Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[mongers]

I am kind of resigned to the fact that an area like London won't be able to avoid some spreading of this. Too bad we'll be going through Gatwick in about a month.

I don't think I've ever had pneumonia, hopefully I am still young enough to survive it!

Tamas don't worry, by then only the Survivors* will be around.


* Those of a nervous disposition definetly shouldn't watch the opening credits and first episode of the BBC 1970s drama 'The Survivors'
It's here on youtube:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=BBC+1970s+drama+%27The+Survivors%27&view=detail&mid=F4DB5FB19B083CFAE9D3F4DB5FB19B083CFAE9D3&FORM=VIRE

[Grey Fox]

I have the flu, I'm trying to not be paranoid.

[alfred russel]

Apparently China has shut its stock markets until Monday to try and prevent a massive selloff.

Rationally, that should be positive, because if they didn't expect it to be a short term panic closing the markets wouldn't make sense?

[Admiral Yi]

Rationally, that should be positive, because if they didn't expect it to be a short term panic closing the markets wouldn't make sense?

Are you saying that if the Chinese thought this virus was going to wipe out half of their population they would want to keep the market open? 

[alfred russel]

Rationally, that should be positive, because if they didn't expect it to be a short term panic closing the markets wouldn't make sense?

Are you saying that if the Chinese thought this virus was going to wipe out half of their population they would want to keep the market open?

If they were to be rational about it, yes.

If the new reality is that the Chinese market is half the size it previously was (or inevitably heading in that direction over a few months), you can either prevent a massive sell off by permanently closing markets, or allowing the sell off to happen and at least having functioning capital markets. No one will be buying China Generic Corp at the CNY 500 / share it was previously. It is now worth CNY 100 / share. Closing the markets only keeps transactions from clearing and that value loss from being reported in newspapers.

[Barrister]

It didn't take long for conspiracy theories to pop up...

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/27/china-silent-coronavirus-origins-amid-wuhan-seafoo/

[HVC]

if this is a bio weapon, its a crappy one all things considered.

[alfred russel]

if this is a bio weapon, its a crappy one all things considered.

Have you read Tim's posts? This thing is going to kill more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, probably with a spare zero or two at the end as well.

[Valmy]

It didn't take long for conspiracy theories to pop up...

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/27/china-silent-coronavirus-origins-amid-wuhan-seafoo/

It is so funny seeing the Washington Times print this kind of nonsense while throwing slogans at you about the accuracy of its coverage.

[grumbler]

if this is a bio weapon, its a crappy one all things considered.

Have you read Tim's posts? This thing is going to kill more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, probably with a spare zero or two at the end as well.

Normal flu does that.

[Syt]

[viper37]

Out of Wuhan's 2,714 cases they have had 100 deaths, and currently 563 cases are serious and 127 critical. That's 3.68% dead, 20.74% serious, 4.68% critical.

If it infects 15 million in the US, as would not be uncommon for a flu outbreak, that's 552k dead.

China did not identify the source of the epidemic until a month in.China did not know it was an epidemic until at least 2-3 weeks in.China did not know it could transform into a deadly case of pneumonia until 5-6 weeks in.

Now that our countries know the virus, how to identify it, how it spreads (before symptoms appears) and how it can degenerate, we can better prepare for it.

Even if there were 552 000 deaths in the US, the biggest hit will be financial, not human.  Most poeple in good health will survive, the weakers one, like me, will die.  End of story, civilization keeps going until the next one.  It ain't the ape flu, no planet of the Apes is coming toward us, sorry to disapoint.
So far, Canada has report 3 cases, 2 certified in Toronto (a man and his wife) both doing well, 1 in BC who is still unconfirmed but strongly suspected as.

In the oft chance you would be right about a near-end of civilization catastrophee, I am relatively safe in my own small town, and BB is half isolated too, compared to Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.  At worst, he'll have to stop seeing hockey games in the arena.   

So don't worry, there will still be two mad Canucks to entertain what's left of Languish after the global pandemic

[viper37]

if this is a bio weapon, its a crappy one all things considered.

it's still in alpha.

[Grey Fox]

I will mourn you, Viper.

[jimmy olsen]

This seems ominous

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1222305807347396608

China's National Health Commission will start releasing coronavirus updates twice a day at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., according to state-run media. Until now there was only 1 national update a day.

Only up 25% in the last day instead of 50-60% like the last week, but the above tweet seems to imply they're struggling to count the full numbers. Yesterday they released the national numbers two hours late because of that.

UPDATE: Number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide surpasses 6,000, death toll rises to 132

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1222313106895970306