sne Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 I speculated earlier in the thread what would happen if the virus got hold in North Korea. Apparently (according to the DailyMail...) this is how they are handling it. Huge pinch of salt as the source is what it is. Quote North Korea 'executes trade official for visiting a public bath while he was in quarantine over coronavirus fears after returning from China' A North Korean official has been executed for going to a public bath while he was meant to be in quarantine, a report in the South has claimed. The trade official was arrested and immediately shot after risking the spread of coronavirus by visiting the public bath, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported. The official had been placed in isolation after travelling to China, with Kim Jong-un imposing military law to enforce the lockdown, sources said. North Korea has not yet confirmed any cases of the virus, but has taken drastic measures to stop it spreading over its border with China. The trade official was reportedly quarantined under a policy of isolating anyone who had been to China or had contact with Chinese people. He is said to have fallen foul of a decree by Kim Jong-un which vowed to 'rule by military law' against anyone who left quarantine without approval. Another official is said to have been exiled to a North Korean farm after trying to cover up his travels to China. The second official was reportedly a member of the secretive kingdom's National Security Agency. Claims of blundering officials being purged or executed are common in North Korea and are very hard to verify. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7999437/North-Korea-executes-official-public-bath-visit-quarantine.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 The spike in numbers is a direct result of the announcement of new political leadership in Wuhan and Hubei province. The new guys in charge have every incentive to say that even marginal cases are coronavirus, because for the next couple of weeks they can't possibly be blamed for the numbers and then they'll be able to show a greater decline later (which looks like they're more effective). The last guys had the opposite incentive, to keep numbers low and make it seem like the virus wasn't spreading so fast. What the actual number of infected is is completely unknown, and impossible to find out. The Chinese government, in its structure and incentives, is set up to provide unreliable and inaccurate data, and the system is doing what it does. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 21 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: The spike in numbers is a direct result of the announcement of new political leadership in Wuhan and Hubei province. The new guys in charge have every incentive to say that even marginal cases are coronavirus, because for the next couple of weeks they can't possibly be blamed for the numbers and then they'll be able to show a greater decline later (which looks like they're more effective). The last guys had the opposite incentive, to keep numbers low and make it seem like the virus wasn't spreading so fast. What the actual number of infected is is completely unknown, and impossible to find out. The Chinese government, in its structure and incentives, is set up to provide unreliable and inaccurate data, and the system is doing what it does. We should put these people at the heart of our nuclear powered 5G future. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 5 hours ago, sne said: I speculated earlier in the thread what would happen if the virus got hold in North Korea. Apparently (according to the DailyMail...) this is how they are handling it. Huge pinch of salt as the source is what it is. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7999437/North-Korea-executes-official-public-bath-visit-quarantine.html To be fair, thats probably the least surprising news of the decade, I mean you can be shot there for all sorts of trivial shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 On 13/02/2020 at 23:11, chrisp65 said: We should put these people at the heart of our nuclear powered 5G future. See also: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 On 10/02/2020 at 11:54, Rodders said: RIP @Demitri_C Dont kill me off just yet mate ... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mjmooney Posted February 16, 2020 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted February 16, 2020 29 minutes ago, Demitri_C said: Dont kill me off just yet mate ... He's bakc! 1 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 32 minutes ago, mjmooney said: He's bakc! I’ve missed you gits 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Disturbing to hear that the ship that was finally allowed to dock in Cambodia was cleared to release all it's passengers and one of them tested positive at the airport. 1,000 passengers disembarked and travelled to every continent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 On 14/02/2020 at 23:30, HanoiVillan said: See also: 18 mistresses! F**k me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post chrisp65 Posted February 17, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted February 17, 2020 6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: 18 mistresses! F**k me! Nineteen. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 39 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: 18 mistresses! F**k me! In Chinese officialdom, collecting mistresses doesn't necessarily mean shagging them. It's a power and status thing, as much or more than it is a sex thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 The fatality rate is increasing (probably as the Chinese Government admits more deaths). Now calculated as 2.65% of people infected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 On 13/02/2020 at 18:52, sne said: I speculated earlier in the thread what would happen if the virus got hold in North Korea. Apparently (according to the DailyMail...) this is how they are handling it. Huge pinch of salt as the source is what it is. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7999437/North-Korea-executes-official-public-bath-visit-quarantine.html interestingly the North Koreans claim no cases of COVID-19 and the WHO kinda confirm this line !! The border region around the Yalu River will be the most likely infected area and somehow i doubt the WHO were allowed anywhere near it when drawing their conclusion the more telling clue that the virus is there is that Saturday should have seen a huge parade for the founding of the countries armed forces , and this didn't take place , and the annual assembly was also cancelled , the first time ever I believe this has happened 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mjmooney Posted February 19, 2020 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted February 19, 2020 58 minutes ago, tonyh29 said: interestingly the North Koreans claim no cases of COVID-19 and the WHO kinda confirm this line Won't get fooled again. 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted February 19, 2020 Moderator Share Posted February 19, 2020 Talk about misleading... The man they quote meant the quarantine was nonsense because it was rubbish and not effective not as the tweet implies being quarantined was nonsense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 Going back to the bat conversation, and whether or not it's disgusting to eat bats, here is quite a good piece on why bats are a particularly dangerous disease vector. http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/coronavirus-bats/ Quote Why are bats responsible for so many recent zoonoses (posh Greek for infections acquired from other animal species)? First, bats are mammals, which means they are sufficiently closely related to us for some of their viruses to thrive in our bodies. A virus that lives in a fish or a bird is less likely to be able to infect a human being, influenza being a rare exception, caught from ducks via pigs. Second, bats have never been domesticated. On the whole we have already caught the diseases of cows and pigs and dogs. Measles, smallpox, anthrax and tuberculosis were all gifts from our farmed animals. Third, unlike most other mammals, bats live in huge flocks — just as we do. They therefore host viruses that spread by casual contact. Tigers meet so few other tigers and so rarely that they are hopeless hosts for ambitious viruses. Bracken Cave, in Texas, is home to roughly 20 million breeding Mexican free-tailed bats, similar to the (human) population of the Mexico City urban area. In places there are 500 bat pups per square foot on the wall. To a virus that represents a tasty buffet. But why now? That is easy to answer too. It’s not because of climate change or the destruction of forests. Bats have lived in belfries, as well as dead trees, for centuries. It’s because we now live at such high densities and travel so much. With 7.7 billion people on the planet, many of whom now travel long distances, we are a tempting target. As I wrote 20 years ago: ‘The rewards for a germ that colonised us would be immense. It would quickly become one of the most successful microbes in history.’ The chances are that plenty of people died of bat-borne infections in the past too, but the epidemic usually petered out because villages were small and long-distance travel was rare. ... In the meantime, please can we learn two obvious lessons? First, let’s stop bringing wild animals into markets alive (if at all): viruses do not survive long in dead bodies, even if not refrigerated. It’s a cruel practice anyway. And second, let’s keep our distance from bats. Definitely don’t eat them. It's Matt Ridley, who is a right prick on issues like Brexit, global warming, and so on. But on this I think his qualifications are more relevant, and his argument makes a lot of sense. Don't eat bats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted February 22, 2020 Author Share Posted February 22, 2020 It's in the wild now, with cases in Italy/Iran/S. Korea/Japan. Heard a report of a wealthy guy with a kid in a private international school in Swiss. Kid got sick after HK kid arrived back from hols or such. Went to hospital, they could not test for Covid19 due to not having test kit/protocol available. Flu season is going to be a doozy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Things definitely seem to have kicked up a notch in the last 24 hours, with reports of cases coming in from different countries where there seems to be no obvious connection to the Wuhan outbreak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 11 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: Things definitely seem to have kicked up a notch in the last 24 hours, with reports of cases coming in from different countries where there seems to be no obvious connection to the Wuhan outbreak. 11 towns in N Italy now under quarantine. I wonder how well a similar measure would go down in the UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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