Coronavirus - worldwide breaking news, discussion, stats, updates and more

[weltweit]

New China virus: Cases triple as infection spreads to Beijing and Shanghai

This comes as China confirms that a new strain of coronavirus can pass from person to person.

www.bbc.co.uk

Bit scary, new virus which seems to have started in China seems very infectious and might be spreading.

 

[cupid_stunt]

People are being advised to avoid "unprotected" contact with live animals.

Sheep shaggers beware.

 

[not-bono-ever]

china scan all arrivals at borders as a matter course- internal travel less so but present at major stations iirc.busy couple of weeks ahead as well.the pig virus meant the slaughter of 200m pigs - they dont fuck about in the PRC

 

[weltweit]

It seems it all started in Wuhan

..
They say the death was recorded in the eastern city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began in December.

Meanwhile, Japan confirmed its first case of the virus - the second country outside China after Thailand to do so.
..

 

[wiskey]

china scan all arrivals at borders as a matter course- internal travel less so but present at major stations iirc.busy couple of weeks ahead as well.the pig virus meant the slaughter of 200m pigs - they dont fuck about in the PRC

I vaguely heard something about temperature scanners which went along the lines of 'they don't really work as an actual line of defence but they are a visible way of reassuring the public and they deter people who are ill from traveling' .... Which sounded to me a bit like they did work.

 

[editor]

I vaguely heard something about temperature scanners which went along the lines of 'they don't really work as an actual line of defence but they are a visible way of reassuring the public and they deter people who are ill from traveling' .... Which sounded to me a bit like they did work.

I had to face one of them when I arrived in Tokyo. Very offputting!

 

[Cid]

china scan all arrivals at borders as a matter course- internal travel less so but present at major stations iirc.busy couple of weeks ahead as well.the pig virus meant the slaughter of 200m pigs - they dont fuck about in the PRC

Busy is something of an understatement...

Hundreds of millions of people will be moving through various transport hubs. Not a snowball's chance in hell those scanners are going to be properly and consistently monitored. Let's just hope the spread is limited somehow.

 

[Rimbaud]

Busy is something of an understatement...

Hundreds of millions of people will be moving through various transport hubs. Not a snowball's chance in hell those scanners are going to be properly and consistently monitored. Let's just hope the spread is limited somehow.

Worst possible time of year, and worst possible location as well. Wuhan is a central transport hub, something like Chicago or Frankfurt, lots of people will be transferring through there.

 

[weltweit]

bit of a summary here:

New China virus: Warning against cover-up as number of cases jumps

Beijing's top leaders urge transparency as it is confirmed the coronavirus can pass between people.

www.bbc.co.uk

Less hyperbolic than various tweets I could have posted.

 

[elbows]

Hundreds of millions of people will be moving through various transport hubs. Not a snowball's chance in hell those scanners are going to be properly and consistently monitored. Let's just hope the spread is limited somehow.

Frankly when it comes to things that spread via the respiratory tract, if there is efficient human to human transmission then I dont think we've ever been equipped to prevent the spread, its mission impossible even under much kinder circumstances. So even without the Chinese new year travel and population densities of China, if this new coronavirus is well adjusted to humans then it will not be stopped or even notably slowed. If on the other hand it is only just managing some limited human to human transmission then there is more hope, as happened so far with MERS and SARS.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Worst possible time of year, and worst possible location as well. Wuhan is a central transport hub, something like Chicago or Frankfurt, lots of people will be transferring through there.

Not any longer they won't.

 

[weltweit]

blimey TheHoodedClaw looks like they are taking this outbreak even more seriously now.

 

[weltweit]

 

[Yossarian]

They're going to need a fuck of a lot of soldiers if they're going to actually seal off a city with a metropolitan area with roughly the same size and population as Greater London.

 

[Yossarian]

Videos from Wuhan look like something out of a disaster movie, if people there weren't panicking already I think they will be now,

 

[weltweit]

Coronavirus: Wuhan shuts public transport over outbreak

Wuhan, a city of eleven million, temporarily shuts down all its public transport amid the outbreak.

www.bbc.co.uk

Limiting transport will cut the chance of the virus reaching other cities in China and other countries around the world.

This all comes just as millions of people are travelling across China for the week-long holiday that is Lunar New Year.

If you're struggling for context - imagine shutting down London in the week before Christmas.

The big question left is the roads - and whether any of Wuhan's 8.9 million inhabitants will be able to simply drive away.

 

[elbows]

The horse has probably already bolted. Because when you see hundreds of cases showing up, that usually means there have actually been many thousands of cases already (because plenty will be asymptomatic or too mild to have raised any flags). The number of cases detected abroad (people who travelled from Wuhan) gives further clues to the scale of the problem at source (larger than originally suggested for sure, hence rising estimates in recent days).

Initial mortality data (which should be taken with a pinch of salt at this stage) suggests the usual picture - the old, and those with chronic underlying health problems are most likely to end up with severe consequences after catching this coronavirus. The wider picture will take a while to become clear. For example one possible scenario is that this coronavirus could quickly become endemic, joining the other things which we have always lumped together as 'the common cold'. Possible with not very different mortality and severe disease rates to what we already have to deal with. Slightly or much worse scenarios exist too though.

 

[editor]

It might have arrived in the UK

Four people in Scotland are being tested for suspected coronavirus and there will be many more cases in other cities across the country, the head of infection medicine at the University of Edinburgh has said.


Professor Jurgen said three cases are in Edinburgh and the other is believed to be in Glasgow.

Tests are currently being carried out and none of the patients have been confirmed as having the disease.

They all travelled to Scotland from Wuhan, where the outbreak is thought to have originated, within the past two weeks and are showing symptoms of respiratory trouble, a red flag for the virus.

HuffPost is now part of Verizon Media

 

[8ball]

It might have arrived in the UK

It most likely will at some point.

 

[skyscraper101]

Coronavirus: UK-made 'Plague' game downloads soar in China amid virus outbreak

 

[8ball]

The horse has probably already bolted. Because when you see hundreds of cases showing up, that usually means there have actually been many thousands of cases already (because plenty will be asymptomatic or too mild to have raised any flags). The number of cases detected abroad (people who travelled from Wuhan) gives further clues to the scale of the problem at source (larger than originally suggested for sure, hence rising estimates in recent days).

Initial mortality data (which should be taken with a pinch of salt at this stage) suggests the usual picture - the old, and those with chronic underlying health problems are most likely to end up with severe consequences after catching this coronavirus. The wider picture will take a while to become clear. For example one possible scenario is that this coronavirus could quickly become endemic, joining the other things which we have always lumped together as 'the common cold'. Possible with not very different mortality and severe disease rates to what we already have to deal with. Slightly or much worse scenarios exist too though.

Nice summing up. We're basically talking about a quite nasty cold (coronaviruses in general being one of the families of viruses that always came under the broad heading of "colds"). Quite a lot of people die from colds generally (well, usually complications arising from them) - we don't talk about it much.

Usually, killing your host isn't an ideal evolutionary strategy, so mutation in the direction of lesser virulence wouldn't be a surprise.

 

[8ball]

Coronavirus: UK-made 'Plague' game downloads soar in China amid virus outbreak

My nephews love that game - I got them the board game version too last Christmas.

Maybe it's quite a comforting game, because if you play as a virus and start in China and start killing people before even infecting lots of other countries, the humans will wipe you out in no time.

 

[Detroit City]

I hope this isn't the end of the human race

 

[8ball]

I hope this isn't the end of the human race

Sarcasm is unbecoming.

 

[elbows]

Usually, killing your host isn't an ideal evolutionary strategy, so mutation in the direction of lesser virulence wouldn't be a surprise.

I dont have any sense of how bad the virulence is to start with. Enough to show up and cause concern, but still possible that things like mortality rate wont end up being much different to stuff we are already used to. There is a question of co-infection with this sort of thing too, eg most cases might still be relatively mild and more confined to upper respiratory tract, but co-infection with another seasonal respiratory illness might promote lower respiratory tract issues and complications.

 

[8ball]

I dont have any sense of how bad the virulence is to start with. Enough to show up and cause concern, but still possible that things like mortality rate wont end up being much different to stuff we are already used to.

I kind of figured it must be quite a lot worse than a common-or-garden cold for us to be discussing it in the first place.
edit: 17 people dead out of 550 cases seems like a lot to me

 

[AmateurAgitator]

Assuming we are being given all the information, which is usually what happens in these situations, I'm sure everything is under control and it won't be that bad, it's usually the way with these things. I don't think theres any need to panic about this at this stage. We have the demograpic info of the first lot of patients, which is very useful. Also, over half of these had already existing serious health conditions that could complicate things which is also useful to know. One concern is that not everyone had a fever, that's quite worrying but it's not enough to panic over. Surveillance of a threat like this is key and is being undertaken which is just what we need. Some of the steps may seem dramitic and unnerving but there you go. The media always treats any situation like this as if it's going to be the worst outbreak ever, which doesn't help.

 

[existentialist]

I'm sure everything is under control and it won't be that bad, it's usually the way with these things. I don't think theres any need to panic about this at this stage.

You'd better have a word with the Chinese government, then.

 

[ffsear]

Victims so far mainly elderly with pre existing conditions.

 

[Supine]

5 in UK now suspect. Scotland and Ireland.