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8ball said:
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
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I'll probably become quite boring when talking about this stuff. I will be keen to pick on the choice of wording used in the media, and also from experts at times too.

In this instance its the '550 cases' which reminds me to make a point. When you see reference to that, they should actually be saying '550 known cases', because actually there will have been thousands of cases by now, and the known picture is very incomplete. So we cant get a realistic mortality rate using 17 out of 550.
 
I heard today that China has locked down a couple of other cities near to the source.

They certainly seem to be taking it seriously.
 
elbows said:
I'll probably become quite boring when talking about this stuff. I will be keen to pick on the choice of wording used in the media, and also from experts at times too.

In this instance its the '550 cases' which reminds me to make a point. When you see reference to that, they should actually be saying '550 known cases', because actually there will have been thousands of cases by now, and the known picture is very incomplete. So we cant get a realistic mortality rate using 17 out of 550.
Click to expand...

Yeah, good point.
 
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weltweit said:
They certainly seem to be taking it seriously.
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This is partly down to the amount of criticism they received for their handling of SARS.

So long as they dont cover shit up, and release info in a timely manner, I wont criticise them over stuff this time. Because contrary to the wording some articles will no doubt use when taking a blame angle, I dont think there are any countries that could manage to suppress an outbreak of a new infectious respiratory disease if it develops the ability to spread between people with ease. We never have managed such a thing before, to my knowledge. But you still have to try anyway because if it turns out to not be such a good spreader, but is rather deadly, then control and containment may be viable, and the stakes are different.
 
This sounds like a scary time to be in China - all kinds of rumours flying around about thousands of people dead in Wuhan and more major cities about to be locked down. Apparently the symptomless incubation period is up to two weeks long, so we'll probably be hearing about a lot more cases in a lot more places no matter how many cities get sealed off.
 
I do feel like this virus needs a marketing makeover. I for one am finding it difficult to get properly terrified about something that has such a boring and mundane scientific name. Bird Flu was a good one and SARS was even better.

I think we can workshop this. I'll start with Wuhan Woohoo?
 
Teaboy said:
I do feel like this virus needs a marketing makeover. I for one am finding it difficult to get properly terrified about something that has such a boring and mundane scientific name. Bird Flu was a good one and SARS was even better.

I think we can workshop this. I'll start with Wuhan Woohoo?
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'Woohoo" is a little too upbeat, I feel.
If SARS had never happened, it would be called that (severe acute respiratory syndrome being the issue with it), but it's too distantly related to the original to be "SARS 2" or similar.
 
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Teaboy said:
I do feel like this virus needs a marketing makeover. I for one am finding it difficult to get properly terrified about something that has such a boring and mundane scientific name. Bird Flu was a good one and SARS was even better.

I think we can workshop this. I'll start with Wuhan Woohoo?
Click to expand...
The Scottish red tops have gone for the characteristically calm and sensitive 'KILLER SNAKE FLU!!'.
 
JimW said:
I thought the claim was it originated with bats? Quiet bat people killer.
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Bats were a plausible guess. They then did some genetic tests (codon bias sequencing, which is a very blunt instrument) and found a better match with viruses circulating in two species of snake, but given the small number of species analysed (based on species present in the market area the virus is thought to have originated in), it is very tentative, especially seeing how it is very unusual for viruses to jump such phylogenetic distances in a single bound.

There's some credible speculation that it moved from bats to something else to humans.
The reason they care so much about the which species it came from is due to the concern of more transference between species, which can be combatted by selective isolation.
 
From here

www.theguardian.com

Coronavirus: death toll reaches 41 in China with first cases in Europe

Public transport suspended in at least 13 cities in China as death toll rises and France identifies cases
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

In the city of Wuhan, where most cases have occurred, the race to build a new 1,000-bed hospital in just six days began on Thursday night. Diggers and bulldozers beginning work on the site of a holiday complex once intended for local workers, according to Chinese media.
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:eek:
 
T & P said:
I'm sure in due time there'll be a film to be had there, starring Samuel L. Jackson.
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There was a film from 2011 by Steven Soderbergh called Contagion, which was a fictionalised worst case scenario based on the 2009 flu pandemic. It was a rare dramatic film about an outbreak, praised by scientists for being fairly accurate.

en.wikipedia.org

Contagion (2011 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

A virus can easily mutate, become far more dangerous and then we are fucked.
 
Reno said:
A virus can easily mutate, become far more dangerous and then we are fucked.
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I think it's very speculative and a little doomy to say 'easily' for this kind of virus. Other kinds of coronaviruses cause colds fairly commonly and while we did have SARS and MERS, they didn't turn into apocalyptic mass pandemic psycho-bugs.

Then again, maybe I'm just the upbeat internet warrior who appears in a texture shot at the beginning of the disaster movie. :hmm:
 
Teaboy said:
I do feel like this virus needs a marketing makeover. I for one am finding it difficult to get properly terrified about something that has such a boring and mundane scientific name. Bird Flu was a good one and SARS was even better.

I think we can workshop this. I'll start with Wuhan Woohoo?
Click to expand...
8ball said:
... apocalyptic mass pandemic psycho-bugs.
Click to expand...

I like it.
 
Teaboy said:
I do feel like this virus needs a marketing makeover. I for one am finding it difficult to get properly terrified about something that has such a boring and mundane scientific name. Bird Flu was a good one and SARS was even better.

I think we can workshop this. I'll start with Wuhan Woohoo?
Click to expand...
Let Calvin at it
1579869423018.png1579869423018.png
 
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