Politics The COVID-19 pandemic news and discussion.

[Telmar]

To people with medical knowledge, does a coronavirus have specificities making it more threatening or hard to cure?

 

[Mordoror]

It's a virus which means there are no drugs efficient on it (except if drugs that proved, barely and poorly, efficient on other respiratory virus likr flu work. Which may or not may be the case. And even if it is the case, the therapeutic arsenal is limited.

For the rest the physiopathology of the nCoV disease is still a bit blurry. So far it killed mostly post 50-60y people so probably people with prexisting issue including tobacco, diabetis etc
In any case, care is restricted to support therapies the time the body gets ride of the invader. Much like a flu episode but worse

 

[Fluff]

It's a virus which means there are no drugs efficient on it (except if drugs that proved, barely and poorly, efficient on other respiratory virus likr flu work. Which may or not may be the case. And even if it is the case, the therapeutic arsenal is limited.

For the rest the physiopathology of the nCoV disease is still a bit blurry. So far it killed mostly post 50-60y people so probably people with prexisting issue including tobacco, diabetis etc
In any case, care is restricted to support therapies the time the body gets ride of the invader. Much like a flu episode but worse

Probably best to get it early so you get the good treatment, eh Rick?

 

[Mordoror]

Most victims appear to be the ederly and youths, along with people suffering from a chronic lung disease, I sort of agree and I’ll even dare say it’s quite surprising for the PRC to lockdown a whole region and dozen millions people for weeks over it.

I am not looking to dismiss what seems to be quite contagious but still.

When a M.D writes on the net that an transmissible infectious disease reaching 3+% of mortality is "not terribly lethal" you can question his credential. Especially with a R0 between 1.5 and 2.4 as it was assessed for this coronavirus.
Sure it is not Ebola but Ebola has a R0 of 0.9 to 1.1.
What is more scary, a virus that has a mean lethality of 60% but will disapear after fw thousand cases (even if 2013 epidemy reached 16000 persons) or a virus that will double the number of contaminated persons every day, even with a lethality of 3-5%.

Every infectiologist will tell you anyway that any airborne transmissible infectious disease with a lethality above 1% is a serious thing.
Flu is not terribly lethal yet it kills 250 k to 600 k people each year with a mortality rate from aroun 0.8%.
We have here a virus with the same rate of transmission than flu and three or four fold more lethal.

 

[Telmar]

I was wondering if I would ask for a comparison with other diseases.

I think I read that lethality decreases with higher contagion ratios as the virus becomes closer to what the immune system knows how to fight. Maybe this will happen too.

I got vaccinated for the pig flu, and in the end it was really unnecessary.

 

[Fluff]

I got vaccinated against Black Plague, will it help.....

 

[bdpopeye]

U.S. to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, China - WSJ

(Reuters) - The United States is arranging a charter flight on Sunday to bring its citizens and diplomats back from the Chinese city of Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak of a new coronavirus, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The plane, with around 230 people, will carry diplomats from the U.S. consulate as well as U.S. citizens and their families, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the operation.

Washington was given approval for the operation from China's Foreign Ministry and other government agencies following negotiations in recent days, the newspaper said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said that on Thursday, the State Department had ordered the departure of family members and all U.S. government employees at its Wuhan consulate, but declined to comment on the report that other U.S. citizens would be evacuated from the city.

The decision to move U.S. consulate staff and families was due to the outbreak of the coronavirus "and logistical disruptions stemming from restricted transportation and overwhelmed hospitals in the city of Wuhan," the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru and Tony Munroe in Beijing; Editing by Frances Kerry)

U.S. to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, China - WSJ

The plane, with around 230 people, will carry diplomats from the U.S. consulate as well as U.S. citizens and their families, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the operation. A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said that on Thursday, the State Department had ordered...

news.yahoo.com

 

[Junglejim]

China virus death toll rises to 56, total cases near 2,000

The death toll from a virus in China has risen to 56 and the number of people infected across the country is nearing 2,000, authorities said Sunday. Fifteen more people have died and at least 688 new cases of the coronavirus have now been confirmed, according to the National Health Commission...

www.yahoo.com

 

[Mordoror]

+ 3 confirmed cases in Malaysia
+ 1 case in Nepal (dunno if confirmed(
One suspectd case in Canada

 

[Telmar]

Pal from HK told me they have 3 dead. Border is closed and the airport might close.

 

[Dercius]

Pal from HK told me they have 3 dead. Border is closed and the airport might close.

Dunno why, but I tend to think that the number of people sick is probably waaaaaay higher than the numbers the Chinese gov has reported.
Building field hospitals, holding tens of millions under curfew, closing airports train stations and roads... And its still spreading.
Sorry, its just the paranoid in me.

 

[Junglejim]

Just cause you are paranoid doesnt mean they arent lying My only regret is i have no time to put a ARB bull bars on my Hilux to run through the blockade... and people. Even without a contagion.

 

[Ivan le Fou]

Dunno why, but I tend to think that the number of people sick is probably waaaaaay higher than the numbers the Chinese gov has reported.
Building field hospitals, holding tens of millions under curfew, closing airports train stations and roads... And its still spreading.
Sorry, its just the paranoid in me.

Well, it's China. The country where nothing happened.

 

[Junglejim]

The fact that China is already scrambling and looking worried when nothing usually happens, is a bit of a worry

 

[bfc1001]

Coronavirus: Airlift for Britons trapped in China 'under review'

The UK government says a total of 52 tests have proved negative for the new strain of coronavirus.

www.bbc.co.uk

Looks like Brits in China may be abandoned by the UK government but based on this news ...

China coronavirus 'spreads before symptoms show'

The new coronavirus is said to be infectious during its incubation period, making it harder to contain.

www.bbc.co.uk

Kind of makes sense . Contagious during incubation period which means there could be way more infected out there than merely the reported cases .

 

[Fluff]

2000 cases, 56 dead....in theory a 2.5% death rate - also probably many people that would have died in the next 12 months.

But some younger victims would not have.

Probably a lot of healthy people just sleeping it off, without going to a hospital which probably cant help you, and maybe you don't have it, but you will if you go to the hospital, as its full of people with it....so actual death rate probably lower %.

if it is spreading before its symptomatic, then its really all over the world by now.

world population is 8bn, 2.5% is 200 million.

Normally about 60m people die each year, but again mostly bringing death forward.

 

[colin traveller]

A hotel at the Airport refused to take in a plane load of Chinese . They refused to leave and Police was called . They were taken to another Hotel which Accepted them

 

[Euroamerican]

^----- Which airport?
--------
Actually, I'm hoping that any plane loads of citizenry are severely vetted before being allowed back into their home countries... Take themto a secluded Air Force base hospital and keep an eye on them for a while.

 

[primer]

Toner’s team ran a simulation of the impact of a hypothetical coronavirus that was resistant to vaccine and easily transmittable

 

[bdpopeye]

First Coronavirus cases in southern California;

Coronavirus spreads to Los Angeles, Orange County: How concerned should we be about spread?

California has its first case of coronavirus -- in Orange County.

www.latimes.com