China bans sale of wild animals as novel Wuhan coronavirus deaths increase

I… you mean demand for dead endangered things, right? I just cannot help adding, as a vegetarian, that eating dead wild things is in no way worse than eating dead non-wild things, or am I missing something??

Civets are the obvious goto as they were implicated with the SARS virus. But its a zoo out there and there is plenty of viruses to go around. They are not even talking about virus mutations yet.

I read an article reporting that the genome of the novel corona virus was sequenced, and it was found to be 96% similar to a known bat corona virus.

Tell that to the rhino.

The one rhino.

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Collie, flour, and cheese.

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I’m a bit behind on this sweeping virus news. Does anyone know how this compares to the bird-flu panic from awhile back? 56/2000 isn’t wonderful odds; unless my math is rusty that puts it at a 2.8% mortality rate. Currently. But it could be worse. Is it heading that direction?

From a quick trip to Google-land, it seems that’s the same rate of deaths caused by diabetes in 2015.

Diabetes caused 1.6 million (2.8%) deaths in 2015, up from 1.0 million (1.8%) deaths in 2000.

I’m not pointing that out to minimize concern. I’m just trying to determine how concerned I should be.

I honestly think Trump occupying the White House is a greater threat to my life at this moment, but I could be wrong.

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Darn, that’s a lot of investment gone, just down the tubes. Investment in that “Chicken of the Cave” franchise location I was gonna open on East Zhongshan Boulevard…

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Numbers are rising.

Total reported coronavirus cases in China (as of 5.00pm Tue Jan 28)

  • 4,599 confirmed
  • 6,973 suspected
  • 68 recovered
  • 106 deaths

Cases in Beijing and surrounding areas :

Beijing: 91 confirmed cases, 2 recovered, 1 death

  • Haidian 21
  • Chaoyang 17
  • Xicheng 8
  • Changping 7
  • Daxing 7
  • Fengtai 7
  • Tongzhou 7
  • Dongcheng 2
  • Shunyi 2
  • Shijingshan 2
  • Visitors from outside Beijing 11

Hebei: 33 confirmed cases, 1 death
Tianjin: 24 confirmed cases

Cases in other provinces and regions (listed by number of confirmed cases):

Hubei: 2,714 confirmed cases, 52 recovered, 100 deaths
Guangdong: 188 confirmed cases, 4 recovered
Zhejiang: 173 confirmed cases, 1 recovered
Henan: 168 confirmed cases, 1 death
Hunan: 143 confirmed cases
Chongqing: 132 confirmed cases
Anhui: 106 confirmed cases
Shandong: 95 confirmed cases
Sichuan: 90 confirmed cases
Fujian: 73 confirmed cases
Jiangxi: 72 confirmed cases, 3 recovered
Jiangsu: 70 confirmed case, 1 recovered
Shanghai: 66 confirmed cases, 4 recovered, 1 death
Guangxi: 51 confirmed cases, 1 recovered
Shaanxi: 46 confirmed cases
Yunnan: 44 confirmed cases
Hainan: 40 confirmed cases, 1 death
Heilongjiang: 30 confirmed cases, 1 death
Liaoning: 30 confirmed cases
Shanxi: 20 confirmed cases
Gansu: 19 confirmed cases
Inner Mongolia: 15 confirmed cases
Ningxia: 11 confirmed cases
Xinjiang: 10 confirmed cases
Guizhou: 9 confirmed cases
Jilin: 8 confirmed cases
Hong Kong: 8 confirmed cases
Macao: 7 confirmed cases
Taiwan: 7 confirmed cases
Qinghai: 6 confirmed cases

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Isn’t that the animal beloved by coffee fetishists because it pumps primo beans out its butthole?

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Horse meat is delicious.

So the ban is only while the current crisis exists? Back to eating bats and snakes after, I guess. Didn’t learn much from the SARS problem, did they?

I’ll take eating some inspected steak over a bat that somebody happened to find in their attic, I think.

Yes, its anal glands are also used by perfume manufacturers.
See “The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York”
by Chandler Burr

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So far, with the info available, it can compare to a moderately bad flu. That could change as it meets new people and adapts in fun and interesting ways. There are a lot of people who will get sick with it and not be reported because it will feel like the flu. Containment efforts are not all that effective with people walking around with the virus spreading it without any symptoms. That being said, it doesn’t seem to be picked up easily by random people, it seem you have to be in prolonged contact with someone to get it. It is scary, mostly because it is new, but so far no need to panic.

It gets interesting if you start having trouble breathing. The pneumonia can get better, or if your immune system is already strained, can make life very difficult. As far as we know it isn’t knocking down healthy individuals that hard.

If you are worried the best thing to do is keep your hands clean and try not to touch your face. Face masks are not overly effective if you rub your eyes with the virus on your hands.

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I was chatting with some Australians at a hostel in Bergen Norway some years back. They were on an around the world tour, and I asked them “whats the best food you’ve had so far?”

“Horse steak in Belgium”

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There’s a difference between non-infectious and infectious disease prevention. Diabetes doesn’t increase exponentially. The 1918 flu pandemic infected about 10% of the world population, and killed 20-50 million. We have better medical care and sanitation now than then, generally, but also much more travel and more crowded conditions around the world.
Having Trump in office is another existential threat that compounds this as he likely “knows more about” coronavirus than almost anybody, and will trust hunches over experts. HIV would have likely been much less a pandemic if Reagan had listened to scientists of the time.

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Two words, one dish: Rheinischer Sauerbraten.

Thank you and @Katryn for your replies.

And this is the part that really worries me. Healthcare in the US has become so cost prohibitive that my perception is people are far less likely to seek medical help now than they would have even a decade ago. I mean, my copay to go to the ER is $500. And I know once I’m in the door I’m going to be bled of every cent I have and don’t have. I’m not doing that unless I’m dying and not yet dead.

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This is my worry about it in the US. Too many people living too close to subsistence going to work or not asking for medical attention if shit gets bad. Your choice shouldn’t be between bankruptcy or the health of yourself and others. As with a flu or a cold (which most of us will think it is unless it gets bad), you should be able to stay home and get better rather than possible making yourself and others sick. Between that and the incompetence at the top, I don’t see good things happening in the USA.

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Yes, and you’re certainly not alone. Even people who ostensibly have insurance are punished for using it, which is the exact opposite of what you would want people to do in an epidemic, and really in society in general. Since the humanity argument for taking care of sick people seems lost on some, I point out the selfish argument. A smart person would want the people cooking/delivering your food, driving your Uber, attending school with your kid, watching movie theaters to be unafraid to go to the doctor’s to treat infectious diseases.

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