Daily #covid19 sitrep from @WHO is up (numbers as of 10am Geneva time):
China:
80924 (+20) cases
3140 (+17) deathsOutside China:
32778 (+4105) cases
in 109 (+5) countries
872 (+186) deathsNew territories here are: Brunei Darussalam, Mongolia, Cyprus, Guernsey and Panama
— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape) March 10, 2020
Again, China *locked down the country* six weeks ago. About 10 percent of the *global* population was in quarantine. They tanked their economy. This wasn't a measure to be taken lightly, it was an (overdue even then) recognition of danger.
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 10, 2020
The JHU coronavirus map, a resource used by journalists and govt officials around the world, has changed "Taiwan" to "Taipei and environs."
When contacted by Axios, JHU staff said they had already caught it & would change back to "Taiwan" immediately.https://t.co/3k7zHSIIh7
— B. Allen-Ebrahimian (@BethanyAllenEbr) March 10, 2020
Italy today:
* Whole country in lockdown
* Hospitals completely overwhelmed
* Doctors forced to decide which patients get treatment based on who is most likely to surviveItaly today. Spain, Germany, America tomorrow.
Cancel everything.
— Yascha Mounk (@Yascha_Mounk) March 10, 2020
This version includes South Korea. They were on the same growth curve til 7 days ago – ahead of Italy. The measures they adopted then (subject to the lead time in measurements) seem effective – still exponential growth, but similar doubling period to Japan now. pic.twitter.com/CKvgABlQXJ
— Mark Handley (@MarkJHandley) March 9, 2020
China reports a rise in coronavirus infections imported from abroad as the number of cases in the U.S. tops 1,000 https://t.co/b8OEXZXWPF
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 11, 2020
Hu is right here – we have what looks like pretty good clinical evidence from Wuhan that centralized quarantine was *extremely effective.* https://t.co/AlLbY2KcQS
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 11, 2020
China reports 24 new #Covid19 cases for March 10; 13 are in Hubei province; not clear from the National Health Committee's report where the other 11 are.
There were also 22 new deaths.
China has reported to date:
80778 cases
3158 deaths
61475 patients recovered. pic.twitter.com/OTjRocqpa4— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 11, 2020
China's 1st national survey on the psychological toll of the virus outbreak: Almost 35% of the respondents experienced distress; migrant workers reported the highest level; distress influenced by local medical resources & public health policy decisions.https://t.co/n3hXK6Foys
— Amy Cheng (@Amy_23_Cheng) March 11, 2020
“…false information…claiming the disease was controllable and would not spread from human-to-human left doctors and nurses…doing all they could to treat patients without knowing about the epidemic…when they fell ill, they could not report it…”https://t.co/GdtHEQqvfn
— Didi Kirsten Tatlow (@dktatlow) March 11, 2020
Korea is telling its citizens to stay home and avoid gatherings, in an anti-coronavirus campaign known as “social distancing.” But staying put is a luxury for many rent-paying small business owners and workers who can’t afford to take time off. #COVID19https://t.co/Y7FaDdEd5f
— The Korea Herald (@TheKoreaHerald) March 11, 2020
From @AFP – Thai immigration officers at Bangkok airport diagnosed with COVID-19
— Andrew Beatty (@AndrewBeatty) March 11, 2020
Indonesia records first death from coronavirus#MamaBisa #EXO_Repackage_album #WaspadaCegahCorona #RabuAmbyar #DukungOmnibusLaw #Corona #coronavirus #CoronaVirusUpdate #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/tMPVQtWgHw
— InfoAir World (@InfoairW) March 11, 2020
An epidemic in South Asia is likely, given a shortage of testing kits and poor reporting practices because of low literacy rates and weak health care infrastructure, FP's @RaviReports writes.
From our South Asia Brief: https://t.co/PwZgCt3G8f
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) March 11, 2020
Cow dung and urine, yoga, and magical thiking in India to cure #COVID19 …https://t.co/wiFp2gRyVr
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 10, 2020
Context: about half of Mongolia's population lives in Ulaanbaatar. https://t.co/NHuHBqqg4x
— Dr. Tara C. Smith (@aetiology) March 10, 2020
Shisha and tobacco were banned in cafes and restaurants in all the municipalities in #SaudiArabia to preserve the health of citizens and residents from #coronavirus. https://t.co/dlPkVxRSCY
— Saudi Gazette (@Saudi_Gazette) March 11, 2020
These photos were taken at an office of Aramco, the Saudi state oil company. I assumed it was some kind of prank / joke at first, but Aramco just issued an apology statement saying it will make sure this doesn't happen again. Incredible. https://t.co/NVjSsvyuFY
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) March 11, 2020
Cermet
Leave it to the Saud’s to make racism front and center during a pan epidemic.
Read that the virus targets not just the lungs and intestinal lining but possibly the throat and liver (!) Ugh, hope the later isn’t correct!
So the US has gotten mostly spared so far – we aren’t in the clear by any means but the longer and slower the rate of infection, the better our health system can handle this threat.
Andrew Johnston
Today marks six weeks on this almost empty campus. It’s a lot of time to ponder things, but lately they’ve been petty ones.
Petty things like this: Like many people here, I’m a sort-of a writer, have a few publishing credits including some SFWA stuff but nothing stellar. Back in December 2018, while in exile in one of my then-employer’s understaffed satellite offices, I wrote a story about a disease outbreak in central China. In the story, the POV character searches for information on the whereabouts of a woman he hasn’t heard from since – we later discover – the area she’s in was declared a quarantine zone.
The story doesn’t focus principally around the disease itself, but the transmission of information – the POV character spends most of his time communicating with the AI avatar managing his friend’s page on a Facebook-like internet service. The information is intentionally fragmentary and mostly hinted at, and both the protagonist and the reader are left to sort out what’s going on through a miasma of conspiracy theories and censorship.
So nothing relevant, is what I’m saying.
I loved this story to death, enough to spend a good chunk of last year shopping it around to a whole bunch of both speculative and mainstream publications, all of whom wrinkled up their noses at it. Had one of them deigned to accept it, it would have been going to press right about now. But hey, I’m sure what they did opt to buy is equally topical.