Crazy (and not-so-crazy) shit about Covid-19

[grzegorz]

I caught a flu in Guangdong and it nearly killed me. For a week I couldn't eat or drink water. If I drank water I would vomit forever. The doctors "tried" some medication on me. I didn't want to take it. My body was telling no but since I was hallucinating I decided to listen to my wife and I took. Things went from bad to worse and I nearly died which is why I knew this would be bad just as the Taiwanese with Sars. So yes lots of things can kill you and millions of years ago that was human life but because of our brains (when they are used) we can avoid getting killed.

[Steve James]

The only tweet you need to read.

"Because the 'Ratings' of my News Conferences etc. are so high, 'Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers' according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. 'Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.' said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!" he said.

Who in his right mind would mention the ratings? Does he think people watch to see him? Has he seen himself trying to read?

Hey Mike, you know a mask that would surely save thousands of lives. It's made of duct tape. Just put it over Trump's mouth.

[Michael]

The guy loves to talk.

[grzegorz]

Bolsonaro don't care.



Watch "Coronavirus crisis is a 'media trick', says Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro" on YouTube

https://youtu.be/sbBvuXlNWjE

[Michael]

UK Imperial College scientist, Neil Ferguson, who made a prediction using a mathematical model that expected 2.1 million deaths in the USA and 500,000 in the UK has revised the estimate down to 20,000 for the UK based on preventative measures implemented by the health service, and a study from Prof. Gupta of Oxford that suggests the virus has already worked its way through a significant population of the UK, as much as half.

Ferguson says his revision maintains a similar R0 rate of infection, but the difference in total mortality is a factor of 1/25th for the UK according to his response. An analogous figure (not given by Ferguson explicitly) for the USA would be 84,000 deaths, which would be horrible, but similar in total deaths for a much smaller population during the previous two worst flu epidemics in 1968 and 1957 in the USA.

Oxford Prof. Gupta's study suggests half of the UK population has already been exposed. This study will depend on randomized serological testing to confirm its hypothesis.

Financial Times article about the Oxford study, March 24, 2020
Coronavirus may have infected half of UK population — Oxford study
FT paywall

Daily Wire summary, March 24
Oxford Epidemiologist: Here’s Why That Doomsday Model Is Likely Way Off

New Scientist, March 25, 2020
UK has enough intensive care units for coronavirus, expert predicts


Daily Wire summary, March 26
Epidemiologist Behind Highly-Cited Coronavirus Model Drastically Downgrades Projection

[Michael]

[Michael]

Those are fake certs to allow Chinese nationals to return home.

[grzegorz]

In Poland they are having similar problems. People are returning with a fever but taking medicine to bring down their temperature and getting in with the virus.

Btw, history tells us that the Spanish was actually the Kansas flu.

[everything]

UK Imperial College scientist, Neil Ferguson, who made a prediction using a mathematical model that expected 2.1 million deaths in the USA and 500,000 in the UK has revised the estimate down to 20,000 for the UK based on preventative measures implemented by the health service, and a study from Prof. Gupta of Oxford that suggests the virus has already worked its way through a significant population of the UK, as much as half.

Ferguson says his revision maintains a similar R0 rate of infection, but the difference in total mortality is a factor of 1/25th for the UK according to his response. An analogous figure (not given by Ferguson explicitly) for the USA would be 84,000 deaths, which would be horrible, but similar in total deaths for a much smaller population during the previous two worst flu epidemics in 1968 and 1957 in the USA.

Oxford Prof. Gupta's study suggests half of the UK population has already been exposed. This study will depend on randomized serological testing to confirm its hypothesis.

Financial Times article about the Oxford study, March 24, 2020
Coronavirus may have infected half of UK population — Oxford study
FT paywall

Daily Wire summary, March 24
Oxford Epidemiologist: Here’s Why That Doomsday Model Is Likely Way Off

New Scientist, March 25, 2020
UK has enough intensive care units for coronavirus, expert predicts


Daily Wire summary, March 26
Epidemiologist Behind Highly-Cited Coronavirus Model Drastically Downgrades Projection

Horrifying but hope that means turning a corner soon

[Bao]

Those are fake certs to allow Chinese nationals to return home.

Fake certs doesn't matter if you have a fever, a cough or seem to not feel well, you'll always get checked. There was a Chinese woman, think she resided in the US. As many other Chinese she wanted to return home to China because in China the government has made all of the health care concerning covid-19 totally free, without any charges. She overdosed medicine to keep the fever down. She got caught when she got home and now is facing spending some jail time. The Chinese government takes this very seriously. Just recently though, they have changed the rules, so expats won't get free healthcare in China. You need to live in China and pay your taxes there. This will lower the risk for expats trying to get home while risking to infect people in a whole air plane.

[Giles]

The paper, written by a large group of Chinese researchers from several institutions, offers details about the first 41 hospitalized patients who had confirmed infections with what has been dubbed 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

In the earliest case, the patient became ill on 1 December 2019 and had no reported link to the seafood market, the authors report. “No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases,” they state. Their data also show that, in total, 13 of the 41 cases had no link to the marketplace. “That’s a big number, 13, with no link,” says Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01 ... g-globally

Tends to support one theory that there might have been some type of accident
in the bio lab near by...

The 'laboratory accident' hypothesis could be true, the information you post is interesting. But if the virus did come from the wet market, then maybe even from the get-go there were some infected persons who were asymptomatic or only had the sniffles. So these people, even unidentified in retrospect, could already have been carrying the virus out of the market and unknowingly passing it on to others who had no identified link to the market, but then fell ill. So culpable lab error or just early asymptomatic spreaders? Occam's razor would tend to point to the latter, but of course the lab narrative can't be disproved either.
If my thinking is faulty here, then I'm open to correction!

[windwalker]

The 'laboratory accident' hypothesis could be true, the information you post is interesting. But if the virus did come from the wet market, then maybe even from the get-go there were some infected persons who were asymptomatic or only had the sniffles. So these people, even unidentified in retrospect, could already have been carrying the virus out of the market and unknowingly passing it on to others who had no identified link to the market, but then fell ill. So culpable lab error or just early asymptomatic spreaders? Occam's razor would tend to point to the latter, but of course the lab narrative can't be disproved either.
If my thinking is faulty here, then I'm open to correction!

Talked about this with my wife who worked as a nurse in one of the hospitals in Taiwan during the SARS virus.
One of the differences, for many it may not affect them or not affect them immediately
having an incubation time....

Just looking at China's past history of this happening and that they were able to get the virus genome out so quickly.
Either this doesn't take a long time to do or maybe they already had it because it was one they happened to be studying.
Could be wrong, they still have not allowed outside inspection of ground zero.

Accidents happen...it was handled badly according the first reporting of it...the 8 people who first noted it were all made to say
it wasn't true...One a doctor who first reported it dying from it.

The "FDA gives anti-malaria drugs emergency approval to treat COVID-19"
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/coronavir ... d=69867398

Lets hope this among other treatments proves out, and the vaccination is developed and approved soon...
understand they're doing some phase one testing already.

[Franklin]

just a "funny" news today about the "chinese" virus

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3907073

Burger King Taiwan has come under fire from both sides of the Taiwan Strait for labeling the coronavirus as the “Wuhan virus” in a Facebook post before changing it to COVID-19.

The fast-food chain in Taiwan used the term Wuhan virus in a March 25 post to promote its products, which enraged its Chinese counterpart. Despite the restaurants being operated by different franchises in Taiwan and China, Burger King China issued a statement Sunday (March 29) grilling Burger King Taiwan for what it called “irresponsible remarks.”

The statement read that it has contacted the company in Taiwan to delete remarks that hurt people’s feelings and said the management has made changes accordingly and was apologetic. It added that “As a member of the Burger King family, we felt regret over the ‘Taiwan region’s irresponsible act’ as we fight against the outbreak,” reported Newtallk.

The post has been modified to replace Wuhan virus with COVID-19, but the adjustment infuriated the public in Taiwan. Netizens panned the company for kowtowing to China and threatened to stage a boycott, with some expressing disbelief, wondering “Why would one apologize for telling the truth?”

The way the novel virus is addressed has become a contentious topic, as U.S. President Donald Trump on March 18 defended his practice of branding the pandemic as the “Chinese Virus,” which inflamed Beijing. The U.S. State Department failed in its attempt to include “Wuhan virus” in a joint statement with members of the Group of Seven on March 26, with diplomats describing this act as crossing a red line, reported CNN.

[Giles]

Thanks for your reply and further info, Windwalker. Yeah, the openness/honesty and general behaviour of the Chinese authorities in the early days was of course pretty poor (and prompts further scepticism now, despite the seemingly positive current figures). Still, it looks like either option remains open until some other revelation maybe emerges.
Maybe even for the Chinese government: should be regarded as innocent until proved (or at least solid evidence) that they're guilty...

[everything]

Unfortunately the Chinese government and Trump even more so value "face" and don't seem to realize some attempts to "save face" ironically "loses face" with many (most?) of us. Trying to cover it up, call it a hoax, make things look better - it just makes you look worse.