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Coronavirus declared global health emergency by WHO
The new coronavirus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.
"The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The concern is that it could spread to countries with weaker health systems.
1st Person-To-Person Spread Of Coronavirus Has Occurred In U.S., CDC Says
Coronavirus: US reports first person-to-person transmission
Chicago health officials have reported the first US case of human-to-human transmission of the deadly coronavirus.
The new patient is the spouse of a Chicago woman who carried the infection back from Wuhan, China, the US Centers for Disease Control said on Thursday.
The discovery marks the second report of the virus in Illinois and the sixth confirmed case in the US.
This paper provides early estimates of 2019-nCoV epidemiological parameters: Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: early estimation of epidemiological parameters and epidemic predictions (open, DOI: 10.1101/2020.01.23.20018549) (DX)
Used model does not offer much grounds for optimism.
Previously:
China Reports 3rd Death, Nearly 140 New Cases of Coronavirus
China Confirms Human-To-Human Transmission of New Coronavirus; CDC Confirms First US Case
Coronavirus: Millions Quarantined in Wuhan City
China Battles Coronavirus Outbreak: All the Latest Updates
In The Pipeline: Coronavirus
Plague Inc. Maker: Don't use our Game for Coronavirus Modeling
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @01:57AM (7 children)
How many of these deaths have been in those that are elderly or have compromised immune systems? How many infections have there been relative to the actual number of possible exposures? How many people have contracted it and either don't get infected or suffer something not more than a common flu that passes and don't recognize it as anything other than that? How does all this compare to other pathogens, like leprosy, TB, etc we still suffer from that have existed for hundreds of years, thousands of years, and many longer than we have as a distinct species?
You know what's also as old as time itself? Doomsayers. Religious, political, nuclear, health, environmental, any reason you can think up--someone's on it (although, I would say they're all religious, we just have new "religions" these days). And we keep listening and keep getting paralyzed by it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @02:00AM (1 child)
That's how these virus work, They infect, stress out the immune system to crap, and then bacteria sneak in, and finish the job.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @02:04AM
Yes, that is not an uncommon feature. It does not, alone, however tell us anything about it's risk. Only knowing answers to the questions above can tell us that.
It's like knowing the true positives on a statistical test but not knowing the false negatives. Knowing any of those values in isolation tells you knowing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @02:01AM (2 children)
I'd be happy with a histogram of deaths by age in wuhan last year compared to this year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @02:06AM (1 child)
They would look the same because the population is 11 million and the deaths are on the order of a few hundred (like less than 200?). Or is that your point?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @02:20AM
Total deaths, from any cause. Is there more than a blip?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @02:11AM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5kmCgVhADY [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @02:18AM
I'm not sure what message you're trying to communicate.