Coronavirus - International stories and thoughts

Xi says China faces 'grave situation' as virus death toll hits 41



BEIJING (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping said China was facing a “grave situation” as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak jumped to 41, overshadowing celebrations of the Lunar New Year that began on Saturday.


With more than 1,400 people infected worldwide, most of them in China, Hong Kong declared a virus emergency, scrapped celebrations and restricted links to mainland China.

Australia confirmed its first four cases on Saturday, Malaysia confirmed four and France reported Europe’s first cases on Friday, as health authorities around the world scrambled to prevent a pandemic.

The death toll in China has risen to 41, authorities reported on Saturday, up from 26 a day earlier. As of 6 p.m. local time (1000 GMT), 1,372 people in China had been infected with the virus - traced to a seafood market in Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife.

Xi says China faces 'grave situation' as virus death toll hits 41

 

I think a big cause for the concern is the realization that China may be grossly under reporting statistics on it combined with the possibility that it’s too early to really know accurate mortality rates - if there’s 1,000 cases, 30 have died, 60 have recovered, and the rest are still hospitalized, we have no idea what the actual mortality rate is, but it’s almost certainly not 3%. And the way China is reacting (building emergency hospitals and completely quarantining major cities with a combined population greater than Florida) sure suggests that they think they’ve got something on their hands that is much worse than just marginally more serious than the seasonal flu.

 

Hopefully this causes China to crack down these illegal markets. Seems like they’ve just turned their heads in the past.

 

Based on the way the basketball game went, I just might have a case of Corona virus tomorrow morning.

 

Yes I would agree with the under reporting and the more that is learned about this virus, the worse it sounds for sure. You've got epidemiologists out there saying it's 'silently contagious'. If that's the case, not good.

 

And now a 3rd confirmed case has been identified in the U.S.

 

I wonder how this will tie in, if at all, with the recent scandals at various universities about medical researchers illegally being paid and sharing data with the Chinese

 

Obviously, we can't believe everything we read online, but sheesh, you can't believe the Chinese government either, right? Over on r/Coronavirus, they are stating 100,000 infections as a matter of fact and that the Chinese government are downplaying the figures immensely. One of the reasons is they are citing is that people with "pneumonia" symptoms are dying waiting to be seen by doctors. And you have to admit, the way the Chinese authorities are behaving, it looks like a scene from a horror film.

 

The south China morning post is often considered the mouthpiece for Beijing when they want to get stories out. This is their take, they are admitting 5 million people got out of Wuhan before they locked it down, and to many of the structural problems in fighting it.

5 million left Wuhan before lockdown, mayor reveals, as 1,000 new cases expected

 

I just heard they found a cure for the Corona Virus. They just haven't figured out where to inject the lime.

 

U.S. up to 5 confirmed cases now. I've read that it can be spread through the eyes, so masks that don't cover the eyes are of no use. Also, you don't have to be sick to transmit it and it takes two weeks before you start to show symptoms. With it being in such a concentrated area of people, yikes...

 

Stock futures are getting beaten up again, there’s real fear that it will stunt world growth Until it calms down.

 

I saw a picture of someone wearing a medical mask over their eyes. I was wondering where that came from...

 

This thing sure is getting a lot of focus for basically a mild flu. Clearly I don’t understand Virology. I feel like I want to get it and develop immunity before it mutates into a zombie apocalypse virus.

 

SARS ended up being overhyped (as far as the risk), but any potential pandemic event is going to be scary. Even the flu itself has history of killing 10’s of millions in its worst case.

Ebola has freaked people out a few times, and those outbreaks are usually limited to just thousands of people in Africa. Yet, I think the prospect of an easily communicable superbug needs to be taken seriously. It’s worth watching until they get a handle on it. Maybe it ends up nothing, but their response seems far more serious than SARS imo.

 

Burden of Influenza

 

A lot of videos of people in those Chinese cities looking dead spread out on sidewalks and the govt sending Vans out forcefully rounding up people they suspect might have it I guess. I wonder if this really came from them eating that bat soup and cobras or if this stuff got lose from that bio lab in the town where the most cases are at.

 

A bit of good news:


New coronavirus 'not spreading' in the US, CDC says



The new coronavirus that's sickened thousands of people in China and put the world on edge is not spreading in the U.S., health officials said in news conference Monday.

"We understand that many people in the Unites States are worried about this virus," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

"At this time, in the U.S., the virus is not spreading in the community," she added. "For that reason we continue to believe that the immediate health risk from the new virus to the general public is low at this time.”

In the U.S., 110 individuals from 26 states are being investigated to determine whether they have coronavirus. Of those individuals, 32 have tested negative, five have tested positive, and the remaining test results are pending.

New coronavirus 'not spreading' in the US, CDC says