Covid-19 in China

[Greg.D.]

The virus CAN come from a lab without being a manipulated virus, what a garbage title on that article which is, again, just a rehash of the first article in Nature Medicine. A lot of hand waving in that article but it was very early and does not reference the article by the chinese virologists, I don’t think. The two labs in Wuhan had collections of viruses and needed to culture them in animal hosts merely to study them, which is what their jobs were. Easy to infect a worker or have an escape of a bat or some diseased tissue.

it is still the most likely explanation and is a repeat of the first SARS coming out of a Beijing lab.

last week people were saying “let’s don’t start throwing the blame word around”. Well, now it’s time to start throwing the blame word around.

[Randy W]

Yes - but the actual controversy about "lab origins" is primarily about whether it was genetically produced as a bioweapon. But, yes, I agree that a lab "accident" is just as much the fault of the lab.

 

Remember that TWO labs were closed in the US as well for poor safety practices in a relevant time frame. Even so, the virus still first reared its ugly signature to the world in Wuhan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Allon]

So what if it's a rehash of the Nature Medicine article? The National Review now takes back its charge that the labs were to blame, and says it more likely came from natural origin due to the nature of the genome found in COVID not SARS (1) and it is unique in the "cleavage" process after attaching to the ACE2 and penetrating the cell.

 

National Review is not even a scientific periodical and it is taking back claiming bats and pangolins were not for sale near the lab. They in fact, were and they further say the virus carrier was either a bat or pangolin (they say bat) that passed it to humans. April 9.

 

Also, horseshoe bats, which are much smaller than the tastier fruit bats, are generally not among the species eaten. The significance of the Yunnan cave sample is that it shows the bat virus didn’t need to recombine with viruses in other species in a market to be infectious to people. The role of the wet markets may be that other animals get infected there and produce much higher loads of virus than the bats would, amplifying the infection.

 

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/new-study-the-human-version-of-sars-cov-2-is-closer-to-the-one-in-bats-than-the-one-in-pangolins/

 

I am pretty much done with this debate. Reminds me of religious mythology.

[Greg.D.]

it’s a rehash of a Nature Medicine letter that said, based on sequence, it had no evidence of human engineering. That’s important because many people, including headline writers, say that is proof it did not come out of a lab before infecting humans in Wuhan.

That fails any logic test.

 

National Review is not important. A naturally-occuring virus infected humans causing a pandemic. It began in Wuhan. There are two labs there that study those viruses. Despite people continuing to quote an unknown source that the virus moved from bat to another host before infecting humans, there is no evidence for that. Nor an explanation.

China has kept everyone out of those labs and not made the staff available for interviews. Instead, they have launched an internal (in Chinese) and international propaganda campaign to say the Americans brought it to Wuhan.

And, Randy, what’s your point here:

 

 

Remember that TWO labs were closed in the US as well for poor safety practices in a relevant time frame. Even so, the virus still first reared its ugly signature to the world in Wuhan.

Are you saying there is a remote possibility this was virus came out of one of those two US labs?

[Randy W]

it’s a rehash of a Nature Medicine letter that said, based on sequence, it had no evidence of human engineering. That’s important because many people, including headline writers, say that is proof it did not come out of a lab before infecting humans in Wuhan.

That fails any logic test.

 

National Review is not important. A naturally-occuring virus infected humans causing a pandemic. It began in Wuhan. There are two labs there that study those viruses. Despite people continuing to quote an unknown source that the virus moved from bat to another host before infecting humans, there is no evidence for that. Nor an explanation.

 

China has kept everyone out of those labs and not made the staff available for interviews. Instead, they have launched an internal (in Chinese) and international propaganda campaign to say the Americans brought it to Wuhan.

 

And, Randy, what’s your point here:

 

 

Remember that TWO labs were closed in the US as well for poor safety practices in a relevant time frame. Even so, the virus still first reared its ugly signature to the world in Wuhan.

Are you saying there is a remote possibility this was virus came out of one of those two US labs?

 

 

Yes, in effect, I am. But also that bad lab practices are not confined to China.

 

What happened in the US after the labs were shut down? Somehow, nothing spread after that occurrence.

 

I don't think we need to be pointing fingers until details emerge. I'm not seeing any campaign to flush those details out of the Chinese.

[Randy W]

from Quartz

 

After enduring months of lockdown, Africans in China are being targeted and evicted from apartments

 

 

 

“I don’t know where I will sleep tonight,” a man from Ghana says in a nighttime video, luggage strewn on the streets. “We are Nigerians, Ugandans and Ghanaians; we are stranded now.”

In another video, a group of black men can be seen pulling their luggage and being herded through the rainy streets by police officers. “They are chasing us away. We are just walking on the road. They [are not] giving us houses, they [are not] giving us hotels…They don’t want us to stay at one place,” the person filming the video says.

On Saturday, the front page of Kenya’s Nation newspaper read: “Kenyans in China: Rescue us from hell”.

But this week, five Nigerians reportedly tested positive for Covid-19 in the southern city of Guangzhou. According to state media, the men broke quarantine and frequented a restaurant where they infected its owner, who then passed the virus on to her eight-year-old daughter.

These reports seem to be what has sparked the current wave of suspicion and anti-foreigner sentiment in the city. “I’ve been sleeping under the bridge for four days with no food to eat… I cannot buy food anywhere, no shops or restaurants will serve me,” a 24-year-old student from Uganda told the AFP news agency.

 

Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda are among the countries to summon China’s ambassadors, along with the African Union Commission, to register their displeasure about the reports privately and at times very publicly. The US State department has also ramped up the scrutiny of happenings in Guangzhou with a warning to African Americans to avoid travel to the city.

Beijing can ill afford a diplomatic scandal about its treatment of people of other races especially after it vehemently complained about the racist language surrounding commentary on the coronavirus, which has variously been called “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese virus”.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

They are still sending messages out on Weixin to be wary of foreigners.

 

Guangxi Epidemic Prevention Command strictly implements the "ten strict" measures for the prevention of overseas outbreaks in the border community villages, strengthens the comprehensive mapping of the incoming and mobile population, and strictly controls the exchange of personnel in the border areas.

 

[eseum]

Conspiracy theories about origins of the virus will never be put to rest. Unfortunately, there are way to many people who wish to believe conspiracy theories, regardless of direct evidence that discounts them. Before the internet, and the creation of a multitude of social media sites, there were fewer people that had access and believed in conspiracies. Now there is an endless conduit for people to make comments, ranging from subtle to the outrageous, with no basis in fact or that are skewed to misrepresent facts. There is an increasing number of people who, for whatever reason, wish to believe in and further spread misinformation. I've had innumerable arguments with my wife over things she says she read on the internet and believes about the virus. Sargent Joe Friday used to say "just the facts mam," but that doesn't resonate in today's society.

[Randy W]

This news report is from NTD also, but fairly well done. It is circulating on Facebook.

 

It starts off with a possible "second wave", including construction of new hospitals, in some of the northern border provinces and Sichuan.

 

 

[Randy W]

from the Shanghaiist

 

The US Consulate-General in Guangzhou has issued a safety alert to African-Americans

 

In an email sent on Saturday, the consulate warned African-Americans that they may be subject to heightened scrutiny, made to take mandatory Covid-19 tests and be subjected to supervised quarantine

 

[Randy W]

miscellaneous clippings from Al Jazeera

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/coronavirus-deaths-slow-italy-france-live-updates-200413000419105.html

 

China reports six-week high of coronavirus cases: Live updates

A total of 108 new infections in China, mostly imported, as infections around the world exceed 1.8 million.

by Kate Mayberry & Saba Aziz

13 Apr 2020 08:37 GMT

These are the latest updates:

China has reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases - 108 - in nearly six weeks.

Monday, April 13

08:20 GMT - Number of people entering China cut by 90 percent

China has reduced the number of people crossing its borders by 90 percent as part of its efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, an immigration official said.

Speaking at a news briefing, Liu Haitao, an official with the National Immigration Administration, said the number of cases was still on the rise in the countries along China's borders.

China was working to limit all non-essential crossings, but it remained a huge challenge to control the large number of mountain passes, ferries and roads along the country's long border, he added.

07:34 GMT - China rejects discrimination claims against Africans

China said there was no discrimination against "African brothers" in the country and rejected US accusations of mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou as an attempt to harm Beijing's relations with African nations.

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the comments during a daily briefing in response to accusations from the US government that authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou are taking measures targeting Africans in the city.

 

[Martin B]

What the hell is the upside to throwing Africans out on the street en masse now, and limiting their access to basic necessities? Are they hoping over 100k Africans will just head straight to the airport and fly back?

 

If they really wanted to "remove" Africans from China, could they not just wait until the virus blows over, and then issue a decree that anyone holding an African passport has a year to pack their stuff and GTFO? China would of course catch flack and bad PR for this worldwide, but nobody will ultimately stop them given the other things going on nowadays. Of course, I'm not condoning any of this, but if they have to do it, could they at least do it in a somewhat dignified and upfront way?

 

These evictions and hotel bans are totally punitive and unnecessary, especially at this time when the virus is still an issue, and I don't actually see how it address the "problem" China is trying to solve - but yet still brings on a s**tton of negative publicity. Shaking my head at this one....

Edited April 13, 2020 by Barfus (see edit history)

[Randy W]

It's not a policy of China - it's simply a knee jerk reaction of locals to a warning about foreigners carrying the virus, and a small number of Africans who jumped quarantine. McDonald's at least has already straightened out their employees.

 

Coronavirus: McDonald's temporarily closes Chinese branch which banned black people

 

| Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Edited April 13, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Cale1953]

It's not a policy of China - it's simply a knee jerk reaction of locals to a warning about foreigners carrying the virus, and a small number of Africans who jumped quarantine. McDonald's at least has already straightened out their employees.

 

Coronavirus: McDonald's temporarily closes Chinese branch which banned black people

 

| Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

No its not official policy, but Beijing was slow to crush it, they just let it gather force for a few days. All that soft power Africa engagement, and then something stupid like this.

 

It doesn't surprise me, Chinese don't like blacks much and Beijing is quite happy to let any kind of anti-foreign sentiment simmer for a while as long as it doesn't blow up too much. This was too much.

[Cale1953]

There was a panel on al jazeera discussing this, three blacks and one Chinese from some semi-official organization. He spent most of his time talking about how racist the USA is and how China doesn't discriminate against anybody. A Ugandan med student in Wuhan, indicated that foreigners are still under lockdown, while Chinese are not and foreigners might have to go through another 14 day quarantine period before being allowed some freedom. This after being locked up for the last two months. I didn't learn that much about what precipitated this whole thing, but it sure revealed a lot about attitudes.

 

About twenty minutes, maybe worth watching depending on your interest.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqEFMYVLWgo

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Randy W
embed (see edit history)