Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

[anmol]

Senator Cotton: the virus did not originate in the wuhan animal market. Possibly came out of BSL4 Super Lab.

[UlanBatori]

OK! This means that markets will recover soon. Consider if this was just an aam virus, natural evolution. As we had mentioned earlier, that would require natural evolution to anticipate and circumvent human antidotes and outpace human emergency response. Prospects for homo sapiens looke bleak to kaput. But nah! It's just a bio-weapon! Phew!

[Amber G.]

We don't know whether this virus will die. Normal flu does drop off as the weather gets warmer. The Spanish flu circumnavigated the world twice, I believe.

There were some What's up forwards, which say the nCV dies off in hot weather, so India is safe. As our weather will turn very hot in next 3 weeks.

FWIW Here are some comments about effect of warmer weather...

- On spreading: ==> Coronaviruses (in general) tend to be associated with winter because of how they're spread For one thing, in winter months, people may cluster together more indoors, increasing the number of folks at risk of becoming infection by someone who's contagious.

==> Also Viruses spread through respiratory droplets that are released when an infected person coughs or sneezes. And the droplets are more likely to spread when the air is cold and dry,..(When the air is humid and warm, [the droplets] fall to the ground more quickly, and it makes transmission harder)

Of course, every coronavirus need not follow exactly the same rules. For instance MERS) has not shown the capacity to spread easily from person to person. (Some animal-human viruses don't have that seasonality

But from what we know COVID-19 seems more akin to the seasonal cold. (33% of common colds are caused by coronaviruses) - specially from how quickly it seem to have spread in China - At least that is what virtually are experts in China are saying. .. Some are even predicting (even at this stage that end of April of so, we will have control - stabilization etc - at least some tappering..So as China and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere head into spring, the virus could begin to peter out or plateau.

But we have southern Hemisphere ..for example Australia.. and that is what happens with the flue each year! ..

So I think (and most experts will agree) that this is not going to die down.. In US and India it will diminish but again -- it is a new virus and we don't have a backlog data.

(I have not seen any serious "prediction".. we don't even have a single year data with this)

Most public health officials in US (and India) are planning for the possibility that the outbreak may drag on regardless of weather.

Better be cautious.

[Amber G.]

44 Americans On The Diamond Princess Cruise Ship Diagnosed With Coronavirus
..Another 70 cases of the coronavirus infection have been confirmed aboard ...
This brings the total number of cases aboard the vessel as of Sunday to 355, the largest confirmed cluster outside mainland China....

[vijayk]

https://mobile.twitter.com/abhijitmajum ... 7923940352

Thread
Abhijit Majumder
@abhijitmajumder
This is beyond eerie. A 1981 thriller by Dean Koontz predicted the #Coronavirus nightmare, pinpointing it to supposedly biological weapons labs in China’s Wuhan!

[Arun.prabhu]

Singapore is by the sea and has nice warm weather with high absoluthe humidity. We hear of many infections passed on from one Singaporean to another daily. That would belie the Theory that warm weather would destroy the virus.

We don't know whether this virus will die. Normal flu does drop off as the weather gets warmer. The Spanish flu circumnavigated the world twice, I believe.

FWIW Here are some comments about effect of warmer weather...

- On spreading: ==> Coronaviruses (in general) tend to be associated with winter because of how they're spread For one thing, in winter months, people may cluster together more indoors, increasing the number of folks at risk of becoming infection by someone who's contagious.

==> Also Viruses spread through respiratory droplets that are released when an infected person coughs or sneezes. And the droplets are more likely to spread when the air is cold and dry,..(When the air is humid and warm, [the droplets] fall to the ground more quickly, and it makes transmission harder)

Of course, every coronavirus need not follow exactly the same rules. For instance MERS) has not shown the capacity to spread easily from person to person. (Some animal-human viruses don't have that seasonality

But from what we know COVID-19 seems more akin to the seasonal cold. (33% of common colds are caused by coronaviruses) - specially from how quickly it seem to have spread in China - At least that is what virtually are experts in China are saying. .. Some are even predicting (even at this stage that end of April of so, we will have control - stabilization etc - at least some tappering..So as China and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere head into spring, the virus could begin to peter out or plateau.

But we have southern Hemisphere ..for example Australia.. and that is what happens with the flue each year! ..

So I think (and most experts will agree) that this is not going to die down.. In US and India it will diminish but again -- it is a new virus and we don't have a backlog data.

(I have not seen any serious "prediction".. we don't even have a single year data with this)

Most public health officials in US (and India) are planning for the possibility that the outbreak may drag on regardless of weather.

Better be cautious.

[UlanBatori]

From quarantine to "rescue" into new quarantine. No comment.

This bijnej of cruise ships is getting highly dangerous.

[Amber G.]

Singapore is by the sea and has nice warm weather with high absoluthe humidity. We hear of many infections passed on from one Singaporean to another daily. That would belie the Theory that warm weather would destroy the virus.

FWIW Here are some comments about effect of warmer weather...
<snip>

Arunji - to point out the obvious, this is NOT binary bit yes/no type case. Weather is *just* one of *many* factors..and all it means is statistically it spreads slower in summer.. if all other things are equal. (Many points - for example indoors - in buildings where most people gather, and offices are - with central air the conditions do not differ that much in winter or summer.
Timing of Flu epidemics depends on *many* factors - not just weather alone.

Hope this helps.

[arshyam]

From quarantine to "rescue" into new quarantine. No comment.

This bijnej of cruise ships is getting highly dangerous.

True. We need to get our people out of it asap. This so called quarantine on ship has made things worse. Even after evacuation, they will have to be quarantined again by each individual country. So their ordeal is far from over.

[Amber G.]

^^^ ***looks extremely bad .. and looks like Japan handled it quite unprofessionally .. there are reports of Japan hospital staff contacting coronavirus who visited the ship or worked on them in hospital(s).. many are severely criticizing Japan while more details are coming out..there are reports that in the early days while passenger were "quarantine" the crew were free to mix - ate meals together without masks etc..

As someone said a few days ago -- they made it a petri-dish instead of treating it scientifically. Just numbers of new cases (last 2 days) is mind boggling...
From above ref:

"I don't understand why they have to be kept on a ship," said Peter Hotez, of the Baylor College of Medicine. "We're employing what I call 14th-century approaches and ethics to individuals with transmissible disease."
...
The abrupt change in US policy led some to believe that Washington lost faith in the effectiveness of the Japanese response. Earlier this week, it emerged that some 1,000 crew on board the ship had not been kept in quarantine, eating meals together with masks off and working side by side

[chola]

https://www.thenational.scot/news/18239 ... ronavirus/

We should be thankful China suppressed coronavirus information


I READ with growing unease David Pratt’s commentary on the coronavirus and the Chinese government’s efforts to “suppress” it (Attempt to hush up the coronavirus has backfired spectacularly, February 14). He uses the piece to compare COVID-19 with the other “disease” that stalks China, that of political autocracy.

I am no fan of the Chinese Government nor its desire to control the lives and information flows within Chinese society but I think Mr Pratt falls very short on understanding what has motivated the government in this particular episode. Take his comment, “officials from the Communist Party of China (CPC) tend to prioritise stability, even if it means suppressing important information that, quite clearly, the public and wider world in this instance were clamouring to know”. We should, in this instance, thank our lucky stars that they know their own people better than Mr Pratt does.

Wuhan is a city of 11 million people, it is the ninth biggest city in China. When I visited it in the early 1990s its population was around 7.5 million. That is a growth rate of 47% over the last 20 years (and I can assure you, the official total will be well under-reported for very specific local reasons). China’s population, over the same period, has grown by 18%. What does that tell us about Wuhan? There has been massive inward migration as the city has grown to be one of the largest industrial centres in China.

Wuhan is therefore a city with a recent migrant population well in excess of two million, probably closer to five to 10 million if migrant workers were properly reported. By suppressing information about the nature of the virus, the authorities bought time to lock down the city before those “clamouring for information” could do unimaginable damage. Had Dr Li Wenliang’s dire warnings been trumpeted far and wide at the time he first expressed them, the stampede of residents out of Wuhan – especially in the run-up to Chinese New Year, when people travel to their home villages and towns anyway – would have been truly catastrophic for China as a whole and the rest of the world. Those that could have would have jumped on the first plane out to anywhere in an effort to escape the worst, while undoubtedly spreading it far and wide.

...


Had the vile CPC allowed the free information flow so beloved of Mr Pratt, the coronavirus would be rife in every corner of the globe by now. By locking down Wuhan and forcing its inhabitants to stay put – in one of the most polluted places in China, a major factor in the death toll there – China has internalised the problem and, touch wood, saved the rest of us.

Think on that, Mr Pratt. Would western democracies have taken the pain in the same way?

Jim Walker
Hong Kong

There are about 2000 deaths but only 5 outside Cheen. I, for one, am grateful that 99% of the dying is in China onlee.

[anmol]

Beijing-sponsored South China University of Technology concludes that 'the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan

• It points to research on bats and respiratory diseases carried by the animals at  the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and the Wuhan Institute of Virology
• WCDC is just 300 yards from the seafood market and is adjacent to the hospital

Published: 13:22 GMT, 16 February 2020 | Updated: 16:00 GMT, 16 February 2020

Chinese scientists believe the deadly coronavirus may have started life in a research facility just 300 yards from the Wuhan fish market.A new bombshell paper from the Beijing-sponsored South China University of Technology says that the Wuhan Center for Disease Control (WHCDC) could have spawned the contagion in Hubei province.

'The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus,' penned by scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao claims the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in laboratories, including 605 bats. 

It also mentions that bats - which are linked to coronavirus - once attacked a researcher and 'blood of bat was on his skin.'

The report says: 'Genome sequences from patients were 96% or 89% identical to the Bat CoV ZC45 coronavirus originally found in Rhinolophus affinis (intermediate horseshoe bat).'

It describes how the only native bats are found around 600 miles away from the Wuhan seafood market and that the probability of bats flying from Yunnan and Zhejiang provinces was minimal.

In addition there is little to suggest the local populace eat the bats as evidenced by testimonies of 31 residents and 28 visitors.

Instead the authors point to research being carried out withing a few hundred yards at the WHCDC.

One of the researchers at the WHCDC described quarantining himself for two weeks after a bat's blood got on his skin, according to the report. That same man also quarantined himself after a bat urinated on him.



And he also mentions discovering a live tick from a bat - parasites known for their ability to pass infections through a host animal's blood.

'The WHCDC was also adjacent to the Union Hospital (Figure 1, bottom) where the first group of doctors were infected during this epidemic.' The report says.

'It is plausible that the virus leaked around and some of them contaminated the initial patients in this epidemic, though solid proofs are needed in future study.'

And as well as the WHCDC, the report suggests that the Wuhan Institute of Virology could also have leaked the virus, as has previously been reported by MailOnline.

'This laboratory reported that the Chinese horseshoe bats were natural reservoirs for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) which caused the 2002-3 pandemic,' the report says.

'The principle investigator participated in a project which generated a chimeric virus using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, and reported the potential for human emergence 10. A direct speculation was that SARS-CoV or its derivative might leak from the laboratory.'

The report concludes that 'the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.'

It comes as the outbreak has infected more than 69,000 people globally, with 1,665 deaths in China - most of these in the central province of Hubei.

[Amber G.]

^^^ The laughable part of the above "story".. look at that "map"
In the map the distance between "Wuhan Seafood Market" and "Wuhan center for Disease Control and Prevention" is given as " 277.73 m (911.06 ft)" ( showing up to an accuracy of .01 m = 1 cm)

Do these idiots (writers and editors) even know, distance measured up to .01 m is about the thickness of a finger - much larger than the space occupied by the "labels" on the map..
(How does one measure distances between two such spots with precision of a cm?? )
(Also these Einsteins don't seem to know even multiplication - 277.73 m is about 911.19 ft - NOT 911.06 ft - even if they could located those buildings up to a centimeter..

(Of course, No wonder, the whole story is absurd .. no sane person is going to believe that)(

Are Daily Mail readers so dumb or it is a parody article?..

Seriously - IMO - what one can easily see it as a fake news should not be shared again and again here in BRF.

[Arun.prabhu]

Oh sure R-naught comes down in summer, but the disease doesn’t magically vanish. All that it means is growth rate becomes manageable and quarantine and other control procedures implemented among the general population has a better chance. But let’s not delude ourselves with come summer we’re scotfree. The Spanish flu killed millions of Indians and it wasn’t all in winter or autumn.

Singapore is by the sea and has nice warm weather with high absoluthe humidity. We hear of many infections passed on from one Singaporean to another daily. That would belie the Theory that warm weather would destroy the virus.

Arunji - to point out the obvious, this is NOT binary bit yes/no type case. Weather is *just* one of *many* factors..and all it means is statistically it spreads slower in summer.. if all other things are equal. (Many points - for example indoors - in buildings where most people gather, and offices are - with central air the conditions do not differ that much in winter or summer.
Timing of Flu epidemics depends on *many* factors - not just weather alone.

Hope this helps.

[Arun.prabhu]

The map is from the research paper. The authors are chinese.

^^^ The laughable part of the above "story".. look at that "map"
In the map the distance between "Wuhan Seafood Market" and "Wuhan center for Disease Control and Prevention" is given as " 277.73 m (911.06 ft)" ( showing up to an accuracy of .01 m = 1 cm)

Do these idiots (writers and editors) even know, distance measured up to .01 m is about the thickness of a finger - much larger than the space occupied by the "labels" on the map..
(How does one measure distances between two such spots with precision of a cm?? )
(Also these Einsteins don't seem to know even multiplication - 277.73 m is about 911.19 ft - NOT 911.06 ft - even if they could located those buildings up to a centimeter..

(Of course, No wonder, the whole story is absurd .. no sane person is going to believe that)(

Are Daily Mail readers so dumb or it is a parody article?..

Seriously - IMO - what one can easily see it as a fake news should not be shared again and again here in BRF.

[anmol]

^^^ The laughable part of the above "story".. look at that "map"
In the map the distance between "Wuhan Seafood Market" and "Wuhan center for Disease Control and Prevention" is given as " 277.73 m (911.06 ft)" ( showing up to an accuracy of .01 m = 1 cm)

How does one measure distances between two such spots with precision of a cm??

Clearly, they (DailyMail.co.uk) have used Google Maps to measure distance, I too tried Gmaps to measure the distance to see if they have made any mistake (see the screenshot below). Don't see the reason to split hair over the exactness of the distance. What is more important: the Seafood Market and the Lab are at a distance of less than 300 m.

[anmol]

(Of course, No wonder, the whole story is absurd .. no sane person is going to believe that)(

Are Daily Mail readers so dumb or it is a parody article?..

Seriously - IMO - what one can easily see it as a fake news should not be shared again and again here in BRF.

Few more sources for this story.

Scientists Believe Coronavirus May Have Started Life in Research Facility Near Wuhan
Published February 16th, 2020 - 01:22 GMT

Coronavirus: Researchers pinpoint facility near Wuhan seafood market as possible ground zero
17 Feb, 2020 10:11am

Researchers pinpoint facility near Wuhan seafood market as possible ground zero

Researchers say a facility where a worker was covered in bat blood and urine may be ground zero for the coronavirus outbreak.
Rohan Smith@ro_smith
news.com.auFebruary 17, 202012:06pm

[Amber G.]

Clearly, they (DailyMail.co.uk) have used Google Maps to measure distance, I too tried Gmaps to measure the distance to see if they have made any mistake (see the screenshot below). 277.73 m is pretty accurate

Anmolji - Apparently you are missing the point - One of the basic high school/college science understanding is to understand how many places of decimal to use. If you measure your height in meters you may go to 2 places after decimal. If you measure distance between two buildings - that kind of numbers are not "accurate" but absurd ..(to go two significant figures).(Think about this .. what part of the building you are talking about when you measuring that "accurately".. and hope you can now see why this is nonsense ...

To be clear, if someone said "270 meters" it might be credible..if someone went like "277.73" meters , it will show author's incompetence rather than "accuracy"..

Trust me, if some one had that kind of article came to me for a peer-review it will be rejected right away. In a physics test that kind of writing will get a zero. ...
(My last on this - regards)

[Amber G.]

The map is from the research paper. The authors are chinese.

^^^ The laughable part of the above "story".. look at that "map"
In the map the distance between "Wuhan Seafood Market" and "Wuhan center for Disease Control and Prevention" is given as " 277.73 m (911.06 ft)" ( showing up to an accuracy of .01 m = 1 cm)

Do these idiots (writers and editors) even know, distance measured up to .01 m is about the thickness of a finger - much larger than the space occupied by the "labels" on the map..
(.

Which research paper? Can you post the link?

(Sorry - but hope you check it, and will find something like written by scholars from famous " IIT_MIT from Wuhan, Kerala" - or something equally impressive eg : " Renowned World Famous Chinese research scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao from WHCDC ... Any way post the link. thanks)

[g.sarkar]

Gentlemen please do not bad mouth Daily Mail UK. However negative and poorly written or biased/ inaccurate their articles may be, they always make up by placing scantily clad girls on the right hand side of the page. This brings immense joy in my life.
Gautam

[anmol]

Wow. This is moving fast.

Chinese research lab denies links to first coronavirus patient

• Speculation that a woman supposedly at the institute is ‘patient zero’ is false, laboratory says
• Authorities maintain that the most likely source was a market in Wuhan

Jun Mai
Published: 9:00pm, 16 Feb, 2020 | South China Morning Post

A Chinese virus research institute located at the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak has denied links to the first patient diagnosed with the disease, amid speculation about the source of the virus.
In a statement on Sunday, the Wuhan Institute of Virology denied that one of its employees was the outbreak’s “patient zero”.

“Recently there has been fake information about Huang Yanling, a graduate from our institute, claiming that she was patient zero in the novel coronavirus,” the institute said.
It said it had verified that the claim was not true.

It said Huang was a graduate student at the institute until 2015, when she left the province and had not returned since. Huang was in good health and had not been diagnosed with disease, it added.

The disease, now known as Covid-19, has sickened some 60,000 people around the world and killed more than 1,500, most of them in Hubei province in central China.

So far, the first patient with the illness has not been publicly identified.

While Chinese researchers and officials say the coronavirus is probably linked to wild animal consumption – “mostly likely” bats, according to Wu Yuanbin, from the Ministry of Science and Technology – there have been claims that the virus is associated with a state lab in the city.

While there is no evidence to support the claims, new central government regulations covering state biotechnology laboratories have helped fan the speculation.

On Saturday, the ministry issued a directive calling for improved management of viruses by all biological labs, and for the facilities to ensure biological safety.

Chinese authorities have said the virus is believed to be from a seafood market in Wuhan, after a cluster of patients linked the market were identified in December.

But the first patient diagnosed by the virus never visited the market, according to a study
published January 24 in The Lancet medical journal.

In the paper, the researchers, seven of whom work at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, said the first patient had no exposure to the market and there was also no epidemiological link between the first patient and the later cases.
The research was based on data from the first 41 patients with confirmed infections.

Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University in Washington, said it was possible that the virus “came into that marketplace before it came out of that marketplace”, according to Science magazine.

Frustrated and angry at the authorities’ response to the outbreak, some members of the public have been unwilling to accept the official line about the probable source. Much of the speculation has been focused on the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the only laboratory to be graded Biological Security Level 4, the highest level of biosafety precautions, on the Chinese mainland. The laboratory was designed to treat infectious diseases such as Ebola.

The unverified theory of a biological leak from the institute so widely shared online that Shi Zhengli, a lead researcher at the institute on bat-related viruses, said on her social media account that she “guaranteed with her own life” that the outbreak was not related to the facility.

China did have an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars, due to a leak from a laboratory in 2004, killing one person and infecting nine others, according to state media.

Chinese authorities said that the leak was a result of negligence and five senior officials at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention were punished.

[Amber G.]

Speaking of Chinese Scholars .. I am sharing an email which had - the letter of confession and admonition that Dr. Li signed and finger-printed with the Wuhan police, on Jan 3, for the "illegal activity of spreading fake news" about the a wet market in Wuhan being the likely cause of new SARS-like infections. "We wish you calm down and reflect...if you don't repent and keep holding to your believes, you will be punished by law."



(Source is a Chinese Physicists of my son's age, a friend and a student who shared this with his friends -- Picture of the letter is probably available in many places ]: "Dr. Li Wenliang was the whistle-blower virus and front-line soldier in the battle against the pandemic, lost his life to the very coronavirus that he tried to save us from. He was two years younger than me . He was, of course quite upset and was *very* angry with the Chinese authorities - Obviously I am not giving more details about the letter (nothing new we already do not know) but he wrote (about a few weeks ago) "I have argued in the past about Chinese politics .. but this is what people in Hong Kong are fearful of! This is why we need freedom of speech! This is why we need separation of power! This is why we need a democratically elected legislative body to set up sensible laws!.."

[Arun.prabhu]

Anmol:
Your information sources are three or four days lagging in the case of the research paper and about two weeks lagging on the subject of patient zero.

[anmol]

This is really a bombshell. Naval University of Engineering in #Wuhan, one of the five comprehensive military universities of PLA (official info: https://t.co/Z05Fx1yo4k) issued a lockdown notice on Jan. 2, 18 days BEFORE the gov. admitted there was an epidemic, 21 days BEFORE.. pic.twitter.com/ZmiwDXQ7LE

— 曾錚 Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferatntd) 3:17 AM · Feb 15, 2020

[Arun.prabhu]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7800&start=480#p2413941

That one has the link to the research paper. You need to share your email id and other details to download direct or you could follow the second link (zerohedge) and from there download the paper from scribd.

The map is from the research paper. The authors are chinese.

Which research paper? Can you post the link?

(Sorry - but hope you check it, and will find something like written by scholars from famous " IIT_MIT from Wuhan, Kerala" - or something equally impressive eg : " Renowned World Famous Chinese research scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao from WHCDC ... Any way post the link. thanks)

[Amber G.]

That one has the link to the research paper. You need to share your email id and other details to download direct or you could follow the second link (zerohedge) and from there download the paper from scribd.

.
Sorry i guess email and other details, I assume, are my bank account numbers.... I generally do not share for aeXiv type articles.

By the way if you click on the link *NOW* you get
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQ9SQZsWkAA ... ame=medium
Edited: Inline image removed.

[Arun.prabhu]

The first identified case was on dec 1. If that lab allowed the virus to escape, they wouldn’t have waited a month before lockdown. End of December was when Dr Li sent his message warning his friends about the virus. I would suggest that the naval biowarfare folks went to investigate, verified the claims and ordered the entry restrictions. The fact they ordered the restrictions at that time argues they aren’t responsible.

This is really a bombshell. Naval University of Engineering in #Wuhan, one of the five comprehensive military universities of PLA (official info: https://t.co/Z05Fx1yo4k) issued a lockdown notice on Jan. 2, 18 days BEFORE the gov. admitted there was an epidemic, 21 days BEFORE.. pic.twitter.com/ZmiwDXQ7LE

— 曾錚 Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferatntd) 3:17 AM · Feb 15, 2020

[Arun.prabhu]

Try zerohedge link. I thought this might happen and downloaded the file from scribd back when this initially came to light. I’ll see if I can share it here.

That one has the link to the research paper. You need to share your email id and other details to download direct or you could follow the second link (zerohedge) and from there download the paper from scribd.

.
Sorry i guess email and other details, I assume, are my bank account numbers.... I generally do not share for aeXiv type articles.

By the way if you click on the link *NOW* you get

[Amber G.]

Try zerohedge link. I thought this might happen and downloaded the file from scribd back when this initially came to light. I’ll see if I can share it here.

.
Sorry i guess email and other details, I assume, are my bank account numbers.... I generally do not share for aeXiv type articles.

By the way if you click on the link *NOW* you get

Okay - Last from me - Seriously Arun - I did look at it - that paper is a *joke* if you ask me -- zero credibility.

[Schmidt]

China has decided to destroy 85 billion USD worth of currency notes in circulation in Hubei province fearing contamination by the virus

[Amber G.]

^^^ From what I read - they will disinfect the currency. whatever that means.

[Arun.prabhu]

I did note that it was maybe politics at play in my original post. A political job, potentially, yes, but aimed at China or aimed at someone specific? As for diseases breaking containment in Chinese labs, that apparently happens with startling regularity at 20 times the frequency such incidents happen in Europe and 10 times the frequency in America.

I don’t think that the evidence is there to support any claim that the Chinese were working on an offensive bio weapon and it got out. If they were working on something, it was possibly vaccine related. The Chinese and IIRC their American research collaborators had published a paper about creating more virulent strains for study - vaccine among other things - a few years back. The Chinese may have gone ahead with the research as part of a biological warfare defence program and lost containment for whatever reason.

Try zerohedge link. I thought this might happen and downloaded the file from scribd back when this initially came to light. I’ll see if I can share it here.

Okay - Last from me - Seriously Arun - I did look at it - that paper is a *joke* if you ask me -- zero credibility.

[anmol]

^^^ From what I read - they will disinfect the currency. whatever that means.

Currency will be exposed to ultraviolet light & high temperatures, then it will be sealed away for two weeks before releasing it back into circulation.

[UlanBatori]

I c that the dark clouds of nCOV are dissipating, so that good bats can fly again in the moonlight.

1. When I checked, "Woo han coronavirus" thread was way down the list and I had to search for it.
2. Main "news items" now are:
a)"fake" paper
b) Fakenews of naval college {er.. what is a Naval College doing in WooHan? Strictly river navigation? Training only Rear Admirals?}
c) Americans in preparation to sue Cruise Lines. About money, not their *&&^* lives.

[RohitH]

Woohoo!! Now all ulanbatoris can come out crashing from those apartments, sealed by chini army, swinging and dancing like zombies in that "Thriller" music video of the 1980s. They can also enjoy ripping off those white and blue face masks from scared humans and increase zombie population.

[Amber G.]

Pay attention to the CoronavirusOutbreak in Japan:

(There are 355 infection cases on the cruise)

Though I am optimistic but I think (consistent with US and India health officials) that this is really a global outbreak and it's not going to go away in a week or two. We will know for sure in 2-3 weeks from now but since it looks like it may be possible to transmit before one gets sick, it will be difficult to control than say SARS.

It's going to (or at least we should do everything to be ready for) be like VERY bad flue season - may be worse hit flu season in recent years. (I remember 69's flu season here in US and it was really bad).

The virus will be, most likely, with us beyond this season.. beyond this year and get a foot hold, perhaps mutate.

The cruise ship data really of concern.
Meanwhile here is a day old graph:

[sanjaykumar]

Please try not to post conspiracy theories, crackpot reports, self evident observations, speculations.

This thread is degenerating as the novelty of this pandemic wears off.

[sooraj]

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[Amber G.]

Meanwhile in US (As of February 17, 2020) there have been 15 confirmed cases (excluding cruise ship etc) of patients infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the United States:

8 in California, 2 in Illinois, 1 each in Wisconsin, Arizona, Washington state, Massachusetts and Texas.

==> 4 from the Bay-area, 1 married couple ( one spouse who came from China gave to the other), and 2 (1M, 1F - both techies who travel - similar to 1 from Washington state). The number of techies (from Apple, MS, Facebook etc) who travel to China (not to Wuhan though) is very large. Many/most of them (like my son's team) were not even alarmed and practice of isolation/monitoring did not start till 3rd-4th week of January. (I know a few who came to office around Jan 23rd when some rumors started - Heck then Amazon and Walmart did not run out of Face Masks) In fact those 2 techies, did not "feel well" so went to hospital and self quarantined before this whole thing became a big deal.

2 weeks are over from that time, but with secondary infection etc that part is not completely out of woods.

(BTW - I think many who are coming from the cruise ship are going to be quarantine in SF area).

[Amber G.]

^^^ Now since some of the US citizens are evacuated and landed in US.. I wonder how the stats will look like..
Meanwhile .."Diamond Cruise" is second "country or other" in this list. Wow!
(BTW - There is one additional case from Cambodian crew member on the ship)