Wuhan Coronavirus - are you prepared?

[Toshio Uemura]

Just now, Gasmantle said:

referring to a disease as Wuhan Flu etc is hardly racist.

If you consider discriminating other people and shifting the blame to them, while ignoring official names and facts as normal.And If your purpose is to spread stereotypes then you are right: this is hardly racist. 
But if you don’t: it’s obviously hardcore racism and utterly wrong! Please be not surprised if many people who read along will put you into the racist corner for talking like this, and at least It doesn’t further the flow of unbiased information exchange.

[Toshio Uemura]

11 hours ago, chroma said:

well if you are 12... I suppose anything is possible

🤣 

[Toshio Uemura]

18 minutes ago, atdlzpae said:

Why police the language at all?

Language conveys images. If the wrong images are spread in your readers heads it will lead to anger, misunderstandings and it will handicap the content of your message. Look at your own sentence above “police the language!” Nobody is “policing” the language here. People are just trying to tell others that they are offended by their unreflected insensible use of language.
I consider that legitimate, do you nodd!

[Gasmantle]

11 minutes ago, Toshio Uemura said:

If you consider discriminating other people and shifting the blame to them, while ignoring official names and facts as normal.And If your purpose is to spread stereotypes then you are right: this is hardly racist. 
But if you don’t: it’s obviously hardcore racism and utterly wrong! Please be not surprised if many people who read along will put you into the racist corner for talking like this, and at least It doesn’t further the flow of unbiased information exchange.

I'm not discriminating anyone, nor am I apportioning blame. Calling a virus after a geographic location has no element of racism, it is a descriptive term that may refer to where the outbreak started / spread / cured etc.

I live in Yorkshire UK and had the disease started here I'd fully expect it to be referred to in the media as 'Yorkshire Flu' - I have absolutely no problem with that either.

[Roland]

@Toshio Uemura
I think you are assuming too much about other peoples intentions and consequences of their actions. 
As has been pointed out the naming convention of epidemics and pandemics often follow their point of origin. 
It follows then that the use of Wuhan as the point of origin is not unjustified. 
There even is a reason for this naming convention. 
You might have a clue if someone from Wuhan enters your country and the  pandemic is still happening. This person has a higher likelyhood of being infected than other people coming to for instance Tokio. 
Knowing the point of origin of an epidemic outbreak is very usefull for containment measures. 
In a couple of years when all is said an done we will talk about this thing with the same distance as we are talking about the spanish flu.

There will be political consequences for the Chinese communist party and its ambitions.  

But for asians just because it is called Wuhan flue - - no - - of - course - not. 

So calm down. This is not about asians. This is about a viral infection that happens to come out of a place called Wuhan in China. 

[LanghamP]

1 hour ago, Rehab1 said:

I can’t imagine what other businesses and their employees are now facing across the country and worldwide. Surreal. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/15/federal-reserve-cuts-rates-to-zero-and-launches-massive-700-billion-quantitative-easing-program.html

The US government moved quickly to give lots and lots of money to banks.

1. Interest rates are zero, so the government will lend banks money who in turn buy government securities. The 2008 had something like 2-3 trillion dollars in government interest payments.

2. Government buys up the shit that no one wants. This is elegantly called "quantitive easing" but it's the same as selling a rusted junked pickup truck for a million dollars to the government. The 2008 had something like 3 trillion dollars of that.

3. Bank reserves were set to zero, which means all banks aren't insolvent because they can borrow at zero interest, or convert all existing debt to zero.

The 2008 administration under Obama was responsible for the biggest transfer of wealth from citizens to a few banks, but I'm guessing 2020 will dwarf 2008 if we've already spent $700,000,000,000 not including interest payments (double?). A cool $1,400,000,000,000, or $4,600 dollar for every person in the USA. Four family members? That'll be $20,000 make that check out to your favorite bank, thank you very much.

[Toshio Uemura]

3 minutes ago, Gasmantle said:

I'm not discriminating anyone, nor am I apportioning blame. Calling a virus after a geographic location has no element of racism, it is a descriptive term that may refer to where the outbreak started / spread / cured etc.

I live in Yorkshire UK and had the disease started here I'd fully expect it to be referred to in the media as 'Yorkshire Flu' - I have absolutely no problem with that either.

I am happy to hear that you are not discriminating anyone. And I won’t dispute your arguments (history will prove us right or wrong 100 years from now), but In the present situation, I believe it is the sensitive way to not spread the “descriptive term” and rather stick to the (however unpronuncibly chosen) scientific term to avoid blaming people and peoples. They have suffered enough already. 
As you said, it could have happened anywhere else, in any country that researches viruses for whatever purpose or engages in practices that may lead to zoonotic diseases. And there are many. We had it coming. It was only a question of WHEN not so much from WHERE!
So what is the purpose of insisting on any other than the internationally accepted name and terminology for this disease.

I find CoViD-19 (coff it 19 😝) rather pronounceable and if people don’t like it, they can call it THE NEW CORONA VIRUS and let the 12 year olds call it: The new ViD on the block!

[RockyTop]

43 minutes ago, Toshio Uemura said:

If you consider discriminating other people and shifting the blame to them, while ignoring official names and facts as normal.And If your purpose is to spread stereotypes then you are right: this is hardly racist. 
But if you don’t: it’s obviously hardcore racism and utterly wrong! Please be not surprised if many people who read along will put you into the racist corner for talking like this, and at least It doesn’t further the flow of unbiased information exchange.

Calling everything racist makes people ignore you and destroys the meanings of word. 

You do know that not all people living in Wuhan are of Asian descent. ( Gosh, this guy is racist for assuming as much ) 

I am truly offended by your assumption that everyone is racist. 
 

[LanghamP]

@Toshio UemuraUemura, what punishment do you suggest for people who say racist things? What punishment for people who do racist things?

[Toshio Uemura]

27 minutes ago, Roland said:

This person has a higher likelyhood of being infected than other people coming to for instance Tokio. 

That’s exactly my point: IT IS MISLEADING! 
We are talking “community spread” since weeks now, but some countries and officials are still focused on banning and branding people from Wuhan and now one by one other parts of the world. People! This thing is among us now. It can hit you on any public toilet or in any bus or anywhere else where people still shake hands and sit together in densely packed pubs to watch Soccer Games.

[esaj]

Finnish government announced that they plan to declare emergency law tomorrow. Public meetings above 10 people, loitering etc. are banned, schools and such are closed, borders will likely close soon and everyone with symptoms is expected to quarantine themselves for at least a week or two, and not go to a hospital unless they have severe symptoms like difficulty breathing to prevent healthcare collapse. Didn't the old Chinese curse go something along like "I hope you will live in interesting times"?

Edited March 16, 2020 by esaj

[Roland]

In other news:
Merkel has brought down the quarantine hammer. 
Germany is basicly shutdown.  

[esaj]

Just now, Roland said:

In other news:
Merkel has brought down the quarantine hammer. 
Germany is basicly shutdown.  

Yeah, EU is also planning on closing Schengen-area borders on Wednesday or Thursday and most countries have limited or stopped air travel completely. Apparently also in many countries anyone returning from another country is placed in a 2 week quarantine as a precaution.

[Toshio Uemura]

3 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

@Toshio UemuraUemura, what punishment do you suggest for people who say racist things? What punishment for people who do racist things?

There is no need for punishment. Such people punish themselves enough! They are what they are. It all belongs to them.

[Rehab1]

1 hour ago, RockyTop said:

US- We were told by the government that employees will get paid. The business should pay employees and get a tax credit. If the business can’t afford to front the money the government would write an emergency check to the business. 
   I have not seen it happen yet. 

Small businesses under 50 employees will have to prove that they have exhausted their company’s credit before SBA funding will kick in. We have a credit line so hopefully the interest will be abated. 

[RockyTop]

Tennessee, USA is almost normal. We are told to stay home If we can. Schools are closed. Most people are still going to work. People are asked if they have a temperature before entering a building. They are sent away if they do. Only one confirmed case in the area so far.

[Toshio Uemura]

9 minutes ago, esaj said:

Finnish government announced that they plan to declare emergency law tomorrow. Public meetings above 10 people, loitering etc. are banned, schools and such are closed, borders will likely close soon and everyone with symptoms is expected to quarantine themselves for at least a week or two, and not go to a hospital unless they have severe symptoms like difficulty breathing to prevent healthcare collapse. Didn't the old Chinese curse go something along like "I hope you will live in interesting times"?

 

9 minutes ago, esaj said:

"I hope you will live in interesting times"?

Actually it is:  "May you live in interesting times" 

Despite being so common in English as to be known as the "Chinese curse", the saying is apocryphal, and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced. The most likely connection to Chinese culture may be deduced from analysis of the late-19th-century speeches of Joseph Chamberlain, probably erroneously transmitted and revised through his son Austen Chamberlain. 🤣 

[esaj]

5 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

Small businesses under 50 employees will have to prove that they have exhausted their company’s credit before SBA funding will kick in. We have a credit line so hopefully the interest will be abated. 

Seems that the economical costs of this will be enormous. I read some analyst saying that most or all airlines will be bankrupt by end of May if this keeps going. Lots of employers are laying off people already, and might still go under.

[LanghamP]

13 minutes ago, Toshio Uemura said:

That’s exactly my point: IT IS MISLEADING! 
We are talking “community spread” since weeks now, but some countries and officials are still focused on banning and branding people from Wuhan and now one by one other parts of the world. People! This thing is among us now. It can hit you on any public toilet or in any bus or anywhere else where people still shake hands and sit together in densely packed pubs to watch Soccer Games.

China has now implemented a two week quarantine for all foreigners coming into the country. Previously, China had complained that other nations were quarantining their [Chinese] citizens. Also, the purpose of a quarantine is to isolate infected people from none infected people, but if your general population is already infected then you probably have stronger belief in Chinese traditional medicine than modern germ theory.

[Rehab1]

2 minutes ago, RockyTop said:

Tennessee, USA is almost normal. We are told to stay home If we can. Schools are closed. Most people are still going to work. People are asked if they have a temperature before entering a building. They are sent away if they do. Only one confirmed case in the area so far.

My employees were just fine with me evaluating their temperatures this morning. Non contact thermometers are great but vary in accuracy depending on the distance I would take the reading. One employee was almost a full degree below the average even after calibration. 

[Toshio Uemura]

5 minutes ago, RockyTop said:

Only one confirmed case in the area so far.

Case ..........case .. ...case .. cases ... cluster, cluster ... boom 💥 

[esaj]

Just now, Rehab1 said:

My employees were just fine with me evaluating their temperatures this morning. Non contact thermometers are great but vary in accuracy depending on the distance I would take the reading. One employee was almost a full degree below the average even after calibration. 

I've wondered how effective the temperature screening actually is. Couldn't someone be infected and spreading the disease, but without any fever?

[Toshio Uemura]

4 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

China has now implemented a two week quarantine for all foreigners coming into the country. Previously, China had complained that other nations were quarantining their [Chinese] citizens. Also, the purpose of a quarantine is to isolate infected people from none infected people, but if your general population is already infected then you probably have stronger belief in Chinese traditional medicine than modern germ theory.

And now as we are all experts in modern germ theory we continue with the blame game ...

[esaj]

Worldwide situation map:  https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/685d0ace521648f8a5beeeee1b9125cd

What hit me over the weekend was that even Reunion (a small island east of Madagascar) had 5 cases (now 9). 

[Toshio Uemura]

9 minutes ago, esaj said:

I've wondered how effective the temperature screening actually is. Couldn't someone be infected and spreading the disease, but without any fever?

It didn’t prove effective at all during the last SARS outbreak. I believe it gives people a sense of being in control. So it is useful in suppressing panic. Many people have trouble to deal with this situation. But you are right, some people (e.g. children) are shedding the virus 🦠 without having symptoms. 

Edited March 16, 2020 by Toshio Uemura