The Covid-19 Thread: News, Preparation Tips, Etc

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
The shunned: People from virus-hit city tracked, quarantined

BEIJING (AP) — Meron Mei, a sophomore at Wuhan University in the Chinese city at the heart of a viral outbreak, went back to his home village and started to cough.

So he went to the hospital and got checked. Doctors determined it was a common cold, not the new coronavirus, he says, and he returned home. Then a week ago, he says, five officers showed up at his house in Xishui County, a two hour drive from Wuhan. They wore masks and wielded blue, gun-shaped thermometers.

Now Mei finds himself under constant surveillance by plainclothes police. His doorstep has been posted with a red warning: “Do not approach – patient with suspected pneumonia.” Doctors in gowns, goggles and masks check his temperature three times a day, and the government calls him constantly to monitor his condition — despite tests that he says show his body is free of the coronavirus. His phone is constantly checked; its camera has been disabled and his photos deleted. He relayed his story to The Associated Press via messages in English to prevent officers from reading them.


“I am in prison,” said Mei, whose story could not be independently verified by the AP. “I’m so angry. I feel physically and mentally exhausted.”

As China institutes the largest quarantine in human history, locking down more than 50 million people in the center of the country, those who have recently been to Wuhan are being tracked, monitored, turned away from hotels and placed into isolation at their homes and in makeshift quarantine facilities.

The information available to regular people is uneven. Uneasy residents have circulated lists of hundreds of people from Wuhan containing sensitive personal information including addresses, phone numbers, national ID numbers, dates of birth and occupations.

One list sent by a Shanghai resident to the AP lists 174 people in the city’s Putuo district, including a foreigner, some city natives, many people from other parts of China, and an apartment where the resident lives. The identification numbers were authentic and matched other data on the list, according to a Chinese ID reference tool.

“Inside information! Accurate and reliable!” said one post sharing the list, in a screenshot shared with the AP. “Putuo friends please pay attention, the people listed here have all gone to Wuhan, and they aren’t allowed into hospitals, so they’re being forcibly isolated at home! Neighbors, don’t go outdoors under any circumstances!”

During the past decade, the Chinese government crafted a rigorous system of social control, which it calls “stability maintenance.” Through methods high-tech and low, from face-scanning cameras to neighborhood informants to household registration, Beijing keeps track of its 1.4 billion citizens, managing them via community-level officials.

Such monitoring doesn’t typically bother most people in China. Usually only political dissidents or minorities are subject to overt state control. But in times of extraordinary stress, such as the virus outbreak, these systems swing into action nationwide.

On Jan. 25, an extraordinary televised meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s ruling inner circle of power, ordered officials to carry out “prevention and control work” with special emphasis on “monitoring, screening and warning.” Since then, millions of local officials and officers have mobilized to monitor, screen and warn — and restrict, to varying degrees — in a governance approach that Beijing calls “blanket-style tracking.”

“We must effectively manage people from Wuhan according to the principles of ‘tracking people, registering them, community management, inspecting them at their door, mass transfers, treat abnormalities,’” Li Bin, deputy director of the Chinese National Health Commission, said at a news conference the next day.

Officials say — and some experts agree — that the stringent measures are necessary. “This epidemic is spreading quite quickly, which presents challenges and is putting pressure on our control and prevention work,” said Ma Xiaowei, director of the Chinese National Health Commission. “The country has adopted more powerful measures, which should be able to control the epidemic at a lower cost and faster speed.”

A woman who works in education in Wuhan said she had been back in her hometown in China’s Inner Mongolia region for nearly two weeks when friends and relatives forwarded her an Excel sheet that contained not just her name but her ID number, address, and occupation. At first, she said, she felt shock, then fury.

“It listed a bunch of people in the whole city who had come back from Wuhan,” said the woman, Na. Like many Chinese, she gave only her last name so she could speak openly on a sensitive topic. Police are vigilant about cracking down on information spread through unofficial channels, and many people are often hesitant to speak to the foreign press.

“I was so angry,” Na said. “This could affect me later in life.”

Unlike Mei, Na’s hometown is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Wuhan, and she wasn’t confined to her home. But Na said she began to receive calls from the police, community officials and a newly established epidemic prevention center.

Because government departments often fail to share or coordinate data collection, many calling Na asked the same questions. On the first day, she said, she got a dozen calls , possibly more, asking a slew of questions: Where are you? When are you going home? Who’d you come into contact with?

“It’s so bothersome,” she said. “I made it clear that I didn’t want my personal information leaked.”

Others upset at leaks took to Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, and demanded to know what was going on. Most posts were deleted, but the censors left up a post by Cui Baoqiu, the vice president of Chinese cellphone maker Xiaomi, who criticized the leaks for stigmatizing people from Wuhan.

“Sick people are not criminals,” Cui said. “This data must be managed by a few people in the government. They need to tighten to their controls.”

Whether the leaks were intentional is unclear. Various government departments gather reams of data from cameras, cellphones, and social media, as well as through transportation records and queries from health and security officials.

In one case, Nick, who asked to be identified by only his English name, said he had merely driven through Wuhan but later found his name on a leaked list. In other cases, people were told to report on anyone suspected of having gone to Wuhan by ringing a hotline. A woman who answered a hotline for Baoshu, a village in Fujian province, confirmed they were offering a 1200 RMB ($173) reward for information. And in a news conference Thursday, a China State Railway Group representative said it is providing passenger data to the government.

Many of the more than 9,600 confirmed cases are in Wuhan and surrounding cities in Hubei province. Virtually the entire province was locked down last week. But even Wuhan natives who slipped out before the trains and planes stopped running are finding there’s no escape.

An IT worker from Wuhan who also asked only to be identified by his English name, Andy, to protect his family’s privacy, was sightseeing in Beijing with his wife and two children when he heard the government was closing off his hometown. The family went to Nanjing, a city near China’s coast, but the Intercontinental Hotel turned them away after seeing their national ID cards, which include their Wuhan addresses. Andy finally found a room at the five-star Shangri-La hotel and settled in, planning to stay until it was safe to go back home.

On Monday, reception called: Police were kicking them out. It didn’t matter that Andy’s family hadn’t been in Wuhan for more than a week, or that they’d been wearing masks for nearly two. Everyone from Wuhan was being ordered to stay at an isolated Home Inn for 14 days.

When they saw their room at the new hostel, Andy panicked: it was drafty. He stuffed wet towels in the cavity underneath his door, but worried it was futile since doors were opened for meals. He was awake until 2 a.m., fretting over his two young children and imagining potentially virus-filled air from the hallways, swirling into their room.

Andy says he “totally understands” and “trusts” the government, and appreciates the hard work of doctors and nurses on the front lines. He’s grateful, but he can’t stop worrying.

“I understand that in such a big country you don’t want this to spread further,” he said. “What I can’t accept is, what about my children? Who’s going to guarantee our safety?”
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
US bars foreigners coming from China for now over virus fear

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Friday declared a public health emergency and took drastic steps to significantly restrict entry into the country because of a new virus that hit China and has spread to other nations.

President Donald Trump has signed an order that will temporarily bar foreign nationals, other than immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, who have traveled in China within the last 14 days. The new restrictions, which take effect at 5 p.m. EST on Sunday, were announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who is coordinating the U.S. response.


“It is likely that we will continue to see more cases in the United States in the coming days and weeks, including some limited person-to-person transmissions,” Azar said. “The American public can be assured the full weight of the U.S. government is working to safeguard the health and safety of the American people.”

Americans returning from China will be allowed into the country, but will face screening at select ports of entry and required to undertake 14 days of self-screening to ensure they don’t pose a health risk. Those returning from Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, will be subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine.

Beginning Sunday, the U.S. will also begin funneling all flights to the U.S. from China to seven major airports where passengers can be screened for illness.

The virus has infected almost 10,000 people globally in just two months, a troublesome sign that prompted the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a global emergency. The death toll stood at 213, including 43 new fatalities, all in China.

A public health emergency in the U.S. allows the government to tap additional resources to send to states, such as emergency funding and if necessary drugs or equipment from the national stockpile, and to suspend certain legal requirements.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that while the risk in the U.S. is low, “I want to emphasize that this is a significant global situation and it continues to evolve.”

There are seven cases of this virus in the U.S. and all were travelers except for a Chicago man who caught it from his wife, who had been in China.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious diseases chief at the National Institutes of Health, said one reason the U.S. stepped up its quarantine measures was an alarming report from Germany that a traveler from China had spread the virus despite showing no symptoms. Fauci contrasted it with the response to recent outbreaks of Ebola, which can’t be spread unless someone is very ill.

At the same time, federal health authorities were recognizing that the test they’re using to detect the virus isn’t always dependable. Redfield said when it was used on some of the people currently in isolation, they’d test positive one day and negative another.

Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University expert on public health law, said putting a large number of people under quarantine “is virtually unprecedented in modern American history.”

Declaring a public health emergency “gives HHS added powers, and is warranted. Quarantine of those returning from Hubei is also reasonable given the high risk of exposure to coronavirus in that province,” he said.

He did note that travelers from other parts of China don’t pose as high a risk. “We need to use the least restrictive measure necessary to safeguard the population,” Gostin said.

Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun offered America’s “deepest compassion” to the Chinese, noting that the deadly outbreak came during the peak of their holiday season, when everyone would ordinarily be celebrating and not living in fear of contracting the virus.

Biegun said the U.S. is working hard to find donors of supplies and making arrangements for a “robust effort to help the Chinese people get their arms around this outbreak.”

The announcement came hours after the State Department issued a level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory, the highest grade of warning, and told Americans in China to consider departing using commercial means. “Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice,” the advisory said.

Hours later, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines announced they were suspending all flights between the U.S. and China, joining several international carriers that have stopped flying to China as the virus outbreak continues to spread.

Meanwhile, U.S. health officials issued a two-week quarantine order for the 195 Americans evacuated earlier this week from the Chinese city of Wuhan, provincial capital of Hubei province. It was the first time a federal quarantine has been ordered since the 1960s, when one was enacted over concern about the potential spread of smallpox, the CDC said.

None of the Americans being housed at a Southern California military base has shown signs of illness, but infected people don’t show symptoms immediately and may be able to pass on the virus before they appear sick.

One of the evacuees, Matthew L. McCoy, a theme park designer who lives in China, said the group was very relieved by the quarantine order.

“All of us really want to stay here and make sure we’re all medically clear and the public safe,” he said from the military base.

China counted 9,692 confirmed cases Friday, the vast majority in Hubei province.

The National Health Commission reported 171 cases of people who have been “cured and discharged from hospital.” WHO has said most people who got the illness had milder cases, though 20% experienced severe symptoms. Symptoms include fever and cough, and in severe cases, shortness of breath and pneumonia.

China has placed more than 50 million people in the region under virtual quarantine.

American Airlines said it was halting all flights starting Friday and running through March 27. Delta plans to wait until Feb. 6 to suspend China operations to help travelers in China leave the country. It said the stoppage will continue through April 30. United Airlines announced that it will suspend flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu but continue flights to Hong Kong.

The U.S. screening airports are John F. Kennedy International in New York, San Francisco International in California, Seattle-Tacoma International in Washington, O’Hare International in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in Georgia, and Daniel K. Inouye International in Hawaii.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded more than 600 points Friday as the outbreak continued to widen, stoking fears that the travel restrictions and other uncertainties caused by the health emergency in the world’s second-largest economy could dent global growth.

Since China informed WHO about the new virus in late December, at least 23 countries have reported cases, as scientists race to understand how exactly the virus is spreading and how severe it is.

Experts say there is significant evidence the virus is spreading among people in China, and WHO noted with its emergency declaration Thursday it was especially concerned that some cases abroad also involved human-to-human transmission. It defines an international emergency as an “extraordinary event” that poses a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

“The main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China but because of what is happening in other countries,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva. “Our greatest concern is the potential for this virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems which are ill-prepared to deal with it.”

A declaration of a global emergency typically brings greater money and resources, but may also prompt nervous governments to restrict travel and trade to affected countries. The announcement also imposes more disease reporting requirements on countries.

The last time the U.S. government ordered a quarantine was in 1963 when a woman named Ellen Siegel was held in quarantine for up to 14 days because she did not present a valid certificate of vaccination against small pox. Siegel had visited Sweden when it still had a case of smallpox and although she had been revaccinated about two months earlier, the vaccination was said to be unsuccessful.

On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it was authorizing the departure of family members and all non-emergency U.S. government employees from Beijing and the consulates in the cities of Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang. Staff from the Wuhan consulate departed earlier this week.

The decision was made “out of an abundance of caution related to logistical disruptions stemming from restricted transportation and availability of appropriate health care,” the embassy said.

Mike Wester, a businessman in Beijing who has lived in China for 19 years, said he has no plans to leave.

“I feel safer self-quarantining myself here at home than I do risking travel,” Wester said.

He pointed to potential risks from crowds at airports and being required to remove a mask for passport and security checks.

Japan and Germany also advised against non-essential travel and Britain did as well, except for Hong Kong and Macao. Popular holiday and shopping destination Singapore barred Chinese from traveling there, becoming the first Southeast Asian nation to do so.

Tedros said WHO was not recommending limiting travel or trade to China.

“There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade,” he said. He added that Chinese President Xi Jinping had committed to help stop the spread of the virus beyond its borders.

Although scientists expect to see limited transmission of the virus between people with close contact, like within families, the instances of spread to people who may have had less exposure to the virus is worrying.

In Japan, a tour guide and bus driver became infected after escorting two tour groups from Wuhan. In Germany, five employees of a German auto parts supplier became ill after a Chinese colleague visited, including two who had no direct contact with the woman, who showed no symptoms of the virus until her flight back to China. On Friday, Germany confirmed a sixth case, a child of one of the people already infected.

“That’s the kind of transmission chain that we don’t want to see,” said Marion Koopmans, an infectious diseases specialist at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands and a member of WHO’s emergency committee.

The new virus has now infected more people globally than were sickened during the 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, a cousin of the new virus. Both are from the coronavirus family, which also includes those that can cause the common cold.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
Stocks sink on fears virus outbreak will dent global economy

Stocks fell sharply on Wall Street Friday as fears spread through the markets that a virus outbreak emanating from China will dent global growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded more than 600 points and the S&P 500 index erased its gains for January.

Technology companies, which do a lot of business with China, led the losses. Airlines fell after Delta and American suspended flights to and from the country.

Just two weeks ago, the S&P 500 had closed at an all-time high, having climbed around 13% since early October. A preliminary trade deal signed by the U.S. and China earlier in the month eased a big source of uncertainty in the markets. Volatility was running at 12-month lows and even a dust up between the U.S. and Iran didn’t rock markets.

Then came the virus outbreak in China.


Markets around the globe have sold off on concerns about the potential economic impact of the outbreak. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 5.9% this week and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 5.7%. Markets in Europe declined as well. The U.S. stock market, which had calmly been setting record after record, suffered its worst January since 2016 and its first monthly loss since August.

China’s stock markets reopen Monday after being closed since Jan. 23 for the Lunar New Year. A lot of pent-up selling has likely built up in the meantime.

Some funds that try to mimic the movements of Chinese indexes are still trading in the United States and elsewhere. These exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are moving on investors’ expectations for where Chinese stocks would be if markets in mainland China were still open. The Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF tracks an index of large stocks that trade in Shanghai and Shenzhen, for example. It’s down roughly 9% since Jan. 23.

The virus has infected almost 10,000 people in just two months, mostly in China. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global emergency, a designation that signals that the virus is now a significant risk to other countries and requires a global response. The death toll stood at 213, including 43 new fatalities, all in China.

“It seems like the equity market is now coming around to the realization that maybe this is something that may linger for some time,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

American Airlines fell 3.2% and Delta Air Lines slipped 2.4%. Apple, which relies on Chinese consumers for sales and factories for supplies, fell 3.9%. Nvidia slid 3.8% and other chipmakers slipped.

Amazon was a rare bright spot in the market Friday. The online retailer surged 7.4% after blowing past Wall Street’s fourth-quarter profit forecasts. The company said Prime membership exploded 50% since it last disclosed that figure in 2018.

The S&P 500 sank 58.14 points, or 1.8%, to 3,225.52. The Dow Jones industrials fell 603.41 points, or 2.1% to 28,256.03 The Nasdaq dropped 148 points, or 1.6%, to 9,150.94.

Bond prices rose, a signal that investors are seeking safety. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.51% from 1.55% late Thursday.


In another sign of how much fear is in the market, the yield on the three-month Treasury rose above the 10-year yield, a relatively rare occurrence that hasn’t happened since October. Investors see such inversions as a fairly reliable warning signal of a recession within a year or so, though the track record isn’t perfect.

Economists are scrambling to calculate the virus’ impact on China’s economy. The Chinese economy is far bigger and more closely integrated with the rest of the world than it was at the time of the SARS outbreak 17 years ago. China now accounts for 16% of global economic output, up from 4% in 2003.

Ben May, director of global macro research at Oxford Economics, estimates that the virus will shave 0.4 percentage points off Chinese economic growth this year, leaving it at 5.6%, the slowest since 1990, and reduce global growth by 0.2 percentage points to 2.3%, the weakest since the financial crisis.

Others expect a repeat of the SARS experience: a quarter or two of weaker Chinese growth followed by a quick and full recovery with limited fallout worldwide.


“History suggests that unless the end of the world is going to be caused by this flu-like virus, it will prove to be only a slight headwind for the global economy,’ Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a research report.

Concerns over the potential impact the virus could have intensified Friday after the U.S. State Department warned against travel to China and some U.S. carriers responded by suspending flights.

The move by U.S. airlines helped deepen a slide in oil prices. U.S. crude fell nearly 6% in January, a decline that coincides with a sell-off on energy stocks. The sector is down 11.2% for the year, the biggest decliner in the S&P 500. Industrial stocks, which include airlines and other transportation companies, also ended the month in the red.

“The economic and market impact now are becoming much more significant and those two sectors are probably the most important to keep an eye on,” said Samana. “If you’re going to restrict travel and you’re going to restrict movement, you’re by default going to hit energy prices.”

Exxon Mobil slid 4.1% after the country’s biggest oil producer’s profit slid more than 5% in the fourth quarter and fell short of Wall Street forecasts. Rival Chevron fell 3.8% after it posted a quarterly loss of $6.6 billion.

Benchmark crude oil fell 58 cents to settle at $51.56 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international standard, dropped 13 cents to close at $58.16 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline was unchanged at $1.49 per gallon. Heating oil declined 1 cent to $1.63 per gallon. Natural gas rose 1 cent to $1.84 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold fell 60 cents to $1,582.90 per ounce, silver rose 2 cents to $17.97 per ounce and copper was unchanged at $2.52 per pound, but it’s down 6.4% for the week. Copper is widely used in manufacturing and is often seen as an indicator of how that sector is doing.

The dollar fell to 108.37 Japanese yen from 108.78 yen on Thursday. The euro strengthened to $1.1089 from $1.1031.

European markets closed broadly lower. Markets in Asia finished mostly lower, though Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1%.
 

kikigirl

Well-Known Member
Came back from Africa on Thursday, transiting through Paris. As soon as I stepped outside my US port of re-entry, I began coughing. By the end of the day, I was a mess.

I left on Jan 23, and was already calculating incubation times and what not on my way out of the US, maybe through inadvertent contact at the airports. News of the human-human transmission in Germany freaked me out.

Thankfully, yesterday doc cleared me as having the regular flu. She had the expression of someone who’d been fielding self-reports all day. Hey, better safe than sorry. As I told DH, I’d rather know early and be quarantined than have on my conscience the illnesses of people with whom I was in contact.

Praying that this thing doesn’t reach Africa. My biggest fear is that with some of the lax border control procedures there, some carriers from China might find their way on the continent.
 

Laela

Sidestepping the "lynch mob"
Woah...glad to hear you're good!
I don't think Africa can handle an outbreak of that virus...even S. Africa isn't trying to evacuate their people stuck in lockdown in Wuhan... I pray that virus doesn't spread there.. :yep:


Came back from Africa on Thursday, transiting through Paris. As soon as I stepped outside my US port of re-entry, I began coughing. By the end of the day, I was a mess.

I left on Jan 23, and was already calculating incubation times and what not on my way out of the US, maybe through inadvertent contact at the airports. News of the human-human transmission in Germany freaked me out.

Thankfully, yesterday doc cleared me as having the regular flu. She had the expression of someone who’d been fielding self-reports all day. Hey, better safe than sorry. As I told DH, I’d rather know early and be quarantined than have on my conscience the illnesses of people with whom I was in contact.

Praying that this thing doesn’t reach Africa. My biggest fear is that with some of the lax border control procedures there, some carriers from China might find their way on the continent.
 

kikigirl

Well-Known Member
Woah...glad to hear you're good!
I don't think Africa can handle an outbreak of that virus...even S. Africa isn't trying to evacuate their people stuck in lockdown in Wuhan... I pray that virus doesn't spread there.. :yep:

Truly, papa God. Where I was, roads were under construction everywhere. Dust...ha! If the virus gets there, people might not even pay attention for days, thinking it’s just regular coughing.
 

larry3344

Well-Known Member
Truly, papa God. Where I was, roads were under construction everywhere. Dust...ha! If the virus gets there, people might not even pay attention for days, thinking it’s just regular coughing.
Every time I hear of these global pandemics, I always think how behind African governments are. My mother always says that God watches over this continent cause procedures are too lax.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
Apple temporarily closes all 42 stores in China as coronavirus spreads

New York (CNN) — Apple is temporarily closing all of its stores in China because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Apple (AAPL)'s website in China says that all 42 stores will be closed until February 9. The online website still works for customers in China.
"Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we're closing all our corporate offices, stores and contact centers in mainland China through February 9," Apple told CNN Business in a statement. "We will continue to closely monitor the situation and we look forward to reopening our stores as soon as possible."


Almost 12,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 11,800 of those in China. At least 26 other countries have reported cases, including three in Japan, two in the UK and two in Australia Saturday.
Beijing has taken unprecedented measures to try to contain the virus, including placing millions of people in major cities on lockdown and extending the Lunar New Year holiday.

Apple stores are usually a communal place for customers to gather, touch the same electronic devices and sample them before deciding on purchases. According to people in the country, Chinese streets are growing emptier in the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday, leading to less foot traffic to shops.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an earnings call Tuesday that Apple had been regularly deep cleaning stores this week and conducted temperature checks on employees to avoid spreading the virus. He added that while sales in a Wuhan store, one of the first to close, were relatively small, he expected the decline in retail traffic and other store closures to negatively impact sales. Sales in China make up about 15% of Apple's total revenue.
Analysts expect the immediate impact of the virus to be small, but that could change depending on how long the outbreak goes on for.


"The coronavirus impact looks to be, at worst, 3% of iPhone units pushing out from March to June," said Daniel Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, "However, if the lockdown in China [and] outbreak spills into later February or March, then we have darker storm clouds on the horizon for the tech space and global markets, with China consumer demand doldrums."

Ives said that Apple's device manufacturing would similarly be able to weather the storms unless the outbreak continued into late February, bringing "systemic risks" to the supply chain.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
Defense Department will provide housing for as many as 1,000 people who may need to be quarantined upon arrival

From CNN's Barbara Starr and Kevin Bohn




Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images


Defense Secretary Mark Esper has approved a request to provide military housing for up to 1,000 people who may need to be quarantined upon arrival in the US from overseas travel due to concerns about possible infection from the coronavirus, the Pentagon said in a statement today.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked the Defense Department to provide several facilities capable of housing at least 250 people in individual rooms through Feb. 29, the Pentagon added.

"Under the request, DOD will only provide housing support, while HHS will be responsible for all care, transportation, and security of the evacuees. DOD personnel will not be directly in contact with the evacuees and evacuees will not have access to any base location other than their assigned housing. In accordance with CDC guidelines, all evacuees will be monitored for a period of 14 days. Should routine monitoring of the evacuees identify ill individuals, HHS has procedures in place to transport them to a local civilian hospital," the Pentagon said in the statement.
The Pentagon says these installations have been selected by DOD to assist HHS evacuation operations, if needed:

  • The 168th Regiment, Regional Training Institute, Fort Carson, Colorado
  • Travis Air Force Base, California
  • Lackland Air Force Base, Texas
  • Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
I have a friend who flew to China on Tuesday of this week. I think he is headed for the Shaanxi Province to see those terracota soldiers. It looks like this district is about 400 miles away. He will be in China for three (3) weeks. He has not mentioned anything, but then again the internet is 'limited' in some ways in China.


My Friend Arrived from China back to France!
My friend arrived in France yesterday. He took a flight from China to Doha in Qatar at the Hamad International Airport. He said he didn't receive any screening except maybe something to check to see if someone has fever in their body. He is not sure because no one came up to him to check his temperature with an apparatus of any kind. I guess if they used something, it was the heat screening you pass through without your knowledge, that shows the internal heat map of your body.

He said when he arrived to Paris, there was no active screening. He said perhaps the flights directly from China to France are treated differently.

He was not in Wuhan, but north of it somewhere. He said the ONLY reason he came back early was because everything was closed down. He said he couldn't get anything to eat, his hotel was closed when he left and came back after one day, and the sites were shut as well. He said where he was, the city had the same population of France and there were not any people on the street. It was eerie.

He claims that the people who are dying are people who are at risk who are heavy smokers, people with heart problems and the infirmed. Those tend to be Chinese men over 55.

He also said that last year in France, 8,000 people died from the flu. He said statistically that number is far greater and more alarming [to him] than the numbers presented of the deaths in China due to the virus, when you compare the numbers based upon population. For example 8000/French population amount vs 300/Chinese population amount.

I told him to stay away from any babies in his family for 14 days. I also said, I won't be seeing YOU for about 14 days myself. He laughed and said, "I knew you would say that."

He also said he called the Emergency line in France and they said, they thought he was a low risk. But if he has a fever to go to the hospital. He plans on going to work on Tuesday.

-----
I was like, "What about those hospitals being built? Surely there is a problem. His response was that it was more a political response than a health related responses. I let it drop after that. He said to him, it's like the flu and it is decimating the at risk, or most infirmed people in the population.

-------
I think there are about 1,000 confirmed flu deaths across the US for this 2019/2020 flu season.
 
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Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
I think I finally get the human to human thing.

If you were in the city of Wuhan or China, and you got the Coronavirus, that's one way.

If you were NEVER in the city of Wuhan or in China, but got infected with the Coranavirus, then that is considerd Human to Human infection. For example, the case of the man in Chicago getting sick. Although his wife had come back from Wuhan with the illness, the fact that she passed it to him outside of the epicenter is the Human to Human spread. I think!
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
I think I finally get the human to human thing.

If you were in the city of Wuhan or China, and you got the Coronavirus, that's one way.

If you were NEVER in the city of Wuhan or in China, but got infected with the Coranavirus, then that is considerd Human to Human infection. For example, the case of the man in Chicago getting sick. Although his wife had come back from Wuhan with the illness, the fact that she passed it to him outside of the epicenter is the Human to Human spread. I think!
I thought it was literal. I think human to human is what it sounds like vs people who contract it from animals or the fecal material of animals. I don’t think your location is what determines it.
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
I thought it was literal. I think human to human is what it sounds like vs people who contract it from animals or the fecal material of animals. I don’t think your location is what determines it.

Thank you for clarifying. So, wouldn't most of the infection be considered human to human? What I keep hearing is that they are worried because infection is spreading in human to human way. I could have also confused the information, too. Thank you for responding.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
Thank you for clarifying. So, wouldn't most of the infection be considered human to human? What I keep hearing is that they are worried because infection is spreading in human to human way. I could have also confused the information, too. Thank you for responding.
Most future infections should be human to human. There’s a market in Wuhan with exotic game that people think is ground zero so it makes since that there’re larger numbers of zoonotic (animal to human) infections there. It’s popular among locals and tourists and it has the right set of conditions to support transmission.

I’ll try to find the article I read on it last week. I didn’t post it because it hasn’t officially been identified as the cause of the outbreak and I didn’t want to take us down a rabbit hole.
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
Most future infections should be human to human. There’s a market in Wuhan with exotic game that people think is ground zero so it makes since that there’re larger numbers of zoonotic (animal to human) infections there. It’s popular among locals and tourists and it has the right set of conditions to support transmission.

I’ll try to find the article I read on it last week. I didn’t post it because it hasn’t officially been identified as the cause of the outbreak and I didn’t want to take us down a rabbit hole.

Thank you very much! It's good for us to understand at a detailed level. It's better to go down a rabbit hole on the internet than to go down one in real life due to a lack of knowledge. Thus, what you can present will be appreciated!
 

vevster

Well-Known Member
I ordered those Force of Nature cleaning stuff. I love things like that. I definitely subscribed to her as I already have all of the things she suggested in my home down to the brand with the exception of elderberry gummies. I use capsules.
Yea I want the Force of Nature system too. I have most of the items as well.
 

intellectualuva

Well-Known Member
Not concerned but do think about our food supply.

I've been thinking about this as I decide where to eat or just cook at home these days. Lol.

I found N95 masks at home depot, but it wasn't many left plus they capped how many you could buy. I won't need them as I work from home most of the time, but definitely plan to learn proper usage and especially removal.

For me, this is beyond this Coronavirus. I had plans to step up the items in my emergency backpack and bump up one of the prepper threads we had around here just for discussion.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
TLDR - The virus was originally transmitted from animal to human but they haven't identified which animal. Previous outbreaks of infectious diseases originated from eating wild animals or contamination by wild animals. Ebola was thought to be caused by eating bat meat but it's now believed that patient zero consumed food that was contaminated by bat waste instead. Reports that tie the coronavirus to eating bat soup are unsubstantiated. SARS was caused by eating civet cats which were sold in similar wet markets. Wet markets are problematic because "A mixture of urine, feces and other bodily fluids from live, wild creatures ends up mixing with blood from butchered animals, providing ideal opportunities for viruses and bacteria to thrive."

The Role of Wild Animals in the Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak | Time
It was no secret to anyone in Wuhan that Huanan Seafood Market sold a lot more than its name suggested. While one side of the low-slung warren of stalls did primarily stock fish and shellfish, the other offered a cornucopia of spices, sundries and, if you knew where to look, beavers, porcupines and snakes.

“It was well-known for selling lots of weird, live animals,” says James, an English teacher who for five years lived a few hundred feet from the market, and who asks TIME to only use one name due to the sensitivity of the situation. “So nobody was surprised at all when it emerged that the virus might have come from an unusual animal.”

Scientists have confirmed that the pneumonia-like disease, like around 70% of new human pathogens, was zoonotic or transmitted from an animal. But they are still investigating exactly what creature might be the source of the “novel coronavirus”
—dubbed 2019-nCoV and belonging to the same family as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

As Wuhan coronavirus infection rates soar to more than 830 people across more than half a dozen nations—causing 26 deaths and leading to the unprecedented lockdown of 13 Chinese cities comprising more than 30 million peopleresearchers are examining China’s penchant for consuming wild animals and whether that ultimately played a role in the outbreak.


Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team drive their vehicle as they leave the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei, Province on January 11, 2020, where the Wuhan health commission said that the man who died from a respiratory illness had purchased goods.


The 2002-2003 SARS pandemic was eventually traced to civet cats sold in a similar style of wet market in southern Guandong province, and some foreign tabloids are circulating unsubstantiated claims that the Wuhan coronavirus originated from everything from bat soup to eating rats and live wolf pups.

It’s certainly true that many Chinese are obsessive about freshness. Even small supermarkets commonly have fish tanks where shoppers can purchase live seafood. (This reporter was once served slices of sashimi still attached to the carcass of a gasping fish.) Eating wild animals is also considered a luxury because of their rarity and cost, much like game is in the West. Some practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine also believe that eating exotic creatures can cure certain ailments and boost “male potency.”

“This is just part of Chinese culture,” says Yanzhong Huang, a public heath expert at the Council for Foreign Relations. “They love to eat anything alive.”

Wild animals are, of course, especially problematic because their murky provenience makes it difficult to ensure they are free of disease. For this very reason, health campaigns in Africa warn people against the consumption of “bush meat,” which has been linked to the spread of countless diseases, including HIV/Aids.

However, Adam Kamradt-Scott, associate professor specializing in global health security at the University of Sydney, says this way of thinking is often flawed. While scientists first thought that Ebola started with the consumption of bat meat in a village of south-eastern Guinea, they now believe that the two-year-old girl known as Child Zero was likely infected via bat droppings that contaminated an object she put in her mouth. MERS was also primarily spread from live camels to humans through association, rather than the eating of camel meat.


“It’s not simply a matter of the consumption of exotic animals per se,” says Kamradt-Scott. “So we need to be mindful of picking on or condemning cultural practices.”

Ultimately, though, experts say that it’s hard to downplay the problematic nature of “wet markets” (so named because of the large quantities of water used to slosh the floors), especially those that also sell live animals. A mixture of urine, feces and other bodily fluids from live, wild creatures ends up mixing with blood from butchered animals, providing ideal opportunities for viruses and bacteria to thrive.

Says Huang: “As long as there are still wet markets, we will continue to see these outbreaks popping up.”
 
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Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
@Black Ambrosia ,

So it goes from one animal to one person, then after that all the rest of the infections are spread via person to person? Potentially, one little bit of animal boo boo can do all this? I am not trying to be funny. If that's the case, its amazing there isn't a new virus outbreak out there or anywhere in the world, every day.
 
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Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
@Black Ambrosia ,

So it goes from one animal to one person, then all the rest of the infection is spread person to person?
Until they identify the animal, I don't think we can say for sure. The wet market environment could've led to the virus directly infecting multiple people (animal to human) and then those people could've infected others human to human. Or it could be one unlucky person who got it from an animal and then it spread human to human among everyone else. I don't think we'll know until the CDC or WHO breaks it down later.

I don't envy those scientists. If this came from the wet market and there's urine, feces, blood, and water all mixing together then they probably won't know the cause without testing just about everything that was sold there since this started. Even with a hazmat suit, that sounds like stepping in front of a bullet. Do they even have access to all that? The appeal of the seafood market is the live food so I doubt there's much there after they sell their goods for the day. If so what can they test besides the water and waste that was left behind?
 
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