I'm in Shanghai, and I'm concerned about the coronavirus

Photo from CNN: "People wear face masks as they wait at Hankou Railway Station on Wednesday in Wuhan, China. Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images" Image source.

So if you've been following the news, you've probably heard about the outbreak of coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China. At this point, 17 people have died and 600 are infected. This morning (Thursday, January 23), the city of Wuhan went on lockdown- which means all public transportation has stopped, and the train stations and airports are closed. They don't want anyone leaving the city.

Here is a link to CNN's coverage of the Wuhan coronavirus.

I live in Shanghai, so I'm writing this post to sort of give a perspective of what it's like here, and give some context about how much of a HUGE PROBLEM it is that this is happening during Chinese New Year.

About Chinese New Year:

Chinese New Year (also called Lunar New Year or Spring Festival) is the biggest holiday in China, and you go back to your hometown to celebrate with your family. It's like how, in the US, lots of people travel for Christmas- except even more.

China has 1 billion people. And a significant percentage live in a different city than their relatives- imagine what it's like trying to transport that many people all around the country so they can be with their family for new year's eve dinner. This has been called "the largest annual human migration", and even has a name in Chinese: 春运 [chūn yùn]. (Lol google translate failed so hard at this- it translated that as "Spring Festival" but the actual meaning is "the massive amounts of travel that take place around Spring Festival.")

Weeks in advance, people are trying to buy their train tickets online the moment they become available. It's often the case that all the train tickets are sold out for the day you want to travel, so you have to fly (which is more expensive) or take a train on an earlier day (which means you have to request time off from work).

And the trains will be so crowded that people are standing in the aisles. And you may be traveling so far that you have to be on the train the whole night, or even longer.

For some people, it's their one chance out of the whole year to go home and see their relatives. Some people use all their vacation days, in addition to the 7 days we already have off as a public holiday (January 24-30 this year). Seriously, I ride the Shanghai subway to work every day, and it's SIGNIFICANTLY less crowded in the last few days before the new year holiday, because a huge number of people have already left.

There are migrant workers who, for economic reasons, leave their children in their hometown and go to a big city to work. Spring Festival may be their only chance to see their children.

Basically, I want you to know how extremely important it is to Chinese people to travel for the new year, and how crowded and chaotic all the transportation routes are. It worries me, because it seems like that's the ideal environment for spreading disease.

And they just closed the transportation in and out of Wuhan this morning, but chunyun 春运 has been underway for about 2-3 weeks already.

About masks:

So tons of people are wearing masks now when they go out in public. In Shanghai, I would say that about 50% of the people I see in public are wearing masks. By "masks" I mean the kind that just covers your nose and mouth, like doctors wear.

In China, it's not weird to wear a mask like this. I remember when I first moved here, I thought it was the most ridiculous thing ever. You look like a dentist! How absurd, to walk around like that in public.

But no, in China it's not weird. It's common to see people wearing masks on high-pollution days. And some people wear a mask when they have a cold, so they don't get other people sick. Yes, the situation right now is extreme- before this, I have NEVER seen ANYWHERE NEAR 50% of people wearing masks. But in general, the idea of "wear a mask when you walk around in public to avoid spreading disease" is seen as normal here.

There are a few different kinds of masks people wear. There are disposable ones, like a doctor would wear. There are masks made of cloth, some of which have cute animal faces or whatever. There are masks with a little filter on them, specifically designed to filter out air pollution.

My situation:

I'm lucky because Hendrix and I had no plans to travel for the new year. So we're just going to sit around at home for the next week, and that should be fine.

But I worry that the disease could spread to Shanghai. There have already been a few cases reported in Shanghai. Hopefully it's under control and there won't be more new infections in Shanghai?

People are constantly talking about this on social media (WeChat). There are all kinds of rumors- about how many people are infected, about what the situation is really like in Wuhan. We shouldn't spread rumors. We should get our information from official sources. But at the same time, there is concern that the Chinese media isn't really telling us how bad it is.

Also on social media, lots of links being shared with advice on how to avoid getting sick. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Don't go anywhere crowded (hahaha, as if that's possible with the whole chunyun 春运 going on...)

And there's some humor too, some memes and jokes being shared. Here's my personal favorite:

This map brought to you by people who don't know where Shanghai and Beijing are. Alas, I can't find an actual source for this image so maybe it's not real.

Right now, for me the worst part is the uncertainty. We don't really know how bad this is. We don't know what's going to happen and how much it's going to spread. We don't know when things will be "back to normal."

I don't want to panic, but I also don't know what's a realistic amount to be concerned about this. I wear a mask in public, I wash my hands a lot, I'm not going to go anywhere crowded ... so ... is that good enough? Am I safe? What if things get worse? What if there's an outbreak in Shanghai?

So... yeah. Basically that's what's going on here. Just gotta keep following the news, and hope this doesn't spread more.

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All my posts about COVID-19:
I'm in Shanghai, and I'm concerned about the coronavirus (January 23)
An update on the situation in Shanghai (January 28)
About Compassion and Reading the News (January 29)
Welcome Baby Square Root! (February 3)
Remember the old days when we used to go outside? (February 4)
So we're (sort of) back to work here in Shanghai (February 12)
Blogaround (February 13)
Blogaround (February 20)
Shanghai is a good place for immigrants. (And I have feelings about it.) (February 24)
Blogaround (February 27)
Well *now* I'm glad I stayed in China (March 8)
The Weirdest Deja Vu (March 15)
Blogaround (March 19)
I'm an American in China. I CANNOT BELIEVE Some of You Are Still Going Out. (March 22)
Blogaround (March 25)
China Bans Foreigners (Like Me) From Entering the Country (March 29)
List of People Who Are Not Allowed to Call Themselves "Pro-Life" (April 2)
Blogaround (April 3) 
... all right now I have way too many posts to keep updating this list. You can find them all on the COVID-19 tag.