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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away


InkaUtexas

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Spoiler

China banned trains and planes from leaving a major city at the centre of a virus outbreak on Thursday, seeking to seal off its 11 million people to contain the contagious disease that has claimed 17 lives, infected hundreds and spread to other countries.

Authorities in Wuhan, a major transport hub, also suspended public buses and subways, and said residents should not leave "without a special reason".

More than 570 people have been infected with the virus across China -- with most cases found in Wuhan, where a seafood market that illegally sold wild animals has been identified as the epicentre of the outbreak.

The coronavirus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003. 

Like SARS, it can be passed among people through the respiratory tract. 

The first case of the new virus was confirmed on December 31, and it has since been detected in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

67a3baab33dee5501da9e0be4e520a710e50cbb0.jpgAFP / STRIn Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, authorities cancelled large public events, and called on visitors to stay away

The World Health Organization on Wednesday delayed a decision on whether to declare a global health emergency -- a rare instrument used only for the worst outbreaks.

The emergency committee will meet again on Thursday, after its chair, Didier Houssin, said the experts were split over declaring a public health emergency.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he needed "more information" but he also praised China's "very, very strong measures" to contain the outbreak.

"By having a strong action not only will they control the outbreak in their country but they will also minimise the chances of this outbreak spreading internationally," Tedros said when asked about Wuhan's transport shutdown.

- 'Sealed off' -

With hundreds of millions of people travelling across China this week for the Lunar New Year holiday, the National Health Commission announced on Wednesday measures to curb the disease nationwide -- including sterilisation and ventilation at airports and bus stations, as well as inside planes and trains.

00011fa2935ef7e544cd84c4ef11150a57644807.jpgAFP / Gal ROMA2019 Novel Coronavirus

Wuhan's special anti-virus command centre said the quarantine measures, which came into effect at 0200 GMT, were meant to "effectively cut off the virus spread, resolutely curb the outbreak and guarantee the people's health and safety," according to state media.

A long line of cars headed out of the city on Thursday, with officials checking the temperatures of some drivers, according to images from Chinese media outlet The Paper.

Police wearing masks patrolled Wuhan's Hankou train station before the suspension came into effect.

While departures were banned, trains and planes were still heading into the city.

Wang Biao, 28, who works in the advertising industry, was heading to Wuhan to transfer there to another train to Jingzhou, another city in Hubei province.

"My family did ask if I would consider not coming home for the Lunar New Year, but I had already bought tickets," Wang, who was wearing a mask, gloves and a hat as protection, told AFP on the train.

The city's tourism and culture department cancelled all group tours until February 8, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The city had already warned people to avoid entering or leaving Wuhan. Large public events for the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts Friday, were cancelled.

3c280fdbc82381377f415e690fb821143fa643c8.jpgAFP / NICOLAS ASFOURIChina has classified the outbreak in the same category as the SARS epidemic

Authorities in Wuhan also made it mandatory to wear a mask in public places, according to state media.

"Those who disregard the warning will be punished according to relevant laws and regulations," the city government warned, according to Xinhua.

The hashtag "Wuhan is sealed off" was trending on China's Twitter-like Weibo, with nearly 460 million views.

- Unknowns -

Animals are suspected to be the primary source of the outbreak, with Chinese health officials saying that the virus originated from the market where wild animals were illegally sold.

But the WHO has confirmed that the virus can be passed between people, at least those in close contact, and Chinese health officials said it could mutate and spread further.

"There are many unknowns to address in this event including clinical severity and the true extent and nature of disease transmission," said Michael Ryan, head of the WHO's health emergencies programme.

e81bf56f9fb2478363f12b466b21e15b8a89acf2.jpgAFP / NICOLAS ASFOURIChina's health commission announced measures to contain the disease, including sterilisation and ventilation at airports

Countries have intensified efforts to stop the spread of the pathogen -- known by its technical name 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Passengers are facing screening measures at five US airports and a host of transport hubs across Asia.

European airports from London to Moscow have also stepped up checks and Nigeria, which has many citizens working in China, said it would start checks at entry points.

- China 'commendable' -

Chinese authorities on Thursday reported dozens of new infections, bringing the confirmed total to 571. About 5,000 people remain under medical observation.

WHO chief Tedros said there was "stability" for the moment.

"We don't see any significant variation but at the same time we also believe that we have to be cautious," he said.

Tedros also praised China's openness about the outbreak as "commendable".

93878e46ca094fbca7bbf4d5e50acdb40ac785df.jpgAFP / WANG ZhaoA Beijing pharmacy sign reads 'masks will be on sale at 2pm' as some stores start to sell out

But a senior US State Department official said Washington was "still concerned" about transparency in the Chinese government.

During the SARS epidemic, the Chinese government took months to report the disease and initially denied WHO experts access to southern Guangdong province, where it originated.

 

Edited by InkaUtexas
Meant to add a spoiler. Sorry.
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38 minutes ago, LABEVO said:

City is on total lock down. All transportation in and out of the city has been stopped.  

For something that’s killed 17 people, they are taking this really serious.  I expected them to shut the marketplace completely down, burn it, whatever.  

Edited by atomheartbevo
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CNN reporting same numbers. So 6K in 1 city is pretty serious health risk. 

Wuhan Airport (IATA: WUH, ICAO: ZHHH), also known as Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, is a large airport in China. It is an international airport and serves the area of Hubei, China. Wuhan Airport has non-stop passenger flights scheduled to 109 destinations in 20 countries.

At present, there are 77 domestic flights from Wuhan.

https://www.flightconnections.com/flights-from-wuhan-wuh

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When you travel thru all of these mega cities in China it’s pretty depressing. You realize how incredibly overpopulated the country is and it reminds you of a massive cloud of locusts destroying anything and everything in its path. The country is stripped bare. There are people everywhere. Even the area between cities have a lot of people running around. It’s pretty bad.

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2 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

When you travel thru all of these mega cities in China it’s pretty depressing. You realize how incredibly overpopulated the country is and it reminds you of a massive cloud of locusts destroying anything and everything in its path. The country is stripped bare. There are people everywhere. Even the area between cities have a lot of people running around. It’s pretty bad.

Always amazing when a city in China is mentioned having 10+ million residents but odds are few people in the US have heard of it. You can blame our willful ignorance of the world but sometimes these cities barely existed 20 years ago. I realize (from a Wikipedia check) Wuhan isn’t new.

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I was reading an article from the head of the CDC earlier about this.  The current hypo is that the disease is being spread by “putting peepee in your coke” so I’m switching to Pepsi for a few weeks just to be safe


If you’re from Texas, Pepsi is still coke. You’re going to die.
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11 hours ago, SaucyJack said:

Looks like I'm getting the virus

 

46e8dc1ec7432faf66868467bca4ac52.jpg

 

Seems to be an odd place to put the salt.

 

 

10 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Never heard of wuhan and it has 9 million people. 
 

but now I know that you don’t mess with the wuhan. 

 

I've heard of it due to excessive playing of Civilization II back in the day.

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12 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

the crazy thing is wuhan has close to 20 million in its metro area.  other megacities you may or may not have heard of are chengdu, tianjin, chongqing, dongguan, chengdu, shenyang, and guangzhou.  

i've been to chengdu. wonderful big little city. legit food.

they think it's bats:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7920573/Revolting-footage-shows-Chinese-woman-eating-bat-scientists-link-coronavirus-animal.html

jesus christ. i mean, it's china, and they love to eat stuff like fucking chicken feet. but bat soup? christ on a cracker.

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6 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

 

jesus christ. i mean, it's china, and they love to eat stuff like fucking chicken feet. but bat soup? christ on a cracker.

Don't knock things till you've tried them..  Chicken feet aren't bad at all.   Never had Christ on a cracker though...  sounds aggyish.  Hard pass!

Edited by Loco
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3 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

When you eat chicken feet, do you eat the bones too or eat around the bones?  Doesn’t seem like there would be much there if the bones don’t get soft enough to eat. 

 

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52 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

i've been to chengdu. wonderful big little city. legit food.

they think it's bats:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7920573/Revolting-footage-shows-Chinese-woman-eating-bat-scientists-link-coronavirus-animal.html

jesus christ. i mean, it's china, and they love to eat stuff like fucking chicken feet. but bat soup? christ on a cracker.

The backwards ass shit they think cures ailments baffles me.  Fucking disgusting.

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CNN reporting Chinese health officials think now snakes are to blame for the viral outbreak.  And of course snakes that feed in urban rats.  And of course, Chinese year of the rat begins this week.  
and of course some of you still think we are not existing in a simulation.  

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1 minute ago, workswithseed said:

Maybe this Thanos snapping his fingers to wipe half of humanity with a virus.

If it is, I'm positive that it will kill all the smart, decent people, and leave all the assholes and morons alive and well.

Because every level of this simulation sucks, why not this one?

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13 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

the crazy thing is wuhan has close to 20 million in its metro area.  other megacities you may or may not have heard of are chengdu, tianjin, chongqing, dongguan, chengdu, shenyang, and guangzhou.  

You're just making this stuff up now, right?

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15 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

the crazy thing is wuhan has close to 20 million in its metro area.  other megacities you may or may not have heard of are chengdu, tianjin, chongqing, dongguan, chengdu, shenyang, and guangzhou.  

Yeah, I've been all over them places.

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Edited by Sbbruin
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  • hayden_horn changed the title to Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away


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