New coronavirus in/from China

Post by **adam2** » 09 Feb 2020, 15:50

From a friend in the armed forces.
A detachment of soldiers, under the command of a few REME officers, have been experimenting with building sturdy but improvised large tents using only standard builders scaffolding and standard large tarpaulins.
Having completed these structures, they camped in them for a few days.

I do not feel it helpful to give the location, but the evolution was in fact viewable from a public right of way, so it cant be that secret.

Purely routine training of course.

Mean Mr Mustard II · Post by **Mean Mr Mustard II** » 09 Feb 2020, 18:47

Those lowest MOD bidder cheap Chinese tarps would have been blown to shreds today and are now four miles from that original secret location.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 09 Feb 2020, 20:01

Mean Mr Mustard II wrote:Those lowest MOD bidder cheap Chinese tarps would have been blown to shreds today and are now four miles from that original secret location.

I can guess MOD stands for ministry of defense and the R in REME stands for Royal but can't place EME??? Royal emergency management engineers doesn't ring a bell.

Mean Mr Mustard II · Post by **Mean Mr Mustard II** » 09 Feb 2020, 20:17

vtsnowedin wrote:
Mean Mr Mustard II wrote:Those lowest MOD bidder cheap Chinese tarps would have been blown to shreds today and are now four miles from that original secret location.
I can guess MOD stands for ministry of defense and the R in REME stands for Royal but can't place EME??? Royal emergency management engineers doesn't ring a bell.

Ministry of Defence, with a C not S.

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. AKA within the British Army - a fine bunch of cynical chaps -as Rough Engineering Made Easy.

There are other examples such as the ACC (Army Catering Corps) AKA Aldershot Concrete Company. RAOC Royal Army Ordnance Corps (Rag and Oil Company. But they may be history now, possibly all of these specialists were 'subsumed' into the Royal Logistic Corps.

Getting back to the thread - there's a vastly smaller Army to call upon for assistance these days.

Post by **adam2** » 09 Feb 2020, 20:19

REME=Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Or unofficially "Rough Engineering Made Easy"

MOD=Ministry OF Defence.

Edit, beaten to it. So I will add

MRE=Meal Ready to Eat, or unofficially Meals Rejected by Ethiopians.

Mean Mr Mustard II · Post by **Mean Mr Mustard II** » 09 Feb 2020, 20:39

Some here may enjoy the Army Rumour Service for Squaddie humour.

https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/

Post by **clv101** » 09 Feb 2020, 21:05

adam2 wrote:...building sturdy but improvised large tents using only standard builders scaffolding and standard large tarpaulins.

Hard to think of a situation where it would be better to accommodate tens of thousands in such structures instead of sports centres, warehouses, event/conference space, agricultural facilities etc.

This sounds more like a 'team build' exercise.

Post by **clv101** » 09 Feb 2020, 21:20

So what's the current situation?

The rate of increase in the official case count in China has been slowing all week. Reality or limits of testing? Singapore and Thailand, both with relatively high cases don't look to be experiencing explosive growth.

Is China the exception, in that it got out of hand before it was officially acknowledged and respond to? The rest of the world is running 6-8 weeks behind China, but are on high alert so we're unlikely to see similar numbers? Unless it gets a foothold in a poor megacity?

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 09 Feb 2020, 21:28

clv101 wrote:
adam2 wrote:...building sturdy but improvised large tents using only standard builders scaffolding and standard large tarpaulins.
Hard to think of a situation where it would be better to accommodate tens of thousands in such structures instead of sports centres, warehouses, event/conference space, agricultural facilities etc.

This sounds more like a 'team build' exercise.

Experience like that of the Super Dome after hurricane Katrina show without planning and pre positioning supplies a sports facility is not a good option. Yes they handle thousands of people but only for an afternoon with all the food etc. coming in just in time and not stored on site. Yes they have a lot of bathrooms but the water supply is usually a municipal system so if the city is without water so is the arena. You could make them good shelters by providing them with their own wells and generators and adding a warehouse for supplies but there is no day to day profit in that.

Post by **clv101** » 09 Feb 2020, 21:33

Don't all those issues equally exist for ad hoc tents in a field? Instead building tents from scaffolding and tarps, wouldn't it be better to improve the water, waste, food, power etc of existing structures?

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 09 Feb 2020, 21:42

clv101 wrote:Don't all those issues equally exist for ad hoc tents in a field? Instead building tents from scaffolding and tarps, wouldn't it be better to improve the water, waste, food, power etc of existing structures?

I think the advantage tents have is the ability to limit the population in each tent and isolate infected people from those not yet tested or presenting symptoms .
Also you can set them up on any flat area and have all the floor space usable for beds. Most arenas have a lot of the space taken up by bleacher seating which cant hold a cot. If the supply issues are addressed perhaps a arena surrounded by tents in the parking lots would be a workable solution. At any rate if we get hit by massive numbers of cases the hospitals will run out of beds and bed space in just a few days and the authorities will need to do the best they can for the overflow.

Post by **adam2** » 09 Feb 2020, 22:01

Tents are cheap and can be erected with plenty of fresh air between them, a large existing building might promote infection spread.

Large buildings are often reliant on complex and power hungry, heating, lighting and ventilating systems.

A tent is naturally ventilated, can be lit by a couple of 40 watt bulbs, and heated with a propane heater.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 10 Feb 2020, 08:20

Health Secretary declares coronavirus a serious and immediate danger, and announces enforced quarantine powers.

The Brighton case appears to be a superspreader so chances of cases in Brighton are high

Edit

On another forum report that 4 more cases have been confirmed in Brighton. Hence the public warning and control measures. Not seen the original report.

The cat is out of the bag.

Post by **adam2** » 10 Feb 2020, 10:21

Four more cases in the UK, doubling the number from four to eight.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 10 Feb 2020, 10:51

clv101 wrote:So what's the current situation?

The rate of increase in the official case count in China has been slowing all week. Reality or limits of testing?

Not sure it makes much difference, given that if the increase is slowing then it is due to a lockdown policy that is itself totally unsustainable.

Is China the exception, in that it got out of hand before it was officially acknowledged and respond to? The rest of the world is running 6-8 weeks behind China, but are on high alert so we're unlikely to see similar numbers? Unless it gets a foothold in a poor megacity?

Insufficient data.