Neither the term nor the practice originated with the Nazis.
1 Like
Coronavirus: Pressure grows to re-open factories Coronavirus: Pressure grows to re-open factories - BBC News
I thought Vic was being sarcastic just like jman was?
2 Likes
This continues to be the biggest and loudest alarm bell coming out of China. Don’t listen to what the Chinese are saying, look at what they are doing. They are risking significant short and long term damage to their economy by taking the actions they are taking. They wouldnt’ be taking them if this wasn’t really really bad. They did not take these actions during SARS.
3 Likes
Doesn’t tally with the government telling people to go back to work on Monday.
That’s what they’re actually doing, regardless of whether you think it’s sensible or not.
If the newest reports about a 2-3 week period between start of symptoms and death is true, then the total number of infections has to be grossly under-reported. Just over two weeks ago we were at 1000 infections globally, yet today the death number stands at 725.
Unless the death rate is much higher than the worst case we’ve been talking about, there had to have been 10’s of thousands infected a few weeks ago. (Or possibly the 2-3 week period until death is wrong and some people die much faster.)
Yeah well they took over the brand, at least.
In some cases they are not telling people that, correct? Like right in the article quoted in the post you responded to.
With the cities they’ve currently got locked down, they’re losing 69% of their GDP - that’s $175 billion a week, or about 1.3% of their annual GDP per week the lockdown continues.
Obviously some of that will get a bump when it reopens and make up for it a bit, they may not be 100% closed for business and locked down, some production may be able to shift to other cities for some companies, etc…
But while jman is slightly overreacting maybe, he makes really good points about the economic impact of the actions China is taking and what that indicates about how they view the threat. Imagine how the rest of the world would react if we shut down like NYC, San Fran, LA and Chicago, and massive geographic areas around them.
And while jman might be slightly overreacting, for the most part everyone is massively underreacting. I don’t know how long those cities have to stay shut down for this to cause a global recession, but I’m guessing it’s under a month. That’s just the economic side. We still know less than the Chinese government about this, and look at how they’re reacting. I know someone who spent some significant time in China and he says it’s a mortal lock they’re under reporting the severity of this.
This should be getting more attention than it is, that I’m pretty confident in.
1 Like
They largely took over the brand of ‘genocide’, too, but that doesn’t make it like a sin to call other genocides genocides.
Maybe they are sending people back to work in cities that aren’t the worst hit yet to try and keep their economy from completely collapsing?
You don’t know whether either of these things are true and are just speculating.
The Chinese government may well be under-reporting the numbers, but I doubt very much it would be stupid enough to report a lowering in the exponent of infection if it was still doubling every 3 or 4 days.
As well as factoring in the likelihood that the figures are being downplayed, I’m also factoring in the usual hysterical overreaction from the US evident from some posts itt, cf the USSR nuclear threat, and domestic Islamic terrorism.
When there is a lack of good information, speculation will always fill the vacuum.
The number of infections almost certainly were understated. If the numbers of infected were not understated early on, then either the death rate is astronomical, the 2-3 week reported lead time to death is wrong, or the number of reported deaths is wrong (i.e. - deaths being falsely attributed to the virus.)
Seems to me the most likely explanation is that the number of infected was grossly understated, and not necessarily on purpose.
Two more weeks will tell much more of the story imo.
I’m trying to remind myself that I could have a very bad read on this, and it helps that my opinion seems to be pretty much aligned with that noted moron toothy over on the old forum. That guy has seemingly never been right about anything, and he’s convinced this is a very big deal. Here’s to hoping he’s wrong again.
4 Likes
A lawyer who had provided a rare glimpse into the dire conditions in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has gone missing, his friends say, expressing fear for his safety.
The lawyer, Chen Qiushi, who is based in Beijing, had been reporting from Wuhan since the city went into lockdown last month as the authorities scrambled to contain the virus.
In a series of video blogs and footage posted on Twitter and sometimes on YouTube, which are both blocked in mainland China, Mr. Chen documented the plight of patients and the shortage of hospital supplies, and he warned of cross-infection in Wuhan’s mass quarantine sites.
A friend who is currently managing Mr. Chen’s Twitter account said contact had been lost with him on Thursday.
The friend, who requested anonymity to protect the account’s security, said Mr. Chen had recognized the risks that came with his journalistic work from the beginning and had shared his passwords with friends as a precaution, in case he would one day be detained.
Xu Xiaodong, a prominent mixed martial arts practitioner in China, also said on Friday that he had lost contact with Mr. Chen, his friend. In a video message on Friday, Mr. Xu said that Mr. Chen’s parents had been told that their son had been quarantined because he had visited several hospitals and risked contracting the virus.
A propaganda poster in Beijing: “Strong protection, no panic, believe in science, don’t spread rumors.”
Credit…Giulia Marchi for The New York Times
1 Like
He is by his own admission a polemicist troll who doesn’t necessarily believe anything he says.
1 Like
Yes I agree that’s likely but I also think it’s probably true of many major infectious diseases in their early stages, because that’s the nature of testing and reporting these things.
Infection levels in the West are probably under reported also, but none of this means it’s time to hit the panic button yet.
If the Chinese government is aware this virus is a much bigger deal than the we think, one of the panickers here needs to explain why its most populous city with a population of 25 million has been told to go back to work on Monday.
Now you’ve wetted my appetite I’m heading over to the old cesspit to sample some new TS bs.
I think it’s a mischaracterization to call anyone here a panicker.
But possibly they’ve been told to go back to work because their economy might be about to collapse?
If this isn’t a big deal why don’t you explain why huge cities were on lockdown in the first place?