Well looks like it started to peak up here in Travis County - aka Austin
Travis County ZIP codes have 206 Cases
78746 has about 26,928 people living in it. Many executives and directors who fly to Bay Area, Asia and Europe
OK, I don’t usually geek out, but I can have my moments. One of my old colleagues pointed this out. While I’ve referenced the entire article, look toward the bottom of this post for prescient writing. It’s excerpted from the article. Emphasis is mine.
Clin Microbiol Rev. 2007 Oct; 20(4): 660–694.
doi: 10.1128/CMR.00023-07
SHOULD WE BE READY FOR THE REEMERGENCE OF SARS?
The medical and scientific community demonstrated marvelous efforts in the understanding and control of SARS within a short time, as evident by over 4,000 publications available online. … Coronaviruses are well known to undergo genetic recombination (375), which may lead to new genotypes and outbreaks. The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb. The possibility of the reemergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.
Well if China’s government would shut down the wet markets then the risk would plummet. How many cross species viruses have to propagate from their wet markets before they actually do something about it? Swine flu, Sars, Evian flu, and covid 19 all originated in China. That’s not a coincidence. The only recent exception was Mers.
On the danger of stepping on everyones toes now:
How many school shootings do you need before restricting access to fire arms?
How many deaths in traffic do you need before putting a speed limit on all Autobahnen?
…
It is not that simple to change how a culture/country works.
Chinese food management does puzzle me because food safety affects everyone in a country – while guns mainly pertain to misuse by small and predictable groups (e.g., young males; gangs; organized crime). Traffic deaths have been declining for generations as technology improves. A Ford Model T with a plate glass windshield and chest stabbing steering column was vastly more dangerous at 30 mph than a modern car at 130 mph on a modern highway.
The Jungle novel (1906) transformed food safety in the USA, and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. Furthermore, there is copious documentation of the human-pig-duck flu virus cycle – often linked to Asian agricultural practices.
I would still drive one if I could. Just for the looks.
You’re using a very bad straw man argument here and comparing apples to oranges. So to keep it very simple, none of the examples you used above are infectious or able to create a global pandemic. With recent news that China has now REOPENED the wet markets, that is horrendously irresponsible and bordering on malice. If I were the leader of a country, I would be forced to ban all international travel originating from China until they did something to regulate the wet markets.
I’m no longer convinced that it was from a wet market, consider this (with due skepticism):
Is it?
We know all 3 lead to many preventable deaths and suffering. Yet it all just happens because the world is not a dictatorship.
Same could be said for fracking or discharging untreated sewage.
Again, even in a human rights disrespecting country like China, you can not just force the population to shift something as fundamental as food sources.
Note:
This finger pointing that started among high ranking politicians (who did fuck all in the beginning, no matter the country) that has now trickled down to all layers of society where everyone now just slings mud is disgusting.
Within reason, change must happen.
You really need to learn how to compare apples to apples. You’re using LOCAL issues that do not affect other countries and are not INFECTIOUS/CONTAGIOUS and comparing it to something that has brought the ENTIRE PLANET EARTH to a stand still.
To your second point: the finger pointing is warranted. China was giving out false metrics about the coronavirus. They downplayed their infection rate and number of deaths. They put a gag order on the doctors who tried to blow the whistle on what was happening. And they did not shut down international travel, which would have at least contained the virus to within their borders. If they had at least done that, it would be a local epidemic and not a global pandemic.
The WHO in one of their PDFs (I think January) noted the proximity of the BL4 Lab in Wuhan to the market which is the official origin.
With China being what it is, I doubt the UN/WHO will be able to investigate.
Yes, but what’s stunning to me is the immediate relevance of the research projects and job listings. And also the perfect timeline. There will likely be no formal investigation, but if the rest of the world believes the lab was responsible they’ll find a way to make China pay.
What are the odds of the virus originating at this exact wet market of thousands in a huge country, or at the lab just next door?
The virus had to originate somewhere. Whether it was the wet market or the lab, we will probably never know.
There are things that make you wonder all over the globe. If we happen to have something that originates within a kilometer or three from Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, or the oceans around Fukushima Daiichi, people will speculate.
The speculation may well be right, or may well be wrong. I agree with @John_William about your second point. The actions of the authoritarian government are highly suspect in either case.
On a lighter note, my daughter was painting today and took off her smock using excellent doffing technique, very proud.
Let us rename this thread to something not anymore “munich” related
or close it
We can move to the off-topic thread all the virus related posts (maybe?).
I like the name. It shows how the world has changed.
It has been changed…This is the Way…
Dang. You could at least have made a funny symbol, and called this topic the topic formally known as…
I am watching that show too!
This is the way