New coronavirus in/from China

Forum for general discussion of Peak Oil / Oil depletion; also covering related subjects

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Mean Mr Mustard II
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Post by Mean Mr Mustard II »

Little John wrote:if you use plastic over your fingers, the touchscreen wont work as it uses the electrical conductivity of your skin to work
Home-made disposable tin-foil thimbles then (with optional plastic inner linings).
Here's some I made earlier... :D
fuzzy
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Post by fuzzy »

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UndercoverElephant
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Post by UndercoverElephant »

Sorry if this has already been posted.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... population
Epidemiologists and modellers were trying to figure out what was likely to happen, said Leung. “Is 60-80% of the world’s population going to get infected? Maybe not. Maybe this will come in waves. Maybe the virus is going to attenuate its lethality because it certainly doesn’t help it if it kills everybody in its path, because it will get killed as well,� he said.

Experts also need to know whether the restrictions in the centre of Wuhan and other cities have reduced infections. “Have these massive public health interventions, social distancing, and mobility restrictions worked in China?� he asked. “If so, how can we roll them out, or is it not possible?�
What is coronavirus and how worried should we be?
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There would be difficulties. “Let’s assume that they have worked. But how long can you close schools for? How long can you lock down an entire city for? How long can you keep people away from shopping malls? And if you remove those [restrictions], then is it all going to come right back and rage again? So those are very real questions,� he said.

If China’s lockdown has not worked, there is another unpalatable truth to face: that the coronavirus might not be possible to contain. Then the world will have to switch tracks: instead of trying to contain the virus, it will have to work to mitigate its effects.
What does "China's locked down has worked" mean?

It must surely have slowed down the spread of the virus, probably significantly. But that isn't going to be enough, because they have no chance whatsoever of eliminating all cases before everybody tries to get back to normal. And the moment people start behaving normally, the epidemic will just take off again.

There's no way out of that. It is therefore impossible to contain, at least in China. So what are they going to do? There are 1.4 billion people in China. There is absolutely no way they can provide ventilators on that scale. And if the death rate without access to intensive care is 10%, that is 140 million deaths, just in China.

We don't yet know whether it is possible to contain in the rest of the world, but it doesn't look good.

This is going to break the monetary system, isn't it? It is going to collapse the world economy and the fiat money system which will be hit by a tsunami of bankruptcies and defaults.
vtsnowedin
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Post by vtsnowedin »

UndercoverElephant wrote:
This is going to break the monetary system, isn't it? It is going to collapse the world economy and the fiat money system which will be hit by a tsunami of bankruptcies and defaults.
I doubt any of that will happen. You may lose some key people but many have replacements waiting in the wings so few companies will go bankrupt from the loss of a few personnel. Also most loans are insured against the death of the borrower so while insurance companies will take a temporary hit it will be business as usual. The funeral industry will have a good year though.
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clv101
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Post by clv101 »

vtsnowedin wrote:You may lose some key people but many have replacements waiting in the wings so few companies will go bankrupt from the loss of a few personnel.
The impact isn't a few people dying!

It's the economy, it's mines in South America losing customers, the New Zealand loggers, oil price collapse, the US tourist industry losing visitors, the Asian (and others?) car factories closing due to broken supply chains, IT shortages... Not to mention the Chinese local economy, all the small businesses, the missed rent and mortgage payments.
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UndercoverElephant
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Post by UndercoverElephant »

clv101 wrote:
vtsnowedin wrote:You may lose some key people but many have replacements waiting in the wings so few companies will go bankrupt from the loss of a few personnel.
The impact isn't a few people dying!

It's the economy, it's mines in South America losing customers, the New Zealand loggers, oil price collapse, the US tourist industry losing visitors, the Asian (and others?) car factories closing due to broken supply chains, IT shortages... Not to mention the Chinese local economy, all the small businesses, the missed rent and mortgage payments.
Exactly. "Recession" isn't the word. This is turbo-charged degrowth. And it is at a time when the global economy (and monetary system) has not properly recovered from 2008.
Vitriol
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Post by Vitriol »

It is possible to adapt. Why assume the worst.... Oh yeah because assembled people here have been waiting for imminent collapse for the last 15+ years!

Exactly how many people outside of China have died of this?
fuzzy
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Post by fuzzy »

We have no idea why there are almost no deaths outside of china. Maybe it just takes 10 weeks to kill, or maybe it is race or environment related.
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adam2
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Post by adam2 »

A few days ago, a doctor whom I met at a social event, suggested that with reasonable healthcare, diet, hygiene, and sanitation as found in the UK, that the death rate should be under 1%.
So with less than a dozen known cases so far, the lack of UK fatalities is not surprising.
Even UK wide spread might only kill 500,000, so nothing to worry about

The lower standards of healthcare and hygiene in china might be expected to result in a higher mortality rate.
And even if the mortality rate in china IS only 1%, then 1000 fatalities suggests about 100,000 cases, an arguably believable figure.
If as has been suggested, the mortality rate in china is nearer 10%, then that suggests about 10,000 cases.

I don't trust any figures from china, but the number of infections is easier to fiddle than the number of deaths.
If someone is not too badly ill, it is fairly easy to claim that they are well, or ill with something else.
If someone dies without any relatives or witnesses, then that might be covered up, but most of the dead will have relatives or witnesses, therefore the state has to admit to most of the deaths.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
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clv101
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Post by clv101 »

fuzzy wrote:We have no idea why there are almost no deaths outside of china.
We have a pretty good idea.

Firstly, cases outside China are more recent, there simply aren't many/any cases over 4 weeks old (hence also few recoveries). The outside China cases literally have't had time to die yet.

Secondly, when there are only a few cases as there are in every county other than China, every case can get ICU treatment and ventilation, including lung bypass (ECMO) if required. With such treatment the patient won't die of the virus until you literally switch the machine off.

In fact, given the time scale and numbers, we shouldn't really expect any deaths outside China yet, the Hong Kong and Philippines are really just Chinese deaths who happened to cross the border before dying.
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clv101
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Post by clv101 »

adam2 wrote:And even if the mortality rate in china IS only 1%, then 1000 fatalities suggests about 100,000 cases, an arguably believable figure.
If as has been suggested, the mortality rate in china is nearer 10%, then that suggests about 10,000 cases.
Need to consider the time it takes to die. If the mortality rate is 1% and 1000 people have already died, then we'd expect to also see 100,000 *recovered* cases, not 100,000 cases in total. Most of the current cases have yet to either die or recover - because it takes weeks, the better the care, the longer it takes to die.
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clv101
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Post by clv101 »

Latest from Hubei Province:
94 new deaths
1,638 new confirmed cases

Totals:
- 33,366 confirmed (of course there could be another 333,000 unconfirmed cases, we've no idea)
- 1,068 dead
- Death rate: 3.20%
- 2,639 recovered
- 26,121 under treatment

Death rate must still be significantly lagging cases. The ratio of 1068 deaths to 2639 recovered is most concerning, 29% of resolved (confirmed) cases resulted in death.
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UndercoverElephant
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Post by UndercoverElephant »

Vitriol wrote:It is possible to adapt. Why assume the worst.... Oh yeah because assembled people here have been waiting for imminent collapse for the last 15+ years!
You have no idea what the assembled people here think, because you've only just arrived. Welcome to the forum, but please don't make assumptions about what people believe.
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UndercoverElephant
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Post by UndercoverElephant »

adam2 wrote: If someone dies without any relatives or witnesses, then that might be covered up, but most of the dead will have relatives or witnesses, therefore the state has to admit to most of the deaths.
The problem here is that these deaths aren't all being recorded as caused by the virus. Some are recorded as "viral pneumonia" instead, and not included in the total figures. The Chinese are doing everything possible to turn the statistics into pure fiction.
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UndercoverElephant
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Post by UndercoverElephant »

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... er-returns
Distressed oil supplies are being offered to India as the spread of the coronavirus crimps fuel consumption across China, prompting requests for cargo deferrals and cancellations by Asia’s no. 1 importer.
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