To think we shouldn't be bringing brits back from China

[MozzchopsThirty]

I see the US are rescuing their citizens.
How does this work?
Do they quarantine the plane, crew & passengers

Surely this just creates more risk

IMHO lockdown should mean lockdown

Diana, that's what we're doing!

Honeyroar

I've never been concerned about any other outbreak - if you researched this one in more depth I suspect you wouldn't be so lighthearted about it.

Home on a quarantined flight, then quarantined and tested for the incubation period.

Can't see an issue with that (other than what it would cost)

I was hoping that you'd be left hanging, OP, with no replies to your absolutely goady, mean-spirited thread but there are.

So I'll reluctantly add mine to say what a twattish outlook you have on people and your lack of humanity is appalling.

I’m astounded at the number of posters who seem to agree that we should just wash our hands off all Brits once they step over the border. That’s not how the concept of citizenship works.
I'm astounded by the amount of people who don't seem to understand how the concept of quarantine works.

I would never want to be locked down in China🙀. No place like home. Repatriate but put in measures to protect the general population here!

your lack of humanity is appalling

Just what I wanted to say. I just cant believe this thread, it's basically the product of the risk free environment that we now live in. Of course they should come back and be quarantined/treated here.

Wow OP so if you were in transit in a place that happened to go into lock down or you were on holiday there and they went into lockdown, you would think it would be appropriate to just be forced to stay? Living where exactly? And on whose money? Gee, you are proof that people haven't moved on at all from previous generations. You'd be burning 'witches' and chasing strangers out with a pitchfork for not coming from these 'ere parts. Well done for being so archaic. I can't even imagine what it is like to be you.

I'm astounded by the amount of people who don't seem to understand how the concept of quarantine works.

It's perfectly possible to safely quarantine British citizens without abandoning them to the mercies of a totalitarian regime.

The fear mongering and selfishness of some posters on this thread is unbelievable.

It is NOT THE FLU. It’s not “a type of flu”. It’s something different that can cause pneumonia and respiratory failure.

Could you expand on this since the Spanish Flu killed by inducing pneumonia and lung hemorrhage?

Flu is the influenza virus. The illness in Wuhan is the coronavirus. Different virusses exist. You wouldn't exchange TBC with the flu either.

Catherine I thought that about Spanish Flu as well.

re the "inhumanitarian" approach. I genuinely thought that stopping the spread of the disease meant quarantine where you are. It's not to be cruel; I thought it was the best way to quarantine? I'm happy to be given more information. If I was abroad and had to be quarantined, I'd expect to stay there till I was cleared. I don't know what travel or business insurance will say about this.

But I thought that was what quarantine meant.

PS also it's hard to gauge when posters start talking about racism and so on.

my ancestors were quarantined on arrival in this country, in conditions that are presumably no longer acceptable and deemed "racist". They thought it was fine because it helped reduce the risk of spreading disease.

It’s Chinese New Year so they’re taking longer holidays and shutting down public spaces as a precaution and as part of the three week long festivities

Don’t be so fucking ridiculous.

Not sure who you think is being ridiculous. The New Year/Spring holiday dates in China are 24th - 30th Jan (inclusive). The government, and subsequently all employers, announced yesterday (or was it the day before?) that the holiday had been officially extended to 2nd Feb. I work for a Chinese company and nobody shuts down for 3 weeks, 2 is fairly normal for some manufacturing industries, and many many workers who have to travel a long way back to their families simply leave their job, then go back to a new one after a couple (or three or more) weeks away.

Companies, under government supervision, are taking precautions such as telling people to stay home if they have, or think they have symptoms, and although people are reporting not being able to buy medical masks in shops, most big companies have bought a massive supply to distribute to workers and their families.

My colleagues are reporting that some places are shut down, some big celebrations were cancelled and people, especially susceptible ones (old, young, pregnant etc) are being recommended to stay home. Mostly they're reporting that they're bored already.

Spanish flu was so deadly because it was a brand new strain of flu virus, just as this is a brand new strain of coronavirus. But they’re different families of viruses which both cause similar types of symptoms.

Pneumonia can be caused by a number of viruses and bacterial infections. These include influenza and coronaviruses, but they’re not related to each other. Therefore existing flu vaccines and antiviral drugs like tamiflu won’t help. Scientists are having to start from scratch.

@wheresmymojo I’m not being light hearted about it. It probably affects me much more than you. I’m long haul cabin crew, I travel to every continent and have been to China recently! The WHO are watching it, the airline I work for are watching it (and more importantly their insurers are!) and the union I’m in are watching it..

If people can be screened using sequencing technology then testing won't take that long. Just a couple of days. Quarantine the sick, potential carriers and all those working with them (latter routinely), even sanger sequencing could be done and with NGS it's very fast with multiple samples run at once.

Best to quarantine in an isolated facility though, people (on whole) can't be trusted to quarantine themselves they'll always be a few who won't care or will justify and it will become hard to contain if they are infected.

Not sure why my opinion is so offensive
You want to repatriate a few thereby putting millions more at risk.

Even the people who are in China would be better staying put in quarantine than air travel with 300 others. Because if 1 person on that plane has it then everyone else is at risk.

But I agree with others about flights from China, and even through other destinations. That's the modern world of air travel.

And those clutching pearls about me being a nurse and having no empathy, if you'd seen what I did during the swine flu you may feel the same. Some of it still haunts me

Thank you for politely explaining @Papyrus

But OP it doesn't put millions at risk if they are quarantined and tested (which takes just a few days).

You're a nurse? Wow.

Other posters have already said about repatriating without risking the incumbent population. Ways and means. But no, starting a goady thread having no idea of your audience, without knowing whether family or friends of your fellow posters are affected... and on you trundle.

Some things are better left unsaid.

OP

Can you expand on what you mean re: swine flu?

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe yawn
I'm not goady, but clearly you're angling for a fight

The danger here is travelling.

With ebola, for example, the location hotspots are remote and the victims do not habitually travel (apart from that nurse who sneaked back hiding her symptoms ).

China's booming economy has meant that people can travel like never before - not just at New Year - visiting family, but for business purposes and as tourists. Anyone who has been to a touristy place in recent years will have observed the huge number of Chinese groups. This summer I was on a train with a very large group, many of whom were clearly ill - coughing, looking temperature-y etc and (tmi here) hawking up phlegm (for which they were reprimanded by the guard).

I would not want to be shuffling round the Louvre, the Sistine Chapel or up the Empire State Building, closely packed with potential Coronavirus victims or carriers!

No OP, I really have nothing else to say to you.