Anyone hear anything about a confirmed case of the China Virus? (Birmingham: spring break, food)

[zenjenn]

I suppose we'll have to rename the Spanish Flu then ....

It's actually being discussed what with this new "China Virus" nonsense. Scholars do sometimes refer to it as the 1918 influenza pandemic.

I mean, come on. It's clearly an antiquated name. Commonly it's accepted it because that's what it was named in the context of its time, and since until now it's been rare for it to be commonly referenced, there's been no incentive for the name to change. Kind of like we still call the NAACP the NAACP even though we all understand that conversationally, "colored person" is not an acceptable modern term for Black.

Language evolves and changes and in any given time period and/or context there is conventionally acceptable language.

Anyways. Coronavirus had two commonly accepted names... COVID-19 and Coronavirus. Trump has taken it upon himself to call it the "China Virus" and if you can't see why that's boarish and distasteful given the context, I am not sure what else to say.

Talk to Americans of Asian descent and some will have some new experiences to share about being shirked away from because of their race in recent weeks. Seriously.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by BamaDave

It's hard to know for sure. Jefferson County announced its first case just nine days ago, so things boomed quickly. Madison County could have 50 in just a few days.

Testing is still a major boondoggle and huge f-up in this country. My wife works in a microbiology lab at a hospital in Birmingham, and they are still having trouble getting tests completed efficiently. Theirs are still mostly being sent to the state microbiology lab in Montgomery, which is still operating on bankers' hours and only last weekend started running tests on the weekends. Supposedly this will all be corrected shortly, and they will be able to do lots of in-house testing. But meanwhile we've had at least a few weeks of COVID-19 spreading through the population, mostly undetected, and the case load is going to explode for awhile. With the long incubation period of the virus, and currently exposed people transmitting to others in their own households, even with social distancing I would expect several weeks before any flattening of "the curve" will be realized.

Well, let's hope it levels off and drops sooner rather than later.

Saturday afternoon reports 131 in the state, 9 in Madison County. Jefferson is by far the highest at 61.

I don't know how it is in other parts of the state, but in my immediate and surrounding neighborhoods, people seem to be taking the whole thing very seriously. There just is no interaction. People are out walking and running, but there's not the usual socializing, which is a very good thing given the circumstances.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by zenjenn

It's actually being discussed what with this new "China Virus" nonsense. Scholars do sometimes refer to it as the 1918 influenza pandemic.

I mean, come on. It's clearly an antiquated name. Commonly it's accepted it because that's what it was named in the context of its time, and since until now it's been rare for it to be commonly referenced, there's been no incentive for the name to change. Kind of like we still call the NAACP the NAACP even though we all understand that conversationally, "colored person" is not an acceptable modern term for Black.

Language evolves and changes and in any given time period and/or context there is conventionally acceptable language.

Anyways. Coronavirus had two commonly accepted names... COVID-19 and Coronavirus. Trump has taken it upon himself to call it the "China Virus" and if you can't see why that's boarish and distasteful given the context, I am not sure what else to say.

Talk to Americans of Asian descent and some will have some new experiences to share about being shirked away from because of their race in recent weeks. Seriously.

That is totally unthinkable and ridiculous.

Our president could certainly afford to be more discrete and professional. He's not in junior high any longer.

[MisterEd51]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

That is totally unthinkable and ridiculous.

Our president could certainly afford to be more discrete and professional. He's not in junior high any longer.

When someone in the press objected to the president calling it the China Virus he said something like "I call it the China Virus because it started in China." Period.

What I object to is the word police coming out and pointing fingers when somebody says something that is not politically correct. That is the sad state of the world we live in now.

[Rick In Madison]

Since I was tired of hearing about the China Virus; I decided to focus my attention on other things. Needed to get a few things off the internet so I googled toys for the kids to play with outside. First to be FedExed in a large box had a frisbee, hula hoop, and slip n slide.

I dropped the box on top of formica countertop and took out our X-acto knife to open it up. Things have gone downhill already. The stupid box was sealed with scotch tape instead of packing tape. The address had wite-out on it and somebody wrote our address on top of it with a sharpie.

Unfortunately for me, while opening the box, I cut my self. No worries since we had plenty of band-aides. The box was large because it was filled mostly with packing material. Sitting on top of the bubble wrap enclosed in styrofoam peanuts was a post-it note that said “please read” stuck to a xeroxed copy of “best practices to recycling”. I dumped the contents out; grabbed my windbreaker, stetson, and duck boots plus used a little chapstick since it was a bit cold and wet outside. The wind kicked up on the way to the dumpster that my eyes began to water, my ears hurt as if I jabbed q-tips deep into them, and my body felt numb after a short while as if it were full of novocain. Too bad I didn’t wrap some velcro around my hat because it flew off and the kid next door ran over it as he rollerbladed by me. I had some klenex in my pocket and used it to clean it up and then popped it back into shape.

This China Virus has everybody outside today. Shocks me like a taser to see some of my neighbors. George was trimming his sidewalk with the weed eater. His wife Martha was sitting in the jacuzzzi eating a popsicle and their twins were playing ping-pong with their shirts off in this weather! It doesn’t surprise me; they are from Minnesota. He is a retired zamboni driver. Heck, last week he was on the Tennessee River with his jetski. He had to retire early; problem with failing one too many breathalyzer tests while driving it between hockey periods. Good people though; last week Martha gave us a tupperware container full of stew she whipped up in the crockpot.

I hope this severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) also called COVID-19 (China Virus) is over soon so people can jump start their lives and our economy. Start focusing on what is important instead of bitching about everything that is not important.

[BamaDave]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

I don't know how it is in other parts of the state, but in my immediate and surrounding neighborhoods, people seem to be taking the whole thing very seriously. There just is no interaction. People are out walking and running, but there's not the usual socializing, which is a very good thing given the circumstances.

Same here. I'm in a semi-ruralish community with houses on at least 2 acre lots. So we are pretty well "socially distanced." We went out for a long walk yesterday, and people were out working in their yards, said hello, and kept their distance from us.

[RocketDawg]

If any of you watched the coronovirus press conference today, it's interesting to note that President Trump never once referred to the virus as the "China Virus", and even went so far to recognize that some Americans of Asian descent are being blamed and harrassed and he would not tolerate such acts. Somebody must have said something to him to perhaps get him to view things differently than he was in prior days.

[dijkstra]

We can't even discuss a virus without it spiraling into a racial debate and Trump bashing. lol

Anyway, in my area, not a lot has changed. Life has been pretty normal outside of having to search for a can of corn in a couple of stores the other day when we needed one for something we were making. I buy most things in bulk so I didn't need much from the grocery stores the past couple of weeks. We are still doing things on the weekend and getting together with friends for drinks. I don't watch the media nonsense so I'm not freaking out and running around in circles like my hair is on fire. We are thinking about going on a long weekend trip while hotels and gas are cheap. Life goes on and will get back to normal soon.....just give everyone time to get burned out on the continuous minute by minute updates. Our attention span to such things doesn't last very long and then everyone starts getting burned out.

[mcalumni01]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

TimCity - I'm not going to argue what to call the virus, primarily because I agree with you in principal. China was the source, yes, but the more scientific names appear to be "novel coronavirus" ("novel" meaning one we've never had before) or COVID-19. I don't think most people in Alabama hold any prejudice toward Chinese people or Asians in general.

My question for you is - why do you think there are so many more cases in Jefferson County? As of yesterday Jefferson has 34 cases and Madison 5, and that is highly disproportionate compared to the populations.

Is it because of test results being returned more slowly in north Alabama, or even that access to testing is more difficult here? Or are people in north Alabama following the isolation recommendations more closely? Perhaps it's because Birmingham is the travel center of the state and visitors traveling the Interstates stop there for lunch, shop, whatever, and unsuspectingly pass it along to the locals?

There has to be a reason, or a combination of reasons.

it's almost 660K residents in jefferson county as compared to 367K in madison county. Yes, birmingham is the travel center of the state. 6 interstate access leads into birmingham from all 4 directions. From sources at these testing sites, a lot of out of county and state people were showing up in birmingham area to get tested. Whether positive results are included in jefferson county count or not, who knows. If you look at major cities across this country in other states, their most populous county and city has the highest total in that particular state. The more the people, odds are that's where the most cases likely will be.

[maillemaker]

Latest name for the virus is the "Boomer Remover".