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News Coronavirus Pandemic Information and Support Group

Ar-Pharazon said:
It makes a difference if it came out of a lab. The last thing we need are "new and improved" viruses being created, especially in third world countries.

Of course, I have no idea if that's the case, but with a virus this strong, it seems more likely it was created rather than naturally occurring.
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The conspiracy that the virus came from a Chinese lab is based solely on the fact that there is a Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) facility located near Wuhan, China that has samples of some of the many strains of Coronaviruses in storage, like most BSL-4 facilities around the world do to study and fight it. That's the only "evidence", proximity, which is no evidence at all. There are facilities with Coronavirus samples (and much worse) at the CDC in Atlanta, USAMRIID in Fort Detrick, Maryland, San Antonio, Texas and several other facilities located near major population centers in the US and around the world.

The viral genome has already been sequenced and studied by virologists who determined that it evolved by natural selection to jump from an animal to human host. It's not artificial. Artificially tampered genomes show markers of the tampering, and for all our advancements, human genetic engineering is still sloppy compared to natural selection.

Plus, if humans were trying to develop a bioweapon, they would start with something that was already known to be even more highly infectious and deadly to humans, not animals. They'd also want something with a much higher mortality rate and rate of transmission (as bad as this is), and something where you could tailor the target population and spread so that you wouldn't infect your own people. You'd also want to develop a vaccine for your own people and troops before mass producing and stockpiling such a bioweapon.

Follow the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. There are other catalogued Coronaviruses spread naturally that jumped from animal to human in open-air marketplaces, and this shows all the signs of being like that as well:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm
Nenya said:
But that's racist or something. That's what I'm talking about in that all logic and reason has gone out of the window. We can't even talk about where it came from. I'm losing my damn mind.
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Apparently so, because you're completely misrepresenting the arguments people were making about this with you yesterday. No one said it was racist to discuss the origins of the virus in China. What they said was it's better to avoid using terms like "The Chinese Virus" (or the even more incorrect "Chinese Flu" or flat out racist "Kung Flu") because it encourages racist and xenophobic people to alienate, harass, and attack Asian people (Chinese or not) by placing blame on a wide-ranging group of people for a natural phenomenon.

Here are just a few of many examples from only the first page of Google results about what Asian people are having to go through in the US and elsewhere because of the virus related fearmongering and xenophobia:
https://www.latimes.com/california/...around-the-coronavirus-fuels-racist-sentiment
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ace-mask-allegedly-assaulted-man-who-n1130671
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/opinion/coronavirus-asian-racism.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ese-incidents-in-italy-amid-coronavirus-panic
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corona...s-angeles-accusing-him-of-having-coronavirus/
https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/23/woma...se-friend-racist-coronavirus-attack-12286814/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...is-uncovering-anti-asian-racism/#7c31a68d29a6

The leadership in China and Iran have both been spreading rumors that this virus was created in American labs to target the Chinese and Iranian people, government, and economies respectively. Because Trump never likes being outdone by other authoritarians, he scratched out "Corona" and replaced it with "Chinese" as a dogwhistle to his base in his speech. He knows it's causing xenophobia and hate crimes and is purposely stoking those flames. Somehow I think if the roles were reversed and you were an American living in China as they incited violence by calling something an "American Virus" that you wouldn't be so nonchalant about the effect of those words.

(click to enlarge)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/do...a-crossed-out-replaced-chinese-virus-n1164111

If you want to be imprecise and name the whole group of viruses, you can call it the Coronavirus. If you want to be more precise, you can call it COVID-19. If you want to be really really precise, you can call it SARS-CoV2. None of which directly label Asian-Americans and make things more difficult for them than they already are. Or you can continue calling it "The Chinese Virus" (or Chinese Flu or Kung Flu if you're even worse) and deservedly get flak for it, in which case I don't want to hear the bitching about it like you're an innocent victim. You've been informed —politely— multiple times. If you refuse to do the right thing that's on you alone.
 
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Nenya said:
Has Trump ever said he doesn’t like the Chinese people?
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Trump can't possibly be racist against Chinese or Asian people because his Transportation Secretary is Asian-American (no really, they said that). Because that's how it works. Plus, he has a black friend. Remember, he called out to him in the audience that one time at a rally, saying "Where's my African-American?" And don't forget that his daughter and son-in-law are Jewish, so he'd never say or do something antisemitic.
 
Can we stop talking about Trump and get back to how the world is coping with the virus outbreak.
 
Archer had a Vulcan first officer. Sadly, Trump isn't Archer. And takes softball punches even less well. ;)
 
EmoBorg said:
Can we stop talking about Trump and get back to how the world is coping with the virus outbreak.
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Actually no, we can't, when the response to the virus by the Trump Administration (good or bad or otherwise) is part of the story. National politics are going to come up in a national and international crisis because the two are intrinsically linked.
 
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Fatalities are still compounding at a rate of 26% per day. Even with all the actions taken this week, this trend ought to continue for another week or two.
 
Locutus of Bored said:
If you want to be imprecise and name the whole group of viruses, you can call it the Coronavirus. If you want to be more precise, you can call it COVID-19. If you want to be really really precise, you can call it SARS-CoV2.
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Thanks for the good research, Locutus. If I may be permitted, as a biologist, to correct a tiny flaw:
COVID-19 is just the name of the illness. It's short for Corona virus desease starting in 2019.
The virus that causes it is SARS-CoV-2. That's short for severe acute respiratory syndrome causing Corona virus #2 (#1 was the virus commonly known as SARS).

I most heartily agree that aggression in any guise is most uncalled for right now (as, in fact, always!). Rather than fighting over an unfortunately phrased expression, we should stand together, support those who need help and comfort those who are scared. This is a Trek board, damnit! So let's show the spirit of Trek, stand by each other, boldly go through this time nobody has been to before and work together to solve the crisis. This is definitely not the time for egotism but for us-ism! (and no, in this context US is not meant in the geographical/political sense but exclusively in the social one ;))
 
Here's a fun informative video. A song sung to the tune of 'If I Had A Million Dollars' by the Barenaked Ladies.

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I didn't think we in the Netherlands were that stupid, so many people who where on the street. On the beach or market, unbelievable
 
I think the UK is about a week away from total lockdown. All bars, restaurants, cinemas and gyms have now been shut down.
 
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