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95, without verifying myself...did how many other countries used WHO test kits (China, S. Korea...etc? )
Why weren't they producing every type of test kit that proved reliable up until Feb. 14th or so?
Do not know about China but South Korean test kits are of their own manufacture. As far as China, they donated a number of test kits to Czechoslovakia. Actually they did not "donate" them, they sold them but that is another issue. Those test kits turned out to have an 80% failure rate.
 
We are getting way OT here, but something has to give. China has brought the world SARS, H1N1, H5N1, and now CoViD-19. It is also now simultaneously dealing with a post-C19 outbreak of H5N1 right now as we all try to fight this coronavirus. All in the last 20 years. It was less of an issue before millions of people flew in and out of China every year, as they do now. They will be even more mobile/spread-able 5 years from now. There is truly zero reason to be optimistic about the next 20 years in this area.

Can we fly in NYC food inspectors for God's sake, or just put the kibosh on eating bats, dogs, monkeys and birds?
The CCP has outlawed "wet" markets but we should all know by now how valuable that is. Bangkok also has a functioning wet market and I would not be astonished to find that they are common among other Southeast Asian countries.
 
Do not know about China but South Korean test kits are of their own manufacture. As far as China, they donated a number of test kits to Czechoslovakia. Actually they did not "donate" them, they sold them but that is another issue. Those test kits turned out to have an 80% failure rate.

Spain has apparently discontinued use of the the Chinese made test kits.

Hopefully we can send some of the 15 minute ones to Europe soon.
 
I just don’t see Starbucks reopening 80% of their stores in China if they thought it wasn’t somewhat under control.
Is this decision coming from Starbucks or is it just from governmental directive? Rather suspect the latter. Go back to work; everything's fine; move along; nothing to see here. I have read that a third of China's overleveraged companies are facing bankruptcy within a month without any production. It looks to me that the politburo has crunched the numbers and decided that saving the economy is more important than their people's lives.
 
Is this decision coming from Starbucks or is it just from governmental directive? Rather suspect the latter. Go back to work; everything's fine; move along; nothing to see here. I have read that a third of China's overleveraged companies are facing bankruptcy within a month without any production. It looks to me that the politburo has crunched the numbers and decided that saving the economy is more important than their people's lives.

Kevin Johnson. The CEO
 
It's NOT killing 1% of the people who catch it. It's killing 1% of the people who were sick enough to go to the doctor, get tested and confirmed it was COVID.

The 0.1% fatality rate for flu is an estimate. It's based on an estimated number of total flu infections, and is very soft. There's no testing behind it. The COVID-19 fatality rate being reported is based on positive tests, not on estimated total cases...so it's not a fair and direct comparison.

To illustrate more clearly... CDC estimates a high end estimate of 54 million flu cases in the US this year, 25 million medical visits, 710,000 hospitalizations, and 59,000 deaths. So, if you figure 59,000 deaths divided by an estimate of 54 million cases, that's a mortality rate of 0.1%. That's the number being used, but it's a soft estimate. If you use the number of medical visits instead, mortality rises to 0.236%. And if you use hospitalizations, it rises to a whopping 8.3%.

COVID-19 doesn't have an estimated number of cases or hospitalizations. There are about 68,450 confirmed cases and 1,027 deaths. Most sources say that 80+% of people infected have mild symptoms, so if 68,450 is only 20% of total infections, we're talking somewhere near 350,000 infections. 1,027 deaths in 350,000 infections gives a mortality of 0.29%. Still higher than the flu, but not as alarmingly high.

Bottom line is that the comparison is faulty. For the flu, the lowest possible estimate - deaths per estimated total flu cases (whether the patient went to a doctor or not) is being compared to the deaths per lab confirmed case for COVID-19. It's not apples to apples, it's more like apples to wingnuts.

I was just looking at the worldometers page on the US coronavirus status: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

If you look at the graphs and change them to read logarithmic, you'll see that the "total cases" trend line is increasing by a factor of 10 roughly every 8-9 days. 100 cases on March 2nd, roughly 1,000 cases on March 10th, roughly 10,000 cases on March 19th, and we are on track to cross 100,000 cases tomorrow (March 27th). If that trend continues, we will hit one million cases on April 4th. The good news is that it looks like the trend line might have flattened slightly the last couple days and we have to hope that continues as we quarantine and use common sense.

When you look at the "total deaths" trend-line, you see the following: 10 on March 4th, 100 on March 17th, 1,000 on March 25th. If the total deaths trend-line continues, we could pass 10,000 deaths in early April and could reach 100,000 deaths by mid to late April. At some point, we'll start reaching saturation in populated areas and it will flatten out, but pretending like this is just another flu is a good way to see a million deaths in our country. It's obviously foolish to project out too far on anything like this, but the overall trends are still pretty appalling at this point.
 
I was just looking at the worldometers page on the US coronavirus status: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

If you look at the graphs and change them to read logarithmic, you'll see that the "total cases" trend line is increasing by a factor of 10 roughly every 8-9 days. 100 cases on March 2nd, roughly 1,000 cases on March 10th, roughly 10,000 cases on March 19th, and we are on track to cross 100,000 cases tomorrow (March 27th). If that trend continues, we will hit one million cases on April 4th. The good news is that it looks like the trend line might have flattened slightly the last couple days and we have to hope that continues as we quarantine and use common sense.

When you look at the "total deaths" trend-line, you see the following: 10 on March 4th, 100 on March 17th, 1,000 on March 25th. If the total deaths trend-line continues, we could pass 10,000 deaths in early April and could reach 100,000 deaths by mid to late April. At some point, we'll start reaching saturation in populated areas and it will flatten out, but pretending like this is just another flu is a good way to see a million deaths in our country. It's obviously foolish to project out too far on anything like this, but the overall trends are still pretty appalling at this point.

What does it mean when a trend line slopes up and then goes directly to zero and stays there?
 
Do not know about China but South Korean test kits are of their own manufacture. As far as China, they donated a number of test kits to Czechoslovakia. Actually they did not "donate" them, they sold them but that is another issue. Those test kits turned out to have an 80% failure rate.
Jack Ma donated 500,000 test kits and 1 million masks to the US. I'd like to think that these kits were useful, but was also wondering what the government was thinking about these kits.
 
Not that long ago (under Mao) millions of Chinese, especially in rural China were starving to death every year. This was a result of the government controls over agriculture, corruption, central planning that was totally messed up, etc. As a result, subsistence farming was allowed, and raising or capturing bats, cats, pangolins, dogs, monkeys, etc. took off. Now some, like pangolins are considered delicacies or to have medicinal properties. I suppose since it's a totalitarian regime, China could do it. But there will be serious backlash, and maybe even a return to starvation.

We do some weird stuff in this country too- Rocky Mountain oysters, crawfish, cat fish, gator and all kinds of wild game. The wet markets are an obvious difference.
My objection is less to specific animals (exempting the endangered, obviously) and more to the horrible, horrible sanitation issues these markets have. Cages in stacks, body fluids mixing between species that then end up in food that maybe doesn't get washed right for a social gathering, then BAM, a whole family has it, then a few blocks, then a few villages, then a city, a state, etc. If the Chinese government wants to, they can enact a hard core sanitation regime anytime and anywhere. That they chose not to after SARS is infuriating.
 
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The CCP has outlawed "wet" markets but we should all know by now how valuable that is. Bangkok also has a functioning wet market and I would not be astonished to find that they are common among other Southeast Asian countries.
Oh, finally. They better have people in every locality enforcing it or we'll be right back here again in 5 or 10 years
 
I was just looking at the worldometers page on the US coronavirus status: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

If you look at the graphs and change them to read logarithmic, you'll see that the "total cases" trend line is increasing by a factor of 10 roughly every 8-9 days. 100 cases on March 2nd, roughly 1,000 cases on March 10th, roughly 10,000 cases on March 19th, and we are on track to cross 100,000 cases tomorrow (March 27th). If that trend continues, we will hit one million cases on April 4th. The good news is that it looks like the trend line might have flattened slightly the last couple days and we have to hope that continues as we quarantine and use common sense.

When you look at the "total deaths" trend-line, you see the following: 10 on March 4th, 100 on March 17th, 1,000 on March 25th. If the total deaths trend-line continues, we could pass 10,000 deaths in early April and could reach 100,000 deaths by mid to late April. At some point, we'll start reaching saturation in populated areas and it will flatten out, but pretending like this is just another flu is a good way to see a million deaths in our country. It's obviously foolish to project out too far on anything like this, but the overall trends are still pretty appalling at this point.
My sister is a doctor. She’s pretty certain we see upwards of 3M deaths. I hope to god she’s wrong.
 
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My sister is a doctor. She’s pretty certain we see upwards of 3M deaths. I hope to god she’s wrong.

She needs to do better research and stop watching MSNBC.

There are no credible epidemiologists who are predicting 3 Million deaths - especially if you're just referencing the US. That's almost a 1% mortality rate on the entire population. Not gonna happen. The math doesn't work as more tests are conducted, the anti-malarial treatments become more readily available and the weather gets warmer (COVID is a cold-weather virus - dies off at higher temperatures).

Go outside. Go fishing (seriously - what bullshit to ban FISHING relative to social distance - fishing is the ultimate social distancing). Throw a ball for your dog. Do what males do and become a MOYOD. Lots of stuff to occupy one's time without buying into the doomsday predictions.
 
She needs to do better research and stop watching MSNBC.

There are no credible epidemiologists who are predicting 3 Million deaths - especially if you're just referencing the US. That's almost a 1% mortality rate on the entire population. Not gonna happen. The math doesn't work as more tests are conducted, the anti-malarial treatments become more readily available and the weather gets warmer (COVID is a cold-weather virus - dies off at higher temperatures).

Go outside. Go fishing (seriously - what bullshit to ban FISHING relative to social distance - fishing is the ultimate social distancing). Throw a ball for your dog. Do what males do and become a MOYOD. Lots of stuff to occupy one's time without buying into the doomsday predictions.
The US just became the world leader in confirmed cases with roughly 1/5 the total in the world but we only account for 5% of the deaths. Better medical, more testing and a younger population than Italy for sure but all anyone will read is we are the world leader. Headlines sell.
 
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She needs to do better research and stop watching MSNBC.

There are no credible epidemiologists who are predicting 3 Million deaths - especially if you're just referencing the US. That's almost a 1% mortality rate on the entire population. Not gonna happen. The math doesn't work as more tests are conducted, the anti-malarial treatments become more readily available and the weather gets warmer (COVID is a cold-weather virus - dies off at higher temperatures).

Go outside. Go fishing (seriously - what bullshit to ban FISHING relative to social distance - fishing is the ultimate social distancing). Throw a ball for your dog. Do what males do and become a MOYOD. Lots of stuff to occupy one's time without buying into the doomsday predictions.

Social distancing theme song:

 
The US just became the world leader in confirmed cases with roughly 1/5 the total in the world but we only account for 5% of the deaths. Better medical, more testing and a younger population than Italy for sure but all anyone will read is we are the world leader. Headlines sell.

Yes they do - and a media hellbent on clicks and promoting a divisive social/political agenda. Edward R. Murrow is spinning in his grave.

The US also has the most accessible healthcare system in the world and a population conditioned to run to the Emergency room with the sniffles.

I'm sure all the villagers in China rushed to get tested at the first sign of a runny nose.

Wash you hands. That's the most effective defense and lay low for a couple weeks. The sky isn't falling despite what the main stream media is pimping.
 
Does she watch the 10 'O Clock news, or the 11 'O Clock news?

We'll be back to work in a month.
I don’t think the economy can be turned back on like flipping a light switch so I wouldn’t expect the majority of laid off workers to be back at work all that quickly. On the positive side, if the economists are right, around 80% will remain employed throughout the whole thing.

But I expect that airlines and the leisure, hospitality and retail industries will ramp up pretty slowly after the all clear is given. A significant number of customers will be cautious about returning to their old ways. Some never will. A return to normal will take a long time under the best of circumstances.
 
I don’t think the economy can be turned back on like flipping a light switch so I wouldn’t expect the majority of laid off workers to be back at work all that quickly. On the positive side, if the economists are right, around 80% will remain employed throughout the whole thing.

But I expect that airlines and the leisure, hospitality and retail industries will ramp up pretty slowly after the all clear is given. A significant number of customers will be cautious about returning to their old ways. Some never will. A return to normal will take a long time under the best of circumstances.

Demand is gone. The stimulus checks aren't going to be used for vacations to the Bahamas or new washers and dryers.
 
The CCP has outlawed "wet" markets but we should all know by now how valuable that is. Bangkok also has a functioning wet market and I would not be astonished to find that they are common among other Southeast Asian countries.
It’s certainly frustrating to see other countries problems end up ravaging the US. But we’re no more going to be able to enforce food safety policies in other countries any more than we can enforce their fiscal/monetary policies. As a country, we have to be prepared for their F-ups to travel across the ocean and land on our shores, same as we have to prepare for cyberattacks, terrorists, etc. This could just as easily have been biological warfare...in which case we are getting our asses kicked. Control what you can control, many mistakes were made by our government that left us exposed and unprepared/slow to respond. The US has nobody to blame but the US for where we are at with this right now.
 
She needs to do better research and stop watching MSNBC.

There are no credible epidemiologists who are predicting 3 Million deaths - especially if you're just referencing the US. That's almost a 1% mortality rate on the entire population. Not gonna happen. The math doesn't work as more tests are conducted, the anti-malarial treatments become more readily available and the weather gets warmer (COVID is a cold-weather virus - dies off at higher temperatures).

Go outside. Go fishing (seriously - what bullshit to ban FISHING relative to social distance - fishing is the ultimate social distancing). Throw a ball for your dog. Do what males do and become a MOYOD. Lots of stuff to occupy one's time without buying into the doomsday predictions.
Re: fishing
The Kalama river when springers open might be the sole reason fishing got banned. I believe the saying is "elbow to a$$hole."
 
Apologies if I misinterpreted but it seemed your point would only be relevant in furtherance of the argument that young people should not worry about it and go on about their business. If that’s not where you were going, I was off base.
No, it was my observation that the "it's nearly as lethal to young people as it is to old" counternarrative had cropped up in force as a reaction to early reports that it was gravest to the elderly. IE, "you young people think you're immune, well look at this!" In fact, the early reports seem to be pretty solid, and while scaring young people into strict compliance may or may not be a great strategy, it is one with a weak statistical case to the claims of comparable lethality.

By the way, I'm middle-aged and scarcely have a dog in this fight.
 
Speak for yourself.

Wanting to go on vacation, and actually being able to find an available flight are different things. Like I said, there will be no demand for awhile. Inflation is a long way off. Stagnation and unemployment are what the Fed is worried about.
 
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I assume we're all taking Chinese reports with a grain of salt.
I'm appalled at how little conversation today is about the source of the problem (China). People are gormlessly repeating happy numbers about a slowdown from the same Chinese government which currently has over 1 million people in prison camps, and has put together one of the most Potemkin-like resumes imaginable on this issue. Meanwhile, most of what I hear is Americans bickering over the president, the federal response, and woulda/shoulda/coulda. It's OK to be unhappy with the domestic plan, but Americans who make that their main focus while also lapping up info from a homicidal dictator (who unilaterally eliminated term limits for his own office) concern me deeply.

So let's say we succeed in replacing domestic political figures whom we always hated anyway - how does that move us closer to mitigating deadly global pandemics originating from the usual suspects? How does that hold the regime linked to repeated outbreaks responsible? Someone said we need to focus on what we can control. That's fine, but we DO have a tool: band together with other countries to demand (a) commensurate reparations to affected countries, and/or (b) third-party supervision to prevent repeats. Fail to do that, and your only trade partners will be your second world partners in corruption.

China has so far arrested Dr Li Wenliang (who later died) for warning other doctors about a new virus and forced him to sign a document redacting his claims - then arrested 8 others who have subsequently vanished from the planet. They are falsifying productivity figures, they sat on what they knew for weeks to avoid embarrassment before contacting the WHO, they are minimizing the threat by denying it was transmittable between humans, seeding the idea that the US military was the origin, declining to count asymptomatic positives among the infected, and very likely lying about the spread (80,000+ cases in the first 5 weeks, <1,000 in the next 3? In ground zero?). This resume is very similar to previous outbreaks. 20 years of this and so little conversation about holding the source accountable.
 
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I'm appalled at how little conversation today is about the source of the problem (China). People are gormlessly repeating happy numbers about a slowdown from the same Chinese government which currently has over 1 million people in prison camps, and has put together one of the most Potemkin-like resumes imaginable on this issue. Meanwhile, most of what I hear is Americans bickering over the president, the federal response, and woulda/shoulda/coulda. It's OK to be unhappy with the domestic plan, but Americans who make that their main focus while also lapping up info from a homicidal dictator (who unilaterally eliminated term limits for his own office) concern me deeply.

So let's say we succeed in replacing domestic political figures whom we always hated anyway - how does that move us closer to mitigating deadly global pandemics originating from the usual suspects? How does that hold the regime linked to repeated outbreaks responsible? Someone said we need to focus on what we can control. That's fine, but we DO have a tool: band together with other countries to demand (a) commensurate reparations to affected countries, and/or (b) third-party supervision to prevent repeats. Fail to do that, and your only trade partners will be your second world partners in corruption.

China has so far arrested Dr Li Wenliang (who later died) for warning other doctors about a new virus and forced him to sign a document redacting his claims - then arrested 8 others who have subsequently vanished from the planet. They are falsifying productivity figures, they sat on what they knew for weeks to avoid embarrassment before contacting the WHO, they are minimizing the threat by denying it was transmittable between humans, seeding the idea that the US military was the origin, declining to count asymptomatic positives among the infected, and very likely lying about the spread (80,000+ cases in the first 5 weeks, <1,000 in the next 3? In ground zero?). This resume is very similar to previous outbreaks. 20 years of this and so little conversation about holding the source accountable.
The congnitive dissinance is startling.

Compare the graphs of reporting here and tell me we shouldnt be paying more attn to what China is saying, or isnt saying.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/
 
No, it was my observation that the "it's nearly as lethal to young people as it is to old" counternarrative had cropped up in force as a reaction to early reports that it was gravest to the elderly. IE, "you young people think you're immune, well look at this!" In fact, the early reports seem to be pretty solid, and while scaring young people into strict compliance may or may not be a great strategy, it is one with a weak statistical case to the claims of comparable lethality.

By the way, I'm middle-aged and scarcely have a dog in this fight.
************

I think the evidence IS showing that the elderly are more at risk than the young. However, the biggest problem is that the young also GET the virus, they just don't have such serious consequences and thus go about their regular business and infect those in a higher risk class. Like the elderly and those with underlying health issues, particularly lung diseases. Like my wife. So yes, we are trying to be VERY careful.
 
That's racist!*

*China is a country, not a race.
***********
Bingo. Also, for those that may be unaware of this, for all the uproar about being racist if you want to close down our southern border with a wall/troops/electronics/etc, Mexicans or Latinos in general are also not a race. They are a culture.
 
I'm appalled at how little conversation today is about the source of the problem (China). People are gormlessly repeating happy numbers about a slowdown from the same Chinese government which currently has over 1 million people in prison camps, and has put together one of the most Potemkin-like resumes imaginable on this issue. Meanwhile, most of what I hear is Americans bickering over the president, the federal response, and woulda/shoulda/coulda. It's OK to be unhappy with the domestic plan, but Americans who make that their main focus while also lapping up info from a homicidal dictator (who unilaterally eliminated term limits for his own office) concern me deeply.

So let's say we succeed in replacing domestic political figures whom we always hated anyway - how does that move us closer to mitigating deadly global pandemics originating from the usual suspects? How does that hold the regime linked to repeated outbreaks responsible? Someone said we need to focus on what we can control. That's fine, but we DO have a tool: band together with other countries to demand (a) commensurate reparations to affected countries, and/or (b) third-party supervision to prevent repeats. Fail to do that, and your only trade partners will be your second world partners in corruption.

China has so far arrested Dr Li Wenliang (who later died) for warning other doctors about a new virus and forced him to sign a document redacting his claims - then arrested 8 others who have subsequently vanished from the planet. They are falsifying productivity figures, they sat on what they knew for weeks to avoid embarrassment before contacting the WHO, they are minimizing the threat by denying it was transmittable between humans, seeding the idea that the US military was the origin, declining to count asymptomatic positives among the infected, and very likely lying about the spread (80,000+ cases in the first 5 weeks, <1,000 in the next 3? In ground zero?). This resume is very similar to previous outbreaks. 20 years of this and so little conversation about holding the source accountable.

Japan, India will have to lead the way. SE Asian countries are too small.

If it were me, I would quietly tell American companies they have 60 days to get out of China.

Then the sanctions hit. Starting with removing the ban on Japan raising an army. Next would be worldwide seizures of all Chinese assets. No country paying any debts. Every country expelling their diplomats. All cargo ships denied. Bring their economy to a halt. Place so much pressure on their people that they remove Xi. Then we can talk.

This was an act of war on the world. They unleashed a pandemic. They need to be held accountable.
 
I'm appalled at how little conversation today is about the source of the problem (China). People are gormlessly repeating happy numbers about a slowdown from the same Chinese government which currently has over 1 million people in prison camps, and has put together one of the most Potemkin-like resumes imaginable on this issue. Meanwhile, most of what I hear is Americans bickering over the president, the federal response, and woulda/shoulda/coulda. It's OK to be unhappy with the domestic plan, but Americans who make that their main focus while also lapping up info from a homicidal dictator (who unilaterally eliminated term limits for his own office) concern me deeply.

So let's say we succeed in replacing domestic political figures whom we always hated anyway - how does that move us closer to mitigating deadly global pandemics originating from the usual suspects? How does that hold the regime linked to repeated outbreaks responsible? Someone said we need to focus on what we can control. That's fine, but we DO have a tool: band together with other countries to demand (a) commensurate reparations to affected countries, and/or (b) third-party supervision to prevent repeats. Fail to do that, and your only trade partners will be your second world partners in corruption.

China has so far arrested Dr Li Wenliang (who later died) for warning other doctors about a new virus and forced him to sign a document redacting his claims - then arrested 8 others who have subsequently vanished from the planet. They are falsifying productivity figures, they sat on what they knew for weeks to avoid embarrassment before contacting the WHO, they are minimizing the threat by denying it was transmittable between humans, seeding the idea that the US military was the origin, declining to count asymptomatic positives among the infected, and very likely lying about the spread (80,000+ cases in the first 5 weeks, <1,000 in the next 3? In ground zero?). This resume is very similar to previous outbreaks. 20 years of this and so little conversation about holding the source accountable.
Regardless of the Chinese government’s corrupt and immoral behavior, they are gradually usurping us as a global leader. I think that makes it unlikely we can establish a global consensus to hold them accountable or force changes to their behavior.

We have started looking inward and allowing our global influence to wane. That didn’t start under Trump but one can certainly argue he has accelerated our movement in that direction. In the meantime, China has been increasing their global presence through their Belt and Road initiative. My fear is that this pandemic will serve to give their efforts in that regard a boost, not a setback. If we ever reach the point where the Chinese Renminbi or Yuan (or whatever the hell they call their currency) becomes the world reserve currency instead of the dollar, we will have a problem. The days of being able to run massive federal deficits without consequence will come to an abrupt end.
 
Not sure what you're trying to say here? What is the link between cognitive dissonance and the charts?

I think this made sense in your head but you missed a step explaining it...
Everyone buying that the Chinese government completely stopped SarsCov2 in its tracks. The media reporting it as truth.
 
Got laid off on Monday morning. I'm in printing sales. 32 years in the industry. First time anything close to this has happened.
kudos for surviving this long . That industry has sucked wind for years.
 
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