 |
| https://www.academia.edu/9956762/The_metaphysical_Fundations_of_modern_Science PUBLISHED 1931 |
Saturday, January 25, 2020
The Strange Career of Charles Lahr Anarchist Bookseller
ANARCHIST BOOK SELLER
In 1927, Pádraic Colum complained in the Irish Statesman that not enough writers were working in the Irish language. Liam O’Flaherty replied testily. His play Dorchadas had recently been performed by the Gaelic Dramatic League to full houses, he wrote, but the only payment he had received for it was from a man who could not even read it. O’Flaherty had sold the manuscript to ‘an English Socialist’ for £25. He would not write another word in Irish, he blustered, at least not for the public’s benefit. In any case, the only readers he now wrote for were his wife and his London editor, Edward Garnett. His intellectual world had shrunk to a party of two. The parsimonious Gaels were on their own.
In fact the buyer of the O’Flaherty playscript was neither English nor a socialist. Charles Lahr was a German anarchist; he was also a bookseller and publisher. The Progressive Bookshop on Red Lion Street in central London, which Lahr ran with his wife Esther Archer, was a tiny place – no more than a cubicle, according to the writer H.E. Bates – which shared the ground floor of an eighteenth-century building with a jumble shop. They rented the floors overhead to lodgers; the basement was home to book stacks and packages of unsold magazines, along with the decayed sofa used by overnight visitors. Some of the lodgers sat in the shop during the day, and if there were five or six of them there was no room for customers. ‘The Human Notebook’, an elderly man who always wore a battered silk hat, might be in place loudly expounding on world affairs. One hand pulled stacks of fried potatoes from greasy newspaper while he talked, the other produced from his pockets an endless stream of tattered newspaper clippings. Another visitor, occasional lodger, and confessed book thief was the Antrim-born orator Bonar Thompson, ‘the Prime Minister of Hyde Park’. Michael Foot would remember him as an oratorical hero; to Sean O’Casey he was just an insufferable chancer. Outside the shop were the usual dusty barrows full of unsellable stock. Underneath the front pavement was the lavatory – occupied, one visitor remembered, for two hours every morning by an old man who descended slowly and painfully from the building’s upper stories, sending all the other lodgers and customers around the corner to the public conveniences by the Holborn Empire.
Charles Lahr manuscripts
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This material is held at Senate House Library Archives, University of London
Reference
GB 96 SLV/36
Dates of Creation
1926-1967
Name of Creator
Lahr, Charles (1885-1971) political activist and publisher
Language of Material
English
Physical Description
15 files (c250 items)
Scope and Content
Mainly comprising letters sent to Charles Lahr by various writers.
Administrative / Biographical History
Charles Lahr was born Karl Lahr in 1885 at Wendlesheim in the Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. During his teenage years he became first a Buddhist and later an anarchist. In 1905, to escape conscription into the German army, he left Germany for London. On arriving in London he worked as a baker and expressed his political involvement by joining and frequenting anarchist clubs. By 1914 Lahr had taken work as a razor grinder and had joined the British Section of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He began to accumulate books at around this time as he moved from residence to residence in the Kings Cross area of London. He also let rooms to people he met through his political activities. Designated an enemy alien, Lahr was interned in Alexandra Palace in London from 1915 to 1919. After the war Lahr returned to his trade and continued his involvement with the IWW, where he met his future wife, Esther Archer, whom he married in 1922. Lahr and Archer both joined the Communist party in 1920, but left in 1921. It was during this brief membership that the Lahr met and became friends with Liam O'Flaherty. In 1921 Lahr took over the Progressive Bookshop at 68 Red Lion Square, Holborn. The bookshop became a centre for new writers and political activists from around the world, and specialised in the sale of radical literature and first editionsThe Lahr's first moves into publishing came in when K. S. Bhat recommended the editors of the New Coterie to take the magazine to the Lahrs. From 1925 onwards Lahr started publishing items on his own account, often using his wife's maiden name to counter anti-German prejudice. During 1925 to 1927 these took the form of offprints from New Coterie, and then articles within the magazine itself. In the publishing world he was in close contact with writers such as D. H. Lawrence, T. F. Powys, James Hanley, A.S.J. Tessimond, Liam O' Flaherty, Paul Selver, Russell Green, George Woodcock, Rhys Davies and several others. The New Coterie ran until 1927, and in 1930 Lahr launched his Blue Moon Booklets and a year later the Blue Moon Press. However, by 1933 Lahr was having financial problems. In 1935 his difficulties came to a head when he was found guilty of receiving stolen books and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. However, after his release he continued his publishing activities although on a much reduced scale. The bookshop continued to be a focus for radicals and revolutionaries.The bookshop in Holborn was bombed in May 1941. Lahr moved the bookshop to several locations in central London before finally moving it to the headquarters of the Independent Labour Party at 197 Kings Cross Road, London. Charles Lahr died in London in 1971.
References:R. M. Fox, 'Lahr's Bookshop' in Smoky Crusade, Hogarth Press, 1938, pp. 180-188.D. Goodway, 'Charles Lahr: Anarchist, Bookseller' in London Magazine, Jun-Jul 1977, pp. 47-55.
Radical Lives: Charles Lahr
by Daniel Whittall @danwhittall
Published 10th November 2014
Charles Lahr was born in the Rhineland town of Bad Nauheim in 1885. Originally going by the name of Carl Lahr, he moved to London in 1905 having become an anarchist before leaving Germany. When he first arrived in England, Lahr worked in a bakery. According to Albert Meltzer, he was monitored by the Metropolitan Police, who allegedly suspected him of planning to assassinate Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was visiting Britain at the same time. Lahr was interned during the First World War as a potential enemy alien, and arrested in 1935 for receiving stolen books. As a German radical in Britain, Lahr was under constant surveillance.
What did he do?
Shortly after arriving in Britain, Lahr fortuitously met Guy Aldred who was also working as a baker. A fellow anarchist, Aldred founded the Industrial Union of Direct Actionists in 1907, with Lahr becoming secretary of the Whitechapel branch. Lahr was also a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and he helped Aldred found the first Bakunin Press, as well as a number of small anarchist and educational organisations in the early years of the twentieth century. In 1922, Lahr married Esther Archer, a radical agitator and IWW organiser, having met her at the Socialist Club in Charlotte Street.
However Lahr is most renowned for the various second-hand bookshops he founded in London, foremost amongst which was Lahr’s at 68 Red Lion Street, Holborn. Described by Jonathon Rose in his book The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes as “a mecca for down-and-out Nietzcheans and scruffy poets,” Lahr’s was also frequented by prominent leftist radicals and Bloomsbury intellectuals. Rose tells the story of R.M. Fox, a factory worker and autodidact whose writings were published by the Hogarth Press and who taught for the Workers Educational Association. Fox was disillusioned with both the Labour Party and radical Marxists, but found in Lahr’s a space to indulge his passion for “philosophic Germans, gloomy Scandinavians, sour Swedes and analytical Russians.”
Lahr had bought the bookshop, originally called the Progressive Book Shop, from his friend, political associate, and fellow member of the IWW, Harold Edwards, who recalled in his short memoir that Lahr made a reasonable amount of money through the shop, especially in the 1920s, but cared so little for financial gain that much of the money was lost by being sunk into unsuccessful publishing ventures.
What were his ideas?
The popularity of Lahr’s bookshop was as much about the proprietor as it was about the availability of a diverse set of radical and cosmopolitan texts in his bookshop. As Ken Weller suggests, the shop became “a centre of radical and advanced literary ideas.” David Goodway, in a memoir of Lahr penned in the late 1970s, suggested that was “very probably the last” of the “great London radical booksellers-cum-publishers” whose lineage can be traced back to the late eighteenth century.
The beneficiaries of this vibrant atmosphere of political and intellectual discussion fostered by Lahr were numerous. For example, as Christian Høgsbjerg shows in his recent book C.L.R. James in Imperial Britain, Lahr took a particular interest in his customers and their own writings. James recalled that Lahr would “put aside a book or pamphlet for me… Through Charlie I was made acquainted with pamphlets and publications of the American Trotskysist movement, also with similar publications in French.” Lahr also shaped James’s thinking on the Russian Revolution, the demise of the German Revolution, and on Stalinism more broadly, on which James would publish his 1938 book, World Revolution.
What is his legacy?
Lahr was a political radical who fostered an open culture of discussion and exploration through the sharing of information that crossed national and political boundaries. A passionate anarchist, Lahr nevertheless stocked books from other political traditions – C.L.R. James recalled purchasing volumes by Stalin on Leninism from Lahr – and from those focused on political discussion beyond Britain.
For someone like James, initiating himself into the British left after arriving from Trinidad, Lahr was essential, providing details of political events and discussing contemporary political questions. For James, it was Lahr’s role as a purveyor of knowledge that was most attractive; as he recalled, “Charlie did not so much argue a political issue. He disseminated information.”
In an era of social media and online access to information about almost anyone and anything, it can be difficult to recover a sense of just how important such radical purveyors of information were to political and social movements. Lahr’s bookshop was at the centre of a network of diverse radical political activists. Today’s activists use newer forms of technology to perform much the same function that Lahr used his bookshops for – the sharing of information and the fostering of radical political movements. Yet to read the testimonies of Meltzer, James and others for whom Lahr performed a formative role in their own political understandings is to recognise the power that such facilitators have. Political struggle takes place not just on the street but in the mind; it will require many more Charlie Lahrs of the modern age if the radical left is to win.
Share URL: http://novara.media/1e21XqYPublished 10th November 2014
INTRODUCTION
What follows is the basis for a comprehensive listing of radical bookshops in Britain, plus a
comprehensive bibliography. It has been compiled by Dave Cope and Ross Bradshaw. There are many gaps at the moment as we preferred to start with whatever information we had and put out something, even if sketchy in parts, rather than wait till the list was more complete. At least names of shops and any details can be added now by anyone by just sending an email.
If there is a certain bias towards CP bookshops, this is because a lot of the information was
gathered for the background to Dave Cope’s little history on Central Books. This should be corrected as more shops are added.
There is the thorny problem of definition. Generally, the emphasis is on socialist bookshops. We are including anarchist, feminist, green, black, gay and some “community” bookshops. This grouping coincides roughly with the membership of the Federation of Radical Bookshops (till 1980 called the Federation of Alternative Booksellers, an organisation which excluded those shops not run on a cooperative basis and those run by political groups). The FRB was representative of radical bookshops at the time and reflected the upsurge of such shops in the 1970s/1980s. This was an important phenomenon in cultural politics and it would be silly to ignore it in a listing like this. However, there were members who could be described as radical more because of their structure than for what they sold. I have not included the following shops, which would certainly be in some people’s definition of “radical”: new age, alternative health, community, alternative literature/underground unless members of the FRB.
Some of these shops did sell radical and socialist magazines. Compendium, for example, is included because of its size and importance as an outlet for radical books.
It is interesting to note, from an historical perspective, that Eva Reckitt who owned Collets had a broad policy on stock but drew the line at “those mysterious world religions” and “phoney psychology”.
We have more information on many of the shops than appears here, but it is not practicable to enter it all – the document would be unwieldy – and we hope eventually to publish a book on the subject. DOWNLOAD TO READ
Charles Lahr (1885–1971),
born Carl Lahr, was a German-born anarchist, London bookseller and publisher.
Lahr was born at Bad Nauheim in the Rhineland, the eldest of 15 children in a farming family. He left Germany in 1905 to avoid military service and went to England.
In London he encountered the anarchist Guy Aldred (1886–1963), while working as a baker.[1] He was soon (1907) under police observation.[2] He joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1914; at that time he had a bookshop in Hammersmith.
In 1915 he was interned for four year as an enemy alien in Alexandra Palace. In 1920-21 he was briefly a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. His interest in politics led him to befriend many left-wing thinkers, several of whom went on to establish important left-wing groups in the UK. In 1921 he took over the Progressive Bookshop, in Red Lion Street, Holborn. From there he would branch out into publishing, and establish many literary friendships (including H. E. Bates, Rhys Davies, T. F. Powys) and D. H. Lawrence. At one point when Lahr was in financial difficulties his writer friends gathered a collection of stories together and published these as Charles Wain (1933).He married in 1922 Esther Argeband,[3] (at that time Archer), whom he had met at the Charlotte Street Socialist Club, of a British Jewish family (Lahr was not Jewish). They were close friends of William Roberts, the artist, and his wife, and William's portrait of Esther is in the Tate Gallery.From 1925 to 1927 Lahr published The New Coterie literary and artistic magazine. In 1931 he founded the Blue Moon Press, a small press amongst the books he published was the first edition of a small book of poems by D. H. Lawrence called Pansies.In subsequent misfortunes Lahr was convicted in 1935 on a charge of receiving stolen books, and was sentenced to 6 months in prison.[4] In a short story from Something Short and Sweet (published 1937), H. E. Bates describes the court case with Lahr called "Oscar" in the story. The bookshop was bombed in 1941. He moved its premises several times in London.He died in London in 1971. His funeral was attended by many representatives from left wing groups in the UK.There is substantial further information on Lahr in a book authored by his daughter Sheila. This is called Yealm and can be read in its entirety on the Militant Esthetix website, run by Lahr's granddaughter Esther Leslie.
Lahr's papers are held by the University of London.
Notes
External links
Charles Lahr (1885–1971),
born Carl Lahr, was a German-born anarchist, London bookseller and publisher.
Lahr was born at Bad Nauheim in the Rhineland, the eldest of 15 children in a farming family. He left Germany in 1905 to avoid military service and went to England.
In London he encountered the anarchist Guy Aldred (1886–1963), while working as a baker.[1] He was soon (1907) under police observation.[2] He joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1914; at that time he had a bookshop in Hammersmith.
In 1915 he was interned for four year as an enemy alien in Alexandra Palace. In 1920-21 he was briefly a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. His interest in politics led him to befriend many left-wing thinkers, several of whom went on to establish important left-wing groups in the UK. In 1921 he took over the Progressive Bookshop, in Red Lion Street, Holborn. From there he would branch out into publishing, and establish many literary friendships (including H. E. Bates, Rhys Davies, T. F. Powys) and D. H. Lawrence. At one point when Lahr was in financial difficulties his writer friends gathered a collection of stories together and published these as Charles Wain (1933).He married in 1922 Esther Argeband,[3] (at that time Archer), whom he had met at the Charlotte Street Socialist Club, of a British Jewish family (Lahr was not Jewish). They were close friends of William Roberts, the artist, and his wife, and William's portrait of Esther is in the Tate Gallery.From 1925 to 1927 Lahr published The New Coterie literary and artistic magazine. In 1931 he founded the Blue Moon Press, a small press amongst the books he published was the first edition of a small book of poems by D. H. Lawrence called Pansies.In subsequent misfortunes Lahr was convicted in 1935 on a charge of receiving stolen books, and was sentenced to 6 months in prison.[4] In a short story from Something Short and Sweet (published 1937), H. E. Bates describes the court case with Lahr called "Oscar" in the story. The bookshop was bombed in 1941. He moved its premises several times in London.He died in London in 1971. His funeral was attended by many representatives from left wing groups in the UK.There is substantial further information on Lahr in a book authored by his daughter Sheila. This is called Yealm and can be read in its entirety on the Militant Esthetix website, run by Lahr's granddaughter Esther Leslie.
Lahr's papers are held by the University of London.
Notes
- Lahr, Charles, 1885-1971 | libcom.org
- William J. Fishman, East End Jewish Radicals 1875-1914 (2004), p. 271.
- Sharman Kadish, Bolsheviks and British Jews (1992), p. 235.
- AIM25: Senate House Library, University of London: Lahr, Charles
A revolutionary youth - Harold Edwards - Libcom Feb 12, 2012 - Harold Edwards' reminiscences of his life as an Anarchist and Wobbly in ... next door to the shop where first I and then Charlie Lahr were to become booksellers. ... I noticed also that whenever I prayed for anything I never got it! ... of the Progressive Book Shop which Charlie Lahr ultimately brought from me.
clr james in imperial britain, 1932-38 christian john h0gsbjerg ...
Indeed, he later recalled how 'my publisher's wife', Pamela De Bayou, 'a ... will only make the situation more farcical than it now is', and progressive and labour ... soon made the acquaintance of the German anarchist bookshop owner. ... 8S James's friendlv local anarchist bookseller Charlie Lahr was also on hand and keen ...
Inky Stephensen - Core Mar 10, 2019 - The name was a joke but it also indicated the pervasive impact of this. Asian naval ... at Maryborough Grammar, and one of his government's progressive ... books on guild socialism and had met the Australian communist Esmonde ... cancelled her subscription, and the bookseller Charles Lahr had sold.
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President Donald Trump on Friday revealed the official logo for the Space Force, the newest branch of the armed forces and part of the existing United States Air Force department, in a tweet.
The Space Force, a fixation of Trump’s throughout his presidency, became a reality last month when Congress passed a $738 billion military bill that created the sixth branch of the military. And now the Air Force is responsible for branding, uniform design, and the various other requirements involved with creating a new armed force.
However, the logo appears to borrow heavily from the fictional logo of Starfleet from the Star Trek universe.
Vocal Trump critic and former Star Trek cast member George Takei also weighed in.
Analyst and former national security policy advisor John Noonan, who was a member of the USAF, commented on Twitter shortly after the announcement to point out that the Space Force logo, while similar in design to the Starfleet one, is in fact based on an existing Air Force command logo.
Adding another wrinkle to the situation is that Trump’s political action committee, the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, was polling voters back in 2018 about which Space Force logos they liked the best. And the six options provided all look drastically different then the end result we have today, with quite a few featuring NASA-inspired iconography and type faces alongside retro-futurist aesthetics.
It’s not entirely clear how the team responsible for branding the Space Force went from that to what Trump revealed this afternoon. But here we are.
Although, as one user on Twitter noted, the designers did seem to take some cues from the NASA logo, predominantly the exact placement of the stars that appear to have been copied over directly.
Levi's found a way to make hemp feel like cotton, and it could have big implications for your wardrobe
Richard Feloni
Richard Feloni
Hemp fibers are naturally stiff and ropy, but Levi's has
discovered a way to make it feel like cotton. Universal
Images Group/Getty Images
Since the legalization of hemp in the United States at the end of 2018, the industry has been exploding: Reports and Data estimated it'll be worth $13.03 billion by 2026. While you've probably noticed hemp-derived CBD products everywhere, hemp also has major implications for sustainable clothing — and denim icon Levi Strauss & Co. has made significant progress in making this happen.
Last March, Levi's debuted a collaboration with the Outerknown label that included a pair of jeans and jacket made from a 69%-cotton/31%-hemp blend that feels like pure cotton. Why is that significant? Hemp, a cannabis plant with a negligible amount of the psychoactive chemical THC, uses significantly less water and chemicals than cotton. Unlike cotton, though, the material is difficult to work with. The cotton fibers in your shirt are derived from a puffy bud on top of a plant, while hemp fibers come from a tall, sturdy trunk.
"It's a longer, stiffer, coarser fiber," Levi's head of global product innovation, Paul Dillinger, told Business Insider last year. "It doesn't want to be turned into something soft. It wants to be turned into rope."
Levi's has found a method to make hemp fibers soft and able to blend with cotton, but in a way that uses significantly less water than the process used to turn hemp plants into a rough material. "It's great that it's resonating with the consumer, but it's more important that it's helping to future-proof our supply chain," he said.
We checked in again with Dillinger in January, and he told us that last fall, Levi's discovered how to get the indigo dyeing process to work with its hemp blend, which previously was only available in a natural white denim.
He explained that the work with hemp is a significant research project that will continue for years with the intention of scaling production, rather than a project that only results in a couple of high-end, niche items. "Our intention is to take this to the core of the line, to blend it into the line, to make this a part of the Levi's portfolio," he said.
Dillinger said Levi's is continuing to work on improving the quality of its cottonized-hemp, to the point where it can be nearly half of a cotton-blend for most apparel, as well as fully hemp for certain products. And in five years, he said, he expects "a 100% cottonized-hemp garment that is all hemp and feels all cotton."
Most recently, Levi's has combined its cottonized hemp with its low-water "Water
Dillinger said that the need for cotton alternatives became apparent when looking at the growth trajectory of cotton demand compared to access to fresh water required for its cultivation and processing. Since he was familiar with the nature of hemp, he did not expect to find a solution there — until Levi's discovered cutting-edge research in Europe, where industrial hemp was already legal in many countries. Levi's would not reveal its partners or details of its breakthroughs, except to say that it had a market-ready material after three years.
When Levi's finds a way to make 100% cottonized-hemp clothing, "We're going to go from a garment that goes from 3,781 L of fresh water, 2,655 of that in just the fiber cultivation," Dillinger said, drawing from data collected by the Stockholm Environmental Institute. "We take out more than 2/3 of the total water impact to the garment. That's saving a lot."
Despite his optimism, Dillinger was quick to point out that he doesn't want hype around the hemp industry to make it seem like Levi's and its competitors are going to fully replace cotton or revolutionize the industry overnight. To do it properly, there remains many years of research and development. Plus, it's likely hemp will be just one of several natural cotton alternatives. "Initiatives with the potential to create meaningful change and environmental value often take time and patience to bring to life," he said.
The idea is that hemp clothing, whether in a cotton blend or by itself, isn't going to be a fad. Levi's markets its cottonized hemp under the sustainable "WellThread" label, but Dillinger said that while he can't speak for the company on this point, he personally isn't too concerned about the marketing of cottonized-hemp clothing. That's because the ideal scenario down the line is that customers won't even notice a difference.
"So often there's the assumption that to purchase a sustainably-made product is going to involve a sacrifice, and that the choice is between something ethically made or something that's cute," he said. "You don't have to sacrifice to buy sustainably."
This is an updated version of an article that originally ran on May 8, 2019.
Denim icon Levi Strauss & Co. debuted garments made from a soft hemp-cotton blend in March, and head of innovation Paul Dillinger said he expects 100% cottonized-hemp products in about five years.
Hemp uses significantly less water and chemicals than cotton during cultivation. Levi's has found a way to soften hemp using far less water than was previously used.
Dillinger said the long-term goal is to incorporate sustainable cotton blends by using fibers such as hemp into all of its products.
Recently, the brand has found a way to apply the indigo dyeing process to the cottonized hemp denim, as well as how to utilize its low-water finishing process on the material.
This article is part of Business Insider's Better Capitalism series, which tracks the ways companies and individuals are rethinking the economy and role of business in society.
Since the legalization of hemp in the United States at the end of 2018, the industry has been exploding: Reports and Data estimated it'll be worth $13.03 billion by 2026. While you've probably noticed hemp-derived CBD products everywhere, hemp also has major implications for sustainable clothing — and denim icon Levi Strauss & Co. has made significant progress in making this happen.
Last March, Levi's debuted a collaboration with the Outerknown label that included a pair of jeans and jacket made from a 69%-cotton/31%-hemp blend that feels like pure cotton. Why is that significant? Hemp, a cannabis plant with a negligible amount of the psychoactive chemical THC, uses significantly less water and chemicals than cotton. Unlike cotton, though, the material is difficult to work with. The cotton fibers in your shirt are derived from a puffy bud on top of a plant, while hemp fibers come from a tall, sturdy trunk.
"It's a longer, stiffer, coarser fiber," Levi's head of global product innovation, Paul Dillinger, told Business Insider last year. "It doesn't want to be turned into something soft. It wants to be turned into rope."
Levi's has found a method to make hemp fibers soft and able to blend with cotton, but in a way that uses significantly less water than the process used to turn hemp plants into a rough material. "It's great that it's resonating with the consumer, but it's more important that it's helping to future-proof our supply chain," he said.
We checked in again with Dillinger in January, and he told us that last fall, Levi's discovered how to get the indigo dyeing process to work with its hemp blend, which previously was only available in a natural white denim.
He explained that the work with hemp is a significant research project that will continue for years with the intention of scaling production, rather than a project that only results in a couple of high-end, niche items. "Our intention is to take this to the core of the line, to blend it into the line, to make this a part of the Levi's portfolio," he said.
Dillinger said Levi's is continuing to work on improving the quality of its cottonized-hemp, to the point where it can be nearly half of a cotton-blend for most apparel, as well as fully hemp for certain products. And in five years, he said, he expects "a 100% cottonized-hemp garment that is all hemp and feels all cotton."
Most recently, Levi's has combined its cottonized hemp with its low-water "Water
Dillinger said that the need for cotton alternatives became apparent when looking at the growth trajectory of cotton demand compared to access to fresh water required for its cultivation and processing. Since he was familiar with the nature of hemp, he did not expect to find a solution there — until Levi's discovered cutting-edge research in Europe, where industrial hemp was already legal in many countries. Levi's would not reveal its partners or details of its breakthroughs, except to say that it had a market-ready material after three years.
When Levi's finds a way to make 100% cottonized-hemp clothing, "We're going to go from a garment that goes from 3,781 L of fresh water, 2,655 of that in just the fiber cultivation," Dillinger said, drawing from data collected by the Stockholm Environmental Institute. "We take out more than 2/3 of the total water impact to the garment. That's saving a lot."
Despite his optimism, Dillinger was quick to point out that he doesn't want hype around the hemp industry to make it seem like Levi's and its competitors are going to fully replace cotton or revolutionize the industry overnight. To do it properly, there remains many years of research and development. Plus, it's likely hemp will be just one of several natural cotton alternatives. "Initiatives with the potential to create meaningful change and environmental value often take time and patience to bring to life," he said.
The idea is that hemp clothing, whether in a cotton blend or by itself, isn't going to be a fad. Levi's markets its cottonized hemp under the sustainable "WellThread" label, but Dillinger said that while he can't speak for the company on this point, he personally isn't too concerned about the marketing of cottonized-hemp clothing. That's because the ideal scenario down the line is that customers won't even notice a difference.
"So often there's the assumption that to purchase a sustainably-made product is going to involve a sacrifice, and that the choice is between something ethically made or something that's cute," he said. "You don't have to sacrifice to buy sustainably."
This is an updated version of an article that originally ran on May 8, 2019.
UPDATED
Scientists Now Think They Know What Started China's Deadly Coronavirus: Bats
Based on swabs and blood from patients at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, they found the genetic sequence closely matched a virus known to live in bats.
By David Gilbert
Jan 24 2020,
Snakes Are The Likely Source of China's Deadly Coronavirus. Here's Why
HAITAO GUO ET AL., THE CONVERSATION
23 JAN 2020
Snakes – the Chinese krait and the Chinese cobra – may be the original source of the newly discovered coronavirus that has triggered an outbreak of a deadly infectious respiratory illness in China this winter.
The illness was first reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a major city in central China, and has been rapidly spreading. Since then, sick travelers from Wuhan have infected people in China and other countries, including the United States.
Using samples of the virus isolated from patients, scientists in China have determined the genetic code of the virus and used microscopes to photograph it. The pathogen responsible for this pandemic is a new coronavirus.
It's in the same family of viruses as the well-known severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which have killed hundreds of people in the past 17 years.
What is a coronavirus?
The name of coronavirus comes from its shape, which resembles a crown or solar corona when imaged using an electron microscope.
Coronavirus is transmitted through the air and primarily infects the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds. Though most of the members of the coronavirus family only cause mild flu-like symptoms during infection, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV can infect both upper and lower airways and cause severe respiratory illness and other complications in humans.
This new 2019-nCoV causes similar symptoms to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. People infected with these coronaviruses suffer a severe inflammatory response.
Unfortunately, there is no approved vaccine or antiviral treatment available for coronavirus infection. A better understanding of the life cycle of 2019-nCoV, including the source of the virus, how it is transmitted and how it replicates are needed to both prevent and treat the disease.
The hypothesis that the 2019-nCoV jumped from an animal at the market is strongly supported by a new publication in the Journal of Medical Virology. The scientists conducted an analysis and compared the genetic sequences of 2019-nCoV and all other known coronaviruses.
The study of the genetic code of 2019-nCoV reveals that the new virus is most closely related to two bat SARS-like coronavirus samples from China, initially suggesting that, like SARS and MERS, the bat might also be the origin of 2019-nCoV.
The authors further found that the DNA coding sequence of 2019-nCoV spike protein, which forms the "crown" of the virus particle that recognizes the receptor on a host cell, indicates that the bat virus might have mutated before infecting people.
But when the researchers performed a more detailed bioinformatics analysis of the sequence of 2019-nCoV, it suggests that this coronavirus might come from snakes.
From bats to snakes
The researchers used an analysis of the protein codes favored by the new coronavirus and compared it to the protein codes from coronaviruses found in different animal hosts, like birds, snakes, marmots, hedgehogs, manis, bats and humans. Surprisingly, they found that the protein codes in the 2019-nCoV are most similar to those used in snakes.
Snakes often hunt for bats in wild. Reports indicate that snakes were sold in the local seafood market in Wuhan, raising the possibility that the 2019-nCoV might have jumped from the host species – bats – to snakes and then to humans at the beginning of this coronavirus outbreak.
However, how the virus could adapt to both the cold-blooded and warm-blooded hosts remains a mystery.
The authors of the report and other researchers must verify the origin of the virus through laboratory experiments. Searching for the 2019-nCoV sequence in snakes would be the first thing to do. However, since the outbreak, the seafood market has been disinfected and shut down, which makes it challenging to trace the new virus' source animal.
Sampling DNA from animals sold at the market and from wild snakes and bats is needed to confirm the origin of the virus. Nonetheless, the reported findings will also provide insights for developing prevention and treatment protocols.
The 2019-nCoV outbreak is another reminder that people should limit the consumption of wild animals to prevent zoonotic infections.
Haitao Guo, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh; Guangxiang "George" Luo, Professor of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Shou-Jiang Gao, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh.
These articles are republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus
China has put 33 million people on lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak. An urban planner says there's no way to seal off a city.
Aria Bendix
The virus has killed 41 people and infected nearly 1,300. It has spread to at least 10 countries outside China, including France, Australia, and the US.
The city where the virus originated — Wuhan, China — has been quarantined since Thursday.
An urban planner said there's no way to completely seal off a city, but shutting down transportation significantly reduces the chances that people will leave.
Most urban planners don't design a city with the idea of sealing it off. Many advocate for the opposite: making cities as free-flowing as possible to encourage tourism and attract workers.
But on Thursday morning, officials in Wuhan, China — the 11-million-person city where a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak started — put the city under quarantine.
"If you live in cities, your movement can be controlled through public transport," Fei Chen, an urban-design lecturer at the University of Liverpool, told Business Insider. "Wuhan has an international airport. It has highways and railways. So if you close all of them, then you basically cut off the means for people to get out."
That is indeed what officials did. All forms of public transportation were halted, including buses, metros, and ferries. No trains or airplanes are coming in or out of the city, and roadblocks were installed to prevent private cars from leaving.
Wuhan residents were told not to leave the city, barring special circumstances.
The virus, which scientists call 2019-nCoV, has killed 41 people and infected nearly 1,300. It has spread to at least 10 other countries: France, Australia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, and the US. The outbreak likely originated at a wet market in Wuhan that sold live animals such as chickens, pigs, snakes, and civets. The market was shuttered on January 1.
Chen said there's no way to completely seal off a city, however.
Wuhan shut down its major entry points
The coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan December 31. The family of viruses is also responsible for pneumonia, the common cold, and SARS, which affected about 8,000 people and killed 774 in China between 2002 and 2003.
The new coronavirus causes fever, chills, coughing, sneezing, and a sore throat. It appears to spread person-to-person more easily and quickly than SARS, but it is far less deadly.
As a major Chinese transportation center, Wuhan's high-speed rail lines connect to Shanghai and Guangzhou (cities with populations of 24 million and 13 million people, respectively). The city's Tianhe International Airport also serves more than 20 million passengers annually.
"Chinese cities currently are really connected, especially regionally," Chen said. "It's really easy to travel from one city to another."
Scientists Now Think They Know What Started China's Deadly Coronavirus: Bats
BATS ARE THE MOST COMMON CARRIER OF ZOONOTIC VIRUSES THAT CAN JUMP FROM THEM AS A HOST TO OTHER MAMMALS THE BATS ARE IMMUNE
By David Gilbert
Jan 24 2020,
The first people who contracted the deadly new coronavirus sweeping through Asia were infected when the virus jumped from animals to humans, and a new report points to the original animal source: bats.
Scientists from the Wuhan Institute for Virology — located in China’s epicenter of the outbreak, now under quarantine — published a paper Thursday that confirmed the fast-spreading virus is in the same family as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus that hit Asia in 2003 and killed almost 800 people, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
Based on oral swabs, anal swabs, and blood collected from seven patients at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, the scientists were able to genetically sequence the virus. Then they tested it against a database of known viruses and found a 96.2% match with a coronavirus known to live in bats, which is also believed to be the source of the SARS and MERS outbreaks.
Ebola, the deadly virus that killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, is also believed to have originated from bats.
The researchers found that the new virus uses the same receptors as SARS to hack into a victim’s lungs, causing symptoms such as coughing, headaches, and pneumonia. This paper is the first to describe the new virus, dubbed nCoV-2019, in detail.
The outbreak is believed to have originated at a meat and seafood market in Wuhan where live animals were slaughtered and wild animals were also sold.
Another report from China earlier this week claimed that the coronavirus may have originated in snakes, which were reportedly sold in the Wuhan market. However, that report also suggested that since snakes hunt bats in the wild, they could have been the original source of the virus.
The new coronavirus, like SARS and MERS, is a zoonotic viral disease, meaning the first patients who were infected acquired these viruses directly from animals.
Since it emerged last month, the new virus has killed 26 people and infected 830, most of whom are in Wuhan, where authorities are trying to fast-track a new, 1000-bed hospital in just six days.
The outbreak has come at the worst time for China as hundreds of millions of people will travel long distances this weekend to celebrate Lunar New Year, making the task of containing the spread of the virus much harder.
In a bid to stop the virus spreading, authorities have imposed strict travel restrictions on 10 cities in the central province of Hubei, effectively locking down some 30 million people.
But these efforts come after the virus has already spread to almost all areas of China, and internationally to Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and the U.S., where a second confirmed case was reported in Chicago on Friday.
Cover: 21 August 2019, Saxony, Wermsdorf: A pug bat (Barbastella barbastellus) is kept in the Wermsdorf forest by a scientist from the specialist office "hochfrequent". Photo by: Sebastian Willnow/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
Specialty: Infectious disease
Other names: Zoönosis
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Wuhan coronavirus: we still haven’t learned the lessons from SARS
We have to hope that the Wuhan outbreak is a wake-up call for regulation of wildlife trade and animal health, action that is urgently needed to protect human health and the environment
The SARS outbreak in 2002-2003 was the first global pandemic of the 21st century. There were 8,422 reported cases and 11% of those infected with the virus died. Its cause was a newly identified coronavirus (a type of virus that causes respiratory infections): SARS Co-V. Early cases were linked to wildlife markets and restaurants in Guangdong, China, where researchers found SARS-like coronaviruses in animals including masked palm civets and a racoon dog.
A Chinese government team subsequently reported that 66 out of 508 wildlife handlers tested in other markets across Guangdong were positive for antibodies to the SARS virus. The Chinese authorities responded by imposing a temporary ban on the hunting, sale, transportation and export of all wild animals in southern China. They also quarantined or culled civets reared for human consumption in the many civet farms across the area.
Civet cats await their fate in the Xin Yuan animal meat market,
Guangzhou, China. Paul Hilton/EPA
Guangzhou, China. Paul Hilton/EPA
We happened to be working on wildlife trade and biodiversity conservation, including rare species of civets in neighbouring Vietnam, and were aware that many different species of animal were kept close to each other
My colleagues and I suggested that civets testing positive for SARS may have secondary infections rather being than the source of the virus. They were probably infected during the “speed dating” of zoonotic viruses circulating among the jumble of different animal species packed together at markets or while being transported to markets, often in China.
At the Royal Society’s international conference on “Lessons from SARS” in 2004 and in the related publication, we emphasised that wildlife trade was a threat to human health and a primary cause of biodiversity decline in China and South-East Asia.
But here we are again, 17 years later, with another novel zoonotic coronavirus, this time in Wuhan, China. Once again, initial human cases were linked to a market selling a variety of live animals.
A constantly changing range of species have been selected as the culprits in the past few days, including bats and snakes, (the latter results were quickly refuted), and even crickets and wolf cubs.
But, as yet, there is no scientific evidence that the virus has been isolated from any of these, although a recent report stated that “15 environmental specimens collected in the western section (of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market) were positive for 2019-nCoV virus through RT-PCR testing and genetic sequencing analysis.” The report continues: “Despite extensive searching, no animal from the market has thus far been identified as a possible source of infection.”
It is not evident what “environmental specimens” refers to here and a complete list of those animals present in, or available from, the market would be appropriate to release together with details of which and how many of these have so far been tested.
Wild rodents, which are often present in these markets, should also have been collected and tested as SARS-like coronaviruses have also been isolated from wild rats in China.
Perfect conditions for pandemics
But we may be chasing our tails, as animals testing positive may not be the source of the current outbreak. We need to step back and learn the broader lessons here.
The perfect conditions for the emergence of human pandemics from previously unknown zoonotic pathogens has been created as a result of three things. First, the shift from subsistence hunting of wildlife to its sale into an international trade network largely driven by demand in China. Second, the extensive cross-exposure within this wildlife trade of species and species populations, which would not mix or be in contact in the wild. And, third, the exploitation of new source populations as areas become depleted of target species.
It is also important to emphasise that these wild animals are typically now more expensive to buy (sometime a status symbol) than domestic livestock, so the demand that perpetuates wildlife trade in the region is a dietary choice and not driven by low income.
The solution is collective action to remove the demand and also the supply chains to these wildlife markets and “farms” (often laundering animals from the wild rather than breeding them). The call to close wildlife markets across China – which started following the SARS outbreak – has also been echoed by experts in China and in external organisations worldwide, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society.
January 24, 2020
Author
Professor of Conservation Biology, University of East Anglia
THE CONVERSATION
ON THE OTHER HAND IT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN BAT'S BUT IT WAS STILL ZOONOTIC TRANSMISSION VIA ANOTHER FORM OF BUSHMEAT
BATS TRANSMITTED THE VIRUS TO SNAKES
Snakes Are The Likely Source of China's Deadly Coronavirus. Here's Why
HAITAO GUO ET AL., THE CONVERSATION
23 JAN 2020
Snakes – the Chinese krait and the Chinese cobra – may be the original source of the newly discovered coronavirus that has triggered an outbreak of a deadly infectious respiratory illness in China this winter.
The illness was first reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a major city in central China, and has been rapidly spreading. Since then, sick travelers from Wuhan have infected people in China and other countries, including the United States.
Using samples of the virus isolated from patients, scientists in China have determined the genetic code of the virus and used microscopes to photograph it. The pathogen responsible for this pandemic is a new coronavirus.
It's in the same family of viruses as the well-known severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which have killed hundreds of people in the past 17 years.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV.
We are virologists and journal editors and are closely following this outbreak because there are many questions that need to be answered to curb the spread of this public health threat.
We are virologists and journal editors and are closely following this outbreak because there are many questions that need to be answered to curb the spread of this public health threat.
What is a coronavirus?
The name of coronavirus comes from its shape, which resembles a crown or solar corona when imaged using an electron microscope.
Coronavirus is transmitted through the air and primarily infects the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds. Though most of the members of the coronavirus family only cause mild flu-like symptoms during infection, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV can infect both upper and lower airways and cause severe respiratory illness and other complications in humans.
This new 2019-nCoV causes similar symptoms to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. People infected with these coronaviruses suffer a severe inflammatory response.
Unfortunately, there is no approved vaccine or antiviral treatment available for coronavirus infection. A better understanding of the life cycle of 2019-nCoV, including the source of the virus, how it is transmitted and how it replicates are needed to both prevent and treat the disease.
Zoonotic transmission
Both SARS and MERS are classified as zoonotic viral diseases, meaning the first patients who were infected acquired these viruses directly from animals. This was possible because while in the animal host, the virus had acquired a series of genetic mutations that allowed it to infect and multiply inside humans.
Now these viruses can be transmitted from person to person. Field studies have revealed that the original source of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV is the bat, and that the masked palm civets (a mammal native to Asia and Africa) and camels, respectively, served as intermediate hosts between bats and humans.In the case of this 2019 coronavirus outbreak, reports state that most of the first group of patients hospitalized were workers or customers at a local seafood wholesale market which also sold processed meats and live consumable animals including poultry, donkeys, sheep, pigs, camels, foxes, badgers, bamboo rats, hedgehogs and reptiles.However, since no one has ever reported finding a coronavirus infecting aquatic animals, it is plausible that the coronavirus may have originated from other animals sold in that market.
The hypothesis that the 2019-nCoV jumped from an animal at the market is strongly supported by a new publication in the Journal of Medical Virology. The scientists conducted an analysis and compared the genetic sequences of 2019-nCoV and all other known coronaviruses.
The study of the genetic code of 2019-nCoV reveals that the new virus is most closely related to two bat SARS-like coronavirus samples from China, initially suggesting that, like SARS and MERS, the bat might also be the origin of 2019-nCoV.
The authors further found that the DNA coding sequence of 2019-nCoV spike protein, which forms the "crown" of the virus particle that recognizes the receptor on a host cell, indicates that the bat virus might have mutated before infecting people.
But when the researchers performed a more detailed bioinformatics analysis of the sequence of 2019-nCoV, it suggests that this coronavirus might come from snakes.
From bats to snakes
The researchers used an analysis of the protein codes favored by the new coronavirus and compared it to the protein codes from coronaviruses found in different animal hosts, like birds, snakes, marmots, hedgehogs, manis, bats and humans. Surprisingly, they found that the protein codes in the 2019-nCoV are most similar to those used in snakes.
Snakes often hunt for bats in wild. Reports indicate that snakes were sold in the local seafood market in Wuhan, raising the possibility that the 2019-nCoV might have jumped from the host species – bats – to snakes and then to humans at the beginning of this coronavirus outbreak.
However, how the virus could adapt to both the cold-blooded and warm-blooded hosts remains a mystery.
The authors of the report and other researchers must verify the origin of the virus through laboratory experiments. Searching for the 2019-nCoV sequence in snakes would be the first thing to do. However, since the outbreak, the seafood market has been disinfected and shut down, which makes it challenging to trace the new virus' source animal.
Sampling DNA from animals sold at the market and from wild snakes and bats is needed to confirm the origin of the virus. Nonetheless, the reported findings will also provide insights for developing prevention and treatment protocols.
The 2019-nCoV outbreak is another reminder that people should limit the consumption of wild animals to prevent zoonotic infections.
Haitao Guo, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh; Guangxiang "George" Luo, Professor of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Shou-Jiang Gao, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh.
These articles are republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus
and SARS started in Chinese wet markets.
Photos show what the markets look like.
Customers in a Chinese wet market on January 22, 2016.
Edward Wong/South China Morning Post/Getty
A coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, has killed 26 people and infected more than 900.
The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan is thought to be the starting point for the virus outbreak. It was shuttered on January 1.
At wet markets, meat is sold alongside live animals like dogs, hares, and civets.
On Wednesday, Wuhan authorities banned the trade of live animals at wet markets.
Here's what the markets look like.
The coronavirus spreading in China and the SARS outbreak of 2003 have two things in common: Both are from the coronavirus family, and both started in wet markets.
At such markets, outdoor stalls are squeezed together to form narrow lanes, where locals and visitors shop for cuts of meat and ripe produce. A stall selling hundreds of caged chickens may abut a butcher counter, where uncooked meat is chopped as nearby dogs watch hungrily. Vendors hock skinned hares, while seafood stalls display glistening fish and shrimp.
Wet markets put people and live and dead animals — dogs, chickens, pigs, snakes, civets, and more — in constant close contact. That makes it easy for a virus to jump from animal to human.
On Wednesday, authorities in Wuhan, China — where the current outbreak started — banned the trade of live animals at wet markets. The specific market where the outbreak is believed to have begun, the Huanan Seafood Market, was shuttered on January 1. The coronavirus that emerged there has so far killed 26 people and infected more than 900.
"Poorly regulated, live animal markets mixed with illegal wildlife trade offer a unique opportunity for viruses to spillover from wildlife hosts into the human population," the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic diseases, meaning they spread to people from animals. In the case of SARS, and likely this Wuhan coronavirus outbreak as well, bats were the original hosts. The bats then infected other animals, which transmitted the virus to humans.
Here's what Chinese wet markets look like.
The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan closed on January 1 after it was found to be the most likely starting point for the outbreak of this coronavirus, also called 2019-nCov.
Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, on
January 12, 2020. NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images
A 61-year-old man was the first person to die from the virus. According to Bloomberg, he was a regular shopper at the Huanan wet market, which sold more than seafood.
Reports indicated that before the Huanan market closed, vendors there sold processed meats and live animals, including chickens, donkeys, sheep, pigs, foxes, badgers, bamboo rats, hedgehogs, and snakes.
A wet market in Beijing on July 3, 2007.
Teh Eng Koon/AFP via Getty
Wet markets like Huanan are common around China. They're called wet markets because vendors often slaughter animals in front of customers.
"That means there's a lot of skinning of dead animals in front of shoppers and, as a result, aerosolizing of all sorts of things," according to Emily Langdon, an infectious disease specialist at University of Chicago Medicine.
On Wednesday, Wuhan authorities banned the trade of live animals at wet markets.
DOGS AS FOOD STILL OCCURING
A wet market in Guilin, China, on June 19, 2014.
David Wong/South China Morning Post/Getty
Police in Wuhan began conducting checks to enforce the rule among the city's 11 million residents, the BBC reported, citing state media reports.
This type of intervention could help stop the spread of zoonotic viruses like the Wuhan coronavirus.
A wet market in Beijing on July 3, 2007.
Teh Eng Koon/AFP/Getty
"Governments must recognize the global public health threats of zoonotic diseases," Christian Walzer, executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's health program, said in a statement. "It is time to close live animal markets that trade in wildlife, strengthen efforts to combat trafficking of wild animals, and work to change dangerous wildlife consumption behaviours, especially in cities."
The close proximity of shoppers to stall vendors and live and dead animals in wet markets make them prime breeding grounds for zoonotic diseases.
A Chinese wet market.
Felix Wong/South China Morning Post/Getty
Between 2002 and 2003, SARS killed 774 people across 29 countries. It originated in wet markets in the province of Guangdong.
In the case of SARS, humans caught the virus from weasel-like mammals called masked palm civets.
An Asian palm civet. Oleksandr Rupeta/NurPhoto/Getty
But the civets weren't the original hosts of the disease.
Researchers figured out that SARS originally came from a population of bats in China's Yunnan province.
A greater horseshoe bat, a relative of the
Rhinolophis sinicus species from China that was the
source of the SARS virus. De Agostini/Getty
"Coronaviruses like SARS circulate in bats, and every so often they get introduced into the human population," Vincent Munster, a virologist at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, told Business Insider.
Bats can pass along viruses in their poop: If they drop feces onto a piece of fruit that a civet then eats, the civet can become a disease carrier.
Experts haven't yet confirmed the animal species that enabled the Wuhan coronavirus to spread to people.
A worker with a slaughtered pig at a wet market
in Manila, Philippines. Romeo Ranoco/Reuters
"There's an indication that it's a bat virus, spread in association with wet markets," Munster said.
But according to a group of scientists who edit the Journal of Medical Virology, the culprit in this case could be the Chinese cobra.
A Chinese cobra. Thomas Brown
Scientists in China have figured out the genetic code of the Wuhan coronavirus. When researchers compared it with other coronaviruses, they found it to be most similar to two bat coronavirus samples from China.
But further analysis showed that the genetic building blocks of the Wuhan coronavirus more closely resembled that of snakes. According to the researchers, the only way to be sure of where the virus came from is to take DNA samples from animals sold at the Huanan market and from wild snakes and bats in the area.
The H7N9 and H5N9 bird flus — also zoonotic viruses — were likely transmitted to humans in wet markets, too.
Ducks on top of chickens at a wet market in Shanghai.
In Pictures Ltd./Corbis/Getty
In Pictures Ltd./Corbis/Getty
According to the World Health Organization, people caught those bird flus via direct contact with infected poultry in China. The diseases killed 1,000 people globally.
Bats and birds are considered reservoir species for viruses with pandemic potential, according to Bart Haagmans, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
A chicken vendor on top of chicken cages at a wet market
in Kowloon City, China. Dickson Lee/South China Morning Post/Getty
in Kowloon City, China. Dickson Lee/South China Morning Post/Getty
"Because these viruses have not been circulating in humans before, specific immunity to these viruses is absent in humans," Haagmans told Business Insider.
"There have been plenty of eminent epidemiologists predicting 'pandemic X' for a number of years now," Adrian Hyzler, the chief medical officer at Healix International, told Business Insider.
Live chickens in a wet market in Guangzhou, China.
K. Y. Cheng/South China Morning Post/Getty
K. Y. Cheng/South China Morning Post/Getty
These pandemics "are more likely to originate in the Far East because of the close contact with live animals [and] the density of the population," Hyzler added. His firm offers risk-management solutions for global travelers.
The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak isn't considered a pandemic, however.
A seafood stall in a wet market in Hong Kong. Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty
Since December 31, more than 900 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have been reported across 10 countries, including the US. Symptoms include sore throats, headaches, and fevers, as well as pneumonialike breathing difficulties.
Haagmans said one of the challenges in containing this outbreak was that a substantial portion of infected people show only mild symptoms.
These people "may go unnoticed in tracing the virus and fuel the outbreak," he said. "It seems that this actually may be the case now."
Aria Bendix contributed reporting to this story.
Read more about the Wuhan virus:
FROM BUSINESS INSIDER
Aria Bendix
Guards wearing face masks stand at Hankou Railway Station
on January 22, 2020, in Wuhan, China. Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images)
At least 12 Chinese cities have been put on lockdown as a deadly coronavirus spreads across the country.
At least 12 Chinese cities have been put on lockdown as a deadly coronavirus spreads across the country.
The virus has killed 41 people and infected nearly 1,300. It has spread to at least 10 countries outside China, including France, Australia, and the US.
The city where the virus originated — Wuhan, China — has been quarantined since Thursday.
An urban planner said there's no way to completely seal off a city, but shutting down transportation significantly reduces the chances that people will leave.
Most urban planners don't design a city with the idea of sealing it off. Many advocate for the opposite: making cities as free-flowing as possible to encourage tourism and attract workers.
But on Thursday morning, officials in Wuhan, China — the 11-million-person city where a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak started — put the city under quarantine.
"If you live in cities, your movement can be controlled through public transport," Fei Chen, an urban-design lecturer at the University of Liverpool, told Business Insider. "Wuhan has an international airport. It has highways and railways. So if you close all of them, then you basically cut off the means for people to get out."
That is indeed what officials did. All forms of public transportation were halted, including buses, metros, and ferries. No trains or airplanes are coming in or out of the city, and roadblocks were installed to prevent private cars from leaving.
Wuhan residents were told not to leave the city, barring special circumstances.
The virus, which scientists call 2019-nCoV, has killed 41 people and infected nearly 1,300. It has spread to at least 10 other countries: France, Australia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, and the US. The outbreak likely originated at a wet market in Wuhan that sold live animals such as chickens, pigs, snakes, and civets. The market was shuttered on January 1.
Chen said there's no way to completely seal off a city, however.
Wuhan shut down its major entry points
The coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan December 31. The family of viruses is also responsible for pneumonia, the common cold, and SARS, which affected about 8,000 people and killed 774 in China between 2002 and 2003.
The new coronavirus causes fever, chills, coughing, sneezing, and a sore throat. It appears to spread person-to-person more easily and quickly than SARS, but it is far less deadly.
As a major Chinese transportation center, Wuhan's high-speed rail lines connect to Shanghai and Guangzhou (cities with populations of 24 million and 13 million people, respectively). The city's Tianhe International Airport also serves more than 20 million passengers annually.
"Chinese cities currently are really connected, especially regionally," Chen said. "It's really easy to travel from one city to another."
A largely empty train travels to Wuhan from Shanghai on
January 23, 2020. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images
Many of Wuhan's neighboring cities have been closed off as well. As of Friday, at least 11 additional cities had imposed their own travel restrictions. The restrictions so far affect an estimated 33 million people in the Hubei province, where Wuhan is located.
"It's a wise thing to do because it's Chinese New Year," Chen said. "Chinese people, we have this custom to go back home to spend time with family, and there's a big population movement."
Many of Wuhan's neighboring cities have been closed off as well. As of Friday, at least 11 additional cities had imposed their own travel restrictions. The restrictions so far affect an estimated 33 million people in the Hubei province, where Wuhan is located.
"It's a wise thing to do because it's Chinese New Year," Chen said. "Chinese people, we have this custom to go back home to spend time with family, and there's a big population movement."
A nearly deserted expressway in Wuhan, China, on
January 24, 2020. Associated Press
Prior to the outbreak, hundreds of millions of people were expected to travel to and within China for the Lunar New Year celebration, which begins Saturday and lasts until February 8.
Now, Chen said, it's almost impossible to leave Wuhan.
"The chance you can get out of Hubei province is quite slim," she said. "If you want to go out of the province, normally it's through the major highways and high-speed railways."
Many of China's newly constructed highway networks, she added, have tolls that are patrolled under normal circumstances, making it easy to monitor the entry and exit of cars.
But the city's quarantine isn't foolproof
Chen said it could be more difficult to quarantine small towns and villages that don't rely on major transportation systems. These towns connect to major cities through road networks.
That means the quarantine isn't foolproof.
"I wouldn't say it's 100% effective, but to a very large extent they have controlled or kept people within the region," Chen said.
Prior to the outbreak, hundreds of millions of people were expected to travel to and within China for the Lunar New Year celebration, which begins Saturday and lasts until February 8.
Now, Chen said, it's almost impossible to leave Wuhan.
"The chance you can get out of Hubei province is quite slim," she said. "If you want to go out of the province, normally it's through the major highways and high-speed railways."
Many of China's newly constructed highway networks, she added, have tolls that are patrolled under normal circumstances, making it easy to monitor the entry and exit of cars.
But the city's quarantine isn't foolproof
Chen said it could be more difficult to quarantine small towns and villages that don't rely on major transportation systems. These towns connect to major cities through road networks.
That means the quarantine isn't foolproof.
"I wouldn't say it's 100% effective, but to a very large extent they have controlled or kept people within the region," Chen said.
Wuhan residents wear masks while buying groceries on
January 23, 2020. Getty Images
Quarantines are probably easier to enforce in China, she added, because of the nation's centralized political system.
"All the police forces obey those higher orders," Chen said. "The public transport is public, so it's controlled by the government. If you compare with the UK, where public transport is sometimes owned by private companies, it's much more difficult to do something like this."
Kristin Stapleton, an urban historian who studies Chinese history at the University of Buffalo, told Business Insider she thinks "many people are probably staying put out of fear, both of the coronavirus and of the high-tech community surveillance that has become pervasive in Chinese cities."
Should cities be designed for lockdown?
Chen said some urban planners are starting to discuss what it would take to seal off a city — but they have climate change in mind, not a potential virus.
Quarantines are probably easier to enforce in China, she added, because of the nation's centralized political system.
"All the police forces obey those higher orders," Chen said. "The public transport is public, so it's controlled by the government. If you compare with the UK, where public transport is sometimes owned by private companies, it's much more difficult to do something like this."
Kristin Stapleton, an urban historian who studies Chinese history at the University of Buffalo, told Business Insider she thinks "many people are probably staying put out of fear, both of the coronavirus and of the high-tech community surveillance that has become pervasive in Chinese cities."
Should cities be designed for lockdown?
Chen said some urban planners are starting to discuss what it would take to seal off a city — but they have climate change in mind, not a potential virus.
Medical staff wear protective suits at the Zhongnan hospital in Wuhan.
STR/AFP via Getty Images
"I wouldn't say we have exactly thought about how to close down a whole city, because that's really rare," she said. "But we're talking about how a city could be resilient to natural disasters like flooding and earthquakes and sea level-rise."
Still, she said urban planners would be wise to consider the services that citizens might need if their city were on lockdown — such as healthcare clinics for individual neighborhoods so people don't have to travel far from their homes for treatment.
Doctors in Wuhan are reporting that there aren't enough resources to treat patients, and people are waiting for hours in line to receive medical care. Thus far, test kits have been reserved for patients with the most severe symptoms, so diagnoses can be delayed.
The city is rushing to build a brand-new hospital with 1,000 beds in just six days.
"What really should be considered in urban planning is how you could provide the best, most efficient healthcare to residents," Chen said. "I don't think a quarantine is really something we should make a priority when we plan a city.
Chinese people are turning on the government as the coronavirus outbreak spirals into the Lunar New Year
Sarah Gray
"I wouldn't say we have exactly thought about how to close down a whole city, because that's really rare," she said. "But we're talking about how a city could be resilient to natural disasters like flooding and earthquakes and sea level-rise."
Still, she said urban planners would be wise to consider the services that citizens might need if their city were on lockdown — such as healthcare clinics for individual neighborhoods so people don't have to travel far from their homes for treatment.
Doctors in Wuhan are reporting that there aren't enough resources to treat patients, and people are waiting for hours in line to receive medical care. Thus far, test kits have been reserved for patients with the most severe symptoms, so diagnoses can be delayed.
The city is rushing to build a brand-new hospital with 1,000 beds in just six days.
"What really should be considered in urban planning is how you could provide the best, most efficient healthcare to residents," Chen said. "I don't think a quarantine is really something we should make a priority when we plan a city.
Chinese people are turning on the government as the coronavirus outbreak spirals into the Lunar New Year
Sarah Gray
Medical staff, in Wuhan, China, during a coronavirus outbreak
that has pushed the city to breaking point. THE CENTRAL
HOSPITAL OF WUHAN VIA WEIBO /via REUTERS
The trend is also an example of frustrations bubbling over on China's social media, including the microblogging site Weibo and the app WeChat.
Those frustrations are being lobbed at local government, despite the censorship regime which makes criticizing anybody in power a risky business.
"Can you please send a responsible leader to Hubei?" reads a comment on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, the Guardian reported, seemingly calling for China's central Communist Party to intervene from Beijing.
The comments are a sign that the government's quarantine of 35 million people across 12 cities could backfire, as both the healthy and the infected remain cut off from the outside.
"The first and golden rule of public health is you have to gain the trust of the population," said Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University who spoke to The Washington Post. He said the extreme measure is instead likely to "drive the epidemic underground."
The virus is thought to have originated at a wet market in Wuhan, a city of roughly 11 million in the Hubei province. The first case was reported in December.
Wuhan, where a majority of the cases have been located, has been quarantined since Thursday. Travel in or out is prohibited to stop the spread, and authorities have made it mandatory to wear protective masks. Eleven more cities were added to the lock-down on Friday.
Wuhan's mayor admitted this week that initial "warnings were not sufficient" — and understated acknowledgement that the early phase of the outbreak was botched.
Officials initially said the virus could not be transmitted from human to human. Screenings were also not immediately put into place.
Friday and Saturday are meant to be the most festive days of China's year. Instead they are stalked by fear and anxiety.
As the coronavirus outbreak centered in Wuhan has spread, ordinary Chinese people are increasingly turning of local officials — a rare step in the authoritarian nation.
They cite hardship from a massive, 12-city lock down, as well as a complacent early response from officials.
Many are calling on the central government in Beijing to intervene.Such an outbreak is a challenge for Chinese authorities, and has hamstrung the government in the past.
#NewYear'sEveInICU was the top trend on Chinese social media Friday on what is usually the most festive day of the year.
According to the Guardian, the gallows-humor hashtag topped the Twitter-like Weibo platform as China entered the Lunar New Year, a grim reminder of a fast-spreading viral outbreak.Novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV as it is known scientifically, has killed 41, sickened nearly 1,300, and spread to 12 countries.
The trend is also an example of frustrations bubbling over on China's social media, including the microblogging site Weibo and the app WeChat.
Those frustrations are being lobbed at local government, despite the censorship regime which makes criticizing anybody in power a risky business.
"Can you please send a responsible leader to Hubei?" reads a comment on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, the Guardian reported, seemingly calling for China's central Communist Party to intervene from Beijing.
The comments are a sign that the government's quarantine of 35 million people across 12 cities could backfire, as both the healthy and the infected remain cut off from the outside.
"The first and golden rule of public health is you have to gain the trust of the population," said Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University who spoke to The Washington Post. He said the extreme measure is instead likely to "drive the epidemic underground."
The virus is thought to have originated at a wet market in Wuhan, a city of roughly 11 million in the Hubei province. The first case was reported in December.
Wuhan, where a majority of the cases have been located, has been quarantined since Thursday. Travel in or out is prohibited to stop the spread, and authorities have made it mandatory to wear protective masks. Eleven more cities were added to the lock-down on Friday.
Wuhan's mayor admitted this week that initial "warnings were not sufficient" — and understated acknowledgement that the early phase of the outbreak was botched.
Officials initially said the virus could not be transmitted from human to human. Screenings were also not immediately put into place.
Passengers who just arrived on a train from Wuhan, China
are screened for coronavirus in Beijing. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
But with the spread, central government is trying to seize back momentum.
On Monday, President Xi Jinping stressed "the importance of informing the public to safeguard social stability." Major attractions including Disneyland in Shanghai and the Forbidden City were closed, and Lunar New Year celebrations were cancelled.
The virus is a dangerous challenge for China's leaders, historian Maura Cunningham told the Guardian: "The coronavirus is a problem for the Chinese Communist party because the CCP has historically not handled epidemics and other large-scale disasters well.
"The party has shown a knee-jerk tendency to clamp down on information and not be forthcoming with accurate statistics."
In 2002 and 2003, the SARS epidemic sickened 8,000 and killed 744 — an outbreak that was also born in China. The government largely tried to cover up the illness until a whistleblower revealed the true scale of the disease.
There are signs that the government has learned from the SARS epidemic. This week the Worth Health Organization said the Chinese government was being cooperative and transparent with the organization.
However, as Wuhan faces shortages of hospital supplies and protective gear, plus overcrowding at medical facilities, discontent is beginning to foment online.
The New York Times cited multiple instances of frustration posted to Sina Weibo: "I hope the central government can take over before dawn," one commenter wrote. "It's almost like anarchy."
"Wuhan's party secretary and governor cannot soothe the people's anger," another wrote.
The perceived incompetence of local officials is contrasted unfavorably with support for medical professionals on the front line.
In response to an image shared by doctors, The Times reported that one commenter said, "The Wuhan government is not worthy of such good medical staff."
But with the spread, central government is trying to seize back momentum.
On Monday, President Xi Jinping stressed "the importance of informing the public to safeguard social stability." Major attractions including Disneyland in Shanghai and the Forbidden City were closed, and Lunar New Year celebrations were cancelled.
The virus is a dangerous challenge for China's leaders, historian Maura Cunningham told the Guardian: "The coronavirus is a problem for the Chinese Communist party because the CCP has historically not handled epidemics and other large-scale disasters well.
"The party has shown a knee-jerk tendency to clamp down on information and not be forthcoming with accurate statistics."
In 2002 and 2003, the SARS epidemic sickened 8,000 and killed 744 — an outbreak that was also born in China. The government largely tried to cover up the illness until a whistleblower revealed the true scale of the disease.
There are signs that the government has learned from the SARS epidemic. This week the Worth Health Organization said the Chinese government was being cooperative and transparent with the organization.
However, as Wuhan faces shortages of hospital supplies and protective gear, plus overcrowding at medical facilities, discontent is beginning to foment online.
The New York Times cited multiple instances of frustration posted to Sina Weibo: "I hope the central government can take over before dawn," one commenter wrote. "It's almost like anarchy."
"Wuhan's party secretary and governor cannot soothe the people's anger," another wrote.
The perceived incompetence of local officials is contrasted unfavorably with support for medical professionals on the front line.
In response to an image shared by doctors, The Times reported that one commenter said, "The Wuhan government is not worthy of such good medical staff."
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