Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
I am glad that most people here are level headed and beside it is the right thing to do! Irrespective how we feel about the ugliness of lunatic fringe of American elite. Anyway her is the fascinating look of this air bridge via Xinhui

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Inside the start of the great virus airlift
Axios
Jonathan Swan, Joann Muller
Illustration of a shipping container with a surgical mask as a parachute

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

A plane from Shanghai arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York Sunday morning carrying an extraordinary load: 12 million gloves, 130,000 N95 masks, 1.7 million surgical masks, 50,000 gowns, 130,000 hand sanitizer units, and 36,000 thermometers.

Why it matters: The flight is the start of what might end up being the largest government-led airlift of emergency medical supplies into the United States.

That's according to Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, who runs the coronavirus supply chain task force at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He spoke to Axios on Saturday night.
The airlift is the most dramatic part of the Trump administration's frantic attempts to catch up with a nationwide medical equipment crisis.

What's next: Polowczyk told Axios that he's already booked 22 similar flights over the next two weeks.

Starting with this weekend's airlift, he said, "We have essentially a flight a day, mostly from Asia" to expedite the transport of medical equipment that distributors already plan to sell into the U.S.
"This first one is kind of a proof of concept," he said. Distributors "can generate product. We can get an airplane there, and as we build muscle memory with these distributors, these numbers will grow."

Driving the news: This weekend's first load of medical supplies will go into the New York tri-state area, Polowczyk said, and subsequent flights will distribute supplies to other parts of the country.

The federal government bought 60% of the total load and all of the N95 masks carried on the plane from Shanghai, according to Devin O'Malley, an official on the White House's coronavirus task force.
Of 60% the government bought, roughly half the supplies are going to New York, a third to New Jersey and one-fifth to Connecticut, he said. O'Malley said it's up to the governors to distribute the supplies they receive. The remaining 40% from the flight is going to the private market in the tri-state area, where the distributor had already lined up buyers, he added.

Under normal circumstances, the distributor would have put these supplies on a ship, which would have taken 37 days, Polowczyk said.
FEMA is expediting this process — chartering flights from around the world to move the equipment to the U.S. in a day.
Asked whether an airlift of the scale he has in mind has been done before in the U.S., Polowczyk said, "Frankly, I don't know if on the scale that I think we're going to have to do it to get enough here soon enough. ... I'm hoping this is only a two-, three-week effort, but it may be a month's worth ... but I don't know of another effort like this."
Major U.S. health care distributors are involved in the effort, per Reuters, which first reported on the plane's touchdown as part of the effort.


Local officials are crying out for ventilators and personal protective equipment. A survey of mayors in more than 200 U.S. cities found that more than 90% of the cities "do not have an adequate supply of face masks for their first responders (including police, fire, and EMTs) and medical personnel."

These supply shortages have been made far worse, experts say, by the administration's slow and dysfunctional early efforts to prepare for the virus' explosion through the U.S.

The U.S. government is paying for the flight. The distributor is paying for the product, which it will sell to buyers in the U.S. And the State Department is coordinating with countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia to speed up diplomatic clearances.

The big picture: Polowczyk said many members of Congress "want me to nationalize this supply chain by using the Defense Production Act. They want me to do all the buying, all the distributing, and all the allocation." But he's been resisting that.

"This medical supply chain, there's like six, seven big distributors who have like 600–700 nodes that push out product," he said. "I'm not going to re-create that. I'm looking to break down barriers ... to help them feed product where it needs to go."
He said the federal government will buy some medical supplies, but will try to feed them into existing supply chains.
Polowczyk said he doesn't want to use the Defense Production Act, but he leaves the door open to using those powers to move supplies around the country if his current plan doesn't work.

The other side: "Producers and distributors of medical supplies across the country are raising red flags about what they say is a lack of guidance from the federal government about where to send their products, as hospitals compete for desperately needed masks and ventilators to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus," per WSJ.

Behind the scenes: Lives are on the line. Polowczyk is charged with getting lifesaving equipment into the hands of people who desperately need it, before it's too late.

Polowczyk has deep experience in military supply and logistics. But nothing could prepare him for the storm he has been thrown into.
"I was the vice director for logistics on the joint staff. I had nothing to do with Health and Human Services," Polowczyk said.

Polowczyk said that when he took over the role, "there was no organization" working the supply chain out of FEMA. HHS was in the lead. A senior administration added: "When the president activated FEMA, Adm. Polowczyk was immediately installed as the head of the supply chain, working closely with Jared Kushner at the White House."

Editor's note: Because of inaccurate information initially provided to Axios, this article has been corrected to reflect that the U.S. government paid for some of the shipment and that the supplies will go to the tri-state area and the private sector.

It has also been updated to clarify the events when Polowczyk took on his role
 

Rettam Stacf

Junior Member
Registered Member
To the best of my knowledge, this is what I believe the Chinese government is currently doing regarding medical supplies necessary for fighting against coronavirus.

[1] Let the free market principle applies. In fact, the Chinese government very specifically said that in early March.

[2] China did not interfere with individuals or private organizations in China (for example, Jack Ma and the Chinese Red Cross) from donating medical supplies to any country or organizations of their choice.

[3] Upon request by foreign governments (for example, Italy) or foreign individuals and organizations friendly/helpful to China (for example, Elon Musk), China has taken out of its own reserve stock or intervened the supply chain to prioritize medical supplies to be shipped promptly to other countries.

[4] Very little shipment to high income developed countries are in the form of aids (free). But China has sent significant quantities of medical supplies as aids to development and underdeveloped countries.

[5] China does not treat US any different from other countries.

As the threat of Covid-19 is slowly subsiding in China and she is on the way to recovery, all these seems to be good principles and sound foreign policy to me. It is not necessary to put China on a pedestal for taking the moral high ground, nor should we demonize China for the "ulterior motives", in sending necessary medical supplies to countries in need.
 
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Skye_ZTZ_113

Junior Member
Registered Member
I am glad that most people here are level headed and beside it is the right thing to do! Irrespective how we feel about the ugliness of lunatic fringe of American elite. Anyway her is the fascinating look of this air bridge via Xinhui

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…..

I wonder if this will be the start of the 21st Century equivalent of the Berlin Airlift. Instead of daily living supplies, instead focusing on medical equipment and needed gear. It'd good to know that if the situation in the US is not as optimistic as many seem to believe (I do not), there's delivered support for it. They could expand operations with the C-17 fleet and the commercial world fleet which has been running massively under occupied flights. Who knows, maybe we'll see Y-20s landing over there.

I do have friends/partners over there and in Italy and their possible loss is concerning.
 
USNS Comfort arrives in NYC.
QKYXJLFHRFGO7ESJ5P75QKC6QU.jpg
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
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The COVID-19 Virus May Have Been in Humans For Years, Study Suggests

JACINTA BOWLER
30 MARCH 2020

As COVID-19 has hitchhiked around the globe,
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, pneumonia and fear, scientists have been racing to determine where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has come from.
While we don't have all the answers yet - including whether it came from an
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- a new analysis has definitively put to rest the conspiracies that claim it's
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.

The study raises some interesting possibilities regarding the origin of the new coronavirus. One of the scenarios suggests the virus may have been circulating harmlessly in human populations for quite a while before it became the pandemic that's now stopped the world in its tracks.

"It is possible that a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans, acquiring [new genomic features] through adaptation during undetected human-to-human transmission,"
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"Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases."

The researchers analysed genomic data available from SARS-CoV-2 and other similar coronaviruses, showing that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) sections of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins were so effective at binding to human cells, they had to be caused by natural selection.

"By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes,"
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, immunologist Kristian Andersen at Scripps Research.

"Two features of the virus, the mutations in the RBD portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, rules out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2."

With 'laboratory experiment gone wrong' out of the way, the team explored two viable hypotheses. First, that the natural selection occurred in an animal host before the virus was transmitted to humans. The team explains that although samples of coronaviruses in bats and pangolins have shown similar genomes, none of them fit perfectly just yet.

"Although no animal coronavirus has been identified that is sufficiently similar to have served as the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV-2, the diversity of coronaviruses in bats and other species is massively undersampled,"
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.

The second hypothesis is that the natural selection happened in humans - after the virus was transmitted from an animal host.

"The second scenario is that the new coronavirus crossed from animals into humans before it became capable of causing human disease,"
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"Then, as a result of gradual evolutionary changes over years or perhaps decades, the virus eventually gained the ability to spread from human-to-human and cause serious, often life-threatening disease."

Although we don't yet know which of the two hypotheses is correct, the researchers think that more evidence might tip the scales in favour of one or the other - but we'll have to wait for that research to be done.

In the meantime,
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, stay home, and
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.

The correspondence has been published in
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.
 

OppositeDay

Senior Member
Registered Member
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The COVID-19 Virus May Have Been in Humans For Years, Study Suggests

JACINTA BOWLER
30 MARCH 2020

As COVID-19 has hitchhiked around the globe,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, pneumonia and fear, scientists have been racing to determine where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has come from.
While we don't have all the answers yet - including whether it came from an
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
- a new analysis has definitively put to rest the conspiracies that claim it's
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

The study raises some interesting possibilities regarding the origin of the new coronavirus. One of the scenarios suggests the virus may have been circulating harmlessly in human populations for quite a while before it became the pandemic that's now stopped the world in its tracks.

"It is possible that a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans, acquiring [new genomic features] through adaptation during undetected human-to-human transmission,"
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


"Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases."

The researchers analysed genomic data available from SARS-CoV-2 and other similar coronaviruses, showing that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) sections of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins were so effective at binding to human cells, they had to be caused by natural selection.

"By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes,"
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, immunologist Kristian Andersen at Scripps Research.

"Two features of the virus, the mutations in the RBD portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, rules out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2."

With 'laboratory experiment gone wrong' out of the way, the team explored two viable hypotheses. First, that the natural selection occurred in an animal host before the virus was transmitted to humans. The team explains that although samples of coronaviruses in bats and pangolins have shown similar genomes, none of them fit perfectly just yet.

"Although no animal coronavirus has been identified that is sufficiently similar to have served as the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV-2, the diversity of coronaviruses in bats and other species is massively undersampled,"
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

The second hypothesis is that the natural selection happened in humans - after the virus was transmitted from an animal host.

"The second scenario is that the new coronavirus crossed from animals into humans before it became capable of causing human disease,"
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


"Then, as a result of gradual evolutionary changes over years or perhaps decades, the virus eventually gained the ability to spread from human-to-human and cause serious, often life-threatening disease."

Although we don't yet know which of the two hypotheses is correct, the researchers think that more evidence might tip the scales in favour of one or the other - but we'll have to wait for that research to be done.

In the meantime,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, stay home, and
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

The correspondence has been published in
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

If it's a mutation while in humans then people should be glad that the seafood market in Wuhan was a hotspot. Doctors in Wuhan were alarmed by their patients' connections to the seafood market. The market basically carried a giant yellow danger sign, and the virus might have otherwise gone unnoticed longer.
 

vesicles

Colonel
If it's a mutation while in humans then people should be glad that the seafood market in Wuhan was a hotspot. Doctors in Wuhan were alarmed by their patients' connections to the seafood market. The market basically carried a giant yellow danger sign, and the virus might have otherwise gone unnoticed longer.

But don’t forget that the wide spread dealings of wild animals at wet markets like the one in Wuhan have been the main reason for the initial jump from animal to human, which later led to the human-to-human transmission. Less of these markets, less chance of the animal-to-human jump. And we are safer.
 

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
But don’t forget that the wide spread dealings of wild animals at wet markets like the one in Wuhan have been the main reason for the initial jump from animal to human, which later led to the human-to-human transmission. Less of these markets, less chance of the animal-to-human jump. And we are safer.

Well the artcile dispute that they said that the virus has been circulating a long time and thru series of mutation it can spread thru human human interaction. Wuhan cannot be the place where it jump to human and be the source of virus because it cannot instantly spread thru interaction
 

Canuck place

New Member
Registered Member
As I said before, COVID19 is a global crisis. The world can not recover if a country as large and important as the US continue to have a rampant and uncontrolled outbreak. Sooner or later that outbreak will spread right back to the rest of the world.

As such, China should offer America state assistance (charged at fair market value). If Trump rejects it, China should make the same offer to all US state governors.

Very well said, taking the moral high ground is much better. Especially since trump is taking a moral low ground
 
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