Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)

zgx09t

Junior Member
Registered Member
I've heard
Chinese diplomat Zhao Lijian, known for his Twitter outbursts, is given senior foreign ministry post

Zhao, who recently left his position as deputy chief of mission in Pakistan, is now deputy director general of the foreign ministry’s information department
He became known for heated online confrontations with China’s critics, once being branded a ‘racist disgrace’ by a former Obama administration official

Why are you quoting unsubstantiated and highly charged claims yourself, and pretend you are better?
 

OppositeDay

Senior Member
Registered Member
If they have access to blood/fluid samples that they've collected back in September, October, November of 2019 and been able to detect antibodies/viral particles in these samples, that would be better evidence. So far, the epidemiological/genomic analyses of the viral samples collected around the world still point to Wuhan as one of the originating locations. We will have to wait for possible analysis of earlier samples, such as those collected from the electronic cigarette patients back in October/November, 2019. So far, we don't have any scientific evidence to point to other locations at this point.

To be honest, if evidence suggests that the COVID-19 came from another country other than China, it would ease a lot of pressure off the Asian American communities around the country... That would include me and my family. We are under a lot of pressure. A huge population of health care professionals in the US is Asian Americans. At our medical school and the associated hospital, >40% of faculty is Asian Americans. Overall in the US, ~17% of all doctors are Asian Americans, the second largest ethnic group after White (56%). We are now facing two enemies: (1) the invisible enemy of the virus, which we are fighting while risking our lives; (2) the very American general public that we are risking our lives to save. At work, we fight the virus. After work, we are under threat from the general public who might attack us for no better reason than our look. The sad thing is that the same people we are trying to save are wanting to hurt us...

This is definitely not a good situation for us and, more importantly, for the patients. Just as our President said the other day, this is a war. And in this war, we the health care professionals are the front line troops. Now, close to 20% of the troops at the front line are under threat from behind, from the very people they are trying to defend. This is insane! We are trying to save you! Help us focus on our work so that we can save lives. Don't distract us! Don't shoot us in the back! Don't shoot us in the back!

It doesn't even have to be outside China. As long as evidence points to an initial jump unrelated to wet markets or wild animal trades it would help. But given the transmission characteristics of COVID-19, tracing patient 0 is pretty much impossible now.

Or if it turns out pigs were the intermediary hosts (again very hard to verify even if it's the case given the mass culling of pigs in China last year due to African swine fever).
 

localizer

Colonel
Registered Member
All these euphemisms is also screwing people over:

"social distancing" and "stay at home order"

They call those "draconian containment by authoritarian govt" for China.

As a result, people think "Oh I just have to stay 6ft apart and I can do anything or go anywhere I want"
 

OppositeDay

Senior Member
Registered Member
This is a huge fear. The media is drooling to paint a target on backs of Chinese and other Asians will inevitably be caught in the crossfire as their political goals are more important than the people.

Here is an example
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

It is written by someone who works at the "Alliance for Securing Democracy" and links to this article:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!



This "news" organization purports to "...believe truth and facts exist and must be highlighted, repeated, defended and cherished in our journalism. ", yet also states "China’s influence is real and growing." (I suppose this is a fact, but also a barely coded message)

Going the actual university link has this to say:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


So from one article that actually said Chinese response was rapid to prevent the spread, spawned 2 articles critical of the response.

I know I am teetering on the political side with this post, but hear me out. I want people, especially Chinese/Asians of the forum to have facts to fight the false narratives. There are those who will never believe, but at least the truth is there for you.

SUMMARY: Stick to facts, politics are trying to kill us

To be fair, the journal article didn't say the Chinese response was rapid in the sense of being early, but rather it says once China implemented the measures the effect was rapid.

It's interesting scientifically to calculate the effects of a hypothetical early January lockdown, and it's of practical value to other countries considering similar measures. However, the journal article never suggested that China should have started the lockdown 3 weeks earlier. To actually suggest China should have locked down a 10+ million sized city on the first sight of discovering a new infectious disease is just ludicrous.
 

solarz

Brigadier
If they have access to blood/fluid samples that they've collected back in September, October, November of 2019 and been able to detect antibodies/viral particles in these samples, that would be better evidence. So far, the epidemiological/genomic analyses of the viral samples collected around the world still point to Wuhan as one of the originating locations. We will have to wait for possible analysis of earlier samples, such as those collected from the electronic cigarette patients back in October/November, 2019. So far, we don't have any scientific evidence to point to other locations at this point.

To be honest, if evidence suggests that the COVID-19 came from another country other than China, it would ease a lot of pressure off the Asian American communities around the country... That would include me and my family. We are under a lot of pressure. A huge population of health care professionals in the US is Asian Americans. At our medical school and the associated hospital, >40% of faculty is Asian Americans. Overall in the US, ~17% of all doctors are Asian Americans, the second largest ethnic group after White (56%). We are now facing two enemies: (1) the invisible enemy of the virus, which we are fighting while risking our lives; (2) the very American general public that we are risking our lives to save. At work, we fight the virus. After work, we are under threat from the general public who might attack us for no better reason than our look. The sad thing is that the same people we are trying to save are wanting to hurt us...

This is definitely not a good situation for us and, more importantly, for the patients. Just as our President said the other day, this is a war. And in this war, we the health care professionals are the front line troops. Now, close to 20% of the troops at the front line are under threat from behind, from the very people they are trying to defend. This is insane! We are trying to save you! Help us focus on our work so that we can save lives. Don't distract us! Don't shoot us in the back! Don't shoot us in the back!

I am really sorry to hear that. I hope you and your family can stay safe in these difficult times.

Thankfully, here in Canada, we are not yet seeing any instances of anti-Asian assaults, but I'm under no illusion that Canada is immune to racism.

The silver lining here is that with the quarantine, my family and I don't need to actually go out these days.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
If you detect the presence of antibodies in the blood, you know that this person had contracted the virus before. I don't think it is possible to determine exactly when.
That’s a version of testing that requires drawing blood. It’s useful for telling if you have had it in the past.
The test being used now however is a oral swab. That will only determine if you have it now.
 

vesicles

Colonel
I am really sorry to hear that. I hope you and your family can stay safe in these difficult times.

Thankfully, here in Canada, we are not yet seeing any instances of anti-Asian assaults, but I'm under no illusion that Canada is immune to racism.

The silver lining here is that with the quarantine, my family and I don't need to actually go out these days.

We personally haven’t gotten anything bad. A good friend and also colleague of mine is a Vietnamese American who was born in Texas. He’s a gastroenterologist. He just told me a funny story. A few days ago, he went shopping and met a guy at the grocery store. The guy just stared at him. My buddy said to him before he could speak: “watch what you are about say. I’m a doctor. So nowadays, the chances of you becoming one of my patients is pretty high. Do you actually want to offend me at this moment?” Then the guys walked away... my buddy has a bald head and looks very intimidating. If he doesn’t tell you, you would think he’s a gangster...
 
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