I can understand why. I've been to MWC a couple of times. I always took several bottles of hand-sanitiser for personal use, and made sure that our booth was well stocked.
In an environment like that, you're shaking hands with hundreds of people per day and touching phone screens used by thousands. I lost count of the people (of all nationalities) who didn't wash their hands after using the toilets.
Even if the world wasn't in the grip of a respiratory pandemic, conferences like this are a health hazard.
If you trust the Chinese numbers. However based on interviews those number cannot be correct since there are multiple people with symptoms who does not goes to hospital or anywhere, just try to survive at home, so if they are affected by corona and not with the regular flu virus they still not appearing in the statistics.
In general, only if you can be very specific about exactly how underestimated they are, which is equivalent to the problem of knowing the correct values in the first place, so, basically, no.
(Sometimes statistics can help you out, but I think that's best understood as a set of fairly specific exceptions with very strong conditions on them, rather than the rule.)
People have been infected locally in Thailand, and by reports one of the UK persons infected got it in Singapore, so the case may be that it isn't contained in other countries as well.
Pretty much all the tech industry events in APAC that I am aware of are being canceled or postponed. I haven't seen much change outside of APAC yet but that could change of course.
I think that is a smart move. There are a lot of people at conventions and the last time I interacted with Ericsson they seemed to have a lot of smokers. Smokers may be at even higher risk. [1]
People who smoke or vape are typically at higher risk for any kind of airborne pathogen, yeah. (smoked for a couple decades, still trying to kick this stupid Juul)
Ditch the Juul and get something that allows you to gradually step down the nicotine level. Also something non-nic-salt - it's the nic-salts that make Juuls even more addictive. Don't stop until you have been on 0mg nicotine for at least two weeks, then you only have to worry about the physical, hand-to-mouth habit when you put it down for good.
I'm doing this with a Uwell Caliburn Pod, since it's similar in form factor to the Juul, but refillable with regular juice. I'm down to 1mg juice, and planning on going to zero next week. I know it works because I've done it before.
Sounds like a solid play, thanks. Is there a similarly graduated prefilled pod option that doesn't require investing in refill gear for something that I'm not trying to make a hobby out of? Failing that, what's a good, simple setup for doing refills?
Yeah, refills kinda suck, and I do miss prefills, but the concession had to be made.
I don't know if there's a prefill option out there that I missed, but I couldn't find one.
I just get a big bottle of whatever level I'm on, and a big bottle of the same flavor in 0mg, and mix them as needed into a smaller, pocket-sized bottle. You'll want to get a bottle with a thin tip, so it will fit into the refill hole, like one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Unicorn-Plastic-Resistant-Evident-Mul...
Also, make sure to stock up on the pod replacements, since they always seem to burn out at the most inopportune time.
EDIT: Just wanted to reiterate my point on the salts. Salts work in this device too. Salts are great! Unfortunatly, that makes them much harder to quit, so I would avoid them if you do transition.
Events in Europe and North America are all going ahead as usual as far as I've seen. (I just got back from a few fairly large events in Central Europe.) The one you mention does have a notice on its site that basically such says there will be doctors available at the conference.
It appears that this coronavirus leads to pneumonia and other second complications, which is what actually kills you.
In theory, it is possible that because a lot of people smoke or vape in China, that they have reduced lung functionality. So when the coronavirus proceeds to the pneumonia stage, that your unhealthy lungs will have a more difficult time fighting off the infection. Then the virus proceeds to attacking your other organs, and they start failing. And from this, you die.
The moral of the story: Kids don’t smoke or vape. It might not immediately kill you, but it will increase your chances of dying if you catch the flu, or if your health complications turns into pneumonia and leads to other internal failures.
> In theory, it is possible that because a lot of people smoke or vape in China, that they have reduce lung functionality.
Smokers have more ACE2 receptors, which is what this virus targets. As they get closer to death and their blood oxygen levels drop, I have no doubt that having damaged lungs doesn't help their chances, but the reason smokers are more at risk goes beyond this.
"The literature presented in this review strongly suggests that nicotine alters the homeostasis of the RAS by ... downregulating the compensatory ACE2/ANG-(1–7)/Mas receptor axis."
"In primary cultures of neurons and glial cells isolated from brainstem and hypothalamus of 1-day-old rats, nicotine treatment resulted in increased expression of AT 1 R but decreased expression of ACE2."
“ “It is of great importance to the GSMA to continue to convene the industry at this critical time where connectivity is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution,” the group said in a statement.”
I wonder how liability will be handled in all the cases worldwide where companies did not cancel services or events and then people die due to novel Coronavirus.
For example, the cruise ships that area currently quarantined in Asia with 10-20 cases of novel Coronavirus on each. I know of passengers trying to get other cruises to cancel their trip and refund their money. If they don't do so and then that next cruise ship has an outbreak and people die, would the ship be liable?
Similarly, for this conference in Europe.
I wonder how to evaluate the risk in each case. The cruise ships that area currently in quarantine likely wouldn't be liable since it wasn't clear that this would inherently happen, but now the next cruises to depart from similar places should be liable perhaps?
Limited data, but there are now several confirmed cases in different countries traced to a small business conference in Singapore[1]. I think there's no question the barcelona conference would have spread the virus, where there's evidence it's transmissible without symptoms not to mention a long incubation period. I guess the calculation should be based on severity of illness, is it another H1N1 or is it the 1918 spanish flu? I can't really tell based on current data.
So then one should assume it’s the Spanish Flu. If there’s some nontrivial risk of massive destruction, better to be “paranoid” early than too late to do anything to stop it.
I have a big conference next week in London. I wonder how it will be affected. There is a lot of paranoia at the moment. Plus, “post-conference flu” has always been a thing for me, and now I don’t know how I could know if it’s regular flu (which was pretty bad this year, reportedly, on its own) or Coronavirus.
42 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 88.0 ms ] threadIn an environment like that, you're shaking hands with hundreds of people per day and touching phone screens used by thousands. I lost count of the people (of all nationalities) who didn't wash their hands after using the toilets.
Even if the world wasn't in the grip of a respiratory pandemic, conferences like this are a health hazard.
It hasn't been declared a pandemic yet - Pandemics require home-grown native infective populations in multiple countries, I believe.
https://coronavirus.zone/
The virus is more lethal than SARS was on the same timeframe.
(Sometimes statistics can help you out, but I think that's best understood as a set of fairly specific exceptions with very strong conditions on them, rather than the rule.)
The virus seems to only be spreading through China, plus, maybe HK. Everywhere else it's still contained.
https://www.moh.gov.sg/2019-ncov-wuhan
https://www.artbasel.com/hong-kong
They bet an all in during the MWC in Barcelona.
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT3_A1bf9pU
I'm doing this with a Uwell Caliburn Pod, since it's similar in form factor to the Juul, but refillable with regular juice. I'm down to 1mg juice, and planning on going to zero next week. I know it works because I've done it before.
I don't know if there's a prefill option out there that I missed, but I couldn't find one.
I just get a big bottle of whatever level I'm on, and a big bottle of the same flavor in 0mg, and mix them as needed into a smaller, pocket-sized bottle. You'll want to get a bottle with a thin tip, so it will fit into the refill hole, like one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Unicorn-Plastic-Resistant-Evident-Mul...
Also, make sure to stock up on the pod replacements, since they always seem to burn out at the most inopportune time.
EDIT: Just wanted to reiterate my point on the salts. Salts work in this device too. Salts are great! Unfortunatly, that makes them much harder to quit, so I would avoid them if you do transition.
In theory, it is possible that because a lot of people smoke or vape in China, that they have reduced lung functionality. So when the coronavirus proceeds to the pneumonia stage, that your unhealthy lungs will have a more difficult time fighting off the infection. Then the virus proceeds to attacking your other organs, and they start failing. And from this, you die.
The moral of the story: Kids don’t smoke or vape. It might not immediately kill you, but it will increase your chances of dying if you catch the flu, or if your health complications turns into pneumonia and leads to other internal failures.
Again: This is only a theory.
Smokers have more ACE2 receptors, which is what this virus targets. As they get closer to death and their blood oxygen levels drop, I have no doubt that having damaged lungs doesn't help their chances, but the reason smokers are more at risk goes beyond this.
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajpregu.0009...
"The literature presented in this review strongly suggests that nicotine alters the homeostasis of the RAS by ... downregulating the compensatory ACE2/ANG-(1–7)/Mas receptor axis."
"In primary cultures of neurons and glial cells isolated from brainstem and hypothalamus of 1-day-old rats, nicotine treatment resulted in increased expression of AT 1 R but decreased expression of ACE2."
Smoking certainly doesn't help, but these things can hit anyone.
Absolutely clueless.
For example, the cruise ships that area currently quarantined in Asia with 10-20 cases of novel Coronavirus on each. I know of passengers trying to get other cruises to cancel their trip and refund their money. If they don't do so and then that next cruise ship has an outbreak and people die, would the ship be liable?
Similarly, for this conference in Europe.
I wonder how to evaluate the risk in each case. The cruise ships that area currently in quarantine likely wouldn't be liable since it wasn't clear that this would inherently happen, but now the next cruises to depart from similar places should be liable perhaps?
Any lawyers on here care to comment? Thanks!
[1] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/coronavirus-gas-analy...
So then one should assume it’s the Spanish Flu. If there’s some nontrivial risk of massive destruction, better to be “paranoid” early than too late to do anything to stop it.
The conference isn't cancelled. Just Ericson won't have their booth. But at the moment the conference itself is scheduled to proceed.
Fun times, not.