Deadly Wuhan Coronavirus

In an editorial, the formerly prestigious scientific journal Nature has issued a grovelling apology (to no one in particular) for 'associating' the SARS-Cov-2 virus with Wuhan and China.

Stop the coronavirus stigma now

Stop the coronavirus stigma now
The pandemic is fuelling deplorable racism and discrimination, especially against Asian people. Education and research will also pay the price.

When the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in February that the disease caused by the new coronavirus would be called COVID‑19, the name was quickly adopted by organizations involved in communicating public-health information. As well as naming the illness, the WHO was implicitly sending a reminder to those who had erroneously been associating the virus with Wuhan and with China in their news coverage— including Nature. That we did so was an error on our part, for which we take responsibility and apologize.

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What exactly is meant by 'erroneously [...] associating the virus with Wuhan and with China'? What on earth could they possibly think makes this association 'erroneous'? Is it an error to point out that the first outbreak of the disease was there? Is that what they mean? Since when is it an error to correctly state factual, correct and truthful things? If one is to maintain that this is not what they are saying here, then why did they not state exactly what they mean in a more forthright manner, rather than this mealy-mouthed nonsense?

Nature has no evidence that its own previous use of language has fuelled any racism or stigma. Stupid people react to facts stupidly. It is by their nature of being stupid. The correct response to this behaviour is not to pretend that the facts are otherwise, as Nature seems to favour. Its credibility as a scientific journal is at stake if it claims that pointing out that an event did in fact occur in a location 'fuels racism and discrimination', and for this reason becomes an 'error'.

I wonder if there might be a sinister hand behind all of this. It has been pointed out that the Chinese state holds an inordinate sway over the World Health Organization, a body which used to be consistently critical of China's management of infectious disease until there was a diplomatic bust-up, and there were a few organizational changes and successive heads sympathetic to China were appointed. A body which now consistently praises China's management of infectious disease, despite little of its attitude actually changing.

Since 2015, the WHO has gone on a crusade against 'stigma' associated with disease pandemics by giving new viruses names which bear no relation to locations, peoples, nations or species of animal. One country in the world has a particularly strong association with diseases of pandemic potential, owing to state-sanctioned agricultural and economic practices.

One wonders to what extent that has informed the WHO's opinion that the 'stigma' associated with mentioning where viruses are first known to originate is to be avoided at all costs. One wonders to what extent this influence holds over other institutions around the globe one might have thought were independent.

It is in the Chinese state's interest to confuse the historical record of where this pandemic originated and how it was initially dealt with by them. It is also compelling to useful Western idiots for China to dress this up under the guise of fighting racism and national stigma. Couched in those terms, these people will do China's work for them.

AD1184 said:

In an editorial, the formerly prestigious scientific journal Nature has issued a grovelling apology (to no one in particular) for 'associating' the SARS-Cov-2 virus with Wuhan and China....
It is in the Chinese state's interest to confuse the historical record of where this pandemic originated and how it was initially dealt with by them. It is also compelling to useful Western idiots for China to dress this up under the guise of fighting racism and national stigma. Couched in those terms, these people will do China's work for them.

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The 'super-humans' getting America back to work: How first wave of corona survivors are performing vital tasks because they are now thought to be immune to the virus

The first wave of coronavirus survivors are doing their part to help the United States get back on track by donating blood and plasma and heading back to work. Americans who fell ill with the virus in February and early March and were in isolation well before states started shutting down, are now emerging to test drive their immunity.

Tiffany Pinckney remembers the fear when COVID-19 stole her breath. So when she recovered, the New York City mother became one of the country's first survivors to donate her blood to help treat other seriously ill patients. 'It is definitely overwhelming to know that in my blood, there may be answers,' Pinckney (top right) said.

Also in New York City, Dr Dara Kass (left, main and left inset), who tested positive for the virus in early March, returned to the ER last weekend for her first shift since getting sick. Kass not only returned to help others in the ER, she has also donated plasma to an antibody study being conducted at Mount Sinai Hospital. Others like Clement Chow (inset, top right) and Christy Karras (bottom right) have also donated their blood for research purposes.

Some numbers are dropping, too soon to say its better yet...

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nivek said:

Some numbers are dropping, too soon to say its better yet...

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It's definitely a long-term trend; I chart the growth rate every day and while it does drop every day, it doesn't drop by much. It's been dropping for 18 consecutive days now. Even at the anemic rate at which the growth is slowing, if it continues to drop at the current rate then we'll reach the peak Saturday afternoon, April 18th. Look how close we are to the peak: when the blue line reaches the red line, the number of cases will stop increasing each day.

This trend might be clearer in simple percentages: we've gone from a daily increase in the number of cases of 48% on March 18th to 7% today, and it's still gradually dropping.

.... moved this post to different thread here.

Here are email exchanges by Trump administration officials who were trying to raise the alarms over this outbreak, and spare us the massive wave of infections and deaths that we're seeing right now, back in January. They adopted a name for themselves, "the Red Dawn," as a reference to the movie by that name where a rag-tag band of Americans mounted a resistance against invaders.

It's a fascinating reading - lots of people on the inside saw this coming months ago and tried to stop it, while the WHO and the CDC and Trump and the corporate news media were all scoffing at it and making empty assurances.

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthe...ising/66f590d5cd41e11bea0f/optimized/full.pdf

This could turn ugly...

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Coronavirus stay-at-home orders stir protests nationwide amid fears of economic collapse

At least 15,000 cars and trucks are expected to descend on Michigan’s state capital on Wednesday to protest what they’re calling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s tyrannical new guidelines to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state.

The so-called “drive-by” demonstration – in order to maintain social distancing -- aims to bring traffic to a gridlock in Lansing and protest the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order by Whitmer, a Democrat, mandating what businesses could stay home, what some businesses could sell and ordering people in her state against any gatherings – no matter the size or family ties.

“Quarantine is when you restrict movement of sick people. Tyranny is when you restrict the movement of healthy people,” Meshawn Maddock, an organizer of the protest with the Michigan Conservative Coalition, told Fox News. “Every person has learned a harsh lesson about social distancing. We don’t need a nanny state to tell people how to be careful.”

The protest – called “Operation Gridlock” – would be just one of a number of demonstrations of civil disobedience around the country by Americans upset with their state’s stay-at-home orders amid the pandemic. While the contagion has infected over 568,000 Americans and killed over 23,000, according to the latest estimates, protestors from North Carolina to Wyoming said they’ve been just as concerned with the economic and financial impact the coronavirus has inflicted on the country – echoing President Trump’s complaint that “the cure be worse than the problem.”

Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter who has been sounding the alarm about what he believes are flawed models dictating the aggressive strategy, drew attention to the protests in North Carolina, as well as a social media uproar in Michigan.

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Last Thursday, dozens of protestors carrying placards and wearing Guy Fawkes masks ignored Ohio’s social-distancing guidelines to demonstrate on steps of the state’s capital building in Columbus against Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, and his administration’s handling of the outbreak. Demonstrators held signs reading “Open Ohio,” “Quarantine worse than virus,” and “Social distancing or social conditioning. We do not consent.”

In Wyoming, about 20 gathered last week in a park in Casper to protest the government-mandated measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus and let people go back to work, while a Facebook group called “ReOpen NC” has brought in over 21,000 members since it launched last Tuesday; it’s planning to gather in protest later this week.

“We are losing our small businesses, which are the backbone of our economy,” the group wrote on its page. “The shutdown is not warranted, nor sustainable for our area. The vulnerable can be isolated or protected in other ways, without sacrificing our entire state economy.”

Maddock and other protestors in Michigan said the orders not only hurt the economy, but also damaged their way of life – and even may have killed more people than the virus.

(more on the link)

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Europe gets back to work: As the UK remains on lockdown, Spain, Italy and Austria take the first steps to lifting coronavirus restrictions

• Spain, Italy and Austria have taken the first steps to getting back to normality amid the coronavirus crisis
• Countries across Europe are re-opening for business again in small steps as figures of the affected drop
• Millions of Spanish workers returned to work on Monday after Madrid lifted curbs on non-essential industries
• French president Emmanuel Macron announced that the country's lockdown will last until at least May 11

nivek said:

Some numbers are dropping, too soon to say its better yet...

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China total deaths are laughable.

Even Genghis would be proud of those figures.

10,000 dead in UK, 20,000 dead in US.

It's no time for fooling around with lifting the lock-down.

I'd like to see some evidence of the cure becoming more dangerous than the desease, this term has weight but with no comparison to make it can be an opportunity to herd us through the turnstile sooner than we should be.

Prod prod.

pepe said:

China total deaths are laughable.

Even Genghis would be proud of those figures.

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Genghis Khan was not from China.

Dejan Corovic said:

10,000 dead in UK, 20,000 dead in US.

It's no time for fooling around with lifting the lock-down.

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The WHO has listed six criteria for lifting a lockdown:

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 10 April 2020

First, that transmission is controlled;

Second, that sufficient public health and medical services are available;

Third, that outbreak risks in special settings like long-term care facilities are minimized;

Fourth, that preventive measures are in place in workplaces, schools and other places where it’s essential for people to go;

Fifth, that importation risks can be managed;

And sixth – and I cannot over-emphasize this point – that communities are fully aware and engaged in the transition.

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Getting the number of new cases down is only one criterion (the first). Currently Britain meets none of these criteria.

The second requires public health staff up and down the country to perform rapid testing, contact tracing and isolation of those suspected of being infected. This is not in place here.

For the third, suspected cases in care homes are currently being ignored. There was even a report which I mentioned a few pages back of recovering, but still infectious, elderly patients from care homes being discharged back to them because there is nowhere else for them to go. Special settings would also include prisons, hospitals, mental hospitals, homeless hostels, immigration detention centres, etc. The infection can spread rapidly in these settings, and lead to a new large-scale outbreak in the wider vicinity.

For the fifth point, that would entail restricted entry at the border. So far as I am aware, Britain has still not placed any restrictions, nor any health screening, on incoming arrivals. This will have to change, as it has already in just about every other country around the world.

As to the sixth, for the most part Britons no longer live in communities, but rather simply shared postcodes. It is certainly the case that no community exists where I live.

AD1184 said:

Genghis Khan was not from China.

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Correct but that didn't stop Temujin from out bull shitting them on casualty reports and Kublai, they were all out full of shit when it came to defeat. It's why they won't wear the virus.

The shame of it.

I would link to the Washington Post article itself, but it's behind a paywall.
State Department leaked cables renew theories on origin of coronavirus
A Chinese laboratory at the center of new theories about how the coronavirus pandemic started was the subject of multiple urgent warnings inside the U.S. State Department two years ago, according to a new report.

U.S. Embassy officials warned in January 2018 about inadequate safety at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab and passed on information about scientists conducting risky research on coronavirus from bats, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Those cables have renewed speculation inside the U.S. government about whether Wuhan-based labs were the source of the novel coronavirus, although no firm connection has been established. The theory, however, has gained traction in recent days.

The United Kingdom has said that the idea that the virus, which has turned into a full-blown global pandemic, was leaked from a Wuhan lab is "no longer being discounted."

A member of the U.K. government's emergency committee of senior officials claimed Sunday: "There is a credible alternative view (to the zoonotic theory) based on the nature of the virus. Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is a laboratory in Wuhan."

Foreign affairs expert Gordon Chang said in a recent opinion piece on Fox News that "many Chinese believe the virus either was deliberately released or accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a P4-level bio-safety facility."

He added: "This lab, known for studying coronaviruses, is not far from the market that had been initially identified as the source of the outbreak."

In a series of diplomatic cables labeled "Sensitive But Unclassified," U.S. Embassy officials warned that the lab had massive management weaknesses, posed severe health risks and warned Washington to get involved.

The first cable, which was obtained by the Post, also sent red flags about the lab's work on bat coronaviruses and more specifically how their potential human transmission represented the risk of a new SARS-like pandemic.

"During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory," the Jan.19, 2018 cable, written by two officials from the embassy's environment, science and health sections who met with the WIV scientists, said.

The cable argued that the United States should give Chinese researchers at the Wuhan lab more support because its research on bat coronaviruses was important and dangerous. The lab had already been receiving assistance from the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

The cable also called attention to Shi Zhengli, the head of the research project, who in November 2017 published a paper that showed the horseshoe bats collected from a case in Yunnan province were most likely from the same bat population that had been behind the first SARS coronavirus in 2003.

The cable states that "the researchers also showed that various SARS-like coronaviruses can interact with ACE2, the human receptor identified for SARS-coronavirus. This finding strongly suggests that SARS-like coronaviruses from bats can be transmitted to humans to cause SARS-like diseases. From a public health perspective, this makes the continued surveillance of SARS-like coronaviruses in bats and study of the animal-human interface critical to future emerging coronavirus outbreak prediction and prevention."

Despite evidence that points to dangerous practices inside the Wuhan labs, top U.S. military brass, as well as other senior officials, have told Fox News that the origins of COVID-19 did not come from a laboratory nor was it the result of a bioweapon.

"And if I could just be clear, there is nothing to that," Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs told Fox News last week. "Someone asked me if I was worried. That is not something that I'm worried about. I think, you know, right now what we're concerned about is how do we treat people who are sick, how do we prevent people from getting sick. But no, I am not worried about this as a bioweapon."

Still, there are others who have been trying to trace the origin of the novel coronavirus back to the Wuhan lab.

Video of the attack at the link. (It might have been graphic, but its far away and shaky.)
Police officer enforcing coronavirus lockdown in India has hand chopped off in sword attack

the store Debbie works in just started one person one cart.

nivek said:

This could turn ugly...

Coronavirus stay-at-home orders stir protests nationwide amid fears of economic collapse

At least 15,000 cars and trucks are expected to descend on Michigan’s state capital on Wednesday to protest what they’re calling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s tyrannical new guidelines to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state.

The so-called “drive-by” demonstration – in order to maintain social distancing -- aims to bring traffic to a gridlock in Lansing and protest the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order by Whitmer, a Democrat, mandating what businesses could stay home, what some businesses could sell and ordering people in her state against any gatherings – no matter the size or family ties.

“Quarantine is when you restrict movement of sick people. Tyranny is when you restrict the movement of healthy people,” Meshawn Maddock, an organizer of the protest with the Michigan Conservative Coalition, told Fox News. “Every person has learned a harsh lesson about social distancing. We don’t need a nanny state to tell people how to be careful.”

The protest – called “Operation Gridlock” – would be just one of a number of demonstrations of civil disobedience around the country by Americans upset with their state’s stay-at-home orders amid the pandemic. While the contagion has infected over 568,000 Americans and killed over 23,000, according to the latest estimates, protestors from North Carolina to Wyoming said they’ve been just as concerned with the economic and financial impact the coronavirus has inflicted on the country – echoing President Trump’s complaint that “the cure be worse than the problem.”

Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter who has been sounding the alarm about what he believes are flawed models dictating the aggressive strategy, drew attention to the protests in North Carolina, as well as a social media uproar in Michigan.

------------------------

Last Thursday, dozens of protestors carrying placards and wearing Guy Fawkes masks ignored Ohio’s social-distancing guidelines to demonstrate on steps of the state’s capital building in Columbus against Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, and his administration’s handling of the outbreak. Demonstrators held signs reading “Open Ohio,” “Quarantine worse than virus,” and “Social distancing or social conditioning. We do not consent.”

In Wyoming, about 20 gathered last week in a park in Casper to protest the government-mandated measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus and let people go back to work, while a Facebook group called “ReOpen NC” has brought in over 21,000 members since it launched last Tuesday; it’s planning to gather in protest later this week.

“We are losing our small businesses, which are the backbone of our economy,” the group wrote on its page. “The shutdown is not warranted, nor sustainable for our area. The vulnerable can be isolated or protected in other ways, without sacrificing our entire state economy.”

Maddock and other protestors in Michigan said the orders not only hurt the economy, but also damaged their way of life – and even may have killed more people than the virus.

(more on the link)

.

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There's a few counties around this part of North Carolina that's begun staging protests and promoting mass gatherings against the lockdown orders of the State...I was in a county today that had protests in their city, and as a matter of fact they had a spike of 91 cases so far today...

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Many US States are not counting nursing home deaths even when the deceased had the symptoms of Covid-19...I think this is the highest daily count of US deaths posted on worldometer...