Discussion thread II - Covid-19 (new coronavirus)

[Pathfinder]

At least 500 Wuhan medical staff infected with coronavirus

Medical sources in the city confirm rate of infection, but say they have been told not to release the full picture to the public

So far three deaths among medical workers have been confirmed, including that of Li Wenliang, but higher rate of infection risks hampering fight to curb disease

SCMP
Josephine Ma,
William Zheng,
Zhuang Pinghui in Beijing
Published: 9:49pm, 11 Feb, 2020
...

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050077/least-500-wuhan-medical-staff-infected-coronavirus

[JJackson]

"the carbon dioxide concentration before and after this period fluctuates only between 4 and 8 micrograms per cubic meter,"
I assume that is a typo and should read SO2 not CO2.

[Pathfinder]

Translation Google

Officials rumored that mass corpses were burned in Wuhan, air monitoring was not true

issuing time: 12/02/2020-13:15

Author:
Gu Li

In response to media reports using the website Windy data, “Wuhan suspected that a large number of Wuhan pneumonia patients' bodies were burned, resulting in an alarming concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air”. The Central News Agency quoted a report today, saying that outsiders believe that the current published diagnosis data cannot reflect the true situation, because many patients have died before they can be diagnosed with Wuhan pneumonia (coronavirus disease in 2019).

According to a report by the Central News Agency today, it is reported that Wuhan has burned a large number of corpses, and China claims that the air monitoring data are false. The news pointed out that a media report said that “the suspected incineration of a large number of Wuhan pneumonia patients’ bodies in Wuhan caused an alarming concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air. ”The relevant person in charge of the China National Environmental Monitoring Station came out today to“ remove rumors ”, stating that the data used by foreign media differed from actual monitoring data by 200 Times.

The report said that many media reports recently that data from the Czech weather service website "Windy" shows that Wuhan is full of sulfur dioxide (SO2) with a concentration of more than 80 micrograms per cubic meter in the city. At 7 o'clock in the evening on the 8th, An even more alarming concentration of 1700 micrograms per cubic meter appeared in other cities in Hubei Province. Some netizens traced the location where the sulfur dioxide was the most concentrated, and found that it was quite close to the local cemetery and lime sand brick factory. It was suspected that it was related to the authorities' treatment of the dead patient's body, and it was estimated that 14,000 remains would be cremated to release such a large amount of sulfur dioxide.

According to the comprehensive Beijing News and China News.com, the relevant person in charge of China National Environmental Monitoring Station stated on the 12th that relevant experts from China National Environmental Monitoring Station, the Satellite Environment Application Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences checked the relevant information. "After careful comparison and verification, The increase of SO2 concentration in Wuhan released by the Windy website is seriously distorted, and its SO2 concentration data is not credible. According to the data at 0 and 1 on the 9th, Windy website pointed out that the concentration of sulfur dioxide in Wuhan "contaminated area" reached per cubic meter. Above 1500 micrograms, the highest concentration is even more than 1700 micrograms; but according to Chinese air monitoring stations, the carbon dioxide concentration before and after this period fluctuates only between 4 and 8 micrograms per cubic meter, and the difference between the two concentrations is as much as 200 times.

According to the person in charge, not only Wuhan, but also the ground surface sulfur dioxide concentrations published elsewhere on Windy's website have great deviations from local monitoring results. Taking the data from Beijing Dongsi Station on the 11th as an example, the hourly deviation between the two can reach 4 to 60 times, and the daily deviation can reach 15 times, which is significantly higher than the "actual concentration".

According to the Central News Agency, several media reported that data from the Czech weather service website "Windy" shows that Wuhan is full of sulfur dioxide (SO2). The picture shows the results of netizens sharing Chinese SO2 data on the Windy community website on the 10th. (Picture taken from community.windy.com, Windy's community webpage)

However, Chinese officials have "clarified" the report from overseas media, which also reflects the serious concern of the epidemic in Wuhan. It is reported that the outside world believes that the current published diagnosis data cannot reflect the true situation, because many patients have died before they can be diagnosed with Wuhan pneumonia (coronavirus disease in 2019).

According to an article published by Tencent on the Internet, a Hubei funeral worker stated in early February that the unit where he worked had been changed to a 24-hour stand-by in order to dispose of the remains in a timely manner. According to him, after the outbreak, the unit stipulated that everything should be simplified. In order to avoid crowds and no farewell ceremony before cremation, all the remains need to be handled as soon as possible regardless of whether pneumonia is diagnosed. Some family members were unable to accept the requirement of immediate cremation, refused to sign the cremation consent, and some were out of control.

http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200212-%E4%BC%A0%E6%AD%A6%E6%B1%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%87%8F%E7%84%9A%E7%83%A7%E5%B0%B8%E4%BD%93-%E5%AE%98%E6%96%B9%E8%BE%9F%E8%B0%A3%E6%8C%87%E7%A9%BA%E6%B0%94%E7%9B%91%E6%B5%8B%E4%B8%8D%E5%AE%9E

[Shiloh]

'It’s a Moral Imperative:' Archivists Made a Directory of 5,000 Coronavirus Studies to Bypass Paywalls
The potentially illegal archive is a 'moral imperative,' said one organizer.
by Maddie Bender
Feb 3 2020, 10:34am

Security staff checks on the temperature of students entering a university, as public fear over China's Wuhan Coronavirus grows, on February 3, 2020 in Manila, Philippines. Image: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

A group of online archivists have created an open-access directory of over 5,000 scientific studies about coronaviruses that anyone can browse and download without encountering a paywall. The directory is hosted on The-Eye, a massive online archiving project run by a Reddit user named "-Archivist."...


Read more: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z...gn=sharebutton

[kiwibird]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1227519551983771648

On BBC Radio 4 this afternoon. Professor Neil Ferguson - director of the @MRC_Outbreak at @imperialcollege believes we are in the early stages of a global pandemic. He also thinks that the UK is picking up perhaps one in three cases of travellers who are carrying the Novel 2019 coronavirus.

[blacknail]

"We do not have American doctors on the ground. The WHO, I believe, has a new team in, but that team does not include American doctors."

About that... American medical doctors aren't going to be the ones that answer the question of whether this escaped from a lab. You need molecular biologists. Also, this virus would not be a good choice for anyone to weaponize because it isn't all that lethal. Is it possible that they were doing research on it in a lab, or had acquired bats for research that infected young asymptomatic workers. Sure, but if it came from a lab it is almost surely an accident imo.

[Treyfish]

We just don’t know’ if coronavirus came from a Chinese lab, national security adviser says
By Niels Lesniewski
Posted February 11, 2020 at 8:00pm
Pushed to respond to speculation from a Republican senator, a top White House official said they do not know whether the coronavirus could have originated in a Chinese laboratory.

Asked during Atlantic Council event about comments by Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton on the possibility that the virus started in a Chinese government lab, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said Tuesday that he had no information about any such theories.

"I've seen those reports, and Twitter and the Internet are alive with them. I don't have any information on that one way or the other, so we just don't know," O'Brien said. "I can't comment on that."

.."He's a smart guy when he comes to these issues, and he's a leader when it comes to national defense and national security issues," O'Brien said of Cotton, who is a member of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.

Chinese ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has criticized Cotton's suggestion, including in an interview Sunday with CBS News...

Cotton reiterated his concerns in a CNBC interview Tuesday morning.

"We do need to ask questions about the super laboratory that is in Wuhan," Cotton said. "There's too many unanswered questions and China has been too deceitful for us to just take the word of the Chinese Communist Party."
....

"We know where it originated. We don't know how it originated," O'Brien said. "We do not have American doctors on the ground. The WHO, I believe, has a new team in, but that team does not include American doctors."
...
[link to www.rollcall.com (secure)]

[hawkeye]

Quarantine officer infected with coronavirus was carrying out an inspection of the "Diamond Princess" cruise ship near Tokyo - NHK

https://mobile.twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1227382098539032577

[JJackson]

Looked like hubei new cases down, is that partially because of the change in the way they are reported? (From a post by Sharon?)

I doubt it, there have been so few asymptomatic cases tested the numbers are not big enough to be significant. I gave a more detail explanation in the thread started by Sharon.

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/-2019-ncov-new-coronavirus/china-2019-ncov/828698-china-2019-ncov-case-numbers-are-now-worthless-because-they-are-not-counting-lab-confirmed-asymptomatic-cases-february-7-2020

[yielddude]

Looked like hubei new cases down, is that partially because of the change in the way they are reported? (From a post by Sharon?)

[Shiloh]

Well, it's been a little over an hour since the Hubei Provincial #s came out and I haven't seen them reported in Chinese. Hmm...wonder if they have stopped reporting provincial #s? If so, one would have to go to each provincial health department to get the daily stats. Hope this is not the case.

[sharon sanders]

I didn't know where to post this, or if it had already been posted, but assume someone wise will put it where it belongs.

h/t miabelieves

https://www.archyde.com/coronavirus-peruvian-died-of-this-disease-in-the-united-states-and-his-body-was-repatriated-video-nndc-peru/

Coronavirus: Peruvian died of this disease in the United States and his body was repatriated


A 72-year-old Peruvian woman died from coronavirus in the city of Los Angeles, in the United States, and his body was repatriated to our country, TV Peru reported.

The document issued by the California Department of Public Health indicates that the Peruvian citizen died at the Torrance Memorial Medical Center on January 17.

[snip]

According to the death certificate, the cause of his death is the deadly virus of Chinese origin that triggered pneumonia and other complications in his health.

hat tip to a friend of FluTrackers


Apparently someone who was screened for 2019-nCov tested negative and was dead already. Could this be the person from Peru?


"One patient was deceased at the time of notification; testing for this person was negative, and an alternative cause of death was established."

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6906e1-H.pdf

[sharon sanders]

ISID
@ISID_org
“The prevention of further spread and the effective containment of #2019nCoV is our top priority,” says
@SouthAfricanASP
“The people who attend the ICID are critical to the response to the #epidemic..."

Read the full statement https://isid.org/19th-icid-postponed/… #ICID2020 #COVID2019

12:25 PM ? Feb 11, 2020?Hootsuite Inc.

[Pathfinder]

Coronavirus 'could infect 60% of global population if unchecked'

Exclusive: Public health epidemiologist says other countries should consider adopting China-style containment measures

Sarah Boseley Health editor

Tue 11 Feb 2020 04.47 ESTFirst published on Tue 11 Feb 2020 01.00 EST
...
His warning came after the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said recent cases of coronavirus patients who had never visited China could be the “tip of the iceberg”.

Prof Gabriel Leung, the chair of public health medicine at Hong Kong University, said the overriding question was to figure out the size and shape of the iceberg. Most experts thought that each person infected would go on to transmit the virus to about 2.5 other people. That gave an “attack rate” of 60-80%.

“Sixty per cent of the world’s population is an awfully big number,” Leung told the Guardian in London, en route to an expert meeting at the WHO in Geneva on Tuesday.

Even if the general fatality rate is as low as 1%, which Leung thinks is possible once milder cases are taken into account, the death toll would be massive.
...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/coronavirus-expert-warns-infection-could-reach-60-of-worlds-population

[Shiloh]

North Korean coronavirus suspect refugees returned from China are quarantined with terminal tuberculosis patients 'because authorities don't care if they become infected'

Sources claim the 15 refugees are in a terminal TB hospital in Sopungsan
The hospital in the north is 'where terminal tuberculosis patients go to die'
The 15 refugees, one of whom is a child, were seized in China after they escaped from the authoritarian state in January

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-patients.html