It’s Probably Nothing

Just like they do for the flu: Chinese medical staff request international medical assistance

The conditions and environment here in Wuhan are more difficult and extreme than we could ever have imagined. There is a severe shortage of protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, face shields, goggles, gowns, and gloves. The goggles are made of plastic that must be repeatedly cleaned and sterilised in the ward, making them difficult to see through. Due to the need for frequent hand washing, several of our colleagues’ hands are covered in painful rashes. As a result of wearing an N95 respirator for extended periods of time and layers of protective equipment, some nurses now have pressure ulcers on their ears and forehead. When wearing a mask to speak with patients, our voices are muted, so we have to speak very loudly. Wearing four layers of gloves is abnormally clumsy and does not work—we can’t even open the packaging bags for medical devices, so giving patients injections is a huge challenge. In order to save energy and the time it takes to put on and take off protective clothing, we avoid eating and drinking for 2 hours before entering the isolation ward. Often, nurses’ mouths are covered in blisters. Some nurses have fainted due to hypoglycaemia and hypoxia.

It’s not alarmist to keep a solid supply of non-perishables on hand.

Instapundit has a daily roundup of Coronavirus news.

h/t James

35 Replies to “It’s Probably Nothing”

    1. Who needs bottled water when you can fill pots with snow in the Great White North; just bring them in and let them melt, eh?
      You didn’t think that was a pic of a Chinese grocery did you?
      Chinese markets look Middle Ages with cages and a few industrial(not food service grade) accouterments strewn about here and there.

      1. If you think China doesn’t have supermarkets like we do, you haven’t been attention. Millions of Chinese have new cars and Apple products … they don’t shop at the village wet market.

        The other 1.2 billion might be shopping at a medieval market, yes.

    2. Wait! Sorry. I just remembered that Black Beard hangs out in the Caribbean. Too warm for snow, eh Eddie? Yo Ho Ho! Eh?
      I’m sure that as a pirate you already know the trick of using a cloth to wring potable water out of the fish you get from the sea, so you’re just jake.

  1. blah blah blah

    Meanwhile number of active cases decreases every day as # recovered is greater than # of new cases.

    And percent survival rates continue to increase.

    But go ahead and lose your minds that the world is coming to an end. You are no different than the enviro-crazies convinced the world is about to end.

    1. When one stops testing, one magically has a lower amount of new cases. And it’s not really even the disease that is worrying, it’s the economic fallout. Anyone who doesn’t see this is seriously not paying attention. Good luck.

    2. Well, you can’t detect a new case symptomatically for 14 days or so. And, with a growth factor of two to three, easily 16,000 aditional new infections could be right on the horizon per every single new event. So… I’d keep my powder dry if I were you.

      Remember this thing went from 1 to 80,000 (and its actually foolish to think the numbers in China are that low). If governments were not quarantining and restricting travel, the number would easily be 80 million with 64,000 dead.

      Does that make any sense to you?

      From your comments one can draw any one of three conclusions:
      A) You are an idiot.
      B) You are a shit stirrer.
      C) You’re both an idiot and a shit stirrer.

    3. “Meanwhile number of active cases decreases every day as # recovered is greater than # of new cases.”

      Bullshit. Cases from places that report accurately keep going up SK is 1.6K, Italy approaches 500 those are the two outbreaks where the government can be reasonably trusted to make shit up.
      Japan approaches 200, HK and Singapore about 100 each.
      Tehran Turbans are still trying to hide the real magnitude while their minister is coughing shit up. Yet even there the numbers are growing.
      US is at 60 cases and now they have no idea where the last California case came from, apparently had no connection with existing cases and no overseas travel.
      Another Iranian case in Moronto.
      Still no numbers from most of highly populated shitholes around the planet.
      The louder you keep crying “nothing to see here” the more obvious it is that your full of shit.

  2. Re: Empty shelves. Are you sure the photo wasn’t taken in the Weight Watcher’s section??

    Let’s not forget the millions of computers that were going to crash at midnight, 2000. The lights and the heat were going to go out, the world was coming to an end.
    Conclusion: Nothing happened.

    1. Ummm no. It is because we prepared for Y2K that “nothing” happened. There were some isolated cases of unpatched databases crashing but that just makes my point.

      My friend working at TransAlta had two weeks of food stored at their location. This was the power company. My neighbour the cop couldn’t take Christmas time off and here’s the kicker – in 2039 we will have the same thing happen again.

      If you don’t know what I am referring to, then do your homework before spouting off.

    2. Okay, you do nothing to prepare for a possible shut-down while I stock up on non perishables, water and bullets.

      When you come begging at my door I will offer the latter.

      With things as they are in this world, it’s wise to always be prepared for the worst. That is uncommon sense, but when it pays off, it pays off bigly.

  3. Yeah but since Donald Trump says the risk is very low, I choose to blindly believe everything will be OK.

    1. ” I choose to blindly believe everything will be OK”

      It’ll feel natural for you just to add it to all the other things you blindly believe. Stay gold, Pony Boy.

      1. Let me guess, the world is 7000 years old and you were like 85% sure Obama was/is the anti-christ? Get some self-awareness son.

        1. Let me guess you mock another persons belief based on unproven “science”.

          It is actually greater faith to believe earth is millions If not billions of years old.

        2. Wrong about the my world beliefs and ask Kenji around me taking him to task when he said Obama was the anti-Christ.
          Since the Messiah(Christ is the Greek word) is a Jewish concept, the anti-Christ has to fit the prophesies about the Jewish Messiah which prophesies tell the Jews that their Messiah is of course…wait for it…a Jew! Obama ain’t a Jew.
          Obama’s just a bad guy. Like 85% sure he’s a Muslim.

    2. Okay, Andrew …. The risk in the USA is low at this time. However, time marches on, it could get bad. Trump is handling this very well.

      The total asshole that sits in the PM’s office handles nothing. So before you criticize Trump, try criticizing our asshole PM do nothing PM.

  4. Trump has said he will quarantine entire cities if it is called for but he doesn’t think it will happen. Meanwhile 83 people in New York are under self quarantine. Canada has had two cases in from Iran. This means likely four others that think they have a little cold walking around in Vancouver and another four in Toronto.

  5. I think it’s good advice to prepare for an emergency well before hand. It doesn’t mean I’m paranoid or panicking, just prepared. And I’m fortunate in that I know a couple of hoarders in the area who have probably enough canned food to keep two people alive and well for a year. Neither believes in private ownership of firearms, nor owns one.

    As there are about 60,000 Canadians of convenience in the Middle East, I wonder if the federal government will charter planes or even cruise ships to bring Our Fellow Canadians home? I may start a petition.

  6. ” I wonder if the federal government will charter planes or even cruise ships to bring Our Fellow Canadians home?”

    Why not? But first they should erect a tent city on Bonaventure Island to accommodate them.

  7. Best read up on Pandemic Quarantine. Not your regular quarantine. Pandemic Quarantines last 3-12 months.

  8. Jamaica refused a Miami based cruise ship scheduled to dock there. Refused in Grand Cayman as well.

    It getting interesting and I suspect it will ramp up very fast once panic sets in.

  9. Saw a few fellow preppers at the store so it’s slowly starting. One guy filled a shopping cart full of canned goods. They were out of bleach too.

    1. Seems like the run on (useless) N95 masks is long done. Hand sanitizer is in short supply. Many people are oblivious because a Zamboni driver beat the Leafs or Orange Man Bad.

  10. A failure to plan is a plan to fail. But for those who think extra canned goods is panicking, thankyou. It makes it easier for those of us who know the sun doesn’t always shine to stock up.
    But if you change your mind or think, I’ll just take it from those Rainy Day Bastards, we have ammo too. Its only 35 bucks for 525 rounds of .22LR.

  11. My co worker just got back from Milan, he said those pictures of the markets are accurate. The perishables have not been restocked due to some towns on lockdown. They don’t want the food to spoil with lack of customers.
    All schools, museums, public and tourist places In Italy are closed until further notice. He was on a training course at an aviation academy and it was shut down. He has to return to finish the course, as there was still a week of tuition remaining.
    He also mentioned a cruise ship in Venice that has 7000 pax on board, not being let off.

  12. This is much ado about nothing. As Sun Tzu said, “In chaos, there is opportunity” The media is stirring up
    panic with this outbreak. The Daily Caller reported that the 3M N95 valved dust masks (let’s call it what it
    really is) are going for ten thousand dollars+ per ten pack. eBay is selling the same product for 150 dollars.
    Granted these dust/surgical masks are high-end and even if price gouging is going on, there is no evidence
    of it reaching crisis levels.

    If this virus spreads beyond China to other third world countries, things will get very ugly very fast (how is
    that socialized medicine working now?) In other parts of Asia, and Africa where modern medicine is not
    even available, there will be problems aplenty, but not so much in the western world. We have seen this
    hysteria before. E-Bola in Africa where fears of a worldwide pandemic never materialized. It crops up,
    kills a few hundred Africans and goes dormant for a year. The Avian Flu (also from China) infected under
    900 people in China and other Asian nations with a 53 percent mortality rate. This is a measure of the lack of
    modern medical care in these countries. The virus fizzled out (mostly on its own.

    An American pharmaceutical company is working on this virus and is predicting clinical trials by April.
    If you want to make a ton of money, I would suggest buying stock in this country. Despite the most
    advanced medical care in the world, more people die from generic Flu’s in America than anything we
    are seeing with the Corona Virus to date. Every pandemic scare in recent years never materialized.

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