This blog was triggered by some ning nong here in New Zealand shouting at a woman of Asian decent to go back home. It happens that she is a MD and has never been to China and is a New Zealand citizen. That sort of attitude is highly unacceptable in New Zealand but there are always some stupid people.
But let's face it, we all are racists, or religousists or Politicalists or some other "ist". It is the way we evolved. One group, insiders of their own group, fighting another group and in earlier times, killing all the men and taking the woman for their own tribe (and sometimes eating the men). Perhaps we should call them all Clanish. Whatever clan you belong to, you believe that the other clans are of lesser status and of lesser value. We have minor religious variations leading to clanishness (Ireland), Political differences (The US of A), color (nearly everywhere) and on and on it goes.
The Chinese themselves are no exception. They are arguably the most clannish of people. When they immigrate to another country, they tend to form enclaves that we call China Towns such as in San Fransisco and Vancouver and certainly do not want their young people marrying outside their clan. As such, they might show a little understanding when the surrounding population is a bit clannish too.
This blog, though is mainly concerned with whether or not we have something to fear from China with regard to diseases such as the latest Covid-19. What are the facts.
Many of the viruses that most threaten us are recent zoonosis; recent transfers from animals to humans. The ones that have been in the human population for a long time are less deadly since the population has developed some partial immunity to them and the virusis have modified (evolved) their genetics* so that they spread more easily. This involves not killing their host rapidly or they burn themselves out. The body takes a week or so to develop immunity to a given virus so if it is slow acting, the body will often eliminate the virus if you can keep the person alive for that length of time. This is not to say that old familiar viruses do not kill people. They do. It is just that the new ones, recently transferred from animals tend to be more deadly.
* That is actually a bad way of expressing it. In fact, varieties of the virus which kill their host rapidly, die out while ones that only make them sick spread far further and wider. Ones that show no symptoms for some time while being able to jump from human to human spread even better. Covid 19 is apparently such a virus.
So is China a threat. Well yes it is for a number of reasons.
First there are very large populations of Chinese living in close proximity in China so a virus, once caught by one person can spread rather rapidly. A pretty good population of infected people can be established before it comes to the attention of the officials. This is especially so if the virus shows no symptoms for an initial period in which it can be spread.
A second problem was illustrated by this latest Covid-19 virus. The doctor that reported it was chastised by the local government for spreading false news. There is a fairly large and established level of corruption and fear of loosing status in China.
Then there is the problem of the huge number of pigs and chickens in China in close proximity. Some viruses spread between animals before jumping to humans and having animals in huge numbers in close proximity to each other and to humans can encourage such outbreaks.
Add to this the great variety of animals that the Chinese use for food. There are markets for wild food including snakes, bats, cats, dogs and essentially anything made of meat. These varied animals are often kept live, together in outdoor wild meat markets. In addition many exotic animal parts are used in Chinese medicine. All this brings humans into close proximity with a whole host of viruses. It is amazing that we don't have more outbreaks.
It is notable that when a new virus appears in a human population, it takes around 6 months to develop a vaccine for it. In the mean time we have to fall back on old methods of quarantine and to give credit where credit is due, the Chinese government has been magnificent in this regard. Due to her stringent methods very few cases of this disease have been seen outside of China. One suspects that this situation is unlikely to continue.
So yes, it is likely that more of these viruses will come from China than from other countries but as long as the Chinese apply quarantine measures as they have been doing, we are in pretty good shape. Let's hope other countries can take a lesson from the actions of the Chinese. Not all new viruses have come from China. The trick is to slow it down until we have developed a vacine.
However, there is no justification for being racist against Chinese people because of the situation in China.
But let's face it, we all are racists, or religousists or Politicalists or some other "ist". It is the way we evolved. One group, insiders of their own group, fighting another group and in earlier times, killing all the men and taking the woman for their own tribe (and sometimes eating the men). Perhaps we should call them all Clanish. Whatever clan you belong to, you believe that the other clans are of lesser status and of lesser value. We have minor religious variations leading to clanishness (Ireland), Political differences (The US of A), color (nearly everywhere) and on and on it goes.
The Chinese themselves are no exception. They are arguably the most clannish of people. When they immigrate to another country, they tend to form enclaves that we call China Towns such as in San Fransisco and Vancouver and certainly do not want their young people marrying outside their clan. As such, they might show a little understanding when the surrounding population is a bit clannish too.
This blog, though is mainly concerned with whether or not we have something to fear from China with regard to diseases such as the latest Covid-19. What are the facts.
Many of the viruses that most threaten us are recent zoonosis; recent transfers from animals to humans. The ones that have been in the human population for a long time are less deadly since the population has developed some partial immunity to them and the virusis have modified (evolved) their genetics* so that they spread more easily. This involves not killing their host rapidly or they burn themselves out. The body takes a week or so to develop immunity to a given virus so if it is slow acting, the body will often eliminate the virus if you can keep the person alive for that length of time. This is not to say that old familiar viruses do not kill people. They do. It is just that the new ones, recently transferred from animals tend to be more deadly.
* That is actually a bad way of expressing it. In fact, varieties of the virus which kill their host rapidly, die out while ones that only make them sick spread far further and wider. Ones that show no symptoms for some time while being able to jump from human to human spread even better. Covid 19 is apparently such a virus.
So is China a threat. Well yes it is for a number of reasons.
First there are very large populations of Chinese living in close proximity in China so a virus, once caught by one person can spread rather rapidly. A pretty good population of infected people can be established before it comes to the attention of the officials. This is especially so if the virus shows no symptoms for an initial period in which it can be spread.
A second problem was illustrated by this latest Covid-19 virus. The doctor that reported it was chastised by the local government for spreading false news. There is a fairly large and established level of corruption and fear of loosing status in China.
Then there is the problem of the huge number of pigs and chickens in China in close proximity. Some viruses spread between animals before jumping to humans and having animals in huge numbers in close proximity to each other and to humans can encourage such outbreaks.
Add to this the great variety of animals that the Chinese use for food. There are markets for wild food including snakes, bats, cats, dogs and essentially anything made of meat. These varied animals are often kept live, together in outdoor wild meat markets. In addition many exotic animal parts are used in Chinese medicine. All this brings humans into close proximity with a whole host of viruses. It is amazing that we don't have more outbreaks.
It is notable that when a new virus appears in a human population, it takes around 6 months to develop a vaccine for it. In the mean time we have to fall back on old methods of quarantine and to give credit where credit is due, the Chinese government has been magnificent in this regard. Due to her stringent methods very few cases of this disease have been seen outside of China. One suspects that this situation is unlikely to continue.
So yes, it is likely that more of these viruses will come from China than from other countries but as long as the Chinese apply quarantine measures as they have been doing, we are in pretty good shape. Let's hope other countries can take a lesson from the actions of the Chinese. Not all new viruses have come from China. The trick is to slow it down until we have developed a vacine.
However, there is no justification for being racist against Chinese people because of the situation in China.
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