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Post by questa on Feb 6, 2020 22:46:04 GMT
Or 'On The Beach' by Neville Shute, 'Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham and 'War of the Worlds' by H.G.Wells (in reverse...the bugs are the 'goodies)
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 8, 2020 14:03:31 GMT
Five new cases in France, all British (same family). That brings the total to eleven here. Germany has 14 cases and the UK and Italy have 3 cases each.
Meanwhile, 724 deaths and 34,881 cases around the world.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 8, 2020 14:55:13 GMT
The doctor certainly wasn't old, or with a prior medical condition, nor "very young" and weak. He was in his 30s, wife, young family.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 8, 2020 20:31:34 GMT
The doctor certainly wasn't old, or with a prior medical condition, nor "very young" and weak. He was in his 30s, wife, young family. He was 35 I think, but he was exposed to the virus multiple times in the course of his work.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 8, 2020 20:52:16 GMT
I saw that the Thai minister of health had to apologise for saying that foreigners (Western tourists) should be thrown out of the country since most of them are not wearing masks.
It will still be a certain amount of time before we know if certain people are overreacting or if they were right to panic all along.
The new cases in France were at a ski resort in the Alps, and it has been decided that the local schools will be closed for two weeks.
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Post by questa on Feb 9, 2020 0:02:18 GMT
He was 35 I think, but he was exposed to the virus multiple times in the course of his work. Normally that would build up a passive immunity as Li Wenliang's system fought off the virus. This time it overcame him. Why would a specialist ophthalmologist be doing research in the influenza laboratories, anyway?
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Post by lagatta on Feb 9, 2020 0:11:46 GMT
Yes, it does strike me as odd. If I have a bad cold or flu, it certainly affects my eyes, but I believe that is a secondary effect.
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Post by questa on Feb 9, 2020 1:21:08 GMT
The investigations would still be done by a pathologist. Opthamologists are surgeons who specialise in the structure and disorder of eyes, I doubt he was cutting up eyes looking for viruses....
Unless the triffids have landed and people are blind!
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Post by lagatta on Feb 9, 2020 2:27:56 GMT
Absolutely. It did strike me as very strange.
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Post by mossie on Feb 9, 2020 8:21:57 GMT
I think he found it by chance. The authorities tried hard at first to brush it all under the carpet and it looks like they have succeeded with him.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 9, 2020 18:04:41 GMT
I read this avidly today, as it's always a concern, but especially now. Unfortunately it's behind a paywall, but I'm including pertinent bits below the link to the full article. How Not to Get Sick While TravelingFrom the New York Times article by Laura M. Holson: "... we asked health professionals how travelers can stay healthy while on the move. ... do masks really work? The answer is yes and no. ... Air can seep in through the gaps. A cloth mask, too, provides little protection. ... When one is needed — mostly in a place where a lot of illnesses have been reported — people should wear an N95 respirator, a heavy-duty mask fitted to the face that filters out 95 percent of smaller air particles. [this mask is reportedly difficult to breathe through] Vicki Hertzberg, director of the Center for Nursing Data Science at Emory University, said travelers should be wary about the people they sit next to on airplanes. ... She is an author of a study that found that the travelers most vulnerable were those seated next to a sick person or in the row in front or behind. [something over which most travelers have no control!] ... Wash your hands. ... Health professionals say washing hands with soap and water is the most effective line of defense against colds, flu and other illnesses. Just think about where your hands have been in the past 24 hours. Now, think about all the hands that have touched airplane tray tables and seatbelt buckles. If that doesn’t give you pause, consider whether you bite your nails, touch your face or rub your eyes. Hand washing can reduce the risk of respiratory infections by 16 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If soap and water aren’t available, hand sanitizers with more than 60 percent alcohol work. Here’s a tip: ... make sure the sanitizer dries on your hands. If it doesn’t, germs can thrive. The risk of contracting an illness from a fellow airline passenger is similar to the risk of getting sick after traveling on a bus or subway, or sitting in a movie theater, according to a 2018 report from the International Air Transport Association. That said, it offered a qualifier: The risk is probably lower on planes because they use high-efficiency air filters that are comparable to those used in hospital operating rooms. Called HEPA filters, they capture 99 percent of the airborne microbes in recirculated air and are changed at regular intervals, the association said. What that doesn’t address is the overhead vents themselves, which carry germs transmitted by people’s hands. Health professionals advise moving vents so they blow on hands, not on the mouth, face or nose."
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 9, 2020 18:21:41 GMT
That is definitely fodder for anybody with immune deficiencies. Although I have been seriously sick a few times, there are thousands of other occasions where I took absolutely no precautions in questionable circumstances and absolutely nothing happened.
I have noticed regularly in the Paris metro that there are some people who refuse to touch the door latch on the lines that still use these. They will wait for someone else to open the door. In an emergency, they will pull on their sleeve to cover their hand before touching the latch. I of course never see these people before they do such things, so I wonder if they ever touch the poles for stability or the other handlebars around the seats when they are getting up or sitting down. They are already breathing the same air as the other passengers, so they are probably already doomed.
One of my friends told me that during his military service there was a guy with a bottle of disinfectant who would clean all of his utensils in the mess before every meal.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 9, 2020 19:05:59 GMT
I've always heard that trying never to touch your own face is one way to ward off infectious disease.
All my life I have taken certain precautions out of combined squeamishness and practicality. Most of those precautions involve public johns: I don't sit on the seat, I use my foot to flush, I use my clothing to avoid touching the door of a stall, of course wash my hands using soap, and again don't directly touch any doors exiting the facility.
Also, I always, always wash my hands before I eat, even if they're supposedly clean. I try to hold my breath if I have to pass through the space on the sidewalk where I've just seen someone sneeze or cough. When sick, I frequently change the glass or cup I'm drinking from. I always carry a container of gel alcohol with me.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 9, 2020 21:10:19 GMT
I think that we're all trying to maintain a rather extended personal space atm. We had to go grocery shopping today and I was super observant I usually take my own bags for buying my vegetables and fruit loose...but for some reason today I picked up cellophane wrapped produce for some reason...
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 9, 2020 21:47:25 GMT
I have not really worried yet, but that could change.
811 deaths, 37,198 cases. In the good news department, it seems to be slowing down, but nobody knows if it is because of the confinement or because it is starting to die out.
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Post by whatagain on Feb 10, 2020 12:03:53 GMT
I read somewhere that ATM dispensing cash are more crowded by bacteria than toilets. I never use my fingertips - i use knuckles- hope it helps.
I found sometimes intelligent once in loos : metal handle on the board that so that you can lift it with your foot . I too avoid using hands as much as I can in toilets.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 10, 2020 16:08:57 GMT
Regarding Dr Li Wanliang...according to the papers he was
'...an obscure ophthalmologist working in Wuhan who warned his students about hygiene precautions after learning of seven cases of a virus from a local fruit and seafood market* When these messages were shared and went viral , he was summoned to a police station and forced to sign a statement denouncing his misdemeanour in spreading false rumours...'
* I read elsewhere that it was a 'wet' meat market where customers bought their meat freshly killed and 'still warm'
So maybe he was exposed to the virus because of the environment in which he lived and worked rather than because he was treating patients for the coronavirus itself. I don't really know.
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Post by casimira on Feb 10, 2020 16:32:31 GMT
In the meantime, cities in the US with large Chinese populations, Chinatown in NYC, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, and others are reporting up to 70% losses of customers that would generally come to dine there.
The economic impact is devastating.
Hysteria or genuine precaution?
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Post by mossie on Feb 10, 2020 19:23:22 GMT
I must admit to always being careless about hygiene, when I was lad we used to roam the fields and woods and drink from ponds and the stream, eat anything edible out of the hedge and generally act like messy brats. Having then suffered a very serious dose of dysentery when I was in Egypt, I have generally considered myself immune from odd contagions. Stupid or what?, hope springs eternal.
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Post by questa on Feb 10, 2020 22:27:34 GMT
The food shops and restaurants in Adelaide's China Town are virtually deserted and the business people pleading for "assistance" from the public.
How ironic is it that the contagion should hit the world in the same week that the Chinese were celebrating the arrival of the year of the Rat...the carrier and symbol of the Black Death plague.
That one started in China as well.
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Post by questa on Feb 10, 2020 22:32:34 GMT
The food shops and restaurants in Adelaide's China Town are virtually deserted and the business people pleading for "assistance" from the public.
How ironic is it that the contagion should hit the world in the same week that the Chinese were celebrating the arrival of the year of the Rat...the carrier and symbol of the Black Death plague.
That plague started in China as well.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 10, 2020 22:34:43 GMT
I must admit to always being careless about hygiene, when I was lad we used to roam the fields and woods and drink from ponds and the stream, eat anything edible out of the hedge and generally act like messy brats. Having then suffered a very serious dose of dysentery when I was in Egypt, I have generally considered myself immune from odd contagions. Stupid or what?, hope springs eternal. I have lived the same way but without the dysentery. When everybody else was getting sick in Egypt (while taking huge precautions), nothing ever happened to me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 10, 2020 23:40:51 GMT
In the meantime, cities in the US with large Chinese populations, Chinatown in NYC, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, and others are reporting up to 70% losses of customers that would generally come to dine there. The economic impact is devastating. Hysteria or genuine precaution? The food shops and restaurants in Adelaide's China Town are virtually deserted and the business people pleading for "assistance" from the public. It sounds like hysteria to me. It's not like people who live in China Towns around the world go back & forth to China every evening after work. I was just using a pair of earphones made in China. Am I at risk?
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 11, 2020 5:06:32 GMT
1,014 deaths, 43,090 cases.
But Dr. Trump has said that the epidemic will end in April.
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Post by questa on Feb 11, 2020 6:47:55 GMT
If we are making up prophecies I will guess July/August. After a couple of heat waves I think the virus will mutate and, like SARS, become a annual influenza that the smart people will get immunized for and the ignorant people will get sick.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 12, 2020 1:19:05 GMT
Just saw this on social media: Before you start popping that bubble wrap, remember that the air in it comes from China.
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Post by questa on Feb 12, 2020 7:54:37 GMT
Not Beijing pollution, I hope...oh...can't be...you can see through the bubbles!
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 13, 2020 4:54:31 GMT
1,350 deaths, 60,000 cases (new calculation of cases).
And of course a new name: Covid-19
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Post by spaceneedle on Feb 13, 2020 23:54:46 GMT
And of course a new name: Covid-19 Is this like new Pepsi?
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 15, 2020 17:58:53 GMT
66,492 cases and about 1,500 deaths. One in France, the first outside of Asia. And Africa has its first case, in Egypt.
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