The coronavirus may have reached Los Angeles even before China announced its outbreak
Was the novel coronavirus on the loose in Los Angeles way back in December, before the World Health Organization was even aware of an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China?
A new analysis of medical records from UCLA hospitals and clinics suggests the answer might be yes.
Researchers from UCLA and their colleagues at the University of Washington documented an unmistakable uptick in patients seeking treatment for coughs. The increase began the week of Dec. 22, 2019, and persisted through the end of February.
Also at KTLA.
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Coronavirus May Have Reached Los Angeles in December
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(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @07:57PM (10 children)
Lots of Chinamen in Chinatown, any one of them could have had Wuhan Flu in December.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @08:09PM (7 children)
Racist bait, sweet
And hey, Chinaman isn't the preferred nomenclature.
Also, here in AMERICA we take responsibility for ourselves! It is the Trump Virus. No no, not the MAGA shit, COVID-19.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @08:27PM (6 children)
Chinese is not a race.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:05PM (5 children)
Neither is white, but you man babies seem to think so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:54PM (4 children)
I'm confused -- are the man babies the white supremecists of Antifa/BLM who seek to elevate what in their minds are lower beings, or the the traditional insane right like the KKK who do not seek to elevate what in their minds are lower beings?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @10:27PM (3 children)
It matters little, really. If the darkies would just stay on the plantation that the Dems were gracious enough to give them, everything would be find.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @10:58PM
Or go back to mother Afrika. We gave them Liberia, we'll give them rides back there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @11:08PM (1 child)
You remind me of one of the regular dickless shitposters. Ethanol-Fucked is that u??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @04:39PM
stupid brainwashed Goi slave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @10:56PM (1 child)
Chinatown is mostly occupied by Vietnamese, actually.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @11:37PM
The Vietnamese in the US are mostly ethnic Chinese. The jews of Asia, many of them were ejected from Vietnam after the war. They had the propensity to hitch their wagon to whatever foreign colonizer was opportune.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @08:11PM
I bet it was in New Orleans by Oct 31st.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Friday September 11 2020, @08:34PM (34 children)
I can tell you first hand with a fair amount of painful certainty that it is was in Georgia in December.
But nobody was looking for it. Nobody cared. It was just a "bad flu". As far as anyone was concerned it didn't exist until the TV officially said it did. Thats why the whole shelter in place was such a failure. By that time it was wide spread enough, nothing could stop it.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:04PM
China did nothing wrong. It was all Drumpf's fault.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:08PM (3 children)
Hell, nobody cared by March 8th. I happened to keep an issue of our university's paper, and there is but one student editorial on Covid-19. 10 days later, we were all under house arrest, and only the privileged few could work their trade.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:12PM (2 children)
And six months later, I can barely get some office time in, while having to wear a dirty rag, because a medicine man said so on TV and everybody is too scared to insist on their benefit.
And Biden says he wants to continue this show? "Free money for all! If it is slow in coming, just smash in a jewelry store or something."
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:37PM
You can't spend much time in the office? What's the matter? Did Putin institute a lockdown that forced the troll farms to work from home?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @10:30PM
Well wash your dirty rags, fool. COVID-19 is not transmitted through the water system, no one has turned your water off.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:11PM (15 children)
So all the other countries that took it seriously and are now able to begin returning to normal are just fake neeewwwwz huh? Shelter in place has worked for quite a few states while the hoaxy-remain-open states are now getting hammered. Such strange coincidences! Even fox viewers are starting to catch on here and there, only so basic reality can be ignored before even the non-thinkers figure it out.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:20PM (13 children)
You can try repeating to yourself that the fucking over you got from your government was good (which countries that implemented restrictions *are* actually beginning to return to normal?), but Sweden's experience keeps on poking its finger into your eye:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_in_Sweden [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SparkyGSX on Friday September 11 2020, @10:23PM (12 children)
Most of Europe is reasonably back to normal.
People like to point at Sweden claiming it did good without a lockdown, but they still have more deaths per capita then the US, and they have an advantage of a very low population density.
If you do what you did, you'll get what you got
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday September 12 2020, @12:14AM (4 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @08:27AM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday September 12 2020, @09:38AM (2 children)
Ummm, perhaps compared to Greece, Portugal and Italy... but Sweden is dead last economically compared to its nordic neighbours. [businessinsider.com.au]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @10:13AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @10:21AM
A sharp dip, way less deep than the EU average, that lasts less long than the EU average isn't "dead", you're just being hyperbolic.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @01:07AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @08:11AM (4 children)
Erm, excuse me?!??!
Rank Country Deaths Delta /Capita Population
11 USA 197,421 +1,094 596 331,388,690
12 Italy 35,597 +10 589 60,443,857
13 Sweden 5,846 +4 578 10,111,779
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday September 12 2020, @09:31AM (3 children)
Soooo... Sweden was worse until quite recently when the US finally plumetted past them.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @10:03AM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday September 12 2020, @10:20AM (1 child)
...all the while Sweden has harsher lockdown rules than its neighbours for months now... (although that might change if these second waves get serious enough).
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @10:53AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @05:02PM
LOL. Are Spain and France not Europe for you, or are you deluded?
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Friday September 11 2020, @09:57PM
They already had their elections or there were no elections scheduled.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:21PM (4 children)
A proper shelter in place could stop even a wide spread pandemic.
The problem is there wasn't a proper shelter in place.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @10:34PM (2 children)
Shelter in place works huh?
Maybe before the pandemic was scheduled, we should have dug root cellars, and bought bit walk-in freezers, and stocked them with a year's supply of food.
That shelter in place shit really doesn't work very well, if you have to go out to buy food in the same grocery stores everyone else uses.
And, I wipe my ass with face masks. Hope you got one of them!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @10:51PM
We should all pay attention to medical professionals and help our countries return to normal as quickly as possible.
apk
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @02:34AM
Since you usually talk out of your ass, that would be an appropriate place to wear your mask.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @05:07PM
A divine intervention could too. In practice, in the year of our Lord 2020, neither did. Pull the other one.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @09:46PM (3 children)
Last September, a family member had the symptoms we now all know and love, these developed from being 'a cold' one day into full-blown pneumonia very rapidly, scarily fucking rapidly...rushed to hospital in the ambulance with the blues and twos deployed rapidly. That was a seriously shitty night at the hospital, no-one could tell us what the hell was happening and when we finally did get to see her once they'd managed to stabilise her, something like 7 hours after admission, she was out of it on a ventilator having all sorts of antibiotics and other fun chemicals pumped into her system...septicaemia, we were told, was their primary worry at that point, and they hadn't a clue as to what the hell was going on and what was causing it all.
The interesting thing now, in retrospect, was the number of times we were asked by various doctors and specialists 'has she been out of the country recently?' and questions about contact with foreigners, foreign animals or foreign goods, and, on hearing we had cats and dogs, they also wanted to know if any of the animals were exhibiting any signs of being Ill and to inform them if they did start exhibiting them.
Also of note, a couple of days after her admission to hospital, I was Ill for about a week with a dry cough, raging sore head and felt as if someone had worked me over with an iron bar (yes, I have been hit with one in anger, so I know what it feels like and have the limp when the cold weather sets in to prove it).
So that was mid-September last year, in the UK, a wee bit before the first official Chinese case in November.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:59AM
Perhaps coincidentally - although I'm not sure - I experienced significantly harder erections in September. Could have been COVID we'll never know.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Sunday September 13 2020, @10:35AM (1 child)
I am in the Los Angeles area.
I came down with something in that same time frame.
So did three of my neighbors (that I know of).
It was the nastiest thing I have ever had since childhood. It has apparently done some permanent cardiopulmonary damage.
First time I have ever had to go to urgent care.
They ran all sorts of tests. And could not find out what it was. I eventually pulled through and went home.
I had the whole gamut of covid symptoms, everything. Including the rash, which I still have, and nothing seems to cure it, but it has begun to shrink a bit. Right in the butt crack. ( just trying to document for anyone else seeking comparison).
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @02:36PM
For the record and for posterity, how far into the butt crack? You mean right in there or just surface.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 11 2020, @10:58PM
No you can't. The problem is that bad flus (and other coronaviruses for that matter) have the same general symptoms and winter is when they spread. My workplace and all the touristy areas around Montana and Wyoming was hit by a flu-like disease in December and January too. But if it had been COVID, then where did the cases go? Presently, Montana and Wyoming have very low levels of covid activity.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by isocelated on Friday September 11 2020, @11:27PM
I'm in the southeastern US and I had a "severe cold" in mid-March that was suspicious as hell. It's been circulating longer than anyone is willing to admit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:24AM
Thing is, until China noticed the odd new disease roaming around Wuhan and alerted the WHO, no one even knew to be looking for it.
Most people don't go looking for that which is not yet known to exist.
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Monday September 14 2020, @01:27AM
I thought the same thing in South East Minnesota at the end of December and early January. But I had a surgery a couple months ago. According the antibody test, what I had thought was a nasty flu, just after New Year's, really was just a nasty flu. The worst I had in over 40 years.
I know several teachers who were expecting to get tested and find out they had already had Wuhan Flu*. The first actual cases I've heard about in town were within the last month or so. Turns out what happens at Sturgis does not necessarily stay in Sturgis.
*No, it's not some racist comment. I want "Wuhan Flu to catch on because it sounds like "Fu Manchu". I'm hoping to hear the waves of the pandemic get names like "The Return of Wuhan Flu", "The Wrath of Wuhan Flu" "Re-Enter Wuhan Flu" & "The Vengeance of Wuhan Flu". And I'm waiting for someone to start selling "The Mask of Wuhan Flu". Eventually someone can document the virus under the title "Terror of Wuhan Flu".
** OK, I guess you could ding me because some of the Fu Manchu stories were themselves racist. Be more creative than me and find something that ties into the Marx brothers or Abbott & Costello.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Snotnose on Friday September 11 2020, @10:33PM (30 children)
Some factory, 3-4 months back, 7-8 executives around Trump all wearing masks, Trump maskless.
It wasn't the deal breaker, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Trump's Covid response has been abysmal by any standard.
Biden is a really shitty candidate, Kamala is worse (I live in California, I've watched her)
Yet I'm voting Biden in 2 months even knowing Kamala will be prez in 2 years. Trump flat out needs to go, as long as Biden didn't pick HRC for VP he was getting my vote.
/ what have I learned in the past 5 minutes?
// It's Kamala, not Kamela
/// oops, wrong forum for slashies
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 11 2020, @10:48PM (15 children)
You get a nod of respect, for the fact you recognize there are no good choices. Just don't forget there are more than just the two choices.
https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_registered_2020_presidential_candidates#Notable_declared_candidates [ballotpedia.org]
Jorgensen may be the best choice, you know. She's had her rabies shot, unlike any of the rest!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @10:53PM (14 children)
So who are you voting for?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 11 2020, @10:59PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:03AM
I had you pegged for Kanye. Shit, time to calibrate the print heads and change the ink cartridges.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 11 2020, @10:59PM (10 children)
I'm still considering. It won't be D though.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @11:11PM (9 children)
I had a feeling you were gonna say that. I'll give you points for having enough integrity to not flat out lie that you won't vote Trump, but that is like giving Dahmer credit for giving his victims a token burial of the bits he did not eat.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 11 2020, @11:22PM (7 children)
If you were paying attention, I didn't vote Trump four years ago. I voted, came to the house, and posted my vote on line, right here at SN. You can even search for my post on that day, if you like.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @11:37PM (6 children)
Did someone accuse you of voting Trump in 2016??? You gonna not vote for him again? Or do the videos of Spanish protesters and Trump's Murrica scare you too badly?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 11 2020, @11:50PM (5 children)
I don't see a lot of Spanish protestors. Do you have links? What I see mostly are gay-ass privileged white Democrats using black rights as a cover for rioting.
(Score: 1) by zion-fueled on Saturday September 12 2020, @03:07PM
Jorgensen supports BLM. Make of that what you will.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @09:19PM (3 children)
Hahahahhaah, you just can't say it! So you'll be voting for Trump but just don't wanna admit your guilty pleasure.
Back to the topic you switched to since your spine couldn't handle any more weight. Go fact check, Trump's ads have shown footage from Spanish protests and from America under his own administration to imagine what would happen under Biden.
It amazes me how Obama is still mentioned around here to try and shift responsibility, but when it comes to widespread protests, riots, and looting over police murders of innocents suddenly Trump bears no responsibility for repeatedly calling for violence against fellow citizens. He encourages escalated levels of violence, and even violence simply over political differences.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 12 2020, @09:34PM (2 children)
Violence against protestors? I'm not seeing that either. I'm seeing violent protests, in which idiots are attempting to burn down a courthouse, and have burnt down several businesses. I've called for police snipers to target those who hurl bombs and set fires. Aside from that - I don't see calls for violence against protestors. Have any protestors been shot in Richmond? There is an entirely different breed of protestor in Richmond. No injuries, very few arrests, no beatings, nothing of the sort.
Seems to me the protestors need to learn the definitions of "protest" and "riot".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:05AM
Violence against protestors? I'm not seeing that either.
Every day shows you are capable of sinking lower. Sad stuff you authoritarian jackass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:05AM
Snipers lol
Why so coy? Shoot the criminals in the back as they run away. That'll solve all the problems.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2020, @11:26PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbM6WbUw7Bs [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @03:59AM
Hillary as a write in.
(Score: 2) by corey on Friday September 11 2020, @11:28PM (3 children)
(Score: 3, Disagree) by barbara hudson on Saturday September 12 2020, @12:25AM (1 child)
What did you expect. This site stopped pretending to be about tech a while ago.
I'm just wondering if the pivot to outright right wing nuttiness is a prelude to becoming another LGF Meets Facebook (seriously, what was the story about the guy with the alarm clock eating in a pub about? Strictly Facebook and Twitter content.
So how long before ads and more click bait?
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:07AM
How long? I don't know. But when the ads come and the addons stop working, sayanora. I'll be going to AOL.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @01:43AM
Zero comments in and it got racist.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @02:48AM (3 children)
The people said "We don't want an evil witch like Hillary. Give us a good candidate or lose"
The DNC-MIC said "Ha. we will see your rejection of HRC and raise you by putting bumbling Trump on the Table"
The people said "We will take the bumbling Trump over the evil HRC and raise you a republican President"
The DNC-MIC said "Fuck the people, we are going All In with shitty candidates. Biden and Harris it is. You won't dare elect Trump again"
The people get to respond in two months. It is going to be interesting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @09:22PM (2 children)
Trump tried to start a war with Iran and failed because the world realizes he is a puppet. He sold Saudi Arabia, one of the worst human rights abusers and total dictatorship involving bone saws, a FUCK TON of weapons. You cheer him on cause WOOO $$$$ then pretend it is not you propping the MIC . . .
Fuck off you shill.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:57AM (1 child)
Some points:
Invading Iran is the MIC's wet dream. If Trump had tried to invade Iran he would have magically been turned into a statesman leader by the controlled media. His demonization is partly because he refused to invade. Try googling "real men go to Tehran".
Trump owns no weapons factories. Who is really selling weapons to SA?
I am not American. I do not get to vote either way.
If you see the GP post as an endorsement of Trump rather than a condemnation of the DNC-MIC then you have a serious case of TDS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:51AM
You totally missed the point. Instead of taking responsibility for destabilizing the Middle East, Trump has courted MBS and sold our hardware to a scary fucking dictatorship. Better for the MIC, and escalation with Iran thwarted by the military that really didn't want to kill the Iranian general.
Condemning the MIC is fine, but anyone who thinks Trump is not playing nice with them has a full blown case of TDS. I would have preferred we not attack Iran in any way, held to the nuclear deal we had with them instead of tossing years of work into the trash, condemned the Saudis for murdering Kashoggi, and not sold high end military tech to the Saudis.
But ok, keep pushing your dumb agenda, worlds gotta burn amirite????
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @08:42AM (2 children)
You're vaguely allowed to get it wrong, as you're not a journalist whose very job is to get such things correct: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/fox-news-host-tucker-carlson-really-doesnt-like-being-corrected-when-it-comes-to-pronouncing-kamala-2020-08-12
(Yes, I know that's what you were referring to, but in case others didn't get the reference, now they can catch up.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:36AM (1 child)
And her middle name is Devi, which is only one letter short of Devil.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:11AM
You're looking way too deep. Try skin level.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:33AM (2 children)
And what will you do when Biden, who is clearly exhibiting rapid mental decline, drops off the ticket before the election, and the dem's insert their favorite golden girl into Biden's slot: HRC?
Will you vote for HRC and KDH?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:01AM (1 child)
I don't think they can actually do that. It is more likely that after (or if) Biden wins, he will totter on for a few months, then hand over to Harris, who will nominate HRC as VP. I wouldn't give much for Harris's life expectancy at that point. As someone else commented "I would not want my heartbeat to be the only thing between Hillary and the Presidency."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:13AM
And don't move to Benghazi any time soon. That bitch has some serious payback to deliver.
(Score: 2) by corey on Friday September 11 2020, @11:42PM (5 children)
(Score: 1) by unhandyandy on Saturday September 12 2020, @02:29AM (1 child)
Maybe we sent it to China.
(Score: 2) by legont on Saturday September 12 2020, @04:05AM
I think "we" sent it to Iran, but it escaped.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @02:57AM (1 child)
Did they deliberately spread it to the rest of the world? Well, they blocked internal travel from Wuhan to anywhere in China, while simultaneously encouraging international travel from Wuhan.
China could have contained it within their country, but that would have put them at a massive economic disadvantage to every country that didn't get it. Spreading it worldwide at the very least leveled the field, and given their totalitarian attitudes they can probably deal with a pandemic that mostly kills off useless old people by simply denying it exists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @04:59AM
Letting people leave meant they had less people to deal with. Less countries on a PR attack against China for how they're treating their visitors during the pandemic and fewer diplomats trying to get special treatment for their citizens. It doesn't have to be a conspiracy against everyone else, just a minor effort to protect themselves.
(Score: 1) by zion-fueled on Saturday September 12 2020, @03:11PM
Chinese doctors gave warnings on Christmas. It was there since late October/November at the least. They even admitted as much. Right now a giant chunk of the country is flooded so they have bigger things to worry about than the virus.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday September 12 2020, @12:52AM (3 children)
I had a bad cough and respiratory problems in December here in Ontario.
Drinking Buckley's Mixture like water and I had to get a puffer that I used way too much.
But was it Covid? Dunno, but it was something....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday September 12 2020, @09:47AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:15AM
> the right demographic
Rich?
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Monday September 14 2020, @01:47AM
I'd get the antibody test before assuming that. I live near a big medical town and we all thought it came through here at the start of the year. We've been discovering it was just one of a number of nasty flu bug that were going around. Seems like it would have been a memorable year because of flu bugs had they not been eclipsed by covid.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Saturday September 12 2020, @01:18AM (2 children)
There's lots of suggestive evidence that it was in various parts of the US and Europe before it was recognized. It's not proof, but that would require sequencing a lot of pneumonia cases, and hoping that the RNA happened to survive that long...the odds aren't good, but sometimes RNA lasts longer than expected. Then you've got to decide whether it was a false positive.
So it's probably going to *stay* suggestive evidence. But I believe it was spreading in December, and possibly earlier. It was awfully well adapted to living in humans by the time it was noticed.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:40AM (1 child)
Which kind of comes with the territory. If it were not well adapted to living in humans it would have a much harder time spreading, if it could even spread at all, and therefore would never get noticed because it wasn't spreading, because it wasn't adapted well to humans.
You kind of need the "well adapted to humans" part before you get enough fame as a virus to be noticed as a human disease vector.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday September 14 2020, @03:34AM
When a virus first shows up in people, it usually needs awhile to accumulate the mutations needed to spread easily. I suppose it could just have been a lucky pre-adaptation, but that's quite unlikely. Unlikely things happen once in awhile, but that's not the way to bet, and there were several cases (clusters, not individuals) noticed that weren't so adapted to spreading, and quickly died out. So I think it spread for quite awhile before collecting the mutations needed to become successful enough to be noticed as something special.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.