Coming Soon to a Hotel Near You

By William H Harriss. 12/02/2023. emperorharriss@aol.com

Coming soon at a hotel near you, watch out, watch out, a new or old pandemic is about.

What is pneumonia? Pneumonia is an inflammation of air sacs in the lungs due to bacterial, viral, or fungal infection. Commonly affecting young children and older adults, the infection can be deadly. Deaths due to the illness are highest in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, according to a WHO report in 2022. Symptoms tend to include chest pain, coughing, fever, and fatigue. Although the illness takes a toll on one’s lungs and body, it can be treated with antibiotics when caused by bacteria. Recovery timelines typically last from a week to a month or more.

Medical experts claim there is no indication that the current lung disease situation in China is a new pandemic. But after many of the untruthful utterances by the medical scientific experts when they first announced COVID, we must really be wary of what they tell us. What is currently happening in China is really worrying. We should always identify and pay attention to undiagnosed diseases, particularly these current pneumonia clusters that are attacking large sections of the Chinese population. Taking early precautions and following all warning systems give us the best chance of preventing the next pandemic severely affecting our business’s.

The danger is that this current Chinese disease is already on its journey around the world. We should be prepared and expect it to strike at any time in our own countries.

Governments always want to keep these situations low key, less they affect tourism. But that policy made the situation far worse during COVID and we should have learnt a lesson from pretending it is not happening. Being pre-warned is being fore-armed and we need to make plans right now, if it does not happen that is a bonus, but if it does let us have plan A and plan B already in place.

The unusual rise in the Chinese cases has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to request China give additional and better information on the outbreak and seek enhanced response measures. We also must be careful of what WHO tell us because we now know from the COVID pandemic they tried to suppress the truth and worked in conjunction of the Chinese government to do that. Although the cause of this present disease is unclear, some health experts are attributing it to a common and temporary after effect of lifting lockdown restrictions, even as unanswered questions around the infections and the country of their spread have led others to draw parallels with the early days of the COVID pandemic.

Massive clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China were reported by the 'Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases' [ProMED], a surveillance system that conducts global reporting of infectious disease outbreaks. It is unclear if this report overlapped with the ProMED press conference information.

According to the ProMED report, infections have proliferated in Beijing and the city of Liaoning in the country’s northeast, which are 800km [500 miles] apart. So, it is obvious that the disease can spread big distances in a brief time.

The WHO has asked China to release information on the recent outbreak, including “additional epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results from these reported clusters among children wherever they are found. The world medical specialists are holding their breath on receiving that, it is ultra important.

Although official figures on the number of cases are not available yet, hospitals in Beijing have witnessed a surge in patients, especially in the children’s wards. One major hospital in the city has reported that, on average, they see 1,200 new patients enter their emergency room daily.

Schools in Beijing also report elevated levels of absenteeism, even dismissing entire classes for at least a week if some students are ill and warning parents to be extra cautious. One of the problems is that the Chinese system is such that instead of open reporting, they try and make everything a State Secret. They even punish people for telling the truth.

Health officials are also worried that winter will exacerbate the spread of the infections after a warning from China’s national weather authority that, this month, the country’s cold temperatures will plunge even further.

Why is pneumonia spreading in China? No one knows the facts except the Chinese, so for others to comment on that may be unsafe. But authorities from China’s National Health Commission attributed the rise in cases to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

Health experts seem to agree that this could be the reason, like the “lockdown exit wave” that was witnessed in countries like the United Kingdom.

China claims it may be repaying an “immunity debt” after their lengthy lockdown, they say it drastically reduced the circulation of respiratory bugs and hence decreased immunity to endemic bugs. But of course, they do not know for sure, and every statement along these lines are not scientific and are best guesses and individual opinions.

Medical scientists say that based on current information, there is no reason to suspect the emergence of a novel pathogen and that Mycoplasma pneumoniae, the probable source of most cases and a bacterium that typically affects younger children, is harmless. But even that finding is disturbing because numerous children and old people are already recorded in China as dying from it.

Chinese authorities listed Mycoplasma as one of the circulating pathogens along with ‘Respiratory Syncytial Virus’ (RSV) and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The WHO has asked China for more information on the recent patterns of these microorganisms.

But Mycoplasma pneumonia is not a virus. It is caused by a bacterium that can spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It can like most other pathogens be transferred to a pillow just by breathing into it or putting the head on it by an infected person. The bacterium can linger in the nose and throat without making a person sick, but people may develop pneumonia if it spreads to the lungs.

This being a novel pathogen is still a possibility, until more information is made available, we remain unsure of that. According to research at Weill Cornell Medicine laboratories in Qatar, the outbreak could also be due to an existing but newly mutated pathogen with modified characteristics and severity.

This should be of global concern as pathogens will cross national borders eventually regardless of preventive measures. There are so many people visiting China and Chinese are travelling around the globe in large numbers even as you read this article.

Can we expect truthful report about the outbreak by China? At their press conference, Chinese authorities said there is a need to step up disease surveillance and strengthen the capacity of health systems. They are making the right noises and making the right statements. But we must be wary of them because we know in the past, they have chosen to deceive the world.

The WHO and medical staff in China have advised people in the country to reinforce practices from the COVID-19 pandemic era, such as rigorous handwashing, wearing masks and social distancing. It will be interesting to see if they lock down whole cities like they did during COVID and make mask wearing compulsorily.

In a condition of near panic, in Liaoning Province, people have been queueing up at traditional Chinese medicine hospitals while patients at Dalian Children’s Hospital have had to wait in line for two hours, according to the ProMED report.

Chinese medical staff are concerned about the massive spike in infections in people under eighteen. They are also troubled and worried about vulnerable populations such as the elderly and pregnant women. Images have begun circulating, taken outside Beijing Children’s Hospital as a steady stream of parents walking with their children, and some being carried and appearing to be extremely ill.

The main incidence is in children, which could suggest that older individuals may have some immunity to the rampant pathogen.

There is even some medical confusion regarding the current pathogen, some calling it a virus, and other calling it a bacterium. The problem will be much greater if it is a virus because anti-biotics only work on bacteria. For a virus we will all need to be vaccinated.

World experts have all agreed that more definitive information is needed on the illnesses. So, let us take some precautions ourselves and at least reconsider sterilizing hotel pillows between every new guest. You know it makes sense, I am willing to discuss how, and all options with any group who wishes to consider a program for the safety of their clients and staff.

I will talk to anyone who is interested on a confidential basis and without any obligation whatsoever.

William H Harriss. emperorharriss@aol.com

NOTE: The World Health Organization says there are currently also dangerous Covid waves based on mutated virus? Covid cases are rising again - along with variants of the virus.