Coronavirus - those in China, and general discussion

[mackie1402]

My wife just heard that the temples in Hangzhou will be shut down during Chinese New Year, and all places where you need a ticket at West Lake will be closed, too. I guess it's to discourage people travelling here. 

[suMMit]

I heard (but unverified)from someone that movies are being cancelled

[StChris]

28 minutes ago, suMMit said:

I heard (but unverified)from someone that movies are being cancelled

 

I know people here in Harbin who have already cancelled their plans to go to the cinema, so maybe many cinemas just won't bother opening (lots of people don't want to be in tightly-packed indoor spaces with strangers. 

 

Hopefully the cold will prevent any spread up here. I want to go snowboarding, which sounds fine as it is outside, but I still have to get the bus to the ski slope, so hmm...

[mackie1402]

Confirmation regarding Hangzhou

 

[Flickserve]

3 hours ago, roddy said:

 

Bit more from the WHO on the quarantine

 

Can’t open the link. Has it been removed?

[Flickserve]

4 hours ago, Jan Finster said:

very surprised he says this. Coronavirus has an incubation period (time from infection to showing signs) of 2-14 days. This means there are potentially people leaving Wuhan that have been infected, but do not show any signs yet (and therefore will not be detected by the fever scanners). They may only signs 2-14 days later when they are already in Beijing, Taiwan, USA, etc. 

agree with you. The incubation period makes it quite hard to control and the temperature scanners are only partially effective. 
 

on my hellotalk, a person mentioned gatherings for celebrations in Beijing have been cancelled. If true, it makes sense and sets an example for the rest of the country. CNY will be like Christmas in the U.K. 

[Flickserve]

BBC news confirmed a few major cities cancelling their celebration plans. 
 

potentially four people in Scotland are infected.

 

Given the rate discovery of new infections, we might see a global health emergency declared. 

[Weyland]

I'm just saddened by how the news is still portraying China as some kind of communist hell-hole.

"China Silences Critics Over Deadly Virus Outbreak" by the New York Times

I haven't checked much, but isn't this whole news-cycle just recycled material from the Ebola fright with "China is a dictatorship" thrown in there for good measure? Wouldn't you guys be better off asking your Chinese friends than going by what the Western media is saying who just uses this opportunity to further drag the public perception of China through the mud?

[Jan Finster]

 

And the "idiot of the year award" goes to....:

 

"The Chinese embassy in France has urged its citizens to comply with airport coronavirus checks after a woman from Wuhan said she had evaded screenings in order to fly to France and dine in restaurants there.

The woman told on social media how she took fever medicine to mask flu-like symptoms to bypass temperature checks. Wuhan has temporarily shut down public transport to contain the deadly virus.

She wrote: “I had a fever and a cough before I left – I was so scared. I quickly took some medicine and checked my temperature. Luckily the temperature was controlled and I had a smooth journey through the border.”"

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/23/chinese-tourist-says-she-evaded-coronavirus-checks-fly-france

 

[roddy]

49 minutes ago, Weyland said:

I haven't checked much

Clearly. 

 

Flickserve, link works for me. 

[Shelley]

This has some very comprehensive and as far as I can tell fairly unbiased information.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-asia-51222034

 

I heard a comment (can't remember the source) that actually praised the Chinese government on its willingness to share information and not covering it up.

 

 

[Jan Finster]

13 minutes ago, Shelley said:

This has some very comprehensive and as far as I can tell fairly unbiased information.

 

I wonder where the news agencies get their information from (?) Is there a central (official) source (like Reuters.com) agencies get their data from? If so, what is this source in China? It would be interesting to see how this information is then portrayed (differently) in foreign vs Chinese media.

[Dawei3]

If you want to hear from a Chinese perspective on whether the Chinese government is freely sharing information, Echo Huang wrote a superb piece.  She suggests info is still being highly controlled (albeit, she wrote it in HK, i.e., not under the shackles of censorship).  She's very credible in her writing.  When she's covered a technical issue I know, her info has always been correct.  In addition, she readily cites the sources for her info: 

 

https://medium.com/@EchoHuang/for-china-a-shackle-in-battling-the-new-corona-virus-is-its-information-control-b0e4bc9f1f73

 

She wrote it for Medium, but then Quartz picked it up, so the same article appears in both places.

 

Considering that Echo is from the mainland, her candor is surprising and admirable.  I'm sure she upset some people.  However, her message needs to be heard, i.e., information sharing is crucial.  As with much of her writing, it's also interesting how she brings Chinese culture into the discussion.    

 

In the above, I note where Echo is from because of a reaction of a US-based friend who is also from the mainland.  When I had mentioned the theme of Echo's article to my friend in the US  - that friend -  who hadn't even read Echo's article - said "That's because she's from Hong Kong.  Their writers there are attacking China."  Then I explained Echo is from the mainland....   

 

I expect Echo wants what is best for China and she knows information manipulation is not the right way to address this serious problem.  

 

 

[mungouk]

Today's free edition of Sinocism has quite a bit of commentary on the variation in reporting, including links to English and Chinese articles.

[889]

I think you have to read between the tea leaves, and the closure of Wuhan says far more than whatever the Chinese press is officially reporting.

 

[Jan Finster]

52 minutes ago, Dawei3 said:

he suggests info is still being highly controlled (albeit, she wrote it in HK, i.e., not under the shackles of censorship). 

 

Thanks for the article!  

 

Controlling what you release to the press is something probably most governments (not just China and the US) do. I know for example from friends that work in the police force that the official number of potential terrorists (under observation) in Germany is vastly understated by the government. I guess controlling information does not inherently imply malicious intent (considering that maybe half of the Chinese population does not even know what a virus is and that mass panics could have even more disastrous effects than the disease)...

[Weyland]

2 hours ago, roddy said:

3 hours ago, Weyland said:

I haven't checked much

Clearly. 

Yes, meaning "I didn't go scouring the web for every tidbit about this new epidemic." It's merely high-profile because the media decided to pay attention to it, it won't ever come close to killing the half million people that die of the "the flu". The only reason not more people die of the flu is because we do our best immunizing the most vulnerable among us.

Wuhan is on lock-down not so much because of the inherent risk the disease poses, but rather because of media attention and the government throwing their weight about. Even the WHO hadn't foreseen the government would take such drastic actions. 

Here is a list of all the people that died of the Corona virus so far.

The youngest person to die from the disease was 48 and was already a medical case. They are sure of 600 cases, but it could be as much as 6000. If of these 6000 people only 18 people died, and with almost all above 60 years of age you have a mortality rate of 0.3%. We're still in the flu season so that number would be much lower if it was in summer.

All in all the Corona Virus doesn't seem to have much bite. But, what would I know. It's not like I'm educated on the matter or have done spearhead research on how RNA travels through the cell /s. ?

[Jan Finster]

7 minutes ago, Weyland said:

The youngest person to die from the disease was 48 and was already a medical case. They are sure of 600 cases, but it could be as much as 6000. If of these 6000 people only 18 people died, and with almost all above 60 years of age you have a mortality rate of 0.3%. We're still in the flu season so that number would be much lower if it was in summer.
 

 

Your calculations do not make any sense. Saying it could be 6000 and calculating a mortality rate on it. WTF???

Why not say, it could be 60 million and add some zeros...

 

 

15 minutes ago, Weyland said:

All in all the Corona Virus doesn't seem to have much bite. But, what would I know. It's not like I'm educated on the matter or have done spearhead research on how RNA travels through the cell /s. 

 

"SARS, which showed up in the early 2000s, infected more than 8,000 people and resulted in nearly 800 deaths. MERS, which appeared in the early 2010s, infected almost 2,500 people and led to more than 850 deaths".

 

https://www.cnet.com/g00/how-to/coronavirus-reaches-us-everything-we-know-about-the-deadly-virus/?i10c.ua=1&i10c.encReferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8%3d&i10c.dv=20

 

That would be a 10-30% mortality of the "non-biting" coronavirus family...

 

The danger with coronaviruses is that they are mutating and potentially becoming more aggressive over time!

 

And saying it kills only people beyond 48 years of age...I am going to stop here...?

[Weyland]

On January 22, 2020, opening arguments and presentation of evidence in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump officially began

It's almost as if this new outbreak is used to mask another event happening right now.

 

[889]

Let's stay on topic.

 

Those that want to vent about US politics have plenty of other places to vent, including the non-China issues board here.