Gosh, the writing has been on the wall for 2 and half weeks. I wonder what made them state this today?
Why not…maybe draw some attention to his work. Perhaps the Chinese citizens will culturally appropriate the moniker.
I am not sure that will go over well. As Ninja is Japanese, not Chinese. However, I still like the Kung flu.
By Definition : Kung Fu
kung fu can refer to any discipline or skill achieved through hard work and practiceSo, it would seem fitting - considering how much discipline and work went into these draconian measures. Used in a sentence:
Incredibly, the Chinese built an entire hospital in one week because of their Kung Flu.
Good points re: food handling on ship. Napoleon said something like: “Ignorance and stupidity can bring down a country just as well as treason.”
One of the distinguishing features of COVID 19 is that it usually starts in the lungs not the nose. Cough and fever rather than runny nose and sneezing. People need to understand the difference. Perhaps Knowing this will reduce anxiety when people DO get colds. MSM is doing people a disservice making that comparison.
I am of the opinion that there are cases here that are being misidentified due to lack of testing and the overlap with flu season. Pure conjecture of course until we get an available test. Until we are making an educated guess except for those with access to testing kits and the ability to do repeat testing as needed.
Sad to see so many new cases in China. I am in New York and don’t even know how to talk to people about social distancing once it hits or ideally before then. Folks here think we can handle anything and maybe we can…lots of bravado.
Because Xi dislikes the characterization so much: Winnie-the-Flu.
And, more darkly, Die-Chi.
Nice find, John103, and welcome to the PP community! I had not heard about this Chinese law, effective December 2019, for mandatory vaccine manufacture tracking, mandatory state-sponsored immunizations program, and compensation program for those with “abnormal” reactions. Reposting your link here in case others missed it: https://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/china-vaccine-law-passed/
You said, "Just wondering if there was possibly a massive vaccination that may have made them more susceptible to this. Hard to imagine but maybe there was an unintended result? "
Several studies and models indicate that the first cases of coronavirus infection in China were identified mid-November 2019. But that doesn’t preclude exposure through vaccine trials or “escaped” viruses used in vaccine development before the law went into effect. Certainly there would be a ramping-up of vaccine production/tracking and administration of vaccines to the public in anticipation of the new law taking effect. It might also explain why the virus is so virulent in China, but not as much elsewhere (yet).
Pure speculation at present and we may never know for certain. But if true, there’s no question that Chinese (and WHO and other?) officials know and are motivated to keep this connection under wraps for the “greater good” of maintaining public confidence in vaccines and the institutions and regimes supporting them.
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/are-we-prepared-protecting-the-us-from-global-pandemics
Last 30 mins are especially insightful. Covers
- US supply line disruption for drugs and medical equipment.
- Expectations for Epidemic in the Homeland
- Importance of Singapore & Japan for tracking cases. (Singapore is 90°F)
- Public health and prevention.
- Need to test patients with viral Pneumonia for Covid-19 in US.
After 37 years of dental practice, here are my thoughts.
There is no way that a dental office can be made “safe”, given what it appears this virus is capable of. All day long I put a rotary instrument at 400,000rpm into a pool of saliva, aerosolizing everything it comes in contact with. I will not be donning PPE of an infectious disease setting to do a procedure and bill an insurance company 150 or 200 dollars. Economically it is unviable and from a personal health perspective for me and those close to me it is irresponsible.
At the point that these drastic measures are warranted, I will lock the door and go home. The 64,000 dollar question is, when is that point. I live in a major metropolitan area. Is it when one case is reported locally? Two? Ten? Now? This is what keeps me awake at night lately. I can realistically see this happening. My staff and wife just get puzzled looks on their faces when I say this. Although the wife is no longer using SARS as a benchmark when I bring this up. Sadly, if this occurs, my staff that I care greatly about will suffer the most. None are prepared for ANYTHING, much less a lapse in their income.
Fortunately, dentistry is rarely a life threatening emergency. I don’t have a great moral dilemma about suspending my practice.
If you are as concerned as you sound for your own health, you must decide when to stop seeing your dentist. Although, I think the greater risk is for the personnel involved. If the office you visit is not thinking this is a potential outcome, they are sadly unprepared, in my opinion. Not to mention, I foresee a point that we cannot get the supplies to stay open, even if there are no local infections.
Interesting times, indeed. I hope your hygienist will take your suggestion and visit PP.
That’s the big question here in America. Several articles I’ve read say American middle class and Working poor can’t even scrap together $400 for an emergency like auto repair. How do we expect that when told to self quarantine for 2-3 weeks, that any of those people will be able to do it?
They won’t. They will drag themselves into work and try to do it sick. They will drop off their children to daycare sick. They will spread it to their co-workers and the store clerks they meet on the way home.
Do we have any information on whether Tamiflu works on this virus? I’ve got a partial script from a bout of influenza A from last year in my medicine cabinet.
Thanks for your honest comment Mark and your immense common sense.
Meanwhile, people here on this blog act like they are super informed and ahead of the curve. Yet they are still traveling to and fro, asking others for advice like it will make a difference if things go tango uniform. Maybe it is in their mind that then they can blame someone else for their bad decision if shtf. Who knows? It can’t happen to me is a rampant belief these days.
Seems you may be near retirement. Perhaps it is time to find a buyer…or close the doors if conditions dictate. Savvy employees should have figured this out or asked you what may happen by now. If they haven’t they will.
Ah the life of being self-employed.
The reason for this spraying that you see in videos is to kill cockroaches and rodents. This was already “normal” (in China) before the outbreak of COVID-19.
China basically admitted that its case count has been ‘estimated’ for the last several weeks, probably due to lack of testing capability, and has a new way to count its infected. This may explain the dramatic rise in reported cases, but have they also found a new way to count dead people? The daily increase in deaths has gone from an average of 13% with little variation from a simple model to 23% today.
d…The articles that I have seen over the years (on the $400 thing) put that number of people at 30-50%. I will also clue you that many of them are not employed, don’t want to work, have subsidized housing, on Medicaid or a Social Security Disability, food stamps, wic, etc. I read an article a few years back at ZH that listed the states in order as to how much you could get as a “free-crapper”. Hawaii was first…Over $60K…to do nothing and receive a “standard of living”. I think $18K was the lowest. In my state, it was $28K. Which surprised the heck out of me. Most people who work for some one here full time don’t make that working. Another little note…Bank tellers “our age” hate this time of year at my bank. It is when single (no job) mothers dressed to the nine’s drag their 3-5 kids (to several men) in to cash their, “earned income tax credit” checks. Checks vary for $5-12K per mom. Thank God that the FED has a printing press.
I am not saying this is true of all of that percentage. Yes, there are those who drag their sick asses to work and contaminate others. The sad part is it is those producing people who should who should be able to stay home. Have some paid sick days, etc. Alas…just not how it is in the US these days.
Possible explanation as to why earlier tests, which involved a mouth swab might have shown a negative in infected people.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/what-you-need-to-know-about-shock-45-jump-in-hubei-virus-cases
"Officials said that the surge in numbers resulted from including a new group of patients diagnosed through the use of CT imaging scans – so-called clinical diagnosis – alongside those confirmed by the previous method of nucleic acid testing kits.
Of the 14,840 new cases, 13,332 are from the new method of clinical diagnosis. The death toll in the province rose by 242 cases, of which 135 involved the new method, it said.
The nucleic acid test is used to see whether the virus can be detected in a specimen from a patient’s respiratory tract. But the virus may be concentrated in areas deep in the lung, meaning a specimen from the upper respiratory tract may lead to false negatives.
“A patient may be found as negative for the first or second test, and then found to be positive the third time,” said Jonathan Yu, a doctor at a university hospital in Wuhan, in an interview last month. “It is like fishing in a pond: You did not catch a fish once, but that does not mean the pond does not have fish.”
There also aren’t enough test kits and medical staff to do the specimen scrub in Hubei province, where medical facilities are at breaking point. People have reported standing in line for hours to get tested, only to be sent home if the result is negative, even if they have a fever and cough.
It is unclear whether the nearly 15,000 added infections are a one-time adjustment to include every patient diagnosed with CT scans up until now, or whether they are from a single day. If it is the latter, the addition reveals the true scale of the infection spread in Hubei.
Neither the Hubei health commission nor the central government health commission responded to requests for clarification.
We’ll have to watch the numbers for the next few days. If this was a one time correction, then we could expect the numbers to resume the fake 2.1 rate increase we’ve been seeing. If not them expect the numbers to get higher.
The CDC has known about the Covid threat for a lot longer than 2.5 weeks ago, more likely mid-Nov. when the first cases came to light in China. They’ve used the time to assess the threat from the virus and any possible economic and societal collateral damage, align their allies and resources, and refine their information/communications strategy and talking points. The emphasis seems to be on mollifying the public, minimizing trade disruptions, and providing flaccid public health interventions well past time when they could significantly impact the scope and severity of the pandemic spread.
The CDC has been late to act on almost every key opportunity to stem the spread of this virus. Heath officials and researchers in China and elsewhere identified the likelihood of person-to-person and asymptomatic transmission several weeks ago. Hong Kong acknowledges that the virus is now self-spreading through community acquired transmission and infection. Research concerning infectivity questioned the initial 3-day, then the 14-day standard incubation periods. New research that shows up to 24-days infectivity suggests that a longer period may be necessary. North Korea just instituted mandatory 30-day quarantine for suspected Covid infected.
CDC’s response in these and other instances has typically been that the evidence or data was “insufficient” to revise current protocols or take action. But they would study and discuss it. Only recently when dissenting voices from the scientific community and public have become too loud to ignore has the CDC modified their position or talking points. Reluctantly, the CDC’s information and action are too little to late to mitigate the spread of this pandemic.
Recently, the CDC developed and shipped Covid test kits to health departments and other labs across the US to expedite testing and accurate diagnosis. The tests don’t work. Until corrected, all US testing can only be done by CDC.
Pathetic really, and frustrating when considering millions of lives are at stake.
My wife just told me the Mongolian government’s position is that the coronavirus victim dying in Khuvsgul was a “careless rumor” and are preparing to fine the person who spread (or leaked?) it two million Tugriks (~$750). I suppose it’s certainly possible, but the government here (like all others) has some vested interests not in alignment with transparency. My wife seriously doubts the government’s story and thinks they’re hiding it. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Apparently, the rumor got around enough on Facebook that many Mongolians flocked to the stores to stock up on food and supplies. I found it interesting that most of the Mongolians in the store had heavy emphasis on raw staple foods (flour, rice, oil, root vegetables, meat, etc.) in their carts. Not nearly so much packaged food like you find when some Americans go to the store to panic buy before a hurricane or what not. Memories are long enough to remember the hard times and rationing at the stores in the early 90’s I suppose.
At least there wasn’t any sense of panic and everyone was behaving in a friendly manner. Still, with the sight of some of the items being sold out it was hard to resist the temptation to get more than the handful of things I had on my list.
I can’t speak for single mothers Bill but until I just retired, I worked at a large company which sold metal. Of the warehouse staff, probably 2/3rd were under 30 and the majority didn’t have that $400. One of the reasons the company could run under manned, so many of the workers had to take every extra hour of over time they could get.
Now I will say that much of their problem was lack of common sense on things like budgets and having an emergency fund of money set aside. They couldn’t afford to take 2-3 days off when they got sick, let alone 2-3 weeks to self quarantine. That means they will come into work and spread it.
As for single parents, caring for a adult who gets sick is going to be hard, imagine caring for 2-3 children. Those mothers will be at the ER very quickly with no insurance, little patience and a crying child. As someone elderly and at risk, I’m staying away from hospitals unless I’m about to die.
Also, we’ve been lucky so far. 1st Generation infected have been people with money and credit cards. No one whose taking trips to China is someone working a minimum wage job. Those people can self quarantine or have jobs that understand the illness and allow them time off. We won’t be as lucky with the 2nd Gen infection wave. Once it hits the general population, having 30-40% of the population unable to go into self quarantine will stress the medical infrastructure to a breaking point.
At least the Chinese government understood that, and helped out those that couldn’t afford it in a small way (from the articles I’ve read). Do you honestly think given our current divided government, there is any way that it would help that 30-50% survive?
Pre-screen over the phone for people with flu or cold symptoms. If you do this programatically, just add to the message “Out of caution for other patients we ask that you reschedule your visit if you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, which can include …”
If someone shows up has cold or flu symptoms ask them to come in at a later date. Take temperatures of anyone with mild symptoms, if they have a fever, ask them come back at a later date. Ask anyone with a cough or sniffles to wear a mask.
Not sure how much this would add to your cost but it would seem a small step to take for protection. Of course, insurance and regulations could easily make it cost prohibitive. An infrared, non-touch forehead thermometer is costing $30-$50 on amazon.
Just some thoughts, you know your business and clientele.