Cambodia vindicated by Australia, CDC and, Malaysia which cleared one suspected victim

[geovalin]

With news emerging from Malaysia that 83-year-old Stermer Sarah J Ramer has tested negative after numerous tests, albeit after receiving treatment for several days, and that she will be discharges as soon as the symptoms disappear, more good news came Cambodia’s way. The often ostracised country which received brickbats from western media such as The New York Times and BBC for allowing the vessel to dock and for its passengers to disembark and leave Cambodia for their home nations, is now vindicated.

 

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) in a letter dated 21 February said they are contacting Westerdam’s passengers who have returned home to Australia to communicate the new information that need no longer undergo the 14 days’ self-isolation on return to Australia. This advice, which aligns with the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, is made on the basis that significant testing of passengers has not led to any further cases beyond the one initial passenger who has also apparently now tested negative after repeated testing.

 

“Cambodian authorities have tested large numbers of Westerdam cruise ship travelers who are still in Cambodia and all have tested negative to date. Based on this, the AHPPC has concluded, like our colleagues in the United States that these passengers presented a low risk of COVID-19 and the proportionate response is to remove the restrictions,” the statement said.

 

read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50693863/cambodia-vindicated-by-australia-cdc-and-malaysia-which-cleared-one-suspected-victim

[yellowboat]

Hun Sen the humanitarian.  Pretty bold play on his part.   He might just get the golf game with Trump after the election of course.

[Kerryd]

So initially, no one tested positive on that ship. The passengers were (finally) able to disembark in Cambodia. One flies to Malaysia and somehow tests positive on arrival.

 

A result that was supposedly replicated in additional tests.

 

But that same person (just the one) now tests negative after even more tests. And no one else on that ship has tested positive meaning the Malaysian case was probably a "false positive". (It isn't likely that the 83 year old woman somehow spontaneously developed the virus while on the ship and then spent all that time on board with no symptoms and no one else being infected.) (Think about that other cruise ship in Japan and how many people were infected on it and how quickly it spread on the ship.)

Which begs the question, just how competent are the tests (and the people administering them) ? And how many other cases are also "false positives" as people with any kind of fever or runny nose are mistakenly labelled as being infected (by incompetent testers and/or ineffective tests/testing).

I suspect that a lot of people with common cold and flu symptoms are being misdiagnosed as being infected with the coronavirus and then, when the symptoms subside (as they would normally for most people) they are announced as being "clear" despite never actually being infected in the first place. 

I expected that the virus would be stronger and more lethal in China. People look at their own living conditions and somehow seem to think that everyone else in the world lives in a similar fashion. They don't have a clue (most of them) what living conditions are really like, especially in huge cities with large populations of "poor" people, living in very crowded conditions.
Put 10-12 (or more) people in an apartment meant for 2 people, with a shared bathroom down the hall and other shared facilities (like cooking and laundry), add it a lot of old people and a lot of sick people (who are the most susceptible to any illness to begin with) and you have a perfect environment for a virus to thrive in. 
Especially when you consider there could be hundreds of such apartments in a single building and hundreds of similar buildings scattered throughout the city(s). Also consider that, in many cases, when those "poor" people get sick, they are more likely to try local (i.e. herbal) remedies if anything at all because anything else costs money.

That explains why there are so many cases in China, and why the median age of those who've died hovers around the mid-60s (and many of those under that age had underlying medical conditions that weakened their immune systems before they caught the virus).

Watching the spread of the virus around the world brings back memories of the movie "12 Monkeys" with Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. I'll bet a lot of Germ Warfare experts around the world are watching this very closely and making notes.