Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)

[maint1234]

Ebola was stpread in Africa. Also food related causes.

Size of market is the key. China's population is several times bigger than Pakistan, Afghanistan, and all of Africa combined. Risks are multiplied.

I went through the Ebola outbreak wiki page and it seems it also originates from bats . But the human transmission is through infected animals like chimps,monkeys,dogs ,etc and fruits . Not necessarily through direct consumption of bats or these animals. If a infected bat comes in contact with a fruit and its subsequently eaten by another primate , the transmission can occur.
But china should not compare it's much richer society with ppl on subsistence, forced to eat stuff from the jungles.

 

[Blitzo]

As long as we are being civil -- the reason why bats are sometimes eaten is because it is perceived as an exotic dish connected with bats being considered to be lucky and/or wealthy.

In my experience it isn't a very common practice but for the more rural, elderly and/or superstitious, it is still sometimes eaten in the minority group.
When you add in the fact that bats and other exotic wild animals are not placed under the same scrutiny as proper livestock, and may be traded on the black market, you create a vector.

An average quality English article, which basically sums up the majority's opinion towards eating wild/exotic animals:

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I would not be surprised to see much more stringent punishments and control and cultural/media initiatives to reeducate the remaining bastions of the populace who still partake in it.

 

[Deleted member 13312]

Exotic wildlife consumption is a prevalent issue among both the rich and the poor in China. For some it is a status symbol, for others it is simply what they have been eating since time immemorial.

Since bats are not considered livestock animals they are subjected to poaching laws in China which forces people to go through illegal means to get them, which naturally leads to less stringent health checks.

It is an ironic part of economic growth that it changes the status of certain foodstuff. Wealthy people are willing to pay vast sums for what is considered bush meat.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

I went through the Ebola outbreak wiki page and it seems it also originates from bats . But the human transmission is through infected animals like chimps,monkeys,dogs ,etc and fruits . Not necessarily through direct consumption of bats or these animals. If a infected bat comes in contact with a fruit and its subsequently eaten by another primate , the transmission can occur.
But china should not compare it's much richer society with ppl on subsistence, forced to eat stuff from the jungles.

HIV is also believed to have begun with bushmeat. The Cut Hunter scenario where in a Hunter in Africa kills a Chimp or ape infected with the Simian HIV well butchering the animal he cuts himself and the virus is transmitted. From there he travels to then Leopoldville where he interacts with the population has sexual relations with a prostitute and or receives a hypodermic injection. At a point in time where in Hypodermic needles are reused. The later is something that still happens in some parts of the world or in illicit use. These allow transmission across a number of individuals and from there it spreads.

 

[Blitzo]

A good article reviewing how the response to this virus has been compared to some other recent outbreaks.
I advise reading the full article, but this particular section is quite illuminating.

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Rapid global response to the new coronavirus shows progress made since SARS
Identifying the virus was easier this time, but containing it is still a challenge

-snip

Scientists think the new virus spreading rapidly through Central China

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of infecting humans at the beginning of December. By December 31st, public health officials

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that they had patients with the then-unknown virus to the World Health Organization (WHO). Two weeks later, scientists had isolated and

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the virus’s genetic sequence, determining that it was a type of virus called a coronavirus, which is part of the family of viruses that also caused the SARS outbreak.

That fast turnaround highlights the progress made in biotechnology and in public health response to novel viruses over the past few decades. By comparison, the SARS virus emerged in November 2002, but it took until April 2003 for scientists to get a full genetic sequence. It took several months of disease spreading in Western Africa in 2013 before authorities determined it was caused by Ebola. It took around a year to identify Zika as the cause of illnesses in Brazil in 2014 and 2015.

“It’s been extremely rapid,” says Kristian Andersen, director of infectious disease genomics at the Scripps Research Translational Institute. The process moved quickly even though it’s flu season in China, which likely made the process more complicated than usual. Clinicians had to first figure out that the illnesses they were seeing were unusual and not just caused by the normal flu. “I’ve been quite impressed by how fast this whole response went. It’s extremely difficult, to realize you have an outbreak, be able to isolate the virus, sequence it, and share data. This is not easy.”

-snip-

Especially having this happen in flu season, despite what other delays may have happened with local authorities, the fact that they, local clinicians, and the scientists there were able to so quickly identify this new virus in flu season is undeniably worthy of commendation.

 

[ougoah]

I went through the Ebola outbreak wiki page and it seems it also originates from bats . But the human transmission is through infected animals like chimps,monkeys,dogs ,etc and fruits . Not necessarily through direct consumption of bats or these animals. If a infected bat comes in contact with a fruit and its subsequently eaten by another primate , the transmission can occur.
But china should not compare it's much richer society with ppl on subsistence, forced to eat stuff from the jungles.

Some Chinese hold unscientific beliefs. It has little to do with wealth. In fact those markets selling live animals for consumption are more expensive and freshness if more sought after. To say nothing of exotic things. Bats are associated for fortune and the terminology are similar too in script. The people who consume bats are not doing it for the same reasons and don't have the same motivations as the Africans who were consuming bats. Unfortunately these mysticism are in other areas of Chinese culture like believing some numbers to be lucky. Of course those who believe in these superstitions are numerous whereas the ones who will consume bats are far and few between. But obviously still enough for there to be some markets in China that sell exotic meats.

 

[ougoah]

It's bad timing for this to be occurring in the middle of winter where people are usually indoors in confined places. Add the buzz of new year week coming up, it's going to make the problem much worse than it could have been and more difficult to contain. Fortunately it generally has low mortality and vaccinations should arrive before it becomes a real epidemic.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

It's bad timing for this to be occurring in the middle of winter where people are usually indoors in confined places

That’s how Cold and flu season works. It’s not the chill in the air it’s people wanting to stay inside more and as such they encounter more contact with each other.

 

[Broccoli]

I noticed that after I abandoned using cash my yearly flu hasn’t come or it has been far less severe.

Of course knowing that over 60% of men dont wash their hands after visiting toilet it’s no surprise.

 

[AssassinsMace]

For a heavily controlled society, china seems to drop the ball on health related issues quite regularly. Even poor countries like pakistan, Afghanistan and other african countries dont seem to have the number of adulterated food scandals that china has.
I remember the milk powder, gutter oil and now these exotic animals scandals.
When everything is so controlled in China, how did this exotic market flourish ?
And now our company has stopped all travel to china for the next 2 months.

When does China brag about how heavily controlled their society is? That's a contradiction of your propaganda.