new coronavirus outbreak China, Korea, USA - mod warnings in OP (updated 24/02/20)

fritzelly wrote: »

UK advises all British to leave China

Legacy Better Explosion wrote: »

The uk has 30,000 british 'citizens' there, perhaps some remnants from the old H'Kong days, and many dual-nationality or with secondary passports.

It's fine telling them to leave, but they would likely need chartered flights (very few chartered) and a shed load more of those Horsemen buses to the Hotel d'Wirral.
If asking them to get chartered then it spreads the risk, e.g. Entering another country beside China, then getting multiple transfer flights towards Heathrow or somewhere.

Yurt! wrote: »

Fairly drastic. Perhaps the UK government knows something about the spread of infections that others don't.

The UK would have a fairly generous amount of intelligence assets on the ground there so this is worth paying attention to.

In early January, authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan were trying to keep news of a new coronavirus under wraps. When one doctor tried to warn fellow medics about the outbreak, police paid him a visit and told him to stop. A month later he has been hailed as a hero, after he posted his story from a hospital bed.

"Hello everyone, this is Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital," the post begins.

Dr Li was working at the centre of the outbreak in December when he noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars - the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003. The cases were thought to come from the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan and the patients were in quarantine in his hospital.

On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them about the outbreak and advising they wear protective clothing to avoid infection.

What Dr Li didn't know then was that the disease that had been discovered was an entirely new coronavirus.

After falling sick, Dr Li said on Weibo that he wondered why authorities were still saying no medical staff had been infected. Four days later he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told him to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of "making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order".

"We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice - is that understood?" Underneath in Dr Li's handwriting is written: "Yes, I do."

He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for "spreading rumours".

At the end of January, Dr Li published a copy of the letter on Weibo and explained what had happened. In the meantime, local authorities had apologised to him but that apology came too late.

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