Guest “Cold Warrior-ing” by David Middleton
Those readers who either aren’t proficient in the English language and/or don’t remember the Cold War, may be unfamiliar with the acronym: ChiCom. It stands for Chinese Communist. In my never-ending effort to reject political correctness, I refer to everything related to the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 as ChiCom-19.
ChiCom = Chinese Communist
Sergeant Muldoon : From Red China: Chicom K-50 sub-machine gun… Chinese communist! SKS Soviet-made semi-automatic carbine… Russian communist! Ammunition, Czechoslovakian-made… Czech communist! No sir, Mr. Beckworth! It doesn’t take a lead weight to fall on me or a hit from one of those weapons to recognize that what’s involved here is communist domination of the world!
The Green Berets, 1968
Yeah, I know The Green Berets was historically, geographically and technically flawed… But, what other movie features A-1 Skyraiders dropping napalm and an AC-47 “Puff the Magic Dragon” clearing a field? Granted, the SPAD’s dropped napalm at night and Spooky rained 7.62 mm hell on the VC/NVA in daylight, the opposite of how the aircraft were generally employed… But it was the perfect mix of Cold War jingoism and John Wayne… And it provided a perfect hairpin segue to the central question of this post:
Did ChiCom-19 come from a Red Chinese virology lab?
What a difference 53 days can make…
Cell Phones, Cancer, And Coronavirus: Tucker Carlson Spreads Conspiracy Theories
By Alex Berezow, PhD — February 20, 2020
The Fox News host says cell phones cause cancer and the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) might have escaped from a biological weapons lab. Both claims are ridiculous.
[…]
The Wuhan Coronavirus Is Not a Bioweapon
Tucker then one-upped himself. He did another segment in which Bill Gertz, a Washington Times national security correspondent, hints that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) might be a biological weapon. “Is it human-caused, or laboratory-caused, or is it a natural phenomena?… Let’s get the debate going.”
Okay, let’s do that. The most likely explanation is natural phenomenon because Chinese markets allow potentially millions of humans to interact with potentially millions of live animals. That’s a recipe for disaster. SARS jumped from animals to humans in China in 2002 precisely for that reason.
Tucker then asks bluntly, “Is there any evidence as of tonight that this virus originated in a lab?”
The answer to that is “no,” but the guest said, “I don’t know.” He then mentioned that China’s only high-security biological lab is located in Wuhan.
[…]
American Council on Science and Health
- Tucker Carlson: “Is there any evidence as of tonight that this virus originated in a lab?”
- Alex Berezow: “The answer to that is ‘no’…”
“The answer to that is was ‘no’…”
Best Evidence Yet That Coronavirus Came From Wuhan BSL-4 Lab
By Alex Berezow, PhD — April 13, 2020
No, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is not a biological weapon. But that doesn’t mean the virus didn’t escape from a laboratory. A growing body of circumstantial evidence indicates that very well may be what happened.
When the novel coronavirus, now known as SARS-CoV-2, emerged from China, conspiracy theorists — including a prominent cable news host — were quick to point out that Wuhan is host to a “biological weapons” lab. Thus, according to the conspiracy, the virus was a leaked bioweapon.
There are two gigantic problems with that theory. First, there is no reason to believe that the Wuhan laboratory is in the business of producing biological weapons. The lab is a high-security facility, known as biosafety level 4 (BSL-4), similar to the ones we have at the CDC in Atlanta.
[…]
American Council on Science and Health
I have the greatest respect for Alex Berezow and I usually agree with him on science/health matters. The only area in which I generally disagree with him is climate change – even then, my disagreements are usually matters of scale, context and magnitude, not the underlying science.
On this particular issue, Dr. Berezow started out with a straw man, reversed course and then double downed on the straw man.
Tucker Carlson asked, “Is there any evidence as of tonight that this virus originated in a lab?” On February 20, 2020, Dr. Berezow said, “No.” On April 13, 2020, Dr, Berezow said, “Yes”, but there’s no evidence that it’s from a bio-weapons lab. Mr. Carlson never said it was. He and Bill Gertz discussed the possibility that it might be a bio-weapons lab. Well, it might be. I doubt that it is a bio-weapons lab… But I don’t know… And it doesn’t really matter.
The global economic destruction caused by the Kung Flu has reaffirmed that we can’t trust Communist China and that we should begin the process of unwinding our economic ties with them. Even if this virus was inadvertently released from a ChiCom virology lab, they willfully obstructed the world’s ability to respond to it. They should be held financially, and possibly criminally liable for all of the damages related to it. The first step should be to seize their US Treasury holdings as a down payment on the economic damage that Red China has caused.
China should be legally liable for the pandemic damage it has done
April 10, 2020
The costs of the pandemic keep piling up. Hundreds of millions of Americans are on lockdown, a record 16.8 million have filed unemployment claims, nearly 15,000 Americans have died so far and the death toll is growing exponentially by the day. Congress has passed three coronavirus relief bills totaling $2.3 trillion, and more might soon be in the works.
Somebody has to pay for this unprecedented damage. That somebody should be the government of China.
No one can blame Beijing for a viral outbreak beyond its control. But the Chinese communist regime should be blamed — and held legally liable — for intentionally lying to the world about the danger of the virus, and proactively impeding a global response that might have prevented a worldwide contagion.
We now know that the first case of covid-19 appeared in China’s Hubei province on Nov. 17. By mid-December, Chinese officials knew that the virus was capable of human-to-human transmission because doctors and nurses were getting sick. But instead of alerting the world, they tried to cover it up and punished doctors who tried to sound the alarm. On Jan. 14, the World Health Organization tweeted that “Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” On Jan. 15, the head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention declared on state television that “the risk of human-to-human transmission is low.” These were lies, and Beijing knew it. More than 1,700 Chinese medical workers had been infected.
As China lied, it intentionally hampered US efforts to prepare for the virus’s arrival on our shores by refusing to share samples with us. US officials became so frustrated that they tried a back channel — asking the director of the biocontainment lab at the University of Texas, which had a research partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, to see whether he could get samples. Post reports that “At first, the lab in Wuhan agreed, but officials in Beijing intervened Jan. 24 and blocked any lab-to-lab transfer.” That intervention came one day after Beijing finally imposed a belated lockdown on Wuhan — which means even after Chinese officials finally publicly acknowledged they were battling a pandemic they were still obstructing the US response.
[…]
American Enterprise Institute
If ChiCom-19 was released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or some other ChiCom laboratory, then Beijing can, and should be blamed “for a viral outbreak beyond its control”, because it started out in their control.
Day 28 of America Held Hostage by ChiCom-19
In local news… Fire Marshal Gump (Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins) is at it again…
Dallas County commissioners delay a vote on the pop-up hospital because it might not be needed after all
Whether Dallas County would use the hospital was the subject of a political squabble between County Judge Clay Jenkins and Gov. Greg Abbott.Updated at 6:05 p.m.: This story has been revised to include comment from the military.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins was adamant last week that North Texas needed a pop-up hospital at the Dallas convention center in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, however, Jenkins changed his tune as the county has yet to see an expected surge in cases, topping off at about 100 per day.
[…]
About half the city’s hospital beds were open Monday, according to a tweet from Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. Forty percent of the city’s beds in intensive care units were also available.
[…]
A spokesman for the military said it will continue to work with Dallas County and the state to determine the best location for military medical personnel and supplies.
“Northern Command and U.S. Army North continually evaluate the best use of all allocated military assets to meet FEMA’s priorities as the response to COVID-19 evolves,” said Charles G. Calio in an email. “Military capabilities are inherently flexible, allowing us to tailor and scale our response to best meet the requirement.”
Dallas Morning News
From the April 10 Dallas County Health and Human Services 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID‐19) Summary:
ChiCom-19 hospitalizations appear to have peaked below influenza hospitalizations.
Although, ChiCom-19 ICU admissions appear to have peaked a little higher than influenza ICU admissions:
The numbers reported at noon yesterday, pushed the Mendoza Line crossing out to November 14, 2034…
| Dallas County | CHICOM-19 | ||
| Population | Cases | Deaths | |
| 2,637,772 | 1,788 | 32 | 1.8% |
| % of population with | 0.0678% | 0.00121% | |
| % wth, rounded | 0.1% | 0.00% | |
| % without | 99.9322% | 99.9988% | |
| % without, rounded | 99.9% | 100.00% | |
| Menodoza Line (.200) | 14-Nov-2034 | 0.200 |
Time to end the hostage crisis! Otherwise, at some point, the liability for this would shift from Red China to the Fire Marshal Gumps of the world.
Somehow… This Kinks song seems appropriate:
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So are we dealing with the “”Mad scientist , or a misguided person experiementing ?
I suspect that China will come out of this a lot better off than the “”Western countries””
VK5ELL MJE
from who
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/events-as-they-happen
WHO responding to a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan
4 January 2020
WHO announced it would work across its 3 levels – country office, regional office and HQ – to track the situation and share details as they emerged.
WHO issues its first guidance on the novel coronavirus
10 January 2020
Developed with reference to other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, WHO issued a tool for countries to check their ability to detect and respond to a novel coronavirus.
This information is to help with identifying main gaps, assessing risks and planning for additional investigations, response and control actions.
China makes genome sequencing of novel coronavirus publicly available
12 January 2020
China shares the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus, which will be very important for other countries as they develop specific diagnostic kits.
First case of novel coronavirus outside of China confirmed
13 January 2020
Officials confirmed a case of the novel coronavirus in Thailand. It was not unexpected that cases of the novel coronavirus would emerge outside of China and reinforces why WHO calls for active monitoring and preparedness in other countries.
WHO makes field visit to Wuhan, China
21 January 2020
The delegation observed and discussed active surveillance processes, temperature screening at Wuhan Tianhe airport, laboratory facilities, infection prevention and control measures at Zhongnan hospital and its associated fever clinics, and the deployment of a test kit to detect the virus.
The delegation also discussed public communication efforts and China’s plan to expand the case definition for the novel coronavirus, which will build a clearer picture of the spectrum of severity of the virus.
At the end of the visit, the Chinese Government released the primers and probes used in the test kit for the novel coronavirus to help other countries detect it. Chinese experts also shared a range of protocols that will be used in developing international guidelines, including case definitions, clinical management protocols and infection control.
Public Health Emergency of International Concern declared
30 January 2020
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the 2019-nCoV outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, following a second meeting of the Emergency Committee convened under the International Health Regulations.
Acknowledging that cases have been reported in five WHO regions in one month, the Committee noted that early detection, isolating and treating cases, contact tracing and social distancing measures – in line with the level of risk – can all work to interrupt virus spread.
Here is the part that that includes people, instead of 8 weeks of bureaucratic ass-covering :
Russ R. April 14, 2020 at 4:58 pm
According to a study in The Lancet, the symptom onset date of the first patient identified was “Dec 1, 2019 . . . 5 days after illness onset, his wife, a 53-year-old woman who had no known history of exposure to the market, also presented with pneumonia and was hospitalized in the isolation ward.” In other words, as early as the second week of December, Wuhan doctors were finding cases that indicated the virus was spreading from one human to another.
—————–
I would assume you do not call a pandemic on just a couple of cases you have to have proof its crossed continents.
I would assume a country would like to control panic and would therefore not call an epidemic until proof of new virus was reached.
The WHO has plenty to answer for. Your straw man argument is childish.
It is the first known case. I said nothing about expecting it to create a pandemic response. It is the “beginning of what is known”. It would be great to know what this couple did for a living where they lived, who they spent time with in the days preceding their infection. I suspect that is known and kept secret for a reason.
And it does raise the question of person to person transmission, DAY 5, not DAY 56.
That is 50 days of new patients, medical workers getting sick, doctors getting muzzled, and festivities that ended in death for those that went, and those that didn’t.
Your timeline glosses over that, and if the WHO wasn’t aware of the problem, WHY NOT. That is the reason for their existence. Not discussing protocols and guidelines, and kissing smelly orifices.
The WHO was notified on 12/30. For two weeks they played footsie with the ChiComs instead of sending someone to the hospitals and getting first hand knowledge of what was going on. Instead on the 14th they are still spouting China propaganda, while the pandemic rages in Wuhan and spills out across the world.
WTF!
And then…
14…”no clear evidence of person to person transmission”…
15…
16…
17…
18…
19…
20…
21…
22…
23…Tedros still impressed with Pooh Bears Honey..
24…Wuhan locked down after everyone that can leaves, leaves..
25…
26…
27…
28…
29…
30…WHO unable to delay any longer makes a f.c.k.n. decision, because people that left are already getting sick, and the people they infected are getting sick.
And the actions of the WHO is making me sick just thinking about it.
Winnie the Pooh and Piglet are going to be the most hated people on Earth, before this week is out.
@russ r
https://bfpg.co.uk/2020/04/covid-19-timeline/
is this a valid time line – I will add to it if you agree it is valid
December 21st 2019
Chinese epidemiologists with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published an article on 20th January 2020 stating that the first cluster of patients with ‘pneumonia of an unknown cause’ had been identified on 21st December 2019
December 31st 2019
Chinese authorities confirmed they were treating dozens of cases of pneumonia of an unknown cause. Days laters researchers in China identified a new virus that had infected dozens of people. There was no evidence that the virus was spread by humans.
China contacts the WHO and informs them of ‘cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology’ detected in Wuhan
January 2nd 2020
Central Hospital of Wuhan banned its staff from discussing the disease publicly or recording them using text or image that can be used as evidence
January 8th 2020
The Chinese government agrees to accept a WHO scientific team to assist their own researchers
January 11th 2020
Chinese state media reported the first known death from an illness caused by the virus. It was a 61-year old man who was a regular customer of the market in Wuhan where the virus is believed to have originated, and had previously been found to have abdominal tumors and chronic liver disease.
January 14th 2020
Reporters from Hong Kong taken to police station after trying to film the situation within Wuhan hospital
January 20th 2020
The first confirmed cases outside mainland China occurred in Japan, South Korea and Thailand, according to the WHO.
January 21st 2020
The first confirmed case of the virus in the US in Washington State, where a man in his 30s developed symptoms after returning from a trip to Wuhan.
January 22nd 2020
Public Health England announces it is moving the risk level to the British public from ‘very low’ to ‘low’.
January 23rd 2020
Wuhan (population over 11 million) is cut off by the Chinese authorities. Planes and trains leaving the city are cancelled, and buses, subways and ferries within the city are suspended. 17 people had died at this point and 570 infected in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the US.
Figures compiled by the Chinese Railway Administration showed that approximately 100,000 people had already departed from Wuhan Train Station by the deadline.
Construction begins in Wuhan for a specialist emergency hospital which opened on 3rd February
January 26th 2020
China extends the ‘Spring Festival’ holiday in order to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Schools in Beijing to stay closed until further notice
January 29th 2020
The UK’s first two patients test positive for Coronavirus after two Chinese nationals from the same family staying at a hotel in York fall ill.
A plane evacuating Britons from Wuhan arrives at RAF Brize Norton. Passengers go into a 14 day quarantine at a specialist hospital on Merseyside.
January 30th 2020
WHO declares a global health emergency amid thousands of new cases in China.
January 31st 2020
The US suspends entry into the country by any foreign nationals who had travelled to China in the past 14 days, excluding the immediate family members of US citizens or permanent residents.
213 people had died and 9,800 infected worldwide.
February 1st 2020
Spain confirms its first case of the coronavirus on La Gomera in the Canary Islands
February 2nd 2020
The first death of coronavirus is reported outside China, as a 44-year-old man in the Philippines dies after being infected.
February 4th 2020
The UK directs its citizens to leave China if possible
February 5th 2020
A cruise ship in Japan quarantines 3600 people after a two-week trip to Southeast Asia. 218 people onboard the ship tested positive for the virus.
February 7th 2020
The Chinese doctor Dr. Li Wenliang, who tried to ring early alarms that a cluster of infections could spin out of control, dies after contracting the virus. He was reprimanded by authorities in early January and he was forced to sign a statement denouncing his warning as an unfounded and illegal rumor.
February 11th 2020
The disease is named ‘Covid-19’, an acronym that stands for coronavirus disease 2019. 1113 people in China have died with 44,653 cases, and 393 cases outside of China.
February 14th 2020
France announces the first coronavirus death in Europe – an 80-year-old Chinese tourist. The fourth death from the virus outside mainland China.
Egypt confirms its first case, the first on the African continent.
February 17th 2020
China said it was reviewing its trade and consumption of wildlife, which has been identified as a probable source of the outbreak
February 19th 2020
443 passengers leave the Diamond Princess cruises ship. A total of 621 people aboard the ship were infected.
February 21st 2020
The virus appears in Iran from an unknown source. Iran announced the two cases then hours later said that both patients had died. Two days later, Iran announced two additional deaths.
The South Korean government shuts down thousands of kindergartens, nursing homes and community centres, following a surge in infections linked to the secretive church the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.
February 23rd 2020
Italy sees a major surge in coronavirus cases – up to 150. Officials locked down 10 towns in Lombardy after a cluster of cases suddenly emerged in Codogno, southeast of Milan. Schools closed and sporting and cultural events were canceled.
Italy introduces strict measures which place almost 50,000 people in lockdown in an attempt to control the virus
February 24th 2020
The Trump administration asks Congress for $1.25 billion for coronavirus response – the US had 35 confirmed cases and no deaths.
Iran emerges as a second focus point of the virus, with 61 cases and 12 deaths. It is a cause for worry as a place of pilgrimage.
February 26th 2020
Latin America reports its first coronavirus case, as Brazilian health officials said that a 61-year-old Sao Paulo man, returning from Italy, tested positive for the virus.
February 28th 2020
800 people are now infected in Italy, and cases in 14 other European countries remain an area of concern
Sub-Saharan Africa records its first infection.
The first British victim dies of coronavirus onboard the Diamond Princess.
UK authorities confirm the first case of the illness to be passed on inside the country.
The worst week for the global stock markets since the 2008 financial crash.
The WHO raises the coronavirus alert to the highest level.
February 29th 2020
The US records its first coronavirus death and announces travel restrictions of ‘do not travel’ warnings for areas in Italy and South Korea. It also bans all travel to Iran and bars entry to any foreign citizen who had visited Iran in the previous 14 days.
March 4th 2020
Cases of Covid-19 surge in the UK, as officials announce the biggest one-day increase so far as 34 cases bring the total to 87
Italy announces it is shutting schools and universities.
March 10th 2020
Nadine Dorries, a junior health minister, becomes the first MP to test positive for coronavirus.
6 people in the UK have now died of the illness, with 373 testing positive
March 11th 2020
The US blocks travel from European countries other than the UK for 30 days, as the WHO declares the virus a pandemic and stock markets plunge.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces a £12bn package of emergency support to help the UK cope with the expected onslaught from coronavirus
March 13th 2020
The US declares a national emergency and makes $50 billion in federal funds available to tackle the coronavirus.
A host of UK sporting events announce their postponement including the London Marathon. Premier League fixtures are suspended.
March 16th 2020
Latin America imposes restrictions on their citizens to slow the spread of the virus. Venezuela announces a nationwide quarantine to begin on March 17th. Ecuador and Peru implement countrywide lockdowns, and Colombia and Costa Rica close their borders. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro encourages mass demonstrations by his supporters against his opponents in congress.
Boris Johnson begins daily press briefings, urging everybody in the UK to work from home and avoid pubs and restaurants to give the NHS time to cope with the pandemic.
The UK’s death toll rises to 55, with 1,543 confirmed cases, though it is believed 10,000 people have already been infected.
March 17th 2020
France imposes a nationwide lockdown, prohibiting all gatherings and only allowing people to go out for fresh air. France had more than 6,500 infections with more than 140 deaths
The EU bars most travellers from outside the bloc for 30 days.
Rishi Sunak unleashes the biggest package of emergency state support for business since the 2008 financial crash, unveiling £330bn-worth of government-backed loans and more than £20bn in tax cuts and grants for companies threatened with collapse.
March 18th 2020
The UK government announces most schools across England will be shut down from Friday until further notice. Wales and Scotland announce they will also close schools.
March 19th 2020
For the first time, China reports zero local infections, a milestone in the fight against the pandemic. Experts said the country would need to see at least 14 consecutive days without new infections for the outbreak to be considered over. 34 new cases were confirmed among people who had arrived in China from elsewhere.
March 20th 2020
The UK government orders all pubs, restaurants, gyms and other social venues across the country to close
The chancellor announces the government will pay up to 80% of wages for workers at risk of being laid off
March 23rd 2020
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a televised address to the nation, says that Britons should only go outside to buy food, to exercise once a day, or to go to work if they absolutely cannot work from home. Citizens will face police fines for failure to comply with these new measures.
Worldwide figures stand at more than 270,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.
March 24th 2020
Tokyo Olympics likely to be postponed – according to a member of the International Olympic Committee, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – set to begin in August – will be postponed. Australia and Canada have already announced that their athletes will not compete
March 25th 2020
Prince Charles tests positive for the coronavirus.
In the US, negotiators strike a deal on a $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package intended to assist businesses and millions of Americans amid the halt in the US economy. The bill includes $1,200 for individuals earning up to $75,000, $100 billion for health care providers, and $58 billion for the US airline industry. It would also include $2,400 per month for up to four months to the unemployed. $500 billion goes to industry loans that corporations, cities, and states can apply for.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown of the country’s 1.3 billion residents. India has only recorded 536 cases of COVID-19 so far.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rails against coronavirus measures being taken in his country, as local officials take preparedness into their own hands.
March 26th 2020
G20 world leaders meet virtually to discuss the coronavirus crisis. King Salman of Saudi Arabia calls on the world’s richest economies to ‘extend a helping hand to developing countries’.
Brits across the UK clap, cheer, and ring bells at 8pm to thank the NHS workers for their service in tackling the pandemic.
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveils a package of measures to help self-employed workers during the economic downturn, giving those earning less than £50,000 a taxable grant equal to 80 percent of their average profits.
March 27th 2020
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock test positive for the coronavirus
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says that the coronavirus crisis has exposed the EU’s ‘weaknesses’.
March 28th 2020
European COmmission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU ‘looked into the abyss’ in the early days of the crisis but now it has the chance to reinvent itself.
French President Emmanuel Macron issues a plea for European solidarity to fight the coronavirus crisis, saying ‘I don’t want a selfish and divided Europe’
Belgium extend confinement measures until 19th April
UK Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, announces he is self-isolating after experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus
March 29th 2020
The European Commission announces that it will revise its proposal for the EU’s next seven-year budget
US announces social distancing measures to continue until 30th April, as the US records the highest number of coronavirus infections in the world, at more than 139,700 cases.
March 30th 2020
Hungarian Parliament passes a bill that gives PM Viktor Orban power to rule by decree, impose a state of emergency without a time limit, and suspend parliament.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announces the government is to spend £75 million on charter flights and airline tickets to repatriate up to 300,000 Britons stranded abroad as countries have closed their borders to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
March 31st 2020
Spain joins the US and Italy as one of the few countries to surpass China’s coronavirus case total, reporting 85,195 cases and 8,189 deaths.
Ethiopia announces it has postponed its parliamentary and presidential elections, originally scheduled for August. The elections were to be a big test for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s reformist measures.
The White House projects 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from COVID-19 in 2020, if current social distancing trends hold.
April 1st 2020
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announces that the Commission will present an unemployment reinsurance scheme to ensure workers keep their jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
Italy announces it will extend lockdown measures until 13th April. Health Minister Roberto Speranza says ‘data shows that we are on the right path and that the drastic decisions are bearing fruit’.
The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) summit, due to be held in Glasgow in November, is postponed until 2021.
April 2nd 2020
The number of worldwide coronavirus cases passes one million.
April 3rd 2020
German Chancellor Angela Merkel returns to her office after isolating as her physician tested positive for the coronavirus.
April 5th 2020
The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is admitted to hospital for testing after his coronavirus symptoms persist.
Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood resigns from her post after she is pictured visiting her second home, despite urging Scots to stay at home and avoid all but essential travel.
April 6th 2020
German Chancellor Angela Merkel describes the coronavirus crisis as the biggest test the European Union has faced in its history.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is admitted to an Intensive Care Unit as his coronavirus symptoms worsen.
April 7th 2020
European finance ministers meet to discuss a range of options to support the bloc’s economy.
The messaging service WhatsApp announces it is introducing limits to its forwarding service in order to combat disinformation. The application has been a hotbed for the spread of fake news relating to the coronavirus outbreak.
US stock market indices rise for the second day in a row to hit their highest level since 11th March.
The airline industry cuts 90% of its flights in Europe.
April 8th 2020
It is announced that French GDP is set to shrink by 6% in the first quarter of 2020, and German GDP is predicted to shrink by 4.2% this year.
The US sees the highest one-day death toll from coronavirus.
The number of cases across the African continent passes 10,000.
Your timeline is fine, if not a bit boring. I am much more concerned with why this occurred, than the documentation of what happened after it was too late to prevent it. Prevention is the key, and a series of bad decisions by people that should know better.
If they made bad decisions that were reasonable based on experience, risk assessment, and expectations of others, they were Wrong and need to further determine why.
If they didn’t understand the risk and try to act to mitigate they are Incompetent.
If they did know better, yet failed in their duties they show Malice.
Beyond that are actions that are incompatible to the health of the public. Malignant
The experiments in the lab where dangerous. They were GOF (Gain of Function) viral experiments. The scientific reason for doing them is to prevent a pandemic. But once the new virus exists its mere presence can cause what they are trying to prevent.
The NIH and other funding bodies have stated this risk, and resumed support for the research after a pause. They must have thought the lab could contain the danger and the knowledge was worth the risk. Wrong.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology also thought the risk was worth the knowledge. They thought they had sufficient safe guards in place.
Wrong. Incompetent.
The CCP thought the risk was worth the knowledge. Thought they could contain the virus and the bad press. Cover-up of virus origin. Muzzled those who did try to warn the public. Delayed and blocked impartial investigation. Maintained deception while hoarding medical supplies, and maintained international travel LONG after it should have been stopped.
Wrong. Incompetent. Malice. Actions taken after knowledge of release Malignant.
The WHO must have known of the virology research. Yet they didn’t seem to have much interest in all in the evidence indicating China was hiding something. They should have demanded access to the patients, doctors, nurses, and hospital staff. If they didn’t get it then they announce to the world that “We don’t know, our investigation is blocked by the CCP, and there is reason to suspect person to person transmission”, before it gets out of Wuhan in large numbers.
Wrong. Incompetent. Malice.
If any of the officials in Wuhan had just taken responsibility for doing their job, we would have had containment and minimized the damage. But we have patterns of denial of risk, ignorance about what you don’t want to know, and actions that are criminal.
This was not an accident.
This was not a Natural Disease Event.
This was man made, man released, man covered-up, man spread.
And everyone along the way could have done the right thing.
And the only ones that did died for it, or are “missing”.
And glossing over that is a disservice to the honor they showed, that the rest of these bad actors lack.
russ r
Agreed Time line additions. Just who was tardy with action?
December 21st 2019
Chinese epidemiologists with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published an article on 20th January 2020 stating that the first cluster of patients with ‘pneumonia of an unknown cause’ had been identified on 21st December 2019
You cannot act on this – it is a sort of pneumonia with unknown transmission. It was published therefore no secret
December 31st 2019
Chinese authorities confirmed they were treating dozens of cases of pneumonia of an unknown cause. Days laters researchers in China identified a new virus that had infected dozens of people. There was no evidence that the virus was spread by humans.
China contacts the WHO and informs them of ‘cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology’ detected in Wuhan
no evidence for human to human spread and who informed
1 January 2020
WHO had set up the IMST (Incident Management Support Team) across the three levels of the organization: headquarters, regional headquarters and country level, putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak.
January 2nd 2020
Central Hospital of Wuhan banned its staff from discussing the disease publicly or recording them using text or image that can be used as evidence
damage limitation not called for
4 January 2020
WHO reported on social media that there was a cluster of pneumonia cases – with no deaths – in Wuhan, Hubei province.
5 January 2020
WHO published our first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus. This is a flagship technical publication to the scientific and public health community as well as global media. It contained a risk assessment and advice, and reported on what China had told the organization about the status of patients and the public health response on the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan.
January 8th 2020
The Chinese government agrees to accept a WHO scientific team to assist their own researchers
WHO goes to China now they cannot hide problems
10 January 2020
Developed with reference to other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, WHO issued a tool for countries to check their ability to detect and respond to a novel coronavirus. This information is to help with identifying main gaps, assessing risks and planning for additional investigations, response and control actions.
January 11th 2020
Chinese state media reported the first known death from an illness caused by the virus. It was a 61-year old man who was a regular customer of the market in Wuhan where the virus is believed to have originated, and had previously been found to have abdominal tumors and chronic liver disease.
first death many co-morbidities – so was this the virus?
12 January 2020
China shares the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus, which will be very important for other countries as they develop specific diagnostic kits.
First case of novel coronavirus outside of China confirmed
13 January 2020
Officials confirmed a case of the novel coronavirus in Thailand. It was not unexpected that cases of the novel coronavirus would emerge outside of China and reinforces why WHO calls for active monitoring and preparedness in other countries.
WHO makes field visit to Wuhan, China
January 14th 2020
Reporters from Hong Kong taken to police station after trying to film the situation within Wuhan hospital
damage limitation
14 January 2020
WHO’s technical lead for the response noted in a press briefing there may have been limited human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus (in the 41 confirmed cases), mainly through family members, and that there was a risk of a possible wider outbreak. The lead also said that human-to-human transmission would not be surprising given our experience with SARS, MERS and other respiratory pathogens.
January 20th 2020
The first confirmed cases outside mainland China occurred in Japan, South Korea and Thailand, according to the WHO.
January 21st 2020
The first confirmed case of the virus in the US in Washington State, where a man in his 30s developed symptoms after returning from a trip to Wuhan.
US now knows
21 January 2020
The delegation observed and discussed active surveillance processes, temperature screening at Wuhan Tianhe airport, laboratory facilities, infection prevention and control measures at Zhongnan hospital and its associated fever clinics, and the deployment of a test kit to detect the virus.
The delegation also discussed public communication efforts and China’s plan to expand the case definition for the novel coronavirus, which will build a clearer picture of the spectrum of severity of the virus. At the end of the visit, the Chinese Government released the primers and probes used in the test kit for the novel coronavirus to help other countries detect it. Chinese experts also shared a range of protocols that will be used in developing international guidelines, including case definitions, clinical management protocols and infection control.
Public Health Emergency of International Concern declared
January 22nd 2020
Public Health England announces it is moving the risk level to the British public from ‘very low’ to ‘low’.
uk knows – us and uk not taking action – why?
22 January 2020
WHO mission to China issued a statement saying that there was evidence of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan but more investigation was needed to understand the full extent of transmission.
22- 23 January 2020
The WHO Director- General convened an Emergency Committee (EC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) to assess whether the outbreak constituted a public health emergency of international concern. The independent members from around the world could not reach a consensus based on the evidence available at the time. They asked to be reconvened within 10 days after receiving more information.
January 23rd 2020
Wuhan (population over 11 million) is cut off by the Chinese authorities. Planes and trains leaving the city are cancelled, and buses, subways and ferries within the city are suspended. 17 people had died at this point and 570 infected in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the US.
Figures compiled by the Chinese Railway Administration showed that approximately 100,000 people had already departed from Wuhan Train Station by the deadline.
Construction begins in Wuhan for a specialist emergency hospital which opened on 3rd February
lock down – us uk no action why?
January 26th 2020
China extends the ‘Spring Festival’ holiday in order to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Schools in Beijing to stay closed until further notice
28 January 2020
A senior WHO delegation led by the Director-General travelled to Beijing to meet China’s leadership, learn more about China’s response, and to offer any technical assistance.
While in Beijing, Dr. Tedros agreed with Chinese government leaders that an international team of leading scientists would travel to China on a mission to better understand the context, the overall response, and exchange information and experience.
January 29th 2020
The UK’s first two patients test positive for Coronavirus after two Chinese nationals from the same family staying at a hotel in York fall ill.
A plane evacuating Britons from Wuhan arrives at RAF Brize Norton. Passengers go into a 14 day quarantine at a specialist hospital on Merseyside.
still no uk/us action
January 30th 2020
WHO declares a global health emergency amid thousands of new cases in China.
who declares emergency – there is a definite problem – us/uk no action
30 January 2020
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the 2019-nCoV outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, following a second meeting of the Emergency Committee convened under the International Health Regulations.
Acknowledging that cases have been reported in five WHO regions in one month, the Committee noted that early detection, isolating and treating cases, contact tracing and social distancing measures – in line with the level of risk – can all work to interrupt virus spread.
January 31st 2020
The US suspends entry into the country by any foreign nationals who had travelled to China in the past 14 days, excluding the immediate family members of US citizens or permanent residents.
213 people had died and 9,800 infected worldwide.
us action on flighs (should have happened earlier to be effective virus is already rampant in us) us/uk no lock down why?
February 1st 2020
Spain confirms its first case of the coronavirus on La Gomera in the Canary Islands
February 2nd 2020
The first death of coronavirus is reported outside China, as a 44-year-old man in the Philippines dies after being infected.
3 February 2020
WHO releases the international community’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan to help protect states with weaker health systems
February 4th 2020
The UK directs its citizens to leave China if possible
spread it further???
February 5th 2020
A cruise ship in Japan quarantines 3600 people after a two-week trip to Southeast Asia. 218 people onboard the ship tested positive for the virus.
February 7th 2020
The Chinese doctor Dr. Li Wenliang, who tried to ring early alarms that a cluster of infections could spin out of control, dies after contracting the virus. He was reprimanded by authorities in early January and he was forced to sign a statement denouncing his warning as an unfounded and illegal rumor.
February 11th 2020
The disease is named ‘Covid-19’, an acronym that stands for coronavirus disease 2019. 1113 people in China have died with 44,653 cases, and 393 cases outside of China.
11-12 February 2020
WHO convened a Research and Innovation Forum on COVID-19, attended by more than 400 experts and funders from around the world, which included presentations by George Gao, Director General of China CDC, and Zunyou Wu, China CDC’s chief epidemiologist.
February 14th 2020
France announces the first coronavirus death in Europe – an 80-year-old Chinese tourist. The fourth death from the virus outside mainland China.
Egypt confirms its first case, the first on the African continent.
February 17th 2020
China said it was reviewing its trade and consumption of wildlife, which has been identified as a probable source of the outbreak
February 19th 2020
443 passengers leave the Diamond Princess cruises ship. A total of 621 people aboard the ship were infected.
February 21st 2020
The virus appears in Iran from an unknown source. Iran announced the two cases then hours later said that both patients had died. Two days later, Iran announced two additional deaths.
The South Korean government shuts down thousands of kindergartens, nursing homes and community centres, following a surge in infections linked to the secretive church the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.
south korean lock down bypassed by religious sect worship
February 23rd 2020
Italy sees a major surge in coronavirus cases – up to 150. Officials locked down 10 towns in Lombardy after a cluster of cases suddenly emerged in Codogno, southeast of Milan. Schools closed and sporting and cultural events were canceled.
Italy introduces strict measures which place almost 50,000 people in lockdown in an attempt to control the virus
italy lock down too late
February 24th 2020
The Trump administration asks Congress for $1.25 billion for coronavirus response – the US had 35 confirmed cases and no deaths.
Iran emerges as a second focus point of the virus, with 61 cases and 12 deaths. It is a cause for worry as a place of pilgrimage.
Iran problems made worse by sanctions
February 26th 2020
Latin America reports its first coronavirus case, as Brazilian health officials said that a 61-year-old Sao Paulo man, returning from Italy, tested positive for the virus.
February 28th 2020
800 people are now infected in Italy, and cases in 14 other European countries remain an area of concern
Sub-Saharan Africa records its first infection.
The first British victim dies of coronavirus onboard the Diamond Princess.
UK authorities confirm the first case of the illness to be passed on inside the country.
The worst week for the global stock markets since the 2008 financial crash.
The WHO raises the coronavirus alert to the highest level.
no action from us/uk re lockdown. Whatever the WHO says at this point is irrelevant – the dangers are self evident
February 29th 2020
The US records its first coronavirus death and announces travel restrictions of ‘do not travel’ warnings for areas in Italy and South Korea. It also bans all travel to Iran and bars entry to any foreign citizen who had visited Iran in the previous 14 days.
the virus is loose in the us restrictions not really relevant at this point
March 4th 2020
Cases of Covid-19 surge in the UK, as officials announce the biggest one-day increase so far as 34 cases bring the total to 87
Italy announces it is shutting schools and universities.
March 10th 2020
Nadine Dorries, a junior health minister, becomes the first MP to test positive for coronavirus.
6 people in the UK have now died of the illness, with 373 testing positive
March 11th 2020
The US blocks travel from European countries other than the UK for 30 days, as the WHO declares the virus a pandemic and stock markets plunge.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces a £12bn package of emergency support to help the UK cope with the expected onslaught from coronavirus
11 March 2020
Deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction, WHO made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
March 13th 2020
The US declares a national emergency and makes $50 billion in federal funds available to tackle the coronavirus.
A host of UK sporting events announce their postponement including the London Marathon. Premier League fixtures are suspended.
March 16th 2020
Latin America imposes restrictions on their citizens to slow the spread of the virus. Venezuela announces a nationwide quarantine to begin on March 17th. Ecuador and Peru implement countrywide lockdowns, and Colombia and Costa Rica close their borders. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro encourages mass demonstrations by his supporters against his opponents in congress.
Boris Johnson begins daily press briefings, urging everybody in the UK to work from home and avoid pubs and restaurants to give the NHS time to cope with the pandemic.
The UK’s death toll rises to 55, with 1,543 confirmed cases, though it is believed 10,000 people have already been infected.
March 17th 2020
France imposes a nationwide lockdown, prohibiting all gatherings and only allowing people to go out for fresh air. France had more than 6,500 infections with more than 140 deaths
The EU bars most travellers from outside the bloc for 30 days.
Rishi Sunak unleashes the biggest package of emergency state support for business since the 2008 financial crash, unveiling £330bn-worth of government-backed loans and more than £20bn in tax cuts and grants for companies threatened with collapse.
March 18th 2020
The UK government announces most schools across England will be shut down from Friday until further notice. Wales and Scotland announce they will also close schools.
uk lockdown begins
18 March 2020
WHO and partners launch the Solidarity Trial, an international clinical trial that aims to generate robust data from around the world to find the most effective treatments for COVID-19.
March 19th 2020
For the first time, China reports zero local infections, a milestone in the fight against the pandemic. Experts said the country would need to see at least 14 consecutive days without new infections for the outbreak to be considered over. 34 new cases were confirmed among people who had arrived in China from elsewhere.
March 20th 2020
The UK government orders all pubs, restaurants, gyms and other social venues across the country to close
The chancellor announces the government will pay up to 80% of wages for workers at risk of being laid off
uk lockdown tightens
March 23rd 2020
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a televised address to the nation, says that Britons should only go outside to buy food, to exercise once a day, or to go to work if they absolutely cannot work from home. Citizens will face police fines for failure to comply with these new measures.
Worldwide figures stand at more than 270,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.
March 24th 2020
Tokyo Olympics likely to be postponed – according to a member of the International Olympic Committee, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – set to begin in August – will be postponed. Australia and Canada have already announced that their athletes will not compete
March 25th 2020
Prince Charles tests positive for the coronavirus.
In the US, negotiators strike a deal on a $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package intended to assist businesses and millions of Americans amid the halt in the US economy. The bill includes $1,200 for individuals earning up to $75,000, $100 billion for health care providers, and $58 billion for the US airline industry. It would also include $2,400 per month for up to four months to the unemployed. $500 billion goes to industry loans that corporations, cities, and states can apply for.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown of the country’s 1.3 billion residents. India has only recorded 536 cases of COVID-19 so far.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rails against coronavirus measures being taken in his country, as local officials take preparedness into their own hands.
March 26th 2020
G20 world leaders meet virtually to discuss the coronavirus crisis. King Salman of Saudi Arabia calls on the world’s richest economies to ‘extend a helping hand to developing countries’.
Brits across the UK clap, cheer, and ring bells at 8pm to thank the NHS workers for their service in tackling the pandemic.
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveils a package of measures to help self-employed workers during the economic downturn, giving those earning less than £50,000 a taxable grant equal to 80 percent of their average profits.
March 27th 2020
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock test positive for the coronavirus
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says that the coronavirus crisis has exposed the EU’s ‘weaknesses’.
March 28th 2020
European COmmission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU ‘looked into the abyss’ in the early days of the crisis but now it has the chance to reinvent itself.
French President Emmanuel Macron issues a plea for European solidarity to fight the coronavirus crisis, saying ‘I don’t want a selfish and divided Europe’
Belgium extend confinement measures until 19th April
UK Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, announces he is self-isolating after experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus
March 29th 2020
The European Commission announces that it will revise its proposal for the EU’s next seven-year budget
US announces social distancing measures to continue until 30th April, as the US records the highest number of coronavirus infections in the world, at more than 139,700 cases.
March 30th 2020
Hungarian Parliament passes a bill that gives PM Viktor Orban power to rule by decree, impose a state of emergency without a time limit, and suspend parliament.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announces the government is to spend £75 million on charter flights and airline tickets to repatriate up to 300,000 Britons stranded abroad as countries have closed their borders to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
March 31st 2020
Spain joins the US and Italy as one of the few countries to surpass China’s coronavirus case total, reporting 85,195 cases and 8,189 deaths.
Ethiopia announces it has postponed its parliamentary and presidential elections, originally scheduled for August. The elections were to be a big test for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s reformist measures.
The White House projects 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from COVID-19 in 2020, if current social distancing trends hold.
April 1st 2020
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announces that the Commission will present an unemployment reinsurance scheme to ensure workers keep their jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
Italy announces it will extend lockdown measures until 13th April. Health Minister Roberto Speranza says ‘data shows that we are on the right path and that the drastic decisions are bearing fruit’.
The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) summit, due to be held in Glasgow in November, is postponed until 2021.
April 2nd 2020
The number of worldwide coronavirus cases passes one million.
April 3rd 2020
German Chancellor Angela Merkel returns to her office after isolating as her physician tested positive for the coronavirus.
April 5th 2020
The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is admitted to hospital for testing after his coronavirus symptoms persist.
Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood resigns from her post after she is pictured visiting her second home, despite urging Scots to stay at home and avoid all but essential travel.
April 6th 2020
German Chancellor Angela Merkel describes the coronavirus crisis as the biggest test the European Union has faced in its history.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is admitted to an Intensive Care Unit as his coronavirus symptoms worsen.
April 7th 2020
European finance ministers meet to discuss a range of options to support the bloc’s economy.
The messaging service WhatsApp announces it is introducing limits to its forwarding service in order to combat disinformation. The application has been a hotbed for the spread of fake news relating to the coronavirus outbreak.
US stock market indices rise for the second day in a row to hit their highest level since 11th March.
The airline industry cuts 90% of its flights in Europe.
April 8th 2020
It is announced that French GDP is set to shrink by 6% in the first quarter of 2020, and German GDP is predicted to shrink by 4.2% this year.
The US sees the highest one-day death toll from coronavirus.
The number of cases across the African continent passes 10,000.
You are right. We didn’t know the magnitude of deceit and treachery we were dealing with. We thought the Chinese government had some compassion for their own citizens and the citizens of the world.
We thought the WHO was an independent organization that would investigate a viral outbreak in a expeditious manner, and give adequate warning before it had spread to the world!
We like to assume others are innocent until proven guilty. We are willing to accept some guilty people escaping justice to reduce people unjustly convicted. That leaves us open to deception by lies that we should not believe.
Being unaware of others depravity, is not the same as being depraved. We are no longer unaware.
Now we know. And now the whole world knows. And bombing this page with your timelines will not change that.
Russ R. April 17, 2020 at 9:56 pm
You are right. We didn’t know the magnitude of deceit and treachery we were dealing with.
—————-
it is weird that you say this when I have not yet added the lies and damn lies told by president Trump.
There is only 2 points where the Chinese have tried to supress information. This suppression was in the early days when it could just have been another flu (like Trump said)
I’m certain if pandemic had been called before proof of such a pandemic could be proven there would have been uproar in US
Since you do not criticise the time line I will assume you agree with it?
More time line to follow with added trumps statements.
So Trump is not a virologist. He has to get information from a bunch of people, process it, and give his “opinion” on the subject.
Did he use the power of the government to suppress any vital information in crucial stages of this outbreak?
Did anyone get dragged into the police station and was forced to sign a retraction of earlier statements?
Did anyone get “disappeared”, because they told the truth about this threat to public safety?
Did he close off travel from Wuhan to his own country, but still allow it to other countries? Creating an incentive for those that flee Wuhan to go some where other than cities in China?
His worst offense is to believe the wrong people. People he thinks are trustworthy based on the responsibility they have to act in the best interest of the public.
Here is what the expert virologists that he trusted, were saying:
1/30/2020
And this counsel of wisdom /sarc++:
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/transcripts/ihr-emergency-committee-for-pneumonia-due-to-the-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-press-briefing-transcript-30012020.pdf?sfvrsn=c9463ac1_2
here’s the time line with Trumps lack of action included.
Can you really claim that China hid data (for more than a few days). Can you really claim that if these delays were not present the US would not have the staggering deaths figures it does have, Trump was fully aware of the virulence of the disease from at least his tweet on 24th January.
December 21st 2019
Chinese epidemiologists with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published an article on 20th January 2020 stating that the first cluster of patients with ‘pneumonia of an unknown cause’ had been identified on 21st December 2019
You cannot act on this – it is a sort of pneumonia with unknown transmission. It was published therefore no secret
December 31st 2019
Chinese authorities confirmed they were treating dozens of cases of pneumonia of an unknown cause. Days laters researchers in China identified a new virus that had infected dozens of people. There was no evidence that the virus was spread by humans.
China contacts the WHO and informs them of ‘cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology’ detected in Wuhan
no evidence for human to human spread and who informed
1 January 2020
WHO had set up the IMST (Incident Management Support Team) across the three levels of the organization: headquarters, regional headquarters and country level, putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak.
January 2nd 2020
Central Hospital of Wuhan banned its staff from discussing the disease publicly or recording them using text or image that can be used as evidence
damage limitation not called for
4 January 2020
WHO reported on social media that there was a cluster of pneumonia cases – with no deaths – in Wuhan, Hubei province.
5 January 2020
WHO published our first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus. This is a flagship technical publication to the scientific and public health community as well as global media. It contained a risk assessment and advice, and reported on what China had told the organization about the status of patients and the public health response on the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan.
January 8th 2020
The Chinese government agrees to accept a WHO scientific team to assist their own researchers
WHO goes to China now they cannot hide problems
10 January 2020
Developed with reference to other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, WHO issued a tool for countries to check their ability to detect and respond to a novel coronavirus. This information is to help with identifying main gaps, assessing risks and planning for additional investigations, response and control actions.
January 11th 2020
Chinese state media reported the first known death from an illness caused by the virus. It was a 61-year old man who was a regular customer of the market in Wuhan where the virus is believed to have originated, and had previously been found to have abdominal tumors and chronic liver disease.
first death many co-morbidities – so was this the virus?
12 January 2020
China shares the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus, which will be very important for other countries as they develop specific diagnostic kits.
First case of novel coronavirus outside of China confirmed
13 January 2020
Officials confirmed a case of the novel coronavirus in Thailand. It was not unexpected that cases of the novel coronavirus would emerge outside of China and reinforces why WHO calls for active monitoring and preparedness in other countries.
WHO makes field visit to Wuhan, China
January 14th 2020
Reporters from Hong Kong taken to police station after trying to film the situation within Wuhan hospital
damage limitation
14 January 2020
WHO’s technical lead for the response noted in a press briefing there may have been limited human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus (in the 41 confirmed cases), mainly through family members, and that there was a risk of a possible wider outbreak. The lead also said that human-to-human transmission would not be surprising given our experience with SARS, MERS and other respiratory pathogens.
January 20th 2020
The first confirmed cases outside mainland China occurred in Japan, South Korea and Thailand, according to the WHO.
January 21st 2020
The first confirmed case of the virus in the US in Washington State, where a man in his 30s developed symptoms after returning from a trip to Wuhan.
US now knows
21 January 2020
The delegation observed and discussed active surveillance processes, temperature screening at Wuhan Tianhe airport, laboratory facilities, infection prevention and control measures at Zhongnan hospital and its associated fever clinics, and the deployment of a test kit to detect the virus.
The delegation also discussed public communication efforts and China’s plan to expand the case definition for the novel coronavirus, which will build a clearer picture of the spectrum of severity of the virus. At the end of the visit, the Chinese Government released the primers and probes used in the test kit for the novel coronavirus to help other countries detect it. Chinese experts also shared a range of protocols that will be used in developing international guidelines, including case definitions, clinical management protocols and infection control.
Public Health Emergency of International Concern declared
January 22nd 2020
Public Health England announces it is moving the risk level to the British public from ‘very low’ to ‘low’.
uk knows – us and uk not taking action – why?
22 January 2020
WHO mission to China issued a statement saying that there was evidence of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan but more investigation was needed to understand the full extent of transmission.
22- 23 January 2020
The WHO Director- General convened an Emergency Committee (EC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) to assess whether the outbreak constituted a public health emergency of international concern. The independent members from around the world could not reach a consensus based on the evidence available at the time. They asked to be reconvened within 10 days after receiving more information.
January 23rd 2020
Wuhan (population over 11 million) is cut off by the Chinese authorities. Planes and trains leaving the city are cancelled, and buses, subways and ferries within the city are suspended. 17 people had died at this point and 570 infected in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the US.
Figures compiled by the Chinese Railway Administration showed that approximately 100,000 people had already departed from Wuhan Train Station by the deadline.
Construction begins in Wuhan for a specialist emergency hospital which opened on 3rd February
lock down – us uk no action why?
Trump::Jan 24
China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!
January 26th 2020
China extends the ‘Spring Festival’ holiday in order to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Schools in Beijing to stay closed until further notice
Trump:: Jan 27
We are in very close communication with China concerning the virus. Very few cases reported in USA, but strongly on watch. We have offered China and President Xi any help that is necessary. Our experts are extraordinary!
28 January 2020
A senior WHO delegation led by the Director-General travelled to Beijing to meet China’s leadership, learn more about China’s response, and to offer any technical assistance.
While in Beijing, Dr. Tedros agreed with Chinese government leaders that an international team of leading scientists would travel to China on a mission to better understand the context, the overall response, and exchange information and experience.
January 29th 2020
The UK’s first two patients test positive for Coronavirus after two Chinese nationals from the same family staying at a hotel in York fall ill.
A plane evacuating Britons from Wuhan arrives at RAF Brize Norton. Passengers go into a 14 day quarantine at a specialist hospital on Merseyside.
still no uk/us action
January 30th 2020
WHO declares a global health emergency amid thousands of new cases in China.
who declares emergency – there is a definite problem – us/uk no action
30 January 2020
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the 2019-nCoV outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, following a second meeting of the Emergency Committee convened under the International Health Regulations.
Acknowledging that cases have been reported in five WHO regions in one month, the Committee noted that early detection, isolating and treating cases, contact tracing and social distancing measures – in line with the level of risk – can all work to interrupt virus spread.
Trump::jan 30
Working closely with China and others on Coronavirus outbreak. Only 5 people in U.S., all in good recovery.
Trump::Jan 30
Just received a briefing on the Coronavirus in China from all of our GREAT agencies, who are also working closely with China. We will continue to monitor the ongoing developments. We have the best experts anywhere in the world, and they are on top of it 24/7!
January 31st 2020
The US suspends entry into the country by any foreign nationals who had travelled to China in the past 14 days, excluding the immediate family members of US citizens or permanent residents.
213 people had died and 9,800 infected worldwide.
us action on flights (should have happened earlier to be effective virus is already rampant in us) us/uk no lock down why?
February 1st 2020
Spain confirms its first case of the coronavirus on La Gomera in the Canary Islands
February 2nd 2020
The first death of coronavirus is reported outside China, as a 44-year-old man in the Philippines dies after being infected.
3 February 2020
WHO releases the international community’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan to help protect states with weaker health systems
February 4th 2020
The UK directs its citizens to leave China if possible
spread it further???
February 5th 2020
A cruise ship in Japan quarantines 3600 people after a two-week trip to Southeast Asia. 218 people onboard the ship tested positive for the virus.
February 7th 2020
The Chinese doctor Dr. Li Wenliang, who tried to ring early alarms that a cluster of infections could spin out of control, dies after contracting the virus. He was reprimanded by authorities in early January and he was forced to sign a statement denouncing his warning as an unfounded and illegal rumor.
Trump:: Feb 7
Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but he will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone. Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!
Trump::Feb. 10: “I think the virus is going to be — it’s going to be fine.”
February 11th 2020
The disease is named ‘Covid-19’, an acronym that stands for coronavirus disease 2019. 1113 people in China have died with 44,653 cases, and 393 cases outside of China.
11-12 February 2020
WHO convened a Research and Innovation Forum on COVID-19, attended by more than 400 experts and funders from around the world, which included presentations by George Gao, Director General of China CDC, and Zunyou Wu, China CDC’s chief epidemiologist.
February 14th 2020
France announces the first coronavirus death in Europe – an 80-year-old Chinese tourist. The fourth death from the virus outside mainland China.
Egypt confirms its first case, the first on the African continent.
Trump::Feb. 14: “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it. It’s like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.”
February 17th 2020
China said it was reviewing its trade and consumption of wildlife, which has been identified as a probable source of the outbreak
February 19th 2020
443 passengers leave the Diamond Princess cruises ship. A total of 621 people aboard the ship were infected.
Trump::Feb. 19: “I think it’s going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus. So let’s see what happens, but I think it’s going to work out fine.”
February 21st 2020
The virus appears in Iran from an unknown source. Iran announced the two cases then hours later said that both patients had died. Two days later, Iran announced two additional deaths.
The South Korean government shuts down thousands of kindergartens, nursing homes and community centres, following a surge in infections linked to the secretive church the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.
south korean lock down bypassed by religious sect worship
February 23rd 2020
Italy sees a major surge in coronavirus cases – up to 150. Officials locked down 10 towns in Lombardy after a cluster of cases suddenly emerged in Codogno, southeast of Milan. Schools closed and sporting and cultural events were canceled.
Italy introduces strict measures which place almost 50,000 people in lockdown in an attempt to control the virus
italy lock down too late
February 24th 2020
The Trump administration asks Congress for $1.25 billion for coronavirus response – the US had 35 confirmed cases and no deaths.
Iran emerges as a second focus point of the virus, with 61 cases and 12 deaths. It is a cause for worry as a place of pilgrimage.
Iran problems made worse by sanctions
Trump::Feb. 24 (tweet): “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. … Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Trump::Feb. 25: “You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are … getting better. They’re all getting better. … As far as what we’re doing with the new virus, I think that we’re doing a great job.”
Feb. 25: “Now they have it, they have studied it, they know very much, in fact, we’re very close to a vaccine,”
February 26th 2020
Latin America reports its first coronavirus case, as Brazilian health officials said that a 61-year-old Sao Paulo man, returning from Italy, tested positive for the virus.
Trump::Feb. 26: “Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low. … When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
February 28th 2020
800 people are now infected in Italy, and cases in 14 other European countries remain an area of concern
Sub-Saharan Africa records its first infection.
The first British victim dies of coronavirus onboard the Diamond Princess.
UK authorities confirm the first case of the illness to be passed on inside the country.
The worst week for the global stock markets since the 2008 financial crash.
The WHO raises the coronavirus alert to the highest level.
no action from us/uk re lockdown. Whatever the WHO says at this point is irrelevant – the dangers are self evident
Trump::Feb. 28: “I think it’s really going well. … We’re prepared for the worst, but we think we’re going to be very fortunate.”
Feb. 28: “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
Feb. 28: “This is their new hoax.”
February 29th 2020
The US records its first coronavirus death and announces travel restrictions of ‘do not travel’ warnings for areas in Italy and South Korea. It also bans all travel to Iran and bars entry to any foreign citizen who had visited Iran in the previous 14 days.
the virus is loose in the us restrictions not really relevant at this point
March 4th 2020
Cases of Covid-19 surge in the UK, as officials announce the biggest one-day increase so far as 34 cases bring the total to 87
Italy announces it is shutting schools and universities.
Trump::March 4: “Some people will have this at a very light level and won’t even go to a doctor or hospital, and they’ll get better. There are many people like that.”
March 4: Now, this is just my hunch, but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of people will have this and it is very mild… So if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better and then, when you do have a death like you had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California, I believe you had one in New York, you know, all of a sudden it seems like 3 or 4 percent, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of 1 percent.
Trump::March 9 (tweet): “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”
March 10th 2020
Nadine Dorries, a junior health minister, becomes the first MP to test positive for coronavirus.
6 people in the UK have now died of the illness, with 373 testing positive
Trump::March 10: “And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
March 11th 2020
The US blocks travel from European countries other than the UK for 30 days, as the WHO declares the virus a pandemic and stock markets plunge.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces a £12bn package of emergency support to help the UK cope with the expected onslaught from coronavirus
11 March 2020
Deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction, WHO made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
Trump::March 11: “I think we’re going to get through it very well.”
Trump::March 12: “It’s going to go away. … The United States, because of what I did and what the administration did with China, we have 32 deaths at this point … when you look at the kind of numbers that you’re seeing coming out of other countries, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it.”
March 13th 2020
The US declares a national emergency and makes $50 billion in federal funds available to tackle the coronavirus.
A host of UK sporting events announce their postponement including the London Marathon. Premier League fixtures are suspended.
Trump::March 15: “This is a very contagious virus. It’s incredible. But it’s something that we have tremendous control over.”
March 16th 2020
Latin America imposes restrictions on their citizens to slow the spread of the virus. Venezuela announces a nationwide quarantine to begin on March 17th. Ecuador and Peru implement countrywide lockdowns, and Colombia and Costa Rica close their borders. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro encourages mass demonstrations by his supporters against his opponents in congress.
Boris Johnson begins daily press briefings, urging everybody in the UK to work from home and avoid pubs and restaurants to give the NHS time to cope with the pandemic.
The UK’s death toll rises to 55, with 1,543 confirmed cases, though it is believed 10,000 people have already been infected.
March 17th 2020
France imposes a nationwide lockdown, prohibiting all gatherings and only allowing people to go out for fresh air. France had more than 6,500 infections with more than 140 deaths
The EU bars most travellers from outside the bloc for 30 days.
Rishi Sunak unleashes the biggest package of emergency state support for business since the 2008 financial crash, unveiling £330bn-worth of government-backed loans and more than £20bn in tax cuts and grants for companies threatened with collapse.
Trump::march 17: “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic”
March 18th 2020
The UK government announces most schools across England will be shut down from Friday until further notice. Wales and Scotland announce they will also close schools.
uk lockdown begins
18 March 2020
WHO and partners launch the Solidarity Trial, an international clinical trial that aims to generate robust data from around the world to find the most effective treatments for COVID-19.
March 19th 2020
For the first time, China reports zero local infections, a milestone in the fight against the pandemic. Experts said the country would need to see at least 14 consecutive days without new infections for the outbreak to be considered over. 34 new cases were confirmed among people who had arrived in China from elsewhere.
March 20th 2020
The UK government orders all pubs, restaurants, gyms and other social venues across the country to close
The chancellor announces the government will pay up to 80% of wages for workers at risk of being laid off
uk lockdown tightens
March 23rd 2020
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a televised address to the nation, says that Britons should only go outside to buy food, to exercise once a day, or to go to work if they absolutely cannot work from home. Citizens will face police fines for failure to comply with these new measures.
Worldwide figures stand at more than 270,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.
March 24th 2020
Tokyo Olympics likely to be postponed – according to a member of the International Olympic Committee, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – set to begin in August – will be postponed. Australia and Canada have already announced that their athletes will not compete
Trump::March 24: “We’re going to be opening relatively soon… I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” He added in a subsequent interview: “Easter is a very special day for me… and you’ll have packed churches all over our country.”
March 25th 2020
Prince Charles tests positive for the coronavirus.
In the US, negotiators strike a deal on a $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package intended to assist businesses and millions of Americans amid the halt in the US economy. The bill includes $1,200 for individuals earning up to $75,000, $100 billion for health care providers, and $58 billion for the US airline industry. It would also include $2,400 per month for up to four months to the unemployed. $500 billion goes to industry loans that corporations, cities, and states can apply for.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown of the country’s 1.3 billion residents. India has only recorded 536 cases of COVID-19 so far.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rails against coronavirus measures being taken in his country, as local officials take preparedness into their own hands.
March 26th 2020
G20 world leaders meet virtually to discuss the coronavirus crisis. King Salman of Saudi Arabia calls on the world’s richest economies to ‘extend a helping hand to developing countries’.
Brits across the UK clap, cheer, and ring bells at 8pm to thank the NHS workers for their service in tackling the pandemic.
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveils a package of measures to help self-employed workers during the economic downturn, giving those earning less than £50,000 a taxable grant equal to 80 percent of their average profits.
March 27th 2020
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock test positive for the coronavirus
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says that the coronavirus crisis has exposed the EU’s ‘weaknesses’.
March 28th 2020
European COmmission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU ‘looked into the abyss’ in the early days of the crisis but now it has the chance to reinvent itself.
French President Emmanuel Macron issues a plea for European solidarity to fight the coronavirus crisis, saying ‘I don’t want a selfish and divided Europe’
Belgium extend confinement measures until 19th April
UK Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, announces he is self-isolating after experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus
March 29th 2020
The European Commission announces that it will revise its proposal for the EU’s next seven-year budget
US announces social distancing measures to continue until 30th April, as the US records the highest number of coronavirus infections in the world, at more than 139,700 cases.
March 30th 2020
Hungarian Parliament passes a bill that gives PM Viktor Orban power to rule by decree, impose a state of emergency without a time limit, and suspend parliament.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announces the government is to spend £75 million on charter flights and airline tickets to repatriate up to 300,000 Britons stranded abroad as countries have closed their borders to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
March 31st 2020
Spain joins the US and Italy as one of the few countries to surpass China’s coronavirus case total, reporting 85,195 cases and 8,189 deaths.
Ethiopia announces it has postponed its parliamentary and presidential elections, originally scheduled for August. The elections were to be a big test for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s reformist measures.
The White House projects 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from COVID-19 in 2020, if current social distancing trends hold.
April 1st 2020
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announces that the Commission will present an unemployment reinsurance scheme to ensure workers keep their jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
Italy announces it will extend lockdown measures until 13th April. Health Minister Roberto Speranza says ‘data shows that we are on the right path and that the drastic decisions are bearing fruit’.
The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) summit, due to be held in Glasgow in November, is postponed until 2021.
April 2nd 2020
The number of worldwide coronavirus cases passes one million.
Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity. link
Reverse that. That was then. This is now.
That’s the most plausible of all scenarios.
In the case of the Wuhan virus, it may be both stupidity and malice.
Stupidity to allow the virus to be released into the population of China.
Malice to allow the virus to be released into the population of the world.
The Chinese leadership encouraged international flights to continue even after they knew for certain they had a highly infectious disease spreading like wildfire in their country. Deliberate malice.
I think the origin issue is very hard to pin down. So in mind probably fruitless.
The response from ChiCom not good enough by a mile. their culture of deception evident in Putin also is not satisfactory and demands a proper response.
We need to assume that the people of China would be happy to be rid of the “party” and the reversal of their good fortune with willing partners around the world that being trading partners is about to change.
India a democratic super giant needs to be our partner of the future. Once the people of China are liberated and democratic resume transmission.
“Once the people of China are liberated and democratic resume transmission.“
I doubt that will happen. Xi has held power for quite some time. He looks fairly young and will stay in power for a while. Any opposition that gets a little too popular…I doubt they last long.
He’s 67. so not exactly young, but still has a good number of years left in him. He won’t willingly be going anywhere for a good long while.
I am not a conspiracy nut…I generally reject conspiracy theories outright just due to Occam’s Razor – it is not the simplest explanation for most events, in fact the conspiracy generally complicates the explanation. You have to really provide strong evidence to convince me otherwise.
That said, I am thoroughly convinced the SARS-CovID-2 virus is a natural virus – there is no evidence AT ALL that I am aware of to suggest otherwise. It is simple to see how this virus could evolve in a bat that is already hosting many other related corona viruses.
That said, I cannot rule out that the virus did not jump out of a lab studying it through some careless action. It is almost a certainty that scientists had already come into contact with the virus in gathering samples for other corona viruses. It is unknown if they had identified SARS-CovID-2, or isolated it, or tried to grow it. It doesn’t matter – if the virus was in a laboratory environment, then it could escape – there is no such thing as zero risk, and when people are involved you always find someone that doesn’t take tedious procedures seriously, or something just failed without a proper backup, or etc. So whether they knew of the virus, or were studying it, it *could* have made an escape out of a laboratory. One would need to trace back the first known victims and see if they had connections to the lab – direct or indirect. This isn’t going to happen in a communist country – they will never admit a mistake if there was one.
However, without some new evidence that is contrary, the simplest explanation is it came from a sick animal captured or killed for food. They eat all sorts of exotic animals in China, and people need to make a living so they will harvest anything likely to produce a profit.
There is *NO* evidence the virus was modified through human manipulation. I find this extremely implausible. Scientists are smart enough to know this virus would make a terrible uncontrolled weapon likely to turn upon the creators. If they had been modifying it using a version of CRISP, we should identify either genes that don’t belong there, or genes made inoperable. Computer analysis of the RNA would reveal something if one were looking, and I have to believe the military has been looking.
So, most likely this is a natural event caused by human encroachment upon a new or at least isolated bat species. Less likely but possible it escaped from a lab (where they might or might not have known they had it). Almost no possibility this was a weapon of war.
As for its chances to stick around… It is a single stranded positive sense RNA virus. RNA viruses tend to mutate more readily, increasing the chances it can become re-infectious. Single strand means there is less opportunity to swap out genes with other viruses – so less wholesale change. (The Flu virus contains 8 different RNA segments and multiple infectious strains, so wholesale swapping is common and it’s back in some new infectious form every year). Even after most of the population has been exposed, it is likely this virus will reappear over a few to 10’s of years as it mutates into something viable (can get past existing immunity). If we create an effective vaccine, it can be wiped out but it will not likely be easy to track down all the humans that carry it.
None of this really requires any active conspiracies, much less conspiracy theories.
Whether the virus came from a ChiCom virology lab or a ChiCom wet market, all of the subsequent actions were just SOP for various groups of people. Red China went into full CYA mode. WHO went into full Red China apologist/water carrier mode. The Fire Marshal Gumps of the world went into full tin-horn dictator mode.
“There is *NO* evidence the virus was modified through human manipulation”
How would you know how such manipulated virus would look like?
I found this paragraph from an article at Hotair interesting:
“Remember, one research paper published in China two months ago suggested it was more likely the virus was released accidentally from a local laboratory than that it arose in the Wuhan wet market. According to that paper, locals who had visited the market said horseshoe bats were not for sale there. However, those bats were being studied at two laboratories nearby, including one that was only a few hundred meters from the market. That paper was later retracted by the author, though it seems possible he was encouraged to do so by the government. The possibility of an accidental laboratory release has even been discussed in a piece at the Washington Post, though it’s only a possibility at this point.”
An uneasy feeling propagates in Germany. The devastating doubt that someone, something, somewhere capitalizes on panic and destruction and is quite unhappy that hell didn’t break as loose as expected.
Like, your jobs are in jeopardy, industry will go down, you will loose your house, your TDI’s will be seized, you will subsist in minimum resource gated campuses, but, hey, be happy as things can and probably will get much worse.
Good thing, the foretold sharp increase of HR (human remains) priority cargo is not happening.
Tucker Carlson on Chinese Scientists Saying the Coronavirus Likely Came From Horseshoe Bat in a lab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK7_8PrGC2Y
Original Chinese paper which argues that there were no horseshoe bats within 900 km of Wuhan and none in the market
‘In summary, somebody was entangled with the evolution of 2019-nCoV coronavirus.
In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus
probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in
high risk biohazardous laboratories. Regulations may be taken to relocate these
laboratories far away from city center and other densely populated places.
https://chanworld.org/wp-content/uploads/wpforo/default_attachments/1581810860-447056518-Originsof2019-NCoV-XiaoB-Res.pdf
The origin of the virus is of secondary importance. More important is the way in which our western democracies believed the worst “leaked” stories coming out of china to shut our economies down and break our social cohesion in the remotest parts of our countries.
If this was a plan for a communist takeover of the world all the pieces are in place. Even in our supposedly democratic Australia they want to track us with our phones. Next they will want to plant microchips in us, so we can’t leave our phones behind when we go for a walk
The at-risk group will have to wear a patch with a yellow skull on it. The Star of David is so passe.
Nah. Bill Gates has already invented a neat tattoo we’ll have to show to prove we’ve been vaccinated with his patented Covid-19/20/21/… vaccinations.
Heard a question asked this morning that tickled my sarcasm bone.
Question: “If I test positive for Covid-19 when I go to the hospital with a stab wound, and then die, did I die of Covid-19?”
Answer: “It depends. Are you in New York City?”
Cheers
MaxP
One man hospitalized for Covid-19 in NY related his doctors gave him 2 injections.
When asked what 1st was the doctor said “Trump shot”. Patient said something like “?Huh?”; to which came the explanation it was that malaria medicine.
A bit later the doctor returned with a 2nd injection. And patient said something like “?What’s that?”
The doctor said it’s the “Obama shot.” Another Huh?” from the patient got the doctor to explain it was a blood thinner patient needed because of lying around all the time.
It’s the yellow peril again!
Isn’t racism fun!
David, your faith the the security of bio-research facilities is misplaced IMHO. When you read about the stuff that goes on in these places (Lab 257, Biohazard by Ken Alibek, Demon in the Freezer) you get a lot less comfortable.
As to the “it’s not a bio-weapon” several experts say yes and several say no. It would only be a bio-weapon if intentionally released but those facilities (Wuhan, Ft Detrick) have a bad track record that is public.
China has now officially admitted to what they were working on and guess who paid for it? The USA. Say what you want about George Webb he is very detailed and thorough. He might not be correct but it is a very interesting view.
Family Guy is a real dude!
Not true that bioweapons must be intentionally released, and China has a very bad track record, period. Of course if this was intentional, the plan may never be completely revealed, and an claim of being “unintentional” would not be surprising, or disarming.
The US record is just as bad. Last July the CDC closed down Ft Detrick, a key US bio-weapons lab in Maryland.
The US also has a record of experimenting on the public, and its doubtful China would have any qualms about doing the same to a few million of their own, if it were in “their” interest.
China is reporting a little over 3000 deaths. Do they know something we don’t. COVID 19 reportedly has multiple strains. Was NY hit on purpose with one of the more virulent strains, as has been Italy, the first G7 to sign on to the new Silk Road?
China has a million Uyghurs in concentration camps. They take male head of households and insert male CCP members into homes. They force abortions. They routinely harvest organs from prisoners. They disappear business people, journalists, doctors and scientists.
They don’t know the meaning of qualms.
Losing 3000 mostly old people in order to crash Western economies wouldn’t even register on the Commie qualmometer. Probably not even 30,000. The ghouls of Beijing would be glad to save money on old age pensions.
China executes more “criminals” than the rest of the world combined. It’s a state secret how many, but Amnesty International and other international groups make the best guesses they can. Iran might kill more on a per capita basis, but that can’t really be known with any precision.
If the tyrannical, genocidal ChiCom dictatorship wanted to wage economic biological war against its adversaries, the lives of thousands of its own enslaved subject peoples wouldn’t even amount to a cipher. Mao probably killed more of his own people than Stalin, Pol Pot, the Kims and all other Communist mass murderers combined. Now Xi is re-Maoizing China.
It’s hard for normal people to think like a Communist.
Closed after “losing” 9200 vials …
And a bunch of other violations
“The US record is just as bad. Last July the CDC closed down Ft Detrick, a key US bio-weapons lab in Maryland.”
How many people did that kill? Just as bad? That’s your comparison?
Send your complaints to the CDC.
“As to the “it’s not a bio-weapon” several experts say yes and several say no. It would only be a bio-weapon if intentionally released”
It looks to me like the Chinese leadership deliberately released the Wuhan virus on the world, so it qualifies as a bio-weapon under your definition.
A bio-weapon doesn’t have to be engineered, it just has to be deployed.
I called it ChiCom Flu from the first time I heard about it.
What happened to the science?
China bashing. Conspiracy theory mongering. Far right politics.
I’m sorry to see WUWT has fallen so low.
+1
“China bashing.”
I’ve noticed several new names lately at WUWT complaining about China bashing. Is that you Xi? Are you mounting a propaganda campaign at WUWT? Bring it on!
+1
We’re bashing the CCP, not the long-suffering Chinese people. Big, big difference.
You genuinely don’t have a problem with the CCP? Amazing if true.
David,
The 14th amendment to the US constitution states that:
“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
So it would appear that even suggesting that the US not pay its liabilities to China is unconstitutional. And certainly there is no way that the US can avoid paying its debts no
matter who owns them. Plus Donald Trump tweeted on the 25th of January:
“China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
so it would seem that Trump himself thinks China has been transparent about all of this.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/how-to-make-china-pay-for-coronavirus
David,
that is a default even if the author doesn’t want to call it one. You cannot simply decide
not to pay a debt or even more bizarrely choose to pay it to someone else. If that was possible I would choose to pay my mortgage to my wife rather than my bank.
Furthermore the author wants to resell the bonds which sounds a lot like defaulting on the original ones and creating new ones. Plus who exactly do you think would buy a US bond
if it was clear that the US could default on them at will even if it called it something different. Remember that the US government’s projected deficit was over one trillion
dollars before all this started and that is a lot of new bonds to sell in a market where you have just defaulted on one trillion dollars of bonds.
Your analogy is bogus. You are not a government. Governments have the power to seize assets (like it or not), you do not have such power. Seizure and default are two different things, pretending otherwise shows a complete ignorance of the law.
What about war reparations for the Opium Wars? “The lost century” as the Chinese still refer to it.
Then there is putting up actual proof. Where will you try the case? What if China wants all those vaping deaths exhumed and tested? Who does the actual testing? Who would both parties trust?
China is now saying and showing the paperwork that USAID funded it at a time when Gain Of Function (GOF ) was banned in the USA (~2015-18). A $375 million research grant. Does that leave you partially responsible as the bank-roller who didn’t keep close tabs on your contractor?
Sorry but no way does your idea fly any more than a pig with bat wings 🙂
Every bit as irrelevant as Mosaddegh was to the seizure of Iranian assets during the last hostage crisis.
How exactly was the US responsible for the Opium Wars?
OTOH, the Communist Party of China is responsible for the Fentanyl Wars waged against the America.
The USA wasn’t in on the opium wars but if you start claiming this then why can’t they claim damages from the UK and Holland? The native american tribes suing the USA? Etc etc. To me it is as ridiculous as demanding climate reparations with no proof that it is happening.
Blaming China for the opiod crisis? What about the Sackler family and the pharma lobby who got congress to pass a bill gutting the DEA’s ability to restrict imports?
And the USA paid $375 million to the Chinese to do this research so is the USA liable for its contractor?
My point is that this is not as cut and dried as some to think it is.
When GoF research was reinstated in 2017, it was with safeguards that weren’t in place before 2014, when such funding was paused:
https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/nih-lifts-funding-pause-gain-function-research
Francis Collins wouldn’t support any research remotely applicable to a bioweapon like the CCP virus.
Where did you get $375 million?
https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/shocking-us-gave-37-million-to-chinas-wuhan-lab-that-conducted-coronavirus-tests-on-bats/story/400831.html
“the proceeds from the resale of those bonds ”
….
Please inform all of us anxious listeners how you propose to “resell” bonds that you don’t have possession of?
What makes you think we wouldn’t get possession of a good portion of those bonds? Older bonds may be paper, and thus harder to get a hold of, but a lot of the newer bonds are issued, bought, sold and tracked, electronically, and thus can be “captured” with the stroke of a keyboard.
Absolutely correct Izaak. If you think the recent bear market was bad, should the US default/not pay it’s debt, our credit/ability to borrow would go down the toilet along with the value of a dollar.
Seizure is not default. Red China’s US assets, including Treasury holdings, can be frozen by the President with the stroke of a pen. Red China’s sovereign immunity could be revoked under the The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) of 1976 and those assets would then be subject to seizure pursuant to lawsuits in US courts.
David
If the POTUS did stroke his pen, who outside the USA would ever purchase them again.
It must be warm where you are David, with all this shirt off chest beating stuff going on.
All this so called lying reminds me of Colin Powell’s address to the UN before the illegal invasion of Iraq and high death toll when the real Intel said there was nothing there.
Put your shirt back on David.
Please site intel which said that nothing was there. If so, it was wrong. Iraq transferred most of its WMD material and delivery systems to Syria, but not all. We found plenty.
I never take my shirt off… At least, not since I turned 50.
The US is not the only nation being encouraged to consider asset seizures.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1266479/coronavirus-UK-latest-china-pay-reparations-debt-beijing-owned-bank-assets-London
David,
Do you really mean to say that with a stroke of a pen the US government can seize all
of its treasury bonds and re-allocate them to the US government thus not having to repay
them? And then can you explain to me why exactly that isn’t a “default”.
Educate yourself on the concept of “seizure of assets” it’s a real thing that happens all the time (usually on a much smaller scale – The United States Marshals Service manages around $2.4 billion worth of property seized by Treasury agencies).
Henry the US will never run out of the ability to borrow more money. That is beauty of fiat currency with a federal reserve. The key is for people to not lose faith in the currency and that is what tanks and guns are for.
I agreed with you that global warming is a scam.
“So it would appear that even suggesting that the US not pay its liabilities to China is unconstitutional.”
A suggestion does not violate the U.S. Constitution. One can suggest all one wants here in the good ole USA and it is perfectly legal and constitutional.
So it would appear that even suggesting that the US not pay its liabilities to China is unconstitutional.
Clearly you know nothing of the constitution. Suggestions are not unconstitutional, indeed the first amendments clearly says you are free say (suggest) whatever you want “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech”. Trying to implement a suggestion that if implemented would run afoul of the constitution, on the other hand, would be unconstitutional. The mere suggestion, however, not so much.
And certainly there is no way that the US can avoid paying its debts no matter who owns them
The suggestion isn’t that the US avoids paying its debts, so you are talking something completely different. The suggestion is seizing property to cover China’s liability over the pandemic. It helps to consider what the government does with seized property. It sells it at auction to recoup the amount of the liability, which is exactly what is being suggested here. The bonds/debt will still get paid (so absolutely not a default) just to whomever buys them at auction rather than to their previous owner (China) – Just as a house seized by the state gets a new owner once auctioned off, so too does the seized treasuries (bonds, T-bills, etc) the obligation to pay those treasuries remains (in other words: *not* defaulted).
Could smoking be protection from coronavirus ?
Studies from four countries show smokers far less likely to be hospitalized for covid19. I thought it would be just the opposite.
https://techstartups.com/2020/04/13/shocking-result-smokers-far-less-likely-hospitalized-coronavirus-covid-19-non-smokers-chinese-study-also-duplicated-u-s-cdc-shows/
That would be a stretch to call it protective, but maybe their ACE2 isn’t as high as it is in those who take ACE inhibitors.
When I had a lymphoma I read stuff. A cause of high red blood count can be smoking. My thoughts on it are that the body compensates for low oxygen (due to CO uptake) to organs simply by telling the blood factory to increase red blood manufacture. Overnight the CO will dissipate and the smoker will have heaps of oxygenated blood by wake-up time. A smoker will tend to smoke less when feeling off-colour (generalisation). Covid-19 sufferers are put on oxygen to improve their health. Perhaps the ‘hit’ of increased oxygen has a prophylactic effect.
I’m not suggesting taking up smoking. The body’s compensating effect would be due to long-term smoking only.
CO doesn’t disappear overnight. One of the main immediate problems caused for smokers is that haemoglobin does not release the CO, therefore the blood is useless. This is not remedied until that blood dies and is replaced.
This is why CO is lethal.
I have read elsewhere that the half-life of CO in the blood is about 5 hours if in a fresh air environment. I hate discovering how the body works. At one time I was blissfully ignorant of the location of bodily organs.
Covid19 was found in a bat cave in 2013.
https://ptolemy2.wordpress.com/2020/04/14/coronavirus-the-batty-back-story/
All these are bat originated viruses:
Rabies
Ebola
Marburg virus
SARS
MERS
Are these all also dastardly bioweapons from the yellow peril? I don’t think so.
The above article explains the biological reason why zoonotic viruses often come from bats.
You’ve just scratched the surface.
Besides those you mention, bat-borne viruses include severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); hantaviruses; lyssaviruses (besides rabies) such as Australian bat lyssavirus; henipaviruses such as Nipah and Hendra virus, and Lassa virus. Several other bat-borne viruses are considered important emerging viruses and under study.
SOME QUESTIONS prompted by Phil Salmon’s statement , see above comment;,how do the viruses ‘originate ‘ in bats .
Do they somehow manufacture viruses .If so from what .?& in what way ?.Are they unique in this respect ?
Do they acquire viruses from the environment ,food ,in the form of insects ? their (main diet I believe ).Has any research been done on this,?If so what were the findings?
Thanks John
You’re welcome!
Enjoyed your comment on bat lungs and metabolism.
This may have been mentioned already, but Chinese researcher Zhengli-Li Shi (known in some quarters as Bat Woman) and UNC researchers genetically engineered a chimeric virus “with notable pathogenesis” that “can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.” The US government cut funding for the project so the Chinese government took over and moved it back to the Wuhan lab. Don’t know if it’s the same thing, but sounds a lot like it.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985
It’s the WuFlu.
Political correctness = political leftness.
Isn’t anti-white racism fun.
And as for the ‘yellow peril’ comment above, perhaps you should ask 200,000 dead people about that.
Biden called Trump a racist for shutting flights from China back on January 31.
Biden presidency in Jan/Feb/Mar of 2020 = 5 million dead Americans.
(Apologies if I posted this twice.)
This may have been mentioned already, but Chinese researcher Zhengli-Li Shi (known in some quarters as Bat Woman) and UNC researchers genetically engineered a chimeric virus “with notable pathogenesis” that “can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.” The US government cut funding for the project so the Chinese government took over and moved it back to the Wuhan lab. Don’t know if it’s the same thing, but sounds a lot like it.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985
I see you scooped me here. Please see above.
Open and shut case.
“The first step should be to seize their US Treasury holdings as a down payment on the economic damage that Red China has caused.”
Yeah You show ’em Dave.
Then what happens? a) The US government is in default of debt obligations. Treasury holders around the world start selling their Treasury assets while the rest demand a premium (higher interest rates) or they’ll sell too; b) China seizes US held assets in China; c) declares no transactions, especially petroleum purchases will occur in dollars. Others join in. This finishes off the petro-dollar. d) No longer the global reserve currency, US imported goods dramatically rise in price by triple digits, causing massive inflation e) China halts all agricultural purchases from the US crushing the US farm sector for good.f) China halts supply chains to the US. Key industries start shutting down.
Americans soon realize that China holds all the cards.
So yeah. You show ’em Dave.
Seizure is not default.
Tell us Middleton, how do you propose to “seize” the bonds? Are you going to fly a special Ops contingent into Beijing, break into the vault where they are stored, then fly back to the USA with them?
All it takes is a few keystrokes at the Treasury Department. Seizure is not default. Red China’s US assets, including Treasury holdings, can be frozen by the President with the stroke of a pen. Red China’s sovereign immunity could be revoked under the The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) of 1976 and those assets would then be subject to seizure pursuant to lawsuits in US courts.
Not true. Most Treasury securities are marketable, and cannot be electronically canceled. Tell me Middleton how do you “seize” this:
…
China can sell these bonds on the open market. Also, “freezing” an asset is not seizure. China still owns the frozen asset.
…
You make it sound simple, and it is not. You still have to “win” the court case to seize assets.
Frozen assets are subject to seizure pursuant to lawsuits in US courts.
Failure to pay interest and allow sale of assets is tantamount to default and will be treated accordingly by the rest of the world. At the very least US Treasuries will no long be considered liquid and “safe”, causing a sharp rise in liquidations and interest rates.
Horst schist. Asset seizures aren’t defaults. If the bonds are seized, they will be sold and the P&I paid.
Failure to pay interest
The interest will continue to be paid. The US debt obligations will continue to be paid to whomever possess the debt instrument. – which simply won’t be China anymore, but rather whomever buys the treasuries at auction. See, that’s how property seizures generally work. The governments seizes an asset and then sells it at auction. The original owner Is give notice and a period of time before the auction happens to pay off whatever liability they owe that caused the seizure in the first place, in which case they get their assets back as long as they pay up before they’re auctioned off.
Now granted, seizing Chinese assets brings with it a huge risk. No, not over “defaulting” as there is no default being suggested. That risk is that China will reciprocate by seizing American owned assets on made up grounds or even no grounds at all other than simple retaliation. We’ve seen that kind of tit for tat from China before.
Henry, I guess you don’t know what a CUSIP number is.
It’s very low on a very long list.
After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the United States ended its economic and diplomatic ties with Iran, banned Iranian oil imports and froze approximately 11 billion 1980-US dollars of its assets. Many of the assets were then unfrozen in 1981 after the Algiers Accords were signed and the hostage crisis ended.
The US can promise to unfreeze ChiCom assets after they make restitution, or the antihuman regime be overthrown by its enslaved subjects, whichever comes first. As an interim government, that freely elected by the liberty-loving citizens of the legitimate Republic of China in Taipei would serve well provisionally until local, provincial and national elections could be held in liberated China.
posa April 14, 2020 at 6:00 pm
Okay Do you think this is the first trade war the USA has Had?
As for the USA seizing assets Canceling Debt due to reciprocal damages, one needs only to go back to the American civil war. The UK wrote a very large Check to the US government for damages due to the sale of warships to the Confederates.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/alabama
And don’t get me started on the Pastry War between France and Mexico
michael
here you go
Interview of the expert who lead the MERS rapid response team
interesting question at the end
how often do these things happen
Great interview. As to why they have been getting more frequent since 1975 we have CAFOs. This is from 10 years ago just just as timely, if not more so.
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/pandemics-history-prevention/?utm_source=NutritionFacts.org&utm_campaign=602d431cbe-RSS_VIDEO_WEEKLY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_40f9e497d1-602d431cbe-24006629&mc_cid=602d431cbe
A lab, a CAFO or space (don’t laugh, read the link below) it is an interesting subject to be sure.
https://cosmictusk.com/wickramasinghe-predicted-coronavirus-pandemic-in-november-2019/
Not sure they’re happening more often, or if they just get circulated farther faster now. In the 19th century or earlier, a bat to camel to human viral transmission might have been kept very localized in the Middle East.
But thanks for a great interview!
Those questioning the constitutionality of sequestering/re-purposing/generally getting creative with China’s holdings:
There’s and old joke, where a little boy asks his dad why the dog is licking himself. The dad, after running through all the possible explanations – of which there are many – , and reduces them all down to the root explanation:
“Because he can.”
If the US wants to make life economically difficult for the Communist Party of China, and there’s general public opinion in that direction, they can. I also doubt that worldwide faith in US treasuries or the dollar will suffer enough to matter.
John,
The US might be able to make life economically difficult for the communist party of china but it
would be very difficult to do so without inflicting more pain on US citizens. China can easily stop
buying American grown crops or meat and even worse as others have mentioned stop buying oil
in US dollars as well as US treasury bonds. The US government has to sell over 1 trillion dollars worth
of bonds every year just to kept running and that was before the COVID19 crisis. And if China stops
buying them just who do you think will step in and do so?
Izaak Walton April 14, 2020 at 9:14 pm
Well Izaak, first the Chicom Government had been quietly selling off US Gov bonds prior to this Chicom plague. Sorry no cookie.
Next not buying USA crops or meat. That didn’t work to well for them last year. Also with the supply chain disruptions and difficulties farmers are having getting crops in and animals to the stock yards we may not have any to sell. Also the Chinese are panic buying food. Sorry no cookie.
Pharmaceuticals, the processing factories can be on line in a couple months, car companies are now building Ventilators. No biggy kind of like WW2. No cookie again.
So whats left, hmmm, we buy our machine tools from Japan as well as domestic production. Cheap disposable stuff will be missed by some.
Washing machines refrigerators and such we can build here like we use too Take about a year to get up and running, but its easier to go without a new kitchen mixer then it is to go without food.
By the way President Trump has been pushing to get manufacturing back to the USA. china can keep its thousand year old eggs!
michael
Didn’t they buy US pork back late November? Pretty sure I saw something in the WSJ that said so, along with mentioning that they own Smithfield now. I suppose they could refuse to buy commodities from a US company they own but I’d be surprised. Given, I believe they had to whack pretty much their nation’s hogs sometime last year, due to an outbreak yet another undesirable disease breaking out, I’d be doubly surprised that they won’t have to buy them from someone.
Strong push from even liberal circles that what the US should do is abandon China as a pharmaceutical supplier, along with many other products that might be considered necessary for self-sufficiency: will this also make them look for other suppliers of pork, soybeans, etc.?
Correction: China’s hog stock has taken a beating from ‘African Swine Flue’, not one of their home-grown diseases:
“In China, the top global pork consumer, the disease has been devastating. The exact number of hog deaths is not known. Rabobank estimated the country lost up to 55 percent of its pig herd last year. But the Chinese government has reported smaller losses in the country’s $1 trillion hog sector since the first case in August 2018.”
They’ll buy pork from someone or learn to do without.
Wait a minute, if calling the current virus the “Chinese virus” is racists, shouldn’t calling something the “African Swine Flue” also be racists? :p
They’ll buy pork from someone or learn to do without.
Indeed.
The US might be able to make life economically difficult for the communist party of china but it
would be very difficult to do so without inflicting more pain on US citizens
We buy a heck of a lot more stuff from them then they buy from us. A fact you should have picked up on when US and China was going tit-for-tat over tariffs. Did you not notice we were able to raise tariffs on billions more of goods than China was able to do so to us during each round of tariff raising? However great the pain for us, It’ll be much greater for them.
Buyers generally have the leverage in a trade war. We can buy most of what we use to get from them elsewhere (or start making it here for those things that we can’t) a lot more easily then they can sell all that they use to sell to us elsewhere. There’s very few items (quite close to zero point zero as Dean Wormer would say) we get from them that would be difficult to source from elsewhere or make ourselves
China can easily stop buying American grown crops or meat
They could, but they’ll need to buy that food from someone or starve. The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter, by far, of food while China is the largest importer (despite being just as large of a producer of food – that’s the problem with having over a billion mouths to feed). In other word, their appetite for food (no pun intended) is too large relative to the available excess food exports from all the other suppliers for them to easily fully replace what they buy from us, and their geography makes it difficult for them to increase their own home grown food supply sufficiently to fill the gap.
And if China stops buying them [US bonds] just who do you think will step in and do so?
China only owns a about 5% of our debt. Who do you think bought up the other 95%? Do you really think the other 95% would stop buying US bonds just because China decides to? Not to mention what dropping US debt would do to the Yuan. There’s reasons why China bought so much of our debt in the first place. Some of it has to do with pegging the Yuan to the dollar to stabilize the Yuan (this is has been common practice for many countries ever since the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944)
“Yeah, I know The Green Berets was historically, geographically and technically flawed…”
David, sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the movie, and not come home from seeing 1917 and spend several hours looking at screen grabs trying to work out if the crashed German aircraft is a historically correct for date Albatross D.III, or the not yet in service Albatross D.V before then distracting yourself by pointing out that the two British scouts shown are Camels that were not even in production in April. I mean you should not do stuff like that. It would be weird and next thing you know you will be complaining how Dunkirk is ruined for you because the first Spitfire you see has a C wing.
So, I have to ask, David, R U OK?
Roger that, we are A-OK… Apart from a bit of stir-craziness from being under “house arrest”… 😉
I have not seen 1917 yet, but I do intend to see it at some point. I just picked up a copy of Midway (2019). I saw it at the theater and loved it.
The Green Berets has always been one of my favorite movies, from the time I saw it at the theater when I was in 4th grade, right up until today… But, I every time I watch it, I find more mistakes.
“The Green Berets has always been one of my favorite movies”
I first saw that movie while I was in Vietnam. I liked it, too, although it did cause a few snickers in the audience of about 50 on occasion.
Btw, Puff the Magic Dragon did fly at night. It puts on a pretty good fireworks display!
One night about 9pm in Phu Bai, Vietnam we got hit by rockets and we could see where they were firing from since I was a permeter guard at that moment in time and they were firing from right in front of my location, so I had a real good seat for this show.
The rocket launch location was a little highpoint about half a mile outside the perimeter to the west of the base, and we could see the flashes as the rockets fired and then could hear the rockets passing over our heads and into the Phu Bai base behind us, and about that time Puff showed up, and started spraying the launch site, and at first, the mini-gun fire looked like a red line slowly snaking down to the ground (with one red visible tracer round every fifth invisible bullet), but the bullets were coming so fast from the mini-gun that it looked almost like a solid red line “slowly” snaking down towards the ground, and when the bullets hit the ground it looked like a *huge* red fountain erupted with thousands of bullets bouncing off the ground and back into the air. It was like watching a red Roman fountain. Bullets must have been spraying 50 feet into the air. It was a pretty amazing sight. I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of one of those attacks!
1917 is a VERY good movie.
Historically it makes a great colander (I mean seriously a tank stuck in a shell hole and still in one piece? Seriously? Anything that couldn’t be recovered was either pounded into pudding by German artillery to prevent recovery, or pounded into puddling by British artillery to prevent German capture, or both. MOVIE. RUINED.) but the story is raw and incredibly well done. It is about two men being forced to do what is morally right and push themselves to extreme acts of bravery and despite the historical flaws it manages to collect all the chaotic brutality and both the lows and highs of human kindness.
I am just waiting for the shops to be open properly so I can find myself a nice BluRay of it.
(also that is not a spoiler – there is a tank. It is in a shell hole. They go past it. Never mentioned or seen again.)
Not seen Midway.
Pretty sure it didn’t get an Australian release and also, having read Shattered Sword I think it would annoy me.
If you are stuck for reading and have a history slant I would recommend. Pretty much warts and all dissection of the battle with almost a complete lack of bias. The most interesting thing is while it is not told from purely the Japanese point of view, the timeline of the narration is told from the point of view of what the Japanese commanders knew at the time. For example the morning Japanese strike on the islands is described from the launch and forming up of the raid. You get the formations, the raid commanders, the objectives and off the fly. The book then goes on to describe the collection of US counter strikes from the Midway based assets. How did the actual strike go? The book doesn’t discuss this until after the raid chronologically returns because that is when the Japanese commanders finally get a detailed report and can properly assess damage given and taken.
It may sound minor but receiving the narrative at the same pace as the Japanese commanders really allows you to understand their decision process.
So… if anyone is light on historical reading. Okay, spoilers, the Japanese lose four carriers, but I recommend it.
David Middleton,
You are a very good earth scientist (yes, here comes the but)
BUT inventing a political based new word “ChiCom-19” for Covid-19 is just as silly as using the word Anthropocene in earth science. It just demonstrates that you are not a virologist familiar with the scientific terminology. Your audience wil be limited to your inner circle.
You are a good earth scientist, so as we say in Holland “Shoemaker stay with your last”
I didn’t invent “ChiCom”… I think the UN did during the Korean War.
David didn’t invent the term. It has been a standard military abbreviation since at least 1962, used in common parlance during the Vietnam War, et seq.
I think it goes back to the Korean War.
Dave I found this in a quick look.
The term was in official use in 1958
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v19/d248
michael
PS: A Marine tunnel rat buddy of mine captured a ChiCom colonel shortly before the siege of Hue.