Merged 2019-nCoV / Corona virus

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Does anyone think WHO has become a bit too politically correct about naming conventions for infectious diseases.

It comes across as too generic of a name "coronavirus disease 2019". It makes the public think "coronavirus" is a new type of virus.

I don't know why you say this. I thought we already had this conversation...

I kinda like the name SARS 2, or whatever the other name they floated was.

Very fitting.

The name of the virus is SARS-CoV-2.

The name of the disease is COVID-19.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/dis...ase-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

Okay that makes sense.
 
Does anyone think WHO has become a bit too politically correct about naming conventions for infectious diseases.

It comes across as too generic of a name "coronavirus disease 2019". It makes the public think "coronavirus" is a new type of virus.

It's scientific naming guidelines not political guidelines, so no. :rolleyes:

And those of us familiar with coronavirus, it is very clear what the name means.
 
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Not sure if this has been mentioned.

CNN reports the second death in the USA. It's a man in his 70s from that nursing home in King County, Washington.
 
Not parody, exactly, but indistinguishable from parody if my hunch about the origins of Matthew Best's post is correct.

Yeah, I think I got ninjad - it looks like a transcript of something the orange thing said. I didn't twig to Congress the first time.

10/10 to Matthew.

Does anyone think WHO has become a bit too politically correct about naming conventions for infectious diseases.

The best politically incorrect name I've seen so far is Kung Flu.

As far as I can see, all media outlets are just calling it coronavirus.
 
Here's an interesting article in the NYT. (For those that don't have a subscription, you can usually get three free articles a month and it's the first of the month.)

Coronavirus May Have Spread in U.S. for Weeks, Gene Sequencing Suggests

I think someone mentioned that already so here are some relevant excerpts:

I look at that lab data often during the flu season. Sentinel samples are collected and analyzed and reported as what percent of samples collected were flu and what percentage were something else. It's a great system given it only randomly turned up the teen's coronavirus. He'd gone in and was cultured for flu as part of this sentinel sample monitoring.

Of course Trump eliminated funding to be more readily prepared to gear up for such an event, you know, build that wall and all.


Edited by Loss Leader: 
Quoted material edited for length. Please do not make lengthy quotes of materials available elsewhere on the internet.

Sigh, I tried so hard to cut a bunch out of it. My apologies.
 
Meanwhile, here in Australia, we've now had two person-to-person transmissions within the country.

I'm waiting for our first in-NZ transmission.

With the enormous number of overseas visitors and students, it's a certainty it's here.

How it's handled interests me, because our level of preparedness seems very weak. Lots of words, saying nothing.

We have 21 negative pressure rooms in the entire country and I expect a lot more than 21 cases.
 
Here in Hong Kong, the panic buying has subsided; toilet paper and ethanol based hand sanitizers now stocked everywhere, even in shops that don't normally sell that kind of stuff, e.g. jewellers.

But strangely, eggs were completely absent from my local supermarket today, not sure if that's a one off or an indication of a supply chain issue.

Our cases are creeping up at the rate of 1 or so every 1 or 2 days, the expected outbreak has not yet occurred. Literally everyone is wearing masks as they have been for 2 months, schools are still closed, but many still going to work that cannot work at home.

Can't remember if it has been posted before, but the speech by Singapore's leader Lee Hsien Loong on how their government will handle it is a masterpiece.

Great leadership, clear explanation and analysis of the situation and future steps, and unafraid to address what will happen if it does get out of control.

https://youtu.be/oNw1pyksKHo

Quite sobering to compare it to Trump's ridiculous efforts.
 
After the fires around Canberra were finally put out we had face masks available everywhere. They had been sold out for over a month. Just a few weeks ago there were piles of them for sale in the chemist shops.

Now they have suddenly disappeared again. I still have some left over from the time of the fires, including a proper screw in filter one.
 
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Here is how a few communities in 1918 avoided the flu
Gunnison, Colorado: the town that dodged the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic

What happened next is instructive amid a new global health emergency a century later as the world struggles react to the emergence of a new coronavirus. Gunnison declared a “quarantine against all the world”. It erected barricades, sequestered visitors, arrested violators, closed schools and churches and banned parties and street gatherings, a de facto lockdown that lasted four months.

I think it is a bit late for any large community to avoid getting hit with the virus. However isolated places can still avoid getting this virus if the community is prepared to do what it takes. No advanced tech required.
 
Coronavirus: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) March 2, 2020

 
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