Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)

[Faithlock]

China started to announce asymptomatic cases yesterday. So they posted the data late. Here are the data.

On Mar. 31, excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, there are 1,367 asymptomatic cases. Of this, 130 are new cases. On Mar. 31, 302 asymptomatic cases were confirmed to be negative and released from quarantine. 2 asymptomatic cases start to show symptoms (chart 1).

There are 36 new cases (35 imported), 26 new suspect cases (all imported). See chart 2. There are 7 deaths nationwide (chart 3). There are 76,238 cured cases, and 2,004 exsisting cases (chart 4). Cases in Hong Kong and Macau continue to rise (chart 5).

Chart 1:
View attachment 58844

Chart 2:
View attachment 58845

Chart 3:
View attachment 58846

Chart 4:
View attachment 58847

Chart 5:
View attachment 58848

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Why do they mean by 302 asymptomatic cases are confirmed to be negative? I thought asymptomatic cases are all positive, it just that they have no symptoms.

 

[AndrewS]

Time for everyone to get a BCG (booster) shot?

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Thoughts so far.

1. For Children, countries should make the BCG vaccine compulsory if they don't already do this.
Even if it doesn't work against COVID-19, it does work against tuberculosis, and should prime the immune system more broadly for any new infection.
And if any children have missed their shot, they should be vaccinated in a catchup programme.

This will also help build up the health systems and vaccine production in every country, so that they're ready when a specific COVID-19 vaccine is ready.

2. For adults, there's less evidence for the effectiveness of the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis. But we'll find out from the studies soon on its efgectiveness against COVID-19.

3. The BCG COVID-19 study in Greece doesn't have enough money??? That shouldn't even be an issue in the current climate.

---

And it looks like something similar might occur with other vaccines like measles and polio.

Live vaccines, such the BCG, measles and oral polio vaccines, are thought to have non-specific beneficial effects on some infections.

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[supercat]

Why do they mean by 302 asymptomatic cases are confirmed to be negative? I thought asymptomatic cases are all positive, it just that they have no symptoms.

You are right they were all tested positive initially but never showed symptoms. They were quarantined for 14 days. But by yesterday they had at least 2, maybe 3 (I'm not sure), negative tests. They probably did not show signs on chest X-ray and CT scan either. So they could be released from quarantine.

 

[OppositeDay]

You are right they were all tested positive initially but never showed symptoms. They were quarantined for 14 days. But by yesterday they had at least 2, maybe 3 (I'm not sure), negative tests. They probably did not show signs on chest X-ray and CT scan either. So they could be released from quarantine.

I hope they took antibody tests before being released from quarantine. Can't be too careful these days.

 

[Faithlock]

I hope they took antibody tests before being released from quarantine. Can't be too careful these days.

I know they have a lot of false negative tests. But I don't think it is possible to have false positive tests.

The only way to have false positive is contamination during the sample collecting process.

 

[AssassinsMace]

It's ironic how detailed the information from what's coming out of China as posted by Supercat but I can't find consistent info where I live. I check my local county's website for number of cases every day and it's just a total number and sometimes the number goes up one day and the next day reverses.

 

[AndrewS]

Asia may have been right about coronavirus and face masks, and the rest of the world is coming around

Hong Kong (CNN)In the coming weeks, if they have not already, your government is likely to begin advising you to wear a face mask to protect against coronavirus.

For those living in Asia, such announcements will be a vindication of a tactic that has been adopted across much of the region since the beginning of the crisis and appears to have been borne out by lower rates of infection and faster containment of outbreaks.

In other parts of the world, this message may be confusing, coming after weeks of public health authorities, politicians and media figures confidently claiming masks do not help and urging people instead to focus on washing their hands and maintaining social distancing.
The tone of such claims ranged from condescending to frustrated, with the US Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeting in late February -- in all caps -- "STOP BUYING MASKS!"

"They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk," he added, in a post that has since been retweeted over 43,000 times.

That same week, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), appeared before lawmakers. Asked if people should wear masks, he had a straightforward answer: "No."

Now he's not so sure. On Monday, Redfield said told NPR that the CDC was reviewing its guidelines and may recommend general mask use to guard against community infection. It's likely only a matter of time before other mask holdouts, most prominently the World Health Organization (WHO), follow suit.

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[Rettam Stacf]

I was just joking in my description of all three vaccines. It was tic.

Any way, I am happy that the most promising vaccine is a Chinese vaccine.

If the Chinese vaccine come out first and prove safe and effective (over that of the American and British ones), it would be a big psychological shock to the world and further confirm that China is not just a manufacturer of lower tech stuff but is on her way to be a technology superpower.

I was just joking in my description of all three vaccines. It was tic.

Any way, I am happy that the most promising vaccine is a Chinese vaccine.

If the Chinese vaccine come out first and prove safe and effective (over that of the American and British ones), it would be a big psychological shock to the world and further confirm that China is not just a manufacturer of lower tech stuff but is on her way to be a technology superpower.

Faithlock, your dark humor about the vaccines brought a chuckle out of me among so many grim news on this thread the past few days.

 

[The Observer]

If this is confirmed then I expect it to be the "Whoops" moment for those who said you don't need to wear a mask if you're healthy.

 

[Brumby]

China Concealed Extent of Virus Outbreak, U.S. Intelligence Says

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China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease, the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a classified report to the White House, according to three U.S. officials.

The officials asked not to be identified because the report is secret, and they declined to detail its contents. But the thrust, they said, is that China’s public reporting on cases and deaths is intentionally incomplete. Two of the officials said the report concludes that China’s numbers are fake.