The hype around the coronavirus is starting to become a parody of itself.
China far and away has most of the Coronavirus cases. It is a largely impoverished nation with people living in overcrowded, squalid conditions. Ripe for a virus to spread.
Only .002% are infected.
UK papers are predicting 80% of infection rates in Britain. Italy has only 655 cases. It hardly makes it an ‘explosion’ but from Washington Post, NY Times and The Daily Beast, birdcage carpet, it’s to be expected. As a note, Italian patients that are being treated and are recovering from the virus in less than 48 hours.
While the regular Flu silently killed almost 60,000 during the 2018-19 season, the coronavirus is interesting in its own way.
According to new research from China and France, it is becoming increasingly clear that the new coronavirus did not develop naturally, but is man-made. The virus has an ‘HIV-like mutation’ which allows it to bind with human cells up to 1,000 times stronger than the Sars virus. This according to a story in SCMP by Stephen Chen.
This virus may use the packing mechanisms of other viruses such as HIV.
According to the study by Professor Ruan Jishou and his team at Nankai University in Tianjin, the mutation can generate a structure known as a cleavage site in the new coronavirus’ spike protein.
Last month, researchers from India released a now-retracted paper noting that the coronavirus may have been genetically engineered to incorporate parts of the HIV genome, “This uncanny similarity of novel inserts in the 2019- nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag is unlikely to be fortuitous in nature.” These researchers said it was unlikely the virus occurred naturally.
“Other highly contagious viruses, including HIV and Ebola, target an enzyme called furin, which works as a protein activator in the human body.” — SCMP
The team at Nankai University in Tianjin found a section of mutated genes that did not exist in Sars but were similar to those found in HIV and Ebola. –SCMP
“This finding suggests that 2019-nCoV [the new coronavirus] may be significantly different from the Sars coronavirus in the infection pathway,” the scientists said in a paper published this month on Chinaxiv.org, a platform used by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to release scientific research papers before they have been peer-reviewed. — Professor Ruan Jishou
A report from a Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhn confirmed Nankai University’s findings. That is, the mutation is not found in SARS or Bat-CoVRaTG13, a bat coronavirus that was considered the original source of the new coronavirus with 96 percent similarity in genes.
A French scientist Etienne Decroly at Aix-Marseille University published in the scientific journal Antiviral Research on February 10, also found the “furin-like cleavage site” that is absent in similar coronaviruses.
The odds of such a “random” mutation taking place naturally are extremely small, yet the running narrative is still that the coronavirus lie dormant in bats somewhere between 20 and 70 years, then ‘crossed over’ to humans through and unknown species before it emerged at a Wuhan, China meat market roughly 900 feet from a level-4 bioweapons lab.
At the time, the lab was researching why Ebola and HIV can lie dormant in bats without causing diseases.
Paul Plante says
Wherever it came from is now kind of immaterial, especially with everybody seeming to be blaming somebody else for importing, as happened the other day when the state department gave some Chinese dude a real serious, world-class tongue lashing, in polite diplomatic terms, of course, decorum must be preserved even in the midst of conflict, afterall, for suggesting that the virus was brought into Wuhan by the U.S. military.
So who knows and who will ever know.
More important to know is what is going to happen here in this country , now that Governor Andrew Cuomo has effectively shut down New York City, a town of some ten millions of souls, with no way to feed them, and absolutely no thought whatsoever given to as to how that was to be done, feed ten million people when you have shut down the places they would normally go to eat or to get food.
The whole city is shutting down quite literally as a result of an order to do so by the governor.
And there will be chaos as a result, because starving people will be crazy, and this lock down of Cuomo’s is to last for weeks.
People who rely on their meals being brought in, and there are many in NYC, will be the first to starve.
Paul Plante says
Drinking water has disappeared from supermarket shelves up this way, as has toilet paper, which has everybody wondering what is up with that.
Walmart is reducing its store hours.
Cleaning supplies are gone, as is regular bath soap.
And we are only a couple of days into the lock-down of America.
Slide Easy says
‘More Evidence Emerging that new Coronavirus is genetically engineered’ ?????
You mean there are real people who believe the ‘wet meat market’ story?
Paul Plante says
There are always real people who believe the ‘wet meat market’ story, and there always will be, for the reason that there always have been.
Why is it that way?
Beats me, anyway.
The point is that whether it really did originate in a ‘wet meat market,’ as some seem to be advocating, or it didn’t, just the word alone is now responsible for hysteria and looming chaos across America.
I talked to a younger person here where I am who went to the store yesterday and the dairy aisle was empty, water was gone, dried beans and rice are disappearing or have done so.
And people in Colorado and California reported the same.
News today is that people are lining up to buy ammo and guns.
And to blow up the hysteria and paranoia, this morning, the Hearst publication The Albany New York Times Union had on its front page a picture of our panicked Democratic Socialist governor Young Andy Cuomo, along with a blaring headline saying “CUOMO TO TRUMP: SEND IN THE MILITARY” which has people thinking that Cuomo is declaring martial law in New York state, which has people hoarding food, paper products, which are also gone, and guns and ammo as this federal dude named Fauci or something like that is telling people to “HUNKER DOWN,” which to a lot of country people means get up the barricades, and as I am writing these words, Young Cuomo was just on the radio news telling everyone that as of 8:00 pm tonight, he has ordered ALL restaurants closed, which is going to deprive people of FOOD!
Starving people become crazy people, and starving crazy people become a mob, which is why other people are lining up to buy guns and ammo.
Tell me, slide, is it tomarrow?
Or the end of time?
MJM says
My opinions are…..
The dynamic population of NYC varies greatly. Nighttime, week day population is much much lower than 10 million. It is closer to 3 million. That is certainly a large amount, but not 10 million. I get that number by looking at a few research sites Google brings up. Daytime, nighttime, weekday and weekend, all amounts of population vary greatly due to work hours, visiting times and their massive transportation system. That same transportation system delivers food for all to eat, has been doing so for a long time, and there’s no need to be stating people are going to starve. ALL bars and restaurants are allowed to be open for pickup or deliver. They all need to make money, so most are open. Uber drivers and delivery systems exist for all of them. Grocery stores are open, just like here. So please, no panic stories. Ask your friends that live there. I have. Eerily quieter than normal. But no more panic shopping than here. Hoboken ? Just across the Hudson. With it’s weeknight curfew ? With the party/social scene they have ? Deserted, but no panic. No reason to predict it.
Cleaning supplies, paper products, water, sanitizers etc have disappeared from our shelves too. No cases of covid19, but panic is sure here. All unnecessary. I also sometimes hear false Shore stories that there are cases of the virus here, but there are not. Up there they have lots of virus, so if they are rushing for some items, it’s more understandable than here.
From the varied sources I have heard and read, I believe the virus did get to humans from the meat market very near the lab in Wuhan. Whether it was a bio weapons part or a medical research part of the lab that created it, I don’t know or care. I don’t know that we can know for sure. Is China delivering accurate info ?
Many researchers here believe the virus jumped from a bat to humans, and it is hard for us to believe or understand how. What I have seen reported and read is this. We all know, and many of us dislike, that med research is conducted on animals. Animals are injected with a disease in labs, it is allowed to develop, and then they are injected with “the cure”. Or not, and they die, or not. But they are injected. The animal lives or dies and the “research” is recorded. How is the injected animal disposed of ? Reports I have seen state that some of the diseased and dying bats in Wuhan are sold by workers at the meat market to make a few extra dollars, or I guess yen ? Then unknowing buyers eat it. THAT is how “the jump” from bats to humans was made. I can’t prove it’s an accurate statement. It sounds feasible to me. Have any of us ever heard of any employees selling slightly used or damaged goods out the back door of a business ? The lab is right there, and they eat bats in China. We don’t, so we don’t want to hear or believe it. There’s lots of parts of life I wish I didn’t know. It does have it’s dark side.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
Paul Plante says
Yesterday, MJM, people in a supermarket serving a small rural community up this way in New York state watched as some dude from Connecticut went down the aisles scooping all he could into a cart piled high, leaving nothing behind him as he went.
Now, as I understand it, MJM, you are living down there in a modern metropolis, such as Cape Charles is believed to be by people up here in APPALACHIA, which is a ****hole with degraded air and water with a corrupt and inept and uncaring “health” department such as you would find in some ****hole like Haiti, and so, you are surrounded by well-regulated reality down there, which is not the case up here, at all.
Now, you are well-to-do, MJM. and God bless you for that, but up here where I am, you have the rural poverty that you would expect in an APPALACHIA, along with the heroin and opiates, and as a consequence, you have poor women as single parents who might have to drive, or get a ride to that rural supermarket cleaned out by the dude from Connecticut, from fifteen or so miles away, only to find the shelves have been stripped bare by people from out of town or out of state who have apps for their phones that tell them where all the food is for miles and miles around, and off they go, using their GPS feature, to hit all these stores, strip them, and move on like locusts.
What do these young mothers feed their children?
And what do the old people living in these rural communities then do for food or drinking water, given the poor quality of the drinking water in this area due to neglect and indifference by the state which hands out the right to pollute our air and water to those who can pay the bribes for the privilege?
And of course, you don’t know, because it simply is not your problem.
And because these people are rural poor, they are nobody else’s problem, either.
If they are thirsty, let them lap water from a ditch with their tongue like a dog.
If we got poor old people out in the countryside who get to the store once a week going without food because the gougers got it first, well, too damn bad, because really, MJM, of what value are a lot of poor old people living out in the country?
As to New York City, MJM, I have a dear friend down there now barricaded into an apartment the size of a closet, not going out until this emergency called by the panicked Democratic Socialist governor of New York, Young Andy Cuomo, is finally declared over, and that is out of FEAR, MJM, instilled by the governor, who himself sounds hysterical and out of control and was TWEETING yesterday to Trump: “YOU have to do something, you’re supposed to be the president!”
So, tell me, MJM. who is in charge?
Clearly not Cuomo.
So when is the ALL-CLEAR going to be sounded?
When is the HYSTERIA going to be ended?
And now that it has been started, like a war, how exactly is that hysteria created by Young Andy Cuomo calling out the national guard in the upscale community where his girlfriend lives?
When will my friend be let out of confinement?
When will the fear be over, MJM?
Any guesses?
MJM says
We are certainly learning a lot about you right now Mr. Plante. You think a clam farmer should be asked the question “when will the hysteria end?” As if I am educated to be able to figure out what this society and the rest of the world are going to do ? You think I have access to all the info that is monitoring this outbreak . Personally I don’t think panc should ever start. There is no panic in my house.
I have to say I hardly understand a word you are saying, I think you are fabricating panicked scenarios, and I am going to show you why. You have told us you practice Tai chi I believe it was. An ancient method of strengthening the mind, body and spirit. Correct ? Either you are not practicing or it is not working. Your mind is at peace ? Practice harder. You are transfixed on this outbreak, it’s everybody’s fault for not seeing the future perfectly, you think we don’t care, you don’t think anyone is responding properly and you have stooped to the low of asking a clam farmer when it’s going to end. Am I getting through ? Prior to this week I thought you lived around here or were a summer visitor. You OBVIOUSLY have never been here or you didn’t notice fact 1 about this area while you were here. You just called Cape Charles a metropolis. This is a densely populated and industrial city ? You are overreacting to make inaccurate points so I tend to think you are hysterical. I know you’re not stupid, but why don’t you just keep a clear mind ? Okay, so some guy with Ct. plates went into a local store by you and bought a lot of stuff you and your neighbors want. Maybe he read your postings and panicked because of what you said. You think Gov. Cuomo should have stopped him or have regulations in place to stop that? You don’t think he has more important things to do ? What was the store mgr. doing ? Pushing the cart for the guy ? Realistically, don’t you think the store should have a posted policy regarding hoarding ? You don’t think THAT was/is the solution ? You ASSUME we don’t have the same problem here ? You allude to the FACT that people will have to lap water from a creek like a dog because there is no water in the store….WHAT ? You don’t have indoor plumbing and certificates of occupancy necessary to be able to live there ? You think you are the only place in this country with drug problems and single mothers ? You REALLY DON’T know anything about these 2 counties on The Eastern Shore of Va. We really are all in the same boat and you cry out to me/us like we are lucky to be who and where we are. What county in N.Y. are you in ? I would NOT BE surprised if the per capita income where you are is higher than that of Northampton County where Cape Charles is. I also think you are confused as to where you even are ! You say some guy drove 15 miles from Ct.to your area. My personal experience with N.Y. State and Appalachia is that it sounds like you are in the Adirondacks or Catskills, while Appalachia is is a few hundred miles away out much nearer Cortland etc. Now, I have NEVER heard anyone complain about the air quality in The Catskills or Adirondacks. People from all over go there to escape cities and get fresh air. Summer sports, Winter skiing.
I’m sure you have the potential for isolated problems. You ASSUME we don’t ? You think there’s no pollution here ? PAY ATTENTION.
You also assume I am well to do and Good Lord I am living on my Soc. Sec. No salary for me while I leave the business going and pay my workers. I am keeping them going, along with their kids. I am doing positive things for the area and my people, like I always will. I also have an appointment to donate blood. Whatever you do, don’t get me going about the elderly or disabled. I live here with a disabled woman I rescued from her drunken, narcotic family and 93 yr. old grandma. So again, assuming I don’t care for those that need assistance is just as ignorant as can be. I just look at all this differently thanhave a driven and stated purpose to my life you and do something about it ALL THE TIME. Just don’t ask me for any answer other than to always pay it forward.
You are a retired health care worker ? You should understand better than anyone the need for everyone to pitch in. What have you done besides pass along hysteria? Go donate blood. You can do it again in about 50 days. It’s a national health care emergency. Did you get the memo ? The hospital local to you is screaming for volunteers. Be a man and go volunteer. Pass along and share your expertise instead of crying into the internet. And don’t cry while you are at the hospital. Tell them all how great life is, and that it will get better. Wait til you get home before you start crying again. And don’t try to run the place. COOPERATE. Drive down to NYC and get your friend out of his closet apartment and isolation and bring him up to shelter with you. Good Lord man. SNAP OUT OF IT ! When the going gets tough……….and if you can’t, why don’t you do us all a favor and stop passing your hysteria to us.
Paul Plante says
POINT I: T’ai Chi Ch’uan is an ancient Taoist martial art which gives the practitioner the clarity of mind at all times to throw only the punch that the occasion calls for, nothing more, which would be morally wrong, and nothing less, which, of course, would be quite stupid, n’est-ce-pas?
All else is appearance.
POINT II: I’m an over-70 twice-wounded Viet Nam combat veteran poisoned by Agent Orange who is still alive and functioning with blood thinners and boxes of meds, when many others are now dead and gone, and I still wear regular underwear, instead of Depends, so the t’ai chi must be good for something anyway, especially building up the immune system.
Google the relevant existential question “How can I strengthen my immune system?” and what you will find is as follows:
Healthy ways to strengthen your immune system
1.Don’t smoke.
2.Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables.
3.Exercise regularly.
4.Maintain a healthy weight.
5.If you drink alcohol, drink only in moderation.
6.Get adequate sleep.
end quotes
Not that hard to grasp, is it?
You believe in Darwinism, and thus you know that nature which produced the corona virus in all of its many forms abhors weakness, and so, it continually operates to cull the herd.
Some times, it decides to take children.
This time, it is hunting down those with weakened immune systems as it intended victims, or so says a real medical doctor, anyway, to wit:
Most of the deaths have been in adults over 60 years old who had other health concerns.
However, children appear to be among those least likely to have a bad outcome from contracting the disease.
Why do some people with the COVID-19 get sicker than others?
It looks like only about 20% of people who contract this novel coronavirus need to be hospitalized.
The other 80% get what feels like a bad cold and recover at home.
A lot of this has to do with underlying medical conditions.
People who are more vulnerable to any kind of infection — because of their age or chronic health conditions — are more at risk for getting really sick from COVID-19.
The most vulnerable populations for having a bad outcome with COVID-19 – including needing to be in the hospital or on a ventilator – are people over the age of 60 (especially men) with additional medical concerns.
This includes people who are smokers, who have hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes, people who have low immune systems, people with underlying lung disease or who take medicines to suppress their immune systems because they have some sort of autoimmune condition or cancer.
Written By Emily Landon, MD, on March 18, 2020, an infectious disease specialist and hospital epidemiologist at the University of Chicago Medicine
end quotes
Mother Nature appears to be on the prowl to me, MJM, but hey, its America, and I know this is really hard to understand, especially when you are used to getting your world news condensed down into a TWEET on TWITTER, so you have it as you want to have it, and we will both be fine.
POINT III: The HYSTERIA was caused by Democratic Socialist governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, a lawyer with no medical training or experience, or public health training or experience, and the media and the incompetent federal government that is arguing within itself as to who really is in charge, when as we can all clearly see from the Virginia Public Health Law put in place by the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia through their elected representatives to protect and safeguard their lives, health and safety from incompetent politicians getting in the way of public health professionals in a time of emergency, who is in charge, or should be, if the law actually meant something, and here let me say that while I know ****-all about raising clams, I am a real, qualified associate public health engineer, one who actually earned the title instead of buying it for $10,000, who knows the law concerning quarantines quite well, who should be in charge is the Virginia Commissioner of Health and the Virginia Board of Health, and that is for the PRECISE PURPOSE of not causing panic and hysteria, that once started cannot be easily stopped, especially when nobody has a clue as to who is in charge, to wit:
Code of Virginia
§ 32.1-39. Surveillance and investigation.
A. The Board shall provide for the surveillance of and investigation into all preventable diseases and epidemics in this Commonwealth and into the means for the prevention of such diseases and epidemics.
Surveillance and investigation may include contact tracing in accordance with the regulations of the Board.
When any outbreak or unusual occurrence of a preventable disease shall be identified through reports required pursuant to Article 1 (§ 32.1-35 et seq.) of this chapter, the Commissioner or his designee shall investigate the disease in cooperation with the local health director or directors in the area of the disease.
If in the judgment of the Commissioner the resources of the locality are insufficient to provide for adequate investigation, he may assume direct responsibility and exclusive control of the investigation, applying such resources as he may have at his disposal.
The Board may issue emergency regulations and orders to accomplish the investigation.
B. When an investigation of any outbreak or occurrence of a disease identified through reports required pursuant to Article 1 (§ 32.1-35 et seq.) of this chapter indicates the reasonable possibility that the outbreak or occurrence was the result of exposure to an agent or substance used as a weapon, the Commissioner or his designee shall immediately report such finding to the Department of State Police for investigation.
Reports, records, materials or other data reported to the Department of State Police pursuant to this section shall remain confidential and shall not be subject to the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (§ 2.2-3700 et seq.).
The Department of State Police, and any local law enforcement official, may release all or part of any report made or other information obtained pursuant to this section (i) where the release of such report or information may assist in the prevention of imminent harm to public health or safety, or (ii) where the release of such report or information, with patient identifying information removed, may be useful for education of the public on health, safety or homeland defense issues.
Reports required by this section shall be maintained in the central repository established by the Department of State Police pursuant to the provisions of § 52-8.5.
The Department of State Police shall immediately transmit the report to the local chief of police or sheriff with law-enforcement responsibilities both where the patient resides and where he sought the medical treatment that resulted in the report.
In addition, the Department of State Police may transmit the report to federal and military law-enforcement authorities.
The Department of State Police and local law-enforcement authorities shall immediately determine and implement the appropriate law-enforcement response to such reports, in accordance with their jurisdiction.
Code 1950, §§ 32-10, 32-42; 1979, c. 711; 1989, c. 613; 2002, c. 768.
§ 32.1-42. Emergency rules and regulations.
The Board of Health may promulgate regulations and orders to meet any emergency or to prevent a potential emergency caused by a disease dangerous to public health, including, but not limited to, procedures specifically responding to any disease listed pursuant to § 32.1-35 that is determined to be caused by an agent or substance used as a weapon or any communicable disease of public health threat that is involved in an order of quarantine or an order of isolation pursuant to Article 3.02 (§ 32.1-48.05 et seq.) of this chapter.
§ 32.1-44. Isolated or quarantined persons.
The provisions of this chapter shall be construed to allow any isolated or quarantined person to choose his own treatment, whenever practicable and in the best interest of the health and safety of the isolated or quarantined person and the public; however, the conditions of any order of isolation issued pursuant to Article 3.01 (§ 32.1-48.01 et seq.) of this chapter involving a communicable disease of public health significance and any order of quarantine or order of isolation involving any communicable disease of public health threat pursuant to Article 3.02 (§ 32.1-48.05 et seq.) of this chapter shall remain in effect until the person or persons subject to such order of quarantine or order of isolation shall no longer constitute a threat to other persons.
Code 1950, § 32-13; 1979, c. 711; 1990, c. 958; 2004, cc. 773, 1021.
§ 32.1-45. Expense of treatment.
Except as specifically provided by law, the provisions of this chapter shall not be construed as relieving any individual of the expense, if any, of any treatment, including any person who is subject to an order of isolation issued pursuant to Article 3.01 (§ 32.1-48.01 et seq.) of this chapter or an order of quarantine or an order of isolation issued pursuant to Article 3.02 (§ 32.1-48.05 et seq.) of this chapter.
Code 1950, § 32-56; 1973, c. 401; 1979, c. 711; 1990, c. 958; 2004, cc. 773, 1021.
§ 32.1-43. Authority of State Health Commissioner to require quarantine, etc.
The State Health Commissioner shall have the authority to require quarantine, isolation, immunization, decontamination, or treatment of any individual or group of individuals when he determines any such measure to be necessary to control the spread of any disease of public health importance and the authority to issue orders of isolation pursuant to Article 3.01 (§ 32.1-48.01 et seq.) of this chapter and orders of quarantine and orders of isolation under exceptional circumstances involving any communicable disease of public health threat pursuant to Article 3.02 (§ 32.1-48.05 et seq.) of this chapter.
Paul Plante says
And you are obviously not keeping up with the news, MJM – we are on LOCK-DOWN here to the north of you – SHELTER IN PLACE, DON’T GO OUTSIDE NO NON-ESSENTIAL TRAVEL, and the hospitals are literally closed – you want to go in, you need a doctor to get you in – everybody else stay away.
So, given New York City is some 180 miles away, how exactly is it that I am supposed to schlep my way down to New York City, which is similarly on LOCK-DOWN, and is a HOT-BED of sickness and disease in the best of times, to spirit my friend away from there to bring my friend here?
And why am I going to transport someone who may well have been exposed to COVID down in New York City, with its foul air that compromises people’s immune functions up to here, so they can in turn expose others?
As to giving blood, the hospitals are closed – nobody in who is not sick.
And volunteer to do exactly what, now that Cuomo has started the panic and the COVID HYSTERIA has set in with this LOCK-DOWN ORDER?
No thanks, MJM, been there, done that, not no more.
Somebody else’s turn in the barrel this time, especially with this CLUSTER-**** Cuomo has going on.
And have you stopped to consider, MJM, that if you can’t understand what I am saying, the problem of comprehension might actually be yours?
Paul Plante says
New York City, New York Population 2020 8,398,748.
New York City, in the state of New York, is by far the largest city in the United States, with an estimated 2016 population of 8.55 million.
Paul Plante says
No milk or dairy on the shelves up here, no rice, no beans, no water, no paper products, etc., etc. etc., so yes, the stores are open, but the shelves are empty.
And while the restaurants could theoretically stay open to deliver food (yeah, right, in NYC, where one of the more dangerous jobs is pizza delivery man), according to the news this morning, and this should come as no surprise, they have opted to close completely.
So remove that source of food from the list.
And of course there are no stories of people starving yet, MJM, that we have heard of, because people take more than overnight without food to starve.
As to food riots in NYC (HUSH, DON’T SAY ANYTHING TO SCARE PEOPLE) the New York City Food Riot of 1917 were a series of demonstrations and riots which began on February 19, 1917, after a mob composed mostly of women confronted store and pushcart owners over the raising of prices following the shortages of World War I.
And in San Francisco, where people have been ordered by the “authorities” to “shelter in place” (where do all the homeless people in SF shelter in place – park bench?), 911 has been deluged with calls from people who heard their neighbor coughing.
When stores all over America selling food to feed the people of America have no food on their shelves due to whatever, panic buying, or speculators looking to hoard and gouge, what exactly is it that people eat to survive on then?
Rats?
A lot of them in NYC, for sure.
Cats?
Dogs?
Stuart Bell says
Airplanes spread this wuhan Flu all over the world. Has China apologized yet? Have the Airlines apologized yet?
Hell, I am still waiting on a thank you from General Motors for bailing their sorry behinds out.
Amelia Mary Earhart says
The Airlines spread this to the whole world, and now they have the balls to ask for a bail-out. They should be apologizing for their unforgivable behavior.
Manfred von Richthofen says
I would not give them the sweat off my balls if they were thirsty. Just look at what airplanes have done to us in the last 60 days. The Chinese Virus could never have spread without their assistance.
Paul Plante says
SCREECH SCREECH SCREECH IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING AND RUN FOR YOUR LIVES AND SHELTER IN PLACE BECAUSE WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE OF COVID!
Coronavirus cases have reached 1,374 in New York, and 12 people have died as of Tuesday, according to state data.
Paul Plante says
At least 4,281 cases of COVID have been confirmed in the U.S. along with more than 70 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has a population of 330 million.
According to the United Nations World Population Prospects report, approximately 7,452 people die every day in the United States.
In other words, a person dies in the US approximately every 12 seconds.
Chicken Little says
THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paul Plante says
Shout it out loud and clear, Chicken Little, so EVERYBODY can hear you.
Incredible.
The motor of the world is stopping.
Still empty shelves in the market up this way in APPALACHIA where I am.
Developers come out into the country and build these old-age homes where elderly people can have their own apartment, so long as they can fend for themselves, which means cooking their own meals.
Vans come and bring them to the market once a week, because there are no services around where these old-age homes are located.
So the old people are going to get picked up by the van and be brought to the market where they will find no food waiting for them.
But they are old and poor and without political clout or protection, so that is the way it goes.
In the meantime, we POOR WHITE TRASH up here to the north of New York City read with interest an article put out by some law firm commenting on the HYSTERIA and CHAOS unleashed by the clearly panicked Democratic Socialist strongman of the EMPIRE state Young Andy Cuomo, who is clearly playing way outside of his limited level of competence here, entitled “New York State and City Issue COVID-19 Guidance on Monitoring, Quarantines, and Testing” by Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper, Susan Gross Sholinsky, and Steven Swirsky of Epstein Becker & Green on March 13, 2020, where we who have no food on our store shelves learned as follows, to wit:
New York State has responded to a significant increase in cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) in the state with numerous press briefings and actions by the government.
Moreover, on March 7, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19.
On March 10, 2020, Governor Cuomo also created a “containment area” with a one-mile radius in New Rochelle (in Westchester County).
The National Guard will be assisting with testing and delivering food to quarantined homes.
end quotes
Andy Cuomo believes that the national guard is his private army, and so they are, as we can see from the above, where he has them delivering food to people in New Rochelle, which during the 1930s was the wealthiest city per capita in New York state and the third wealthiest in the country.
So why doesn’t Cuomo have the national guard bringing food to the elderly up here, one might wonder, but only for a moment, because it is all about money and clout as to who gets the attention of Andy Cuomo and who doesn’t.
As Hillary Clinton famously said when she was senator from New York when asked why she never went north of Westchester County, NY’s equivalent of Virginia’s Loudoun County or Arlington County or Prince William County, “there is NO money in upstate,” and upstate does not vote for New York City hack politicians like Young Andy Cuomo, while in the years between 2015-2018, there were 39,076 contributions in New Rochelle totaling $15,955,291 to Democratic and liberal campaigns, with the Political Climate in New Rochelle, NY being considered moderately liberal, while in Westchester County, NY 64.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 31.2% voted Republican, and the remaining 3.9% voted Independent, and Westchester county voted Democratic in the previous five Presidential elections, and in the last Presidential election, Westchester county remained strongly Democratic, 64.9% to 31.2%.
So, New Rochelle is loyal, and as a result, it gets to have the national guard serving as a food delivery service for them, to make sure the quality folks don’t starve like the POOR WHITE TRASH further north are going to be allowed by Cuomo, an extremely thin-skinned hack lawyer turned hack politician, who is vindictive and combative towards those he perceives as his political enemies, which include those of us who don’t buy his political protection on the never-ending “installment” plan.
So shout it out Chicken Little, the sky is indeed falling, someplace, anyway.
I think I stabbhed my tow on a piece of it just this morning, as a matter of fact.
Of course, it might just as well have been a rock, but better safe than sorry, as the saying goes, so call it a piece of the sky, just in case it wasn’t really a rock at all.
Foxy Loxy says
If anyone is interested, I have a very safe cave that will fit everyone.
Peter Simpson says
Wayne – have you read this?
https://medium.com/@Jason_Scott_Warner/the-sober-math-everyone-must-understand-about-the-pandemic-2b0145881993
Paul Plante says
This is one hell of a time to have a plethora of real stupid and ignorant hack politicians crapping in their pants in charge of how we deal with this COVID, which has now killed I think 108 Americans who were already in bad health and were dying of something else before the cause was listed as COVID, instead.
Does it make sense to destroy the economy of an entire nation and put the lives of 330 million people in jeopardy due to food shortages because of a disease that has killed 108 people and made 6,000 people out of 330 million sick?
Apparently, the panicked and insane hack politicians in charge of things think so, if it can be said that people who are crapping in their pants in fear are capable of thinking, which I doubt.
Never in my life have I seen something so stupid as it going on right now with this COVID insanity.
How I miss little Greta Thunberg and her climate change hysteria.
Paul Plante says
So, okay, here we go: for those of you who don’t know the author of the article Peter Simpson has referred us all to above here, the dude is analytical and metered, and he doesn’t freak out nor does he respond emotionally, nor does he post a bunch of bull**** or political or controversial stuff on Facebook.
To the contrary, the dude founded and is the CEO of a successful software company that provides SaaS based data, analytics, and dashboards to recruiting departments at companies we all know.
And as we would expect, the dude is data driven and fact based, and before founding his company, the dude held executive roles leading very large recruiting teams at some of the world’s fastest growing companies such as Starbucks and Google, and at Google, the dude was fortunate enough to report to Sheryl Sandberg before she took the Facebook COO role.
The dude was a Chemical Engineering major in college and has a business degree from a top undergraduate business school and the dude is not one for hyperbole or histrionics, and his bull**** factor is close to zero.
The dude is sharing all this personal information only to help us understand that the dude is not a journalist, and he’s here to tell you the whole truth about what is happening with the pandemic and explain the math in simple terms, because that’s why many people do not understand what is happening with the pandemic to the degree required.
As for me in comparison, I’m a qualified public health engineer who is over 70, and who has seen many health scares in my lifetime, including polio, which as friend had, rheumatic fever, which a friend had, scarlet fever, the flu, and never have I seen or experienced such hysteria and fear-mongering and insanity as is going on now with this COVID scare which has literally turned the world upside down for people, and has sent them reeling.
And now, in addition to the opinions of the butcher, the baker and the candle stick maker, and thanks to the wonders of the internet Al Gore bequeathed to us out of the goodness of his heart, we can get the real straight skinny on COVID and what to do about straight from the mouth of a dude who was fortunate enough to report to Sheryl Sandberg before she took the Facebook COO role.
So, okay.
From a public health perspective, and here I am talking really health maintenance from a public health engineer’s standpoint, in an ideal, fully-functioning, non-politically corrupt health care system designed to keep people healthy, instead of profiting off them when they are sick, we would want people going into this COVID episode as knowledgeable as possible, and as calm as possible, for the simple reason that when we’re stressed, and boy, are people stressed now, in large part due to the fear-mongering of hack politicians like New York state’s Young Andy Cuomo, the human immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is reduced which is why when we are stressed as is the case now with the hysteria and ijnsano9ity and uncertainty, we are more susceptible to infections like COVID, and that is because the stress hormone corticosteroid can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system (e.g. lowers the number of lymphocytes).
And then, there is this reality with respect to forcing social isolation on people, to wit:
Loneliness is a serious health risk.
Social isolation impairs immune function and boosts inflammation, which can lead to arthritis, type II diabetes, and heart disease.
end quotes
So, now there you are, along with your family, all isolated from each other as best as you can be, and it is March, and in many parts of the country, the houses are already full of stale air, and now, you put people in there 24/7 and unless there is some kind of ventilation of outside air into the room, that air the people are breathing becomes another health hazard.
And anxiety caused by it, the confinement, can trigger your flight-or-fight stress response and release a flood of chemicals and hormones, like adrenaline, into your system, which can weaken your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to viral infections and frequent illnesses.
So I for one am not going to follow the advice of the CEO dude, thank you very much, because I think following that advice would leave me very weak and ill and more susceptible to COVID because of a weak immune system.
When there is a serious health threat, it makes little sense to face it in a weak state.
With respect to this COVID, there’s basic biology about the impact of the novel coronavirus on the way lungs function which everyone concerned about their health and well-being should consider
More severe covid-19 infections often feature pneumonia, an infection in the lungs that causes swelling and sometimes difficulty breathing.
Some of those cases worsen further and produce acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, in which fluid in the lungs blocks breathing, requiring intensive care and sometimes leading to death.
Research shows that smokers tend to be more prone to pneumonia, including its most severe and deadly forms.
Air pollution, too, has been linked to a greater risk of respiratory infection.
One reason, says John Balmes, a professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, is cells in our lungs known as “alveolar macrophages.”
They remove particles, microbes and bacteria that make their way deep into the airways.
But pollution particles slow down the alveolar macrophages.
“Inorganic carbon particles, which they can’t kill, they just accumulate in the macrophages,” Balmes said.
“So the macrophages get a little bit sick, and they’re not as good at fighting infection.”
At the same time, white blood cells, which also battle infection, “are also interfered with by a lot of air pollution exposure.”
The coronavirus could amplify the existing strain on the lungs from smoking and air pollution, said Christopher Carlsten, who heads the respiratory medicine division at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Medicine.
“When you’ve already started the inflammatory machinery of the lungs, when you have another insult on top of it, it simply sets up a situation where you’ve kind of got a two hit scenario,” he said.
Which is why I am outside doing t’ai chi, an ancient Chinese health maintenance system with which to fight what Trump calls the “invisible enemy” that he has named the “Chinese Virus,” so as to keep my immune system as strong as possible, and to open my chest so I am breathing deep into my lungs, as opposed to the shallow breathing of people confined indoors who are not moving, not exercising, which then allows whatever contaminants are in the air in the closed room to stay deep in the lungs precisely because people who are anxious tend to breathe in their upper lungs (upper chest) with shallow, rapid breaths, instead of breathing into their lower lungs (lower chest).
MJM says
I am not a Dr. I am an aquaculture clam farmer. There are a lot of reports/theories and reactions going on with this covid19. It is all happening very quickly and the spreading is apparently exponential. I try to hopefully learn the necessary important information to remain healthy and to be educated to the entire situation.
I understand the fear that is occurring. It’s as if someone just unleashed a 100 m.p.h. fastball at my head. I ducked in time but it was a bit of a fear as it flew by. At the same time, as of this a.m. 3/20, there are no cases reported to The Commonwealth listed as being here in Accomac or Northampton. I just now searched for a county by county report and found one from the Commonwealth. Feel free to alleviate fears and false rumors. I like to find reasons to think positive.
I do not understand the panic. Letting that overwhelm practical thought to destroy rational acts accomplishes nothing positive, but I don’t control what people do. I just wish it would stop.
I have already opined here of the origin of this virus, and I am now writing to say it appears the 1st reports I believed were incorrect. While the virus did come from Wuhan China, it appears the first reports I believed were deduced from circumstances, and not fact based. Many researchers reporting on a “Modern Healthcare” website are reporting this did not come from a laboratory. Now that some time has passed, and there has been time for study, these researchers have conducted “a comparative genomic analysis” whatever that is) just a few days ago, and have concluded that this corona virus is a naturally occurring strain.
I also want to say that many of the recommendations we read are from people who are stuck in a densely populated area with reported cases, which does change what needs to be addressed as far as a responsible reaction or protection. Vigilance and concern does need to be more intense there.
I do not understand criticizing our leaders for the way they are attacking this virus. I believe, that from everything we are reading, that if we do not take drastic steps to protect each other this may indeed become the worst virus to ever attack the world. While the shut down of our economy is horrible, and I can’t sell clam 1 right now, I think if we let this run amuck, we all get sick AND THEN the economy collapses. Reducing the sickness is a better idea.
I remember back to H1N1 and I wish more was done then. An emergency was declared but the virus was not attacked by our leaders like this. I think we lost almost 13K souls back then. This virus is being called 4X as easily spreadable I believe. What we will we think of our H1N1 leaders if we end up losing less people now ? Will we then think these leaders are fear mongering hack politicians ?
I have always called myself a “socially responsible independent republicrat” so please don’t waste thought on party politics here.
In closing, I don’t waste my thoughts on any of the racial words being thrown around by some these days either. When I go to what is called “An Italian Bistro” on Pleasure House Rd, I don’t think I’m being racist by thanking Annamaria for her wonderful Italian food. When I go to a Greek Restaurant I think there is noting wrong with calling that Greek Food. When I buy a bottle of Bacardi Rum I don’t think there is anything wrong with calling that Jamaican Rum. Therefore for anyone to criticize Pres. Trump, and say he is racist, for calling this a Chinese virus, well they just don’t have their eye on the ball.
In closing, I think the best comment I have heard in here BY FAR came from Foxy Loxy. I wish she was my neighbor !
Paul Plante says
People hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest.
Stuart Bell says
I started calling it the Chinese Virus as soon as I heard it bothered them.
Paul Plante says
This COVID HYSTERIA, which frankly has many of us CCM readers nostalgic for the more simple days of little Greta Thunberg and CLIMATE CHANGE HYSTERIA, gets more incredible by the day and is like something from straight out of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, with civilized society literally collapsing all around us as Gavin Newsome, a hack politician in California with no public health credentials or experience who attended Santa Clara University on a partial baseball scholarship, where he graduated in 1989 with a B.S. in political science, has ordered the people of the state of chaos on the west coast otherwise known as California to stay indoors and not go out for the duration of this COVID scare which has now killed 218 people in America out of a population of 330 million people.
Since California is where a lot of this nation’s food is raised, one can only wonder at that adverse impact that order will have on the nation’s future food supply, and the ways things are in this nation with a plethora of panicked hack politicians in charge, I would bet that question hasn’t even been considered.
I would not at all be surprised to hear next that Kip Chalmers, a Washington man who has decided to run for election as Legislator from California, while on the way to a campaign rally, was aboard a Taggart Transcontinental train that encountered a split rail, resulting in the destruction of its diesel engine, and that his subsequent demands lead to a coal-burning steam engine being attached to his train in its stead and used to pull it through an eight-mile tunnel with the result of the suffocation of all passengers and the destruction of the Taggart Tunnel, at which time, Emma Chalmers, Kip Chalmers’ mother, gained some political influence as a Democrat in California after his death.
Known as “Kip’s Ma,” we will hear that she started a soybean-growing project in Louisiana and commandeered thousands of railroad freight cars to move the harvest so that as a result, the year’s wheat crop from Minnesota never reaches the rest of the country, but instead rots in storage; also, the soybean crop is lost, having been reaped too early.
Overnight, we have become a third-world nation.
Paul Plante says
A coronavirus is the name for a large set of illnesses, including the common cold and other respiratory infections.
Written By Emily Landon, MD, an infectious disease specialist and hospital epidemiologist at the University of Chicago Medicine, March 18, 2020
Paul Plante says
ScienceDaily
COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin
Date: March 17, 2020
Source: Scripps Research Institute
Summary: An analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered.
The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year and has since caused a large scale COVID-19 epidemic and spread to more than 70 other countries is the product of natural evolution, according to findings published today in the journal Nature Medicine.
The analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered.
“By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes,” said Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research and corresponding author on the paper.
In addition to Andersen, authors on the paper, “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2,” include Robert F. Garry, of Tulane University; Edward Holmes, of the University of Sydney; Andrew Rambaut, of University of Edinburgh; W. Ian Lipkin, of Columbia University.
Shortly after the epidemic began, Chinese scientists sequenced the genome of SARS-CoV-2 and made the data available to researchers worldwide.
The resulting genomic sequence data has shown that Chinese authorities rapidly detected the epidemic and that the number of COVID-19 cases have been increasing because of human to human transmission after a single introduction into the human population.
Andersen and collaborators at several other research institutions used this sequencing data to explore the origins and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 by focusing in on several tell-tale features of the virus.
The scientists analyzed the genetic template for spike proteins, armatures on the outside of the virus that it uses to grab and penetrate the outer walls of human and animal cells.
More specifically, they focused on two important features of the spike protein: the receptor-binding domain (RBD), a kind of grappling hook that grips onto host cells, and the cleavage site, a molecular can opener that allows the virus to crack open and enter host cells.
Evidence for natural evolution
The scientists found that the RBD portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins had evolved to effectively target a molecular feature on the outside of human cells called ACE2, a receptor involved in regulating blood pressure.
The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was so effective at binding the human cells, in fact, that the scientists concluded it was the result of natural selection and not the product of genetic engineering.
This evidence for natural evolution was supported by data on SARS-CoV-2’s backbone — its overall molecular structure.
If someone were seeking to engineer a new coronavirus as a pathogen, they would have constructed it from the backbone of a virus known to cause illness.
But the scientists found that the SARS-CoV-2 backbone differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.
“These two features of the virus, the mutations in the RBD portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, rules out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2” said Andersen.
osie Golding, PhD, epidemics lead at UK-based Wellcome Trust, said the findings by Andersen and his colleagues are “crucially important to bring an evidence-based view to the rumors that have been circulating about the origins of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) causing COVID-19.”
“They conclude that the virus is the product of natural evolution,” Goulding adds, “ending any speculation about deliberate genetic engineering.”
Possible origins of the virus
Based on their genomic sequencing analysis, Andersen and his collaborators concluded that the most likely origins for SARS-CoV-2 followed one of two possible scenarios.
In one scenario, the virus evolved to its current pathogenic state through natural selection in a non-human host and then jumped to humans.
This is how previous coronavirus outbreaks have emerged, with humans contracting the virus after direct exposure to civets (SARS) and camels (MERS).
In this scenario, both of the distinctive features of SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein — the RBD portion that binds to cells and the cleavage site that opens the virus up — would have evolved to their current state prior to entering humans.
In this case, the current epidemic would probably have emerged rapidly as soon as humans were infected, as the virus would have already evolved the features that make it pathogenic and able to spread between people.
In the other proposed scenario, a non-pathogenic version of the virus jumped from an animal host into humans and then evolved to its current pathogenic state within the human population.
For instance, some coronaviruses from pangolins, armadillo-like mammals found in Asia and Africa, have an RBD structure very similar to that of SARS-CoV-2.
A coronavirus from a pangolin could possibly have been transmitted to a human, either directly or through an intermediary host such as civets or ferrets.
Then the other distinct spike protein characteristic of SARS-CoV-2, the cleavage site, could have evolved within a human host, possibly via limited undetected circulation in the human population prior to the beginning of the epidemic.
The researchers found that the SARS-CoV-2 cleavage site, appears similar to the cleavage sites of strains of bird flu that has been shown to transmit easily between people.
SARS-CoV-2 could have evolved such a virulent cleavage site in human cells and soon kicked off the current epidemic, as the coronavirus would possibly have become far more capable of spreading between people.
Study co-author Andrew Rambaut cautioned that it is difficult if not impossible to know at this point which of the scenarios is most likely.
If the SARS-CoV-2 entered humans in its current pathogenic form from an animal source, it raises the probability of future outbreaks, as the illness-causing strain of the virus could still be circulating in the animal population and might once again jump into humans.
The chances are lower of a non-pathogenic coronavirus entering the human population and then evolving properties similar to SARS-CoV-2.
Journal Reference:
1.Kristian G. Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, W. Ian Lipkin, Edward C. Holmes, Robert F. Garry. The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. Nature Medicine, 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0820-9
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 … 175442.htm