Coronavirus COVID-19

  On 1/25/2020 at 7:10 PM, Enthusiast said:

make it stop pls

incoming india vs china war over water might slow the numbers.

if this virus gets popular a beer company should sponsor it.. i nominate miller genuine draft. 

  On 1/25/2020 at 6:55 PM, Braintree said:

Corona is a poor man's Toña.

Corona is by far the worst Mexican beer. It has that weird, metallic aftertaste. I usually go with dos Equis amber if I'm at a Mexican restaurant.

So if the mortality rate is low and would only affect the infirm and elderly... are you saying we could eliminate boomers and OAPs in a few months????

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/coronavirus-china-live-updates/2020/01/25/0ca57a5e-3ed7-11ea-afe2-090eb37b60b1_story.html

What are your thoughts RE how China has been handling the outbreak? (asking anyone). I'm quite impressed with how quick they've tried to lock things down and they seem to be communicating with the wider world on this.

  On 1/26/2020 at 7:54 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

What are your thoughts RE how China has been handling the outbreak? (asking anyone). I'm quite impressed with how quick they've tried to lock things down and they seem to be communicating with the wider world on this.

i don't know.. seems like the first thing they did was arrest people. but an authoritarian gov't w/such control on the population did manage to lock down millions of people pretty quickly. looks like they're working pretty hard to contain it. i'm sure the rumors and conspiracy stuff are flying. the city at center of the outbreak is home to 2 labs linked to china's bioweapons warfare research or some shit. i'm sure the wackadoos are wackadooing all over it. 

i haven't read anything in detail about what it's like "on the ground" over there. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-information-crackdown-on-wuhan-coronavirus-2020-1?utm_source=reddit.com

  Quote

In early January, the Wuhan police said they had arrested eight people accused of spreading "rumors" about what was then a mysterious pneumonia causing serious complications in patients.

  On 1/26/2020 at 8:16 AM, ignatius said:

 i'm sure the rumors and conspiracy stuff are flying. the city at center of the outbreak is home to 2 labs linked to china's bioweapons warfare research or some shit.

 

Funny, we were talking about this over dinner tonight. As in, it had only infected a statistically completely insignificant portion of the Chinese population but immediately it was known to be a new coronavirus. I'm no tinfoil hat man but I'd love to understand how this was known so quickly. 

Autopsy? or wut?

  On 1/26/2020 at 7:54 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

What are your thoughts RE how China has been handling the outbreak? (asking anyone). I'm quite impressed with how quick they've tried to lock things down and they seem to be communicating with the wider world on this.

China does what China does: react harshly when it’s clear it’s a real problem, hesitates to do so because, hey, it’s Chinese New Year and half a billion people want to go visit their families, so let’s not do anything drastic unless we’re reasonably certain we have to.

  On 1/26/2020 at 8:19 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

Funny, we were talking about this over dinner tonight. As in, it had only infected a statistically completely insignificant portion of the Chinese population but immediately it was known to be a new coronavirus. I'm no tinfoil hat man but I'd love to understand how this was known so quickly. 

how long did it take for the swine flu and bird flu to get named? i can't recall. does it take a long time to figure it out? 

  On 1/26/2020 at 8:26 AM, ignatius said:

how long did it take for the swine flu and bird flu to get named? i can't recall. does it take a long time to figure it out? 

I’m not sure tbh. But iirc only 400 or so people died from SARS? Multitudes more die per year from the common flu. I understand part of this is the mortality rate (I think SARS was like 14%?) and they need to contain these things to prevent mutations etc etc etc. I totally don’t understand how this stuff works, why is anyone worried about it when 40ish old people are dying from this when literally 100s of thousands die from the common flu and pneumonia?

Just trying to gain a better understanding is all...

Because people like sensation? It's what most of the "It's the end of the world!!!" nonsense is about, right? Just assume people are mostly irrational. Makes it easier to ignore all the nonsense and hype, and get on with your life.

Is this just sensationalism then? I guess that was ultimately my question. I’m incredibly stupid and don’t know how to properly articulate my thoughts sorry 

  On 1/26/2020 at 8:19 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

Funny, we were talking about this over dinner tonight. As in, it had only infected a statistically completely insignificant portion of the Chinese population but immediately it was known to be a new coronavirus. I'm no tinfoil hat man but I'd love to understand how this was known so quickly. 

Autopsy? or wut?

Was reading about this last night - it’s called a corona virus because the proteins around the virus make it look like a little crown.  So would have been obvious from a blood test that it was a corona virus.

  On 1/26/2020 at 8:32 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

I’m not sure tbh. But iirc only 400 or so people died from SARS? Multitudes more die per year from the common flu. I understand part of this is the mortality rate (I think SARS was like 14%?) and they need to contain these things to prevent mutations etc etc etc. I totally don’t understand how this stuff works, why is anyone worried about it when 40ish old people are dying from this when literally 100s of thousands die from the common flu and pneumonia?

Just trying to gain a better understanding is all...

Thing with these viruses is they evolve and fast.  They’ve already evolved to jump from bats to (they think) snakes to humans, and they combine with the host DNA and evolve.  So could get more deadly or less deadly and could start spreading more or less quickly.  Flu & pneumonia kill loads but there’s vaccinations in place already and we know how it works, this could get a lot worse a lot quicker ( or it could fizzle out to nothing).

Standard Not a Doctor disclaimer  

  On 1/26/2020 at 9:30 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

Is this just sensationalism then? I guess that was ultimately my question. I’m incredibly stupid and don’t know how to properly articulate my thoughts sorry 

It's overreacting. It's assuming the worst. This is what hype is all about. Or rather, negative hype. 

There will be many more viruses like this one. But the most deadly one is the regular old seasonal flu. And nobody gives a shit. Why? Because it's a "known" danger we're already familiar with. You can't make a Hollywood movie about the seasonal flu, because that's boring. It has to be about some unknown exciting and scary new virus. So any time something new pops up, we can run our internal Hollywood movie about crazy new viruses. It's just silly.

Spot on.

  On 1/26/2020 at 9:32 AM, thebotmakes said:

Was reading about this last night - it’s called a corona virus because the proteins around the virus make it look like a little crown.  So would have been obvious from a blood test that it was a corona virus.

Thing with these viruses is they evolve and fast.  They’ve already evolved to jump from bats to (they think) snakes to humans, and they combine with the host DNA and evolve.  So could get more deadly or less deadly and could start spreading more or less quickly.  Flu & pneumonia kill loads but there’s vaccinations in place already and we know how it works, this could get a lot worse a lot quicker ( or it could fizzle out to nothing).

 

Standard Not a Doctor disclaimer  

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Sums it up quite well.

the scary thing is, once in a while, humanity have to deal with deadly viruses (like the Spanish flu in 1918) 

regarding sensationalism, of course, this is a mass media cringefest.

the main thing that annoys me is the catastrophic handling of this crisis by France, the amateurism of the French government is frightening to say the least...

Current French gov is frightening to say the least anyway..

I'm in Thailand at the mo, lots of Chinese turned up on Friday for new year celebrations. I noticed a few Thai bar and restaurant staff slipping on surgical masks before serving them lol. Lots of shifty eyed european boomers trying to put as much distance between themselves and the chinese parties as possible, but in a "subtle" way. Great people watching opportunities. 10/10

  On 1/26/2020 at 7:54 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

What are your thoughts RE how China has been handling the outbreak? (asking anyone). I'm quite impressed with how quick they've tried to lock things down and they seem to be communicating with the wider world on this.

lol. no, it's the complete opposite. they've known about this since the first case was confirmed in December, their first step was to keep information about it from spreading, made no efforts to prevent the virus itself from spreading. doctors were telling possible carriers not to worry and just stay home for a few days until it clears up, they only publicly admitted what was happening when the first cases started popping up in Hong Kong. if they had reacted with half the effort they're now showing from the beginning then maybe this wouldn't have happened at all.

The thing with deadly viruses is that generally the deadlier the virus is the slower it spreads and easier it is to contain, due to pretty obivious symptoms and the carriers basically dying off. What can actually threaten to kill humanity is a virus that spreads fast but you get the symptoms and die several years after the infection. That's a nice thing to notice after 90% of the population is infected..

I have a sore throat...

zing!

they get to use those face masks for real this time

They're underreporting deaths in China. Wait for it.