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bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

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How many of you think Donald Trump and his minions can handle a global pandemic. Trump has attacked the scientific community, taken money away for research and development at WHO and CDC, we also have a huge brain drain in the federal bc of Trump. So to answer my own question, I don't have any confidence what so ever in Trump handling of a global pandemic.

Strengthening coronavirus surges across China as authorities mobilize response; third case confirmed in U.S.

By Gerry Shih and Simon Denyer | Published January 26 at 9:03 AM EST |

Washington Post | Posted Jan 26, 2020 |

Chinese health authorities are struggling to deal with a skyrocketing rate of infection in the country of the new coronavirus with the number of cases increasing 50 percent in just 24 hours.

China's leader Xi Jinping has warned of an "accelerating spread" of the coronavirus, adding to worries about the scope of a health crisis that has claimed at least 56 lives and triggered emergency health measures in cities across China.

More than 50 million people were ordered on lockdown in central China with a travel ban covering 16 cities in the central Hubei Province, where the virus was first encountered. Here’s what we know:

●A third infection was announced in the United States, a Chinese traveler from Wuhan. Infections have been confirmed in France, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan and Australia and the United States. We’re mapping the spread here.

●Health Minister Ma Xiaowei said Sunday that the transmissibility of the virus is increasing, while the vice minister of industry, Wang Jiangping, said the country could not produce enough medical supplies to address demand.

●The sale of wild animals has been banned for the duration of the crisis. A wild animal market in Wuhan is widely seen as the epicenter of the current outbreak.

●Travel bans were extended in central China to put tens of millions of people effectively on local lockdowns. In Wuhan, where the virus was first detected, workers are racing to build at least three pop up 1,000-bed hospitals. The situation is especially dire in the countryside where the medical infrastructure is poor. Beijing said there were no plans for a travel ban in the capital.

●Manufacturers are reporting an international shortages of face masks.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS :

BEIJING — Chinese health authorities are extending the holidays and deploying more than a thousand doctors and military personnel to the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak as the number of infections skyrocket and desperation grips the quarantined province of Hubei, where more than 50 million people are stranded with a severe shortage of medical supplies.

The United States, meanwhile, announced a third case of the coronavirus �� a Chinese traveler from Wuhan who took ill in Orange County, Calif. Authorities say he is under care in isolation and the "risk of local transmission is low."

China’s national health commission said early Sunday that the number of confirmed infections had soared 50 percent over the prior 24 hours to 1,975 people across 30 provinces. Fifty-six deaths have been reported, including in major metropolitan areas such as Shanghai. Several doctors in Beijing, the capital, also reported being infected.

“Transmissibility is increasing,” Chinese Health Minister Ma Xiaowei told reporters Sunday. “The outbreak has come to a severe and complicated situation.”

He added that there could “still be new developments” as the virus mutates. “We still don’t know the risks of transformation,” he said.

Scientists have already noticed that the virus is adapting to humans much faster than its predecessor, the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, which killed more than 750 people in 2002-2003.

It took SARS three months to mutate into a form that spread easily between humans, but the related Wuhan coronavirus took only one month, George Fu, a top Chinese epidemiologist told reporters.

“Why is it transmitting so fast?” he said. “The two species are like the cartoon Tom and Jerry: viruses are continually adapting to humans, but human also adapt, and the virus’s ability to make people ill also goes down.”

A government group led by Premier Li Keqiang handling the epidemic response on Sunday proposed a “reasonable extension” of the New Year holiday in order to weather a “vital phase in epidemic prevention and control.” Cities are already rolling out such measures: Beijing’s education officials said schools will resume classes in mid-February, while the manufacturing hub of Suzhou prohibited large businesses from reopening earlier than Feb. 8.

At the heart of the outbreak, in central China’s Hubei Province, a travel ban extended to a total of 16 cities and covered approximately 51 million people. Video distributed by state media showed local officials in adjacent regions taking extreme measures, including using excavators to destroy and block roads, to discourage residents from traveling to infected areas of Hubei to visit stranded relatives — as per Chinese tradition — inside the quarantine zone.

Authorities have also announced the banning of the sale of wild animals after evidence emerged that the disease was transmitted to humans through a market in the city of Wuhan that traded in game meat.

The spread of the virus — and travel bans extending to several major hubs around China — threatened to paralyze the country for an indefinite period, with uncertain implications around the world. Officials in Beijing said Sunday they “have not and will not close the city because of the epidemic” in response to online rumors suggesting an imminent lockdown of the capital, which has a population of 22 million, with a significant fraction traveling this week to visit family.

On Saturday — China’s New Year’s Day — numerous Chinese government agencies said they had summoned workers back to their posts as President Xi Jinping warned of a “grave” situation as the virus “accelerated its spread.”

Two teams of British epidemiologists released studies over the weekend estimating that each infected person was spreading the disease to two or three other people. A team from Lancaster University projected that infections in Wuhan could explode to 190,000 cases by as early as next week.

The Chinese central government said it is mustering manufacturers to send 100,000 hazardous materials suits and millions of face masks to Wuhan, where hospitals reported overfilled beds and doctors collapsing from exhaustion. Videos on social media from Wuhan hospitals showed patient queues stretching around the block and nurses surmising that the true number of cases — based on what they were witnessing — far exceeded what was being officially reported.

The vice minister of industry, Wang Jiangping, said Sunday the country was facing a significant shortage of medical supplies including protective suits for medical workers. Hubei Province alone required 100,000 suits a day but Chinese manufacturers could only produce 30,000 a day, he said. “There’s a prominent gap in supply and demand,” he said, adding that China was hoping to purchase supplies on the international market.

Masks in particular have been in short supply, with shortages now being reported abroad as well. In Japan, Chinese tourists have been emptying the shelves of face masks, according to local news reports, while supplies are also running out globally.

Michael Einhorn, president of Dealmed, an independent medical supply distributor in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, said prices of masks jumped as soon as news of the virus spread, while sales volumes tripled through retailers such as Amazon.

Dealmed typically carries at least 90-days’ supply, and but said the company currently only has about two weeks’ worth left.

If demand continues, the availability of masks will be “very limited” within the next 10 days, and of the virus continues to spread there will be “extreme shortages” as early as three weeks’ time, Einhorn said in a statement.

Authorities in Wuhan and another hard-hit Hubei city, Huanggang, have announced the construction of three pop-up hospitals with thousands of beds to be built within the next few days. Ma, the health minister, said 5,000 new beds should be available by midweek while hundreds of medical professionals are preparing to deploy to the region.

Days after ordering the departure of all non-emergency U.S. personnel, the U.S. Embassy said Sunday it would charter a single flight on Jan. 26 out of Wuhan for remaining consulate staff and American citizens.

Japan has also said it is readying flights to bring home more than 700 Japanese stranded in Wuhan.

Meanwhile, Chinese citizens stranded inside the vast quarantine zone, locked down by paramilitary police checkpoints for the fourth day, took to social media to describe a sense of surreal desperation during a week when families should otherwise be celebrating the new year with dumplings, fireworks and presents.

One Wuhan resident described sharing her dwindling groceries that she had purchased to last for three days with an elderly couple whose food supplies were down to nothing. She said she worried about her food lasting one more day and the population of stray animals abandoned throughout the city.

“I don’t know how to solve this food problem,” wrote the user “Guapidawushi. “Right now I really, really don’t know what to do. I’m completely helpless.”

Some users shared videos of once-buzzing streets in Wuhan’s historic, European-style riverside district lying empty. Others posted more lighthearted pictures of women playing Mah-jongg with masks and transparent grocery bags over their heads.

The situation appeared to be more dire in the vast Hubei countryside outside of Wuhan, where rural authorities were struggling to cope.

The Chinese magazine Caijing reported that some smaller village clinics were only rationed six masks, and large hospitals were within one or two days of running out of supplies. In Jingzhou city, a short distance up the Yangtze River from Wuhan, doctors told reporters they were wearing rain ponchos because they lacked protective suits.

Deng Anqing, a Beijing-based writer who was visiting family in rural Hubei for the New Year holiday, said the hidden crisis was in the countryside.

“The media is focused on Wuhan but we know absolutely nothing about the current situation in the countryside,” Deng wrote in a post. “Large numbers of workers are returning here from Wuhan, but the capabilities of village hospitals are awful. Villages don’t have masks, and it’s hard to convince the elderly to wear them.”

Infections have been confirmed in France, Australia and the United States, but countries in Asia have been especially concerned as millions of Chinese people fan out across the region for the Lunar New Year.

An online petition asking South Korean President Moon Jae-in to ban Chinese nationals from entering the country has drawn more than 280,000 signatures over four days. South Korea confirmed a third case of coronavirus infection on Sunday, a 54-year old man who returned from Wuhan.

North Korea’s official party daily Rodong Sinmun posted prevention advice on Sunday and called for stronger border controls in a piece headlined “We should thoroughly contain the new coronavirus.” Earlier this week, North Korea banned all foreign tourists, most of whom come from its biggest neighbor and ally China. Flights between Beijing and Pyongyang have also been canceled, the Russian Embassy in North Korea said in a statement on Friday.

Japan confirmed it’s fourth case of the virus, a middle aged man from Wuhan who arrived on Wednesday for vacation.

In Hong Kong, where a sixth case of the virus was confirmed Sunday, pressure is mounting on the government to tighten border controls with China over fear of contagion. One hospital workers’ union threatened a five day strike if more measures weren’t taken.

Protesters in the evening attacked a building that has been set aside for quarantine and set its lobby alight with molotov cocktails, police reported.

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Denyer reported from Tokyo. Min Joo Kim in Seoul, Shibani Mahtani in Hong Kong, Lyric Li in Beijing, Paul Schemm in Dubai contributed to this report

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What we know about the mysterious, pneumonia-like coronavirus spreading in China and elsewhere

By Lena H. Sun and Miriam Berger | Published January 25 at 8:16 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted Jan 26, 2020 |

The World Health Organization (WHO) held an emergency meeting in Geneva on Wednesday on whether to designate the outbreak of a mysterious, pneumonia-like virus that originated in China as a global health emergency. By Thursday, the WHO announced that it would hold off, saying that it’s too early to make such a decision.

The WHO designating the outbreak a global health emergency would help countries coordinate their responses. In the meantime, it remains a scary time for people in China and beyond as the virus and fears of contamination spread.

On Tuesday, the United States confirmed its first case: A man who flew from China to Washington state is in stable condition. On Friday, U.S. authorities reported a second case of an infected woman, a Chicago resident, and France confirmed its first three patients as well. Travel bans in central China have left tens of millions of Chinese people effectively on lock down.

As the news continues to develop, keep calm and catch up on what is known so far.

WHAT IS A CORONAVIRUS?

According to the WHO, coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that range from the common cold to much more serious diseases. These diseases can infect both humans and animals. The strain spreading in China is related to two other coronaviruses that have caused major outbreaks in recent years: Middle East respiratory syndrome, also known as MERS, and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

Symptoms of a coronavirus infection range from respiratory problems, difficulties breathing, fever and cough, to the much more severe cases of pneumonia, kidney failure, acute respiratory syndrome (when fluid builds up in the lungs) and death. The elderly, young and those with an already weakened immune system are at a higher risk of developing severe lower-respiratory tract diseases, such as bronchitis and pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials haven’t identified this latest strain in humans before. That’s why, for now, it has the generic name of “a novel coronavirus” while they investigate. As it’s a virus, antibiotics won’t work in treating it.

HOW DOES IT SPREAD?

In rare cases, coronaviruses can spread from animals, such as camels and bats, to humans. (Household pets are not a threat.) Health officials report that’s what they believe has happened here. In even rarer cases, that same virus can then start to spread from human to human. That’s what happened with MERS and SARS.

WHO officials are investigating suspected cases of that now. In a worrying development, Chinese officials said Monday that they have documented cases of human-to-human transmission, meaning it can spread to humans through airborne droplets. The exact ways its spread and the incubation period are still under investigation.

Chinese health authorities said they first detected the new strain of the virus Dec. 31 in Wuhan, a city in central China. They initially linked it to a dirty food market where seafood and mammals were sold for human consumption. Officials closed the market the next day. What probably happened, scientists said, is that people ate something infected with the virus or touched something and then became infected.

The next set of patients are those who reported that they did not come in contact with that market but had gone to other markets, or had contact with others in Wuhan. Chinese officials have also documented patients and health-care workers who had no contact with Wuhan.

In cases of human-to-human transmission, the disease can spread through coughing and sneezing, personal contact with an infected person, touching an infected surface and then the mouth, nose or eyes, and, in rare cases, through fecal contamination.

HOW DO YOU PROTECT AGAINST IT?

To protect against infection, the CDC recommends basic hygiene techniques for respiratory viruses such as constantly washing hands, staying hydrated, avoiding contact with one’s face or anyone who’s sick, sanitizing surfaces, and coughing into one’s arm or a tissue. If there’s a fear of animal transmission, CDC officials urge people to wash hands after contact with animals and thoroughly cook any meat before consumption.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HOW NEW CASES HAVE SPREAD?

One challenge to investigating — and stopping — the virus: Public health experts say that Chinese authorities have not provided full information about how the disease is spreading.

To control the outbreak, it’s critical to know whether cases being found in other cities are all related to Wuhan. If the disease has been circulating independently in other parts of the country, that information will not only affect how China acts to contain it, but how other public health agencies in the world seek to prevent its spread, said Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

The Post’s Anna Fifield has reported from Beijing on cases of people dying with pneumonia-like symptoms but not being included in the death toll, suggesting “that the coronavirus could be far more prevalent than Chinese health authorities have acknowledged.”

Most people sickened and killed by the virus have been elderly, had preexisting health conditions, and lived in Hubei Provence -- specifically its capital, Wuhan.

But Chinese health authorities announced that a 36-year-old man from Wuhan died Thursday: He had no chronic diseases or other previous health problems and had been treated with anti-virus medications since checking into the hospital on Jan. 9.

WHERE HAS IT SPREAD?

As of Sunday in China, officials said that at least 56 people have died of the virus and more than 1,900 have been confirmed infected. That number is way up from the more than 70 infections reported on the previous Monday. Experts expect the number to keep rising, amid claims that China has been underreporting cases.

So far, most cases have been in Wuhan, though there are confirmed cases all across China.

Officials in Thailand and Japan were the first outside of China to reports cases of infected travelers from Wuhan on Jan. 13 and 15.

“These cases did not report visiting the large seafood and animal market to which many cases in China have been linked,” the CDC reported last week, a factor that initially raised further concerns among health officials of human-to-human contamination.

Australia and the Philippines are investigating suspected cases. By Wednesday, Hong Kong and Macao confirmed their first infected patients, joining South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, France and Taiwan, which have each reported cases of the virus.

WHAT’S BEING DONE TO STOP IT IN CHINA?

On Tuesday, Chinese health authorities initially imposed a quasi-quarantine on Wuhan, limiting travel to the city, which is home to 11 million people. They did so in part because the upcoming Lunar New Year is a time when people often travel to their hometowns. That’s also why Chinese authorities may be hesitant to impose a total travel ban; they are reluctant to entirely disrupt the holiday, which is also a time of heavy commerce important to China’s economy.

Just two days later, however, Chinese authorities announced a more extreme step: Starting 10 a.m. Thursday morning there, they would ban all outbound travel from Wuhan, which remains the center of the outbreak.

Also on Thursday, Chinese authorities announced the closure of all large-scale Lunar New Year events in Beijing. One of China’s top tourist attractions, the Forbidden City in Beijing, said it would close “to avoid cross-infection caused by the gathering of people.”

The WHO has praised China for imposing the quarantine in an effort to contain the disease. But other public health experts have questioned the effectiveness and warned that there could be negative repercussions.

“In the eyes of some public health experts, the quarantine could also cost time trying to contain the virus,” reported The Post’s Marisa Iati and Reis Thebault. “Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said that people fleeing Wuhan to escape the restrictions make it hard for authorities to track where the virus may have spread. People who experience symptoms may also hesitate to come forward because of the government’s extreme measures to control the illness, she said.”

Their reporting continued: “Past efforts at large-scale quarantines have been largely unsuccessful. Nurses had to tend to the every need of health-care workers who were quarantined in Taiwan during the SARS outbreak, using a tremendous amount of resources, Nuzzo said. A quarantine in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak in 2014 resulted in mass upheaval, and the government quickly pivoted to a milder approach, Nuzzo said.”

WHY DIDN’T THE WHO DECLARE IT A GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY?

After deliberating, the WHO announced Thursday that while there was “an emergency in China,” the outbreak did not yet rise to the level of a global health emergency, given the limited information about the severity of illness and the extent of human-to-human spread.

“The fact that I’m not declaring a [public health emergency] today should not be taken as a sign that WHO does not think the outbreak is serious or that we’re not taking it seriously,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday. “Nothing could be further from the truth. WHO is following this outbreak every minute of every day at country, regional and global levels. We’re working to prevent human-to-human transmission.”

Tedros reported that one-fourth of the infected went on to develop severe symptoms, while the majority of those who died had underlying health problems, such as hypertension or diabetes, which can weaken immune systems.

WHO officials said they could reconvene to make a decision based on additional information.

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT AIRPORTS?

Chinese authorities are screening people at airports for coronavirus symptoms. Other airports in Asia are doing the same. North Korea has entirely banned foreign tourists, the majority of whom are Chinese nationals and travel via China, as a precaution.

Federal health authorities in the United States announced Friday that they would immediately begin screening passengers for the virus who are flying into three international airports popular with Chinese travelers — Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York’s John F. Kennedy. On Tuesday, they added international airports in Chicago and Atlanta to the list.

The screening includes taking temperatures; those with high temperatures could be singled out for additional tests. While screening for a common virus usually takes just hours, health authorities told The Post’s Lena H. Sun that people with suspected cases could miss their connecting flights as the testing could take up to a day.

WHAT ABOUT FACE MASKS?

Masks intended to filter out airborne particles, like surgical masks, are useful but have a limited effect, according to public health officials. In the United States, where the threat of contracting the virus is low, they are not needed; but in China, health officials are recommending people wear them.

“Wearing a mask walking around isn’t going to do any good, but if you’re in a situation where you’re highly exposed, a mask is helpful,” said Colleen Kraft, associate chief medical officer for Emory University Hospital. “You may wear a mask when someone is going to cough directly on you or [in] a place with a lot of ill people. In a hospital, we wear a mask with patients who have influenza.”

Infectious disease experts stressed that masks need to be properly put on and off in order to be effective.

In Asia, wearing face masks is socially acceptable and common when people don’t feel well, he said. Chinese authorities have urged everyone to wear them. But their effectiveness also depends on the pathogen. For tuberculosis and measles, which are spread through very tiny droplets, face masks may not be helpful because the droplets can reach through the gauze or slip in around the mask.

“There is this concern, though,” said Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “If someone coughs on you, and you get a gob of virus on your mask, and then you take off your mask, put it on your finger, and then you touch your nose, you could get infected.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that any health-care workers interacting with coronavirus patients or suspected cases wear a stronger kind of mask, known as the N95 respirator, along with other gear such as gloves and eye protectors.

WHAT HAPPENED WITH SARS and MERS?

In November 2002, the SARS epidemic began spreading through China: Over eight months, it moved to more than two dozen countries, killed 774 people, and infected more than 8,000 people. Health authorities say that the “Patient Zero” came in contact with an animal in China’s Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong.

The virus was finally contained in summer 2003. Health-care workers made up about 20 percent of victims in areas heavily hit with the disease, according to the WHO. There’s still no cure for the disease, but the initial outbreak was contained by isolating suspected patients and screening passengers traveling from infected areas or those suspected of having symptoms.

One factor hindering initial efforts to contain the virus were the limits on coverage of the epidemic implemented by Chinese authorities.

MERS started spreading in the Middle East in 2012. Scientists say the first infection moved from a camel to human in Saudi Arabia. The disease is associated with the death of 790 people since 2012, the CDC reported in 2018. The outbreak was similarly contained by isolating patients. Health officials also warned against contact with camels and camel meat during the scare.

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THE NEW VIRAL THREAT: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

By Andrea Sachs, Lena H. Sun, Miriam Berger and Yasmeen Abutaleb | Published January 25 at 8:09 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted Jan 26, 2020

The newly identified coronavirus that emerged last month from Wuhan, China, sickening more than 1,900 people worldwide and killing at least 56, has sparked growing anxiety and questions: How lethal is the virus? How can it be avoided? Is travel, especially to China, suddenly risky?

HERE IS WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR.

WHAT IS A CORONAVIRUS?

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that range from the common cold to much more serious diseases, according to the World Health Organization. They can infect both humans and animals. The newly emergent strain in China is related to two other coronaviruses that have caused major outbreaks in recent years: MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome, and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The new virus hasn’t been named yet; it’s referred to as “a novel coronavirus.”

HOW DO CORONAVIRUS SPREAD?

In rare cases, coronaviruses can spread from animals, such as camels and bats, to humans. (Household pets are not a threat.) The new virus is believed to have originated from a live animal market in Wuhan. But now it’s clear, health authorities say, that the virus is spreading from person to person — likely through coughing and sneezing or touching an infected surface and then the mouth, nose or eyes, or coming into contact with contaminated fecal matter.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF INFECTION FROM THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS?

Symptoms range from fever, muscle aches, dry cough, runny nose and shortness of breath to much more severe problems such as pneumonia, kidney failure and acute respiratory syndrome. The elderly, young and people with weakened immune systems are at a higher risk of developing acute problems, such as bronchitis and pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HOW DEADLY IS THIS VIRUS AND HOW IS IT TREATED?

So far, the virus appears more serious than the common cold but less dangerous than SARS, public health experts have said. It does not appear to be anywhere near as deadly as Ebola, which is harder to transmit because it requires direct contact with an infected person’s blood or bodily fluids.

Antibiotics don’t work on viruses. There’s no medication for the new coronavirus, though the National Institutes of Health said human vaccine trials could begin within three months. Currently, health-care professionals are focusing on providing “supportive care,” including ensuring patients get plenty of liquids and oxygen.

SHOULD PEOPLE AVOID TRAVELING TO CHINA?

The situation is fluid but getting worse.

The CDC has urged travelers to avoid Wuhan. Several other Chinese cities also are essentially on lockdown. Even places that aren’t quarantined are experiencing disruptions and closures that could affect where travelers go and how they get around. For example, Beijing’s Forbidden City and Shanghai Disneyland have been shuttered, as have many theaters and temples.

Would-be travelers can stay abreast of developments by checking the CDC website and monitoring alerts issued by the State Department and U.S. embassies.

Beijing authorities are restricting the movements of their own people. Officials said all inter-province bus services to and from Beijing would be halted in an effort to contain the outbreak, according to local news reports. In addition, officials are suspending domestic and overseas Chinese group tours, state media reported.

Elsewhere in Asia, cases of infection appear isolated. Nevertheless, more vulnerable travelers, including those who have health issues or are older, should be cleared by a medical professional before departing.

IF SOMEONE CANCELS A TRIP, WILL TRAVEL INSURANCE REFUND THE EXPENSES?

Yes, if the insurance was purchased with the “cancel for any reason” benefit. This optional upgrade for the policy usually has several restrictions, but if the traveler meets the criteria, he or she can recover up to 75 percent of their trip costs. People with standard travel insurance who cancel because of fear of contracting the virus will have to absorb the losses, however. When traveling outside the United States, travelers should be sure they have travel medical insurance that will cover hospital costs if they fall ill while abroad or need to be taken back to the United States.

ARE AIRLINES, HOTELS AND TRAVEL OPERATORS WAIVING CHANGE OR CANCELATION FEES?

Some airlines are. Cathay Pacific passengers who reserved a ticket on or before Jan. 21 can rebook, reroute their flight or receive a refund without penalty for travel through March 31. Air China is also waiving change and cancellation fees for tickets issued by Jan. 31 for travel by March 29. Other airlines that are loosening their rules include United, China Eastern, China Southern and Hainan. Some carriers, however, are taking a wait-and-see approach.

Some hotels also are making it easier to rejigger plans: Hilton, Accor, InterContinental Hotels and Hyatt are easing restrictions, and not just on Wuhan hotels. The waiver covers changes and cancellations at properties throughout China, for travel through early February. To qualify, the booking must have occurred directly through the hotel; otherwise, the third-party agent should be contacted.

Policies vary among tour operators and should be checked.

WHAT'S THE SITUATION AT AIRPORTS?

A large number of airports around the world have established enhanced screening procedures for passengers arriving from Wuhan, and a few countries, including India, are testing passengers arriving from any destination in China. South Korea’s Incheon International Airport is employing ear thermometers. In Japan, arriving passengers must fill out health forms. Australia is distributing pamphlets.

In the United States, the CDC and Customs and Border Protection are overseeing the process at five international airports in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago. Screening for symptoms and elevated temperatures may add a few minutes to the arrival process. Passengers who test positive for coronavirus will be quarantined for further testing by the CDC.

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY FOR TRAVELERS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES BEFORE GOING TO CHINA?

The CDC recommends that everyone get a flu shot and other required vaccinations for their destinations. Any meat consumed should be fully cooked, and hands should be washed frequently and vigorously with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Jesus Gonzalez, a physician with MedStar Health in Washington, recommends that travelers wear medical masks in crowded areas, such as train and bus stations and airports.

WHAT WAS CHINA'S EXPERIENCE WITH SARS AND MERS?

The SARS epidemic began in November 2002, and the virus moved to more than two dozen countries over eight months, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing 774. Health authorities say that “Patient Zero” came in contact with an animal in China’s Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong. The virus was finally contained in summer 2003. Health-care workers made up about 20 percent of the victims in areas hit hard by the disease, according to the World Health Organization. There’s still no cure for the disease, but the initial outbreak was contained by isolating suspected patients and screening passengers traveling from infected areas or those suspected of having symptoms.

MERS emerged in the Middle East in 2012. Scientists say the first infection moved from a camel to a human in Saudi Arabia. The disease has been associated with the death of 790 people since 2012, according to the CDC. Authorities contained the outbreak by isolating patients and warning against contact with camels and camel meat during the scare.

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Coronavirus outbreak underscores potential health risks in China’s wild animal trade

By Simon Denyer | Published January 26 at 2:43 AM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 26, 2020 |

TOKYO — China failed to learn one of the most important lessons of the SARS outbreak 17 years ago, that wild animal markets are a potent breeding ground for disease with the possibility of ailments jumping to humans, health experts say.

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, was thought to have originated in masked palm civets, tree-dwelling mammals native to parts of Asia. The trigger point for the current coronavirus remains unclear, but China has linked the outbreak to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, which despite its name also appeared to be selling live cats and dogs, wild chickens, snakes and marmots.

China implemented controls on wildlife markets after the SARS epidemic, but those controls soon evaporated. The country remains a major consumer of wild and endangered animals for meat, as well as in traditional medicine.

Yuen Kwok-yung at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, one of the authors of a new study on coronavirus and a leading authority on SARS, said the wild animal or game meat trade had obviously been rekindled since the SARS outbreak ended in 2003. The SARS outbreak claimed more than 750 lives in China and other countries.

“This is understandable that change of food or eating culture is always a difficult issue,” he wrote in an email. “But the lesson of this major epidemic is that the life, ecosystem and habitat of wild life must be respected.”

Viruses from wildlife can easily mutate and jump from animals to humans, and then from humans to humans, he said.

“The price of such an epidemic is staggering, and this should not be allowed to happen again.”

Struggling to contain the outbreak, the Chinese government has imposed travel bans on 15 cities in the central Hubei province — effectively placing 48 million people on lockdown — and granted itself wide-ranging emergency powers across the country to enforce blockades, requisition housing and transport, and close businesses and schools.

China has been praised for reacting more swiftly and more transparently to this latest outbreak than with SARS in 2002, when it was widely accused of initially trying to cover up the epidemic.

A study published in the Lancet medical journal Friday confirmed the current outbreak is a new form of coronavirus, which is closest to the SARS-related coronaviruses found in Chinese horseshoe bats.

Some scientists say they believe another species was involved in transmitting the disease to humans, but no consensus has yet emerged on which animal, with theories ranging from snakes to mink.

“Wild animal markets are a petri dish for an epidemic and an unacceptable risk that should be consigned to history as soon as possible,” said Peter Knights of WildAid, a San Francisco-based group that works to end wildlife trade.

“Stress, dehydration, malnourishment, filthy conditions, mixing of species, wild and domestic, are the perfect cocktail to create a new deadly disease, and basing them in urban centers ensures a quick and wide dispersal to a wider world,” he said.

The trade represents a massive risk to human health and economies in parts of Asia as well as in Africa, he said.

“After SARS and now this, China urgently needs a strictly enforced ban on these markets and a massive awareness campaign to reduce demand for bushmeat,” he said.

China has shown it is capable of regulating the illegal wildlife trade when it wants to, banning the ivory trade at the end of 2017 and enforcing a customs crackdown on ivory smuggling.

But a strong lobby within the government, led by the State Forestry Administration, sees wild animals not as something to be protected but generally as a resource that can be utilized.

The Wuhan city government closed the seafood market at the beginning of January after the first cases of coronavirus emerged in people working there.

On the Weibo social media platform, a user posted that the market sold live cats, dogs, wild chickens, snakes and marmots. “There was even a signboard saying that they have live monkeys and deer for sale,” the post said, according to China Daily.

This provides “ideal conditions for the emergence of new viruses that threaten human health, economic stability, and ecosystem health,” Christian Walzer, executive director of health for the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement. “The re-assortment and exchange of viral components between species at live animal markets is seen as the major source of new viruses.”

Walzer cited avian influenza, swine influenza, SARS and MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome, as examples of diseases originating in animals and subsequently transmitted between humans, “creating the conditions for a rapid global pandemic spread.”

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CORRECTION: An error during the editing process meant that an earlier version of this article stated the SARS crisis was eight years ago, the article has been corrected to show that it was 17 years ago.

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CHINA BANS WILD ANIMAL TRADE UNTIL CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC ELIMINATED

By Simon Denyer and Lyric Li | Published January 26 at 6:40 AM EST |

Washington Post | Posted Jan 26, 2020 |

TOKYO — China banned the trade in wild animals on Sunday until the coronavirus epidemic has been eliminated across the country, after evidence emerged that the disease was transmitted to humans through a market in the city of Wuhan that traded in game meat.

Experts say the country is paying a heavy price for the government’s failure to learn one of the most important lessons of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic 17 years ago, that diseases can easily mutate and spread to humans in markets where wild animals, farmed animals and domestic animals are mixed.

The new restrictions ban the transport and sale of wild animals, specifically banning markets, supermarkets, restaurants and e-commerce platforms from trading in any form.

It said inspections would be stepped up, gave a hotline number for members of the public to report illegal wildlife trade and said violations would be dealt with “severely” in accordance with the law.

“Consumers should fully understand the health risks of eating wild animals, stay away from ‘game’ and eat healthily,” said the regulations, which were jointly issued by the Agriculture Ministry, the State Forestry and Grasslands Administration and the State Administration of Market Regulation.

But the regulations will only remain in place while China grapples with the epidemic, raising the question of whether the wildlife trade will be allowed to bounce back later, as it did after an initial clampdown following the SARS outbreak.

Christian Walzer, chief global veterinarian at the Wildlife Conservation Society called the measure an “important first step” but said the ban needs to be permanent.

“The pattern will keep repeating itself until we ban, not only in China, but in other countries, the sale of wildlife, specifically for food and in food markets,” he said in a statement.

SARS was thought to have originated in masked palm civets and traced to a market in southern Guangdong province. It ended up killing more than 750 people in China and elsewhere.

Chinese scientists say the latest coronavirus outbreak appears to have spread from the Huanan Seafood Market in the central city of Wuhan.

Despite its name, the market was selling a huge variety of wild animals for consumption, including live cats and dogs, turtles, snakes, rats, hedgehogs and marmots. Menus and signboards posted online showed a huge variety of wild animals available to eat, including foxes, wolf cubs, monkeys and masked palm civets.

The city government closed the seafood market at the beginning of January after many of the first cases of coronavirus emerged in people working there.

China remains a major consumer of wild and endangered animals for meat, as well as in traditional medicine. But medical and wildlife experts hope this epidemic will help to change attitudes.

In a commentary published Friday, state China Central Television condemned the consumption of wild animals and called the new coronavirus a “game meat virus.”

“It rankles that some people out there are obsessed about game meat and eat to their heart’s content because of gluttony and greed,” it said. “They harvested this evil fruit, making a whole city, a whole country, and even the entire human race pay such a heavy price; and the worst is yet to come.”

The strongly worded piece asked if those “who love to eat, poach, and trade wild animals have been shaken by this, are feeling the least guilty conscience, or have confessed to their wrongdoing deep down,” and lamented the failure to close the illegal trade in wild animals after SARS.

“Some people are still taking chances and opening the Pandora’s box again and again,” it added. “How can we be so forgetful?”

Studies published in the Lancet medical journal on Friday confirmed the disease was closely related to the coronaviruses found in Chinese horseshoe bats, but experts believe another species was involved in transmitting the disease to humans.

Past diseases that have originated in animals and then jumped to humans include Avian Influenza, Swine Influenza, SARS and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome).

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Li reported from Beijing.

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