🦠COVID-19🦠

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-pan...virus-outbreak

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Missing link: a pangolin?
Many animals are capable of transmitting viruses to other species, and nearly all strains of the coronavirus contagious to humans originated in wildlife.

Bats are known carriers of the latest strain of the disease, which has infected at least 31,000 people and killed more than 630 worldwide, mostly in China where the outbreak originate.

A recent genetic analysis showed that the strain of the virus currently spreading among humans was 96 percent identical to that found in bats.

But according to Arnaud Fontanet, from France's Pasteur Institute, the disease likely didn't jump straight from bats to humans.

"We think there's another animal that's an intermediary," he told AFP.

Several studies have shown that the bat-bourne virus lacks the necessary hardware to latch on to human cell receptors. But it's still not clear which animal is the missing link.

Fontanet believes the intermediary was "probably a mammal," possible belonging to the badger family.

After testing more than 1,000 samples from wild animals, scientists at the South China Agricultural University found the genome sequences of viruses in pangolins to be 99 percent identical to those on coronavirus patients, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

But other experts urged caution.

"This is not scientific evidence," said James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge. "Investigations into animal reservoirs are extremely important, but results must be then be published for international scrutiny."

"Simply reporting detection of viral RNA with sequence similarity of 99+ percent is not sufficient," he added.

Wild goose chase?
To conclusively identify the culprit, researchers would need to test each species that was on sale at the market -- a near impossibility given that it's now permanently closed.


Martine Peeters, a virologist at France's Institute for Research and Development (IRD), worked on the team that identified the host animal of the Ebola virus during recent epidemics.

They found that it was indeed a bat that passed the virus on to humans, and Peeters believes that's likely to be the case this time around.

During her Ebola research, "we collected thousands of bat dropping from several sites in Africa," Peeters told AFP.

Fontanet said that Chinese researchers were doing likewise now.

"They say they've analysed samples from a rubbish truck," he said. "They don't say which, but I think it's likely to have been excrement that was just lying around."

Why does it matter?
While it may be too late for this outbreak, identifying the carrier animal for the novel coronavirus could prove vital in preventing future flare ups.

China for example outlawed the sale of civet for food in the wake of the SARS epidemic.

Eric Leroy, a virologist and vet at the IRD said the search could well turn up a result quickly like in the case of SARS. Equally, it could take years.

"With Ebola, research started in 1976 and we didn't see the first results published until 2005," he told AFP.

One determining factor could be what percentage of the same species are infected.

"If that's low, less than one percent for example, that's obviously going to lower the chance you stumble upon an infected animal," said Leroy.

Prevent future outbreaks?
For Fontanet, coronavirus is just the latest example of the potentially disastrous consequence of humans consuming virus-carrying wild animals.

He said that China needed to "take pretty radical measures against the sale of wild animals in markets."

Beijing has prohibited the practice, but only moved to do so last month, when the outbreak was already out of control.

"Each time, we try to put out the fire, and once it's out we await the next one," said Francois Renaud, a researcher at the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research.

He recommended compiling a watch list of all animals that could potentially transmit viruses to humans.

"You need to see epidemics before they come, and therefore you need to be proactive," he said.

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https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020...reak-s-origins

attaaaggtt tataccttcc caggtaacaa accaaccaac tttcgatctc ttgtagatct …

That string of apparent gibberish is anything but: It’s a snippet of a DNA sequence from the viral pathogen, dubbed 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), that is overwhelming China and frightening the entire world. Scientists are publicly sharing an ever-growing number of full sequences of the virus from patients—53 at last count in the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data database. These viral genomes are being intensely studied to try to understand the origin of 2019-nCoV and how it fits on the family tree of related viruses found in bats and other species. They have also given glimpses into what this newly discovered virus physically looks like, how it’s changing, and how it might be stopped.

“One of the biggest takeaway messages [from the viral sequences] is that there was a single introduction into humans and then human-to-human spread,” says Trevor Bedford, a bioinformatics specialist at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The role of Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, in spreading 2019-nCoV remains murky, though such sequencing, combined with sampling the market’s environment for the presence of the virus, is clarifying that it indeed had an important early role in amplifying the outbreak. The viral sequences, most researchers say, also knock down the idea the pathogen came from a virology institute in Wuhan.

In all, 2019-nCoV has nearly 29,000 nucleotides bases that hold the genetic instruction book to produce the virus. Although it’s one of the many viruses whose genes are in the form of RNA, scientists convert the viral genome into DNA, with bases known in shorthand as A, T, C, and G, to make it easier to study. Many analyses of 2019-nCoV’s sequences have already appeared on virological.org, nextstrain.org, preprint servers like bioRxiv, and even in peer-reviewed journals. The sharing of the sequences by Chinese researchers allowed public health labs around the world to develop their own diagnostics for the virus, which now has been found in 18 other countries. (Science's news stories on the outbreak can be found here.)

When the first 2019-nCoV sequence became available, researchers placed it on a family tree of known coronaviruses—which are abundant and infect many species—and found that it was most closely related to relatives found in bats. A team led by Shi Zheng-Li, a coronavirus specialist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, reported on 23 January on bioRxiv that 2019-nCoV’s sequence was 96.2% similar to a bat virus and had 79.5% similarity to the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a disease whose initial outbreak was also in China more than 15 years ago. But the SARS coronavirus has a similarly close relationship to bat viruses, and sequence data make a powerful case that it jumped into people from a coronavirus in civets that differed from human SARS viruses by as few as 10 nucleotides. That’s one reason why many scientists suspect there’s an “intermediary” host species—or several—between bats and 2019-nCoV.

According to Bedford’s analysis, the bat coronavirus sequence that Shi Zheng-Li’s team highlighted, dubbed RaTG13, differs from 2019-nCoV by nearly 1100 nucleotides. On nextstrain.org, a site he co-founded, Bedford has created coronavirus family trees (example below) that include bat, civet, SARS, and 2019-nCoV sequences. (The trees are interactive—by dragging a computer mouse over them, it’s easy to see the differences and similarities between the sequences.)

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Bedford’s analyses of RaTG13 and 2019-nCoV suggest that the two viruses shared a common ancestor 25 to 65 years ago, an estimate he arrived at by combining the difference in nucleotides between the viruses with the presumed rates of mutation in other coronaviruses. So it likely took decades for RaTG13-like viruses to mutate into 2019-nCoV.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), another human disease caused by a coronavirus, similarly has a link to bat viruses. But studies have built a compelling case it jumped to humans from camels. And the phylogenetic tree from Shi’s bioRxiv paper (below) makes the camel-MERS link easy to see.
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The longer a virus circulates in a human populations, the more time it has to develop mutations that differentiate strains in infected people, and given that the 2019-nCoV sequences analyzed to date differ from each other by seven nucleotides at most, this suggests it jumped into humans very recently. But it remains a mystery which animal spread the virus to humans. “There’s a very large gray area between viruses detected in bats and the virus now isolated in humans,” says Vincent Munster, a virologist at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who studies coronaviruses in bats, camels, and others species.

Strong evidence suggests the marketplace played an early role in spreading 2019-nCoV, but whether it was the origin of the outbreak remains uncertain. Many of the initially confirmed 2019-nCoV cases—27 of the first 41 in one report, 26 of 47 in another—were connected to the Wuhan market, but up to 45%, including the earliest handful, were not. This raises the possibility that the initial jump into people happened elsewhere.

According to Xinhua, the state-run news agency, “environmental sampling” of the Wuhan seafood market has found evidence of 2019-nCoV. Of the 585 samples tested, 33 were positive for 2019-nCoV and all were in the huge market’s western portion, which is where wildlife were sold. “The positive tests from the wet market are hugely important,” says Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney who collaborated with the first group to publicly release a 2019-nCoV sequence. “Such a high rate of positive tests would strongly imply that animals in the market played a key role in the emergence of the virus.”

Yet there have been no preprints or official scientific reports on the sampling, so it’s not clear which, if any, animals tested positive. “Until you consistently isolate the virus out of a single species, it’s really, really difficult to try and determine what the natural host is,” says Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary biologist at Scripps Research.

One possible explanation for the confusion about where the virus first entered humans is if there was a batch of recently infected animals sold at different marketplaces. Or an infected animal trader could have transmitted the virus to different people at different markets. Or, Bedford suggests, those early cases could have been infected by viruses that didn’t easily transmit and sputtered out. “It would be hugely helpful to have just a sequence or two from the marketplace [environmental sampling] that could illuminate how many zoonoses occurred and when they occurred,” Bedford says.

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A research group sent fecal and other bodily samples from bats they trapped in caves to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to search for coronaviruses.


ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE
In the absence of clear conclusions about the outbreak’s origin, theories thrive, and some have been scientifically shaky. A sequence analysis led by Wei Ji of Peking University and published online by the Journal of Medical Virology received substantial press coverage when it suggested that “snake is the most probable wildlife animal reservoir for the 2019‐nCoV.” Sequence specialists, however, pilloried it.

Conspiracy theories also abound. A CBC News report about the Canadian government deporting Chinese scientists who worked in a Winnipeg lab that studies dangerous pathogens was distorted on social media to suggest that they were spies who had smuggled out coronaviruses. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is the premier lab in China that studies bat and human coronaviruses, has also come under fire. “Experts debunk fringe theory linking China’s coronavirus to weapons research,” read a headline on a story in The Washington Post that focused on the facility.

Concerns about the institute predate this outbreak. Nature ran a story in 2017 about it building a new biosafety level 4 lab and included molecular biologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, Piscataway, expressing concerns about accidental infections, which he noted repeatedly happened with lab workers handling SARS in Beijing. Ebright, who has a long history of raising red flags about studies with dangerous pathogens, also in 2015 criticized an experiment in which modifications were made to a SARS-like virus circulating in Chinese bats to see whether it had the potential to cause disease in humans. Earlier this week, Ebright questioned the accuracy of Bedford’s calculation that there are at least 25 years of evolutionary distance between RaTG13—the virus held in the Wuhan virology institute—and 2019-nCoV, arguing that the mutation rate may have been different as it passed through different hosts before humans. Ebright tells ScienceInsider that the 2019-nCoV data are “consistent with entry into the human population as either a natural accident or a laboratory accident.”

Shi did not reply to emails from Science, but her longtime collaborator, disease ecologist Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance, dismissed Ebright’s conjecture. “Every time there’s an emerging disease, a new virus, the same story comes out: This is a spillover or the release of an agent or a bioengineered virus,” Daszak says. “It’s just a shame. It seems humans can’t resist controversy and these myths, yet it’s staring us right in the face. There’s this incredible diversity of viruses in wildlife and we’ve just scratched the surface. Within that diversity, there will be some that can infect people and within that group will be some that cause illness.”

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A team of researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the EcoHealth Alliance have trapped bats in caves all over China, like this one in Guangdong, to sample them for coronaviruses.


ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE
Daszak and Shi’s group have for 8 years been trapping bats in caves around China to sample their feces and blood for viruses. He says they have sampled more than 10,000 bats and 2000 other species. They have found some 500 novel coronaviruses, about 50 of which fall relatively close to the SARS virus on the family tree, including RaTG13—it was fished out of a bat fecal sample they collected in 2013 from a cave in Moglang in Yunnan province. “We cannot assume that just because this virus from Yunnan has high sequence identity with the new one that that’s the origin,” Daszak says, noting that only a tiny fraction of coronaviruses that infect bats have been discovered. “I expect that once we’ve sampled and sampled and sampled across southern China and central China that we’re going to find many other viruses and some of them will be closer [to 2019-nCoV].”

It’s not just a “curious interest” to figure out what sparked the current outbreak, Daszak says. “If we don't find the origin, it could still be a raging infection at a farm somewhere, and once this outbreak dies, there could be a continued spillover that’s really hard to stop. But the jury is still out on what the real origins of this are.”
 
blame it on the PANGOLIN... maybe my GOLDFISH did it ...seriously all pets including tropical fish can transmit/mutate /host viruses
 
http://www.fao.org/fi/static-media/M...dec2018/p9.pdf

https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/s...ish-from-china



Why They're Called 'Wet Markets' — And What Health Risks They Might Pose https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...hey-might-pose

A "wet market" in Wuhan, China, is catching the blame as the probable source of the current coronavirus outbreak that's sweeping the globe.

Patients who came down with disease at the end of December all had connections to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan China. The complex of stalls selling live fish, meat and wild animals is known in the region as a "wet market." Researchers believe the new virus probably mutated from a coronavirus common in animals and jumped over to humans in the Wuhan bazaar.

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I visited the Tai Po wet market in Hong Kong, and it's quite obvious why the term "wet" is used. Live fish in open tubs splash water all over the floor. The countertops of the stalls are red with blood as fish are gutted and filleted right in front of the customers' eyes. Live turtles and crustaceans climb over each other in boxes. Melting ice adds to the slush on the floor. There's lots of water, blood, fish scales and chicken guts. Things are wet.

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A butcher chops up raw duck.

At the Tai Po market, a woman who runs a shellfish stall — she only wants to give her name as Mrs. Wong — says people blame wet markets for spreading disease. But she says that's not fair. Like just about everyone else in the market. Wong is wearing a surgical face mask because of the coronavirus outbreak. She's heard about the links between the wet market in Wuhan, China, and the coronavirus but doesn't think something like that would happen in Hong Kong.

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"It's much cleaner in the Hong Kong markets. It's so different from what's happening in mainland China," she says. "When I go to mainland China and I'm trying to eat something, I'm concerned about what's in the food."

Meanwhile, this kind of market is not just an Asian phenomenon. There are similar markets all over the world — places where fish, poultry and other animals are slaughtered and butchered right on the premises.

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But researchers of zoonotic diseases — diseases that jump from animals to humans – pinpoint the wet markets in mainland China as particularly problematic for several reasons. First, these markets often have many different kinds of animals – some wild, some domesticated but not necessarily native to that part of Asia. The stress of captivity in these chaotic markets weakens the animals' immune systems and creates an environment where viruses from different species can mingle, swap bits of their genetic code and spread from one species to another, according to biologist Kevin Olival, vice president for research at the EcoHealth Alliance. When that happens, occasionally a new strain of an animal virus gets a foothold in humans and an outbreak like this current coronavirus erupts.

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The Tai Po market in Hong Kong does have some live animals besides the seafood but the selection is rather boring compared to the exotic assortment of snakes, mammals and birds on offer in some markets in mainland China. They're known to sell animals such as Himalayan palm civets, raccoon dogs, wild boars and cobras.

The only live birds in Tai Po are chickens, which are kept behind the butchered pork section of the market.

Chan Shu Chung has been selling chicken here for more than 10 years. He says business is really good right now because the price of pork — his main competition — is through the roof. Pork is in short supply due to trade tensions between China and the U.S. and a recent bout of swine flu.

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A chicken for sale at the Tai Po market in Hong Kong. Customers say that buying chickens that are slaughtered on the spot makes them feel that they're getting meat from fresh, healthy birds.

So people are buying more chicken. Customers can select a live bird from Chung's cages. Chung pulls them out by their feet, holds them upside down to show off their plump breasts. If the customer is happy with the bird, Chung puts a plastic tag with a number on the chicken's foot. He gives the customer a matching tag, sort of like a coat check. Fifteen minutes later the shopper can come back and pick up the chicken meat.

Chung says he and his colleagues do their best to keep the area clean. They wash down the stalls regularly and disinfect the countertops to stop germs from spreading.

Chung, however, is one of the few people in the market who is not wearing a face mask. Face masks have become so common in Hong Kong since the coronavirus outbreak started that pharmacies across the city are sold out of them.

Chung says he isn't afraid of this new coronavirus. He always gets his annual flu shot so he believes he's protected against this new disease, even though scientists say the flu shot will not protect people against this new coronavirus.

Chung adds confidently that he's even immune to SARS — for which there also is no commercially available vaccine.

But he does keep his chicken stalls incredibly clean, which public health officials say is one important step in stopping the spread of diseases. So maybe he's on to something.


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A turtle pokes his snout through a net.

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Raw pork is on the selling block

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A cat naps in front of a store next to the wet market and could become someone's next meal
 

In China, a toothpick is used in the elevator to stop the spread of the coronavirus, to choose what floor you will go.
 
BLAME IT ON THE PANGOLIN....PANGOLIN the suspect...PANGOLIN the world's most trafficked mammal is the suspect but answers are elusive...PANGLOIN all 4 species are used in TCM and are being trafficked to extinction... scientists wonder if a virus from a bat and a virus from a PANGOLIN combined in a PANGOLIN to create CORONAVIRUS...

- mystery not solved yet
 
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcar...onavirus-fears

Carnival cruise ship refused entry by fifth port due to coronavirus fears
BY REBECCA KLAR - 02/11/20 08:56 AM EST

A Carnival cruise ship on Tuesday was refused entry to Thailand over fears of coronavirus. This is the fifth port to deny the ship to dock despite no cases of the virus having been confirmed on board the Holland America ship.

Holland America Line tweeted Monday that it would be disembarking in Bangkok for travelers to head home, but on Tuesday the Thai health minister refused the ship’s entry.

“I have issued orders. Permission to dock refused,” Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul reportedly said in a Facebook post.

“We are aware of the reports regarding the status of Westerdam’s call to Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand,” Holland America Line tweeted Tuesday. “We are actively working this matter & will provide an update when able. We know this is confusing for our guests and their families & we greatly appreciate their patience.”

Four other countries or territories have denied entry to the ship, including ports in Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and Guam, Bloomberg News reports, citing the World Health Organization.

Thai Deputy Transport Minister Atirat Ratanasate said in a Facebook post the country would “gladly help providing fuel, medicine and food,” although the ship is not allowed to dock in the country's port, Reuters reports.

A separate cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, is quarantined in Japan and has a total of 130 confirmed cases on board as of Monday.

Coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China, and has spread globally to more than a dozen countries.

More than 1,000 people in mainland China have died from the virus.
 
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...id-19-n1134756

Coronavirus gets official name from WHO:

COVID-19

More than 42,000 cases and 1,000 deaths have been reported.Feb. 11, 2020, 9:25 AM CST / Updated Feb. 11, 2020, 9:34 AM CST
By Erika Edwards
The new coronavirus that’s sickened more than 42,000 people in China now has an official name: COVID-19. It stands for the coronavirus disease that was discovered in 2019.

The World Health Organization announced the name Tuesday, saying it was careful to find a name without stigma.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

“We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, or an individual or group of people,” WHO's director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a call with reporters.

It’s also easy to pronounce, he added.
Coronavirus gets official name from WHO: COVID-19

More than 42,000 cases and 1,000 deaths have been reported.Feb. 11, 2020, 9:25 AM CST / Updated Feb. 11, 2020, 9:34 AM CST
By Erika Edwards
The new coronavirus that’s sickened more than 42,000 people in China now has an official name: COVID-19. It stands for the coronavirus disease that was discovered in 2019.

The World Health Organization announced the name Tuesday, saying it was careful to find a name without stigma.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

“We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, or an individual or group of people,” WHO's director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a call with reporters.

It’s also easy to pronounce, he added.
 

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Authorities have all but shut down Wuhan, a city of 11 million and a major transport hub, as the death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak surged past 800 in mainland China, overtaking global deaths during the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic.

The total number of coronavirus infections in China has risen to more than 37,000.

The coronavirus is thought to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan - in northern China's Hubei province - that reportedly sold exotic animals for consumption, similar to the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). The virus is believed to have jumped from an animal to a human host.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday said the number of cases being reported daily in China appeared to be stabilising.

WHO's representative in Beijing, Gauden Galea, also said the "unprecedented" move to lock down Wuhan was "a very important indication of the commitment to contain the epidemic in the place where it is most concentrated", adding that such a directive was beyond the organisation's guidelines.

Lying on the banks of the mighty Yangtze River, flood-prone Wuhan measures 8,500 square kilometres (3,300 square miles), five times the size of Greater London, and includes rural areas as well as a sprawling conurbation.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/in...091430854.html

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Much of Wuhan remains sealed off as China tries to contain the spread of the virus by enforcing travel limitations and implementing quarantines that have affected an estimated 60 million people. GETTY IMAGES
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The death toll in mainland China from the coronavirus has surged to 811, the National Health Commission said on Sunday. GETTY IMAGES
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https://qz.com/1799116/the-coronavir...like-burberry/



China’s outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus is having ripple effects beyond its upending of daily life in the country. For the international luxury industry, which relies heavily on Chinese shoppers, it’s already taking a financial toll.

The outbreak has dramatically reduced the number of shoppers in Chinese cities and forced companies to close stores. Travel restrictions are also curtailing the normal flow of tourists to other destinations that usually host plenty of visitors buying luxury goods. Chinese shoppers make up about a third of global luxury spending, counting their spending inside and outside the country, according to management consultancy Bain & Company. That’s more than any other nationality.

The conditions prompted Britain’s Burberry to scrap its previously announced outlook for the year through March. Of its 64 stores in mainland China, 24 are closed, the company said in a statement (pdf). Those that remain open are working on reduced hours and have seen “significant” drops in traffic. While it said its business with Chinese tourists in Europe and other destinations had suffered less so far, it added, “given widening travel restrictions, we anticipate these to worsen over the coming weeks.”

The update comes a day after Tapestry Inc., the owner of Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman, said it could see a hit of $200 million to $250 million in sales for the second half of its fiscal year as a result of the coronavirus.

On Feb. 5, Capri Holdings, the parent company of Michael Kors, Versace, and Jimmy Choo, said it was reducing its sales outlook for the quarter by $100 million based on what it knows about the situation. “Currently, approximately 150 of our 225 stores in mainland China are closed,” CEO John Idol said on a call with analysts. “Additionally, for those stores remaining open, both traffic and sales have been severely reduced.”

Some brands are more vulnerable than others. Investment bank Jefferies pointed out in a research note today that Burberry is particularly reliant on China, and much of its business there is clothing, a category that could feel more of an impact because it’s seasonal. Shoppers who don’t buy now might not buy later either when the weather changes. Other categories, such as watches, might be more resilient. Nick Hayek, CEO of the Swatch Group, told analysts his company could make up any lost sales ahead of summer if the outbreak resolves in a few months, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Still, Jefferies predicted more announcements like Burberry’s are still to come as more companies report to investors. Kering, which owns brands such as Gucci and Saint Laurent, is set to release results on Feb. 12, for instance.

The coronavirus stands to have a greater impact on luxury than the SARS epidemic did in 2003. The effects then were contained more within China, but since the country’s stature in the global economy has grown significantly. “Our concern is that the luxury goods sector is significantly more exposed to Asia and Chinese consumption today,” Thomas Chauvet, an analyst at Citigroup, told the Journal.

The question now is how long it will last. It’s difficult to predict when the spread of a virus has peaked. The World Health Organization has said it’s too soon to declare a peak for the current coronavirus outbreak. It could be months before life in China and the business relying on it returns to normal. In a Feb. 5 note, Jefferies said there would probably be no return to full operations before some time in April.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/randybr.../#1c4f42853d96

Supply Chains Are Under Stress

Beyond the immediate economic impact, however, it is disruption to global supply chains that poses the greatest threat to markets. The technology, electronics and auto sectors are the most vulnerable to impacts from Coronavirus.

The city of Wuhan in the Hubei province, where patient zero was diagnosed, is a manufacturing hub. Apple relies on Wuhan for some of its iPhone production, and it recently warned that the lockdown could impact its first-quarter earnings.
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BEIJING, CHINA - FEBRUARY 5, 2020: A sign on the window of an Apple store with a message saying that ... [+]

ROMAN BALANDIN/TASS
Meanwhile, global automakers such as Honda and Nissan have a significant slice of their Chinese production in the region. One of the largest auto parts makers in the world, Robert Bosch GmbH, shut two of its plants in the area. Hyundai just stalled its South Korean production as it ran out of Chinese parts. In a world of “just-in-time” inventories, a number of U.S. and European car manufacturers estimate they are three to four weeks away from running out of Chinese supplies.

None of this is a surprise. China is the largest exporter of intermediate products, so its ability to disrupt global output is significant. If Chinese factories stay offline for a couple of weeks, global automakers will be forced to dial back output targets.

Today’s sophisticated supply chains took a decade to optimize. Finding alternatives for high-end manufacturing is not trivial, and the assumptions on finding alternatives are probably optimistic. Even if the capabilities are there, any surge in demand will overwhelm these secondary suppliers.

Supply chain disruption is unequivocally being overlooked in most of the economic scenario analysis, as the knock-on effects are complicated.

China has to demonstrate it can quickly get its supply chains back online. Right now, markets are expecting flawless execution. That seems optimistic. There will undoubtedly be some mishaps and that will flow into earnings disappointments.

The U.S. auto industry, for example, sources 15% of its components from China. Any delays in a single part, shuts down the entire production line. Early alerts of these vulnerabilities are already cropping up. As noted already, Hyundai stalled its South Korean production and Fiat Chrysler just warned they may have to halt production at one of its European plants in the next few weeks if the dislocation continues. Expect this stress to intensify.
 

Feb 12, 2020

CBC News

Another 39 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, with one quarantine officer also infected. Respirologist Dr. Simon Gupta explains why cruise ships are a unique environment for the spread of diseases.
 
Feb 13, 2020

CBC News

Spencer Fehrenbacher, a Canadian permanent resident who lives in Langley, B.C., says he hopes to get off the Diamond Princess cruise ship soon. A further 44 coronavirus cases were reported on the cruise ship Thursday, raising the total to 219.




The Canadian Press · Posted: Feb 13, 2020 6:10 AM ET | Last Updated: 14 minutes ago

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/who-ch...b-13-1.5462153
 
Concern and confusion in China as coronavirus reporting system changes

Feb 13, 2020

ITV News

Thousands of soldiers in masks have arrived in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in scenes reminiscent of war. Their task is to help combat coronavirus.

It comes as China revealed a dramatic increase in the number of cases. The rise has been attributed to a change in the reporting system.

In Hubei province, where the virus is thought to have started, an additional 254 deaths were confirmed on Thursday.

It pushes the total number of fatalities across China to 1,367.

It comes amid a change in how the cases are recorded. Up until now, only those given the official test were included in the figures - not those suffering or dying from symptoms.

Liu Pei'en believes the figures still don't add up. His father died before he could be given the test.

 
Pangolins could face greater threat due to coronavirus fears

Feb 15, 2020

CBS This Morning

Experts worry that the endangered pangolin might suffer an even greater threat after Chinese scientists suggested that the scaly mammal could have been responsible for the coronavirus being transmitted to humans. Almost 500,000 pangolins are poached yearly for their prized meat and scales, earning it the label of “most trafficked mammals on the planet.” Tom Hanson is in Brookfield, Illinois to follow one zoo’s conservation efforts.



ANGIE LEVENTIS LOURGOS
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
FEB 14, 2020 | 8:30 AM

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Biggie, a pangolin at the Brookfield Zoo, moves in his enclosure on Feb. 13, 2020. World Pangolin Day is Saturday. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Animal enthusiasts across the globe on Saturday will celebrate the ninth annual World Pangolin Day, designated to help protect what is believed to be the most illegally trafficked mammal on Earth.

Yet the festivities come in the wake of some bad press for this already at-risk animal. While research isn’t at all conclusive, some scientists in China have preliminarily named the highly poached pangolin as the possible transmitter of coronavirus to humans, potentially linking the rare and enigmatic creature to a public health epidemic that has killed more than a thousand globally and sickened 15 in the United States as of Thursday.

Now those working to save this intriguing, scale-covered mammal fear that anxiety over the new virus that originated in Wuhan, China, could further threaten the pangolin, whose eight species native to Asia and Africa range from vulnerable to critically endangered.

“You can get an overreaction, that’s a possibility, that if the right information isn’t provided there would be a growing fear of pangolins out there, no matter where they are,” said Bill Zeigler, senior vice president of animal programs at the Brookfield Zoo.

The Brookfield Zoo is among the few institutions in the United States that care for pangolins, which first arrived there in 2016. The gentle, reclusive animal seems to resemble an anteater, snake and armadillo all in one. It is the only mammal covered in an armor of keratin scales, known to roll up in a ball as its main protection against predators.

“This is a group of species that very little is known about,” Zeigler said. “Until recently we knew little about their reproductive physiology, how they communicate with one another. How do they meet? How do males and females find one another to breed? Can they survive in disturbed habitats?”

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Although internationally protected, the pangolin is illegally hunted for its prized meat as well as its scales, which are purported to cure a litany of ailments in the traditional medicine of various cultures. A report released earlier this week by the Wildlife Justice Commission warned the recent increase in trafficking of pangolins has reached “unprecedented levels.”

Citing preliminary genetic testing, researchers at a Chinese university earlier this month suggested the pangolin could be a “potential intermediate host” of coronavirus, possibly spreading the disease from bats to humans.

Many independent scientists have questioned these findings, saying more data are needed to draw any definitive conclusions.

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Kill them all if we wanna stay alive … I love animals but that thing gotta go,” someone commented on the Twitter page of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a multigovernment treaty designed to protect vulnerable wildlife.

However, some expressed hope that poaching might decrease if the demand for pangolin meat and scales dwindled over potential coronavirus fears.

“Humans need to learn (a) lesson … animals don’t exist just for our consumption or abuse,” read another tweet.

Brookfield Zoo has various activities planned for World Pangolin Day, including several talks about the pangolin hosted by animal care experts. Kids can make pangolins out of pine cones ― the shape and texture mimicking the animal’s scaly frame — at the Hamill Family Play Zoo.

Zoo officials are also asking the public to sign a petition in support of Illinois legislation that would ban the sale, trade and distribution of pangolin products statewide.

The American public has only become aware of threats against the pangolin in the last decade or so, Zeigler said. But the animal’s popularity appears to have soared in that time, with dozens of YouTube videos of the mysterious creature getting hundreds of thousands of page views. A pangolin debuted in a 2016 episode of the PBS cartoon “Wild Kratts,” rescued by the show’s protagonists before nearly becoming an ingredient in a health food smoothie.

The pangolin has emerged as a poster child of sorts for the conservation movement, Zeigler said, in part due to its curious appearance and demeanor that many find adorable.

“If you’ve ever seen a pangolin pup on the back of its mother, this is just too cute of an animal to not be concerned about," he said. "This is an animal that you look at and go, ‘My God, how does this animal survive out there?’ We need to protect it. It’s cuddly. It’s cute.”

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Feb 15, 2020

285 people have now tested positive on the cruise ship including 67 new cases. After almost two weeks, the United States is sending two aircraft to get over 300 US citizens off the ship possibly as soon as tomorrow, 3700 people are stuck on board the cruise ship.


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I don't blame the guy. I would not want to stay on this death ship either. It's like a prison. At least going to the United States and being in quarantine for another fourteen days is a way back home with some time frame.
 
JAWS did a number on shark population decimating ocean alpha predator through harvesting and hunting ...this virus witch hunt makes PANGOLIN go fomr from worse to worst... PANGOLIN already the most trafficked mammal in the world for TCM
 
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