[Patrickov]

I'm starting to lose hope that this can be contained.

Frankly I never had that belief, considering it is from a large country inhabited by a not-so-up-to-standard group of people who almost always form a not-so-up-to-standard government.

[Patrickov]

Update from Hong Kong local media.

A Hong Kong policeman has been diagnosed, causing 59 of his current or ex-colleagues (who attended a gathering with him) to be quarantined.

According to some source, most have participated in "anti-riot" work during last year's protests. Newer bulletins say that 4 among these have developed symptoms.

[JohnRawls]

Drlee I thought Mexico would be in serious trouble with this Coronavirus. Especially here in the Yucatan. We got so many viruses, bacterial infections, etc. The heat and the humidity encourages illness here. Yet here the native Yucatecans are super clean and conscientious people. They wash their hands and their toilet facilities in public areas are usually spotlessly clean and well kept. I see those face masks and hand sanitizers everywhere here.

I hope that Mexico doesn't get it in a mass wave. But it might. I am very easy to pick up illness due to my chronic condition.

Stay safe Drlee. I have grown to care about you a lot over the years. Don't let some opportunistic virus take you from us early. If you have to? Go and rest and forget about being the hero for a while. I would rather you were here for us for as long as you could be.

Cuidate Drlee y que vayas con Dios...siempre.

Extreme heat might not be so bad actually. The virus itself will probably have issues in intense extremely warm climates. I am ashamed to say but i have never been to Mexico so i am not sure what exactly is the maximum temperature there. But anything above 30 or 40 C will already cause problems for the Virus. If i remember it dies straight away almost at 52C but i doubt it is that hot in Mexico.

[JohnRawls]

A Canadian woman allegedly caught the virus on a trip to Iran. If that's true, it must be very widespread in Iran already. There have been unconfirmed reports about a number of deaths in addition to the 2 deaths in Qom admitted by the Iranian news agency, but it's hard to know if it's true. There are anti-regime news sources that'll say anything to spread panic. Luckily, Iran isn't very integrated in the global economy and can more easily be isolated. Iraq has already closed its border with Iran.



Korea is going through the roof too with 156 confirmed cases. It's worse than Beijing at this point.

I'm starting to lose hope that this can be contained.

Chinese data can't be trusted. They obviously have a lot more cases which they are not reporting. They tried to "resolve" this issue by releasing additional data but it is probably just the tip of the iceberg.(They did so for Wuhan/Hubei only) They are trying to make it look like that they have it quarantined in Wuhan/Hubei and other places do not have any issues while at the same time increasing the crackdown everywhere also. They are lying through their teeth.

[Tainari88]

Extreme heat might not be so bad actually. The virus itself will probably have issues in intense extremely warm climates. I am ashamed to say but i have never been to Mexico so i am not sure what exactly is the maximum temperature there. But anything above 30 or 40 C will already cause problems for the Virus. If i remember it dies straight away almost at 52C but i doubt it is that hot in Mexico.

Right now it is 23C. Yucatan is very hot and humid most of the year. It can reach 40C easily in the hottest months which for this region of Mexico is May and June.

Mexico is an enormously large nation. It has a lot of states John Rawls. It has deserts that are cold and parts of the nation where it snows, it has spring like states, and very dry and hot states and almost Nevadan Sierra type of weather. It is everything practically. Mexico is a nation of enormous variation of climates.

Chiapas is the Southern most state of Mexico. It is a lot cooler in that state than in this state of Yucatan. Why? It is a higher elevation and it has a different topographical eco climate. Cooler, colder, more rain and mountainous with jungle both.

Merida Yucatan:

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas:

The same couple exploring both cities.

I visited almost all the states of Mexico over the years. I know this country extremely well. Part of the reason why I chose to sell everything I had in Colorado and move to this place I live in now. Merida. It is exactly like that couple describes. It is lovely.

[Drlee]

I was in a surgical store yesterday. They were out of masks. Mind you this is not your everyday store but one in which doctors and first-responders shop. (The public can shop there but they usually are not in the market for odd bandages, white coats and iodine swabs. That kind of store. So. I asked for masks. The guy (who I knew) paused for a long while and said, "we are possibly getting a shipment in next week". Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing so I waited for him to tell me why the pause. He went on to say that they had ordered 100 cases only to be told they could have 5 cases. I waited some more. He continued saying that "the government" has requisitioned all N95 surgical masks and N95-99 respirators and he was not allowed to order any.

And this in a country with less than 20 cases. Right.

Thank you Tainari for your kind concern for me. You are a dear person with a big heart. I will be as careful as I can. These are frightening times but we can take some comfort in the fact that there have been few reported deaths in confirmed cases outside of China. Also. The first vaccine in China will enter trials in April it seems.

[Rancid]

yea, the news of what's happening in Korea makes if feel like this thing is going to make it out in full force to the rest of the world soon.

I'm starting to assume my business travels to Europe in May will get canceled.

[anasawad]

Well, first case of Coronavirus in Lebanon is now officially confirmed, and the infected girl arrived from Iran 3 days ago to the town of Doris, which is right next to Baalbek.
And now I'm leaving to Jounieh and staying there for the next week or so. I thought I'll take a direct flight to Minsk's airport, but it seems there are fears that there are multiple infections in the airport without any confirmation yet, so I booked a boat trip to Cyprus and then taking a flight from there.
Not taking any risk.

Regarding Iran, there is a media blackout, but it seems the disease is spreading through the core cities as several hospitals are reported to be evacuated and turned into quarantine zones, primarily in Qum and Esfahan.
There are yet no reported cases in Tehran or the Semnan valley, so it's generally in the south of the country.
I suspect we'll be hearing of new cases in Pakistan shortly.

[AFAIK]

Our prime minister is doing his best to introduce the disease to Cambodia. So far he's visited China and had a shipload of tourists come in with no quarantine. Watch this space.

[Rancid]

Our prime minister is doing his best to introduce the disease to Cambodia.

There is a spike on racist assault/attacks on Asian folks. I've told my wife to stay vigilant for racist assholes. That said, what I like about her is she has no problems throwing down and getting into a good fight.

[JohnRawls]

:eek:

There is a spike on racist assault/attacks on Asian folks. I've told my wife to stay vigilant for racist assholes. That said, what I like about her is she has no problems throwing down and getting into a good fight.

If anything happens, tell her to suplex any racist asshole and then cough on him.

[ThirdTerm]

The NYPD is investigating a hate crime on a Chinese woman wearing a surgical mask, by a black man who witnesses said called her "diseased." I remember a black dude in London who cautioned me that I was spreading the disease when I was down with a flu and coughing at a local Mcdonalds around Euston.

The New York City Police Department's hate crimes unit is seeking the public's help in identifying the man who appears to be kicking and punching the woman in a video posted on Twitter.

"The NYPD and the Hate Crimes Task Force encourage the victim to report this incident to the police for a full investigation," the task force said in its retweet of a post with the video, captioned, "Chinese woman gets attacked for wearing a mask in nyc."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/co ... o-n1130671

[Atlantis]

:eek:

There is a spike on racist assault/attacks on Asian folks. I've told my wife to stay vigilant for racist assholes. That said, what I like about her is she has no problems throwing down and getting into a good fight.

It's not just racist, Rancid, it's everybody against everybody else. Man against man and women against women, and god against all. Read up on Camus' The Plague to get an idea of what life under a pandemic could look like.

Ukrainians are welcoming their own compatriots, who were evacuated for a 14-day quarantine, with as much hatred as if they were Middle-Eastern refugees suspected of being jihadists:

Protesters attack buses carrying Wuhan evacuees in Ukraine

I gave an Asian guest worker an evil stare who was coughing over the vegetable stand at my local supermarket without bothering to cover his mouth. Am I a racist pig now? I guess I should have told him to cough or sneeze into his elbow, but I had no idea what language he speaks. I don't suspect Asians in general, but some guest workers are from rural areas without any education.

Looks like the window of opportunity for avoiding a global pandemic is about to close shut. 100 new cases in Korea in just one day. Iran has now confirmed 18 cases and 4 deaths, but there are likely to be hundreds of infections already. The government is keeping a lid on information so that people don't stay away from the coming election. That's a great way of spreading the virus. Italy suddenly also reported a cluster of infections. There are rumor of bodies being burned in NK.

What's concerning is that:

- airborne infection has been confirmed in China,

- most infectious occur 3-5 days after infection when there are no symptoms,

- there is a high percentage of severe and critical cases

- there are possibly a number of self-sustaining clusters outside of China

- there is a high number of medical staff infected

It'll be very difficult to contain this virus.

[foxdemon]

I was in a surgical store yesterday. They were out of masks. Mind you this is not your everyday store but one in which doctors and first-responders shop. (The public can shop there but they usually are not in the market for odd bandages, white coats and iodine swabs. That kind of store. So. I asked for masks. The guy (who I knew) paused for a long while and said, "we are possibly getting a shipment in next week". Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing so I waited for him to tell me why the pause. He went on to say that they had ordered 100 cases only to be told they could have 5 cases. I waited some more. He continued saying that "the government" has requisitioned all N95 surgical masks and N95-99 respirators and he was not allowed to order any.

And this in a country with less than 20 cases. Right.

Well, that is some heavy duty shit you are talking about there. But maybe it is sensible to let the state control distribution at this time. At least the mask stockpiles will be distributed to healthcare workers and security personnel rather than hoarded by people who panic.

Has the US government done anything to find or establish alternative sources of medication ingredients, given the risk to supply from China.

[MadMonk]

We are far beyond containment at this point and must rely on other means. Screening this virus is spotty at best and confirmed cases are nothing close to the real numbers.

The fact that Indonesia still have no confirmed cases is ludicrous given the circumstances of a large Chinese tourist destination and with Singapore and Malaysia reporting dozens of cases each. Only 3 confirmed cases in India is also, to put it mildly, questionable.

[Atlantis]

The fact that Indonesia still have no confirmed cases is ludicrous given the circumstances of a large Chinese tourist destination and with Singapore and Malaysia reporting dozens of cases each. Only 3 confirmed cases in India is also, to put it mildly, questionable.

Many countries in Africa don't even have testing kits and there are more than a million Chinese working in Africa.

Thailand and Cambodia are also very suspicious considering the amount of Chinese tourists and business travelers in these countries.

[Patrickov]

yea, the news of what's happening in Korea makes if feel like this thing is going to make it out in full force to the rest of the world soon.

I'm starting to assume my business travels to Europe in May will get canceled.

It still depends on how people gather. The Korea spread is allegedly via a voodoo church.

[Patrickov]

Our prime minister is doing his best to introduce the disease to Cambodia. So far he's visited China and had a shipload of tourists come in with no quarantine. Watch this space.

Hun Sen is a pro-China totalitarian asshole. This is very much expected.

[ThirdTerm]

Thailand and Cambodia are also very suspicious considering the amount of Chinese tourists and business travelers in these countries.

Those Southeast Asian peoples living in tropical climates are less likely to get the flu or the coronavirus. At 43°F (6°C) with very low humidity, most of the virus was able to survive more than 23 hours, whereas at high humidity and a temperature of 90°F (32°C), survival was diminished at even one hour into incubation. Currently, it is 82°F (28°C) in Indonesia at 9 a.m. This is why Cambodia and Indonesia have been spared from the outbreak as the virus can only survive for an hour at 30°C. Trump may be right to claim that the coronavirus will be gone by April.


Figure 1 ~ Experimental Setup. Guinea pigs were housed in adjacent cages. Guinea pigs in cage 1 were infected by Palese with influenza. Palese observed how many guinea pigs in cage 2 became infected from the guinea pigs in cage 1 at different temperatures and levels of humidity. B, C) Transmission rates were 100% at low humidity, regardless of temperature. At high humidity, transmission occurred only at the lower temperature.

ABSTRACT
The severity of epidemic and pandemic influenza outbreaks is dictated in part by the efficiency with which the causative strain transmits between human hosts. The mechanisms underlying influenza virus spread are poorly understood, in part because of the lack of a convenient animal model to study this phenomenon. Indeed, despite extremely efficient transmission among humans and virulence in the mouse model, we have shown that even the 1918 pandemic influenza virus does not transmit between mice. We therefore evaluated the guinea pig as a model mammalian host for influenza virus. Using the recent human isolate A/Panama/2007/99 (Pan/99) (H3N2) virus, we found that guinea pigs were highly susceptible to infection with the unadapted virus (ID50 = 5 plaque-forming units). Pan/99 virus grew to high titers in the upper respiratory tract and was shed in nasal washings of infected animals. Moreover, influenza virus was transmitted from infected guinea pigs to noninfected guinea pigs housed in the same cage, an adjacent cage, and a cage placed 91 cm away. Our results demonstrate that influenza virus can pass between guinea pigs by means of droplet spread and thereby establish the suitability of the guinea pig as a model host for influenza virus transmission studies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1502566/

[Atlantis]

Those Southeast Asian peoples living in tropical climates are less likely to get the flu or the coronavirus. At 43°F (6°C) very low humidity, most of the virus was able to survive more than 23 hours, whereas at high humidity and a temperature of 90°F (32°C), survival was diminished at even one hour into incubation. Trump may be right to claim that the coronavirus will be gone by April.

If it can spread in Singapore, then it can spread in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. Well, perhaps Indonesians are immune because they pray to god, that's at least what the health minister claims.

Anyways, the coronavirus doesn't behave like an influenza virus. It's true that it can survive outside the body (2 to 9 days) at low temperature. That time is reduced at higher temperature, but high temperatures and high humidity may actually favor the virus. Covid-19 is an enveloped virus. That's why it survives outside the host for some time.

If Trump says it'll be gone by April, you can be sure that'll become endemic.

The situation in Italy has gone South from one day to another. First there is nothing to see, and then all of a sudden, it may be the worst situation in the West. The Italians refused to test people with symptoms simply because they hadn't been to China even though we have known for weeks that there is H2H transmission in Europe.

Italy is the first country in the West to put people under lockdown:

Veneto native became the first death in Europe due to Coronavirus

2 total cases in Veneto, 15 in Lombardy

Veneto region head Luca Zaia said earlier Friday "a sanitary ring" would be created around Vo' Euganeo, and all 3,300 inhabitants would be tested.

Over 50,000 people have been asked to stay at home in the areas concerned, while all public activities such as carnival celebrations, church masses and sporting events have been banned for up to a week.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte declared "everything is under control", and stressed the government was maintaining "an extremely high level of precaution".

That's what's called closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.