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COVID-19 resurges in reopened countries; Wuhan sees first cluster in a month:
The World Health Organization on Monday called for continued vigilance as several areas that have eased lockdown restriction began to see a resurgence in COVID-19 cases—and the United States begins unbuttoning as well.
The Chinese city of Wuhan—where the pandemic began last December—saw its first cluster of cases in at least a month. The city began reopening in early April.
The cluster was just six cases: an 89-year-old symptomatic man and five asymptomatic cases. All of the infected lived in the same residential community.
[...] NPR's Emily Feng reported from Beijing that "The rise of such hard-to-detect asymptomatic cases has alarmed public health authorities in China, who have ramped up contact tracing and testing efforts."
China state media announced Tuesday that it has ordered all residents of Wuhan—roughly 11 million persons—to be tested within the next 10 days.
Likewise, the mayor of Seoul shut down bars and restaurants over the weekend—just days after South Korea had eased restrictions and allowed businesses to reopen—due to a spike of 86 new COVID-19 cases. Authorities identified a 29-year-old who visited five nightclubs and a bar while infected with the virus, sparking an outbreak of at least 54 cases, according to NPR. The uptick also led South Korean officials to delay the reopening of schools.
(Score: 5, Informative) by martyb on Wednesday May 13 2020, @09:55PM (33 children)
That is a common misconception about heat.
A quick look at https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ [worldometers.info] reveals that Saudi Arabia (which has temps near 100F each day) reported 1,900 new cases today. That's just the first nation that caught my eye. In the USA, chilly Florida has had 1,829 deaths so far, and just up the coast Georgia has had 1,505 deaths. Granted, there's a wide range of climates between the northern and northern parts, but California clocks in with over 75,000 known cases and 1,568 deaths.
Arizona (where it often has daytime highs of 100F) reports 594 deaths so far, and over 12,000 cases.
Do bear in mind that "not dying" does not necessarily mean "having a good time". A week or three in the intensive unit, with no visitors allowed, racking up huge medical bills while struggling to stay alive... Toss in being intubated and most likely on a catheter. yeah, I'll gladly wear an N95 mask rather than take that chance.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @10:43PM (7 children)
》 Saudi Arabia (which has temps near 100F each day) reported 1,900 new cases today.
Correlation does not imply causation. The high number of cases in Saudi Arabia is because God hates Muslims.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:46AM (2 children)
God?, when it comes to the Saudis, other Muslims aren't that keen on the guardians of Mecca and Medina (even the ones of their branch of that faith, nominally on their side, the ones that they're funding and arming to attack us infidels..even they're not that keen on their Saudi paymasters)..in fact, the only 'Islamic' people that the Muslims of my ken hate more than the Saudis are the 'fucking Persians'
(Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday May 14 2020, @06:56AM (1 child)
Which I've never understood, I mean is it just because they're not Arabs or does it go further than that? It can't be just that they're twelvers because a lot of the rest of the middle east is too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @04:39PM
The middle east has a very long history, and Persia was big dog for a lot of it. Why do you think they dislike the west so much? Same reasons.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @04:18AM (3 children)
"The high number of cases in Saudi Arabia is because God hates Muslims."
Judging by the number of people dying from COVID19 around the world, God hates lots of people.
(Score: 2, Touché) by fustakrakich on Thursday May 14 2020, @06:06AM
Judging by the number of people dying around the world, God hates everybody
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Touché) by Aegis on Thursday May 14 2020, @02:41PM (1 child)
The US tops all the leader boards.
So God hates the United States of America most.
(Score: 3, Funny) by lentilla on Friday May 15 2020, @12:42AM
Those whom the gods love die young. -- Menander [wikipedia.org]
It is also possible that COVID-19 is the end result of a bureaucratic reorganisation in the celestial plane. Lawyers representing the Lord of the Underworld recently filed a complaint that Saint Peter's "Pearly Gates Benevolent Fund" was accepting additional payments via an associated shell company "Styx Incorporated"; over and above the requisite fees and charges; that indeed amounted to bribes to get into Heaven. As a result, many of the Beloved Souls previously admitted with "Platinum Celestation" status have been reassessed and found only to be eligible for "Hades Lite" status.
Consequently there are a large number of vacancies - especially suites adjacent to the "Eighteen Clouds" golf course. The Outreach Committee suggested an accelerated intake over the next few years in order to prevent excessive vacancy which could potentially lead to the Platinum Celestation brand suffering a drop in the all-important "Afterlife Affirmative" ratings.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday May 13 2020, @11:06PM (4 children)
It's more than just heat, but we see a huge difference between states that were cold a month or two ago and states that weren't.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @11:50PM (1 child)
Shouldn't you have posted that under buzzy boy? Or are you carefully maintaining your SN social hierarchy?
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:01AM
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 14 2020, @05:58PM (1 child)
I bet if you looked at when the first cases were detected in each state you'd have a much higher correlation.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 16 2020, @01:23AM
Even then climate (and other effects) would manifest in how soon those first cases get detected (more cases means detected sooner).
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:19AM (13 children)
Ssshhh. Just let Darwin do his work :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:26AM (12 children)
You didn't answer my question earlier. If I just go expose myself to the virus and let it run its natural course so I am immune (and probably for much longer than the vaccine would trigger) are you ok with me not getting the vaccine?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:32AM (8 children)
Go expose yourself to this [vox.com]
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @01:25AM (7 children)
Yea, I would much rather do that than this vaccine.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @02:16AM (6 children)
> Yea, I would much rather do that than this vaccine.
Where is the "create your own mod" option when I want it? Right now I want the "anti-vaxxer idiot spotted" mod.
More seriously, there is no current vaccine for Covid019. Setting yourself dead against something that doesn't even exist sounds like a fairly major brain disorder.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @05:31AM (1 child)
So the answer is no. Getting immunity via natural infection by the virus is not acceptable. We all must get the vaccine.
So it isn't immunity you care about, it is people getting vaccinated.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 16 2020, @01:30AM
Yes, because getting immunity via natural infection means a really good chance of two weeks of suffering with an elevated chance of dying.
It's not immunity we care about, but immunity via a low risk approach.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @06:43AM (1 child)
I'm a different AC than the one you replied to. One need not be an anti-vaxxer to have concerns about a vaccine for this coronavirus.
SARS was a coronavirus, fairly similar to SARS-CoV-2. Candidate vaccines were developed, but animal testing showed that the vaccines led to immune hypersensitivity [nih.gov]. The SARS-CoV-2 candidate vaccine produced by Moderna has apparently produced very encouraging preliminary results [geekwire.com]. Notably, Moderna's technique differs from the SARS candidate vaccines, but is unproven at successfully producing vaccines. But the desire to produce a vaccine quickly has led to some corners being cut, including conducting animal trials at the same time as human trials [statnews.com]. Because of the known issues with the SARS vaccine and the very accelerated trials for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, I have concerns about their safety.
Let me be clear. Vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary for public health. I'm not an anti-vaxxer. But I have concerns about the safety about SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. I'd want to see compelling evidence that a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is safe and effective before I'd be willing to receive this particular vaccine. With proper trials and sufficient time to demonstrate their safety and efficacy, I'd be willing to receive a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine -- but I'd want to be damn certain that it is, indeed, safe.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday May 16 2020, @01:49AM
You wrote:
What was supposed to be the problem with that corner cutting? The first phase of human testing is merely to determine the safety of the vaccine in humans. That is, how safe is the vaccine? That can be done at the same time as animal testing to verify the effectiveness of the vaccine. They already tested the safety of the vaccine in animals FWIW. It's faster and riskier than traditional approaches (since human testing tends to be much more costly and effectiveness testing in animals tends to be a common place where rejections happen).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @03:05PM (1 child)
Now you understand TMB's AC posting strategy.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 15 2020, @11:03AM
You mean the strategy where I don't go full /. and flip the db setting that lets you guys post AC? Cause if you mean there's opinions I'm too afraid to post under my own nick you must be new here.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @03:00AM (2 children)
There's not enough evidence, yet, to show that all those who have 'recovered' are actually immune. There have been sporadic reports of people either relapsing, or becoming re-infected - but trying to pin down those reports has proven to be quite tricky.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 14 2020, @03:15AM (1 child)
Why "scare quote" 'recovered'?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @03:58AM
Not the op, but my guess is that the scare quote is because the reported cases of relapse didn't include a positive diagnosis for the first bout -- my pure speculation is that it could have been a bad case of the flu, followed by CV-19 later??
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 14 2020, @02:32AM (4 children)
You misunderstand. It hating the south doesn't mean people don't catch it, it means it's notably less severe on average when they do.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @11:22PM (3 children)
Got any citations for that drivel?
Just Trump's "heat kills it" theory?
Why bother trying to educate anymore, just laugh and move on.
Haha, TMB made a funny!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 15 2020, @11:09AM (2 children)
Yes [cebm.net], in fact [news-medical.net] I do [medrxiv.org]. Enjoy the bitchslap.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by chr on Saturday May 16 2020, @09:27AM (1 child)
I was curious and looked at the paper you referenced in medrxiv.org. It's not very convincing in my opinion.
Have you actually read the paper and did it really convince you?
Now, I really am curious about this topic so I wonder if you have any better references?
PS.
A person, 'Bio', had commented the article and I found his critique well founded. His first point was e.g.:
1. I find not including time as a factor in the model bewildering. After all, time is the single most important factor for the number of cases for most of the countries in the model. The model is only log(cases) ~ population + temperature. But for example, in half a month's time, population and temperature won't change much, while the number of cases could increase several fold for some countries. Time is a critical factor to model and is more important than temperature and population. Not including time, the model in the paper cannot be stable. Basically as time changes, your conclusions likely will change.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 16 2020, @11:46AM
Which? I've read not just that one but several and linked three. I'm not convinced beyond all argument but unless a solid refutation (Of fact not methodology. Methodologies vary between sources.) appears, it's what I'm going with. Google is your friend if it's something you're actually interested in and haven't already made up your mind.
Oh, and dude's objection is irrelevant to me since it appears to have no causal link with temperature but a very likely one with amounts and angle of sunlight, which produces vitamin D in folks, which is less efficiently produced in folks with lots of melanin in their skin, which fits like a glove with what we're seeing.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sonamchauhan on Thursday May 14 2020, @09:48AM
I recall reading that Covid-19 struggles in hot and humid conditions. Saudi Arabian citizens are probably the world's biggest users of air conditioning (something like 70% of their energy consumption) -- air conditioning removes both heat and humidity, besides encouraging the recirculation of air.