Deadly Wuhan Coronavirus

nivek

As Above So Below
Coronavirus death toll hits 811 as virus claims more lives than 2003 SARS outbreak - as Beijing starts rounding up sufferers and videos show hazmat suit-clad goons dragging people from their homes




A total of 774 died in the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak between 2002 and 2003 - another coronavirus that jumped from animals to humans in China. The latest figures come after a video showing a man suspected of having coronavirus desperately sprinting away from officials trying to put him in quarantine has emerged (left). A second clip (right) shows shows suspected coronavirus sufferers being forcefully dragged from their homes by officials in hazmat suits.

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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
You can't fix stupid.

"the passenger said the birds were cat food" For REAL ? Because the United States doesn't have enough goddamned cat food ?

Border agents seize bag of dead birds from passenger traveling from China
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A bag of dead birds was discovered by US Customs and Border Patrol inside a passenger’s luggage who traveled from China to Washington DC-area airport, authorities said.

The dead birds were packaged in a bag that had cartoon images of a dog and cat, US Customs said in a statement. Workers from the agency seized the birds at Dulles Airport near Washington DC on Jan. 27 from a passenger arriving from Beijing.

The passenger said the birds were cat food and he was planning to bring them to Maryland after his flight. The birds are not allowed into the United States out of fear they may spread avian flu, US Customs said.

The birds were “destroyed by incineration” with approval from the USDA, authorities said.

“Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists continue to exercise extraordinary vigilance every day in their fight to protect our nation’s agricultural and economic prosperity from invasive pests and animal diseases,” said Casey Durst, Director of Field Operations for the agency’s Baltimore Field Office.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I just noticed that the bag has a cartoon of a cat and a dog on it. Yes, outdoor cats like to munch on birds I suppose but they're a tad more fresh I would think. But who the hell feeds nasty dead birds to anything, much less your dog?
Yeeech.
 

pepe

Celestial
I fed myself raw frogs legs as a matter of survival, found on a French autoroute along with a can of lentils.

Talk about a nose pincher.
 

nivek

As Above So Below

Coronavirus outbreak 'very grave threat' for rest of world

A day after a team of World Health Organization (WHO) medical experts arrived in China to help investigate the deadly coronavirus outbreak, the health agency’s director said the virus poses “a very grave threat for the rest of the world.”

“With 99 percent of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a video conference with hundreds of researchers on Tuesday.

In an appeal to researchers who had dialed in to the conference from all over the world, Tedros called for more collaboration in order to fast-track rapid diagnostic testing and vaccines.

“It’s hard to believe that just two months ago, this virus – which has come to captivate the attention of media, financial markets and political leaders – was completely unknown to us,” Tedros said, adding that there are still many unknowns about the virus including paths of transmission and exactly how it originated.

(More on the link)

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nivek

As Above So Below
US military approves 11 coronavirus quarantine camps next to major US airports which can treat 'up to 1,000 people' as the 13th American case is confirmed in California


The Pentagon is setting up 11 quarantine camps on military bases near major airports across the US in anticipation of an influx of American citizens returning from China in need of monitoring for the deadly coronavirus that is now being called COVID-19. The 13th US coronavirus case was confirmed in California on Tuesday. The deadly strain, which is now being called COVID-19, has killed 1,116 people and sickened more than 45,000 worldwide since the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in late December.

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nivek

As Above So Below
Coronavirus could kill 45 MILLION people and infect SIXTY PER CENT of the global population if it cannot be controlled, top Hong Kong medical official warns



Professor Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine in Hong Kong, said the priority now is to work out the size and scale of the epidemic. Only then can the effectiveness of the containment strategy be analysed. He added that even with a death rate of one per cent, the virus could still cause many deaths. There are 45,000 cases reported so far, with 42,000 in China, and more than 1,000 deaths.

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nivek

As Above So Below
How China rounds up coronavirus suspects: Woman desperately screams after being put into a metal box while another family of four are 'dragged away from their home' by men in Hazmat suits

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Shocking social media videos have captured the horror, fear and fury of some Chinese citizens when they were being quarantined in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak. One trending clip shows an emotional woman screaming in a metal box when officers used the container to take her into isolation. While another section of footage apparently captures a family of four being dragged out of a building by officers in hazmat suits.

China's Vice Premier last week ordered Wuhan officials to put all confirmed and potential coronavirus patients as well as their close contacts and those having fever into quarantine camps. She also urged Communist officials off all levels in the nation take active lead in this 'wartime condition', or face being 'nailed onto the pillar of historical shame forever'.

In one of the videos widely circulating on Twitter and YouTube, a woman and a man can be seen being escorted into a metal box at the back of a pickup truck. The woman can be heard screaming after workers donning pink hazmat suits closed the door of the cube.

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pepe

Celestial
Big spike in recorded deaths yesterday and the typical fall guys lose their jobs in order to hide the truth of how facts have been down played. Chinese restaurants here are actually a lot quieter, I put a bird feeder I was going to but back in the shelf because it was made in China. I don't like to hear of people taking things to a personal level but I do think they need to learn a lesson in being open and swallowing pride in the name of humanity.

240 odd yesterday.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
United flight from San Francisco is one of EIGHT planes put on lockdown at London Heathrow after passengers are suspected of having coronavirus - which has now infected 15 people in the US


A United Airlines flight from San Francisco has been placed on lockdown after landing in London after passengers on board complained of having coronavirus symptoms. Hazmat-clad staff are seen (main) waiting for passengers for United Airlines Flight 901. Those on board were told by the captain to remain in their seats after landing at Heathrow Airport on Friday morning because someone might have the contagious infection, which is now named SARS-CoV-2. The flight was among eight planes that have been simultaneously been put on lockdown on the Heathrow tarmac.

It comes after a 15th American - an individual quarantined in Texas after returning from Wuhan, the outbreak's epicenter in China - was diagnosed with the infection, now known as COVID-19 on Thursday (inset, left). San Francisco International Airport, the origin of now-quarantined flight arrived, is among 11 US airports through which all fights from China are now being funneled in order to screen passengers for signs of the virus that has now struck nearly 65,000 people and killed at least 1,1384 worldwide.


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wwkirk

Divine
They Documented the Coronavirus Crisis in Wuhan. Then They Vanished.

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Chen Qiushi, a self-declared citizen journalist, in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 4. His friends lost contact with him two days later.Credit...Chen Qiushi, via Associated Press


HONG KONG — The beige van squatted outside of a Wuhan hospital, its side and back doors ajar. Fang Bin, a local clothing salesman, peered inside as he walked past. He groaned: “So many dead.” He counted five, six, seven, eight body bags. “This is too many.”

That moment, in a 40-minute video about the coronavirus outbreak that has devastated China, propelled Mr. Fang to internet fame. Then, less than two weeks later, he disappeared.

Days earlier, another prominent video blogger in Wuhan, Chen Qiushi, had also gone missing. Mr. Chen’s friends and family said they believed he had been forcibly quarantined.

Before their disappearances, Mr. Fang and Mr. Chen had recorded dozens of videos from Wuhan, streaming unfiltered and often heartbreaking images from the center of the outbreak. Long lines outside hospitals. Feeble patients. Agonized relatives.

The footage would have been striking anywhere. But it was especially so coming from inside China, where even mild criticism of the authorities is quickly scrubbed from the online record, and those responsible for it often punished.

The appetite for the videos reflects, in part, the shortage of independent news sources in China, where professional newspapers are tightly controlled by the authorities. Earlier this month, the state propaganda department deployed hundreds of journalists to reshape the narrative of the outbreak.

But the videos also reflected the growing call for free speech in China in recent weeks, as the coronavirus crisis has prompted criticism and introspection from unexpected corners across the country.

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Patients waiting for help at a hospital in Wuhan on Jan. 24.Credit...Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Several professional news organizations have produced incisive reports on the outbreak. A revolt against government censorship broke out on Chinese social media last week after the death of Li Wenliang, the Wuhan doctor who had tried to warn of the virus before officials had acknowledged an outbreak.

Mr. Fang’s and Mr. Chen’s videos were another manifestation of the dissatisfaction that the government’s handling of the outbreak has unleashed among ordinary Chinese citizens.

“When suddenly there’s a crisis, they want to have access to a wider array of content and reporting,” said Sarah Cook, who studies Chinese media at Freedom House, a pro-democracy research group based in the United States.

The disappearance of the two men also underscores that the ruling Communist Party has no intention of loosening its grip on free speech.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said last month that officials needed to “strengthen the guidance of public opinion.” While Chinese social media has overflowed with fear and grief, state propaganda outlets have emphasized Mr. Xi’s steady hand, framed the fight against the outbreak as a form of patriotism and shared upbeat videos of medical workers dancing.

More than 350 people across China have been punished for “spreading rumors” about the outbreak, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an advocacy group.

Mr. Chen, a fast-talking, fresh-faced lawyer from eastern China, was already well-known online before the outbreak. He traveled to Hong Kong during the pro-democracy protests last year and disputed the Chinese authorities’ depiction of the demonstrators as a riotous mob.

The Beijing authorities summoned him back to the mainland and deleted his social media accounts, Mr. Chen told his followers later.

But when the coronavirus led officials to seal off Wuhan last month, he raced to the city of 11 million, citing his duty as a self-declared citizen journalist. “What sort of a journalist are you if you don’t dare rush to the front line?” he said.

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Responding to a report of a sick person in Wuhan on Jan. 22.Credit...Getty Images
In his videos, which drew millions of views on YouTube, Mr. Chen interviewed locals who had lost loved ones, filmed a woman breaking down as she waited for care and visited an exhibition center that had been converted into a quarantine center.

He was blocked from WeChat, a major Chinese social media app, for spreading rumors. But he was adamant that he shared only what he himself had seen or heard.

As time went on, Mr. Chen, usually energetic, began to show strain. “I am scared,” he said on Jan. 30. “In front of me is the virus. Behind me is China’s legal and administrative power.”

The authorities had contacted his parents to ask for his whereabouts, he said. He teared up suddenly. Then, his finger pointing at the camera, he blurted: “I’m not even scared of death. You think I’m scared of you, Communist Party?”

On Feb. 6, Mr. Chen’s friends lost contact with him. Xu Xiaodong, a prominent mixed martial arts practitioner and a friend of Mr. Chen, posted a video on Feb. 7 saying that Mr. Chen’s parents had been told that their son had been quarantined, though he had not shown symptoms of illness.

Unlike Mr. Chen, Mr. Fang, the clothing salesman, was fairly anonymous before the coronavirus outbreak. Much of his YouTube activity had involved producing enthusiastic videos about traditional Chinese clothing.

But as the outbreak escalated, he began sharing videos of Wuhan’s empty streets and crowded hospitals. They lacked the slickness of Mr. Chen’s dispatches, which were often subtitled and tightly edited. But, as with Mr. Chen’s videos, they showed a man growing increasingly desperate — and defiant.

On Feb. 2, Mr. Fang described how officials had confiscated his laptop and interrogated him about his footage of the body bags. On Feb. 4, he filmed a group of people outside his home, who said they were there to ask him questions. He turned them away, daring them to break down his door.

In his final videos, Mr. Fang turned explicitly political in a way rarely heard inside China, at least in public. Filming from inside his home — he said he was surrounded by plainclothes policemen — he railed against “greed for power” and “tyranny.”

His last video, on Feb. 9, was just 12 seconds long. It featured a scroll of paper with the words, “All citizens resist, hand power back to the people.”

Despite the worldwide audience for Mr. Fang’s and Mr. Chen’s videos, it is hard to know how much reach they had domestically, said Fang Kecheng, an assistant professor of journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Both men relied heavily on YouTube and Twitter, which are blocked in China.

But unlike the torrent of grief and anger online in response to the death of Dr. Li, news of Mr. Chen’s and Mr. Fang’s disappearances has been swiftly stamped out on Chinese social media. Their names returned almost no results on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, on Friday.

Still, Ms. Cook said the power of Mr. Chen’s and Mr. Fang’s videos, as well as the reporting done by professional journalists in Wuhan, should not be underestimated.

She pointed to the Chinese authorities’ decision this week to loosen diagnostic requirements for coronavirus cases, leading to a significant jump in reported infections, as evidence of their impact.

That decision might not have come “if you didn’t have all these people in Wuhan sending out reports that what you’re hearing is an underestimate,” Ms. Cook said. “These very courageous individuals can, in unusual circumstances, push back and force the state’s hand.”

Mr. Fang, in one of his last videos, seemed struck by a similar sentiment. He thanked his viewers, who he said had been calling him nonstop to send support.

“A person, just an ordinary person, a silly person,” he said of himself, “who lifted the lid for a second.”


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Security personnel on Jan. 24 outside the market in Wuhan where the coronavirus was first detected.Credit...Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
 

nivek

As Above So Below
There are all sorts of reports beginning to come out stating this virus epidemic is vastly under counted as far as numbers of infected and number of deaths...There could be tens of thousands of deaths already and hundreds of thousands or millions mainly in China who are infected and spreading it, high numbers yes, maybe exaggerated as well, but better safe than sorry...I'd rather take extreme measures to ensure human lives are saved and perhaps save the human race than play around with numbers and cover ups all the while this virus mutates and spreads rapidly across the world...We are being too lax with this epidemic, we can't play around with things like this, and I don't think we are technologically savvy enough to stop a virus from decimating our species, it may take draconian style measures of containment to stop a deadly virus...

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nivek

As Above So Below
Did coronavirus originate in Chinese government laboratory? Scientists believe killer disease may have begun in research facility 300 yards from Wuhan wet fish market


A new bombshell paper from the Beijing-sponsored South China University of Technology says that the Wuhan Center for Disease Control (WHCDC) could have spawned the contagion in Hubei province. 'The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus,' penned by scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao claims the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in laboratories, including 605 bats. It also mentions that bats - which are linked to coronavirus - once attacked a researcher and 'blood of bat was on his skin.'

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wwkirk

Divine
Did coronavirus originate in Chinese government laboratory? Scientists believe killer disease may have begun in research facility 300 yards from Wuhan wet fish market


A new bombshell paper from the Beijing-sponsored South China University of Technology says that the Wuhan Center for Disease Control (WHCDC) could have spawned the contagion in Hubei province. 'The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus,' penned by scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao claims the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in laboratories, including 605 bats. It also mentions that bats - which are linked to coronavirus - once attacked a researcher and 'blood of bat was on his skin.'

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Very provocative. But I'm uncomfortable that hardly any news sources are reporting this.
Yet, it could be a cover-up. An article titled "The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus" apparently was uploaded to ResearchGate recently, but then was deleted. It had also been uploaded to Reddit, but it was removed from there as well.
 

wwkirk

Divine
Very provocative. But I'm uncomfortable that hardly any news sources are reporting this.
Yet, it could be a cover-up. An article titled "The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus" apparently was uploaded to ResearchGate recently, but then was deleted. It had also been uploaded to Reddit, but it was removed from there as well.
Link to a page where someone used the Wayback Machine to reconstitute the article.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Bat Country, eh?



If true it's like finding out that massive wildfires were caused by carelessness or worse, an arsonist.
Also if true, somebody, somewhere is in deep 拉屎 Lā shǐ
 
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