Wuhan virus.

[Kaz]

So, either the numbers are correct and too much is being made of it or we are not getting the full facts and the reality is quite different. I would not put money against it being the later.

This!

[Suff]

Ossie, Brize Norton is the main Air movements field for the Air Force. They are set up for this. At a time like this it is not overly productive to change these things to avoid a lengthy bus ride.

As for the virus? 17,000 cases, 300 dead. But there is evidence coming out of China that they are burning bodies without checking them for the virus.

WM, feel for you with your daughter. One snippet I saw today might help. Every confirmed death already had a heart or respiratory ailment.

Cold comfort but something to hold onto.

Interestingly, on my flight to Limoges this weekend, only one person with a mask on going out, only saw two in the Airport at Stansted on the way back in.

[Workingman]

Everyone: re Becks.

She is currently in Nha Trang about 250km from Ho Chi Min city in the South due to the Lunar holidays. Unfortunately when she gets back to Hanoi the schools are shut so she has a much reduced income. Mum and I are sending her funds to tide her over and keeping fingers crossed, but she is not in panic mode as yet. Things seem to be limping along without any signs of major disruptions to transport, shops etc. The one thing we have impressed upon her to do is get in two weeks worth of canned ready-to-eat meals, breakfast bars, bottled water and so on so that if people do have to self-isolate she has things in. We hope that it will not come to that but it's better to be safe than sorry.

[Workingman]

We are still not getting the full facts.

Today it has been announced that a third person in the UK has tested positive and has been isolated, but we do not know when or where only that they caught it outside of the UK. How is that known? The statement from the DofH suggest that they know where it was caught, so why not tell us? What is there to hide?

The one bit of reasonable news is that despite it being caught by 28,018 worldwide and that it has killed 565 the death rate is still stubbornly below 3:1,000, assuming the figures to be true.

[Suff]

We do know that anyone who dies before being detected is not being tested. They just cremate them.

That report has already made it out.

So we really have no clue what the death rate is.

[TheOstrich]

The statement from the DofH suggest that they know where it was caught, so why not tell us? What is there to hide?

There seems to be an implication that it was either Malaysia or Singapore. I think they announced that they are now going to start testing arrivals from those countries.

At the end of the day, I fail to understand the WHO's reluctance to call it a pandemic. The sooner they declare it a worldwide emergency, the sooner international funds will be released to tackle it.

UPDATE - Singapore, per the Beeb.

[saundra]

Saw a leaked report that it's actually 24,000 who have died
Know I wouldn't be surprised actually because someone isent telling the truth
Hope you're daughter is ok WM

[cromwell]

There was a shock horror report on Look North that some Chinese people are being verbally abused because of the corona virus. Quelle horreur!
I think in the circumstances a little slack needs to be cut, perhaps. When people get worried and upset they do tend to lash out.

[Workingman]

Apparently some wazzock, somewhere, phoned 999 because they felt ill after eating a Chinese...These people are allowed to vote!

Could it be that in conjunction with the media and having used words like 'deadly' and 'pandemic' to put the frighteners on us the authorities are now fearful of creating panic where none should exist?

Hence the delay in stating where the latest positive test occurred and where the victim had come from.

[Kaz]

There are already reports of prejudice against Asian people because of this. On our local Bristol news, a Chinese supermarket has encountered problems, and I read on a news page one poor woman who runs a market stall in Aldeburgh has been told she "should leave" She's been there for fifteen years!