Time to Ban Wet Markets • Hacker News Board

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#31

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:21 PM UTC

tru3_power wrote: post #19

heldupathome wrote: post #13

I think it’s a disgrace that the Chinese government hasn’t apologized for 1.) keeping wet market open 2.) silencing whistleblower doctor that would have stopped a pandemic 3.) letting 5 million people leave Wuhan 4.) pressuring WHO to not recommend border shutdown against China - Conjecture 5.) silencing whistleblowers inside China and around the world 6.) at one point, was surfacing propagandas that the virus didn’t…

Got any info on point 6? Did they really start that rumor?

> China Spins Tale That the U.S. Army Started the Coronavirus Epidemic: After criticizing American officials for politicizing the pandemic, Chinese officials and news outlets have floated unfounded theories that the United States was the source of the virus.

That's the headline of this story from March 13: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/asia/coronavirus-ch...

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#32

Post by dx87 » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:21 PM UTC

derefr wrote: post #15

So, what’s the difference between a “wet market” and the sort of familiar farmer’s market of butchers/fishmongers/etc. that five-star restaurants source from all over the world? This article seems to be doing a motte-and-bailey of grossing you out with things that are just “regular meat wholesaler things” (e.g. fresh meat sitting out on ice without refrigeration) and then moralizing about the specific kinds of meats…

If the bakers are greasing the bakery and causing deadly pandemics every 5-10 years, maybe the system isn't functioning perfectly well.

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#33

Post by TeMPOraL » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:22 PM UTC

tru3_power wrote: post #19

heldupathome wrote: post #13

I think it’s a disgrace that the Chinese government hasn’t apologized for 1.) keeping wet market open 2.) silencing whistleblower doctor that would have stopped a pandemic 3.) letting 5 million people leave Wuhan 4.) pressuring WHO to not recommend border shutdown against China - Conjecture 5.) silencing whistleblowers inside China and around the world 6.) at one point, was surfacing propagandas that the virus didn’t…

Got any info on point 6? Did they really start that rumor?

My uneducated guess is that it's the western internet getting into a fit over what was essentially a Twitter fight between officials.

Related to that and some other stories about evil China - if China treated certain politician's Twitter feeds or Fox News articles as seriously as the West seems to treat China's equivalents, North America would probably be glassed by now.

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#34

Post by _jal » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:22 PM UTC

heldupathome wrote: post #13

I think it’s a disgrace that the Chinese government hasn’t apologized for 1.) keeping wet market open 2.) silencing whistleblower doctor that would have stopped a pandemic 3.) letting 5 million people leave Wuhan 4.) pressuring WHO to not recommend border shutdown against China - Conjecture 5.) silencing whistleblowers inside China and around the world 6.) at one point, was surfacing propagandas that the virus didn’t…

(6) is a direct response to the White House's continued use of 'Wuhan virus', 'Kung Flu' and other racist/shitty deflection garbage.

I'm not defending it, but it isn't happening in a vacuum.

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#35

Post by McSwag » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:22 PM UTC

jsjddbbwj wrote: post #24

Doesn't look like at this point we should be caring too much about not offending. You know, after thousands have died because some undomesticated people eat bats and stuff.

Most people, chinese or not have nothing to do with the cause of this outbreak. Let’s be real. It killed thousands of innocent people so far, including Chinese.

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#36

Post by ClumsyPilot » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:22 PM UTC

cageface wrote: post #10

Or just stop eating meat altogether. There are diseases and potent antibiotic resistant bugs brewing in our factory farms in the west too. None of this is necessary for human health or nutrition.

This is a good point, factory farming in the US is endangering us al by creating superbugs, and is probably just as dangerous

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#37

Post by oiasdjfoiasd » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:22 PM UTC

darawk wrote: post #6

It's important not to demonize Chinese people here. However, it's at the very least equally important to ensure that their agricultural practices stop producing these pandemic viruses. This is not the first one. Not even close. This is not one of those things that could have happened anywhere and the Chinese were simply unlucky. This is a direct consequence of their agricultural practices and it is extremely importan…

American Swine Flu in 2009 killed tens of thousands of people. To say it could not have happened anywhere is wrong.

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#38

Post by jonny_eh » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

darawk wrote: post #6

It's important not to demonize Chinese people here. However, it's at the very least equally important to ensure that their agricultural practices stop producing these pandemic viruses. This is not the first one. Not even close. This is not one of those things that could have happened anywhere and the Chinese were simply unlucky. This is a direct consequence of their agricultural practices and it is extremely importan…

> This is a direct consequence of their agricultural practices

It's also a result of people, around the world (but mostly in China), buying into Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It creates a market for products based on wild animals like bats and pangolins, which this virus originated from.

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#39

Post by jsjddbbwj » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

McSwag wrote: post #35

jsjddbbwj wrote: post #24

Doesn't look like at this point we should be caring too much about not offending. You know, after thousands have died because some undomesticated people eat bats and stuff.

Most people, chinese or not have nothing to do with the cause of this outbreak. Let’s be real. It killed thousands of innocent people so far, including Chinese.

I didn't say "Chinese" anywhere. It would be stupid to generalise given the size of that country.

Re: Time to Ban Wet Markets

#40

Post by asdfadsfgfdda » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

cleansy wrote: post #12

mschuster91 wrote: post #2

I agree with the general aims of the article, but I doubt that the demand that the author makes - that China closes its wet markets - will be practically doable. With a billion people that have no reason to trust their government, it's going to be hard to convince them to drop what they and their families had learned with blood during the Mao-era famines.

China's leadership can relocate half a million people when they want to build a dam. They will be able to crack down on wet markets. The current pandemic should be the last one happening in a non-war setting. I can write this here from home in Europe and it will end up on a disk somewhere in the US within 13ms, we should be able to prevent man-made pandemics.

Considering how much influence their government has on businesses, it should be even easier. I wouldn't be surprised if most wet markets were actually owned by state-owned enterprises.