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“The Death Rate Is Up To 5%”: The Harrowing Admission Of A Wuhan Doctor
“The Death Rate Is Up To 5%”: The Harrowing Admission Of A Wuhan Doctor
A front-line coronavirus doctor tells of life in death in the ICU…
Translated by Sun Huixia and Dave Yin via The Straits Times,
WUHAN (CAIXIN GLOBAL) – In the coronavirus epidemic, doctors on the front lines take on the greatest risk and best understand the situation. Dr Peng Zhiyong, director of acute medicine at the Wuhan University South Central Hospital, is one of those doctors.
In an interview on Tuesday with Caixin, Dr Peng described his personal experiences in first encountering the disease in early January and quickly grasping its virulent potential and the need for stringent quarantine measures.
As the contagion spread and flooded his ICU, the doctor observed that three weeks seemed to determine the difference between life and death. Patients with stronger immune systems would start to recover in a couple of weeks, but in the second week, some cases would take a turn for the worse.
In the third week, keeping some of these acute patients alive might require extraordinary intervention. For this group, the death rate seems to be 4 per cent to 5 per cent, Dr Peng said. After working his 12-hour daytime shifts, the doctor spends his evenings researching the disease and has summarised his observations in a thesis.
The doctors and nurses at his hospital are overwhelmed with patients. Once they don protective hazmat suits, they go without food, drink and bathroom breaks for their entire shifts. That’s because there aren’t enough of the suits for a mid-shift change, he said.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
“Tip Of The Iceberg” – WHO Director Warns Of More Widespread Transmission As Virus Death Toll Tops 900, Beijing Under Partial Lock Down
“Tip Of The Iceberg” – WHO Director Warns Of More Widespread Transmission As Virus Death Toll Tops 900, Beijing Under Partial Lock Down
Summary:
- Virus death toll hits 902, vastly surpassing all of SARS (813) in only three weeks
- The number of global confirmed cases hits 40,553 in China (40,171) and offshore (382)
- WHO Director-General warns “we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg”
- Exiled Chinese billionaire says true death toll closer to 50k, 1.5 million infected
- New cases confirmed in UK, Spain, Singapore
- Passengers aboard ‘Diamond Princess’ warn authorities aren’t doing enough to protect them – and others
- Officials in Shenzen say they won’t block Foxxconn factory reopening
- Cruise ship quarantined in Hong Kong allowed to leave after 4 days
* * *
Update (2240ET): And so the epidemic reaches China’s capital Beijing. As gnews reports, as the coronavirus spreads from Wuhan, China has been implementing “closed management” by putting 80 cities under lockdown, and on Monday, Beijing authorities also issued a “Strict Closed Management of Residential Communities” in an epidemic prevention and control announcement (link here). It is an official declaration that Beijing, the country’s capital city of China, is now under lockdown.
Finally, #Beijing partially locked down, all communities under “closedown model “ management. Original Chinese language announcement here #武汉肺炎 #coronavirus 北京发布疫情防控通告，严格居住小区（村）封闭式管 理http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2020/0210/c1001-31578622.html …
According to the notice, Beijing will further enforce “community closed management” in a strict manner. Outside vehicles and personnel are not allowed to enter the city. People arriving in Beijing must also report their health status and complete the registration of personal information.
Those, who have left the epidemic area or have physical contact with persons in the epidemic area within 14 days of their arrival at Beijing, shall be inspected or quarantined at home in accordance with the regulations. They should take the initiative to report their health conditions, and cooperate with relevant management services. They shall not go out.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
“If You Are Angry, Stand Up”: Beijing Scrambles To Tamp Down Unrest As Furious Chinese Take To Social Media
“If You Are Angry, Stand Up”: Beijing Scrambles To Tamp Down Unrest As Furious Chinese Take To Social Media
Summary:
- Fatalities in China reached a single-day high of 86 on Friday, raising the national death toll to 724
- WHO reported 31,481 confirmed global cases on Friday, up by 3,000+ cases from Thursday; SCMP says total cases closer to 35k
- First American citizen has died
- First Japanese citizen suspected of succumbing to virus
- France elevates travel advisory to orange after 5 Britons fall ill in ski resort
- Roundup of suspected infected in Wuhan continues
- Beijing appoints Xi protege to help lead virus response
- Vigil for Dr. Li held in Hong Kong
- China blocks Foxconn plan to reopen factories
* * *
Update (1500ET): The NYT just published its latest critical piece about the Chinese government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. This one centers on President Xi’s decision to stay out of the limelight over the past two weeks, instead leaving the crisis to his No. 2, Premier Li Keqiang, who has been charged with leading the committee of senior officials tasked with overseeing the government response to the outbreak.
One academic quoted in the article explains that the government’s botched handling of the outbreak could be the biggest threat to Xi’s rule during his tenure so far, and that the changes he’s imposed on the Chinese constitution could make it difficult for Xi to avoid blame.
“It’s a big shock to the legitimacy of the ruling party. I think it could be only second to the June 4 incident of 1989. It’s that big,” said Rong Jian, a writer about politics in Beijing, referring to the armed crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters that year.
“There’s no doubt about his control over power,” he added, “but the manner of control and its consequences have hurt his legitimacy and reputation.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
White House Asks Scientists To Investigate Whether 2019-nCoV Was Bio-Engineered
White House Asks Scientists To Investigate Whether 2019-nCoV Was Bio-Engineered
A week ago, we published details that raised questions about the source of the Wuhan novel coronavirus, specifically questioning the official theory for the spread of the Coronavirus epidemic, namely because someone ate bat soup at a Wuhan seafood and animal market as a fabricated farce.
The real reason behind the viral spread, we suggested, was that a weaponized version of the coronavirus (one which may have originally been obtained from Canada), was released by Wuhan’s Institute of Virology (presumably accidentally ), China’s only top, level-4 biohazard lab, which was studying “the world’s most dangerous pathogens.”
At the time we summarized the series of dots and asked “real reporters” to connect them:
- One of China’s top virology and immunology experts was and still works at China’s top-rated biohazard lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which some have affectionately called the real Umbrella Corp.
- Since 2009, Peng has been the leading Chinese scientist researching the immune mechanism of bats carrying and transmitting lethal viruses in the world.
- His primary field of study is researching how and why bats can be infected with some of the most nightmarish viruses in the world including Ebola, SARS and Coronavirus, and not get sick.
- He was genetically engineering various immune pathways (such as the STING pathway in bats) to make the bats more or less susceptible to infection, in the process potentially creating a highly resistant mutant superbug.
- As part of his studies, Peng also researched mutant Coronavirus strains that overcame the natural immunity of some bats; these are “superbug” Coronavirus strains, which are resistant to any natural immune pathway, and now appear to be out in the wild.
- As of mid-November, his lab was actively hiring inexperienced post-docs to help conduct his research into super-Coronaviruses and bat infections.
How Contagious Is The Coronavirus?
How Contagious Is The Coronavirus?
The latest data points to “very”
This is the latest in our ongoing coverage of the fast-developing coronavirus outbreak originating in Wuhan, China. Our goal is to provide timely and science-based clarity on the situation for those overwhelmed by the many confusing & conflicting reports swirling in the media. If this is the first article of ours you’re reading on the subject, we recommend also reviewing our primer on the coronavirus.
There’s currently a bit of a kerfuffle on Twitter. It’s over an R0 study on ‘2019-ncov’, which is the official designation for the Wuhan coronavirus (as a reminder, R0 is a measure of how contagious a virus is).
The study is creating a stir because it initially reported an R0 of 3.8, but then was swiftly downgraded to 2.5.
First, it’s important to know that an R0 of 2.5 is still very bad. That’s at the top end of previously reported ranges that were in my video alert from yesterday.
This specific Tweet garnered a lot of attention because a Harvard trained epidemiologist used some very inflammatory language:
So who is Dr Ting?
He’s a Harvard trained epidemiologist:
Dr. Ting was reacting to a new study that estimated the coronavirus’ R0 using available data. Here’s the Twitter thread he posted:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
