All things Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

[brihard]

Vancouver getting hit is inevitable. Tons of regular back and forth from China.

 

[BDTyre]

I have the solution people!  :nod:
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/vancouver-news/traveling-containers-heads-yvr-photos-2054517

 

[The Bread Guy]

Point ...

Just dropping this here
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/did-china-steal-coronavirus-canada-and-weaponize-it

... counterpoint (1), ...

... A Zero Hedge story claims that Chinese agents stole coronavirus samples from Canada to create a biological weapon, which has now caused an outbreak of the disease around the world.

A Chinese scientist who worked in a Canadian lab studying coronaviruses is under investigation for trips she took to Wuhan. But there’s no evidence she gave China coronavirus samples to develop a biological weapon. Plus, the lab worked on MERS, not the Wuhan coronavirus. The Wuhan lab mentioned in the story does deal with dangerous pathogens like coronaviruses, but there is no evidence that it is the source of the latest outbreak.

The story lacks evidence for its headline, so we rate it False.

... and counterpoint (2):

The Public Health Agency of Canada is denying any connection between the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, two scientists who were escorted out of the building last summer, and the coronavirus outbreak in China ...

Let's see who else connects those dots & how.

 

[tomahawk6]

Canada will be prohibiting flights between China and Canada , if the government fails to act then the virus might become an epidemic. I wonder why the US hasn't already taken that step ?

 

[CBH99]

I thought about that the other day too T6, before the Government of Canada made that decision.

I don't think that will really help anything though.  It's just as easy for mainland Chinese to fly to Europe, and from Europe to North America - as it is direct.  Not to mention indirect flights via Canada or the US, with the final destination being Canada or the US.

It might help delay the spread of the virus, but wouldn't ultimately prevent it from coming here.

 

[The Bread Guy]

I wonder why the US hasn't already taken that step ?

Looks like they're still considering the idea without having thrown the switch yet ...

• “White House Mulls Suspending All Flights To and From China Due to Coronavirus Outbreak – Report” (Russian state media)
• “White House holds off on suspending China-U.S. flights amid virus outbreak” (Reuters, via Toronto Sun)
• “White House did not ask for a suspension of U.S.-China flights: official” (Reuters)
• "White House considers ban on flights to China amid coronavirus outbreak" (USA Today)

Right now, airlines seem to be making ad-hoc decisions on coming & going.

 

[mariomike]

In the news,

New coronavirus cases in China top SARS as evacuations begin
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/new-coronavirus-cases-in-china-top-sars-as-evacuations-begin-1.4787915#_gus&_gucid=&_gup=twitter&_gsc=KZGpuTO
a new virus that has now infected more people in China than were sickened in the country by SARS.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Let's see who else connects those dots & how.

National Post's take ....

In a table-top pandemic exercise at Johns Hopkins University last year, a pathogen based on the emerging Nipah virus was released by fictional extremists, killing 150 million people.

A less apocalyptic scenario mapped out by a blue-ribbon U.S. panel envisioned Nipah being dispersed by terrorists and claiming over 6,000 American lives.

Scientists from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) have also said the highly lethal bug is a potential bio-weapon.

But this March that same lab shipped samples of the henipavirus family and of Ebola to China, which has long been suspected of running a secretive biological warfare (BW) program.

China strongly denies it makes germ weapons, and Canadian officials say the shipment was part of its efforts to support public-health research worldwide. Sharing of such samples internationally is relatively standard practice.

But some experts are raising questions about the March transfer, which appears to be at the centre of a shadowy RCMP investigation and dismissal of a top scientist at the Winnipeg-based NML.

“I would say this Canadian ‘contribution’ might likely be counterproductive,” said Dany Shoham, a biological and chemical warfare expert at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. “I think the Chinese activities … are highly suspicious, in terms of exploring (at least) those viruses as BW agents. “

James Giordano, a neurology professor at Georgetown University and senior fellow in biowarfare at the U.S. Special Operations Command, said it’s worrisome on a few fronts.

China’s growing investment in bio-science, looser ethics around gene-editing and other cutting-edge technology and integration between government and academia raise the spectre of such pathogens being weaponized, he said.

That could mean an offensive agent, or a modified germ let loose by proxies, for which only China has the treatment or vaccine, said Giordano, co-head of Georgetown’s Brain Science and Global Law and Policy Program ...

Hmmm ...

 

[The Bread Guy]

More on problems @ the Chinese end ...

Yang Zhongyi was still waiting on Monday for a coronavirus test in the Chinese city of Wuhan two weeks after she started to show signs of a fever, even though doctors privately told her family that she almost certainly has been infected, her son Zhang Changchun told Reuters.

Yang, 53, is just one of many Wuhan inhabitants finding it difficult to get tested or receive treatment for the new form of coronavirus, which authorities say has infected 2,800 people and killed at least 80 in China, a situation that may be contributing to the spread of the disease.

Yang has been unable to gain full-time admission to a hospital, her son said. She has been put on drips in unquarantined areas at four separate hospitals in the city to treat her deteriorating lungs, he said, while he is doing what he can to get her tested or admitted full-time.

“My brother and I have been queuing at the hospital every day. We go at 6 and 7 in the morning, and queue for the whole day, but we don’t get any new answers,” Zhang told Reuters. “Every time the responses are the same: ‘There’s no bed, wait for the government to give a notice, and follow the news to see what’s going on.’ The doctors are all very frustrated too.” ...

More from Reuters here.

s far as I know, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science.” This was how Dr. Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization’s country representative in China, described the situation facing the city of Wuhan when asked late last week for his update on the coronavirus outbreak.

It was clear from Galea’s remarks that the total containment of Wuhan, the city where I have lived for the past few decades, was not a course of action the WHO had recommended. Nor did the organization have any clear view on whether such an action would prove effective in limiting the spread of the disease. “It has not been tried before as a public health measure,” he said, “so we cannot at this stage say it will or will not work.”

I am now one of 11 million people in Wuhan who are living through this grand experiment, a measure that, Galea also said, shows “a very strong public health commitment and a willingness to take dramatic action.” From inside the curtain that now encloses my city, I wish to offer my thoughts on this “dramatic action,” and to judge what we have actually seen and experienced in terms of commitment to public health.

( ... )

Everyone must understand, first of all, that this epidemic was allowed to spread for a period of more than forty days before any of the abovementioned cities were closed off, or any decisive action taken. In fact, if we look at the main efforts undertaken by the leadership, and by provincial and city governments in particular, these were focused mostly not on the containment of the epidemic itself, but on the containment and suppression of information about the disease.

The early suppression of news about the epidemic is now fairly common knowledge among Chinese, and many people view this failure to grapple openly with the outbreak as the chief reason why it was later seen as necessary to take the “dramatic action” of closing down my city and many others ...

More from a media watchdog site here.

Meanwhile ...

• "A federal lab has confirmed the earlier finding of a second case of the 2019 novel coronavirus in Toronto, while Ontario public health officials are investigating 23 other people for possible infection ..." (The Canadian Press)
• "Canadian retailers, other businesses start eyeing contingency plans in case of coronavirus outbreak" (Financial Post)
• "Canada cuts consular staff in China amid coronavirus outbreak" (CBC.ca)
• "Canadians stuck in China's coronavirus quarantine zones look for Canada's help to return home" (The Province)

 

[tomahawk6]

US evacuee's from China were flown to a Reserve air base in California.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/flight-with-americans-evacuated-from-china-over-coronavirus-lands-at-military-base-in-california/ar-BBZruaX?ocid=spartanntp

 

[The Bread Guy]

The latest ...

The Canadian government is putting together a plan to evacuate Canadian citizens in China as the novel coronavirus continues to spread.

Speaking with reporters from Parliament Hill on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the government is working out the logistics as to how and when to bring home Canadians who want help leaving the country, and has a plane lined up to do so.

“We have secured an aircraft that could bring those Canadians who wish to leave back to Canada,” said Champagne, adding he could not say whether any of the 160 Canadians in China who have now requested consular assistance are displaying symptoms of the virus.

The announcement came as the government issued an updated travel advisory for China, urging Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel to the country. A more strict advisory is in place for the province of Hubei, where the government has said to avoid all travel.

(...)

Health Minister Patty Hajdu also spoke with reporters at the same scrum and faced questions on whether any Canadians evacuated from China will be quarantined or put in isolation, or if they will be allowed to board the plane if they have symptoms.

“Part of the process now is figuring out what our protocols will be when we return Canadians who wish to come home,” she said.

“Will people be allowed to come back if they’re sick? These are the conversations we’re having.” ...

 

[tomahawk6]

Any remote former military facilities available ? Or maybe piggy back onto US facilities ? After quarantine the people can then be transported to Canada.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Goose bay?

 

[The Bread Guy]

... Or maybe piggy back onto US facilities ? ...

If I had to bet a loonie, I suspect the U.S. wouldn't be keen to bring in more potentially sick & contagious migrants quarantine cases than they already have to with their 10x bigger overall population to worry about.

Goose bay?

Never say never ...  I'll be interested to see where the returning folks end up.

 

[Blackadder1916]

Goose bay?

You're being facetious, aren't you?

While T6 raised the question of "remote" military facilities, there is a difference between isolatable (I made that word up) and inaccessible.  Goose Bay may be remote, it may still have some physical facilities able to house returnees, it may be able to be expanded to accommodate an increased CAF population necessary to support such an operation, but what it doesn't have is any of the services that the CAF can't provide, mainly the hospitalization and specialized laboratory facilities that would be required if any of the persons developed symptoms.

 

[mariomike]

Inside the house that SARS built: How outbreak helped prepare Toronto hospital for coronavirus
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/coronavirus-toronto-1.5443771
From negative pressure rooms to a specialized garage, Humber River Hospital is designed for outbreaks

Humber is the only hospital in North America that boasts almost entirely fresh air, with no recirculating air or rebreathing (inhaling previously exhaled air or gases) outside of these rooms.

 

[Jarnhamar]

GVA is the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Lock it down too?

Yup. Lock down the second largest metropolitan area just to be sure too.

Lock it allllllll down.

But especially Toronto

 

[mariomike]

But especially Toronto

You seem obsessed with Toronto.

 

[Cloud Cover]

You seem obsessed with Toronto.

We The North.  :rofl:

 

[mariomike]

We The North.  :rofl:

In a league in which 29 of the 30 franchises are located in the U.S., the Raptors represent the hopes not just of a city, but an entire nation.