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posted by martyb on Wednesday February 26 2020, @12:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the International-whack-a-mole^W-virus? dept.

There have been several significant developments in the battle against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and the resulting illness COVID-19. This story gathers a selection of stories from across the web.

WHO Director-General's Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID-19 - 24 February 2020

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 24 February 2020:

We're encouraged by the continued decline in cases in China.

Earlier today the WHO-China joint mission concluded its visit and delivered its report.

[...] The team has made a range of findings about the transmissibility of the virus, the severity of disease and the impact of the measures taken.

They found that the epidemic peaked and plateaued between the 23rd of January and the 2nd of February, and has been declining steadily since then.

They have found that there has been no significant change in the DNA of the virus.

They found that the fatality rate is between 2% and 4% in Wuhan, and 0.7% outside Wuhan.

They found that for people with mild disease, recovery time is about two weeks, while people with severe or critical disease recover within three to six weeks.

The team also estimate that the measures taken in China have averted a significant number of cases.

The report contains a wealth of other information, highlights questions for which we still don't have answers, and includes 22 recommendations.

[...] But the key message that should give all countries hope, courage and confidence is that this virus can be contained.

[...] The sudden increases of cases in Italy, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Korea are deeply concerning.

There's a lot of speculation about whether these increases mean that this epidemic has now become a pandemic.

[...] WHO has already declared a public health emergency of international concern – our highest level of alarm – when there were less than 100 cases outside China, and 8 cases of human-to-human transmission.

Our decision about whether to use the word "pandemic" to describe an epidemic is based on an ongoing assessment of the geographical spread of the virus, the severity of disease it causes and the impact it has on the whole of society.

For the moment, we are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus, and we are not witnessing large-scale severe disease or death.

Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet.

So how should we describe the current situation?

What we see are epidemics in different parts of the world, affecting countries in different ways and requiring a tailored response.

The sudden increase in new cases is certainly very concerning.

[...] We must focus on containment, while doing everything we can to prepare for a potential pandemic.

[...] there are at least three priorities.

First, all countries must prioritize protecting health workers.

Second, we must engage communities to protect people who are most at risk of severe disease, particularly the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.

And third, we must protect countries that are the most vulnerable, by doing our utmost to contain epidemics in countries with the capacity to do it.

Coronavirus Spread in US Not a Matter of If, but When, CDC Warns

Coronavirus spread in US not a matter of if, but when, CDC warns:

Americans should begin preparing for the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak in the US, according to a warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the immediate threat to the general public is still low, federal health officials said the coronavirus is likely to expand its footprint in the US.

"We expect we will see community spread in this country," said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a press briefing Tuesday. "It's more of a question of exactly when this will happen."

The CDC also outlined steps that cities, business and schools may need to take if the virus becomes a pandemic.

"We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this is going to be bad," said Messonnier. "Now is the time for businesses, hospitals, communities, schools and everyday people to begin preparing as well."

Italy Struggles With Virus 'That Doesn't Respect Borders'

Italy struggles with virus 'that doesn't respect borders':

Michele L did not know what to do when he heard that the coronavirus had hit Codogno in northern Italy, less than 10km from his hometown Casalpusterlengo.

[...] Codogno is now known as the "Wuhan of Italy" and is on lockdown. Trains do not stop there and the streets are empty.

Within 72 hours from the first outbreak, almost a dozen towns in the wealthy regions of Lombardy and Veneto, with a total population of about 50,000 people, were placed under quarantine.

Now desperately struggling to contain the virus, Italy has the largest number of cases outside Asia and the second-highest number of deaths outside China after Iran, where at least 15 people have died.

All the people who have died in Italy were elderly patients or already had serious preconditions.

The worst-hit European country, at least 11 people have died from coronavirus in Italy and there are more than 300 cases - most in the north.

"We're talking about a virus that doesn't respect borders," said Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza.

[...] In recent days, schools and museums were closed in major cities, sports and cultural events were cancelled and the Venice carnival was called off. Trade fairs in Milan were postponed. The bars that are still open must observe a curfew.

[...] Authorities still have little information about the identity of the "superspreader", or Patient 0. While they are still looking for the source, the high number of infected patients has shifted priorities.

According to reports, a hospital in the northern town of Codogno mismanaged the region's first case and fuelled the infection's spread.

[...] People from the isolated areas have criticised a lack of coordination, poor access to emergency hotlines, and a shortage of swabs for testing.

Police and military patrol have been deployed around the towns on lockdown, with officers in surgical masks.

The Coronavirus Seems Unstoppable. What Should the World Do Now?

The coronavirus seems unstoppable. What should the world do now?:

The global march of COVID-19 is beginning to look unstoppable. In just the past week, a countrywide outbreak surfaced in Iran, spawning additional cases in Iraq, Oman, and Bahrain. Italy put 10 towns in the north on lockdown after the virus rapidly spread there. An Italian physician carried the virus to the Spanish island of Tenerife, a popular holiday spot for northern Europeans, and Austria and Croatia reported their first cases. Meanwhile, South Korea's outbreak kept growing explosively and Japan reported additional cases in the wake of the botched quarantine of a cruise ship.

The virus may be spreading stealthily in many more places. A modeling group at Imperial College London has estimated that about two-thirds of the cases exported from China have yet to be detected.

The World Health Organization (WHO) still avoided using the word "pandemic" to describe the burgeoning crisis today, instead talking about "epidemics in different parts of the world." But many scientists say that regardless of what it's called, the window for containment is now almost certainly shut. "It looks to me like this virus really has escaped from China and is being transmitted quite widely," says Christopher Dye, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford. "I'm now feeling much more pessimistic that it can be controlled." In the United States, "disruption to everyday life might be severe," Nancy Messonnier, who leads the coronavirus response for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned on 25 February. "We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this is going to be bad."

Dye and others say it's time to rethink the public health response. So far, efforts have focused on containment: slowing the spread of the virus within China, keeping it from being exported to other countries, and, when patients do cross borders, aggressively tracing anyone they were in contact with and quarantining those people for 2 weeks. But if the virus, named SARS-CoV-2, has gone global, travel restrictions may become less effective than measures to limit outbreaks and reduce their impact, wherever they are—for instance, by closing schools, preparing hospitals, or even imposing the kind of draconian quarantine imposed on huge cities in China.

"Border measures will not be as effective or even feasible, and the focus will be on community mitigation measures until a vaccine becomes available in sufficient quantities," says Luciana Borio, a former biodefense preparedness expert at the U.S. National Security Council who is now vice president at In-Q-Tel, a not-for-profit venture capital firm. "The fight now is to mitigate, keep the health care system working, and don't panic," adds Alessandro Vespignani, an infectious disease modeler at Northeastern University. "This has a range of outcomes from the equivalent of a very bad flu season to something that is perhaps a little bit worse than that."

Public health experts disagree, however, about how quickly the travel restrictions that have marked the first phase of the epidemic should be loosened. Early this week, the total number of cases stood at more than 80,000 with 2705 deaths—with 97% of the total still in China. Some countries have gone so far as to ban all flights to and from China; the United States quarantines anyone who has been in hard-hit Hubei province and refuses entry to foreign nationals if they have been anywhere in China during the past 2 weeks. Several countries have also added restrictions against South Korea and Iran.

[...] To prepare for what's coming, hospitals can stockpile respiratory equipment and add beds. More intensive use of the vaccines against influenza and pneumococcal infections could help reduce the burden of those respiratory diseases on the health care system and make it easier to identify COVID-19 cases, which produce similar symptoms. Governments can issue messages about the importance of handwashing and staying home if you're ill.

Whatever the rest of the world does, it's essential that it take action soon, [WHO's Bruce] Aylward says, and he hopes other countries will learn from China. "The single biggest lesson is: Speed is everything," he says. "And you know what worries me most? Has the rest of the world learned the lesson of speed?"

Coronavirus in Pictures: Scenes From Around the World

Coronavirus in pictures: Scenes from around the world:

This story presents a sequence of 28 pictures. Each picture has a description and often links to supporting information.

Global Stock Markets Plunge on Coronavirus Fears

Global stock markets plunge on coronavirus fears:

Global financial markets saw some of the sharpest falls in years on Monday after a rise in coronavirus cases renewed fears about economic slowdown.

In the US, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 posted their sharpest daily declines since 2018, with the Dow falling 3.5% or more than 1,000 points.

The S&P 500 ended the day 3.3% lower, while the Nasdaq sank 3.7%.

The UK's FTSE 100 share index closed 3.3% lower, the sharpest drop since January 2016.

In Italy, which has seen Europe's worst outbreak of the virus, Milan's stock market plunged nearly 6%.

In contrast, the price of gold, which is considered less risky, hit its highest level in seven years at one point.

[...] "There has been so much complacency in recent weeks from investors, despite clear signs that China's economy is facing a large hit and that supply chains around the world were being disrupted," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

"Markets initially wobbled in January, but had quickly bounced back, implying that investors didn't see the coronavirus as a serious threat to corporate earnings. They may now be reappraising the situation."

CDC Tells Americans to Brace for Coronavirus

CDC tells Americans to brace for coronavirus:

Fresh off a plane from China, epidemiologist Bruce Aylward sat before members of the press at the World Health Organization's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday and laid out key insights from the coronavirus front lines.

Aylward, a nearly 30-year veteran of outbreak and emergency responses with the WHO, had just led a joint mission through the COVID-19 trenches to appraise the outbreak and China's control efforts. His assessment was glowing: China had responded swiftly, on a mind-boggling large scale, and with differential outbreak responses tailored to curb disease spread in different settings—from the outbreak's blazing epicenter in a highly populated city to the spotty disease clusters in rural areas.

He pointed to humped graphs of cases over time—they are the shape of an epidemic that has been hobbled, he said. Disease spread has been in decline since the beginning of the month, and doctors in China are honing their ability to treat patients. "If I had COVID-19, I'd want to be treated in China," he said candidly.

Based on the data, China's massive efforts have been generally successful and indicate that the virus can be contained, Aylward reported. Yet Chinese officials remain vigilant, he added, in case this never-before-seen virus (which has plagued humanity for mere weeks) presents any surprises.

While Aylward was impressed with the Chinese government response, he noted early in the briefing that he was also taken by the response of Chinese citizens—their cooperation and individual sense of duty to try to help quash the outbreak. "We spoke to hundreds of people... and they all shared this sense of responsibility, accountability to be part of this," Aylward said, noting that there didn't appear to be any government pressure or presence forcing that sense of duty. People were adhering to quarantine protocols on their own, he noted, and medical staff were volunteering to go to the hardest hit areas in the Wuhan province.

Iran's Deputy Health Minister Contracts Coronavirus

Iran's deputy health minister: I have coronavirus

Iran's deputy health minister said he has contracted the coronavirus and placed himself in isolation, a day after appearing feverish at a press conference in which he downplayed its spread in the shrine city of Qom and said mass quarantines were unnecessary.

Also at BBC.

Corona spreads across Europe

As the rest of the world battles the Corona virus, unrest is growing in Europe as well.

Eleven people have now died from Covid-19 in Italy, while 10 villages remain isolated. Today, in a single day, the number of infected Italians has jumped 45 percent to 322. The virus has spread across Italy now: while the infections originally were limited to the North of the country (Lombardia, Veneto, where the Venice Carnival has been closed down), they now have spread to Emilio-Romagna, Lazio (the region around Rome), the Toscan region, Piemont, Trentino-Alto Adigo (Southern Tirol), and (today, Feb 25) Liguria (around Genoa) and Sicily.

The statistics in Italy suggest that for every 100 infected people, 5 are expected to die -- typically older, already weakened, people.

Questions remain about case zero, the original infectious patient in Italy: yesterday that person was still not identified.

US Health Officials: 'When, Not If' Coronavirus Reaches US

US health officials: 'When, not if' coronavirus reaches US:

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday alerted Americans to begin preparing for the spread of coronavirus in the United States after the flu-like virus surfaced in several more countries.

The announcement signals a change in tone for the US health agency, which had largely been focused on efforts to stop the virus from entering the country and quarantining individuals travelling from China.

"The data over the past week about the spread in other countries has raised our level of concern and expectation that we are going to have community spread here," Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a conference call.

What is not known, she said, is when it will arrive and how severe a US outbreak might be. "Disruption to everyday life might be severe," she cautioned.

Businesses, schools and families should begin having discussions about the possibility that their lives may be disrupted if the virus begins spreading within US communities.

Separately, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told a Senate subcommittee there will likely be more cases in the US, and he asked legislators to approve $2.5bn in funding to fight the outbreak after proposing cuts to the department's budget.

"While the immediate risk to individual members of the American public remains low, there is now community transmission in a number of countries, including outside of Asia, which is deeply concerning," Azar said, adding that recent outbreaks in Iran and Italy were particularly worrying.

Major US stock indexes fell again on Tuesday after a sharp selloff on Monday.

Azar said the US government was working closely with state, local, and private sector partners to prepare for mitigating the virus' potential spread in the US.

US Senator Chuck Schumer, however, said President Donald Trump and his administration had been caught "flat-footed" and lacked a comprehensive plan to deal with coronavirus. He called for at least $3.1bn in additional funding to fight it.

"The Trump administration has shown towering and dangerous incompetence when it comes to the coronavirus," said Schumer, the top Senate Democrat. "Mr President, you need to get your act together now. This is a crisis."


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2Original Submission #3Original Submission #4Original Submission #5Original Submission #6Original Submission #7Original Submission #8Original Submission #9Original Submission #10

Related Stories

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 - CoronaVirus) Roundup 159 comments

Many nations have begun to take special measures to address the problem of the spread of the COVID-19 virus over every continent. It would be pointless to report the details of all such measures; they are limited to each specific country and liable to frequent change as the situation develops. The USA FDA (Food and Drug Administration) have carried out what they describe as a "Supply Change Update", see the link below, but for others we suggest using a bit of web-search-fu to discover a site more appropriate to your own area of interest.

Worldwide, newspapers and other media need to maintain sales and subscriptions — many tend, therefore, to sensationalize their reporting. This has two undesirable effects: firstly it can result in data being quoted out of context to support the report they are making and, secondly, it tends to stress the possible effects of the COVID pandemic, should it be declared as such. In a comment elsewhere, I reported 2 tables which contain the most accurate figures we can find from a reputable source. They indicate the vulnerability of people to the virus by age, and any links to comorbidity (as far as they are known). There is no doubt that the virus poses a serious threat but it is not the same for all ages and many deaths are attributed to a combination of COVID-19 infection and other pre-existing conditions. For the latter it has not be proven that the virus was the sole cause of death; it is possible that the person would have died anyway. As postmortems have not been carried out in the vast majority of cases, the figures are open to misinterpretation. The WHO (World Health Organization) stresses that they will be unable to clarify these findings for a long time to come.

As it stands, for a person below the age of 70 with no other medical conditions, the chances of dying from a COVID-19 infection is less than 1%. That is still a large number of people at risk and the implications for every nation are significant. It is, however, much lower than some of the figures that have been quoted in the press. The figures for people over 70 and with other conditions cause the rate to rise quite sharply, and I would suggest that we all keep an watchful eye on the elderly or infirm members of our family and friends.

The majority of people will only suffer mild flu-like symptoms and will make a full recovery. - janrinok

CoronaVirus (SARS-CoV-2) Roundup 2020-03-12 93 comments

Even though it has only been a short while since our last round-up there are 22 separate stories merged into this round-up. Many report duplicate news but, nevertheless, we have tried to distill the important elements of each submission.

Firstly, there is some confusion regarding the actual names that are reported for the virus, the disease that it causes, and names frequently seen in media reporting. From https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-0695-z:

The present outbreak of a coronavirus-associated acute respiratory disease called coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is the third documented spillover of an animal coronavirus to humans in only two decades that has resulted in a major epidemic. The Coronaviridae Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, which is responsible for developing the classification of viruses and taxon nomenclature of the family Coronaviridae, has assessed the placement of the human pathogen, tentatively named 2019-nCoV, within the Coronaviridae. Based on phylogeny, taxonomy and established practice, the CSG recognizes this virus as forming a sister clade to the prototype human and bat severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses (SARS-CoVs) of the species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, and designates it as SARS-CoV-2.

In order to facilitate communication, the CSG proposes to use the following naming convention for individual isolates: SARS-CoV-2/host/location/isolate/date. While the full spectrum of clinical manifestations associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections in humans remains to be determined, the independent zoonotic transmission of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 highlights the need for studying viruses at the species level to complement research focused on individual pathogenic viruses of immediate significance. This will improve our understanding of virus–host interactions in an ever-changing environment and enhance our preparedness for future outbreaks.

There is much more information at the link provided.

Secondly, as this is a fusion of stories received over the last week or so take all quoted figures of casualties as possibly out-of-date. At the time of merging these stories (12 Mar 20) there have been 127,863 confirmed cases world-wide resulting in 4,717 deaths. 68,309 people have already recovered with the remainder either in self-imposed or advisory isolation, in basic hospital care and a relatively small number in critical care. The pandemic has affected 116 countries/regions. Source: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 - a graphical display produced by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Many countries have taken emergency measures to restrict travel or large gatherings of people. As this is a very fluid situation we suggest you refer to the media of any specific country in which you have an interest. President Trump has banned transatlantic air travel from countries in mainland Europe to the USA from Friday 2020-03-13 at 23:59 (no timezone stated) for a period initially of 30 days, and air travel within Europe is also significantly disrupted.

SoylentNews Community -- How has SAR-CoV-2 (Coronavirus) / COVID-19 Affected You? 325 comments

A lot has already happened this year. SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) which can cause COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease 2019) has been making headlines shortly after it was first reported. The first cases were reported to WHO (World Health Organization) on 2019-12-31. The virus spread. It began as an epidemic in China . The world watched apprehensively. Reports surfaced of cases in other countries and the the apprehension grew. For many folk, it turned to fear when it was upgraded to a pandemic: WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 March 2020: "We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic."

We have seen increasing efforts to stem the spread of the disease. Efforts have run the gamut. Closing of borders. Cancellation of sporting events. Conferences cancelled. Churches and other places of worship also closed. Schools closed. Panic buying of household goods and supplies. Supply chain disruptions affecting manufacturers. Restaurant, bars, and other such establishments closed. Work-from-home policies established and enacted.

The changes have been many, widespread, and continuing.

Reading about all the ways that "other people" have been affected is one thing. It seems different, somehow, when it hits closer to home and affects us directly. With many of our usual social activities curtailed or cancelled, it is easy to begin isolating and lose perspective. SoylentNews arose from a troubled period (the SlashCott) and a community has formed from that challenging period.

How have you been affected? Have you been infected? Had a family member or friend who was? Helped neighbors who are struggling? Hunkering down and isolating? (In a basement is optional.) Are you suddenly working from home and finding it challenging to manage your time? Still working on site, but now have a faster commute due to all the other people staying home? Catching up on watching TV shows? Reading more SoylentNews? How has your life changed?

From a somewhat different perspective, how have others helped you to cope... and how have you been able to help others? One of the potential impacts of social distancing is isolation and depression. I count myself fortunate, indeed, to have served this site for over 6 years and for all the people I have gotten to know, here. For those who may not be aware, SoylentNews has its own IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server. Feel free to drop in to #Soylent and just say "Hi!"

Social distancing is permanent when you're dead. So, practice good hygiene and stay safe.

Previously (oldest first):
China Battles Coronavirus Outbreak: All the Latest Updates
2019-nCoV Coronavirus Story Roundup
Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Roundup
Coronavirus Roundup
Coronavirus Roundup (Feb. 17)
Roundup of Stories about the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus and COVID-19 Disease
COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 - CoronaVirus) Roundup
CoronaVirus (SARS-CoV-2) Roundup 2020-03-12
Working from Home: Lessons Learned Over 20 Years


Original Submission

2020-03-25 Coronavirus (COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2) Story Roundup 85 comments

This story presents a roundup of a selection of our COVID-19, SARS-Cov-2, coronavirus story submissions. Some stories have been omitted because they were a duplicate, outdated, superseded, and sometimes just as a matter of keeping the size of these roundups managable. etc. (Before thinning, this story contained over 16,500 words (excluding HTML markup) and that excluded what is contained in this introduction.

If you are not interested in this coverage, then please ignore this story; another story will appear presently. Otherwise, please see the rest of the story below the fold:

2020-03-30 Coronavirus (COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2) Story Roundup 108 comments

This story is a merge of 30 story submissions. Given that it was well over 17,000 words of original source material (excluding HTML markup!), a great deal of pruning was performed to get it to a manageable size. I strongly encourage folks to read the linked articles for more information.

For latest statistics, and finer granularity, see https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/.

As of 20200330_151936 UTC, it reported these world-wide totals:

  • Coronavirus Cases: 743,081
  • Deaths: 35,347
  • Recovered: 157,046
  • Active Cases:
    • 550,688 (Currently Infected Patients)
    • 522,206 (95%) in Mild Condition
    • 28,482 (5%) Serious or Critical
  • Closed Cases:
    • 192,393 Cases which had an outcome
    • 157,046 (82%) Recovered / Discharged
    • 35,347 (18%) Deaths

Stories appear below the fold.

2020-06-15 Roundup of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2, Coronavirus) Stories 153 comments

World-wide data as of: 20200615_140637 UTC:

total_count 8,028,325
closed_count 4,584,407
closed_deaths_count 436,277
closed_deaths_percent (10%)
closed_recovered_count 4,148,130
closed_recovered_percent (90%)
active_count 3,443,918
active_mild_count 3,389,380
active_mild_percent (98%)
active_serious_count 54,538
active_serious_percent (2%)
total_deaths 436,277

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(1) 2
  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 26 2020, @12:56PM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 26 2020, @12:56PM (#962807) Journal

    To reduce the vertical space used here.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:01PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:01PM (#962809)

      Browser plugin? Stylish?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:04PM

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:04PM (#962811) Journal

        I can just edit it right this very moment to change:

        Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

        to:

        Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:51PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:51PM (#962909) Journal

      How about a wee bit o' JavaScript to do it?

      (ducks, hides under desk)

      --
      One thing British schools lack that American schools have is active shooter drills so we are prepared.
    • (Score: 2) by shortscreen on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:22PM

      by shortscreen (2252) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:22PM (#963060) Journal

      Thanks, but I already have a scrollbar.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:02PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:02PM (#962810)

    FUCK CHINE!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:54PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:54PM (#962823)

      A chine in boat design is a sharp change in angle in the cross section of a hull. A hull without chines has a gradually curving cross section. A hard chine is an angle with little rounding, where a soft chine would be more rounded, but still involve the meeting of distinct planes.

      ??? No holes to fuck, I'm confused.

      • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:41PM (2 children)

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:41PM (#962902) Homepage

        Some kayaks with chines also have scupper holes (to ensure optimal draft) a weenie could easily fit through. Scupper plugs are available if you want to plug your hole up.

        Personally I prefer the models that don't have chines but instead have a keel running the length of the boat - stable as fuck in the surf, though the scupper holes in my favorite model slow down and flood the boat when catching slower-moving waves.

        • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:07PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:07PM (#962984)

          He's. A. Wikipedia Warrriorrrrr
          Got stupid in hiiis eeeeyyyes

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:22PM (28 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:22PM (#962816)

    How can they possibly praise cracking down on their citizens, welding them inside their homes, spraying toxic fog that is killing animals all over the place, covering up the lack of smokers getting the virus, arresting the doctors who tried alerting people, etc?

    Where are Fang Bin and Chen Quishi?

    The WHO is fucked up.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:32PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:32PM (#962817) Journal

      https://www.who.int/about/finances-accountability/funding/revised-2019-invoice/chn_en.pdf [who.int]

      Who are the customers of WHO? The dead peasants or the paying member states?

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:00PM (26 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:00PM (#962829)

      How can they possibly praise cracking down on their citizens, welding them inside their homes

      That's how quarantine works. And in case of China, it seems to be working. Number of daily cases inside China is now lower than outside. I wonder what you'll say in 6 months once US is counting 100k+ dead and China is disease free?

      arresting the doctors who tried alerting people

      The people responsible for that have been "removed".

      covering up the lack of smokers getting the virus

      Fake News?

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-dangerous-smokers/ [telegraph.co.uk]

      Seems that smokers are the ones getting hit much harder. Data from previous infections of these viruses proves counter to your fake news.

      The WHO is fucked up.

      WHO cares about disease control, not your "freedums" or dictator preferences or insel dreams. If you think WHO will start bullshitting about politics, then I think you are the one fucked up.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:09PM (25 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:09PM (#962834)

        The fake news is that smokers are getting hit harder. All data for SARS and this virus indicates smokers are resistant, probably due to altered ACE2 expression:
        https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/comments/f9ajbg/another_paper_about_six_sars_patients_reports_100/ [reddit.com]

        How can you say quarantine works in China when the virus has spread worldwide and is the most lethal where there is the most quarantine? It didn't work at all.

        • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:56PM (11 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:56PM (#962863)

          How can you say quarantine works in China when the virus has spread worldwide and is the most lethal where there is the most quarantine? It didn't work at all.

          1. China can't control out of China spread
          2. It's most lethal where it began - Wuhan province. That means that secondary and onward propagation is more efficient and less deadly, like most of these types of viruses.
          3. Number of daily cases in China are dropping - the most basic definition of working

          like I wrote, when China is virus free, then their quarantine worked. This didn't happen yet, but it may happen in next month or two. I do not expect Iran or even Italy to be able to contain their outbreaks which means it will become endemic. At very least from Iran.

          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:11PM (10 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:11PM (#962877)

            If the quarantine worked it wouldn't have spread outside china at all...

            The number of new cases drops anyway once everyone got infected, plus I wouldn't blindly trust any of that data.

            • (Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:20PM (9 children)

              by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:20PM (#962933) Journal

              Your argument lacks - wellll, it lacks any argument.

              The disease is rather stealthy. It didn't arrive with flashing neon lights, a birth announcement, a prom night, or anything like that. The bug made a couple people sick. Then a couple more. Then a half dozen more. Then a score more. It just kind of sneaked along, until some hospitals and physicians noticed that they had a lot of sick people. Of course, that wasn't enough to institute a quarantine. Officials had to be notified, then those officials had to be convinced. And, all the while, more and more people are getting sick.

              The disease was already spread all over China, and a good portion of Asia BEFORE quarantines went into effect.

              Quarantines work. If there is zero contact with outside populations, you can't spread your disease to the outsiders, and they can't spread their diseases to you. It works.

              Of course, it only takes one person to sneak out, to spend a night with a special other to break the quarantine. His/her piece of ass might cost the lives of you and all of your family. But, when properly enforced, the quarantine will work.

              Listening to your complaints, you're probably the guy who would endanger the lives of everyone in your home town, just to get that piece of ass. Can't you just get by with a sheep for awhile?

              --
              “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
              • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:24PM (5 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:24PM (#962938)

                Quarantines work if done properly, Chinas quarantine was not done properly. This is obvious from how the virus has spread.

                It probably hurt more people than it helped. And if they were serious about protecting their people they wouldn't be trying to ignore the smoking thing. Instead they would find it why/how that works and use it for a treatment.

                • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:31PM (4 children)

                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:31PM (#962944) Journal

                  Quarantines work if done properly, Chinas quarantine was not done properly. This is obvious from how the virus has spread.

                  Really? Then how should it spread under a quarantine? Keep in mind people need to eat and all.

                  • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:52PM (3 children)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:52PM (#962959)

                    A quarantine that works is one where the virus does not escape outside the quarantined population. End of story.

                    In this case 5 million exposed people had already left before the quarantine, it was unnecessary and cruel.

                    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:48PM (1 child)

                      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:48PM (#963004) Journal
                      If 5 million people were exposed, then where's the cases? Currently, it's at 80k.

                      Second, why is a quarantine which is working more cruel than exposing a billion people to a lethal disease?
                      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:53PM

                        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:53PM (#963006)

                        Most people seem to be asymptomatic, almost everyone under 30 for example.

                        The quarantine didn't work, it failed and the virus spread.

                    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:56PM

                      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:56PM (#963225)

                      Wow, you're just splitting hairs and grasping at straws.

                      Anything before the quarantine, isn't a quarantine, so technically you can't say the quarantine didn't work. Yes, they should have "started" the quarantine before it left China, call that China's fault if you want. But technically the quarantine worked as far as we can tell as since new infection have decreased in that area.

                      We can't really tell whether all the other infections outside was caused by folks that were infected that left before the quarantine or actual folks that somehow slipped past during the quarantine - neither can you. So as far as anything can tell, it worked.

              • (Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:35PM (2 children)

                by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:35PM (#962947) Journal

                South Korea is testing 200,000 members of a doomsday church linked to more than 60% of its coronavirus cases [businessinsider.com]

                A former member of the cult who acted as Lee's chief interpreter, identified by CNN by the name Kim, told the network it was no wonder the virus spread within the church.

                "They are packed together like sardines in one area," he said, describing group worship. "They are forced to sit line in line, and your knees will literally be touching the other person's knee."

                He added that members were barred from wearing face masks on the grounds that doing so was disrespectful to God. He said members could not miss church for medical appointments or illness.

                As Business Insider's Rhea Mahbubani reported on Monday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a 61-year-old woman was a "super-spreader" in the church.

                More than half a million South Koreans have signed a petition calling for the cult to be disbanded, according to The Korea Herald.

                On Friday, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said South Korea had failed to stop the virus from spreading across the country and officials had begun to focus on containment.

                The world had no chance.

                --
                [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:22PM (1 child)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:22PM (#963095)

                  Hey, at least those churchmembers just might get what they've been praying for.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:59PM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:59PM (#963228)

                    Yea, as long as they don't go out spread their "religion" to innocent folks - you realize the kooks are now armed right?

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:35PM (12 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:35PM (#962893) Journal

          All data for SARS and this virus indicates smokers are resistant, probably due to altered ACE2 expression:

          What data? You link to a study on six non smokers. That's not data.

          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:40PM (11 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:40PM (#962900)

            You'll have to read the comments to find the links to previous discussions, etc.

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:35PM (10 children)

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:35PM (#962946) Journal
              So you couldn't be bothered to link or quote the sources directly?
              • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:49PM (9 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:49PM (#962955)
                • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:34PM (4 children)

                  by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:34PM (#962997) Journal

                  Well I clicked the first one and it talks about 6 people who had SARS and happened to not be smokers as if that proves something.
                  So I clicked the second and it's not even about SARS and says nothing about smoking whatsoever.

                  Conclusion: You are full of shit and spreading dangerous misinformation.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:47PM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:47PM (#963002)

                    Huh? The second one is about the current virus, which is very similar to SARs (uses ACE2 as the receptor). It shows that only about 10% of the 1000 patients were smokers. We would expect 30%.

                    That is the most idiotic "review" I have ever read. You clearly don't have the slightest clue what you are talking about.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @10:04PM (2 children)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @10:04PM (#963151)

                    I think the Russians are testing the waters to see just how dumb and gullible people are.

                    Even if smoking prevents some of the virus nastiness it is still very much not recommended for your health. Maybe its just a Big Tobacco shill trying to get a sales spike from people's hysteria? Crisis or shortage sales events seem to be a big thing the last few years.

                    "Oh no we're gonna run out of bacon! Buy more bacon while you can!" and others that I can't recall.

                    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday February 26 2020, @10:15PM (1 child)

                      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @10:15PM (#963165) Journal

                      I think they're just trying to derail the conversation before it comes around to the fact that Trump fired the US Pandemic Response Team [snopes.com] and he starts taking any blame.

                      • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:10PM

                        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:10PM (#963203)

                        So you don't comprehend that the first paper is about SARS and the second is about the similar novel coronavirus of 2019? And that the second one shows in a table only 12% of the patients were smokers?

                        Is it possible for you to understand that?

                • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 27 2020, @03:04AM (3 children)

                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 27 2020, @03:04AM (#963296) Journal

                  If you were too lazy to read a Reddit comment I doubt you will click those links either, but whatever.

                  And as it turns out, you were too lazy to determine if these links actually supported your claims or not. Let's go through them. In links 1,3,4, the studies were done on a very small number of patients (1-10 patients per study).

                  The links to studies (2,7,8,9) that don't target the effects of smoking could have a variety of biases excluding smokers. I favor that scenario particularly in light of the quote from link 6 below.

                  Link 5 has this caution:

                  Alarmed at the increase in such rumors Hong Kong's Health Department moved Friday to squash the idea, releasing a tersely worded statement saying that rumors of smoking preventing atypical pneumonia were "totally unfounded."

                  A health department spokesman said smoking not only weakens immunity, but increases the risk of SARS as a smoker repeatedly touches their nose and mouth, increasing the chance of transmission.

                  He added that protection from the virus is further reduced as surgical facemasks, now commonly worn in Hong Kong, are removed while smoking.

                  Only one study actually claimed to study the effects of smoking on a coronavirus (SARS), link 6. They had this to say (pp 145-146):

                  The results in this study show that smoking does not protect patients from contracting SARS. In this cohort a greater proportion of non-smokers contracted SARS than smokers, which may appear to support the initial rumours. However, a far greater proportion of non-smoking, female, health care workers contacted SARS cases than smokers and were therefore placed at much greater risk. When adjustments are made for gender, health care occupation and contact history, then smoking is shown to provide no protection. Even if smoking does protect patients against SARS, caution is required because of the many other hazardous effects associated with chronic smoking.

                  I find it telling that you dump nine links, only two of which were on topic, and both of those warn against the risks of smoking.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @03:15PM (2 children)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @03:15PM (#963526)

                    You need to look at the data, of course nothing gets published that claims smoking has a health benefit.

                    That isn't a random dump of papers, it is exhaustive afaik. Find me one paper where smokers are not underrepresented in SARS or nCoV patients. It doesn't exist.

                    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 28 2020, @05:07AM

                      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 28 2020, @05:07AM (#963961) Journal

                      You need to look at the data

                      And I did. The problem is that I'm looking for evidence not merely data.

                      That isn't a random dump of papers, it is exhaustive afaik.

                      So no evidence to support the claim that smoking somehow helps resist coronavirus?

                      Find me one paper where smokers are not underrepresented in SARS or nCoV patients.

                      So what? It doesn't mean what you claim it means.

                    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 28 2020, @12:48PM

                      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 28 2020, @12:48PM (#964075) Journal
                      The point is that any new infectious disease will show similar effects because health workers would be inordinately affected in the early stages of the disease and they smoke well below average. Thus, your data doesn't distinguish between a new disease and a new disease that doesn't affect smokers very much.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:34PM (2 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:34PM (#962818) Journal

    It's usually at this stage that I introduce [wikipedia.org] a mutation like "hardening" or "water-borne" to help circumvent the first-line defenses. It's not until I have 100% infection, including Greenland, that I let it mutate "open sores" to truly become the "Gray Ooze."

    If you make the disease too lethal at first, the infected die before they can spread it to others. If you don't ramp up the lethality steadily, you won't wipe out humanity before running out of time. If you don't throw in curve balls about 2/3rds of the way in, the advanced nations are able to develop vaccines and save everyone.

    It's a macabre game, but it teaches a lot about pandemics in a backhanded way. A vigorous global response is essential, but it also teaches that it doesn't have to be Black Death lethal before panic causes governments and countries to collapse. That can wind up killing more people than the disease.

    Let's hope life does not imitate art here.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:40PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:40PM (#962819)

      There is no mutations. The virus is spreading very effectively and does not need to mutate so it's not doing that. It has encountering very little resistance (from our immune system).

      2% mortality rate, on average in China. 25% among elderly. So the demographic bomb could be just fixed by itself now. Time to buy GE?

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 28 2020, @05:09AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 28 2020, @05:09AM (#963965) Journal

        The virus is spreading very effectively and does not need to mutate so it's not doing that.

        Actually, it probably is mutating a lot. Viruses do that with the more people infected, the more mutations.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:51PM (22 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @01:51PM (#962822)

    The fat lady has sung. This virus is out of the bag. It has already started to spread unconstrained in poorer nations like Iran and that's where majority of the cases are coming from. Italy is also now at the epicenter. China has done a very good job at trying to contain this, and maybe even they have prevented millions of their citizens from dying, but we are not about to do the same in Europe or middle east. And since the virus is detected in poorer nations now, without good healthcare systems, it's only a matter of time before it gets to America. Iran is already cracking down on "fake news" as number of cases is low but deaths suspiciously high. They basically have no idea.

    Stock up now. The preppers - time to bug out soon if you want to avoid this. How long this will circulate now is a question. But probably for a year or two at very least. Number of deaths are expected to be in the 100k+ in the initial wave, but probably in the Spanish Flu area or worse simply because the number of people in the world today. 60% infection rate and 0.5% general mortality. Do the math.

    It looks like the old will be hit the hardest.. up to 25% mortality rate there.

    Also, the worse hit are the healthcare workers. If you pray, pray for them because they are the worse screwed by this virus.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:00PM (18 children)

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:00PM (#962830) Journal

      Why don't you just panic? Go on, spread alarm and despondency. If it makes you happier, could you also write a song about people dying and perhaps we could all sing it with you.

      Prat

      .

      --
      I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
      • (Score: 5, Touché) by takyon on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:19PM (12 children)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:19PM (#962838) Journal

        I'll just pull this out of the summary:

        Americans should begin preparing for the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak in the US, according to a warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the immediate threat to the general public is still low, federal health officials said the coronavirus is likely to expand its footprint in the US.

        "We expect we will see community spread in this country," said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a press briefing Tuesday. "It's more of a question of exactly when this will happen."

        The CDC also outlined steps that cities, business and schools may need to take if the virus becomes a pandemic.

        "We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this is going to be bad," said Messonnier. "Now is the time for businesses, hospitals, communities, schools and everyday people to begin preparing as well."

        The CDC is hinting that maybe it would be a good idea if you went and bought some nice big bags of rice and beans, bottled water, fever relief, etc. As in this week, not a month from now. You don't have to panic, just prepare.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:30PM (#962844)

          You should have already done that a month ago. Get your solar panels, etc now before the price doubles for the next year or so.

        • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:59PM (8 children)

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:59PM (#963010) Journal

          we are not about to do the same in Europe or middle east

          Why not? - it is already happening. Countries from Australia to UK to Brazil have all announced emergency measures today. People have been advised to take reasonable measures - BUT NOT TO START PANIC BUYING.

          matter of time before it gets to America.

          True, but that doesn't make it any more important. People from America, Russia, or China are no more or less important. They might not have the save views of the world, but that doesn't change their value.

          It looks like the old will be hit the hardest. ...up to 25% mortality rate there.

          but only around 2% overall of those that contract the disease. That is still a lot of people but far less than died in either of the World Wars (3% of the world's population at that time. or 75-80 billion people) - and we survived them didn't we? In terms of catastrophes that the world has faced this is still only a minor blip.

          I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't take prudent precautions but to paint this as far worse than it actually is is not helping anyone either.

          --
          I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
          • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:24PM (1 child)

            by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:24PM (#963027) Journal

            ^ Wrong comment.

            --
            [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
            • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:28PM

              by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:28PM (#963031) Journal
              Oops - sorry.
              --
              I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
          • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:32PM (1 child)

            by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:32PM (#963034) Journal

            75-80 billion people

            I meant 75-80 million of course - what a time to make a tupo, typi, typo...ah sod it!

            --
            I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
            • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Thursday February 27 2020, @09:21AM

              by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday February 27 2020, @09:21AM (#963381) Journal

              Nearly as lethal as an accepted aristarchus submission, then? Oh, the humanity! And the panic!

          • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:46PM (1 child)

            by legont (4179) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:46PM (#963043)

            but only around 2% overall of those that contract the disease.

            This has a more realistic analysis https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ [worldometers.info]
            8% of closed cases are currently deaths (and 18% of open cases are serious or critical). It was 10% and 20% a couple of days ago.

            This means that roughly every 5th infected requites hospitalization and half of them die anyway. Once pneumonia starts, it's 50/50.

            --
            "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
            • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 28 2020, @10:30AM

              by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 28 2020, @10:30AM (#964062) Journal

              8% of closed cases are currently deaths

              Of which the vast majority are old and many already have an underlying medical condition, often respiratory or cardio-vascular in nature. It is impossible to say that they would have survived if they had not have also contracted Covid-19, but it is true that the virus did not help matters.

              Funny that, because it closely matches the spread of figures of those who die from flu each year - the old and/or infirm are less able to fight the flu virus with which they are infected. But we don't go quoting an 8% death rate when it is flu - we normally say that they died of pneumonia or other disease that was exacerbated by flu. That doesn't mean that those deaths are unimportant but that the way the deaths are recorded is different. In the Covid case this has all happened at such a speed that all that can be said is the figure that you have quoted which is, of course, correct. The figure quoted does NOT claim that they all died purely as a result of Covid-19. The best that can be given are here [worldometers.info], the same source that you have used.

              • 80+ years old (14.8%)
              • 70-79 years old (8.0%)
              • 60-69 years old (3.6%)
              • 50-59 years old (1.3%)
              • 40-49 years old (0.4%)
              • 30-39 years old (0.2%)
              • 20-29 years old (0.2%)
              • 10-19 years old (0.2%)
              • 0-9 years old (no fatalities )

              Unfortunately, until the WHO can review the medical records of all of those who die they cannot categorically state any figures that are meaningful. If you move down the page that I linked to you will see the table for "Pre-existing medical conditions" (comorbidities), however it is important that you read the caveats on that data :

              • Cardiovascular disease (10.5%)
              • Diabetes (7.3%)
              • Chronic respiratory disease (6.3%)
              • Hypertension (6.0%)
              • Cancer (5.6%)
              • no pre-existing conditions (0.9%)

              *Death Rate = (number of deaths / number of cases) = probability of dying if infected by the virus (%). This probability differs depending on pre-existing condition. The percentage shown below does NOT represent in any way the share of deaths by pre-existing condition. Rather, it represents, for a patient with a given pre-existing condition, the risk of dying if infected by COVID-19.

              Emphasis is by the source. The reason for this is that for the majority of deaths the actual cause is not known, only that the people also were infected with Covid-19 and eventually died.

              However, I think that I am correct if I interpret both those tables together that if you are under 70 years old and have no other precondition, then the chance of you dying from Covid-19 infection is 0.9%.

              --
              I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @09:07AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @09:07AM (#964042)

            > 75-80 billion people

            ??? Where do you get your numbers from ???

            • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 28 2020, @09:59AM

              by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 28 2020, @09:59AM (#964055) Journal

              If you look at the very next comment after that one, you will see that I corrected my typo - from here [wikipedia.org].

              World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion

              It is always better to read the whole conversation rather than jump in to a specific statement. Typos do happen.

              --
              I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
        • (Score: 2, Informative) by Jay on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:39PM (1 child)

          by Jay (8679) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:39PM (#963123)

          Sure, but there is so much not known about the virus that the CDC is just going full worst-case scenario.

          It's quite likely that, like colds and the flu, this virus struggles with warm temperatures. Once May and June hit, COVID-19-season may be largely over, and it becomes fairly hard for it to get transmitted. That gives us 5-6 months to get a vaccine out before it's really an issue again.

          The CDC is hinting that maybe it would be a good idea if you went and bought some nice big bags of rice and beans, bottled water, fever relief, etc.

          Which is quite ridiculous, because this isn't some fatal disease that's going to wipe out humanity. It's actually an order of magnitude less dangerous than a lot of the other coronaviruses, although it seems to spread a lot better.

          There's just no preparing that makes much sense for the average person. Face masks don't help you avoid it, they just help you not spread it if you get it. Hand sanitizer only works in the lab. So get on with life, and if you start feeling sick, go to the doctor. Eat healthy, get your exercise, hydrate, get a good night's sleep, and wash your hands.

          If we don't panic and hoard supplies and shut the country down for cold and flu season, it is crazy to think that we'd do that for something only marginally worse.

          • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:02PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:02PM (#963201)

            This problem could very well not be how many people die from the virus, but the damage it does to the supply chain.

            How long will it take for China to be back up to full production? As this spreads how will it break the production of other countries? How many parts are needed per year for a farmer to plant, grow, and harvest crops? How large is the supply of these parts? Fertilizer? What about transportation of food from farm to store? What about keeping pipelines flowing and getting gas to stations? Ford has five or so months of parts to make new vehicles. Walmart has stock through mid April, how long will it take for new goods to get on shelves after production restarts?

            Sure, toilet paper and diapers are manufactured in America from American made products. But how many chainsaw blades and parts do we have, are those made in the US?

            Globalization has screwed us when one link in the chain fails.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:15PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:15PM (#962882)

        Why don't you just panic? Go on, spread alarm and despondency.

        How about prepare before the rest of the sheeple panic?

        Accepting reality is what you should do now. Not run around like a headless chicken. Buy some food for a month or two before any possible panic.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by richtopia on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:09PM (3 children)

        by richtopia (3160) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:09PM (#962922) Homepage Journal

        The OP might be a bit over-the-top, but it isn't a bad idea to ask everyone to be ready. An extended isolation is relatively easy to prepare for: you don't need to relocate and utilities should be dependable. Make sure your food has additional stocks of non-perishable food and any medicine you may need.

        Best case you have some extra canned/dry food in your house that you can eat in the coming year. I always keep around 20lb of parboiled rice and lentils in my home, mostly because I'm in the Pacific Northwest and I am concerned for the Cascadia fault, but the same preparations apply to a quarantine situation.

        I do not recommend quitting your job and running off into the wilderness (well, now that I type that it sounds a bit relaxing, but more as a retirement goal). You don't need to emulate the Preppers TV show to be prepared for a multi-week at home quarantine.

        • (Score: 2) by corey on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:25AM (1 child)

          by corey (2202) on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:25AM (#963260)

          Here in Australia the media have started telling people to buy a bit more each week in your shopping. And don't forget pet food, toilet paper, etc.

          Thing is, for most this is a mild cold. And it doesn't mutate like the flu shots each year. Personally, I'm not actually overly worried about it, except for my toddler and young child.

          • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:46AM

            by Hartree (195) on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:46AM (#963269)

            A few points: Virii mutate. This will too. It doesn't mean that it will become worse. If you are too good at killing your hosts before you spread, you aren't a very good virus. Spreading is what makes a parasite "good".

            The flu isn't a good comparison as it's not one disease. It's a whole array of closely related ones that we lump under one umbrella name. Given enough time, you might have multiple strains. So far you don't have.

            Thus far, children have not had a high rate of serious illness from it. It's the elderly that are getting nailed by it. See above, about mutation. That could change. But, more likely, it would end up causing relatively mild illness in children as kids are great for spreading it and if they are very sick, they stay home. Of course, this is all probabilistic as mutations are a bit random.

            This disease is so new to being widespread in humans that we just don't know as yet.

        • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:31AM

          by Hartree (195) on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:31AM (#963263)

          The problem is that it may well become a seasonal illness worldwide at this point and you have to come out sometime. So, the only reason for hiding away is to keep the inevitable catching of it delayed so that we have better treatments (or maybe a vaccine) and or the crisis point is past so the hospitals won't be overloaded.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:52PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:52PM (#962910) Journal

      It has already started to spread unconstrained in poorer nations like Iran and that's where majority of the cases are coming from.

      And you know this how? WHO isn't reporting that. It's tiresome to get the same disinformation every time a new disease pops up.

      Iran is already cracking down on "fake news" as number of cases is low but deaths suspiciously high.

      19 deaths so far in Iran.

      As I see it, there's a fair chance with all the spreading in numerous countries, that indeed the cat may be out of the bag. But it's not rocket science to halt spread of the disease as China demonstrated.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:42PM (1 child)

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:42PM (#963000) Journal

      Boy, all this doom and gloom.

      Look on the bright side, friend, it might result in them cancelling the Olympics! [theguardian.com]

      • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:33AM

        by Hartree (195) on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:33AM (#963264)

        "Boy, all this doom and gloom."

        Always look on the bright side of death! Just before you draw your terminal breath!

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:03PM (24 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:03PM (#962832)

    Friends in Japan are telling me that hospitals are discouraging doctors from testing people as there is no cure anyways besides rest and waiting it out to see if you die or not.

    This is to keep infection and death stats down (hey if they died and were not confirmed coronavirus, it "could have been the flu they died from right"?) so that the Olympics dont get cancelled, which the govt is heavily invested in.. they want all the teams and spectators to show up in July no matter what..

    China is doing something similar too now so they can get people to come back to work and the factories open so their economy doesnt crash.. their numbers are fake and why their infection rates so 'suddenly improved' a few days ago
    .

    Scary stuff, it means there is no way to know what is actually happening on the ground because the govts in the afflicted countries are too heavily invested in the outcomes to be honest..

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:59PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:59PM (#962868)

      Friends in Japan are telling me that hospitals are discouraging doctors from testing people

      Seems like Fake News.

      China is doing something similar too now

      Ok, fake news.

      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:05PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:05PM (#962873)

        No its real (in Japan at least). My friend works in healthcare at a clinic there,, this is definitely happening.

        (Their Govt did the same thing btw during Fukushima... nothing serious here, move along..)

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:53PM (1 child)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:53PM (#962911) Journal
          Unless, of course, it's not real.
          • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:51PM

            by legont (4179) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:51PM (#963047)

            It sounds plausible as Japan managed to test only 1700 out of 3700 cruise occupants by the time they let the folks go. They probably simply do not have tests.

            On a similar note, the US definitely does not have tests.

            --
            "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
        • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:04PM

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:04PM (#963014) Journal

          Can you give any citation for that 'fact' - just because your friend said so doesn't make it something we should all accept at face value.

          After all, my friend said the moon is made of cheese - yet the American government insists on hiding that fact from us. Why? Are they trying to corner the cheese market?

          --
          I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:29PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:29PM (#963108)

        Friends in Japan are telling me that hospitals are discouraging doctors from testing people

        Seems like Fake News.

        Maybe, but I've heard the same about Japan, just a different mechanism: hospitals don't want to test because if they find a positive case, they risk having the whole hospital quarantined, which means lost profits and no compensation from the government.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @09:25AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @09:25AM (#963382)

          I've heard that Trump's entire family are Lizard people, so there is that, alongside the Japan hospitals where Obama was born. Oh, and Corona vaccines cause erectile disfunction and Mormonism.

    • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:20PM (11 children)

      by zocalo (302) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:20PM (#962886)
      Yep, there's definitely a motive to "skew the figures" in infection hotspots, although those motives do vary from country to country and the false claims don't exactly stand up to scrutiny one way or another. Take Iran's published numbers for instance; they have a *vastly* higher mortality rate than anywhere else with a significant outbreak, so either a) their infection numbers are off by a few numbers of magnitude or their health care positively sucks. A mountineering friend that had a pretty bad fall while climbing in Iran seems to indicate that the latter is not the case (at least for foreigners and/or in major cities - he was airlifted directly to Tehran), so yeah...

      At least we should get some more realistic data into the public domain from Italy. Western country with lots of western tourists there, many of whom will have already gone home, and a similar lockdown approach to Wuhan, so going to much harder to avoid the numbers getting out like it would be for more authoritarian governments with much stricter media controls. Then again, I don't recall quite this level of reaction over SARS and MERS - which makes you think that maybe governments know it's worse than it is being made out to be in sensible reporting and are trying to avoid mass panics, runs on the shops for essentials, and such like while they do what they can to prepare for the inevitable and look after their own.
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:02PM (7 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:02PM (#962914) Journal

        Take Iran's published numbers for instance; they have a *vastly* higher mortality rate than anywhere else with a significant outbreak

        19 deaths [wikipedia.org] so far. So maybe it's underreporting a lot of cases or maybe it's just that the circumstances were unusually lethal.

        Then again, I don't recall quite this level of reaction over SARS and MERS - which makes you think that maybe governments know it's worse than it is being made out to be in sensible reporting and are trying to avoid mass panics, runs on the shops for essentials, and such like while they do what they can to prepare for the inevitable and look after their own.

        It's already worse than the two of them combined. So why shouldn't there be this level of reaction?

        • (Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:21PM (6 children)

          by quietus (6328) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:21PM (#962992) Journal

          On the other hand, the number of deaths in China is about 2,500, on a population of about 1.4 billion. That sounds suspiciously low, to justify the quarantaine measures deployed.

          For comparison, in Europe, every year 40,000 people die from the common flu. For Belgium alone, that's 3 per day. Projecting onto China (Belgium pop 11M, China 1400M), this would come down to about 380 deaths per day.

          So, if corona was just another variant of the common flu, we should now see a death tally of 380*50 ~ 19,000 deaths.

          Given these numbers, zocalo does have a point: these are very strange measures to take for something that causes a lot less deaths than the common flu.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:41PM (4 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:41PM (#962999) Journal
            What's suspicious about it. It has a higher lethality than normal flu. 2% of the better part of a billion people is far more than 20k deaths.
            • (Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:24PM (3 children)

              by quietus (6328) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:24PM (#963026) Journal

              About 28 million. Traditional flu season last about 6 weeks.

              Let's say that infection is limited to 10 percent of the population -- the ordinary percentage of non-vaccinated people who get the flu. So, if the 2% fatality rate is correct, the whole epidemic should result in 2.8 million deaths in China. Divvied over 6 weeks, that comes down to a death rate of 450,000 deaths per week.

              The reported death rate, however, is a mere 2,500 deaths over the whole of 6 weeks.

              • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:54PM (2 children)

                by legont (4179) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:54PM (#963050)

                Fatality rate is not 2% https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ [worldometers.info]

                --
                "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
                • (Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:31PM (1 child)

                  by quietus (6328) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:31PM (#963064) Journal

                  WHO estimate, on that same page.

                  • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday February 26 2020, @10:34PM

                    by legont (4179) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @10:34PM (#963184)

                    The page explains how that estimate was done and it does not make sense, except calm down propaganda.

                    --
                    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
          • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:44PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:44PM (#963042)

            I could combine these facts into some sort of a long form paragraph, but I think just bullet pointing things (in no particular order) will be more to the point:

              - Site [worldometers.info] for numbers and data.
              - The virus has a stupidly long incubation period, and a comparably long sickness period. And it spreads without any visible symptoms. And it is *absurdly* contagious.
              - Asia is benefited in that wearing surgical masks is pretty typical both for sickness and for pollution.
              - China has only had 2,715 deaths but they've also only had 30,049 recovered or discharged.
              - Currently china has about 48,000 infected with about 9,000 in serious/critical condition. So real longterm ratios are not clear.
              - If this virus is not contained it will gradually infect the whole world due to its nature.
              - Unclear on how it affects people infected twice. Some viruses such as Dengue (counter intuitively) become *much* worse on a second infection. Hearsay (friend in China) indicates this virus is the same.
              - Flu generally kills very old, very young, and those with weak immune systems. This is killing otherwise healthy people in the prime of their life.
              - Mutation. If this virus mutates, the effects could be unimaginably catastrophic.

            I'm leaving out lots of stuff no doubt. But the long and short of this is that the current apparent overreaction is, without doubt, the correct reaction. If America is infected, expect large numbers of deaths. Keep in mind that China's low numbers are only following an extremely brutal and very well implemented quarantine. People would never accept that here (even more given current political divisions) and we probably no longer even have the capability to effectively effect such procedures even if people would accept it. And I feel that far from being a nation where people would come together in crisis, we're starting to become the sort of nation where some people would intentionally try to spread it to others. Even one person doing this could easily infect thousands in a city that isn't in complete lockdown.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:21PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:21PM (#963025)

        It's not the healthcare. There's no miracle cure or treatment for this virus. If you get it then they can try to keep you hydrated, keep your temperature down, give you decongestants, and so on. This is stuff where the quality of treatment is not going to vary much at all whether you're in a state of the art facility, or a improvised hospital in a developing nation. As an aside this tends to be the case for like 95% of illnesses as well. Makes people going to be 'best hospitals' for regular procedures somewhat nonsensical - the only big difference you'll get is the bill.

        One big difference however is more advanced facilities will have the resources and technology to help prevent spread, decontaminate infected areas, etc. That's all complex and sophisticated - and very important for something like this. But only for those that are not already infected! So my wager would be on a much higher infection rate than reported, probably to try to stop a mass panic.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:20PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:20PM (#963093)

          'Good healthcare' basically amounts to anti-biotic availability to prevent the pneumonia that actually does the killing. Also, steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to open closed airway, and IV drips to keep your body hydrated when you're too weak to get out of bed and get yourself a glass of water.

          • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:11PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @11:11PM (#963205)

            'Good healthcare' basically amounts to anti-biotic availability to prevent the pneumonia that actually does the killing.

            Secondary bacterial pneumonia is likely in cases of advanced viral pneumonia but it's an overreactive immune system that causes organ damage (even to those who survive). People saying "it's just the flu" are not familiar with any of the case studies. [youtube.com]

    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:44PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:44PM (#963001) Journal

      Friends in Japan are telling me that hospitals are discouraging doctors from testing people as there is no cure anyways besides rest and waiting it out to see if you die or not.

      Meanwhile, here in the country that spends the most on healthcare: the test doesn't even work! [washingtonpost.com]

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by sjames on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:25PM (2 children)

      by sjames (2882) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:25PM (#963062) Journal

      In the U.S. a similar strategy will be implemented. Since many can't afford to go to the doctor either because they're uninsured, or the copay is too high in spite of insurance, they won't get tested either.

      Of course, since they can't afford to lose a day's pay or might get fired if they call out, they will appear at work as usual.

      Be sure to advise anyone in that situation that they should cough on the boss.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @04:53AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @04:53AM (#963319)

        Public hospitals in the US cannot refuse to treat anybody, even those who cannot or will not pay. It's one of the reason there tend to be so many homeless and junkies around hospitals. They'll come in each night faking some illness or another trying to score drugs and the hospital has to waste their time processing them over and over again.

        • (Score: 2) by sjames on Friday February 28 2020, @07:15PM

          by sjames (2882) on Friday February 28 2020, @07:15PM (#964284) Journal

          They can dun you for payment (unless you're homeless). You still end up not at work (so fired or with a short paycheck), so the working poor will still show up for work sick rather than see the doctor unless they're convinced they're sick enough to die.

          Wishful thinking is a lousy healthcare policy.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by theluggage on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:49PM

      by theluggage (1797) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:49PM (#963069)

      Friends in Japan are telling me that hospitals are discouraging doctors from testing people as there is no cure anyways besides rest and waiting it out to see if you die or not.

      Spoiler: unless you're one of the few percent of people for whom the regular flu is life-threatening, you probably won't.

      Flu isn't a joke, and making a serious effort to nip any new flu variant in the bud is a jolly good idea for the sake of those who are vulnerable, but this one ain't gonna wipe out civilisation.

      Shutting down schools, factories and restricting travel during flu 'season' every year could save half a million lives [who.int] every year, yet somehow, not only don't we do it, we have TV adverts selling flu remedies on the basis that they'll help you stagger in to work and share the virus with your colleagues. Heck, even though there's a seasonal flu vaccine every year, mostly only the vulnerable people get offered the jab - there's no universal vaccination program that would reduce the spread of flu and protect people for whom the vaccination didn't work.
       

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by quietus on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:17PM (3 children)

    by quietus (6328) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:17PM (#962928) Journal

    A 60 years old Frenchman has died in Paris, while another is in critical condition in Amiens, not far from the border with Belgium. Neither of those 2 patients had visited Italy or China; the 60-year old victim was a teacher. The total number of registered cases in France now tallies 20, with 5 from the same chalet in the French Alps -- the carrier there was a Briton on skiing holiday: he probably catched the virus in Singapore.

    A 50-year old German and his wive are in critical condition in Heinsberg, close to the border with Belgium and Netherlands. German authorities have closed all schools and day nurseries in the city. In Southern Germany (Baden-Wurtemberg) a 25-year old has been hospitalized -- he had been to Milan not long ago.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:29PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:29PM (#962942) Journal

      the carrier there was a Briton on skiing holiday

      Damned Brits - still dreaming of empire.

      --
      “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @12:35AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @12:35AM (#963245)

      First Spaniard with unknown source (no travel to / from Italy, Iran, China, etc). So the virus is already roaming Spain. Other 12 cases in Spain had been already tracked to known sources.

      No airport checks, saying "asymptomatic patients have not symptoms"... yep, but the others do. The faster you pick people, the faster spread can be cut, and more important, the easier to trace everything. Old expert saying "do not worry, worst cases are old people" was the ironic side (and sad, as it sounded like old people are disposable) for a country where population is aging.

      Also first case in South America, Brazil.

      Maybe suspending Mobile World Congress was a good idea after all. Japan also cancelled camera expo CP+2020.

      Italy is quarantining towns, but Iran has not plans for that so far.

      News of tourism (Venice Carnival anyone?) and manufacturing (because lack of supplies from one country that starts with C) going down are becoming normal.

      It seems 21st Century will enjoy a new flu, and suffer another economic crisis, at the same time. Was that the "hold my beer" moment or still to come?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by quietus on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:21PM

      by quietus (6328) on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:21PM (#963457) Journal
      Japan shuts down [reuters.com] all schools in the country until the end of March. A female tour guide in her 40s, who had been infected with the virus but recovered, now has tested positive for the virus again, after developing a sore throat and chest pains. From that same Reuters article:

      “Once you have the infection, it could remain dormant and with minimal symptoms, and then you can get an exacerbation if it finds its way into the lungs,” said Philip Tierno Jr., Professor of Microbiology and Pathology at NYU School of Medicine.

      Tierno said much remains unknown about the virus. “I’m not certain that this is not bi-phasic, like anthrax,” he said, meaning the disease appears to go away before recurring.

      Asked to comment on prospects for the Olympic Games going ahead this summer, Tierno said, “The Olympics should be postponed if this continues ... There are many people who don’t understand how easy it is to spread this infection from one person to another.”

      In Germany [tagesschau.de], one of the critically ill patients had been to a Carnival celebration with over 300 people last weekend; all these people now will be tested. In Munich, 240 people are isolated in their houses. According to a spokesman for the Koch Institute, developing a vaccin will take months. It is doubtful whether a product could be put on the market before the end of this year. Germany's Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, stated that the transmission chain for the newly registered cases could not yet be established.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:15PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @06:15PM (#962989)

    Ban all international travel, or at the very least require 14 day quarantines on either end. In other words, fly to London, spend 14 days in their customs, do your business, fly back to the USA, spend 14 days in our customs, complete your business trip. The class of people that does this isn't going to stand for a minimum 28-day turnaround on international travel so we're pretty much going to get the pandemic.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @09:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @09:28AM (#963383)

      It's OK! Don't panic! Mike Pence is on the job! He has organized a massive prayer force to defend America against biology.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @07:06PM (#963018)

    "All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia".

  • (Score: 2) by shortscreen on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:31PM (3 children)

    by shortscreen (2252) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:31PM (#963065) Journal

    This might limit their ability to respond to a public health crisis.

    I imagine the neocons are reviewing their plans to send in aid workers slash coup plotters at this very moment.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Hartree on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:48AM (1 child)

      by Hartree (195) on Thursday February 27 2020, @01:48AM (#963270)

      I'm not sure the virus or the neocons can do much worse than what the North Korean government already does.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @07:36AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @07:36AM (#963358)

        how is this funny?

    • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday February 27 2020, @05:48AM

      by Sulla (5173) on Thursday February 27 2020, @05:48AM (#963333) Journal

      Kim already designated his successor two days ago, and the Iranian health minister who has it met with the Ayatollah a few hours before the press briefing where he looks like he is dying.

      --
      Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(1) 2