Coronavirus - those in China, and general discussion

[StChris]

MY school just informed me that they will be conducting classes via Wechat. The new year's break doesn't end until Friday anyway, so the decision sounds a little premature to me. I suppose it's possible that they will change their minds. I'm in Harbin, btw.

[DavyJonesLocker]

As someone mentioned above it's hard to get the real information. The amount of supposed "facts" banded around is pretty large. A crises like this brings out all the posters who claim to have inside information yet not a shred of evidence to back it up.

 

For example the accusations of a great cover up seems ill-founded. If that was the case why are VPNs working better that they have in the last year. 

 

 

 

[Jan Finster]

Here the WHO's advice to the public:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

[suMMit]

This whole thing has got me so wound up. I can't stop thinking about it. I cried last night, tears. I'm a man and that is not something I often do.

[feihong]

29 minutes ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

For example the accusations of a great cover up seems ill-founded. If that was the case why are VPNs working better that they have in the last year.

I think forum members have been relatively responsible about not peddling conspiracy theories. I read the post about the possible cover-up as a rumor, not a fact, thus there was no need to cite a source. But VPNs working well wouldn’t  have much to do with a local cover-up. And if the central government is determined to lock cities and transportation systems down until the health crisis is over, then it makes sense to relax VPN restrictions for the time being, as many professionals who need access to private networks for work are otherwise prevented from accessing them on premise.

[Flickserve]

46 minutes ago, suMMit said:

This whole thing has got me so wound up. I can't stop thinking about it. I cried last night, tears. I'm a man and that is not something I often do.

 

Hang in there! It's a totally understandable reaction. We would get the feeling of desperation and helplessness as this sort of thing is so new to most of us. The weight on the mind stops you from doing things.

 

Keeping to good habits for basic hygiene is the the thing to do.

[Jan Finster]

55 minutes ago, suMMit said:

This whole thing has got me so wound up. I can't stop thinking about it. I cried last night, tears. I'm a man and that is not something I often do.

 

It is super stressful and not something we are used to deal with. I understand you left China, but it would not be unusual to have symptoms resembling PTSD after such a potentially dangerous event.  Wish you all the best.

[DavyJonesLocker]

15 minutes ago, feihong said:

think forum members have been relatively responsible about not peddling conspiracy theories. I read the post about the possible cover-up as a rumor, not a fact, thus there was no need to cite a source. But VPNs working well wouldn’t  have much to do with a local cover-up. And if the central government is determined to lock cities and transportation systems down until the health crisis is over, then it makes sense to relax VPN restrictions for the time being, as many professionals who need access to private networks for work are otherwise prevented from accessing them on premise.

 

No criticism of forum members whatsoever. I'm being bombarded with false informational daily from expats with an axe to grind against China and just reposting same rumours in all wechatgroups. 

 

It's worth bearing in mind that the vast majority of expats in China have made no effort to integrate themselves into Chinese society , can't speak a lick of Chinese and their sources are coming from tabloid newspapers or "I heard from a mate ..."

[Tomsima]

don't know if anyone else has been dealing with their embassies, but the British response so far has been disappointing, just repeating 'don't know, check the website, good luck'. Ive called three times and every time it was the same, they seem to know less than us over here, hopefully they'll react sooner rather than later

[Jan Finster]

On 1/23/2020 at 4:23 PM, Flickserve said:

On 1/23/2020 at 11:29 AM, 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. 

 

New information suggests it can spread within the incubation period, so before showing signs. This would be very concerning, because then everyone is potentially infectious.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51254523

[Dawei3]

6 hours ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

it's hard to get the real information.

WHO is a good source of information.  Note that they don't even mention masks.  N95 masks help in crowded situations and health care workers, but hand washing is most important.  The CDC in the US has also struggled to get people to wash their hands during flu outbreaks.  

 

I've heard things from Chinese friends in different parts of the country and I wonder how widespread this (mis)information is:

 

1.  A friend who is in Dali now, but lives in Beijing, said the authorities are telling the public to replace masks every 4 hours.  Has this been recommended widely? 

 

It makes no sense, particularly since masks are in short supply.  In healthcare, if your mask wet with fluids from patients, yes, replace it.  However, if you wore it in a subway in Beijing and it stayed dry, it will still function.  It's not like a carbon filter that wears out.  N95s are simple fibers designed to work via size exclusion.

 

2. Another friend ran a campaign to get N95s to donate to Wuhan health care workers (many of whom are working without protection).  However, the masks were rejected because they weren't surgical N95s

 

Surgical N95s provide similar protection to N95s except surgical ones better protect against body fluids, such as from a stream of blood.  For most workers, N95s are effective (and far better than nothing at all).  Also, it a situation like this, any N95 mask is valuable.    

 

The major of Wuhan notes 5 million people left the city before the lockdown:  

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3047720/chinese-premier-li-keqiang-head-coronavirus-crisis-team-outbreak

[roddy]

There's a new topic, which I've also linked to from the first post, for people due to travel to china. Here. 

I've also edited the title of this topic.

 

 

[suMMit]

@Tomsima I read somewhere the uk was in the midst orgsnizing an evac like the US one

[889]

"There was also no clarity on Sunday over whether the government would evacuate the estimated 200 Brits trapped in Wuhan, with the Foreign Office advising against all travel to Hubei province but providing scant information on how to leave the affected areas. This is in contrast to France, the US and Japan, who are putting in place logistics to get their citizens out. Patel said the government was 'looking at all the options', which could include airlifting UK citizens out of the worst-affected area."

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/26/coronavirus-could-infect-100000-globally-experts-warn

 

As well, note that Hong Kong has just barred entry to those who reside in Hubei or who've been there in the past 14 days. The ban doesn't cover HK residents.

[ChTTay]

5 hours ago, Dawei3 said:

A friend who is in Dali now, but lives in Beijing, said the authorities are telling the public to replace masks every 4 hours.  Has this been recommended widely? 

I’ve heard this only about blue surgical masks, not masks in general. The recommendations I’ve seen for masks are a choice of surgical One use masks OR N95 masks. However, people are just using whatever they can get hold of. As soon as the number N95 came out, there was a mad rush to get them. Equally, you already see masks with N95 all over them but made by random brands or that are just cloth. I assume the Original N95 is a 3M Produced mask or does it refer to the specifications of any mask?

 

14 minutes ago, 889 said:

This is in contrast to France, the US and Japan, who are putting in place logistics to get their citizens out. Patel said the government was 'looking at all the options', which could include airlifting UK citizens out of the worst-affected area."

The U.K. embassy’s wechat account and website has been unhelpful and seems out of date. I’m in a few British groups and people have expressed amazement at the limited info and advice. Equally, it’s crazy that now Japan, France and The US are all making moves to extract citizens from Wuhan and the U.K. has made no announcements. Last I heard France had a bus to Hunan then a 14 day quarantine sorted out. The other two had chartered flights.

 

I’m in Beijing now, and where I live at least, most of the older folk are just going on as normal. No masks. Doing their outside exercises, walking their dogs, cycling around. 
 

Upon arrival in Beijing I received a text message welcoming me to Beijing then asking me to stay indoors as much as possible for 14 days as a self imposed quarantine. During this time go out as little as possible and wear a mask if going out.

[大块头]

23 minutes ago, ChTTay said:

As soon as the number N95 came out, there was a mad rush to get them. Equally, you already see masks with N95 all over them but made by random brands or that are just cloth. I assume the Original N95 is a 3M Produced mask or does it refer to the specifications of any mask?

 

NIOSH air filtration rating

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

NIOSH air filtration rating refers to the publications of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of US government pertaining to respirators and masks worn to filter contaminated air, regardless of cause.

NIOSH Ratings[edit]

The first part of the filter's classification uses the letters N, R, or P to indicate the filter's ability to function when exposed to petroleum.

• "N" = not resistant to petroleum
• "R" = somewhat resistant to petroleum
• "P" = strongly resistant to petroleum

The second part lists the percentage of particles that the mask is certified to block (such as 95 or 97 percent).

The most common is N95,^[1] which is recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for most cases of air contamination. These filters are designed to seal tightly around mouth and nose and are made of material certified to block 95% of particles 0.3 μm or larger in diameter, roughly the size of a single virus^[2] and include PM2.5.

[dtcamero]

some reports however say that the virus, when airborne, can be transmitted through contact with the eye.

if that's the case no matter what kind of mask you're wearing you're SOL on a crowded plane, train, bus etc.

[889]

Even native speakers have problems sometimes reading out large numbers.

 

https://twitter.com/charon66192915/status/1221468652760788992

 

 

[ChTTay]

1 hour ago, dtcamero said:

some reports however say that the virus, when airborne, can be transmitted through contact with the eye.

Please link to the reports. I’ve only seen that claim on this forum. 
 

It does make sense if someone who is infected’s spit or snot gets into your eyes it could infect you. Right? But I’ve not seen this anywhere regarding this virus specifically. 

[DavyJonesLocker]

25 minutes ago, ChTTay said:

 

It does make sense if someone who is infected’s spit or snot gets into your eyes it could infect you. Right? But I’ve not seen this anywhere regarding this virus specifically. 

 

Well what's being quoted is that you can get it by shaking hands touching something effect then rubbing your eyes which apparently many unconsciously do. Makes sense I guess. 

 

I can find a link if you like.