[CNBC] The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on Wednesday as the new coronavirus, which was unknown to world health officials just three months ago, has rapidly spread to more than 121,000 people from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States.
"In the past two weeks the number of cases outside China has increased thirteenfold and the number of affected countries has tripled," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. "In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries to climb even higher."
Tedros said several countries have demonstrated the ability to suppress and control the outbreak, be he scolded other world leaders for failing to act quickly enough or drastically enough to contain the spread.
"We’re deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction," he said, just before declaring the pandemic. "We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear."
Cases in China and South Korea have significantly declined, he said, adding that 81 countries don’t have any confirmed cases and 57 countries have 10 or fewer cases.
Out of 82 patients, 71 remain hospitalized across the country, five are on their way to hospital, three are in-home patients, and an additional three have recovered and been released.
The majority of the patients are in relatively mild condition, four are in moderate condition - and one is in serious condition.
[Washington Examiner] Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wants to funnel the $8.3 billion that will be spent to combat the coronavirus out of the money spent on foreign aid.
After passing through both chambers of Congress, President Trump signed legislation that makes $8.3 billion in emergency funding available to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Paul, who was the only senator to vote against the spending package, views the funding as necessary to address the spreading illness, but he did not want to take out the taxpayers' checkbook without saving money elsewhere.
"I support the money," Paul told WDRB. "I just think we should take it from somewhere else in the budget where it's not being used wisely. So I had an amendment that would have said the $8 billion should come from foreign welfare that we send to foreign countries in the form of foreign aid. I think really we ought to concentrate on our country."
He added, "I think really we ought to concentrate on our country, instead of borrowing more money from China. The virus came from there. Now we're borrowing from China to spend on it. Why don't we take it from the money we're actually sending overseas and spend that money here?"
As Paul noted, the coronavirus outbreak has been traced back to Wuhan, China. Since the outbreak began late last year, more than 116,000 people have been infected worldwide, and more than 4,000 have died. In the United States, 27 people have died, and more than 750 have been infected.
Paul voted against the emergency funding last week, citing how the package did not include spending cuts to counter the money spent on fighting the coronavirus. He argued that even more money could have been allocated to stop the disease, but that he could not support a funding package that did not have an adjacent spending cut.
“I think we could allocate more money, but we should pay for it,” Paul said. “If you don’t follow through and you say, well, we should pay for it, but I’ll vote for it anyway, then that just gives them license to do it again and again and again. And that’s what happens.”
Excerpt:
[Foreign Affairs] Rumors thrive on fear and uncertainty, and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus offers plenty of both. Within weeks of the pathogen’s appearance, social media lit up with suggestions that the virus was a biological weapon‐either a Chinese one that had escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan or an American one inflicted on Wuhan. While such rumors are not credible, given that neither the United States nor China has incentive to develop biological weapons, they are difficult to dispel, because military officials on both sides still view with suspicion each other’s motives in building biosecurity programs. Loopholes in China’s biosafety regulations only allow the rumors to gain more currency. And the lack of trust between the two nations‐as evidenced by China’s initial refusal to allow U.S. disease experts to visit Wuhan‐is undermining efforts to contain the virus’s global spread. YANZHONG HUANG is Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he directs the Global Health Governance Roundtable.
#3
Wouldn't put it past the Chicoms if they thought Trump's reelection chances could be diminished by the economic disruption. You know they'd like to have someone more pliable in the White House.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/11/2020 11:56 Comments ||
Top||
The coronavirus (Covid-19, or whatever else you want to call it) represents a fundamental change in the way our current society operates. For this essay, I’m ONLY talking about the virus itself. I’ll follow up in the next day or two on economic impacts of it.
But let’s start off with the virus, establish the history, where it really came from, WHY, and what to do about it… then we can get on to what happens after.
#5
“[t]he only people that can be infected by the 2019-n Coronavirus have less than 98.7 µg/L of Selenium in plasma or serum. Those who have enough Selenium are immune to this and all other enveloped viruses. Selenium can be obtained from Brazil nuts, Selenium pills or Astragalus tea.”
#8
/\ It is very likely the intelligence community knows precisely how Covid-19 originated. It's simply a turd no one will attempt to pick up from the clean end.
[GreatGameIndia] In a secret speech given to high-level Communist Party cadres nearly two decades ago, Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Chi Haotian explained a long-range plan for ensuring a Chinese national renaissance.
He said there were three vital issues that must be grasped. The first was the issue of living space—because China is severely overpopulated and China’s environment is deteriorating. The second issue, therefore, is that the Communist Party must teach the Chinese people to “go out.” By this Gen. Chi meant the conquest of new lands in which a “second China” could be built by “colonization.” From this arises the third vital issue: the “issue of America.”
Gen. Chi warned his listeners: “This appears to be shocking, but the logic is actually very simple.” China is “in fundamental conflict with the Western strategic interest.” Therefore, the United States will never allow China to seize other countries to build a second China. The United States stands in China’s way.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/11/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
I would add that it is very likely that China has been using their African expansion as a cover for human bio-weapons testing for a considerable length of time. Yes, Wuhan was likely a laboratory containment accident.
Equally distressing is the West's failure to call the bastids on it.
#3
This is annoying. I presume we are in phases 2 and 3 now. I see phase 2 as Africa as well, Bes. The covid reporting we might get from Africa will be at best muddled.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/11/2020 12:13 Comments ||
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#4
Ref #2: Just for fun now, does this mean the island building is for isolated research sites, or retreats for the politically adept?
I'll take 'isolated retreats' for $600. Alex.
Discard nothing. Rank order everything. Explore the potential linkages.
#3
Jim Acosta, next press conference: "Mr. President, what do you have to say to all the Americans who believe you are going to cancel the 2020 election?"
IMAO
I know y’all are tired of hearing about the COVID-19 strain of Coronavirus. Me too. I mean, the H1N1 flu killed 12,469 in the U.S. alone in 2009, according to the CDC. But everybody is pissing their pants over COVID-19, which just yesterday reached 1,000 reported cases in the U.S. Not deaths. That number is 31. Total cases. Compare that to 60.8 million cases of H1N1 in the U.S. in 2009, and 274,304 hospitalizations.
So the panic is overblown, in relation to 2009. What’s different? Trump is president, not Obama.
But there is a good thing from all this weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The Congresscritters are so concerned about COVID-19 that Congress might adjourn.
Members plan to raise concerns with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at their weekly leadership meeting Monday afternoon, two sources said. It’s Pelosi’s decision whether to keep the House in session or make changes in the schedule.
And you were worried that nothing good could come from this.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[GreatGameIndia] In a secret speech given to high-level Communist Party cadres nearly two decades ago, Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Chi Haotian explained a long-range plan for ensuring a Chinese national renaissance.
