The SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 coronavirus

[The Romulan Republic]

I work in retail. I meet dozens of customers wiping their noses with their hands every day. Can't help but feel that my odds of not giving it and passing it to everyone I know (if I haven't already) are virtually nil.

Do you work as a cashier or something else? Get hand sanitizer, keep it nearby and use regularly. Wear a mask if your employer will let you and maybe wear glasses if you don't already. Neither of those things will stop it, but from what I've read they do help reduce the risk by a non-negligible amount. And they discourage you from touching your mouth and eyes.

I normally wear glasses. I have just bought some hand wipes (you literally can't find sanitizer in the stores right now here, and we haven't had it at work for months). I might start wearing a mask, yeah.

[Jub]

I normally wear glasses. I have just bought some hand wipes (you literally can't find sanitizer in the stores right now here, and we haven't had it at work for months). I might start wearing a mask, yeah.

For sanitizer, you could always put rubbing alcohol in a small mister with a spritz of something to make it smell nicer. It's not ideal but it'll help in a pinch.

Good luck on the masks too. My store has been mostly out of stock since the news hit.

[Broomstick]

I work in retail. I meet dozens of customers wiping their noses with their hands every day. Can't help but feel that my odds of not giving it and passing it to everyone I know (if I haven't already) are virtually nil.

Do you work as a cashier or something else? Get hand sanitizer, keep it nearby and use regularly. Wear a mask if your employer will let you and maybe wear glasses if you don't already. Neither of those things will stop it, but from what I've read they do help reduce the risk by a non-negligible amount. And they discourage you from touching your mouth and eyes.

That's a funny thing about retail - the very customers who are panic-wearing masks right now would be the first to howl if they saw a cashier with a mask - "send that sick person home!"

My place of work is sanitizing phones and work stations, we have hand sanitizer, we've long had plastic gloves for those who wanted them, we have cleaner for the work stations and paper towels.... and thousands of people a day in various states of health passing through.

>sigh<

[mr friendly guy]

So the WHO continues to blow the CCPs cock. Here we have an interview by Vox where they explain what parts of China's response worked. Hint, its not the giant quarantine of Wuhan, its the speed of their contact tracing and quarantining of individuals discovered via contact tracing. I will give you snippets.

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/2/21161067/c ... id19-china

Julia Belluz
The WHO has been suggesting the world should follow China’s lead, but as you know, there are concerns about the human rights effects from China’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak — most notably, the restrictions on freedom of movement through travel restrictions and cordon sanitaires. How do you respond to critics who are concerned about that?

Bruce Aylward
I think people aren’t paying close enough attention. The majority of the response in China, in 30 provinces, was about case finding, contact tracing, and suspension of public gatherings — all common measures used anywhere in the world to manage [the spread of] diseases.

The lockdowns people are referring to — the human rights concerns — usually reflect the situation in places like Wuhan [the city in Hubei province where the virus was first detected]. [The lockdown] was concentrated in Wuhan and two or three other cities that also exploded [with Covid-19 cases]. These are places that got out of control in the beginning [of the outbreak], and China made this decision [to impose mass quarantines] to protect China and the rest of the world.

China is now trying to restart its economy. They can’t do that with millions of people in lockdown in their apartments or with the trains stopped and all their factories suspended. They are getting those things working again, but they have their system primed for rapid detection and rapid response. They never want to be in another situation like a Wuhan — and they haven’t. That’s the first place, and 30 other provinces managed to avoid that, and not just avoid that but reverse the [outbreak].

Julia Belluz
Okay, so most of the measures used in China to stop the virus were traditional public health moves that are broadly accepted — and the draconian measures were rarer. Is there any sense of what in China’s toolkit was most effective?

Bruce Aylward
I think the key learning from China is speed — it’s all about the speed. The faster you can find the cases, isolate the cases, and track their close contacts, the more successful you’re going to be. Another big takeaway is that even when you have substantial transmission with a lot of clusters — because people are looking at the situation in some countries now and going, “Oh, gosh, what can be done?” — what China demonstrates is if you settle down, roll up your sleeves, and begin that systematic work of case finding and contact tracing, you definitely can change the shape of the outbreak, take the heat out of it, and prevent a lot of people from getting sick and a lot of the most vulnerable from dying.

The question becomes, then, how did they do that, and how much of it is replicable? Since coming back from China, everybody I talk to begins with, “We can’t lock down a city of 15 million people like China.” I say, “Why would you ever want to?” And I ask, “Does your population know x, y, z [about the virus]?” I learn they haven’t started with the basics.

So, No. 1, if you want to get speed of response, your population has to know this disease. You find any population in the West and ask them what are the two presenting signs you have to be alert to. What would you say?

Julia Belluz
Aren’t the two initial symptoms most commonly fever and dry cough?

Bruce Aylward
Right. [But many still think] it’s a runny nose and cold. Your population is your surveillance system. Everybody has got a smartphone, everybody can get a thermometer. That is your surveillance system. Don’t rely on this hitting your health system, because then it’s going to infect it. You’ve got this great surveillance system out there — make sure the surveillance system is primed. Make sure you’re ready to act on the signals that come in from that surveillance system. You’ve got to be set up to rapidly assess whether or not they really have those symptoms, test those people, and, if necessary, isolate and trace their contacts.

Here, again, is where I’ve seen things starting to break down. What I’ve been told is if you think you’ve been exposed and have a fever, call your [general practitioner]. We’ve got to be better than that. If we are going to use our GPs — do they have an emergency line where you can get through? Do they know what to do?

In China, they have set up a giant network of fever hospitals. In some areas, a team can go to you and swab you and have an answer for you in four to seven hours. But you’ve got to be set up — speed is everything.

So make sure your people know [about the virus]. Make sure you have mechanisms for working with them very quickly through your health system. Then enough public health infrastructure to investigate cases, identify the close contacts, and then make sure they remain under surveillance. That’s 90 percent of the Chinese response.

Julia Belluz
But, again, China implemented so many different measures at once. How do we know contact tracing was more important than, say, the mass cordon sanitaire and shutting down cities?

Bruce Aylward
Think about the virus. Where is the virus, and how do you contain the virus? You know the virus is in the cases and in the close contacts. That’s where the majority of the virus is; that’s where the majority of the focus should be. China did a whole bunch of things, and other countries may have to do them, too, as they go forward. But the key is public information and having an informed population, finding those cases, rapidly isolating them. The faster you isolate them is what breaks the chains. Making sure close contacts are quarantined and monitored until you know if they’re infected. Somewhere between 5 and 15 percent of those contacts are infected. And again, it’s the close contacts, not everyone.

So its interesting how China has set up this network. Now while I am not expert on China's healthcare system, they do seem a bit more specialist base and weak on generalists. So they have weak GP sectors. Its not a big secret, the Chinese tell us that in their media. And plus, the RACGP also send an email to members, mentioning in passing that China has approach them to see how to train generalists (and no, I no longer have the email from last year).

So this type of network of fever hospitals compensate for this. The problem with even getting to see a GP for this, is the risk of spreading it to other patients, GPs slow down when they have to gown up in protective gear etc. So I am not sure if a GP is the best port of call. A specialist fever clinic might be the way to go as a GP might not have the resources. Or you could hire some GPs to do these sort of tests in the community while patients voluntarily isolate themselves.

Julia Belluz
There were reports from China about collateral damage from this outbreak — the HIV patients, for example, who were reportedly not getting treatment in time because of travel restrictions and lockdowns. What can we learn from China to minimize this type of damage in other countries?

Bruce Aylward
China took a whole bunch of steps when they realized they had to repurpose big chunks of their hospital systems to [respond to the outbreak]. The first thing is, they said testing is free, treatment is free. Right now, there are huge barriers [to testing and treatment] in the West. You can get tested, but then you might be negative and have to foot the bill. In China, they realized those were barriers to people seeking care, so, as a state, they took over the payments for people whose insurance plans didn’t cover them. They tried to mitigate those barriers.

What? Testing is free. Treatment is free, so people are encourage to come and get checked. What type of evil socialist program is this?

Meanwhile in the land of the free people getting checked for Coronavirus get slugged with a greater than $3000 bill. I understand that labs are allowed for now to make their own tests, and people have claimed Twitter they were charged $3000 for one of these tests. Remind me again, what is the percentage of Americans who can't even afford a $400 emergency, yet alone $3000 bill. Oh wait, its 40%. This is going to go well.

Trusting China
Julia Belluz
We have been seeing a small uptick in Hubei for the last couple of days. What is going on there?

Bruce Aylward
I wrote to the [team] in China yesterday and asked them about the uptick in cases, which was very slight. They said they are getting through the backlog of suspect cases — so people who had clinical symptoms, CT scan findings — and rather than clinically confirming them, they are making sure they test them. Some of them are also in some of those prison outbreaks. But the big driver is coming off the suspect cases. In 48 hours, [we’ll know if that] theory is true. Already today, cases started to come down. The [new case count] dropped again today.

Julia Belluz
Can we trust China’s data?

Bruce Aylward
The big question is, are they hiding things? No, they are not. We looked at many different things to try to corroborate that cases are dropping. When I went to fever clinics and talked to people working there, they’d say, “We used to have a line out the door, and now we see a case once per hour.”

According to the national data, fever clinics went from seeing 46,000 people per day at one point and it’s now down to 1,000. So there’s been a huge drop in numbers into the feeder system.

Second thing: When talking to physicians in hospitals, I heard again and again that we have open beds, we can get people isolated even more rapidly. I heard that in Wuhan and other provinces. The third thing: I talked to people running clinical trials of drugs, and they are having a problem recruiting patients. All these things helped corroborate [China’s data].

The CCP obvious rigged everyone of these meetings.

[Col. Crackpot]

We are sanitizing daily at the bank. But at the end of the day it’s a bank that serves the public and receives and distributes (filthy dirty) cash. The first and third of the month brings out the sickly and old. I have no delusions of avoiding this. Not even considering the three adorable germ factories that live with me.

[MKSheppard]

Given the outbreaks in Europe and soon to be USA, China and Asia should consider banning travel from those regions in order to avoid a second round of Corona blowing through -- remember that the 1918 Spanish flu was so deadly because it crossed the globe at least three times.

It would sure suck to finally get a handle on this in wuhan only to see round 2 pop up again from a dumbass tourist visiting the great wall.

Also, don't you feel safer now?

[Broomstick]

Don't be stupid - the blankets in the US are to protect the privacy of the patients being transported. And no, I'm not kidding or being sarcastic. WTF makes you think that sick people want to be on display?

Here's a slightly different view of the same patient transports:
https://images.app.goo.gl/kQ8k6kQ97fiUr4tr5

It's not great because it was probably taken at a considerable distance, but in it you can clearly see the patient is wrapped up and masked, and the transporters are gowned and masked.

Again - the sheets in the US are for privacy, not infection control.

Any more shit you want to throw in the fan you repugnant little fucksitck troll?

[MKSheppard]

It's great that we apparently have a strong surplus of health care workers that we can afford to have them at risk doing nothing but holding blankets for patient privacy.

What happens when you run out of unexposed health care personnel if you burn them up so early on stupid shit like that?

[MKSheppard]

Iran's supreme leader put the Islamic Republic on war footing Tuesday against the new coronavirus by ordering its armed forces to assist health officials in combating the outbreak
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's decision was announced after state media broadcast images of the 80-year-old leader planting a tree wearing disposable gloves ahead of Iran's upcoming arbor day
After downplaying the coronavirus as recently as last week, Iranian authorities said Tuesday they had plans to potentially mobilize 300,000 soldiers and volunteers to confront the virus. It wasn't clear if Khamenei's order would set them in motion helping sanitize streets, direct traffic and track possible contacts those ill with the virus had with others, as initially suggested.

https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/ ... k-kills-77

[Ralin]

What's your evidence that they're particularly at-risk from doing so or likely to burn out? They're not standing within easy sneezing/coughing range of the back of the ambulance, and the patient is wearing a mask himself.

Hell, are they even healthcare workers or just concerned people pitching in? Only one of them is wearing scrubs or any other medical-looking garb.

So yeah, more Shep trolling.

[aerius]

US healthcare system at work.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/w ... story.html

Excerpt:

As the test for the virus becomes more widely available, health-care experts predict that some people with flu-like illnesses — or those who may have been exposed — will avoid finding out whether they have been infected because they are uninsured or have health plans that saddle them with much of the cost of their care.

Making sure the right people get tested — and keeping them away from others if they are infected — is crucial to help diminish the virus’s spread within communities as it pops up in a growing number of states.

Now that federal health officials have ironed out initial problems with the test itself and enabled more labs to take part in the hunt for infection, this work of testing and quarantining is the essential second stage. Yet the government has not yet begun to tell Americans where to go for testing, and neither public nor private insurers are changing their rules to buffer people from testing-related charges.

Some preparations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are incompatible with the way benefits work. Officials have urged people to keep an adequate supply of their routine medicines in case they end up quarantined. But insurance companies seldom permit refills until a patient is nearly out of pills. The agency also urges people with respiratory illnesses to stay home from work. But with no federal sick leave requirements, some experts predict the virus will spread more rapidly.

For an international, fast-spreading epidemic, the nation’s health-care system and many workers’ benefits are “certainly not optimally designed,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.

Federal funds cover the cost of the coronavirus test itself when it is run in federal, state or local public health laboratories. But that changes as academic and commercial labs get involved. In neither case does the government buffer people from bills for visiting a doctor’s office, urgent care center or emergency room, though nearly half of the 160 million Americans with insurance through their jobs have health plans with high deductibles.

“Deductibles are designed to make people think twice about going to the doctor if they are feeling sick,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health-research organization. “In a potential pandemic, the last thing you want people to do is thinking twice about going to the doctor.”

So yeah. If you're sick and you're not getting tested at a federal or other designated lab, you're gonna get billed. If you get test positive and get quarantined, you're gonna eat the bill for your entire hospital stay. Not to mention possibly losing your job in the meantime, which means goodbye to any health insurance you had. Can you say "mass bankruptcy" and "quarantine non-compliance"? Shit's gonna get real in America when this virus makes a breakout.


Edit: Death rate in Iran has dropped to 3.2% which is about the same as China. Cases are going exponential in SK, Italy and Iran though.

[MKSheppard]

So yeah, more Shep trolling.

Expenditure of personnel is a real problem. This happened last night in Dallas:

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public- ... ronavirus/

Five Dallas police officers sent home after arresting man now being watched for symptoms of coronavirus

Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, said Monday evening that the suspect knew he could stay out of jail by claiming to be sick.

When doctors examined him, Mata said, “the suspect had no indication of being ill. His claim had no merit.”

The squad cars involved in the man’s arrest were immediately removed from service for cleaning, police said.

Members of the department are currently working with medical professionals to draft a protocol to ensure officer safety.

Basically, five officers and their squad cars were rendered inaccessible to Dallas PD for 24 hours thanks to an asshole claiming he had coronavirus.

Hospitals and other health care in the US is already pretty tightly staffed even on the best of days.

[MKSheppard]

MISSION, Ore. - A tribal casino and resort in eastern Oregon has closed after a staff member there tested presumptive positive for coronavirus.

The Wildhorse Casino and Resort issued a statement saying it would close immediately "to complete a thorough and deep cleaning as a response to reports of a presumptive positive case of Covid-19."

There was no word on when the casino would reopen.

The closure includes the casino, convention center, hotel, cineplex, children's entertainment center and restaurants. All activities are cancelled including casino promotions and events until further notice.

In addition, all community events on the Umatilla Indian Reservation are cancelled for the week of March 2 to 8.

The Wildhorse Casino is operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

https://komonews.com/news/local/ore-cas ... oronavirus

[Broomstick]

It's great that we apparently have a strong surplus of health care workers that we can afford to have them at risk doing nothing but holding blankets for patient privacy.

How the FUCK do you know that

1) They've been exposed
2) They haven't already been exposed
3) They are "healthcare workers"
4) They aren't janitorial staff/relatives/etc. volunteering
5) They aren't law enforcement there to keep the papparazzi at bay and safe
6) They aren't Easter bunnies in disguise

You know jackshit. You are a trolling fuckstick delighting in the potential for death and destruction.

I provided proof that the patient is covered. The people who are actually transporting the patient have protective equipment on. It's not a fucking death ray, it's not going to LEAP THE GAP between a swaddled patient under the full UV assault of sunlight and mow everyone within 10 miles down like a goddamned Grim Reaper.

So shut the fuck up you ignorant, fear-mongering piece of shit.

[Jub]

It's great that we apparently have a strong surplus of health care workers that we can afford to have them at risk doing nothing but holding blankets for patient privacy.

How the FUCK do you know that

1) They've been exposed
2) They haven't already been exposed
3) They are "healthcare workers"
4) They aren't janitorial staff/relatives/etc. volunteering
5) They aren't law enforcement there to keep the papparazzi at bay and safe
6) They aren't Easter bunnies in disguise

You know jackshit. You are a trolling fuckstick delighting in the potential for death and destructive.

I provided proof that the patient is covered. The people who are actually transporting the patient have protective equipment on. It's not a fucking death ray, it's not going to LEAP THE GAP between a swaddled patient under the full UV assault of sunlight and mow everyone within 10 miles down like a goddamned Grim Reaper.

So shut the fuck up you ignorant, fear-mongering piece of shit.

Thanks for saying what we've all been thinking.

[MKSheppard]

NHS England declares coronavirus a level 4 incident, the highest level of emergency - Sky News

[MKSheppard]

UK game plan seems to be:

Urging millions of Brits to work from home to reduce the risk of catching it

Schools could be shut for up to three months

Pensioners who are most at risk from the disease could be advised to stay away from public events like the VE Day celebrations in May

Large scale events like concerts and sports matches could be cancelled

Plans to call retired doctors and nurses back into the NHS

Giving schools permission to have larger class sizes

Emergency laws to tackle the outbreak - including allowing border officials to refuse entry to Britain of anyone accused of carrying the virus

[Broomstick]

Yes - so what the fuck is your point, shithead?

Or are you trying to see if you can fill and entire page with just one of your posts through use of excessive graphics?

[FaxModem1]

NPR

Personal Essay: Coronavirus Lockdown Is A 'Living Hell'
March 3, 202010:55 AM ET
A RESIDENT OF WUHAN

Editor's note: The author of this essay asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals by authorities for speaking critically of the Chinese government.


The government lockdown orders in Wuhan, China, have emptied the city's streets.
Stringer for NPR
As residents of Wuhan, China, my family and I are living in hell.

The city has been locked down for more than a month. Every night before falling asleep I have been confronted by an unreal feeling and many questions:

I know that coronavirus is the reason for the lockdown — but did life in Wuhan have to become a living hell?

Why were we notified about the city lockdown at 2 a.m. on the second to last morning before the Lunar New Year?

Why have I not been given any instructions from a government officer about how to cope when an entire city is on lockdown?

I'm nearly 30 years old. My family members and I have devoted ourselves to our jobs to build a better life — and we have largely succeeded. There's only a little more to do before we reach the level of middle class.

But along the way, things did not go exactly as I'd hoped. I have been working hard in school since I was small. My dream was to become a journalist, and I passed the test to enter the best school for journalism in China.

After school, I learned that government supervision of the media meant that telling the truth was not an option. So I gave up my dream and turned to another career.

I kept telling myself that my hard work would reward me in my personal life. And to protect myself, I decided to shut up, to be silent about politics — even when I saw people treated unfairly by the government. I thought that if I followed that path, I would be secure, I would be one of the fortunate ones.

Now I realize that this is an illusion. A secure life is not an option with a political system that does not give us freedom to speak out and that does not communicate with us truthfully.

Now I realize that this is an illusion. A secure life is not an option with a political system that does not give us freedom to speak out and that does not communicate with us truthfully.

Wuhan resident

At the moment when the city was first locked down, I hoped with all my heart that China's political system, known for concentrating resources to get big jobs done, could save the Wuhanese. But infected patients were treated in the hospital in Wuhan as early as the beginning of December, and for unknown reasons, the government held off informing the public and taking effective action.

So they missed the best window of prevention due to this cover-up.

That knowledge has made me fall into desperation. The order to lock down the city appeared from nowhere on Jan. 23 at 2 a.m., without any sign or explanation to residents — even though everyone knew what was up.

People rushed to shop at 24-hour convenience stores at 3 a.m. to gather necessary food and other items. We tried every method to escape from Wuhan, but the cage was already locked.

On new year's eve, Jan. 24, I watched the glorious performances from a gala aired on CCTV, Chinese television. But our celebratory meal was sparse, pieced together from the few ingredients I'd been able to buy in that last-minute shopping trip.

Then on the second day of the new year, another order arrived out of the blue, notifying us that the Wuhanese shall not drive. But this order only survived for less than six hours — perhaps because the authorities realized that, with public transportation shut down, cars would be needed to drive medical staffers to work and back home. So community officers called upon residents of Wuhan to provide rides for many of these workers — and to get permits to do this driving. Under the pressure of massive criticism, the government had to revoke this order for residents to provide rides.

Other orders were issued that reflected the chaos. Residents were asked to donate rice and oil to feed the medical staffers at Wuhan's top hospital since there was not enough food to guarantee meals for them. But we are the taxpayers. Shouldn't the government be able to provide?

From former schoolmates who now work in the medical profession, I learned that medical workers were not given medical supplies and were exposed to a risk of death. Many people wonder: Why didn't they go on strike? It is because they were informed that if they went on strike, their licenses to practice medicine would be revoked and their family members' jobs would be affected.

Before this coronavirus, I always thought it was OK to sacrifice some level of democracy and freedom for better living conditions. But now I have changed my attitude. Without democracy and freedom, the truth of the outbreak in Wuhan would never be known.

Before this coronavirus, I always thought it was OK to sacrifice some level of democracy and freedom for better living conditions. But now I have changed my attitude. Without democracy and freedom, the truth of the outbreak in Wuhan would never be known.

Wuhan resident

What has happened in Wuhan is as if your house caught on fire and all your neighbors knew but forbade you from jumping out of the window. Only until the fire is out of control, and the entire town ablaze, do they slowly begin taking responsibility while highlighting their own heroic efforts.

Not everyone has the same privileges and rights. The government locked down the Internet in Wuhan. But because I knew how to get outside of the Great Firewall that blocks the Internet, I was able to obtain masks.

The younger generations, born after 1995 and in the 2000s, have good impressions about the Chinese system, putting the nation before all because they have been living in an era of prosperity and have yet to experience adversity.

The things that happened during this outbreak have greatly surprised those kids. For example, a young man scolded others on Weibo in the early days of the outbreak. He accused them of spreading rumors and argued that if we don't trust the government, there is nothing we can trust. Later, he said, when a member of his family was infected with the coronavirus but was unable to get treatment in the overcrowded hospital, he cursed and called for help.

When Li Wenliang, one of the doctors who first reported a mysterious SARS-like illness, died of the disease himself, a student commented on the Internet: "It was just the virus that killed him, so we should focus on the epidemics." But then the student's dormitory was appropriated for quarantine patients — and he was shocked and dismayed.

This is the lesson these young people are learning. When someone says we can accomplish something but we must pay a price, do not rush to applaud.

One day you may become the price that is paid.

There is a saying in Chinese that has taken on new meaning in this coronavirus era: "When the stick hits my own head, I finally understand the pain — and why some others once cried out of pain."

Perhaps it is true that only China can build a hospital in 10 days, only China can mobilize so many people to devote themselves to the anti-epidemic agenda, only China can lock down a city with millions of people at lightning speed.

But people are not thinking critically. They do not understand that if we had human rights, democracy and freedom, we would have learned about what happened in Wuhan one month earlier. And the first whistleblower would not have died for nothing.

[Jub]

NPR

Personal Essay: Coronavirus Lockdown Is A 'Living Hell'
March 3, 202010:55 AM ET
A RESIDENT OF WUHAN

Editor's note: The author of this essay asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals by authorities for speaking critically of the Chinese government.


The government lockdown orders in Wuhan, China, have emptied the city's streets.
Stringer for NPR
As residents of Wuhan, China, my family and I are living in hell.

The city has been locked down for more than a month. Every night before falling asleep I have been confronted by an unreal feeling and many questions:

I know that coronavirus is the reason for the lockdown — but did life in Wuhan have to become a living hell?

Why were we notified about the city lockdown at 2 a.m. on the second to last morning before the Lunar New Year?

Why have I not been given any instructions from a government officer about how to cope when an entire city is on lockdown?

I'm nearly 30 years old. My family members and I have devoted ourselves to our jobs to build a better life — and we have largely succeeded. There's only a little more to do before we reach the level of middle class.

But along the way, things did not go exactly as I'd hoped. I have been working hard in school since I was small. My dream was to become a journalist, and I passed the test to enter the best school for journalism in China.

After school, I learned that government supervision of the media meant that telling the truth was not an option. So I gave up my dream and turned to another career.

I kept telling myself that my hard work would reward me in my personal life. And to protect myself, I decided to shut up, to be silent about politics — even when I saw people treated unfairly by the government. I thought that if I followed that path, I would be secure, I would be one of the fortunate ones.

Now I realize that this is an illusion. A secure life is not an option with a political system that does not give us freedom to speak out and that does not communicate with us truthfully.

Now I realize that this is an illusion. A secure life is not an option with a political system that does not give us freedom to speak out and that does not communicate with us truthfully.

Wuhan resident

At the moment when the city was first locked down, I hoped with all my heart that China's political system, known for concentrating resources to get big jobs done, could save the Wuhanese. But infected patients were treated in the hospital in Wuhan as early as the beginning of December, and for unknown reasons, the government held off informing the public and taking effective action.

So they missed the best window of prevention due to this cover-up.

That knowledge has made me fall into desperation. The order to lock down the city appeared from nowhere on Jan. 23 at 2 a.m., without any sign or explanation to residents — even though everyone knew what was up.

People rushed to shop at 24-hour convenience stores at 3 a.m. to gather necessary food and other items. We tried every method to escape from Wuhan, but the cage was already locked.

On new year's eve, Jan. 24, I watched the glorious performances from a gala aired on CCTV, Chinese television. But our celebratory meal was sparse, pieced together from the few ingredients I'd been able to buy in that last-minute shopping trip.

Then on the second day of the new year, another order arrived out of the blue, notifying us that the Wuhanese shall not drive. But this order only survived for less than six hours — perhaps because the authorities realized that, with public transportation shut down, cars would be needed to drive medical staffers to work and back home. So community officers called upon residents of Wuhan to provide rides for many of these workers — and to get permits to do this driving. Under the pressure of massive criticism, the government had to revoke this order for residents to provide rides.

Other orders were issued that reflected the chaos. Residents were asked to donate rice and oil to feed the medical staffers at Wuhan's top hospital since there was not enough food to guarantee meals for them. But we are the taxpayers. Shouldn't the government be able to provide?

From former schoolmates who now work in the medical profession, I learned that medical workers were not given medical supplies and were exposed to a risk of death. Many people wonder: Why didn't they go on strike? It is because they were informed that if they went on strike, their licenses to practice medicine would be revoked and their family members' jobs would be affected.

Before this coronavirus, I always thought it was OK to sacrifice some level of democracy and freedom for better living conditions. But now I have changed my attitude. Without democracy and freedom, the truth of the outbreak in Wuhan would never be known.

Before this coronavirus, I always thought it was OK to sacrifice some level of democracy and freedom for better living conditions. But now I have changed my attitude. Without democracy and freedom, the truth of the outbreak in Wuhan would never be known.

Wuhan resident

What has happened in Wuhan is as if your house caught on fire and all your neighbors knew but forbade you from jumping out of the window. Only until the fire is out of control, and the entire town ablaze, do they slowly begin taking responsibility while highlighting their own heroic efforts.

Not everyone has the same privileges and rights. The government locked down the Internet in Wuhan. But because I knew how to get outside of the Great Firewall that blocks the Internet, I was able to obtain masks.

The younger generations, born after 1995 and in the 2000s, have good impressions about the Chinese system, putting the nation before all because they have been living in an era of prosperity and have yet to experience adversity.

The things that happened during this outbreak have greatly surprised those kids. For example, a young man scolded others on Weibo in the early days of the outbreak. He accused them of spreading rumors and argued that if we don't trust the government, there is nothing we can trust. Later, he said, when a member of his family was infected with the coronavirus but was unable to get treatment in the overcrowded hospital, he cursed and called for help.

When Li Wenliang, one of the doctors who first reported a mysterious SARS-like illness, died of the disease himself, a student commented on the Internet: "It was just the virus that killed him, so we should focus on the epidemics." But then the student's dormitory was appropriated for quarantine patients — and he was shocked and dismayed.

This is the lesson these young people are learning. When someone says we can accomplish something but we must pay a price, do not rush to applaud.

One day you may become the price that is paid.

There is a saying in Chinese that has taken on new meaning in this coronavirus era: "When the stick hits my own head, I finally understand the pain — and why some others once cried out of pain."

Perhaps it is true that only China can build a hospital in 10 days, only China can mobilize so many people to devote themselves to the anti-epidemic agenda, only China can lock down a city with millions of people at lightning speed.

But people are not thinking critically. They do not understand that if we had human rights, democracy and freedom, we would have learned about what happened in Wuhan one month earlier. And the first whistleblower would not have died for nothing.

This seems more than a little slanted against the Chinese government. Do we have other reports confirming that this is actually how it all went down?

[LadyTevar]

SHEP. ENOUGH. TAKE A BREAK

[Ralin]

This seems more than a little slanted against the Chinese government. Do we have other reports confirming that this is actually how it all went down?

Can't help but notice he talks about everything but why the lockdown (which he thinks should have happened sooner, despite the title???) is a living hell.

Also man, he writes English remarkably well and/or has surprisingly good access to competent proofreaders for someone stuck in a lockdown and who describes himself as not quite middle class.

Also, the fact that he admits he was willing to risk fucking other people over by evading the quarantine doesn't exactly give him the moral high ground.

Also,

Then on the second day of the new year, another order arrived out of the blue, notifying us that the Wuhanese shall not drive. But this order only survived for less than six hours — perhaps because the authorities realized that, with public transportation shut down, cars would be needed to drive medical staffers to work and back home. So community officers called upon residents of Wuhan to provide rides for many of these workers — and to get permits to do this driving. Under the pressure of massive criticism, the government had to revoke this order for residents to provide rides.

Other orders were issued that reflected the chaos. Residents were asked to donate rice and oil to feed the medical staffers at Wuhan's top hospital since there was not enough food to guarantee meals for them. But we are the taxpayers. Shouldn't the government be able to provide?

Charity and volunteering in a crisis is...bad?

[Broomstick]

Also, the fact that he admits he was willing to risk fucking other people over by evading the quarantine doesn't exactly give him the moral high ground.

Yeah, but it's a very common reaction to the imposition of quarantine on a city. Many, many examples from history.

Charity and volunteering in a crisis is...bad?

It's bad when those doing the giving are bled dry and left hanging when they need help in turn.

[Ralin]

It's bad when those doing the giving are bled dry and left hanging when they need help in turn.

Sure, but in context it's a lot more likely the idea was for that to be a stopgap measure until the government can bring in more resources and manpower.

[mr friendly guy]

This seems more than a little slanted against the Chinese government. Do we have other reports confirming that this is actually how it all went down?

TRR and Shep have done some "fire and forget" articles and now Faxmodem does as well. I already looked at one of TRR's articles and Shep's and explained what I thought was wrong with them. This article seems like if Shep wrote an article about how shit America's response was showing those pictures of people holding blankets and saying that's the plan to stop infection spreading. It takes time to disprove their articles with facts and links, so I won't go through every fact claim. I will just focus on this one.

1. The one month conspiracy theory

But people are not thinking critically. They do not understand that if we had human rights, democracy and freedom, we would have learned about what happened in Wuhan one month earlier.

Ignoring a moment the CDCs own cover up which people have noted earlier (I guess the US isn't a democracy according to these guys), this is not supported by any evidence, and there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Lets have a look at the dates. Wuhan was put in quarantine on 23 January.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/wuha ... ?r=US&IR=T

Initially it was thought covid 19 was animal to human transmission. When was the first human to human transmission noted. Well Al Jazera reported confirmation on 21 Jan.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/ ... 07948.html

Nathan Rich a pro China youtuber states that health authorities warned of the possibility on 15 Jan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO5EXjFKE7U


In fact the NYT reported on Jan 8, that China had identified the virus, but so far it doesn't appear to spread by human to human transmission.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/heal ... virus.html

On Jan 6, the NYT also reported that it was thought it was likely animal to human transmission.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/worl ... alike.html

So lets use the earlier date (15 Jan) when human to human transmission was known, because the earlier the dates, it means China reacted slower. So that's what 8 days to react. There is no way this makes it a month. Democracy doesn't allow you to know more than the latest scientific knowledge.

I mean what is the author going to do if he knew about a new virus that didn't appear to spread via human to human transmission. Is he just going to assume it will eventually be realised it will and take steps to protect himself. Well no he didn't, because China did tell people about the virus earlier.
Take this statement from the WHO

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source ... 9-ncov.pdf

On 31 December 2019, the WHO China Country Office was informed of cases of pneumonia
unknown etiology (unknown cause) detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. From
31 December 2019 through 3 January 2020, a total of 44 case-patients with pneumonia of
unknown etiology were reported to WHO by the national authorities in China. During this
reported period, the causal agent was not identified.
• On 11 and 12 January 2020, WHO received further detailed information from the National
Health Commission China that the outbreak is associated with exposures in one seafood
market in Wuhan City.
• The Chinese authorities identified a new type of coronavirus, which was isolated on 7
January 2020.
• On 12 January 2020, China shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus for
countries to use in developing specific diagnostic kits.

So you can see China did warn pneumonia of unknown aetiology in the previous month, but they didn't know at that time it was spread from human to human transmission nor the causative agent. So yeah, the author did have one month notice and didn't do shit. I would recommend Nathan Rich's video (linked above, as he goes in more details about what China did initially, and escalating when it became known it spread human to human).

Can't help but notice he talks about everything but why the lockdown (which he thinks should have happened sooner, despite the title???) is a living hell.

Also man, he writes English remarkably well and/or has surprisingly good access to competent proofreaders for someone stuck in a lockdown and who describes himself as not quite middle class.

Also, the fact that he admits he was willing to risk fucking other people over by evading the quarantine doesn't exactly give him the moral high ground.

Change China to atheist, change democracy/freedom to Christianity, and his spiel reads like something a Christian convert will say.