Whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang confirmed dead of coronavirus at 34

This virus was caught by the early detection mechanisms setup after SARS, and it was DNA sequenced from samples taken from some of the first victims within a couple of weeks - pointing to a near match with a sample collected in 2014 in a cave from bat poop as part of a "preparatory program" also setup after SARS.

New sequencing tech has allowed the global distribution of test kits, allowing us to have thousands of confirmed cases shown to us in real time - globally.

Vaccines are already in development and the FDA is prepared to fast-track their testing under procedures, you guessed it, updated after SARS.

...and yet, this turned into a global outbreak that we're desperately trying to stop from becoming a global pandemic. Sadly, Chinese prosperity has meant prolific Chinese tourist industries which helped spread the disease robustly throughout South-east Asia. And so there's a very real possibility that, unlike SARS, this new Coronavirus will become endemic and return each year like the seasonal flu, possibly causing hundreds of thousands of dead per year until a vaccine is deployed. Based on projected numbers, it seems like it has spread far beyond our ability to contain it.

So while it certainly could have been worse, had we not been as prepared - I like to think that when this happens again 20 years from now, we'll be far better prepared. I'll have to learn to use those three sea shells.

Is it a problem of with current medicine, or a problem with censorious communist dictatorships and cultures obsessed with face-saving?

There is currently no vaccine to prevent 2019-nCoV infection. The best way to prevent infection is to avoid being exposed to this virus. However, as a reminder, CDC always recommends everyday preventive actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, including:

  Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
  If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Always wash hands with soap and water if hands are visibly dirty.
  Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
  Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
  Stay home when you are sick.
  Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
  Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.

There’s no way China goes from 27k infected and it growing 15% per day to zero infections. It’s beyond containment at this point, they can’t stay on lockdown forever. And while it has barely spread beyond China, are we just going to wall off 1.4 billion people from the rest of humanity for the foreseeable future? Unlikely, probably impossible. So it seems like just a matter of time until it spreads globally, just like the flu, but much more deadly. And likely to overwhelm our medical infrastructure for the people who don’t die, many of which end up in critical condition.

I’m not panicking, but I’m concerned. Please, someone smart and well-informed, make the case for why this isn’t that big of a deal. (Hint: if you start by comparing it to total flu deaths instead of flu mortality rate, you’ve disqualified yourself).

I seriously hope China can contain this.

Diseases that do that often do so by causing (even if indirectly) the person's own immune system to overreact or otherwise go haywire.

I belive SARS had a similar impact.

My son had a situation where his immune system overreacted. We had folks from the local university on call for updates every few hours and etc. Doctors have very few things at their disposal that they can do when that happens and they get really nervous.

My son pulled through but it was an enlightening / scary moment to see doctors that concerned / with few options.

Just like the flu, this virus causes number of very serious cases that require intensive care but care capacities in most countries are barely able to cope with a bad flu season before bed appear on hallways - and this year had a particularly bad flu season still ongoing. There are only so many ventilators and artificial lungs available in hospitals and there is limited capacity in the world to deal with a new, highly infectious pathogen hitting a population without any preexisting immunities and people requiring weeks care to recover and become non infectious

China has, for better or worse, sacrificed Wuhan to buy the rest of the country and the world time to shore up capacities and enact procedures to stagger the load that will hit healthcare systems if the virus becomes broadly entrenched. I don't think there is any healthcare system on the planet that won't severely strain if hit by the sudden load of a new, highly infectious virus with long, invisible incubation period.

Not to be too snarky, but most of people in UK though Brexit was a good move.

I am too a bit concerned about corona, but its hard to judge how dangerous it is as long as all info goes through Chinese filter (Chinese gov prevents any outside help so they can have as much control over the PR as they can).

The cases in other countries are still too small to get a definitive answer, if this is something scary or not. All we can do is wait and see.

I absolutely hate that China’s powers that be decided to hush up the outbreak. Shame on them. But this specific case is just an error magnified by social media (which very fairly doesn’t believe the official party line either).

Banning of large public gatherings of people potentially exposed to the virus. Sounds like a reasonable precaution.

>The announcement capped several chaotic hours in which Chinese media first reported Li’s death, only for the hospital to respond that Li was alive, though in critical condition.

>Li Wenliang has died, Wuhan Central Hospital confirmed early Friday morning, hours after it initially denied reports of his death.

Where here do you see clear evidence or even indication of deceit?

If someone is in critical condition, that does not mean they are dead. Announcing someone dead just hours after saying someone is in critical condition is, actually, super super logical.

I fear your comment might be quite guided by your unfamiliarity with China and xenophobic touch. Please do take some more time to reflect before posting similar comments again. Thank you.

Maybe. ...but, to be honest, despite their clear dishonestly about the number of infected/dying, they are also clearly taking some definitive actions to contain this.

The Wuhan coronavirus appears to cause pneumonia in two ways: when the virus takes hold in the lungs, and through secondary bacterial infections, however, the first way appears to be more common.

Although it can be difficult to determine whether organ damage from the Wuhan coronavirus is a result of direct viral infection or indirect “collateral damage” from the immune system, initial reports suggested around 11% of people severely ill with the Wuhan coronavirus experienced sepsis with multi-organ failure.

https://theconversation.com/how-does-the-wuhan-coronavirus-c...

I am not a medical practitioner nor researcher and have no understanding of the virus. I make no representation as to the veracity of this source lacking the means to independently verify it.

The source is Taiwan News so probably not impartial.

Once your immune system detects it, you're going to get the standard flu/cold symptoms (fever, runny nose, etc).

During this period your body is actively losing its protection due to putting so much resources into fighting the viral infection in your body.

Other deadlier diseases can now enter your body and essentially hide behind the fact that your immune system can't respond to everything at once.

So you get more complications as you're sick for longer.

The viral infection itself does have an impact on organs, specifically the lungs, but it's usually secondary complications that kill.

For more information the most recent dozen or so videos by John Campbell at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF9IOB2TExg3QIBupFtBDxg will take you through material published in peer reviewed medical journals that explain transmission models and an in depth review of some early cases.

The further kicker is that the model it aligns to is quadratic where an actual virus spread is exponential. So, the Chinese are not only making up numbers and following an ideal model exactly but can't even figure out to use a valid ideal model to generate those fake numbers from.

See more here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jbvibANxARg

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-...

What would you consider a high mortality rate? 2% lethality in healthy patients is significant and it is "so far". We don't know the true rate yet.

Yeah, it’s clearly nothing. What’s the big deal?

We are also not sure how many people are dying as a result of complications caused by this illness. The current reported death rate is based on people killed as a direct result of the illness.