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China's virus cases top 20,000 as Hong Kong reports 1st death

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By KEN MORITSUGU

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3,233 new cases and 64 deaths in a single day from this single strain of the coronavirus just in mainland China. 164 people died on average, per day in the US from all strains of the flu combined.

So basically your chances of dying if you had this specific virus yesterday are about 1 in 50. It's roughly 1 in 800 if you caught 'the flu'.

People shouldn't panic, of course, and the conspiracy theorists need to be put in their place... but people saying the flu is more dangerous are being just as disingenuous. These numbers aren't nothing and the whole world should be coming up with contingency plans to these symptomatic quarantines, should we need them.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Numbers are doubling approximately every 3 days. Sounds probable it's been spreading in Thailand. Very concerning about the Thai taxi driver. Taxi drivers come into contact with lots of people who travel, and it's not possible to track them because they don't keep records of passengers. Bad news if drop offs were at the airport.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

The example of the Korean lady returning from Thailand with the virus is the real issue. She is not Chinese and has not been in China. This is how this virus will grow outside of normal controls.

Isn't it about time the Chinese government shut down these live animal markets?

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Why would anyone believe the official figures being published by the CCP? A safe assumption is that the real number is much higher.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

the conspiracy theorists need to be put in their place... but people saying the flu is more dangerous are being just as disingenuous

Sums it up for me. There are some wild stuff out there, like nikkei.com having a story about the virus affecting 'Made in China 2025'...LOL 2025? If it isn't stable by 2021, we'd have more pressing things to worry about.

And yes, we should treat this novel virus with the due care it deserves, that is all each and everyone of us can do.

BTW there is now a petition calling for resignation of Tedros Adhanom on change.org.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

3,233 new cases and 64 deaths in a single day from this single strain of the coronavirus just in mainland China. 164 people died on average, per day in the US from all strains of the flu combined.

And how many people from US spread viruses around to the rest of the world the way the china-nese do?

And the US is more honest than china when it comes to reporting medical deaths. You think only 20,000 are infected in china and only 400+ people have died? The CCP is notorious for lying...even to its own people.

And all because of the china-nese people's gluttony. Why don't the ccp close down those stupid animal markets? Because : Gluttons.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The CCP is notorious for lying...even to its own people.

Ever heard of WMDs?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Ever heard of WMDs?

Yes. PRC mandated Social Media and CCP controlled state media. = WMD = Weapons of Mass DISTRACTION.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

@Wesley

Please don't take data to be anti-Chinese. I don't think people from mainland China are any more 'gluttonous' than anywhere else in the world. Epidemics can and have happened nearly everywhere. We've only begun to understand viral/bacterial mutation and evolution over the past few decades and while it may be problematic, it's not as easy as to just that because the some Chinese people eat bush-meat that THAT is the reason why some more recent zoonotic diseases seem to have sprouted there. It's not as easy to just go from knowing for sure that bush-meat is vulnerable to viral transmission to making not eating it a cultural norm in like 20 years.

The problem here, mainly, is that the Chinese government is not at all transparent to say the least - and the population is much too large to have any meaningful control over. By all means, ban travel, quarantine people, do whatever you can to contain transmission but don't make this racial because all that will do is make people associate the virus with racial politics and more people are going to get sick and die. Keep your political/racial spin in your pocket.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Medical teams from the People's Liberation Army were arriving in Wuhan to relieve overwhelmed health workers and to staff the new 1,000-bed hospital.

21,000 infected now with a death rate of approximately 2.15% It is starting to curve right, which means control methods are having an effect.

Drones are in the streets chasing people who are not wearing masks, but if they have masks they are not bothered by the drones. The rules are, if you are going out you have to have a mask. They aired some of the drone footage where they chased an old lady back to her house, telling her over a speaker that was on the drone to put her mask on. It was actual drone footage.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

TigersTokyoDomeToday  01:17 pm JST

Isn't it about time the Chinese government shut down these live animal markets?

It was time 17 years ago in 2003 after SARS was identified and traced to civet cats sold in these markets. The CCP should have shut them down then and there. They were caught trying to hide it then and got alot of criticism for it. It really is indefensible that they appear to have done it again.

As for gluttony, nobody really cares what they eat, as long as the practice doesn't threaten the health, as well as the economy, of the entire planet. Comes a point where "cultural and tradition" arguments go out the window.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This flu has a low mortality rate, but there's 2 main things going against it that put fear into people:

(1) There's so far no cure for it. Nobody wants to take a chance getting sick that has no cure. Ya just have to hope that your body & some flu medicine can beat it.

(2) How much it's contagious nobody is quite sure yet either. Again, nobody wants to take a chance

Places in China now require people to wear masks when outside (even though the effectiveness of the mask isn't certain). Violators are sprayed with disinfectant, arrested, and locked inside.

Also, China is doing this:

"China Is Arresting People for Writing About Coronavirus Online - Sharing information Chinese authorities don't approve of might land you in jail."

On January 3, authorities arrested eight Wuhan residents for “publishing or forwarding false information on the internet without verification.” Then on Sunday, the government issued a warning that anyone caught using social media to share coronavirus information obtained from anywhere but state-run media or organizations would face between three and seven years in jail.

However, all eight of the people initially arrested were later reported to be doctors working to contain the coronavirus — making it seem more likely that China was trying to stop the spread of any unauthorized information, not just false rumors.

That’s not the only evidence suggesting that China is exploiting its laws against spreading rumors to closely control the coronavirus narrative.

Perhaps the most bizarre part of China’s attempt to control any information about the coronavirus is the fact that the nation itself has been caught lying about the outbreak.

On Monday, for instance, a government official and multiple state-run media outlets published what they claimed were photos of a quickly-constructed coronavirus hospital — but were actually images of an apartment building in Qingdao.

It seems the only rumors China doesn’t want spread are those that paint its coronavirus response in anything but a positive light.

The official tally of infection cases is not reliable: Too many patients are not being counted. There are not enough test kits. Not enough doctors. Not enough hospital beds. Not enough medicine. Not enough masks. Not enough cars to take patients to the hospital.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The numbers coming from China doesn't reflect the real numbers. The fact that they locked down so many of their cities and are rushing to building these make shift hospitals or quarantine centers rather show that they're well aware about how contagious and dangerous this virus can be (since they created it.)

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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