CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

Shadow

Swift, Silent,...Sleepy
In a grid down scenario, What about all the NUCLEAR POWER PALNTS?

I only ask because I live 25 miles east north east of one. You know directly in the natural path of weather for my area. Many of my neighbors and friends work there. Their contingency plans call for them to stay on site, maintain operations until properly relieved. (sound familiar vets?)

Never planned on holding in place indefinitely. Already have routes of travel, hold positions identified, and multiple bug out positions prepared.
If the grid is down the nuclear plants have on site generators that they need to cool them, for six months if the grid did not come back up. However, in spite of the huge tanks of fuel for the generators on site it is not enough for six months and requires re-supply. If there is not enough infrastructure available to accomplish this they will melt down. In that case it may no longer matter.

Shadow
 

Ractivist

Pride comes before the fall.....Pride month ended.
In a grid down scenario, What about all the NUCLEAR POWER PALNTS?

I only ask because I live 25 miles east north east of one. You know directly in the natural path of weather for my area. Many of my neighbors and friends work there. Their contingency plans call for them to stay on site, maintain operations until properly relieved. (sound familiar vets?)

Never planned on holding in place indefinitely. Already have routes of travel, hold positions identified, and multiple bug out positions prepared.
I think we are neighbors.
 

Zahra

Veteran Member
price slash on lobsters

SCMP News @SCMPNews

February 17, 2020
China typically buys 95 per cent of California’s lobsters. But amid the coronavirus outbreak, demand has waned, forcing local businesses to slash prices

View: https://twitter.com/SCMPNews/status/1229629614890397697

Ahhhhhh, at last there might be something good come from this virus! If we're lucky enough to live long enough, we can enjoy lower priced lobster with our steaks!
 

Shadow

Swift, Silent,...Sleepy
wonderful . . . now tell me . . . was the severe mental disorder caused by the virus?
Interesting thought. Viruses can get past the blood/brain barrier. My doctor told me this one of the ways they can quickly narrow down if it is viral or bacterial. If you have brain fog or confusion it is more likely to be viral.

You are the first to mention this. I wonder how it effects decision making processes and emotional states?

Shadow
 

Samuel Adams

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I think they're trying for minimal effect. The epidemic is like a runaway train. The PTB have been playing catch-up just getting themselves up to speed. Until they saw the gravity, they were calming the herd. Now they see it's coming fast, so they need to get the herd moving so the herd is ready for the runaway train when it gets here. If they don't get the herd moving, the train will hit us at full speed while we're standing still. So the herd has to be accelerated to match the speed of the train when it gets here, and it's getting here way faster than the government thought it would as recently as a month ago.

Your faith in the benevolence of guvmint is, um, admirable.
 

747s Carrying Americans Exposed To Coronavirus Used New Quarantine Box For Infected Flyers
Late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen helped develop the modular system for use in worst-case scenarios after the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak.
By Joseph TrevithickFebruary 17, 2020
Personnel load a Containerized Bio-Containment System onto a Kalitta Air 747-400ERF.
Phoenix Air

A pair of Kalitta Air 747-400ERF freighters carrying hundreds of U.S. citizens home from Japan after weeks of being quarantined on-board the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where 454 passengers contracted the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, have arrived at two American military bases. Pictures from the operation show that at least one of the aircraft was carrying a specialized shipping container-sized bio-containment system to isolate individuals diagnosed with the virus from non-infected passengers and crew. The late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen helped develop this system after the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The two aircraft left Tokyo's Haneda Airport at 7:05 AM local time on Feb. 17, 2020. Due to crossing the International Date Line, the first of these planes touched down at Travis Air Force Base in California at just shy of 11:30 PM local time on Feb. 16. The second 747 arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas at 3:56 AM local time on Feb. 17.

"During the evacuation process, after passengers had disembarked the ship and initiated transport to the airport, U.S. officials received notice that 14 passengers, who had been tested 2-3 days earlier, had tested positive for COVID-19," the U.S. State Department, which had chartered the flights, said in a statement on Feb. 17, 2020, using the formal name for the new coronavirus. "These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols."

The press release did not offer any details about this "specialized containment area," but pictures from the evacuation show a Containerized Bio-Containment System (CBCS) installed on one of the aircraft. The 747-400ERFs are not configured to carry passengers by default and those that had not tested positive for the new coronavirus traveled in palletized seating installed on the planes' cargo floors.


Andy Netherwood @AndyNetherwood


Photos of the flights evacuating US citizens from the quarantined Diamond Princess. Kalitta Air 747 freighters with palletised seating, divided into compartments. USAF bases (Lackland & Travis) being used as reception airfields.

View image on Twitter View image on Twitter View image on Twitter
159
1:27 AM - Feb 17, 2020
The CBCS is 44 feet long and eight feet tall, making it roughly the same size as an ISO shipping container. It is "a first-of-its-kind, flyable medical transport unit with full biocontainment," MRIGlobal, which helped design the system, says on its website.

"The units feature three rooms: a patient treatment area for four patients and four caregivers; an ante room to safely don and doff personal protective equipment; and a rest area for two caregivers," MRIGobal's page continues. "Pilots can cargo the CBCS in both private and military aircraft, confident that the biocontainment is safe and effective. CBCS units can be moved by truck, too, ready for use. The CBCS is designed to survive crash loads and rapid decompression per DOD Safe-to-Fly standards, and the entire system can be rapidly de-contaminated and put right back into service."
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581960074100-graphic.jpg

MRI Global
A 3D rendering showing the layout of the CBCS.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581960143252-interior.jpg

Phoenix Air
A view from inside the CBCS during a training exercise.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581962190062-interior-2.jpg

USAF
Another interior view.
The development of the system began in 2014 with a $5 million public-private partnership grant from the State Department to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. At the time, Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder who passed away in 2018 due to cancer, had expressed an interest to the U.S. government in using some of his considerable wealth in helping to combat the Ebola virus. In December 2013, an Ebola outbreak in West Africa turned into a major regional crisis. This, in turn, prompted the United States to deploy considerable resources, including a U.S. military task force, to safeguard American citizens and help contain the epidemic.

That outbreak demonstrated the value of a smaller system, known as the Aeromedical Biological Containment System (ABCS). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), together with the U.S. military and air services contractor Phoenix Air, had developed the ABCS between 2007 and 2010 in response to a number of serious disease outbreaks, including multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and avian influenza, or "bird flu."
The ABCS, which was designed to fit inside Phoenix's Gulfstream III business jet aircraft, consists of a tent-like isolator unit that is entirely sealed to prevent airborne pathogens from escaping. You can read much more about the development of ABCS and Phoenix Air's specially outfitted Gulfstreams here.

Between 2014 and 2015, Phoenix Air's ABCS-equipped Gulfstream IIIs successfully brought 41 Ebola-infected patients to hospitals in the United States and Europe. So, when Paul Allen had offered to help, the State Department asked if he would be willing to help fund work on a larger, more capable containment system that could be employed in response to any future epidemic.

The Paul Allen Foundation, together with MRIGlobal and Phoenix Air, set to work and the first examples of the new Containerized Bio-Containment Systems (CBCS) were ready for testing in 2016. MRIGlobal says that it took just 191 days in total, after the requirements were solidified, to design and build the two CBCS.

The CBCS requires a much larger aircraft than the Gulfstream III to carry it. Kalitta's 747s are one option, but the State Department has also worked with the U.S. Air Force to certify its C-17A Globemaster III airlifters to carry them, if necessary.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581962303930-c-17-1.jpg

USAF
A US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III airlifter with the CBCS installed.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581962314451-c-17-2.jpg

USAF
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581960696587-c-17.jpg

USAF
Phoenix Air is the primary contractor responsible for sustaining the CBCS. At least as of 2018, the company stood on-call to transport the containers by truck to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where personnel would load them onto an aircraft, such as one of Kalitta's 747s. Hartsfield-Jackson is situated some 40 miles southeast of Cartersville Airport, where Phoenix Air is headquartered, but it is too small to readily accommodate commercial aircraft large enough to carry the containerized system.

"Training exercises are conducted several times annually, flying multiple aircraft to Africa, to maintain the high level of skills required to perform these missions," according to Phoenix Air. "The Contagious Disease program is operated under a multi-year contract with the U.S. Department of State (DOS)."

https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581960825899-liberia.jpg

US Department of State
A low-quality image the US State Department released in 2016 of a Kalitta Air 747 carrying an CBCS in Monrovia, Liberia, during an Exercise called Tranquil Surge.


It's not immediately clear if the State Department has access to more than two of these systems now. With each one only able to hold four patients, one or two of them would not have been enough to isolate all 14 of the U.S. citizens on the flights out of Japan who had tested positive for COVID-19. The CBCS may have simply been installed to provide an area to safely transport anyone who began experiencing especially severe symptoms in flight. The pictures from on-board the 747s show that the crew was wearing protective suits and it seems almost certain that other precautions were taken to prevent the spread of the virus.

"Passengers that develop symptoms in flight and those with positive test results will remain isolated on the flights and will be transported to an appropriate location for continued isolation and care," the State Department had said in its statement. "Upon landing in the United States, passengers will deplane at either Travis AFB or Joint Base San Antonio and will remain under quarantine for 14 days."

A total of around 340 Americans left Japan on both flights. Around 400 Americans had been on-board Diamond Cruises' Diamond Princess when it arrived in Yokohama harbor some two weeks ago. Japanese authorities placed the ship under quarantine after learning that a passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong had tested positive for COVID-19. At least 46 U.S. citizens on the ship have already contracted the coronavirus since then.

At the time of writing, the CDC says that there are 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, not including those from the Diamond Princess, and that 60 additional individuals are being evaluated for possible infection with the virus. There have been no deaths confirmed to be linked to this new coronavirus in the United States to date.

As of Feb. 16, 2020, the United Nations' World Health Organization reported that there were nearly 51,900 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide and 683 fatalities. The vast majority of these cases and deaths have occurred inside China, where the virus first appeared in December 2019. There have only been three deaths outside of China, one in the Philippines, one in Japan, and one in France. Though COVID-19's spread outside of China has been significantly slower than inside that country, it has now appeared in 25 other nations around the world.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581961373607-who-map.jpg

WHO
The U.S. State Department already helped diplomatic staff and other U.S. citizens evacuate China on chartered flights, including on Kalitta's 747s, but it is unclear if the containerized containment system was employed or otherwise available on any of those earlier flights.
If there is a need to help Americans leave other countries where the virus becomes a major concern, it is certainly possible that the State Department will charter additional flights, some of which may be carrying the highly specialized Containerized Bio-Containment System in case there is a need to isolate infected passengers.
Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com

===

.
 
Last edited:
15m ago 16:51
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has flown Chinese parts in suitcases to Britain to maintain production and could run out after two weeks, as the impact of the coronavirus outbreak hits firms across countries and industries.

Britain’s biggest carmaker joined major global companies such as Apple in warning of the impact of the virus on supply chains, Reuters reports.

Fiat Chrysler said last week it had temporarily halted output at its Serbian plant, the first such suspension by an automaker in Europe in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Components made in China are used in millions of vehicles assembled around the world and Hubei province - the centre of the virus outbreak - is a major hub for vehicle parts production and shipments.

Chief Executive Ralf Speth said:
We are safe for this week and we are safe for next week and in the third week we have ... parts missing.

We have flown parts in suitcases from China to the UK.


Dr Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover gives a speech, at the opening of the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) today.

Dr Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover gives a speech, at the opening of the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) today. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
Production at the firm’s Chinese factory would recommence on 24 February and was “safe for the very first week”, he added.

The new coronavirus has killed over 1,900 people in China and infected around 72,000, confining millions to their homes, disrupting businesses and delaying reopening of factories after the extended Lunar New Year holiday break.

Speth said sales in China, the world’s biggest auto market, had been hit. The knock back comes after JLR had seen a recovery in sales there, helping it to return to profitability in recent quarters.

“That’s completely stopped. It’s zero,” he said. “You don’t know whether the economy will catch up or whether this kind of loss is just a loss.”

===

.
 

joannita

Veteran Member
Health Minister Plans for Scenario Whereby CoronaVirus Cancels Israel’s Elections
By David Sidman February 18, 2020 , 12:52 pm
You shall serve Hashem your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will remove sickness from your midst. Exodus 23:35 (The Israel Bible™)
Yaakov-Litzman.jpg

(Photo:Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsAppPrintShare1
Health Minister Yaakov Litzman met with the chairman of the Election Committee, Attorney Orly Ades, to discuss the possibility of the CoronaVirus hitting Israel in the lead up to its March election. The meeting involved plans regarding what to do if the virus goes into full force in the next two weeks, and how the electoral committee plans on dealing with this complex scenario reports Rotter.

During the meeting, the two discussed how the elections would be conducted if they were to be held in hospitals for CoronaVirus patients, and how those in quarantine could exercise their democratic right and vote. Additionally, the Election Committee will purchase dozens of masks for ballot observers.
It was also agreed that if the CoronaVirus reached Israel in the next two weeks, the elections would not be postponed. However, if there is a mass epidemic, the option of postponing elections will be discussed until the pandemic is under control.
Until now, the Health Ministry has invested over NIS 30 million into fighting the virus.
as part and parcel of preparations in Israel for the arrival of the Chinese virus, an quarantined compound was established two weeks ago at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer (near Tel Aviv) to quarantine the virus’ victims.
During a tour of the facility, Litzman said that “we can be congratulated” on the fact that so far the virus has not seeped in, and yet, “We are reviewing every case, doing everything we can to prevent the virus from entering. But there is almost no escape. We are prepared even if God forbid we need everything. “



 

Leigh19717

Senior Member

747s Carrying Americans Exposed To Coronavirus Used New Quarantine Box For Infected Flyers
Late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen helped develop the modular system for use in worst-case scenarios after the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak.
By Joseph TrevithickFebruary 17, 2020
Personnel load a Containerized Bio-Containment System onto a Kalitta Air 747-400ERF.
Phoenix Air

A pair of Kalitta Air 747-400ERF freighters carrying hundreds of U.S. citizens home from Japan after weeks of being quarantined on-board the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where 454 passengers contracted the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, have arrived at two American military bases. Pictures from the operation show that at least one of the aircraft was carrying a specialized shipping container-sized bio-containment system to isolate individuals diagnosed with the virus from non-infected passengers and crew. The late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen helped develop this system after the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The two aircraft left Tokyo's Haneda Airport at 7:05 AM local time on Feb. 17, 2020. Due to crossing the International Date Line, the first of these planes touched down at Travis Air Force Base in California at just shy of 11:30 PM local time on Feb. 16. The second 747 arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas at 3:56 AM local time on Feb. 17.

"During the evacuation process, after passengers had disembarked the ship and initiated transport to the airport, U.S. officials received notice that 14 passengers, who had been tested 2-3 days earlier, had tested positive for COVID-19," the U.S. State Department, which had chartered the flights, said in a statement on Feb. 17, 2020, using the formal name for the new coronavirus. "These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols."

The press release did not offer any details about this "specialized containment area," but pictures from the evacuation show a Containerized Bio-Containment System (CBCS) installed on one of the aircraft. The 747-400ERFs are not configured to carry passengers by default and those that had not tested positive for the new coronavirus traveled in palletized seating installed on the planes' cargo floors.


Andy Netherwood @AndyNetherwood


Photos of the flights evacuating US citizens from the quarantined Diamond Princess. Kalitta Air 747 freighters with palletised seating, divided into compartments. USAF bases (Lackland & Travis) being used as reception airfields.

View image on Twitter View image on Twitter View image on Twitter
159
1:27 AM - Feb 17, 2020
The CBCS is 44 feet long and eight feet tall, making it roughly the same size as an ISO shipping container. It is "a first-of-its-kind, flyable medical transport unit with full biocontainment," MRIGlobal, which helped design the system, says on its website.

"The units feature three rooms: a patient treatment area for four patients and four caregivers; an ante room to safely don and doff personal protective equipment; and a rest area for two caregivers," MRIGobal's page continues. "Pilots can cargo the CBCS in both private and military aircraft, confident that the biocontainment is safe and effective. CBCS units can be moved by truck, too, ready for use. The CBCS is designed to survive crash loads and rapid decompression per DOD Safe-to-Fly standards, and the entire system can be rapidly de-contaminated and put right back into service."
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581960074100-graphic.jpg

MRI Global
A 3D rendering showing the layout of the CBCS.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581960143252-interior.jpg

Phoenix Air
A view from inside the CBCS during a training exercise.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581962190062-interior-2.jpg

USAF
Another interior view.
The development of the system began in 2014 with a $5 million public-private partnership grant from the State Department to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. At the time, Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder who passed away in 2018 due to cancer, had expressed an interest to the U.S. government in using some of his considerable wealth in helping to combat the Ebola virus. In December 2013, an Ebola outbreak in West Africa turned into a major regional crisis. This, in turn, prompted the United States to deploy considerable resources, including a U.S. military task force, to safeguard American citizens and help contain the epidemic.

That outbreak demonstrated the value of a smaller system, known as the Aeromedical Biological Containment System (ABCS). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), together with the U.S. military and air services contractor Phoenix Air, had developed the ABCS between 2007 and 2010 in response to a number of serious disease outbreaks, including multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and avian influenza, or "bird flu."
The ABCS, which was designed to fit inside Phoenix's Gulfstream III business jet aircraft, consists of a tent-like isolator unit that is entirely sealed to prevent airborne pathogens from escaping. You can read much more about the development of ABCS and Phoenix Air's specially outfitted Gulfstreams here.

Between 2014 and 2015, Phoenix Air's ABCS-equipped Gulfstream IIIs successfully brought 41 Ebola-infected patients to hospitals in the United States and Europe. So, when Paul Allen had offered to help, the State Department asked if he would be willing to help fund work on a larger, more capable containment system that could be employed in response to any future epidemic.

The Paul Allen Foundation, together with MRIGlobal and Phoenix Air, set to work and the first examples of the new Containerized Bio-Containment Systems (CBCS) were ready for testing in 2016. MRIGlobal says that it took just 191 days in total, after the requirements were solidified, to design and build the two CBCS.

The CBCS requires a much larger aircraft than the Gulfstream III to carry it. Kalitta's 747s are one option, but the State Department has also worked with the U.S. Air Force to certify its C-17A Globemaster III airlifters to carry them, if necessary.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581962303930-c-17-1.jpg

USAF
A US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III airlifter with the CBCS installed.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581962314451-c-17-2.jpg

USAF
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581960696587-c-17.jpg

USAF
Phoenix Air is the primary contractor responsible for sustaining the CBCS. At least as of 2018, the company stood on-call to transport the containers by truck to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where personnel would load them onto an aircraft, such as one of Kalitta's 747s. Hartsfield-Jackson is situated some 40 miles southeast of Cartersville Airport, where Phoenix Air is headquartered, but it is too small to readily accommodate commercial aircraft large enough to carry the containerized system.

"Training exercises are conducted several times annually, flying multiple aircraft to Africa, to maintain the high level of skills required to perform these missions," according to Phoenix Air. "The Contagious Disease program is operated under a multi-year contract with the U.S. Department of State (DOS)."

https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581960825899-liberia.jpg

US Department of State
A low-quality image the US State Department released in 2016 of a Kalitta Air 747 carrying an CBCS in Monrovia, Liberia, during an Exercise called Tranquil Surge.


It's not immediately clear if the State Department has access to more than two of these systems now. With each one only able to hold four patients, one or two of them would not have been enough to isolate all 14 of the U.S. citizens on the flights out of Japan who had tested positive for COVID-19. The CBCS may have simply been installed to provide an area to safely transport anyone who began experiencing especially severe symptoms in flight. The pictures from on-board the 747s show that the crew was wearing protective suits and it seems almost certain that other precautions were taken to prevent the spread of the virus.

"Passengers that develop symptoms in flight and those with positive test results will remain isolated on the flights and will be transported to an appropriate location for continued isolation and care," the State Department had said in its statement. "Upon landing in the United States, passengers will deplane at either Travis AFB or Joint Base San Antonio and will remain under quarantine for 14 days."

A total of around 340 Americans left Japan on both flights. Around 400 Americans had been on-board Diamond Cruises' Diamond Princess when it arrived in Yokohama harbor some two weeks ago. Japanese authorities placed the ship under quarantine after learning that a passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong had tested positive for COVID-19. At least 46 U.S. citizens on the ship have already contracted the coronavirus since then.

At the time of writing, the CDC says that there are 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, not including those from the Diamond Princess, and that 60 additional individuals are being evaluated for possible infection with the virus. There have been no deaths confirmed to be linked to this new coronavirus in the United States to date.

As of Feb. 16, 2020, the United Nations' World Health Organization reported that there were nearly 51,900 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide and 683 fatalities. The vast majority of these cases and deaths have occurred inside China, where the virus first appeared in December 2019. There have only been three deaths outside of China, one in the Philippines, one in Japan, and one in France. Though COVID-19's spread outside of China has been significantly slower than inside that country, it has now appeared in 25 other nations around the world.
https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1581961373607-who-map.jpg

WHO
The U.S. State Department already helped diplomatic staff and other U.S. citizens evacuate China on chartered flights, including on Kalitta's 747s, but it is unclear if the containerized containment system was employed or otherwise available on any of those earlier flights.
If there is a need to help Americans leave other countries where the virus becomes a major concern, it is certainly possible that the State Department will charter additional flights, some of which may be carrying the highly specialized Containerized Bio-Containment System in case there is a need to isolate infected passengers.
Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com

===

.
I want to know how they fit in 13 people PLUS medical staff on the way home from the cruise lift?
 

News
Film Crew Documents Life in Wuhan Amid COVID-19 Epidemic
The film they had planned to shoot in Hubei was derailed by the coronavirus, so instead they’re creating a visual chronicle of a city under lockdown.



Cai Xuejiao

Feb 17, 2020 2-min read + video



The streets are eerily empty. Buildings stand silent. There’s hardly any sign of life.
Such descriptions may evoke a post-apocalyptic cityscape, but they’re actually real scenes from Wuhan, a once-bustling transportation hub of 14 million people appears nearly deserted during the ongoing coronavirus epidemic.
Filming the city at the center of the COVID-19 epidemic is a crew that found themselves stranded in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei province, when the city was placed under lockdown on Jan. 23 to contain the virus.

http://video1.sixthtone.com/video/5/0/388.mp4 << click to view

Following a halt in production and the lockdown of Wuhan due to the COVID-19 epidemic, a film crew stuck inside the city turned their cameras to the streets to create a documentary.

“They (my fellow crew members) are in Wuhan … They want to do something meaningful,” said Lan Bo, who went to Wuhan to direct a feature film but has shifted his focus to document daily life. “They want to record what happened.”

Lan told Sixth Tone that he and his team had to postpone their scheduled film project because of the epidemic. That’s when videographer Xie Dan started filming on his phone: The team put together a short film titled “Wuhan: The Long Night” and shared it online.

The haunting images of Wuhan attracted millions of views on microblogging platform Weibo, and the video’s popularity spurred Lan to expand it into a feature-length documentary.

“First, since the lockdown, there hasn’t been a video presenting such a panoramic view,” Lan said. “And second, I feel that these are going to be valuable images for historical reference and for other documentaries.”

The film crew at work on a full-length version of their documentary short “Wuhan: The Long Night.” From @飞行的兰波 on Weibo

The film crew at work on a full-length version of their documentary short “Wuhan: The Long Night.” From @飞行的兰波 on Weibo

For his film, Lan and his team will focus on telling stories about how common people — health care workers, volunteers, and those in other industries — have been impacted by the shock of the epidemic.

“I hope people can tell the truth, that they can face the camera honestly,” he said. “I hope my camera will not lie.”

COVID-19 has killed more than 1,700 people in China and infected over 70,000 worldwide. Last week, authorities revealed that the novel coronavirus had infected 1,716 medical workers, killing six of them. Over 1,102 medical workers were infected in Wuhan alone.

Amid the coronavirus epidemic, many journalists and citizen-journalists have been livestreaming the situation from ground zero — the daily life, the cabin fever, and the congested hospitals. Meanwhile, others from outside Wuhan including the singer Li Yuchun and the renowned pianist Lang Lang helped create a music video as a show of solidarity with the city’s residents.

Editor: Bibek Bhandari.

(Header image: An aerial view of nearly-deserted roads on the first day of a citywide lockdown in Wuhan, Hubei province, Feb. 23, 2020. From @飞行的兰波 on Weibo)



===

.
 
Feb 18, 2020 04:28 AM
SOCIETY & CULTURE
Coronavirus Among Medics More Widespread Than Reported, Research Shows

By Ma Danmeng and Denise Jia

A medical worker cares for a coronavirus patient in Wuhan, Hubei province. Photo: Ding Gang/Caixin

A medical worker cares for a coronavirus patient in Wuhan, Hubei province. Photo: Ding Gang/Caixin


logo

The biggest study yet of the Covid-19 epidemic found that almost twice as many Chinese medical workers have been infected as officially reported by the government, though the research didn’t turn up the source of the novel coronavirus.

A team at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studied 72,314 cases as of Feb. 11, among which 44,672 were confirmed cases of coronavirus. The sweeping study was published Monday by the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology.

The researchers found that 3,019 medical workers had been infected, among whom 1,688 patients were in severe or critical condition. As of Feb. 11, the government acknowledged more than 1,700 medical workers nationwide as confirmed with the disease, almost 90% of them in Hubei, according to Chinese National Health Commission deputy chief Zeng Yixin at a press conference Friday.

The overall death rate among confirmed cases was 2.3%, the CDC researchers found. In Hubei province, the epicenter of epidemic, the pace of fatalities was 2.9%, compared with 0.4% in the rest of the country, according to the paper. For patients more than 80 years old, the fatality rate can be as high as 14.8%, the study found.

Doctors and nurses in Wuhan have faced the highest risk of infection, especially in early January, the study found. In the first 10 days of January, nearly 40% of infected medical workers progressed to severe condition before the rate declined in February. Among the 1,688 severely ill medical workers, 64% were in Wuhan and 23.3% in other areas in Hubei, according to the paper.

Among patients in critical condition, 49% died, the study found. According to the National Health Condition, patients in critical condition experience respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation, or shock, or other organ failures requiring intensive care. As of Feb. 11, 4.7% of infected patients across China were in critical condition, the researchers found.

The study reported that an additional 13.8% of patients were in severe condition, meaning difficulty breathing, low oxygen uptake, multiple lung lesions or other clinical circumstances requiring hospitalization, according to the NHC guidelines.
The study didn’t provide details on how medical workers were infected or why protective measures failed. Caixin’s in-depth reports showed that in the early stage of the epidemic, uninformed doctors had close contact with infected patients without enough protection and that shortages of protective supplies and substandard gear also left workers exposed to infection.

The paper provided different findings from another paper published a week earlier. The new study said there is no evidence of “super-spreader” incidents at any hospitals. The earlier paper, produced by a team led by Zhong Nanshan, a Chinese epidemiologist who discovered the SARS coronavirus in 2003, said it could not preclude the presence of “super-spreaders,” defined as one person who transmits infection to more than 10 others. The earlier study covered about 1,000 cases from Jan. 1-29.

Early cases suggest that the Covid-19 virus may be less damaging than the SARS and MERS coronaviruses, but as the number of cases increased rapidly, the new virus appears to be more contagious than the two others, the researchers said.
Before Dec. 31, almost all cases were in Hubei, but within just 10 days, patients were reported in 20 provinces and in the following 10 days it spread to a total of 30 provinces, the researchers said.

The epidemic curve is showing signs of slowing, indicating measures such as restricting the flow of people, reducing human contact and disclosure of epidemic information at a high frequency through multiple channels may be helping to contain the outbreak, the paper said.

Some important questions remain unanswered, including the identification of animal hosts of the virus, infective period, transmission routes, effective treatment and prevention method, the researchers wrote.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)


===

.
 
Last edited:

rondaben

Veteran Member
some of the comments

These comments are rediculous. I wouldn't put much...if any...stock in them.

1) this is NOT HIV. The article about "HIV" like proteins has absolutely no clinical basis. It is a smilarity and we don't even know for sure if the proteins would form a possible receptor for T-lymphocytes. Furthermore, T-lymphocytes are a type of WBC--blood cell--and is not specific to any particular tissue such as the lung or heart. It circulates and aggregates to the tissues that are infected. CD4 counts (T-lymphocytes) do not drop as they do in HIV. It is not abnormal for an initial WBC count to go down with a high viral load and then rebound.

2) There has been no link of sudden death to reinfection other than in questionable chinese research. At this point I would trust that as much as I do their epidemiology numbers. They are trying to create a narrative that this disease was "beyond their control" so as to mitigate the upcoming humanitarian and economic crisis coming first to china, then possibly the world.

3)The third comment about reporting is likely true.

4)The final comment has no corroboration and makes no sense. How do you know that the death rate is 50% in the untreated if they are....untreated?
 
Feb 17, 2020 08:25 PM
SOCIETY & CULTURE
Four Deaths in One Family Show Danger of Wuhan’s Home Quarantine Policy

By Xiao Hui, Bao Zhiming and Matthew Walsh

Wuhan’s self-quarantine policy went ahead despite concerns that it posed a risk to public health. Photo: Cai Yingli/Caixin

Wuhan’s self-quarantine policy went ahead despite concerns that it posed a risk to public health. Photo: Cai Yingli/Caixin


logo
The deaths of four family members in the central Chinese city of Wuhan who succumbed to the new coronavirus while self-quarantining in the same apartment have once again raised serious questions about the policy of staying home imposed at the start of the epidemic.


Chang Kai, a notable director at Hubei Film Studios, died on Feb. 14 from pneumonia caused by the virus also known as Covid-19, according to an obituary published by his employer. He was 55. His father, mother, and older sister also died from the same illness between Jan. 28 and Feb. 14, Caixin learned from one of Chang’s former college classmates.

The story of their deaths starkly illuminates how authorities in the disease-stricken city may have mishandled the spread of the virus by initially pursuing a policy of home quarantine in a bid to relieve pressure on overburdened, undersupplied hospitals.

That policy went ahead despite concerns that it posed a risk to public health. Chen Bo, a professor at Wuhan’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology, told Caixin that home quarantine could spark clusters of cross-household and cross-community infections, and cause more deaths by allowing serious infections to progress without treatment.

One of Chang’s former schoolmates told Caixin that Chang’s father first reported symptoms of coronavirus infection on Jan. 25, the first day of the Lunar New Year. Chang took the older man to several hospitals in Wuhan but was turned away each time due to a shortage of beds. Three days later, Chang’s father died.

But the family’s tragedy was only just beginning. On Feb. 2, Chang’s mother died after contracting the disease.

Read more

In Depth: Understaffed, Under-resourced and Overwhelmed — Coronavirus Early Response


The same day, Zhong Nanshan, a leading Chinese epidemiologist helping direct the response to the outbreak, said in a TV interview that it was “extremely dangerous” for hospitals with insufficient beds to send home people diagnosed with the virus or suspected of having it.

Also on Feb. 2, authorities in Wuhan announced they were ending the home quarantine policy, and began sorting patients into confirmed cases, suspected cases, people with fevers — a common symptom of both the new coronavirus and many other health problems — and people who had been in contact with coronavirus patients but had not yet shown symptoms. The new policy isolated patients in each category and treated them accordingly.

However, the change in approach came too late for the Chang family. On Feb. 14, hours after Chang himself passed away, his older sister also lost her battle with the virus. Chang’s wife, who also contracted the disease, remains in a serious condition.

One of Chang’s former college classmates showed Caixin a message written by the filmmaker on his deathbed describing his family’s fruitless search for hospital beds, his grief at his parents’ demise, and his own ailing health.

Written in poetic classical Chinese, it ends: “As I draw my last feeble breaths, I say to my family, my friends, and my son in faraway London: All my life, I was a filial son, a responsible father, a loving husband, and an honest person! Farewell to those I love and to those who loved me!”

Friends paid homage to the “kindhearted and easygoing” director. “I hope this tragedy will be investigated so we can know whose fault it was,” the classmate said.

As of 10 a.m. Monday, China had recorded 70,636 cases of the new coronavirus, along with 1,772 deaths.
Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com)


===

Multiply by X?

===
.
 
Last edited:

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
"At promise youth" is Kali's new term for thugs. They already know reality. What they want is chaos where they can attack with impunity because the police are swamped and there's no one to track them down. What will they do in the coming storm?

The thugs will become infected and may will die of the Virus and others of lead poisoning....

Texican....
 
2 min agoSingapore confirms 4 new cases of coronavirus
From CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey

The Singapore Ministry of Health has reported four new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the citywide total to 81 confirmed cases.

Here are the four new cases:
  • A 57 year-old woman with no recent travel to China and links to the cluster of cases with the Grace Assembly of God church
  • A 35 year-old woman Malaysian national with no recent travel to China and is a relative to a previously diagnosed patient
  • A 38 year-old woman with no recent travel to China (She works in an administrative role at Singapore’s National University Hospital but has not interacted with patients since onset of symptoms, the ministry said)
  • A 50 year-old man with no recent travel to China and links to the Grace Assembly of God cluster.
Five patients diagnosed with the coronavirus have also been discharged from the hospital, bringing Singapore’s total of discharged patients to 29 people.


===

.
 
Last edited:
4m ago 17:31


Officials in Hubei province, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, will adopt more thorough and forceful measures to find patients with fever, state media reported today.

Records of all fever patients who have visited a doctor since 20 January will be checked, as well as the records of those who have bought over-the-counter cough and fever medications in shops and online, Xinhua reported.

People will get health check ups and, if necessary, be placed in quarantine or hospitalised, the report added, citing a notice from the province’s epidemic control headquarters.

China reported on Tuesday its fewest new coronavirus infections since January and its lowest daily death toll for a week, but the World Health Organization said the data should still be viewed with caution.

Patients rest at a temporary hospital converted from Wuhan Sports Centre.


Patients rest at a temporary hospital converted from Wuhan Sports Centre. Photograph: Xiao Yijiu/AP

[URL='https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/feb/18/coronavirus-outbreak-updates-coronavirus-live-updates-hubei-deaths-china-wuhan-outbreak-apple-iphone-death-toll-latest-news?[/URL]

===

Total spectrum surveillance. Bought some cough syrup for poor deceased mother and now in quarantine.

===

.
 
Last edited:

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
29 min ago
A new campaign aims to help Chinese restaurants losing business over coronavirus fears
From CNN's Jessie Yeung


Staff clear a table at a Chinese restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, on February 14.
Staff clear a table at a Chinese restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, on February 14. Credit: William West/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese restaurants in Australia and elsewhere have been suffering for nearly two months, with many reporting a drop in business due to public fears over the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Now, a social media campaign in Australia is urging communities to rally around their local Chinese restaurant, as authorities warn against the danger of misinformation and racialized stigma.

The campaign, launched this week by Australian political activist group GetUp!, encourages people to show their support by spreading the hashtag #IWillEatWithYou and pledging to support struggling Chinese businesses.

Chinese restaurants are losing business over coronavirus fears
RELATEDChinese restaurants are losing business over coronavirus fears



===

A great deal of SARS infections were traced to food preparation.

===

.


I have instructed my DW to avoid the local Chinese restaurant (which we enjoy very much) to include their excellent takeout. Why? The majority of Chinese have close ties to the mainland, including family visits and mail. Exactly like anyone else, there is no way to know who has had contact with whom or what piece of infected mail (or contents) they may have handled. In the case of Chinese residents in the US, there is logically a much greater chance that they have had virus exposure than there is with other US residents.

Eventually there will be too great a risk to associate with anyone, at least for a certain period. DW and I were discussing this last night and wondering when we'll decide to close off the little Doc1 Homestead and simply stay on our property. Though it wouldn't be fun, we could do this for many, many months. Needless to say, if things get that bad there will be many other security concerns besides staying isolated from the virus!

Best
Doc
 

Dozdoats

On TB every waking moment
Haven't seen this posted yet but it's hard to keep up ...
=================


  • Coronavirus: The Calm Before The Storm?
    Is the puzzling silence from officials presaging a turn for the worse?
    by Adam Taggart

    Monday, February 17, 2020, 7:16 PM

Good updates on the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic (aka covid-19) are becoming harder to obtain as governments tighten their grip on news sources.

The data being shared, particularly by the Chinese, are increasingly hard to believe. They don’t match the massive response the government is undertaking.

Likewise, outside of China, reported cases remain lower than we would expect given the powerful R0 (i.e., infectiousness) of the virus, as well as its long asymptomatic incubation period.

Are we being intentionally kept in the dark?

Quite possibly. Chris walks through the possible reasons why, and points to the stock markets as a prime example of disinformation.

They’re currently being used to send an “everything is fine” signal, while in reality, the global economy is taking multiple gut punches from the disruption of the many supply chains dependent on China’s (currently quarantined) workers.

Is this current period of puzzling silence from officials the calm before the storm?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2373&v=ReMCn4GsviM&feature=emb_logo

RT 39:33

Be sure to stay up-to-date on Peak Prosperity’s ongoing full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak by visiting here.
 
2020 Guangdong Pangolin 90% Identity With Human COVID Sequences
By niman, 1 hour ago in Sequences (COVID)


Posted 1 hour ago
Full sequence of a 2020 collection from a Guangdong Pangolin is 90% identical with human COVID sequences from patients in China and the United States

rarepangolin.jpg
In this Thursday, June 19, 2014 file photo, a pangolin carries its baby at a Bali zoo in Bali, Indonesia. Their scales—made of keratin, the same material as in human finger nails—are in high demand for Chinese traditional medicine, to allegedly cure several ailments, although there is no scientific backing for these beliefs. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File)

===

.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
I'm not finding the thread about Shannon a member here stuck on this Diamond cruise, somehow it tried to post itself to Pinterest, the actual thread, and when I backed out I could no longer find it which means I probably accidentally hid the thread. SMH

Anyway, this is a crazy sad update, I'll try to copy and paste it to this thread.


FEBRUARY 18, 2020

'The quarantine process failed': Over 500 have tested positive for Coronavirus onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship

'Something went awry'
FEBRUARY 18, 2020

PHIL SHIVER


Some are questioning the effectiveness of the quarantine process after an additional 88 passengers onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, tested positive for Coronavirus Tuesday.

At the time of this writing, 542 of the 3,711 passengers and crew had tested positive for the infection.
https://www.theblaze.com/u/philshiver

The newly reported total makes the ship the site of the most infections outside of China, USA Today reported.
The 14-day quarantine is scheduled to end on Wednesday, however, hundreds of American passengers already departed the ship on Sunday through an evacuation process facilitated by the U.S. Department of State. During the evacuation, it was discovered that 14 U.S. passengers had come down with the virus, despite testing negative only a few days prior.

The infected passengers "were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft," a joint statement from the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services read. And upon landing, they will restart the 14-day quarantine period.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told USA Today that while the initial decision to quarantine wasn't unreasonable, something had gone "awry."

"The quarantine process failed," Fauci said. "I'd like to sugarcoat it and try to be diplomatic about it, but it failed. People were getting infected on that ship. Something went awry in the process of the quarantining on that ship. I don't know what it was, but a lot of people got infected on that ship."

News of more infections on the Diamond Princess cruise ship come amid reports that Coronavirus can reinfect people, and that the second infection could be more dangerous — potentially leading to heart failure.

Furthermore, speculation is on the rise regarding the virus' outbreak in China, with many believing that the country is lying about its death toll.
 

goosebeans

Veteran Member
Yeah, we knew that, too, but like I said earlier, I didn't know his treats were made in China. Should have known, though, since we have been buying them at Walmart. Our mistake and stupidity.

He is 4 yrs. old, and got a clean bill of health this morning from our vet!

SouthernBreeze, please accept my apologies! I wasn't meaning that as a criticism of you guys! I meant to add that we get the large Milk Bones - supposedly made in Kansas. We break them in half or thirds to make them go farther. We don't feed many treats though. Hubby's dog will do anything for a little piece of carrot. So that's what he gets. :) I'm sorry my comment sounded so curt! It's getting harder and harder to find anything that isn't made in China.
 

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Remember, it appears that it has smoker affinity rather than racial affinity. and 49% of Chinese males smoke. there is also more smoking in the African population than the United States, but I don't think nearly as much as Chinese do.

Yes Trivium Pursuit, I have read about the virus' smoker affinity - which is unfortunate in my case as I smoke - but there has been much less written about any racial affinities. I suspect that this is due both to ignorance on the subject and politically correct constraints. Additionally, I've read (but can't corroborate) than people with A Neg blood are more susceptible. I'm AB Neg, so this may be a concern for me.

Oh, well. We all die some time. I'm not being cavalier about this, but came to terms with my own mortality decades ago. I've survived some incredibly dangerous episodes in my life, so it would be mildly amusing irony if it was a tiny virus that finally took me out. Hopefully if that time comes, I can manage an ironic smile.

Best
Doc
 
Top