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Jun 2020
11:26am, 9 Jun 2020
7,569 posts
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jda
Simple fact is whatever might have been going around in Dec or Jan wasn't spreading or killing people in significant numbers. Either it was entirely unrelated, or it might have been a predecessor that changed through some mutation, and whichever case is true...so what?
As for a huge cover-up...who covered it up, and to what end? Does this go right to the lizards?
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Jun 2020
11:28am, 9 Jun 2020
7,570 posts
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jda
Even if it was a predecessor that mutated...the mutation to the dangerous version was still in Wuhan and it came here from there. Meaning that the prior episodes (if related) aren't relevant to the epidemic anyway. I can see it being of some scientific interest but not of any great importance in terms of how we should respond.
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Jun 2020
1:18pm, 9 Jun 2020
35,132 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Doesn't anyone else have some sympathy with Chinese authorities as well, that an American (albeit, hopefully impartial scientific / medical institute) has made accusations (well at least assertions) that this virus was in Wuhan 3 months earlier than Chinese authorities say with no more evidence than a google earth type pic of a hospital car park. Crikey, they might have had a "bring your pal to work day" that month or something! (Disclaimer, I haven't read the news article and certainly not the underlying scientific article, so they may already have discounted all other possible factors etc. Or it might just be the papers misreading the scientists. Anyhooo….!)
Good that numbers are dropping in UK. I can't understand how, given what seem to be pretty frequent social interacting going on in last few weeks of easering. Good anyway.  G
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Jun 2020
1:20pm, 9 Jun 2020
34,939 posts
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DocM
Thanks Jda and Happy G. There may be things that we dont know about the start of the outbreak, but it doesnt have to be that there is deliberate cover up
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Jun 2020
1:23pm, 9 Jun 2020
12,847 posts
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Ultracat
Good news about numbers dropping, hopefully it will continue to drop.
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Jun 2020
1:28pm, 9 Jun 2020
17,668 posts
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EvilPixie
Since the middle of March, just over 200,000 people have died in the UK - that figure is nearly 64,000 more than would be expected at this time of year.
This number is larger than the deaths total we hear announced by the UK government in its daily briefing because that figure only includes people who died after testing positive for coronavirus.
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Jun 2020
1:29pm, 9 Jun 2020
7,572 posts
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jda
I think it's important to remember the context too. It really was a genuinely new disease in China, of course the first few (many!) cases are liable to being improperly identified and documented - when someone has a cough or pneumonia, what is the chance they will even be investigated for the possibility of a new zoonotic virus? To put it bluntly, old people get pneumonia and die all the time. Yet it was sequenced and published in a few weeks. That's not to say the Chinese response was perfect at all, but I seriously doubt whether the UK or USA would have done a better job given the shambolic bungling we've seen so far. There it very clear evidence that it was spreading uncontrolled in parts of the USA without any proper management even after it was known that the virus was on the loose.
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Jun 2020
8:00pm, 9 Jun 2020
1,182 posts
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Grast_girl
I've seen suggestions that the US security services knew about it in November, although not necessarily because the Chinese authorities knew.
Now know that our labs will be opening for the second phase of researchers in 2 weeks time. It will be a relief for my students, but they won't be able to do quite as much as they usually would, and have quite a lot of new guidelines to follow (including one person in the toilets and kitchens at a time).
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Jun 2020
8:19am, 10 Jun 2020
54 posts
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mathschick
I see suddenly the gov are about to announce that zoos can open from Monday. Doesn't give them much notice but I'll save any political comment for the politics thread. The good thing about it is maybe families will go to the zoo on Monday instead of all piling to the shops! At least most zoo stuff is outside, but then when you are somewhere for a day trip you definitely need to use toilets ....
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Jun 2020
8:30am, 10 Jun 2020
17,674 posts
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EvilPixie
I think the zoos could be a great help for people's physical and mental well being. It didn't make sense for them to be closed when shops were OK and most had already taken measures to make things safe
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