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Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

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Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#151

Post by wyre »

a13n wrote: post #143
jankotek wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you tell me in what way authoritatian countries (aka China) handles this situation better? Italy closed 50k people into quarantine, government talks about military and EU was deciding about closing borders. All of this days after confirmed cases. I am sure officials would have no trouble to isolate major city. China has many internal problems, we just do not see them. Government refuses foreign doctors. If cris…

The problem with the US is that healthcare is so broken that nobody will want to go to the doctor to get checked because it's too expensive.

And folks going into work sick because they need to afford rent

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#152

Post by mattrp »

blasphemous wrote: post #17
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #8

This may seem silly but this is one of my first confirmations about how serious this is.

Given how Japan handled the Diamond Princess situation, it's a foregone conclusion they are not equipped to handle it, so more than likely the Olympics will be cancelled. They just can't risk it. Athletes/Peoples safety can't be risked, the "Olympic" brand cant be risked.

There’s that plus all the qualifying events globally that have to take place between now and then...

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#153

Post by puranjay »

rimliu wrote: post #78
puranjay wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our widespread abuse of antibiotics isn't helping. To think that we can go 100 years without a serious pandemic while also abusing antibiotics at an unprecedented scale betrays a sheer disregard for biology and nature.

This is a virus. Antibiotics are for bacterial diseases

I understand that. But I'm not talking about Coronavirus in particular but the threat of a pandemic in the age of antibiotics.

This one might be a virus but past pandemics like the Black Plague were bacterial in nature.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#154

Post by dx034 »

cylinder wrote: post #105
tenpies wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I overreacting? Probably not. Mortality rate aside (anywhere from 2% to 5% depending on source), the biggest issue is hospitalization rate (about 20% based on Chinese numbers). No country on the planet could handle that hospitalization rate all at once. The priority going forward is about managing spread. Keeping spread as slow as possible so the absolute number of people who need to be hospitalized at any parti…

And how are we going to setup temporary hospitals when portable bed factories are probably all in China?

The problem is even that you can't properly prevent catching it if people are isolated at home since masks and disinfectants start being sold out pretty much world wide.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#155

Post by jmnicolas »

melonkidney wrote: post #128
rococode wrote: post #46

I've been checking for updates on the virus several times a day since it first started being reported in Western media around Jan 20 (in part because it's been a fun distraction, in part because I have friends in Wuhan). I like to think I'm generally an optimist, but I think it's been clear for several weeks now that this is going to have a significant worldwide impact. There are just too many factors in favor of unc…

Your thoughts echo mine very closely. Uncontained spread seems fairly well unavoidable at this point. By all accounts, the Chinese have so far done a good job of containing the spread inside their borders (outside of Wuhan). But I feel there's a significant lesson to be learned from how the virus exited Wuhan in the first place: containment measures applied too late, after the scale of the problem became too obvious…

> modulo the economic impact

This is a BIG modulo, China alone was already a disaster but now that we can see the rest of the world will be hit, the economic consequences will be disastrous.

2008 was a walk in the park compared to what may happen.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#156

Post by _nkl1 »

rococode wrote: post #46

I've been checking for updates on the virus several times a day since it first started being reported in Western media around Jan 20 (in part because it's been a fun distraction, in part because I have friends in Wuhan). I like to think I'm generally an optimist, but I think it's been clear for several weeks now that this is going to have a significant worldwide impact. There are just too many factors in favor of unc…

> I think when this all comes to an end, China will be one of the countries that dealt with the virus the best. Countries without authoritarian governments likely don't have the means to effectively quarantine major cities and shut down massive portions of their economy immediately without major problems arising. Given a couple weeks, sure, but by then it will be too late.

It may well seem that way in retrospect. When it does, just remember that those same authoritarian governments are the ones who played down the threat, lied, covered up to save face, imprisoned whistleblowers, and refused to let international experts in.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#157

Post by jashmatthews »

mlang23 wrote: post #120
jankotek wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you tell me in what way authoritatian countries (aka China) handles this situation better? Italy closed 50k people into quarantine, government talks about military and EU was deciding about closing borders. All of this days after confirmed cases. I am sure officials would have no trouble to isolate major city. China has many internal problems, we just do not see them. Government refuses foreign doctors. If cris…

Don't count on the EU doing anything other then slow talk. They are definitely not going to close any borders. At least I would be very surprised if they did.

The EU itself has no power to do that. Each country has to temporarily re-introduce border control. They often do!

https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/border...

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#158

Post by lisper »

nostromo wrote: post #122
rococode wrote: post #46

I've been checking for updates on the virus several times a day since it first started being reported in Western media around Jan 20 (in part because it's been a fun distraction, in part because I have friends in Wuhan). I like to think I'm generally an optimist, but I think it's been clear for several weeks now that this is going to have a significant worldwide impact. There are just too many factors in favor of unc…

It's worth reflecting on how many novel pandemics a 40 year old person has experienced in their lifetime. HIV, SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika, COVID-19... For some reason it feels like a "only in the history books" event -- and yet it's actually quite common. The average-aged American (38) has lived through multiple epidemics -- including one that has killed 30 million people (HIV) -- and yet we barely talk about it.

Seasonal flu kills hundreds of thousands of people every year and we barely talk about that.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#159

Post by dx034 »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #110
chime wrote: post #93

For anyone looking for more, try the subreddits /r/Covid19 (scientific/medical info), /r/CoronaVirus (maintstream news), and /r/China_Flu (social posts).

I'm not sure I trust Reddit, or indeed any social media, for reliable reporting on such an emotive topic. There's already so much misinformation and conspiracy theories about the disease.

It's the same as with Hackernews. You should never trust unsourced claims but it can be a great source to find more articles and opinions on the matter.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#160

Post by jldugger »

antognini wrote: post #135
hatenberg wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prepper contingent has predicted 250 out of the last 3 global plague events correctly.

But they only need to be right once.

They kinda need to be right every time?
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