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from the maybe-it-is-not-such-a-bad-time-to-be-living-alone-in-someone's-basement dept.
[Editor's note: We had been gathering together COVID-19 stories for eventual release as a round-up story. I lack time at the moment to personally gather all those together with this most recent submission. We will run the next round-up in the next few days. But given the significance of this submission, I wished not to delay it from being immediately released to the community. --martyb]
World Health Organization declares the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic:
The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on Wednesday as the new coronavirus, which was unknown to world health officials just three months ago, has rapidly spread to more than 121,000 people from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States.
“In the past two weeks the number of cases outside China has increased thirteenfold and the number of affected countries has tripled,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. “In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries to climb even higher.”
Tedros said several countries have demonstrated the ability to suppress and control the outbreak, but he scolded other world leaders for failing to act quickly enough or drastically enough to contain the spread.
“We’re deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” he said, just before declaring the pandemic. “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”
[Ed. addition follows.]
Also at Ars Technica and cnet.
For those who might not be aware of the distinction, Wikipedia helpfully provides these summaries:
An epidemic (what we have had up to now with COVID-19):
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί epi "upon or above" and δῆμος demos "people") is the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time, usually two weeks or less.
[...]An epidemic may be restricted to one location; however, if it spreads to other countries or continents and affects a substantial number of people, it may be termed a pandemic.[1] The declaration of an epidemic usually requires a good understanding of a baseline rate of incidence; epidemics for certain diseases, such as influenza, are defined as reaching some defined increase in incidence above this baseline.[2] A few cases of a very rare disease may be classified as an epidemic, while many cases of a common disease (such as the common cold) would not.
By comparison, a pandemic (which has just now been announced for COVID-19):
A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν pan "all" and δῆμος demos "people") is an epidemic of disease that has spread across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic. Further, flu pandemics generally exclude recurrences of seasonal flu. Throughout history, there have been a number of pandemics, such as smallpox and tuberculosis. One of the most devastating pandemics was the Black Death, which killed an estimated 75–200 million people in the 14th century. The current pandemics are HIV/AIDS and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).[1][2] Other recent pandemics are the 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish flu), and the 2009 flu pandemic (H1N1).
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:52PM (11 children)
We could only dream to have as competent response as South Korea's has been.
South Korea has tested 140,000 people for the coronavirus. That could explain why its death rate is just 0.6% — far lower than in China or the US. [businessinsider.com]
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday March 11 2020, @09:52PM (3 children)
Honestly it might be a difference in book keeping: Depending on the country and the condition, complications might be written down as the cause of death rather than the original disease / trauma. For instance, most people dying from the flu are counted as lung infections or some other complication rather than the flu. It's why you have some sources quoting 0.1% mortality for the flu and others quoting as much as 4%. Similarly, COVID-19 rarely kills directly and deaths are almost always the result of complications.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @10:20PM (1 child)
Or it might be that they responded VERY FUCKING AGGRESSIVELY AND TESTED EVERYONE THAT THEY COULD GET THEIR HANDS ON. Pretty much the exact opposite of what the USA did, eg. send
vectoruntrained staff in to socialize with people who were supposed to be under quarantine and then send them back home on commercial flights. It is a testament to the medical profession that no doctor has strangled $45 in a meeting.(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:54AM
They might not need to - there's good reason to think he's infected.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @12:45AM
This isn't a bookkeeping issue. Even having a more complete count of who is infected probably doesn't quite explain the low death rate. South Korea's approach is effective and is much better than what we've seen in China and Italy, let alone the United States. The economic impact is also far less because massive quarantines aren't needed. If infected people are tested early, it reduces the opportunity for them to spread the virus. That will reduce the burden on hospitals, making it much easier to treat those who are seriously ill. It may also allow for supportive treatment to begin earlier, like managing the fever and inflammation. In short, the frequent and early testing may directly contribute to better outcomes.
South Korea is also using a considerable amount of big brother surveillance to try to track who may have come in contact with an infected person. While the surveillance is a bit controversial, we shouldn't pretend that such surveillance isn't present in the United States. Maybe we should put the NSA/other law enforcement surveillance to good use for once and alert people who may be infected to go get tested. Of course, that would reveal the extent of the surveillance, though you'd have to be incredibly naive to think such capabilities don't already exist. And it would require enough test kits, which is a much bigger problem. If we were going to refuse the WHO test kits, we still had a month to prepare our own tests... and utterly and abysmally failed.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday March 11 2020, @09:58PM (4 children)
Well, we did have the whole bunch of people come over from that cruise ship. Maybe, South Korea was a bit more proactive/paranoid when it came to dealing with likely and/or known infected citizens?
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: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday March 11 2020, @10:43PM (3 children)
The cruise ship was already late in the process. The critical phase was when people left Wuhan before the disease was recognized after a meeting on ?maybe?"The Lunar New Year Festival". Sorry, that might not be the correct meeting. But that was after the disease was spreading and before it was recognized, and people went from there all over the world. (I think there was another big exodus right before the quarantine, but that was too late to really be the first wave of spread.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday March 11 2020, @11:20PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year [wikipedia.org]
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/06/doctor-who-treated-first-us-coronavirus-patient-says-covid-19-has-been-circulating-unchecked-for-weeks.html [cnbc.com]
So, we were already screwed by the time the Chinese New Year rolled around.
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: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 11 2020, @11:44PM
Nah, it was the Woz:
https://www.clickorlando.com/inside-edition/2020/03/04/coronavirus-patient-zero-apple-co-founder-steve-wozniak-says-he-and-wife-may-be-responsible-for-us-outbreak/ [clickorlando.com]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Sulla on Wednesday March 11 2020, @11:51PM
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/world/asia/chinese-doctor-Li-Wenliang-coronavirus.html [nytimes.com]
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/world/asia/Li-Wenliang-china-coronavirus.html [nytimes.com]
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 11 2020, @10:14PM (1 child)
Yes, they are good. It did help that they had a very narrow vector through that jesus sect and it is yet to be seen they really contained the bug, but they sure reacted well.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @10:33PM
Don't fuck with korean jesus.
He busy, with korean shit.