China coronavirus: Wuhan residents describe ‘doomsday’ scenes as patients overwhelm hospitals

South China Morning Post ^ | Published: 7:00am, 25 Jan, 2020 Updated: 9:02am, 25 Jan, 2020 | Mimi Lau

[Zhang Fei]

Hundreds of patients in Wuhan who have yet to be confirmed as carrying the new strain of coronavirus are becoming increasingly desperate as the city struggles to cope with the numbers reporting pneumonia symptoms.

One 36-year-old, speaking by phone outside a major hospital in the city, said she had spent the past week taking her sick husband from hospital to hospital in a vain attempt to get him tested for the virus, which has already killed 41 people and infected hundreds more.

“I have nothing. No protective clothing, only a raincoat, and I am standing outside the hospital in the rain,” said the woman, who gave her name as Xiaoxi.

“I am desperate, I have lost count of time and days. I don’t know if we will both live to see the new year.”

She said that Lunar New Year’s eve felt like “doomsday” as there was nowhere for her and her sick husband to go in the locked-down city.

A video shared by Xiaoxi appeared to show the hallway to the fever ward of the hospital packed with anxious patients seeking attention from medical staff.

The footage also showed medical staff in protective clothing and what Xiaoxi said were the bodies of patients who had died in the hospital and been left in the corridor wrapped in linen.

While the government has offered to pay for all expenses of patients confirmed to have the virus, those who have not yet received a positive test have been left to pay their own medical bills.

“I pay anything from hundreds to about 1,000 yuan [US$144] a day for medicines. There are many people like us. I saw many people who couldn’t afford the bill and just gave up coming and went home,” Xiaoxi said.

[goldstategop]

China doesn’t have free medical care. That disappeared when China went to a market economy.

Like here, you have to buy insurance and the best Chinese doctors are in high demand.

[MarMema]

Well the Lancet disagrees with you. And I believe their work over your opinion here. Thanks anyway.

[oldasrocks]

My wife is Taiwanese and said the translation is DEAD not infected.

90,000 DEAD

[MarMema]

Cremating them enhance per Twitter users there.

[MarMema]

Enmasse.

[Mom MD]

My opinion is we will soon have our own numbers. If you believe what the Chinese want to tell the works knock yourself out!

[MarMema]

He wrote that on twitter. I posted a link to it a day or two ago. Anyway he followed it with a downgrade to 2.6 I think it was. Or 2.8,

And measles Ro is 14 btw.

[MarMema]

Along with the world scientific community, yes. The genome has been published much sooner this time around and the original story, published in Lancet.

[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.

[suthener]

OAN is doing a story about it right now. The video looks like something out of a movie with packed hospitals, workers in full biohazard PPE, and deserted streets.

[Zhang Fei]

[Cremating them enhance per Twitter users there.]

---

Makes sense. On an individual basis, that’s what families do half the time, anyway.

---

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_funeral_rituals

[Zhang Fei]

[My wife is Taiwanese and said the translation is DEAD not infected.
90,000 DEAD]

---

This number is mind-boggling, but so is the idea of shutting down as much as 5% of China’s economy behind a quarantine. I don’t know what to believe. Fact is the Chinese tourist in France thing was thought to be a hoax, but was confirmed by China’s Foreign Ministry. Assuming the lady who made this video is in China, she is taking a grave risk sending it out, given that the party considers damaging information to be state secrets, and the most damaging leaks to be capital crimes. She might be wrong about the number, but she is likely sincere in her belief that the death toll in th city is 90,000 to date.

[Oorang]

Again, thanks for all the posts and pings nully.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

Funny that liberals seem to think healthcare in every other country is superior to ours. Betting they are glad they live here today

[SamAdams76]

Imagine the hysteria if we had social media in 1918 (the pandemic that affected half a billion people).

Throughout human history, we've had plagues that killed off millions and decimated entire populations.

I'm actually surprised that 1918 was the last big outbreak of something like this. We've been very blessed over the past century.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

INFECTIOUS DISEASE
PREPPER PING - WUHAN virus - Are you prepared ?

suthener :"OAN is doing a story about it right now.
The video looks like something out of a movie with packed hospitals,
workers in full biohazard PPE, and deserted streets."

I encourage pro-active involvement, rather than re-active emotion.
Notice that FEAR NEVER enters into the OODA LOOP below
it's based on intellectual logic .

The OODA Loop : Observe, Orient , Decide , Act
Observe : communicate, be aware, absorb new information, stay current
Orient.. : evaluate your situation, consider possible options and alternatives.
Decide.. : make an honest evaluation with no emotional attachment; overcome 'normalcy biases '
Act ......: after an honest evaluation, make the decision to act, and then do it !

The WHO now reports fatality rate of 2 1/2% from the Wuhan virus (airborne pneumonia).
Act accordingly with a three week domestoic supply of:
a N 95 face mask, or better, plus latex gloves,
extra domestic supplies, disinfectant, hand soap, food supplies, etc.,
so that you don't have to go out shopping if it rages in your neighborhood.
Take a recent lesson from the Chinese quarantine.
Remember to be : pro active, rather than reactive !
Remember the OODA loop .

If contagion is raging in your neighborhood,
the last place you want to be is where all the sick folks are concentrated in large numbers !
Also, if the hospital is being overwhelmed, you will not receive individual attention
- you become one of the mass numbers and will be ignored.
Prepare and be self-aware.

[Zhang Fei]

[If contagion is raging in your neighborhood,
the last place you want to be is where all the sick folks are concentrated in large numbers !
Also, if the hospital is being overwhelmed, you will not receive individual attention
- you become one of the mass numbers and will be ignored.
Prepare and be self-aware. ]

---

Thanks for the tip. This really needs to be in red and in bold.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

" Prepare and be self-aware. "

If you don't NEED the prepper/medical supplies at this time,
it will give you a sense of security in future events, or possible catastrophes.
Our parents and grand parents were all prepping was a 'way of life', and a "life-style"
in their age of uncertainty.

[suthener]

Just for general information, I was just passing on information. There was no opinion in my post. I have been a semi-prepper for years. No matter what the emergency I would have no need to do any panic shopping.

[tbw2]

Funny thing is that both could be true. The city apparently had bat soup as a delicacy. Can’t have a better zoonosis route if you tried. And it is home to one of China’s biowarfare labs.