May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-) Skepticism and critical thinking is not panacea, but can help to understand the world better
Neoliberal Propaganda:
Journalism in the Service of the Powerful Few
Journalism Vacation from Truth is a direct threat to democracy. Without journalistic
integrity, there is no democracy as the average voter cannot make an informed choice. Inverted
totalitarism won some time ago.
The FAKE NEWS media (failing
@nytimes,
@NBCNews,
@ABC,
@CBS,
@CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the
American People! ~ Donald Trump
"The truth is that the newspaper is not a place for information to be given,
rather it is just hollow content, or more than that, a provoker of content.
If it prints lies about atrocities, real atrocities are the result."
Karl Kraus, 1914
WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
1984
We are the world, we are exceptional, we cannot fail. The elite will lie, and
the people will pretend to believe them. Heck about 20 percent of the American public will believe
almost anything if it is wrapped with the right prejudice and appeal to passion.
"The media's interest in the well-being of a foreign population is directly proportional to the West's interest in
toppling its government, while editorial standards are inversely proportional to its enemy status." ~John McEvoy
The UK's propaganda machine rivals and even surpasses Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany.
I think journalists today — elite journalists at least — absorb the biases of the
ruling neoliberal oligarchy far more readily than they used to do. The media establishment is
populated by yes-men. I do not understand how any skeptical person can, in good conscience, trust a
western MSM description of foreign events. You need a second source to compare coverage. The
mainstream media gives us no real news. Just the regurgitation of talking points they were
given. Seeing how they treat the concept of truth these days, one might think that 1984 dystopia was
an understatement.
The problem is fundamental, and relates to a broad spectrum of policy issues both foreign and
domestic, because truth — factual reality — is a necessary foundation to consider and evaluate and debate
policy on any subject.
Crushing the truth means not just our having to endure any one misdirected
policy; it means losing the ability even to address policy intelligently.
To the extent that
falsehood is successfully instilled in the minds of enough people, the political system loses what
would otherwise be its ability to provide a check on policy that is bad policy because it is inconsistent
with factual reality.
I think it is good that people question their lying politicians and these lying, corrupt partisans pretending to be MSM
pundits. If that means that MSM try to slander the people as “conspiracy
theorists” you should take it with a grain of salt. As Gore Vidal quipped they are actually "conspiracy analysts" not
"conspiracy theorists". BTW the term was invented by CIA to crush alternative versions of JFK assassination. This label
is a form of censorship, plain and simple.
I would
rather be a conspiracy theorist than take anything CNN or FOX says as gospel. Or, God forbid, believe what US politicians say to
justify their action or inaction. Skepticism is good. These people don’t automatically deserve our trust. As Reagan said
(translating Russian proverb) "Trust but verify".
The angle under which this page views events and MSM can be called anti-neoliberal angle (please note that the term populism is
the attempt to discredit any anti-neoliberal movement). Until recently such sites were a lone voice. In 2019 this changed. See
Tucker Carlson rejection of neoliberalism
If you take in television news as truthful information, that's all a critically thinking person needs to know about you. In
reality 99% of political coverage is neoliberal propaganda, sometimes refined, sometimes crude.
Propaganda can be defined as a war on reality using fake news, disinformation, projection, witch-hunts (see
neo_Mccarthhyism) and other methods. An attempt to create an artificial reality.
Propaganda can be defined as a war on reality using fake news, disinformation, projection,
witch-hunts (see neo_Mccarthhyism) and other
methods. It is an attempt to create an artificial reality. The key here is
controlling the narrative. For example, "fake news" hysteria is a perfect method of
suppressing of dissent and questions about MSM ties to three-letter agencies ( see
US and British media are servants of security apparatus
)
Journalists manipulate us in the interest of the Powerful. Do you also have the feeling, that
you are often manipulated by the media and lied to? Then you're like the majority of Germans.
Previously it was considered as a "conspiracy theory". Now it revealed by an Insider, who tells
us what is really happening under the hood.
The Journalist Udo Ulfkotte ashamed today that he spent 17 years in the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung. ...he reveals why opinion leaders produce tendentious reports and serve as the extended
Arm of the NATO press office. ...the author also was admitted into the networks of American elite
organizations, received in return for positive coverage in the US even a certificate of honorary
citizenship.
In this book you will learn about industry lobby organisations. The author calls hundreds of
names and looks behind the Scenes of those organizations, which exert bias into media, such as:
Atlantic bridge, Trilateral Commission, the German Marshall Fund, American Council on Germany,
American Academy, Aspen Institute, and the Institute for European politics. Also revealed are
the intelligence backgrounds of those lobby groups, the methods and forms of propaganda and financing
used, for example, by the US Embassy. Which funds projects for the targeted influencing
of public opinion in Germany
...You realize how you are being manipulated - and you know from whom and why. At the end it
becomes clear that diversity of opinion will now only be simulated. Because our "messages" are
often pure brainwashing.
Simplifying, the US MSM foreign events media coverage (and large part of domestic coverage related to the opposition to
neoliberalism and neoliberal
globalization, see
Anti Trump Hysteria
during elections and immediately after them ) has very little to do with the reality and is mostly a barometer of the paranoia of
the US neoliberal elite. It is 100% propaganda, or as CBS like to call it "fake news".
How does Fake History and Fake News
in the US MSM gradually superseded their reality-based version
(which never was perfect, and often quite distorted) is a very interesting question but it is too big for this page. I would only
say that this process is closely connected with the process of the neoliberalization of the US society which started in full force in late
70th (see also late Sheldon Wolin notion of
Inverted Totalitarism) . We can take election of Reagan as a
starting point although the process started immediately after WWII. From this point "fake news" were enforced on the
US society as the only acceptable narrative? Which, is
essence, is a neoliberal war on reality.
The process started with the creation of CIA. The key question that arise in this regard is whether
representative democracy is compatible with the existence large all-powerful and largely uncontrollable and positioned "above the
law" intelligence agencies.
The key question that arise in this regard is whether
representative democracy is compatible with the existence large all-powerful and largely uncontrollable and positioned "above the
law" intelligence agencies.
At some point any society with powerful intelligence agencies naturally arrive to the point when "the tail wags the dog."
In other words they became political power and in institutional hierarchy are positioned above White House. In the USA this probably happened around 1963, with the JFK assassination. In a
way the USSR via Truman enforced its model of governance on the USA ;-). Creation of intelligence agencies by Truman was actually the act of the creation of national security state. Which could be
viewed as an official end of the US democracy with quick (less then two decades) rise to power of the Deep State (with the first
major victory
demonstrated to the US people in 1963).
With it the huge apparatus of state propaganda
(and by extension means of suppressing of dissent) intelligence
agencies, which gradually acquired political power including considerable (but not yet absolute, that will come much later, after
9/11) level of control of MSM
(see Church Committee - Wikipedia ). Which is documented in
the book by Dr. Udo Ulfkotte Journalists for Hire
How the CIA Buys the News
After 1963, the level outrage in the society was such that there were some meek attempts to check this power, especially the
power of intelligence agencies over the MSM (Church Committee - Wikipedia
was probably the most well known) but they lead to nowhere. CIa and other inteeligence againces remain positioned above the
White House.
Color revolution against Trump (aka
Russiagate) launched by CIA and FBI after election has shown who is the real master of the USA. It was accompanied by
unprecedented neo-McCarthism campaign in which neoliberal MSM lost any remnants of decency
and objectivity.
The recent incident with CIA director Gina Haspel
lying to President Trump to inflict severe sanctions on Russia is just a confirmation of the level of this influence. She will
never be fired for her "transgressions"
"If Trump were not in on the schemes he would just fire his underlings!"
This sentiment indicates a failure to understand the power dynamics at play here. Haspel
is not the "underling" . Trump is the underling. Sure, being that he is also an
oligarch makes Trump's role in the show complicated, but Presidents are installed in order to
serve the oligarchy, and the CIA are top level strategists/enforcers for the oligarchy.
In the real organization chart for the empire the CIA is above the President.
This has been the case in the US since Kennedy.
Trump cannot fire Haspel or Pompeo. They can fire him, though, and with a sniper's bullet
if they want.
Unfortunately for the oligarchy, that would cause additional complications at a time when
they have lots of tricky and inexplicably unstable (for them) operations ongoing, which is
why they are just steering Trump around instead of replacing him. And Trump is willfully
cooperating, even if they are not filling him in on the plans.
Trump will not fire Haspel. He can't. He's just an actor playing a role in a show, and
Haspel is one of the producers/writers of that show. If she doesn't put firing in the script
then Trump cannot say those lines. I doubt he really wants to anyway.
1. We do not want war.
2. The opposite party alone is guilty of war.
3. The enemy is the face of the devil.
4. We defend a noble cause, not our own interest.
5. The enemy systematically commits cruelties; our mishaps are involuntary.
6. The enemy uses forbidden weapons.
7. We suffer small losses, those of the enemy are enormous.
8. Artists and intellectuals back our cause.
9. Our cause is sacred. "The ages-old 'God bless America' is playing once more."
10. All who doubt our propaganda, are traitors.
The blog empirestrikesblack cites Belgian investigative journalist
Michel Collon who has outlined five principles driving war propaganda:
Obscure one’s economic interests;
Appear humanitarian in work and motivations;
Obscure history;
Demonize the enemy; and
Monopolize the flow of information.
NeoMcCarthyism
NeoMcCarthyism campaign which was launched around mid 2016 by Democratic Party operatives as tactical tool to distract attention
from DNC corruption and illegal removal of Bernie Sanders from the Democratic ticket after lection of Trump turned into important
component of color revolution against Trump. And was fueled not only by MSM but also powerful factions of neoliberals and neocons in
US intelligence agencies concerted about their future and the level of financing of "national security parasites". They also
have skeletons in the closet to hide (especially FBI and CIA) and did not prepare well to the Trump victory as this was a huge
surprise for everybody including Trump himself. See
Steele dossier and
Strzok-gate
Please note that the original
McCarthyism campaign lasted more then a decade. And McCarthyism was not exactly or only
about Communist infiltration into the US government. It has elements of a more general framework of suppressing any "dissidents" who question "official
narrative" and simultaneously served as the framework of brainwashing of population creating a
stereotype of enemy, in best Bolsheviks, or, if you wish Nazi Germany, style.
In other words, like in famous Orwell novel 1984, under McCarthyism questioning of official narrative has become a "though crime"
(much like it was in the USSR, especially under Stalinism period). And repressions were real,
although far less extensive and brutal, than in the USSR in 30th. Thousands of people lost jobs and were blacklisted. Many
ostracized, especially from artistic circles, committed suicides.
While Senator McCartney has a certain gist for blackmailing people and, being an alcoholic,
he probably would be a suitable
candidate for high position in NKVD, he was not a pioneer. He was just a talented follower. This
type of modern witch hunt was first implemented on large scale by Bolsheviks in Russia after 1917.
Actually Bolsheviks originated many modern methods of brainwashing of the population. Which
later were enhanced and further developed in Nazi Germany and than imported to the USA after WWII.
That all brings us to the concept of "deep state" and its control of MSM. The problem with the "deep state" approach to governance is that it replicates Bolshevism on a new,
more polished, level, with high officials of
intelligence agencies, Wall Street and military industrial complex as a new Politburo. Which is not elected but still
controls that nations. So much for remnants of democracy in the USA. That does not mean that some deviations from the "Party
line" are impossible: the election of Trump is one such event. But loop at the power of the reaction of the "deep state" on
this event. Not that Trump (who can be viewed as some kind of Republican "Change we can believe in" Obama" ) was intended to follow
his election promises in any case. The level of vetting of candidates is two party system probably is higher then many of us
suspect.
As currently there is no alternative to neoliberalism, the current situation will continue to exist. Notwithstanding the
fact that neoliberal ideology was discredited after 2008 financial crisis, much like Bolshevism in 60th. Bolshevism as a theocratic ideology was essentially dead after WWII (although it managed to kick the can down the road for
another 45 years). After 60the
Soviet people despite constant brainwashing started to have wide-ranging doubts about the communist state and communist ideology. Listening to state-sponsored propaganda radio-stations from the West
such as BBC and Voice of America became national pasture of Soviet citizens, especially educated
one. Despite all the jamming. Similar situation happened with the USA after 2008, when citizen suddenly start showing some
level of interest RT broadcasts and views on internal situation in the USA ;-). And, of cause, all this needs to be stopped.
In the name of the "health of the state", democracy be dumned (religious term which literally means "condemned
to eternalpunishment")
In this particular sense, imitating the enemy by the USA elite after WWII, which was done to fight communist threat (which
was overblown) was a very dangerous course with
far reaching consequences. The new level of this process of "imitating the enemy" now started with the USA -- the rise of alternative press (kind of Samizdat replica
from Soviet past) and clumsy attempt of the deep state to suppress it claiming that they are propagator of "fake news" with the
subtext that they are Russian agents (the campaign which spectacularly backfired: which the help of President Trump tweets
this term now became the standard nickname of the "official" US MSM). That brings us directly to revising Stalin's
"Show trials" and corresponding witch-hunt in the USSR. Appointing Muller to investigate Trump for "Russian connection"
(so called "Russiagate") replays
favorite theme of accusing enemies of Stalin of being British agents. On a new level incorporating set of political
technologies of overthrowing the legitimate government commonly known as "color revolution" technologies. But in both cases it
is all about eliminating political rivals.
In broader context the current practice of manipulating population is similar to "high demand cults" style practice
-- Bolshevism actually can be best viewed as a religious cult merged with the political movement,
much like political Islam today ( Belief-coercion in high
demand cults ):
They use all of the techniques as "low demand" faith groups use: requiring members
to accept a system of beliefs, conforming to certain behavioral norms; expecting
them to involve themselves in the life of the congregation, etc. However, mind-control
groups add many additional methods, and take them all to a much higher level. Some
are:
Members' access to outside information is severely restricted
Their thoughts, beliefs and emotions are tightly controlled by:
stress; e.g. long hours of work; little or no free time
restricting sleep
requiring endless repetition of prayers
auto-hypnotic exercises
generation of fear and paranoia; viewing the outside world as threatening
restricting criticism of the leadership or group policies
Their behavior may be controlled by:
public shaming and humiliation
requiring personal confessions
isolation from outside contacts, including their family of origin
Members are not physically restrained from leaving the group. They are not held
prisoner. They can walk away at any time. But there are strong pressures to remain.
If they left, all social and emotional support would disappear; they will often
be shunned. Some groups teach that God will abandon or punish them if they leave.
They may be told that they will die in the imminent war of Armageddon if they leave
the protection of the group.
The main methods here always was the generation and totalitarian
control of "suitable" narrative (that's why Sheldon Wolin called neoliberal society "inverted
totalitarism"):
"The primary aim of official propaganda is to generate an "official narrative" that can be
mindlessly repeated by the ruling classes and those who support and identify with them. This official
narrative does not have to make sense, or to stand up to any sort of serious scrutiny. Its factualness
is not the point. The point is to draw a Maginot line, a defensive ideological boundary, between
"the truth" as defined by the ruling classes and any other "truth" that contradicts their narrative.
"
Gerald Celente coined the term "presstitutes", which is obviously politically incorrect,
but still is a very precise term:
presstitutes sell themselves to neoliberal establishment for access and governments to prosper financially and to keep their jobs.
In the USSR journalist were called "soldiers of the Party" so in the less humiliating way we can call them "soldiers of neoliberal
establishment" ;-).
Read more
Due to the size an introductory article was converted to a separate page
Neoliberal Propaganda
Hydroxyxhloroquine is antimalarial,works on the DNA , and accumulates in white blood cells .
Corona virus is RNA. Possible other mechanism includes suppression of T lymphocytes ,
decreased white blood cell migration to the injured area ,stabilization of lysosomal enzymes
which means the enzymes that can attack pathogen and also human normal cells are being
prevented from release from inside the immune cells and suppression of DNA and RNA synthesis.
I am not aware that has ever been to be effective against any virus in the past. It
doesn't work on the Angiotensin receptor or signal transduction down stream .
Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquione are used for Rheumatoid arthritis but they don't alter
the bone damages They are not very effective DMARDs ( disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs
) .It is also used against Graft versus Host rejection . Not effective enough.
Any antiviral medicine has to work on one of these sites or on combination of these
sites- attachment of virus to cells, f penetration ( nucleus) , uncoating, protien synthesis
, nucleic acid synthesis, packaging , and assembly of new virus , then the last part -viral
release from cell to attack new cells. Hydroxychloroquine is not known to attack any of these
processes .
Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine are known to work differently in rheumatoid and graft
vs host disease or in some patients with SLE.
I am not sure if these 2 can be considered as an orphan drug and approved by FDA
I am not sure how French jumped to the idea that this medication would work ( usually a
possible mechanism of action or anecdotal data have to be furnished before trying or have two
have animal data )
So let's not celebrate French microbiologist or IHU and jump to some theories on the
behaviors of French ministers or pharmaceuticals.
Since March 17th the pin on my twitter profile promotes the preventive use of chloroquine to
treat the Novel Coronovirus. I've been following the debate about this anti-malarial (polio
and yellow fever) drug closely. I like Escobar's article, but there are several problems with
it, that even I, as a proponent of chloroquine cannot ignore.
First, the claim that Agnes Buzyn (mispelled twice in the article as "Buzy"), classified
the drug as a poison, thus requiring prescription.
this is false. Chloroquine, in its market French form known as Nivaquine, was never over
the counter. Never. In fact very few Western countries ever sold it over the counter. In most
US states, it was prescription based. It is lethal when used inappropriately.
Second, with all due respect to Dr. Raoult, he is absolutely wrong about viral load in
terminal stages of Covid-19. Corona virus is anything but low or nearly absent. In fact, its
viral load is extremely high and a good measure of patient outcome at admission, and no
amount of antiviral treatment can reduce it on its own at this point. Raoult was either
trying to say that corona is not the cause of mortality, which is technically true, or like
99% of doctors fighting Corona, has no grasp of what the virus actually does.
The gist of the Escobar article is problematic. Nothing concrete about how Sanofi or Big
Pharma is planning on cashing in by delaying chloroquine production. Last week Sanofi donated
300,000 "dosses" of chloroquine to the United States. The drug has been around for 60 years
and is listed by the WHO as a required drug in all medical systems with required
possibilities of local production. The criteria of which are known only to experts.
As for the theory that chloroquine supplies have been pilfered my French sources told me
supplies had been seized. Macron may be pursuing a policy of herd immunity, but
doesn't have the political luxury of being public about it, and a little less literalism is a
helpful corrective for wild speculation. Herd immunity strategies cannot be pursued openly,
being political (reelection) liabilities.
Far far more important to the coronovirus debate is how one is supposed to cure with
vaccines, if the jury is still out on acquired immunity. One cannot work without the other,
suggesting that the MSM acceptance of possible vaccine treatment ipso facto means
acquired immunity is a given, but that's not the way the MSM and governments are presenting
this, suggesting that either vaccines cannot possibly work, or that immunity is being aquired
as we speak, while the facade of a fight is kept up.
Since this decree, the hydroxychloroquine molecule marketed under the name of Plaquenil
is therefore no longer available over the counter. A prescription from a doctor is now
mandatory. But this new classification, which came into effect in January, contrary to what
some conspiratorial publications suggest, predates the appearance of the new coronavirus.
Its cousin, chloroquine, appears on this list "in injectable and oral form", since a decree
taken in 1999.
As LCI explains, the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) had been asked for an
opinion on a proposal for an order to include hydroxychloroquine in List II of poisonous
substances in October 2019, "in order to ensure appropriate patient care ". Two months
before the appearance of the new coronavirus in China.
ANSES had given the green light on November 12, 2019. It is therefore false and dishonest
to claim that the former Minister of Health, Ms. Buzyn, would have made this decision
herself during the Covid-19 epidemic.
@onebornfree The Quinism Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization established to
support education and research on chronic quinoline encephalopathy and other medical
conditions caused by poisoning, or intoxication, by mefloquine, tafenoquine, chloroquine, and
related quinoline drugs.
Executive Director Dr. Remington Dr. Nevin noted his concern that members of the public
may even attempt to obtain therapeutic quantities of quinine through questionable channels.
"Tonic water, whose bitter taste is produced by the addition of quinine or related
naturally-occurring quinolines, is limited by U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations
to 83 mg per liter of quinine and related cinchona alkaloids," said Dr. Nevin. "However,
drinking several bottles of tonic water will result in consuming pharmaceutical quantities,
and therefore potentially harmful, amounts of these drugs", said Dr. Nevin. "Tonic water is a
prescription medication masquerading as a cocktail mixer."
A single, non-randomized observational trial is close to the bottom of the list in terms of
meaningful medical research, down there with anecdotal reports, particularly in a novel viral
disease with highly variable clinical manifestations and outcomes.
There are also significant potential cardiac risks caused by the Q-T lengthening on one's
EKG caused by both azithromycin and chloroquine. Don't grasp at straws.
@KA You seem quite a knowledge so I hope to obtain your insights, I am not medical.
I heard that the likelihood of ARDS (cytokine storm?) can be detected by a Serum Ferritin
test. If it levels are high, the patient should be given Anakinra, the rheumatoid arthritis
medication, which will prevent ARDS. Neither the test, nor the treatment are being given
because the average Doc who does not specialize in this field, does not know to test for
this.
I understand that Hydroxychloroquin will reduce virulent symptoms in high risk patients
but should be given cautiously.
KA,
I am commenting here first time but have been reading the site for years.
I have two decades of biotech research experience.
I just finished a literature survey about effects of these active pharmaceutical ingredients
or APIs (chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, hydroxychloroquine phosphate).
The APIs have been in human application for very long time and their side effect profile
might be broad but it is not widespread. The most serious problems arise from eventual eye
degenerative effects but those are very-very rare.
These APIs do act on several steps of what you mentioned, starting with receptor binding
interference (ACE2 glycosylation changes), viral entry (impairment of endosome formation),
then viral DNA offloading (interference with virus-containing endosomes fusing with
lysosomes), through viral "work" (impairment of protein synthesis and virion assembly through
stopping of Golgi- and endoplasmatic reticular budding and traffic).
The most interesting part of their actions might however be the inhibition of the viral
RNA-dependent RNA polymerase enzyme. This is done through increasing Zn++ concentration in
the cytoplasm because all of these APIs are ionophores and bring Zn++ ions into the cytosol
through the lipid membrane. High Zn++ "levels" inside the cell block the "xerox machine"of
the viral RNA. So indeed these have at least theoretical effects and in vitro proof is
abundant.
On the contrary, if one looks at the now not too worthwile treatment compilation from
Alipay and Zhezhiang University the use of different antiviral drugs is quite dangerous to
the liver. Many patients on anti-retrovirals developed liver problems. I think the Shanghai
Protocol is much more adequate but to each his own.
With regards to the origins of the virus someone earlier wrote about haplotypes. There are
58 haplotypes (called as such in peer-reviewed publications) and 5 haplogroups of the virus
in two clades (L and S). According to a non peer-reviewed publication at ChinaXiv, 5
haplogroups have only been reported from the US so far. Mainland Chinese enjoyed the society
of only 4 haplogroups while the fifth could be found in Taiwan.
Here is one published Abstract, specific to COVID-19 warns of the toxicity.
Department of Forensic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huanzhong University of Science
and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China. LINK
The Trial of Chloroquine in the Treatment of Corona Virus Disease 2019
（COVID-19） and Its Research Progress in Forensic Toxicology.
[.]Since December 2019, COVID-19 （corona virus disease 2019） outbreaks caused
by SARS-CoV-2 （severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2） has occurred
in China and many countries around the world. Due to the lack of drugs against COVID-19,
the disease spreads rapidly and the mortality rate is relatively high. Therefore, specific
drugs against SARS-CoV-2 need to be quickly screened. The antimalarial drug Chloroquine
phosphate which has already been approved is confirmed to have an anti-SARS-CoV-2 effect
and has been included in diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines. However, awareness of the
risk of chloroquine phosphate causing acute poisoning or even death should be strengthened.
The dosage used according to current clinical recommended dosage and course of treatment
are larger than that of previous treatment of malaria. Many provinces have required
close clinical monitoring of adverse reactions. This paper reviews the pharmacological
effects, poisoning;[.]
This is the antiviral treatment recommended in the hand I linked above.
Antiviral Treatment
At FAHZU, lopinavir/ritonavir (2 capsules, po q12h) combined with arbidol (200 mg po q12h)
were applied as the basic regimen. From the treatment experience of 49 patients in our
hospital, the average time to achieve negative viral nucleic acid test for the first time
was 12 days (95% CI: 8-15 days). The duration of negative nucleic acid test result
(negative for more than 2 times consecutively with interval ≥ 24h) was 13.5 days (95%
CI: 9.5 - 17.5 days).If the basic regimen is not effective, chloroquine phosphate can be
used on adults between 18-65 years old (weight ≥ 50 kg: 500 mg bid; weight ≤50 kg:
500 mg bid for first two days, 500 mg qd for following five days).Interferon nebulization
is recommended in Protocols for Diagnosis and Treatment of COVID-19. We recommend that it
should be performed in negative-pressure wards rather than general wards due to the
possibility of aerosol transmission.Darunavir/cobicistat has some degree of antiviral
activity in viral suppression test in vitro, based on the treatment experience of AIDS
patients, and the adverse events are relatively mild. For patients who are intolerant to
lopinavir/ritonavir, darunavir/ cobici-stat (1 tablet qd) or favipiravir (starting dose of
1600 mg followed by 600 mg tid) is an alternative option after the ethical review.
Simultaneous use of three or more antiviral drugs is not recommended.
Course of Treatment
The treatment course of chloroquine phosphate should be no more than 7 days. The treatment
course of other regimens has not been determined and are usually around 2 weeks. Antiviral
drugs should be stopped if nucleic acid test results from sputum specimens remain negative
for more than 3 times
U.S. intelligence community, through its preferred propaganda sheet the New York Times, is
now
reporting that Russia is taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to spread
disinformation through Europe and also in the U.S. In particular, Putin has escalated a
campaign-by-innuendo to reduce confidence in the outcome of the upcoming 2020 presidential
election. In any event, the Russians are too late as the Democratic and Republican parties'
behavior has already convinced many Americans that voting in November will be a waste of
time.
There is also a tendency to think newer=better. I've heard doctors and pharmacists complain
that patients will get offended when prescribed a cheaper, older drug. They want the best and
newest, they need and deserve it!
@Redneck farmer That is because advertising works. Drug companies being allowed to
advertise guaranteed that predators, such as the Sacklers, would want to own drug companies.
More activity on the dark, unethical side of capitalism. There's an entire history of it,
opium wars, Atlantic slave trade, pornography, control of political agents through
pedophilia. The list does go on and strangely enough it's usually the same actors.
johnbrewster@77
Here's a story from today's Toronto Star. It's a neoliberalism story and goes well with Pepe
Escobar's piece in Asia Times (see above for link)
Basically the Province of Ontario stockpiled everything need for the pandemic that SARs
warned them was bound to come.
Then, a couple of years ago, they destroyed the stockpiles including 55 million
facemasks.
Now there are no face masks to be found and medical staff, inter alia, are having to take
totally unnecessary risks.
Why did this happen? Because neo-liberalism is all about profits and fiscal austerity: as
soon as the masks got beyond their 'best before' date they were destroyed - so the
manufacturers could have another bite at the cherry and sell another 55 million masks. But
then, austerity, the need to finance tax cuts for the wealthy, stepped in so the orders were
not renewed. And people will die, horrible deaths, as a result.
PS to vk # 1. Please think again. Trump has been in a trade war with China for what? a couple
of years? AND, he specifically banned imports of medical supplies from China. Other posters
wave supplied links for this idiocy.
Trump's about as innocent as jack the ripper. You may just be seeing things relatively, as
ghouls like Elliot Abrahms and disgusting Pomposity make Trump seen like an amateur.
there are shortages of masks and gloves for the frontline so joe and jane may not be allowed.
Governments are partnering with manufacturing companies. How bad is it?
"Physicians are being warned not to speak or post publicly about their COVID-19
experiences, including PPE shortages, case specifics, and the percentage of full hospital
beds,[.]
Hospitals on the front lines of the pandemic are engaged in a heated private debate over a
calculation few have encountered in their lifetimes - how to weigh the "save at all costs"
approach to resuscitating a dying patient against the real danger of exposing doctors and
nurses to the contagion of coronavirus.
The conversations are driven by the realization that the risk to staff amid dwindling
stores of protective equipment - such as masks, gowns and gloves - may be too great to
justify the conventional response when a patient "codes," and their heart or breathing
stops.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago has been discussing a universal
do-not-resuscitate policy for infected patients, regardless of the wishes of the patient or
their family members - a wrenching decision to prioritize the lives of the many over the
one.[.]
Canada and U.S. were in discussions? U.S. considers putting troops at Canadian border.
The masks are useful even if they aren't 100% useful in blocking water droplets, insofar as
wearing a mask makes it much less likely that you will touch your mouth with your hands or
stick your finger in your nose.
If you also get into the habit of vigorously washing your hands before and after eating,
well, you have done most of the hard yards in avoiding infection.
Some important details on the France ibuprofen yes or no debate: Source
The trouble over ibuprofen began March 11, when researchers at University Hospital Basel,
in Switzerland, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in Greece, published a letter in
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The letter reviewed three early sets of case reports from
China, covering almost 1,300 patients gravely ill with Covid-19. The letter's authors
observed that significant numbers of those patients had high blood pressure and diabetes,
from 12 percent to 30 percent depending on the study, and theorized that higher rates of
expression of a particular enzyme, known for short as ACE2, might be raising the risk of
coronavirus infection.
ACE2 provides a place on cell surfaces for the coronavirus to attach and enter in order
to replicate. High blood pressure and diabetes are treated with drugs that suppress
inflammation, called ACE inhibitors; the inhibitors, paradoxically, cause ACE2 to rise.
That interaction is where the authors spotted a possible connection between patients
experiencing chronic diseases and then becoming infected with Covid-19.
And that's where ibuprofen entered the unfolding story, too. The over-the-counter drug
doesn't only knock down fever. It also reduces inflammation (the class of drugs it belongs
to are known as NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). That effect, as with the
anti-inflammatory drugs given to chronic disease patients, can cause ACE2 to rise.
So any anti-inflammatory - whether ibuprofen or actual anti-inflammatory drugs - *can*
(not will) cause ACE2 to rise. And ACE2 is what nCOV latches on to.
So the acetominophen/paracetamol vs. ibuprofen has nothing to do with the fever reduction
side but the potential increase of ACE2, which *might* increase susceptibility to
nCOV.
On the protection issue, use FFP 3 respirator masks (EU), or N99 (US) or KN 99 (China) and
scarf over it. These masks filter 98 % of micro particles, including viruses. In case of mask
shortages steam can be used to decontaminate masks. Also use gloves, eye protection and
raincoat when in risky areas. Everything new taken in your home must be under 3 - 4 days
quarantine in separate room. The raincoat too. After this quarantine items can be further
cleaned with steam, ethanol, bleach + water, and groceries via soap and water.
Virus can stay for 3 hours in mid air (room) and 3 days on some surfaces. And it is
possible that can even survive for up to 17 days on some surfaces, which would be pretty bad
news. At least 5 meters distance between people outside is needed.
1. do not steam your masks. they are made of polyester and will shrink into a blob. people
have tried and failed. you can wash with soap and dry or low temp bake as B suggested. they
will eventually fail from delaminating or the elastic band snapping.
2. stop behaving like you don't want to catch it, behave like you have it and you don't
want others to catch it. we'll all be better off.
3. going on 2 - wearing masks with exhaust valves will just spray virus straight out of
you're infected. if you're not sure you're infected (and you don't) wearing a valves N95 is
just a dick act.
4. when PPE were in short supply in China, what they did was to wear N95 with surgical
mask over the top. it's definitely off-label use but at least you can then reuse your
precious N95 as it's shielded from external pathogens, at the same time your own exhaust
valve (see 3) is also shielded from others.
Malaria is a single cell bug called a protozoa. My understanding that is a class of bugs like
bacteria and viruses are classes of bugs.
Mosquitoes carry or host the bug and pass it onto people. The quinine type drugs block the
bug and prevent it from attaching or entering cells. That is how the drug also works against
the corona viruses. Various strains of the malaria bug have developed resistance to various
drugs.
Because SARS-CoV-2 is a new bug, it should not have developed a resistance to any
drug.
Human immunity is directed at pathogens and seems very specific even to strains as can be
seen with influenza vaccines, and the malaria protozoa is a very different animal to the
SARS-CoV-2 virus.
That's the basics as I know it. Others here may be able to explain it a little
better.
Exactly, a containment strategy with universal testing and quarantine of the infected (ill
and asymptomatic) at home or safe facilities is required keep western society from collapsing
from this and future waves of the novel coronavirus until a treatment or vaccine is
developed.
The problem in the USA is that this will require the reconstruction of the government and
a national public health system to run the monitoring and quarantine system. Instead, the
corrupt oligarchy will use government money to rescue themselves rather than saving the lives
of Americans.
The neoliberal wrecking of our hospital system has been widely cited as a cause of the
crisis. Among other things, hospitals reduced the number of beds, sold ventilators, and ran
down supplies of masks and protective clothing in order to increase profitability.
On the way to this crisis, the private hospital industry gave the American public the
actions and the rhetoric of the Milo Minderbinder character from Catch-22:
What's good for M & M Enterprises will be good for the country.
Milo stripped out and sold all kinds of life-saving kit: morphine vials, parachutes, CO2
inflator cartridges for life vests. Milo epitomizes the neoliberal short-term, bottom-line,
zero-redundancy world view that has looted America and corrupted its democracy over the last
40 years.
Just like the hapless flightcrew in Catch-22, Americans are discovering the true meaning
behind the private hospitals' claim that what was good for their corporations was good for
the "crew" as they survey the looted and privatized corpse of their healthcare system.
What was satire 50 years ago, is reality today. We had a preview of this when Rumsfeld ran
the DoD.
Was Donald Rumsfeld channeling Milo (and laughing up his sleeve) when he said:
It is clearly cost-effective to have contractors for a variety of things that military
people need not do, and that, for whatever reason, other civilians, government people,
cannot be deployed to do...
But I personally am of the view that there are a lot of things that can be done on a
short-time basis by contractors that advantage the United States and advantage other
countries who also hire contractors. And that any idea that we shouldn't have them, I
think, would be unwise.
- D. Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld's Speech on the Future of Iraq (2005)
This is an hour with experts who ran the Singapore response. It answers many of our questions
and also those which cannot yet be answered. I resisted listening because it's an hour, but
it was worthwhile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3w8gu9S3lo
Tests and care for Covid-19 must be for free. We need hospitals to care for only the
critical cases. We need quarantine centers to isolate the milder cases from the wider
population. Many hotels, sport arenas and exhibition halls are currently empty. They can be
converted into quarantine stations within a day or two. People will have to stay for only two
weeks. They would be fed and would have medical attention. That is a small restriction of the
freedom of a few for a large benefit for our societies.
A number of studies have reported that a significant portion of people are even spreading the
virus while presymptomatic -- in the day or two before they start to feel ill. Presymptomatic
spreaders are, well, gonna spread. It's not their fault.
How much this type of transmission is driving the pandemic is unclear but it could be
significant. Gabriel Leung, dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, has estimated
about 40% of cases transmit before symptoms develop. A recent preprint -- a study that has
not yet been peer-reviewed -- from China pooled data from seven countries and estimated a
very similar 43%.
The novel coronavirus is spread to a large part by people who stay asymptomatic and by
people who do not yet feel sick but will later show symptoms. When they talk, sneeze or cough
they release small droplets that carry viruses. The droplets can stay in the air for some time.
If a person coming along inhales those droplets the viruses will likely infect that person.
Those who have have the virus or might spread it should wear a mask because it prevents
their droplets from flying out. Those who do not have the virus should wear a mask to prevent
droplets from entering their body.
We were told that 'masks don't work' because they are not a 100% protection. The very tiny
viruses can pass behind the mask at its sides or they can slip through its webbing. But the
virus is not traveling alone but as part of a droplet. Even a relatively wide webbing may hold
it up. If it is doubled with a sheet of cosmetic paper towel in between the protection will be
even better. Microfilter bags for vacuum cleaners and so called HEPA filters are also effective materials that are
readily available and easy to turn into masks.
The development of the epidemic will depend on how many people will start to regularly wear
masks when they are not at home. Even if the protection masks prevent only 50% of new
infections the speed with which the epidemic will unfold will be significantly lower.
Consider that the societies in the blue circle are all ones where people regularly wear
masks while the other countries (except China which was surprised by the outbreak) are
societies were wearing a mask is seen as unusual. These 'blue' countries, which also gained
experience during the SARS and MERS epidemics, show significant flatter trajectories.
Graphs similar to the above for all U.S. states and territories can be found here .
Meanwhile U.S. media continue to spread anti-China propaganda:
Medical personnel in Spain and the Czech Republic have reported that the coronavirus rapid
tests their respective countries have received from China are faulty and have a high error
rate.
Several labs in Spanish hospitals have reported that the test kits they purchased,
manufactured by Chinese company Bioeasy and based in Shenzhen, have a sensitivity of 30% when
the sensitivity should be above 80%, Spanish newspaper El País reported Thursday. Due
to the test's lack of reliability, medical personnel in Spain have switched back to the PCR
test, which takes up to four hours for a diagnosis, while rapid tests take between 10 to 15
minutes
The Spanish government purchased 340,000 tests from the Chinese company, a similar
quantity to the tests ordered by the Czech Republic, where medical personnel also report an
80% failure rate.
When one checks the original reports
from Spain and from the
Czech Republic one learns that these countries bought anti-body tests which only react when
a person has had the virus for some time and developed anti-bodies against it. These tests can
obviously not be used to find persons who are infected but have not yet developed
anti-bodies.
China's ambassador in Spain also pointed out that these tests
have yet to be verified by the regulator and were imported without the help or knowledge of the
Chinese government.
The anti-body tests are valuable to identify people who have developed current immunity
against the virus. These people can then care for those who are most endangered by the disease.
Anti-body tests are quick. They can be used anywhere.
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests which are currently necessary to find if someone
has the virus take at least four hours and specialized laboratories to process them. We will
need a much quicker reliable test if we want to put our economies back to work. Luckily several
companies and academic groups are already working on these and a 45 minute test is now
ready to be marketed .
When we have a quick test for the virus and a quick test for anti-bodies available in mass
we can restart the economy by 'filtering' through the population on a large scale. Movement
restrictions would then only be needed for those who show virus-positive and anti-body negative
results. All others could go back to work.
There would certainly still be outbreaks from people who escaped the 'filtering' process but
with easy testing and care in place those clusters can be locally contained.
It may take another two month or so to get to that point. Until then there is little we can
do but to stay apart as much as possible and to wear our masks.
Have seen no data on how many viral particles it takes to cause a serious effect. Likely,
such data would be in terms of probability at X [number of viral particles]. Such is known
for many infective agents in surface and aerosol form, but CV19 may be very different.
Can CV19 vapor aerosol from mouth/breath in still air, exclusive of explosive discharge
via cough/sneeze, cause full-blown case beyond 6 feet? I'd like to know.
Also, have not seen any data re time duration of infective after it enters throat passage
on journey to lungs. I posit that there are anti-viral liquids that might be effective if
small amount were trickled down throat 2x per day; surely just before bedtime to discourage
the next 7-hs of undisturbed incubation. I do take something that I am guessing may be
effective. [E.g., I also
"heard" OliveOilExtract as anti-viral but I have no experience with it.]
Another thought: Re different strains of CV19 having very different outcomes...Anyone
suggestion that US forms collectively having, say, milder outcomes relative to
China/Iran/LombardyItaly, etc? Seems to be an aversion to testing the general population, or
even publishing all results of the small amount of tests with time+place data. Where are the
lists of 1st observations of "unusual flu" in US? that would NORMALLY, provoke tracking +
names/places of sequential contacts?
Routine discovery and mapping of communication lines is very likely to uncover a lot of
truth. That is what rational folks desire.
Is the troop deployment along the Canadian border is to stop anyone interfering in the
coming chaos?
Posted by: Ian2 | Mar 26 2020 20:34 utc | 36
You have a point there --the coming chaos after the COVID-19 Health crisis.
Wondering if Trudeau knows about the fences that were erected this morning?
Maybe I missed Trump's tweet on his declaration of War.
- He has imposed more sanctions on Iranians.
- Indicted Maduro of Venezuela on narco trafficking, sponsor of terrorism; placed a $15
million bounty on his head --straight from the Panama playbook.
and this beauty - continues his trade war on China because -----
(Reuters) - Senior officials in the Trump administration agreed to new measures to
restrict the global supply of chips to China's Huawei Technologies, sources familiar with
the matter said, as the White House ramps up criticism of China over coronavirus.
The move comes as ties between Washington and Beijing grow more strained, with both
sides trading barbs over who is to blame for the spread of the disease and an escalating
tit-for-tat over the expulsion of journalists from both countries.
Under the proposed rule change, foreign companies that use U.S. chipmaking equipment
would be required to obtain a U.S. license before supplying certain chips to Huawei. The
Chinese telecoms company was blacklisted last year, limiting the company's
suppliers.[.]
"This is going to have a far more negative impact on U.S. companies than it will on Huawei,
because Huawei will develop their own supply chain," trade lawyer Doug Jacobson said.
"Ultimately, Huawei will find alternatives."[.]
Huawei has been doing just that - finding alternatives. Trade wars have been proven to end
badly. They end up going hot.
As RT UK launches, attacks on the channel in the British media have stepped up
The latest is a piece by Mr. Cyril Waugh-Monger, a very important newspaper columnist for the NeoCon Daily, a
patron of the Senator Joe McCarthy Appreciation Society and author of 'Why the Iraq War was a Brilliant Idea' and
'The Humanitarian Case for Bombing Syria.'
Dear socially inferior person reading this article. My name is Cyril Waugh-Monger (I'm called 'Mr Terribly
Pompous Neo-Con' by my friends) and I'm here to tell you why on no account should you watch RT and why you should
be making complaints to Ofcom (a British bureacracy which regulates TV) about this dreadful channel so that in the
interests of 'free speech' and 'democracy' we can get it off air.
1. RT doesn't peddle Russophobia
Outrageously, RT doesn't compare Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler. It doesn't join in with the demonization of
Russia and its leader. How can we have a channel which is watched by people in Britain, which doesn't do that? We
neocons say that demonization of Russia and its leader is compulsory. How dare RT not do as we say!
RT is more vocally in support of Russia than western media
2. RT is sometimes rude to bankers
There's a man on RT called Max Keiser and he is often very rude to bankers. Why, he has even called for them to
face the death penalty. Such disrespect to our financial elites is shocking and should not be allowed in a free
society.
Former CEO of HSX Holdings/Hollywood Stock Exchange and host of RT''s 'Keiser Report' Max Keiser
3. Its coverage of the MH17 crash
Shockingly, RT commentators didn't rush to blame Vladimir Putin for the air disaster within seconds of the news
breaking. Some even said that we should wait for the forensic evidence before any statements apportioning guilt
were made. Others said that we couldn't rule out that the plane was downed by an another aircraft. This failure to
come and say loud and clear "Putin personally shot down the plane with a missile he made and fired with his own
hands" within minutes of the crash is clear evidence of RT's bias and why it must be taken off the air.
Segment of the shot down plane
4. RT's 'pundits' include people who aren't neocons and 'liberal interventionists'
This is truly scandalous: RT gives airtime to people who don't support the West's policy of endless war and who
opposed airstrikes on Syria last year. Why, it's even broadcast interviews with the convener of the Stop the War
coalition – and has a regular weekly show fronted by George Galloway! This is unconscionable. Only people who
support Western foreign policy should be allowed to express their views on international affairs on television,
not 'cranks' and 'fanatics' who oppose attacking a sovereign state in the Middle East on deceitful grounds every
couple of years. Why, if RT had been around in 2003, it would no doubt have given airtime to anti-war 'conspiracy
theorists' who would have told viewers that Iraq had no WMDs – and claimed, fantastically – that Bush and Blair
were making it all up.
British politician, broadcaster, and writer George Galloway often speaks out against western foreign policy
5. RT provides airtime to genuine socialists and genuine conservatives
This is really terrible: RT interviews people who oppose neo-liberalism and globalization, from both the
left and the right. It's given the microphone to socialists, communists, greens, and 'extremists' on the right,
like Ron Paul. These people should not be allowed to express their views on television; they are 'cranks' and
should be totally marginalized. Only those who support the hegemonic consensus should be allowed on TV. It's
very important that in order to protect free speech and democracy, alternative opinions are not heard.
Former Republican presidential candidate, Representative Ron Paul
6. RT pundits have 'extremist' links
I monitor the people who appear on RT very, very closely and I can tell you that there was once a case of an
RT interviewee who had a link on his website to another website which had a link to another website which had a
link to another website – which denied the Holocaust and said that little green men from Mars were ruling the
US.
After considerable research, I also found that another RT pundit once attended a conference where a fellow
invitee had once sat at a restaurant table, a few days after another person who had actually praised Adolf
Hitler, Chairman Mao, and Josef Stalin in a magazine article published in North Korea in 1962.
7. RT is anti-semitic
Ok, I've got no evidence of this, but I'll bung it in anyway as it sounds good.
8. RT has broadcast documentaries on the wars in Yugoslavia which don't blame the Serbs for everything
This is totally unacceptable.
An elderly woman carries her belongings November 22 in Sarajevo's war shattered airport settlement.
(Reuters)
9. RT has had 'experts' on its programs who have made some very strong criticisms of Israel
This too is totally unacceptable. Anyone with a theory or definition that differs from Western minded
politicians is demonized for voicing their opinion.
Israel's annexed Golan Heights is hosting pop up hospitals to tend to ISIS fighters
10. RT pundits have often ridiculed leading American policymakers
For instance, when the US Secretary of State John Kerry said that "you just don't in the 21st century"
invade another country on "completely trumped up pretext," some people on RT had the audacity to say "What
about Iraq?" This lack of respect towards a leading American politician is appalling, and in a free society
ought not to be allowed. The correct procedure whenever a leading US political figure speaks is to tug one's
forelock.
11. RT's coverage of the conflict in Syria
In 2011-13, we had so-called 'experts' on Syria telling us on RT that some of the freedom-fighting
pro-democracy rebels were actually fanatical terrorists who were guilty of committing atrocities. This was
obviously a clear lie. Islamist terrorists like ISIS have only been active in Syria since 2014 and of course,
it's all the fault of President Assad and Russia.
Intense shelling destroys buildings in the Damascus suburb of Jobar October 28
12. RT interviews lots of people whose views I do not share
It ought not to be allowed! Aren't we supposed to live in a democracy?
13. The most important reason: RT is a threat
More and more people are watching it – which is why me and my little group of neocons and 'liberal
interventionists' are so worried and stepping up our attacks on the station and denigrating those people who
appear on it.
The next big war is going to be much harder for us to 'sell' to the plebs, because we are no longer in
control of the narrative as we were in 2003, before the Iraq war. Oh, what happy days those were!
Don't watch RT because we really don't want you to 'question more.' We want you to question less. It's much
easier for us that way.
"... ...The madness over the coronavirus is not limited to politicians and the medical community. The head of the neoconservative Atlantic Council wrote an editorial this week urging NATO to pass an Article 5 declaration of war against the COVID-19 virus! Are they going to send in tanks and drones to wipe out these microscopic enemies? ..."
It is ironic to see the same Democrats who tried to impeach President Trump last month for
abuse of power demanding that the Administration grab more power and authority in the name of
fighting a virus that thus far has killed less than 100 Americans.
...The madness over the coronavirus is not limited to politicians and the medical community.
The head of the neoconservative Atlantic Council wrote an editorial this week urging NATO to
pass an Article 5 declaration of war against the COVID-19 virus! Are they going to send in
tanks and drones to wipe out these microscopic enemies?
People should ask themselves whether this coronavirus "pandemic" could be a big hoax, with
the actual danger of the disease massively exaggerated by those who seek to profit –
financially or politically – from the ensuing panic.
That is not to say the disease is harmless. Without question people will die from
coronavirus. Those in vulnerable categories should take precautions to limit their risk of
exposure. But we have seen this movie before. Government over-hypes a threat as an excuse to
grab more of our freedoms. When the "threat" is over, however, they never give us our freedoms
back.
@37
Yesterday I went to Home Depot to buy some water tubing for my ice-maker.
I noticed all doors were blocked with a tape, except one with at least 25 people waiting
to get in and a female employee holding a sign "the line starts here".
I ask the lady what was all about and she said because of the virus etc.
I said to her "You must be kidding" and I start going back to my car.
Some old lady from the line waiting to get in she scream to me something about "we protect
ourselves" and similar nonsense.
I turn around and I said to her: Quit watching TV you idiot. They rob your money on broad
daylight and send your kids to die fighting israels enemies.
The overreaction to the virus makes no sense. Is something being hidden from us? The freak
out over this virus – to the tune of $trillions – is all out of proportion.
2.8 million Americans die every year. Why the obsession with this one virus which may kill
in the thousands?
Something is off. But Trump should have known early if there was some other hidden danger.
If there is some hidden suspicion by the people obsessing over this, please share it!
@UncommonGround ,,,As of March 19th there were 93 Corona deaths in Bergamo and counting.
As of March 19th five Italian doctors and 13 medics have lost their lives with 2,629 health
workers infected, or 8,3 per cent.
I will keep this comment as brief as possible.
I welcome refutation of these theses, which I believe are crucial to any analysis of the
response to the pandemic:
1. Current screening tests for COVID19 (a PCR test, not an antibody test) have a high rate of
false positives (see excellent contributions on this topic from Kratoklastes).
2. Draconian public health responses are allegedly aimed at minimizing serious COVID19
disease (severe respiratory distress, up to and including ARDS). "Positive" testing
individuals overwhelming do not fall into this category.
3. At this juncture, our best single metric is death from COVID19. Unfortunately the
definition of a COVID19 fatality varies between jurisdictions. To be counted as such a
fatality, the current best definition would be: novel coronovirus IgM (+/- IgG) positive
(proof of recent infection) plus ARDS (radiologically, if not pathologically, confirmed).
4. Alleged COVID19 fatalities are overwhelming patients >70 having 3 or more serious
comorbidities.
5. There is an association between ACE-inhibitor or AT-receptor antagonist use and likelihood
of death from infection by novel coronavirus.
To the last point: nearly 40% of the Italian fatalities were using ACE inhibitors (and
this may be an underestimate as pre-admission medication charts were lacking). The virus
binds to the pulmonary ACE2 receptor.
Conceivably the use of ACE-inhibitors (or the related AT-receptor antagonists) induces
upregulation of this receptor, but this is purely conjecture on my part.
Anecdotally, use of this medication class is lower in Germany, which has been proffered among
reasons for its lower fatality rates.
@Realist I have two family members in UK who have already recovered after testing
positive and I, myself, suffered ten days with an unpleasant dry cough, malaise and low grade
fever late in February – which has since cleared uneventfully. I was never tested and,
following my GP, discounted being infected with COVID-19 at that time.
An antibody test for COVID-19 virus exposure is near to becoming commercially available
and this is likely to be widely used in order to identify people who can safely volunteer to
help with the pandemic – it may provide some interesting statistics and a different
management perspective.
"... The more I watch these moves by Pompeo the more sympathetic I become to the most sinister theories about COVID-19, its origins and its launch around the world. Read Pepe Escobar's latest to get an idea of how dark and twisted this tale could be . ..."
There are few things in this life that make me more sick to my stomach than watching
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talking. He truly is one of the evilest men I've ever had the
displeasure of covering.
Into the insanity of the over-reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak, Pompeo wasted no time
ramping up sanctions on firms doing any business with Iran, one of the countries worse-hit by
this virus to date.
It's a seemingly endless refrain, everyday,
more sanctions on Chinese, Swiss and South African firms for having the temerity in these
deflating times to buy oil from someone Pompeo and his gang of heartless psychopaths disapprove
of.
This goes far beyond just the oil industry. Even though I'm well aware that Russia's
crashing the price of oil was itself a hybrid war attack on US capital markets. One that has
had, to date, devastating effect.
While Pompeo mouths the words publicly that humanitarian aid is exempted from sanctions on
Iran, the US is pursuing immense
pressure on companies to not do so anyway while the State Dept. bureaucracy takes its sweet
time processing waiver applications.
Pompeo and his ilk only think in terms of civilizational warfare. They have become so
subsumed by their big war for the moral high ground to prove American exceptionalism that they
have lost any shred of humanity they may have ever had.
Because for Pompeo in times like these to stick to his talking points and for his office to
continue excising Iran from the global economy when we're supposed to be coming together to
fight a global pandemic is the height of soullessness.
And it speaks to the much bigger problem that infects all of our political thinking. There
comes a moment when politics and gaining political advantage have to take a back seat to doing
the right thing.
I've actually seen moments of that impulse from the Democratic leadership in the US Will
wonders never cease?!
Thinking only in Manichean terms of good vs. evil and dehumanizing your opponents is
actually costlier than reversing course right now. Because honey is always better at attracting
flies than vinegar.
But, unfortunately, that is not the character of the Trump administration.
It can only think in terms of direct leverage and opportunity to hold onto what they think
they've achieved. So, until President Trump is no longer consumed with coordinating efforts to
control COVID-19 Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper are in charge of foreign policy.
They will continue the playbook that has been well established.
Maximum pressure on Iran, hurt China any way they can, hold onto what they have in Syria,
stay in Iraq.
To that end Iraqi President Barham Salei nominated Pompeo's best choice to replace Prime
Minister Adil Abdel Mahdi to throw Iraq's future into complete turmoil. According to Elijah
Magnier,
Adnan al-Zarfi is a US asset through and through .
And this looks like Pompeo's Hail Mary to retain US legal presence in Iraq after the Iraqi
parliament adopted a measure to demand withdrawal of US troops from the country. Airstrikes
against US bases in Iraq continue on a near daily basis and there have been reports of US base
closures and redeployments at the same time.
This move looks like desperation by Pompeo et.al. to finally separate the Hashd al-Shaabi
from Iraq's official military. So that airstrikes against them can be carried out under the
definition of 'fighting Iranian terrorism.'
As Magnier points out in the article above if al-Zarfi puts a government together the war in
Iraq will expand just as the US is losing further control in Syria after Turkish President
Erdogan's disastrous attempt to remake the front in Idlib. That ended with his effective
surrender to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It is sad that, to me, I see no reason to doubt Pompeo and his ilk in the US government
wouldn't do something like that to spark political and social upheaval in those places most
targeted by US hybrid war tactics.
But, at the same time, I can see the other side of it, a vicious strike back by China
against its tormentors. And China's government does itself, in my mind, no favors threatening
to withhold drug precursors and having officials run their mouths giving Americans the excuse
they need to validate Trump and Pompeo's divisive rhetoric.
Remaining on the fence about this issue isn't my normal style. But everyone is dirty here
and the reality may well be this is a natural event terrible people on both sides are
exploiting.
And I can only go by what people do rather than what they say to assess the situation. Trump
tries to buy exclusive right to a potential COVID-19 vaccine from a German firm and his
administration slow-walks aid to Iran.
China sends aid to Iran and Italy by the container full. Is that to salve their conscience
over its initial suppression of information about the virus? Good question. But no one covers
themselves in glory by using the confusion and distraction to attempt further regime change and
step up war-footing during a public health crisis, manufactured or otherwise.
While Pompeo unctuously talks the talk of compassion and charity, he cannot bring himself to
actually walk the walk. Because he is a despicable, bile-filled man of uncommon depravity. His
prosecuting a hybrid war during a public health crisis speaks to no other conclusion about
him.
It's clear to me that nothing has changed at the top of Trump's administration. I expect
COVID-19 will not be a disaster for Trump and the US. It can handle this. But the lack of
humanity shown by its diplomatic corps ensures that in the long run the US will be left to fend
for itself when the next crisis hits.
@niteranger
"For example, New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof on Sunday reported the disheartening
analysis of Dr. Neil Ferguson of Britain, one of the world's leading epidemiologists."
Nicholas Kristoff has the bad habit of falling for falling for frauds and making them
famous. "Three cups of tea" for starters. He's got a long track record of peddling fake
stuff.
Yesterday I ventured into Wal-Mart to shop with the other local deplorable people that the
elite child molesters, sexual perverts, and sociopaths out in Hollyweird, NYC and Washington
like to look down on. Wasn't that crowded and I probably noticed about 10 customers "suited
and booted" wearing various masks of different shapes and styles and latex gloves. Speaking
of "suited and booted", shouldn't these people be wearing one of those full body suits and
booties over their shoes as well?
All of this apart from the issue, of how long this virus has been in the wild. It seems
my mother caught this disease in early February, in a small Midwestern isolated community
– she had what are given at the symptoms, but nobody was looking for it at the time,
so there is no diagnosis of her illness.
This Covid-19 may well have been in the US since the latter part of 2019 just not
diagnosed. It may be that the Chinese were the first to test for Covid-19, therefore it
appears to have started there.
At this point the death rate is unknown but most likely overstated.
The judge in the MH17 trial has issued an order for the US satelite data showing images of
the Buk missile being launched to be made available. If the prosecution is unable (or
refuses) to produce these images then this would strongly indicate that:
1. There was no Buk and MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian jet (which the very first, on
the ground, eyewitnesses indicated).
I tend to think US does have sat recording of the missile. It will show launch flare and
rocket burn. It was quite clear by what Kerry said that this is what their sats pick up.
Launch flare will show launch position to within a few meters.
Robert Parry did a piece on it a few weeks after the shootdown. His contact in the US
intel thought sat pics of the position were showing Ukraine military.
This is what Kerry said within a few days of the MH17 downing:
"We saw the take-off. We saw the trajectory. We saw the hit. We saw this aeroplane
disappear from the radar screens. So there is really no mystery about where it came from and
where these weapons have come from."
But still, nearly 6 years later, no evidence has been provided? Surely you can see how
inauthentic Kerry's statement is? Perhaps, Kerry could clear the matter up by being a witness
at the MH17 trial?
Robert Parry's CIA source feels like an authorised leak and psyop exercise that reinforces
the idea of a Buk and expresses concern about the possibility of Ukrainian military
involvement (the true purpose of which is to create distance and absolve the US) whilst at
the same time being meaningless and of no real value.
You "tend" to believe Kerry and a CIA leak and discount what ordinary Ukrainians witnessed
on the day of the shootdown? Why????
I was reading an article in a specialist medical newspaper at the doctor's surgery this
morning while waiting to pick up my blood test results. The article was written by a doctor
who was part of an Australian medical delegation visiting China recently. Among other things
the doctor mentioned was that government services personnel had been redeployed into other
areas away from their usual ranges of expertise. He saw a woman giving instructions to
medical personnel on how to wear medical gowns. He assumed she herself was a doctor; she
turned out to be a receptionist.
" The second thing that's good about it is the sun. Ultraviolet light kills viruses."
The disease is spreading in the southern hemisphere which is in summer with much higher UV
just as rapidly as the northern hemisphere which is in winter with much less UV. So the data
at least in this case says no. BTW she retired in 2008, and she seems to have done some
impressive work in the past, though as they say in the small print of adverts for
investments, past performance is no predictor of future performance.
@AaronInMVDYes, being sick sucks. Just would many of these people who are sick and suffering have
gone to the hospital if it wasn't for the damned panic.
In Italy the hospitals are completely overwhelmed and it has nothing to do with panic.
They are doing military triaging and medical workers are about to collapse. They have more
hospital beds per capita than the US so we definitely don't want to end up like them.
In the US there are probably people showing up at hospitals for tests but that is the
fault of the government (including Democrats) for not getting enough tests ready. Even today
there aren't enough tests and it is unlikely they will meet demand within weeks if not
months.
Democrats are blaming Trump but they were the ones calling travel bans racist and they
didn't have anything to say about tests when it was starting to spread two months ago. They
were focused on the primary and getting rid of Bernie.
'' want it or not the rest of the population is gonna get the Coronavirus''...wow !!! you
are are sooo sure about it ...i bet you know thinks that we don't , probably you knew this
since last year
Very informative .. Thank you and I agree almost totally.. only thing that I find is an
error is immunity to virus. Immunity will be there with young and active people. The virus
can still be transmitted. Older generation will continue to be susceptible to the virus
unless we have a medicine for corona virus.
yeah jackrabbit... when the usa wasn't busy trashing russia for this that and the other
thing, they then moved on to trashing china... and of course everything will be used to trash
either... so now we have the '''china''' virus according to the head bimbo in charge.. give
it up... the neo con hot meal being served up regularly is going to happen regardless of
coronavirus, or king turnips ''china'' virus... the msm in the usa is as predictable as you
and pat lang, lol.. no offense, but i have to agree with kikilown....
The Trump Regime recently sent out a cable directing US government officials to focus on
specifically criticizing China for the COVID-19 pandemic--and conveniently distract blame
away from the Trump Regime's own belated and haphazard response:
"As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow at a rapid pace in the U.S., the
White House is launching a communications plan across multiple federal agencies that focuses
on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a "cover-up" and creating a global pandemic, according
to two U.S. officials and a government cable obtained by The Daily Beast.
The cable, sent to State Department officials Friday, lays out in detail the
circumstances on the ground in China, including data on coronavirus cases and deaths, the
local business environment and transportation restrictions. But it also issues guidelines for
how U.S. officials should answer questions on, or speak about, the coronavirus and the White
House's response in relation to China.
[...]
The cable was disseminated to officials at a time when the administration is engrossed
in a communications battle around how to disseminate the flow of crucial health information
to the American public while at the same time deflecting criticism that the White House was
unprepared for the pandemic and that President Trump is at odds with members of his
coronavirus task force.
One of the results of those internal deliberations appears to be a renewed focus on
underscoring China's missteps. Two U.S. officials working on the administration's coronavirus
response said the White House is pushing federal agencies to stick closely to the national
security council's talking points, especially when senior officials take to the podium, to
ensure continuity with President Trump.
"These talking points are all anyone is really talking about right now," one official
said. "Everything is about China. We're being told to try and get this messaging out in any
way possible, including press conferences and television appearances."
Authoritarianism is a lame term by the West to excuse their own chronic lack of
responsibility at all levels. At least here in Singapore everyone knows true freedom revolves
around our wallets and essential goods/services, and not from ideological chicken soup.
Talking to my daughter this morning. Husband and wife returns from overseas. No testing an
quarantine for people coming . They go home do whatever, husband feels a bit crook, tests
positive for coronavirus. Hospitalized, on a ventilated and will soon die. She is at a
private hospital and this is at the public hospital. no medical staff working with this
patient wore protective gear.
I had thought we where following China closely on dealing with this but man was I wrong.
Total fuckwits collecting seashells on the seashore as the tsunami approaches.
Sent my daughter links to the pdf handbook put out by the Chinese doctors who worked on the
frontlines. Covers PPE and much else. She is now passing it around to the other nurses.
Doctors in Australia had started using chloroquine if they could not obtain other antivirals.
Apparently the government has now stopped them from doing this.
"... Instead the French authorities are now trying to prepare people for work by saying that people should not go out at all because when they do they touch the left button, the doors etc. ..."
"... They can just wear gloves and clean up whatever they touch with alcohol, no? Why aren't such cheap things not distributed widely, household by household? ..."
Another interesting feature of the shock strategy currently applied is that until planes and
trains and stadiums were not plugged off, one can imagine that the virus was spreading on a
much bigger scale than without these going on as usual.
So why should people who already see a max of 5 persons a week (close enough) be under
house arrest? masks are evidently a solution.
Instead the French authorities are now trying to prepare people for work by saying that
people should not go out at all because when they do they touch the left button, the doors
etc.
But what of asking people for responsibility?
They can just wear gloves and clean up
whatever they touch with alcohol, no? Why aren't such cheap things not distributed widely,
household by household?
The French are doing worse because they have no community planning, unlike Belgium, the
Netherlands, the UK and other northern countries. I haven't heard anyone on French media say
that the municipalities or district social centres could play a role in better mapping the
needs.
It seems to be entirely on the shoulders of our super-centralized gov and the
hospitals! With the results we see (and we are actually doing not so bad: 5 % of the positive
seem to die, vs 10% in Spain and Italy -using the figures given here
There's growing concern among health officials about so called silent spreaders, people who
are infected with the coronavirus, but aren't sick. Now some UK doctors say there may be a clue
to who's carrying it and they want the loss of smell and taste added to the list of
symptoms.
A mother who was infected with the coronavirus couldn't smell her baby's full diaper.
Cooks who can usually name every spice in a restaurant dish can't smell curry or garlic, and
food tastes bland. Others say they can't pick up the sweet scent of shampoo or the foul odor
of kitty litter.
Anosmia, the loss of sense of smell, and ageusia, an accompanying diminished sense of
taste, have emerged as peculiar telltale signs of Covid-19, the disease caused by the
coronavirus, and possible markers of infection.
On Friday, British ear, nose and throat doctors, citing reports from colleagues around the
world, called on adults who lose their senses of smell to isolate themselves for seven days,
even if they have no other symptoms, to slow the disease's spread. The published data is
limited, but doctors are concerned enough to raise warnings.
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the scenario that China and Russia become extremely hostile with each other in the near
future (possibly even distant future) is extremely unlikely
I don't believe this is as unlikely as some might think, although not in a way most would
expect. And changing demographics in the United States could be a key catalyst in such a turn
of events. To clarify, I don't think there will be an overtly anti-Russian sentiment running
through mainland China in the near future, but I could see ethnic Asian -- particularly
Chinese -- demographics in the United States turning that country against Russia, and later
the whole of Europe, as a means of deflecting away from the CCP globally and ethnic Chinese
domestically.
Much of the current anti-Russian sentiment promoted by the left is just thinly veiled
anti-white animus. A key element of coalition building is having a common enemy. The common
enemy of POC is the white American demographic. Russia is the ruling class's whipping boy, a
stand in for their white Christian domestic rivals. That's why you see racist identitarians
like the South African Trevor Noah obsessing about Russia and Putin even though neither has
anything to do with any American's living standard (and never mind the hypocrisy of having so
many autocratic non-white allies -- a fact which is strangely omitted from their rhetoric
about Russian strongmen).
When considering past conflicts, most people falsely assume there wasn't a more base
motive -- ethnic antipathy. Children in the United States, for instance, are taught that
their country entered the Second World War because Hitler was bad and the imperial Japanese
were bad. Perhaps, but that isn't really the true reason. The United States government and
significant portions of the population lobbied for entry into both world wars due mostly to
ethnic allegiances; Britain spoke English and so did an American white population descended
largely from that same group. It's not a coincidence that the most anti-war sections of the
country were also the most German. Charles Lindbergh, a noted anti-war celebrity, was German,
IIRC; Jewish activists have spent decades trying to destroy his image.
It's also probably not a coincidence that many Americans who opposed entry into these wars
were fairly recent descendants of ethnic groups with a history of anti-Anglo sentiment. FDR's
Irish ambassador, for example, to the Court of St. James's made it clear to the British Royal
Family that the American public opposed entry into the war (true, but the government was
working hard behind the scenes to make it happen). An enraged WASP FDR eventually sacked him.
In that light, it's not inconceivable to think that had the U.S. accepted 2 or 3 times the
number of German and Irish immigrants the country might have remained neutral or even joined
the Axis. In contrast, the strongest supporters of these wars were WASP celebrities,
politicians, and voting demographics.
In the present, the U.S. supports Israel mainly because it has a powerful Jewish lobby
that influences it to do so, even against its wider interests. The same is true of Cuba where
the country sacrifices its national image in order to appeal to a small demographic of Cuban
expats in southern Florida. Over in Europe, the UK -- flooded with Indian immigrants -- is
now unnaturally friendly to India, even reorienting its recent domestic culture to include
far more Indian history, subjects, and characters in shows like Dr. Who (a show that now no
longer has a traditional Christmas episode as it went POC woke). Demography is destiny, it
would seem. Immigration without assimilation is equivalent to conquest.
Polls in the United States show Asians have the most positive opinion of the Chinese
government by a fairly wide margin, and there have been numerous stories lately of Chinese
ethnics protesting in favor of the interests of that country -- against the Hong Kong
protests (Disney's Mulan actress, a nationalized American), against college events and
monuments they deem against China, and against any description of corona as a "China virus",
not that I endorse the description myself. Other demographics show a more mixed opinion.
Regardless, I expect there will continue to be a steady flow of Asian immigrants to the
United States with predictable consequences.
I think it is possible that the American system could be co-opted with a concerted effort
and repurposed to serve the interests of China, an effective coup similar to Israel's
domination of the current establishment by means of diaspora activists. A few diversity
programs, a set of prominent politicians, some money thrown around, the founding and
infiltration of a few lobby groups, and a few unscrupulous people put in charge of the
entertainment and news industries could see a situation where sympathetic Chinese ethnics
seize control. We've already seen this several times before in United States history --
protestant then catholic then Jewish. And with few common bonds or any sense of patriotism
left to deter such a thing*, this will be all the easier. Consider the recent mass arrests of
American academics found to be working for the Chinese government. It was stunning,
really.
In such an event, you'll likely see coalition building against the white demographic by
domestic Asian-led minority groups. This will also apply to alliances involving other
countries and demographics -- all in an effort to deflect from China and Asians domestically
while enhancing their power. This will involve the promotion of various propaganda and even
extend to rewriting history. The media will demonize Russia and then Europe. They'll employ
rhetoric involving colonialism and various events from European history, such as the
Inquisition, to attack Europeans and ally rival racial groups against them for personal
gain.
Jews did something similar previously; they were at the forefront of "civil rights" in the
United States and immigration reforms aimed at weakening the electoral strength of their WASP
rivals. They've also rewritten history to paint themselves and their allies as the victims of
their ethnic rival's hateful machinations -- continually digging up and exaggerating past
events. For instance (one among many), you're told as an American that anti-Semitic
Southerners murdered an innocent Jewish Leo Frank because they hated Jews for no reason. What
you won't be told (because Jewish groups have banned the book that told the tale from Amazon)
is that Jews in the South were generally well integrated and not persecuted to any real
extent. The same book I'm referencing has tables of prominent Jewish politicians in the South
and corrected much of the propaganda surrounding Frank's trial. Why would the history books
lie about such a thing? Easy, because the people who wrote them saw the trial as an
opportunity to build an inroad with the black demographic against the common enemy, white
Christians. **
Unz has an article on the Leo Frank trial if you're interested. It's worth a read. If
anything, it understates the evidence presented in the book as it is quite compelling. No
wonder Amazon banned it. BTW, the book does not promote violence, so there was no legitimate
reason to ban it other than the fact that it damaged domestic Jewish ethnic interests.
You've already seen some of this deflection in the democratic presidential primary debates
with candidate Andrew Yang, an ethnic Chinese. He claimed in the second debate that Russia
was the nation's greatest threat. That's nonsense. China in the near future will easily be
10x the strategic, economic and cultural competitor that Russia will ever be. It was an
obvious and uncomfortable deflection away from his ethnic group to another. Expect that trend
to potentially accelerate after the democrats seize permanent control of the government and
ruling class sometime after 2020. What mechanism is there to stop them?
I know Anatoly has speculated that the current China / USA rivalry is likely now
permanent, but I don't see it that way. The democrats have repeatedly signaled a willingness
to go back to business as usual. In the second democratic debate last year, nearly all the
candidates opposed trade tariffs on China and deflected away to Russia on foreign policy.
These people have one loyalty -- to their bank accounts. I expect the Democrats, spurred on
by a donor class that shares practically no loyalty to the working class, to largely reverse
the tensions Trump has ratcheted up. That means more economic policies that enrich the
corrupt ruling class to the nation's geopolitical detriment -- more outsourcing, and
particularly in critical industries that relate to national defense and the economy *** .
The Chinese could easily exploit this vulnerability to affect a coup against their main
rival. Perhaps there will be a counter-coup before 2040 or so by the American military to
prevent this, but I think that is unlikely considering just how corrupt, inept, and
politically correct it is.
*Unlike other countries quarantined under Corona, the US has seen no similar patriotic
singing or the like. A few celebrities tried creating a viral moment by posting themselves
singing a classic John Lennon song, but it was widely mocked. The media has used every
opportunity to undermine their implied ethnic enemies, the white republicans. The democrats
are busy stuffing the aid bill with giveaways to their ethnic coalition like "diversity"
requirements from companies in exchange for aid. The United States is a fragile domestic
empire filled with various groups having practically no loyalty to each other and who take
every opportunity to screw the other side over. Even in a time of relative crisis, they
couldn't come together. It will only get worse.
** For a glimpse of the future, consider the extraordinary number of holocaust movies and
books, along with media, depicting whites and their history as bad. I couldn't even begin to
list it all here. It's extraordinary, and it disproportionately comes from the usual
demographics.
*** The United States is currently beholden to China for much of its pharmaceuticals,
almost all the rare earth elements used in its tech industry, and many of the chemicals used
in its military machine -- 100% in some cases. If a war starts in the near future, the U.S.
will find that it has so many shortages that it cannot be sustained. They will lose or give
up. What will the democrats do about this? Probably nothing. Only under Trump has the U.S.
funded domestic rare earth mining efforts to create an alternate supply chain, but that
effort could easily be shelved in the next Biden administration. The man has already proved
himself corrupt over the years by receiving large amounts of corporate campaign contributions
and being connected to shady Ukraine deals.
@Divine
Right American conflicts with Russia are based partly on self-serving fictions of the
military industrial complex that need an enemy for their continued existence, as well as some
more realistic conflicts involving Eastern Europe and rival interests over oil prices. The US
need for hegemony, which is highly tied to the value of the dollar as a reserve currency,
further thrusts this forward and center(and indeed, into conflict with China as well). This
all is interminged with a generalized rejection of "authoritarian" governments.
China, on the other hand, has no real current conflicts with Russia – most conflicts
involve sales of weaponry and political influence over central Asian states, nothing of vast
importance at least compared to being their the target of an enormous world-spanning
sanctions order or a dedicated trade war.
Your argument has the weird self-contradiction that the CCP both is supposedly the
mind-controlling alien brain of all Asians, while at the same time, not actually benefiting
from any specific conflict with Russia. This also ignores the fact that Asians tend to
assimilate the highest by any population(at nearly 40% intermarriage
in some segments, that Chinese students in particularly no longer tend to stay in the US(
only
20% by 2017 ), and that a overwhelming part of the demographic increase by
immigration is
Indian with long historical and cultural rivalries with China. And far more than Chinese
Americans, who often engage in racial masochism(witness Gordan Chang ), Indian Americans are vastly
more active and influential in American
politics both due to cultural reasons as well as higher verbal IQ. This isn't even
hypothetical: Indian American political writers dominate National Interest articles stressing
for more hawkish Chinese attitudes and were directly contributory to renaming the South China
Seas conflict to the "Indo-Pacific region."
I do agree that the US has long since crippled its resource base. But there's no evidence
that Trump, or anyone else, is demonstrating the barest inkling of trying to resolve it(or
that it is even possible, given the bueaucratic overload and red tape of regulations). Gould
once described evolution as a "drunkard's walk" between complexity, where organisms sometimes
fall trapped inside rail tracks, unable to stumble out.
Indian American political writers dominate National Interest articles stressing for more
hawkish Chinese attitudes and were directly contributory to renaming the South China Seas
conflict to the "Indo-Pacific region."
@Divine
Right American conflicts with Russia are based partly on self-serving fictions of the
military industrial complex that need an enemy for their continued existence, as well as some
more realistic conflicts involving Eastern Europe and rival interests over oil prices. The US
need for hegemony, which is highly tied to the value of the dollar as a reserve currency,
further thrusts this forward and center(and indeed, into conflict with China as well). This
all is intermingled with a [fake and hypocritical] generalized rejection of "authoritarian"
governments.
China, on the other hand, has no real current conflicts with Russia – most conflicts
involve sales of weaponry and political influence over central Asian states, nothing of vast
importance at least compared to being their the target of an enormous world-spanning
sanctions order or a dedicated trade war.
Your argument has the weird self-contradiction that the CCP both is supposedly the
mind-controlling alien brain of all Asians, while at the same time, not actually benefiting
from any specific conflict with Russia. This also ignores the fact that Asians tend to
assimilate the highest by any population(at nearly 40% intermarriage
in some segments, that Chinese students in particularly no longer tend to stay in the US(
only
20% by 2017 ), and that a overwhelming part of the demographic increase by
immigration is
Indian with long historical and cultural rivalries with China. And far more than Chinese
Americans, who often engage in racial masochism(witness Gordan Chang ), Indian Americans are vastly
more active and influential in American
politics both due to cultural reasons as well as higher verbal IQ. This isn't even
hypothetical: Indian American political writers dominate National Interest articles stressing
for more hawkish Chinese attitudes and were directly contributory to renaming the South China
Seas conflict to the "Indo-Pacific region."
I do agree that the US has long since crippled its resource base. But there's no evidence
that Trump, or anyone else, is demonstrating the barest inkling of trying to resolve it(or
that it is even possible, given the bueaucratic overload and red tape of regulations). Gould
once described evolution as a "drunkard's walk" between complexity, where organisms sometimes
fall trapped inside rail tracks, unable to stumble out.
Indian American political writers dominate National Interest articles stressing for more
hawkish Chinese attitudes and were directly contributory to renaming the South China Seas
conflict to the "Indo-Pacific region."
This weaponizing of random indignation is a classic tool of the Western propaganda. In
Romania, we heard for a decade how the national-populists masquerading as socialists are to
blame for the lack of highways. It's been a few years since idiot Romanians gather in random
cities to complain that their city is not yet hooked to the Austro-Hungarian highway system,
despite the lack of traffic between their city and Austro-Hungary.
It is my understanding that, once highway construction will start, there will be protests
about natural or archeological treasures presumably endangered by the construction. It has
been decently working in Russia, with that Khimki forest.
Anything that can be thrown at a government threatening to leave the NWO will be used.
It's even worse for governments that are already one foot out, like Russia / China, or
completely out, like Iran / North Korea. Putin will be blamed for epidemics, earthquakes,
tsunamis, and even eclipses. If an earthquake would kill only a few, we will hear about
"failure to respond". If the earthquake doesn't kill anybody. we will be told that Putin
exploited it for propaganda.
One of the ways that CIA and Soros use, in order to weaponize Romania's presumed lack of
highways, is to pay some useful idiots, who call themselves "The Association for the
Betterment of Highways", "The Pro-Infrastructura Brigade", and so on. Most of these NGOs
consist of a single person, who posts videos of them ranting next to a construction site.
Using the model that BoJo used for the upcoming marriage (three men and one dog), the more
Soros/CIA-resistant types call them "The One-Incel-And-His-Drone Association".
By that same standard, I suspect we call this Doctors' Alliance
"Vasilievna-and-her-thermometer Association". Whatever she says about Moscow hospitals is
probably informed by her thermometer anyway. I doubt you can tell how things are in a
10-million city, especially if you are a marginal clown.
Is she an ophthalmologist, like The Part-Time Virologist Martyr of Wuhan? Dentist,
perhaps?
Let's take a look at that last article ,
written by FT's Henry Foy today, and one of the more balanced (read: less PDS-afflicted)
journalists doing the Russia beat (not to mention the most prominent in the above sample,
having scored an exclusive interview
with Putin in 2019).
"The present number of patients with coronavirus will be hidden from us," said Anastasia
Vasilieva, chairman of Doctors' Alliance, a Russian lobby group affiliated with opposition
politician Alexei Navalny.
Now Foy, to his credit, at least has the journalistic integrity to acknowledge that this
doctors' group (which I have never heard of before now) is affiliated with Navalny, whose
entire shtick is to oppose everything and anything the Kremlin does.
A political tilt that its chairwoman helpfully confirms:
"The value of human life for our president is nil . . . We
don't want to admit to any pandemic," said Ms Vasilieva. "We know of hospitals that are
completely full and nurses who are asked to sew face masks from gauze."
***
But otherwise it follows the usual template on Russia COVID-19 coverage.
She claimed Moscow was instead classifying cases of the virus as pneumonia, the incidence
of which increased by almost 40 per cent in January compared with a year previously,
government data showed.
The aim here is to insinuate that there was a raging coronavirus epidemic camouflaged as the
flu from as early as January 2020.
Oh Corona, where to start.
1. Flu mortality fluctuates wildly season to season by a factor of as high as 4x . So this is a
perfectly meaningless fact from the outset.
2. Even China's epidemic only broke 1,000 cases in January 25. Where were Russians getting
infected??
3. If this was true, it is Russia, not Italy, that would be the center of the COVID-19
epidemic now -- something that would certainly be noticed, e.g. in overflowing hospitals (no
sign of that to date) or in exported cases (but that was all
China in February, and predominantly Italy, Iran, and other EU nations now). It is Britons that
Vietnam has started
barring ten days ago, not Russians.
Here's what I guess happened. People got agitated by reports from China, and were more
likely to consult doctors, producing more flu diagnoses. Even though the actual chance of
Russians having COVID-19 in January if they hadn't been to Wuhan was on the order of a
meteorite hitting them on the head.
While other foreign leaders have steeled their citizens for a long crisis and have spoken
of a "war" against the pandemic, Mr Putin has played down the threat and urged citizens to
remain calm in an effort to minimise panic -- and ensure the nationwide ballot on April 22
takes place.
"The virus is a challenge and comes at a very bad moment for him," said Tatiana Stanovaya,
founder of R. Politik, a political analyst. "Putin doesn't want to postpone and is insisting
that the referendum takes place as soon as possible . . . The
longer they wait, the more risks will appear."
The US epidemic (22k cases) is about two orders of magnitude more advanced than Russia's
(306 cases), but most states have continued to hold primaries for the Dem nomination.
And in any case Putin has allowed the possibility
that the April 22 Constitutional Referendum may be postponed. There's no indication it's a
hard, immovable date.
At the same time, Mr Putin has sought to project an image of control, continuing with his
diary of local visits and meetings with senior officials, shaking hands and never wearing a
face mask.
Although it would be nice for Putin to set a better example, this is the rule,
internationally -- not the exception. Stressing this is so petty, LOL.
"No matter what happens in the next 35 days, they have to lie, hush up, and deny. It
doesn't matter at all what really will happen to coronavirus in Russia, whether there will be
a moderate outbreak or tens of thousands are killed," said Igor Pitsyn, a doctor in
Yaroslavl, a city 250km north-east of Moscow.
"By Putin's decree all information about this is declared a state secret until April
22 . . . This 'nationwide vote' will be held at all costs."
First time I hear of this. Searching "путин
коронавирус
гостайна" doesn't produce any relevant results.
This doctor must have some very high placed sources.
Or perhaps Foy had to travel all the way to Yaroslavl to get a sufficiently juicy quote.
While officials have cited the low number as proof of the success of swiftly closing its
border with China in January and steadily cutting flights to affected countries, experts have
questioned how the country has proved far more immune than almost any other. Neighbouring
Belarus has five times more infections per capita than Russia, and France, which has roughly
half Russia's population, has more than 50 times the number of cases.
Russia doesn't have large numbers of Gastarbeiters in the EU, unlike Belarus. Our
Belorussian commenters also tell us
that there are next to no control measures in place.
But Ukraine has perhaps 20x more Gastarbeiters in the EU than Belarus, and yet 2 days ago
reported only 1/3 as many Corona cases (16 vs. 51). Which suggests where Western journalists
covering Eastern Europe should really focus their
attention .
If they, you know, cared about the Corona situation in Eastern Europe. As opposed to
promoting the US line that Russia bad and China bad.
***
Incidentally, an update on Ukraine, two days after my alarm-raising article , in
which I suggested that it's likely there's a big cluster developing undetected in Ukraine.
Even though testing in Ukraine remains extremely patchy -- even in per capita terms, its
~500 tests are two orders of magnitude lower than Russia's ~150k, or for that matter Belarus'
~16k -- the past two days have seen a surge of new cases from 16 to 41. The majority of those
cases, some 25 of them, are concentrated in Chernivtsi oblast, which also saw the death of a 33
year old woman from existing problems magnified by the coronavirus.
The unlikelihood of such a mortality profile, coupled with the flood of new cases despite
continued low testing rates, strongly suggests that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and
that a cluster is developing in Chernivtsi oblast.
There's a reason Chernivtsi has so many cases -- large # of people go to Italy for
work.
An acquaintance of mine from there confirmed his business partner just tested positive for
the virus.
But just in case you think I am piling on to Ukraine because of my own political obsessions
you would be mistaken.
I will say that after Ukraine, probably the second biggest undetected Corona timebomb in
Europe may be Serbia. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia page on COVID-19 testing doesn't have
information for Serbia. However, one of my Serbian friends on Thursday wrote me that:
We are still testing around 50 per day, with 1/5 being positive
So both the intensity of testing and the rate of positives is similar to Ukraine.
This Friday, he continued:
We still have competent health care workers (the decision not to test the wider population
is purely political, as was the decision no to close schools until 5 days ago), relatively
functioning health care system, about 1500 respirators on a population that is 7+
million.
On the other hand, we have the second lowest reported total test volume anywhere in the
world, after Malorossiya :), at 545 total as of this morning, one of the highest positive
rates per 1000 tests (after Italy, Spain, Ecuador and the Philippines). We have seen an
influx of over 250 000 gastarbeiters from Western Europe in the past 10 days Many people are
breaking the 14 day mandatory self isolation. When I say many, I'm talking about thousands
every day
We have 3 things potentially on our side. God, warmth, and Sun. Or it's all just God?
And to think that Serbia was one of the first countries in the world to eradicate smallpox
in the 1830s Under the lifelong illiterate knyaz Miloš
The large number of Gastarbeiters in Western Europe, most of whom are now going to be let
go, is another similarity that Serbia shares with Ukraine. And is something that will be a very
problematic issue going forwards.
Fortunately, it appears that China (and Russia ) are going to bail Serbia
out with test kits.
Extraordinary address the president of Serbia, the largest #EU membership
candidate now banned from importing medical kit. "European solidarity does not exist. It was
a fairy-tale the only country who can help us out of this difficult situation is China."
#coronavirus
https://t.co/JTbtPCS6NK
Despite their rather different geopolitical viewpoints, European attitudes to both Serbia
and the Ukraine are quite similar. They are to be exploited to the extent they are useful;
otherwise discarded as needed. It's a lesson they should mull over.
Why are you sensitive about what some article said in an American newspaper about Russia? Who
cares? Half of articles in Russian websites are often ten times more stupid than even
articles in American websites (which are already stupid), and people in America don't care
about that.
Also, I read only CNN's article on the topic, and I notice it follows the pattern that CNN
report more accurately outside America, than they do in America. I.e. They are more objective
(like most people) writing about things which are far away from them https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/21/europe/putin-coronavirus-russia-intl/index.html
Business Insider: Doctors in Russia are accusing the government of covering up its
coronavirus outbreak and denying them protective equipment
I have to say that on reddit this kind of conspiratorial crap gets a LOT of interest and
upvotes, an order of magnitude more upvotes than the factual Russian news. It seems that a
large chunk of Western public feels better about themselves and their situation, "knowing"
that there is terrible epidemic going on in Russia.
So these articles are actually having therapeutic effect on Western societies: ordinary
people in West take comfort in [imaginary] Russian suffering.
Serbia and Ukraine should have less developed epidemic of coronavirus, compared to most
European countries, as they are one of the minority of European countries which is not in the
EU.
As a result, they should have less per capita connectivity to Northern Italy, that is the
"staging point" for the coronavirus epidemic's invasion into Europe.
Well, perhaps I am wrong about Serbia, as it is a neighbouring country to Italy. But the
EU has a very intense labour mobility and incredibly amount of flights between themselves, if
we would look at flightradar on a normal week.
But EU is still covered by flights. While planes are generally avoiding Serbia and
Ukraine. Russia is almost disconnected from Europe now by planes (except for cargo planes).
However, even in normal, pre-Coronavirus times, Russia (as well as Ukraine) is far more
disconnected than any EU country, and is never blanketed by flights on flightradar in the
same way as Europe.
Perhaps Serbia still receives a lot of entry by people in buses and cars.
Wishing the virus to hit hard Russia is a way Westerners try to cover their incompetence.
There is an explosion of new cases in the USA but the American MSM keeps its Russophobe
obsession.
Today new cases in USA reached the numbers of Italy
https://www.rt.com/russia/483744-russia-doctor-coronavirus-holiday/
" A leading infectious diseases specialist in Russia's southern Stavropol region
endangered the lives of dozens of her colleagues and students by failing to self-quarantine
after a holiday in Spain, where she contracted coronavirus."
Just read the headline and thought, "Western journalists really want there to be a huge
corona epidemic in America ."
We all remember Bill Maher, to his credit, admitting to wanting what so many Progressives
pray for -- a brutal recession that would sink Tump's chances of reelection -- but I am
continually astounded by the fact that the MSM's hysterical, cult-like fervor for destroying
Trump, even to the tragic detriment of the American people, simply will not exhaust itself.
It is, if you will, a virus that keeps mutating into more and more virulent strains.
I think American-journalist-as-suicide-bomber is the number one potential threat to the
United States, and preventing this should be the FBI's number one priority. Thx.
@yakushimaru The Chinese
economy has at least one good thing going for it. They are the world's manufacturing floor.
Ultimately they can still make things unlike the US which has hollowed itself out. Refilling
the world supply chain gives them an advantage in recovering faster than the US will.
@Dmitry Don't be silly,
there are entire organizations in the West dedicated to fact checking Russian news agencies
and publishing their mistakes. So Anatoly's counterparts in the West do seem to care, they
seem to care very much. Furthermore, there is the asymmetry between the geopolitical power of
the two countries which makes what Americans write about Russia much more important than the
inverse.
AK has been covering this topic for years, so it may not be interesting to you, but it is
to him. And we come here, partly, because he writes about what he wants to, not what others
want him to. You, yourself, pointed this out.
Western media openly wishing that a plague strikes Russia is very low class. It has a minor
therapeutic role for the West to show that the evil ones are also suffering. But it is
basically a continuing descent into hysteria. Next we will hear that Putin was spotted
poisoning wells in Italy. (Sneaky bastard, probably used a face-mask, he is after all a
trained KGB spy.)
Regarding facts: it is a truism that all numbers are understated. There must be at this
point millions of people around the world who have been exposed and most will never know
about it. Corona hurts the old and the sick, most other people probably wouldn't know it was
happening without the media. In a preventive way it might actually benefit young, healthy
people to be exposed when their bodies can develop immunity -- you don't in general get the
same virus twice.
But a decision was made to protect our elders and it is a humane thing to do. And the
usual suspects can't avoid their low class ideological manias, attacking China, Russia and/or
Trump. These days they mostly work in the Western media. One wonders how that happened.
@utu
This was actually going to be the subject of my next post. She is the chief infectious
disease doctor for Stavropol!
She went to Madrid , from March 6th- March 9th- the exact period when cases in Spain
started ballooning up (420 went to 1200)
She has infected 11 other people, at least, in Stavropol and also taken part in a
conference there where about 1000 people attended.
I don't know if it was definitely a holiday -- sure, those are weekend dates and Madrid is
a wonderful place but infections there then still exceeded
the number in Russia now.
This weaponizing of random indignation is a classic tool of the Western propaganda. In
Romania, we heard for a decade how the national-populists masquerading as socialists are to
blame for the lack of highways. It's been a few years since idiot Romanians gather in random
cities to complain that their city is not yet hooked to the Austro-Hungarian highway system,
despite the lack of traffic between their city and Austro-Hungary.
It is my understanding that, once highway construction will start, there will be protests
about natural or archeological treasures presumably endangered by the construction. It has
been decently working in Russia, with that Khimki forest.
Anything that can be thrown at a government threatening to leave the NWO will be used.
It's even worse for governments that are already one foot out, like Russia / China, or
completely out, like Iran / North Korea. Putin will be blamed for epidemics, earthquakes,
tsunamis, and even eclipses. If an earthquake would kill only a few, we will hear about
"failure to respond". If the earthquake doesn't kill anybody. we will be told that Putin
exploited it for propaganda.
One of the ways that CIA and Soros use, in order to weaponize Romania's presumed lack of
highways, is to pay some useful idiots, who call themselves "The Association for the
Betterment of Highways", "The Pro-Infrastructura Brigade", and so on. Most of these NGOs
consist of a single person, who posts videos of them ranting next to a construction site.
Using the model that BoJo used for the upcoming marriage (three men and one dog), the more
Soros/CIA-resistant types call them "The One-Incel-And-His-Drone Association".
By that same standard, I suspect we call this Doctors' Alliance
"Vasilievna-and-her-thermometer Association". Whatever she says about Moscow hospitals is
probably informed by her thermometer anyway. I doubt you can tell how things are in a
10-million city, especially if you are a marginal clown.
Is she an ophthalmologist, like The Part-Time Virologist Martyr of Wuhan? Dentist,
perhaps?
US authorities are working to combat the spread of misinformation that has blossomed since
the start of the coronavirus pandemic (AFP Photo/Alastair Pike) Washington (AFP) - The US
Department of Justice announced Sunday it had shut down a website claiming to sell a
coronavirus vaccine, in its first act of federal enforcement against fraud in connection with
the pandemic.
Lawsuits had been filed against the site coronavirusmedicalkit.com, which claimed to sell
vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, when in fact there is no
such vaccine, the Justice Department said in a statement.
A Texas federal judge on Saturday ordered the site to shut down, according to the statement.
Its homepage, however, was still accessible as of Sunday evening.
"Due to the recent outbreak for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the World Health Organization is
giving away vaccine kits. Just pay $4.95 for shipping," read a statement on the homepage.
It was followed by a place to leave bank account information to pay shipping fees.
The Justice Department did not specify how many people fell victim to the scam, but the
investigation is ongoing to identify who is behind the fraud and how much money was stolen.
The intervention by the federal judiciary system is part of ongoing efforts by US
authorities to combat the spread of misinformation that has blossomed since the start of the
pandemic.
Attorney General Bill Barr last week urged federal prosecutors to make stopping
misinformation a priority and called US civilians to report all such abuses to the National
Center for Disaster Fraud.
He also warned citizens against a variety of scams including selling fake treatments online,
imitating emails from the WHO or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) intended
to collect personal data, and asking for donations for imaginary organizations.
Simultaneously, the US judicial system is on the warpath to combat price gouging of products
such as hand sanitizer or hygienic masks.
More than 33,000 people have been infected by the coronavirus in the US, and 416 have died,
according to a tracker managed by Johns Hopkins University.
@prime
noticer What if–as seems to be happening in Italy–the journalists simply
pretend that bodies are piling up, perhaps by attributing other deaths to Corona?
Beware: whenever these people decide on a narrative, they are loath to back down once they
are proven wrong. They don't want to lose face.
@oldhippie "Lots of people seen doing something Americans never do. Walking."
So true. It is the same here. The little kids are the most cheerful, adults are all over the
place in their reaction. Lady with a dog walked a 25 foot circle around me while crossing the
street the other day, felt like a leper right then. Ah well. I find that getting far enough
to get out of sight of buildings (lucky enough to have that option here) is just amazing now.
The woods/parks never looked so nice.
@TG "I think we should all wear bandannas. Like desperadoes in the old wild west."
Love it! I'm in. Part of me wants to try this while making a deposit at a bank...
This is someone who is dumb. If Robert Jeffress is the standard for being a faithful
Christian or being a legit evangelical I want nothing to do with it. Completely vomitous.
People like him put my family and community in further peril. And despite it all he still
gets the ear of the president...
It's people like this that tempers my hopes.
"Thousands of people streamed through the church lobby and into the pews. Ushers at
First Baptist Dallas invited members to the front rows, gesturing to the prime seats still
available. Trumpets blared, bright blue and purple lights illuminated the stage, and behind
the orchestra pit the 100 or so members of choir -- ranging from late teens to late 60s --
stood inches apart, ready to sing for the next 30 minutes."
"When Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor, walked onto the stage, wearing a dark suit
and shiny teal tie, he thanked the musicians."
"Isn't it great to see so many of them here today?" he asked the audience.
"Jeffress' sermon that morning, presented in his usual stoic-but-chipper demeanor,
was titled "The Road to Armageddon," and focused largely on biblical stories of God's
punishments. "God's judgment is not always immediate," he told his congregation, and the
tens of thousands of people watching online. "But it's always inevitable."
"Aside from a few empty pews in the back of the sanctuary, this seemed like any other
Sunday. Except it wasn't. This was Sunday, March 15. Most of the country was already being
reminded to stay at home, to practice social distancing, to flatten the curve of the
coronavirus outbreak, which President Donald Trump, the man Jeffress supports at every
turn, had just declared a national emergency."
Next time the governor should send the National Guard to escort everyone home. Jeffress
should be arrested. Incidentally, I believe that continued socializing in small groups is
healthy, under 10 of course, but what Jeffers is doing borders on criminal homicide.
Thanks for publishing this, Rod. I somehow neglected to mention the new test developed by
Thermo Fisher, which may result in as many new tests completed as Roche and Abbott
combined. It will run on over 200 machines currently in labs across the country, and they
are manufacturing two million test kits per week.
Altogether, test manufacturers have pledged to make over 10 million tests in the next
two weeks, and I cannot see any way that all the newly approved testing systems add less
than 85,000 tests per day. And that's without Roche, Cepheid, Thermo Fisher, and Abbott
selling any new machines, and I feel quite sure that they are going to sell some more
machines. And, of course, all of the current test providers are increasing production as
well. And the FDA will likely approve more Emergency Use Applications for other testing
systems in the next few days -- I think that I read that they are working through 80
applications. That's why I have complete confidence that, in less than two weeks, we'll be
able to test 150,000 people per day.
Cepheid's test, which I mentioned in the article, seems even more important in the wake
of the report from Italy that hospitals are themselves becoming major vectors in the
transmission of the virus, as it is spread from infected to uninfected patients. Because
Cepheid's test can be done in 45 minutes on machines that hospitals already have, it will
allow hospitals to test every admitted patient and quickly segregate those who have the
virus.
Lack of testing ability is what has kept Italy and Spain "behind the curve." Two days
ago, Italy tested just 17,000 people and had over 6,000 positive results. It's not all that
helpful to test people that you are already confident have the virus (they have already
spread it); it's much more valuable to test those who first come down with a fever and you
can isolate early if they are positive.
Spain announced (I think on Friday) that the 20,000 tests per day that they were doing
were completely insufficient, and they were purchasing enough machines to add an additional
80,000 tests per day (though it will take time to get those systems operational).
Read this article if you're unconvinced that mass testing has the ability to stop
transmission. It about an Italian town that some of the first cases in Italy, and how they
basically eliminated the virus from their town.
Also, I missed FDA approvals in the past week for new tests from: DiaSorin Molecular,
Hologic, and GenMark -- all of which operate on their own machines. This is a key
distinction, as these tests increase our total testing capacity, although I don't believe
that any of these will add as much as Roche or Thermo Fisher or Abbott.
There are also companies getting approval for tests that can run on machines that are
already being used, which is good because it creates price competition and enhances test
kit supplies, but doesn't fundamentally add to our national processing capability.
In that latter category, Novacyt got FDA approval for their test kit this morning, which
will run on a number of machines. Not all of these companies say how many test kits they
are going to distribute in the US, but I did see that Novacyt currently is supplying orders
of 8 billion euros for their tests in Europe (where they had gotten approval earlier), and
yet their stock still went up 45% today on the news of the FDA approval (which means that
they expect to distribute a lot of kits).
The massive testing increase largely in the New York and California, so there is that.
Also the numbers are horrible now, the US is on track to have more cases than Italy,
massive testing are going to make them much worse.
Outcomes are going to be much worse depending on where you live. States that have seen
large numbers of rural hospitals close, states with large numbers of uninsured, states that
were late to shut things down and states that can't compete for needed equipment on the
open market are going to have worse infection and mortality rates.
Oh and a 38 year old women was found dead in her home waiting for her test results.
I'm not sure an "end" is in sight. Perhaps a respite and a new phase of the battle. I too
look forward to spring but I think we will not even know the full extent of our problem
until the end of April. Warm weather might give us a break in the action, but we would be
foolish not to anticipate another wave in the fall, winter or spring of next year. As with
the flu, it's always winter someplace in the world, and viruses mutate. We wont fully be
out of this until we have a vaccine or a readily accessible drug paired with testing.
It's great that testing is growing in availability, but we still have a lot of sick
people who cannot access it while every politician, professional athlete and celebrity
seems to be getting tested just for "peace of mind."
Their ability to control the spread probably has more to do with their social and
hygiene habits than widespread testing. Japan, which has barely tested anyone, has been
able to control its outbreak even better than South Korea.
But again, closing schools has been an important piece in both countries. This
correspondent is pushing a false image of a society magically controlling this disease
without massive social disruptions.
Also, it's important to keep in mind that while Indonesia hasn't seen an outbreak yet,
they have also tested almost no one. They currently have one of the highest death rates in
the world, suggesting massive undercounting of cases. There's reason to believe they do
actually have a major outbreak, so reduced spread in warm weather does not mean it's
controlled without any restrictions. Malaysia, as a counter example, has instituted strict
controls because of a growing outbreak.
Expanded rapid testing and chloroquine are reasons to be hopeful, but get the basic
facts right.
The Joint Mission learned that infected children have largely been identified through
contact tracing in households of adults. Of note, people interviewed by the Joint Mission
Team could not recall episodes in which transmission occurred from a child to an
adult.
I can't find the quote right now, but another WHO representative said recently that, in
places that schools are open, they aren't seeing much transmission that way.
And if coughing is indeed the main method of transmission, it would make sense that
schools would not be large transmission vectors, since the virus usually has very little
impact on them and doesn't cause them to cough.
Great rundown on some of what's going on. I was going to post the following comment in
response to your post "The Present Apocalypse".
Our current state of knowledge does not justify predictions of mass death, societal
collapse, etc. If anything, what we now know leans toward a range of outcomes centered on
somewhat worse than the flu. I hope it's no worse than that, and if so, it's a good wake up
call after we hit snooze on SARS, MERS, and swineflu, and maybe this will even tamp down on
stupid like not vaccinating children against measles. It's also a great reminder to get
adequate data before acting, when action includes the evil of impoverishing and
immiserating millions of people.
Worldwide, 60,000,000 people die each year. In an ordinary year in the US, about
1,500,000 people 75 and up die from heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's related disease,
suicide, diabetes, and a host of other causes, including even generic lower respiratory
infection. Another 500,00 of those between 65 to 75. So far (AM 23 March), COVID-19 has
accounted for less than 0.03% of those deaths.
Now, it could get a lot worse. It's still very early, this train is in motion, and we
are going to see where it carries us, willing or not. The range of possible destinations
still includes a nasty pandemic. It also includes the possibility that COVID-19 is the Iraq
war of public health. We do not know the destination. See Ioannidis (Stanford) last week,
"A fiasco in the making? we are making decisions without reliable information":
Just a note here:
". . . in the US, about 1,500,000 people 75 and up die from heart disease,
cancer, Alzheimer's related disease, suicide, diabetes, and a host of
other causes . . . "
Do these people all die within 60 to 90 days of one another? Because I am assuming
that's what's making the difference.
I am also surprised that no one is taking the idea of war style triage in hospital
emergency rooms all over the country seriously.
Basically you are okay with leaving anyone that's too sick to die of viral pneumonia.
Which is like drowning FYI.
If the anti-malaria drugs don't prove to be safe and effective treatment for covid-19, it
looks like a treatment made of synthetic antibodies is right around the corner. Regeneron
appears to be at the cutting edge in this field, assisted in this endeavor by some
specialized mice:
"Regeneron scientists have now isolated hundreds of virus-neutralizing, fully human
antibodies from the company's VelocImmune mice, which have been genetically-modified to
have a human immune system. Regeneron has also isolated antibodies from humans who have
recovered from COVID-19, in order to maximize the pool of potentially potent antibodies.
From this large pool of candidates, Regeneron will select the top two antibodies for a
'cocktail' treatment based on potency and binding ability to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein,
as well as other desirable qualities."
In my lay opinion this is potentially good news, especially IF this virus proves to be
seasonal, or more accurately, adversely affected by higher temperatures and humidity;
However, this research needs to be duplicated and peer reviewed, and even if this
hypothesis is confirmed, this current property of the virus most likely only buys us time
till the fall;
Also, to reap the full benefits of its suspected high temperature/high humidity
vulnerability, it stands to reason that travel restrictions must stay in place. The
potentially higher number of infected people from the cooler and dryer areas should not mix
with people from hot and humid places;
Also, it is in the nature of viruses to "seek" better reproduction techniques, so what
if a high temperature/high humidity loving mutation pops up?
Anyway, I feel that I've piled a hypothetical upon a hypothetical, and I don't want to
be a party pooper, so it's a good place to stop.
Yes, there's hope. The seasonality effect is finally finding legs in proper research
papers. There's also weak evidence that zinc lozenges taken early help reduce lung
invasion. The evidence is weak, but the treatment has very little downside.
The biggest threat to economy now is Senator McConnel. We need massive fiscal stimulus,
a.k.a. "Helicopter Money", now. This is not the time for ideological purity, means testing,
inflation worries, whatever other Republican pet causes are. Federal government with its
ability to create unlimited money supply is the only force that can prevent economic
collapse right now.
Given McConnel's performance to date, I despair...
"High temperature and high relative humidity significantly reduce the transmission of
COVID-19, respectively, even after controlling for population density and GDP per capita
of cities This result is consistent with the fact that the high temperature and high
humidity significantly reduce the transmission of influenza. It indicates that the
arrival of summer and rainy season in the northern hemisphere can effectively reduce the
transmission of the COVID-19."
The factual content is not in dispute, because of how the statement is worded. It cites
statistical analysis and describes the controls used to arrive at the conclusion. This will
seem almost trivial to most people, especially those who've not had detailed exposure to
the disciplines used in data collection and statistical analysis, but it is the critical
aspect.
When mention of controls is missing, every aspect of the statement, from factual
content to conclusion, is suspect.
Modern journalism is all about the sound bite. It wants to get your attention -- and
your exposure to advertising, and including you in its ratings -- as quickly and
efficiently as possible. Quick and efficient is anathema to conveying the data and analysis
in statistical approaches. If you don't have those, if you don't know what the controls
were, you don't know even half the picture.
Agree with above, if some one in your home becomes sick, create a negative pressure room
with: box fan exhausting to the outside, HEPA purifier circulating 15 air exchanges per
hour, and a Humidifier raising to 55- 60% RH, in order to both kill and remove the virus
from the room and home, and therein the sick do not pull the virus in deeper.
Scientific studies show: for people under 64, fatality rate range is 0.05% to 1%, not
close to the 3.4% official rate that WHO has been reporting (seasonal influenza is 0.1%-
0.2%); although this rate is expected to narrow as more accurate data becomes available and
as the virus evolves. Warm, humid conditions greatly diminish the survival, -- 27 hours at
30% relative humidity, while only 3 hours at 80%. Each case of the new Covid-19 coronavirus
is estimated to cause 2 to 3 others, in line with seasonal influenza. (This means, as
writer stated, we should see a seasonal drop as temperatures warm and humidity
increases.)
Thank you to this reader, Rod - and a hat tip to him for using 'Boudreaux' as his example.
Hopefully when all this passes, Boudreaux and I could toast the occasion with an Abita.
@AP
People like you also took a decisively collective view of events. Majority of Chinese hardly
ever eaten a bat. Can you see? Besides, the evidence so far does not tell that it was a bat
virus jumped to humans in the food market.
One joke I read on Chinese web was like this: an alien space force comes to earth and
blames earthlings for spreading the virus, and Trump, being president of the most powerful
nation, says to the alien commander that it is the Chinese, but, you know.
The Phoenix-area man and his wife – who survived – ingested a form of
chloroquine used as a fish tank cleaner on Monday, reportedly after hearing President Trump
mention the chemical on TV.
@Pericles There are plenty
of deranged zealots everywhere. In Europe, fans of the cult of gender equality organize mass
gatherings during the epidemic, in Russia, Orthodox "activists" organize religious
processions during the epidemic (ironically, against the epidemic)
I might be naïve, but I think I know why there are so few Corona cases in Russia. I
think that the reason is because the virus has extreme dislike for non-democracies. After
all, we are talking about the 21st century virus, who has seen the world, not some backward
14 century stupid European plague virus.
This virus knows that it will receive better treatment by the "democracies" – that's
why it's headed their way. I mean look at the treatment it got in China. Is that a way to
treat a modern virus? It was totally disrespectful and brutal.
I don't blame the virus for wanting to migrate to the west, if I was a virus – I
would have similar urges. I think that the virus should definitely expect a better treatment
in the west – they probably have already set up a multicultural milieu so the poor
virus won't feel isolated, but rather establish instant camaraderie with the other
multicultural viruses in the west.
@Dmitry Can you show me even
ONE article or report from Izvestiya, life, kp. Vz, RBK, vesti, Channel 1 etc that is stupid
about the west? I can't because most of them are extremely well written.
The inverse situation? . I have just read 3 cretinous western lie reports about
Russia/coronavirus in the last half an hour! Each one born out of jealousy or CIA psyops
There is no comparison to make at all. You are doing false equivalence.
Gayropa DOES exist. It is a thing, an ideology
Your premise is absurd-50 % because Russian journalists are a lot more intellectual than
their western counterparts . and the other 50 % is quite naturally because millions of
Russians have closely admired or studied or been influenced by western practises and popular
culture in the last 30 years .. than vice versa.
Kiselyov has had an American wife, speaks English, family in Germany and has done many
excellent reports on western countries.
Brilyev speaks perfect English and is a British citizen.
Solovyov knows Italy and the US very well and on his talk shows he has done many
objective, constructive/positive comments about American business climate and bureaucracy,
for instance.
Can you compare any of those guys to their dumb as f ** k western counterparts trying to
do a report on Russia?
Different matter if you are talking about RT – that is lowest of the low,
anti-russian, garbage.
who cares? Half of Russian articles are 10 times more stupid than US ones
Who cares ? Because the culmination of these deceitful idiot scumbag stories is what
creates the momentum to ban Russia from the Olympics based on "collective" not individual
punishment , pull Ukraine away from Russia, make a friend of mine be too scared to come to
Russia on holiday because "the police will arrest you there for no reason" BS.,dissuade
investors from billions in investment because of PR, not practical reasons. create the
conditions so that self-discrediting freaks like Browder and Rodchenkov can say any BS as a
pretext to sanction russia with zero chance of getting refuted because of the "they will get
killed" by Russian agents if they go into the public (whilst going to the public) theory- a
hypothesis based on other lie reporting.
Russian media will make clear that its a disgrace the number of people the US police shoot
dead each year- but they won't say or imply that Russian tourists will get shot by US police
or dissuade them from going on holiday there.
Let's take a look at that last article ,
written by FT's Henry Foy today, and one of the more balanced (read: less PDS-afflicted)
journalists doing the Russia beat (not to mention the most prominent in the above sample,
having scored an exclusive interview
with Putin in 2019).
"The present number of patients with coronavirus will be hidden from us," said Anastasia
Vasilieva, chairman of Doctors' Alliance, a Russian lobby group affiliated with opposition
politician Alexei Navalny.
Now Foy, to his credit, at least has the journalistic integrity to acknowledge that this
doctors' group (which I have never heard of before now) is affiliated with Navalny, whose
entire shtick is to oppose everything and anything the Kremlin does.
A political tilt that its chairwoman helpfully confirms:
"The value of human life for our president is nil . . . We
don't want to admit to any pandemic," said Ms Vasilieva. "We know of hospitals that are
completely full and nurses who are asked to sew face masks from gauze."
This weaponizing of random indignation is a classic tool of the Western propaganda. In
Romania, we heard for a decade how the national-populists masquerading as socialists are to
blame for the lack of highways. It's been a few years since idiot Romanians gather in random
cities to complain that their city is not yet hooked to the Austro-Hungarian highway system,
despite the lack of traffic between their city and Austro-Hungary.
It is my understanding that, once highway construction will start, there will be protests
about natural or archeological treasures presumably endangered by the construction. It has
been decently working in Russia, with that Khimki forest.
Anything that can be thrown at a government threatening to leave the NWO will be used.
It's even worse for governments that are already one foot out, like Russia / China, or
completely out, like Iran / North Korea. Putin will be blamed for epidemics, earthquakes,
tsunamis, and even eclipses. If an earthquake would kill only a few, we will hear about
"failure to respond". If the earthquake doesn't kill anybody. we will be told that Putin
exploited it for propaganda.
One of the ways that CIA and Soros use, in order to weaponize Romania's presumed lack of
highways, is to pay some useful idiots, who call themselves "The Association for the
Betterment of Highways", "The Pro-Infrastructura Brigade", and so on. Most of these NGOs
consist of a single person, who posts videos of them ranting next to a construction site.
Using the model that BoJo used for the upcoming marriage (three men and one dog), the more
Soros/CIA-resistant types call them "The One-Incel-And-His-Drone Association".
By that same standard, I suspect we call this Doctors' Alliance
"Vasilievna-and-her-thermometer Association". Whatever she says about Moscow hospitals is
probably informed by her thermometer anyway. I doubt you can tell how things are in a
10-million city, especially if you are a marginal clown.
Is she an ophthalmologist, like The Part-Time Virologist Martyr of Wuhan? Dentist,
perhaps?
You are either big liar or very ignorant about that specific wet market in Wuhan.
That specific wet market 海鲜市场 is a seafood market.
It doesn't sell bat.
You are picturing it with your imaginations about the market.
The bat eating report comes from west MSM suddenly after the virus breaks out. The reporting
material they show you is picture of Chinese tourism TV show host eat bat soup in some south
pacific ocean. Given the rapid response of this west MSM, it's very suspicious that they are
after something, again.
The saying of Chinese eat bat is just the same degree as true as Westerners eat human flesh.
Chinese has every reason to suspect the US militaries. Nathen Rich in Youtube has
explained some time line details on Mar.17 about why it's possible this virus has US
origin.
I just add more about China side information: during the Military Game, 5 strange 'dysentery'
US soldiers visited the hospital 金银潭 which also becomes a virus center
later in Wuhan.
Route studies in China also shows that earliest infected cases in Wuhan have close contact
with the hotel where the US soldiers live during the Game.
US should give us back those 5 soldiers, so we can give them a check.
After Chinese spokesman Zhao Lijian's questions at twitter, some US netizens already
remembered their strange flu/pneumonia experience in last winter and their strange dead
relative cases at the time.
Italy expert also remembers that in last December, there are already strange pneumonia in
Italy, which now they would call COVID-19.
China is not the origin of COVID-19, it is just the first country to detect the virus and
opened the information to WHO.
The only reason Chinese might not revenge back for this virus given by US is that now it
looks like that US possibly did not do it to China on purpose, but due to pure stupidity and
incompetence.
I really shouldn't bother myself explain it to you. Because unfavoured truth doesn't
matter to you since US already decide to turns itself the enemy of China. It's basically war
time, everything at war to some degrees, no hot wars yet. US government, media and people
will serve the war target. US dominance and power in world media and propaganda crushes
Chinese voices.
So I expect more smears and lies from US.
But it's not totally bad that you continue feel better about yourself, about your system,
and buy all the lies your MSM feed you.
Unfortunately, we in the US are way behind the curve in finding and locking down clusters.
In fact super-spreaders - mostly young fools ignoring social distancing on beaches, in parks,
restaurants etc - are now popping up, most recently returning from Florida spring break to
Utah. Testing rates remain abysmal.
Idaho cases just went exponential, doubling about every 3 days. Republic Governor there is
pretty much a copy of Trump, as in a dangerous idiot, giving press conferences with multiple
staff hovering around, downplaying the risks, lying about test availability, talking about
protecting businesses, etc.
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Imagine if the congress approved a measure to form a public-private
partnership between the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Can you imagine that?
Now imagine if a panicky and ill-informed
Congress gave the Fed a blank check to bail out all of its crooked crony corporate and Wall Street friends,
allowing the Fed to provide more than $4.5 trillion to underwater corporations that ripped off Mom and Pop
investors by selling them bonds that were used to goose their stock prices so fatcat CEOs could make off
like bandits. Imagine if all that red ink from private actors was piled onto the national debt pushing
long-term interest rates into the stratosphere while crushing small businesses, households and ordinary
working people.
Now try to imagine the impact this would
have on the nation's future. Imagine if the Central Bank was given the green-light to devour the Treasury,
control the country's "purse strings", and use nation's taxing authority to shore up its trillions in
ultra-risky leveraged bets, its opaque financially-engineered ponzi-instruments, and its massive speculative
debts that have gone pear-shaped leaving a gaping black hole on its balance sheet?
Well, you won't have to imagine this
scenario for much longer, because the reality is nearly at hand. You see, the traitorous, dumbshit
nincompoops in Congress are just a hairs-breadth away from abdicating congress's crucial power of the purse,
which is not only their greatest strength, but also allows the congress to reign in abuses of executive
power by controlling the flow of funding. The power of the purse is the supreme power of government which is
why the founders entrusted it to the people's elected representatives in congress. Now these imbeciles are
deciding whether to hand over that authority to a privately-owned banking cartel that has greatly expanded
the chasm between rich and poor, incentivized destructive speculation on an industrial scale, and repeatedly
inflated behemoth asset-price bubbles that have inevitably blown up sending stocks and the real economy into
freefall. The idea of merging the Fed and the Treasury first appeared in its raw form in an article by
former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen in the Financial Times. Here's a short excerpt from the
piece:
"The Fed could ask Congress for the
authority to buy limited amounts of investment-grade corporate debt The Fed's intervention could help
restart that part of the corporate debt market, which is under significant stress.
Such a programme
would have to be carefully calibrated to minimize the credit risk taken by the Fed
while still
providing needed liquidity to an essential market." (
Financial
Times
)
The Fed is not allowed to buy corporate
debt, because it is not within its mandate of "price stability and full employment". It's also not allowed
to arbitrarily intervene in the markets to pick winners and losers, nor is it allowed to bailout
poorly-managed crybaby corporations who were gaming the system to their own advantage when the whole deal
blew up in their faces. That's their problem, not the Fed's and not the American taxpayer's.
But notice how Bernanke emphasizes how
"Such a programme would have to be carefully calibrated to minimize the credit risk taken by the Fed". Why
do you think he said that?
He said it because he anticipates an
arrangement where the new Treasury-Fed combo could buy up to "$4.5 trillion of corporate debt" (according to
Marketwatch and BofA). And the way this will work, is the Fed will select the bonds that will be purchased
and the credit risk will be heaped onto the US Treasury. Apparently Bernanke and Yellen think this is a
"fair" arrangement, but others might differ on that point.
Keep in mind, that in the last week
alone, investors pulled a record $107 billion out of corporate bonds which is a market which has been in a
deep-freeze for nearly a month. The only activity is the steady surge of redemptions by frantic investors
who want to get their money back before the listing ship heads for Davey Jones locker. This is the market
that Bernanke wants the American people to bail out mainly because he doesn't want to submerge the Fed's
balance sheet in red ink. He wants to find a sucker who will take the loss instead. That's where Uncle Sam
comes in, he's the target of this subterfuge. This same theme pops up in a piece in the Wall Street Journal.
Check it out:
"At least Treasury has come around
to realizing it needs a facility to provide liquidity for companies. But as we write this, Mr. Mnuchin
was still insisting that Treasury have control of most of the money to be able to ladle out directly to
companies it wants to help. This is a recipe for picking winners and losers, and thus for bitter
political fights and months of ugly headlines charging favoritism. The far better answer is for Treasury
to use money from Congress to replenish the Exchange Stabilization Fund to back the Fed in creating a
facility or special-purpose vehicles under Section 13(3) to lend the money to all comers. "(
"Leaderless
on the Econom"
, Wall Street Journal)
I can hardly believe the author is bold
enough to say this right to our faces. Read it carefully: They are saying "We want your money, but not your
advice. The Fed will choose who gets the cash and who doesn't. Just put your trillions on the counter and
get the hell out."
Isn't that what they're saying? Of
course it is. And the rest of the article is even more arrogant:
"The Fed can charge a
non-concessionary rate, but the vehicles should be open to those who think they need the money, not
merely to those Treasury decides are worthy." (Huh? So the Treasury should have no say so in who gets
taxpayer money??) The looming liquidity crisis is simply too great for that kind of bureaucratic,
politicized decision-making. (Wall Street Journal)
Get it? In other words, the folks at
Treasury are just too stupid or too prejudiced to understand the subtleties of a bigass bailout like this.
Is that arrogance or what?
This is the contempt these people have
for you and me and everyone else who isn't a part of their elitist gaggle of reprobates. Here's a clip from
another article at the WSJ that helps to show how the financial media is pushing this gigantic handout to
corporate America:.
"The Federal Reserve, Treasury
Department and banking regulators deserve congratulations for their bold, necessary actions to provide
liquidity to the U.S. financial system amid the coronavirus crisis. But more remains to be done. We thus
recommend: (1) immediate congressional action . to authorize the Treasury to use the Exchange
Stabilization Fund to guarantee prime money-market funds, (2) regulatory action to effect temporary
reductions in bank capital and liquidity requirements (NOTE–So now the banks don't need to hold capital
against their loans?) .. additional Fed lending to banks and nonbanks .(Note -by "nonbanks", does the
author mean underwater hedge funds?)
We recommend that the Fed take
further actions as lender of last resort. First, it should re-establish the Term Auction Facility, used
in the 2008 crisis, allowing depository institutions to borrow against a broad range of collateral at an
auction price (Note–They want to drop the requirement for good Triple A collateral.) Second, it should
consider further exercising its Section 13(3) authority to provide additional liquidity to nonbanks,
potentially including purchases of corporate debt through a special-purpose vehicle" (
"Do
More to Avert a Liquidity Crisis"
, Wall Street Journal
)
This isn't a bailout, it's a joke, and
there's no way Congress should approve these measures, particularly the merging of the US Treasury with the
cutthroat Fed. That's a prescription for disaster! The Fed needs to be abolished not embraced as a state
institution. It's madness!
And look how the author wants to set up
an special-purpose vehicle (SPV) so the accounting chicanery can be kept off the books which means the
public won't know how much money is being flushed down the toilet trying to resuscitate these insolvent
corporations whose executives are still living high on the hog on the money they stole from credulous
investors. This whole scam stinks to high heaven!
Meanwhile America's working people will
get a whopping $1,000 bucks to tide them over until the debts pile up to the rafters and they're forced to
rob the neighborhood 7-11 to feed the kids. How fair is that?
And don't kid yourself: This isn't a
bailout, it's the elitist's political agenda aimed at creating a permanent underclass who'll work for
peanuts just to eek out a living.
In 2008-2009, the Federal Reserve bailed out the global banking system to the tune of $16 Trillion. But
American citizens were left to pay usurious rates of interest on $1 Trillion of credit card debt. And
American students had lost years of economic opportunity but their $1 Trillion dollars of debt could not be
discharged through bankruptcy.
This time the banks should stand behind the debtors at the government
troth.
It's hard to understand how holiday cruise shipping can be regarded as an essential business.
It is almost as hard to understand why a "Globalist Enterprise" should be spared its fate through the
generosity of of one country. Even harder to understand, why would that one country should bail out a
business, which had employed both tax-avoidance schemes as well as strategy import substitution and foreign
investment to improve its profits at the expense of that country.
Nationalism is better that globalism. The current crisis was not caused by globalism; but globalism has
drained from our country the means to respond to the crisis with the medicines and equipment that would
reduce its severity.
Not a single cent of government aid should go toward a person or an entity outside the United States and
it territories. Conditions should be placed upon such aid, so that the companies receiving it, must
domesticate their supply chains, and must produce and develop their products within the United States.
@anachronism
Make the universities discharge the student debt. It was their scam all along. They can begin by retrenching
their schools of the humanities and at least halving their administrative staff. And end building and sports
programs. The fat hangs heavy on that particular pig.
The student and the university should share responsibility equally. In
the future, the institution should be made a co-signor on any student loan; and the obligation to repay
the loan should be joint and several for both the institution and the student.
Bankruptcy provides the ex-student with the chance to start over and to escape the burden; but not
without consequences. This will discourage the ex-student, who is doing well financially and has the
means to service the debt, from just walking away.
MAN WITH CORONA VIRUS SEEKS WOMAN WITH LIME DISEASE
As a fellow expat in Mexico, I'm surprised that you, nor anyone else, is talking about how
the pandemic will hit Mexico. Twice the population of Italy, and with similar cultures, I
suspect Covid-19 will sweep Mexico like a prairie fire. God save us.
Amazing that the elites who go on so about population reduction are precisely the ones have
five or six children. Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Toby Young (at only four he has seriously been
priest-like), Trump, Andrew Roberts, Tony Blair (again only four, scandalous): it should be a
capital crime for any Agenda 21 supporters to have more than one child.
Scientists at Michael Bloomberg School of Multiplication at Johns Hopkins University have
discovered a new and highly dangerous and contagious source of death. It is called life.
The discovery was long in the making, with some great sages of Ancient world expounding it,
but, it could not be scientifically proven, until the scientists zeroed in on a small
mountainous region in Nepal, where people (average age 90) all of the sudden began to die. They
were healthy before and then they began to drop like flies, reported local newspaper.
The team of American researchers from aforementioned university began to eliminate all the
possible causes of death: these guys don't drive, they don't drink, they practice peaceful
coexistence, and they eat solely vegan food.
"Strange pneumonia" circulating in Italy before Wuhan outbreak, leading Italian doctor
says
March 22, 2020 March 22, 2020 Asia-Review Europe In an interview with NPR, one of Europe's
leading medical experts said that a "strange pneumonia" was circulating in Lombardy as early as
November, weeks before doctors detected the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
Giuseppe Remuzzi, director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in
Milan said that
"They (general practitioners) remember having seen very strange pneumonia, very severe,
particularly in old people in December and even November."
"This means that the virus was circulating, at least in (the northern region of) Lombardy
and before we were aware of this outbreak occurring in China."
Remuzzi's comments means it is possible Italy had been ground zero of the virus. His
comments come as scientists continue scrambling to find the origin of the virus. Chinese
pulmonary disease expert Zhong Nanshan said earlier this week that although China was the first
country to report the appearance of the virus, it was uncertain where it actually came
from.
Italy reported 6,557 new cases of the virus on Saturday, raising the total to 53,578 since
the virus first broke out in northern Italy on Feb. 21, according to the latest data given by
the Civil Protection Department.
No, China didn't cover up the Covid-19 outbreak: An analysis
March 20, 2020
March 23, 2020
Asia-Review
China
Over the course of the course of the outbreak, the narrative surrounding Covid-19 has changed
from "China did great in containing the virus" to "China covered up the virus for weeks, CCP
must be held accountable". Many have started to parrot the Chinese "cover up" blindly without
looking into the claims.
The "cover up" is largely a false narrative that was initially propagated by various news
outlets, like the New York Times and the Guardian.
On March 21,
leaked cables
and statements from officials revealed the US State Department had informed
its officials to propagate the coverup myth in order to distract the American public from its
own failures.
"These talking points are all anyone is really talking about right now," one official
said. "Everything is about China. We're being told to try and get this messaging out in any way
possible, including press conferences and television appearances."
The timeline
2019-12-01 – a viral pneumonia patient with an unknown cause was hospitalized at Jinyintan
Hospital. This patient was the earliest known case of 2019-nCoV infections. The patient did not
have any exposure to Huanan Seafood Market.
2019-12-27 – Dr. Zhang Jixian, ICU doctor at Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese
and Western Medicine, files report to Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on pneumonia patients
with an unknown cause. Investigation opens shortly later.
2019-12-28 – three more patients arrives to the hospital, all of whom were related to Huanan
Seafood Market.
2019-12-30 – Li Wenliang sent messages to private Wechat group about 7 cases of unknown
virus, (wrongly) claiming it was SARS.
2019-12-30 – Notice issued and public health announcement made by Wuhan Municipal Health
Committee of an unknown viral illness.
2019-12-31 – China receives genome results from commercial lab.
2019-12-31 – WHO is informed of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan China with unknown cause.
Wuhan City authorities put out public notice and is reported by CCTV and CGTN.
2020-01-01 – Seafood market shut down as potential cause of outbreak. Chinese researchers at
the CCDC publish an article on suspected outbreak.
2020-01-03 – China reports a total of 44 suspected patients with the mystery disease.
2020-01-03 – National Health Commission classified the virus as a highly pathogenic virus,
orders all labs to either destroy samples or transfer them to higher level labs. (cited as
evidence of coverup such as by NY Post)
2020-01-09 – For the first time, Chinese labs confirm the existence of the new virus. Genetic
sequencing work starts
2020-01-09 – China reports first death linked to Covid-19. A 61-year-old male in Wuhan with
several underlying medical conditions.
2020-01-11- China shares the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus to international
database.
2020-01-21 – WHO confirms human-to-human transmission of the virus.
2020-01-24 – China declares complete quarantine of Wuhan.
The main claims of Chinese coverups by Western media:
1. China arrested whistleblower Li Wenliang to silence him
On December 30, Li Wenliang sent some messages to a private Wechat group with a few of his
friends, claiming that he saw patient scans and that "There has been 7 confirmed cases of SARS"
Li Wenliang was an opthalmologist (a doctor specialised in eye disorders), who claimed that
the virus outbreak was confirmed to be SARS. This was objectively false information spread by a
doctor in an unrelated field, obviously he would get censured for spreading rumours. Also,
contrary to popular belief, he was not arrested at all, only told by the police to stop
spreading rumours and sign a notice. He was reportedly at the police station for only an hour,
hardly as serious as Western media have made it sound.
2. China issued gag order and
instructions to destroy samples on January 3rd
The
New York Post
, claims that China's National Health Commission's issuing of gag order and
instructions to destroy the samples on January 3rd was evidence of coverup.
There are 2 problems with this claim. Firstly, China already informed the WHO of the virus 4
days prior, on 31 December. There is no reason China would inform the WHO voluntarily if they
were going to try and cover it up.
Secondly, they intentionally left out the reasoning behind the NHC's actions, which is that
commercial gene sequencing companies are not allowed to process highly contagious viruses.
"China's NHC published an announcement classifying the coronavirus as a highly pathogenic
micro-organism (type 2), and requested all samples to be handed to provincial or higher level
health authorities. All other organizations or person with the virus sample should either
destroy or transfer them"
http://china.caixin.com/2020-02-26/101520972.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/fkh7r6/propaganda_debunking_western_media_china/
3. China covered up whether it was human-to-human transmissible
This
SCMP article
quoting the New England Medical Journal is frequently used as evidence that
China covered up information about its transmissibility. The journal states that "there is
evidence that human-to-human transmission has occurred among close contacts since the middle of
December 2019."
This
Vox article
quoting Lancet presents two cases of human-to-human transmission before January
20. One is the wife of the first person who died. The other is a family in Shenzhen.
That is because "limited human-to-human transmission between close contacts" is not the same
as declaring it "human-to-human transmissible". For it to be officially declared "human-to-human
transmissible" there had to be evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission.
https://twitter.com/WHOWPRO/status/1218741294291308545
Few media outlets have actually made this claim, but instead many commentators have claimed,
without a shred of evidence that China must be faking its numbers because Italy had a higher
mortality rate.
An easy counter to this would be to simply compare the mortality rate and spread with other
countries. Taiwan, South Korea and many other countries reported lower cases and mortality
rates. China's mortality rate is nothing special, being right in the middle.
People seem to think that China can simply hide thousands of extra cases and extra bodies,
but its simply not possible with its widespread connectivity to the internet, especially when
the entire world's journalists are trying to find stories of China's cover up.
Commendations of China's response to COVID-19
Donald Trump
Source:
Twitter
Yes, Donald Trump and the rest of his government knew China was
transparent and took great measures to contain the virus.
Bill Gates counters the common perception of China faking its
numbers.
WHO Joint Mission
The WHO Joint Mission consisted of 25 national and international experts. It was headed by
Dr. Bruce Aylward of WHO and Dr Wannian Liang of the People's Republic of China. The Joint
Mission was implemented over a 9-day period from 16-24 February 2020.
In the face of a previously unknown virus, China has rolled out perhaps the most
ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history.
The strategy
that underpinned this containment effort was initially a national approach that promoted
universal temperature monitoring, masking, and hand washing. However, as the outbreak
evolved, and knowledge was gained, a science and risk-based approach was taken to tailor
implementation. Specific containment measures were adjusted to the provincial, county and
even community context, the capacity of the setting, and the nature of novel coronavirus
transmission there.
Achieving China's exceptional coverage with and adherence to these containment
measures has only been possible due to the deep commitment of the Chinese people to
collective action in the face of this common threat.
At a community level this is
reflected in the remarkable solidarity of provinces and cities in support of the most
vulnerable populations and communities. Despite ongoing outbreaks in their own areas,
Governors and Mayors have continued to send thousands of health care workers and tons of
vital PPE supplies into Hubei province and Wuhan city.
China's bold approach to contain the rapid spread of this new respiratory
pathogen has changed the course of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic.
A
particularly compelling statistic is that on the first day of the advance team's work there
were 2478 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in China. Two weeks later, on the final
day of this Mission, China reported 409 newly confirmed cases. This decline in COVID-19 cases
across China is real.
China is already, and rightfully, working to bolster its economy, reopen its
schools and return to a more normal semblance of its society, even as it works to contain the
remaining chains of COVID-19 transmission.
Appropriately, a science-based,
riskinformed and phased approach is being taken, with a clear recognition and readiness of
the need to immediately react to any new COVID-19 cases or clusters as key elements of the
containment strategy are lifted.
China's response to the outbreak of Covid-19 has been exceedingly transparent, swift,
effective and lifesaving.
However, the narrative has been hijacked by a few Western media outlets to propagate a
cover-up using nitpicked events that were twisted to fit their narrative.
The reason it has been succesful is because it aligns with pre-existing Western biases about
China's government being untrustworthy liars.
The above article is a concise and clear summary of the Wuhan timeline that debunks the
idea that the Chinese govt initially covered up the outbreak. That disinformation is
propagated by the NYT and US media.
From comments: "They had three months to prepare. Their attitude: "They need us more than we
need them. Get ready for brexit." That is all they care about. Their criminal neglect and insane
obsession has consigned tens of thousands to death. "
Notable quotes:
"... nearly 4,000 NHS workers appealed to the prime minister to "protect the lives of the life-savers" and resolve the "unacceptable" shortage of protective equipment. ..."
"... Dr Parmar told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "We have had doctors tell us they feel like lambs to the slaughter, that they feel like cannon fodder. GPs tell us that they feel absolutely abandoned. ..."
"... In an open letter to The Sunday Times, some 3,963 doctors said staff were "putting their lives on the line every day" by treating coronavirus patients without appropriate protection. ..."
"... The letter said: "Frontline doctors have been telling us for weeks that they do not feel safe at work. ..."
Coronavirus: NHS doctors feel like 'lambs to slaughter' without protective kit, warns senior
medic. 'We must really stress to the prime minister that we need to protect the front line
here'
Doctors battling the coronavirus outbreak feel like "lambs to the slaughter" without
adequate protection equipment, a senior medic has said.
Dr Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctors' Association, said frontline NHS staff were being
treated as "cannon fodder" as he launched a desperate appeal to Boris Johnson for more
resources to keep medics safe.
Dr Parmar, a consultant anaesthetist who is working on a Covid-19 intensive care ward, said
it was the "calm before the storm" and NHS staff were braced for a surge in cases.
His warning came as nearly 4,000 NHS workers appealed to the prime minister to "protect
the lives of the life-savers" and resolve the "unacceptable" shortage of protective
equipment.
Dr Parmar told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "We have had doctors tell us they feel like
lambs to the slaughter, that they feel like cannon fodder. GPs tell us that they feel
absolutely abandoned.
... ... ...
In an open letter to The Sunday Times, some 3,963 doctors said staff were "putting their
lives on the line every day" by treating coronavirus patients without appropriate
protection.
The letter said: "Frontline doctors have been telling us for weeks that they do not feel
safe at work.
"Intensive care doctors and anaesthetists have told us they have been carrying out the
highest-risk procedure, putting a patient on a ventilator, with masks that expired in
2015."
Microware can be used for cleaning if you make the mask slightly wet. In this case they will
heat to over 60 0 C. Other then using alcohol this is probably the fastest method of
disinfection
Those who have regrets after realizing that COVID-19 isn't a 'pooping disease' were met with
signs at various Costco locations informing them that they won't be able to return all that
toilet paper, paper towels, sanitizing wipes, water, rice and lysol they bought in anticipation
of a societal collapse, according to brobible
.
lmao Costco basically saying y'all wanted to be extra, y'all gonna deal with your millions
of toilet paper all over your house #sorrytammy
pic.twitter.com/eCFhoiDp33
Enjoy your lifetime supply of toilet paper and wipes you crazy #hoarders !
#Costco is not
taking any more returns. Better start figuring out what you are gonna do with 10 bags of rice
you bought! pic.twitter.com/z2U7tN7ru3
...As of this writing an update from the Kentucky Department of Health says there are now at
least 99 cases of COVID-19 in the state. Coincidentally that's the same as the number of beers
on the wall of Buddy's Man Bear Cave. But thanks to Mitch we do know that Kentucky has
4,500,000 residents and 9,000,000 barrels of Bourbon.
...Thanks to the governor the distillerys are still open, 'cept for tourists
...I know, those were better'n anything in NYC, and cheaper too; but remember what happened
last time you took your old girlfriend there and they had to drive her home? That didn't work
out too well.
...Now Buddy, you know our 3 letter agencies are full of career professionals who
would love nothing more than to penetrate to the heart of darkness that is the Office of the
President. Why look at what Comrade Brennan manged in his efforts. No, I haven't seen him or
Chairman Schiff anywhere lately, I wonder where all that evidence of his went? Anybody know if
he's in quarantine? He's even scarcer than RBG. I wonder why?
In the case of "Brave New World", the establishment knows how to cure pretty much any
conventional disease. Then if you're in approved society you die around age 60 because of
everything that's kept you alive and looking like 40.
I just read the book last month for the first time in 30+ years. It does belong on that
diagram. And "1984" doesn't either, since it really doesn't deal with anything like
infectious diseases--reread that about 2 years ago.
I've not read the other 2 outer books ever, but the movie of "Fahrenheit 451", which I just
watched and Bradbury certainly had a hand in writing, has nothing to do with infectious
disease.
There might be something in Camus' "The Plague" though. Haven't read that since the
1980s.
There aren't food shortages so not sure about the "Soylent Green" reference, yet at least.
"Long's Run" is about killing people off at age 35, which I guess overlaps with "kill 80% of
the poor workers", something the likes of Charles Koch certainly supports. So indirectly
there could be a "Logan's Run" connection.
Gattica is just about favored people with the right genes, so an update of "Brave New
World", without the highly literate "savage" as the main character.
I don't see how "The Matrix" relates, that's more about the material world's completeness
being an illusion.
"Clockwork Orange?" A thug suppressed with mind control?
Haven't read "Lord of the Flies", but don't the kids worship a god of the island, and
justify the horrors they commit based on that conception of god or a god?
We need to be wary of cover-your-ass (CYA) propaganda narratives.
Government failure (including failure by government officials) is now being excused and
misdirected.
Those failures are so deep and systemic that they appear to me to have been deliberate.
There are only a few reasons why they would want to fail. Some of these may be:
cover up the origin of the virus (that Covid-19 was already circulating in the
US/West)
cause a CRISIS! that allows for directing hate toward China and accelerating
"decoupling" Western economies from China;
cause a CRISIS! that allows for bailouts of an over-extended Wall Street and favored
companies like Boeing.
Chronology of the death of a French doctor today. Came back from a trip to Madagascar a month
ago in good shape. Was working at Compiegnes, which because a cluster in mid-February when it
received a taxi driver who was positive and treated him without special precautions. Got sick
and was quarantined 3 weeks ago, i.e. early March, two weeks after exposition.
Died today. That is to say that most of the dead we see now might have been affected since
mid-Feb.
Dr. Dan Lee Dinke: All Corona-viruses have a common weakness:heat kills them. Specifically
relative short exposure to 56°C. Breathing hot air in a sauna for 20 minutes will mostly
clean the upper respiratory tract of corona-viruses, but a hair dryer can also help if no
sauna available.
The video is worth to watch and could save lives through such a simple method.
@LP #52
Wrong. The lower respiratory tract - the temperature is stable via mixing outside air with
inside. Otherwise people could not survive in extreme cold or extreme heat situations.
The hot air might kill the virus outside; it won't kill the virus in the lower respiratory
tract.
The Corona Waltz (sung to the tune of Tom Lehrer's "Alma")
The first one to drop out was Butti
found out voters don't vote for snooty
then stealing his thunder came Amy
who knew she'd get more press on Monday
and joining hands, speaking of unity
Tom's hammer came down with impunity
the blowout for Biden was certain
even better 'cause the commies are hurtin'!
Then came corona
Dems stuck with Joe, now it's ovah
now that we need a new biz
where are Butti and Amy and Liz?
In Wuhan, ground zero for the virus, four healthcare workers -- including doctors -- have
told CNN of the difficulties facing medical crews on the ground. They have asked to remain
anonymous to avoid repercussions.
Through telephone conversations with CNN and posts on Chinese social media, they told of low
hospital resources. In private groups online, those identified as hospital staff are
coordinating with members of the public to import protective equipment as they treat an
increasing number of infected patients.
"In terms of resources, the whole of Wuhan is lacking," one Wuhan-based healthcare worker
told CNN by phone. This person said they were looking for more protective clothing,
protective goggles and masks.
"It's really like we're going into battle stripped to the waist," one healthcare worker
added, using a Chinese idiom that equates to "going into battle without armor".
One hospital staff member claims healthcare workers have resorted to wearing diapers to work
so as to avoid having to remove their HAZMAT suits, which they say are in short supply. A
doctor on her Chinese social media Weibo page described similar accounts at another Wuhan
hospital.
"My family members are definitely worried about me, but I still have to work," another
doctor told. But she said that she is hopeful they will ultimately get the gear they need. "Our
bosses, our hospital suppliers will definitely find a way to get these stocks to us," she
added.
It's not clear if these accounts are anecdotal or whether there are widespread shortages
across Wuhan.
Chinese state media has also shared posts from multiple Wuhan hospitals in which they ask
for public donations of medical supplies. They report that one hospital staff member said the
current supplies "are only able to sustain three or four days".
The Wuhan Health Commission has requisitioned over 10,000 beds from 24 hospitals to be used
in the treatment of confirmed and suspected cases.
On Friday, Wuhan officials acknowledged that local hospitals were struggling to accommodate
people seeking medical attention and said measures were being put into place to alleviate the
situation.
State media also reported that the city aims to build a 25,000 square meter (269,100 square
foot) new facility within a week, increasing hospital capacity by 1,000 beds, and that several
medical centers in Hubei province are asking for medical gear donations.
I read of the new tool scanning online messages. Checking in: late afternoon my two comments,
in reply, failed to appear in the "Western Governments failures" thread.
[.] Gates Foundation monies via CEPI are financing development of a radical new vaccine
method known as messengerRNA or mRNA.
They are co-funding the Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech company, Moderna Inc., to
develop a vaccine against the Wuhan novel coronavirus, now called SARS-CoV-2. Moderna's
other partner is the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a
part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Head of NIAID is Dr Anthony Fauci, the
person at the center of the Trump Administration virus emergency response. Notable about
the Fauci-Gates Moderna coronavirus vaccine, mRNA-1273, is that it has been rolled out in a
matter of weeks, not years, and on February 24 went directly to Fauci's NIH for tests on
human guinea pigs, not on mice as normal. Moderna's chief medical adviser, Tal Zaks,
argued, "I don't think proving this in an animal model is on the critical path to getting
this to a clinical trial."
Another notable admission by Moderna on its website is the legal disclaimer, "Special
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: These risks, uncertainties, and other factors
include, among others: the fact that there has never been a commercial product utilizing
mRNA technology approved for use." In other words, completely unproven for human health and
safety.
Another biotech company working with unproven mRNA technology to develop a vaccine for
the COVID-19 is a German company, CureVac. Since 2015 CureVac has received money from the
Gates Foundation to develop its own mRNA technology. In January the Gates-backed CEPI
granted more than $8 million to develop a mRNA vaccine for the novel coronavirus.[.]
======
early fall the CDC planning and forgot to order test kits and ventilators:---{hapstance}
---the recruitment of
Public Health Advisors (Quarantine Program) country wide major cities, every state
Open Period:2019-11-15 to 2020-05-15 Salary $511440. to $93077.
Job summary: - responsible for preventing the importation and spread of communicable diseases
from abroad and spread of these diseases domestically.[.]
Duties:
[Provide technical assistance, consultation and guidance to national, state and / or local
agencies; health organizations; federal, state and local law enforcement agencies [.] and
quarantine activities [.] ]
But I will say this, cause I'm very much into karmic irony. Rand Paul the weasel Senator
responsible for holding up the Coronavirus tax relief Bill has just tested positive for the
Covid-19. Gawd, I really hope he didn't come anywhere in close contact to Bernie this past
week.
Anyway, looks like Rand Paul won't be an obstacle for a while.
In essence, the misnamed "intelligence community" is a distillation of the gravest
intellectual flaws in contemporary neoliberal (non-STEM) academia.
So naturally when China tries to "out-victim" them by pointing out that the virus
was a bioweapon attack, these members of the misnamed "intelligence community" feel
honor bound to defend the supremacy of their own victim status by minimizing China's victim
status. That may sound crazy to people from prior generations, but it is the logical
destination for victim culture.
"These officials "failed us" in the same way that our media "fails us": they serve the
interests of the EMPIRE-FIRST Deep State."
Yuppp. Our error is to assume all 17 intelligence agencies; the presstitudes; and US
"leadership" exist to serve the American people. And so, yes, they "fail" the people. But, from the point of view of the controllers of those agencies and of those "leaders",
they hardly ever fail !!!
While the people argue over virulent minutae, they are once again helping themselves to
the US Treasury.... Trillions of USDs.... LOL
".... was then told to STOP TESTING...... A medical person would not try to suppress testing.
That would be a "management decision" and its the Nation Security Council that was running
the show (and which had classified all discussions related to virus preparations)...."
Thanks for reminding us of Dr Chu's story. What if the US leadership:
Knew the coronavirus was already out in the wild in the US by Sep 2019;
Decided to set up China to be the "origin" to be blamed;
Realized that a "pandemic" can be the cover for kicking the table over to do the Great
Financial Reset;
Another reason for the curves in chaotic Fr/It/Sp is a point underlined by Campbell on 19/3
about
the fact the soccer team Manchester United has opened up its hotel free of charge for
medical
staff, so that they can return from work to a neutral place rather than to their families and
spread
the bug further. Such measures have been applied in Asia and they should have been on the
mind of
the EU gov, but apparently they were too busy thinking about their luxury holidays or their
shares
in the stocks.
Huge
jumps in
COVID-19 deaths and cases have been reported in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France
this weekend. Hospital systems in many of these countries are running out of supplies, staff,
hospital beds, and ICU-level treatments.
The shortage of protective gear for medical staff at many European hospitals has forced some
to tape trash bags to their bodies as makeshift biohazard suits.
Bloomberg interviewed Samantha Gonzalez,52, who works at the Txagorritxu hospital in
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain. She warned: "This is not the first world anymore -- it's a war"
amid surging virus cases in the country.
Across Europe on Saturday, deaths accorded to the fast-spreading virus soared, with Italy
reporting a record 793 deaths on Friday, and Spain reporting another 300 cases, bringing their
totals to 4,825 and 1,326.
The UK also reported another string of deaths, as millions await a
lockdown order on London , while hospitals and intensive care units in Italy and Spain are
struggling to cope, despite some Madrid hotels being temporarily converted and of the Fair of
Madrid, the capital's main exhibition space.
One of the leading hospitals in Bergamo, northern Italy, the current epicenter of the virus
outbreak in Europe, has run out of hospital beds, and ICU-level treatment, as an influx in
patients, has
overwhelmed the facility . The sick are being transferred to offsite locations, equipped
with oxygen machines.
From Italy to Spain to other regions in Europe, hospital systems are at full capacity,
canceling non-urgent surgeries, and appointments to handle the influx of virus patients. In a
couple of weeks, countrywide shutdowns like what's happening in Italy could be the norm across
many European countries.
Giovanni Rezza, head of the infectious diseases department at Rome's Superior Health
Institute, said, "Italy wasn't completely prepared for the coronavirus:"
"It's only in some two weeks that Italy will find out whether the government's nationwide
lockdown and social distancing rules have had an impact," said Rezza.
"The lockdown is only delaying the spread of the epidemic, we expect that there will be
new outbreaks in future. But in the meantime we have to equip hospitals with more intensive
care beds, even in Lombardy which is one of the best-equipped regions in Europe."
The biggest challenge for European hospital systems is having enough protective gear for
medical staff.
In Spain, 3,500 Spanish doctors have contracted the virus, which is 12% of the total number
of cases detected. With the lack of gear, doctors and nurses are more susceptible to
contracting the virus, which could cause medical staff shortages that would undoubtedly lead to
high mortality rates.
"Just in the nephrology department, three out of 13 colleagues have fallen ill, one of them
seriously," said Giuseppe Remuzzi, a former head of the department of medicine at the Papa
Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo, Italy, who has joined efforts to contain the pandemic.
"This is a scary, terrible situation."
Medical staff have been instructed to swap out old protective gear every four hours, which
includes changing face masks, splash guard googles, and biohazard suits. Since supplies are
limited, doctors and nurses are making their own bio hazmat suits with taping garbage bags on
their body.
"This thing blew up on us," said Pelayo Pedrero, the head of labor risk prevention at
doctors' union AMYTS in Madrid, Spain. "No one was ready for this. They didn't buy the
supplies, they didn't prepare the hospitals to receive and treat all these patients. Not just
in Madrid or Spain, but all over Europe."
To sum up, the evolution of the virus crisis is that medical gear shortages could lead to
labor shortages at hospitals across Europe because medical staff aren't adequately protected
against the virus. Europe has become the new China. And in the weeks ahead, parts of the
US could transform into Italy .
Surgical masks are currently in short supply in China and elsewhere. They were worn 100
years ago, during the great pandemic, to try and stop the influenza virus spreading. While
surgical masks may offer some protection from infection they do not seal around the face. So
they don't filter out small airborne particles. In 1918, anyone at the emergency hospital in
Boston who had contact with patients had to wear an improvised face mask. This comprised five
layers of gauze fitted to a wire frame which covered the nose and mouth. The frame was shaped
to fit the face of the wearer and prevent the gauze filter touching the mouth and nostrils. The
masks were replaced every two hours; properly sterilized and with fresh gauze put on. They were
a forerunner of the N95 respirators in use in hospitals today to protect medical staff against
airborne infection.
... ... ...
Putting infected patients out in the sun may have helped because it inactivates the
influenza virus.[7] It also kills bacteria that cause lung and other infections in
hospitals.[8] During the First World War, military surgeons routinely used sunlight to heal
infected wounds.[9] They knew it was a disinfectant. What they didn't know is that one
advantage of placing patients outside in the sun is they can synthesise vitamin D in their skin
if sunlight is strong enough. This was not discovered until the 1920s. Low vitamin D levels are
now linked to respiratory infections and may increase susceptibility to influenza.[10] Also,
our body's biological rhythms appear to influence how we resist infections.[11] New research
suggests they can alter our inflammatory response to the flu virus.[12] As with vitamin D, at
the time of the 1918 pandemic, the important part played by sunlight in synchronizing these
rhythms was not known.
"... The masks were replaced every two hours; properly sterilized and with fresh gauze put on. They were a forerunner of the N95 respirators in use in hospitals today to protect medical staff against airborne infection. ..."
Fresh air, sunlight and improvised face
masks seemed to work a century ago; and they might help us now.
by
Richard Hobday
When new, virulent diseases emerge, such
SARS and Covid-19, the race begins to find new vaccines and treatments for those affected. As the current crisis
unfolds, governments are enforcing quarantine and isolation, and public gatherings are being discouraged. Health
officials took the same approach 100 years ago, when influenza was spreading around the world. The results were
mixed. But records from the 1918 pandemic suggest one technique for dealing with influenza -- little-known today --
was effective. Some hard-won experience from the greatest pandemic in recorded history could help us in the weeks
and months ahead.
<img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2400/1*7pNa3EQCs1VsWXRWL8_Uig.jpeg" width="1200" height="892" role="presentation"/>
Influenza patients getting sunlight at the Camp Brooks
emergency open-air hospital in Boston. Medical staff were not supposed to remove their masks. (National Archives)
Put simply, medics found that severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better than those treated
indoors. A combination of fresh air and sunlight seems to have prevented deaths among patients; and infections
among medical staff.[1] There is scientific support for this. Research shows that outdoor air is a natural
disinfectant. Fresh air can kill the flu virus and other harmful germs. Equally, sunlight is germicidal and there
is now evidence it can kill the flu virus.
`Open-Air'
Treatment in 1918
During the great pandemic, two of the
worst places to be were military barracks and troop-ships. Overcrowding and bad ventilation put soldiers and
sailors at high risk of catching influenza and the other infections that often followed it.[2,3] As with the
current Covid-19 outbreak, most of the victims of so-called `Spanish flu' did not die from influenza: they died of
pneumonia and other complications.
When the influenza pandemic reached the
East coast of the United States in 1918, the city of Boston was particularly badly hit. So the State Guard set up
an emergency hospital. They took in the worst cases among sailors on ships in Boston harbour. The hospital's
medical officer had noticed the most seriously ill sailors had been in badly-ventilated spaces. So he gave them as
much fresh air as possible by putting them in tents. And in good weather they were taken out of their tents and
put in the sun. At this time, it was common practice to put sick soldiers outdoors. Open-air therapy, as it was
known, was widely used on casualties from the Western Front. And it became the treatment of choice for another
common and often deadly respiratory infection of the time; tuberculosis. Patients were put outside in their beds
to breathe fresh outdoor air. Or they were nursed in cross-ventilated wards with the windows open day and night.
The open-air regimen remained popular until antibiotics replaced it in the 1950s.
Doctors who had first-hand experience of
open-air therapy at the hospital in Boston were convinced the regimen was effective. It was adopted elsewhere. If
one report is correct, it reduced deaths among hospital patients from 40 per cent to about 13 per cent.[4]
According to the Surgeon General of the Massachusetts State Guard:
`The efficacy of open air
treatment has been absolutely proven, and one has only to try it to discover its value.'
Fresh Air is a
Disinfectant
Patients treated outdoors were less
likely to be exposed to the infectious germs that are often present in conventional hospital wards. They were
breathing clean air in what must have been a largely sterile environment. We know this because, in the 1960s,
Ministry of Defence scientists proved that fresh air is a natural disinfectant.[5] Something in it, which they
called the Open Air Factor, is far more harmful to airborne bacteria -- and the influenza virus -- than indoor air.
They couldn't identify exactly what the Open Air Factor is. But they found it was effective both at night and
during the daytime.
Their research also revealed that the
Open Air Factor's disinfecting powers can be preserved in enclosures -- if ventilation rates are kept high enough.
Significantly, the rates they identified are the same ones that cross-ventilated hospital wards, with high
ceilings and big windows, were designed for.[6] But by the time the scientists made their discoveries, antibiotic
therapy had replaced open-air treatment. Since then the germicidal effects of fresh air have not featured in
infection control, or hospital design. Yet harmful bacteria have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
Sunlight and
Influenza Infection
Putting infected patients out in the sun
may have helped because it inactivates the influenza virus.[7] It also kills bacteria that cause lung and other
infections in hospitals.[8] During the First World War, military surgeons routinely used sunlight to heal infected
wounds.[9] They knew it was a disinfectant. What they didn't know is that one advantage of placing patients
outside in the sun is they can synthesise vitamin D in their skin if sunlight is strong enough. This was not
discovered until the 1920s. Low vitamin D levels are now linked to respiratory infections and may increase
susceptibility to influenza.[10] Also, our body's biological rhythms appear to influence how we resist
infections.[11] New research suggests they can alter our inflammatory response to the flu virus.[12] As with
vitamin D, at the time of the 1918 pandemic, the important part played by sunlight in synchronizing these rhythms
was not known.
Face Masks
Coronavirus and Flu
Surgical masks are currently in short
supply in China and elsewhere. They were worn 100 years ago, during the great pandemic, to try and stop the
influenza virus spreading.
While surgical masks may offer some protection from
infection they do not seal around the face. So they don't filter out small airborne particles.
In 1918, anyone at
the emergency hospital in Boston who had contact with patients had to wear an improvised face mask. This comprised
five layers of gauze fitted to a wire frame which covered the nose and mouth. The frame was shaped to fit the face
of the wearer and prevent the gauze filter touching the mouth and nostrils.
The masks were replaced every two
hours; properly sterilized and with fresh gauze put on. They were a forerunner of the N95 respirators in use in
hospitals today to protect medical staff against airborne infection.
Temporary
Hospitals
Staff at the hospital kept up high
standards of personal and environmental hygiene. No doubt this played a big part in the relatively low rates of
infection and deaths reported there. The speed with which their hospital and other temporary open-air facilities
were erected to cope with the surge in pneumonia patients was another factor. Today, many countries are not
prepared for a severe influenza pandemic.[13] Their health services will be overwhelmed if there is one. Vaccines
and antiviral drugs might help. Antibiotics may be effective for pneumonia and other complications. But much of
the world's population will not have access to them. If another 1918 comes, or the Covid-19 crisis gets worse,
history suggests it might be prudent to have tents and pre-fabricated wards ready to deal with large numbers of
seriously ill cases. Plenty of fresh air and a little sunlight might help too.
Dr. Richard Hobday is an independent
researcher working in the fields of infection control, public health and building design. He is the author of `The
Healing Sun'.
References
Hobday RA and Cason JW. The
open-air treatment of pandemic influenza. Am J Public Health 2009;99 Suppl 2:S236–42.
doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.134627.
Aligne CA. Overcrowding and
mortality during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Am J Public Health 2016 Apr;106(4):642–4.
doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.303018.
Summers JA, Wilson N, Baker
MG, Shanks GD. Mortality risk factors for pandemic influenza on New Zealand troop ship, 1918. Emerg Infect Dis
2010 Dec;16(12):1931–7. doi:10.3201/eid1612.100429.
Anon. Weapons against
influenza. Am J Public Health 1918 Oct;8(10):787–8. doi: 10.2105/ajph.8.10.787.
May KP, Druett HA. A
micro-thread technique for studying the viability of microbes in a simulated airborne state. J Gen Micro-biol
1968;51:353e66. Doi: 10.1099/00221287–51–3–353.
Hobday RA. The open-air factor
and infection control. J Hosp Infect 2019;103:e23-e24 doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2019.04.003.
Schuit M, Gardner S, Wood S et
al. The influence of simulated sunlight on the inactivation of influenza virus in aerosols. J Infect Dis 2020
Jan 14;221(3):372–378. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiz582.
Hobday RA, Dancer SJ. Roles of
sunlight and natural ventilation for controlling infection: historical and current perspectives. J Hosp Infect
2013;84:271–282. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2013.04.011.
Hobday RA. Sunlight therapy
and solar architecture. Med Hist 1997 Oct;41(4):455–72. doi:10.1017/s0025727300063043.
Gruber-Bzura BM. Vitamin D and
influenza-prevention or therapy? Int J Mol Sci 2018 Aug 16;19(8). pii: E2419. doi: 10.3390/ijms19082419.
Costantini C, Renga G,
Sellitto F, et al. Microbes in the era of circadian medicine. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2020 Feb 5;10:30.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00030.
Sengupta S, Tang SY, Devine JC
et al. Circadian control of lung inflammation in influenza infection. Nat Commun 2019 Sep 11;10(1):4107. doi:
10.1038/s41467–019–11400–9.
Jester BJ, Uyeki TM, Patel A,
Koonin L, Jernigan DB. 100 Years of medical countermeasures and pandemic influenza preparedness. Am J Public
Health. 2018 Nov;108(11):1469–1472. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304586.
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Dr. Richard Hobday is an internationally recognized authority on health
in the built environment.
I see nothing wrong with testing Hyrodroxychloroquine together with azithromycin as long as
its done safely and ethically to gain additional data. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
A lot of people are going to reject it just because it came from Trump's mouth. Drug
companies will fight against it because they'd rather sell more expensive drugs.
Anti malaria drugs are part of the primary or secondary treatment recommendations in China
and Korea. I'm pretty sure they were used in Japan as well so the first half of it
(hydroxychloroquine) seems pretty legit though maybe not effective enough. Lets see what
happens. I'd agree we lack sufficient data to make an adequate evaluation. Hydroxychloroquine
is also being used with other things in trials. We'll see what happens there too.
** A dutch professor has announced an aerosol version of i believe hydroxycholoquine but
it might just be chloroquine that is able to penetrate the lungs they claim. They also claim
it can be manufactured immediately.
We should all certainly be skeptical of such a small study (HCQ and azithromycin) but do keep
in mind that you really can't trust industry and their legion of paid doctors and experts
either.
For example:
The CEO of Ericsson once said "CDMA will never work." Maybe that was because Ericsson
didn't have it working for cellular systems at the time. I worked in the cell phone industry
as an analyst for some time. People say anything to sell their stuff. I'm sure pharma is
equally bad.
ted01 "No money for big pharma therefore no interest. They would rather let people die."
That is about it. A dirt cheap generic drug can't possibly be any good. A pity so many
here prefer to believe big pharma rather than the frontline doctors using it.
Chinese doctors Chloroquine or Chloroquine Phosphate - Formula C18H26ClN3
Trump Hydroxychloroquine - Formula C18H26ClN3O
Two different chemicals but I take it their mode of action is similar.
Hydroxychloroquine
"The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$4.65 per month as of 2015, when
used for rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.[7] In the United States the wholesale cost of a month
of treatment is about US$25 as of 2020" (wikipedia)
Chloroquine Phosphate
"The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$0.04.[9] In the United States, it
costs about US$5.30 per dose." (wikipedia)
Easy to see why Trump and big phama don't like Chloroquine.
This from link @ Richard Steven Hack | Mar 22 2020 8:55 utc | 114
"chloroquine was highly effective in reducing viral replication, with an Effective
Concentration (EC)90 of 6.90 μM that can be easily achievable with standard dosing,
due to its favourable penetration in tissues, including in the lung"
>>>
Brasco_Aad
@Brasco_Aad
Israeli Pharmaceutical Company Teva to send 10 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the
United states, free of charge. | The Times of Israel
Quote Tweet
Brasco_Aad
@Brasco_Aad
· Mar 20
-significant-
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis to donate 130 million doses of hydroxychloroquine
to the United States.
50 million doses now and another 80 million doses by the end of may.
Chloroquine I have noticed is also called chloroquine phosphate. Phosphate I believe is the
binder that holds the chloroquine powder in tablet form. According to the paper linked by RSH
@114 there is 300mg of chloroquine in a 500mg chloroquine phosphate tablet.
Here's a pretty good overview on the major avenues to attack nCOV/COVID-19 from a treatment
perspective: Ars
Technica overview
In particular, this article talks about targeting different aspects of the nCOV life cycle
and how these are targeted by treatments to attack nCOV:
1) Reproduction: remdesivir and others
2) [viral] protein processing: protease inhibitors such as HIV drugs
3) [viral] packaging: attack the final protein packaging of the virus such as a Hep B
treatment - but very few such examples exist, of any kind
4) viral shell: plasma distilled from existing recovered victims used to prime immune system
of ongoing infected. Vaccines will eventually enable this via manufacturing processes.
5) new infection capability: chloroquines. In particular
One of these targets is the drop in pH. This is the step that's targeted by chloroquine,
the antimalarial drug. Chloroquine can cross membranes and so can enter the sac containing
the virus. Once there, it can neutralize the pH.
That's significant, because many proteases are only active at lower pH. If the pH inside
the sac doesn't change, it's possible that the coronavirus spike protein won't be cut and
thus won't be activated. This appears to be the case in cultured cells infected by the
virus, and there are anecdotal case reports of chloroquine helping COVID-19 patients.
It is also clear - from this description - why evolutionary pressures could create defenses
against this type of attack (chloroquine pH change)
Again, a theoretical operation, even the clinical test tube trials, doesn't equate to
effective therapy.
However, IMO, the cost and risk factor for chloroquines makes for a far better gambit than
anything else at this moment in time. And note that because of the way chloroquines are
supposed to affect nCOV - if chloroquines work, they have to be taken when symptoms
first appear or potentially even as a preventative.
I would discourage the preventative use though - that will likely accelerate the nCOV
evolution around the chloroquine pH attack.
Another reason: it appears the US only has 160,000 ventilators available
Johns Hopkins estimate
of which a bit under 30K are being used for neonatal/pediatric care.
Yow.
hydroxycloroquine overdose, the boffins say, can destroy the retina of the eyes.
Not a trivial side effect. Nothing to play with. Fer what it worth, better read up on the
drug and pay attention. Eyes are nice to have.
Overdose of Q is Bad.
Wally read 60 years ago in Rome newspaper story that British air-line pilots, who drank
their Gin an' Tonics, had been discovered to have very poor glare recovery. That, they said,
was from the quinine in the tonic water. Henceforth, they were forbidden the tonic water,
alas!
But Wally never drives at night and his airplane days ended back in the mists...
"... It is widely believed that the abrupt withdrawal of candidates Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg on the eve of Super Tuesday that targeted Sanders was arranged through an intervention by ex-President Barack Obama who made a plea in support of "party unity," offering the two a significant quid pro quo down the road if they were willing to leave the race and throw their support to Biden, which they dutifully did ..."
"... Trump might be described as both paranoid and narcissistic, meaning that he sees himself as surrounded by enemies and that the enemies are out to get him personally. When he is criticized, he either ridicules the source or does something impulsive to deflect what is being said. He attacked Syria twice based on false claims about the use of chemical weapons when a consensus developed in the media and in congress that he was being "weak" in the Middle East. Those attacks were war crimes as Syria was not threatening the United States. ..."
"... Biden is on a different track in that he is an establishment hawk. As head of the Senate Foreign Affairs committee back in 2002-2003 he green lighted George W. Bush's plan to attack Iraq. Beyond that, he cheer-leaded the effort from the Democratic Party benches, helping to create a consensus both in Washington and in the media that Saddam Hussein was a threat that had to be dealt with. He should have known better as he was privy to intelligence that was suggesting that the Iraqis were no threat at all. He did not moderate his tune on Iraq until after 2005, when the expected slam-dunk quick victory got very messy. ..."
"... Biden was also certainly privy to the decision making by President Barack Obama, which include the destruction of Libya and the killing of American citizens by drone. Whether he actively supported those policies is unknown, but he has never been challenged on them. What is clear is that he did not object to them, another sign of his willingness to go along with the establishment, a tendency which will undoubtedly continue if he is elected president. ..."
Now that the
Democratic Party has apparently succeeded in getting rid of the only two voices among its
presidential candidates that actually deviated from the establishment consensus, it appears
that Joe Biden will be running against Donald Trump in November. To be sure, Bernie Sanders and
Tulsi Gabbard are still hanging on, but the fix was in and the Democratic National Committee
(DNC) made sure that Sanders would be given the death blow on Super Tuesday while Gabbard would
be blocked from participating in any of the late term debates.
It is widely believed that the abrupt withdrawal of candidates Amy Klobuchar and Pete
Buttigieg on the eve of Super Tuesday that targeted Sanders was arranged through an
intervention by ex-President Barack Obama who made a plea in support of "party unity," offering
the two a significant quid pro quo down the road if they were willing to leave the race and
throw their support to Biden, which they dutifully did. Rumor has it that Klobuchar might well
wind up as Biden's vice president. An alternative tale is that it was a much more threatening
"offer that couldn't be refused" coming from the Clintons.
... ... ...
Both Trump and Biden might reasonably described as Zionists, Trump by virtue of the
made-in-Israel foreign policy positions he has delivered on since his election, and Biden by
word and deed during his entire time in politics. When Biden encountered Sarah Palin in 2008 in
the vice-presidential debate, he and Palin sought to outdo each other in enthusing over how
much they love the Jewish state. Biden has said that "I am a Zionist. You don't have to be a
Jew to be a Zionist" and also, ridiculously, "Were there not an Israel, the U.S. would have to
invent one. We will never abandon Israel -- out of our own self-interest. [It] is the best $3
billion investment we make." Biden has been a regular feature speaker at the annual AIPAC
summit in Washington.
Trump might be described as both paranoid and narcissistic, meaning that he sees himself as
surrounded by enemies and that the enemies are out to get him personally. When he is
criticized, he either ridicules the source or does something impulsive to deflect what is being
said. He attacked Syria twice based on false claims about the use of chemical weapons when a
consensus developed in the media and in congress that he was being "weak" in the Middle East.
Those attacks were war crimes as Syria was not threatening the United States.
Trump similarly reversed himself on withdrawing from Syria when he ran into criticism of the
move and his plan to extricate the United States from Afghanistan, if it develops at all, could
easily be subjected to similar revision. Trump is not really the man who as a candidate
indicated that he was seriously looking for a way out of America's endless and pointless wars,
no matter what his supporters continue to assert.
Biden is on a different track in that he is an establishment hawk. As head of the Senate
Foreign Affairs committee back in 2002-2003 he green lighted George W. Bush's plan to attack
Iraq. Beyond that, he cheer-leaded the effort from the Democratic Party benches, helping to
create a consensus both in Washington and in the media that Saddam Hussein was a threat that
had to be dealt with. He should have known better as he was privy to intelligence that was
suggesting that the Iraqis were no threat at all. He did not moderate his tune on Iraq until
after 2005, when the expected slam-dunk quick victory got very messy.
Biden was also certainly privy to the decision making by President Barack Obama, which
include the destruction of Libya and the killing of American citizens by drone. Whether he
actively supported those policies is unknown, but he has never been challenged on them. What is
clear is that he did not object to them, another sign of his willingness to go along with the
establishment, a tendency which will undoubtedly continue if he is elected president.
And Biden's foreign policy reminiscences are is subject to what appear to be memory losses
or inability to articulate, illustrated by a whole series of faux pas during the campaign. He
has a number of times told a tale of his heroism in Afghanistan that is
complete fiction , similar to Hillary Clinton's lying claims of courage under fire in
Bosnia.
So, we have a president in place who takes foreign policy personally in that his first
thoughts are "how does it make me look?" and a prospective challenger who appears to be
suffering from initial stages of dementia and who has always been relied upon to support the
establishment line, whatever it might be. Though Trump is the more dangerous of the two as he
is both unpredictable and irrational, the likelihood is that Biden will be guided by the
Clintons and Obamas. To put it another way, no matter who is president the likelihood that the
United States will change direction to get away from its interventionism and bullying on a
global scale is virtually nonexistent. At least until the money runs out. Or to express it as a
friend of mine does, "No matter who is elected we Americans wind up getting John McCain."
Goodnight America!
Philip Giraldi Ph.D., Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest. A former
CIA Case Officer and Army Intelligence Officer who spent twenty years overseas in Europe and
the Middle East working terrorism cases. He holds a BA with honors from the University of
Chicago and an MA and PhD in Modern History from the University of London. "
Source "
"... 1) Pompeo and Grenell reportedly arguing that coronavirus has created window of opportunity for a direct strike on a weak and divided Iran. ..."
"... Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisian has criticized the #UK for not delivering millions of masks #Iran bought in preparations ahead of #Covid19 outbreak. The London govt. refused to deliver them citing US sanctions! Note that Germany took supplies meant for Switzerland, The US via the Italian Mafia (I suppose) gets masks from Bergamo. etc. ..."
I just think that the US "Intelligence" and most of the US Administration just haven't got it. I suppose when you are waiting
for the "rapture" anything that can add to the chaos is to be included.
1) Pompeo and Grenell reportedly arguing that coronavirus has created window of opportunity for a direct strike on a weak
and divided Iran. They were arguing about the severity of the strike.
2) Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisian has criticized the #UK for not delivering millions of masks #Iran bought in preparations
ahead of #Covid19 outbreak. The London govt. refused to deliver them citing US sanctions! Note that Germany took supplies
meant for Switzerland, The US via the Italian Mafia (I suppose) gets masks from Bergamo. etc. Wonderful show of
world-wide solidarity.
Pompeo should hold his "rapture" in his hot little hand and .....
+ The Senate won't take up House coronavirus bill until after its recess. "The Senate will
act when we come back and we have a clearer idea of what extra steps we need to take," Sen.
Lamar Alexander told reporters What if they never come back? One can hope
+ I guess Mitch McConnell, who vowed to kill the House Coronavirus bill, was serious when he
called himself
The Grim Reaper .
Will there be a pulling fingernails off of children handout or do I have to go to School
of Americas for that?
John Ewen 11:01 AM - 20 Mar 2020
Not forgetting the old classic playground game "Regime Change War for Oil." Aaah, back
when I was a wee young neoliberal child warmonger. Those were the days. pic.twitter.com/BUcF8gjU9e
Like watching a hostage video where both the questioner and subject are being held hostage - one to his heart, the other to the
DNC.
Maybe I missed it, but did Jimmy ever get around to asking about the timing and why Tusli felt the need to endorse Biden right
away?
Also was she threatened or coerced in any way? Because earlier in the vid she certainly implies there was no way she could fight
the DNC's version of City Hall.
When Tulsi
endorsed Biden by saying he is a fine man and will make a good President she has discredited herself by showing us that she
is either dishonest or has very poor judgement.
Tulsi says she's
proud to serve her country yet she admits that regime change wars and invading people's countries under fabricated
pretext isn't serving the country. She's not making a whole lot of sense.
Sshe says: "Now
is not the time for playing politics", "not the time for half measures." & right she is, I think. What a pity she is doing
just that. It is revealing ... but very disappointing.
I understand her dropping out, she has other roles to fulfil. I
can't understand her endorsing Biden, rendering everything she stands for null and void. The corporate Dems will never adjust
their policies to win votes if progressives and free clear thinkers just fall in line regardless.
Yeah, Tulsi, I
see Biden putting a stop to all the regime-change wars. Time for you to go back to doing AIPAC's bidding. Wondering now
what they have on you.
I trusted you
Tulsi. I spent hours fighting groups for you. This hurts. I'm out of the Democratic party. I seriously can't handle
this. My heart my stomach hurts
I wish Jimmy
would've pushed back on her statement that the voters have chosen. She's ignoring the coordinated effort of the establishment
and she's ignoring the primary is not over.
Andrew Yang just
admitted that he endorsed Biden cause he got offered a position in his cabinet should Biden become president. Tulsi of course
would never do that XD .
Jimmy Dore -
Tulsi is your another vanilla politician. Thank you for this session with her today, it helped clear up the air about her for
many of us. She is just another opportunist.
Tulsi on mask shortage-"It's hard to imagine how this could be
happening in America." Really? You're surprised the corrupt two-party that you insist we choose between got us here?
Andrew Yang just
admitted that he endorsed Biden cause he got offered a position in his cabinet should Biden become president. Tulsi of
course would never do that XD .
I wonder how
strong the Progressive movement would've been if careerists like Gabbard and Warren stayed away and the front was
unified from the beginning.
When Jimmy started his live video the day she announced
supporting Biden, I said to myself "I bet anything he blames Bernie for her dropping out and supporting Biden." Low
and behold, he did.
6:56
"which is something I always said I would do btw,
that I would support the eventual democratic nominee" Am I living in a parallel dimension? The primary is not
finished yet, you can still endorse Biden when it will be over if he wins the primary but endorse Bernie for the
moment. Is it that hard? Ho right, I forgot, the primary is rigged and we all know that Biden the senile kid diddler
and liar will be the nominee one way or another. Fucked up, but she's not helping. She probably knows she'll be
kicked out of politics if she does not endorse biden and cares more about her career than doing the right thing.
War is ingrained into US society, "Thankyou for your
service" says it all. Heroes in America are obviously those who go to war at the behest of the zionists and the
corporations.
"The scope of
the effects of this are difficult to comprehend at this time..." This is truly amazing that someone in the government
has the audacity to blame a virus for people's inability to "make rent" when it was them that created the current
hysteria and panic. There is a pandemic. I agree. But so far counting all of the cases that we know about, it is no
where even close to the season flue that we see every year! And the government is shutting down businesses! It is a
shame that they are using the current situation to further the idea that people are dependent on the government to
survive! How far we as a nation and a people have fallen from the ideals that created this nation in the first place! I
am disgusted!
Like Bernie,
Tulsi is just another TWO FACED Globalist Presstitute. Tulsi says her platform is to stop regime change and bring are
troops home! Why does she then endorse Biden who supports regime change and keeping troops in the middle east? Tulsi
says she does this to defeat Trump but Trump campaigned to stop regime change and bring are troops home!
But she sees this China-bashing as mostly a political reaction:
In reality these people are rallying behind the campaign to blame China for the health
crisis they're now facing because they understand that otherwise the blame will land
squarely on the shoulders of their president, who's running for re-election this year.
instead of a deliberate Deep-State strategy (which is my view).
We can argue who created the virus (I'm still looking for any rebuttal to the Chinese
claim that USA must be the source because it has all five strains of the virus), but the
Empire's gaming of the virus outbreak seems very clear to me.
Last night watched CGTN TV with Huawei Honor smartphone.
"....team from SW China's Sichuan Province leaves Wuhan today...brings you this
bittersweet goodbye."
- Worked 8-12hrs shift.... 100 plus medical workers, 57 days ago leaving spouse, children and
parents behinds
- Initially none or limited N95 masks - wore double for protection..
- In capitalist USA.... Fxxk the company or country, Strike, protests...
- 16 makeshift hospitals disbanded but two 16,000 beds still in operations.
Equivalent respirator standards by country
. N95 (United States NIOSH-42CFR84)
• FFP2 (Europe EN 149-2001)
• KN95 (China GB2626-2006)
• P2 (Australia/New Zealand AS/NZA 1716:2012)
• Korea 1st class (Korea KMOEL - 2017-64)
• DS (Japan JMHLW-Notification 214, 2018)
I just received an email from a contact in China offering to help get FFP2 respirators if
I needed or wanted any. She said KN95 were virtually non existent in China but there are
limited supplies of the FFP2 respirators.
If you or anyone else is interested in masks / respirators I would recommend watching the
videos by weaponsandstuff93 on YouTube. I am no expert on the subject but on his
recommendation I got myself a mask that takes 40mm NATO filters ( the mask is a Belgium BEM4
) and some P3 level filters ( mine are Scott Pros ) this is different to 40MM GOST filters
which were the Soviet standard.
Make your own face masks? Pfff...it appears the Japanese found a better idea from the
Philippines government...
panties . OR, you could order a custom one from Pantsu Mask . ROFL
Returning to the Covid-19 epidemic and the way governments are reacting to it, Thierry
Meyssan stresses that the authoritarian decisions of Italy and France have no medical
justification. They contradict the observations of the best infectiologists and the instructions
of the World Health Organization.
In all of its messages, the WHO stressed : the low demographic impact of the epidemic; the
futility of border closures; the ineffectiveness of wearing gloves, masks (except for health
care workers) and certain "barrier measures" (for example, the distance of one metre only makes
sense with infected people, but not with healthy people); the need to raise the level of
hygiene, including hand washing, water disinfection and increased ventilation of confined
spaces. Finally, use disposable tissues or, failing that, sneeze into your elbow.
However, the WHO is not a medical organization, but a United Nations agency dealing with
health issues. Its officials, even if they are doctors, are also and above all politicians. It
cannot therefore denounce the abuses of certain states. Furthermore, since the controversy over
the H1N1 epidemic, the WHO must publicly justify all its recommendations. In 2009, it was
accused of having let itself be swayed by the interests of big pharmaceutical companies and of
having hastily sounded the alarm in a disproportionate manner [ 4 ]. This time it used the word
"pandemic" only as a last resort, on March 12th, four months later.
When reading any article concerning current events (ie. Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, or Coronavirus) consider how the The
Seven Principles of Propaganda may apply. (repost):
Avoid abstract ideas - appeal to the emotions. When we think emotionally, we are more prone to be irrational and
less critical in our thinking. I can remember several instances where this has been employed by the US to prepare the public
with a justification of their actions. Here are four examples:
The Invasion of Grenada during the Reagan administration was said to be necessary to rescue American students being held
hostage by Grenadian coup authorities after a coup that overthrew the government. I had a friend in the 82nd airborne division
that participated in the rescue. He told me the students said they were hiding in the school to avoid the fighting by the US
military, and had never been threatened by any Grenadian authority and were only hiding in the school to avoid all the fighting.
Film of the actual rescue broadcast on the mainstream media was taken out of context; the students were never in danger.
The invasion of Panama in the late 80's was supposedly to capture the dictator Manual Noriega for international crimes related
to drugs and weapons. I remember a headline covered by all the media where a Navy lieutenant and his wife were detained by
the police. His wife was sexually assaulted while in custody, according to the story. Unfortunately, it never happened. It
was intended to get the public emotionally involved to support the action.
The invasion of Iraq in the early 90's was preceded by a speech by a girl describing the Iraqi army throwing babies out
of incubators so the equipment could be transferred to Iraq. It turns out the girl was the daughter of one of the Kuwait's
ruling sheiks and the event never occurred. However, it served its purpose by getting the American public involved emotionally
supporting the war.
During the build up to the bombing campaign by NATO against Libya, a woman entered a hotel where reporters were staying
claiming she was raped by several police officers of the Gaddafi security services. The report was carried by most media outlets
as representative of the brutality of the Gaddafi regime. I was not able to verify if this story was true or not, but it fits
the usual method employed to gain public support through propaganda for military interventions.
The greatest emotion in us is fear and fear is used extensively to make us think irrationally. I remember growing up during
the cold war having the fear of nuclear war or 'The Russians are coming!' After the cold war without an obvious enemy, it was
Al Qaeda even before 911, so we had 'Al Qaeda is coming!' Now we have 'ISIS is coming!' with media blasting us with terrorist
fears. Whenever I hear a government promoting an emotional issue or fear mongering, I ignore them knowing there is a hidden
Truth behind the issue.
Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases. This could be stated more plainly as 'Keep it simple,
stupid!' The most notorious use of this technique recently was the Bush administration. Everyone can remember 'We must fight
them over there rather than over here' or my favourite 'They hate us for our freedoms'. Neither of these phrases made any rational
sense despite 911. The last thing Muslims in the Middle East care about is American's freedoms, maybe it was all the bombs
the US was dropping on them.
Give only one side of the argument and obscure history. Watching mainstream media in the US,
you can see all the news is biased to the American view as an example. This is prevalent within Australian commercial media
and newspapers giving only a western view, but fortunately, we have the SBS and the ABC that are very good, certainly not perfect,
at providing both sides of a story. In addition, any historical perspective is ignored keeping the citizenry focused on the
here and now. Can any of you remember any news organisation giving an in depth history of Ukraine or Palestine? I cannot.
Demonize the enemy or pick out one special "enemy" for special vilification. This is obvious in politics where politicians
continuously criticise their opponents. Of course, demonization is more productively applied to international figures or nations
such as Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Gaddafi in Libya, Assad in Syria, the Taliban and just recently Vladimir Putin over
the Ukraine, Crimea and Syria. It establishes a negative emotional view of either a nation (i.e. Iran) or a known figure (i.e.
Putin) making us again think emotionally, rather than rationally, making it easier to promote evil acts upon a nation or a
known figure. Certainly some of these groups or individuals were less than benign, but not necessarily demons as depicted in
the west.
Appear humanitarian in work and motivations. The US has used this technique often to validate foreign interventions
or ongoing conflicts where the term 'Right to Protect' is used for justification. Everyone should remember the many stories
about the abuse of women in Afghanistan or Saddam Hussein's supposed brutality toward his people. The recent attack on Syria
by the US, UK, and France was depicted as an Humanitarian intervention by the UK Government, which was far from the truth.
One thing that always amazes me is when the US sends humanitarian aid to a country it is accompanied by the US military. In
Haiti some years back, the US sent troops with no other country doing so. The recent Ebola outbreak in Africa saw US troops
sent to the area. How are troops going to fight a medical outbreak? No doubt, they are there for other reasons.
Obscure one's economic interests. Who believes the invasion of Iraq was for weapons of mass destruction? Or the
constant threats against Iran are for their nuclear program? Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and no one has presented
firm evidence Iran intends to produce nuclear weapons. The West has been interfering in the Middle East since the British in
the late 19th century. It is all about oil and the control over the resources. In fact, if one researches the cause of wars
over the last hundred years, you will always find economics was a major component driving the rush to war for most of them.
Monopolize the flow of information. This is the most important principle and mainly entails setting the narrative
by which all subsequent events can be based upon or interpreted in such a way as to reinforce the narrative. The narrative
does not need to be true; in fact, it can be anything that suits the monopoliser as long as it is based loosely on some event.
It is critical to have at least majority control of media and the ability to control the message so the flow of information
is consistent with the narrative. This has been played out on mainstream media concerning the Ukrainian conflict, Syrian conflict,
and the Skirpal affair. Just over the last couple of years, we have all been subjected to propaganda in one form or another.
Remember the US wanting to bomb Syria because of the sarin gas attack, it was later determined to be false (see Seymour Hersh
'Whose Sarin'). The shoot down of MH17 was immediately blamed on Russia by the west without any convincing proof (setting the
narrative). It amazes me just how fast the story died after the initial saturation in the media. When I awoke that morning
in July, I heard on the news PM Tony Abbot blaming Russia for the incident only hours afterward. How could he know Russia shot
down the plane? The investigation into the incident had not even begun, so I suspect he was singing from the West's hymnbook
in a standard setting the narrative scenario.
"... the Iranian population is the world's most lung-weakest. Almost all men over the age of sixty suffer from the after-effects of the US combat gases used by the Iraqi army during the First Gulf War (1980-88), as did the Germans and the French after the First World War. Any traveller to Iran has been struck by the number of serious lung ailments. ..."
"... The Diamond Princess is an Israeli-American ship, owned by Micky Arison, brother of Shari Arison, the richest woman in Israel. The Arisons are turning this incident into a public relations operation. The Trump administration and several other countries airlifted their nationals to be quarantined at home. The international press devoted its headlines to this story. Referring to the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1919, it asserts that the epidemic could spread throughout the world and potentially threaten the human species with extinction [ 2 ]. This apocalyptic hypothesis, not based on any facts, will nevertheless become the word of the Gospel. ..."
"... It is not known at this time whether tycoons deliberately spread panic about Covid-19, making this vulgar epidemic seem like the "end of the world". However, one distortion after another, governments have become involved. Of course, it is no longer a question of selling advertising screens by frightening people, but of dominating populations by exploiting this fear. ..."
"... Let us remember that never in history has the confinement of a healthy population been used to fight a disease. Above all, let us remember that this epidemic will have no significant consequences in terms of mortality. ..."
"... The two governments panic their populations by distributing unnecessary instructions disavowed by infectious diseases doctors: they encourage people to wear gloves and masks in all circumstances and to keep at least one metre away from any other human being. ..."
"... It is too early to say what real goal the Conte and Macron governments are pursuing. The only thing that is certain is that it is not a question of fighting Covid-19. ..."
Returning to the Covid-19 epidemic and the way governments are reacting to it, Thierry
Meyssan stresses that the authoritarian decisions of Italy and France have no medical
justification. They contradict the observations of the best infectiologists and the
instructions of the World Health Organization.
The Chinese Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, came to lead the operations in Wuhan and restore
the "celestial mandate" on January 27, 2020.
On November 17, 2019, the first case of a person infected with Covid-19 was diagnosed in
Hubei Province, China. Initially, doctors tried to communicate the seriousness of the disease,
but clashed with regional authorities. It was only when the number of cases increased and the
population saw the seriousness of the disease that the central government intervened.
This epidemic is not statistically significant. It kills very few people, although those it
does kill experience terrible respiratory distress.
Since ancient times, in Chinese culture, Heaven has given a mandate to the Emperor to govern
his subjects [ 1 ]. When he withdraws it, a disaster
strikes the country: epidemic, earthquake, etc. Although we are in modern times, President XI
felt threatened by the mismanagement of the Hubei regional government. The Council of State
therefore took matters into its own hands. It forced the population of Hubei's capital, Wuhan,
to remain confined to their homes. Within days, it built hospitals; sent teams to each house to
take the temperature of each inhabitant; took all potentially infected people to hospitals for
testing; treated those infected with chloroquine phosphate and sent others home; and treated
the critically ill with recombinant interferon Alfa 2B (IFNrec) for resuscitation. This vast
operation had no public health necessity, other than to prove that the Communist Party still
has the heavenly mandate.
During a press conference on Covid-19, the Iranian Deputy Minister of Health, Iraj
Harirchi, appeared contaminated.
Propagation in Iran
The epidemic spreads from China to Iran in mid-February 2020. These two countries have been
closely linked since ancient times. They share many common cultural elements. However, the
Iranian population is the world's most lung-weakest. Almost all men over the age of sixty
suffer from the after-effects of the US combat gases used by the Iraqi army during the First
Gulf War (1980-88), as did the Germans and the French after the First World War. Any traveller
to Iran has been struck by the number of serious lung ailments.
When air pollution in Tehran increased beyond what they could bear, schools and government
offices were closed and half of the families moved to the countryside with their grandparents.
This has been happening several times a year for thirty-five years and seems normal.
The government and parliament are almost exclusively composed of veterans of the Iraq-Iran
war, that is, people who are extremely fragile in relation to Covid-19. So when these groups
were infected, many personalities developed the disease.
In view of the US sanctions, no Western bank covers the transport of medicines. Iran found
itself unable to treat the infected and care for the sick until the UAE broke the embargo and
sent two planes of medical equipment.
People who would not suffer in the other country died from the first coughs due to the
wounds in their lungs. As usual, the government closed schools. In addition, it deprogrammed
several cultural and sporting events, but did not ban pilgrimages. Some areas have closed
hotels to prevent the movement of sick people who can no longer find hospitals close to their
homes.
Quarantine in Japan
On February 4, 2020, a passenger on the US cruise ship Diamond Princess was diagnosed ill
from the Covid-19 and ten passengers were infected. The Japanese Minister of Health, Katsunobu
Kato, then imposed a two-week quarantine on the ship in Yokohama in order to prevent the
contagion from spreading to his country. In the end, out of the 3,711 people on board, the vast
majority of whom are over 70 years old, there would be 7 deaths.
The Diamond Princess is an Israeli-American ship, owned by Micky Arison, brother of Shari
Arison, the richest woman in Israel. The Arisons are turning this incident into a public
relations operation. The Trump administration and several other countries airlifted their
nationals to be quarantined at home. The international press devoted its headlines to this
story. Referring to the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1919, it asserts that the epidemic could
spread throughout the world and potentially threaten the human species with extinction [
2 ]. This
apocalyptic hypothesis, not based on any facts, will nevertheless become the word of the
Gospel.
We remember that in 1898, William Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, in order to increase the sales
of their daily newspapers, published false information in order to deliberately provoke a war
between the United States and the Spanish colony of Cuba. This was the beginning of "yellow
journalism" (publishing anything to make money). Today it is called "fake news".
It is not known at this time whether tycoons deliberately spread panic about Covid-19,
making this vulgar epidemic seem like the "end of the world". However, one distortion after
another, governments have become involved. Of course, it is no longer a question of selling
advertising screens by frightening people, but of dominating populations by exploiting this
fear.
For the WHO Director, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, China and South Korea have set an
example by generalising screening tests; a way of saying that the Italian and French methods
are medical nonsense.
WHO intervention
The World Health Organization (WHO), which monitored the entire operation, noted the spread
of the disease outside China. On February 11th and 12th, it organized a global forum on
research and innovation on the epidemic in Geneva. At the forum, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus called in very measured terms for global collaboration [ 3 ].
In all of its messages, the WHO stressed : the low demographic impact of the epidemic; the
futility of border closures; the ineffectiveness of wearing gloves, masks (except for health
care workers) and certain "barrier measures" (for example, the distance of one metre only makes
sense with infected people, but not with healthy people); the need to raise the level of
hygiene, including hand washing, water disinfection and increased ventilation of confined
spaces. Finally, use disposable tissues or, failing that, sneeze into your elbow.
However, the WHO is not a medical organization, but a United Nations agency dealing with
health issues. Its officials, even if they are doctors, are also and above all politicians. It
cannot therefore denounce the abuses of certain states. Furthermore, since the controversy over
the H1N1 epidemic, the WHO must publicly justify all its recommendations. In 2009, it was
accused of having let itself be swayed by the interests of big pharmaceutical companies and of
having hastily sounded the alarm in a disproportionate manner [ 4 ]. This time it used the word
"pandemic" only as a last resort, on March 12th, four months later.
At the Franco-Italian summit in Naples on February 27, the French and Italian presidents,
Giuseppe Conte and Emmanuel Macron, announced that they would react together to the
pandemic.
Instrumentation in Italy and France
Modern propaganda should not be limited to the publication of false news as the United
Kingdom did to convince its people to enter the First World War, but should also be used in the
same way as Germany did to convince its people to fight in the Second World War. The recipe is
always the same: to exert psychological pressure to induce subjects to voluntarily practice
acts that they know are useless, but which will lead them to lie [ 5 ]. For example, in 2001, it was
common knowledge that those accused of hijacking planes on 9/11 were not on the passenger
boarding lists. Yet, in shock, most accepted without question the inane accusations made by FBI
Director Robert Muller against "19 hijackers". Or, as is well known, President Hussein's Iraq
had only old Soviet Scud launchers with a range of up to 700 kilometers, but many Americans
caulked the windows and doors of their homes to protect themselves from the deadly gases with
which the evil dictator was going to attack America. This time, in the case of the Covid-19, it
is the voluntary confinement in the home that forces the person who accepts it to convince
himself of the veracity of the threat.
Let us remember that never in history has the confinement of a healthy population been
used to fight a disease. Above all, let us remember that this epidemic will have no significant
consequences in terms of mortality.
In Italy, the first step was to isolate the contaminated regions according to the principle
of quarantine, and then to isolate all citizens from each other, which follows a different
logic.
According to the President of the Italian Council, Giuseppe Conte, and the French President,
Emmanuel Macron, the aim of confining the entire population at home is not to overcome the
epidemic, but to spread it out over time so that the sick do not arrive at the same time in
hospitals and saturate them. In other words, it is not a medical measure, but an exclusively
administrative one. It will not reduce the number of infected people, but will postpone it in
time.
In order to convince the Italians and the French of the merits of their decision, Presidents
Conte and Macron first enlisted the support of committees of scientific experts. While these
committees had no objection to people staying at home, they had no objection to people going
about their business. Then Chairs Conte and Macron made it mandatory to have an official form
to go for a walk. This document on the letterheads of the respective ministries of the interior
is drawn up on honour and is not subject to any checks or sanctions.
The two governments panic their populations by distributing unnecessary instructions
disavowed by infectious diseases doctors: they encourage people to wear gloves and masks in all
circumstances and to keep at least one metre away from any other human being.
The French "reference daily" (sic) Le Monde, Facebook France and the French Ministry of
Health undertook to censor a video of Professor Didier Raoult, one of the world's most renowned
infectiologists, because by announcing the existence of a proven drug in China against
Covid-19, he highlighted the lack of a medical basis for the measures taken by President Macron
[ 6 ].
It is too early to say what real goal the Conte and Macron governments are pursuing. The
only thing that is certain is that it is not a question of fighting
Covid-19.
I urge everyone to read the first article that is linked. What is happening this year is
decidedly NOT a unique phenomenon for Italy or elsewhere that has been cited below. You might
call it an acceleration or culmination or "perfect storm" but this is not a unique situation.
I wish to stress the following:
Estimated excess deaths of 7,027, 20,259, 15,801 and 24,981 attributable to influenza
epidemics in the 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons in Italy.
Anyone remember a global outcry about these excess deaths during any of these years?
Pollution; The Po river contains some of the worst waste from industrial pig farms
upriver. The air quality in the Po River Valley is some of the worst only behind an area in
Poland where they still use coal fired power plants in overall poor quality.
The people in N Italy have been subjected to constant bombardment of this pollution which
destroys their respiratory functions and weakens their immune systems- a perfect milieu for
viruses to proliferate. The same is true for those in N China and Tehran. Tehran's air
quality has deteriorated dramatically since the US sanctions as they have gone to using a
cheaper gas, laced with sulfur, to provide fuel for their people.
Northern Italy has one of the oldest populations and the worst air quality in Europe,
which has already led to an increased number of respiratory diseases and deaths in the past
and is likely an additional risk factor in the current epidemic.
According to the latest data of the Italian National Health Institute ISS, the average age
of the positively-tested deceased in Italy is currently about 81 years. 10% of the deceased
are over 90 years old. 90% of the deceased are over 70 years old.
The Italian Institute of Health moreover distinguishes between those who died from the
coronavirus and those who died with the coronavirus. In many cases it is not yet clear
whether the persons died from the virus or from their pre-existing chronic diseases or from a
combination of both.
This is not a coincidence that these environmental factors have created a milieu in which
all sorts of diseases can proliferate. Now capitalism will come up with the magic bullet like
a vaccine or a pill to "fix" the problem- rinse and repeat if the current social order/forms
of production aren't radically changed.
A virus which impacts upper respiratory functions attacking those who are vulnerable due
to years of having their upper respiratory systems assaulted non-stop by heavy doses of
pollutants of all varieties- that's what we are seeing. None of this is new except to the
degree. In all the areas listed below, N Italy, N China, Madrid, Tehran they have been
experiencing a dramatic increase in upper respiratory disease for years now.
And please don't tell me the solution is some vaccination or some great new cure that will
be discovered (and profited from) by the miraculous men of modern medicine. The solution is
to clean up the environment so that we are not vulnerable in the first place. Without that
prepare for COVID-20 the sequel or whatever name the thoroughly bought off WHO and CDC
and...wish to place upon this next "pandemic."
Investigating the impact of influenza on excess mortality in all ages in Italy during
recent seasons (2013/14–2016/17 seasons)
In recent years, Italy has been registering peaks in death rates, particularly among the
elderly during the winter season. Influenza epidemics have been indicated as one of the
potential determinants of such an excess.
We estimated excess deaths of 7,027, 20,259, 15,801 and 24,981 attributable to influenza
epidemics in the 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17, respectively, using the Goldstein
index. The average annual mortality excess rate per 100,000 ranged from 11.6 to 41.2 with
most of the influenza-associated deaths per year registered among the elderly.
The new study argues that smogs in China contain more ingredients than those found either
in the legendary "pea-soupers" of 19th- and 20th-century Europe and North America or in
modern rich-world, vehicle-generated smogs. Something new is happening: The unprecedented
speed of industrialization and urbanization has combined two eras of pollution.
Investigating air quality status and air pollutant trends over the Metropolitan Area of
Tehran, Iran over the past decade between 2005 and 2014
Overall, trends have been progressed to worsening, the number of healthy days has been
declined and the number of unhealthy days has been increased in recent years.
Tehran is rated as one of the world's most polluted cities. Parts of the city are often
covered by smog, making breathing difficult and causing widespread pulmonary illnesses. ...
According to local officials, 3,600 people died in a single month due to the hazardous air
quality.
Air Pollution, a Silent Form of Death for Tehran Citizens
You don't have to step into the street for Madrid's roads to pose a hazard to your health:
air pollution from cars in the city might just knock you over. Scientists are finding links
between the gases and disease.
......
According to studies by Julio Diaz, a researcher at the Carlos III Health Institute in
Madrid, even small increases in air pollution can cause the number of people admitted to
hospitals with circulatory and respiratory illnesses to rise.
There's much attention being given to how China and South Korea have reacted to the virus,
but amazingly little to the response in Vietnam. The first cases in Vietnam arrived with the
new lunar year, via Wuhan; quite quickly the number of cases rose to sixteen, and for several
weeks stayed at that number. The Vietnamese government acted quickly, strongly and
effectively, until all sixteen recovered (and the district near Hanoi which had been
placed under lockdown had completed their isolation.
On March 2nd a flight from London, carrying a woman who was returning from the Milan fashion
week:
"The country's 17th case, imported on a flight from London, kicked off a new wave of cases,
[now nearing 100].
Even with a new wave of cases, the numbers are far from those witnessed in the western
world. The issue has been taken seriously, with all suffering symptoms put in quarantine and
tested, while their places of residence are locked down and sanitised. Việt Nam was one
of the first nations to declare an epidemic and has been quick in its response, both in
handling current cases and ensuring the spread of the virus is as limited as possible. "
- taken from
https://vietnamnews.vn/life-style/expat-corner/653815/keeping-calm-and-carrying-on-viet-nam-sets-a-coronavirus-example.html
It is notable that almost all cases of infection have been brought into the country, or at
one-person distance from the person bringing it into the country.
Today there has been the announcement of the seventeenth reported recovery in Vietnam. So
far there has been not one death.
Points in the reaction:
Public gatherings were stopped right away - even local community Women's Day lunches.
All citizens and all foreigners are now required to report on health, on recent travel,
etc.
Everyone is now required to wear masks in public places.
Trump is like the kid who played video games when he should have been doing his homework,
then failed miserably on the test and tried to bullshit his way through the essay
questions.
As you are probably aware, a handful of elected leaders were selling their stock while
assuaging the public about the dangers of the pandemic. We've gone from incompetence, to
negligence, to outright profiteering.
Last year, the Dept. of Health and Human Services ran a 7 month long exercise code named
"Crimson Contagion," a dry run response to a global pandemic which started in China and
expected more than 100 million Americans to become ill.
Gabbard is angling for the VP position as Biden mentioned he's looking for a woman as a
running mate. She better hope Biden remember what he said. I wonder what Biden's criteria for
his candidates?
Hmm...
...Heck, if Trump can "recognized" Juan Guaido as the "legitimate" president of Venezuela,
why the fuck can't we "recognize" Bernie Sanders as our legitimate president? I mean, if all we
have to do is just say it is so, like Trump and others did, why the fuck not? (yeah I know,
but...I think you get my point)
"... "Congress/staff who dumped stocks after private briefings on impending coronavirus epidemic should be investigated and prosecuted for insider trading," ..."
"... "Members of Congress should not be allowed to own stocks." ..."
"... "stomach churning," ..."
"... "For a public servant it's pretty hard to imagine many things more immoral than doing this," ..."
"... "Richard Burr had critical information that might have helped the people he is sworn to protect. But he hid that information and helped only himself." ..."
"... "If you find out about a nation-threatening pandemic and your first move is to adjust your stock portfolio you should probably not be in a job that serves the public interest," ..."
"... "calling for immediate investigations" ..."
"... "for possible violations of the STOCK Act and insider trading laws." ..."
"... Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! ..."
After the sale, NPR
reported
that he told a closed-door meeting of North Carolina business leaders that the virus
actually posed a threat
"akin to the 1918 pandemic."
Burr does not dispute the NPR report.
In a tweet on Saturday, former 2020 presidential candidate and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard called for
criminal investigations.
"Congress/staff who dumped stocks after private briefings on impending
coronavirus epidemic should be investigated and prosecuted for insider trading,"
she wrote.
"Members of Congress should not be allowed to own stocks."
Congress/staff who dumped stocks after private briefings on impending
coronavirus epidemic should be investigated & prosecuted for insider trading (the STOCK Act). It
is illegal & abuse of power. Members of Congress should not be allowed to own stocks.
https://t.co/rbVfJxrk3r
Burr was not the only lawmaker on Capitol Hill to take precautions, it was reported. Fellow
Intelligence Committee member Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and her husband sold off more than a
million dollars of shares in a biotech company five days later, while Oklahoma's Jim Inhofe (R) made a
smaller sale around the same time. Both say their sales were routine.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia) attended a Senate Health Committee briefing on the outbreak on
January 24. The very same day, she began offloading stock, dropping between $1.2 and $3.1 million in
shares over the following weeks. The companies whose stock she sold included airlines, retail outlets,
and Chinese tech firm Tencent.
She did, however, invest in cloud technology company Oracle, and Citrix, a teleworking company
whose value has increased by nearly a third last week, as social distancing measures forced more and
more Americans to work from home. All of Loeffler's transactions were made with her husband, Jeff
Sprecher, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) and Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) have joined the clamor of
voices demanding punishment. Ocasio-Cortez
described
the sales as
"stomach churning,"
while Omar reached across the aisle to side
with Fox News' Tucker Carlson in calling for Burr's resignation.
"For a public servant it's pretty hard to imagine many things more immoral than doing this,"
Carlson said during a Friday night monolog.
"Richard Burr had critical information that might have
helped the people he is sworn to protect. But he hid that information and helped only himself."
As of Saturday, there are nearly 25,000 cases of Covid-19 in the US, with the death toll heading
towards 300. Now both sides of the political aisle seem united in disgust at the apparent profiteering
of Burr, Loeffler, and Feinstein.
Right-wing news outlet Breitbart
savaged
Burr for voting against the STOCK Act in 2012, a piece of legislation that would have
barred members of Congress from using non-public information to profit on the stock market. At the
same time, a host of Democratic figures - including former presidential candidates
Andrew Yang
and
Kirsten Gillibrand
- weighed in with their own criticism too.
"If you find out about a nation-threatening pandemic and your first move is to adjust your
stock portfolio you should probably not be in a job that serves the public interest,"
Yang
tweeted on Friday.
If you find out about a nation-threatening pandemic and your first move
is to adjust your stock portfolio you should probably not be in a job that serves the public
interest.
Watchdog group Common Cause has filed complaints with the Justice Department, the Securities and
Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee
"calling for immediate investigations"
of
Burr, Loeffler, Feinstein and Inhofe
"for possible violations of the STOCK Act and insider trading
laws."
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
FWIW, Dr. Fauci pretty much threw cold water on the Chloroquine option at today's Trump press
conference, saying that no clinical trials have been conducted and leaving the impression
that he was highly dubious. Again, FWIW.
P.S. I wonder how long Fauci will be welcomed onto that podium.
div
Putin just realized that he is at the start of his career Of course there may be a
simpler answer: looking across the pond, Putin sees an election between Biden (b Nov 1942)
and Trump (b June 1946) and realises that he (b Oct 1952) is just at the start of his career.
Richard Burr, chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, has been accused of deceiving
the public about the coronavirus outbreak and seeking to profit from it by dumping stocks that
are crashing due to the pandemic. Burr (R-North Carolina) found himself under attack from two
directions on Thursday. Early in the day, National Public Radio ran a story based on "secret
recordings" from a speech he gave in North Carolina in late February, when he gave oddly
specific warnings about Covid-19 to an elite group of donors, while keeping the rest of the
American public in the dark.
SCOOP: Secret recording obtained by NPR shows that Senate Intel Chairman Richard Burr
raised alarms about Coronavirus weeks ago in private meeting with well-connected constituents
-- concerns he never shared with the public https://t.co/afyvzaMyXK
The North Carolina Republican struck back later in the day,
accusing NPR on Twitter of "journalistic malpractice" for "knowingly and
irresponsibly" misrepresenting the speech, calling the article a "tabloid-style hit
piece."
By then, however, he was taking flanking fire from a different position. Open Secrets, a
"nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit" research group tracking money in politics
– with George Soros' Open Society Foundation as one of their biggest donors , mind you – published
his financial disclosures, showing that Burr and his wife sold over $1 million worth of stocks
in corporations that took it on the chin as the Covid-19 pandemic tanked the US stock
markets.
SCOOP: NC's GOP Senator Richard Burr told the public he was confident the govt can fight
off COVID-19 the same time he & his wife sold up to ~$1.5 million stock in major
corporations that ended up losing most of their value during the coronavirus pandemic
https://t.co/JsXkaxb2Pw
pic.twitter.com/lMnnbBfoNZ
Much of the outraged responses to both the NPR and Open Secrets, praising their revelations
and demanding Burr be imprisoned – along with the rest of the Republican Party, President
Donald Trump, and who knows who else – have been the usual suspects promoting the
'Russiagate' conspiracy theory over the past four years.
NPR's article was authored by Tim Mak, a Daily Beast alum who famously co-authored a
fake
Russiagate bombshell in December 2018, accusing the president's son Donald Trump Jr of
lying to Congress based on misquoting the publicly available transcript.
To make the irony even greater, Burr has been extremely helpful to the 'Russiagate' gang
while chairing the Senate Intelligence Committee. For example, he endorsed the infamous
"intelligence community assessment" based on wishful thinking . He
has also treated the ranking minority member, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) as
"co-chair," covering for him even when it emerged that Warner was trying to secretly
communicate with the British spy who wrote the debunked anti-Trump "Steele
dossier."
None of it availed Burr one bit when they came for his head, of course – the
"R" next to his name automatically made him a Trump supporter in the minds of the woke
mob. If it turns out to be true that he knew far more about the dangers of the pandemic but
chose to keep silent and profit from it, that would indeed be a colossal dereliction of duty.
But as his prior record in overseeing the US spy community indicates, it wouldn't have been the
first time.
... that USA and the West were unprepared because China withheld information about the
virus.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 19 2020 18:20 utc | 106
The "Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19" states that China transparently
reported the identification of virus to the WHO and the international community on January
3rd, and a WHO investigative team was invited to Wuhan a week after that.
From January 3rd, 2020, information on COVID-19 cases has been reported to WHO daily.
On January 7th, full genome sequences of the new virus were shared with WHO and the
international community immediately after the pathogen was identified.
On January 10th, an expert group involving Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwanese technical
experts and a World Health Organization team was invited to visit Wuhan.
@FB I, too, have been disappointed in Tucker Carlson's China bashing. I have thought that
he was the best on FOX News, but now he is getting to be as bad as Sean Hannity.
We may never know the origin of the coronavirus. It is foolish to try and assign blame at
this point.
"... Both financial systems and economies were clearly crashing beginning in early September. Now the elites get to blame all the troubles on a virus ..."
Well, I think there's a certain amount of circumstantial evidence suggesting that the
Coronavirus outbreak may have been an American bioweapon attack against China (and Iran).
But if so, I'm *extremely* skeptical that the perpetrators ever intended or imagined that
it would leak back into the US and inflict the horrific economic and social damage that now
seems unavoidable. How to explain this lack lack of foresight?
The most obvious answer is that they were stupid and incompetent, but here's another
point to consider
In late 2002 there was the outbreak of SARS in China, a related virus but that was far
more deadly and somewhat different in other characteristics. The virus killed hundreds of
Chinese and spread into a few other countries before it was controlled and stamped out. The
impact on the US and Europe was negligible, with just a small scattering of cases and only
a death or two.
So if American biowarfare analysts were considering a Coronavirus attack against China,
isn't it quite possible they would have said to themselves that since SARS never
significantly leaked back into the US or Europe, we'd similarly remain insulated from the
Coronavirus?
Obviously, such an analysis was foolish and mistaken, but would it have seemed so
implausible at the time?
Well, I have only recently heard of a guy named Francis Boyle,a law professor out of the
Univ. Of Illinois. He is apparently an expert on bio-warfare treaties. He claims covid-19 is
manmade,period.
That is a very scary notion,from which most people will flee.
As I have accepted that 9/11 was "the usual suspects," I guess it is definitely possible.
@Ron Unz Maybe, but my take is an engineered market crash. This looks to me like a Nathan
Rothschild sort of trick (according to legend) – propagating fake news about Napoleon's
victory at Waterloo, crashing the markets, then snapping up the whole LSE for a penny to the
pound. If so, you have to admire it, the sheer genius, the psychopathic beauty of it all.
As a bonus, the Reichstag Fire also is an extremely efficient delivery system for the
eugenics payload – a very virulent strain that almost exclusively targets the social
burden (pensioners and already ill) while leaving alone the tax-farm base! Never in the
history of tax-farming have the sheeple been stampeded and fleeced so thoroughly! Bravo!
The US is the customer, with the enormous trade deficit. Trump has been hugely effective
with his tariff's policy in rehoming manufacturing to the US – a process that will
vastly accelerate thanks to the Corona virus outbreak.
I agree that 9-11 stink to high heaven and that PNAC are unmitigated bastards, but this
capitulation to China is balls.
@Ron Unz Stupidity is certainly an American Military essential behavior for promotion and
success in the current US Armed Forces.
But you can't have someone clever enough to create a Recombinant Designer Pathogen and be
in the US Military.
However, the psyops fucks would likely be ready to game the system should a natural
outbreak occur which would be called a Pandemic even when its not and make everyone of our
low quality leaders $hit their pants and go totally crazy. A mild fart with the claim its
poison gas would make the Stock Markets Collapse.
But if so, I'm *extremely* skeptical that the perpetrators ever intended or imagined
that it would leak back into the US and inflict the horrific economic and social damage
that now seems unavoidable. How to explain this lack lack of foresight?
This is the same issue with cyberwar viruses. One can infect computers in Iran, but with
the internet they may be passed onto the entire world, just like rap music.
But if so, I'm *extremely* skeptical that the perpetrators ever intended or imagined
that it would leak back into the US and inflict the horrific economic and social damage
that now seems unavoidable. How to explain this lack lack of foresight?
One word: Trump. Because he could very well lose his reelection bid if the pandemic causes
an economic recession which now seems highly likely given the stock market collapse.
Cui Bono ? The people OPPOSED to Trump, variously referred to as the "Deep State"
or the "National Security State" as described by Gore Vidal in his book which by the way
Julian Assange was holding while being hauled away from the Ecuadorian Embassy.
After Russiagate and Ukrainegate, THEY finally hit the bullseye with Coronagate.
This is a pretty good article. I'll probably link to it.
Some people think this is coming from City of London types. The US pursued a "strategy of
tension" with China that may have allowed third party actors to intervene and get them
fighting each other.
There has been some Bad Blood between British elites and China for awhile now. It's
not clear why.
In this scheme, the US is the patsy, the Oswald to take the blame.
The real gem in the whole article are the observations made by Yang himself:
YANG: That's what freaks me out about the whole thing. What we're doing is saying things
like, "Keep your social distance," and trying to stop the spread that way, which is fine.
But we have shit for data. Like, we don't know what the infection rate is. And so,
there's no reason we would ever be able to give the 'all-clear.' If you don't have any
data, this whole thing is a nightmare that doesn't end. When you close schools, what gives
you the all-clear to say, "OK, open them again"? Nothing. There's no data to compare it to.
This whole thing is a fear-based approach with no end in sight. There's no catalyst to ever
sound the all-clear. This whole thing is so fucked up.
YANG: I think the nature of that guidance has to be different, personally. I think they
need to be transparent about what kind of data we're relying on, to give people a sense of
the timeline. Right now, our sense of the future is so cloudy. And you get the sense the
president went from not taking this seriously to suddenly realizing its seriousness, and now
we're reacting in various ways to slow the spread of the virus. But then what? I would be
clearer as to what the timeline looks like, what data we're going to rely upon, how we're
going to get that data, what steps we're taking to increase testing capacity and just give
people a sense of the future.
We need to know now what the future can look like under different scenarios and then be
presented with what scenario we're in when that time comes. We've been on lockdown
for half a week. Right now, the American people don't have any visibility into whether it's
going to be four more weeks or four more months, and we don't know how those judgments are
going to determined. As president, I would say, "Look, here's the information, here's the
dashboard, here's what we're lining up, here's what we're hoping for, here's how
circumstances could change, and thank you for doing your part -- if you proceed with like
the rest of the country in flattening the curve and keeping things under this level, then
we can look forward to this. " You know, so we could actually have a sense of
accomplishment and purpose.
So here we have it, replicated throughout the whole of the Western world. An open-ended
clamp-down based on fear, with no timeline or road map, and no conditions set on when (or IF)
things will get back to normal.
For now, smells really fishy. Even if DS (Deep State) did not intentionally engineer this
circumstance, they are decisively and very swiftly exploiting it to exert extreme control
over everything .
@antibeast On the contrary, for the deep state Trump is the ideal puppet. Those
who are against Trump belong to the surface state , i.e. Democrats, Leftists in
general and the equally Leftist main stream media. Real policy in the US is only made by the
deep state .
Let me cut through all this speculative noise with Occam's Razor.
The virus is natural. The CCP elites are using it in exactly the same way the USG and EU
elites are. Both financial systems and economies were clearly crashing beginning in early
September. Now the elites get to blame all the troubles on a virus (which isn't actually
killing anyone in interesting numbers). Absent the WuFlu they'd all risk getting strung up
pretty soon. Now instead of being called out for the decade+ of ineptitude that lead to a
collapsing global bubble economy, they get to be praised as heroes that saved everyone from
dying.
Now that I've cleared up all that nonsense about a bioweapon and grand scheme to kneecap
China, I have to say that the "China inevitably taking over" narrative is rather ridiculous,
flu or not. Japan re-ascendant and taking back Manchokou is more believable. As the USA
washes its hands of these messes overseas and pulls back homeward, China is in the worst
position. All its neighbors hate it and will check it. China has been the #1 beneficiary of
Pax Americana this century. Well, Americans are rapidly losing interest in that project.
But if so, I'm * extremely * skeptical that the perpetrators ever intended or
imagined that it would leak back into the US and inflict the horrific economic and social
damage that now seems unavoidable. How to explain this lack lack of foresight?
Dr. Unz,
That's because -- if it indeed is a bio-weapon -- the value of the attack for this
particular case does not lie in the attack itself. The goal is the propaganda that can be
generated from the attack, i.e. the propaganda value . Words in general (and therefore
propaganda) have real-world material power. It affects people's thinking, which in turn
affects people's actions and behavior, which in turn have real-world consequences. Propaganda
of this sort would then utterly damage the world's perception of China, which could then
affect China's economic, diplomatic, and political dealings.
If the infection were contained within China's borders or within isolated parts of East
Asia, then not much of a big fuss could be made about it. The infection needs to spread for
it to have propaganda value. Note that Covid-19 has a very low fatality rate compared to SARS
or other recent infection outbreaks. Yet it is very infectious (meaning, many people getting
infected / high rate of infection). Covid-19 is a virus that is very infectious BUT has a low
fatality rate -- exactly the kind of virus you want if you wanted something to spread.
Also, the elites are willing to incur losses in the short-run. They'll weather whatever
short-run losses just fine, and they'll make up for it in other ways. The real people that
will get hit economically in a permanent way are the low-income, the middle-class, and even
the upper middle-class. The oligarchs won't.
What they're really concerned about is the long-run, and that's smart on them. They'll
have real losses in the long-run if China completes its rise. China is set to complete its
overall rise (not on everything, but just overall) in the probably the next 5 to 10 years.
Much of the indicators for this has been covered by that Godfree guy and by others. So
something must be done to stop it.
@Trinity And don't forget to add that such a magical cure – should it be created
– would become weaponized to exclude the usual suspects (Iran, Syria,
Taliban-Afghanistan, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Iraq, possibly war-ravaged Libya and who
knows, even impoverished shee-thole nations like Haiti and African countries) from having
access to it. Also include the offer by Trump to German firm CureVac to move its Covid-19
vaccine research operations to the US so the vaccine could be used exclusively for Americans.
After Russiagate and Ukrainegate, THEY finally hit the bullseye with Coronagate.
And Coronagate contains just about as much reality as those other "gates" – the
experience of gateology tell us that once the story is up and runing,it does not matter, if
the back story resembles anything in the real world.
The Chinese at first might really have believed that they were under a bioweapons attack.
They would have kept it secret at first, not to further the panic.
After they had inflicted tremendous damage on their own economy they could not confess that
they had been taken in by a panic. So, they play along with the story that there really is a
dangerous virus around.
This way, they force the same debilitating countermessures on western economies. While they
can overcome the blow, European economies are so weak by now that they will fold. Which
leaves China even gaining from their gambit.
As for the US, it has long been established that the anti trumpers will stop at nothing
and blow their country to pieces ten times over, if it only carried a minimal chance of
hurting Trump.
It is China and the Zionists who will be cashing in on this. A hell of a combination.
@FlubberT his passage you have plagiarized is commonly misattributed to Cicero,
but it was penned by Taylor Caldwell in her 1965 work A Pillar of Iron , a fictional
novel about the Roman orator.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason
from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his
banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely,
his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government
itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his
victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that
lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and
unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so
that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.
-- Taylor Caldwell, A Pillar of Iron (1965) ch. 56
So if American biowarfare analysts were considering a Coronavirus attack against China,
isn't it quite possible they would have said to themselves that since SARS never
significantly leaked back into the US or Europe, we'd similarly remain insulated from the
Coronavirus?
The SARS virus may not be an apt comparison for the simple reason that it is far too
deadly apparently [I'm not a virus expert] viruses that kill a lot aren't successful because
the only way they can reproduce is through a host
Viruses live on a delicate balance, don't they? They have to be able to thrive without
killing their host.
Right. The ones that kill off their host quickly will disappear. With the SARS virus,
it's no surprise that killing 10 percent of its host, it wasn't able to establish itself
as a pandemic virus on this planet.
Are there any signs that this coronavirus will kill itself?
This one has a lower pathogenicity. The lower its virulence, the more likely it'll
become part of an endemic, part of a seasonal event. That's one of the big things that's
going to be a worry.
The US cannot win a trade war with China. It cannot win a nuclear war. It cannot
win a conventional land war. Yet from the neocon perspective it needs some kind of war ASAP
before China grows too strong.
Of course those are plain facts that are clear to thinking people very few of which will
be commenting on this particular website I notice the yowls of protest are already starting
on this thread brace for many more
Strategic analysts agree that the necessary prelude to ramped up US-vs.-China warfare
would be a decoupling of the US and Chinese economies. That decoupling is happening now,
thanks to coronavirus.
True again, and an important point I was surprised to see the often-sensible Tucker
Carlson going into full China bashing today calling exactly for this kind of economic
decoupling from China and encouraging Trump in his belligerent tone towards China
the Chinese authorities suppression of the initial medical analysis of the outbreak.
Total BS
These agit-prop China-bashing stories have been totally discredited by the great results
the Chinese have achieved very effective and very efficient let's see now how the US copes
[why do I have the feeling it won't be nearly as smooth ?]
"So the United States is run by lunatics, by psychopaths who are entirely capable of
launching World War 3 by way of a biological warfare attack on China and Iran, with the
Iran component presumably led by Israel. That's the most likely explanation for what we're
seeing."
This is the kind of rot Press TV publishes.
The US is run by lunatics who are absolutely devoid of empathy for anyone else, unless
it's their fellow war mongers or their colonial master, Israel.
The list of false flags the ruling US clique have used–to accomplish their
goals–go back to the Spanish-American war and have only gotten bloodier and more
sophisticated.
Take this excerpt from the PNAC declaration:
And advanced forms of biological warfare that can target specific genotypes may
transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool" (p.
60).
Don't know about UNZ readers, but creating bio-weapons that target specific genotypes
sounds like what took place in China, then Iran, where the virus mutated to target
Persians.
If you go to the PNAC doc and read the names of the directors, staff and signatories, it
reads like a Bar Mitzah guest list, that even has our old friend, former Pentagon
comptroller Rabbi Dov S. Zakheim listed. Wonder if the good Rabbi ever found those missing
Pentagon trillions?
The Israeli masterminded 9/11 false flag has been almost consecrated–like the
holocaust–and anyone who dares to question the official lies, stands to lose their
jobs, stature and be endlessly vilified for asking historical questions. Punitive
measures that Mr. Barrett has first-hand knowledge of.
Thank you Kevin Barrett for another informative article. Also thank you to UNZ for his
support!
I just have one simple comment for both of you. I love the other fat man and I think his last
name is something like Pimpeo! He expanded the US sanctions against Iran to include the
antiviral medications this past Tuesday! He justified his action to furthering "extreme
pressure" on Iranians and then he said the Iranian government is the corona virus in the
region! Meaning it has to be exterminated! Isn't Mr Pimpeo a real good person?
You may want to add the Pimpeo's action against the Iranians to the list of your
justifications that this virus was a man made virus and spread for evil reasons! Perhaps you
are giving the stupid planners and executioner of the plan more credit than they deserve by
saying that this plan may eventually save the western imperialism! As you said a bunch of
inept and incompetent people planned and executed the spread of this virus but it blew up in
their faces beyond their imagination. They just didn't realize that this virus can walk,
spread and ultimately not discriminating against anyone, weak and strong or rich and poor!
" I spent most of 2004 through 2006 blaming Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for
9/11.
With 2020 hindsight I can now see that I should have interpreted 9/11 as a likely false
flag immediately, based on cui bono."
Better late than never. To anybody following that event on television back then, it should
have already been obvious by the end of that same day that this was a professionally planned
operation, based on the following clues:
• As the event was still unfolding, Ehud Barak was at BBC headquarters to provide the
desired narrative;
• George W. Bush was not immediately whisked away from elementary school by his
security agents.
• Symmetrical destruction of twin towers was inconsistent with consequences from a
plane impact;
• Third tower collapsed rapidly for no apparent or plausible reason except a
controlled demolition;
• Implausibility of emerging story involving coordinated Muslim hijackings with box
cutter blades;
• Repetitive (scripted) "New Pearl Harbor " mantra by newscasters preceded by
movie all summer long.
And a few weeks later it should have been obvious that the continuing molten metal and
bedrock at ground-zero was a lingering effect of the nuclear detonations below the three
buildings that precipitated their collapse. Even after so many years, some critics have still
been reluctant to acknowledge this particularly hideous aspect of the operation.
" The question of whether the virus is naturally evolved or man-made is still
open. "
A month ago Professor Boyle at University of Illinois publicly reported the findings from
the scientific literature, that the virus had obviously been manipulated to provide "gain of
function" properties, in other words, weaponized. In the meantime, virtually nobody in
alternative media believes the official story purporting that the virus evolved naturally
from animals.
However, had the virus been released intentionally during the Wuhan military games prior
to Halloween, then the mass epidemic effects would definitely have already been conspicuously
apparent by Thanksgiving, in late November, due to the rapid exponential infection rates in
such a huge metropolis, instead of at least a month later, toward the end of the year. So the
specific conspiratorial conjecture presented here – virus released in late October to
then cause maximum damage three months later while remaining exclusively constrained within
China– is already necessarily flawed and therefore implausible.
Since there has been so much talk over the past years, for instance by Alex Jones, of
plans to use the need to protect a population against a biological weapons attack as a
convenient pretext for governments to curtail everyone's freedoms and thereby condition
people to accept such measures, this now evolving scenario was surely in the back of many
people's minds. With such contingencies already in place, it is easy to presume that, once an
accidental release had actually occurred, those who advocated such a new type of
authoritarianism would not miss the opportunity to exploit the crisis in an attempt to shape
future events accordingly.
Yet this new event can also be effectively harnessed by those who oppose the many adverse
manifestations of " Globalism " (open borders facilitating mass migration, labor
arbitrage through outsourcing, interdependent international supply chains, authoritarian
government, curtailing public criticism through imposed censorship, disrupting social
cohesion, etc.), so that type of endeavor to resist these globalist trends would be a
worthwhile focus.
The big players, even as they are fighting one another, will agree that the current outbreak
is an excellent opportunity to test a few things and to increase their control over their
respective populations. Whether the virus came from a bat or a lab, they will take note, but
in the end it matters little as they are all engaged in the same neverending campaign of
theft and murder.
In the early 2000s, Kevin Ryan was the site manager at Environmental Health Laboraties. On
November 11, 2004, he wrote directly to Frank Gayle, the director of NIST's Twin Towers
investigation. The following week, he was fired. This is his story.
2.3 TRillion Dollars Missing from DOD Day before 9/11/ 2001
SEPTEMBER 10, 2001 Defense Business Practices
Secretary Rumsfeld and other officials talked with reporters about the need to refine the
Defense Department's business practices. An opening ceremony will kick off Acquisition
and Logistics Excellence Week.
Possibly the virus is an engineered product, I don't know, that is up to those with
bio-molecular expertise and experience. But released on purpose? A stretch to be sure given
the all too predictable consequences.
Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research
An experiment that created a hybrid version of a bat coronavirus -- one related to the
virus that causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) -- has triggered renewed debate
over whether engineering lab variants of viruses with possible pandemic potential is worth
the risks.
Looks like someone has been working behind your back.
Does anyone truly think that the nation that dropped multiple thousands of tons of Napalm
& Agent Orange on Vietnamese peasants, used Iraq for a weapons testing ground in 1991 and
ever since 2003, especially in Fallujah, where we murdered wholesale anyone left in town
after the Army brass told them to vamoose, then brought in bulldozers to bury the
evidence.
And the nation that is so tough, that it uses pimply-faced kids, sitting in an AC bunker
9,000 miles away and commands them to sic Hellfire missiles onto weddings, apartments,
mosques, hospitals and markets, do you really think that nation would stoop so low as to use
bio-weapons?
All this butchery is affecting someone, like our vets, whose conscience wouldn't shut
up, so over 60,000 committed suicide between 2008-2017
@AnonFromBeijing There is a theory that Christianity in the west has been co opted by the
Jews. Basically it means Christians who got twisted into serving jewish/zionist interests.
This process started as early as the start of the 20th century.
It is why you have 45% of the US population who consider Israel/ Jerusalem to be holy
land. They are evangelicals. They are the ones who put bush Jr and trump into the white
house.
I personally would consider every single war since 2000 has been for israels benefit,
maybe not wholely, but at least half.
Well, I think I'll take the liberty of republishing portions of a couple of my recent
comments from other threads for those who haven't seen them:
here's my analogy
Suppose two neighbors are feuding, and one of them has a psychopathic teenage son, who
sneaks out late at night and starts an arson fire next door to "teach them a lesson."
But the victimized family smells smoke, wakes up, and using heroic effort puts the fire
out with only fairly minor damage.
Meanwhile, the fire spreads back to the teenager's own house, and since the family is
too lazy and incompetent to bother doing anything, the house catches on fire and burns to
the ground, killing several relatives and leaving everyone homeless.
Under such a scenario, wouldn't it be more sensible for the attacked family to just
quietly gloat a little and maybe offer condolences rather than to plot further
vengeance?
If this was a bioweapon released by the Us. The US would most certainly have a
cure.
Well, that would make perfect sense unless elements of the American national security
establishment were criminal, crazy, and totally incompetent. However, they ARE criminal,
crazy, and totally incompetent.
Let's focus on an important point about which I think we can all now agree
According to official US government estimates published in the NYT, it's expected that
up to 1.7 million Americans will die from the Coronavirus. Actually, the true figure may be
far higher since they estimate that something like 200 million Americans will become
infected, and 200 million infections would probably lead to many millions of deaths.
Over the last couple of months, China locked down its entire country in quarantine and
stamped out the disease. South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan took immediate action to avert the
disaster, and have successfully avoided substantial fatalities.
Meanwhile, during the same period the American government was so incredibly stupid,
crazy, and incompetent that it did absolutely nothing, meaning that millions of Americans
may quite possibly die as a consequence.
So everyone can agree that the American government is so stupid, crazy, and incompetent
that millions of Americans may soon die.
Therefore, isn't it plausible that elements of a government so stupid, crazy, and
incompetent as to cause the deaths of millions of Americans might also be so stupid, crazy,
and incompetent as to have deployed a deadly bioweapon against China (and Iran)?
@Chroniccough I strongly recommend the work of Martin Armstrong. He forecast this thing 3
years ago – 10 March 2020. Here is his blog. He is a very wealthy man and is doing this
as a public service. I was a cynic to start with.
He is forecasting that after this drop, there will be a rise to a higher level than ever
before. He also forecast the current rise in the USD. Everyone else – especially in the
commentary in blogs such as this one – has been suggesting that the end of the dollar
was neigh.
Here is his letter today to Trump. He has advised heads of state for 40 years. He believes
Trump is receiving bad advice.
@Anonymous "I originally thought the Coronavirus was a bioweapon targeted against China.
But that doesn't make sense now that the virus has gone global and has hit US shores. "
Your reservations seem to be based on an assumption of competence of the perpetrators.
Worth looking at this thread by Swiss Propaganda Research which links to the recently
published data from Italy (amongst many other things) : https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
Almost everyone who has died out there had at least one cause of comorbidity. They were
majoritively old and ill.
I've been critical of OffGuardian's line on the matter of the virus (i.e. that COVID response
is basically exaggerated beyond all proportion and is best considered as driven by media hype
and an undisclosed agenda) , but am now taking it seriously, as it appears to be at least
partially backed up by the Italian ISS data. Hat tip to them.
It took us years to put the 9/11 pieces together and realize the gargantuan Zionist
scam
When my mother in London phoned me to tell me that "something was happening in New York",
I got to see on TV the second building being hit. Later, when I saw huge chunks of matter
flying heavenwards, I realised that it was a controlled-demolition.
I studied civil engineering 50 years ago. Maybe they no longer teach engineers the Laws of
Motion of Isaac Newton. I don't know. But the silence by the engineering profession has been
deafening my ears ever since.
There is not need to analyze anything. The videos give the game away to any
scientifically-educated person.
@Malcolms_brother And pray tell, how the oligarchs will/or have escaped being infected?
Have they and their progeny been secretly vaccinated? With all flights being cancelled, how
are they going to bolt to their burrows.
The only way to tell is check on the fatality rate among the super rich in the days to come.
@Ron Unz The 200 million infection figure for the U.S. that you suggest is hyper-octane
hyperbole. Not sure where you got that number from or how. Whatever the original source,
that's clearly propaganda coming from them.
You do realize 200 mil would be nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population, no? The U.S.
population is 330 mil. The Spanish Flu never infected that many people, nor Swine Flu, nor
Bird Flu, NOR the SEASONAL FLU itself, nor this, nor that and so on and so forth.
I'd imagine the infection at it's very highest could be in the low single-digit millions,
but unlikely.
Also, the 5k to 5 mil deaths cited by Steve Sailer is also nonsense. Anything of such a
wide range tells you that the original person who came up with it really has no clue and is
just pulling a figure out of his backside.
If 5 mil deaths, that would mean more than 166 mil infected (166,666,666 to be more
exact), given a 3% fatality rate. That's way more than one-third of the U.S. population.
5k deaths is way more reasonable and more likely. That would mean 166,666 infections in
the U.S.
Let's take a look at the media of Israel. It will be interesting to see how many Jews die
– if any. Let's not forget that the Israelis are past masters at manipulating their
casualties of war and conflict.
To me, the number of "serious" cases is remarkably low – especially when compared to
Iran. I guess it is because Iranian doctors are so bad. /sarc
Jump of 96 sick people over day earlier, partially due to increase in number of tests
given; most patients doing well, 6 remain in serious condition
@AnonStarter When an author is trying to convert the public to what is very much a
minority view (in this post that a Deep State cabal is trying to start WW3 with a bioweapons
attack on China), his readers have a reasonable expectation that his education and
achievements or other qualifications validating his heterodox views will not be concealed by
use of a pseudonym, and indeed Barrett did not use one.
I was not the one who said Barrett is held in such low regard by public opinion that it is
counter productive for him to use his own name, and he is not worth neutralising even by
something that would attract little attention such as fraudulent IRS tax audit, framing for
having illegal pornography, wrongly diagnosed as a danger to himself and others or civil
suits of the type that silenced the Sandy Hook Truthers. You did, and you said that Barrett
lost his credibility by having already gone public under his own name as a 9/11 Truther
critical of Israel. I suggested that as someone unknown under his own name you could step up
and prevent WW3, but for the fact that your resume was far less impressive than Doctor
Barrett's.
advanced forms of biological warfare that can target specific genotypes may transform
biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool
Thanks for digging that up [from page 60 of the Project for the New American Century think
tank's 90-page report Rebuilding America's Defenses, which is summarized at the link you
posted ]
Although it may take several decades for the process of transformation to unfold, in
time, the art of warfare on air, land, and sea will be vastly different than it is today,
and 'combat' likely will take place in new dimensions: in space, 'cyber-space,' and perhaps
the world of microbes.
Nobody can look at this and say this isn't the work of madmen but fast-forward twenty
years since that insane screed was published, and those policies embarked upon, and where is
the US now ?
Losing badly on every single front, that's where just in the last several days the US
military has had to flee from some of their bases in Iraq, due to being rocketed by
increasingly hostile anti-occupation groups Afghanistan is a lost cause and the US has agreed
to a peace deal with the Taliban that amounts to the same kind of 'peace with honor'
capitulation as Nixon sought in Vietnam
The US military might which these neocon crazies assumed would reign supreme, has been
shown to be a paper tiger cowed and humiliated by an Iranian missile attack on a US military
base in Iraq in January that produced dozens of casualties
The US project for regime change in Syria has been thoroughly defeated its Saudi allies
are getting completely routed in Yemen Libya is completely out of reach now there is not a
single conflict that the US has started in the last twenty years that it is not completely
defeated [only Israel hangs
FILE PHOTO: Tulsi Gabbard speaks during the US Democratic presidential
debate in Atlanta, Georgia, November 20, 2019 © Reuters / Brendan McDermid
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