Re: The Coronavirus Thread - Part 2

[Nishankly]

From top-left, clockwise

Even airports of developed countries don't have Corona prevention protocol like Dhaka Airport. State Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Corona isn't a serious disease, it's like a flue. Minister for Foreign Affairs.

We have managed to keep Corona infection under control. Minister for Information.

Like China, we will build hospitals to combat Corona. Minister for Planning.

Bangladesh is more successful in combating Corona than USA and Italy. Minister for Health.

Note: All these quotes are before the first infection was detected.

Don't worry. Indonesia and Turkey were quoting god that saved them from the virus. Turkey now has 1500 cases in 4 days and Indonesia has about 60 deaths.

[Hapless_Hans]

Is there an article on how this Covid strain is different from other strains previously discovered?

here's an excerpt from an interview with the most prominent virologist for this in Germany

ZEIT ONLINE: Let's look at the virus itself. You have been researching coronaviruses for many years. What has surprised you most about SARS-CoV-2 so far?

Drosten: Clearly the fact that it replicates in the throat. With the SARS virus, which caused the outbreak in 2002-2003, we were never able to isolate it in the throat. SARS patients had far fewer viruses in their bodies and the pathogens were far less infectious. In addition, the new coronavirus contains an astonishing biological innovation: a protease cleavage site in the surface protein of the virus. In the case of bird flu, for example, whether this site is there or not makes the difference whether the pathogen makes poultry very sick or not.

ZEIT ONLINE: What's so special about this cleavage site?

Drosten: The surface protein must be cut so that the virus can mature and enter the next cell. And this cleavage site may enable the virus to be cut even when it's only just been released from the last infected cell. It's like a sheet of paper that's easier to tear off the notepad because it's perforated. And SARS-CoV-2 has this perforation.

ZEIT ONLINE: What does this mean for the disease?

Drosten: We don't know for sure yet. It could allow the virus to already be mature when it leaves the cell – ready to enter the next one. This could also be the reason why SARS-CoV-2 replicates so well in the throat and why it can be transmitted so easily. We now have to figure all that out.

ZEIT ONLINE: Just like the question as to the precise case fatality rate.

Drosten: Right now, there's actually another variable that's more important: the so-called infection fatality rate. This indicates the percentage of infected people who die – including those who have no or only a few symptoms and are therefore not recorded as cases. As such, it also serves as an estimate of how high the number of unreported cases is. How many people who contract the disease don't show any symptoms at all, or only have sore throats? Among the first infected people in Germany, whom we closely examined for a study, there were quite a few. At the moment, I often hear that 80 percent of cases have only mild symptoms. But my impression is: Maybe it's even a lot more. That would be important to know.

ZEIT ONLINE: Elderly and sick people are particularly at risk of contracting COVID-19. Yet over and over again, there are also reports of people in their early or mid-30s who have to be admitted to intensive care or who even die. Why is that?

Drosten: This is also the case with other respiratory diseases, that younger people sometimes fall seriously ill. But we often don't know a lot about people. In the media, you'll here: "A 35-year-old is in intensive care." But a 35-year-old can have massive underlying diseases. We know, for example, that a high body mass index is a major risk factor for COVID-19, as is coronary heart disease, i.e. a narrowing of the coronary vessels due to vascular calcification. Pneumonia puts a massive strain on the cardiovascular system. If that system is already damaged, the extra strain can sometimes overwhelm it. And there are many people between the ages of 35 and 50 who live with such risk factors. Another hypothesis is that someone may inhale a huge dose of the virus directly into their lungs. Then the virus immediately replicates deep within the respiratory tract without having previously triggered any immune response in the throat. Then people might get really sick right away and the body has no remedy for it yet. Like I said, it's a hypothesis.

ZEIT ONLINE: According to what we know so far, men are more likely to fall ill than women. Are there clues as to why that might be?

Drosten: We don't know for sure yet. It's possible that risk factors like the ones we just discussed are more common in men. Some studies also suggest that the binding site the virus uses to enter cells is especially common on the cells of Asians, and especially males. But honestly, I think this explanation fits into the picture well and that's why it was interpreted this way. Besides, the virus is also spreading outside China, so I don't think this argument is very likely. There just isn't any good data on this yet.

https://www.zeit.de/wissen/gesundheit/2020-03/christian-drosten-coronavirus-pandemic-germany-virologist-charite/seite-2

[Firenze]

managed to get everything today shopping for food, even toilet paper

only thing i didnt see was pasta, everything else was fully stocked

although I did go to Iceland briefly after and that was empty AF

pleasantly surprised and I've never seen my town so dead

[Zagadka]

Lieutenant Governor of Texas says grandparents are willing to die to save the economy for children....WTF !!!!

on Tucker.

[Zagadka]

managed to get everything today shopping for food, even toilet paper

only thing i didnt see was pasta, everything else was fully stocked

although I did go to Iceland briefly after and that was empty AF

pleasantly surprised and I've never seen my town so dead

[CBarca]

Trump going to open up the country within days.  Said "cost of economic loss and its implications will become larger than the cost of coronavirus."  Can't say i disagree with him.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

going for the herd immunity. i dont agree with that policy from any government but it think that will be the thing that beats this virus in the end.

Give people the choice... you can quarantine if you'd like or go on as if everything is fine.  Just as long as everyone understands the risks and consequences.

The US is projected to lay off 25 million people this quarter if the economy stays shut...  no stimulus package in the world Can solve this.  Millions of people are going to become destitute... and i bet you the mortality rate there is going to be higher than 1-2%.

This is unsustainable.  They have to open things up and hope that people take precautions to protect themselves the best they can.

Trump can't do anything to open the economy up because he hasn't done anything to shut it down.

This is all talk because he wants to be responsible for trying to avert an economic crisis.

In reality, most governors are getting more serious right about now with respect to quarantining. Things aren't opening up soon (the next couple weeks) and that's perfectly in line with what health experts and epidemiologists are recommending.

To be fair, I think there is an important discussion to be had right about now about the tradeoffs of shutting down the economy vs the risk of the disease. And I get annoyed by individuals who act like that's not a discussion we can't have. But right now it appears that, at least for the next couple weeks, experts are in agreement that just reopening the economy to business as usual would revert the progress we will have made on that front.

Edit: also, giving people the choice "as long as they understand the consequences" is what got us into this mess in the first place. You can't trust people to be responsible. Many are being responsible, but a decent amount STILL aren't, even after everything that's happened

[Firenze]

some shitty supermarket chain here that deals mostly in frozen food

think the country tried suing them for rights to the website iceland.com

[Nishankly]

Thanks Hans

India announces a 21 day complete shutdown. Only pharmacies and grocery shops open. All other transportation banned for now.

[Nishankly]

managed to get everything today shopping for food, even toilet paper

only thing i didnt see was pasta, everything else was fully stocked

although I did go to Iceland briefly after and that was empty AF

pleasantly surprised and I've never seen my town so dead

Same. Pasta and rice were sold out but everything else was available today very interesting. France has warned groceries to restock atleast 5 times a day or something.

[Pedram]

That US rate though.

[Vibe]

@Vibe lack of update is worrying tbh, hope he's safe.

Still in the hospital, I was quite fucked up. Getting released tomorrow.

Then I'm going back to the fight.

[RealGunner]

USA will destroy all the progress everyone else have made so far in combating the virus.

[Art Morte]

@Vibe lack of update is worrying tbh, hope he's safe.

Still in the hospital, I was quite fucked up. Getting released tomorrow.

Then I'm going back to the fight.

Did you have it or were you just pulling a sickie?

USA will destroy all the progress everyone else have made so far in combating the virus.

As long as countries keep their borders closed it doesn't matter that much what happens in other countries.

[CBarca]

USA will destroy all the progress everyone else have made so far in combating the virus.

To be fair, the UK has been worse, even up until now.

[Zagadka]

USA will destroy all the progress everyone else have made so far in combating the virus.

Yea, looks like US is going to open everything again soon.

bare in mind, US has obesity rate of close to 40%...so nearly half the country has a "pre-existing" condition.

Could be a real carnage...

[Lucifer]

India under complete lockdown for 21 days.

[Glory]

^Good decision imo. We simply dont have the wherewithal to deal with it if it gets out of control. So ya fck everything else. Lets stay indoors. And fck China.

[CBarca]

USA will destroy all the progress everyone else have made so far in combating the virus.

Yea, looks like US is going to open everything again soon.

bare in mind, US has obesity rate of close to 40%...so nearly half the country has a "pre-existing" condition.

Could be a real carnage...

Once again, the President can say this but the fact of the matter is that it's up to states. The President's voice in saying that things will open up again soon is important to many states and to people, but even for Governors in primarily red states, they aren't going to want to be responsible for their state potentially being near the top of the death total. The buck stops with governors, and they'll act in accordance to what they think is best for their state. Up until now, many states have acted on their own without a tremendous amount of guidance from the federal government. Even if the federal government were to reverse course on both their language and policies, that isn't a guarantee that states are going to do the same.

[Hapless_Hans]

damn, I'm really worried about Spain

[Zagadka]

Anyone else feels Japan has been lying about their stats to give the image that all is under control, so Olympics goes ahead and they don't lose a shit ton of money?

Feels with Olympics postponed now, we may see a big increase in japanese case/deaths.

I mean..I know they don't shake hands in their culture, and wear masks all the time...but a city with population density of Tokyo ... a virus is certain to spread. Very strange that they are at about 1200 total cases for the country of 127 million with such high population density...and they never closed down the businesses, only schools.

[futbol]

"When there is blood on the streets, make sure to buy property."

Great movie.

[Art Morte]

Anyone else feels Japan has been lying about their stats to give the image that all is under control, so Olympics goes ahead and they don't lose a shit ton of money?

Feels with Olympics postponed now, we may see a big increase in japanese case/deaths.

I mean..I know they don't shake hands in their culture, and wear masks all the time...but a city with population density of Tokyo ... a virus is certain to spread. Very strange that they are at about 1200 total cases for the country of 127 million with such high population density...and they never closed down the businesses, only schools.

Yeah, Japan has seemingly gotten off quite easy (so far) while not closing everything down. The best explanation I've heard is they are very obedient people and have perhaps practiced more diligent social distancing than Western folks? Or have they been doing vigilant testing & tracing like South Korea? I don't really know, but would like to.

[Firenze]

like was mentioned before, I've been skeptical over Japan's numbers but they have such an elderly population surely they couldn't suppress the number of deaths that should be happening if it were hitting them hard

I saw some explanation earlier that said something about how aggressive they are with regards to giving old people pneumonia vaccine in the last decade and that may be staving it off for old people, or at least lessening the severity, again no idea if true

[Adit]

Fuck china for its lying media.

Fuck China for locking up whistle blowers.

Fuck China for denying human to human transmission even in January end.

Fuck China for not shutting down the wild animal market which keep on producing pandemics every single year.

Fuck the CCP.

[RealGunner]

A US man has died and his wife is in critical condition after taking a form of a drug that has been touted by President Donald Trump as a possible treatment for the novel coronavirus.

The couple took chloroquine phosphate - a form of chloroquine used to clean fish tanks - in an apparent effort to guard against Covid-19.

Chloroquine itself is one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs, but the US Food and Drugs Administration has made it clear it has not been approved for treating those infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus

Why would they do that?

[Unique]

A US man has died and his wife is in critical condition after taking a form of a drug that has been touted by President Donald Trump as a possible treatment for the novel coronavirus.

The couple took chloroquine phosphate - a form of chloroquine used to clean fish tanks - in an apparent effort to guard against Covid-19.

Chloroquine itself is one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs, but the US Food and Drugs Administration has made it clear it has not been approved for treating those infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus

Why would they do that?

fear can make people do some crazy things.

[Sponsored content]