Wuhan Coronavirus: Megathread - Got too big

[Glad I couldn't help]

Taiwan has passed a special act to deal with the crisis. They have also put limit on mask purchases and well as provide money to ramp up production, provided the companies will sell a certian amount to the government.

Virus outbreak: Special COVID-19 act passed, ratified
SPEED ESSENTIAL:The act, which is retroactive to Jan. 15 and the majority of it valid until the end of June next year, was signed by the president shortly after it was passed
By Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Lawmakers passed the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Restoration (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) yesterday, providing for a NT$60 billion (US$1.97 billion) special budget to help businesses and workers, and it was immediately sent to the Presidential Office, where President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) signed it into law.

The 19-article act stipulates penalties and fines for breaking quarantine, hoarding essential materials, compensation for furloughed workers and tax breaks for companies and organizations affected by the viral outbreak and those that pay employees under quarantine or on leave to care for quarantined family members.

The act is retroactive to Jan. 15 and is to be valid until June 30 next year, except articles 12 through 16, which took effect after the act was ratified yesterday.

People who are furloughed as a result of being placed under quarantine — at home or government-designated buildings — as well as people who need to take leave to take care of quarantined family members, but are not paid by their employers, have up to two years to request compensation from health authorities.

Employers — including government agencies and institutions, legal institutions, schools, companies and civic groups — should grant disease prevention leave to quarantined workers, and must not count them — or employees on leave to care for quarantined relatives — as absent without leave, force them to file for leave for any other reason, cancel their attendance bonus or deduct days off they have earned.

Employers who break this rule can be fined between NT$50,000 and NT$1 million.

Employers who pay these employees their salaries would receive income tax deductions of up to twice the salary payout, with the application process to be defined by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and the Ministry of Finance, the act states.

People who break quarantine at government-designated sites would be subject to a fine of between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million, whereas those who break home quarantine would be fined between NT$100,000 and NT$1 million.

Among other measures, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) can film or photograph people who breach quarantine or people confirmed to have COVID-19, publish their personal information, or take any other measures necessary to contain the spread of the virus, the act states.

People who spread rumors or disinformation about COVID-19 to the extent that it harms the public interest would face a maximum prison term of three years and a possible fine up to NT$3 million.

Governments at all levels have the authority to expropriate privately owned land, buildings, medicine, equipment, transport, waste processing facilities on the order of the CECC, and people who refuse to comply with such expropriations would face a fine of between NT$50,000 and NT$1 million.

People who hoard or attempt to hoard equipment or medicines deemed necessary for disease prevention, as published by the health ministry, would face a prison term of up to five years and a possible fine of up to NT$5 million.

Medical workers and disease-prevention effort personnel are to receive subsidies and are to be given extra compensation should they fall ill or die as a result of their work, including, in cases of fatalities, health ministry subsidises for their children’s education.

 

[LazyLizard]

Think out of the box, improvise. Make some grenades.

the good thing is the rest of the people are as retardedly equipped as me so at least i'm not at an disadvantage

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

shit like this makes me wish i was an american. i can't buy any guns not even a fucking crossbow without jumping through hoops, the only weapon i could buy just to make sure i had something to protect myself with if shit goes bad is a fucking bow and arrows.

Here you go, my friend.

Make a Dragon or Tiger Chu Ko Nu Repeating Crossbow From Scratch!

Make a Dragon or Tiger Chu ko nu from scratch! Use these plans to cut, drill and glue simple wood pieces into a wooden mechanical artwork. It is a fun and sa...

www.youtube.com

 

[Iuz]

Wen't ahead and stocked up on enough Hormel's Corned and Roast beef hash to last at least a month or more. Was assured as a kid by my grandfather that it's the exact same thing he traded all his other rations for to avert starving while on deployment in the pacific during WWII.

Besides that about 20 pounds or more each of dry and canned rice, beans, and lentils along with a case of MREs (got a very good price and haven't even hit the first inspection date yet), and a lot of frozen veggies, pasta, sauces, instant rice noodles, 12 gallons of water, most common first aid things and some fish amoxicillin, extra reloads for the HEPA air purifiers I have going 24/7, over the counter symptom controlling flu meds and other assorted things. Skipped the masks since their probably worthless.

If I didn't need to go to work I could probably never leave home for at least a month or more, and if things get bad enough Id probably be allowed to work remotely, or at least I'm working on it. Otherwise, no need to go to the store for about 2 months if all ends up well.

Edit: Black Russians.

 

[Joan Nyan]

SF Mayor London Breed Declares Local Emergency Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Mayor London Breed declared a local emergency in San Francisco Tuesday amid the coronavirus outbreak, despite there being no confirmed cases among the city’s residents. “Although there are still zero confirmed cases in San Francisco residents, the global picture is changing rapidly, and we need...

www.nbcbayarea.com

SF Mayor London Breed Declares Local Emergency Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
There are no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus among San Francisco residents
By NBC Bay Area staff • Published 6 hours ago • Updated 2 hours ago



Mayor London Breed declared a local emergency in San Francisco Tuesday amid the coronavirus outbreak, despite there being no confirmed cases among the city's residents.

"Although there are still zero confirmed cases in San Francisco residents, the global picture is changing rapidly, and we need to step-up preparedness," Breed said in a statement. "We see the virus spreading in new parts of the world every day, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm."

The declaration of the local emergency will help mobilize city resources, accelerate emergency planning, streamline staffing, coordinate agencies across the city, and allow for future state and federal reimbursement.

Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said the declaration allows the county to put more clinicians on call around the clock, along with nurses and case managers.

"It allows us to look at things like shelters and other opportunities for us to expand in the event that that's necessary and do a broader assessment of the city’s capacity to respond in the event that there is an outbreak of coronavirus in San Francisco," Colfax said.

A total of 53 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the U.S., with 10 of those being in California. Although San Francisco has no confirmed cases, three coronavirus patients from other counties have been treated in San Francisco hospitals.

The San Francisco declaration takes effect immediately for seven days and will be voted on by the Board of Supervisors on March 3.

There's bigger problems in San Francisco than a virus no one has yet lmao

 

[JustWhy]

I don't fully trust consoomer grade air "purifiers", especially cheaper ones.

 

[simulated goat]

I got a mossberg shotgun. We've barely used it for anything. I was raised with them, but I haven't fired a gun in 30 years or something. I would hope it never came to that. I kinda consider myself having herd immunity as all my neighbors have freaking arsenals and shoot often to 'keep in shape', so to speak. We don't even have a local market here but we have a gun/hunting shop a few miles down the road. If it ever got so bad that my neighbors were no longer able to fend off the hordes, lil' ole me would be pate foie gras no matter what I had.

Anyway, thank you for some of the gun/home defense sperging, it puts me in mind to go talk to the guys down the street and hit up their range.

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

Red Lung sounds pretty badass. Because it fucks your lungs up and also because commies.

Crimson Influenza/Crimson Flu, The People's Pneumonia, SARS-2: Systemic Boogaloo, Wuhan Cough, Chiropterosis (essentially "bat disease"), etc.

I wish the WHO didn't fuck the name up so bad. COVID-19 is such a lame name, It's literally means "coronavirus infectious disease". Lame. Pronouncing "nCoV" phonetically would've been better, then at least it would be "encov" and sound like an actual disease instead of some certification test.

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

This thread in general

View attachment 1161796

While some of the prepping talk here is somewhat excessive (I doubt you have worry about power and water cuts, at least for this emergency), it is not crazy to start stockpiling food and medicine. The virus has spread the across the world, with substantiated local transmission in numerous countries and authorities have imposed emergency quarantines and lockdowns that have lasted weeks. The economic damage is already enormous and can only grow from here. As one commenter has said, you should ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do I have food to ride my family through a two week quarantine? How about a month long one?
2. Do I have medical supplies—including prescriptions—for the same period?
3. Do I have the ready cash on hand to fly out of a city on short notice?
4. Is my small business prepared for a two week to month long cessation of customers? And a far reduced number of customers after that?
5. Am I financially prepared for a potential recession?
6. Have I thought through what my kids will be doing if school and daycare is cancelled?

 

[Consenticles]

I get that Japan and SK are in close proximity to China, but what disturbs me the most is that these two countries are pretty much islands. No one is coming through the north to SK, and they aren't landlocked by any other country.

The fact that their natives are practically indistinguishable physically from Chinese basically removes their ability to be "racist" or cast out people just by looking at them. In both of these countries they don't have the ability to be cautious by just looking at someone. Everyone is Asian with black hair and ivory skin. And look how that's fucked them so royally.

If anything they are examples that *sometimes* you shouldn't give a fuck about racist connotations. Because when you treat everyone the same, the virus is going to spread like wildfire. Who the fuck cares about race. The issue isn't race. It is that people dont want to get fucking sick.

edit - it has occurred to me that people are taking this as me saying there are not tensions between chinese and these other asian countries. I'm just saying, when a hundred of these guys pack like sardines into some sort of public transportation, you can't tell who is Chinese and who is Japanese. I'm not saying anyone opened their mouth and showed off their accent. I'm just saying that the root of "racism" begins with physical traits, and it's much harder to distinguish in SK and Japan.

 

[MediocreMilt]

The fact that their natives are practically indistinguishable physically from Chinese basically removes their ability to be "racist" or cast out people just by looking at them. In both of these countries they don't have the ability to be cautious by just looking at someone. Everyone is Asian with black hair and ivory skin.

If you spend enough time around Asians you start to pick up subtle cues distinguishing Japanese from Korean from Vietnamese etc.

Bet your ass the people from these ethnostates can tell each other apart.

 

[Iuz]

I don't fully trust consoomer grade air "purifiers", especially cheaper ones.

Not particularly cheap ones and are there mostly there for my asthma and allergy issues, and have done wonders in that area. Just throwing something on a hot skillet on the other side of the room trips the air quality detector and sends them into action.

 

[Coleslaw]

Several disease control men beat a delivery boy repeatedly in the head.

 

[Gender of peace]

Supply chain news round-up for Feb 25 via r/supplychain. Shipping disruptions ongoing, effects could throw off time tables for months. Globally, lowest inventories in 7 years. French pharma proposes to bring at least some pharmaceutical manufacturing back home, could take years.

Post | Archive

Global infections exceed 80k - CNN reports that officially we now have 80k infections with 2,698 deaths so far adding that whilst the WHO isn't calling it a pandemic yet "now is the time to prepare". Their live blog Link also carries a story from the US FDA directly contradicting the axios.com story I flagged yesterday; CNN quotes a FDA spokeswoman as saying no drugs suppliers expect a shortage of supplies.



Stockmarkets have recorded significant drops - Australia -1.5%, Shanghai composite -2.5%, UK FTSE 100 -3.3%, US Dow -3.6%, Italy -6%. All told, equity values dropped by $1.5 trillion (T intended, that's not a typo) around the world according to 9news.com.au whilst the BBC reports that gold is already up 10% since the beginning of 2020 (Link) and Link.



"Worse than the bush fires" - the Australian treasurer has been quoted in a press conference as saying that the economic impact on Australia will be worse than the fires which ravaged the country in December and January but that it was too soon to provide an estimate. Link



On to supply chain specific news:

Transpacific air passenger demand still very low - CNN (same link as before) says United has extended its suspension of flights to four destinations in China until 24th April adding that demand to travel to China is near zero whilst demand on other transpacific routes is down 75%.



Demand for air freight grows - whilst capacity is restrained due to passenger flight cancellations, atlas (a cargo only airline) says it's seeing a significant jump in demand (Link). In a trading statement to investors their CFO said "We're starting to really see the tremendous demand and the increase in yields and the factories to get back to work this week". Cancelled flights are now over 200,000. The domestic truck shortage in China is causing ongoing issues such that some air carriers require proof that onward transport has been arranged before they will fly the cargo into China.



More sea freight cancellations - Loadstar reports (Link) Maersk has cancelled more sailings due to a collapse in demand. Moody's adds in the same article that port calls to Shanghai and Yangshang are 17% lower in week 7 vs. this time last year. The cancelled sailings plus storms in N Europe have thrown many ships seriously off their timetables which may cause further supply chain issues next month. Analysts expect disruption for several months to come. Continuing the theme, the coronavirus is set to wipe a “chilling” 1.7m teu of container business (Link), according to new research from Copenhagen-based Sea-Intelligence. Using what the consultancy admits as a “very rough” average of $1,000 per teu in freight rates, the Wuhan-originated illness translates into a $1.7bn shortfall in revenues for carriers. Already the virus has more than erased the full growth seen in 2019, Sea Intelligence noted.



More clothing retailers report issues - Lululemon reports it has shut the majority of its 38 outlets in China with the rest on reduced operating hours. It says that it's e-commerce operations continue but did not clarify what supply chain problems it may or may not have. Link. In a separate article, Primark has also now warned of supply chain shortages - Link - the company says that whilst they have a good level of inventory at present, there is a risk of supply chain shortages later in the year. The company sources 40% of its product from China and is stepping up production from existing suppliers in other countries. Some of its food production factories are operating at reduced capacity because of labour and logistics constraints caused by the virus.



European Pharma supply chain security at the macro level - the French giant Sanofi has announced ( Link) plans to launch and spin off a new company which will be based in France and will create the active chemical ingredients for drugs, expanding into a market currently dominated by firms in China and India. “The industry needs to be able to make active pharmaceutical ingredients in Europe,” their CEO said. “And if you’re going to do it, let’s do it properly.”. Note: it'll take 2 years to get it up and running.



Metals supply chain shortages - OM Holdings, a $1bn revenue mining and smelting company has shut down 2 of 16 smelters in Malaysia citing a shortage of semi coke from China. The article thinks this is likely to affect their ferrosilicon and manganese alloy production in the coming months. Link. Steel exports from China are also dropping - The China communist party's Global Times newspaper reports (Link) that the virus is impacting steel exports which were already reducing; analysts now think the exports will drop by around 1.5m tonnes (8%) in the first quarter due to cancelled orders and shipment delays. One producer estimates a recovery period of six months says the Global Times.



Global inventory levels at a 7 year low - FT reports (Link) that global inventory levels have hit a 7 year low according to analysis of closely watched purchasing managers’ output indices by Pictet Asset Management. The FT explains that the GDP-weighted aggregate manufacturing inventory measure for 30 major countries fell to a three-month moving average of just 46.9 — on a scale where anything less than 50 represents declining stock levels and that was in January, even before the coronavirus outbreak began to cause disruption to supply chains. This is the lowest reading since late 2012, suggesting that manufacturers and end suppliers were particularly vulnerable to supply disruptions at that point, intensifying the impact of the unprecedented delay to the resumption of supplies from China after the traditional Lunar New Year holiday. Worst affected were inventory levels in Hong Kong and Sweden. Pictect thinks the virus will result in a 1.9% hit to Chinese GDP growth, dragging year on year growth down to 4.1%.



Hong Kong construction industry job losses - the South China Morning Post reports 50,000 workers have lost their jobs with another 80,000 having hours slashed to 1 or 2 days a week (Link). The cause is a severe reduction in building materials being brought into the city. The industry employs 250,000 people in Hong Kong.



Cambodia introduces tax breaks for virus hit companies - (Link) Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen promised on Monday to give six month tax breaks to garment factories hit by supply chain disruptions from the coronavirus epidemic and higher tariffs after the European Union (EU) withdrew trade preferences over human rights. He also pledged to give hotels and guesthouses a tax exemption for four months to help offset losses to the tourism sector caused by the new coronavirus strain. For severely affected factories, if production is halted the suspended workers will get 40% of their wage from the factory with the government paying another 60%.



US manufactures seek more expensive alternative suppliers - Link - Multiple industrial giants in the US are having to seek alternative suppliers reports Reuters. As an example, Morton industries is trying to find new suppliers for tooling and fixtures to shape metal. Limited domestic supply and a rush to secure supplies have sent prices up as much as 30% according to a VP at the firm, adding that they've been forced to pass the prices onto their customers. Caterpillar and Deere declined to comment for the article whilst Komatsu (another industrial giant) did not respond although half a dozen unnamed suppliers told Reuters they are working to tie up sources outside China plus are resorting to air instead of sea. A supplier to Caterpillar and Deere said that it's also experiencing higher costs that it's passing on to customers - in their case the rise is 40% - whilst CCTY Bearing says it's told customers stocks will not last beyond April and thinks other products (consumed by the giants that CCTY Bearing doesn't make) will face shortages too. In a separate article (Link), agriculture machine giant John Deere did however admit that it will spend an extra $40m on airfreight to reduce supply chain impacts according to its CFO. An ongoing cost reduction program aimed at taking out $150m spend continues but the additional air freight spend obviously won't help. It adds that it expects its inventory pile to drop through 2020.



Impact on GM - continuing the industrial giants theme, Forbes has dived deeply into GM's position (Link). They cite an article in USA Today that expects GM to be one of the worst impacted automotive companies due to its supply chain configuration - already no GM personnel are travelling in China. Issues facing GM are not just material availability and logistics infrastructure issue but the health of their workers. GM however is known to have strong supply chain risk management capabilities having learnt lessons after the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear melt down including blind spot workshops where they work to close off identified risks with the help of Resilinc, a specialist supply chain resilience solution company.



Finally, the Economist Magazine has published a withering opinion piece on the Iran election that I flagged yesterday. Link. It says claims that low turnout was due to foreign propaganda is "hogwash" and that it was primarily due to the regimes deep unpopularity. It also points out that the official death count in Iran suggests the virus is 3 times more lethal than in China so the regime is probably hiding the true scale of the breakout. Whilst education centers, cinema, shops have been closed, religious sites have not been closed. Bungling the response to the virus will do more damage to the regime’s legitimacy than Mr Trump could ever hope to, it says.

 

[I Exist]

Crimson Influenza/Crimson Flu, The People's Pneumonia, SARS-2: Systemic Boogaloo, Wuhan Cough, Chiropterosis (essentially "bat disease"), etc.

Communist Cough, 2020 Yellow Fever, Asian ARDS...

They missed the opportunity to give it a killer name, I agree.
Such wasted potential....

 

[Tasty Tatty]

Well, I'm confident Bolsonaro will shoot the virus.

Seriously, they just finished a 14 days quarantine with people brought from Wuhan and they were fine. They're not sick despite being in the fucking middle of the outbreak city.

And a man coming back from vacations in Italy brought the pest into the country.

What does this teach us? The borders should have been closed AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, likely in January. Instead, our stupid leaders treated like it was just the flu and fucked us all and our families because they thought they could control it and rather pandered to the "better dead than racist" crowd.

I hope this disaster at least brings the end of the UN and the stupid good-for-nothing WHO.

 

[JoyQ]

I get that Japan and SK are in close proximity to China, but what disturbs me the most is that these two countries are pretty much islands. No one is coming through the north to SK, and they aren't landlocked by any other country.

The fact that their natives are practically indistinguishable physically from Chinese basically removes their ability to be "racist" or cast out people just by looking at them. In both of these countries they don't have the ability to be cautious by just looking at someone. Everyone is Asian with black hair and ivory skin. And look how that's fucked them so royally.

If anything they are examples that *sometimes* you shouldn't give a fuck about racist connotations. Because when you treat everyone the same, the virus is going to spread like wildfire. Who the fuck cares about race. The issue isn't race. It is that people dont want to get fucking sick.

They have real racial tensions between them. The US is right next to Mexico and Canada and we have racial issues and tensions. ”but they’re all Asian” means nothing.

 

[MediocreMilt]

So, for anyone interested in a more sober view on prepping, Juice Cow Mike Cernovich wrote up a simpler plan/article on the subject. Includes some of what's been discussed here, but without going full P100:

How to Prepare for Coronavirus

You almost certainly will not contract coronavirus, and that’s not why you should be FREAKING OUT about coronavirus. Let’s talk supply chains. (Or just scroll down for a shopping list.) Coronavirus is already disrupting supply chains. Apple announced supply chain issues, but that’s not a real...

www.cernovich.com

How to Prepare for Coronavirus

archived 25 Feb 2020 21:25:22 UTC

archive.is

 

[Coldgrip]

I wish the WHO didn't fuck the name up so bad. COVID-19 is such a lame name, It's literally means "coronavirus infectious disease". Lame. Pronouncing "nCoV" phonetically would've been better, then at least it would be "encov" and sound like an actual disease instead of some certification test.

The WHO can call it whatever they want, everybody else will still call it the Wu Flu.

I'm partial to calling it the Communist Flu or Chinese Flu.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

The WHO can call it whatever they want, everybody else will still call it the Wu Flu.

I'm partial to calling it the Communist Flu or Chinese Flu.

Whoever posted Winnie the Flu here, I thought that one was pretty good.