Chinese pharma leak infects thousands with bacterial disease - National:
Thousands of people in northwestern China have tested positive for brucellosis, a disease that commonly infects livestock, after a pharmaceutical factory accidentally vented bacteria into the air last year, officials say.
At least 3,245 people have contracted the disease in Lazhou, the capital of Gansu province, according to a statement from the city's health commission. More than 1,000 are suspected to have the disease. No fatalities have been reported since the problem was first identified last November.
The latest numbers are much higher than initially thought, the state-run Global Times reports.
Authorities have traced the leak back to the Zhongmu Lanzhou biological pharmaceutical factory, which was found to be using expired sanitizers and disinfectants. The factory accidentally vented an aerosolized version of Brucella, the bacteria that causes brucellosis, into the air last summer, causing it to spread across the surrounding area through the wind.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @03:20PM (4 children)
In other news, China have finally found effective population control.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday September 18 2020, @06:50PM (3 children)
China is already nearing peak population is expected to experience negative population growth within the next 10 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @07:19PM (1 child)
"Negative growth".
Pondering...
Could we call that "decline"? Shrinkage?
Some shrinkage in the right places might help with the problem.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday September 19 2020, @07:23AM
A c'mon, that's unfair, it was a really cold day! It's normally much bigger than that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @09:44PM
Starting with the Uyghurs?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Friday September 18 2020, @03:34PM (13 children)
While SARS-COV-2 may not have originated like that. It's a plausible origin story. Which would make China even more responsible for the giant mess that originated in their backyard. Either, it originated, because they don't care enough to regulate their nasty meat market or some sort of accident released it from a lab. The USA would be roasted on every side, if something like SARS-COV-2 originated here and we responded like China did. Yet, bravo China, well done, we're so glad you responded so well to the crisis . . .
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 18 2020, @04:10PM (11 children)
There are now THREE separate accounts from people who should know what they are talking about, that attribute the Covid-19 virus to Chinese labs. I, personally, don't believe the virus was intentionally released, but I do believe that the virus escaped from the lab. I'm unsure whether the virus was intentionally enhanced, but the Chinese were definitely working on the virus, trying to understand it, at the least.
Oh yeah, that virus first came to the attention of scientists SEVEN YEARS AGO, it didn't just pop out of nowhere last December.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/15/covid-19-first-appeared-in-chinese-miners-in-2012-scientists/ [nypost.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 18 2020, @04:45PM (7 children)
I find it most plausible that one or more labs were "working on" what came to be known as COVID-19 for months or years before the outbreak, but that the outbreak was not directly connected to the work at the labs - perhaps an accidental infection at the lab got out in the wild and spread, at the worst.
Why does this make me think the speaker has an orange toupee and bad spray tan?
Now, this bit:
leaves me with equal parts: suspicion of a weaponization test (as is often alleged to happen in the Gainesville, Florida area by various groups that are invariably, and quickly labeled "whackjobs") and/or simple incompetent commercial management "cost optimization" (as frequently happens with petroleum byproducts in the Houston area...)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 18 2020, @05:12PM (1 child)
Friar William of Ockham thinks that maybe you could use a nice, close shave.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 18 2020, @05:15PM
Sorry, I hit the wrong "reply" button - my comment was directed at choose another one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @10:59PM (2 children)
Even if Covid-19 wasn't created in a laboratory, that they were well aware of the potential for it for years before. The genome databases and patent applications show every key aspect of Covid-19 being documented, patented, and discussed for at least that long. Someone with the background should start looking up the gene markers and work their way back, supplied with professional analysis of it, there should be plenty of evidence for or against the engineered virus theory, but at the moment I am not betting against it.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday September 19 2020, @01:05AM (1 child)
I suspect you are wrong. Yes, it was occasionally infecting people...but it wasn't that contagious. So they were looking at it, but probably not seriously. Somehow it picked up a couple of mutations that allowed to to spread more easily among people, and that allowed it to pick up a few more mutations that allowed it to spread even more easily. And nobody noticed.
Well, that's my guess. It's no worse than anyone else's. It's plausible, as that sort of thing happens all the time. It's consistent with known facts. Having a large poor population to spread in makes it more likely. Nobody notices if a small rural farmer gets sick and dies except his neighbors and relatives, who attend the funeral. That makes it evolutionarily beneficial for COVID to have such a large percentage of "silent carriers". By the time it was noticed as contagious pneumonia it was quite well adapted to living in and spreading through humans.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Saturday September 19 2020, @01:12AM
P.S. RNA viruses pick up mutations all the time. COVID a bit less so than many, because it does have a limited proof-reading enzyme, but it still picks up lots of mutations. And, as always, most mutations aren't viable. But it's the exceptions that you notice.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday September 19 2020, @06:02AM (1 child)
Or is it a bad toupee and an orange spray tan? :)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 19 2020, @12:40PM
I wouldn't be surprised if it were plugs, he seems the type - but I also just don't care enough to even try to find out.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by choose another one on Friday September 18 2020, @04:47PM (1 child)
It also may have leaked but not in China, if it didn't just pop out of nowhere then maybe it came from somewhere else and simply took off when it hit a densely populated area in China, or when it happened to mutate.
Bats (being, lets face it, flying rats) apparently have really really good immune systems, which results in them breeding really really good viruses, where good means probably not good if we get them. They are therefore actually a common viral research subject (pretty sure even before SARS-1 / MERS), and the coronavirus family is too (again, going back before SARS/MERS), since it includes common cold. Some of that research will have been going on in places near China and connected to China, places that might well have even lower standards.
So yeah, I'm with you on maybe it escaped from a lab, maybe even "probably" escaped from a lab, but maybe, even probably, not the labs people are blaming right now - particularly if, as you say, it's actually been around in humans for almost a decade.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 18 2020, @05:16PM
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=39606&page=1&cid=1052893#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @04:16AM
One of my former favorite streamers lost his shit everytime someone in the chat would call it "Chinese Virus."
I know it is not even a funny anedote, but heh...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @06:35PM
Yep, you'd be amazed at what's originated from China's red-light districts.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @03:35PM (7 children)
Previous articles:
China Virology Lab Leak Leads to Millions Infected with Coronavirus Disease.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @05:21PM (6 children)
So everyone is just gonna run with the rightwing conspiracy theory to try and distract from Trump's terrible leaderahip? Actually, not just trrrible, outright harmful. We would have been better off without a president at all than with Trump corrupting and lying for his own gain.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Friday September 18 2020, @06:08PM (1 child)
Straight-up, it's entirely possible that China was covering up something. It's also entirely possible, that they were just trying to hide it from everyone, because they don't like people prying into their business. Yet, even after it was obvious that they weren't able to contain the spread, they actively hindered access to information regarding the virus and the WHO praised them for doing such a great job.
Trump this, Trump that, whatever. I'd much rather err on the side of not trampling over individual freedom. Liberty or Death. There can be no alternative, because the alternative is not liberty.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @07:25PM
"Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench."
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 18 2020, @07:04PM (1 child)
Oh, how obvious, now that you've stated it! Those scientists who have been silenced by China, and those scientists who have defected from China, are all part of the Trump conspiracy. Thank you for enlightening us!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @04:18AM
Every night when I pray, I try to say a little bit about good fellas such as yourself who fight against the wingnuts on the web everyday. You guys man the trenches like true keyboard warriors. God bless you!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @08:37PM (1 child)
And you're going to blame it all on Trump's terrible leadership and distract from the the Chinese Communist Party's terrible human right record and disregard of people's (Chinese or otherwise) life and property? Actually, not just trrrible, outright harmful (as you put it). We would have been better off without the CCP at all than with them corrupting and lying for their own party members' gain.
You can blame the current US's situation on Trump all you want. I blame the whole world's COVID-19 (remember: it's Chinese Originated Virus in December-2019) problem on the CCP and WHO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @02:27PM
LOL. The US is the biggest bully and the most destabilizing factor in the world. All this new cold war shit is just funny, how dumb are you people?!
(Score: 4, Informative) by anotherblackhat on Friday September 18 2020, @06:47PM (5 children)
The active ingredient in most sanitizers and disinfectants is a simple chemical, like isopropyl alcohol, or sodium hypochlorite (bleach).
It doesn't "go bad" — at most, the alcohol could evaporate away.
This sound byte makes me think they royally screwed up, then tried to blame it on funding.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 18 2020, @07:06PM
LOL, I'm picturing an outbreak of salmonella being blamed on "expired hand sanitizer". ;^)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @07:14PM (3 children)
This is exactly what happens with isopropyl alcohol-based sanitizers: the concentration will reduce over time as the alcohol tends to evaporate at a faster rate than the other components. This will tend to decrease the effectiveness of an alcohol-based sanitizer over time, aka it most certainly does "go bad".
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 18 2020, @08:47PM (2 children)
Except, of course, that no evaporation takes place until the seal is broken, or the container is somehow damaged. So long as the container is undamaged and the seal remains intact, your bottle of sanitizer is good for just about forever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @09:23PM
If the seal is perfect such that vapours can never ever escape the bottle this will be true. Seals are rarely perfect, some gas may escape over time which will influence the shelf life. To be honest I have no information on how good these seals are.
But in any case, whatever sanitizer they were using was, well, being used, which means it was opened and likely transferred to some sort of spray bottle or other convenient container.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @02:37PM
Depends on the chemical, but most will degrade over time given half an opportunity- H2O2 becomes water pretty readily.