Covid-19 in China

[Randy W]

from National Geographic^​​

 

 

 

Here’s what coronavirus does to the body

 

In the early days of an infection, the novel coronavirus rapidly invades human lung cells. Those lung cells come in two classes: ones that make mucus and ones with hair-like batons called cilia.

 

. . .

 

Frieman explains that SARS loved to infect and kill cilia cells, which then sloughed off and filled patients’ airways with debris and fluids, and he hypothesizes that the same is happening with the novel coronavirus. That’s because the earliest studies on COVID-19 have shown that many patients develop pneumonia in both lungs, accompanied by symptoms like shortness of breath.

That’s when phase two and the immune system kicks in. Aroused by the presence of a viral invader, our bodies step up to fight the disease by flooding the lungs with immune cells to clear away the damage and repair the lung tissue.

During the third phase, lung damage continues to build—which can result in respiratory failure. Even if death doesn’t occur, some patients survive with permanent lung damage. According to the WHO, SARS punched holes in the lungs, giving them “a honeycomb-like appearance”—and these lesions are present in those afflicted by novel coronavirus, too.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

from the People's Daily on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/188625661189259/posts/3078213625563767/

 

Young doctor who delayed his wedding to fight against #COVID19 passes away

 

Chinese are again mourning the loss of a fighter in the battle against #COVID19.

 

Peng Yinhua, 29, a doctor of pulmonary and critical care at First People’s Hospital in Jiangxia District of Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province, passed away on Thursday after he was infected with the novel coronary pneumonia during his work on the front line against #COVID19, the district health bureau said in a statement on Thursday.

 

Netizens were saddened even more after learning that Peng had postponed his wedding for the battle. Because of the epidemic, he was unable to do what any other groom does. He never booked a venue for his wedding or sent out his wedding invitations.

 

The epidemic changed everything for him. He postponed his wedding date, which was scheduled for Feb. 1, and joined the fight against #COVID19. He did not even get to spend Spring Festival Eve with his fiancée.

 

Peng was hospitalized for #COVID19 treatment on Jan. 25 and his situation worsened just days later. On Feb. 1, the day should have had his wedding, he was sent to the intensive care unit. He passed away at 9:50 pm on Feb. 20.

 

Many Chinese netizens are mourning Peng’s death and hope for no more casualties of medical workers on the front line.

 

“He was strong and optimistic,” said a patient at the hospital who knew him.

 

“He should have had a better future and life. I really don’t want to see another doctor die,” a netizen wrote on Weibo. (by Dai Xiaoyu)

Edited December 22, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook

To curb the coronavirus spread, China has banned Hubei residents from leaving their homes. One person per household will be allowed outside every 3 days to buy groceries and supplies.

Full story: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3051031/hubei-residents-banned-leaving-homes-province-introduces-tough

https://www.facebook.com/355665009819/posts/10158030823489820/

Quote

In what Ying’s government described as the “strictest 24-hour lock-down management”, barriers and checkpoints will be set up to isolate all residential compounds and communities, housing estates, and villages, with only one entrance allowed.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[DocMartin817]

Well that is old news. It is now changed here in Wuhan. No going out at all. All supplies are ordered online and delivered to the front gate where you go and pick up your groceries. Liwen and I just did that yesterday.Our apartment complex is completely closed with a at least 5 government officials at the gates to let out some people in cars - I imagine they have permission to go to work. Maybe they work for the government -- don't know. But everything here is very quiet with no one going outside except to take the garbage downstairs to the garbage bins and to get ordered supplies. The lines are not long and no one stands close to others. Our timing to visit family was such that the day we arrived they declared a city aide quarantine with no trains, planes, or buses. They are now saying that they will soon be letting some of the people who left before the quarantine back into the city. We will see how that goes

[Randy W]

I think the news there was mostly that the measures extended to the entire province of Hubei. 13 million people under the strict guidelines that mostly already established for Wuhan.

[Randy W]

From the Sixth Tone on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2568014800184031/

The streets are eerily empty. Buildings stand silent. There’s hardly any sign of life.

Following a halt in production and the lockdown of Wuhan due to the COVID-19 epidemic, a film crew stuck inside the city turned their cameras to the streets to create a documentary.

Learn more: http://ow.ly/WMFI50yoibb

Edited June 8, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Coronavirus did not originate in Wuhan seafood market, scientists say

• Analysis of genomic data from 93 samples of the novel coronavirus suggests it was imported from elsewhere
• The busy market then boosted its circulation and spread it to the whole city, research shows

 

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was instead imported from elsewhere, said researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research.

 

. . .

 

What they found was that while the virus had spread rapidly within the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, there had also been two major population expansions on December 8 and January 6.

 

[Randy W]

from Bloomberg

 

 

China Sacrifices a Province to Save the World

From Coronavirus Bloomberg News

 

February 6, 2020, 12:01 AM GMT+8

• Hubei province has seen 97% of all deaths from the virus
• Quarantine lockdown delayed key supplies from getting in

 

MUST READ

MUST KNOW

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-05/china-sacrifices-a-province-to-save-the-world-from-coronavirus

 

Hubei -- known for its car factories and bustling capital Wuhan -- is paying the price,

with the mortality rate for coronavirus patients there 3.1%, versus 0.16% for the rest of China.

 

If the province was not sealed off,

some people would have gone all around the country to try to get medical help,

and would have turned the whole nation into an epidemic-stricken area,”

said Yang Gonghuan, former deputy director general of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

“The quarantine brought a lot of hardship to Hubei and Wuhan,

but it was the right thing to do.”

 

“It’s like fighting a war -- some things are hard,

but must be done.”

 

While virus cases within Hubei province are still growing by the thousands every day,

infections are slowing in the rest of China --

an early sign that the aggressive containment may have worked to limit the coronavirus’ spread nationally and globally

 

The quarantine was the right thing to do for the good of the wider population, said the doctor at the Third People’s Hospital.

 

“Some may say Hubei was sacrificed,

but it did effectively stem the spread to elsewhere.”

 

Comparing the “draconian measures” in Hubei to the mass surveillance prevalent in China that would seem intolerable to many in the west,

he said:

“If you ask Chinese people,

8 out of 9 will say they can live with that.”

 

 

 

For those seeking help and medical care in Hubei, resignation has set in --

there has been markedly little unrest in the province despite the circumstances.

 

The idea of sacrificing one’s self for a greater, national goal is deeply-embedded in Chinese culture,

and is invoked by the country’s leaders in times of hardship.

 

People are queuing for eight hours just to get tested for the coronavirus, said the college graduate, John Chen.

 

"At first I was upset that the hospitals and officials I called for help weren’t willing to do their job,

but later I realized that it’s not that they are unwilling to help,

but that everywhere is way too short of resources,” he said.

 

“I don’t blame anyone,

because if you grow up in China,

you learn that’s how the system works.”

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1816140728679444/permalink/2240348522925327/

Edited June 8, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

China bans trade, eating of wild animals in battle against

 

Fast-tracked decision to prohibit consumption of wildlife comes into effect immediately

Authorities should offer financial support to help the industry shift to other businesses

[Randy W]

from theChinaTrips and Business Insider on Facebook

It's Bleach and water

Misting mechanisms spraying disinfectants have cropped up around China to deter the coronavirus, but experts aren't so sure.

https://www.facebook.com/2358098751081249/posts/3289008921323556/

Have you seen one of these?

Posted by TheChinaTrips on Monday, February 24, 2020

 

Edited December 22, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the People's Daily on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/188625661189259/posts/3087068154678314/

First whistleblower of #COVID19 up for national honor

. . .

An announcement by the government of Wuhan said that Zhang was the first person to ring the alarm, and the local health commission and human resources department in Hubei had awarded her with grand merit on Feb. 4.

 

On December 26, 2019, Zhang received a senior couple who had fever and coughing and she noticed differences from common pneumonia. Zhang then asked the couple to have their son examined and got similar results. On the same day, a patient who visited the Huanan Seafood Market – thought to be the source of the #CoronavirusOutbreak – also had a similar CT image.

 

After she learned about similar patients in other hospitals, she reported the situation to the provincial disease control and prevention center. At the same time, Zhang asked all doctors and nurses in her department to wear N95 masks and special uniforms to shield against potential infectious disease.

 

Thanks to Zhang and seven other doctors, including the late Dr. Li Wenliang, the nationwide battle against the novel coronavirus kicked off.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Greg.D.]

 

Nothing seems believable about that story of the "first whistleblower", the "model worker".

 

And, even if it was true, a lot of good it did. But, I doubt it's true. The People's Daily is trying to save the Party, not the Chinese people.

 

Really crude timing to glorify a model worker while a hundred people per day are dying in Hubei. And on Facebook, banned in China because it's not controlled by the party, but broadcasting anybody's propaganda outside in the free world.

[Greg.D.]

Like I said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/business/china-coronavirus-propaganda.html

 

Coronavirus Weakens China’s Powerful Propaganda Machine

 

Beijing is pushing tales of perseverance, but many young people are openly questioning the Communist Party’s message.

 

Exhausted medical workers with faces lined from hours of wearing goggles and surgical masks. Women with shaved heads, a gesture of devotion. Retirees who donate their life savings anonymously in government offices.

 

Beijing is tapping its old propaganda playbook as it battles the relentless coronavirus outbreak, the biggest challenge to its legitimacy in decades. State media is filling smartphones and airwaves with images and tales of unity and sacrifice aimed at uniting the people behind Beijing’s rule. It even briefly offered up cartoon mascots named Jiangshan Jiao and Hongqi Man, characters meant to stir patriotic feelings among the young during the crisis.

The problem for China’s leaders: This time, it isn’t working so well.

Online, people are openly criticizing state media. They have harshly condemned stories of individual sacrifice when front-line medical personnel still lack basic supplies like masks. They shouted down Jiangshan Jiao and Hongqi Man. They have heaped scorn on images of the women with shaved heads, asking whether the women were pressured to do it and wondering why similar images of men weren’t appearing.

One critical blog post was titled “News Coverage Should Stop Turning a Funeral Into a Wedding.”

.........

The government was slow to disclose the threat of the coronavirus and worked to suppress the voices of those who tried to warn the country. In doing so, it undermined its implicit deal with its people, in which they trade away their individual rights for the promise of security.

To tame public outrage, Beijing is determined to create a “good public opinion environment.” It has sent hundreds of state-sponsored journalists to Wuhan and elsewhere to churn out heart-tugging stories about the front-line doctors and nurses and the selfless support from the Chinese public.

.........

China’s propaganda spinners have some tough competition. Chinese people have seen images of a young woman crying “Mom! Mom!” as her mother’s body was driven away. They’ve seen a woman banging a homemade gong from her balcony while begging for a hospital bed. They’ve seen an exhausted nurse breaking down and howling.

And they have all seen the face of Li Wenliang, the doctor who tried to warn China about the very virus that killed him.

.......

Beijing is doing everything it can to take back the narrative. State media is offering steady coverage of people who leave donations at government offices then dash before anyone can give them credit. One compilation of “dropped cash donations and ran away” headlines tallied 41 of them.

Other stories feature medics who join the front lines after “Mom just passed away” or the person “just had a newborn.” Beat by beat, the stories sound the same.

Some are blatantly unbelievable. One newspaper in the city of Xi’an apologized after it posted an article claiming that a nurse’s newborn twins asked their father where their mother was, saying it was an editing mistake. Another newspaper wrote that after a nurse went to the front line, her husband, who had been in a vegetative state since 2014, would smile whenever her name was mentioned “as if he knew that his wife was engaged in a great endeavor.” That story was later deleted.

In China, admiration of the front-line medical workers is widespread and sincere. But the state media’s coverage does not show the reality that many of those workers lack protective gear. Over 3,000 of them have been infected.

[Allon]

Well said, Greg. I had written about a woman researcher, Zheng-Li Shi, who muddled about the bat caves in Yunnan and found corona viruses almost exactly similar to SARS and MERS and COVAD-19 in 2005. And I recall another doctor (actually several) who died as a result of COVI-19, and they were outed by the CCP when they first "found" the "new" virus.

 

Ms. Shi of Wuhan Institute of Virology, really the lead of other researchers, had to publish her work in an American institution instead of one in China, I am sure that caused some concern among netizens. But now the researchers are accused of causing the virus itself by letting out their samples of the virus from their labs.

 

China, China.

 

Lead researcher Zheng-Li Shi, of the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been widely searched on China's social media and even labelled the 'mother of the devil' as theories alleged the new coronavirus escaped from her lab in the city where the virus originated.

...

The scientist was forced to respond and reject the theories this week, saying "I swear with my life, [the virus] had nothing to do with the lab," the South China Morning Post reports.

Writing in recent weeks in the New York Times, David Quammen, the author of 'Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic' made the link between the virologists' discovery and today's outbreak in an opinion piece.

He pointed to the virologists' 2005 draft paper, and Ms Shi's team's second study in 2017 that involved taking samples from the bats and investigating blood samples from people living nearby.

The earlier study had noted the bats in the cave hosted a variety of coronaviruses similar to the SARS outbreak at the time, which killed 774 people and infected more than 8,000 worldwide.

The draft paper has not yet been peer-reviewed - an important gold standard to test the merit of all new scientific studies.

However in 2017, the virologists set out their second set of findings following five years of research focused on the Yunnan cave, this time investigating fecal samples collected from its bat population.

They found coronaviruses in four different species of bats, including one virus with a genome 96% identical to the virus first discovered emerging in humans in Wuhan in December.

The virus found in the bats that shares genetic similarities to the killer COVID-2019 sweeping the globe is distinct from the SARS virus, according to the study.

Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a private research organisation that had worked with Ms Shi and a co-author on both of the Yunnan studies, told the New York Times the researchers had been 'raising the flag' on these types of viruses for years.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/coronavirus-hope-secret-bat-cave-21480287

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook

This is China’s newest coronavirus-fighting robot. Thor-1, a “hard core weapon”, can disinfect more than 10 sq km in an hour.

 

More on the epidemic: sc.mp/coronavirusoutbreak

https://www.facebook.com/355665009819/posts/10158058636774820/

Edited June 8, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)