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Wow.

I posted the below on another thread, reposting here mostly for the initial question (source for the 19 new hospitals report?) and then it's mostly just me opining on "why" the hospitals, and where this epidemic might go in China...

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Reports saying China is building 19 new hospitals.

Can anyone confirm that from a reliable source? (It may be upthread and I missed it?)

Why if the cases are going down.

Not that I think the Chinese numbers can be trusted, but, even if those numbers just give some sense of trends, China has, what, maybe 100k infected people, plus "confirmed cases", "out there" at a minimum. Maybe it is more like half a million infections & cases not yet tabulated? That number should decline if they continue the strong confinement and quarantine actions, but they CAN'T go on with the country half shut down. That will lose them more people than the virus. Much less the other effects of a wrecked economy.

And, I do mean wrecked. No tiddledywinks "Great Depression" for you here...

So, even if they have this epidemic slowed at the moment, they have to "go back to work" making stuff, transporting it, and so on. That will lead to more cases -- remember that at present only a tiny fraction of the populace has been infected. China has to hope they can do some sort of tightrope act of slowing the virus without doing too much economic harm, and maybe accept, say, the equivalent of a very bad flu year x 5, on top of other health care needs, on an ongoing basis. If a vaccine can be developed, maybe that gets things down to a 2x very bad flu year added on, per year.

But, just consider: Even if all you want is to not lose too many of your professional class and Party members, how many new hospitals would that take in a country of 1.3 billion people?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3818748/posts?page=21#21