All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[PaulBullion]

The issue with the Coronoa Virus is that its both "not super bad" and "dangerous enough to notice". Its effectively super-flu and just like Flu it really only kills the elderly, the young and those with underlying health issues. Not to say it cant kill the average person but only if it gets too far gone (like the Flu). The issue is we have no vaccine and the media are making it sound like Ebola, when OG Flu kills more people every year.

Of course be careful, wash your hands etc and follow the governments advice (at least for me since the UKs is fairly sensible).

Seems to be untrue, or do you think the doctor who warned about human to human transmission had underlying health issues?

By all I can find out, he was perfectly healthy, early 30s, knew how to be careful.

Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the outbreak, became one of the most visible figures in the crisis after he revealed he was one of eight people reproached by Wuhan police last month for “spreading rumours” about the coronavirus.

News of Li’s death at age 34 became the top-read topic on China’s microblogging site Weibo on Friday, with over 1.5 billion views, and was also heavily discussed in private WeChat messaging groups, where people expressed outrage and sadness.

There were also signs that discussions of his death were being censored, especially ones that blamed the government. Topics tagged “the Wuhan government owes Doctor Li Wenliang an apology” and “we want free speech” briefly trended on Weibo late on Thursday, but yielded no search results on Friday.

A selfie of him lying on a hospital bed earlier this week wearing an oxygen respirator and holding up his Chinese identification card was being shared widely.

Li said on Weibo on Feb. 1 that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Reuters has been unable to reach Li’s family.

“Light a candle and pay tribute to the hero,” said one Weibo commentator. “You were the beam of light in the night.” An image also posted on Weibo showed a message, “farewell Li Wenliang”, carved into the snow on a riverbank in Beijing.

Li’s case is a tricky one for China’s leadership after Beijing was accused of covering up the full extent of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003. Beijing has called for transparency in the current crisis, and local officials have come in for public blame over their handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

“Wuhan indeed owes Li Wenliang an apology. Wuhan and Hubei officials also owe a solemn apology to the people of Hubei and this country,” Hu Xijin, the editor of the ruling Communist Party-backed Global Times tabloid, said in a Weibo post.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...-idUSKBN2002VH

[jetengine]

Seems to be untrue, or do you think the doctor who warned about human to human transmission had underlying health issues?

By all I can find out, he was perfectly healthy, early 30s, knew how to be careful.



https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...-idUSKBN2002VH

....and as the rest of my post says if you leave it too long (like Flu) it can be a killer irrespective of your health. Not aided by him being Gulaged until he signed a declaration by his government

Over 70,000 People caught it in China. Just over 2650 deaths.

[jetengine]

Again though, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying its a hoax nor is it not a terrible thing. Mainly that its in that awkward spot where its awful but they have to hype its its awfulness up otherwise Joe. Q. Public will brush it off. Unfortunately that leads to people being assholes.

Also despite some people complaining I think China did a stellar job and the west could learn a hell of a lot about shutting **** down when theres disease outbreaks. Cause at the end of the day your personal liberties mean jack **** if your a vector thst could kill hundreds more

[JackDaw]

Seems to be untrue, or do you think the doctor who warned about human to human transmission had underlying health issues?

By all I can find out, he was perfectly healthy, early 30s, knew how to be careful.



https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...-idUSKBN2002VH

Medical professionals are more likely to be exposed to large amounts of the virus than “Joe Public” (and exposure to large amount does increase risk of extreme illness in people whose health and fitness would normally enable them to “fight off” the virus)...mainly because they are more likely to come into close contact with more infected people.

[jetengine]

Medical professionals are more likely to be exposed to large amounts of the virus than “Joe Public” (and exposure to large amount does increase risk of extreme illness in people whose health and fitness would normally enable them to “fight off” the virus)...mainly because they are more likely to come into close contact with more infected people.

Dude was an eye Doctor. He's an inch or two away from your face regularly

[Kieran_Frost]

Another thing, I don't see how Pete Buttigieg survives South Carolina as a viable candidate unless he overperforms by a huge margin. A Democratic nominee needs African American support to win the nomination and general election, something Mayor Pete is sorely lacking.

There have been three states so far, he won 1/3 of them. Seems odd, of all the people still running, to say one of the only people who's won a state is the one on shakiest ground???

[PaulBullion]

There are two reasons that Covid-19 is such a threat. First, it can kill healthy adults in addition to elderly people with existing health problems. The data so far suggest that the virus has a case fatality risk around 1%; this rate would make it many times more severe than typical seasonal influenza, putting it somewhere between the 1957 influenza pandemic (0.6%) and the 1918 influenza pandemic (2%).2

Second, Covid-19 is transmitted quite efficiently. The average infected person spreads the disease to two or three others — an exponential rate of increase. There is also strong evidence that it can be transmitted by people who are just mildly ill or even presymptomatic.3 That means Covid-19 will be much harder to contain than the Middle East respiratory syndrome or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which were spread much less efficiently and only by symptomatic people. In fact, Covid-19 has already caused 10 times as many cases as SARS in a quarter of the time.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2003762

[PaulBullion]

Jake Tapper:

In 2016, @SenSanders
did not think @HillaryClinton’s lead in pledged delegates meant she should get the nomination at the Democratic Convention as he prepared to argue to superdelegates to opt for him since he was, in his view, more electable.

[Kirby101]

The issue with the Coronoa Virus is that its both "not super bad" and "dangerous enough to notice". Its effectively super-flu and just like Flu it really only kills the elderly, the young and those with underlying health issues. Not to say it cant kill the average person but only if it gets too far gone (like the Flu). The issue is we have no vaccine and the media are making it sound like Ebola, when OG Flu kills more people every year.

Of course be careful, wash your hands etc and follow the governments advice (at least for me since the UKs is fairly sensible).

The 1918 Influenza killed 18 million people. It was a "super flu". The fatality rate so far for the Corona virus has been 2%, 20X the regular flu. Fortunately we have better responses and health institutions than they did in 1918. Of course we also have Trump and Pence, so...reason to worry.

[jetengine]

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2003762

Why is Bill Gates pretending to be a Doctor and talking about his foundation ? Again. I'm not saying its not a killer. But its not a zombie flu outbreak like some a making it out to be.

[PwrdOn]

Again though, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying its a hoax nor is it not a terrible thing. Mainly that its in that awkward spot where its awful but they have to hype its its awfulness up otherwise Joe. Q. Public will brush it off. Unfortunately that leads to people being assholes.

Also despite some people complaining I think China did a stellar job and the west could learn a hell of a lot about shutting **** down when theres disease outbreaks. Cause at the end of the day your personal liberties mean jack **** if your a vector thst could kill hundreds more

The Chinese government definitely bungled the handling of the virus at first by just trying to pretend like everything was fine, but once it became obvious how serious it really was they did an about face pretty quickly, and for all of its faults there isn't another entity on the face of the earth that's able to move mountains and deploy the kind of resources that they can. Certainly the outbreak would've been much worse if someone like Trump had been in charge there. It honestly troubled me just how many smug articles were being written on the NYT and WaPo talking about how the coronavirus was revealing the structural weakness of China's authoritarian society, stopping just short of proclaiming that it was some kind of punishment from God for the Hong Kong protests or the Uighur camps or whatever.

[PaulBullion]

Why is Bill Gates pretending to be a Doctor and talking about his foundation ? Again. I'm not saying its not a killer. But its not a zombie flu outbreak like some a making it out to be.

The New England Journal of Medicine reviewed the article (which has sources to all its claims) and found it sound. The foundation has been dealing with infectious diseases for decades, it's pretty clear that they have medical experts working there who wrote this for Bill.

[Billy Batson]

There have been three states so far, he won 1/3 of them. Seems odd, of all the people still running, to say one of the only people who's won a state is the one on shakiest ground???

Just look at his polling in upcoming states. He has no minority support.

[jetengine]

The New England Journal of Medicine reviewed the article (which has sources to all its claims) and found it sound. The foundation has been dealing with infectious diseases for decades, it's pretty clear that they have medical experts working there who wrote this for Bill.

Fair enough. I'm in favour of more Chinese Style shutdowns if it'll stop this getting worse. The ludicrous bungling by Western Nations has been insane.

"The outbreak is here, I want to go home"
"Sorry but your a risk so...no"
"Really ?"
"Nah I'm just messing with you, your personal liberties are definitely worth more then killing people right ?"

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

There have been three states so far, he won 1/3 of them. Seems odd, of all the people still running, to say one of the only people who's won a state is the one on shakiest ground???

No he has the correct assumption. Pete poured all his money and ground game into Iowa and NH. His strategy was to have a strong showing their and use it as a springboard. Unfortunately he basically tied IA in a convoluted mess and he narrowly lost NH while the eye turning win was in Nevada

Pete polls absolutely dreadfully with minorities and you can’t win without them as a Democrat. Nationally he is in 5th place. In South Carolina tomorrow he is under 10 points. In California he is non viable. That’s the most delegate heavy state. He’s poised to take a huge beating on Super Tuesday