[Worsen]

This may have some significance...

[gimlet]

Good friend who works at a large national USA laboratory just told me all international travel is cancelled at his lab. And they travel overseas a great deal normally...

[pelon7724]

Ok, let's all panic now.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...c54e2d2b9305ca

Chinese doctors say autopsies of coronavirus victims suggest the deadly illness is “like a combination of SARS and AIDS” that can cause “irreversible” lung damage even if the patient recovers.

The grim finding was reported on by Communist Party mouthpiece the Global Times on Friday, after a paper by Wuhan doctors published in the Journal of Forensic Medicine earlier in the week went viral on Chinese social media.

“The influence of COVID-19 on the human body is like a combination of SARS and AIDS as it damages both the lungs and immune systems,” Peng Zhiyong, director of the intensive care unit of the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan, told the Global Times.

Dr Peng was commenting on the paper by Liu Liang, a forensic specialist from the Tongji Medical College at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, whose team had conducted nine autopsies of coronavirus patients as of February 24.

“The autopsy results Liu shared inspired me a lot. Based on the results, I think the most important thing now is to take measures at an early stage of the disease to protect patients’ lungs from irreversible fibrosis,” Dr Peng told the outlet.

Pulmonary fibrosis is permanent scarring of the lung tissue that can leave the patient chronically out of breath. The paper described an autopsy conducted on an 85-year-old man. It said there was apparent damage to the patient’s lungs.

Excess production of mucus spilt out of the alveoli — tiny air sacs in the lungs that absorb oxygen — indicating COVID-19 “causes an inflammation response that damages deep airways and pulmonary alveoli”.

According to the Global Times, the paper said the patient exhibited similar pathological changes to those caused by SARS and MERS. Fibrosis was “not as serious as was seen in SARS patients, but an exudative reaction was more apparent, possibly due to the short course of his disease”.

The paper did not say that all coronavirus patients will suffer permanent fibrosis.

An earlier study published in The Lancet which examined the CT scans of 81 patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan found the imagery “indicated the appearance of interstitial changes, suggesting the development of fibrosis”.

“However, since the natural history of COVID-19 pneumonia is yet to be fully explored, it is too early to label these lung changes as irreversible fibrosis,” the researchers wrote.

It comes as a group of Chinese scientists warn that the virus has mutated into a more aggressive strain. In a new study published in the National Science Review, researchers suggested that after COVID-19 crossed into humans, the original strain evolved into a second type and both of these are now circulating.

More than 95,000 cases of the disease have been confirmed worldwide and over 3000 people have died, including two in Australia, where there are currently 50 confirmed cases.

[Electriclarryland]

All them Chinese already have damaged lungs from air pollution, wouldn't be surprised if they all had different stages of COPD... which is causing this virus to be deadly. If your lungs don't work well already, a virus attacking just your respitory system isn't gonna turn out good for you.

That being said.. pretty sure toilet paper, hand sanitizer and soap is all sold out here... was nobody washing their hands before this?

[Druss]

Originally Posted by ElectricLarryLand ↗

That being said.. pretty sure toilet paper, hand sanitizer and soap is all sold out here... was nobody washing their hands before this?

Humans are generally pretty filthy creatures, but on the plus side, this kind of pandemic is a natural and necessary evil in sorting the wheat from the chaff

[Electriclarryland]

Originally Posted by Druss ↗

Humans are generally pretty filthy creatures, but on the plus side, this kind of pandemic is a natural and necessary evil in sorting the wheat from the chaff

My cousin and his wife are dentists... Tuesday night they thought it would be the opportune time to fly themselves and sick ass kids (booger noses, cough... one kid was even born premature...) to a different state... fucking. stupid. Fucking "doctors," doing that dumb bullshit.

[Steve]

There's 7.8 billion of us, we can afford to lose a few.

[AK47pup]

I work in a doctors office. My state confirmed the virus today. The patient isn’t even an hour from me

What the Tennessee Department of Health is telling medical providers is, if a patient comes in with symptoms to call the health department and they’ll guide us on what to do. We were told today that if a patient shows up with symptoms to make them go outside and call us from their cell phone and talk to them. They aren’t even supposed to enter the building if they’re suspected to be infected.

[lando76]

Here in Ca. Several cases within an hour's drive. Several thousand walking around with it. We are fucked!! I'm going on lockdown starting Sunday. Been preparing since the first case in China. I knew when they started building 12 ft high dirt berms to block roads, shit was serious.

I am good for three months. 3000 rds for the looters.

[kellyhound]

They're your furry best friend and a fixture of your home -- but could your beloved cat or dog give you coronavirus?

Last Friday, Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said that samples from a dog's nasal and oral cavities had tested "weak positive" for novel coronavirus.
Initially, experts believed the virus was likely to be present only on the surface of the animal.
But this week authorities confirmed that the dog -- which has been in quarantine -- had repeatedly tested weak positive, indicating a low-level infection with the virus.
Experts, including those from the World Organization for Animal Health, unanimously agreed that it was likely a case of human-to-animal transmission.
But there's no need for pet owners to panic yet.

"There is currently no evidence that pet animals can be a source of infection of COVID-19 or that they can become sick," the AFCD spokesman said.
To be safe, the AFCD recommends that pet owners wash their hands after being around their animals, and avoid kissing them.
The department also "strongly advises" that pets of people infected with coronavirus should be quarantined.
Both Hong Kong Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the World Organization for Animal Health reiterated that there is no evidence of pets becoming sick with Covid-19, even when infected.
"Members of the public are advised to differentiate that 'being infected' does not equal being infectious and capable of spreading the Covid-19 virus," Hong Kong SPCA said in a statement.

There were similar fears over coronavirus spreading to pets during the SARS outbreak in 2003, when over 280 people died in Hong Kong. Experts believe that both SARS and Covid-19 likely originated in bats.
Dogs and cats do get coronaviruses -- but they are usually not the same viruses associated with this outbreak, said Jane Gray, Hong Kong SPCA's chief veterinary surgeon. The strains dogs and cats typically get don't cause respiratory problems.
Back in 2003, scientists said the chance of getting SARS -- which is also a type of coronavirus -- from your cat was extremely remote.

Gray, who was working in Hong Kong during SARS, said the virus was found in a small number of cats, but there was no evidence that they could pass it to humans.

We know that coronaviruses can live on surfaces and objects, although researchers don't know exactly how long this virus can linger for.
This is such a concern in mainland China that the central bank has been deep cleaning and destroying potentially infected cash.
In the same way, coronavirus could be present on the surface of a dog or cat, even if the dog or cat hasn't actually contracted the virus.

"Present evidence suggests that dogs are no more of a risk of spreading (coronavirus) than inanimate objects such as door handles," wrote Sheila McClelland, the founder of Hong Kong-based Lifelong Animal Protection Charity (LAP), in a letter to the Hong Kong authorities, which she shared with CNN.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the main way the disease is spreading is from person-to-person, either from when people are close together, or from respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs and sneezes.