Wuhan

Mr_Asa said:

I always find it interesting when 4chan goes on one of their extremely specific detective trips on stuff like this.  Its always just on the edge of belief

https://i.imgur.com/oAV8BDY.jpg

I will never forget the day they were planning a prank and someone triangulated desert bushes to find a location of a giant sandstone rock.

Anyway, Sulphur dioxide DOES almost always come from human sources- but coal is one of them. I don't doubt for a moment that China would choose immolation and burning, but it could also be for used/spent medical supplies. Still, the statement that the toll is 10x more than what the Chinese government says has a lot of merit when a "hospital" went up in 10 days and rumor is it's anything but.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

There's another 4chan thread circulating right now that has someone that is supposedly a hospital worker inside that hospital, they are saying that based on the rooms they can observe 200-400 people are being taken out every day and are never to be seen again.

More reputable sources are pointing out that it appears that the Chinese are hiding deaths from this in stuff like pneumonia. 

Does not look good.

In reply to FuzzWuzzy :

Part of the problem is that when buying tickets for such a big trip, you generally buy them months in advance.  And trying to get a refund on 6k worth of airline tickets because things are worse in June than they are now could be problematic.

I know everything "should" be just fine.  But it's feeling like a bit more of a risk than usual.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Until you see some verified proof you're believing a board widely known for telling people to delete system32.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

Sorry, I may not have been clear.

4chan is a board filled with trolls of the highest order.  I would not put it past them to fake anything.  However, at the same time the amount of times that they get something right is kind of shocking.  Until I see verifiable proof, I don't believe anything from there.  It does get lodged in the back of my head, though.

The verifiable sources were some health board in Japan and a few other sources.

The scuttbutt I have heard is that the death rate in China is really high, because they are treating it by just supplying oxygen and letting the body's immune system figure it out or not.  As long as the diseased's family is able to keep paying for treatment, if not then they can just pull the respirator and let them die.

Western countries, where antivirals are being used (apparently HIV medications are useful for treating it?), the death toll is sub-1%.

The conspiracy theories is that it is being used as an excuse to round up political dissidents.

In reply to Knurled. :

I wouldn't doubt any of it. So far, it seems that the deaths from the disease are from cytokine storms in which medication to moderate the immune systems response would be needed. And people like to forget for some reason that China's healthcare is probably in one of the worst positions possible- there's so many people they don't really care about the individual, their resources are hyper centered in the cities with nothing in the countryside (go 10 miles out of Shengahi and you're in bamboo shack territory), and they still haven't shaken off ancestral medicines they've had for hundreds of years. They haven't let the WHO in, undoubtedly because they're trying to build something akin to a hospital set to save face about it.

China's already been targeting colleges and arresting students for espousing (get this) Communist beliefs for a few years.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I always used channel boards as barometers for the internet, but I haven't really gone to that one in years.

I always assumed that the zombie apocalypse would start on board a cruise ship. 

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

I had a read on the concept of a cytokine storm and can now go to bed tonight  knowing something I did not know about when I woke up this morning. Interesting read.

One thing that does not come out of Wuhan is the number of people who are recovering; I have to think that people are coming out the other end of the flu and going back to their lives as do most people after a bout of the flu.

Here in Canada I believe that all patients are declared to be on the road to recovery and/or at home in the final stages of recovery.

In other news, North Korea totally does not have any coronavirus cases, the false rumors that five cases of coronavirus there have absolutely nothing to do with their decision to cancel their annual military parade and other public events, and the glorious North Korean health care system will ensure that North Korea will not be completely berkeleyed if the efforts to close their border with China fail to keep out the virus.

Another update: The World Health Organization has finally given this germ a name after months of basically calling it "the new coronavirus." They've gone with COVID 19, for COrona VIrus Disease 2019.

I kind of like the previous rule of naming a virus for the nearest river, although I'm sure the people two states over are probably glad that got shelved before an outbreak of Mississippi Disease. COVID is a bit unimaginative, although it sounds a bit better than its relative, MERS.

Maybe they should name them after appropriate cars!   

For this one?  How about Olds Cutlass?  Generally unremarkable but seems to stick around a lot longer then you would think.

I don't know, my best friend has a big block Cutlass that is pretty remarkable.  Even in a big car, 500 ft/lb makes an impression

Perhaps a ray of hope.  China is reporting a decline in reports of new cases.

AP Story

I'm headed to Tokyo by way of Beijing in a month or so. I'm more concerned with the 18 hour Air China flight with recirculated air carrying people back home to China. I'm just going to roll the dice and carry hand sanitizer. I don't think I can even stand wearing a mask for any length of time.

The masks are considered ineffective anyway.  You would need a full filtering respirator type mask (e.g. paint booth type)

Loading up on zinc in the days before a cold cut 1-2 days off the time of the cold.  May help give you a boost?

aircooled said:

The masks are considered ineffective anyway.  You would need a full filtering respirator type mask (e.g. paint booth type)

Exactly, viruses are like super small…maybe even smaller than a grain of sand but don’t quote me.

I guess the mask does alert others that you’re sick but you could just wear a sign that sez’ “look out, I’m sick” and be done.

RX Reven' said:

aircooled said:

The masks are considered ineffective anyway.  You would need a full filtering respirator type mask (e.g. paint booth type)

Exactly, viruses are like super small…maybe even smaller than a grain of sand but don’t quote me.

I guess the mask does alert others that you’re sick but you could just wear a sign that sez’ “look out, I’m sick” and be done.

I can confirm viruses are smaller than a grain of sand. Also the N95 masks are effective to a point but I feel like I'm hyper ventilating in them.

crankwalk said:

I can confirm viruses are smaller than a grain of sand.

 I was wondering, thanks for clearing that up.

Joking aside, the mask provides warmth and humidity…just what a virus needs to stay alive.

I’m not that versed in microbiology but my understanding is that viruses are too primitive to have any self-regulatory capabilities and basically “hold their breath” while in transit from one host cell to another.

Giving them a warm, wet surface to land on seems analogues to air dropping camping supplies to stranded hikers.

Has anybody conducted a valid study of this or is it just a case of giving the masses a sense of security and making a little money selling stuff in the process?

The BBC World service has been having good reports on the Corona Virus , The ship stuck off Japan etc , 

today I learned that the most common seasonal flu virus now is the H1NI virus , 

And the almost 200 that were stuck at March Airforce base have been released after 2 weeks with none having the virus.

RX Reven' said:

crankwalk said:

I can confirm viruses are smaller than a grain of sand.

 I was wondering, thanks for clearing that up.

Joking aside, the mask provides warmth and humidity…just what a virus needs to stay alive.

I’m not that versed in microbiology but my understanding is that viruses are too primitive to have any self-regulatory capabilities and basically “hold their breath” while in transit from one host cell to another.

Giving them a warm, wet surface to land on seems analogues to air dropping camping supplies to stranded hikers.

Has anybody conducted a valid study of this or is it just a case of giving the masses a sense of security and making a little money selling stuff in the process?

CDC seems to think they do something.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/respirator-supply-strategies.html

RX Reven' said:

aircooled said:

The masks are considered ineffective anyway.  You would need a full filtering respirator type mask (e.g. paint booth type)

Exactly, viruses are like super small…maybe even smaller than a grain of sand but don’t quote me.

I guess the mask does alert others that you’re sick but you could just wear a sign that sez’ “look out, I’m sick” and be done.

The mask might help keep out the particles that the virus rides on.

crankwalk said:

I'm headed to Tokyo by way of Beijing in a month or so.

berkeley that.

Heck, our customer trip to Tokyo that was scheduled for mid Feb was cancelled due to too many travelers expressing concern over this bug somehow catching up with them.  That said, nfw would I even consider a trip to anywhere via China at this point!