China coronavirus, I hope all our friends in hengduan are ok!!

[troy]

I am praying for all you!!! I hope wenging perner family are safe!! News says immeadite outlook not so good

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Hey Troy, I emailed Wenqing a couple days ago and she said they are OK. The big issue for her right now is she is banned from entering the US and so will be missing a trip to California and will not be able to deliver the plants that had been preordered. She also had to cancel a upcoming tour, so right now the issue for her is more about financial loss.

Needless to say, we all here in the east are watching this thing closely. Japan's cases have jumped up from just 25, to 61 when a cruise ship was found to have infected people on it. Currently authorities have the ship quarantined in Yokohama harbor. I've been tracking the numbers daily, and so far the death rate has consistently stood at around 2% of those infected. Even in Sichuan there have been just 344 reported cases. If you want to track its progress daily, here's a good link: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

With the Chinese New Year in full swing, I hope the Japanese government takes this thing even more seriously. Hundreds of cruise ships and flights enter Japan daily from China, and in turn support a huge tourist industry, but at what cost to Japan ultimately? Fingers crossed.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

I'm sure all of you are fed up with corona virus news, but just to keep things in perspective, consider that nearly 3/4 of the confirmed cases are all within Hubei Province and 95% of deaths related to it also happened there. So, the sky isn't falling just yet...

 

[JeanLux]

Wenqing, after her 3 weeks' quarantine in Europe is in the US now. Hope that all things will go ok for her deliveries … !
Jean

 

[troy]

The Hong Kong world orchid conference got cancelled because of stupid ass coronavirus

 

[Ray]

I strongly urge people to 1) not freak out. 2) wash their hands often and thoroughly, and 3) pay little attention to the mortality figures. With no real handle on exactly how many people have the virus, there's no way to reliably calculate the percentage that succumb to it.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Good to hear poor Wenqing "escaped" Europe. Bottom line, if you are older than 70 and/or have an underlying health condition that weakens you, I'd be more careful. Otherwise, just live your life. I live in the direct path of this this and people aren't dying in the streets. It is virtually impossible to avoid being around large crowds here unless you decide to become a shut-in. What is in trouble with all this is our collective economic future. Businesses are being disrupted on a global scale - some are already in bankruptcy, thousands of social events from school graduation ceremonies (school ends in March in Japan), to music concerts, to large and small scale gatherings - you name it - have all been cancelled. The loss of economic and social opportunity is becoming the far bigger threat, and if this continues on we're headed for a brick wall. So, keep things in perspective and avoid "Chicken Little Syndrome" - the real danger.

If you want to see who's been dying from this virus, I recommend checking out this BBC story: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51674743

Just my opinion.

 

[BigBaby]

I ordered plants from Wenqing that were due to be delivered last month but were delayed by the outbreak. She is in CA now but apparently air freight there is a mess and her shipment arrived with no Phyto or CITES so they are currently stuck in customs. Hoping my plants will be fine if/when they arrive. Mostly paphs and some phal species.

 

[BrucherT]

I have been worried and wasn’t sure how to say something. I’m glad for this thread. Love Wenquing.

 

[southernbelle]

I strongly urge people to 1) not freak out. 2) wash their hands often and thoroughly, and 3) pay little attention to the mortality figures. With no real handle on exactly how many people have the virus, there's no way to reliably calculate the percentage that succumb to it.

Great point. Also, do we really know from the Chinese gov’t how many actual cases there are there since they tried to minimize it in the beginning and could still be doing so. If that’s the case, then the death rate % is even smaller.

 

[Ray]

I am certain of these two points:

COVAD-19 has been 100% fatal among the population that died from it, and 0% fatal in those that didn't.

Let us not forget that the common cold is a type of coronavirus.

 

[TropiCool]

I am certain of these two points:

COVAD-19 has been 100% fatal among the population that died from it, and 0% fatal in those that didn't.

Let us not forget that the common cold is a type of coronavirus.

But also realize the common cold was responsible for the epidemic which killed a massive percentage of the peoples native to an entire hemisphere because the carriers were resistant but the victims were not. Precaution makes sense. Panic does not

 

[JeanLux]

Believe me that Wenqing is doing all her possible, and even more, to get the documents' problem handled by this weekend.

Of course her plans for the last weeks have been completely mixed up by the Corona event … Planned California stay with several talks , Trump's ban for non-US without 2 weeks' quarantine outside China … , WOC in Taiwan's cancellation where she was to be a key-note speaker, cancelled trip in Yunnan, unsure about Dresden show going to take place …….!

I am glad that she was able to have some 3 weeks' stay in Europe .., and try to relax a little bit from this non-ending stress ...

Jean

 

[Ray]

Having done a bunch of international travel during my career, I can say it can be stressful under the best of circumstances. With this extra stuff - sheesh!

 

[Linus_Cello]

Are her daughters with her?

 

[JeanLux]

Are her daughters with her?

Both are in Germany at present time !

Jean