Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Tonitrus]

Better to keep them on the ship than let them spread it on shore.

You say that as if there are only binary options.

[Eddie Teach]

Harder to escape than quarantine on land.

[Hamilcar]

Give them all Gladiator weapons and let them fight it out. The survivor is the fittest and clearly doesn't need quarantine.

[Legbiter]

Rather worrying that so many on the cruise liner in the Japanese port have come down with the virus:

Another 41 people on a cruise liner off Japan tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total confirmed from the ship to 61, Japan's health minister said on Friday.

Full item here:
http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/worldNews/~3/TDhDiWcpdf0/another-41-on-cruise-liner-off-japan-test-positive-for-coronavirus-government-idUSKBN20102S

Yeah, illustrates what a highly contagious virus it is.

[mongers]

Give them all Gladiator weapons and let them fight it out. The survivor is the fittest and clearly doesn't need quarantine.

How would you judge the result if a hurricane, tornado or typhoon hitting the ship?

[Hamilcar]

Give them all Gladiator weapons and let them fight it out. The survivor is the fittest and clearly doesn't need quarantine.

How would you judge the result if a hurricane, tornado or typhoon hitting the ship?

Nature's way of saying "kill them all, they're too dangerous."

[The Larch]

So, it's not just eating bats that might have caused the spread to humans of the disease, but pangolins.   

Pangolins, the heavily trafficked, scaly mammal, may have spread coronavirus to humans

A Chinese university says scientists identified the heavily trafficked pangolin as a possible intermediary host of the new coronavirus while the number of new virus cases declined for a second day.

The coronavirus from China is believed to have originated in bats and transferred to humans through some other animal, health officials say. The pangolin may be that key link, researchers at South China Agricultural University said Friday.

"This latest discovery will be of great significance for the prevention and control of the origin of the new coronavirus," South China Agricultural University said in a translated statement.

The research team tested more than 1,000 samples from wild animals and a found a 99% match between the genome sequences of viruses found in pangolins and those in human patients, the AFP reported, citing Chinese state media.

James Wood, a veterinary medicine professor at the University of Cambridge, told the French news agency that more data is needed and showing similarity between the genome sequences alone is "not sufficient."

"You can only draw more definitive conclusions if you compare prevalence (of the coronavirus) between different species based on representative samples, which these almost certainly are not," Dirk Pfeiffer, professor of veterinary medicine at Hong Kong's City University, told Reuters.

Pangolins, the world's only scaly mammal, have long been valued for their meat, viewed as a delicacy in some Asian countries, and scales, used for traditional medicine, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Recent conservation efforts have worked to protect the eight pangolin species found in Asia and Africa and threatened by illegal international trade. More than 100,000 pangolins are poached every year, according to WildAid, a nonprofit that works on illegal animal trade.

News of their possible link to the coronavirus outbreak comes as the World Health Organization cautioned Friday against too much optimism after a decline in new cases over recent days.

"The numbers could go up again ... but the last two days were showing a declining trend," said WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

China reported 31,161 cases in mainland China in its update Friday. The rise of 3,143 was the lowest daily increase since at least Tuesday.

According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University as of Friday, 31,523 people have been infected and 638 killed from the outbreak that first appeared late last year.

The outbreak may have emerged from a market selling seafood and meat in Wuhan. Researchers theorize that someone bought contaminated meat at the market, ate it, got sick and infected others, creating a ripple effect around the world.

However, research in the British medical journal The Lancet suggests the outbreak started earlier than December and casts doubt on the market connection.

While the majority of cases and deaths have been in China, the virus has spread across continents, prompting the WHO to declare a "public health emergency of international concern."

In the United States, 12 people have been infected, per Johns Hopkins. Federal health officials confirmed last week the first U.S. case of person-to-person spread of the virus.

President Donald Trump tweeted Friday he "had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China" on the country's response to the coronavirus.

"He will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone," Trump tweeted.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/02/07/coronavirus-pangolin-virus-host-who-virus-update-friday/4688785002/

[Legbiter]

It appears he died again.

....complications. 

[Tonitrus]

So, it's not just eating bats that might have caused the spread to humans of the disease, but pangolins.   

It's times like this that make me fondly reminisce about how CdM would have reacted.

[The Larch]

So, it's not just eating bats that might have caused the spread to humans of the disease, but pangolins.   

It's times like this that make me fondly reminisce about how CdM would have reacted.

I thought the same thing when I posted earlier, it was as if I could hear him in my head wishing for the nuclear extinction of the entire Chinese nation.

[jimmy olsen]

If that guy's right then lethality should be significantly lower than 2%.

Lots of people could just be dying at home because the hospitals are full

[Admiral Yi]

If that guy's right then lethality should be significantly lower than 2%.

Lots of people could just be dying at home because the hospitals are full

Lots doesn't do it.  You need 10X reported deaths.

[jimmy olsen]

If that guy's right then lethality should be significantly lower than 2%.

Lots of people could just be dying at home because the hospitals are full

Lots doesn't do it.  You need 10X reported deaths.

Chinese only report deaths if as caused by X if the patient tested positive for it. If someone dies before they get tested, they don't get tested in death, even if they were killed by pneumonia.

[celedhring]

Several major companies are dropping out of Barcelona's mobile trade show (MWC). There's only been one confirmed case in Spain so far (a German tourist who was infected abroad), but a large contingent of Chinese nationals are expected to attend. Must be fun being Chinese these days. I've spotted several Asian people in the streets/buildings wearing face masks.

[viper37]

the virus is 80% like SRAS and a cure is currently being clinically tested in China.  That probably means they found political prisoners who volunteered to be infected and monitored with no cure vs cure.

also, a US based pharma is developping a vaccine.  clinical trials to begin in 2-3 months

encouraging progress.