Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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Indiana has begun to lift the lockdown orders, along with several other States. Indiana will do it in phases. It will take around 30 days if all goes well before all the closings are lifted. Just in time for the 4th of July.

I went to town today and followed my precautions (wearing N95 mask and liberally using hand sanitizer gel which I always carry in my pocket). A few observations of note.
1. Gasoline prices have almost immediately begun to rise once the quarantine began to be lifted. It was hovering at a low of $1.39 [$0.37 USD per Liter] for a couple weeks, but today it rose to $1.46 a gallon.
2. Quite a few people are wearing mask of all shapes and sizes. I would put the number at around 60%. Several people are wearing the better masks, the N95s.
3. Meat is being hit hard. Limited to one per customer with very limited selection. Most of the meat shelves are almost bear.
4. Paper towels seem to be almost fully stocked but toilet paper is still minimal.

Mental Note: Need to buy some fireworks for this year. Others may have a similar thought. This might be a big year for firework celebrations. There may even be a run on fireworks. Wait a minute, many fireworks are made in China. Because of Covid, supply chains are broken. There may definitely be shortages this year.

Luckily I have some set aside. But some of the fireworks are getting old. I bought them over 10 years ago. I love bottle rockets. I actually fire these off from old Coke bottles. Put them in the bottle, light the fuze, the bottle rocket shoots up into the air like a shooting star, then there is a pop as it explodes. Gather up the grandkids and spend an hours shooting them up into the night's sky. But the grandkids like sparklers more than things that go pop. I hope the sky is especially dark this year.

In Melbourne Australia everything seems to be back in stock except two items
N95 facemasks
handwash (for some reason hand sanitizer dispensers are freely available but not handwash?)

Some interesting signs being held up at the Re Open Illinois rally yesterday

https://twitter.com/SanaSaeed/status/1256396192210128897?s=19

Haven't we "flattened the curve" at this point? I do wonder with aggressive lockdowns or suggestions by some that the lockdown could last for many more months or even as unthinkably extreme as a year or more that the goal in those cases would be to try to eradicate the virus, which would be impossible.

There are two issues here: 1) The virus and how it affects humans and what humans do in order to minimize infections and deaths. 2) Political motivation to use this as an opportunity to ruin the world's economies in the hope that Trump will not be reelected. "Throwing the baby (economies) out with the bathwater." Hitting the self destruct button to try to stop something and being willing to blow up everything in the process.

It would be myopic for anyone to deny that part of this isn't politically motivated.

China, WHO and COVID-19

A research dossier compiled by the so-called "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance states that China intentionally hid or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak, leading to the loss of tens of thousands of lives around the world

The 15-page document from the intelligence agencies of the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, was obtained by Australia's Saturday Telegraph newspaper and states that China's secrecy amounted to an “assault on international transparency."

The dossier touches on themes that have been discussed in media reports about the outbreak of the virus, including an initial denial by China that the virus could be transmitted between humans, the silencing or "disappearing" of doctors who tried to speak up, the destruction of evidence in laboratories and refusal to provide live samples to international scientists working on a vaccine.

Specifically, the file notes that China began censoring news of the virus on search engines and social media beginning Dec. 31, deleting terms including “SARS variation," “Wuhan Seafood market” and “Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia.”

Three days later, on Jan. 3, China’s National Health Commission ordered virus samples to be either moved to designated testing facilities or destroyed, while simultaneously issuing a "no-publication order" related to the disease.

The Saturday Telegraph report includes a timeline of Chinese obfuscation. On Jan. 5, for example, Wuhan's Municipal Health Commission stopped releasing daily updates on the number of new cases and would not resume them for 13 days. On Jan. 10, Wang Guanga, a respiratory specialist at Peking University First Hospital who had been investigating the outbreak, said it was "under control" and largely a "mild condition." (Wang himself would disclose 12 days later that he had been infected with the virus.)

Two days later, on Jan. 12, a Shanghai professor's lab was closed down after it shared data on the virus' genetic sequence with the outside world. On Jan. 24, Chinese officials stopped the Wuhan Institute of Virology from sharing virus samples with a lab at the University of Texas.

Perhaps most damningly, the dossier states that Chinese authorities denied that the virus could be spread between humans until Jan. 20, "despite evidence of human-human transmission from early December."

The file is similarly unsparing about the World Health Organization (WHO), stating that it toed the Chinese line about human-to-human transmission despite the fact that "officials in Taiwan raised concerns as early as December 31, as did experts in Hong Kong on January 4.”

As of Friday night, the WHO's official Twitter account still featured a tweet from Jan. 14 that stated: "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China."

The dossier goes on to state that throughout February, "Beijing [pressed] the US [sic], Italy, India, Australia, Southeast Asian neighbours [sic] and others not to protect themselves via travel restrictions, even as [China] impose[d] severe restrictions at home."

At the same time, the file states: "Millions of people [left] Wuhan after the outbreak and before Beijing lock[ed] down the city on January 23."

The dossier continues with a litany of Chinese defensiveness, stating: “As EU [European Union] diplomats prepare a report on the pandemic, [China] successfully presses Brussels to strike language on [China] disinformation."

Similarly, “As Australia calls for an independent inquiry into the pandemic, [China] threatens to cut off trade with Australia. [China] has likewise responded furiously to US [sic] calls for transparency.”

President Trump said Thursday that he's seen evidence suggesting the virus came from a lab after Fox News and others asked if he knew of anything that gave him confidence that the outbreak originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"Yes, I have," he replied, "And, I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves because they’re like the public relations agency for China."

Multiple sources previously told Fox News that it is believed standards in Wuhan were disregarded before the virus leaked, prompting Beijing to initiate a cover-up. Sources also claimed the WHO was complicit from the beginning in helping China cover its tracks.

The WHO and China have denied any wrongdoing.

The Saturday Telegraph also reported that key figures at the Wuhan Institute of Virology previously worked or trained in Australian government labs where they conducted research on pathogens in live bats as part of an ongoing partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to the dossier, the team's work at the Wuhan lab involved discovering samples of coronavirus within a cave in Yunnan province and synthesizing a bat-derived coronavirus that could not be cured.

Source: Leaked Western intel dossier reveals how China deceived the world about coronavirus

The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an anglophone intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are parties to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.

Indiana is beginning to open up after quarantine. The governor has announced a five-stage roadmap. We are currently in stage 1.

Stage 2 will begin on Monday, May 4. These are the guidelines for Stage 2:

* Hoosiers 65 and over and those with high risk health conditions who are the most susceptible to the coronavirus should remain at home as much as possible. [Gee, I wonder if they are talking about physical age or my real age deep down inside me, my inner age. No guidance here so I guess that is my choice.]
* Local governments may impose more strict guidelines
* Essential travel restrictions are eliminated and gatherings of up to 25 people are permitted
* The remaining manufacturers that had not been considered essential will also be able to open
* Retail and commercial businesses will open at 50 percent capacity
* Shopping malls may open at 50 percent capacity with indoor common areas restricted to 25 percent capacity
* Personal services like hair salons barber shops, spas and tattoo parlors also may open may 11 by appointment only
* Restaurants and bars that serve food may open May 11 at 50% capacity, but bar seating will remain closed
* Those who work in offices are encourages to work remotely whenever possible. "If anyone can work from home we encourage you to do so," Holcomb said.
* Starting May 8 for all 92 counties, Indiana worship services may also convene following specific social distancing guidelines. Those 65 and over and those at elevated risk will be asked to stay home. "Church leaders: we need you to keep your congregations safe," Holcomb said.

So the countdown is beginning. jimmy m. is raring to go and be set free [applying responsible and cautionary measures of course]. Get in my little go-kart and explore the outside world again!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/02/health/c ... index.html
Survival may be greatly enhanced in even the most severe cases if personalized care is available.
Fact is, even if you are in a hospital, there may not be enough doctors and nurses to take of you.
They can hook you up to a machine, but as far as constant and continuous care, that is fantasy.

I hope some good has come of this, so that people understand they don't need $200 haircuts and gym memberships to survive. I hope people can continue to work from home if they desire, and that more people realise they can survive on much less "stuff" than they dreamed possible.

/\A beautiful thought.

All roads into Gallup, New Mexico, are closed over "uninhibited" COVID-19 spread

It's worth mentioning that in the UK story that Most of the children affected have Kawasaki disease, a rare vascular condition that is the main cause of acquired heart disease in under-18s.

A high proportion of children globally requiring ICU in the last few months are comorbid with other respiratory or medical conditions which already mean't they should have been kept under lockdown away from other people.