International Coronavirus, v4: South Korea in Red Alert as number of infected quadrupled in 4 days

[senri]

I felt myself losing that humanity when I lived there. I’ve been feeling more and more “whole” the farther from than environment I get. But I grew up in a town with less than 5,000 people so maybe it’s just what I’m use to.

What town is that?

 

[Shoemaker]

What town is that?

The small one.

 

[Pseudo Sane]

Reminds me of when my wife and I moved from Miami to a town of 35000 , we loved that's were hardly any traffic lights and no traffic but hated how few restaurants there were , we met a couple who had just moved there from a town of 15000 , they hated all the traffic and having traffic lights but loved all the restaurants.

Everything is relative lol

I, personally, am so programmed this way it is not even remotely humorous. I lview the exact kind of livestyle and population density I grew up with as the baseline for existence; it's hardwired at this point. but I think this is true of pretty much everyone, as you say.

I sometimes think about the Lykov family in Russia. You can read a bit about them here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/hist...uman-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/. I always remember reading (I can't remember where, it's not in this article), about how the Lykov girls visited a tiny, backwoods Russian village, and found it unbearably busy, to the point that it was overwhelming for them.

 

[Cuzcatlan]

Well fuck me, I guess I was under the assumption this was kinda like a flu virus and not a big deal. I'm not even trying to be cheeky with that flu comment. Which is it, a flu bug with 98 or 99% survival rate or a full on hazmat, omg, don't even touch anyone virus? There is a pretty damn big disconnect going on here with what we are actually dealing with.

I think it has to do with the fear of spreading it and not having a vaccine for it. The regular flu in this country kills thousands of people every year and this with millions of Americans getting vaccinated. Imagine the regular flu with not a single person getting vaccinated? We could easily see hundreds of thousands of people dying.

 

[Cuzcatlan]

The flu isn't that contagious. Given that I haven't had the flu in my entire llife and have lived in cities for most of my life...I mean dafuq is that?

Something seems off about these infection numbers.

For example, 500 people can get infected by going to church with a carrier.

But people can be trapped for weeks on a ship and the infection moves much more slowly.

Or China, where they live nuts to butts, still only has 80,000 cases.

I have never had the flu myself, probably because I take my flu shot every year. But I remember about 5 years ago the flu hit work hard. I work with a bunch of "vaccines are bad" believers.

 

[rob mafia]

I think it has to do with the fear of spreading it and not having a vaccine for it. The regular flu in this country kills thousands of people every year and this with millions of Americans getting vaccinated. Imagine the regular flu with not a single person getting vaccinated? We could easily see hundreds of thousands of people dying.

the flu vaccine is of rather questionable effectiveness. additionally, most people think that rhinovirus/pneumonia/etc are influenza...

 

[Arkain2K]

Coronavirus 'spike' protein just mapped by UT Austin, leading way to vaccine
By Yasemin Saplakoglu | Feb 19, 2020

Researchers worldwide are racing to develop potential vaccines and drugs to fight the new coronavirus, called SARS-Cov-2. Now, a group of researchers has figured out the molecular structure of a key protein that the coronavirus uses to invade human cells, potentially opening the door to the development of a vaccine, according to new findings.

Previous research revealed that coronaviruses invade cells through so-called "spike" proteins, but those proteins take on different shapes in different coronaviruses. Figuring out the shape of the spike protein in SARS-Cov-2 is the key to figuring out how to target the virus, said Jason McLellan, senior author of the study and an associate professor of molecular biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

Though the coronavirus uses many different proteins to replicate and invade cells, the spike protein is the major surface protein that it uses to bind to a receptor — another protein that acts like a doorway into a human cell. After the spike protein binds to the human cell receptor, the viral membrane fuses with the human cell membrane, allowing the genome of the virus to enter human cells and begin infection. So "if you can prevent attachment and fusion, you will prevent entry," McLellan told Live Science. But to target this protein, you need to know what it looks like.

Earlier this month, researchers published the genome of SARS-Cov-2. Using that genome, McLellan and his team, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), identified the specific genes that code for the spike protein. They then sent that gene information to a company that created the genes and sent them back. The group then injected those genes into mammalian cells in a lab dish and those cells produced the spike proteins.

Next, using a very detailed microscopy technique called cryogenic electron microscopy, the group created a 3D "map," or "blueprint," of the spike proteins. The blueprint revealed the structure of the molecule, mapping the location of each of its atoms in space.

"It's impressive that these researchers were able to get the structure so quickly," said Aubree Gordon, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan who was not a part of the study. "It's a very important step forward and may help in the development of a vaccine against SARS-COV-2."

Stephen Morse, a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health who was also not a part of the study agrees. The spike protein "would be the likely choice for rapid development of vaccine antigens" and treatments, he told Live Science in an email. Knowing the structure would be "very helpful in developing vaccines and antibodies with good activity," as would producing higher quantities of these proteins, he added.

The team is sending these atomic "coordinates" to dozens of research groups around the world who are working to develop vaccines and drugs to target SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, McLellan and his team hope to use the map of the spike protein as the basis for a vaccine.

When foreign invaders, such as bacteria or viruses, invade the body, immune cells fight back by producing proteins called antibodies. These antibodies bind to specific structures on the foreign invader, called the antigen. But producing antibodies can take time. Vaccines are dead or weakened antigens that train the immune system to create these antibodies before the body is exposed to the virus.

In theory, the spike protein itself "could be either the vaccine or variants of a vaccine," McLellan said. When you inject this spike-protein-based vaccine, "humans would make antibodies against the spike, and then if they were ever exposed to the live virus," the body would be prepared, he added. Based on previous research they did on other coronaviruses, the researchers introduced mutations, or changes to create a more stable molecule.

Indeed, "the molecule looks really good; it's really well behaved; the structure kind of demonstrates that the molecule is stable in the correct confirmation that we were hoping for," McLellan said. "So now we and others will use the molecule that we created as a basis for vaccine antigen." Their colleagues at the NIH will now inject these spike proteins into animals to see how well the proteins trigger antibody production.

Still, McLellan thinks a vaccine is likely about 18 to 24 months away. That's "still quite fast compared to normal vaccine development, which might take like 10 years," he said.

The findings were published today (Feb. 19) in the journal Science.

https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-spike-protein-structure.html

 

[senri]

The small one.

In what state?

 

[Wadtucket]

 

[Arkain2K]

This is a plot-line straight out of The Walking Dead.

The prisoners probably wouldn't generate much tears, but that 29 years old doctor who previously made headlines when he and his fiance' delayed their wedding to continue taking care of infected people is now dead too



A 29-year-old doctor in China, who delayed his wedding to work on the front line, has passed away after getting infected with the Covid-19.

The news was reported by Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily on Feb. 21.

Planned to get married on Feb. 1

According to a statement released on Thursday, Feb. 20, by the local district health bureau, Peng Yinhua was a respiratory doctor at First People’s Hospital, in the Jiangxia District of Wuhan city.

Peng was hospitalised at First People’s Hospital on Jan. 25, but his condition took a turn for the worse on Jan. 30.

He was then transferred to Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan.

Unfortunately, he failed to recover, and he passed away at about 9:50pm on Thursday, Feb. 20.

According to Headline News, Peng had originally planned to have his wedding on Feb. 1.

The invitations he intended to send out were reportedly still kept in his desk drawer.

He and his wife had reportedly agreed to push back their wedding until the virus outbreak was finally contained.

​

 

[Arkain2K]

Coronavirus kills young Wuhan doctor as hundreds infected in China's prisons
Officials and state justice chief fired as at least 500 cases confirmed in prisons in three provinces

A 29-year-old doctor in Wuhan has become the latest victim of the coronavirus as China reported infections in prisons in three provinces, as well as clusters in Beijing.

Wuhan health authorities said Peng Yinhua, who worked in respiratory and critical care at Jiangxia district’s First People’s Hospital, had contracted the infection while working on the “front line”.

Peng, who had been featured in state media previously for delaying his wedding to continue working, was admitted to hospital on 25 January. His condition dramatically worsened by 30 January, when he was sent to the Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan for emergency treatment. He died on Thursday at 9.50pm, according to a statement from his hospital.

His death came as China reported an increase in new cases of coronavirus, with 1,109 new confirmed infections, compared with 394 the day before, bringing the total number of cases in mainland China to 74,685. The death toll has now reached 2,236, with 118 new deaths as of the end of Thursday.

It has also emerged more than 500 cases have been confirmed in prisons across China.

On Friday, Hubei province revised its number of newly confirmed cases to add 220 infections from the province’s prison system. Officials did not say when those infections took place but said that a total of 271 cases, of which 51 had already been counted, had been diagnosed. Of those, 230 were in Wuhan’s women’s prison. The head of the women’s prison has been dismissed.

In Rencheng prison in the eastern province of Shandong, 200 prisoners and seven guards tested positive as of Thursday, after infections among correctional officers were first detected last week.

At Shilifeng prison in the southern province of Zhejiang, a total of 34 prisoners have been confirmed to have contracted the virus, including 27 new cases as of Thursday. According to state media, two prison officials have been fired over the incident in Shilifeng. In Shandong, seven prison officials as well as the party secretary for the province’s department of justice have been removed.

Meanwhile in Beijing, 36 people at Fuxing hospital have tested positive for the virus, prompting renewed anxiety about the virus as residents in the capital were slowly returning to work. The hospital had already been partly under lockdown after cases there were confirmed earlier this month.

At another hospital, Peking University People’s Hospital, three people were confirmed to have contracted the virus, according to state media. The three patients are family members. One had been hospitalised for kidney problems and may have contracted the illness when her daughter and son-in-law, who had recently travelled to Xinjiang, visited her in hospital.

As infections outside China increase, the World Health Organization warned that countries were not treating the virus as “public enemy number one”.

“If we don’t hit hard now using the window of opportunity, we might be faced with a serious problem,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday. “This virus is very dangerous and it’s public enemy number one and it’s not being treated as such.”

In South Korea, prime minister Chung Se-kyun said the country was entering an emergency phase following a surge in infections that has been linked to a controversial church.

Mass gatherings have been banned, and all kindergartens and libraries closed in Daegu, a city that is home to 2.5 million people and lies two hours from Seoul. Soldiers in the city have also been forbidden from leaving their barracks after several military personnel tested positive.

A further 52 new cases were reported by officials on Friday, bringing the national total of confirmed patients to 156. Most are concentrated in Daegu, where a wave of infections have been linked to a 61-year-old woman, known as “Patient 31”. The patient is reported to have attended a church, an incident health officials have described as a “super-spreading event”.

More than 400 members of the church, a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which is often accused of being a cult, are showing symptoms of the disease. Tests were still ongoing, according to the city’s mayor, Kwon Young-jin.

On Friday, the city’s streets were mostly deserted, as people were urged to stay at home and wear masks, even indoors. Military medical staff are also being deployed to Daegu and neighbouring Cheongdo county, and isolation facilities are being created.

“It’s like someone dropped a bomb in the middle of the city,” resident Kim Geun-woo, 28, told Reuters by telephone. “It looks like a zombie apocalypse.”

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said that while previous efforts had been focused on stopping the illness entering the country, officials were now concentrating on preventing the illness from spreading further in communities.

“It is urgent to find those who were in contact with the infected and treat the diagnosed people as soon as possible,” Chung said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-wuhan-doctor-hundreds-infected-china-prisons

 

[loyalyolayal]

justa fru blo!

 

[Wadtucket]

The prisoners probably wouldn't generate much tears, but that 29 years old doctor who previously made headlines when he and his fiance' delayed their wedding to continue taking care of infected people is now dead too



A 29-year-old doctor in China, who delayed his wedding to work on the front line, has passed away after getting infected with the Covid-19.

The news was reported by Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily on Feb. 21.

Planned to get married on Feb. 1

According to a statement released on Thursday, Feb. 20, by the local district health bureau, Peng Yinhua was a respiratory doctor at First People’s Hospital, in the Jiangxia District of Wuhan city.

Peng was hospitalised at First People’s Hospital on Jan. 25, but his condition took a turn for the worse on Jan. 30.

He was then transferred to Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan.

Unfortunately, he failed to recover, and he passed away at about 9:50pm on Thursday, Feb. 20.

According to Headline News, Peng had originally planned to have his wedding on Feb. 1.

The invitations he intended to send out were reportedly still kept in his desk drawer.

He and his wife had reportedly agreed to push back their wedding until the virus outbreak was finally contained.

​

F

 

[Wadtucket]

 

[Wadtucket]

Inspired by the fantastic results from the Diamond Princess success story, China decides to put more people on cruise ships

 

[RetiredSlave]

Humans are more human in smaller numbers.

A statement worth contemplation. I like optimism. The pessimist might say theyre more human in rabid crowds.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Their hand sanitizer has arrived.

 

[PulsingJones]

Isn't this Airbourne? Why are they telling us to wash our hands?

 

[Arkain2K]

Isn't this Airbourne? Why are they telling us to wash our hands?

Basic info on coronavirus transmission, published over a week ago, available to everyone who has access to the internet, thoroughly discussed over the last 3 threads, and also is in the OP:

The principal mode of transmission is still thought to be respiratory droplets, which may travel up to six feet from someone who is sneezing or coughing. The new coronavirus isn’t believed to be an airborne virus, like measles or smallpox, that can circulate through the air. “If you have an infected person in the front of the plane, for instance, and you’re in the back of the plane, your risk is close to zero simply because the area of exposure is thought to be roughly six feet from the infected person,” said Chiu.

Close contact with an infectious person, such as shaking hands, or touching a doorknob, tabletop or other surfaces touched by an infectious person, and then touching your nose, eyes, or mouth can also transmit the virus.

Chiu stresses that we do not yet have definitive data on how long the new coronavirus can survive on surfaces, but based on data from other coronaviruses such as SARS, it may be for up to two days at room temperatures.​

New reports raised the possibility that the virus may be spread by fecal contamination of the environment, such as through leaky sewage pipes. Infections across multiple floors of a building due to contaminated bathroom pipes was previously demonstrated for SARS coronavirus.​

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/02/4...progresses-and-why-one-test-may-not-be-enough

 

[ShinkanPo]

justa fru blo!

And any news about banning pogos in our country?