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Post by maybetoday on Mar 21, 2020 23:38:11 GMT -5
L.A. County gives up on containing coronavirus, tells doctors to skip testing of some patients
By JACK DOLAN, BRITTNY MEJIA MARCH 20, 20206:03 PM Los Angeles County health officials advised doctors to give up on testing patients in the hope of containing the coronavirus outbreak, instructing them to test patients only if a positive result could change how they would be treated. The guidance, sent by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to doctors on Thursday, was prompted by a crush of patients and shortage of tests, and could make it difficult to ever know precisely how many people in L.A. County contracted the virus. The department “is shifting from a strategy of case containment to slowing disease transmission and averting excess morbidity and mortality,” according to the letter. Doctors should test symptomatic patients only when “a diagnostic result will change clinical management or inform public health response.” The guidance sets in writing what has been a reality all along. The shortage of tests nationwide has meant that many patients suspected of having COVID-19 have not had the diagnosis confirmed by a laboratory. In addition to the lack of tests, public health agencies across the country lack the staff to trace the source of new cases, drastically reducing the chances of isolating people who have been exposed and thereby containing the outbreak. For years, state and local health officials have been warning that steep cuts to federal grants meant to boost preparedness for a pandemic would mean there wouldn’t be enough equipment and staff on hand to respond in the crucial, early stage. Those fears have come to fruition now, officials said. A front-line healthcare provider who was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity said county doctors are interpreting Thursday’s letter and other advice coming from senior L.A. County public health officials to mean they should only test patients who are going to be hospitalized or have something unique about the way they contracted the virus. They are not planning to test patients who have the symptoms but are otherwise healthy enough to be sent home to self-quarantine — meaning they may never show up in official tallies of people who tested positive. While county health officials are shifting their testing strategy, they are rapidly increasing other efforts to save lives. The Los Angeles Department of Health Services, which runs the nation’s second-largest municipal health system, “is mobilizing all of its resources to fight the on-coming wave of COVID-19 cases expected in the coming weeks,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, DHS Director. “We are ramping up hospital capacity and taking extraordinary measures to increase supplies.” The letter also says that, with the increasing availability of tests at private labs, the Department of Public Health will focus on testing aimed at detecting and preventing outbreaks in hospitals and “congregate living settings,” such as nursing homes. Public Health officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. link
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Post by schwartzie on Mar 22, 2020 16:09:30 GMT -5
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Post by J.J.Gibbs on Mar 22, 2020 21:03:18 GMT -5
Nearly one billion people confined to homes globally to curb virus
AFP Relax News AFP Relax News•March 21, 2020 Close to one billion people worldwide were confined to their homes on Saturday as the global coronavirus death toll shot past 11,000 and US states rolled out lockdown measures already imposed across swathes of Europe. The pandemic has completely upended lives across the planet, restricting movement, shutting schools and forcing millions to work from home. While President Donald Trump insisted the United States was "winning" the war against the virus, individual states dramatically ramped up restrictions, with New York and Illinois joining California in ordering residents to stay home. The virus death toll surged past 11,000 worldwide, with 4,000 alone in worst-hit Italy where the daily number of fatalities has shot up relentlessly over the past week. An estimated 900 million people are now confined to their homes in 35 countries around the world -- including 600 million hemmed in by obligatory government lockdown orders -- according to an AFP tally. While the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions are the hardest hit by the virus, the World Health Organization warned that young people were also vulnerable. "Today I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks -- or even kill you," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Even if you don't get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else." China on Saturday reported no new local infections for a third straight day, and the WHO said the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus emerged late last year, offered a glimmer of "hope for the rest of the world". But there are growing concerns of a new wave of "imported" infections in the region, with Hong Kong reporting 48 suspected cases on Friday -- its biggest daily jump since the crisis began. Many of them have a recent history of travel to or from Europe. Italy reported its worst single day death toll Friday, adding another 627 fatalities and taking its reported total to 4,032 despite efforts to stem the spread. The nation of 60 million now accounts for 36 percent of the world's coronavirus deaths and its death rate of 8.6 percent among confirmed infections is significantly higher than in most other countries. France, Italy, Spain and other European countries have ordered people to stay at home, threatening fines in some cases, while Bavaria became the first region in Germany to order a lockdown. Britain, falling in line with its EU neighbours, also announced tougher restrictions, telling pubs, restaurants and theatres to close and promising to help cover the wages of affected workers. Australia's famed Bondi beach was also ordered shut after sunbathers crowded the hotspot in defiance of government orders to avoid non-essential outdoor gatherings. "This is not something we are doing because we are the 'fun police'... this is about saving lives," New South Wales state Police Minister David Elliott told reporters. - US 'hotbeds' - With virus fears gripping the United States, its largest state California -- with over 1,000 cases and 19 deaths -- told its 40 million residents to stay at home. New York state, which has reported over 7,000 cases and 39 deaths, followed suit on Friday, ordering its nearly 20 million residents to do the same from Sunday evening. Trump applauded the New York and California decisions, but said he did not think a nationwide lockdown was needed. "Those are really two hotbeds," he said. "I don't think we'll ever find (a US-wide lockdown) necessary." Shortly after the president spoke, the governor of Illinois ordered residents of the midwestern state to stay at home and the Connecticut governor did the same. The restrictions so far imposed in seven states cover around 100 million people, with the country's three most populous cities -- New York, Los Angeles and Chicago -- under lockdown. Trump also announced Friday that the US and Mexico have agreed to restrict non-essential travel across their border. And US lawmakers on Friday evening missed a deadline to reach an agreement on a $1 trillion emergency package, amid fears of widespread economic fallout because of the pandemic. - China help - Strict confinement measures across Europe follow the template set by China, as a lockdown imposed in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, appeared to have paid off. Europe now accounts for more than half of the world's fatalities linked to COVID-19. Accurate figures are difficult to come by, however, as many of those who die suffer from other illnesses and infection rates are uncertain because of a lack of testing in many countries. In a sign of the shifting centre of the crisis, China has sent medical supplies to European nations struggling to cope with the pandemic, including Greece which received 500,000 medical masks from Beijing Saturday. The shadow of the virus is lengthening across Africa and the Middle East too. The Democratic Republic of Congo reported its first death Saturday, while Burkina Faso reported two new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa to five. Cases stand at over 1,000 across Africa, where health care systems are fragile and social distancing is not possible in many crowded cities. In Iran, which reported 123 new deaths Saturday, both supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani promised the country would overcome the outbreak -- but still refused to join the rest of the world in imposing heavy restrictions. The country has more than 1,500 deaths and some 20,000 infections. In Latin America, Cuba and Bolivia both announced they were closing their borders, and Colombia said it would begin mandatory isolation from Tuesday. Rio de Janeiro's beaches will be off-limits to sunseekers from Saturday, leaving street vendors worried how they will survive with limited government support. "As long as I can, I will continue to come here and try to sell cocktails. I still have not thought about what I will do when it is no longer possible," said Jorge Martins on Ipanema beach. link
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Post by maybetoday on Mar 25, 2020 0:18:18 GMT -5
21 Million Fewer Cellphone Users in China May Suggest a High CCP Virus Death Toll
BY NICOLE HAO March 22, 2020 Updated: March 23, 2020 The number of Chinese cellphone users dropped by 21 million in the past three months, Beijing authorities announced on March 19. Deaths due to the CCP virus may have contributed to the high number of account closings. Cellphones are an indispensable part of life in China. “The digitization level is very high in China. People can’t survive without a cellphone,” Tang Jingyuan, a U.S.-based China affairs commentator, told The Epoch Times on March 21. “Dealing with the government for pensions and social security, buying train tickets, shopping … no matter what people want to do, they are required to use cellphones. “The Chinese regime requires all Chinese to use their cellphones to generate a health code. Only with a green health code are Chinese allowed to move in China now. It’s impossible for a person to cancel his cellphone.” China introduced mandatory facial scans on Dec. 1, 2019, to confirm the identity of the person who registered the phone. As early as Sept. 1, 2010, China required all cellphone users to register phones with their real identification, by which the state can control people’s speech via its large-scale monitoring system. Furthermore, Chinese people’s bank accounts and social security accounts are bundled with their cellphone plans; apps on Chinese phones check SIM cards against the state’s database to make sure the number belongs to the user. Beijing first launched cellphone-based health codes on March 10. All people in China must install a cellphone app and register their personal health information. Then the app can generate a QR code, which appears in three colors, to classify the user’s health level. Red means the person has an infectious disease, yellow means the person might have one, and green means the person doesn’t. Beijing claimed that the health codes are intended to prevent the spread of the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Epoch Times Photo A woman is checking her cellphone in Shanghai, China on March 17, 2020. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) 21 Million Cellphone Users China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced on March 19 the number of phone users in each province in February. Compared with the previous announcement, which was released on Dec. 18, 2019, for November 2019 data, both cellphone and landline users dropped dramatically. In the same period the year before, the number of users increased. The number of cellphone users decreased from 1.600957 billion to 1.579927 billion, a drop of 21.03 million. The number of landline users decreased from 190.83 million to 189.99 million, a drop of 840,000. In the previous February, the number increased. According to MIIT, the number of cellphone users increased in February 2019 from 1.5591 billion to 1.5835 billion, which is 24.37 million more. The number of landline users increased from 183.477 million to 190.118 million, which is 6.641 million more. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s population at the end of 2019 was 4.67 million larger than in 2018, reaching 1.40005 billion. The 2020 decrease in landline users may be due to the nationwide quarantine in February, during which small businesses were shut down. But the decrease in cellphone users can’t be explained in this way. According to the operation data of all three Chinese cellphone carriers, cellphone accounts increased in December 2019 but dropped steeply in 2020. China Mobile is the largest carrier, holding about 60 percent of the Chinese cellphone market. It reported that it gained 3.732 million more accounts in December 2019, but lost 0.862 million in January 2020 and 7.254 million in February 2020. China Mobile’s performance in the same months in 2019 was markedly different; it gained 2.411 million more accounts in January 2019 and 1.091 million more in February 2019. China Telecom is the second-largest carrier, holding about 21 percent of the market. It gained 1.18 million users in December 2019, but lost 0.43 million users in January 2020 and 5.6 million users in February 2020. In 2019, it gained 4.26 million in January and 2.96 million in February. China Unicom, which hasn’t yet published the data for February, shares the same experience as the other two telecoms in January 2020 and in early 2019. The company lost 1.186 million users in January 2020, but gained 1.962 million users in February 2019 and 2.763 million users in January 2019. China allows each adult to apply for at most five cellphone numbers. Since Feb. 10, the majority of Chinese students have taken online classes with a cellphone number due to their schools being ordered to stay closed. These students’ accounts are under their parents’ names, which means some parents needed to open a new cellphone account in February. Epoch Times Photo A vendor uses her cellphone as she waits for customers in Jiujiang, China, on March 6, 2020. (NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images) Analyzing the Numbers The big question is whether the dramatic drop in cellphone accounts reflects the account closings of those who have died due to the CCP virus. “It’s possible that some migrant workers had two cellphone numbers before. One is from their hometown, and the other is from the city they work in. In February, they might close the number in the city they work in because they couldn’t go there,” Tang said. Typically, migrant workers would have gone to their home city for the Chinese New Year in January, and then travel restrictions would have prevented them from returning to the city where they held a job. However, because there is a basic monthly fee to hold a cellphone account in China, the majority of migrant workers—the lowest income group—are likely to only have one cellphone account. China had 288.36 million migrant workers as of April 2019, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. On March 17, Meng Wei, spokesman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said at a monthly press conference in Beijing that except for Hubei, all provinces reported that more than 90 percent of their businesses resumed operations. In Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangxi, and Chongqing, almost all businesses resumed production. If both the number of migrant workers and the level of employment are accurate, more than 90 percent of migrant workers have gone back to work. The economic dislocation caused by shutdowns in China may have also led some people who have an extra cellphone to cancel it. With business poor or stopped, they may not want to carry the extra expense. “At present, we don’t know the details of the data. If only 10 percent of the cellphone accounts were closed because the users died because of the CCP virus, the death toll would be 2 million,” Tang said. The reported death toll in China doesn’t line up with what can otherwise be determined about the situation there. A comparison with the situation in Italy also suggests the Chinese death toll is significantly underreported. Italy adopted similar measures to those used by the Chinese regime. The CCP virus death toll in Italy of 4,825 translates to a death rate of 9 percent. In China, where a much larger population was exposed to the virus, the reported death toll of 3,265 translated to a death rate of only 4 percent, less than half that reported in Italy. Activities in the outbreak epicenter of Hubei Province seem to contradict the reported death toll in China. The seven funeral homes in the city of Wuhan were reported to be burning bodies 24 hours a day, seven days a week in late January. Hubei Province has used 40 mobile cremators, each capable of burning five tons of medical waste and bodies a day, since Feb. 16. Lacking data, the real death toll in China is a mystery. The cancellation of 21 million cellphones provides a data point that suggests the real number may be far higher than the official number. The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic. link
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Post by J.J.Gibbs on Mar 25, 2020 1:37:38 GMT -5
Coronavirus hits first deployed US warship – an aircraft carrier
USS Theodore Roosevelt (Jackie Hart/U.S. Navy) MARCH 24, 2020 LAURA WIDENER Three coronavirus cases were confirmed Tuesday aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, marking the first coronavirus outbreak aboard a deployed U.S. warship. “Three cases of Covid-19 have been identified among personnel currently deployed and underway on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, these are our first three cases of Covid-19 on a ship that is deployed,” said acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modlyduring a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday. The three sailors were evacuated from the ship in the Philippine Sea and flown to a military hospital for treatment. Other personnel who were in contact with the three sailors have been quarantined. “We’ve identified all those folks that they’ve had contact with and we are quantifying they as well,” Modly said. It’s not yet clear how the sailors acquired the virus. The aircraft carrier had last visited a port in Vietnam 15 days earlier in a rare visit. Multiple aircraft had also landed on the carrier in recent days. - ADVERTISEMENT - “The commander on the ship right now is doing the best he can to isolate those known persons that came into contact with those three people,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said. “We are not in a position right now to say that we have to pull that ship in.” “This is an example of our ability to keep our ships deployed at sea even with active COVID-19 cases,” Modly said. “Our ships are sailing, our planes are flying, and training is still happening to safeguard our US national interests and those of all of our allies and partners around the world,” Modly added. The USS Theodore Roosevelt hs a crew of 5,000 personnel. It has been at sea since January for patrols in the Western Pacific, and recently joined six other warships in a strike group for military exercises in the South China Sea. Various other docked warships have reported coronavirus cases. At least a dozen confirmed coronavirus cases have been identified in San Diego area warships alone. Several other ships are undergoing testing, including on the USS America and the USS Blue Ridge. Modly revealed there are 86 confirmed coronavirus cases throughout the Navy, which include 57 service members, 13 civilians, 11 dependents, and five contractors. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley both confirmed in an online town hall on Tuesday that they expect the coronavirus crisis to extend for several months. “I think we need to plan for this to be a few months long at least, and we’re taking all precautionary measures to do that,” Esper said. “You’re looking at somewhere around 90 days based on some of the other countries. That may or may not apply to the United States,” Milley said. “If it does apply, you’re looking at probably late May, June, something in that range. Maybe could be as late as July.” “It’s very, very important, again, that we do what the professionals are telling us to do, which is flatten that curve, take all the appropriate measures for US in the military,” said Milley, “but also in the nation to do our part, so to speak, in order to reduce the probability and to mitigate the impact of this coronavirus globally.” link
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Post by schwartzie on Mar 25, 2020 14:30:47 GMT -5
Coronavirus: New York City weighs closing parks, playgrounds and streets to enforce social distancing, Gov. Cuomo says
PUBLISHED WED, MAR 25 202011:39 AM EDTUPDATED 2 HOURS AGO KEY POINTS New York state and city officials plan to close some streets in the nation’s largest city, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. He also said they may close parks and playgrounds to contain the coronavirus outbreak. He said the $2 trillion federal stimulus deal Congress reached early Wednesday carves out $3.8 billion for New York state, and that won’t be enough. “The hole is as high as $15 billion. How do you plug a $15 billion hole with $3.8 billion? You don’t,” he said. Cuomo: NYC weighs closing parks and playgrounds amid surge in coronavirus cases New York state and city officials plan to close some streets in the nation’s largest city and may close parks and playgrounds there to contain the coronavirus outbreak as cases across the state surge to 30,811, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. State and local officials are taking a tougher line to enforce social distancing recommendations. He said city residents aren’t following the state’s guidelines encouraging people to maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from each other, which he said was “effective and necessary” to slow hospitalization rates. “The plan is going to pilot closing streets in New York City because we have much less traffic in New York City. We have many fewer vehicles in New York City,” he said at a press conference in Albany. He said that by opening the streets, fewer people will congregate in the parks. “People want to walk. They want to go out and get some air. You want a less dense area, so pilot closing streets to cars, opening streets to pedestrians.” GP: Coronavirus empty playground 203024 An empty playground is viewed on March 24, 2020 in New York City. Angela Weiss | AFP via Getty Images The state’s hospitalization rate is “moving faster than initial estimates,” he said, adding that health officials project that 140,000 people will be hospitalized with the coronavirus over the next 14 to 21 days. The state previously said it would need 110,000 beds for COVID-19 patients by early to mid-May. More than 3,800 people have already been hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state and 888 are in the ICU, Cuomo said. The Army Corps of Engineers is building several temporary hospitals to house up to 4,000 COVID-19 patients throughout the state, which has just 53,000 hospital beds. That still won’t be enough., the governor said. He also estimates the state will need 40,000 ICU beds at the peak of the outbreak. It currently has only 3,000. Cuomo encouraged residents to seek out counseling if they are feeling anxious, adding that the state has more than 6,000 mental health professionals on hand and is setting up a mental health hotline for residents. People shouldn’t “underestimate” the impact of “emotional trauma,” he said. ONE TIME USE: NYC chart of Most Impacted States with Coronavirus cases 200325 A chart showing the Most Impacted States in the U.S. affected by Covid-19. New York State The city is the epicenter of a major outbreak in New York state, where cases have been doubling every three days and now account for more than half of all U.S. cases. New York City accounts for 17,856 cases. Cuomo said health officials have tested 103,470 people across the state, including 44,076 in the city. The state has already spent $1 billion fighting the pandemic and estimates it will cost roughly $15 billion total, Cuomo said. The $2 trillion federal stimulus deal Congress reached early Wednesday carves out $3.8 billion for New York state, which Cuomo said won’t be enough. “The hole is as high as $15 billion. How do you plug a $15 billion hole with $3.8 billion? You don’t,” he said. White House officials on Tuesday urged anyone leaving the New York City metropolitan area to self-isolate and monitor themselves carefully for 14 days. President Donald Trump called the region a “hot spot” for coronavirus cases. “We remain deeply concerned about New York City and the New York metro area,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said at a press briefing Tuesday. She said about 56% of all U.S. cases and 31% of all fatalities in the United States are concentrated in the metropolitan area. The New York metro area, which includes New Jersey, Long Island and southern Connecticut, also has the highest “attack rate” in the country with nearly 1 in 1,000 people in the region contracting the virus. The attack rate is the portion of the population that gets infected. Cuomo said Tuesday that the “troubling and astronomical” number of cases has increased the urgency across the state for more hospital beds as the outbreak spreads “unabated.” Video at link
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Post by schwartzie on Mar 27, 2020 13:31:51 GMT -5
Dr. Birx Admits Initial COVID-19 Predictions Were Wildly Exaggerated (Video)
Jim Hoft by Jim Hoft March 26, 2020 177 Comments There are two main organizations behind the global coronavirus panic. ** The first was World Health Organization’s Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who claimed in a press conference in early March that the fatality rate for the coronavirus was many multiples that of the fatality rate of the common flu. Ghebreyesus claimed the coronavirus had a 3.4% mortality rate and incorrectly compared this inaccurate number to the annual estimated flu mortality rate of 0.1%. ** And the second organization was the Imperial College study from London that claimed half a million Brits would die in the pandemic and 2 million Americans would perish from COVID-19. They were both wrong. As we have reported numerous times now… The controversial Ethiopian politician and Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, claimed in a press conference in early March that the fatality rate for the coronavirus was many multiples that of the fatality rate of the common flu. This egregiously false premise has led to the greatest economic panic in world history. The Director General of the WHO spoke on March 3, 2020 and shared this related to the coronavirus: While many people globally have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains, COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity. That means more people are susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease. Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected. Here is the video of Dr. Ghebreyesus’s remarks. This statement led to the greatest panic in world history as the global elite media shared and repeated that the coronavirus was many, many times more deadly than the common flu. The problem is his statement is false. On Thursday the man behind the Imperial College study backtracked and now says 20,000 UK citizens may die from the coronavirus and not the original half a million they predicted. This was a HUGE development. On Thursday, while answering questions with President Trump and the rest of the White House coronavirus task force, Dr. Deborah Birx admitted that the initial coronavirus death estimates were too extreme. This is exactly what The Gateway Pundit has been reported for 11 days now. Dr. Birx: “The predictions of the models don’t match the reality on the ground in either China, South Korea, or Italy. We’re about 5 times the size of Italy. If we were Italy, and you did those divisions, Italy should have close to 400,000 deaths. They’re not close to achieving that.” link
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Post by Midnight on Mar 29, 2020 1:27:28 GMT -5
Trump says coronavirus quarantine on New York, New Jersey, Connecticut not necessary, CDC issues 14-day 'travel advisory'
By Adam Shaw | Fox News Trump: We’d like to see New York quarantined because it’s a ‘hot spot’ President Trump says he is considering imposing an enforceable quarantine on New York, parts of New Jersey and parts of Connecticut as part of the efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here. President Trump on Saturday night said the administration would not be issuing a quarantine on New York, parts of New Jersey and some of Connecticut as part of the efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. "A quarantine will not be necessary," he tweeted, noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would issue a "travel advisory" later in the evening. The CDC shortly after issued a Domestic Travel Advisory urging against "non-essential domestic travel" in the tri-state area for 14 days. "Due to extensive community transmission of COVID -19 in the area, CDC urges residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately," it said, noting that the advisory doesn't apply to "employees of critical infrastructure industries, including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply." Such employees "have a special responsibility to maintain normal work schedules," the CDC said, adding: "The Governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will have full discretion to implement this Domestic Travel Advisory." Continued at link
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Post by Midnight on Mar 29, 2020 1:31:16 GMT -5
Rhode Island Police to Hunt Down New Yorkers Seeking Refuge
Members of the 1207th Rhode Island National Guard wait for disembarking passengers at the Amtrak station in Westerly, R.I., Friday to inform passengers from New York of the 14-day quarantine restrictions. (Harold Hanka/The Sun via AP) Saturday, 28 March 2020 10:51 AM Rhode Island police began stopping cars with New York plates Friday. On Saturday, the National Guard will help them conduct house-to-house searches to find people who traveled from New York and demand 14 days of self-quarantine. “Right now we have a pinpointed risk,” Governor Gina Raimondo said. “That risk is called New York City.” New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., on Friday reporting a total of 44,000 cases. Rhode Island has just over 200, and it has begun an aggressive campaign to keep the virus out and New Yorkers contained, over objections from civil liberties advocates. Raimondo, a Democrat, said she had consulted lawyers and said while she couldn’t close the border, she felt confident she could enforce a quarantine. Seaside Retreat Many New Yorkers have summer houses in Rhode Island, especially in tony Newport, and the governor said the authorities would be checking there. “Yesterday I announced and today I reiterated: Anyone coming to Rhode Island in any way from New York must be quarantined,” the governor said. “By order. Will be enforced. Enforceable by law.” Raimondo signed an executive order Thursday that applies to anyone who has been in New York during the past two weeks and through at least April 25. It doesn’t apply to public health, public safety, or health-care workers. National Guard members will be stationed at the T.F. Green airport, Amtrak train stations and at bus stops. The citizen-soldiers will be following up with people at local residences. The maximum penalty for not complying: a fine of $500 and 90 days in prison. The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union blasted the new rules, objecting to the collection of motorists’ contact information in particular. “While the Governor may have the power to suspend some state laws and regulations to address this medical emergency, she cannot suspend the Constitution,” Rhode Island ACLU executive director Steven Brown said in a statement. “Under the Fourth Amendment, having a New York state license plate simply does not, and cannot, constitute ‘probable cause’ to allow police to stop a car and interrogate the driver, no matter how laudable the goal of the stop may be.” Police Stops Just before 1 p.m. Friday, state police were set up on Interstate 95 northbound, at the rest stop closest to the Connecticut border. A mile or two before that, motorists could see signs ordering all New York passenger vehicles to pull over at the rest stop. One trooper could be seen there, checking license plates as cars went by. At the stop itself, a number of officers were assembled around a tent, ready to question vehicle occupants. link
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Post by schwartzie on Mar 29, 2020 12:55:36 GMT -5
Coronavirus infections in Africa are rapidly rising. Its weak health systems may buckle
Philip Obaji, Kim Hjelmgaard and Chris Erasmus LAGOS, Nigeria – After President Donald Trump touted an anti-malaria drug called chloroquine as a possible treatment for coronavirus, thousands of Nigerians started taking the medicine, some of them overdosing in a rush to "prevent" infection. In Mali, there is an estimated one ventilator per 1 million people – about 20 in all, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Infection, which serves 31 of Africa's 54 nations. The devices are critical in helping to prevent the respiratory failure that has contributed to a worldwide coronavirus death toll of more than 23,000. Kenya, a country of more than 50 million people, has 550 intensive-care-unit beds. Many sub-Saharan nations have few medical workers; some have no isolation wards. As of March 27, the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia had just over 2,600 cases in 46 countries of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, according to the African Union, a pan-African organization that supports political and economic integration among its 55 member states that have highly varied populations, geographies, cultures, social mores and economies. Yet infections are rapidly rising. And even as the most modern and well-funded hospitals around the world are bracing for an onslaught of cases that will require hard-to-get life-saving equipment, public health officials worry that Africa's relatively weak health systems, already disproportionately affected by Ebola, HIV, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, could be overwhelmed. This could further compound problems in a part of the world that has long grappled with conflict, humanitarian disaster and infrastructure inadequacies. Africa's plight has grabbed little attention amid mounting global medical emergency scenarios stretching from Asia to Latin America despite data released March 25 by the African Union suggesting the continent's infection trajectory over the first 50 days is similar to Europe's. There, the coronavirus has deeply taken hold in Italy and Spain and there are more than 12,000 deaths – four times as many as in China, where the outbreak began in December. The U.S. death toll stands at more than 1,300. COVID-19:Trump, G-20 leaders say they're 'injecting' $5 trillion into global economy "We need global solidarity now," said Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti, a Botswanan national who is the World Health Organization's regional director for Africa, in a Thursday online briefing about the unfolding coronavirus situation in Africa. Moeti said that unlike industrialized countries across the world, most African nations have virtually no means to manufacture the medical equipment governments are now rushing to procure. "We need this help. It's urgent," said Moeti. India's decision this week to lock down its 1.3 billion people means that about a quarter or more of the world's population is now living with some form of enforced restrictions on movement and social contact, according to various COVID-19 trackers, such as Oxford University's "COVID-19 government response gauge" and a manual count by USA TODAY of nations with lockdowns. Like elsewhere, many African nations have closed borders, shuttered schools and houses of worship, and told people to stay inside. They have also tried to adopt the outbreak prevention and management strategies that have proved successful in Asia: testing, tracing and quarantining those who are infected. Article continues at link
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Post by Shoshanna on Mar 29, 2020 23:16:01 GMT -5
Boris Johnson's government is reportedly furious with China and believes it could have 40 times more coronavirus cases than it claims
Adam Payne 20 hours ago Xi Jinping Coronavirus China REUTERS/Aly Song UK government officials say there'll be "reckoning" for China over its handling of the coronavirus. Boris Johnson's government is reportedly furious with the Chinese state. It has accused of China of spreading disinformation and lying about the number of cases it has. Scientists have reportedly warned Johnson that China could have up to 40 times more cases than it says. It could prompt the prime minister to abandon his deal with Chinese telecomms company, Huawei. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Boris Johnson's government is reportedly furious with China's handling of the coronavirus, with UK officials quoted on Sunday warning that Beijing faces a "reckoning" once the COVID-19 crisis is over. UK government officials believe China is spreading disinformation about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, the Mail on Sunday reports. The newspaper says scientists have warned Johnson that China could have downplayed its number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus "by a factor of 15 to 40 times." China had reported 81,439 cases at the time of writing. Officials also believe China is trying to expand its economic power through offering help to other countries which are trying to combat the virus. The newspaper quoted three UK officials, who all reported fury within Johnson's government. One said: "It is going to be back to the diplomatic drawing board after this. Rethink is an understatement." The second unnamed official said "there has to be a reckoning when this is over," while the third said "the anger goes right to the top." The newspaper adds that Johnson's government is so angry with China's handling of the crisis that the prime minister could abandon his previous decision to let Chinese telecomms company Huawei develop the UK's 5g network. Johnson angered his main ally President Donald Trump by giving Huawei a limited but significant role in improving the country's infrastructure. The Trump administration was angered by the decision, with the president himself reportedly expressing his disapproval before hanging up in an "apoplectic" phone call with Johnson last month. The decision also riled swathes of MPs in Johnson's own Conservative party. One Cabinet minister quoted by the Mail on Sunday said: "We can't stand by and allow the Chinese state's desire for secrecy to ruin the world's economy and then come back like nothing has happened. "We're allowing companies like Huawei not just into our economy, but to be a crucial part of our infrastructure. 'This needs to be reviewed urgently, as does any strategically important infrastructure that relies on Chinese supply chains." Johnson has written to every household in the UK urging people to continue following strict social distancing rules. In the letter, which will reach Brits in the next few days, the prime minister, who this week tested positive for the coronavirus, says: "We know things will get worse before they get better." "But we are making the right preparations, and the more we all follow the rules, the fewer lives will be lost and the sooner life can return to normal." The prime minister earlier this week introduced a lockdown, telling people to only leave their homes for essential reasons and giving UK police the power to fine those who do not comply. link
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Post by maybetoday on Mar 30, 2020 2:25:25 GMT -5
Coronavirus fear grips workers in India
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Post by OmegaMan on Mar 30, 2020 2:38:01 GMT -5
Moscow's coronavirus outbreak much worse than it looks, Putin ally says
Andrew Osborn, Tom Balmforth MOSCOW (Reuters) - The mayor of Moscow told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that the number of coronavirus cases in the Russian capital far exceeded the official figures, as Putin donned a protective suit and respirator to visit a hospital. Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing protective gear walks at a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia March 24, 2020. Sputnik/Alexey Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS The comments by Sergei Sobyanin, a close ally of Putin, were authorities’ strongest indcation yet that they do not have a full grasp of how widely the virus has spread throughout Russia’s vast expanse. Russia has so far reported 495 cases of the virus and one death, far fewer than major western European countries. Putin has previously said the situation is under control, but some doctors have questioned how far official data reflect reality, and the government on Tuesday closed nightclubs, cinemas and children’s entertainment centres to slow the spread of the virus. “A serious situation is unfolding,” Sobyanin told Putin at a meeting, saying the real number of cases was unclear but that they were increasing quickly. Testing for the virus was scarce, he said, and many Muscovites returning from abroad were self-isolating at home or in holiday cottages in the countryside, and not being tested. “In reality, there are significantly more sick people,” Sobyanin said. The government also said it would organise a return of its citizens from countries hit by the coronavirus if they wanted to come. Meanwhile Putin donned a bright yellow full-body hazmat suit and respirator as he visited a hospital on the outskirts of Moscow that is treating coronavirus patients, and praised the doctors for their work. Separately, two senior lawmakers including Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, proposed legislation to make flouting anti-virus quarantine measures punishable with jail time. The bill would provide for up to seven years’ jail for actions that led to the death of two or more people, or up to three years for causing mass infection, the RIA news agency reported. link
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Post by Midnight on Apr 1, 2020 3:09:04 GMT -5
Exclusive: Captain of aircraft carrier with growing coronavirus outbreak pleads for help from Navy
MATTHIAS GAFNI MARCH 31, 2020 The USS Theodore Roosevelt, currently docked in Guam, has more than 100 sailors infected with the coronavirus. The U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt is anchored off Manila Bay as it takes on top Philippine officials and businessmen for a cocktail reception Friday, April 13, 2018 west of Manila, Philippines. The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), and several escort ships sailed in the South China Sea in a display of America's naval might during the Chinese sea drills. It later visited Manila and hosted Philippine government and military officials and businessmen in a reception Friday night. Capt. Brett Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, wrote a letter to Navy brass Monday pleading for immediate assistance. 3of3Capt. Brett Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, wrote a letter to Navy brass Monday pleading for immediate assistance.Photo: Courtesy U.S. Navy The captain of a nuclear aircraft carrier with more than 100 sailors infected with the coronavirus pleaded Monday with U.S. Navy officials for resources to allow isolation of his entire crew and avoid possible deaths in a situation he described as quickly deteriorating. The unusual plea from Capt. Brett Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, came in a letter obtained exclusively by The Chronicle and confirmed by a senior officer on board the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which has been docked in Guam following a COVID-19 outbreak among the crew of more than 4,000 less than a week ago. “This will require a political solution but it is the right thing to do,” Crozier wrote. “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors.” In the four-page letter to senior military officials, Crozier said only a small contingent of infected sailors have been off-boarded. Most of the crew remain aboard the ship, where following official guidelines for 14-day quarantines and social distancing is impossible. “Due to a warship’s inherent limitations of space, we are not doing this,” Crozier wrote. “The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating.” He asked for “compliant quarantine rooms” on shore in Guam for his entire crew “as soon as possible.” “Removing the majority of personnel from a deployed U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier and isolating them for two weeks may seem like an extraordinary measure. ... This is a necessary risk,” Crozier wrote. “Keeping over 4,000 young men and women on board the TR is an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those Sailors entrusted to our care.” Reached late Monday, a Navy representative did not provide a response by deadline. So far, none of the infected sailors has shown serious symptoms, but the number of those who have tested positive has jumped exponentially since the Navy reported infections in three crew members on March 24, the first time COVID-19 infections had been detected on a naval vessel at sea. Senior military officials said last week that the entire crew of more than 4,000 will be tested. The carrier’s home port is San Diego. At the time, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly expressed confidence that they identified all the sailors who had been in contact with the trio of infected sailors and they had been quarantined. “This is an example of how we are able to keep our ships deployed at seas and underway, even with active COVID-19 cases,” Modly said. But by the time the ship reached port in Guam on Friday, the number of cases had grown to 25, and soon after to 36, according to reports. Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday responded to the increasing numbers late last week by saying the Navy was taking “this threat very seriously” and working to isolate positive cases to halt the spread. He promised to increase the rate of testing and to isolate infected sailors. He stressed that the top two priorities were caring for their sailors and maintaining “mission readiness.” “We are confident that our aggressive response will keep U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt able to respond to any crisis in the region,” Gilday said. But by Monday, a senior officer on board the massive aircraft carrier, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak to the media, said between 150 and 200 sailors had tested positive. None had been hospitalized — yet, the source said. The Chronicle agreed to withhold the officer’s name based on its anonymous sources policy. In his letter to top Navy command, Crozier said if it was operating in wartime, the ship would cope and continue operations and battle the illness as best it could. “However, we are not at war, and therefore cannot allow a single Sailor to perish as a result of this pandemic unnecessarily,” Crozier wrote. “Decisive action is required now in order to comply with CDC and (Navy) guidance and prevent tragic outcomes.” Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan Administration, said that “it is very unusual” for a ship captain — someone who is typically on a career track to become an admiral — to write such a letter. “It shows that this is a person who is putting the welfare of his sailors ahead of his career,” said Korb, a retired Navy captain who is now a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress think tank. Inside the Newsroom Anonymous sources: The Chronicle strives to attribute all information we report to credible, reliable, identifiable sources. Presenting information from an anonymous source occurs extremely rarely, and only when that information is considered crucially important and all other on-the-record options have been exhausted. In such cases, The Chronicle has complete knowledge of the unnamed person’s identity and of how that person is in position to know the information. The Chronicle’s detailed policy governing the use of such sources, including the use of pseudonyms, is available on sfchronicle.com. Gilday told reporters last week it was unclear if sailors became infected following the ship’s previous port of call in early March to Da Nang, Vietnam. Gilday said they debated whether to go on with the Vietnam visit, but at the time there were only 16 coronavirus cases in northern Vietnam and the port was in the central part of the country. Sailors were screened prior to returning on board. The first three sailors tested positive 15 days after leaving Vietnam, officials said. The virus has been hard to contain on board ever since. Federal and military guidelines recommend individual quarantine, including no use of common areas. “Due to the close quarters required on a warship and the current number of positive cases, every single Sailor, regardless of rank, on board the TR must be considered ‘close contact,’” Crozier wrote. The tight quarters on the carrier are “most conducive to spread,” he wrote, including large amounts of sailors in a confined space, shared sleeping quarters, restrooms, workspaces and computers, a common mess hall, meals cooked by exposed personnel, and movement constraints requiring communal contact with ladders and hatches. He called the current strategy followed so far — of moving a small infected group onto the pier, increasing cleaning and attempts at social distancing ineffective. “The current strategy will only slow the spread,” he wrote. “The current plan in execution on TR will not achieve virus eradication on any timeline.” The captain compared the situation to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, citing a study that focused on what could have happened to that cruise ship had no isolation been done. A total of 712 passengers eventually tested positive for COVID-19 from that cruise departing from Japan; however, the study found if there had been no early isolation close to 80% of passengers and crew would have been infected. And had the cruise line immediately evacuated the ship after the first positive tests, the study found only 76 people would have tested positive. Crozier said the Theodore Roosevelt could fare even worse, as a warship is not designed to provide such individual isolation like guest cabins. “TR’s best-case results, given the current environment, are likely to be much worse,” he wrote. As for the senior military officials’ promising tests for all crew aboard the carrier last week, Crozier said it is not a solution. “Testing has no direct influence on the spread of the COVID-19 virus. It merely confirms the presence of the virus,” he wrote. Of the first 33 Roosevelt sailors testing positive, seven, or 21%, originally tested negative. After testing negative, those seven sailors presented symptoms within 1 to 3 days after their initial negative test, Crozier said. The testing should be utilized, the captain wrote, after a proper 14-day quarantine to ensure no infected sailors return on board a clean ship. Only one of the pier-side accommodations meet Navy guidelines, he wrote, adding that two sailors tested positive after sleeping in a gym with cots. If the Navy focuses on being battle ready, it will lead to “losses to the virus,” Crozier said. The second option, the captain recommended: “Achieve a COVID-free TR.” Methodically clean the ship, while isolating the crew in port with a massive amount of individualized lodging equipment. As part of his plan, 10% of the crew would stay on board to run the reactor plant, sanitize the ship, ensure security and provide contingency response for emergencies. “As war is not imminent,” Crozier wrote, “we recommend pursuing the peace time end state.” link
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Post by bloodbought on Apr 2, 2020 1:09:44 GMT -5
FEMA SENDS OUT EMERGENCY REQUEST FOR 100,000 MILITARY-STYLE BODY BAGS AND REFRIGERATED TRUCKS ANTICIPATING AN AVALANCHE OF COVID-19 FATALITIES
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has requested 100,000 body bags, known as Human Remains Pouches, through an interagency group that directed it to the Defense Department. As many as 200,000 Americans are projected to die in the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, a top White House official said Tuesday, even with another 30 days of the most stringent public health restrictions in place. Reviewing the projections, President Donald Trump warned Americans of a difficult period ahead. “This is going to be a painful two weeks,” Trump said at the White House on Tuesday. “Our strength will be tested, our endurance will be tried.” The Pentagon and FEMA are seeking to provide as many as 100,000 military-style body bags for potential civilian use as the U.S. warns that deaths could soar in the coming weeks from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. by Geoffrey Grider April 1, 2020 The Pentagon and FEMA are seeking to provide as many as 100,000 military-style body bags for potential civilian use as the U.S. warns that deaths could soar in the coming weeks from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. You know that feeling you get after you get on a roller coaster, you’re all strapped in and as the car starts to climb up that first hill, it dawns on you that there’s just as much of a chance of getting through it safely as there is you will suffer some horrific fate? According to the United States government, that’s exactly where we seem to be right now on the first day of April as we continue to battle the COVID-19 coronavirus. FEMA wants 100,000 body bags, what does that tell you? That’s a crazy amount of dead people over the next two weeks. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.” Proverbs 3:5-8 (KJB) It tells me that FEMA is expecting a lot of people to die from the coronavirus, it tells me that the Pentagon is expecting a lot of people to die from the coronavirus in April. As of this moment, there are 938,172 global cases of COVID-19 coronavirus, with 47,068 dead, 31,573 in serious condition, and 190,800 people have had it and recovered fully from it. You can view up to the minute coronavirus stats here. In America, there are right now 214,482 confirmed cases, 5,094 deceased, 4,344 serious condition, with 7,637 recovered. Let’s do a little math to see how many sick people it would take to create the 100,000 dead that FEMA and the Pentagon are calling for. The coronavirus in America has a 2.37% mortality rate, in order to get to 100,000 dead you would need roughly 4,203,847 infected. That is a 16-times increase in new cases between now and the next few weeks. Can it happen? Sure, it could, but will it? That remains to be seen. Take your vitamins, especially C, B Complex, Zinc and D3, get lots of rest and drinks lots of water. Above all, only go out when you absolutely have to. That’s what I’m doing, and I advise you to do the same. “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua 1:9 (KJB) We are all on this end times roller coaster together, and there is no getting off of it, the ride is already in motion. The New World Order is forming before our very eyes, and global change is happening on an unprecedented scale. Are you ready for what comes next? The bible says that none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, or even to the end of today. Whatever comes, let’s go through it by giving glory to the Lord, for He is worthy. Quit ye like men, get something done for Jesus while time remains. That’s what I’m doing. We are on the front lines of the end times, now the end begins. That’s where we are. Let’s see where the ride takes us. FEMA and Pentagon Seeking 100,000 Body Bags for Civilians in COVID-19 coronavirus Crisis in April FROM MSN: FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has requested 100,000 body bags, known as Human Remains Pouches, through an interagency group that directed it to the Defense Department. The Pentagon is looking into buying more bags and will draw some initially from a stockpile of 50,000 it maintains, according to two people familiar with the request. The move is a somber counterpoint to the Pentagon’s highly-praised deployment of two hospital ships to New York and Los Angeles to help alleviate pressure on regional hospitals overburdened by the pandemic. The Defense Logistics Agency’s Troop Support unit manages the Pentagon’s stockpile of the green nylon, 94-inch by 38-inch body bags that are typically distributed to war zones. The unit has been in contact with the current contractor to assess its manufacturing capabilities but hasn’t yet placed a formal order, according to one of the people. As many as 200,000 Americans are projected to die in the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, a top White House official said Tuesday, even with another 30 days of the most stringent public health restrictions in place. Reviewing the projections, President Donald Trump warned Americans of a difficult period ahead. “THIS IS GOING TO BE A PAINFUL TWO WEEKS,” TRUMP SAID AT THE WHITE HOUSE ON TUESDAY. “OUR STRENGTH WILL BE TESTED, OUR ENDURANCE WILL BE TRIED.” The government had not previously shared details on its projections for the spread of the virus, which has so far killed more than 4,400 people in the U.S. and infected more than 200,000. The Defense Logistics Agency doesn’t yet have a specific delivery date request from FEMA but the agency wants them as soon as they are ready, and the Pentagon is close to agreement with its current contractor on the numbers and time lines, one of the people said. A FEMA spokesman said the agency is making “prudent planning” for potential future needs, and that includes preparing for “mortuary contingencies” from U.S. states. Refrigerated Trucks The pouches may be necessary for some state and local governments but FEMA hasn’t received a shipment yet, the spokesman said. The agency is working with regional and state health and emergency managers to ramp up available assets, the official said, adding that pouches will be distributed to states requesting them. On Monday, the vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff outlined the general Pentagon-FEMA process that’s in place. The Joint Staff is “in close partnership with them to identify what their needs are,” including “mission assignments” that came in Monday for prepackaged Meals Ready to Eat, and “other supplies,” Major General Jeff Taliaferro said. The Joint Staff also received “a mission assignment from FEMA for a mortuary affairs support team for New York and we’re in the process of identifying” personnel, he added. Hospitals in places including New York and New Jersey have been securing refrigerated trucks to help hold bodies in areas where capacity for storing them has run out. READ MORE Coronavirus Kills More in the US Than 9/11 More than 4,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 and the White House task force estimates it could kill up to 240,000 people. link
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Post by shalom on Apr 2, 2020 15:08:54 GMT -5
BREAKING: 500 Troops To Be Deployed To U.S.-Mexico Border Amid Coronavirus Fight
By Badger 8 Hours Ago By Chris “Badger” Thomas at Breaking First The Trump administration is sending more than 500 troops to the southern border, as part of the ongoing effort there to combat the coronavirus threat by preventing more infections coming into the U.S. interior. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) made the request that the Defense Department provide 540 personnel to support Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations on the southern border. Trending: Alert: NonEssential Businesses Nationwide Ignoring Shutdown Orders Over Greed And It’s Not Helping The Virus Fight Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved the request, which is currently in place until the end of September. “At a time when Americans face a profound public health and national security threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that the men and women of law enforcement have the support they need to prevent public health threats from entering the country through our borders,” a DHS official told Fox News. The United States is so focused on COVID-19 that people are forgetting that we still have the same issues as a nation when it comes to our borders and the illegals that are coming into our nation. Mexico declared a health emergency on Monday and issued stricter rules aimed at containing the fast-spreading coronavirus after its number of cases surged past 1,000 and the death toll rose sharply. So it makes securing our southern border even more vital and we need to do whatever it takes to secure it. link
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Post by bloodbought on Apr 10, 2020 1:55:18 GMT -5
Drone footage captures prisoners digging graves in hazmat suits on Hart Island as NYC eyes it as a mass temporary burial site for coronavirus victims after 437 die in a day, bringing city death toll to 3,485
Hart Island off the Bronx's shore in NYC is being eyed to temporarily bury the coronavirus dead It ordinarily is where unidentified bodies are buried and it is staffed by inmates in the city's prison system Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Monday: 'We may well be dealing with temporary burials so we can then deal with each family later - he added: 'Obviously, the place we have used historically is Hart Island' But drone footage from Thursday shows that coronavirus burials may have already been carried out on Hart Island as inmates are seen digging graves in hazmat suits In a normal week, 25 bodies are buried there but that number has risen to 72 since the end of March One former Rikers Island inmate who worked there said no one wants the 'ghoulish', low-paid job He fears there are not enough inmates to do the job now because 1,000 have already been released New York is the epicenter of US coronavirus outbreak with fatalities reaching 437 a day and 3,485 in total Undertakers have become so overwhelmed a city official suggested doing temporary burials in a public park By CHRIS DYER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and AFP PUBLISHED: 22:45 EDT, 6 April 2020 | UPDATED: 19:10 EDT, 7 April 2020 Drone footage shows inmates in hazmat suits digging graves on NYC's Hart Island suggesting that coronavirus victims could already be being temporarily buried there, as morgues across the city continue to overflow and the death toll ticks up. Drone footage taken on Thursday - which is the day bodies are buried there every week - by The Hart Island Project shows inmates in hazmat suits digging graves on the island, possibly for victims of the virus which has claimed more than 3,400 lives across New York City and sickened more than 72,000. Ordinarily prisoners are seen digging in their prison uniforms. Full story with pictures and video at link
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Post by schwartzie on Apr 13, 2020 16:42:18 GMT -5
Study: Coronavirus Fatality Rate Lower than Expected, Close to Flu’s 0.1%
EDWIN MORA13 Apr 20203 3:50 The fatal and highly contagious novel coronavirus has spread faster but is less deadly than official data imply, the Economist magazine reported over the weekend, citing a new study. On Saturday, the Economist reported that the fact that the illness caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread across the United States could be “good news.” “If millions of people were infected weeks ago without dying, the virus must be less deadly than official data suggest,” the magazine determined, using graphs to suggest the faster the disease spreads and hits its peak, the fewer people will die. The Economist article cited a new study by Justin Silverman and Alex Washburne that used data on influenza-like illness (ili) to show that the coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) is now widespread in America. Silverman and Washburne found that the coronavirus mortality rate could be as low as 0.1 percent, “similar to that of flu.” The Economist further explained: COVID-19 takes 20-25 days to kill victims. The [Silverman and Washburne] paper reckons that 7m Americans were infected from March 8th to 14th, and official data show 7,000 deaths three weeks later. The resulting fatality rate is 0.1%, similar to that of flu. That is amazingly low, just a tenth of some other estimates. Perhaps it is just wrong, possibly because the death toll has been under-reported. Perhaps, though, New York’s hospitals are overflowing because the virus is so contagious that it has crammed the equivalent of a year’s worth of flu cases into one week. The death rate could be higher given that people with asymptomatic or mild coronavirus likely failed to report non-flu influenza-like illnesses to their doctors, the magazine acknowledged. Silverman and Washburne reportedly gleaned their data from weekly reports by 2,600 American doctors on the number of their patients who have ili, the Economist explained, adding: The authors assume that the share of these providers’ patients with ili who do have the flu matches the rate of flu tests that are positive in the same state and week. This lets them estimate how many people have ili seriously enough to call a doctor, but do not have the flu—and how many more people have had non-flu ili in 2020 than in prior years. Of course, the flu is often the cause of ili, but there many other ailments that produce influenza-like illness, including common colds, step throat, and now coronavirus. The new study’s coronavirus death rate estimate is much lower than what Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House Coronavirus Taskforce, predicted in early March. “If you look at the cases that have come to the attention of the medical authorities in China, and you just do the math, the math is about two percent,” Fauci said. A study from Britain published at the end of last month in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases also found that fewer people are dying from the novel coronavirus than previously estimated. That study estimated the coronavirus death rate could be as low as 0.66 percent and as high as 1.38 percent. Fauci’s estimate is higher than both figures. The coronavirus has infected over 560,000 people and killed nearly 23,000 across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Johns Hopkins University tracker showed as of Monday afternoon. link
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Post by J.J.Gibbs on Apr 14, 2020 2:52:42 GMT -5
Coronavirus has ‘reactivated’ in more than 100 South Koreans who recovered
By Jackie SaloApril 13, 2020 | 10:36am | Updated Coronavirus has ‘reactivated’ in more than 100 South Koreans who recovered More than 100 South Koreans who fully recovered from coronavirus have tested positive for a second time, as the country eyes an easing of social-distancing rules, officials said. The killer virus has “reactivated” in a total 116 patients, with 48 of them in the nation’s coronavirus epicenter of Daegu, according to Yonhap News Agency. Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the virus may have been reactivated after remaining dormant in the patients, as opposed to them being reinfected. The country reported last week there were 51 cases of patients testing positive after being cleared of the virus. Enlarge ImageA woman wearing a preventive face mask has her temperature checked, as a safety measure to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus, before casting a ballot for parliamentary elections at a polling station in Seoul, South Korea A woman wearing a preventive face mask has her temperature checked in South Korea.Heo Ran/Reuters Jeong noted, however, there have been no cases of the relapsed patients spreading the virus to anyone else, Yonhap News reported. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said the government would soon be looking to lift some of the stay-at-home guidelines, which are in effect until at least April 19. “We need a very cautious approach because any premature easing of social distancing could bring irreversible consequences, and have to ponder deeply about when and how we switch to the new system,” he said. South Korea has confirmed more than 10,500 COVID-19 cases, with more than 7,447 patients being cleared of the virus, officials said. link
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Post by schwartzie on Apr 17, 2020 16:40:13 GMT -5
Antibody Testing Reveals Coronavirus 50-85 Times More Widespread Than Previously Known and Thus Far Less Dangerous Than Expected
By Cristina Laila Published April 17, 2020 at 12:25pm The first large-scale test of 3,300 people in a California county revealed that 2.5% to 4.2% of people tested for COVID-19 were positive for antibodies. The new antibody testing shows the Coronavirus is far more widespread than previously known and thus far less dangerous. The data indicates that there are between 50 to 80-fold more infections than confirmed cases. This is a huge development. TRENDING: Antibody Testing Reveals Coronavirus 50-85 Times More Widespread Than Previously Known and Thus Far Less Dangerous Than Expected ABC reported: The first large-scale community test of 3,300 people in Santa Clara County found that 2.5 to 4.2% of those tested were positive for antibodies — a number suggesting a far higher past infection rate than the official count. Based on the initial data, researchers estimate that the range of people who may have had the virus to be between 48,000 and 81,000 in the county of 2 million — as opposed to the approximately 1,000 in the county’s official tally at the time the samples were taken. “Our findings suggest that there is somewhere between 50- and 80-fold more infections in our county than what’s known by the number of cases than are reported by our department of public health,” Dr. Eran Bendavid, the associate professor of medicine at Stanford University who led the study, said in an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer. It’s time to open America again and let people get back to work. link
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Post by maybetoday on Apr 21, 2020 2:20:57 GMT -5
Covid-19 much more widespread than thought, and NO MORE DEADLY THAN FLU, new Stanford study suggests
17 Apr, 2020 22:36 / Updated 1 day ago A study out of Stanford University tested California residents and found that the Covid-19 infection rate is likely far higher than has been reported, but the virus could also be far less lethal than commonly believed. Researchers used 3,300 residents in Santa Clara County to conduct their tests, which found that the coronavirus could have infected far more people than has been reported. The study distinguishes itself from past Covid-19 research by using seroprevalence data, meaning the level of a pathogen measured in the blood streams of a specific population. Titled ‘COVID-19 Antibody Seroprevalence in Santa Clara County, California,’ the study was published on Friday at MedRxiv, a service that prints health studies before they have been officially peer-reviewed. The tests found only single-digit percentages when testing for Covid-19 cases, but these “estimates represent a range between 48,000 and 81,000 people infected in Santa Clara County by early April, 50-85-fold more than the number of confirmed cases.” While it may seem like bad news that the virus could be that much more widespread on a global level — which is what the study concludes — it presents several positive factor including the fact that the mortality rate would be much lower than it is now believed, and that many people have symptoms so mild they don’t need to seek medical treatment and recover rather quickly. ALSO ON RT.COM Republicans try for political leverage over China with bill allowing Americans to sue for ‘damage they caused’ with coronavirus “These new data should allow for better modeling of this pandemic and its progression under various scenarios of non-pharmaceutical interventions,” the study said. A Danish study published earlier this week using similar methods arrived at the same conclusion. There is no officially established mortality rate for Covid-19, but World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has previously mentioned 3.4 percent. This would translate into over 300 deaths per every 10,000 infected persons. Stanford’s study would lower the mortality rate to 0.14 percent or less, meaning 14 deaths or less per 10,000 people infected. The mortality rate suggested by the Stanford study would put Covid-19 on par with or less than the deadliness of the seasonal flu, which has a yearly mortality rate around 0.1 percent, according to both director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci and World Health Organization director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Michael Mina, an immunologist and assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard, tweeted agreement with the study on Friday and theorized 30 million people or more could be infected with Covid-19 in the US, but further “consistent studies” could show that “population immunity is already building up.” link
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Post by J.J.Gibbs on Apr 24, 2020 23:03:38 GMT -5
Why is This Not Being Reported? Current Data Provides Support that the China Coronavirus Reacts Significantly to Sun and Heat — Look at the Numbers from the Southern States!
By Jim Hoft Published April 22, 2020 at 7:40am The Gateway Pundit reported back on March 21st that based on the data at that time the coronavirus had reacted negatively to heat. This indicates the virus would behave like strains of the flu and die out in the summer months. Advertisement - story continues below Today we have additional information to support this claim. In a post on March 21st we reported that there were a number of anomalies with the data related to the China coronavirus. We listed the following observations: 1. The current charts (by entities like John Hopkins) were not helpful as they instill fear and are not relevant 2. On a per capita basis the numbers are less concerning 3. The China coronavirus is spreading but probably not accelerating 4. The coronavirus will decline no matter what the media says 5. You have a low probability of becoming severely ill with the coronavirus 6. The virus will likely burn off in the summer like other viruses 7. As we have noted, children and teens are less affected 8. The fatality rate is declining (the demoninator is rising) These observations are still relevant today. But one observation is not reported on in the mainstream media that has a huge impact on the current status of the coronavirus. This fact is ignored. The virus will likely burn off in the summer like other viruses: The University of Maryland mapped severe COVID-19 outbreaks with local weather patterns around the world, from the US to China. They found that the virus thrives in a certain temperature and humidity channel. “The researchers found that all cities experiencing significant outbreaks of COVID-19 have very similar winter climates with an average temperature of 41 to 52 degrees Fahrenheit, an average humidity level of 47% to 79% with a narrow east-west distribution along the same 30–50 N” latitude”, said the University of Maryland. Charts and more at link
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Post by maybetoday on Apr 28, 2020 0:16:04 GMT -5
Seriously? So how many sheeple are going to get a headache and be convinced they have Coronavirus? What's the next "symptom" going to be - five fingers on each hand? You can tell which ones will be the first to line up to take the Mark! CDC adds six new possible symptoms of coronavirus, including chills, headache
By Natalie MusumeciApril 27, 2020 | 9:51am | Updated CDC adds six new possible symptoms of coronavirus, including chills, headache The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its list of symptoms for the coronavirus, adding six new possible indicators of the deadly bug. The CDC now recognizes chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell as possible symptoms of COVID-19. Previously, the public health institute associated the symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing with the disease. “People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported — ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness,” the CDC says on its website, noting that the symptoms “may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus.” The CDC says emergency warning signs of COVID-19 include trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion or inability to arouse and bluish lips or face. The agency advises that anyone experiencing those symptoms should seek medical attention immediately. The coronavirus has infected more than 965,000 people in the US and has killed more than 54,000 in the nation, according to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. link
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Post by schwartzie on May 4, 2020 16:17:38 GMT -5
IS THE WHOLE THING A HOAX?!? – At least one other serious illness involved in over 99% of NYC alleged C-19 deaths!
By Max Chiltern Every day, the media makes sure you hear the latest official “death toll.” Some days you’re even hit with an ever-more-frightening update two or three times. But most of us know that the number incessantly being drummed into our heads isn’t a “death toll” at all. It’s really a death CERTIFICATE toll; and they are most definitely NOT the same thing. Even under normal circumstances, those dying of other deadly illnesses who passed on a few days or even minutes earlier because of COVID-19 would be included. But circumstances aren’t even close to normal. Doctors Fauci and Birx have both explicitly said that anyone dying with the virus is getting counted among its fatalities regardless of whether it played any role in their death. Given that 4/5 of infections cause only mild symptoms and 1/2 none at all, the intentional conflation of dying WITH COVID-19 and dying FROM it is no small thing. Nor is it anywhere close to the only inflating factor. The CDC has explicitly instructed physicians to cite COVID-19 on death certificates even without a confirming test so long as they’ve “assumed” it was a contributing factor. The assumption can be for any reason they like, and that includes no reason at all. Hospitals have also been given enormous financial incentives to diagnose patients with COVID-19. That daily number being crammed down your throat is being blown up from a perfect storm of conditions that have to be massively inflating the real number of Americans that would still be alive if not for COVID-19 The only question is: How much? Given the environment of encouragement and incentives that, whether intentionally or not, has been created; it wouldn’t be at all shocking if 1/3 of the death certificates citing COVID-19 belong to people who would have passed away from other causes regardless. It wouldn’t be too shocking if 1/2 did. It wouldn’t even be all that shocking if 3/4 of COVID-19 death certificates turned out to be false positives. But now, data is coming out of New York City that’s raising a possibility that really is shocking. On Friday, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center published an article with a wealth of data showing that we need to “stop the panic and end the total isolation” because COVID-19 isn’t any more lethal than the seasonal flu. But some of the data indicates that it may actually be far less lethal. In New York City, around 12,000 people have supposedly died from COVID-19 at the time of this writing. That’s 22% of all alleged U.S. deaths. Around 7,000 of the NYC deaths attributed to COVID-19 have been thoroughly investigated to determine if there was another serious life-threatening illness present Take a deep breath if doing so hasn’t been outlawed where you live. 99.2% of those 7,000 New Yorkers who supposedly died from the virus had another antecedent life-threatening illness. For all intents and purposes, that’s all of them. How is it even remotely possible that 7,000 NYC deaths attributed to COVID-19 were investigated and virtually every single one of them found to have involved at least one other life-threatening illness if the virus is in and of itself deadly? Most strains of coronavirus that affect humans are common cold viruses. In light of the apparent almost universal prevalence of at least one other deadly disease among the alleged NYC deceased… And in light of all the factors massively inflating the bogus death tally we’re being fed every day… What reason do we have to believe COVID-19 is actually killing anyone? No one knows how many Americans have really died of COVID-19. Since patently inflated death certificate tallies are being palmed off as providing the answer, no one must want us to know. But given the data now coming out of New York City, as difficult as it is to comprehend, it’s not impossible that no one is dying of it. It’s not out of the question that the COVID-19 virus is just like most of the other coronavirus strains, a mere common cold. It’s not impossible that the whole thing is just one big hoax. It’s long past time the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for abridging our most basic rights stopped feeding us obviously garbage numbers and made a serious attempt to determine how many Americans were actually killed by COVID-19 who would otherwise still be alive.. And, though it’s a hard pill to swallow. Until they do, we can’t trust anything they say. Data is coming in from all sides indicating that COVID-19 is no worse than the seasonal flu. But, given that virtually every New York City death attributed to the virus appears to have involved at least one other life threatening ailment, it could very well be not even close to nearly as bad. COVID-19 might be nothing more than a common cold. The extent to which the politicians and bureaucrats in charge may be leading us astray has become almost impossible to comprehend. link
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Post by J.J.Gibbs on May 6, 2020 3:45:12 GMT -5
Italian Leader Slams 'False COVID-19 Numbers: 25K Did Not Die, it's a way to Impose a Dictatorship'
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