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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:53:47 GMT
 The element dem in epidemic, endemic, and pandemic comes from the ancient Greek word demos, which meant people or district:epi (among) + demos = epidemic
en (in) + demos = endemic
pan (all) + demos = pandemicAn epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time:
Endemic is an adjective that refers to a disease or condition regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.
A disease becomes pandemic when it spreads beyond a region to infect large numbers of people worldwide:
The word epidemic is also used to refer to an occurrence of any undesirable phenomenon:
Teen Prescription Drug Abuse: A National Epidemic
Don’t panic, the teenage pregnancy epidemic is over!
Factors Contributing to the Youth Violence Epidemic
An Epidemic of Stupidity is Sweeping America |
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:54:13 GMT
This is a fascinating education on this topic happening today. The world has an investment in making sure people are eating safe foods. Our globe is too small to take these kinds of chances. It is a matter of national security. The civet (above), a mammal in the mongoose family, was a carrier of another coronavirus — SARS. But it turned out in that instance that bats were the original source of the virus. Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL via Getty Images New Coronavirus 'Won't Be The Last' Outbreak To Move From Animal To HumanFebruary 5, 20203:36 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
DAVE DAVIES
38-Minute Listen ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2020/02/20200205_fa_01.mp3?orgId=427869011&topicId=1031&d=2280&p=13&story=802938289&siteplayer=true&size=36412440&dl=1The new strain of coronavirus that has killed hundreds of people in China and caused a travel lockdown of some 56 million people has been classified as a "zoonosis" because of the way it spreads from animals to humans.
Science writer David Quammen says the virus, which the World Health Organization last week declared a global health emergency, is just the latest example of how pathogens that start in animals are migrating to humans with increasing frequency — and with deadly consequences.
"When there's an animal host, then it becomes much, much more difficult to eradicate or even control an infectious virus," Quammen says. "This novel coronavirus — whether or not it turns out to be a huge catastrophe, or something we can control — one thing we know is that it won't be the last."
Quammen's 2012 book, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, traces the rise of different zoonoses around the world, including AIDS, Ebola and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). He says that one of the first questions that arise with any zoonosis pertains to the animal host: How is it being transmitted?
In the case of the new coronavirus, researchers believe that the virus may have originated with horseshoe bats in China and then could have possibly spread to other animals — which people then ate.
Quammen notes that humans are the common link in all zoonoses: "We humans are so abundant and so disruptive on this planet. ... We're cutting the tropical forests. We're building work camps in those forests and villages. We're eating the wildlife," he says. "You go into a forest and you shake the trees — literally and figuratively — and viruses fall out."
Quammen says that the new coronavirus should be taken seriously. But he also warns against panic: "Being educated and understanding it and being ready to respond and support government response is very useful. Panicking and putting on your surgical mask every time you go on a subway ride, an airplane, is not nearly as useful."
Interview highlights
On wild animal "wet" markets where viruses can mix
When I was in southern China researching [Spillover], only briefly, I got to see some of these markets where all forms of wild animals were on sale. ... By the time I got there, [these sorts of markets] had gone underground ... suppressed after the SARS outbreak. But then [the markets] gradually came back ... allowed to continue again and proliferate when this new virus began.
If you go into a live market, you see cages containing bats stacked upon cages containing porcupines, stacked upon cages containing palm civets, stacked upon cages containing chickens. And hygiene is not great, and the animals are defecating on one another. It's just a natural mixing-bowl situation for viruses. It's a very, very dangerous situation. And one of the things that it allows is ... the occurrence of "amplifying hosts" .
On the theory that palm civets were "amplifier hosts" for the 2003 SARS outbreak
The civet is a type of mammal that belongs to the family of mongooses. But it's a medium-sized animal, and it is both captured from the wild for food and captive-bred and raised for food, and it was the first big suspect in the SARS outbreak. It was found that some of the people who got sick very early on had eaten butchered civet. And they tested some civets, and they found evidence of the virus. They found antibodies or fragments of DNA or RNA in these civets, suggesting that they had been infected with the virus. And that didn't prove they were the reservoir host, but it made them the No. 1 suspect, until a couple of Chinese scientists did further work and they established that, in fact, the virus was not living permanently in the civet population in the wild or in captivity. It [had] a different reservoir host. It was living in bats and had passed, presumably, at a market somewhere. It had passed from a bat into one or more civets, and they became the amplifier host. ...
Thousands of civets in captivity were butchered and electrocuted and smothered and drowned in this first, panicked blind reaction in China to the SARS outbreak.
On why bats are often hosts for viruses
Bats are implicated in what seems to be more than their share [of zoonoses]. There are a lot of different species of bats. One-quarter of all mammal species are bats. But there are other things [special] about them — including aspects of their immune system. There have been some discoveries lately that bat immune systems are "downregulated" in a certain way that allows for the metabolic stresses of being a mammal that flies. And the downregulating of the immune system to avoid overreaction to those stresses seems, perhaps, also to create an environment in which viruses are more tolerated in bats than in other mammals.
On how coronaviruses have evolved through different species
One of the reasons SARS could adapt from bat to civet to human is the fact that it is a coronavirus, which is a group of viruses that are very readily adaptable. Experts call that intrinsic evolvability. Their rate of mutation is very high when they copy themselves. Their genome contains a lot of mistakes, and that represents mutations that are sort of the random raw material for Darwinian evolution. So viruses that have high mutation rates are able to evolve quickly and adapt quickly. And coronaviruses ... have that characteristic.
On more public investment and research on new viruses
This is absolutely a matter of need for more public investment, more public education, adequately funding, richly funding our CDC, the disease programs through the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Health Organization, the equivalent organizations in Great Britain, France, China ... and the other institutions and countries around the world. Yes, we need to be training scientists who will become virus hunters, who will go into those caves in those forests doing the hard, dangerous work and will go into the laboratories doing the molecular work to help us identify these viruses. And we need our public health officials to be ready with resources and information to deal with these outbreaks — by containment, contact tracing, quarantine [and], when it's necessary, isolation. We need more resources, and we need more skills.
Lauren Krenzel and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz and Molly Seavy-Nesper adapted it for the Web.
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:54:41 GMT
Thirteen Dead Gorillas: Emerging Diseases and the Next Human Pandemic : David Quammen at TEDxBozeman
TEDx Talks
23M subscribers
David Quammen talks about scary new emerging diseases—such as Ebola, SARS, bird flu, AIDS—and where they emerge from: wildlife. Most are caused by viruses. The phenomenon, when such a virus passes from wild animals into people, is called spillover. Two factors account for the increasing risk of spillovers that may lead to pandemics: disruption (of diverse ecosystems) and connectivity (of the global human population). This is our future.
Spillover - Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:55:08 GMT
FEAR TAKES HOLD
Coronavirus: Third UK patient 'caught coronavirus in Singapore' - BBC News
Desperation sets in aboard quarantined cruise ship l ABC News
Cruise ship quarantined off Hong Kong amid coronavirus outbreak | DW News
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:55:35 GMT
Dane Wigington, in an interview said there is a research lab in Wuhan China that experiments with dangerous bacteria and virus strains. Not hearing anything about this in the corporate mainstream news. This is the area where the latest pandemic corona virus originated....ground zero.
[Coronavirus Special] "Systematic Problems with China's Virus Research Labs" - Tim Trevan
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:56:03 GMT
Get the facts on coronavirus
CBC News
1.76M subscribers
Information about the coronavirus outbreak is spreading fast, but what do we actually know about the illness? CBC News medical contributor and family physician Dr. Peter Lin breaks down the facts about what it is, where it came from, how it spreads and what you can do to protect yourself.
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:56:44 GMT
Keep in mind this CONSERVATIVE administration under Trump has been cutting and deregulating government programs that are important to our health and safety. These are programs that once cut cannot just be turned back on magically if a Democrat comes in and reverses Trump's and the Conservatives cuts. It could take YEARS to get back to where they were. Never mind the Cons and Trump never gave us that big beautiful health care plan they promised OR that they are actively looking to cut Social Security and Medicare. Americans will become sitting ducks when the next pandemic strikes. And many of these virulent diseases are popping up because they are directly related to climate change, which all conservatives deny is happening. Is our planet and our health worth giving 2 trillion in tax cuts to the 1% that will have the means to protect themselves while the rest of us are dying in the streets?
VOTE BLUE 2020!ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/5641/conservatism-destroys-planet-power-politicsMeanwhile the Trump Trolls are gearing up their disinformation campaign war to help the GOP steal another presidential election.
ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/6836/political-disinformation-war-2020
 Trump's fund-slashing prevents the CDC from fighting outbreaks like coronavirus
By Linda J. Bilmes www.mic.com/p/trumps-fund-slashing-prevents-the-cdc-from-fighting-outbreaks-like-coronavirus-21769152
Feb 3, 2020
As coronavirus continues to spread, the Trump administration has declared a public health emergency and imposed quarantines and travel restrictions. However, over the past three years the administration has weakened the offices in charge of preparing for and preventing this kind of outbreak.
Two years ago, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates warned that the world should be “preparing for a pandemic in the same serious way it prepares for war." Gates, whose foundation has invested heavily in global health, suggested staging simulations, war games, and preparedness exercises to simulate how diseases could spread and to identify the best response.
The Trump administration has done exactly the opposite: It has slashed funding for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its infectious disease research. For fiscal year 2020, Trump proposed cutting the CDC budget by $1.3 billion, nearly 20% below the 2019 level.
As a specialist in budgeting, I recognize that there are many claims on public resources. But when it comes to public health, I believe it is vital to invest early in prevention. Starving the CDC of critical funding will make it far harder for the government to react quickly to a public health emergency.
As of Jan. 31, 2020, cases of 2019-nCoV had been confirmed in China and 25 other countries. CDC
Cutting funds and staff
Every year since taking office, Trump has asked for deep cuts into research on emerging diseases — including the CDC’s small center on emerging and “zoonotic” infectious diseases that jump the species barrier from animals to humans. The new coronavirus is just the latest example of these threats.
The CDC’s program focuses on infectious diseases ranging from foodborne illnesses to anthrax and Ebola. It manages laboratory, epidemiologic, analytic and prevention programs, and collaborates with state and local health departments, other federal government agencies, industry and foreign ministries of health.
In 2018, Trump tried to cut $65 million from this budget – a 10% reduction. In 2019, he sought a 19% reduction. For 2020, he proposed to cut federal spending on emerging infectious and zoonotic diseases by 20%. This would mean spending $100 million less in 2020 to study how such diseases infect humans than the U.S. did just two years ago.
Congress reinstated most of this funding, with bipartisan support. But the overall level of appropriations for relevant CDC programs is still 10% below what the U.S. spent in 2016, adjusting for inflation.
Dr. James Wilson, who led the team that provided warning of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, describes the need for global infectious disease forecasting.
Even worse, in 2018 the administration disbanded its own global health security team, which was supposed to make the U.S. more resilient to the threat of epidemics. This unfortunate decision was part of a reorganization that former national security adviser John Bolton carried out shortly after arriving at the White House.
There is no wall high enough to keep virulent pathogens from crossing national borders, and when they emerge there is a potential for widespread illness and death.
Bolton eliminated the National Security Council’s global health security and biodefense directorate, and reshuffled its team of world-class infectious disease experts. In response, two highly respected leaders in the field — Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, the NSC’s senior director for global health security and biodefense, and Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert — left the White House.
Under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Ziemer had served as the U.S. point person for a coordinated global anti-malaria campaign that helped reduce deaths from the disease by 60% over 15 years. In 2016 he estimated that funding initiatives to reduce malaria generated a 36 to 1 return on investment because it averted so many deaths and debilitating illnesses.
In 2018 Ziemer was instrumental in fighting the reemergence of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, traveling there and working with public health officials to reduce the spread of the dreaded disease.
A clear and present danger
There is no wall high enough to keep virulent pathogens from crossing national borders, and when they emerge there is a potential for widespread illness and death.
Containing the first major Ebola epidemic in 2014-2016, which killed 11,000 people in West Africa, required an enormous global effort. Only 11 patients were treated for Ebola in the U.S., but that was because President Obama took the threat seriously, appointing an “Ebola czar” to coordinate U.S. preparedness and assistance.
Now that the White House has evicted the NSC’s global health security experts, it is not clear who in the Trump administration will be responsible for coordinating U.S. efforts in the event of a global pandemic.
The new coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, has already spread to 25 countries. The CDC has confirmed that person-to-person transmission has occurred in the U.S. It will take a large-scale effort to contain this outbreak, and battling the virus requires money.
Dr. Nancy Sullivan of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases briefs President Barack Obama on Ebola research, Dec. 2, 2014. NIH, CC BY
Although the Gates Foundation and other charities give away billions of dollars to promote public health, such gifts are no substitute for the kind of specific, targeted scientific research into emerging diseases that the CDC and other federal agencies are uniquely designed to conduct. Fighting epidemics also requires planning to prepare and coordinate with hospitals, medical professionals, pharmacies, airlines, local government and the general public, which also requires funding.
President Trump recently signed a $738 billion dollar defense budget – the highest level since World War II. It creates a new Space Force and funds research into dozens of remotely possible military threats. Relative to defense spending, the $6.5 billion CDC budget is tiny. But as I see it, deadly global pandemics and emerging biological and viral threats pose an equal or greater threat to our national security.
As climate change warms the Earth, thousands of long-frozen dormant diseases are defrosting. And the World Health Organization reports that 75% of all emerging pathogens over the past decade are zoonotic diseases, most of which are understudied. As Bill Gates warned in 2018, “If history has taught us anything, it’s that there will be another deadly global pandemic.” I believe the U.S. must allocate more resources to research, detection and global prevention and communication efforts, not less.
This article was originally published on The Conversation by Linda J. Bilmes. Read the original article here theconversation.com/the-trump-administration-has-made-the-u-s-less-ready-for-infectious-disease-outbreaks-like-coronavirus-130983
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:57:14 GMT
The Heat: Coronavirus Outbreak
Wuhan coronavirus kills doctor who warned of outbreak
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:57:43 GMT
Word has it over 100 or more bodies per day are being cremated when dying from the corona virus
Funeral Van outside of Wuhan Hospital piling up with body bags | NTDTV
41,377 views•Feb 4, 2020
A local resident at China's #coronavirus outbreak epicenter filmed body bags piled up in a funeral home van—and got arrested for releasing the video. Be warned—some people may find the images distressing.
At first, local resident Fang Bin saw 3 body bags piled inside the van at the city's number 5 hospital.
"Jeez, so many dead bodies, three, three body bags, bodies inside."
Fang Bin then went to the inpatient department. Three minutes later, he returned to the van and found 5 more bodies.
"I filmed the body bags inside the van of Wuchang Funeral Home just a while ago, now there’s even more. There were only three body bags, now let me count ... body bags ... 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, eight body bags, jeez."
Fang Bin later went inside the hospital and saw a man dying on a hospital bed with his distressed son out of breath from grief.
Bin’s video went viral, but later the same day, the police arrived and arrested him.
Before being taken away, Bin quickly posted videos he took of the arrest online. He was released around midnight—After his videos began getting global attention.
This month, Chinese funeral associations and several funeral companies are asking for help.
A funeral home staff member told The Economic Observer that body bags and other supplies are in short supply, raising questions about the reported death toll.
#china #wuhan
908 dead, more than 40-thousand cases of coronavirus confirmed in China
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:58:14 GMT
An organized, decent health care system could have prevented a lot of this. I lost family to this flu. Grandma's younger brother who was a WWI soldier.
1918 Spanish Flu historical documentary | Swine Flu Pandemic | Deadly plague of 1918
Chromosome8
4.72K subscribers
Historical documentary about 1918 Swine Flu or Spanish Flu and the role of World War I in spreading the disease among troops making it into a worldwide plague of devastating proportions. The video covers where it began, how and where it spread, the symptoms, how it affected America and whether it could happen again.
WE HEARD THE BELLS: The Influenza of 1918 (DOCUMENTARY)
PizzaFlix
292K subscribers
A FIlm by Lisa Laden, and narrated by S. Epatha Merkerson
Meet the survivors who describe what it was like to live through the 1918 flu pandemic. Why did it kill so many people? Why were so many of the dead young adults? Where did this lethal flu come from? And most important, how can we keep a pandemic like this from occurring again?
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:58:53 GMT
Coronavirus: Video from China shows screaming woman being placed in metal box by quarantine workersRory Sullivan www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-video-china-shows-screaming-144328755.html
The Independent February 13, 2020, 7:43 AM MST
The metal box on the back of a pick-up truck used to transport a suspected coronavirus victim to a designated quarantine area: Twitter
A video has emerged on social media showing a suspected coronavirus victim in China screaming as she is placed inside a metal container and taken away to quarantine.
The footage shows the woman hugging her partner on the street before they are led by men in pink hazmat suits into the box, which is on the back of a pick-up truck. Her screams can then be heard after the door is closed.
It was confirmed as genuine by Global Times, a Chinese state media outfit linked to the People's Daily. It interviewed a Communist Party official in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, where it said the quarantined woman had travelled after visiting Wuhan in January.
In a video posted to Twitter, Global Times said the unnamed woman had contacted authorities to inform them of her recent travel, and that "she agreed on the phone to be quarantined in a designated quarantine area”.
The official, named only as Ms You, conceded that the woman had had “an emotional outburst” on her way to quarantine.
When asked about the choice of transport by the media outlet, Ms You said that an “iron shed” had been set up so that “suspected patients don’t have to sit in the rain”.
The woman was not forced into the box even though police were present as a precaution, both Global Times and Ms You insisted.
Similar videos have surfaced since coronavirus was first identified in China in December last year, with authorities still struggling to contain the disease.
The virus has killed more than 1,350 people so far, greatly exceeding the 774 deaths caused by Sars in the early 2000s.
In Hubei province, 242 people died from the virus on Wednesday, signalling the sharpest spike in the death toll since the virus took hold.
Beijing has sacked two top provincial officials.
Elsewhere, Japan confirmed its first coronavirus death on Thursday and EU health officials gathered in Brussels to discuss how the spread of the virus in Europe can be stemmed.
Read more
Dozens set to leave coronavirus quarantine in UK www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/coronavirus-news-uk-live-china-symptoms-outbreak-cruise-ship-updates-covid-19-a9332836.html
Cruise ship shut out of five ports finally docks in Cambodia www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/coronavirus-cambodia-cruise-ship-westerdam-holland-america-line-covid-19-a9333021.html
London Underground a ‘hotbed’ for coronavirus, doctors warn www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/coronavirus-london-underground-tube-symptoms-covid-19-latest-a9332951.html
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:59:20 GMT
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 9:59:51 GMT
Population control? Well that should have governments pointing fingers at one another. What would stop China from releasing a bio weapon in the middle of a large American city in retaliation if they think the US is responsible? I can't help but notice all of the rioting and protests in Hong Kong suddenly stopped when this virus appeared. Who can say that China didn't stop one threat by introducing another? And then blame it all on another rival country. The world has gone mad but this is nothing new when you look at history. |
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 10:00:20 GMT
Working with cat rescue I have had a lot of experience with the coronavirus. Most cats will test positive for having had the virus but they can overcome it. There is about 20% of the cat population that is lacking a gene to stop the virus so that it then mutates into Feline Infectious Peritonitis or FIP. Horrible disease and mostly fatal. I have managed to turn around half of those affected through herbs, supplements, colloidal silver, probiotics and diet. It is a nasty thing to fight and an awful way to go. Most vets recommend euthanasia. It takes a short while for the virus to mutate into FIP. I can't help but wonder if those who have caught this virus and won THAT battle will have a new battle to fight if the virus mutates into an FIP like disease but a human version? That is the bad news. The good news is that FIP is NOT contagious like the virus that caused it.New Research: Bats Harbor Hundreds Of Coronaviruses And Spillovers Aren't RareFebruary 20, 20205:15 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
NURITH AIZENMAN
www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/20/807742861/new-research-bats-harbor-hundreds-of-coronaviruses-and-spillovers-arent-rare
4-Minute Listen ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2020/02/20200220_atc_bats_carry_hundreds_of_coronaviruses_that_could_spill_over_to_humans.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=1031&d=290&p=2&story=807742861&siteplayer=true&size=4632036&dl=1
Researchers give fruit juice to a short-nosed fruit bat after sampling its saliva, blood, urine and poop. They'll look for new viruses in the bat's bodily fluids.
Kevin Olival
Three years ago NPR accompanied disease ecologist Kevin Olival on a field trip to Malaysian Borneo.
Olival, who is with the nonprofit research group EcoHealth Alliance, was there to trap bats and collect samples of their body fluids. He and his collaborators would then test the samples for viruses. Bats are known for carrying some dangerous ones, particularly viruses that have the potential to kick off global outbreaks through what's called "spillovers" – instances of an animal virus jumping into a human.
So the researchers were on a hunt for the next big threat.
The results of their work put the current coronavirus outbreak in China in a wholly new light. Scientists say it was caused by a spillover event. And the findings from the sample collection project suggest thsese kinds of spillovers have actually been quietly taking place in China for years.
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 10:01:30 GMT
Global Warming Thaws Ancient Viruses From Permafrost
Thom Hartmann Program
208K subscribers
Global warming on it's own is frightening but wait until you find out what is thawing in ancient ice and permafrost.
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