Althouse: Look what the coronavirus is doing now: It's garnering.

February 1, 2020

Look what the coronavirus is doing now: It's garnering.

"Coronavirus garners headlines, but there's another virus stalking America" (Bloomberg, via Japan News).

38 comments:

tim maguire said...: One virus is garnering, another is stalking. Sounds an awful lot like these viruses have intention.; 2/1/20, 5:41 AM
tim in vermont said...: perhaps it would be a good idea for the same Wuhan Institute of Virology to remove the following "help wanted" notice, posted on November 18, 2019, according to which the institute is seeking to hire one or two post-doc fellows, who will use "bats to research the molecular mechanism that allows Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses to lie dormant for a long time without causing diseases." - Zerohedge; 2/1/20, 5:49 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: That’s how it gets you. First a virus mutates. Then it garners. It is most dangerous in its garnering stage. It laughs at your puny masks when it is garnering. It’s favorite movie is The Constant Garnerer.; 2/1/20, 5:51 AM
tim in vermont said...: This Wuhan Institute of Virology sounds like they needed to watch Jurassic Park, especially to take heed of the Goldblum character.; 2/1/20, 5:59 AM
Mr. Forward said...: Iowa is under arrack from moronavirus! It’s on every billboard and spreading to bumpers. Expected to peak on Monday and be gone by Tuesday. The bedbugs from journalists may linger longer.; 2/1/20, 6:00 AM
Karen of Texas said...: "...according to which the institute is seeking to hire one or two post-doc fellows, who will use "bats to research the molecular mechanism that allows Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses to lie dormant for a long time without causing diseases."

I believe I read somewhere that the HIV signature was present in the created coronavirus...; 2/1/20, 6:04 AM
Karen of Texas said...: Perhaps they were looking to Harvard? Professor, Chinese nationals arrested...; 2/1/20, 6:10 AM
Rocketeer said...: Next thing you know the coronavirus will start showing up in shorts.; 2/1/20, 6:48 AM
tim in vermont said...: You come up with a virus and a vaccine for your own people, it could be a pretty effective weapon. Kind of like a neutron bomb. If your Chinese, you can have a cutoff “social credit” score to get the vaccine.; 2/1/20, 6:54 AM
pacwest said...: There sure are a lot of precautions being taken for something with a low mortality rate.; 2/1/20, 6:56 AM
Lucid-Ideas said...: Does anyone else get the feeling that this is like Animal House and China is trying to assure everyone that 'all is well!'?; 2/1/20, 6:58 AM
tim in vermont said...: The Russians sealed their border. They know a thing or two about the Chinese.; 2/1/20, 7:07 AM
tim in vermont said...: Under capitalism, virus infects people, under communism, people infect virus.; 2/1/20, 7:18 AM
Iman said...: Because of the -- the virus that I have attained, I will have to retire from the Lakers.; 2/1/20, 7:28 AM
Bob Boyd said...: "Look what the coronavirus is doing now. It's garnering."

The damn thing will be wearing shorts pretty soon at this rate.; 2/1/20, 7:55 AM
traditionalguy said...: What if the Headlines are rigged? Then it's the media narrative that is garnering minds.

The Breitbart writers of headlines usually have a first attempt that goes up in minutes of the event, and then hours later it is changed to a more creative and artsy headline.; 2/1/20, 8:22 AM
traditionalguy said...: Rumor has it that this altered virus already has a matching vaccine created in the same bio-weapons Lab that created the DNA snip to make it communicable. The experiment would be an attempt to create public opinion that only a world Govt can save us...like from asteroids and CO2 climate. And the last hope for stopping the Trumpian Storm could be a crashed stock market that could be triggered by world wide quarantines to save us.; 2/1/20, 8:30 AM
mockturtle said...: According to The Babylon Bee, California Governor Newsom has declared California a 'Coronavirus-free zone'. ;-D; 2/1/20, 8:43 AM
tcrosse said...: Celery is stalking America.; 2/1/20, 8:43 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Our whole family got the flu last week. Good times for the cat. He's pleased to have everyone at home and lying around like him.; 2/1/20, 8:44 AM
mockturtle said...: The article is right, of course. The ordinary strains of flu cause more deaths each year that we're likely to see from this new one. But it makes great grist for the media mill, as does anything that will frighten Americans.; 2/1/20, 8:46 AM
Howard said...: We rode the Orange line T into North station the other night. Haven't been on Boston Subway for quite some time. I have to admit being a little uncomfortable around a half a dozen Asian people wearing masks. I took solace in the fact that they were probably more worried about me and they didn't want to get infected but still you can't help but feel a little squeamish.; 2/1/20, 8:55 AM
whitney said...: Promises promises; 2/1/20, 8:58 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: At least it’s not wearing shorts.; 2/1/20, 9:10 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Kudos, Rocketeer!; 2/1/20, 9:13 AM
tim in vermont said...: It’s said that a very good way to predict the weather, that will be right more often than not, is to assume that today will be identical to yesterday. It’s a good test if your weather prediction method can beat that rule that you are on to something. So I can see where “this is just another flu bug” is coming from.

But if you are wrong in a case like this and don’t take it seriously, you are fucked, no backsies.; 2/1/20, 9:48 AM
Darrell said...: Are the Chinese testing a weaponized virus in the real world?

Are the Chinese looking for the West to create a vaccine for a prior release, one that is currently dormant?; 2/1/20, 10:33 AM
Earnest Prole said...: “Coronavirus weaponizes genome to garner headlines.”

The goofy verb garner always looks better with the goofy verb weaponize as a companion.; 2/1/20, 11:17 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Our whole family got the flu last week."

Is this in spite of flu shots?

Glad you all survived!; 2/1/20, 11:32 AM
Anonymous said...: Aunty T: But if you are wrong in a case like this and don’t take it seriously, you are fucked, no backsies.

I don't understand why so many people seem to have trouble understanding this simple fact of public health policy-making. Decisions have to be made under the condition of not knowing how *this one* is going to play out. How many people influenza kills in an average year, or how unnecessary those quarantines turned out to be for controlling that epidemic of whatever a couple of years ago are, are not relevant.

And, oh yeah - the fact that our portfolios will take a hit (they will) should not be a factor in deciding whether getting serious about containment is a good idea.; 2/1/20, 12:04 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I had one of the influenza strains going around this Winter just after Christmas. It was very bad- definitely the worst strain I have had since the swine variant of 2009. If you haven't had it yet, and haven't had the vaccine, I would suggest going and getting the shot.; 2/1/20, 12:51 PM
Yancey Ward said...: It was the worst sore throat I have ever had- I literally could not speak above a very hoarse whisper. My immune system basically wiped out all of the surface tissue from my soft palate down to my larynx. Drinking anything hurt and caused me to wince.; 2/1/20, 12:55 PM
Yancey Ward said...: "moronavirus"

Ok, I am stealing this without any shame at all.; 2/1/20, 12:59 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: "Is this in spite of flu shots?"

Yes, we get flu shots every year. As far as survival, who knows? We could die at any moment!

(Though we're mostly better, so probably not.); 2/1/20, 1:32 PM
narciso said...: buzzfeed had zerohedge deplatformed, because cat videos won't run themselves,; 2/1/20, 2:03 PM
viator said...: 1) There is evidence that the coronavirus 'can also be spread via fomites - when the virus survives on inanimate surfaces for a short period of time,' said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, a member of the WHO's emergency committee on the outbreak.
2) Seasonal flu has a US death rate of about 0.1, early determinations of Wuhan virus give a death rate as high as 3.0 or thirty times the death rate of seasonal flu.
3) Both the death rate and spread rate (Ro) are difficult to determine because of the opacity, prevarication, and CYA nature of the Chinese system (There are multiple reports of 2019-nCoV fatalities either removed directly to crematoriums or being classified as pneumonia or flu victims). But it seems the Ro is also close to 3 (or higher). I.e. one person spreads their illness to three people on average. The Ro for seasonal flu is 1.3 and for SARS it is 2.0. Current best estimates are 2.5 to 4.08 Ro for 2019-nCoV.
4) Thailand’s health ministry has confirmed 14 cases of coronavirus, the second-most of any country behind China. China has more than 4,500 confirmed cases of the virus, mostly in the city of Wuhan, where the virus began. More than 100 Chinese people have died from the disease. Thailand health minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday that the government is “not able to stop the spread” of coronavirus in the country, according to Sky News.; 2/1/20, 2:23 PM
viator said...: 5) Several epidemiologists have suggested that many of the deaths caused by the coronavirus that surfaced in Wuhan last month have probably 'slipped through the cracks' - either having been misdiagnosed or deliberately attributed to something else. Many suspect that Beijing is concealing the true extent of the outbreak. And now, one reporter claims that a Chinese media organization has found proof. The East Asia Correspondent for DW cited reports in a tweet claiming that health officials have been secretly moving some bodies directly from the hospital to the crematorium:
“Also, one thing that #China is hiding is the number of death caused by the virus. Credible Chinese media outlet @initiumnews interviewed people working at local cremation centers, confirming that many dead bodies were sent directly from the hospitals to the cremation centers..”.— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) January 29, 2020
“... without properly identifying these patients, which means there are patients who died from the virus but not adding to the official record. That shows the current death toll of 133 that we are seeing is way too low.”— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) January 29, 2020
“So there are reasons to remain skeptical about what #Chins has been sharing with the world because while they have been more transparent about certain things related to the virus, they continue to be sketchy and unreliable in other aspects.”— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) January 29, 2020
6) Lancet published a study of a cluster of confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital from Jan 1 to Jan 20, 2020. The death rate was above 10% and deaths were associated with comorbidities or previous health conditions. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30211-7/fulltext
7) The emergency room model of health care is exacerbating the spread of the disease since people with colds and flu go to emergency rooms and mingle with infectious coronavirus patients.
8) Japan’s health minister Katsunobu Kato has announced that a bus driver in Nara Prefecture who drove for tourists from Wuhan twice in January has been confirmed infected with the new coronavirus in Japan.
9) Cases have so far been confirmed in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the U.S., Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, India, Philippines, Cambodia, Finland, Italy, Nepal, Spain, Sweden, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, UAR, United Kingdon, Russia, Germany, and France.
10) Here are the countries with domestic transmission Wuhan virus infections: China, Japan,Thailand, France, Italy, South Korea, US, Honh Kong, and Germany
11) The Wuhan coronavirus is more difficult to contain than other pandemics because those infected may not get a fever, a symptom governments around the world are using to screen for the pathogen. The National Health Commission told local governments and hospitals on Jan. 18 that some of those with the virus may not have a fever and the pathogen’s incubation period could be up to two weeks. The lack of fever as a symptom means that temperature screening -- the main method now being deployed at airports and transport hubs to control the outbreak -- would fail to pick up on at least some cases.; 2/1/20, 2:24 PM
viator said...: 12) The first case of Coronovirus was confirmed in Philippines on Thursday. The woman from Wuhan, China took a vacation in Philippines.
The 38-year-old woman flew from Hong Kong and arrived in Philippines on January 21. The woman then visited the tourist hub of Cebu and then traveled to Manila and Dumaguete. There are 12.8 million people in the Manila metro area. She checked into the hospital days later on January 25th.
13) Zhan Qingyuan, head of infectious diseases at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, said in a press briefing on Friday that people who had already had the virus would have developed antibodies but should remain on alert so they did not get ill again. “The antibodies may not remain for a long time, so there is still a risk that these recovered patients will be infected again,” Zhan said.
14) A paper published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that there had been human-to-human transmission of the new virus strain among close contacts since mid-December. At the time, Chinese health authorities said no evidence had been found to prove the pneumonia-like illness was being spread from human to human – it was only confirmed by prominent epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan on January 20. The paper was written by dozens of Chinese medical experts, including researchers from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based on data from the first 425 confirmed cases in Wuhan, where the outbreak began last month.
15) Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Automation and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, both in in Beijing, calculated an R0 of 4.08 for the current outbreak, meaning a person infected with 2019-nCoV could infect more than four susceptible people. This figure is higher than the World Health Organization's estimate of 1.4 to 2.5 and a recent model that showed an R0 between 3.6 and 4.
16) Dr. Li Lanjuan of the Chinese National Health Commission made clear that mammals are generally are at risk of passing the Wuhan coronavirus. “If pets go out and have contact with an infected person, they have the chance to get infected. By then, pets need to be isolated. In addition to people, we should be careful with other mammals especially pets,” she told China Central Television (CCTV)
17) A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday night, January 30, showed that four German business associates became infected through asymptomatic infection. “There’s no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reported CNN. “This study lays the question to rest.”
18) A hospital in Xinyu, Jiangxi, has shut down after 14 of its staff were confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus, the deputy director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control Cheng Huijian said on Saturday. Forty staff at Number Four Hospital in the city had been isolated and its health commission director Jian Guisheng told Thepaper.cn that 15 of the 17 new confirmed cases involved hospital staff.; 2/1/20, 2:24 PM