1. I've been covering the coronavirus outbreak in China since last December but I think what's going on outside China is really worrying, and revealing. My latest with @imakiky What a Party in Japan May Tell Us About the Coronavirus’s Spread nyti.ms/2PbP5DI
@imakiky 2. First of all, there are many anecdotal reports from Japan that many of these people had no symptoms. Many found out later that they had the virus only after being tested. Public health experts say there's no evidence that asymptomatic people can spread the virus but ...
3. The accounts of asymptomatic people from Japan gel with what Chinese doctors are reporting from some of their patients.
4. SARS spread mostly through prolonged, close contact or in hospital-based settings. This virus seems to spread through more casual contact. In 1 case, a doctor in his 60s tested positive after dining with someone who was infected. He, too, did not have symptoms.
5. Japan says they can't fully trace transmissions in more than 1 case and that it has entered a "new phase" in its fight against the coronavirus. So we can expect more social distancing measures to be announced. eg. work from home, canceling unnecessary meetings.
6. Japan and Singapore are incredibly transparent with reporting information about their clusters. Public health experts are looking to these countries to tell them a lot about the virus: transmissibility, severity, how if affects the young vs old, among others.
