[OFF TOPIC] Coronavirus Pandemic

[heywoodu 15,174]

21 minutes ago, Werloc said:

 

If you go out for a jog or a walk without a mask, you are prone to be fined.

 

I still doubt they'll make it this extreme here (among other things because numbers are starting to go down and because it's simply not realistic to expect them to come up with something this restrictive after telling people to get fresh air to stay healthy), but I better get some more kilometers in tomorrow then just to be sure

 

[Werloc 3,171]

3 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

I still doubt they'll make it this extreme here (among other things because numbers are starting to go down and because it's simply not realistic to expect them to come up with something this restrictive after telling people to get fresh air to stay healthy), but I better get some more kilometers in tomorrow then just to be sure

 

 

I'm just going to live on my roof with headphones if I ever feel a lack of fresh air.

[Benolympique 2,398]

France ?? 987 death today / total 13 200 death 

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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/10/uk-lockdown-extended-coronavirus/

 

UK coronavirus lockdown: how long has it been extended for, and have rules changed?
Government has closed schools, pubs, restaurants, cafes, gyms and other businesses under new lockdown measures

 

Excerpts from the article above.

UK coronavirus lockdown: the new rules, and what they mean for daily life

 

Boris Johnson has placed the UK on a police-enforced lockdown with drastic new measures in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

 

The Prime Minister ordered people only to leave their homes under a list of "very limited purposes", banned public gatherings of more than two people and ordered the closure of non-essential shops.

 

Every citizen must comply with these new measures and the relevant authorities, including the police, have been given the powers to enforce them through fines and dispersing gatherings.

 

These measures were introduced on March 23, and the Government had stated these measures would be reviewed after three weeks, and relaxed if the evidence showed this was possible. However, at the government briefing on April 9, Dominic Raab announced that the lockdown rules will "have to stay in place until we've got the evidence that clearly shows we've moved beyond the peak"....

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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/why-lockdowns-work-epidemics-coronavirus-covid19/

 

Why lockdowns can halt the spread of COVID-19

The UK, US, EU and many other countries are currently in some degree of “lockdown,” with restaurants and bars, shops, schools and gyms closed, and citizens required, or at least strongly encouraged, to stay home to avoid catching or spreading COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

 

Researchers are well on their way to discovering vaccines and treatments for the virus, but even in a best-case scenario, these are likely to be 12-18 months away.

Until then, extreme social distancing is pretty much the only intervention available to help individuals stay healthy, and to break the chain of transmission - giving more vulnerable populations a fighting chance of surviving this pandemic.

 

But how exactly does a lockdown work? And why is it important for even younger and healthier people, who face a lower risk of severe illness, to remain in their homes as much as possible?

 

The goal: R<1

 

The purpose of a lockdown, explains a new study from the Imperial College London COVID-19 Response Team, is to reduce reproduction – in other words, to reduce the number of people each confirmed case infects.

 

The goal is to keep reproduction, or “R,” below one (R<1) – with each case infecting fewer than one other person, on average.

 

The authors of the study say there are two routes to try to get there:

 

Mitigation, “slowing but not necessarily stopping epidemic spread – reducing peak healthcare demand while protecting those most at risk of severe disease from infection.” This is done by isolating suspected cases and their households, and social distancing the elderly and people at highest risk of serious illness.
 

Suppression, or basically, lockdown, which “aims to reverse epidemic growth, reducing case numbers to low levels” by social distancing the entire population “indefinitely” and closing schools and universities.
 

The study’s models show that, painful as lockdown may be for many of us, it works.

 

Without any lockdown or social distancing measures, we can expect peak mortality in approximately three months. In this scenario, 81% of the UK and US populations would be infected, with 510,000 dying in the UK and 2.2 million dying in the US.

 

Unmitigated epidemic scenarios for GB and the US

In contrast, isolating confirmed and suspected cases and social distancing the elderly and vulnerable would “reduce peak critical care demand by two-thirds and halve the number of deaths.”

 

To get closer to the goal of R<1, they say, “a combination of case isolation, social distancing of the entire population and either household quarantine or school and university closure are required."

 

The study finds this "intensive policy is predicted to result in a reduction in critical care requirements from a peak approximately three weeks after the interventions are introduced and a decline thereafter while the intervention policies remain in place."

 

Mitigation strategy scenarios for GB showing critical care (ICU) bed requirements
 

While the word “indefinitely” isn’t one we want to hear, it’s possible long-term suppression could be the best way to reduce infections and deaths – at least until a vaccine is available.

 

So, have the lockdowns worked?

 

Starting 23 January 2020, the Chinese government locked down Hubei Province, including Wuhan, the city of 11 million where the outbreak started. They halted transportation in and out and barred tens of millions of people from working or going to school and closed all shops except those selling food or medicine. In some areas, residents were even forced to limit trips to the store, or order supplies for delivery.

 

This unprecedented lockdown of tens of millions of people was considered a “vast experiment” – but it may have worked. Following the lockdown, cases began to slow. On 19 March, China’s National Health Commission reported no new confirmed infections in Hubei.

Following the lockdown, new COVID-19 cases in China slowed.

Italy and Spain have been under similarly intense nationwide lockdowns, from 9 March and 15 March, respectively, with citizens required to stay in their homes except for work, food shopping or medical appointments.

 

In parts of Italy where lockdowns started earlier, however, we're already seeing a "flattening of the curve". Lodi, for example, locked down on 23 February, but Bergamo did not lock down until 8 March. Now, cases seem to be leveling off in Lodi.

This week, both Italy and Spain reported their largest daily increases in COVID-19-related deaths. But if the lockdown models, hypothetical and real, are correct, the peaks could be approaching.

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https://www.ibtimes.sg/rare-pictures-mysterious-wuhan-virus-lab-fuel-conspiracy-theory-coronavirus-origin-further

 

Rare pictures of mysterious Wuhan virus lab fuel conspiracy theory on Coronavirus origin further

 

Photos taken inside Wuhan lab showed scientists donning full-body protective suits and head shields

 

These photos has sparked conspiracy theories for Coronavirus origin

 

Since the Novel Coronavirus outbreak in December 2019 netizens have become suspicious about the Wuhan Institute of Virology as it is claimed that the Coronavirus was leaked from the particular lab where the researchers were studying the virus for seven years. Now, some rare pictures from the laboratory have sparked startling theories amid Coronavirus pandemic.

 

The laboratory in Wuhan which keeps more than 1,500 strains of deadly viruses, specialises in research of 'the most dangerous pathogens', in particular the viruses carried by bats.

 

The Coronavirus origin conspiracy

 

While many scientists claimed earlier that the deadly Coronavirus which has infected over 1.6 million people globally jumped to humans from wild animals sold as food in a market in Wuhan, there are several theories which contradict such claims.

 

Some experts and officials also claimed that the virus, called as SARS-CoV-2, could be a biological warfare weapon engineered in China, while another set of people claimed that the virus was stored in Wuhan lab from where it escaped. As per recent reports, the speculation of a virus leak from Wuhan lab is no longer being discounted by the UK government either.

 

Meanwhile, a few images appeared on social media platforms and news sites, which were captured between 2015 and 2017. These photos give us an opportunity to look inside the interiors of the controversial institute in Wuhan. The images showed Wuhan researchers were wearing full-body protective suits like astronauts as well as the head shields inside the lab while conducting experiments.

The SARS virus had already “escaped” several times from a lab in Beijing, according to article.

 

The Wuhan lab was the first certified to study what are called BSL-4 pathogens.

The Wuhan laboratory

 

Officials in China decided to build the laboratory after the country suffered from SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003 which infected 8,422 people and killed 774 individuals worldwide. The laboratory took 15 years to get completed. It is a four-storey lab with the highest biosafety level of P4 and the most advanced lab in China.

 

A Chinese virologist, Zhou Peng in 2018 told state news agency Xinhua: "We are proud to say that we are already at the forefront in the field of studying the immunity mechanism of bats, which carry viruses for a long time. Bats carry viruses but are not infected [by them]. [They] provide hope for mankind to study how to fight viruses."

 

Later, Beijing News reported that researchers found that humans might have caught the coronavirus directly from bats after conducting studies. It should be noted that Wuhan Institute of Virology is situated about 10 miles from the Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, believed to be the source of the new Coronavirus outbreak, while Wuhan Centre for Disease Control is barely three miles from the market.

As per Professor Richard Ebright of Rutgers University's Waksman Institute of Microbiology, New Jersey, it is suggested that the virus is not created in a lab, but it could have easily escaped from there while it was being analysed. He also said that he has seen researchers at both the laboratories who studied the viruses with only 'level 2' security – rather than the recommended level 4. That means there are only minimal protections against infection of lab workers.

 

"Virus collection, culture, isolation, or animal infection would pose a substantial risk of infection of a lab worker, and from the lab worker then the public. He concluded that the evidence left 'a basis to rule out [that coronavirus is] a lab construct, but no basis to rule out a lab accident," Prof Ebright added.

 

While rejecting such claims, earlier Dr Gerald Keusch, a Boston-based professor said that bat Coronavirus is resembling SARS, while the new Novel Coronavirus has been isolated by many groups of legitimate scientists, which includes Wuhan lab and US investigators.

 

He also added that anxiety increases at the time of crisis and "it is easier to explain the appearance of an aberration like SARS-CoV-2 as the result of an act of deliberation or incompetence of a laboratory than it is to admit to the fact that nature and evolution, assisted by environmental factors and human intrusions into environmental ecosystems, results in viral evolution."