A coronavirus has been identified which originated in China and is now spreading to other countries. This virus causes pneumonia which can be fatal. Here is a link to an article on the New York Times website which is being updated by the hour as additional information becomes available...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/world/asia/china-coronavirus-wuhan.html

... these developments, coupled with the intense Flu season we're already experiencing in the United States, should spur everyone to review their preparations and take whatever steps you feel necessary.

Re-reading Preston's 'Hot Zone.'
No reason.

I was just at an EMT refresher course. One of the topics was infectious diseases, and the instructor talked at some length about pandemics. Pretty scary stuff.

The Atlantic had a good article on the topic awhile back: The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready?

I'm not especially worried but we do seem due/overdue for a pandemic. Hopefully it will be contained with minimal additional suffering.

4 people hospitalised in Scotland with symptoms

Read an article on BBC about the effectiveness of face masks in preventing diseases.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51205344

Good hygiene continues to be the best method.

In China a number of cities (at least 10, affecting 35 million people) have been "quarantined" to some extent. No flights in and out. This is the period of the White Spring Festival otherwise known as Chinese New Years (1 week leading up to New Years Day and 1 week following New Years Day). Many overseas Chinese went back to China to celebrate the season with family and friends.

But people are beginning to panic. I don't know what panic means in China - what are people doing? Are they shutting themselves inside, avoiding contact, limiting their shopping, trying to get away from others? I just don't know. Even with the authorities controlling access to information, the amount of information that does get disseminated or rather the misinformation that gets disseminated has got to scare people.

Then what happens after the Festival - people are going to try to come back to their other country: US, Canada, Euro, Australia, etc. That's when the true fallout and contamination will occur. It may not be an international situation now according to the WHO standard but give it a couple of weeks and it could get ugly.

This virus is something we all need to keep informed about; not scared but careful. Hopefully it won't mutate and become more easily transmitted. Or perhaps it will mutate and become less of an issue.

9 cities? Close to 30 million people. Furthest away from Wuhan is 200 miles. Clear it's been travelling by train.

Already had one woman that had symptoms, took medication to reduce her temperature so she could get through screening. And got on a flight to Paris, France. And then bragging about it on social media.

More research has determined that the coronavirus MAY in fact have been stolen from Canada. The coronavirus arrived at Canada’s NML Winnipeg facility on May 4, 2013 from the Dutch lab. The Canadian lab grew up stocks of the virus and used it to assess diagnostic tests being used in Canada. Winnipeg scientists worked to see which animal species can be infected with the new virus. Research was done in conjunction with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s national lab, the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases which is housed in the same complex as the National Microbiology Laboratory.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/d...pJZ_eFSJm1l1TR8
https://greatgameindia.com/chinese-researchers-caught-stealing-coronavirus-from-canadian-lab/

Last year, a Chinese scientist, her husband and her students were removed from a BLS-4 lab in Winnipeg concerning sending viral material to China from the lab to a BLS-4 lab in Wuhan which coincidentally is only 20 miles from the centre of the outbreak in China. On top of this, it is known that China has an advanced bio-weapons warfare component and it is suspected that China was in fact weaponizing the coronavirus. https://greatgameindia.com/coronavirus-bioweapon/

"Xiangguo Qiu is an outstanding Chinese scientist born in Tianjin. She primarily received her medical doctor degree from Hebei Medical University in China in 1985 and came to Canada for graduate studies in 1996. Later on, she was affiliated with the Institute of Cell Biology and the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, not engaged with studying pathogens. Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, the Chinese Biological Warfare Agent working at the National Microbiology Laboratory, Canada. But a shift took place, somehow. Since 2006, she has been studying powerful viruses in Canada’s NML. The viruses shipped from the NML to China were studied by her in 2014, for instance (together with the viruses Machupo, Junin, Rift Valley Fever, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever and Hendra). Dr. Xiangguo Qiu made at least five trips over the school year 2017-18 to the above mentioned Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which was certified for BSL4 in January 2017. Moreover, in August 2017, the National Health Commission of China approved research activities involving Ebola, Nipah, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses at the Wuhan facility."

Infection map from John Hopkins

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

81 deaths, 59 recovered. So 140 cases resolved.
81/140 or 57% death rate of those infected.
2,886 reported infected, so at least 1,670 deaths expected.