China shuts down more cities in bid to contain deadly virus

The Associated Press ^ | January 23, 2020 | By KEN MORITSUGU and YANAN WANG

[Oldeconomybuyer]

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities Thursday moved to lock down three cities that are home to more than 18 million people in an unprecedented effort to contain the deadly new virus that has sickened hundreds and spread to other parts of the world during the busy Lunar New Year travel period.

Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded Wuhan’s train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances at 10 a.m. Only travelers holding tickets for the last trains out were allowed to enter. Normally bustling streets, shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces in the city of 11 million people were eerily quiet.

In addition to shutting down the train station, authorities closed the airport and halted ferry, subway and bus service.

Authorities announced similar measures would take effect Friday in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou. In Huanggang, theaters, internet cafes and other entertainment centers were also ordered closed.

In the capital, Beijing, authorities canceled “major events” indefinitely, including traditional temple fairs that are a staple of holiday celebrations, in order to “execute epidemic prevention and control.”

“To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science,” Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization’s representative in China, said in an interview. “It has not been tried before as a public health measure. We cannot at this stage say it will or it will not work.”

The illnesses from the newly identified coronavirus first appeared last month in Wuhan, an industrial and transportation hub in central China’s Hubei province. The vast majority of mainland China’s more than 570 cases have been in the city.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[Red Badger]

They are playing whack-a-mole .........................

[null and void]

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[stanne]

It is not a clean country.

[TangledUpInBlue]

They aren’t clean people. I work around lots of them and they are disgusting.

[RayChuang88]

Correct. Especially now with all that travel over Chinese New Year coming up over the next week or so.

[rdl6989]

I refuse to believe only about 600 people in China have been infected.

[Red Badger]

It may actually work for them. They are fairly good at that high handed stuff. But a virus is invisible and can travel without being seen...............

[Zhang Fei]

[They aren’t clean people. I work around lots of them and they are disgusting.]

---

Tell us more ...

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Red Badger : "They are playing whack-a-mole ...................."

Infectious Disease - Wuhan Update (coronavirus)- China, and spreading

Authorities announced similar measures would take effect Friday in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou.
In Huanggang (population of 7 million), theaters, internet cafes
and other entertainment centers were also ordered closed.

“To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science,” Gauden Galea,
the World Health Organization’s representative in China, said in an interview.
“It has not been tried before as a public health measure.
We cannot at this stage say it will or it will not work.”

This is only the sixth WHO directed health concern response since the SARS and MERS world-wide outbreak.
China is now trying to isolate the infected communities; better late, than never.

[nwrep]

They are dressed better than the average American travelers.

[Black Agnes]

The tinfoil hatter that’s my alter ego wonders if this is an excuse to contain some sort of outbreak of political dissent.

[Brown Bag Special]

I’d agree... never heard of shuttering multiple cities when only “600” of 18+ million are infected. Me smells a cover up.

[Redwood71]

Perhaps if they would take advice from other sources they would understand why it is in their country:

http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/inside/goldhaggadahstories/10plagues/plaguesofegypt.html

Another group that is kept like mushrooms about the world.

rwood

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Black Agnes :" The tinfoil hatter that’s my alter ego wonders if this is an excuse
to contain some sort of outbreak of political dissent."

Given the authoritarian regime in China
that is a distinct possibility
Also, there is a more recent FReeper posting on which indicated
that Wuhan is the home of an Experimental Pathological Disease research center.
It may, also, be the possibility of an experimental pathogen having "gone in the wild".
China has a history of not being forthcoming with information
and even minimizing disease (ie: SARS), as well as the porcine virus.

[Black Agnes]

Well, if they haven’t had political unrest before...having a modified virus reach the general public might ‘encourage’ that going forward.

It takes longer in authoritarian societies, but, information wants to be free. And will seek a path to do so eventually.

I can envision a situation where research materials were improperly disposed and ‘transferred’ to a population of rats/bats/etc and thus to the humans in the area.

Or they’ve got a resident ‘doomer’ working in one of those facilities that did it deliberately.

I’d love to know what drew their attention to these few (initially) cases so quickly. What made them notice the ‘signal’ there over all the ‘noise’ of other respiratory illnesses/hospitalizations in a city of 11M people...And sample/sequence/identify it so quickly...

[Zhang Fei]

[I’d agree... never heard of shuttering multiple cities when only “600” of 18+ million are infected. Me smells a cover up.]

---

It may be that people who are sick aren’t going to the authorities because they don’t trust the government to treat them with every available resource. Given the party’s disregard for the welfare of the people it rules, that’s not entirely wrong-headed. If you thought showing up at a hospital would lead to you being quarantined in a hospice and left to die without any attempt to keep you alive, let alone cure you, would you go there? Better to stay home and hope it blows over like every flu variant out there. Note that the death rate for flu is only about 2%. In a government-run hospital full of other sick people where you’re treated like diseased livestock being readied for the dog food factory, who knows?

This is standard quarantine sociology. The infected who think the authorities will screw them over stay home. The healthy who think they’re in a death zone will flee by hook or by crook. And it’s completely understandable, given the regime’s reckless disregard for their welfare in the past.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Black Agnes :" I can envision a situation where research materials
were improperly disposed and ‘transferred’ to a population of rats/bats/etc
and thus to the humans in the area."

Given the history of lack of hygiene within the confines of China,
and also the fact that Wuhan is larger and more congested than any city in the U.S.
improper disposal of research materials seems quite possible, if not probable.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Bring out your Chinese dead!!!

[Zhang Fei]

[Given the history of lack of hygiene within the confines of China,
and also the fact that Wuhan is larger and more congested than any city in the U.S.
improper disposal of research materials seems quite possible, if not probable. ]

---

I don’t know where you’re getting the idea that Wuhan is more congested than any city in the US. The “city”, at 3300 sq miles, is 1/3 larger than the entire state of Delaware. The Chinese definition of “city” appears to be “region with population 10m or above”. By that definition, Pennsylvania would be a “city”. At 3,400 per sq mile, Wuhan’s population density is lower than the top 133 US cities, which bottoms out at about 10,000 per sq mile (Redondo Beach, CA).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population_density