Fluhan from Wushan: What is the straight scoop?

When you need to get the whole story, who do you turn to? The many different news outlets and the amount of information circulating create a hodgepodge of conflicting stories.  Add to that the poor journalism (i.e., Yahoo News, Huffpost) and any accompanying bias and the news becomes more like the buffet spread at a Vegas restaurant--you pick and choose what is news.  Journalists once staked their reputation on their work.  But in our day of anonymity, or in some cases, fake journalists, its difficult to know who you can trust.

There are "different" stories circulating about the Wushan virus--what I will call "Fluhan" (for the purpose of identification this coronavirus as different and distinct from the previous outbreaks like SARS and MERS and the cold/flu like symptoms associated with it).  Fluhan by most accounts was contracted from the Huanan seafood market in Wushan sometime in late December.  Another account pushes the timeline back further to November and states that it was not contracted from exotic animals from the market since one of the first Chinese who contracted Fluhan had no contact with the market.  Some may even go so far as to call it biological terrorism to inflict damage to the Chinese economy because of the trade/tax issues with the U.S. (for all those conspiracy theorists out there).  And I'm sure there are many more stories that contribute to the disinformation.  So who do we get the straight scoop from? 

At least we are not left in the dark regarding the virus.  Most of that information can be found in medical journals.  The past outbreaks originated from animal hosts (a topic that will be dealt with in a forthcoming post).  MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) is believed to come from camels; SARS-Cov (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus) is believed to come from civet cats (which looks less like a cat and more like a raccoon).  The origin of both is thought to bats; the mutated virus in its host is the cause of the cross-species transmission.  One recent study claims the origin of the 2019-nCoV ("Fluhan") originated in snakes (see https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jmv.25682).

For now, it's a waiting game here in China.  We are on lock-down (all of our apartment block exits are closed except for one and the government is dissuading any gathering of people--even for church) waiting for news to return to life as usual--unless the narrative changes and the virus turns people to zombies.

China and the coronavirus

Word got back to us today that people are dying in the streets in China.  Chalk it up to the Chinese New Year or the fear of an outbreak, the streets were a bit empty, and of the few that were out and about, none were down and out. 

Some news sources indicate that China is not doing all it can to deal with the spread of the coronavirus--others claim China has done too little too late.  From this side of the world, we see the opposite. 

First, most citizens are part of communities (similar to housing tracks in the U.S.), at least here in Yantai.  The community is made up of many apartment buildings and have two to three gated/guarded exits.  Our community alone houses 1000+ people.  As of the 25th, flyers were posted on doors informing the community of the health risk and numbers to call in case of an emergency.  There was also a blurb about limiting exposure to crowds and leaving the community on an as-needed basis. A few of the pedestrian gates were closed forcing us to walk by the guard gate.  There was a sign-in table for those entering.  So the community has done a pretty good job informing and regulating traffic in and out of the community.

Second, many are conscious here about the risk of public exposure.  I recall two people out of the hundreds that we passed did not have face masks. 

Third, upon entering the market/mall (often the grocery markets are in the malls), we were greeted with an employee with a digital thermometer.  The entrances were limited to two and the exits were guarded.  Even McDonald's street-side entrance/exit was closed though the mall-side entrance/exit remained open.  All employees that I saw wore face masks. 

Simi Valley had a fire in the late 90's that seemingly surrounded the valley.  My mom received a call from her mom in another state pleading for her to get the family out.  Their interpretation of the news was that Simi was surrounded on all sides by the fire and the exits out were hazardous at best.  In reality, breathing the smoke and ash posed more of a hazard than the threat of fire.  Sometimes things look worse from the outside looking in.  China has done what I would expect of a country faced with such a crisis; and from what I "hear," Wuhan is in lock-down mode to the point where streets are torn up to prevent people from leaving--whether that's true or not, that's what we are hearing!