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A few issues with the methodology. - only 6 small hospitals were included, and far away from the wet market - Baidu Search Index doesn't match what they claim
by zachguo 6y ago
A few issues with the methodology.
- only 6 small hospitals were included, and far away from the wet market
- Baidu Search Index doesn't match what they claim https://imgur.com/a/UkcUZou https://imgur.com/a/UkcUZou
- No test for statistical significance, really?
COVID-like mysterious pneumonia was not that hard to detect, the hospital would be alerted once doctors and nurses got infected.
- djsumdog 6y agoYou mean SARS-CoV2, that's the virus. How would they be able to detect it? Would they even know what they were looking for? Would CoV2 trigger the same tests as SARS1 (for non-PCR tests)?
- zachguo 6y agoHospitals are obligated to report to the CDC once they discover pneumonia caused by an unknown virus that can transmit from human to human. SARS or COVID is just a name scientists gave to the sequenced virus.
- objektif 6y agoIf you don't know then you don't have to report. I don't think initially they knew that human to human transmission was possible.
- theli0nheart 6y agoThis is a nit, but SARS and COVID aren't the names of the respective viral agents; they're the names for the diseases that the viruses cause. The virus that causes SARS is called SARS-CoV, and the virus that causes COVID-19 is SARS-CoV-2
- grezql 6y agoThis guy is paid troll. Check his posting history
- zachguo 6y agoI must be a dedicated one since I actually read the paper, jeez.
- scarmig 6y agoI think the combination of your username and not layering constant condemnation on China is what's doing it. I've been called a wumao for saying that there's no chance that China covered up (literally) hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths.
- dang 6y agoIt's against the site guidelines to attack another user like that. We ban accounts that break the site guidelines. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here. Your previous comment was also bad for HN, and we've had to warn you multiple times in the past as well. Not cool.
- joshgel 6y agoCan I just add that seasonal influenza varies widely from year to year? [0] It just so happens that this year was a moderately bad year in the US. I don't know about China. But, they'd have to exclude differences from a bad flu season to have any chance of proving their point rigorously. It's a very cool analysis though. 0. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/hcp/weekly-surveillance04252020.pdf https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/hcp/weekly-sur... (sorry for the PDF)
- zachguo 6y agoI have done more research about the 6 hospitals, my initial claim of "6 small hospitals" is wrong, they at least include the biggest two, Wuhan Union and Tongji. The claim "far away from the wet market" still holds, these hospitals are not in the Jiangan District, and 5 of them are on the other side of the Yangtze River.
- jsf01 6y agoIn addition, google trends limited to China doesn’t match their claim.
- owens99 6y agoMost Chinese people don’t use Google. Not sure if you are aware but it is blocked in China.
- three_seagrass 6y agoThe only way to access it is with a VPN, right? Which would put your search outside of China.
- autokad 6y agoIT DID. I posted in another comment, dont want to repeat
- yread 6y agoAgreed this paper is trash