The changing narrative on coronavirus

Yesterday the folk at TruNews asked the question, “Will Coronavirus Destroy Communist Party?”

Now, 24 hours later it seems the narrative has changed. Here are just a few headlines that illustrate this.

The coronavirus epidemic could spread to about two-thirds of the world’s population if it cannot be controlled, according to Hong Kong’s leading public health epidemiologist.

His warning came after the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said recent cases of coronavirus patients who had never visited China could be the “tip of the iceberg”.

Prof Gabriel Leung, the chair of public health medicine at Hong Kong University, said the overriding question was to figure out the size and shape of the iceberg. Most experts thought that each person infected would go on to transmit the virus to about 2.5 other people. That gave an “attack rate” of 60-80%.

“Sixty per cent of the world’s population is an awfully big number,” Leung told the Guardian in London, en route to an expert meeting at the WHO in Geneva on Tuesday.

Even if the general fatality rate is as low as 1%, which Leung thinks is possible once milder cases are taken into account, the death toll would be massive.

He will tell the WHO meeting that the main issue is the scale of the growing worldwide epidemic and the second priority is to find out whether the drastic measures taken by China to prevent the spread have worked – because if so, other countries should think about adopting them.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/coronavirus-expert-warns-infection-could-reach-60-of-worlds-population

“It’s like Europe in medieval times,” said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, “where each city has its checks and crosschecks.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/business/china-coronavirus-economy.html

Nature is unpredictable and sometimes vengeful. Different societies and political systems have different ways of managing it.

Viruses and epidemics can occur in any country. But they have become more dangerous and challenging in modern times as globalisation means they spread faster and farther than ever.

Thus the coronavirus, thought to have originated in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan, is spreading across the world….

...The coronavirus is a vivid and tragic example of how China’s one-party rule not only impedes the public’s response to epidemics, but also helps turn problems from localised health scares into catastrophes on a nationwide and even worldwide scale.

Nobel economist Amartya Kumar Sen once concluded that the free flow of information and transparency were the best weapons in the battle against the spread of epidemics. China lacks both. China’s leadership should have learned lessons from Sars. Beijing’s sweeping anti-contagion measures have come too late. Early on, its political institutions allowed the virus to fester freely, repeating the tragedy of Sars. That means what we are witnessing is not simply a public health problem. It is one of the most severe sociopolitical crises the party has faced and it threatens to undermine its absolute grip on power.

Mother nature has not been merciful to humans during this crisis. And China’s authoritarianism is making it only more vulnerable to nature’s wrath.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049589/coronavirus-threatens-chinese-communist-partys-grip-power

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/new-map-reveals-no-country-safe-from-coronavirus-tentacles/news-story/40ba1fa1068a4f451b00b0cc7afe409d#.73bmm|r78ur

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050077/least-500-wuhan-medical-staff-infected-coronavirus?utm_content=article&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1581430702

However, just as things look pretty grim we have an accelerator with a Fourth Grade education helping us along towards Extinction.

President Donald Trump said Monday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had told him that the novel coronavirus that spread to the rest of the world from the city of Wuhan was likely to die off in the spring because of the heat.

Trump made the remarks at the White House while speaking at an event with U.S. state governors.

"I had a long talk with President Xi—for the people in this room—two nights ago, and he feels very confident," Trump said. "He feels very confident, and he feels that...by April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus. So that would be a good thing.

"But we're in great shape, in our country," the president continued. "We have 11 [confirmed cases of the coronavirus]. And the 11 are getting better."

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-chinese-president-xi-told-him-coronavirus-will-killed-heat-april-1486571