuck there.

There are many people overseas for their jobs, studies etc. To close travel home without notifying is wrong.

MOO

 

[KALI]

Have Any of you started formulating plans for your household if this is reclassified into a pandemic?
Please say what and why?
For me, I live in San Diego, though on the out skirts in a smaller town.
If declared a pandemic, I would go buy food for us and animals to last up to two months.
Also medical supplies such as prescriptions, and sanitary goods. I would do that, the minute the CDC makes that statement.
Am I crazy? What do you think?

 

[otto]

I'm with you on this and man, having your son in Australia is maybe worse than California! Though I will not see him until Thanksgiving unless I take a run up there, can't do til May so...hoping that I am as wrong on this as I was Ebola but...

This is the first time I've ever been concerned about a deadly virus on home soil. I think my son is safe in Australia only because he's young, fit and healthy. I'm assuming that he will survive illness. It's just that neither of us can travel as this virus goes global, so we have to let it play out from opposite ends of the planet.

I think that limited travel, even in safe places, is a good idea until more is known. Most people are living as though the virus is confined to faraway places, so nothing to worry about. I'm guessing that's what the Italians thought yesterday.

 

[otto]

The countries that put a travel ban need to put out a statement before they close travel into their country. They need to at least allow their citizens to return home or stay, but there need to be some time between "NO". I understand if you travel after that statement is made, then you're stuck there.

There are many people overseas for their jobs, studies etc. To close travel home without notifying is wrong.

MOO

I think tough luck. That's what China did - gave everyone time to travel to other cities, other countries and Hong Kong. Now Hong Kong is in trouble.

Hong Kong residents were angry that the government took so long to close the border. Closing the border after people in an infected area have had a chance to travel defeats the purpose of closing the border.