4 NEWS
THEWEEK 1February 2020
The main stories...
shareditsfullgeneticcodewith
colleaguesworldwide–aprocess
thatinthecaseofSarstookmonths.
Beijinghasclosedtouristsites,
deployedtemperature-checking
equipmentatportsandstations,and
imposeda“nearlock-down”on
Wuhan,acityof11millionpeople
knownasthe“thoroughfareof
China”,alongwithadozenother
nearbycities–restrictingtravelata
timewhentensofmillionsofChinese
normallyheadhometocelebratethe
LunarNewYearbreak.Whether
thesedrasticmeasuresworkremains
tobeseen,saidThomasAbrahamin
TheGuardian.TheSarsoutbreak
“mysteriouslydisappeared”after
ninemonths,andthisonemaydo
thesame.“Ontheotherhand,ifthe
numberofcasesanddeathsincrease,China’srulerscouldface
somethingtheyfearmorethanthediseaseitself:angerata
botchedresponseandsocialdiscontent.”Beijing has acted with impressivedespatch sofar, said The
Independent.It has sentanarmy of medical workers into
Wuhanand, amazingly, hasalmost finished buildinganew
1,000-bedhospital inthe city in the space ofjust tendays. But
if itsresponse has been quicker
than it wasinthe case ofSars,
the threatit isdealing with is
that much bigger.Chinais a
far more mobile and globally
connectedcountry than it wasback in2003: “morethan
200,000peopletakeflightsin and outof China every day,
six times asmanyasatthe timeofSars”.“Whenyou’redoneworrying aboutthisoutbreak, worry
about thenextone,”said DavidQuammen inThe New York
Times.For makeno mistake: there will bemore. Combine the
rise in air travelwith China’s crowdedwildlife markets, with
their mixoflive and dead animals (theWuhan virus is thought
to havecomefrombats or snakes inthe city’s foodmarket)
and you havetheperfectconditionsfor creatingpandemics.
These “wetmarkets”, where meatis sold alongsidepiled cages
of livesnakes,porcupines, foxes andother exoticspecies,area
clearmenace topublichealth, said DrJonathan Quickin The
DailyTelegraph. Beijing triedbanningthem in2013,butthat
justdrove thetrade underground,potentiallyraising the
contaminationrisks.The best optionmay beto concentrate on
makingthese markets safer while, over time, shifting consumer
preferences tomorehygienicsources of food.Britainandmanyothernationswere
scramblingtoevacuatetheircitizens
fromtheChinesecityofWuhanthis
weekasfearsgrewthattheoutbreak
ofcoronavirustherewouldleadtoa
globalpandemic.Until20yearsago,
acoronaviruswouldgivehumansno
morethanacommoncold,said
AnnieSparrowinForeignPolicy.But
threetimessofarinthe21stcentury,
novel–andfarmoredeadly–forms
ofcoronavirushaveemerged.First
cameSars(severeacuterespiratory
syndrome)in2003,thenin 2 013,
theMers(MiddleEastrespiratory
syndrome)epidemic,bothcausing
around 800 deaths.Andnowthe
strainemanatingfromWuhan.As
ofWednesday,thevirushasinfected
morethan5,000peopleinChina,
causingatleast 13 2deaths–andthesenumberskeeprising
despitetheimpositionbyBeijingofthelargestquarantine
operationinhistory.Confirmedcaseshavebeenfoundin 19
othercountries. HongKong,Russiaandother neighbouring
territorieshaveimposed borderrestrictions.Could “Wuhan flu” bethe“oft-predicted‘Big One’”? It’s
too early totellat this point, saidMark Honigsbaumin
The SundayTelegraph. One
diseasemodeller causedalarm
lastweekby speculating that
the virus wouldhave asimilar
mortality rate –around 3%–
to Spanish flu,the virusthat encircledthe world in1918-19,
infectingathirdof theworld’spopulation andkilling more
than50 millionpeople.But it’sa“misleading” comparison.
It wasbased onconfirmed coronaviruscases amonghospital
patients.Theremay bemany thousandsmoreasymptomatic
patientsdoctors don’tknow about.Besides, most of those
whodiedfrom Spanish fluwereyoungadults inthe primeof
life, while most of thevictims ofthisoutbreakhavebeenolder
peoplewith pre-existing conditions.It’s also tooearlytotell
howcontagious theWuhan virus is,saidJulia Belluz onVox.
Preliminaryevidence suggeststhat it’s less sothanSars, but
more so than seasonal flu,avirusthat, lestwe forget,still
“killsbetween 250,000 and650,000 people annually”.The one thing wecan sayfor sure,said TomHancock inthe
FT, is thatChinahas responded with greater urgency to this
outbreak thanit didtothe Sars epidemic.Within afortnight
of th eWuhan viruscoming to the authorities’ attention on 29
December,Chinesescientists had identified thepathogen andThe coronavirus: how scared should we be?
COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM
It wasn’t all bad
Tesco is to stop selling plastic-
wrapped multipacks of tins, to
cut its use of single-use plastic.
Instead of using plastic to bind
store-cupboard staples such
as baked beans together, the
supermarket will offer
permanent multi-buy deals
on individual tins. Packaging
is being removed from Tesco’s
own-brand products, as well
as those made by major brands
such as Heinz, Green Giant,
John West and Princes. It
says the change will save
350 tonnes of plasticayear.Archaeologists have retrieved
around 100 objects dating from
the 14th and 15th centuries
fromafour-metremedieval
cesspit discovered beneath
Somerset House in central
London. The haul, which
includes drinking vessels,
tablewear,ararePennfloor tile
and aring, arebelieved to be
the only surviving artefacts
from the opulent medieval
mansions that once stood on
the Strand. The cesspit was
found when archaeologists
were given access to Somerset
House during the refurbishment
of the Courtauld Gallery.ABritish adventurer has
become the first Briton
to scale the world’s most
remote peak unaided.
At 2,020 metres, Spectre
is not especially high, but
the mountain is so
isolated, 450km south
of the South Pole on
Antarctica, that only ten
people have seen it, and
only one other team has
climbed it. Those
climbers usedavehicle to
get part of the way, but Leo Houlding (above), along with Jean
Burgun and Mark Sedon, kite-skied the 2000km to and from the
mountain, pulling 2,00kg of kit on sledges behind them.Afilmof
their adventure will be shown at the Banff Mountain Film Festival.“China’s wildlife markets provide the perfect
conditions for creating human pandemics”Temperaturechecksatstationsandports