Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

I heard UK evacuees are going to be quarantined for 2 weeks on their return .
It’s being taken seriously.

the aussies go to xmas island for two weeks,

infect me, infect me now

Well fuck, I'm basically stranded in the UK. BA have suspended flights to China, foreign office is advising against travel... Obvs its nice to be in the UK on holiday but at some point I'm going to want to go home.

Take the train. I think you need to change in Brussels, Berlin and Moscow.

Can’t you fly to HK and connect?

My wife works in Leeds as community nurse - she sent me this poster today because I came back from Shanghai a couple of weeks ago with a cold I haven’t been able to shift.

Off to the military base for you

the aussies go to xmas island for two weeks,

infect me, infect me now

Yeah, looks great,

These guys are loving it,

That's what my flight actually is, but there are now limited flights from HK.

We are slowly shutting services down. Limited flights to the mainland, no high speed rail. The border is still open for you to fly in, get the overground to the border, walk across and possibly get a flight from Shenzhen.

Currently we have nurses calling in sick and talk of a general strike unless they close the border completely.

Saw some panic buying today 1st time I've seen it. People with bags and bags of rice stacked up. Also massive que by the chemist for face masks and hand wash. I can't see how HK can close tbe boarder as so much business traffic goes through the road and rail links to shenzen. MTR was empty on the way to my 1st class today

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/01/china-coronavirus-twitter/605644/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

I struggle with takes like this. Obviously there are fear-mongers, attention seekers, and fake news purveyors on Twitter. There are also many good sources of information on Twitter.

At the other end of the spectrum 8 people were detained for spreading rumours about the virus in Wuhan in early January. They are now being recognized as whistle-blowers even in mainland China. People need to be free to share information or opinions, even if some of it is wrong.

I think everyone has a legitimate right to seek as much information as they can on the outbreak. They should also weigh their sources. Anyone educated to GCSE level in the UK should be able to do this.

I think the point is to do due diligence on what you read on social media.

Anyone educated to GCSE level in the UK should be able to do this.

This is extremely wishful thinking, considering a wide range of people from academics and journalists to random people on the internet regularly fail to do this.

Also, looking the guy up on wikipedia shows you this intro:

Eric L. Feigl-Ding is an American public health scientist who has received awards for his work in epidemiology, nutrition, and health economics. He is a visiting scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health and Chief Health Economist and Senior Vice President with Microclinic International. He is a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow, and a WEF Global Shaper. He was also a 2018 Democratic candidate for Congress from Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district, as an advocate for public health, drug safety, and science.

Ding was a whistle-blower in the drug safety risks of the painkillers Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra, and was recognized in The New York Times, and in the book Poison Pills: The Untold Story of the Vioxx Drug Scandal.

Ding founded the Campaign for Cancer Prevention, a 6 million member online cancer education and fundraising campaign medical research, featured in The New York Times. He is a recognized drinking water health advocate and founded ToxinAlert.org, as a public alert tool to warn communities about drinking water contaminations to prevent future lead poisonings like the Flint Water Crisis.

I think people could be excused for assuming he's one of the experts worth listening to, and that his assessment of the situation while maybe not the be-all and end-all, would certainly be at least somewhat reasonable. It's not like some pseudo scientist fearmongering etc. person posted some random bullshit on twitter and everyone believed it just like that.

But that’s the problem right;

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Coincides with the continued spread of disc brakes #justsaying

Well we now know the virus will be arriving on the wirral tomorrow and staying at the local hospital . Plus the nurses quarters are not de commissioned they are still used.

Has anything been said about how tough this virus is ?
Can it survive outside the body for any length of time , is it rendered harmless by basic cleaning agents.
Or will it live on a London transport handrail or a beer glass for days .

I saw a draft public health message that said 3 to 12 hours depending on the surface today. Less if on skin. Sounds like not long but apparently that's quite a long time in the grand scheme of viral things.

So is it Spanish flu deadly?

So far, nowhere near. It’s still way too early to run mortality rates as a simple deaths/infected as this would exclude the unfortunate cases of people yet to die from the deaths figure but still count them in the infected figure. Still we do know that this virus has nowhere near the mortality levels inflicted upon us by those pesky Spanish*

*Blaming the Spanish for causing it using the who smelt it dealt it rule which we all know is irrefutable in science

This and also the first wave of a viral pandemic may also be weaker compared to the second wave, as was the case with Spanish flu.

It’s arrived

Happy Brexit day. We have a new immigrant to worry about!