For those who were expecting 2020 to be a year of new beginnings, I’m sorry to tell you that it appears that the dumpster fires of 2019 are still burning, some of them very literally. But the biggest thing to grip the world right now is the confirmation of a coronavirus outbreak in China (via The Independent), which is sweeping across the country and has sparked fears of a global epidemic.
Since everyone is probably wondering what the hell this coronavirus is and what Australia is doing about it since we’re such a close neighbour to China, here is GOAT’s quick breakdown of what is going on right now.
What the hell is this coronavirus that’s got China terrified?
Coronavirus doesn’t actually refer to the name of this disease spreading across China but rather the type of disease. According to CNET, coronaviruses belong to a family of viruses that look like spiked rings and are typically found in animals that include livestock, household pets, and wildlife.
Coronaviruses can spread to humans and cause pneumonia-like illnesses and symptoms, such as fever, respiratory problems and lung inflammation, all of which is bad for those with compromised immune systems.
Relating all this to what’s happening in China right now, a new strain of coronavirus – dubbed 2019-nCoV – was reported to the World Health Organisation on December 31, 2019, and scientists have linked it to the same family as the SARS and MERS viruses. This virus reportedly originated in a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, which was quarantined on January 1, 2020, and the affected patients being monitored.
However scientists have yet to understand where it originated, how it got transmitted from animals to humans, how far the disease has spread, how deadly it is, and how to vaccinate against it. At the time of writing, there have been three confirmed deaths (via Al Jazeera) from the coronavirus and around 200 reported cases (via CIDRAP) in China, as well as reported cases (via BBC) in Thailand, Japan and South Korea.
Does it have anything to do with Corona beer?
No. No it doesn’t.
So what’s Australia doing in response?
With the coronavirus stumping scientists, there are fears that the coronavirus could make its way Down Under at some point due to the number of international travellers going in and out of China come Lunar New Year time.
In response, Chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy has announced (via The Guardian) that while the risk of the disease jumping across continents is low, new screening measures will be put in place just in case, which is a pretty quick reversal from the “nah, we’ll be fine” stance he had just days earlier.
Focus will be placed on passengers who are on direct flights from Wuhan City to Sydney, which happens three times a week. Those flights will be met by border security, biosecurity staff and NSW Health officials, who “will be providing to all the passengers and information pamphlet in English and Mandarin, outlining the symptoms this disease might deliver and asking them to identify themselves at the border.”
While Murphy says the coronavirus has an incubation period of about a week in which symptoms won’t be apparent (via ABC), he states that Australia is well equipped to handle the disease should it arrive (via The Australian):
“We’ve had lots of experience with this in the past. We’ve had the flu pandemics. We had the ebola. We were prepared for ebola.
“So most of our hospitals, our emergency departments, our state and public health departments, are well prepared with protocols but we need to obviously make sure that they’re up to date and revised and that everyone is prepared for this.
However, he also states that there’s no surefire way to keep the disease out of the country (via The Guardian), saying “The important thing to remember is with border screening you cannot absolutely prevent the spread of disease into the country.”
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