January 31, 2020

          "The virus, which originated in Wuhan, has sickened more than 7,700 people and has been linked to at least 170 deaths. The number of cases in mainland China has now surpassed that of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, but the death toll remains significantly lower."

https://www.foxnews.com/health/person-to-person-transmission-coronavirus-reported-in-us-cdc

Person-to-person transmission of coronavirus reported in US, CDC says

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported the first case of person-to-person transmission of coronavirus in the United States. In a telebriefing on Thursday, officials said the patient is the husband of a Chicago woman who was diagnosed with the illness after returning from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus.

The case marks the sixth coronavirus illness confirmed in the U.S., and the second in Illinois.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC director, said the health agency had expected to identify "some" person-to-person spread in the U.S., and insisted that the risk to the American public "remains low." Officials stressed that the husband, who did not travel to China and is in his 60s with underlying health issues, and his wife had continued close contact while she was symptomatic, exposing him to the virus.

Both patients remain hospitalized and the man is stable. The woman, who is also in her 60s and was the first travel-related case confirmed in Illinois, is said to be "doing well." Illinois officials declined to identify which hospital is treating the patients.

Officials said an investigative team is continuing to look into potential contacts of the couple.

Health officials in Canada previously reported a similar instance in a couple who were diagnosed with the coronavirus after they returned from a trip to Wuhan. The Ontario Ministry of Health said the man, who is in his 50s, reported fever and respiratory symptoms and was placed in isolation. Days later, the wife also tested positive for the virus.

At this time, the CDC said it does not recommend the general public wear masks, but that those who have recently traveled to China be vigilant about reporting possible symptoms.

The virus, which originated in Wuhan, has sickened more than 7,700 people and has been linked to at least 170 deaths. The number of cases in mainland China has now surpassed that of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, but the death toll remains significantly lower.

February 3, 2020

         "The first wave of cases must have occurred in December or earlier because by Jan. 2, 41 cases admitted to a hospital in Wuhan had a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of 2019-nCoV. But Wuhan was not placed under quarantine until 5 million people had left to celebrate the New Year, carrying the virus all across China."

Crematorium workers in the city of Wuhan claim that bodies are being sent from hospitals without being added to the official record. The first wave of cases must have occurred in December or earlier because by Jan. 2, 41 cases admitted to a hospital in Wuhan had a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of 2019-nCoV. But Wuhan was not placed under quarantine until 5 million people had left to celebrate the New Year, carrying the virus all across China.

Before the 1918 influenza epidemic, a solo, horse-and-buggy physician in Kansas, Dr. Loring Miner, made the correct diagnosis of an unusually lethal outbreak of influenza and did all he could to sound the alarm. The U.S. Public Health Service ignored him, writes John M. Barry in his 2004 book, "The Great Influenza: the Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History." Might social media have stopped that epidemic in its tracks?

China's "Great Firewall" is the most sophisticated internet censorship operation in the world. Google's secret Project Nightingale to facilitate the Chinese dictatorship's censorship has apparently been stymied for now. However, U.S. providers of online services have yielded to pressure from Rep. Adam Schiff to suppress material he deems inappropriate for the public access. At the moment, this is restricted to information on adverse reactions to vaccines. The suppression of free speech and public access to government-disfavored views is the subject of a lawsuit by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).

The 2019-nCoV may be unstoppable in China by now. Protecting the rest of the world requires vigilance and free communication.

For further information, with links to information on protecting yourself and your family, see Doctors for Disaster Preparedness Newsletter, September 2019.

February 4, 2020

             "However, the organization said that if the virus were to mutate and become easily transmissible to humans, there could be a major health concern."

https://www.wnd.com/2020/02/china-gut-punched-2nd-deadly-disease-breaks/

China gut-punched as 2nd deadly disease breaks out

The Chinese province adjacent to the one where the coronavirus first appeared is facing an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu, according to news reports.

What officials said was a highly pathogenic strain was reported in Hunan province, just south of Hunei province where the coronavirus-plagued city of Wuhan is located, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced Saturday, according to Reuters.

The government reported that the outbreak took place on a farm that had 7,850 chickens, 4,500 of which died due to the disease. More than 17,000 poultry were later killed to avoid the spread of the disease, the government reported. The World Health Organization said the bird flu causes severe respiratory disease in birds and is contagious to humans.

"Human cases of H5N1 avian influenza occur occasionally, but it is difficult to transmit the infection from person to person. When people do become infected, the mortality rate is about 60 percent," WHO reported on its website.

Despite the high mortality rate, WHO cautioned against panic.

"Almost all cases of H5N1 infection in people have been associated with close contact with infected live or dead birds, or H5N1-contaminated environments. The virus does not infect humans easily, and spread from person to person appears to be unusual. There is no evidence that the disease can be spread to people through properly prepared and thoroughly cooked food," the WHO said.

However, the organization said that if the virus were to mutate and become easily transmissible to humans, there could be a major health concern.

"H5N1 infection in humans can cause severe disease and has a high mortality rate. If the H5N1 virus were to change and become easily transmissible from person to person while retaining its capacity to cause severe disease, the consequences for public health could be very serious," it said.

This is not the first report of bird flu in China. Last June, an outbreak of H5N6 flu was reported in western China, according to Reuters, while in January another outbreak of H5N6 was reported there, according to another Reuters report.

Fantastic. A brand new bird flu outbreak in China that has a 60% death rate.
On top of the #CoronaVirus pandemic they are dealing with.
This will go well. pic.twitter.com/STX9nFMVIa

— SpartanWire (@SpartanWire) February 1, 2020

The bird flu outbreak comes as a gut-punch to a China already reeling from a coronavirus outbreak. As of Saturday, 259 Chinese had died from the virus and about 12,000 infections had been confirmed, according to The New York Times.

The spread of the virus has been linked to Chinese unwillingness to announce in December that the initial cases reported in Wuhan posed a serious threat to public health.

“This was an issue of inaction,” Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, according to The New York Times. “

Initial Chinese statements, instead, suggested the virus was under control

“Projecting optimism and confidence, if you don’t have the data, is a very dangerous strategy,” Alexandra Phelan, a faculty research instructor in microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University, told The Times.

“It undermines the legitimacy of the government in messaging. And public health is dependent on public trust," she said.