Difference between revisions of "Atheism and the coronavirus pandemic"

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, was thought to have originated in masked palm civets, tree-dwelling mammals native to parts of Asia. The trigger point for the current coronavirus remains unclear, but China has linked the outbreak to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, which despite its name also appeared to be selling live cats and dogs, wild chickens, snakes and marmots.^[8]

But the options in China can be a bit more exotic. Vendors in small city markets often sell wild animals including rodents, yak, snakes and even porcupines, and experts say that makes them far more dangerous. The meat could contain deadly pathogens like the coronavirus.

Highlighting those fears, Chinese officials announced on Sunday that the trading of wild animals would be temporarily suspended in hopes that would help contain the outbreak.^[9]

The hypothesis that the 2019-nCoV jumped from an animal at the market is strongly supported by a new publication in the Journal of Medical Virology. The scientists conducted an analysis and compared the genetic sequences of 2019-nCoV and all other known coronaviruses.

The study of the genetic code of 2019-nCoV reveals that the new virus is most closely related to two bat SARS-like coronavirus samples from China, initially suggesting that, like SARS and MERS, the bat might also be the origin of 2019-nCoV. The authors further found that the viral RNA coding sequence of 2019-nCoV spike protein, which forms the “crown” of the virus particle that recognizes the receptor on a host cell, indicates that the bat virus might have mutated before infecting people.

But when the researchers performed a more detailed bioinformatics analysis of the sequence of 2019-nCoV, it suggests that this coronavirus might come from snakes.

The researchers used an analysis of the protein codes favored by the new coronavirus and compared it to the protein codes from coronaviruses found in different animal hosts, like birds, snakes, marmots, hedgehogs, manis, bats and humans. Surprisingly, they found that the protein codes in the 2019-nCoV are most similar to those used in snakes.

Snakes often hunt for bats in wild. Reports indicate that snakes were sold in the local seafood market in Wuhan, raising the possibility that the 2019-nCoV might have jumped from the host species – bats – to snakes and then to humans at the beginning of this coronavirus outbreak. However, how the virus could adapt to both the cold-blooded and warm-blooded hosts remains a mystery.^[10]

They were hoping to get an appointment with a specialist, a chance for access to the best health care in the country. Scalpers hawked medical visits for a fee, ignoring repeated crackdowns by the government.

A Beijing resident in line was trying to get his father in to see a neurologist. A senior lawmaker from Liaoning, a northeastern province, needed a second opinion on her daughter’s blood disorder.

Mao Ning, who was helping her friend get an appointment with a dermatologist, arrived at 4 a.m. She was in the middle of the line.

“There’s no choice — everyone comes to Beijing,” Ms. Mao, 40, said. “I think this is an unscientific approach and is not in keeping with our national conditions. We shouldn’t have people do this, right? There should be a reasonable system.”

The long lines, a standard feature of hospital visits in China, are a symptom of a health care system in crisis....

The country does not have a functioning primary care system, the first line of defense for illness and injury. China has one general practitioner for every 6,666 people, compared with the international standard of one for every 1,500 to 2,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. ^[19]

According to Xinhua News, the Chinese regime’s main newspaper, China’s most popular social media WeChat published a notice on Jan. 25 announcing new regulations and punishments for “those who spread rumors about the new form of pneumonia.”

“A variety of unsubstantiated comments posted to the internet constantly stir up public panic,” the notice read, “All those who spread fake news and thus disturb social order will face up to three years in prison, detention, or disciplinary action. Those who have caused serious consequences will be given 3-year to 7-year prison terms.”

The notice also claimed that WeChat is now working with a “rumor defying agency” to refute and delete any rumors appearing on WeChat. Accounts of those users found spreading rumors may be suspended.

A leaked document from Cyberspace Administration of China also stated that starting on Jan. 26, all social media groups are forbidden to publish any news about Wuhan pneumonia that are not from official sources. The police will arrest all those who spread unconfirmed news.

Freelance writer Jiang Lijun revealed on Twitter on Jan. 26 that his WeChat account was permanently closed because he called on top officials of Wuhan City and Hubei Province to apologize for their actions and step down, and posted several articles about Wuhan pneumonia.

Ever since medical researchers identified the new coronavirus, local authorities have been working to dispel rumors and make arrests. As a result, residents of Wuhan were uninformed about the disease and didn’t institute preventative measures until the whole city was put into lockdown.

When the new WeChat regulation was announced, Chinese netizens became outraged. One person wrote, “The officials’ information blockade is precisely the reason that caused Wuhan pneumonia to spread quickly. How shameless you are to continue silencing whistleblowers.”^[24]

The migrant worker had left Hubei province last year to freelance as a welder in southern China. His family members stayed in their village in Qichun county less than two hours’ drive from Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 210 people and infected more than 9,700.

Gao sensed something dangerous was coming. He had breached China’s firewall to follow online news of the coronavirus as it emerged this month. He immediately began messaging his parents and siblings, including his brother, who drove a taxi between their village and Wuhan every day.

“Stock up on food, masks, disinfectant and medicine. Wash your hands. Don’t go to Wuhan!” he told them. They laughed. No one even knew of the virus in their hometown, they said, and nobody was wearing a mask. Gao, 33, sent a pack of surgical masks to his brother anyway. He felt helpless and enraged.

Gao was arrested Wednesday after tweeting that President Xi Jinping should resign over the government’s handling of the virus. The tweet about Xi disappeared, but another one he’d written earlier, as authorities announced new penalties for “spreading rumors” about the virus outbreak, remained: “Bring it on. This is a confrontation between a government that neglects life and a people who are saving themselves. Truth is our greatest weapon for our own salvation.”

Gao’s predictions have come to pass as the coronavirus spans continents and leaves China’s already overburdened medical system straining under a health emergency that has steadily accelerated. The communist leadership is entangled in its greatest medical and political crises in years, even as it attempts to assure other nations that all is under control.^[26]