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Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 (nCoV-2019)

Northern Light said:
www.theglobeandmail.com

Research supports Canada’s decision to reject a coronavirus travel ban

The United States announced it would close its borders to foreign nationals who had travelled to China within the past 14 days. Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore quickly imposed travel bans of their own
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
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While I was searching for a video about Canada's decision not to have a travel ban on China, this came up:


This is from a conservative African Canadian who supports Trump.

However, I agree with the Canadian government and the WHO (and not the video), since there isn't much evidence that blanket travel bans are effective in halting the spread of the virus. Yet, my mother and my brother wholeheartedly agree with that video (and with Ming Pao that also supports the travel ban, despite the paper being centrist) and we had an argument.
 
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The US government has been sending out faulty coronavirus test kits, CDC admits.

Some of the coronavirus testing kits sent to state laboratories around the country have flaws and do not work properly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

The kits were meant to enable states to conduct their own testing and have results faster than they would by shipping samples to the C.D.C. in Atlanta. But the failure of the kits means that states that encountered problems with the test should not use it, and would still have to depend on the C.D.C.’s central lab, which could cause several days’ delay in getting results.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/health/coronavirus-test-kits-cdc.html
 
China is having issues with counting now. Numbers of cases are going up and down by factors as high as 10, as China changes the rules on whether someone can count as infected.

This really is consequential, moreso if the mortality rate fluctuates the same way.

www.nytimes.com

How Many Coronavirus Cases in China? Officials Tweak the Answer (Published 2020)

China’s health authorities have decided to no longer count as confirmed cases those patients who test positive but don’t show symptoms. Skepticism was immediate.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
US underprepared for coronavirus due to Trump cuts, say health experts

From link.

US preparedness to deal with the threat of coronavirus has been hampered by the personnel and budget cuts made by the Trump administration over the past three years, according to health experts.

There is no one in the White House tasked specifically to oversee a coordinated government-wide response in the event of a pandemic, since the post of senior director for global health security and biothreats on the national security council (NSC) was eliminated last May.
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The office was established in 2016 after the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa demonstrated the US government was not set up to move with the speed and decisiveness necessary to react to a really lethal epidemic.

The White House global health “czar” was supposed to coordinate international, national, state and local organisations, public and private, to confront a global epidemic, backed by the direct authority of the president.

After he became national security adviser, John Bolton eliminated the office as part of an NSC reorganisation, as he did not see global health issues as a national security priority.

As the first person-to-person transmission of coronavirus in the US was reported, and as evidence emerges that it could be much more contagious than initially thought, health and disaster planning experts argued for contingency preparations for a global outbreak.

“You have to at least now be anticipating and responsibly planning against a sort of pandemic level scenario reaching the US,” Jeremy Konyndyk, who ran foreign disaster assistance in the Obama administration, said.

“The fact that they explicitly dismantled the office in the White House that was tasked with preparing for exactly this kind of a risk is hugely concerning,” said Konyndyk, now a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. “Both the structure and all the institutional memory is gone now.”
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Funding has also been cut drastically to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), forcing it to reduce or discontinue epidemic-prevention efforts in 39 out of the 49 countries it had been helping. Among the countries where CDC efforts were scaled back were Haiti, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as China, where the agency provided technical assistance.

In its 2020 budget the Trump administration proposed a further 10% cut in CDC funding, equivalent to $750m. It zeroed out funding for epidemiology and laboratory capacity at state and local levels.
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Funding will also dry up this year for a tiered epidemic response within the US. The system was set up in the aftermath of the Ebola scare, and involved identifying patients infected by “special pathogens” in frontline hospitals and their transfer up a chain of specially equipped regional hospitals where they could be safely treated.

After this year’s cuts, 10 advanced treatment facilities will still receive funding, but not the 60 other treatment centres one tier below.

“Those assessment and treatment hospitals are kind of wondering where they’re going to get funding to continue these very costly efforts,” said Saskia Popescu, an infection prevention epidemiologist, at George Mason University. “So not only are we creating more vulnerable hospitals, but we’re getting this message across that hospitals, if you want to prepare, you’re kind of on your own.”
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Expect to see more stories like this...

Alla Ilyina, 32, is currently in her flat in the city of St Petersburg, refusing to open the door to police.

Ms Ilyina, who returned from China last month, says she tested negative for the virus on 6 February but was told to remain quarantined for two weeks.

Frustrated, she disabled an electronic lock at the hospital and fled.

On her Instagram account, Ms Ilyina, a university graduate with a diploma in physics, says she had a sore throat soon after returning to Russia from China's holiday island of Hainan on 30 January.

Ms Ilyina says the city authorities took no action for almost a week.

But now they are seeking a court order to forcefully bring her back to hospital to stay quarantined until at least 19 February.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51488861
 
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gabe said:
China is spraying disinfectants in the streets with trucks and drones. It's like the never ending horror movie over there.


https://twitter.com/x/status/1226902394765746176

www.cnn.com

China is using its authoritarian arsenal to crack down on anyone who might spread the Wuhan virus

As Chinese authorities struggle to contain the deadly Wuhan coronavirus, they are increasingly turning to a sophisticated authoritarian playbook honed over decades of cracking down on dissidents to enforce quarantines and lockdowns across the country.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
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Don't worry....they're lifting millions out of poverty and "educating" millions more in Xinjiang and "civilising" Tibet and blah blah....no one cares, they've all sold their souls for a few dollars.

In other news: turning a blind eye towards genocidal fascist regimes makes one an arsehole with massive moral failings.



Hey, have you guys noticed how Xi is not taking any responsibility for any of this mess? That's how it works in these regimes. The boss only takes responsibility for the positive outcomes, the underlings take it for the negative.

Which is cute considering the local communist (lol) chieftains tried to hide the problem for fear of upsetting the bosses or making them look bad.

Funny how that always turns out in these psychotic regimes.

Anyway, the Uyghur aren't surprised so neither should we be.
 
tiffer24 said:
Harvard public heath prof Mac Lipsitch, on coronavirus: “It is likely we’ll see a global pandemic...If a pandemic happens, 40% to 70% of people world-wide are likely to be infected in the coming year.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-many-people-might-one-person-with-coronavirus-infect-11581676200
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Hey mate, if it takes out the CCP then it may be worth it all. Those universe-blessed island people will go on living their beautiful lives...as it should be. Oh, hey, Dollarama is having a sale, in case you guys needed your last bits of cheap plastic.
 
‘They yelled Coronavirus’ – East Asian attack victim speaks of fear

First violent hate crime linked to virus is reported to British authorities

Nosheen Iqbal
Sun 16 Feb 2020

An east Asian man who was violently assaulted and robbed by two teenagers shouting “coronavirus” at him has warned that the spread of the disease has created “a climate of racism” in the UK. The attack on Pawat Silawattakun, a 24-year-old tax consultant, is thought to be the first violent hate crime linked to the virus reported to British authorities.

Silawattakun says he was travelling home in the late afternoon to west London when he was attacked on his local high street in full view of dozens of passersby. The Thai man, who works in the City, was left stunned and bleeding with a broken nose as one assailant stole his headphones and the other filmed the attack on his phone.

www.theguardian.com

‘They yelled Coronavirus’ – East Asian attack victim speaks of fear

First violent hate crime linked to virus is reported to British authorities
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Coronavirus: French Asians hit back at racism with 'I'm not a virus'

French Asians have taken to social media to complain of a backlash against them in response to the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.

Anti-Asian racism has been reported in the UK and elsewhere, and now French Asians have complained of abuse on public transport and social media.

www.bbc.com

Coronavirus: French Asians hit back at racism with 'I'm not a virus'

The coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan prompts French Asians to complain of a backlash against them.
www.bbc.com
 
AlbertC said:
Anti-Asian racism has been reported in the UK and elsewhere, and now French Asians have complained of abuse on public transport and social media.
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I find it odd how we use the term Asian for people who appear to be Han Chinese. Indians, Afghans, Siberians, Israelis, Persians and Jordanians and many others are all Asians. Not all Asians look like this...

 
Japanese health authorities said Tuesday they have confirmed 88 more cases of the new virus on a quarantined cruise ship near Tokyo.

The new cases bring the total on the Diamond Princess to 542.

Global Affairs Canada has said there were 256 Canadians on board the ship. Of those, 32 have tested positive for COVID-19, which is caused by the new coronavirus.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/coronavirus-covid-19-china-japan-canadians-1.5466808
 
Russia bans all Chinese nationals from entering country.

Russian authorities said Tuesday they will impose a temporary entry ban for all Chinese nationals amid the outbreak of the new virus in China that has infected more than 73,000 people worldwide since December.

The ban goes into effect on Thursday at midnight Moscow time, according to a decree signed by Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The measure was taken due to "worsening epidemiological situation" in China.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/coronavirus-wuhan-hospital-director-russia-ban-1.5466856
 
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