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

More than 1,700 health workers infected by coronavirus in China, the real heroes of China.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/14/more-than-1700-health-workers-infected-by-coronavirus-in-china

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

The person at the bus conference was a SHE, sea breeze and it was in London.

She rang nhs number who advised her to get an ambulance or private transfer to hospital. I think there was a miscommunication and she thought private transfer meant taxi rather than her own transport. That’s why she got the Uber.

I think you are getting a number of news reports mixed up there tbh .

There are now nine confirmed cases in the UK.

One case involved a woman who flew into Heathrow from China at the weekend and then booked an Uber to take her to the A&E in Lewisham

Anothet case involved an unidentified individual who attended a transport conference in London

It's understood the person who attended the conference is not linked to the ninth person identified with the virus in the UK- a woman from China who took an Uber to A&E after she developed symptoms.

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-02-14/uk-coronavirus-patient-attended-london-conference-with-more-than-200-people-organisers-warn/

According to the PA news agency, the bus conference case is not linked to the latest person in the UK to test positive for the virus earlier this week, a Chinese woman.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51503292

Chong wrote: »

I am starting to think and take my head out the sand. I have a conference in London on the 24th for 2 days flying to Heathrow.

3 things?

- If I go should I wear a mask - even though they are like gold dust.
- Should I go?
- Will there be lock downs on such events?

Snap - am doing the same on the same dates. Will see how things develop in London over next week before deciding on what to do.

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

The coming spring/summer is best chance of bringing this under control. Apparently the virus will not cope well in higher temps outside of winter. Until then chaos.

It's just going to love conditions here

The team also found that low temperatures and high air humidity levels further boost the coronavirus’s lifespan.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200211/Coronavirus-can-live-on-common-surfaces-for-nine-days-how-to-kill-it.aspx

The Channel 4 doc is on YouTube.

odyssey06 wrote: »

The world's largest mobile phone showcase, Mobile World Congress (MWC), has been cancelled over coronavirus concerns, organisers have confirmed...
MWC was due to be held in Barcelona on 24-27 February. More than 100,000 people usually attend the annual event, about 6,000 of whom travel from China.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51474116

I stand corrected

el Fenomeno wrote: »

Have people here bought masks?

I was looking online most shops are sold out impossible to get.

PokeHerKing wrote: »

I stand corrected

Different such a large event being cancelled. It would be much more concerning if your local residents association or credit union cancels its AGM.

Worth considering the economic impact though. I work in logistics, we've had a shipment cancelled by a customer and returned from Spain yesterday, was bound for MWC, because the event was called off. Cost them a very significant sum in wasted freight. Now multiply that by the number exhibitors and you're into millions.

el Fenomeno wrote: »

Have people here bought masks?

Got two P3 disposables in woodies weeks ago for a few quid and this week bought a respirator for £17 on Amazon, the disposable ones were literally more per item.
Not sure if it can be cleaned and reused but presumably more durable than the single use ones at least.
It'll go in the press, and be there if it's needed. If not, then the next time I paint a room I don't need to buy anything.

Now that said, I'm a mad hypochondriac so I always consider my reaction to anything scary to be 10 times worse than is required. I'm almost certain they will be utterly unnecessary.

Even if the virus does come here, Ireland is almost a perfect place to contain it with the correct public health measures (and the HSE response will make or break it).
We've locked the country down on red weather warnings, the same would simply be required for 21 days.

We are very small but relatively sparsely populated Island and also a first world country. There aren't many of that combination. Spanish flu barely affected us in comparison to the UK (yes, different world, granted now more globalised but also communication is faster to counter that)

If you look at the likes of Wuhan, it's insanely dense. Do a little project. Look at LA or London and then Wuhan on the same scale. There are 1.5 times as many people in Wuhan than eitherof those cities but look how geographically condensed it is. All 30-40-floor apartment blocks with every resident using the same lifts, lobbies, etc.

Spread there will always be exponentially higher than a western city where most residences are semi d's or 3-4 storey blocks at most.

Do you not get the stats from China around this time?

this was probably posted already, but i just saw that Egypt reported its 1st case of coronavirus, thats the first on mainland Africa, a foreigner with no symptoms, according to local media

The start of that C4 documentary is upsetting. A city of 11 million people already looks like Pripryat. A woman gets taken away and is begging for death.

Like the Imperial College professor I hope I'm overreacting to all this.

Interesting debate about these conferences. Do they even need to happen?

I would travel occasionally in my line of work. Not to conferences but to face to face customer meetings. Been in Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, France, UK in the last 18 months.

You could argue every one of those companies was set up for videoconferencing but the "face to face" is a very traditional (and to be honest, more effective) way of communicating. Video is not the same.
However in current circumstances, I think it's only prudent that anyone who can work from home is allowed to do so, and that all conferencing that can remotely, is.

Unfortunately my experience in Ireland, especially in smaller businesses owned by the Irish ourselves, is that "ah it'll be grand". We are very isolated in terms of attitude. In a normal world, I feel it harms us greatly - if the worst does happen with this bug, and to be very clear I think it won't - slow reaction and slow willingness to allow remote working which should be allowed anyway, could in the worst cases cost lives.

one armed dwarf wrote: »

The start of that C4 documentary is upsetting. A city of 11 million people already looks like Pripryat. A woman gets taken away and is begging for death.

Like the Imperial College professor I hope I'm overreacting to all this.

As I've said a few times in this thread, please compare apples with apples.

Europeans and specifically the British are the calmest in crisis, digging in and getting on with it and from that attitude, when others get upset, we see them as overly hysterical. (think news reports from the middle east and asia, where public gatherings appear chaotic compared to similar events here).
The Imperial College professor was bred with a stiff upper lip and "keep calm carry on" mentality.
To him, the hysterical but human reaction of the Chinese is disproportionately alarming.
China is an autocratic, dystopian state currently on overdrive and in panic mode. It cannot have people work from home to manufacture our cheap tat for us. (The west, by the way, is as much to blame for China's government as China is).