New Virus Research from China

A recent paper from China finds that the vast majority of public transmissions of COVID-19 in that country took place on various modes of mass transportation. The study examined thousands of cases of virus and traced them to 318 different outbreaks, thereby showing where people were most likely to contract the disease.

Most of the transmissions took place in people’s homes from family members or other relatives. Outside of homes, more than two out of three outbreaks were due to transport, which the paper defines to include “train, private car, high-speed rail, bus, passenger plane, taxi, cruise ship, etc.” However, beyond this statement, the paper focuses exclusively on mass transport, not private cars.

I emailed one of the co-authors of the paper, Yuguo Li, asking whether they had detected any virus transmissions in private automobiles. He wrote back saying they had not, though he admitted that some of the infections that they attributed to being in homes might have taken place in a private car. But the outbreaks attributed by the paper to “transport” were all forms of mass transportation such as planes, trains, and urban transit.

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The authors found only one example of an outdoor infection, which suggests that the closures of parks, trails, and other recreation areas in the U.S. may have been an overreaction. Outbreaks on mass transit outnumbered outbreaks in restaurants by nearly eight to one, suggesting that if it was appropriate to close restaurants, it was even more important to shut down mass transit systems.

This paper was published on April 7, which means the information has been available for nearly three weeks. Instead of hurling insults at one another over whether the openers or closers are killing more people, American policy makers should make use of this kind of information to assess just which parts of the economy can be opened up and which should remain shut down. Clearly, if anything should still be shut down, it should be public transit.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

6 Responses to New Virus Research from China

  1. LazyReader says:

    Japan and South KOREA have transit and high density dependency of transit galore……their infection rates were lower than US. Antiplanner JUST posted a article a week ago saying it was “Class, not race”. And classes of people have certain habits, Japan and South Korea in particular are vast sticklers to personal hygiene and sanitation. LONG before COVID-19, seeing Asian people with masks on was a common sight through out. Most westerners looked at as a certain degree of paranoia.

    But their preference goes back to post-war. After WWII Japan underwent a radical medical modernization, bodies found in the Post war rubble, thousands dead in bombed out cities their deaths were attributed to starvation and warfare conditions…….but US occupation of the islands and the insertion of medical examiners offices (autopsies) later attributed their deaths to tuberculosis and diseases of toxic environment and condensed settings and miserable hygiene.

    South Korea during Korean war, healthcare; what little was available publicly collapsed. And thousands of US army/navy medical personnel were the only lifeline for a huge bulk of the Korean people. And remained so after the war.

    Knowing full well US forces would inevitably leave, the 1950s those nations anticipating a US withdrawl took Every possible step to boost it’s health regimen as a matter of public policy and conscious effort. Knowing full well they didn’t have the resources to counter a public epidemic or have enough doctors available in case of a severe health shortage, they went on a two step method, One they subsidized state education to crank out more physicians/surgeons. But mostly they turned preventative medicine into a cultural mindset. Diet (one constantly being replicated by some westerners), physical activity, personal washing, outdoor sanitation are all stables of Modern asian culture. So much so those nations surpass the west on factors such as life expectancy, resiliency, etc. It’s not class or race, it’s culture.

    Cultural mindset is the reason for much. Look at Asia and Africa 60 years ago, both nations were war ravaged, colonized or equally poor. decades later Asia is 100 times richer than Africa despite fewer physical resources.
    Africa embraced socialism and dictatorship and shoddy health advice (just look at the AIDS misconneceptions)
    Asia embraced capitalism, reform and modernization.
    It’s not race/class it’s Culture and some cultures are better than others.

  2. Sketter says:

    If only that the Antiplanner had that same mentality when it came to passenger deaths rates by mode of transportation in the USA. THIS data shows that the vast majority of deaths by transportation mode was by light duty vehicles, should we have shutdown all driving in the country and forced people to take public transit since statistically speaking it is safer?

    https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/deaths-by-transportation-mode/

  3. LazyReader says:

    The antiplanner stated casualties by car are less proportionally than rail. Per billion miles………
    I don’t like per capita statistics, they mean little, but they are a decent reference to make the case seem more severe. Population bias ruins statistics.
    Alaska isn’t the haven of violent crime we think……but in terms of proportion they have more violent crime?
    Alaska had 41 murders in 2018, California had over 1,500……..But Alaska is the more dangerous State?

    Read Darrell Huff’s book “How to Lie with Statistics”
    The Fact is……..US accounts for 1/4 of all Corona fatalities. 55,000 out of 208,000
    But fail to mention nearly 3/4 of all the cases/deaths are in the Leftist strongholds of New York, California and New Jersey.

    The one positive benefit of the Wuhan virus has been it’s exposure of what were ALREADY predicting.
    1: The will to impose authoritarian experiments on the US public.
    2: More so, we are now aware of the Ruling class transgressions of selling out the country to China.
    3: The media is now China’s overseas propaganda department, rehashing CCP information as inherent truth.
    China owes its faster than expected rise as a world power to the transfer of American jobs, technology, capital, and business acumen to China. While libertarian journalists like Stossel have defended outsourcing for years, What justification have they if that location to instill so much investment in a country we know
    – is an authoritarian regime
    – has an ATTROCIOUS modern day human rights record, including NOW using Uyghurs as slave labor to jumpstart the economy
    – Is largely exempt from economy crushing environmental laws; In particular Paris Accord.
    – is working with firms on surveillance technology to literally simultaneously watch over nearly 500 million urban residents.
    – Militarily expanding international waters

  4. Frank says:

    “Clearly, if anything should still be shut down, it should be public transit.”

    Agree! Leaving aside the massive amounts of waste, transit is disgusting. During rush hour, you’re packed in like sardines breathing everyone else’s exhaled air and touching the same poles everyone else touched. Gross under any circumstances and not just when there is a fake pandemic with death rates similar to the flu, although flu death numbers are also highly questionable.

  5. LazyReader says:

    75% of all corona cases in the US were in the Liberal stronghold of California, New York and New Jersey, all of whom were told YEARS ago to restock on ventilators and essential medical supplies. All of whom supposedly had budget surpluses to afford. But NO they waited for the Fed. Like a dependent child. Trump instead told the Private sector to jumpstart to act on the crisis and did exactly that. They made millions of tests, worked on drug treatments. And were told IMMEDIATELY by trump they should do everything possible on their own should the Federal government be overstretched. California in particular paid no heed to the mass of homeless shitting on their sidewalks FOR YEARS, who’re already spreading Medieval diseases like plague and cholera.
    So while the Media and twitter spread trump is “Enemy of the People” the states are buying excuses for their own years of incompetence. COVID-19 is not Trump’s fault, it’s China’s.
    Trumps remarks, sarcasm or not, if you’re dumb enough to drink household cleaners……you weren’t exactly the ivory tower intellectual. 90% of household product labels is “HOW it should be used”, Don’t Eat it or what to do if you eat it.

  6. Frank says:

    “Trump instead told the Private sector to jumpstart to act on the crisis and did exactly that. They made millions of tests, worked on drug treatments.”

    You’re full of shit.

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