The response to the coronavirus from China is much different than that of the response in 2003 of the SARS epidemic. I think China has learned its lessons and is much more transparent this time. They have not try to downplay the danger of the virus as they did last time. They have also identified the DNA of the virus and share it with other countries so that other countries can respond quickly if their citizens got infected.
China also has blocked people from Wuhan and other nearby cities from leaving. This is very drastic given that it is the Chinese New Year where there is great deal of traveling in the country. They have also started building a hospital, promising to be completed in a week. Although that deadline is not going to be met, it looks like it will be completed in about 2 weeks. That is still remarkable. I don't think in a democratic country, you can block off cities with 20 million people total without a civil fight. You also won't even get a permit to build a hospital in 2 weeks!
It is hard to say how bad this epidemic is going to end up to be. But I doubt that there will be thousands of deaths, like how many we get in the U.S. each year from the flu. Even the SARS epidemic ended with only about 800 deaths. So maybe we never will blockade a major U.S. city. But maybe we should mandate flu shots for everyone? How about childhood vaccines?
Sad news that Kobe Bryant and his daughter died in a helicopter crash today along with 7 others. One of the greatest player in the history of the NBA, he will be sorely missed in LA and millions of his fans in the world.
Not a good start for the year of the rat. Hope things get better as the year goes!
Sunday, January 26, 2020
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I think it's still early to see how much China has been transparent in this. There have been rumblings that the virus is worse than originally thought and that the government did not warn people fast enough. I don't know the real story here, just some internet rumblings. There have been rumors that the virus isn't only from coughing and that you can carry it without the symptoms. I guess we will see if any of these rumors are real or not. Hopefully they've been able to contain most of it, but does that mean that people in Wuhan are likely to contract the virus since they've all been quarantined?
ReplyDeleteI do think that it must be a big deal if they are blocking transportation in and out of Wuhan and they've been checking all travelers with high fever and symptoms. I would tend to agree with you that this is a big step in transparency. It's too bad that travelers have already made it out with the virus. So who knows if those people infected others on the plane or even taxis.
I'm a little surprised that you haven't commented much on the senate impeachment trial. I think all this is a formality and that it'll be voted along party lines like we thought. Only history will judge these congressmen and women. I don't know if our democracy as it is, will recover from the type of divide.
I was never a big Kobe fan but am surprised and sad to hear about his death along with the others on the helicopter. I forget how much of an impact he had on the sport and in the world. He seemed to transition into retirement well and might have been an even bigger contributor to the world. Where do you rank him in the Lakers organization? Where does LeBron sit with the list of all-time Lakers? I don't know where I'd put LeBron since he hasn't been around for very long. There's no doubt he's one of the best ever to play the game.
-LBOAYM
I think there will always people who criticize no matter what the authorities do. But China is an easier target than most because of the past non transparency and communist control. But from what I read, I have not seen any infectious disease expert say that China reacted poorly. I think Wuhan was a little slow in its response but I think the central government acted very swiftly.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, the quickness of identifying the DNA of the virus is important. Even in the U.S. specimen may have to be sent to CDC for identifying. It is not something that can be done at a local hospital. I am sure more cases and deaths will be reported in the near future but that is expected with any epidemic. If the people in Wuhan keep going out and meeting a lot of people and don't wear masks, they will have a high chance of getting infected. I think most people will be very careful in Wuhan now. The quarantine will decrease the possible victims as oppose to people traveling and spreading it all over the world. But even with the blockade, some people have already left and some still can sneak out. Ironically the better China controls this, the more they maybe criticized for rights violation in social media!
Infectious disease is always scary but if we vaccinate around 40% of the people for the flu and about 40,000 die each year from it, it is acceptable to the American public. But some unknown virus killing a few hundred in another country and we are all worried about it and think that the other country should be doing better!
Yeah, I find it useless to devote much time on the impeachment trial. If Bolton's manuscript is made public or if he testifies, maybe I will pay attention. But even then, the GOP will just claim he was a disgruntled former employee.
My top five Lakers of all time are Kareem, Magic, Kobe, West and Baylor. Baylor is #5 but the other four can be in any order and I won't argue. If you put Shaq in there instead of Baylor, that would be ok with me but I think Shaq played on a few other teams and was not a Laker that long. I won't consider LeBron as a Laker great because as good as he is still, his best years were with Cleveland and Miami. So unless he plays another 5 or 6 years with the Lakers, I won't rank him. For the league purpose, I don't think Kobe was as great as Jordan or LeBron but he may have been the top player linking the Jordan and James eras.
Well, I think when you see a virus like this and there is no known vaccine, people panic. People don't see the flu as something that will kill them, so they don't take the vaccine. Have they figured out a cure for this virus? I saw a 4000 figure of people infected in Wuhan. I'm assuming not all of them will die. So is it just treated like the flu?
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see Sanders polling so well in Iowa. Biden has to be in the top 2 and he's currently 3rd slightly behind mayor Pete. Do you think Sanders could beat Trump?
So you don't include Wilt in the top 5? If I remember correctly, his Laker years were still very good. Probably excellent in today's standards...like high 20 average and almost 20 rebounds per game.
-LBOAYM
I came across this video. Not sure of the validity of it:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/7OEqybiGdaA
-LBOAYM
There is no medicine to "cure" viruses. Flu is caused by a virus. There are medicine to make the illness less severe so the body can fight it off. Also if the infection is less severe, then there is less chance to get secondary infection such as a bacterial pneumonia which is a frequent final cause of death. That is why flu and other viruses kill the very young and the very old more frequently because they are weaker and can't fight the infection. I think there are a lot more people infected by this virus but hopefully most are able to fight it off on their own and don't end up in a hospital or die.
DeleteI saw an example of China bashing video recently due to the virus. These two guys used to be fair minded and I watched some of their China videos before. One guy talked about the wet markets in China a couple years back and said that it will be a shame when China decides to get rid of these markets as they are what makes China, China. The markets were not very clean as shown on the video but they still thought that the markets were great. Fair enough, they don't want China to modernize too fast. Now these two guys have left the country and are bashing China on the internet. Now they say these markets are filthy and lead to lots of disease and why doesn't China move to the modern world and get rid of them? See what I mean? Easy to criticize, and easy to be racist if you get money for it.
I don't think Sanders can beat Trump since most people believe that he is a socialist and will make the country socialist. But his supporters are more enthusiastic than Biden's and are less likely to support the eventual nominee if Sanders loses. So that is very bad for the Democrats either way.
I remember when Wilt was with the Lakers, he was the third option behind West and Gail Goodrich, sometimes the fourth option behind Jim McMillan as well. I check the records and Wilt averaged around 14 points and 18 rebounds during his 5 years in LA. The rebound averages were higher those days since the shooting wasn't as good, leading to more rebounds. So stats wise, he is not as good as Shaq and LeBron and certainly not as important as a player for the Lakers as those two. So if I left those two out, I can't consider Wilt. I don't know if they have to pick a team to go into the Hall of Fame with, like in baseball. But if they do, only Shaq out of these three, may go in the HOF as a Laker.
I can't find the site that you mentioned. What is it about?
Are you talking about the youtube video? It's a kid from Wuhan talking about what's going on there. It worked for me. I'm surprised it wasn't taken down yet. See if you can highlight the link in the previous reply and copy and paste it in your search bar.
ReplyDeleteHere's another link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEqybiGdaA&feature=youtu.be
Speaking of the markets in China. I read that there was a rumor that the cause was from bats being sold at a market in Wuhan. However, the video that was taken was actually a video from a show in Indonesia, so like anything else on the internet, don't believe everything you see or read!
As far as Sanders supporters go. If Bernie backs the nominee, it should help. Unfortunately he didn't do so with Clinton and it hurt her.
Good take on Wilt. For some reason, I always think of him as a Laker, but he must of had his better years on other teams.
-LBOAYM
Watched the video today. I am not sure if this a valid point of view or another propaganda against China. This video was put out by News Monger. I checked out some of his previous videos and he was not speaking Chinese in at least one of them. Maybe Vietnamese? Prior to his videos about the coronavirus, a video he did for the lunar new year only got 1500 views. Since he put out the videos for the virus, he has been getting hundreds of thousands views. This video has 2.4 million views. So I think propaganda against China does sell and so he is making one or more everyday now!
ReplyDeleteYou made a good point of asking why these videos are not censored by China since it is believed that China controls everything inside the country. So either China is not that powerful or not that draconian in censoring everything. Or some of these videos are made outside of the country and have no factual information first hand. I have seen some videos that looked to be Chinese but are obviously from the Philippines or other southeast Asian countries.
The LA Times editorial said that there are fake news about this virus all over, even in the U.S. There is a rumor in social media that Bill Gates thinks millions will die from this. Also oregano oil can prevent this disease! We have five cases in this country and the fake info is already out here and I am sure some people are panicking already. So can you imagine the fake news in China over this?
Putin says that he can do whatever he needs to do, legal or otherwise, to be Russian president for life because he believes that it is in the best interest of his country. His lawyer for that argument? Alan Dershowitz!
Interesting about Wilt is that he played for 3 years for Philadelphia Warriors, which got sold and move to San Francisco where Wilt played 3 years. Then he played for the Philadelphia 76ers for 4 years before ending his career in LA for 5 years. So do we consider Wilt a Warrior (6 years), a Philadelphian (7 years combining Warriors and 76ers) or a Laker (5 years which is longer than anyone team in one city)! Since his best years were with the Warriors, both in Philly and in SF, I would consider him a Warrior for HOF purposes but one can argue a few ways.
I didn't realize that the Philadelphia team he played for was the Warriors. I always thought that it had always been the 76ers and that the Warriors were always in the Bay area. Was Rick Barry on those Wilt teams in Philly and Golden State?
ReplyDeleteAs always, you can't believe everything you see or read on the internet. This is always a good idea and lesson.
As of today, it looks like there will be no witnesses allowed, which was kind of expected. It'll be interesting to see if any of those Republicans get more support or less in their next elections.
-LBOAYM