The COVID-2019 Thread

[AntRobertson]

I wonder how many other big events are going to get cancelled?

Hong Kong 7's set to be postponed:

Rugby: Hong Kong Sevens hit by coronavirus, set to be postponed - NZ Herald

[Chico]

WHERE IS DONALD ?

Donald, No doubt will be blamed,and of course the Russians.

[HermantheGerman]

An outbreak at a refugee camp!
Has anyone ever thought about that ?
These poor people already have a very low immune system due to the poor living conditions. The virus will have easy game.
Who's going to protect them ?

[PlanK]

[Bettyboo]

I reckon they'll be a 180 within 6 weeks...


On a personal note, after intensive discussion the wife has conceded, but with conditions:

[panama hat]

Some picture would be nice, since it's a yearly event

Why on earth would you want pics of Bettyboo having sex you sad, sad shadow of a man!!!

[Chico]

On a personal note, after extensive research,I've found a full body chemical protective suit "MC5000" for all the alarmists,Price 75,000 baht.Anyone wishing to purchase.Please contact and payment is made in Bitcoins.:

Betty sorry if the English ain't perfect.

[AntRobertson]

'I never really felt unwell': What it's like to have coronavirus - NZ Herald

'I never really felt unwell': What it's like to have coronavirus

[panama hat]

^ a bit disconcerting . . .


And from OhOh's favourite Communist Party propaganda media:

Global Times: Time to resume flights to China


BEIJING (Global Times): “It has been eight consecutive days that the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus-related pneumonia declined in areas outside of China's Hubei Province.
“It clearly shows the top-level preventive measures adopted across the country have taken effect and this severe epidemic has been put under control.

“Although experts are cautious in predicting an inflection point, we have seen some light.
“Chinese society has been striving for a turn in the situation.
"Except for Hubei Province and some cities where the situation is still serious, inter-province and inter-city transportation has resumed. Airports and train stations in Beijing and Shanghai have become busy again and the subways are no longer empty.
“Preventive work in each area has not been relaxed. A complete management system has been set up and continues to improve in each city and county.
"Most residential communities implement strict lockdown measures. Those infected can be located very quickly, as well as people whom they had contacts with. A network has been formed to fight the novel coronavirus.
“Under such circumstances, we think it is high time for countries which have imposed travel restrictions on their citizens to reconsider this measure.
“Hubei and its capital Wuhan as well as some cities in a severe situation have been locked down, and the number of newly infected cases in other places has been low.
“When the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the outbreak of coronavirus in China a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, it did not recommend any travel or trade restrictions against China.
"This is based on the fact that the Chinese government has adopted strong and effective control measures. China has not failed the WHO's trust and it has achieved the strictest control over the virus.
“China is the world's largest manufacturing factory, and one of the places with the largest human flow on the Earth.
"Cancelling flights to and from China has made many airlines suffer huge losses, which also deals a heavy blow to the first-quarter performance of the world economy.
"If all the countries keep their measures unchanged, it means all sides will pay bigger cost from the epidemic.
“The coronavirus, which has just been named Covid-19 by the WHO, is harmful. But as long as necessary control measures are put into place, the actual harm it can cause is very limited.
"So far, in major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, the number of people who have died from Covid-19 are mostly below 10.
"In Beijing, three people died from the virus as of Tuesday. But in the US, the influenza this year has caused far more deaths in major cities.” - Global Times

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2020/02/13/global-times-time-to-resume-flights-to-china

Yes, it'a all about the economy . . . and politics . . . and look at the bad USA.

The chart I posted before how little China spends on its medical services is all one needs to know about China's priorities

[Bettyboo]

I'm not at all in agreement with this it's not too bad, concept. Maybe it's because I'm in the country next door, but I'd like to see all flights out of China banned - or specifically, no Chinese allowed into Korea for at least the next 3 months; extended if need be.

The numbers still are not adding up, I don't trust the Chinese authorities or the WHO, I doubt tests are being conducted properly, the virus is very good at spreading - the "test case" off Yokohama in the cruise ship shows that fact very well indeed.

Even if the mortality rate is only around 2% that's around 2,000 people by the end of February and increasing quickly. I don't want it anywhere near me...

[panama hat]

I'm not at all in agreement with this it's not too bad, concept.

It's just Chinese propaganda . . . bu then, if you look at the percentages . . . out of 1.4 billion, what's a measly 100.00 or so as long as China makes money

[Bettyboo]

It's just Chinese propaganda . . . bu then, if you look at the percentages . . . out of 1.4 billion, what's a measly 100.00 or so as long as China makes money

We don't know yet, but it seems likely that people over 50, or over 60, will be impacted heavily. A lot of TD members are in that age group, so I'm surprised there's not more concern.

I agree that the mentality of the Chinese authorities/WHO seems to be that the economy is more important. I also agree with you that this should be a wake up call for the Chinese to increase their investment in healthcare - that's clearly to the whole world's benefit.

When you look at the map of cases, knowing that the Chinese did not react well at the beginning, the virus spreads so quickly and easily, and the Chinese move around so much during their New Year, I find it hard to believe that they've contained all the cases in that one province.

[panama hat]

See, Bettyboo - nothing to worry about . . . more people die n car accidents in Lithuania than ....

I find it hard to believe that they've contained all the cases in that one province.

Yes, quite unbelievable

[Bettyboo]

These figures specifically just aren't believable:



85% of cases and 95% of deaths in that one province seems highly unlikely with a virus that is known to spread so rapidly and easily.

Another example is Japan still reading as 28 cases even though there are nearly 10 times that in a single boat off Yokohama. The numbers do not add up.

[harrybarracuda]

How long are they going to sit this out.
This is crazy !!! These people need to be freed and their countries need to pick them up.

Why? It's the perfect place to keep them out of the general population.

Like I said, the nips will just wait it out.

I hope they are sending them beer though.

[misskit]

On the Korean Airlines flights I took back to the States, only a handful of people were not wearing masks. A few were wearing cotton gloves or plastic gloves or both. Lots of alcohol being sprayed about by passengers so that’s really a thing now. Flight crew wore masks and gloves, too.

My brother is currently on a cruise ship in the South Pacific. They were to dock in Tonga a couple of days ago but were denied even though no one on board is ill.

[misskit]

Westerdam cruise ship not allowed to dock - Health Minister

BANGKOK (NNT) - There have been several reports claiming that the Thai authorities have permitted a Westerdam cruise ship, operated by Holland America Line, to dock at Laem Chabang Port in Chonburi after being turned away by other countries out of coronavirus fears. The Minister of Public Health has posted on his personal Facebook account denying the claim, asserting that the Thai authorities did not permitted the ship to dock.


The Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul has posted a short message on his Facebook page saying "I have ordered no permit to dock," with many users favoring this decision, while asking the government to provide humanitarian aid in any way possible.


A Deputy Minister of Transport Atirat Ratanasate said Holland America Line has requested permission to dock at Laem Chabang Port in Chonburi, to which the Thai authorities at the time were yet to respond. However, the cruise company posted on social media, which drew heavy criticism. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Health then agreed not to permit the ship to dock in Thailand due to public concerns regarding coronavirus, and the fact that the ship has been turned away by countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Finland.


Mr Atirat said this is a difficult situation as humanitarian principles must be considered, asking what if a Thai ship were to be in a same situation However the final decision has been made to protect national security.


Holland America Line’s company had released a statement on its website on 10 February that the Westerdam cruise ship, which set sail on 1 February, is now bound for Laem Chabang Port in Thailand, from where passengers will disembark and travel to Bangkok to catch their flights home.

http://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/de...00212163113694




Just doesn’t make sense.

[misskit]

Preparations made for transit passengers from Westerdam cruise ship

The Thai Public Health Ministry is coordinating with relevant agencies to prepare for the arrival in Thailand of passengers and crew members from the MS Westerdam cruise ship, connecting with flights back to their home countries.


The Holland-American’s cruise ship, with more than 2,400 passengers and crew members on board, docked at Sihanoukville seaport this morning after it had been turned away by the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Guam and Thailand.

The Cambodian government has allowed all on board to disembark and it is speculated that most, if not all the passengers, will choose to return home and most air travel from Cambodia must transit in Bangkok for connecting flights to destinations beyond.


Some of the passengers are expected to travel over land from Cambodia to Bangkok.


Health officials at border crossings with Cambodia and at airports will screen all the passengers and crew to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus).


Officials will also take care of the 21 Thai citizens from the cruise ship, who are expected to head for home after arriving in Cambodia.


Another Chinese tourist, who was treated for COVID-19 infection in Thailand, has fully recovered and returned to China, Disease Control Department director-general Dr. Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoenchai told a news conference today.


Of 33 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Thailand since January 3rd, a dozen have been discharged from hospital and returned home, leaving 21 others, mostly Chinese, still in hospital.


From January 3rd to February 12th, 823 people have been placed under observation, including 53 who were screened at airports and 770 who voluntarily sought examination and observation. Of these, 673 of them were diagnosed with seasonal flu and have returned home.


The Ministry of Public Health, the National Research Office and the Public Health Science Faculty of Chiang Mai University have jointly developed an online self-screening form, in Thai, English and Chinese, so the public can check their risk of being infected with COVID-19. The form is available at: 404 Not Found

Of the 138 Thai citizens evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan on February 4th, only one was confirmed to be infected and is isolated in Chon Buri Hospital, but his condition has improved, with no fever, cough or runny nose. The other 137 are fine but still under observation at a guest house in the Sattahip naval base.

Preparations made for transit passengers from Westerdam cruise ship – Thai PBS World

[misskit]

Two cruise ships dock in Phuket today

Two cruise ships from Malaysia and Singapore, carrying about 2,400 mostly European passengers and crew, docked in Phuket deep-seaport this morning for a brief visit.


Provincial health officials boarded the vessels, the Seabourn Ovation and the Quantum of the Seas, to screen passengers with thermal scanners and thermometers for signs of fever prior to being allowed to disembark.


Deputy Transport Minister Athirath Rattanaseth said this morning that the Thai Harbour Department had received reports from the two cruise ships, about the health of their passengers and crew, 24 hours before they docked.


The deputy minister assured that the passengers are mostly European and not considered at high risk of carrying the new coronavirus.


Conversely, the MS Westerdam, which is carrying 21 mainland and Hong Kong Chinese passengers, was turned away by the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Guam and Thailand, finally being granted permission to dock at Sihanoukville port in Cambodia this morning.


Two more cruise ships, the Celebrity Constellation and the Star Clipper, are due to make port in Phuket for brief visit on Friday and Saturday respectively.


The Phuket Chamber of Commerce said, however, that three million fewer Chinese tourists than forecast have arrived in Phuket since the Chinese government stopped tour groups from leaving China, following the outbreak of novel coronavirus in Wuhan.


The absence of Chinese tourists means a severe reduction in revenue, estimated at two billion baht a month, according to the Phuket chamber of commerce as it has pleaded with the Government to help tourism-related businesses and about 100,000 people working in this sector, many of whom face being laid off.


Hundreds of boats, which normally carry tourists around, can be seen anchored in Chalong Bay every day due to the lack of Chinese customers.


Two cruise ships dock in Phuket today – Thai PBS World

[panama hat]

The Ministry of Public Health, the National Research Office and the Public Health Science Faculty of Chiang Mai University have jointly developed an online self-screening form, in Thai, English and Chinese, so the public can check their risk of being infected with COVID-19. The form is available at: 404 Not Found

Sigh . . .

[harrybarracuda]

finally being granted permission to dock at Sihanoukville port in Cambodia this morning.

I'm fucked if I'd want to get off there, the place is probably riddled with it.

[katie23]

Public banquet was held on Jan 18, when the disease was already spreading


Funeral homes very busy - so the official number of people dying is much lower (as we all probably know)

[Seekingasylum]

Just love the way that they bemoan backing the farm on one rider in the tourist stakes that's fallen at the ditch of uncertainty.

In 2000 around 10-12 million, mostly westerners and well-heeled Asean nationals, vacationed annually in a tourist Thailand that provided an array of services spread evenly throughout the spectrum of the sector that was balanced in such a way the country satisfied commercial demands without adverse impact upon its environment. As I recall, it provided around 8% of GDP and unemployment in the country was pretty much negligible and no-one was complaining.

Now, having sold their souls to the Chinese hordes they are paying the price of unalloyed greed that has trashed the market, ruined the environment and alienated the western market.

Cry me a river you tossers. There is not an occidental soul here in Pattaya that is not relishing the current dearth of mainland Chinese and luxuriating in a quiet, prevailing peace that is not blighted by hundreds of fucking tour buses blocking the roads every day, belching out diesel fumes from straining engines, disgorging thousands of gormless, bucktoothed punters in straggling lines like mesmerised, dumb cattle over Beach Rd that are embarked in a Dunkirk-sized flotilla of power boats spewing pollution in a miasmic haze of diesel laden vapour stretching the length of the Bay.

Every cloud does indeed have its silver lining.

[Latindancer]

Something more to worry about :


A Newly Discovered “Bizarre” Virus is Breaking the Rules of Infection




This new multicomponent virus is the first of its kind to infect animals.



Science AlertSeptember 4th 2016


A new type of virus has been identified, and it’s so weird, it’s challenging long-held notions of what it takes for a virus to infect and proliferate in an animal host.

Conventional wisdom states that if a single virus manages to insert its genes into a cell, the host becomes infected. But what if you chopped up that virus, and tried stuffing the pieces into an animal cell separately? It wouldn’t work, right?
Well, scientists from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have just discovered the viral equivalent of a bag full of body parts, and if you throw them at a cell wall, somehow, against all odds, they stick.
“It’s the most bizarre thing,” virologist Edward Holmes from the University of Sydney, Australia, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Michaeleen Doucleff at NPR.
“If you compare it to the human body, it’s like a person would have their legs, trunk, and arms all in different places,” he says. “Then all the pieces come together in some way to work as one single virus. I don’t think anything else in nature moves this way.”
Normal viruses are like perfectly crafted infection machines. Their genes are all neatly contained in a single viral particle that’s about 100 times smaller than a bacteria cell, and its surface is so covered in spikes, it can latch onto any cell it comes into contact with.

Once a virus makes contact with a receptor on the surface of a cell, it cuts away at the outer membrane, and deposits its DNA and RNA inside.
The host’s enzymes start making new virus particles based on these blueprints, and when enough replica particles have been produced, the virus kills the cell and breaks free to infect another.
Okay, now go back to the start of that scenario and cut the original viral particle into five.
That’s the case for the Guaico Culex virus (GCXV) – a new type of ‘multicomponent’ virus that’s been identified for the first time in living mosquitos.
For some reason, the genetic material of Guaico Culex has been split up into five independent packages, and in order to be infected by it, you need to be exposed to at least four different types.
“The fifth ball seems to be optional,” says one of the team, Jason Ladner, adding that perhaps getting the fifth part determines how strong the effect will be on the host.

Until now, multicomponent viruses were thought to only infect plants and fungi,because their mode of transmission seems so incredibly inefficient. But now that the Guaico Culex virus has been found in several Culex mosquitos in the Guaico region of Trinidad, the question is, how many other animals could be affected by it?

While this type of virus doesn’t appear to be capable of infecting mammals, the team found that they’re closely related to a group of segmented viruses called Jingmenviruses, which appear to infect monkeys.
Unlike the multicomponent Guaico Culex virus, which has its genetic material separated in different packages, segmented viruses – such as the influenza virus– have their DNA and RNA segmented within a single viral particle.
Ladner and his team recently found the first evidence of a Jingmenvirus in the blood of a non-human primate – a Ugandan red colobus monkey – and while the most likely infectious viruses to make the jump to humans are those in non-human primates, it’s not yet clear if all Jingmenviruses are multicomponent.

The Guaico Culex virus was discovered as part of a wider investigation by the US Army medical team to isolate mosquito-borne viruses from all over the world, in an effort to prevent epidemics like the recent spread of Zika taking researchers by surprise.
“We’re trying to make sure that we’re not blindsided when the next virus comes around,” virologist Gustavo Palacios, who helped lead the study, wrote in a statement. “With all of the diversity seen in these emerging viruses, we never know what the next one will be to have an impact on human health.”
The research has been published in Cell Host & Microbe.


https://futurism.com/a-newly-discove...s-of-infection

[Latindancer]

Timetable For A Vaccine Against The New Coronavirus? Maybe This Fall

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/02/12/804628081/timetable-for-a-vaccine-against-the-new-coronavirus-maybe-this-fall