Mobile World Congress 2020 Canceled Due to Coronavirus

[AustinIllini]

Those numbers are old. Total cases as of today are over 60K. Look at the ridiculously low “official” numbers for India (pop 1.3B) — a total of 3 cases? Sure, I believe that.

Their response to coronavirus was similar to the US. The US has what? 13 cases?

There is some evidence to suggest we have hit a plateau but it's hard to tell yet. A journal out of the UK suggests the actual mortality rate is around 1%.

 

[fairuz]

MacRumors, please call it by its new moniker: Covid-19 (or at least use its scientific name, 2019-nCoV); coronavirus is a generic term, not specific to this particular virus or illness.

Nobody is going to know what Covid-19 is. They should try putting both names to get people to use the right term, but as always, nobody cares enough and will continue calling it by the original name.

 

[yakapo]

It's highly unlikely that the outbreak lasts that long.

Have you read what Professor Gabriel Leung from Hong Kong estimates the potential death toll to be?

Expert warns coronavirus could infect 60% of world’s population

The coronavirus epidemic could grip about two-thirds of the world’s population if the deadly bug is not controlled, a top public health official said — as another expert predicted that cases …

nypost.com

 

[nostresshere]

It's highly unlikely that the outbreak lasts that long.

That is correct. The President announced this week that it would end once Spring comes and warm weather kills it. Then we move on.

 

[jimthing]

I heard somewhere that organisers buy-out all the hotel rooms in advance too, then offer them to attendees at large markups? If that's correct, then they're likely losing millions on cancelling it this year. And likely why they held off until the last minute to do so.

 

[ghanwani]

I heard somewhere that organisers buy-out all the hotel rooms in advance too, then offer them to attendees at large markups? If that's correct, then they're likely losing millions on cancelling it this year. And likely why they held off until the last minute to do so.

That’s an interesting one. Perhaps they have insurance for this kind of stuff. For many events I have been to in the past (especially outside the US) one has to prepay for the hotel and no cancellation is permitted.

 

[Prof.]

You will literally die from flu (which is more dangerous) before you die from novel coronavirus... this whole thing has been blown waaaaaaay out of proportion; fueled by the media, fear, and pure ignorance.

If y'all want something to be afraid of, be afraid of flu.

 

[cmaier]

You will literally die from flu (which is more dangerous) before you die from novel coronavirus... this whole thing has been blown waaaaaaay out of proportion; fueled by the media, fear, and pure ignorance.

If y'all want something to be afraid of, be afraid of flu.

In the U.S. this year, there have been 19M flu infections and 10k deaths. So 0.05% lethality.

Covid19, as of earlier today, around 48k infections and 1310 deaths, or 2.7% lethality.

Covid19 also appears to be much more contagious.

 

[coolfactor]

Nobody is going to know what Covid-19 is. They should try putting both names to get people to use the right term, but as always, nobody cares enough and will continue calling it by the original name.

Some of us do care. Details matter. I agree, use both names. I think it took too long for them to "name" it. This outbreak started in December.
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You will literally die from flu (which is more dangerous) before you die from novel coronavirus... this whole thing has been blown waaaaaaay out of proportion; fueled by the media, fear, and pure ignorance.

If y'all want something to be afraid of, be afraid of flu.

Disagree. They have a flu vaccine. They do not have a vaccine for COVID-19, nor do they fully understand it yet. That makes it more dangerous. The mortality rate is higher, and the sheer response from businesses is enough to realize how serious this is.

You'd feel very different if it was affecting your area.

 

[Jakexb]

Why do I feel like the Coronavirus is a lot worse than the government is putting on? I've noticed in my doctors appointment this month, they asked have you and anyone you know traveled to Wuhan in the past 21 days?

It's very human to feel like there's secret danger lurking

 

[atomic.flip]

It's very human to feel like there's secret danger lurking

It’s very pragmatic to try to prevent mass panic by regulating the flow of information during a crisis.

Cancelling a trade show like this is a massive sign. Were it located in China it could be reasoned. But to cancel and event taking place in Spain. That’s another order of magnitude of concern. The money this has cost hundreds of international companies on travel and booth fees alone.

 

[sevoneone]

In the U.S. this year, there have been 19M flu infections and 10k deaths. So 0.05% lethality.

Covid19, as of earlier today, around 48k infections and 1310 deaths, or 2.7% lethality.

Covid19 also appears to be much more contagious.

Is comparing flu numbers in the US in any way comparable to world wide numbers for Covid19? I genuinely asking here... Shouldn’t we be comparing the mortality rate from the flu in same locations Covid19 has the largest infection rates?

Also, as someone mentioned, the acute symptoms seem to vary from person to person quite a bit. How many people have had Covid19 and thought it was just a bad cold?

 

[Jakexb]

If there are secret numbers that are being hidden from the public, I find it hard to believe that nobody has leaked them. The secret numbers would be known by a large number of people in governments of multiple countries... science and technical workers who are not at all trained in keeping state secrets. The chance that there are none who believe the world needs to know the truth enough to leak numbers to the press...

I don't believe we should trust official statements always, but I believe if there is a major cover up of the severity here, it will come out. It's just not possible to keep that kind of stuff under wraps in the modern era.

 

[cmaier]

Is comparing flu numbers in the US in any way comparable to world wide numbers for Covid19? I genuinely asking here... Shouldn’t we be comparing the mortality rate from the flu in same locations Covid19 has the largest infection rates?

Also, as someone mentioned, the acute symptoms seem to vary from person to person quite a bit. How many people have had Covid19 and thought it was just a bad cold?

Maybe. I don’t know the chinese flu numbers. I imagine the mortality rate for the flu doesn’t vary all that much (certainly not by a factor of 50x, which is what we are talking about here).

This paper (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31607054) seems to suggest, in china, a mortality rate from the flu of less than 0.03%.

Given that anyone with a fever Seems to be being tested in China, I would suspect that there isn;’t a lot of confusion between bad colds and covid-19, but information may be incomplete.

 

[SactoGuy18]

If you think cancelling MWC will have a big impact, just wait until the organizers of the Geneva Auto Show (it attracts over 600,000 visitors during the show) are forced to cancel that show, which is scheduled for March 5 to 15, 2020. The economic impact of such a cancellation would be measured in the equivalent of billions of Euros lost.

 

[sevoneone]

It’s very pragmatic to try to prevent mass panic by regulating the flow of information during a crisis.

Cancelling a trade show like this is a massive sign. Were it located in China it could be reasoned. But to cancel and event taking place in Spain. That’s another order of magnitude of concern. The money this has cost hundreds of international companies on travel and booth fees alone.

A conference in Spain where a very large percentage of the attendees are from the areas near those most impacted by the virus? It seems more logical precaution than coverup. Plus if it were anything like that, it would be the governments stopping the event, not the organizers.

There is probably more money to be lost in holding the event but only 50% of the attendees showing vs. cancelling it outright. I am sure there are very likely insurance policies that minimize the losses for anyone with major stakes in the event of a environmental or man made emergency.

 

[MRrainer]

My wife is a physician. Last I talked to her, she told me to stop worrying about it. I'm not sure how well this will spread in the US with this much attention.

We have diseases in the US of greater concern right now with flu being pretty serious this year.

Tell that to the hundreds or even thousands of medics infected in China.
Or ask your wife why China has quarantined several hundred million people? Just for a "flu".

The country is as close to "shutdown" as it can get. They are slowly trying to ramp up production again - but nobody knows if it will actually work or make the situation even worse.
We will find out, for sure - but if it does not work out, the non-launch of the iPhone SE2 will be the least of our problems.

 

[Eagle1337]

It's highly unlikely that the outbreak lasts that long.

I hope you're right, but March is only few weeks away, and the outbreak is escalating at the moment. More are getting infected, yesterday 100 died, today 240+ died, and more are getting infected. It doesn't seem to slow down, it seems to accelerate at the moment. I really hope they get it under control sooner than later, this is scary stuff.

 

[ginkobiloba]

It's highly unlikely that the outbreak lasts that long.

I think it's highly likely it will. I wouldn't even be surprised if Tokyo's Olympics gets canceled.
I really hope I'm wrong though, but things are looking like it will take a full year before this outbreak begins to be really curbed.

 

[recoil80]

If this gets worse, I think Apple will do the same for its own events or at least limit attendance at WWDC to only those in North America. I think in the case of the new iPhone a broadcast event from Apple Park with Apple employees and select few journalists and YouTubers should be enough.

An Apple keynote is attended by a few hundreds people, many of them are journalist and youtubers from the US. They do live stream the event, so bloggers and journalists from abroad can easily follow along, and they'd only miss the hands on area. It is not that important, Apple sends review units so they cannot do a first impressions video right after the event but have plenty of time to post pictures and videos the day after.

MWC is usually attended by about 100,000 people so it is a huge number compared to a keynote, I can see why they chose to cancel it.
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I think it's highly likely it will. I wouldn't even be surprised if Tokyo's Olympics gets canceled.
I really hope I'm wrong though, but things are looking like it will take a full year before this outbreak begins to be really curbed.

I don't think they'll cancel the Olympics, we're talking about a few thousands people including athletes and trainers so they can be monitored easily. They may restrict attendance to the events though, so we may see stadiums with a lot of empty seats, but people watch the events from all over the world on TV so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Vjosullivan]

So far, there isn't any evidence of asymptomatic transmission, so that's good.

Unfortunately, it seems that there may be:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2001468

But it is disputed:

Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed

A traveler to Germany from China who infected another person did feel ill, contradicting New England Journal of Medicine report

www.sciencemag.org

My guess is that it may be possible but would be rare.

 

[Shanghaichica]

It was inevitable once the big names started pulling out.
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I can't seem to tell if Covid-19 is a legit threat or if it's just hyped like SARS or MERS. I see signs pointing to both, which means the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. It seems serious but the world isn't ending. The big takeaway is that if this was 100 years ago we'd be in a lot more trouble. Or if this outbreak started in somewhere other than China where they don't mind dumping mounds of dirt and rocks to block all entry/exit from Wuhan and keep people trapped while having the resources to build a hospital in 10 days. But since there are several other members of the Coronavirus which are quite common and still haven't been eradicated (part of the common cold strains), there is a possibility that it could be around for a long time, semi-controlled, killing enough people to be bad but not a whole lot worse than the flu except that it seems to also kill people who aren't just infants or elderly. My biggest concern is my young daughter who has asthma and has been hospitalized for respiratory viruses in the past. She is likely in a high risk category.


I did this too with a neighbor down the street last year. We know them, though, and our daughter's birthdays are only a few days apart. We saved nearly half the money at Chuck-E-Cheese since they mostly have the same friends. It was a massive success and a highly recommend it.

I think it’s more serious than SARS and MERS in terms of infection rate and number of deaths. However the fatality rate seems to be significantly lower than SARS and MERS which is a good thing. It’s difficult to tell at the moment and I read an article yesterday that said China have so far not allowed experts from foreign countries into China to help. So we don’t really have all the information.
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So far, there isn't any evidence of asymptomatic transmission, so that's good.

No apparently the British ‘Super-spreader’ as the press over here are calling him contracted the virus at a conference in Singapore. He then went to the Alps and stayed in a Chalet for a few days. At the time he was in the Alps he didn’t feel unwell but they say he has transmitted it to 5 people who were sharing the chalet with him. It wasn’t until he got back to the UK that he started having symptoms and he went onto to transmit the virus to another 6 people. Hence why they are calling him a super -spreader.

Coronavirus ‘super-spreader’ named as Brighton scout leader Steve Walsh

The coronavirus “super-spreader” is a scout leader from Brighton who is feared to have infected at least 11 people in a fortnight before he showed any symptoms.Steve Walsh, 53, was named yesterday as the businessman who picked up the disease at a conference in Singapore last month and came home to H

www.thetimes.co.uk

Coronavirus: What is a 'superspreader' and how did UK man pass on the virus?

It is not fully understood why some people are more likely to pass on a pathogen - but identifying them quickly is vital.

news.sky.com

 

[AustinIllini]

It was inevitable once the big names started pulling out.
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I think it’s more serious than SARS and MERS in terms of infection rate and number of deaths. However the fatality rate seems to be significantly lower than SARS and MERS which is a good thing. It’s difficult to tell at the moment and I read an article yesterday that said China have so far not allowed experts from foreign countries into China to help. So we don’t really have all the information.
[automerge]1581591771[/automerge]

No apparently the British ‘Super-spreader’ as the press over here are calling him contracted the virus at a conference in Singapore. He then went to the Alps and stayed in a Chalet for a few days. At the time he was in the Alps he didn’t feel unwell but they say he has transmitted it to 5 people who were sharing the chalet with him. It wasn’t until he got back to the UK that he started having symptoms and he went onto to transmit the virus to another 6 people. Hence why they are calling him a super -spreader.

Coronavirus ‘super-spreader’ named as Brighton scout leader Steve Walsh

The coronavirus “super-spreader” is a scout leader from Brighton who is feared to have infected at least 11 people in a fortnight before he showed any symptoms.Steve Walsh, 53, was named yesterday as the businessman who picked up the disease at a conference in Singapore last month and came home to H

www.thetimes.co.uk

Coronavirus: What is a 'superspreader' and how did UK man pass on the virus?

It is not fully understood why some people are more likely to pass on a pathogen - but identifying them quickly is vital.

news.sky.com

Not feeling well is a symptom

 

[citysnaps]

Everyone focuses on the big tech companies, but they have their own channels for releasing news and demonstrating products. Who this is going to harm are the 1,000+ smaller vendors hoping to get noticed by the 100,000+ attendees.

Spot on and very true. Years ago, having a small (10' x 10') booth at CTIA trade shows was how our eight person silicon valley Palo Alto startup I was part of began engaging and doing business with the wireless infrastructure giants, and put us on the map in that field, eventually leading to a huge jump in business and later an acquisition. That never would have happened without a presence at those trade shows.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Not feeling well is a symptom

Yes but he only started to feel unwell when he got back to the U.K. When he was in The Alps he was fine and didn’t feel unwell. He transmitted to 5 people he shared the Chalet with in The French Alps when he was not showing any symptoms.