Silver Supporter
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Next, it's apparently done a fairly effective job at spreading and killing. Wouldn't you agree?
Not even remotely do I agree. It has been very effective at causing panic. It has not proven to be nowhere near as virulent as has been suggested by the...more progressive SHTF'ers. It has definitely not proven to be as deadly, either.
The epicenter is, very coincidentally, Wuhan China...If we accept the numbers, and nobody does, 75000 were infected. ~20,000 cases resolved, and over 2200 dead. So an 11% fatality rate based on figures so far. Spread pretty effectively effected and killed nearly as many as 9/11/01, and their economy is going to be badly injured. Seems like a effective weapon to me... And those figures are probably really under-reported and I've seen models suggesting many times infection and death numbers.
Wuhan, China...a population of over 11 million people. And only how many infected and how many dead? Even if you triple your own numbers? How much of the populace is that for Wuhan, China? After 3 months and a piss-poor, slow reaction by the government, and it's people didn't know to try to protect themselves? Doesn't spread very well in my opinion, especially for a supposed bio weapon, and no where lethal enough, either. As an easier way to grasp this, we have 1 confirmed case in WA...and still only 1 confirmed case in WA even though this patient had contact with over a dozen people. This was the 1st case in the US.
It is aerosol, according to experts. It has spread into and thru quarantined cabins on cruise ships, and across hotel floors thru sewage lines and the only explanation is aerosol. It has incubated for up to 24 days in some cases. And it has survived a reported 9 days exposed to air. It has high critical care rate, ~20% according to published figures. That ties up medical resources. It has a 11% fatality rate, making it very deadly. This combination makes it a very desirable bio-weapon. Maybe not the best ever made, but remarkably effective from my foxhole.
This is all half-truth and no-truth. It is airborne only in the sense of water droplets expelled by infected. It is not airborne in the true sense of being able to survive in a dry form, like Anthrax is. It is not persistent. Measles can last up to 2 hours in a room after an infected person leaves it. This virus, like ALL OTHER COMMON VIRUSES can persist longer on porous surfaces, but it will die after just minutes of airborne exposure. It is sensitive to all disinfectants and UV light. The critical care rates are all just guesses. There are NO published figures outside of the official Chinese ones that you so vehemently distrust (with good reason). The fatality rate is also just a guess, and I would say not even a best-guess but rather a worst-case scenario guess.
Next point, in ALL of China, which is a massive nation, isn't it just remarkable that this really nasty virus with excellent bioweapon qualities could originate anywhere in the world with overcrowding and dirty cities and bats. Yet Wuhan is the epicenter. What a remarkable coincidence.
Asia, of which the majority belongs to China, has been the source of many pandemics in human history. Mostly it is been explained due to bird migrations. Do you know that when scientists develop the flu vaccine which they have to do every single year since, unlike this virus, it mutates rapidly, they study China to guess what it will be next year? Why might that be? The last "big" outbreaks all started in China, and had the same worldwide scares associated with them. SARS and Avian Flu. There will be more in the future to panic about, so don't get too depressed this one will fizzle.
Yeah, I know no one that is buying into this stuff likes to hear the comparison to the seasonal flu. "This one is way more deadly" they say. That may be, but the flu is waaaaay more contagious, and they develop vaccines for it. Take this season for example. The influenza B is particularly deadly, and this outbreak is one of the deadliest on record. However, the vaccines for both Influenza A and Influenza B were accurate for this season's virus and very effective. And still, over 10,000 Americans have died to it this year so far. Because it happens every year, it doesn't make the sensationalist news like a super-tacticool new, novel virus does. Hard to cause panic when the rest of the world would say, "it's the flu, no big deal."
You don't give China enough credit for bioweapons development. If they were so backward, un-technological, and unsophisticated, how come they own so much US debt? How come they have a nuclear arsenal? How do their submarines not sink? How can their hackers be so effective? Don't underestimate China. It is a huge mistake. Their people are as, if not more, patriotic than we are. They don't completely buy the current regime, but in China, you don't like the current government, just wait for the next dynasty to come along. With the newfound wealth and relative freedoms people are now enjoying there, and the realization that Mao is now longer 100% right, but just 70% right, and the dissatisfaction of long-time party members, massive corruptions and scandals, and the democracy now movement, China is a dangerous place.