Health officials in China have published the first details of more than 44,000 cases of Covid-19, in the biggest study since the outbreak began.
Data from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) finds that more than 80% of the cases have been mild, with the sick and elderly most at risk.
The research also points to the high risk to medical staff.
1月30日上午，由军事科学院军事医学研究院紧急展开的帐篷式移动检测实验室开始运行，应用自主研发的检测试剂盒，配合核酸全自动提取技术，核酸检测时间比现有时间大大缩短，加快了确诊速度，有力推进了疫情防控工作。
1月26日，中国工程院院士、军事科学院军事医学研究院研究员陈薇就已带领团队进驻武汉。
2天后，由该院与地方公司共同研制的新型冠状病毒核酸检测试剂盒通过国家药品监督管理局应急审批，获得医疗器械注册证书。
4天后，紧急展开的军事科学院帐篷式移动检测实验室开始运行。
在接受《中国科学报》采访时，陈薇的回答言简意赅、切中要害。
疫苗何时能够研制出来？陈薇回答，疫苗研发有固有的周期和规律，有些报道的最快“1个月”内拿到疫苗，“我认为是不现实的。当然我也不敢排除有非常优秀的科研团队能做得更快更好。”
1月28日，美国总统特朗普宣布美国科学家将在12周内研制出新冠疫苗。陈薇则表示，“我相信我们国家科研人员的速度不会亚于美国”。
在回答关于疫情拐点的问题时，陈薇表示：“我们还是要做好最坏的打算，拿出最充分的方案，准备最长期的奋战。”
“开挂”科研路
陈薇曾说，有了应对“非典”和埃博拉疫情的考验，“我们都比以往任何时候有更好的准备，一定能打赢这场疫情防控阻击战。”
The Huoshenshan (Fire God Mountain) Hospital was delivered on Sunday in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in central China’s Hubei province, after 10 days of construction. With advanced and comprehensive medical equipment, the hospital will join the battle against the novel coronavirus.
With an area of over 80,000 square meters, the Huoshenshan Hospital has 419 wards and 1,000 beds, including 39 intensive care units. Twelve-hundred sets of heating and ventilation equipment and oxygen supply systems have been installed at present, and more medical essentials will be introduced soon, said the person in charge of the construction team.
In addition, a remote consultation application system has been set up at the hospital. With its assistance, the Huoshenshan Hospital can timely consult with other front-line hospitals to provide more efficient diagnosis and treatment via the gigabit fiber.
Inside the two-story main building, air conditioners, window facilities, and disinfection equipment in wards were all in place. In addition, each ward has a bathroom and a television with 20 channels available.
“All medical equipment here is advanced and is installed in strict accordance with international standards. Moreover, 24-hour power supply is guaranteed at the hospital,” said a worker on site.
About 40,000 square meters of greenery have been planted to beautify the environment and help patients and medics relax themselves.
Replicating Beijing’s SARS treatment model in 2003, Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital, another makeshift hospital to combat the novel coronavirus, is under construction and will be completed on Feb. 5, with a capacity of 1,600 beds.
https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesDaily/videos/477304752934779/?t=0
The construction of 2nd makeshift hospital, Leishenshan, for #coronavirus patients in #Wuhan, the epicenter of #outbreak, is 40% completed.1,600 beds are planned in Leishenshan Hospital.
President Xi Jinping formally told WHO head Tedros Ghebreyesus, at their meeting in Beijing earlier this week, that the coronavirus epidemic “is a devil and we cannot allow the devil to hide.”
Ghebreyesus for his part could not but praise Beijing for its extremely swift, coordinated response strategy – which includes fast identification of the genome sequence. Chinese scientists have already handed over to Russian counterparts the virus genome, with snap tests able to identify it in a human body within two hours. A Russia-China vaccine is under development.
The devil, of course, is always in the details. In a matter of a few days, at the peak of the most congested travel period of the year, China did manage to quarantine an urban environment of over 56 million people, including megalopolis Wuhan and three nearby cities. This is an absolute first in terms of public health, anytime in history.
Wuhan, with a GDP growth of 8.5% a year, is a significant business center for China. It lies at the strategic crossroads of the Yangtze and Han rivers and at a railway crossroads as well – between the north-south axis linking Guangzhou to Beijing and the east-west axis linking Shanghai to Chengdu.
As premier Li Keqiang was sent to Wuhan, President Xi visited the strategic southern province of Yunnan, where he extolled the immense government apparatus to boost control and sanitary prevention mechanisms to limit propagation of the virus.
Coronavirus catches China at an extremely sensitive juncture – after the (failed) Hybrid War tactics displayed in Hong Kong; an American pro-Taiwan offensive; the trade war far from solved by a mere “phase 1” deal while more sanctions are being plotted against Huawei; and even the assassination of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, which ultimately is about targeting the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Southwest Asia (Iran-Iraq-Syria).
The Big Picture spells out Total Information War and non-stop weaponization of the China “threat” – now even metastasized, with racist overtones, as a bio-threat. So how vulnerable is China?
For almost five years now a maximum-security biolab has been operating in Wuhan dedicated to the study of highly pathogenic micro-organisms – set up in partnership with France after the SARS epidemic. In 2017, Nature magazine was warning about the risks of dispersion of pathogenic agents out of this lab. Yet there’s no evidence this might have happened.
In crisis management terms, President Xi has lived up to the occasion – ensuring that China fights coronavirus with nearly total transparency (after all, the internet wall remains in place). Beijing has warned the whole government apparatus in no uncertain terms not to attempt any cover-ups. A real-time webpage, in English, here, is available to everyone. Whoever is not doing enough will face serious consequences. One can imagine what awaits the party chief in Hubei, Jiang Chaoliang.
A post that went viral all over the mainland this past Sunday states, “We in Wuhan have truly entered the stage of people’s war against the new viral pneumonia”; and many people, “mainly Communist Party members” have been confirmed as “volunteers and observers according to street units.”
Crucially, the government directed everyone to install a “Wuhan Neighbors” applet downloaded from WeChat. That determines “our home’s quarantine address through satellite positioning, and then lock on our affiliated community organization and volunteers. Thenceforth, our social activities and information announcements would be connected to the system.”
Theoretically, this means that “anyone who develops a fever will report their condition through the network as soon as possible. The system will immediately provide an online diagnosis, and locate and register your quarantine address. If you need to see a doctor, your community will arrange a car to send you to the hospital through volunteers. At the same time, the system will track your progress: hospitalization, treatment at home, discharge, death, etc.”
So here we have millions of Chinese citizens totally mobilized in what’s routinely described as a “people’s war” using “high technology to fight against illness.” Millions are also drawing their own conclusions when comparing it with the use of app software to fight against the police in Hong Kong.
Apart from crisis management, the speed of the Chinese scientific response has been breathtaking – and obviously not fully appreciated in an environment of Total Information War. Compare the Chinese performance with the American CDC, arguably the top infectious disease research agency in the world, with an $11 billion annual budget and 11,000 employees.
During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014 – considered a maximum urgency, and facing a virus with a 90% fatality rate – the CDC took no less than two months from getting the first patient sample to identifying the complete genomic sequence. The Chinese did it in a few days.
During the swine flu in the US in 2009 – 55 million infected Americans, 11,000 killed – the CDC took over a month and a half to come up with identification kits.
The Chinese took only one week from the first patient sample to complete, vital identification and sequencing of coronavirus. Right away, they went for publication and deposit in the genomics library for immediate access by the whole planet. Based on this sequence, Chinese biotech companies produced validated essays within a week – also a first.
And we’re not even talking about the now notorious building of a brand new state of the art hospital in Wuhan in record time just to treat victims of coronavirus. No victims will pay for their treatment. Additionally, Healthy China 2030, the reform of the health/development system, will be boosted.
Coronavirus opens a true Pandora’s box on biogenetics. Serious questions remain about experiences in vivo in which the consent of “patients” will not be required – considering the collective psychosis initially developed by Western corporate media and even the WHO around coronavirus. Coronavirus could well become a pretext for genetic experiments via vaccines.
Meanwhile, it’s always enlightening to remember Great Helmsman Mao Zedong. For Mao, the top two political variables were “independence” and “development.” That implies full sovereignty. As Xi seems determined to prove a sovereign civilization-state is able to win a scientific “people’s war,” that does not exactly spell out “vulnerability.”
