They said to #china please reduce emissions ... while sending all the polluting work to sweatshops there! Because we're cheap and exploitative. OK, OK... so China sent us a virus from #wuhan and now emissions in the West (e.g. car #pollution and manufacturing) went down sharply. Thanks! Appreciated.
● NEWS ● #MintPressNews #Wuhan #China ☞ Lab-Leak, Gain-Of-Function, and the Media Myths Swirling Around the Wuhan Institute https://www.mintpressnews.com/lab-leak-gain-function-media-myths-swirling-around-wuhan-institute/278555/
● NEWS ● #MintPressNews ☞ How US Media Misrepresent the #Wuhan Institute of Virology's Laboratories and Safety Protocols https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-media-misrepresent-wuhan-institute-of-virology-lab-leak/278484/
This article gives a comprehensive overview of the use of #traditional #Chinese #herbal #medicine in #China in the #treatment of #COVID-19.
"As it became clear that the epidemic in #Wuhan was going to be both severe and drawn out, discussions of the role of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in historical responses to epidemics in China began to appear on both scholarly and popular media platforms in China. For example, a five-part documentary news series on the role of Chinese medicine in fighting the epidemic in Hubei devoted a good deal of the first episode to reviewing how classical herbal formulas were developed and used in epidemic outbreaks throughout Chinese history. The National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM)4 published a colorful scroll of cartoon drawings on its official social media site to bring this history to the public.5 The scroll begins in the Han dynasty and takes us up to the present day, reviewing the use of Chinese herbal medicine to treat smallpox, cholera, typhoid, Japanese encephalitis, bubonic plague, influenza, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Before the influx of Western medicine in the nineteenth century, sophisticated theories and methods from within the tradition of medicine and medical literature in China were used to address these conditions."
https://brill.com/view/journals/asme/16/1/article-p11_2.xml
#tcm #traditionalchinesemedicine
Ok, Ihr Rebellen - ich fasse mal zusammen, was ich in den letzten Monaten von Euch gelernt habe:
Ihr wollt unsere #Demokratie verteidigen und das #Grundgesetz retten, das aber eigentlich gar nicht gültig ist, und auch noch nie gültig war, weil wir nach wie vor im besetzten #Kaiserreich leben (einem Kaiserreich, in dem es übrigens eine allgemeine #Impfpflicht gab).
Ihr wehrt Euch gegen eine #Diktatur in der man seine Meinung nicht mehr frei sagen darf, obwohl Euch eben diese Diktatur erlaubt zu demonstrieren, und sogar weitgehend darüber hinweg sieht, dass Ihr tausendfach die Demonstrationsauflagen verletzt.
Deswegen bittet ihr wahlweise Donald #Trump oder Wladimir #Putin (also DIE Garanten für freie Meinungsäußerung und das Demonstrationsrecht!), einzumarschieren und unsere Regierung abzusetzen. (Wie jetzt, ich dachte, die hätten uns schon besetzt?)
Ihr wehrt Euch gegen die #Maskenpflicht, weil Masken sowieso nichts bringen gegen das Virus, das es eigentlich auch gar nicht gibt, obwohl es von Bill #Gates in einem Labor in #Wuhan erfunden wurde.
Masken bringen Eurer Meinung nach übrigens deshalb nichts, weil das #Virus viel zu klein ist, um von Masken zurückgehalten werden zu können - gleichzeitig sind die Masken aber gesundheitsschädlich, weil sie die (viel kleineren) #Sauerstoff- und #Kohlendioxid-Moleküle zurückhalten, so dass man wahlweise einen Sauerstoffmangel oder eine Kohlendioxidvergiftung erleidet.
Und in diesen Masken, die überhaupt nicht geeignet sind, um die Entstehung von #Aerosole|n zu verhindern, sammelt sich aber so viel Feuchtigkeit (ach!), dass sich schon nach kurzem dort ganz viele gefährliche Bakterien vermehren, die uns krank machen.
(Bakterien, die allerdings in unseren Atemwegen schon vorhanden gewesen sein müssen, denn wie wären sie sonst in die Maske gekommen?)
Aber egal: Man wird auf jeden Fall schon nach kurzem Tragen einer Maske schwer krank. (Wie man bei tausenden von Chirurgen jeden Tag beobachten kann...)
Unsere #Politiker reagieren alle planlos und sind völlig inkompetent, von #Wirtschaftsinteressen gelenkt, und können sich nicht einigen, welche Corona-Regeln wann und wo gelten sollen (hier habt Ihr sogar teilweise Recht) - gleichzeitig sind diese Politiker aber alle Teil einer sorgfältig geplanten und koordinierten, weltweiten Verschwörung, die von den Wirtschafts- und Finanzeliten erdacht wurde... um... um äh... ach ja: unsere Wirtschaft ins Chaos zu stürzen. (Häh???)
Ihr beschwert Euch darüber, dass das #RKI von einem Tierarzt geleitet wird (was eigentlich ziemlich sinnvoll ist, googelt mal "#Zoonose") und fordert deshalb, dass #Heilpraktiker und #Homöopathen die Verantwortung übernehmen sollen.
Alle Eure Informationen habt Ihr übrigens aus den Telegram- und Youtube-Kanälen von Soul-Sängern, Schwindel-Doktoren und Vegan-Köchen - weil die ja viel objektiver und neutraler berichten als ALLE (!) Print- oder Rundfunk-#Medien, egal ob öffentlich-rechtlich oder privat, egal ob konservativ oder linksliberal...
Und deswegen erwartet ihr von unseren Wissenschaftlern (denen ihr bei jeder Gelegenheit vorwerft, wenn sie auf neue Erkenntnisse reagieren und ihre Meinung ändern), dass sie endlich AuFwaCHeN!!1!!!, auf Eure "Erkenntnisse" reagieren, und ihre Meinung ändern.
Habe ich das ungefähr richtig wieder gegeben?
(C) geklaut von Marco Lauer
"Der Künstler Ai Weiwei
hat einen Film über die
Stadt Wuhan und den
Lockdown veröffentlicht.
Er sagt, es gehe um das
"Gespenst" der chinesischen
Staatskontrolle. Die Aufnahmen
sind meist private Clips von
Bürgerinnen und Bürgern."
#CoronavirusKrankheit2019
#CoronavirusDisease2019
#Infektionskrankheit
#InfectiousDisease
#CoronaPandemie
#CoronaPandemic
#Dokumentarfilm
#Dokumentation
#Staatskontrolle
#Documentary
#SARS-CoV-2
#StateControl
#Erkrankung
#Coronation
#Lockdown
#Pandemie
#Pandemic
#AiWeiwei
#Epidemie
#Epidemic
#Infection
#Infektion
#Covid19
#Disease
#Corona
#Wuhan
#China
#Doku
#Virus
#Film
Que dit notre comité scientifique ? Eh bien, finalement, il est probable (voire un peu plus que probable) que le virus SARS-Cov2 (dit Covid-19) ait bel et bien été manufacturé dans le laboratoire P4 de Wuhan et qu’il s’en soit échappé. Naturellement, quand notre comité scientifique nous a avisé de ses dernières trouvailles, nous lui avons posé des questions et tâché de vérifier ses soupçons. C’est ce que raconte cette enquête, pas à pas, de façon à ce que vous puissiez à votre tour vérifier nos vérifications et vous faire votre propre opinion. Allez, au boulot.
Texte de Pièces et Main d’œuvre (en PDF, et disponible en version papier).
Avec deux sentences, l’une destinée aux journalistes, l’autre aux scientifiques :
Traquer le complotisme plutôt que la vérité.
L’amour du savoir censé animer les scientifiques s’arrête où commencent leurs intérêts personnels.
#Covid-19 #Covid19 #SARS-CoV-2 #Coronavirus #Virus #Scientifreak #Science #Journalisme #P4 #Wuhan #Chine #Pièces_Et_Main_d_Œuvre #Pièces_Et_Main_DŒuvre #Pièces-Et-Main-D-Œuvre #Pièces-Et-Main-DŒuvre #PiècesEtMainDŒuvre #PMO #2020 #fr
So fährt man heute Zug.
#Coronavirus #Covid-19 #Wuhan #Corona #Virus #Wacken #Zug #Sars-cov-2 #Sars #pneumonia #covid19
The critical region to my mind in the 2019-2020 Coronavirus outbreak is North Korea, as previously mentioned.
It's adjacent to and has strong commercial and tourism ties with China. It is an authoritarian regime with poor internal communications, freedom of speech, or tolerance for views divergent with the administration. It has few resources and a poor history of dealing with epidemics. And its climate and current weather conditions are highly favourable to Coronavirus which thrives in cold and dry conditions.
And it's been claiming no cases of 2019-nCoV, which seems increasingly unlikely.
There are unofficial reports that there have been cases, though this is also problematic: dissidents inside and outside North Korea have a tendency to tell sources what they want to believe. Unfortunately this is a case of low-trust communications all around.
And now, via NPR, indications that my fears seem shared:
...North Korea's track record of fighting epidemics does not bode well for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, other experts warn. Other communicable diseases are widespread in the country, which has one of the world's highest rates of tuberculosis and an estimated 15% of the population is infected with Hepatitis B.
"Past epidemics that originated in China have always spread to North Korea, and vice versa," says Choi Jung-hoon, a North Korean neurologist who defected to South Korea in 2012. During the 2003 SARS epidemic and other disease outbreaks, he says, cases in North Korea often went unreported or under-reported....
A key issue in any observation-based data is changes to the criteria for observation. That's coming to play in the 2019-nCoV outbreak numbers today, with Reuters and other sources reporting "Coronavirus death toll leaps in China's Hubei province":
[T]he 2,015 new confirmed cases reported in mainland China on Wednesday were dwarfed by the 14,840 new cases reported in Hubei alone on Thursday, after provincial officials started using computerized tomography (CT) scans to look for infections.
Hubei had previously only allowed infections to be confirmed by RNA tests, which can take days to process and delay treatment. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, carries genetic information allowing for identification of organisms like viruses.
The current reports stand at 60,330 confirmed cases and 1,369 official deaths, according to current data at Wikipedia. I'll note that fifteen days ago based on then-current trends, projection without epidemiological containment was for 200,000 cases, 10,000 deaths. Thankfully, even with a broader inclusion criteria, we're well below those values. Containment does largely appear to be working, and the epidemic may be further self limiting. (More below.) My existing projections are based on the earlier criteria and should not be applied to the broader clinical-diagnosis numbers.
Numbers reported depend on observational criteria. In general, my recommendation is to look to the case count as a trend indicator, across successive periods with consistent criteria, and for deaths as a far stronger magnitude indicator.
That is: we know that the cases were underreported. That's been widely criticised, and I suspect you'll see reports now of a sudden explosion in cases as Another Dire Sign. It's ... more complicated than that. Case reports to date have largely been a function of:
The new numbers should be compared against earlier "suspected" cases, not "confirmed" cases. What are now being included are clinically diagnosed cases, based not on a definitive RNA test, but on symptoms as presented at a clinic, largely CT scans of lungs, among other measurements. This is actually very common in medical practice, and many conditions are diagnosed based on symptoms rather than a definitive test, often because symtoms are far more accessible (a case of availability heuristic), faster, cheaper, and in virtually all cases, sufficient. It's nice to have a definitive diagnosis, but not necessary. My understanding is that test kits have often been reserved for medical personnel themselves, many of whom have been infected with 2019-nCoV.
As before, epidemiological and public health responses are most important. If you are in an outbreak area (China, generally), rather than rushing out to buy masks (of marginal use), make sure you have and are using cleaning supplies, and minimise hand-to-face transmission. Wash surfaces, door handles, light switches, bannisters, and other contacted surfaces. Disinfect (spray bleach) around bath and toilet facilities. Use alcohol-based hand-sanitisers. (Again, antibacterial treatments do not work for viruses, that's wasted money.) Wash your hands frequently. Avoid crowded public spaces. Wipe down shopping trolly handles and other surfaces if possible. Be aware of what you're touching (elevator controls, any public touch-screen devices, keyboards, etc.). If you are infected and must go out, wear a mask but primarily to protect others --- you're limiting spread of droplets from your mouth and nose. (It's possible that applying table salt to the masks may increase their anti-viral properties, possibly by spraying with a saline solution.)
Expect to see travel bans and restrictions in place both within and transiting China for another few weeks, possibly months.
The real risk with 2019-nCoV is that it escapes containment and becomes a recurring annual disease much as the current common cold and influenza, though with far greater impacts. Given its high mortality rates, this could have severe impacts worldwide (deaths in the 10s to 100s of millions), though it's likely that this would eventually moderate. That's the scenario people are hoping to avoid.
Risks remain high, the containment trends still look very positive. Coronavirus fares poorly at higher temperatures and humidities -- odds of it spreading especially within the subtropical and tropical regions, and particularly in summer months, are fairly low. This means that China and neighbouring countries (again, notably North Korea with limited public health and public information resources and practices), Europe, and North America are probably most at risk. Community transmission elsewhere has remained low (cruise ships being a notable exception), and deaths outside China are also extremely rare: 2 (Hong Kong and Japan) despite 9,525 cases outside of China.
Fingers crossed.
The other notable news is that the Chinese Communist Party chiefs of Wuhan City and Hubei Province have both been sacked for their mishandling and information suppression of the 2019-nCoV initial outbreak. Again, China and the world could have had an additional 4-6 weeks' prior notice of the disease had initial reports not been covered up, before the mass internal migration of Chinese New Year celebrations. That was extreme misgovernance, and I expect to see more heads fall, possibly higher up, as well as further political reforms toward free speech within China.
I'm not a sinologist, sinophile, nor antisionist. I'm not an expert on China, or epidemics, or eastern-region politics. But I watch and observe, and occasionally comment. This story is an interesting one, but my observations are largely speculation, exceptions generally being cited or referenced.
There are two elements of this story I'm finding fascinating, both involving viral propogation. One is biological, the other epistemic.
It's been about nine days since I posted my exponential growth 2019 nCoV observation, followed (in comments) by predictions that containment efforts begun arond 22 Jan would start showing clear evidence in new case data by early February, and that mortality should start falling by the 15th - 22nd, another 2-3 weeks out.
The first is bearing out, the second may be beating my initial projection. Both of these trends are encouraging.
I'll emphasise: I'm not a medical professional or epidemiologist. I read and study a lot, I've watched earlier outbreaks, and I've a fairly strong stats and data background which informs views of data. But really: I'm just some guy in a cat mask making guesses on the Internet.
That said:
The media and online response is ... interesting.
I've seen several long YouTube monologues, the first I believe by the individual known as "Brother Mask", another by a civil rights attorney, giving first-hand reports from within Wuhan itself. Many of the reports of conditions seem accurate. Some of the criticisms arising from them ... possibly less so. There have also been numerous posts in various places -- Mastodon and Diaspora, though of course many on Twitter, Reddit and elsewhere.
It's clear that many are seeing this as a propaganda opportunity to be used against the Chinese government. And there are certainly numerous criticisms which are valid.
Given the flood of online propaganda aimed at Western states in recent years, notably by Russia, but also China, generally following a "torrent of distraction" rather than "hose of reality distortion" favoured by Moscow. Seeing this now turned at China is ... interesting and ironic.
I don't consider myself a supporter of China, though I am impressed by the progress it's made most especially in recent decades. China is simply huge, and operates at scales the rest of the world fails to comprehend -- Wuhan is the city of 11 million you'd never heard of until two weeks ago. The country has faced, and does face immense challenges, and whilst not executing perfectly, has succeeded in many ways that deserve recognition. As do its failures. I'm often critical of elements of China's behaviours, both domestically and abroad (Uyghers, Tibet, and elsewhere). China is much like the proverbial Chinese symbol for crisis: opportunity and threat.
The main reason ideologically-driven discussions, debates, or (far more often) screaming matches are so boring is that they're simply so uninformative. The positions are well-established, the participants rarely principled or in good faith, and quite often themselves blinded to realities they'd prefer not to confront.
It's abundantly clear that China grossly mishandled the outbreak of 2019-nCoV, much as it did SARS in 2003, though not managing to cover up the epidemic as long in this instance. The death, or is it martyrdom, of Li Wenliang, is portentious. Unconfirmed reports of 800 million Weibo posts within 2.5 hours of its annoucement. It seems at least possible that changes to central control over information flows may occur, though the legacy of Tienanmen Square still looms large, and information regarding it remains tightly controlled. Chinese partisans have been engaged in petty battles over map definitions within the 2019-2020 Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak Wikipedia page, as evidenced by the Talk page. Yes, Wikipedia has its conflicts and attempts at manipulation, but they occur in public and are often countered.
China's own meddling with both independent Taiwan and Hong Kong appear to be backfiring badly in terms of trust in the CCP and central government. That seems somewhat just desserts, though not always epistemically valid information.
At the same time, there's what seems strongly to be hay-making by opponents of the government, quite possibly even factions within the CCP battling against each other (my speculation), and quite likely entities or factions within Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as the usual rabble-rousers, xenophobes, ecouragers of chaos (viz: Stephen Bannon), and general whackadoodles worldwide.
The interesting situation is that China seems to be approaching a point at which neither a closed-down media system, nor a wide open one, is risk-free. The first, had it persisted only a few weeks longer, could have had us talking a bound an epidemic ranging into the millions of cases and tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths, as well as global economic disruptions lasting months (and a likely risk-based reduced exposure to China). The second, while guarding against the "tell the emperor what pleases him" failures of rigid control, also enables the enemies of the emperor to speak freely. It seems all but certain that China will have to move out of its comfort zone here.
Or ... and if this path is chosen, all but certainly with the assistance of all the usual Silicon Valley suspects we've come to know and love ... institute an even more pervasive, flexible, and effective set of internal and external informational firewalls which permit the flow of critically important information whilst somehow managing to disrupt attempts at political opposition.
I don't find the second possibility overly likely from a technical standpoint, but Orwell and Huxley seem to have been winning the War for the Internet so far, and it seems unwise to not give them their nod.
Norbert Wiener, the father of Cybernetics, had a strong experience with information controls during World War II, as he worked on numerous research projects for the US government and military. After the war, his assessment was that the security restrictions on communications hurt the Allied forces more than they helped. For the most part, the enemy was already aware of the research projects, so the spread of information to the enemy was not meaningfully curtailed. But the Allies, working with limited technical and intellectual personnel resources, were hurt more by the duplicate, slowed, and inefficient progress made on the projects due to the communications restrictions.
Whether Wiener's view was accurate or merely his own personal bias, I'm not sure. But China is likely to be debating the same question, if not now, then soon.
#china #coronavirus #ncov2019 #wuhan #LiWenliang #propaganda #media #epidemics #tienamen #uygher
Li Wenliang – one of the first doctors who tried to alert the public about the coronavirus outbreak, only to be reprimanded by local police – has died, Wuhan Central Hospital confirmed early Friday morning, hours after it initially denied reports of his death.
“In the fight against the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus infection, our hospital's ophthalmologist, Li Wenliang, was unfortunately infected. He passed away after all the efforts we’ve taken to resuscitate him. We deeply mourn his passing,” the hospital said on its official Weibo account....
A semi-log plot at Wikipedia shows the exponential growth of this epidemic over the past two weeks. On such a plot, a straight line corresponds to an exponential growth in linear scale.
This trend need not continue, but if it does, the implications are ... severe. And efforts at containment will be measured against any reduction from this trend. Keep in mind also that this tracks confirmed cases, which is a subset of total actual infections.
As of two days ago, January 26, 2020, total cases stood at about 2,000, and deaths at 100. If trends continue we'll see, in very rough numbers:
Again, this is not certain to happen, but is projection based on current trend.
An epidemic is comprised of an infectious agent, a host population, susceptible individuals, vectors of transmission, and susceptibility or immunity to infection. Incubation period, time between infection and symptoms, infectiousness before onset of symptoms, and ease of transmission are all factors affecting spread.
In an epidemic, particularly against a virus with no known curative treatement, the way you attack spread is by vector control. You want to stop the spread of the viral particles themselves.
Within a given region, this means isolating known infectious individuals, minimising the amount and degree of contact between them and others, and between asymptomatic individuals, is key. Note that those not showing symptoms may or may not have the virus.
This means, for the most part, the measures applied so far: masks (of limited use), handwashing (very important), general isolation -- not going out and about, meaning limited school, work, and social activities, and limiting of long-distance travel, especially any transportation which completes journies within the incubation period.
Airplanes are epidemic engines. This was notably observed by British journalist and documentarian James Burke, when he revisiited his 1980s series Connections, and was asked how he might continue the series. His answer: to look at the concluding inventions and consider their further implications, for example, air travel and its role in epidemics.
So yes: curtailing air transport out of regions in which the virus is known to be pandemic (spread through the general population) is an extremely advisable measure. Should have been done weeks ago, but now is better than never. Expect to see further transport restrictions, and possible quarantines, particularly of evacuated individuals.
If you're in a region at risk of outbreak (presently: China), rather than buying masks, you should be stocking up on nonperishable food such that you have several weeks supply and can further minimise exposure though shopping, as well as hand sanitiser (alcohol should work, antibiotic is useless against viruses). Shopping-cart handles and other surfaces are prime transmission vectors: elevators, public transport, doors, light switches, etc. Regular cleaning and sanitisation of these is helpful.
Workplaces should require any infected individuals take sick leave, regardless of cause. (This is just common sense, unfortunately as always, uncommon.)
Immunisation against other diseases (e.g., standard influenza) won't protect you from 2019nCoV, but it will reduce the odds of confusing symptoms of unrelated conditions with those of the coronavirus which is helpful to both individuals, their contacts/families, and healthcare systems. Get your flu shot and insist on those around you getting theirs as well.
We've also seen secondary transmission to individuals never having visited China, in both Germany and Japan. Which means the disease is absolutely human-to-human transmissible.
Normally in major epidemics my concern is on global poor megacities, which have vast populations but poor public health infrastructure. That's likely a risk here, but North Korea seems another potentially volatile location given:
Whilst PRK has limited ties with the rest of the world, some do exist, and the elite are possibly more likely to be able and inclined to flee elsewhere, possibly taking the disease with them.
PRK have already been taking measures to limit border crossings. This is politically feasible (the benefits of absolute rule), but the actual effectiveness may fall short of requried levels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_Wuhan_coronavirus_outbreak
#coronavirus #wuhan #ncov2019 #china #epidemic #prk #northkorea #publichealth
