NON_POLITICAL China Coronavirus THREAD

[ponyo]

I'ts definitely much worse than what they are reporting. New cases have been popping up all over Japan with no apparent connection. Japan has openly said they no longer believe containment is possible so they are shifting their strategy to management.

They're trying to save face in Japan. Plus they're trying to salvage billions they spent for the Summer Olympics. The Olympics should be canceled but we know that won't happen for financial reasons. Japan is basically sticking their head in the sand and pretending they don't have the problem. Don't believe anything that's coming out of Japan right now. China is more trustworthy than Japan at the moment.

 

[K1052]

They're trying to save face in Japan. Plus they're trying to salvage billions they spent for the Summer Olympics. The Olympics should be canceled but we know that won't happen for financial reasons. Japan is basically sticking their head in the sand and pretending they don't have the problem. Don't believe anything that's coming out of Japan right now. China is more trustworthy than Japan at the moment.

Japan's reaction in any unpredictable crisis is generally to cover it up, ignore it, or both while downplaying. Same thing happened with Fukushima.

 

[local]

Wait the CDC dashboard shows a grand total of only 445 COVID-19 tests since the 21st? In the entire country?

Yeah, can't have any cases if you don't test for them.

Actually it appears in the quest to be better than everyone else the CDC is requiring a really high standard for the tests. The tests being used in the thousands overseas have a really bad false positive/negative ratio and has led to infected people being released because the test said they were negative.

I'd say at this point it would be better to have some false positives and use the really good test for the release testing.

 

[echo4747]

Say you spray an object (door handle,cell phone) with lysol or give it wipe with something like a clorox wipe exactly how long you need to wait before its safe to handle? a couple secs or a minute?

 

[sdifox]

Say you spray an object (door handle,cell phone) with lysol or give it wipe with something like a clorox wipe exactly how long you need to wait before its safe to handle? a couple secs or a minute?

Use a Lysol wipe to pull handle

 

[Svnla]

Latest news (financial) -- Company name - Billions in loss from lower stock prices.

Apple - $155
Microsoft - $146
Amazon - $98
Alphabet - $95
Facebook - $59
Visa - $53
MasterCard - $41

I haven't included other companies such as airlines, hotels, consumer goods, etc. BTW, 10 Year US Treasury yield is the lowest ever and 30 Year Mortgage is lowest since 2012.

Haven't gone through all 54 pages of the thread, but are some of you guys getting masks and other PPE yet? Is it that time? I'm in CA, about 2 hours south of Travis and I'm starting to consider at least getting some masks for the family.

I can still get some light blue color surgery face masks (50 in a box for about $9 USD after coupon) at the local drug store a couple days ago but big box retailers such as Walmart are no go. You can use cheap cotton bandannas to cover your nose and mouth. Things such as regular hand washing and common sense hygiene practices are the best ways to combat this virus.

 

[Mai72]

I would not worry about effects of stock market, it might be affected but once this is all over it will probably go back to normal.

Over when? This could easily last a year.

 

[echo4747]

I frequently see people entering the supermarket using the complimentary sanitizing wipes at the entrance to just quickly swipe the shopping cart handle. It can't be more than 1-2 secs before they then grab the handle and push their cart into the shopping area. Find it hard to believe that short of a contact time is effective.

 

[TheVrolok]

Over when? This could easily last a year.

If, in the next 1-5 years, you really need the money you have invested in stocks, you're doing it wrong.

 

[nakedfrog]

My wife just cleaned out our pantry and dumped cans that are only a few months old...

I bought 5lbs of rice and 3lbs of beans, but it sounds like I need to go pick up a few more bags next time I'm out.

Geez, I hope she at least gave them to a food bank or something.

 

[zinfamous]

I frequently see people entering the supermarket using the complimentary sanitizing wipes at the entrance to just quickly swipe the shopping cart handle. It can't be more than 1-2 secs before they then grab the handle and push their cart into the shopping area. Find it hard to believe that short of a contact time is effective.

I now open-carry my portable UV lamp, attach it to the front of my cart, and walk around on full blast, making sure that everything in the grocery store, on the ground and in front of me at an oblique 170 degree angle is blasted by virus-killing cancer rays.

you're welcome.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Over when? This could easily last a year.

I'm relatively young...I want the market to tank because I'm buying, not selling. In another 20 years, I'll care if the market tanks.

 

[jpiniero]

I'm relatively young...I want the market to tank because I'm buying, not selling. In another 20 years, I'll care if the market tanks.

You won't if this is the event that causes the market to finally regress to the mean in PE and stay there. No more triple digit PE Tech stocks.

 

[ponyo]

Over when? This could easily last a year.

I seriously doubt that. All I know is stocks are going to recover way faster than the virus. So if you wait until the all clear signal and the news that the virus is contained, you're going to miss out on most of the recovery gains. That said, I'm neither buying or selling here. I'm just holding what I have and hoping for the best.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I seriously doubt that. All I know is stocks are going to recover way faster than the virus. So if you wait until the all clear signal and the news that the virus is contained, you're going to miss out on most of the recovery gains. That said, I'm neither buying or selling here. I'm just holding what I have and hoping for the best.

Bernie would be worse for the markets than Coronavirus. If you see a Dem get elected, the markets are going to tank initially because people are stupid.....wait this is the non-political one...ooops.

 

[CZroe]

I can still get some light blue color surgery face masks (50 in a box for about $9 USD after coupon) at the local drug store a couple days ago but big box retailers such as Walmart are no go. You can use cheap cotton bandannas to cover your nose and mouth. Things such as regular hand washing and common sense hygiene practices are the best ways to combat this virus.

They've been saying all along that N95 is considered the minimum. Surgical masks aren't going to cut it.

 

[pmv]

Just random thoughts as an alternative to brooding on the idea of death. I admit I don't really know what I'm talking about here...

Was wondering - how 'normal' is the emergence of viruses like this? That is, by crossing over from another species.

What I mean is, has this been a regular occurrence since the dawn of hominids - every now and then some cavedude feels adventurous or desperate and grabs a new vaguely-edible-looking critter and munches on it, and some evil bug takes the opportunity to jump to a new host.

Or is it something that is mainly a feature of the modern world, where humans have become vastly more numerous and started encroaching on every last bit of wilderness (and have also become infinitely more prone to rapid global travel than we used to be)? Lyme disease (which I know isn't a virus, but same sort of principle seems to apply), I believe, lurked inwooded areas among deer for a very long time before we started moving into those neighbourhood and getting ourselves bitten by ticks.

As I understand it, coronaviruses (and other disease causing agents?) don't mutate much, they aren't like flu viruses, which humans get immune to, but which in turn constantly mutate, these stay more-or-less the same but we have very poor immunity to them. And they are, presumably, just 'out there' waiting for us to decide to eat something that isn't a cow or a carrot, or to build houses in what was a swamp?

I think I read (probably on wikipedia) that measles probably crossed over from another species at some point a few hundred years ago.

Is this thing likely to just become the new typhoid or polio, just an endemic disease, that comes round in deadly waves to prune out the old and otherwise vulnerable, relentlessly, till by some miracle we eventually discover a vaccine for it?

Also, why the heck didn't the Chinese government ban the wild-animal markets after SARS gave us an early warning? Isn't there something to be said for just making like my English/Irish grandparents who thought spaghetti was a bizarre foreign food suggestive of moral, and possibly sexual, deviancy - and sticking to what we know, when it comes to food? No more adventurously eating Pangolin or bats? Hell, maybe vegetarianism is the way to go?

Is there any way we as a species can decide to be a bit more careful about getting too close to bits of nature we haven't historically had a lot of experience of, either as food or in terms of where we settle?


As with climate change, I think I'm of the opinion that humans in general should just _do less_. Live quieter lives and stop relentlessly doing stuff. That may be my decidedly non-heroic temperament coming out though (does it show that I'm getting on a bit?).

 

[eRacer]

I don't know if the unofficial reports from Iran are accurate, but if true this will be an absolute disaster in Iran and many other places:

Local reports: Iran’s COVID-19 fatalities and infections are alarming

Local reports and messages from Iranians indicate that the number of Iran’s COVID-19 fatalities and infections are much higher than officials have announced.

Iran’s Ministry of Health has put Iran’s COVID-19 fatalities at 19 with 139 infections.

In an audio file, a woman who was identified as a health worker in Tehran’s Shohada Hospital in Yaft Abad, said that only during her shift, she recorded 17 COVID-19 fatalities at the hospital.

A translation of the audio file can be found below: “Unfortunately, since the conversations and comments of doctors are being controlled these days, stress is an important element in the spread of COVID-19. What I’m witnessing is that the conditions are much more catastrophic than what is being announced. I swear to God, our hands are shaking. My voice was even shaking today when talking to friends. Yesterday, we were forced to stay in Yaft Abad hospital from morning until evening and we had 17 fatalities. I mean, during the time I was at the hospital, we had 17 fatalities.

How is it possible that at night on the news they announce Iran’s COVID-19 fatalities as eight in the whole country? According to Dr. Tabresi, an infectious disease specialist, the case fatality rate of COVID-19 in Iran is more than 50-60% and a terrible catastrophe is taking place. I don’t know when they want to announce this to the people.

Yesterday, Dr. Tabresi told the hospital staff, residents and interns at Masih Daneshvari Hospital that if anyone wanted to leave, they should leave now because if they stay until the end of the week, they would be quarantined for up to two months. He said that the fatalities are so high that according to him, it was okay to leave.

We had reports of deaths in children. Until now, the lowest (COVID19) numbers are 100 times more than what they’re announcing.”

 

[brainhulk]

Just random thoughts as an alternative to brooding on the idea of death. I admit I don't really know what I'm talking about here...

Was wondering - how 'normal' is the emergence of viruses like this? That is, by crossing over from another species.

What I mean is, has this been a regular occurrence since the dawn of hominids - every now and then some cavedude feels adventurous or desperate and grabs a new vaguely-edible-looking critter and munches on it, and some evil bug takes the opportunity to jump to a new host.

Or is it something that is mainly a feature of the modern world, where humans have become vastly more numerous and started encroaching on every last bit of wilderness (and have also become infinitely more prone to rapid global travel than we used to be)? Lyme disease (which I know isn't a virus, but same sort of principle seems to apply), I believe, lurked inwooded areas among deer for a very long time before we started moving into those neighbourhood and getting ourselves bitten by ticks.

As I understand it, coronaviruses (and other disease causing agents?) don't mutate much, they aren't like flu viruses, which humans get immune to, but which in turn constantly mutate, these stay more-or-less the same but we have very poor immunity to them. And they are, presumably, just 'out there' waiting for us to decide to eat something that isn't a cow or a carrot, or to build houses in what was a swamp?

I think I read (probably on wikipedia) that measles probably crossed over from another species at some point a few hundred years ago.

Is this thing likely to just become the new typhoid or polio, just an endemic disease, that comes round in deadly waves to prunes out the old and otherwise vulnerable, relentlessly, till by some miracle we eventually discover a vaccine for it?

Also, why the heck didn't the Chinese government ban the wild-animal markets after SARS gave us an early warning? Isn't there something to be said for just making like my English/Irish grandparents who thought spaghetti was a bizarre foreign food suggestive of moral, and possibly sexual, deviancy - and sticking to what we know, when it comes too food? No more adventurously eating Pangolin or bats? Hell, maybe vegetarianism is the way to go?

Is there any way we as a species can decide to be a bit more careful about getting too close to bits of nature we haven't historically had a lot of experience of, either as food or in terms of where we settle?


As with climate change, I think I'm of the opinion that humans in general should just _do less_. Live quieter lives and stop relentlessly doing stuff. That may be my decidedly non-heroic temperament coming out though.

Im no expert either, but what I remember from virology many many moons ago is that viral rna replication is many times more error prone than say our human dna replication. On top of this error rate is there is no repair mechanism either to replace a mismatched base pair as we have.

Can you imagine a mutation for every replicated rna virus? That is millions of random errors every day that by chance might allow for cross infection from bat, rat, or cat to human. Millions of errors each day that might render our vaccines and antivirals ineffective.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

It's too bad the entire world can't just go on a month long "sabbatical" (minus a few to keep essential services running). The markets are going to get smashed anyway. The best case scenario from here on out is after the initial panic and hysteria, statistics show this isn't all that bad and things go back to normal. Unfortunately that would take some time...

 

[TheVrolok]

I anticipate this non political thread taking a policial dip, oh, in the next 30 mins or so.

Sanjay Gupta tells Wolf Blitzer he thinks the risk to the US is still "low."

 

[Scarpozzi]

I don't know if the unofficial reports from Iran are accurate, but if true this will be an absolute disaster in Iran and many other places:

Local reports: Iran’s COVID-19 fatalities and infections are alarming

It's what I said before. There's no real test right now.... you're going to see initial deaths up because the sickest people die and are tested post mortem. I assure you, there are more non-reported cases everywhere to make that mortality rate take a nosedive. Most health statistics are reported monthly/annually. Day-to-day reports are going to be way off until the sample sizes grow and they have a chance to test/report more instances.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Governments: It's cool. We got it. Had a few issues, but all is well. Still taking some steps though. Panic Level 1


Pundits, tabloids, 'local reports': The Sky is falling, The sky is falling, we're all gonna die, it's the worst crisis in human history!!!!! Panic Level 666


Truth: Somewhere in between, closer to Panic Level 5.

 

[BudAshes]

It's what I said before. There's no real test right now.... you're going to see initial deaths up because the sickest people die and are tested post mortem. I assure you, there are more non-reported cases everywhere to make that mortality rate take a nosedive. Most health statistics are reported monthly/annually. Day-to-day reports are going to be way off until the sample sizes grow and they have a chance to test/report more instances.

The cruise ship is probably the best bet for getting some statistics even if the data set isn't big enough.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

It's "officially" here (USA), though I'm sure most of us already assumed it was: New Case of Novel Coronavirus in Northern California: CDC

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson said Wednesday there is a new case of novel coronavirus in Northern California not tied to the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The spokesperson did not specify where exactly in Northern California the case was located.

Further information was not immediately available.

More information was expected to be released Wednesday night or Thursday morning.