Caronavirus taking its tolls with cancellations...

[Father Bill]

With my own ears, I heard the French doctor/scientist say, this drug cured 100% of the patients in the test group. Take it for what it is worth.

Well... we can hope, and for what it's worth, 'hope' is worth a lot!

[Crazy Dave]

I sure this thing with Coronavirus will pass but I am also sure there will be a next pandemic. This one was probably caused by people eating bats. The last Ebola outbreak was caused by people eating fruit bats. I think its time to reconsider bush meat and this gormet practice of eating exotic wild animals. I say this with some hypocrisy because I have venison in my freezer and ate some pretty exotic thinks when I was in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, no bats though. It's a new world and things can spread globally with too much ease. We also need to look at the amount of physical contact that is normal in our society.

Dave

[Father Bill]

While I don't particularly disagree with anything that's being said here, I would caution all members that this topic has the potential to go wa-a-a-ay downhill really, really fast. Let's be careful of discussion of something where so many people are scared out of their wits. People get edgy and sometimes rub each other the wrong way.

The good news is that I have a lot of faith in the "Great Rabble" and I'm so glad in this time of 'social distancing' that we are close together on XMarks.

I don't think anything has been said out of place; I just note that it's a tinderbox with an awful lot of misinformation everywhere and not much real information to replace it yet.

Love ya' all, and proud to be a member of the Great Rabble!

[PinellasPaul]

I fear not. I don't worry. It gives me peace.



This is my last comment on this thread.
Father Bill is right. Let's chill.

[kingandrew]

As some here may recall, I am a teacher at an international school in China. I am there now and have been experiencing the nationwide efforts at virus containment firsthand.

The first major action against the virus was the announcement on January 23rd that the city of Wuhan would be locked down. At that time, my wife and I were in Kuala Lumpur, as it was the middle of our school's vacation for Chinese New Year.

We returned to China on January 29th. Landing in Shenzhen, we found the city of 15 million people (it's where your iPhone and many other electronics are made) was a virtual ghost town. Streets were empty of traffic, most stores were closed, and the few people on the street were all wearing masks. Our temperature was taken at traffic stops on the road and going into every business that was open or into any residential compound. Please note that Shenzhen is hundreds of miles from the outbreak's epicenter in Wuhan.

Classes at our school were scheduled to resume on February 3rd. So we reported back to our campus apartment a few days earlier, to prepare. Instead, we were told to self-quarantine in our apartment for two weeks, as the return of the students had been postponed.

Our school is in a small beach resort, so there are not a large number of businesses here. But the only thing open when we arrived was the "grocery," which is more of a glorified convenience store. Luckily, there is also a grocery delivery service and our school cafeteria is offering take-out meals, so we have not had a problem getting food.

The return of the students has been postponed again and again. After our initial two-week isolation, we have been able to walk relatively freely in town (although some areas along the water are closed off). After a couple of weeks, we began posting lessons online, then holding classes using Zoom video-conference software.

Although a couple of individuals in our beach town did test positive for the virus, they were immediately isolated, and the area remained extremely safe. Now, after two months of quiet, we are seeing businesses reopen and visitors returning to the beach, although still only a fraction of the usual activity at this time of the year. When I was in Shenzhen last weekend, stores had reopened and restaurants were allowed to serve diners inside, rather than just offering take-out. Things are beginning to return to normal. However, we still do not know when our school will reopen to students.

So for us it has been a quiet, restful couple of months. Business seems to be waking up after a long nap. I know much of this time was quite stressful and scary in Wuhan, but for much of the country it has been like two months of Sundays, with families at home and shops closed.

I hope all of the Rabble have a quiet and restful experience in the days ahead, as we the epidemic runs its course. I also hope some of the experimental treatments prove to be effective and save lives. The virus is certainly a sobering and scary challenge to all people, everywhere.

Andrew