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

[Jeremiah18.17]

This first person report out of China indicates that it will be very unlikely the Chinese state will not take advantage of the virus to advance their total surveillance agenda......

It’s like being in a science fiction film – my daily life in a locked-down Chinese city | Mark Bishop

Local government cars with loudspeakers pass by regularly now, issuing warnings and orders to obey the new restrictions, says university lecturer Mark Bishop

www.theguardian.com

 

[weltweit]

I expect you will have seen but there has now been the first UK death from this infection. The victim apparently had underlying health conditions and caught the virus in the UK.

 

[Dan U]

Dan U and anyone else in adult care
Nursing home in Madrid. 10 residents infected. 1 member staff.
Working assumption is staff member is patient 0 of the cluster.

Korea death toll at 41, total cases 6,088.

The growth will not slow unless action is taken, including travel and mobility limitations in areas and shutdown or shift into virtual space of non-essential sectors education, entertainment, retail, finance, tourism, construction. The longer the delay the more severe the death rates and negative effects.

I think this quandary shows exactly why I am glad these aren't my decisions to make. None of this is easy

 

[smmudge]

Our sainsburys has been hit, absolutely no toilet roll, no hand wash or anti-bacterial gel of any kind! Why toilet roll though??

 

[Supine]

Our sainsburys has been hit, absolutely no toilet roll, no hand wash or anti-bacterial gel of any kind! Why toilet roll though??

14 days of isolation obviously!

 

[smmudge]

14 days of isolation obviously!

But the spirits shelves were shocked full! I'm not sure people know how to do isolation.

 

[miss direct]

So here in Turkey, we are led to believe that every single bordering country is affected, with 3,500 in Iran alone, and yet NOT A SINGLE CASE HERE. Whatever panic may be happening in the UK/elsewhere, it has to be better than this blind sheep nationalist crap that we're getting here.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Hope you're OK miss direct - sounds questionable as you say.

 

[sihhi]

Did you know that only 2 European countries banned all travel from China, the first was Italy, that worked so well, didn't it?

This is wrong. The Czech Republic and Greece were before.
Italy on 23 January suspended direct flights from Wuhan and but direct flights from the rest of China on 30 January. Indirect entries into Italy were not stopped.
It's suspected that either an Italian who returned or either Chinese tourists to the north were vectors.
Italy, like Britain, also failed to institute adequate isolation for those that did enter.
For instance one of the cases is a professor who went to central Italy had no symptoms but did not self-isolate as per guidelines so has infected several students in King's College London.

More generally the point to be made is that social distancing involves travel restrictions because unnecessary group travel is a site of social congregation and infection ie China banned all travel from Hubei and in Hubei, and it worked.

 

[weltweit]

Incidentally, I am pretty sure sometime today I overheard something on the radio that there may now be two variants of the virus out there.

Did anyone else hear that?

 

[elbows]

Incidentally, I am pretty sure sometime today I overheard something on the radio that there may now be two variants of the virus out there.

Did anyone else hear that?

There was a paper that made this claim. Other experts didnt like the paper at all. The press all picked up on it and ran with it anyway, I dont think it was the main headline in UK papers today but it was there on a number of front pages in some capacity.

This thread so far has featured multiple people bringing up the first few press articles about it, me posting a link to criticism of the paper, and several people asking about it since. I expect people to keep asking about it. I hope someone other than me finds a nice way to answer them, because its going to make my brain explode one day soon lol.

For me its in the pile of very uncertain science, the pile of 'narratives the media will bloody love', and that means for me it qualifies as something I am going to cast aside as an irrelevant distraction, a misleading impression, unless such a time comes that other things are built on top of this theme that have more obvious merit, substance and real implications to them.

 

[weltweit]

I must have missed earlier mentions of it, I do try to keep up with this thread before others as the OP.

Anyhow I see the BBC website seems have muddled itself a bit trying to keep up with British and global updates at the same time. It is quite tricky to monitor what is going on from their site which is a shame. For a while they were organised and it was easy, no longer the case.

We were wondering if there was a case at work and they were sent home or to hospital if we would be expected to do a deep clean before the rest could continue working. I will have a read about on the gov websites and see if there is any advice.

 

[Supine]

Incidentally, I am pretty sure sometime today I overheard something on the radio that there may now be two variants of the virus out there.

Did anyone else hear that?

Virus constantly mutate so it's not as simple as two variants. This is a great study of covid genetic changes:

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I'm not sure how any of these constant updates in the media help me at all. They don't change what I can do about any of it. My phone pinging me to tell me that there are X new cases in country Y or somebody has died in Z doesn't provide me with useful information and just drives me even more nuts than I already am.

 

[killer b]

turn off the pings, why would you have them anyway?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

turn off the pings, why would you have them anyway?

Then I would also lose all the alerts about the latest developments in the labour leadership election

wait

 

[killer b]

jesus, they actually ping you about that?

I got a text message from Richard Burgon the other day 'killer b, there's only 5 weeks left' it said. I was horrified.

 

[weltweit]

I'm not sure how any of these constant updates in the media help me at all. They don't change what I can do about any of it. My phone pinging me to tell me that there are X new cases in country Y or somebody has died in Z doesn't provide me with useful information and just drives me even more nuts than I already am.

Perhaps try the official warnings

UKHSA data dashboard

Showing public health data across England

www.gov.uk

 

[elbows]

WHO advice about coronavirus stress includes a recommendation to lessen the time you spend absorbing media coverage that is upsetting.

Download

 

[elbows]

jesus, they actually ping you about that?

I got a text message from Richard Burgon the other day 'killer b, there's only 5 weeks left' it said. I was horrified.

Oh that reminds me:

"Should, as part of your preparations need us to consider something more specific to your demise, ISS are happy to do so."

Coronavirus email typo to government staff offers to help plan their 'demise'

EXCLUSIVE An email to staff at the Department for Business, Energy, Innovation and Skills seems to take an extremely dark turn, but there's an explanation

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Does anyone else remember when "rolling news" was a new phenomenon and people criticised its psychological effects? Now all news is "rolling news". Even if one channel goes to sleep you have ones around the globe you can look at.

 

[Supine]

Does anyone else remember when "rolling news" was a new phenomenon and people criticised its psychological effects? Now all news is "rolling news". Even if one channel goes to sleep you have ones around the globe you can look at.

The news will keep with this story for a while and then move onto something else.

 

[elbows]

Virus constantly mutate so it's not as simple as two variants. This is a great study of covid genetic changes:

And here are several rebuttals of the '2 strains' thing:



(its a whole thread of tweets so have to click to get the full story from that one)

and

Response to “On the origin and continuing evolution of SARS-CoV-2”

Response to “On the origin and continuing evolution of SARS-CoV-2” Oscar A. MacLean*, Richard Orton, Joshua B. Singer, David L. Robertson. MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR). *To whom correspondence should be addressed: Oscar.MacLean@glasgow.ac.uk. Introduction An...

virological.org

 

[lazythursday]

This is interesting on the benefits of closing schools sooner rather than later:

 

[sihhi]

This is interesting on the benefits of closing schools sooner rather than later:

I found this teacher comment instructive:
There is a real sense of entitlement in people who expect schools, daycare centers, etc. to be open in times of trouble. "I need these workers to take unnecessary risks so that I can do my work without distraction." We all have to take it on the chin, unfortunately.

The point is that schools often turn into indices of transmission because of the proximity between children who can then infect parents back home. Shutdowns are for the greater good, healthcare workers' children can be looked after by others.

 

[elbows]

It was a difficult situation but I had every faith that Japanese bureaucracy would make it much worse!

I mean, just look at this for yet another example:

Japan won’t test medical workers who came in close contact with passengers on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked near Tokyo, the NHK broadcaster reported on Sunday (Feb 13).

Doctors and nurses who don’t have symptoms won’t be examined because they have "mastered the technology to prevent infection,” the report said, citing the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Japan won’t test medical workers on cruise ship for virus

TOKYO: Japan won’t test medical workers who came in close contact with passengers on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked near Tokyo, the NHK broadcaster reported on Sunday (Feb 13).

www.thestar.com.my

Sounds like the CDC of the USA managed to take that concept several steps further. Initially declined to test a nurse who treated a confirmed case, and has some symptoms of illness themselves:

'they said that they would not test me because if I were wearing the recommended protective equipment then I wouldn't have the coronavirus'

 

[Part-timah]

Trump saying people can go to work with Coronavirus.

 

[sihhi]

(Unplanned, unrestricted, uncoordinated, nonquarantined travel leads to) a British woman possibly infecting others in Senegal (over 16 million with 20 modern hospitals)

The second patient was a 33-year-old British woman from London who arrived in Senegal on Feb. 24, the ministry said.

Senegal now up to 4, hopefully its containment is more successful than here.

 

[kropotkin]

Start clearing beds as much as possible.

As in, do our job? This is a priority every day of the year, as demand outstrips beds in every hospital.

 

[phillm]

The news will keep with this story for a while and then move onto something else.

In about August if the Uk government is to be believed. It looks, sadly that we all get to be a part of this story.