What you need to know about the virus in China "2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)"

[Doodski]

I try to eat as little of anything with a face as possible... but I also readily admit many of them are incredibly tasty (and plants somewhat less tasty).

I find a diet w/o red meat to be unfulfilling and I am less satiated and get hungry fast after eating. Plants are for stews!

 

[Blumlein 88]

Interesting article on age demographic of those going into US hospitals.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/01/coronavirus-young-americans-covid-19


Century egg, that separates the men from the boys lol

I've heard in recent days, that pineapple on pizza reduces your chances of catching COVID 19 by 5.2%. I don't know the details. Maybe if you eat it 3 times a day you get a reduction of odds at 15.6%. I wonder if those Neopolitan purists will relent? I don't think it is any surprise that Italy is having so many problems. No one will put pineapple on their pizza over there. Probably has something to do with the fact bromelain in the pineapple dissolves protein. So it reduces the integrity of the Covid virus. All makes perfectly good sense. Baked myself a good pizza with some pineapples earlier tonight. YUM!

 

[digicidal]

I find a diet w/o red meat to be unfulfilling and I am less satiated and get hungry fast after eating. Plants are for stews!

I agree with you - though much of that is attributable more to psychology and receptor response than actual digestive needs. Doesn't change how we feel about it - I also find it delicious. Or how we feel about heroin, tobacco, base jumping, alcohol, drag racing, etc. - doesn't mean they're safe and beneficial for us, however.

I've heard in recent days, that pineapple on pizza reduces your chances of catching COVID 19 by 5.2%. I don't know the details. Maybe if you eat it 3 times a day you get a reduction of odds at 15.6%. I wonder if those Neopolitan purists will relent? I don't think it is any surprise that Italy is having so many problems. No one will put pineapple on their pizza over there. Probably has something to do with the fact bromelain in the pineapple dissolves protein. So it reduces the integrity of the Covid virus. All makes perfectly good sense. Baked myself a good pizza with some pineapples earlier tonight. YUM!

Now I have a reason... I do love a good Hawaiian pizza.

 

[maty]

Ni autopsias, ni test y las funerarias llenas: España minusvalora los muertos por Covid
[Spanish] https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2020-04-01/espana-minusvalora-muertos-covid_2530032/

No autopsies, no tests and full funeral homes: Spain underestimates the dead by Covid
https://www.translatetheweb.com/?ref=TVert&from=&to=en&a=https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2020-04-01/espana-minusvalora-muertos-covid_2530032/

[ Funeral homes say they do not supply and that their ability to attend 1,700 deaths a day is overwhelmed. In Catalonia they now recognize "a delay" and in Castile and León, one of the most transparent communities, the accounts are not out either. In addition, following the recommendation of a Ministry of Health document,no autopsies are being carried out on suspicious cases... ]

Catalonia

[ Idescat did not want to provide death data in this March or compare them with the previous year. But you can find clues. According to provisional data from the INE, between January and June 2019 32,802 Catalans died. This is a monthly average in that 5,467 deaths. If now the amount has multiplied by four [by three], that means that in March about 20,000 people have died in Catalonia.

If we discount those who had died in any way in normal situations, those killed by coronavirus would be around 15,000, eight times more than those recognized by the Administration [Catalonia CC.AA]. ]

And that in Spain the lethality is very high because of the nursing homes. Half of the Catalans are infected.

I suppose it will not only happen in Spain. Other countries offer case-fatality and mortality data too low in comparison, so I suggest that ASR members investigate.

 

[Thomas savage]

Mask update: NEJM, Apr 2, 2020

We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.

I can't find that on their page

 

[andymok]

Bats have unique immune system ... that's why it's not about culture, it's just unwise.

 

[Willem]

For a good discussion of different ways of counting the death rate: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200401-coronavirus-why-death-and-mortality-rates-differ

 

[Lao Lu]

reported within two hours or ...

I assume that given the circumstances such

First coronavirus case reported from Mumbai's Dharavi [India] slum
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/sto...ted-from-dharavi-in-mumbai-1662265-2020-04-01

[ Mumbai's Dharavi, known as Asia's largest slum area, has reported its first case of the novel coronavirus... ]

God help them...because no one else will

While the article is indeed political, the assertions that "China has no regard for the individual" and that "China cannot be trusted" are entirely descriptive even if unsubstantiated.

While not the fundamental cause, the wet markets are a great risk factors precisely because viruses can leap from live animals of one species to those of another and mutate that way creating novel diseases. Elimination wet markets will not eliminate (novel) diseases being transmitted from animals to humans but significantly reduce the risk.

Further, inasmuch as the wet markets are cultural, regarding public health, Chinese culture is indeed inferior and this inferiority is a threat to the health of humanity.

 

[Lao Lu]

I made a couple of mistakes above I think when posting. Just wanted to say that I have forgotten how many years it has been since the selling of a live chicken has been allowed in Beijing (because of H1N1), more than a decade I think. Now in the south it is a certainly different, but this recent outbreak will certainly put an end to the selling of these "exotic" species....the majority of which I have read are farm raised, and were promoted as a means to increase the incomes of farmers. As far as cultural habits and what is considered fit to eat, "one man's meat is another man's poison"; in my twenty years living in Seattle never once was I tempted to try those "mountain oysters" sold fresh at Pike Place Market....

 

[Doodski]

"mountain oysters"

Ewww... Land or sea oysters of any variety are just gross...

 

[Lao Lu]

I toured a very large meat packing plant processing 1200 meat cattle / day in Alberta Canada and they showed the spine bits being removed and then the meat being rinsed thoroughly with lactic acid(milk stuff) to wash off any spinal stuff or brains on the meat and to wash off any BSE stuff.
I worked in a Chinese restaurant for 2.5 years while I studied in college. I ate majorly fancy lunch and dinner meals everyday there for free and the food was incredible!!! All of it traditional and not the red candy Chinese food some people eat. The food was piping hot and sterile when served and no weird beasts or weird bits of animals. They where very conventional and laughed at all the strange things some Chinese eat. To put them all in the same boat per eating weirdO bits and pieces is not reality.

Do you remember where they were from?

 

[maty]

España desoyó las llamadas de la OMS y de la UE a hacer acopio de material sanitario frente al coronavirus
[Spanish] https://www.elmundo.es/espana/2020/04/02/5e84fb84fc6c8384018b467f.html

Spain dismissed WHO and EU calls to stockpile health equipment against coronavirus
https://www.translatetheweb.com/?ref=TVert&from=&to=en&a=https://www.elmundo.es/espana/2020/04/02/5e84fb84fc6c8384018b467f.html

[ The Government dismissed calls from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the EU to stockpile health equipment during the first bars of coronavirus expansion. Although La Moncloa took note of the recommendations and introduced them into one of its reports on the epidemic, the Executive did not see the need to make additional - preventive - purchases of material to "ensure that health workers are protected", as the multilateral agency [EU] advised in a report dated February 3.

Health also did not see it relevant to take advantage of the "window of opportunity" that WHO warned of on February 11 to buy a remnant of equipment - masks, gloves, protective goggles, respirators, surgical gowns or beds, among others - that would allow it to face a possible mass contagion that finally came true four weeks later, in early March... ]

Again, criminal negligence. And it seems that not only the Spanish government and the Spanish autonomous communities (they have transferred the management of the Health), but also many other "developed" countries.

 

[Doodski]

Do you remember where they were from?

I was told but it all went over my head. I just remember he started working in a China kitchen at a very young age and became a successful chef on a large Chinese tour ship and then went to Mexico, married there and moved to Canada and started restaurants here. I was young and not concerned with peoples' home towns and origins. I was interested in what we where having for dindin after the restaurant was all cleaned and ready for the morning. I reallly liked that job...lol Great boss and his wife was super nice to everybody. Very graceful woman.

 

[Thomas savage]

As far as cultural habits and what is considered fit to eat, "one man's meat is another man's poison"; in my twenty years living in Seattle never once was I tempted to try those "mountain oysters" sold fresh at Pike Place Market....

Maybe you'd prefer the bollocks on pizza ?

 

[maty]

Francia y EEUU luchan por comprar mascarillas chinas
[Spanish] https://www.infobae.com/america/age...y-eeuu-luchan-por-comprar-mascarillas-chinas/

France and the US fight to buy Chinese masks
https://translate.google.es/translate?sl=es&tl=en&u=https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2020/04/01/francia-y-eeuu-luchan-por-comprar-mascarillas-chinas/

[ A French regional official said Wednesday that the competition to obtain masks made in China is such that the Americans buy them directly on the runways of Chinese airports before they start their trip to France.

"On the track, the Americans take out the cash and pay three or four times the price of the orders that we have made, you have to fight," said Jean Rottner, the president of the French Grand Est region, one of the most affected by the outbreak of the new coronavirus, speaking to RTL radio.

According to him, the planes then depart for the United States and not for France... ]

 

[maty]

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/sociedad/20200402/coronavirus-espana-ultimas-noticias-7817968

[ 09:47 Danish government refuses to send aid to Spain and Italy

The Danish government has rejected a request by several parties to study the sending of aid in the form of material or personnel to Spain and Italy due to the coronavirus pandemic (covid-19), although it defends reinforcing collaboration through the European Union (EU). Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod stressed that the pandemic is still in its early stages and that the priority of the health authorities should be to focus all efforts on Denmark. ]

In short, we are in a save yourself who can. And we are only at the beginning!

Imagine what it can be like in undeveloped countries, without their own industry to correct material deficiencies in a short time.

As said, we are at WAR and the productive system of the countries must change their priorities.

 

[Willem]

Well, US handling of this epidemic is obviously a mess, and at times disgraceful, as you suggest. I also note that not all PPE acquired by FEMA goes to the hardest hit regions. Some is also sold on the private market.
In the meantime, and on a slightly more cheerful note, the Dutch government has just decided to donate 1 billion Euros to the hardest hit Mediterranean countries, to help them fund the current medical expenditure. We should do more, but it is a beginning.

 

[maty]

This is going to take a long time. Countries with industrial capacity and food production will be the ones that can protect their population the most.

What percentage of food products are generated in Denmark and other Nordic countries? Spain is a power in this field thanks to our climate and very important food industry. Our food exports are essential in EU.

 

[Willem]

I can only say this for the Netherlands: we are the second largest food exporter in the world after the USA. See here for 2018 data: https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2019/03/agricultural-export-value-over-90-bn-euros-in-2018 I would think Denmark is also a major league player, with their meat and dairy exports.
This site (without proper source references) gives slightly different numbers, but here too the Netherlands is in the top league: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles...he-largest-exporter-of-food-in-the-world.html
And this one for Spain: https://ecomercioagrario.com/en/spain-fourth-largest-food-exporting-country-in-the-eu/ So Spain exports a lot, but the Netherlands exports almost twice as much in value.

 

[PierreV]

Isn't it about time we cut the various nationalistic/xenophobic crap in general? We're all in the same sh**, and while the shortcomings may differ from country to country, there are issues everywhere at some level.