What's new

COVID-19 Coronavirus: general discussion

they are using HIV medicine to treat it so it makes me wonder just what the hell it really is

It is more accurate to say they are doing trials on the protease inhibitors lopinavir and ritonavir. These substances are potentially
effective at preventing the reproduction of any virus that includes a protease chain. Their effectiveness in this case is not yet proven though.

Honestly, the list of anti-viral medications used in attempts to combat aids is so long that it would be surprising if a virus existed
that was wholly unaffected by that whole list. Just about every way we know of to stop a virus has been tried against HIV by now.

That said, there are other anti-virals that have been used against other coronaviruses, particularly
remdesivir, that I would hold out more hope for good trial results from, but we will have to wait and see.
 
Quarantining 400 million people still leaves a reservoir of 1 billion people in hundreds of small cities and towns and thousands of villages who may catch the virus from people who returned home from cities before they were locked down.

Restrictions on travel have been imposed, and people aren't going to work, which is bad news for what is the world's second-biggest economy. Does anybody really believe that China is self-imploding its economy for some common flu?

This thing kills the young and healthy, just like the Spanish flu. Once it gets loose in India and Africa, it will go ballistic. How can people be adequately screened when you can carry the virus for 14 days with no symptoms and still be contagious?

There are now more than 31,500 confirmed cases worldwide; at least 754 patients have died, and that includes a Chinese doctor who tried to warn the world about a month ago.

The effect of the spread of the Coronavirus on global supply chains is devastating for the global economy. If this continues for another few months, there won't be any Chinese economy left.

Infected Chinese Mainlanders are escaping to Hong Kong and out to other countries at this moment. FLIGHTS CAN STILL BE PURCHASED ONLINE.

You can't shut off the entire country of China, the manufacturing engine of the world, and move on as nothing happened. I can't think of any positive outlook at all. Rural areas will ride it out better than others, of course. This is a precursor to something terrible. The 2nd amendment is useless against the plague.

The global debt-based economy is already so fragile that it did not need a black swan like a coronavirus pandemic to bring it crashing down. I expect the banksters will claim that it was the pandemic that crashed the economy and demand ever more publicly funded bailouts.
 
Does anybody really believe that China is self-imploding its economy for some common flu?

I am probably the biggest down player here but even I am not saying this is common flu. Its a cold virus that causes pneumonia and that is fairly serious. And it becomes much, much more serious if the situation is handled improperly and I believe it is.

Your characterization sounds like "Would PRC cut off its nose to spite its face?" But I think most people would instead ask "Would PRC cut off a gangrene finger to save its arm?" Oh, yes, I definitely believe PRC would do that.....even if it mistakenly believed the finger had gangrene and mistakenly believed it was either the finger or the arm that would have to go!

Another part of this equation is that the PRC government is not comprised of health care professionals. And yet another part, in my opinion, is that health care professionals are 1) busy 2) also panicking and 3) too close to the immediate problem to see the deeper problems.

Again I will point out the deaths are still over-whelmingly in Wuhan or directly related to Wuhan, whether in sheer number or even by a fairly calculated rate. The problem is in Wuhan as I see it, and I have offered my theory on why that is, but it could be some other form of mismanagement. And to understand how easy it is for people to mismanage (for things such as pride or many other sources) here is a fun quote and please appreciate that it is from a woman: "Historian Nancy Bristow has argued that the pandemic, when combined with the increasing number of women attending college, contributed to the success of women in the field of nursing. This was due in part to the failure of medical doctors, who were predominantly men, to contain and prevent the illness. Nursing staff, who were mainly women, celebrated the success of their patient care and did not associate the spread of the disease with their work.[103] " Spanish flu - Wikipedia


There are now more than 31,500 confirmed cases worldwide; at least 754 patients have died, and that includes a Chinese doctor who tried to warn the world about a month ago.

I find it difficult to draw solid conclusions from his case. The authorities really messed up his life and reputation stressing him out and also robbed him of time which could have saved him. Further they had a motive to deny him the best care or perhaps even to directly end his life to hide their own embarrassment as well as use his death to stoke the flames of fear. For these reasons, I hesitate to hold him as an example of the deadliness of the virus.

I expect the banksters will claim that it was the pandemic that crashed the economy and demand ever more publicly funded bailouts.

Its what they do best, isn't it?
 
Last edited:
Zorro,

I think they know a lot more than we think:


BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - When the man from Hangzhou returned home from a business trip, the local police got in touch. They had tracked his car by his license plate in nearby Wenzhou, which has had a spate of coronavirus cases despite being far from the epicenter of the outbreak. Stay indoors for two weeks, they requested.



After around 12 days, he was bored and went out early. This time, not only did the police contact him, so did his boss. He had been spotted near Hangzhou's West Lake by a camera with facial recognition technology, and the authorities had alerted his company as a warning.



"I was a bit shocked by the ability and efficiency of the mass surveillance network. They can basically trace our movements with the AI technology and big data at any time and any place," said the man, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions.

Coronavirus brings China's surveillance state out of the shadows
 
I'm still waiting for that 1 case to pop up in Okinawa.

Not only was the cruise liner docked here, in our largest city and capital, Naha, but 2600 got off and went sightseeing. If I recall correctly, 13 went on their way, as in a flight or possibly even stayed, as opposed to continuing the route.

I'd say if it doesn't happen in the next week, we're in the clear. But, I don't believe that to be quite true as it's a very popular tourist destination here.
 
I'm pretty sure you're going to see a few cases then. Someone on twitter reckoned at this rate pretty much everyone on that ship is going to stay on it until they've actually contracted the virus just for the governmentto make sure they can't spread it
 
I'm pretty sure you're going to see a few cases then. Someone on twitter reckoned at this rate pretty much everyone on that ship is going to stay on it until they've actually contracted the virus just for the governmentto make sure they can't spread it
As heartless as it sounds, containment is the right approach in my opinion.
 
Yep, and Japan's actually being pretty relaxed about it in comparison to Korea ... I went to Seoul yesterday and now I'm in Daegu, every single form of public transport between cities has had a desk with infrared cameras on pointed at the exits to look for people with high temperatures! It's quite dystopian, even the subway stations
 
High tech way of stopping a, I guess pandemic, if it spreads there.

Off topic: You spell your name with Do (ド)? Mine is with To.
 
Actually I'm sure you know there are three or four ways:
Deibiddo
Deibitto
Deividdo
(Deivitto)
The first three are used on different documents and I did start off using deibitto because 'Japanese doesn't have a V sound' and I switched to D at some point after people starting confusing the spelling because of the sound. My university unfortunately registers the name on my bank book as my 'real name' which is the び/ど version. I find it kind of annoying that I have to use kana on things rather just alphabetical characters and sometimes even have to write my whole name in hiragana just to comply with the arbitrary restrictions for digital forms...
 
Wuhan Death Flu has arrived in Japan. Besides the old lady dying, some taxi driving carrying Chinese passengers just got it too. I wonder if this will f up Summer Olympics.

Realistically, the Wuhan Death Flu is nothing and hasn't taken many lives compared to the regular yearly flu but this is dramatized by the media because of political and financial reasons. It is a good agenda for dealing with China right now.
 
Wuhan Death Flu has arrived in Japan. Besides the old lady dying, some taxi driving carrying Chinese passengers just got it too. I wonder if this will f up Summer Olympics.

Realistically, the Wuhan Death Flu is nothing and hasn't taken many lives compared to the regular yearly flu but this is dramatized by the media because of political and financial reasons. It is a good agenda for dealing with China right now.
Can you clarify what you mean by the 'financial reasons'? Actually this is a big deal economically. We are now reaping the fruits of decades of profit maximisation rather than ensuring the robustness of systems. Relying entirely on a single country - Chinese growth to boost the world economy (economic planners), Chinese tourists to make a living (Thailand) or spare parts only made in China (many manufacturers) - is a recipe for disaster.
I agree that the problem is being dramatised by the media for political (anti-Chinese) reasons. The people of Wuhan are heroes (even if they had no choice in the manner) for their stoicism but the media keep showing images of Chinese people going off the rails because of the stress they are under.
 
The link provided by okinawaholic says just "corona virus" and not "novel corona virus" or anything like it. (sigh)

Since she had pneumonia AND the coronovirus I surmise it was the novel corona virus.

However, pneumonia became the third leading cause of death in Japan in 2012. Japan: Pneumonia Becomes Leading Cause of Death - Pacific Bridge Medical

As a rough estimate I estimate that 13 people in Japan die of pneumonia each year and have been dying since before this novel coronavirus.

I got that by combining data from here Japan Death Rate 1950-2020, the population of approx. 126,000,000 and the figure of 9.9 percent death from pneumonia.

In her 80s she could have died from heart failure nest week if not pneumonia today.
 
Can you clarify what you mean by the 'financial reasons'?

I can think of a thousand reasons to want to collapse the Chinese economy along with its oppressive government. No one said that that the rest of the world won't feel the hit.

Other 3rd world countries will totally benefit from manufacturing being rapidly shifted out of China and into their country. Perhaps America will even start making things in America again.

China is also trying to take over the world physically starting with SEA, Taiwan and even the Sea of Japan. Hopefully, the Wuhan Hand of Death Flu will keep them busy for a while.

What do you think would happen to China's economy if 1/3 or more of its population was quarantined? This virus is all about economics.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This virus is all about economics.

This is over-statement. The REPORTING on the virus may have something to do with economics, yes. But even the reporting cannot be attributed to one pure motive. Personally I suspect the main motive is simply clicks and sales from the panic. And those who benefit indirectly are simply being silent, whereas if they were experiencing a detriment they would have a word with the media moguls.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
There's no reason not to say that things went bad to worse with the recent spread to Egypt and Africa.

I think it's safe to say temperature now has little to do with things, as should have been the conclusion with the Singapore transmissions with it on the the equator.

With it in Africa, we could quite possibly see another exponential spike again. Furthermore, I'd be safe to say it's a pandemic at that point.

We're watching the news here closely as the timeline on this is so messed up.

1st — 2600 passengers disembarked and 4 traveled south, passing it to a 60 year old taxi driver
5th — taxi driver continues to work even though physical signs appear
8th — takes work off
11th — checks into hospital
14th — conformed positive

...but you're telling me she (and her passengers) only had contact with 15 people?

For one... that's ridiculous as there's contact with more passengers and even employees before and after work when picking up the taxis.

Secondly, did she have grandchildren? Did they ever visit? What schools do they go to?

Third, you took them south? There are only 3 tourist destinations that I can think of south, each having thousands of visitors a day.

But you're only looking into 15 people?

Just wait. I waited 2 weeks to know what I already knew to be confirmed: there's a case here. In due time, as the incubation period could be as long as 24 days, we will see tens to hundreds pop up here, just as we saw on the ship.
 
Back
Top Bottom