What's killing us this week?

[Pyrrho]

Bugs. Always the Bugs.

[Pyrrho]

I wonder if it's worse that a typical flu virus. Just how concerned should we really be about it?

The new coronavirus appears to cause symptoms like fever, cough, difficulty breathing, and other respiratory symptoms. It causes severe illness in around a quarter of cases, and can be deadly. Public health officials are working to understand how dangerous this virus is, how fast it’s spreading, and how to contain it. As that work continues, the virus is causing anxiety around the world.

I guess that means they're still trying to determine that. I know there have been deaths from this, but lots of people die every year from the flu too.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/24/2108 ... cdc-spread

A new coronavirus that has spread to almost 2,000 people is infectious in its incubation period - before symptoms show - making it harder to contain, Chinese officials say.

Some 56 people have died from the virus. Health minister Ma Xiaowei told reporters the ability of the virus to spread appeared to be strengthening.

Several Chinese cities have imposed significant travel restrictions.

Wuhan in Hubei, the source of the outbreak, is in effective lockdown.

[shuize]

I wonder if it's worse that a typical flu virus. Just how concerned should we really be about it?

The new coronavirus appears to cause symptoms like fever, cough, difficulty breathing, and other respiratory symptoms. It causes severe illness in around a quarter of cases, and can be deadly. Public health officials are working to understand how dangerous this virus is, how fast it’s spreading, and how to contain it. As that work continues, the virus is causing anxiety around the world.

I guess that means they're still trying to determine that. I know there have been deaths from this, but lots of people die every year from the flu too.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/24/2108 ... cdc-spread

My question as well.

I’m not usually too worried about these things. But I just read that China is trying to quarantine something like 40 million people in the Wuhan region. WTF? That sounds kind of serious. (Ha. Ha.)

This comes of course right in the middle of final exams and, even worse, entrance exam season where I’m supposed to walk all around among these coughing disease vectors, university revenue generators applicants.

Also, I’d sort of like to get on a plane when it’s all done.

Just the “media” pumping another “Summer of the Shark” type of story or is it really serious, stay away from airports at all costs?

If I suddenly stop posting, I guess we’ll know it was serious after all. Ha. Ha.

By the way, the Olympics are coming to Japan this summer. Ha. Ha.


ETA: This article now says 56 million in quarantine.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10817933/ ... own-china/

[Witness]

ETA: This article now says 56 million in quarantine.

Piffle, they already quarantined ~ 1 million Uyghurs till they become good little Hans just as warm up; and I wouldn't be astonished if Xi found it a useful test for very different scenarios…

[Bruce]

I read that the Chinese were monitoring people with thermal imaging in airports and detaining those who had an elevated temperature. Good thing I won't be traveling in China. I'm always hot and so is my son. When we were at the Boston Science Museum, our skin glowed white on the thermal imaging camera, even our eyes and fingertips, and we weren't even sick. In China, we would be chucked into a flu pit.

[Skeeve]

Experts debunk fringe theory linking China’s coronavirus to weapons research

As China attempts to contain the spread of a new coronavirus that has left more than 100 people dead, rumors and disinformation have spread amid the scramble for answers.

Some of the speculation has centered on a virology institute in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak began. One fringe theory holds that the disaster could be the accidental result of biological weapons research.

But in conversations with The Washington Post, experts rejected the idea that the virus could be man-made.

“Based on the virus genome and properties there is no indication whatsoever that it was an engineered virus,” said Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University.

Tim Trevan, a biological safety expert based in Maryland, said most countries had largely abandoned their bioweapons research after years of work proved fruitless.

“The vast majority of new, nasty diseases ... come from nature,” he said.

The British newspaper Daily Mail was among the first to suggest the possibility of a link between the newly spreading virus and the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, reporting last week that the lab, which opened in 2014 and is part of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, had been the subject of safety concerns in the past.

A separate article published by the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper in Washington, took the theories a step further, suggesting in a headline that the “Coronavirus may have originated in lab linked to China’s biowarfare program” and pointing to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The article cited research by Dany Shoham, a former Israeli military intelligence officer, who told The Post he did not want to comment further.

Despite little public evidence, the theory has spread widely on social media, to conspiracy theory websites and in some international news outlets.

The Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is a “Cellular Level Biosafety Level 4” facility, which means it has a high level of operational security and is authorized to work on dangerous pathogens, including Ebola.

Those entering the level 4 lab use airlocks and protective suits. Waste, and even air, is heavily filtered and cleaned before leaving the facility.

Milton Leitenberg, an expert on chemical weapons at the University of Maryland, said he and other analysts around the world had discussed the possibility that weapons development at the Wuhan lab could have led to the coronavirus outbreak in a private email chain but that no one had found convincing evidence to support the theory.

“Of course, if they are doing bioweaponry, it is covert,” Leitenberg said in a phone call, but added it was unlikely the Chinese government would use such a facility for production or even research and development of bioweapons.

The Wuhan lab is well-known and it is relatively open compared with other Chinese institutes: It has strong ties to the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and was developed with the aid of French engineers.

“Wuhan Institute of Virology is a world-class research institution that does world-class research in virology and immunology,” Ebright said, noting that one specialty of the facility was researching coronaviruses transmitted by bats.

Trevan, who was quoted in a 2017 article in Nature that warned of possible risks at the Wuhan facility that was cited by the Daily Mail, said in a phone call to The Post that he was concerned at the time about how to “manage risk in these complex systems when you cannot predict all the ways in which the system could fail.”

A former British diplomat and political adviser to the United Nations, he said he had not followed affairs at the facility closely since 2017 and was not aware of any specific problems there, but that he doubted the coronavirus outbreak could have come from a weapons program.

An annual State Department report released last year said China had engaged “in biological activities with potential dual-use applications.”

Elsa Kania, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said that while Chinese officials had expressed public interest in the potential weaponization of biotechnology, a coronavirus would not be a useful weapon.

“Hypothetically, a bioweapon would be designed to be highly targeted in its effects, whereas since its outbreak the coronavirus is already on track to become widespread in China and worldwide,” she said.

Vipin Narang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in a message on Twitter that a good bioweapon “in theory has high lethality but low, not [high], communicability” and that spreading such ideas would be “incredibly irresponsible.”

After the 2014 Ebola outbreak, fringe news outlets suggested spuriously that the U.S. Department of Defense had manufactured the virus. In the Soviet Union, military labs did look into whether the virus could be used as a weapon but ultimately abandoned those hopes.

The speculation may be linked to uncertainty over where the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak originated. Some scientists initially suspected a seafood market in Wuhan may have been the starting point, but a study by Chinese researchers and published in the Lancet on Friday questioned that analysis.

Late Tuesday, Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalistic Global Times newspaper, wrote that a conspiracy theory had emerged in China that the United States was responsible for the outbreak. “Their logic: Why always China?” Hu wrote on Twitter. “But most Chinese don’t believe it.”

Spoiler:

https://img.republicworld.com/republic- ... -812,h-464

Dead Bat Soup!
Just like mom used to make!

[Witness]

A deadly virus is spreading from state to state and has infected 15 million Americans so far. It's influenza

The novel coronavirus that's sickening thousands globally -- and at least five people in the US -- is inspiring countries to close their borders and Americans to buy up surgical masks quicker than major retailers can restock them.
There's another virus that has infected 15 million Americans across the country and killed more than 8,200 people this season alone. It's not a new pandemic -- it's influenza.
The 2019-2020 flu season is projected to be one of the worst in a decade, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At least 140,000 people have been hospitalized with complications from the flu, and that number is predicted to climb as flu activity swirls.

The flu is a constant in Americans' lives. It's that familiarity that makes it more dangerous to underestimate, said Dr. Margot Savoy, chair of Family and Community Medicine at Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine.
"Lumping all the viral illness we tend to catch in the winter sometimes makes us too comfortable thinking everything is 'just a bad cold,'" she said. "We underestimate how deadly influenza really is."
Even the low-end estimate of deaths each year is startling, Savoy said: The Centers for Disease Control predicts at least 12,000 people will die from the flu in the US every year. In the 2017-2018 flu season, as many as 61,000 people died, and 45 million were sickened.
In the 2019-2020 season so far, 15 million people in the US have gotten the flu and 8,200 people have died from it, including at least 54 children. Flu activity has been elevated for 11 weeks straight, the CDC reported, and will likely continue for the next several weeks.
Savoy, who also serves on the American Academy of Family Physician's board of directors, said the novelty of emerging infections can overshadow the flu. People are less panicked about the flu because healthcare providers "appear to have control" over the infection.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/30/heal ... index.html

[shemp]

But at least they didn't catch TEH AUTIZM!!!

[asthmatic camel]

https://i.imgur.com/GZDCF6C.png

https://i.imgur.com/8gvaFOt.png

Terrifying, isn't it?

[Witness]

Coronavirus: Pish-posh, experts say to AYUSH homeopathy push as epidemic reaches India

Experts have called out the government for pushing homeopathy as a possible preventive treatment option for coronavirus infections. There's no scientific evidence for the efficacy of homeopathic treatment.

The government is drawing flak for pushing homeopathy as a possible preventive treatment option for coronavirus infections -- which have killed 170 people in China -- and says its advisory was only a preventive measure. India reported its first confirmed infection on Thursday.

Although popular, homeopathy is based on ideas that fly in the face of scientific wisdom, such as its "minimum dose" assumption that diluting a medicine's active ingredient increases its efficiency, or its "water memory" hypothesis. Benefits, if any, are attributed to a placebo effect, and there is evidence that homeopathic treatment can be dangerous.

But India's Ministry of AYUSH, set up in November 2014 and given a 15 per cent funding hike last year, claims homeopathy is a "a time tested therapy". AYUSH is an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy.

On January 29, 2020, the Ministry of AYUSH published an advisory in five languages prescribing coronavirus prevention and symptom management methods based on ayurveda, homeopathy and unani.

The Indian Medical Association considers practitioners of ayurveda, unani and homeopathy who are not licensed to practice modern medicine to be quacks.

https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story ... 2020-01-30

I'm sure cow urine will stomp out the virus. :roll:

[Pyrrho]

https://i.imgur.com/mmx2vgm.jpg

[asthmatic camel]

So, unprotected sex with dead wild or farm animals is OK?

[asthmatic camel]

And what about unprotected sex with pets, both living and dead? Does that get the WHO seal of approval, too?

And fish. I mean is it OK to have unprotected sex with a dead mackerel or not? Or a live one, come to that.

And birds. You know, is unprotected sex with live or dead penguins a no-no?

These things matter.

[sparks]

That was great AC. "When rancid becomes hilarious"

[Witness]

Face mask creativity (too big to embed): https://i.imgur.com/f2xlBbH.jpg

[Witness]

UN Pleads for Help Amid 'Devastating' Locust Invasion

Pakistan declares national emergency over locust swarms

Prime Minister Imran Khan declared the emergency to protect crops and help farmers. The Pakistani government said it was the worst locust infestation in more than two decades.

https://i.imgur.com/1UyGgOW.png

https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-declares ... a-52224762

[shemp]

https://i.imgur.com/mmx2vgm.jpg

I dunno, smells shopped.

[Witness]

I dunno, smells shopped.

https://i.imgur.com/jPZyX48.jpg

[Bruce]

Yes, AC, anything that is not on the list is fair game. If you want to have unprotected sex with lobotomized domestic free range pangolins from Uzbekistan, it us your god given right, but you must respect the list!

[sparks]

Bruce, you're making free range etc. sound bad. :)

[Witness]

Drug Overdose Deaths Drop for First Time in Nearly Two Decades

Deaths from drug overdoses dipped in 2018 for the first time in nearly two decades as the nation continues to battle the opioid crisis.

The number of drug overdoses deaths dropped 4.1 percent from 70,237 in 2017 to 67,367 in 2018, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The drop in drug deaths boosted life expectancy. In 2018, life expectancy was 78.7 years, a o.1 percent increase from the 2017 level of 78.6 years. The increase is still lower than in 2014, when life expectancy peaked at 78.9 years.

However, although deaths were down nationally, some states suffered more overdose fatalities in 2018 than during the previous year, namely California, Delaware, Missouri, New Jersey, and South Carolina.

The CDC’s report gives President Trump’s reelection campaign a boost during an election year. The White House declared the opioid epidemic a public-health crisis in 2017, and the administration has focused on stiffening penalties for drug dealers as well taking steps to prevent people from getting addicted in the first place and increasing federal funding to help addicts get a second chance. The president said he wants to see solutions to the “general drug crisis” as well as the problems caused specifically by opioids.

Deaths from opioids increased about 8 percent from 1999 to 2013, and then spiked 70 percent from 2013 to 2017 as the crisis spun out of control. Close to 400,000 Americans are estimated to have died between 1999 and 2017 as a result of the opioid crisis. Almost every state along with thousands of local governments and other entities have sued the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid crisis.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/drug-ove ... 10485.html

[Skeeve]

Corona Virus
This was dated: Jan 19, 2020

[Witness]

Dunno what credence give to that, but here you go:

[Skeeve]

Bangladeshi aircrew refuse to work on flight evacuating citizens from Wuhan

Aircrew from Bangladesh’s national carrier Biman have refused to work on a flight aimed at repatriating citizens from virus-hit Chinese cities, forcing the government to scrap the evacuation plan.

The South Asian nation last week evacuated 312 people, mostly students, from the epicenter of the deadly outbreak, and had planned a second flight for another 171 Bangladeshis.

“We can’t bring them because we can’t send any flight,” foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen told reporters on Saturday.

“No crew wants to go there. The crew who went there earlier don’t want to go either.”

The outbreak, which has killed more than 800 people and infected tens of thousands across China, has spread to nearly more than two dozen other countries and sparked global concern.

There have been no cases recorded in Bangladesh.

The evacuees and aircrew who returned to Dhaka on February 1 are being quarantined for 14 days at a camp usually used for Haj pilgrims.

Health officials say none have tested positive for the virus.

The minister said the government was trying to charter a Chinese flight instead, but so far without success.

[Bruce]

Nobody makes out of life alive.

[Pyrrho]

What could go wrong?

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2020/02/c ... ction.html

The other related problem is where many non-sick people stay away from work to avoid getting sick. If enough people do this, especially at critical infrastructure jobs, then the whole economy may collapse. And not only is a collapsed economy bad for most everyone, sick people do much worse there. Not only can’t they get to a doctor or hospital, they might not even be able to get food or heating/cooling. Infected surfaces don’t get cleaned, and maybe even dead bodies don’t get removed. Thieves don’t get stopped. And so on. We can already see social support partially collapsing in Wuhan now, and it’s not pretty.

There’s an obvious, if disturbing, solution here: controlled infection. We could not only insist that critical workers go to work, but we might also choose on purpose who gets exposed when. We can’t slow down infection very much, but we can speed it up a lot, via deliberately exposing particular people at particular times, according to a plan.

Such a plan shouldn’t just expose random people early, as they’d be likely to infect others around them. Instead, groups might be taken together to isolated places to be exposed, or maybe whole city blocks could be isolated and then exposed at once. Those who work in critical infrastructure, especially medicine, are ideal candidates to go early. Such a plan should only expose a small fraction of each critical workforce at any one time, so that most of them remain available to keep the lights on.

[Bruce]

Even better, we could just kill off the people who aren't sick yet so we don't have to worry about them getting sick. We should start with the ones that none of us like; vegans, and hippies, and anti-vaxxers to name a few. I can't believe no one has ever thought of this idea before. :roll:

[Bruce]

"Can I get this cheeseburger gluten free, leave out the carbs, free range non-GMO cows and dairy-free cheese?"

[stabby-stabby-stab-stab-stab-stab]

Sorry, folks, but as we know, it's for the greater good.

"Yes, the greater good!"

[shemp]

"Can I get this cheeseburger gluten free, leave out the carbs, free range non-GMO cows and dairy-free cheese?"

[stabby-stabby-stab-stab-stab-stab]

Sorry, folks, but as we know, it's for the greater good.

"Yes, the greater good!"

I'm on board with this. :mrgreen:

[shemp]

What could go wrong?

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2020/02/c ... ction.html

The other related problem is where many non-sick people stay away from work to avoid getting sick. If enough people do this, especially at critical infrastructure jobs, then the whole economy may collapse. And not only is a collapsed economy bad for most everyone, sick people do much worse there. Not only can’t they get to a doctor or hospital, they might not even be able to get food or heating/cooling. Infected surfaces don’t get cleaned, and maybe even dead bodies don’t get removed. Thieves don’t get stopped. And so on. We can already see social support partially collapsing in Wuhan now, and it’s not pretty.

There’s an obvious, if disturbing, solution here: controlled infection. We could not only insist that critical workers go to work, but we might also choose on purpose who gets exposed when. We can’t slow down infection very much, but we can speed it up a lot, via deliberately exposing particular people at particular times, according to a plan.

Such a plan shouldn’t just expose random people early, as they’d be likely to infect others around them. Instead, groups might be taken together to isolated places to be exposed, or maybe whole city blocks could be isolated and then exposed at once. Those who work in critical infrastructure, especially medicine, are ideal candidates to go early. Such a plan should only expose a small fraction of each critical workforce at any one time, so that most of them remain available to keep the lights on.

The Internet: Bringing you the crazy meanderings of idiots since 1993.

[Pyrrho]

...and we ended up here.

[Hotarubi]

What could go wrong?

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2020/02/c ... ction.html

Why am I reminded of the soldiers clearing graphite from the roof of the Chernobyl reactor.

[Doctor X]

Not great . . . not terrible. . . .

– J.D.

[Pyrrho]

Cure for sin. Seriously.

https://pubpeer.com/publications/0B6665 ... 44B23D4E#1

[shemp]

Cure for sin. Seriously.

https://pubpeer.com/publications/0B6665 ... 44B23D4E#1

I actually wasted my time reading this paper. And it has impeccable authorship:

Tapan K Chaudhuri*, Tushar K Chowdhury, Tandra R Chaudhuri, Taposh K Chowdhury and Bulu R Chowdhury

They couldn't find a few more Chaudhuris or variations thereof?

:doglaugh:

[Witness]

A record-breaking 105 US children have died from flu so far this season

So far this season,105 children have died from the flu, according to data released Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is the highest number of child flu deaths at this point in the season since the CDC started keeping records in 2004, except for the 2009 flu pandemic.

It has been an "unusual" flu season with a higher proportion of children and young adults affected than the older population, according to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The earlier prevalence of influenza B -- a flu strain that tends to be more common in children -- could be a reason why more children were affected, Schaffner said. Also, as the number of influenza B cases decreased, the number of H1N1 cases increased, he said. H1N1 is a subtype of the influenza A strain, which also affects children more than adults.

"This is the first time in 25 years where [influenza B] became so common so early," said Dr. Buddy Creech, an associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Neither Schaffner nor Creech know why this year's influenza timeline is so different.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/21/heal ... index.html

[Skeeve]

Iran says official who played down virus fears is infected

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus who had urged the public not to overreact about its spread has tested positive for the illness himself, authorities said Tuesday, as new cases emanating from the country rapidly emerged across the Middle East.

Only a day earlier, a coughing and heavily sweating Iraj Harirchi said at a televised news conference in Tehran that “the situation is almost stable in the country."

The acknowledgement of Harirchi's illness underscores a growing crisis of confidence felt by many in Iran after nationwide economic protests, a U.S. drone striking killing a top Iranian general and Iran accidentally shooting down a commercial jetliner and insisting for days that it hadn't.

Iran on Tuesday also saw a crucial air link cut to the United Arab Emirates, home to the world's busiest airport for international travel in Dubai, as Bahrain announced more confirmed cases of the virus from passengers who transited through the UAE. The number of cases also increased sharply elsewhere in the region.

Qatar Airways, one of the Mideast's biggest carriers, also said it was essentially halting operations to Iran and South Korea until further notice.

Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour confirmed Harirchi had the virus. Harirchi himself posted an online video saying he had it and that he had quarantined himself at home. He promised that authorities would bring the virus under control.

“I wanted to tell you that, rest assured that with efforts of your servants at the Health Ministry ... and backed by you people, the government and all elements of the establishment, we will be victorious in our combat against this virus within the next few weeks,” Harirchi said.

On Monday, however, he had offered a far different assessment while repeatedly wiping his brow while standing beside government spokesman Ali Rabiei.

“Currently the situation is almost stable in the country and we could manage to minimize the problem," Harirchi said. He also said that "quarantines belong to the Stone Age."

That optimism, while no longer held by Harirchi, also appeared to be undercut by Jahanpour himself on Tuesday. The Health Ministry spokesman suggested it may take at least until Nowruz, the Persian New Year on March 20, for Iran to reach a point where the virus was contained. He added that a more “pessimistic” assessment suggested Iran would contain it by late April.

"We don't expect a miracle in the short term," Jahanpour said.

A prominent pro-reform lawmaker, Mamoud Sadeghi of Tehran, also said in a tweet that he tested positive for the virus.

The coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people globally, causing about 2,700 deaths, mainly in China. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19.

Jahanpour on Tuesday said 15 people had died in Iran so far amid 95 confirmed cases. However, experts remain concerned Iran may be underreporting cases and deaths, given the rapid spread from Iran across the Persian Gulf.

A hard-line lawmaker in Iran alleged Monday there had been 50 deaths in the Iranian city of Qom alone, which was denied by authorities.

“What do you have to say about those buried in Qom cemetery?” tweeted lawmaker Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani. “Practitioners in hospitals write ‘respiratory problems’ as the cause of death. But you know that they are from those quarantined for corona.”

While Farahani's politics make him eager to undercut moderate President Hassan Rouhani, his earlier warning that Qom's top doctor fighting the coronavirus also had been infected has proven to be true.

Rouhani said he opposed closing public and government offices.

“This is one of the plots by the enemy to shut down the country through spreading fear," he said in a speech, although he also urged people to avoid crowds, including at major Shiite shrines.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. is “deeply concerned” that Iran “may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak.”

“All nations, including Iran, should tell the truth about the coronavirus and cooperate with international aid organizations,” he said.

The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority said it would halt all flights to and from Iran. The announcement came hours after busy Dubai International Airport said there would be restrictions on flights there.

The UAE, home to long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, remains a key international transit route for Iran's 80 million people.

“All passenger and cargo aircraft traveling to and from Iran will be suspended for a period of one week, and could be up for extension,” the authority said.

Passengers on a Mahan Air flight from Tehran to Dubai on Tuesday said their flight was delayed some two hours, only to repeatedly circle the UAE city-state, then land and sit for another two hours before authorities agreed to let them off. The passengers, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said authorities let them walk off one at a time while being monitored with a thermal scanner.

Emirates, the government-owned carrier based in Dubai, flies daily to Tehran. Its low-cost partner airline, FlyDubai, serves several Iranian cities, as does the Sharjah-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia.

The announcement came after Bahrain said it would suspend all flights from Dubai and Sharjah, a neighboring UAE emirate home to Air Arabia, for 48 hours. The small island nation off Saudi Arabia announced its first cases of the virus on Monday. By Tuesday, Bahrain said it had 23 confirmed cases.

Dubai had been screening passengers on flights from China, where the outbreak began in December. Emirates and Etihad still fly to Beijing as the UAE works to maintain close ties with China.

Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq and Oman also announced their first cases of the virus Monday and connected them to travel with Iran. The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, has reported 13 cases of the virus. Most of those were connected to Chinese travel.

Also Tuesday, Kuwait raised the number of its infected cases from five to eight, according to the state-run KUNA news agency. It said the three latest cases involved Kuwaiti citizens just back from Iran. The five previously reported cases were passengers on a flight from the Iranian city of Mashhad, where Iran’s government has not yet announced a single case of the virus.

Iraq’s Health Ministry said four new cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in the northern province of Kirkuk. It said the afflicted were members of an Iraqi family who had returned recently from Iran. Iraq announced its first case Monday in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf: an Iranian student who has since returned to Iran.

The northern region, which shares a border with Iran, is a hub of economic activity and the primary gateway for the Kurdistan Regional Government to import Iranian goods and fuel, and Kurds in Erbil lined up for gas, fearing shortages. The KRG also suspended working hours across educational institutions for a month.

Harirchi, the ailing Iranian official, had the following advice for worried Iranians: “Take care of yourselves. This virus is a democrat virus! It does not differentiate between the rich and the poor or official and nonofficial and anyone could get it.”

:iron-e:

[sparks]

What could go wrong?

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2020/02/c ... ction.html

Why am I reminded of the soldiers clearing graphite from the roof of the Chernobyl reactor.

"You DID NOT see....." etc.

[Doctor X]

"You know something!"

– J. "Xenon!" D.

[Skeeve]

Interesting tweet, need to check, but I seem to recall most of these....

https://twitter.com/me_think_free/statu ... 9848481794

Every election year has a disease

SARS ———2004
AVIAN———2008
SWINE———2010
MERS———-2012
EBOLA———2014
ZIKA————2016
EBOLA———2018
CORONA——2020

Need to check, but it sure seems like it...

Not too sure about Ebola in 2018, but the rest of them seem to be correct... interesting.