Suspected coronavirus case being treated at University of Chicago Medical Center as four other cases reported in Illinois

CAP

3/3/2020

A person suspected of being infected with the coronavirus is being treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center, the fifth case to be reported in Illinois.

The hospital said it was waiting for lab test results to back up its suspicions. No details were released about the patient.

“We are awaiting lab tests to see whether this patient has COVID-19. Not sure how soon we will get back results,” hospital spokeswoman Lorna Wong wrote in an email Tuesday morning.

 

On Monday, the third and fourth cases in Illinois were reported: A husband and wife in their 70s both tested positive for coronavirus, but the results still need to be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The man was being treated at Northwest Community Hospital and his wife was under quarantine at home, officials said. Two other cases in Illinois have been confirmed by the CDC.

Wong said the hospital has been “preparing for this eventuality” since coronavirus first became a global public health threat in January.

 

“Senior hospital leadership and leaders from our infectious diseases and infection prevention teams, along with other expert clinicians, are working closely with local, state and federal health officials and continue to apply up to date recommended guidelines,” she said in an emailed statement.

“We have the utmost confidence in the dedicated and highly trained team composed of nurses, physicians and other health care professionals who are providing care for this patient,” it said.

 

Wong said the hospital wanted to release information as early as was possible, while awaiting official confirmation of the diagnosis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We will continue to update you as this situation develops, but wanted to immediately inform you,” she said.

 

On Monday, Arlington Heights School District 25 said two staffers and two students would be staying home as a result of possible exposure to a person who is related to a hospital worker who encountered a patient with coronavirus.

 

At least 15 states have reported confirmed cases of coronavirus. At least six people have died from the disease in Washington state.

 

The disease has hit at least 70 countries, with 90,000 cases and 3,100 deaths. The vast majority of cases and deaths have been in China. While the number of new cases recorded daily in that epicenter country has declined for weeks, the virus continues to spread fast in South Korea, Iran and Italy, prompting increased travel warnings and restrictions.

 

In Illinois as of Monday, 102 people are being or have already been tested for the virus, including the four people whose tests have come back positive and 79 people who tests have come back negative, with 19 tests still outstanding, according to state officials. A total of 286 people were being monitored by health officials as of Monday and state health officials are working to create guidelines for those who work with the most vulnerable patients, state officials have said. Several of the cases, and deaths, in Washington state have been among patients at a nursing facility.

The state has a hotline people can call with questions or to report suspected cases, 800-889-3931. They can call the Office of Consumer Health Insurance at 877-527-9431 about their insurance coverage.

COVID-19 3rd March Tuesday

By Dr. John Campbell

I am a nurse from the US and yes they are being reactive instead of proactive and they really aren’t doing much. Not shutting down anything in WA state where a lot is happening.

 

FEMA preparing for possible coronavirus emergency declaration

CAP

By Laura Strickler and Suzy Khimm

WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is planning for the possibility that President Donald Trump could make an emergency declaration to bring in extra funds and personnel to assist the administration’s coronavirus response, according to internal documents obtained by NBC News.

FEMA officials are preparing for an “infectious disease emergency declaration” by the president that would allow the agency to provide disaster relief funding to state and local governments, as well as federal assistance to support the coronavirus response, according to agency planning documents reviewed by NBC News.

The Trump administration would have to use the 1988 Stafford Act to enable FEMA to provide such disaster assistance. Emergency declarations are most often used in the event of natural disasters but can be used to help manage disease outbreaks.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

“To me this is another indication that the president and the White House are finally aware of the gravity of the situation,” said Michael Coen, who was FEMA chief of staff during the Obama administration. “They need to consider all tools available to them and have contingencies for action.”

“I actually find this reassuring,” said Tim Manning, who was a FEMA deputy administrator under President Barack Obama. “I hope this discussion has been happening continuously over the last couple of months.”

An emergency declaration would allow FEMA to provide disaster medical assistance teams, mobile hospitals and military transport, among other kinds of federal support, Manning said.

FEMA’s disaster relief fund has a current balance of $34 billion, according to the latest agency update. “It’s money that’s sitting there and ready,” said another former FEMA official, who declined to be identified.

FEMA spokesperson Lizzie Litzow said the agency is currently focused on supporting the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which separately declared a “public health emergency” on Jan. 31, allowing HHS to access funds and other resources to aid the government’s virus response. “At this time, there isn’t anything additional to the HHS public health emergency,” Litzow said.

CAP

It would not be the first time the federal government has used FEMA’s resources to assist in a medical event.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton used a Stafford Act emergency declaration for outbreaks of the West Nile virus in New York and New Jersey, ordering up to $5 million in federal aid to supplement state efforts to combat the mosquito-borne virus.

Emergency declarations are distinct from “major disaster” declarations, which are more far-reaching and are typically used for hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.

 

THIS ISN’t HELPING: Devout Muslims Lick Shia Shrine in Iran to “Prove” Their Faith Can Beat the Coronavirus (VIDEOS)

 

According to the Coronavirus website there have been 1,501 cases of coronavirus in Iran and 66 deaths.

These numbers are suspect as the regime is not open with its data.

** The Gateway Pundit posted an extensive report from Iran on the coronavirus on Sunday night.

What is clear is that devout Muslims are not making the situation better by licking the Shia shrines.

There are currently several videos making the rounds on social media of Muslims licking shrines to prove their faith is greater than the coronavirus.

Yuck.

Embedded video

 

VIDEO: FATHER FRESH OUT OF CORONAVIRUS QUARANTINE REPEATEDLY COUGHS ON AIR

Video: Father Fresh Out Of Coronavirus Quarantine Repeatedly Coughs On Air

‘They said I’m fine,’ the coughing man reassured Fox hosts

  – FEBRUARY 28, 2020

A Pennsylvania father who was recently cleared of coronavirus after being quarantined in San Diego, California could not stop coughing during an interview with Fox News on Friday.

Frank Wucinski and his family were sent to the quarantine location after returning from Wuhan, China where they were attending a funeral for Wucinski’s father-in-law.

“Fortunately, it is contagious, but the death rate is pretty low,” Wucinski said during the Fox interview, as he stopped to cough while his young daughter sat on his lap.

When the Fox hosts noticed Wucinski was still coughing and asked about it, he responded, “They said I’m fine. I got tested twice. Negative both times. The cough, probably just nerves.”

Wucinski had to take a swig from his daughter’s water bottle just to get through the interview.

As coronavirus fears continue to escalate, stocks worldwide are responding and governments are preparing for worst-case scenarios.

The level of calamity we are facing due to the half measures by states like California to handle the Coronavirus outbreak is enough for any half-conscious person to scramble to get their bug-out survival gear ready.

CORONAVIRUS PANIC: SOME STORE SHELVES EMPTY IN UK, AUSTRALIA, CZECH. REPUBLIC & SOUTH KOREA

Coronavirus Panic: Some Store Shelves Empty in UK, Australia, Czech. Republic & South Korea

Concerns over shortages behind hoarding of products.

  – FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Some store shelves in the UK, Australia, the Czech Republic and South Korea are beginning to empty as coronavirus panic buying increases and people begin to hoard products.

As we previously highlighted, Italy experienced panic buying at some supermarkets in affected regions after hundreds of people were infected with coronavirus in just a few days.

Now similar concerns are leading to empty shelves in other countries around the world.

In the UK, supermarkets in the town of Cheltenham all ran out of antibacterial hand gel.

“Tesco in Tewkesbury Road, Sainsbury’s in Gallagher Retail Park and Morrisons in Up Hatherley have all got empty space where the antibacterial hand gel should be,” reports Gloucestershire Live.

It’s a similar situation in Sydney, Australia, where shelves have been stripped of medicine and toilet paper. Longer lasting food supplies are also running out.

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“Customers were greeted with near empty aisles when they arrived at the supermarket giant’s Bondi store in Sydney on Thursday night,” reports the Daily Mail. “The grocery store appeared to be struggling to keep the shelves stocked with paracetamol, toilet paper, tea, milk, pasta, oats and rice crackers.”

Meanwhile, in South Korea, “mass hoarding” of instant noodles led to manufacturer Nongshim’s warehouse sitting empty.

“People nationwide are rushing to buy hand sanitizers, instant noodles and rice amid growing fears that the coronavirus will become a global pandemic and could lead to grocery shortages,” reports the Korea Times.

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People in the Czech. Republic are also emptying supermarket shelves over concerns the coronavirus is about to cause shortages. Customers are buying bottled water, cooking oil, flour, meat and canned food.

“We sold a weekly quantity in two days,” said one supermarket spokesperson.

“Rice, pasta, canned food, frozen food, but also all disinfectants, baby food, and drinks are sold out,” reports Prague Morning, adding that the Deputy Mayor of Prague Petr Hlubucek is considering imposing purchasing controls.

Meanwhile, borders across Europe remain completely open even as the virus continues to accelerate towards a potential global pandemic.

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER HIV-LIKE “MUTATION” WHICH MAKES CORONAVIRUS EXTREMELY INFECTIOUS

Scientists Discover HIV-Like "Mutation" Which Makes Coronavirus Extremely Infectious

“This virus may use the packing mechanisms of other viruses such as HIV.”

Zero Hedge – FEBRUARY 27, 2020

While mainstream scientists continue to perform mental gymnastics to insist that the new coronavirus wasn’t man-made, new research from scientists in China and Europe reveal that the disease happens to have an ‘HIV-like mutation’.

This allows it to bind with human cells up to 1,000 times stronger than the Sars virus, according to SCMP.

Recall that at the end of January, a team of Indian scientists wrote in a now-retracted, scandalous paper claiming that the coronavirus may have been genetically engineered to incorporate parts of the HIV genome.

They wrote “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,” meaning – it was unlikely to have occurred naturally.

Scientists Discover HIV-Like “Mutation” Which Makes Coronavirus Extremely Infectious

https://banned.video/watch?id=5e571291e53f4d001c3ce08f

https://infowarsmedia.com/js/player.js

Dr. Francis Boyle joins Mike Adams on The Alex Jones Show to break down the toll has taken for standing up for the truth in the wake of bioweapon development.

Fast forward to new research by a team from Nankai University, which writes that COV-19 has an ‘HIV-like mutation’ that  allows it to quickly enter the human body by binding with a receptor called ACE2 on a cell membrane.

Other highly contagious viruses, including HIV and Ebola, target an enzyme called furin, which works as a protein activator in the human body. Many proteins are inactive or dormant when they are produced and have to be “cut” at specific points to activate their various functions.

When looking at the genome sequence of the new coronavirus, Professor Ruan Jishou and his 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,” reads the paper published this month on Chinaxiv.org – a platform used by the Chinese Academy of Sciences which releases research papers prior to peer-review.

“This virus may use the packing mechanisms of other viruses such as HIV,” they added.

For those confused, what the latest scientific paper claims is that whereas the Coronavirus may indeed contain a specific HIV-like feature that makes it extremely infectious, that was the result of a rather bizarre “mutation.” However, since the scientists did not make the scandalous claim that Chinese scientists had created an airborne version of HIV, but instead blamed a mutation, they will likely not be forced to retract it, even if it the odds of such a “random” mutation taking place naturally are extremely small.

As a reminder, the running narrative is that the new coronavirus lie dormant in bats somewhere between 20 and 70 years, then ‘crossed over’ to humans through and unknown species – possibly a Pangolin – before it emerged at a Wuhan, China meat market roughly 900 feet from a level-4 bioweapons lab.

And what were they researching at said lab? Among other things – why Ebola and HIV can lie dormant in bats without causing diseases.

According to the new study, the ‘mutation’ can generate a structure known as a cleavage site in the new coronavirus’ spike protein, SCMP reports. “Compared to the Sars’ way of entry, this binding method is “100 to 1,000 times” as efficient, according to the study.”

The virus uses the outreaching spike protein to hook on to the host cell, but normally this protein is inactive. The cleavage site structure’s job is to cheat the human furin protein, so it will cut and activate the spike protein and cause a “direct fusion” of the viral and cellular membranes. SCMP

(a recent paper published by Dr. Zhou Peng of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, meanwhile, is “Immunogenicity of the spike glycoprotein  of Bat SARS-like coronavirus.“)

According to the report, a follow-up study from a Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhn confirmed Nankai University’s findings.

The mutation could not be found in Sars, Mers or Bat-CoVRaTG13, a bat coronavirus that was considered the original source of the new coronavirus with 96 per cent similarity in genes, it said.

This could be “the reason why SARS-CoV-2 is more infectious than other coronaviruses”, Li wrote in a paper released on Chinarxiv on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a study by French scientist Etienne Decroly at Aix-Marseille University, which was published in the scientific journal Antiviral Research on February 10, also found a “furin-like cleavage site” that is absent in similar coronaviruses.

Chinese scientists speculate that drugs targeting the fuirn enzyme could potentially hinder the virus’ replication inside the human body. Drugs up for consideration include “a series of HIV-1 therapeutic drugs such as Indinavir, Tenofovir Alafenamide, Tenofovir Disoproxil and Dolutegravir and hepatitis C therapeutic drugs including Boceprevir and Telaprevir,” according to Li’s study.

The conclusion is in line with several reports from doctors who self-administered HIV drugs after testing positive for coronavirus, however there have been no clinical tests to confirm the theory.

All perfectly “natural.”

 

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