Doctor Dispels Coronavirus Fears
‘99.8 Percent of People Get Through this with Little to No Progressive or Significant Disease’
Hannah Bleau
Breitbart News
Dr. Dan Erickson, owner of Accelerated Urgent Care, spoke at Monday’s “White Coat Summit” on Capitol Hill as part of a greater effort to extinguish fears surrounding the Chinese coronavirus and reminded the public that “99.8 percent of people get through this with little to no progressive or significant disease.”
Erickson addressed the dominant narrative of rising cases of the virus within the U.S. and pointed out that it is causing undue fear. “A case is a person, healthy, that tested positive. The vast majority. But the public hears cases and thinks, ‘Oh my goodness. These are sick people!’ No the vast majority — 99.8 percent of people get through this with little to no progressive or significant disease,” Erickson said.
The focus should not center on cases, he continued. Rather, the narrative should focus on hospitalizations and deaths that “are appropriately coded on a death certificate,” he said, stressing “appropriately coded.”
Showing posts with label Coronavirus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coronavirus. Show all posts
Friday, 31 July 2020
Saturday, 4 July 2020
Horror, Dishonesty and Hope
‘Wuhan Diary’ Documents Anger, Despair, And Hope
From A City In Lockdown
A Chinese woman's online diary of the struggle to survive in the epicenter of a global pandemic reveals the horror and dishonesty of communist Chinese authorities.
Helen Raleigh
The Federalist
A writer friend of mine once told me “writing is therapeutic.” As one of the more than 11 million residents locked down in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese writer Fang Fang probably felt the same way when she decided to record her experiences online daily during the lockdown.
She started posting entries on Jan. 25, two days after the Chinese government quarantined Wuhan and several nearby cities with a total population of 60 million. She entered her last entry on April 8, when the lockdown was formally lifted. These entries have now become a new book, titled Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City, translated into English by Michael Berry.
When reading this book, it’s important to keep in mind its original form and purpose. Fang Fang wrote her entries on Wechat, a popular messaging app in China. She usually wrote at the end of the day to summarize her anecdotal experiences, as well as information she learned from others online, in text messaging, and from phone calls.
Her writing style is very conversational and, as any diary, it was full of quotidian details, such as about the weather, food, and her dog. Because she didn’t plan to write a book initially, many entries give readers a sense of spontaneity: she simply wrote how she felt, whatever came to her mind that she deemed to be worth sharing, as well as things she needed to get off her chest.
Therefore, you won’t find well-crafted, sophisticated passages in this book. Some parts of the diary almost felt repetitive. At the same time, these shortcomings also made Fang Fang’s story endearing, and her experiences real to readers. When I read the book, I felt like I was in the same room with Fang Fang, who is about the same age as my mother, listening to her chat about her day.
From A City In Lockdown
A Chinese woman's online diary of the struggle to survive in the epicenter of a global pandemic reveals the horror and dishonesty of communist Chinese authorities.
Helen Raleigh
The Federalist
A writer friend of mine once told me “writing is therapeutic.” As one of the more than 11 million residents locked down in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese writer Fang Fang probably felt the same way when she decided to record her experiences online daily during the lockdown.
She started posting entries on Jan. 25, two days after the Chinese government quarantined Wuhan and several nearby cities with a total population of 60 million. She entered her last entry on April 8, when the lockdown was formally lifted. These entries have now become a new book, titled Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City, translated into English by Michael Berry.
When reading this book, it’s important to keep in mind its original form and purpose. Fang Fang wrote her entries on Wechat, a popular messaging app in China. She usually wrote at the end of the day to summarize her anecdotal experiences, as well as information she learned from others online, in text messaging, and from phone calls.
Her writing style is very conversational and, as any diary, it was full of quotidian details, such as about the weather, food, and her dog. Because she didn’t plan to write a book initially, many entries give readers a sense of spontaneity: she simply wrote how she felt, whatever came to her mind that she deemed to be worth sharing, as well as things she needed to get off her chest.
Therefore, you won’t find well-crafted, sophisticated passages in this book. Some parts of the diary almost felt repetitive. At the same time, these shortcomings also made Fang Fang’s story endearing, and her experiences real to readers. When I read the book, I felt like I was in the same room with Fang Fang, who is about the same age as my mother, listening to her chat about her day.
Monday, 29 June 2020
Damning Indictment of UK Government
These People Have No Idea What They Are Doing
By Jonathan (Lord) Sumption
DOES the Government have a policy for coronavirus? Indeed it does. In fact, it has several. One for each month of the year, all mutually inconsistent and none of them properly thought through. Sometimes, governments have to change tack. It shows that they are attending closely to a changing situation. But this crisis has exposed something different and more disturbing: a dysfunctional Government with a deep-seated incoherence at the heart of its decision-making processes.
The root of the problem is the uncomfortable relationship between the Government and its scientific advisers. The Government has repeatedly claimed to be 'guided by the science'. This has in practice been a shameless attempt to evade responsibility by passing the buck to scientists for what are ultimately political, and not scientific, decisions. Scientists can advise what measures are likely to reduce infections and deaths. Only politicians can decide whether those measures make sense in economic and social terms too.
Sage, the committee of scientists advising the Government, has been very clear about this, as the minutes of its meetings show. They are not willing to become the Government's human shield, or the fall-guys for its policy misjudgments.
Ministers press them for the kind of unequivocal answers that will protect them from criticism. Scientists cover themselves by giving equivocal answers, which reflect the uncertainty of the science. The Government responds by avoiding any decision for which it would have to take political responsibility, until the pressure of events becomes irresistible, when it lurches off in a new direction. Plan A was published on March 3. It concentrated on ensuring the provision of medical and other essential services. It relied on advice and guidance to the public, not coercion. The Government stood out against the authoritarian and indiscriminate measures which were being applied in Italy, and later in other European countries.
Plan B was an abrupt U-turn.
Wednesday, 10 June 2020
Wax-Nose "Truth"
Lancetgate Is a Humiliation for Trump’s Medical Critics
Nude Emperor Caught Out Once Again
James Delingpole
Breitbart News
The Lancet — one of the world’s oldest, best known, and most respected medical journals — has formally retracted a paper which claimed that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is ineffective and potentially dangerous in the treatment of Chinese coronavirus.
The paper — ‘Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis’ — received widespread publicity across the mainstream media because it was the biggest and most damning study about HCQ.
Supposedly based on the records of 96,032 patients in 671 hospitals, the study claimed that coronavirus patients who took HCQ were more likely to die than those who took nothing. It was so damning that the World Health Organization (WHO) immediately halted all its trials of HCQ. France banned its use altogether in treatments for Covid-19.
But arguably the main reason the study got so much publicity was because HCQ has been championed by President Donald Trump. Trump has admitted to taking HCQ himself as a prophylactic against the Chinese coronavirus. So here was a perfect opportunity for his many critics in the mainstream media to make him look ignorant and foolish.
This story by the BBC was fairly typical, headlined ‘Trump drug hydroxychloroquine raises death risk in Covid patients, study says’.
It began:
This antipathy towards Trump was very much shared by the Lancet, which, for 25 years, has been edited by a hard-left activist Richard Horton. As Rebecca Weisser notes in a piece for Spectator Australia, Horton has a long track record of championing fashionable leftist causes:
Horton and the Lancet are also, it goes almost without saying, fanatical proponents of the man-made global warming narrative.
Last month, the Lancet published an editorial urging Americans to “put a president in the White House…who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.” This month, however, it has been exposed as having engaged in what look very much like “partisan politics” itself. The way the Lancet has suddenly taken a paper of “such consequence” only to discard it “like a used tissue” has been described as ‘one of the most consequential retractions in modern history’.
Oddly it was the left-wing Guardian that blew the whistle.
A writer for its Australian edition, Melissa Davey, rang round Australian hospitals and found that the real Australian data did not tally with the claims made in the study. This raised serious questions about the credibility of Surgisphere, the hitherto unknown analytics company which had produced the study.
As the Guardian reported:
Why was a once-respected medical journal prepared to run a study from so dubious a source having apparently submitted it to so little scrutiny? As Toby Young, among others, argues at Lockdown Sceptics, the decision appears as if it had more to do with political activism than with disinterested science.
The question is, why did the “independent” fact-checkers fail to spot this bit of fake news when they’ve been so quick to jump on anything purporting to show HCQ is effective? Could it be that they’re not actually independent at all, but Establishment lackeys determined to discredit anything that suggests COVID-19 isn’t the deadly pathogen it’s made out to be by governments around the world, particularly if it emanates from the White House?
With suspiciously convenient timing, within 24 hours of the Lancet retraction, yet another study — from the University of Oxford, part of the so-called Recovery Trial — allegedly debunking hydroxychloroquine was publicised in the mainstream media.
In the Telegraph, the story was reported under the headline ‘Researchers halt trial into hydroxychloroquine after they found it was “useless” against coronavirus’.
Immediately underneath, an anti-Trump standfirst:
Of course it’s quite possible that the many doctors (such as France’s Didier Raoult) who claim to have used HCQ successfully as a treatment for Covid-19 — often in conjunction with zinc — may yet be confounded by a definitive study.
But it’s equally possible that Trump — and those doctors — may yet be vindicated.
Nude Emperor Caught Out Once Again
James Delingpole
Breitbart News
The Lancet — one of the world’s oldest, best known, and most respected medical journals — has formally retracted a paper which claimed that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is ineffective and potentially dangerous in the treatment of Chinese coronavirus.
The paper — ‘Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis’ — received widespread publicity across the mainstream media because it was the biggest and most damning study about HCQ.
Supposedly based on the records of 96,032 patients in 671 hospitals, the study claimed that coronavirus patients who took HCQ were more likely to die than those who took nothing. It was so damning that the World Health Organization (WHO) immediately halted all its trials of HCQ. France banned its use altogether in treatments for Covid-19.
But arguably the main reason the study got so much publicity was because HCQ has been championed by President Donald Trump. Trump has admitted to taking HCQ himself as a prophylactic against the Chinese coronavirus. So here was a perfect opportunity for his many critics in the mainstream media to make him look ignorant and foolish.
This story by the BBC was fairly typical, headlined ‘Trump drug hydroxychloroquine raises death risk in Covid patients, study says’.
It began:
The drug U.S. President Donald Trump said he was taking to ward off Covid-19 actually increases the risk of patients with the disease dying from it, a study in the Lancet has found.In other words, the MSM was in no doubt where the real significance of the Lancet study lay: it represented a humiliation for Trump. Trump’s ideological enemies were quite unable to hide their glee. Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tweeted that “the science is clear and the president, as usual is dangerously wrong”.
This antipathy towards Trump was very much shared by the Lancet, which, for 25 years, has been edited by a hard-left activist Richard Horton. As Rebecca Weisser notes in a piece for Spectator Australia, Horton has a long track record of championing fashionable leftist causes:
Horton’s causes célèbres include publishing an inflated Iraq War death toll, a letter on Gaza from pro-Hamas doctors and calling for physicians to join Extinction Rebellion.
Horton and the Lancet are also, it goes almost without saying, fanatical proponents of the man-made global warming narrative.
Last month, the Lancet published an editorial urging Americans to “put a president in the White House…who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.” This month, however, it has been exposed as having engaged in what look very much like “partisan politics” itself. The way the Lancet has suddenly taken a paper of “such consequence” only to discard it “like a used tissue” has been described as ‘one of the most consequential retractions in modern history’.
Oddly it was the left-wing Guardian that blew the whistle.
A writer for its Australian edition, Melissa Davey, rang round Australian hospitals and found that the real Australian data did not tally with the claims made in the study. This raised serious questions about the credibility of Surgisphere, the hitherto unknown analytics company which had produced the study.
As the Guardian reported:
- A search of publicly available material suggests several of Surgisphere’s employees have little or no data or scientific background. An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist whose professional profile suggests writing is her fulltime job. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess, who also acts in videos for organisations.
- The company’s LinkedIn page has fewer than 100 followers and last week listed just six employees. This was changed to three employees as of Wednesday.
- While Surgisphere claims to run one of the largest and fastest hospital databases in the world, it has almost no online presence. Its Twitter handle has fewer than 170 followers, with no posts between October 2017 and March 2020.
- Until Monday, the “get in touch” link on Surgisphere’s homepage redirected to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website, raising questions about how hospitals could easily contact the company to join its database.
- Desai has been named in three medical malpractice suits, unrelated to the Surgisphere database. In an interview with the Scientist, Desai previously described the allegations as “unfounded”.
- In 2008, Desai launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo promoting a wearable “next generation human augmentation device that can help you achieve what you never thought was possible”. The device never came to fruition.
- Desai’s Wikipedia page has been deleted following questions about Surgisphere and his history, first raised in 2010.
Why was a once-respected medical journal prepared to run a study from so dubious a source having apparently submitted it to so little scrutiny? As Toby Young, among others, argues at Lockdown Sceptics, the decision appears as if it had more to do with political activism than with disinterested science.
The question is, why did the “independent” fact-checkers fail to spot this bit of fake news when they’ve been so quick to jump on anything purporting to show HCQ is effective? Could it be that they’re not actually independent at all, but Establishment lackeys determined to discredit anything that suggests COVID-19 isn’t the deadly pathogen it’s made out to be by governments around the world, particularly if it emanates from the White House?
With suspiciously convenient timing, within 24 hours of the Lancet retraction, yet another study — from the University of Oxford, part of the so-called Recovery Trial — allegedly debunking hydroxychloroquine was publicised in the mainstream media.
In the Telegraph, the story was reported under the headline ‘Researchers halt trial into hydroxychloroquine after they found it was “useless” against coronavirus’.
Immediately underneath, an anti-Trump standfirst:
‘This could be the end of the road for a drug touted as a ‘game-changer’ by U.S. president Donald Trump’.Well it could. Except, almost immediately, doubts were being raised about the reliability of this trial too, especially with regard to the dosage of HCQ used.
Of course it’s quite possible that the many doctors (such as France’s Didier Raoult) who claim to have used HCQ successfully as a treatment for Covid-19 — often in conjunction with zinc — may yet be confounded by a definitive study.
But it’s equally possible that Trump — and those doctors — may yet be vindicated.
Wednesday, 20 May 2020
The Church Punished By Inconsistent, Prejudiced Politicians
Invercargill Reverend Calls For Ability to Worship Together
Damian Rowe
Stuff
First Presbyterian Church Reverend Nyalle Paris says people should now be able to worship in churches together. Under Covid-19 Alert Level 2, the Government has restricted public gatherings of groups larger than 10 people, which will reviewed by Cabinet on May 25.
However, cinemas, bars, restaurants and shops can operate and earlier this week the Government raised the limit of people able to attend funerals. Rev Paris said while the pandemic meant people were living in unprecedented times there had been no new coronavirus cases in the Southern District Health Board catchment area for weeks and it was time to allow some form of worship.
It seemed ironic that cinemas, cafés, bars and schools could open but the church could not, Rev Paris said. It was also against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding the freedom to religion, he said.
Damian Rowe
Stuff
First Presbyterian Church Reverend Nyalle Paris says people should now be able to worship in churches together. Under Covid-19 Alert Level 2, the Government has restricted public gatherings of groups larger than 10 people, which will reviewed by Cabinet on May 25.
However, cinemas, bars, restaurants and shops can operate and earlier this week the Government raised the limit of people able to attend funerals. Rev Paris said while the pandemic meant people were living in unprecedented times there had been no new coronavirus cases in the Southern District Health Board catchment area for weeks and it was time to allow some form of worship.
It seemed ironic that cinemas, cafés, bars and schools could open but the church could not, Rev Paris said. It was also against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding the freedom to religion, he said.
Friday, 15 May 2020
Weaponised Expectorate
London Railway Worker Dies
'Infected’ Man Spat in Her Face
Kurt Zindulka
Breitbart London
A 47-year-old mother died weeks after a man who claimed to have the Chinese coronavirus spat and coughed at her while she was working at a railway station in London.
On March 22, Belly Mujinga, a railway ticket office worker, was assaulted alongside her colleague by a man while the two were on duty at London Victoria station. The two women fell ill with symptoms of the coronavirus days after the attack.
Describing the horrific attack, her husband, Lusamba Gode Katalay said per ITV: “The man asked her what she was doing, why she was there, and she said they were working. The man said he had the virus and spat on them. They reported it to their supervisor. Belly came home and told me everything.”
Mujinga was hospitalised on April 2 and was put on a ventilator, yet tragically died three days after being admitted to the hospital.
'Infected’ Man Spat in Her Face
Kurt Zindulka
Breitbart London
A 47-year-old mother died weeks after a man who claimed to have the Chinese coronavirus spat and coughed at her while she was working at a railway station in London.
On March 22, Belly Mujinga, a railway ticket office worker, was assaulted alongside her colleague by a man while the two were on duty at London Victoria station. The two women fell ill with symptoms of the coronavirus days after the attack.
Describing the horrific attack, her husband, Lusamba Gode Katalay said per ITV: “The man asked her what she was doing, why she was there, and she said they were working. The man said he had the virus and spat on them. They reported it to their supervisor. Belly came home and told me everything.”
Mujinga was hospitalised on April 2 and was put on a ventilator, yet tragically died three days after being admitted to the hospital.
Saturday, 9 May 2020
Getting Things Right
Legal Challenge Over Coronavirus Lockdown
Cutting Corners, Even With the Best of Motives and Intentions, Is Unacceptable. It results in Governments Breaking the Law.
Thomas Coughlan
Stuff
Ashley Bloomfield might be heading to court to defend the lockdown after a legal challenge alleging he used powers he didn't have. Andrew Borrowdale, who formerly drafted laws for the Government at the Parliamentary Counsel Office has filed for a judicial review of Bloomfield's actions.
Borrowdale told Stuff that the "bringing the application is not in any way intended to impugn Dr Bloomfield personally or to decry his admirable work". He's asked for a court to declare that some of the powers triggering the lockdown were outside the law, and for the court to order those actions be quashed.
The main issue at stake is whether Bloomfield used powers that were in excess of the ones given to him by the Health Act. Bloomfield used section 70 of the Health Act to issue notices, which set out some of the rules that we know as the level 4 lockdown.
Borrowdale alleges that the notices overstep the powers that are given to Bloomfield by the Health Act. A Ministry of Health spokesperson said "The Ministry is satisfied that the section 70 powers have been exercised lawfully. "It would be inappropriate for the Ministry to comment further where the matter is before the courts".
Otago law professor Andrew Geddis said the case was asking the High Court to make a "determinative ruling on whether the Health Act gave the director-general the power to issue the notices that it did". Geddis said police had then arrested and charged people with breaching the order. [Emphasis, ours] “If the health act didn’t give the director-general that power, then all of those people who have been charged with those offences shouldn’t have been," he said.
Cutting Corners, Even With the Best of Motives and Intentions, Is Unacceptable. It results in Governments Breaking the Law.
Thomas Coughlan
Stuff
Ashley Bloomfield might be heading to court to defend the lockdown after a legal challenge alleging he used powers he didn't have. Andrew Borrowdale, who formerly drafted laws for the Government at the Parliamentary Counsel Office has filed for a judicial review of Bloomfield's actions.
Borrowdale told Stuff that the "bringing the application is not in any way intended to impugn Dr Bloomfield personally or to decry his admirable work". He's asked for a court to declare that some of the powers triggering the lockdown were outside the law, and for the court to order those actions be quashed.
The main issue at stake is whether Bloomfield used powers that were in excess of the ones given to him by the Health Act. Bloomfield used section 70 of the Health Act to issue notices, which set out some of the rules that we know as the level 4 lockdown.
Borrowdale alleges that the notices overstep the powers that are given to Bloomfield by the Health Act. A Ministry of Health spokesperson said "The Ministry is satisfied that the section 70 powers have been exercised lawfully. "It would be inappropriate for the Ministry to comment further where the matter is before the courts".
Otago law professor Andrew Geddis said the case was asking the High Court to make a "determinative ruling on whether the Health Act gave the director-general the power to issue the notices that it did". Geddis said police had then arrested and charged people with breaching the order. [Emphasis, ours] “If the health act didn’t give the director-general that power, then all of those people who have been charged with those offences shouldn’t have been," he said.
Thursday, 30 April 2020
The Coronavirus Fatality Rate
Looks Like Trump Was Right
Two new studies suggest that President Trump was right in early March when he guessed the fatality rate for coronavirus is under 1 percent.
David Marcus
The Federalist
In early March, President Donald Trump was lambasted for saying on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show that he had a hunch the coronavirus fatality rate, which the World Health Organization pegged then at 3 to 4 percent, was in fact much lower, under 1 percent. Many commentators, myself included pointed out that the beginning of a pandemic medical crisis was not the time to be floating hunches. But, as we always knew was possible, it looks now like the president might well have been right.
New data from random antibody tests conducted in New York State suggest that as many as 2.7 million people statewide have had the coronavirus. That along with the just over 15,000 deaths that have occurred leads to a fatality rate for the virus of .5 percent according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Here is what Trump said on March 4:
While this data is preliminary, it is backed up by another study in Los Angeles that found 40 times more people had carried the virus then were previously known. This dropped the fatality rate in LA from 4.5 percent to .1-.3 percent.
It is difficult to stress how important these findings are.
Two new studies suggest that President Trump was right in early March when he guessed the fatality rate for coronavirus is under 1 percent.
David Marcus
The Federalist
In early March, President Donald Trump was lambasted for saying on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show that he had a hunch the coronavirus fatality rate, which the World Health Organization pegged then at 3 to 4 percent, was in fact much lower, under 1 percent. Many commentators, myself included pointed out that the beginning of a pandemic medical crisis was not the time to be floating hunches. But, as we always knew was possible, it looks now like the president might well have been right.
New data from random antibody tests conducted in New York State suggest that as many as 2.7 million people statewide have had the coronavirus. That along with the just over 15,000 deaths that have occurred leads to a fatality rate for the virus of .5 percent according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Here is what Trump said on March 4:
“Well, I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number. Now, and this is just my hunch, and — but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. Because a lot people will have this and it’s very mild. They’ll get better very rapidly. They don’t even see a doctor. They don’t even call a doctor.”He went on to say:
“I think that that number (the WHO number) is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1 percent.”Democrats and media pundits blasted Trump for spreading “misinformation.”
While this data is preliminary, it is backed up by another study in Los Angeles that found 40 times more people had carried the virus then were previously known. This dropped the fatality rate in LA from 4.5 percent to .1-.3 percent.
It is difficult to stress how important these findings are.
Tuesday, 28 April 2020
Who Is Running the Asylum?
Waging War Upon the U.S. Health Care System
Across the country, hospitals shut down 'non-essential' procedures in preparation for a surge of coronavirus patients that never appeared.
John Daniel Davidson
The Federalist
When the lockdowns began last month, we were told that if we didn’t stay home our hospitals would be overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, intensive care wards would be overrun, there wouldn’t be enough ventilators, and some people would probably die in their homes for lack of care. To maintain capacity in the health-care system, we all had to go on lockdown—not just the big cities, but everywhere.
So we stayed home, businesses closed, and tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs. But with the exception of New York City, the overwhelming surge of coronavirus patients never really appeared—at least not in the predicted numbers, which have been off by hundreds of thousands.
During a press conference Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that health experts initially projected 465,000 Floridians would be hospitalized because of coronavirus by April 24. But as of April 22, the number is slightly more than 2,000.
Even in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last month he would need 30,000 ventilators, hospitals never came close to needing that many. The projected peak need was about 5,000, and actual usage may have been even lower.
Other overflow measures have also proven unnecessary.
Across the country, hospitals shut down 'non-essential' procedures in preparation for a surge of coronavirus patients that never appeared.
John Daniel Davidson
The Federalist
When the lockdowns began last month, we were told that if we didn’t stay home our hospitals would be overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, intensive care wards would be overrun, there wouldn’t be enough ventilators, and some people would probably die in their homes for lack of care. To maintain capacity in the health-care system, we all had to go on lockdown—not just the big cities, but everywhere.
So we stayed home, businesses closed, and tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs. But with the exception of New York City, the overwhelming surge of coronavirus patients never really appeared—at least not in the predicted numbers, which have been off by hundreds of thousands.
During a press conference Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that health experts initially projected 465,000 Floridians would be hospitalized because of coronavirus by April 24. But as of April 22, the number is slightly more than 2,000.
Even in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last month he would need 30,000 ventilators, hospitals never came close to needing that many. The projected peak need was about 5,000, and actual usage may have been even lower.
Other overflow measures have also proven unnecessary.
Friday, 24 April 2020
Originating From Patient Zero More and More Likely
‘Costliest Government Coverup of All Time’
Growing Confidence among U.S. Officials That Coronavirus Emerged from Lab
By Tobias Hoonhout
National Review Online
U.S. intelligence has “increasing confidence” that the novel Wuhan coronavirus outbreak began in a lab that was researching bat-coronaviruses, contrary to China’s claim that the pandemic emerged from a Wuhan wet market, according to multiple sources that briefed Fox News.
The sources told Fox News that the initial transmission of the virus looks to be bat-to-human, and that “patient zero” contracted the disease while working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, before going into the general population. While the lab is China’s first to achieve the highest level of international bio-research safety, known as BSL-4, its work with bats had been conducted at the lower protection level of BSL-2.
President Trump did not deny the bombshell when asked about details during Wednesday’s coronavirus press conference. “More and more we’re hearing the story . . . we are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation,” he stated.
Sources also confirmed that China used the wet market theory, which was parroted by the World Health Organization, to disguise and deflect exploration into the origins of the virus.
Growing Confidence among U.S. Officials That Coronavirus Emerged from Lab
By Tobias Hoonhout
National Review Online
U.S. intelligence has “increasing confidence” that the novel Wuhan coronavirus outbreak began in a lab that was researching bat-coronaviruses, contrary to China’s claim that the pandemic emerged from a Wuhan wet market, according to multiple sources that briefed Fox News.
The sources told Fox News that the initial transmission of the virus looks to be bat-to-human, and that “patient zero” contracted the disease while working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, before going into the general population. While the lab is China’s first to achieve the highest level of international bio-research safety, known as BSL-4, its work with bats had been conducted at the lower protection level of BSL-2.
President Trump did not deny the bombshell when asked about details during Wednesday’s coronavirus press conference. “More and more we’re hearing the story . . . we are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation,” he stated.
Sources also confirmed that China used the wet market theory, which was parroted by the World Health Organization, to disguise and deflect exploration into the origins of the virus.
Thursday, 23 April 2020
If It Walks Like a Duck . . .
'This is Censorship'
Google suspends evangelical church's app for violating coronavirus 'sensitive events' policy
by Jon Brown
Washington Examiner
An app used by an evangelical church in Idaho to stream Bible lessons and sermons was suspended by Google when the tech giant deemed its content insensitive.
The ministers and staff at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, a college town about 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington, are weighing their options after Google refused to budge on its decision that the church's app violates the company's "Sensitive Events policy" amid the coronavirus outbreak.
".@GooglePlay suspended our app today," the church tweeted on Good Friday. Speculating that pastoral calls for repentance during the pandemic and "short lessons on responding faithfully to the COVID-19 crisis" could have singled them out, the church added a photo of the Google notification informing them, "We don't allow apps that lack reasonable sensitivity towards or capitalize on a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event." The Christ Church app was then scrubbed from the Google Play store, which leaves Android users unable to download it.
Christ Church later tweeted they had appealed Google's decree and had learned Google was suspending all apps related to the coronavirus.
Christ Church received a response to the appeal on Thursday, which reiterated that their app was deemed in violation of the Sensitive Events policy and would not be reinstated until all references to COVID-19 were removed. Google then directed them to a webpage offering examples of "common violations."
Ben Zornes, who has been an executive minister at Christ Church for four years, told the Washington Examiner, "So, essentially, merely referencing COVID-19 is putting us out of compliance with their 'Sensitive Events' policy. We are now evaluating the best way forward as we believe this is censorship, and wrong-headed.
Google suspends evangelical church's app for violating coronavirus 'sensitive events' policy
by Jon Brown
Washington Examiner
An app used by an evangelical church in Idaho to stream Bible lessons and sermons was suspended by Google when the tech giant deemed its content insensitive.
The ministers and staff at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, a college town about 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington, are weighing their options after Google refused to budge on its decision that the church's app violates the company's "Sensitive Events policy" amid the coronavirus outbreak.
".@GooglePlay suspended our app today," the church tweeted on Good Friday. Speculating that pastoral calls for repentance during the pandemic and "short lessons on responding faithfully to the COVID-19 crisis" could have singled them out, the church added a photo of the Google notification informing them, "We don't allow apps that lack reasonable sensitivity towards or capitalize on a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event." The Christ Church app was then scrubbed from the Google Play store, which leaves Android users unable to download it.
Christ Church later tweeted they had appealed Google's decree and had learned Google was suspending all apps related to the coronavirus.
Christ Church received a response to the appeal on Thursday, which reiterated that their app was deemed in violation of the Sensitive Events policy and would not be reinstated until all references to COVID-19 were removed. Google then directed them to a webpage offering examples of "common violations."
Ben Zornes, who has been an executive minister at Christ Church for four years, told the Washington Examiner, "So, essentially, merely referencing COVID-19 is putting us out of compliance with their 'Sensitive Events' policy. We are now evaluating the best way forward as we believe this is censorship, and wrong-headed.
Thursday, 19 March 2020
Marching To the Beat of a Very Different Drummer
The Christian's Response To Wuhan Coronavirus
Leaving the medical advice to the professionals, I can still offer one piece of guidance for Christians: Rest in the care of your Creator.
Daniel Torkelson
The Federalist
Watching the nation as it struggles to understand any pandemic has always given me pause to consider whether Christians really know how to think like Christians in a matter such as this. We, as God’s people, seem all too easily carried up in the same speculative panic that rules the minds of many when a crisis such as the Wuhan coronavirus manifests itself.
In the Bible’s book of Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
This seems to indicate Christ does not want us to panic. We have opportunities during this time to model the Christian difference and to demonstrate how this gospel of ours is a better message than any other.
Leaving the medical advice to the professionals, I can still offer one piece of guidance for Christians: Rest in the care of your Creator.
Daniel Torkelson
The Federalist
Watching the nation as it struggles to understand any pandemic has always given me pause to consider whether Christians really know how to think like Christians in a matter such as this. We, as God’s people, seem all too easily carried up in the same speculative panic that rules the minds of many when a crisis such as the Wuhan coronavirus manifests itself.
In the Bible’s book of Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
This seems to indicate Christ does not want us to panic. We have opportunities during this time to model the Christian difference and to demonstrate how this gospel of ours is a better message than any other.
Wednesday, 18 March 2020
Lessons for NZ; WHO Credibility in Tatters
Learning From Taiwan’s Success Containing Coronavirus
At this critical period when the publicly feared coronavirus is amplifying in numbers worldwide, it’s clear the Taiwanese government has done something right in its containment measures.
Helen Raleigh
The Federalist
By any measure, Taiwan should have been the second-hardest-hit area of the coronavirus outbreak outside mainland China. Taiwan is less than 100 miles away from mainland China and receives an estimated 3 million mainland tourists annually. Furthermore, more than 1 million Taiwanese travel to mainland China each year.
The expansive travel volume across the Taiwan strait reached its peak during the recent lunar New Year celebration in January, as it always has. Yet this densely populated island of 23 million people has only 44 confirmed cases of the virus to date, and just one death so far. [Emphasis, ours.]
Taiwan hasn’t experienced the need to cancel schools nor lock down major cities. At this critical period when the publicly feared coronavirus is amplifying in numbers worldwide, it’s clear the Taiwanese government has done something right in its containment measures.
How did Taiwan do it?
At this critical period when the publicly feared coronavirus is amplifying in numbers worldwide, it’s clear the Taiwanese government has done something right in its containment measures.
Helen Raleigh
The Federalist
By any measure, Taiwan should have been the second-hardest-hit area of the coronavirus outbreak outside mainland China. Taiwan is less than 100 miles away from mainland China and receives an estimated 3 million mainland tourists annually. Furthermore, more than 1 million Taiwanese travel to mainland China each year.
The expansive travel volume across the Taiwan strait reached its peak during the recent lunar New Year celebration in January, as it always has. Yet this densely populated island of 23 million people has only 44 confirmed cases of the virus to date, and just one death so far. [Emphasis, ours.]
Taiwan hasn’t experienced the need to cancel schools nor lock down major cities. At this critical period when the publicly feared coronavirus is amplifying in numbers worldwide, it’s clear the Taiwanese government has done something right in its containment measures.
How did Taiwan do it?
Saturday, 14 March 2020
Trump Hit the Mark
Oval Office Address Was What The Country Needed
Calm, cool, collected, yet urgent, Trump's Oval Office remarks were an illustration in the kind of leadership Americans crave in moments of crisis.
Tristan Justice
The Federalist
President Donald Trump struck a different tone in his prime time address to the nation Wednesday night announcing new measures to combat the Wuhan virus pandemic, and urging Americans to heed the advice of public health officials to halt the spread. Calm, cool, collected, yet urgent, Trump’s Oval Office remarks were an illustration in the kind of presidential leadership Americans crave in moments of crisis.
Rather than downplaying the threat that the Wuhan virus presents, the president confronted the scale of the pandemic and acknowledged the challenges ahead while reassuring the American people that the nation would emerge with minimal harm despite a sinking stock market.
“We are marshalling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the American people,” Trump said. “This is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome as a nation and as a world.”
Americans look to the nation’s presidents in times of disaster and crises to provide comfort and leadership.
Calm, cool, collected, yet urgent, Trump's Oval Office remarks were an illustration in the kind of leadership Americans crave in moments of crisis.
Tristan Justice
The Federalist
President Donald Trump struck a different tone in his prime time address to the nation Wednesday night announcing new measures to combat the Wuhan virus pandemic, and urging Americans to heed the advice of public health officials to halt the spread. Calm, cool, collected, yet urgent, Trump’s Oval Office remarks were an illustration in the kind of presidential leadership Americans crave in moments of crisis.
Rather than downplaying the threat that the Wuhan virus presents, the president confronted the scale of the pandemic and acknowledged the challenges ahead while reassuring the American people that the nation would emerge with minimal harm despite a sinking stock market.
“We are marshalling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the American people,” Trump said. “This is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome as a nation and as a world.”
Americans look to the nation’s presidents in times of disaster and crises to provide comfort and leadership.
Friday, 13 March 2020
Wild Speculation Versus The Testimony of History
Its What We Don’t Know about the Coronavirus That Scares Us
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
The specter of a pandemic offers a timely warning to remember that we are not necessarily any more immune from volatile nature than were the ancients.
The recent spread of the coronavirus is causing a global panic. Our shared terror arises not so much from the death toll of the new flu-like disease — more than 3,000 people have died worldwide — but from what we don’t know about it.
Experts at least agree that the virus originated in China. But Beijing’s authoritarian government hid information about its origins, spread, and severity for weeks. Such duplicity only fanned the fears of a global plague — a hysteria not seen since the groundless fears of a Y2K global computer meltdown in the year 2000, or the political feeding frenzy during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
Wild speculation followed that the coronavirus was a virulent or mutated superbug. Had it arisen naturally or escaped from a nearby military lab? Did it originate from a sick lab animal? A conspiracy theory arose that it was a manufactured virus that had escaped from scientists’ botched efforts to create either a vaccine or a biological weapon.
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
The specter of a pandemic offers a timely warning to remember that we are not necessarily any more immune from volatile nature than were the ancients.
The recent spread of the coronavirus is causing a global panic. Our shared terror arises not so much from the death toll of the new flu-like disease — more than 3,000 people have died worldwide — but from what we don’t know about it.
Experts at least agree that the virus originated in China. But Beijing’s authoritarian government hid information about its origins, spread, and severity for weeks. Such duplicity only fanned the fears of a global plague — a hysteria not seen since the groundless fears of a Y2K global computer meltdown in the year 2000, or the political feeding frenzy during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
Wild speculation followed that the coronavirus was a virulent or mutated superbug. Had it arisen naturally or escaped from a nearby military lab? Did it originate from a sick lab animal? A conspiracy theory arose that it was a manufactured virus that had escaped from scientists’ botched efforts to create either a vaccine or a biological weapon.
Tuesday, 25 February 2020
The Need for a Medical Cure Increases
UK Declares Coronavirus ‘Serious and Imminent Threat’
Activates Emergency Powers
Oliver J J Lane
Breitbart London
The British government has declared Coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat”, a classification which gives the secretary of state for health emergency powers to detain people suspected of being infected, as four more cases emerge.
Until now, the roughly 250 Britons quarantined at two hospitals after arriving back into the United Kingdom from China have been in isolation voluntarily on the advice of the government. But with the declaration “that the incidence or transmission of novel Coronavirus constitutes a serious and imminent threat to public health”, the hospitals in the UK become legally recognised as “isolation” areas, the Department of Health said in a statement.
This means the government can now keep people in isolation “for their own safety”, even if it is against their will, a spokesman for the department said.
State broadcaster the BBC reports this change in stance from the government came as one individual in the Wirral quarantine hospital was planning to leave against the advice of doctors before his two week incubation period isolation was complete. The Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock declaring Coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat” permits the government to detail that individual and others to prevent the spread of the disease.
Activates Emergency Powers
Oliver J J Lane
Breitbart London
The British government has declared Coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat”, a classification which gives the secretary of state for health emergency powers to detain people suspected of being infected, as four more cases emerge.
Until now, the roughly 250 Britons quarantined at two hospitals after arriving back into the United Kingdom from China have been in isolation voluntarily on the advice of the government. But with the declaration “that the incidence or transmission of novel Coronavirus constitutes a serious and imminent threat to public health”, the hospitals in the UK become legally recognised as “isolation” areas, the Department of Health said in a statement.
This means the government can now keep people in isolation “for their own safety”, even if it is against their will, a spokesman for the department said.
State broadcaster the BBC reports this change in stance from the government came as one individual in the Wirral quarantine hospital was planning to leave against the advice of doctors before his two week incubation period isolation was complete. The Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock declaring Coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat” permits the government to detail that individual and others to prevent the spread of the disease.
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Uplifting Example
National Pride
We were impressed and gratified to hear that professionalism and courage are still "alive and well". Air New Zealand was able to put on a special flight from NZ to China to evacuate tourists and travellers back to NZ. Here's how it went down:
Hats off to you all--and thanks from the nation.
We were impressed and gratified to hear that professionalism and courage are still "alive and well". Air New Zealand was able to put on a special flight from NZ to China to evacuate tourists and travellers back to NZ. Here's how it went down:
The flight bringing home New Zealanders from China during the Coronavirus outbreak is expected to land in Auckland on Wednesday afternoon. The Air New Zealand flight has just arrived in Hong Kong and is expected to depart around midnight on Tuesday.When the most senior pilots and staff volunteer for a mercy mission it speaks volumes about the professionalism and positive corporate culture of Air New Zealand.
The flight, NZ1942, will land at Auckland International Airport around 4.15pm and will have a 20-person team including five pilots and 11 cabin crew, medical and engineering staff. New Zealand, Australian and Pacific Island citizens on the flight will be quarantined for 14 days at a military facility on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, north of Auckland. . . .
Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and standards officer Captain David Morgan said the airline was pleased to support the government in getting Kiwis and other foreign nationals out of Wuhan. "The Air New Zealand crew who have volunteered for this flight are amongst some of our most experienced pilots and crew. They will be under the command of a captain who has more than 30 years experience with the airline." [NZ Herald]
Hats off to you all--and thanks from the nation.
Friday, 14 February 2020
Faithful, Courageous Christians
Christian Witness to Christ Amidst Coronavirus
CBN News
Roughly 350 Americans are arriving home from China after leaving the coronavirus hot zone, touching down in California where they’ll be quarantined. The evacuations come as the virus is still spreading, infecting more than 24,000 people. China admits nearly 500 people are dead from the virus, but the actual numbers are unverifiable.
At the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, surgical masks are being used in two ways to further the spread of the Gospel.
First, Christians wear the mask themselves as they talk about Jesus to people on the streets. This not only helps prevent disease, but can also prevent prosecution by the Chinese government since the masks help conceal a person’s identity.
There are an estimated 100 million Christians in China, who often face persecution in the Communist nation. For that reason, most operate underground.
Second, Chinese Christians are handing out masks to people on the street. Along with the masks, they’re also handing out Gospel tracts.
CBN News Asia Correspondent Lucille Talusan said since the people of Wuhan are facing fearful uncertainty in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, some have become more receptive to Christ at this time.
“There are Christians, a ministry in Wuhan, they go out to the streets. They’re very courageous,” she said. “They give out masks and they say that they are Christians and they share the love of Christ and point to Jesus to bring hope to them and their families and the whole of China… This is really a break-through.”
CBN News
Roughly 350 Americans are arriving home from China after leaving the coronavirus hot zone, touching down in California where they’ll be quarantined. The evacuations come as the virus is still spreading, infecting more than 24,000 people. China admits nearly 500 people are dead from the virus, but the actual numbers are unverifiable.
At the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, surgical masks are being used in two ways to further the spread of the Gospel.
First, Christians wear the mask themselves as they talk about Jesus to people on the streets. This not only helps prevent disease, but can also prevent prosecution by the Chinese government since the masks help conceal a person’s identity.
There are an estimated 100 million Christians in China, who often face persecution in the Communist nation. For that reason, most operate underground.
Second, Chinese Christians are handing out masks to people on the street. Along with the masks, they’re also handing out Gospel tracts.
CBN News Asia Correspondent Lucille Talusan said since the people of Wuhan are facing fearful uncertainty in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, some have become more receptive to Christ at this time.
“There are Christians, a ministry in Wuhan, they go out to the streets. They’re very courageous,” she said. “They give out masks and they say that they are Christians and they share the love of Christ and point to Jesus to bring hope to them and their families and the whole of China… This is really a break-through.”
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