Tag: ARGENTINA

Coronavirus death toll tops 900 as China’s envoy to US dismisses ‘absolutely crazy’ bioweapon rumors

CAP

As the death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak soared to over 900 people worldwide, the Chinese ambassador to the US has cautioned against fueling panic and spreading dangerous rumors about the virus’ unknown origins.

With China’s Hubei Province, the epicenter of the lethal viral outbreak, reporting 91 deaths and some 2,618 additional cases of infection throughout Sunday – the global toll now stands at over 40,000 cases with at least 904 fatalities.

Asked about the situation and speculation surrounding the 2019-nCoV origins and spread earlier in the day, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai told CBS it would be “absolutely crazy” to believe unsubstantiated rumors online while the entire global scientific community that is working day and night on the issue has yet to come a conclusion.

For one thing, this will create panic. Another thing that it will fend up racial discrimination, xenophobia, all these things, that will really harm our joint efforts to combat the virus.

Chinese scientists say pangolins might be missing link in coronavirus transmission

CAP

Until thorough research is conducted, there are and always will be “all kinds of speculation and rumors” about the virus potentially being a lab-created bioweapon, the diplomat noted.

There are people who are saying that these viruses are coming from… some military lab, not of China, maybe in the United States… How can we believe all these crazy things?

The outbreak is believed to have originated in a market in Wuhan, China, which sold wild animals. According to a UK medical journal, the Lancet, the disease is very similar to two coronaviruses found in bats.

READ MORE: Fear fueled by speculation & doomsday scenarios over coronavirus spread poses greater threat to global economy than the epidemic

Meanwhile, recent Chinese research pointed the finger at pangolins as a potential source. Researchers tested samples from more than 1,000 wild animals and found that the genetic code of coronavirus strain samples taken from pangolins was 99 percent identical to samples taken from infected humans.

However, most studies on the virus that was first discovered last December so far have been far from conclusive, as they are yet to be scrutinized and peer-reviewed in any meaningful way.

One such recent pre-print study was widely misinterpreted and fueled rumors that the virus might have been genetically engineered to put pieces of HIV in it. The authors have rushed to withdraw their research, saying it was never their intention to “feed into the conspiracy theories and no such claims are made here.”

The strict isolation and quarantine measures in China and border screenings elsewhere have been “very effective,” China’s ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, told the BBC on Sunday. He emphasized that with proper precautions and response efforts this new “enemy of mankind” is “controllable, preventable, and curable,” even though he admitted it was “very difficult to predict” when the outbreak might reach its peak.

 

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‘Puzzling’ virus of UNKNOWN origin with genes scientists can’t identify discovered in Brazil

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Scientists in Brazil have discovered a virus which appears to be almost entirely new, consisting of unrecognizable genes that have been, until now, undocumented.

The Yaravirus (Yaravirus brasiliensis), named after a water deity in Brazilian mythology and folklore, was discovered in Lake Pampulha in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.

Сhina unveils mobile app that DETECTS coronavirus close contact

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In recent years, virologists and other researchers have discovered a variety of new viruses which challenge traditional thinking, including so-called “giant viruses” (named for their large protein shells, not their deadliness to humans).

These giant viruses possess a far more complex genome than scientists could have predicted, based on humanity’s knowledge of normal viruses, and are capable of repairing and replicating their own DNA.

“Contrary to what is observed in other isolated viruses of amoeba, Yaravirus is not represented by a large/giant particle and a complex genome, but at the same time carries an important number of previously undescribed genes,” the authors write, adding that it may be the first in “a new lineage of amoebal virus with a puzzling origin and phylogeny.”

AIDS, Spanish Flu, the PLAGUE? Just how deadly is the coronavirus compared to history’s WORST pandemics?

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In fact, 90 percent of the genes in the Yaravirus have never been described before in public scientific databases and literature.

Rather worryingly, the researchers conclude that the amount of unknown proteins within the Yaravirus throws open the door to a whole other world of as-yet-undiscovered viruses we know little to nothing about.

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CITIZEN JOURNALISTS WHO EXPOSED BEIJING’S LIES IN WUHAN SUDDENLY VANISH

Citizen Journalists Who Exposed Beijing's Lies In Wuhan Suddenly Vanish

Chicoms cracking down on truth about coronavirus crisis

Zero Hedge – FEBRUARY 7, 2020

As we reported late Thursday evening, the death toll from the viral outbreak on mainland China has surpassed 600.

With global markets once again in the red, Bloomberg reports that Beijing has silenced two of the citizen journalists responsible for much of the horrifying footage seeping onto western social media.

As BBG’s reporter explains, Chinese citizen journalists Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin have effectively been “the world’s eyes and ears” inside Wuhan (much of the film produced by American news organizations has consisted of drone footage).

In recent days, SCMP and other news organizations reporting on the ground and publishing in English have warned that Beijing has stepped up efforts to censor Chinese social media after allowing citizens to vent their frustrations and share news without the usual scrutiny.

On Wednesday, China said its censors would conduct “targeted supervision” on the largest social media platforms including Weibo, Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s Douyin. All in an effort to mask the dystopian nightmare that life in cities like Wuhan has become.

But that brief period of informational amnesty is now over, apparently. Fang posted a dramatic video on Friday showing him being forcibly detained and dragged off to a ‘quarantine’. He was detained over a video showing corpses piled up in a Wuhan hospital. However, he has already been released.

Chen, meanwhile, seems to have vanished without a trace, and is believed to still be in government detention. We shared one of Chen’s more alarming videos documenting the severe medical supply shortages and outnumbered medical personnel fighting a ‘losing battle’ against the outbreak.

The crackdown on these journalists comes amid an outpouring of public anger over the death of a doctor who was wrongly victimized by police after attempting to warn the public about the outbreak. Beijing tried to cover up the death, denying it to the western press before the local hospital confirmed.

The videos supplied by the two citizen journos have circulated most freely on twitter, which is where most in-the-know Chinese go for their latest information about the outbreak. Many “hop” the “great firewall” via a VPN.

“There’s a lot more activity happening on Twitter compared with Weibo and WeChat,” said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. There has been a Chinese community on Jack Dorsey’s short-message platform since before President Xi Jinping rose to power, she added, but the recent crackdown has weakened that social circle.

Chen has now been missing for more than 24 hours, according to several friends in contact with BBG News.

Chen has been out of contact for a prolonged period of time. His friends posted a message on his Twitter account saying he has been unreachable since 7 p.m. local time on Thursday. In a texted interview, Bloomberg News’s last question to Chen was whether he was concerned about his safety as he’s among the few people reporting the situation on the front lines.

It’s all part of the great crackdown that Beijing is enforcing, even as the WHO continues to praise the Communist Party for its ‘transparency’.

“After lifting the lid briefly to give the press and social media some freedom,” said Wang about China’s ruling Communist Party, the regime “is now reinstating its control over social media, fearing it could lead to a wider-spread panic.”

With a little luck, the world might soon learn Chen’s whereabouts. Then again, there’s always the chance that he’s never heard from again.

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EXPERTS WARN CORONAVIRUS SPREADING UNDETECTED IN INDONESIA, THAILAND

Experts Warn Coronavirus Spreading Undetected in Indonesia, Thailand

Reports of confirmed cases oddly low in some Asian countries

Steve Baragona | Voice of America – FEBRUARY 7, 2020

The number of coronavirus cases reported in Indonesia and Thailand is well below what scientists would expect, given how closely connected the countries are to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

That raises concerns that the virus may be spreading undetected in those countries, potentially adding fuel to the epidemic that has so far killed over 600 people and sickened over 31,000.

“Indonesia has reported zero cases, and you would expect to have seen several already,” said epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, co-author of a new study posted on medRxiv.

Thailand has reported 25 cases, “but you would expect more,” he added.

Cambodia has reported just one case, which Lipsitch said is “not very likely,” but “not completely beyond what you would expect.”

The research is based on estimates of the average number of airline passengers flying from Wuhan to other cities around the world. More passengers would presumably mean more cases.

Going undetected?

Health systems in Indonesia and Thailand may not be catching cases, Lipsitch said, which could create problems for the rest of the world.

“Undetected cases in any country will potentially seed epidemics in those countries,” he added, which can spread beyond their borders.

Lipsitch’s group’s research is one of three recent studies to say that the virus was likely to reach Indonesia.

None of these studies has gone through the normal scientific process of review by outside experts, however. During this fast-moving outbreak, researchers have been posting findings online and on preprint servers to share what they hope will be helpful information. Experts caution that these publications should be taken with an extra grain of salt.

But researchers contacted by VOA said the findings were plausible and help address some lingering questions.

In China, the number of people infected has been climbing daily. But outside China, the outbreak has barely budged. That has puzzled health experts.

Where are they?

“This [study] does get at, I think, a significant question that a number of us have, which is: Where are these cases?” said virologist Christopher Mores at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, who was not involved with the research.

“It’s either that transmission is demonstrably different outside of the main outbreak zone for some reason that has not yet been described,” Mores said, “or we’re just not capturing it and counting it, and there’s a failure to detect.”

This study suggests the latter, he added.

Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia are screening travelers from China at the border.

“Indonesia is doing what is possible to be prepared for and defend against the novel coronavirus,” the World Health Organization’s Indonesia representative, Dr. Navaratnasamy Paranietharan, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

However, he added, “there is still more work to do in the areas of surveillance and active case detection.”

‘Beef things up’

These countries are not the only places with shortcomings in their public health systems, said epidemiologist Art Reingold at the University of California-Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

“I wouldn’t want people to think everyone else is doing a great job. We need to beef things up in a lot of places,” he added, and not just in the developing world.

“We think we’re doing a good job,” he said. “People think they’re doing a good job in France or whatever, but I don’t think we can afford to make that assumption.”

While some countries start to cut connections with China in hopes of keeping out the disease, Mores said, those measures may not help if the virus is spreading under the radar in countries that don’t.

“There’s certainly plenty of places, especially in the developing world, that are not going to be able to shut down their economies because of this coronavirus outbreak,” he said. “And the danger there is that those countries are even more susceptible” because of weaker public health systems.

And that puts the world at risk, Mores added.

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REPORT: CHINESE PEOPLE SELLING USED FACE MASKS FOUND IN TRASH

Report: Chinese People Selling Used Face Masks Found in Trash

What could possibly go wrong?

  – FEBRUARY 6, 2020

A New Zealander who lives in China told the New Zealand Herald that “everything has fallen apart” and some Chinese people are selling used face masks found in trash cans.

The man, who lives in northeast China with his wife and two children, told the newspaper, “It’s getting worse by the day … everything has fallen apart here.”

The eyewitness was speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals from the Chinese government, which has threatened people with 15 years jail time for spreading “misinformation” about the coronavirus.

With shortages crippling many areas of the country, the man said even used face masks were being sold for $50 dollars.

“I see old ladies walking around picking face masks out of the trash and then they sell them on the street the next day laughing about it,” he said. “When China says they’ve got enough and they’re handing them out, they’re not, I can tell you that now – there’s none available anywhere.”

He added that the masks are being ironed to make them appear new and that fights over food such as eggs and vegetables were also becoming a common occurrence.

As we highlighted yesterday, citing numbers inadvertently published by Tencent’s Epidemic Situation Tracker, Taiwan News reported that coronavirus infections are “astronomically higher than official figures,” and could be as high as 10 times those publicly released.

 

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HONG KONGERS EMPTY STORE SHELVES OF FOOD, SUPPLIES AMID CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

Hong Kongers Empty Store Shelves of Food, Supplies Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Stores running out of rice, toilet paper and surgical masks

Kit Daniels  – FEBRUARY 6, 2020

Hong Kong residents are emptying store shelves of storable food and household supplies out of fears China will seal its borders, thus stopping exports to Hong Kong.

Residents have already wiped out supermarkets of rice, toilet paper and cleaning wipes in addition to surgical masks and sanitizers which were already running in short supply.

“If China stops exporting stuff here, where would we get our necessities from?” Asked an elderly lady in front of empty shelves, as reported by Voice of America.

The outlet also reported that there’s a “there is also panic buying on rice — a staple food for Hong Kongers — packet noodles and vitamins, leaving the shelves eerily empty, although there was no shortage of meat and vegetables in shops,” suggesting that residents are stocking up on food that won’t spoil.

“There has been a severe shortage of surgical masks and sanitizing agents such as alcohol hand rubs and wipes, with many pharmacies posting notes on their windows saying ‘No masks, alcohol sanitizing agents or wipes available,’” stated Voice of America. “Long queues quickly form outside any shops that announce they have a supply of masks.”

“Thousands braved chilly winds and camped overnight Tuesday outside an outlet at Kowloon Bay that said it had procured a supply of masks from Dubai.”

Additionally, 10 clinics have closed in Hong Kong due to the lack of surgical masks, and another 400 clinics may soon close if more mask shipments are not received.

China’s economic output has slowed down significantly due to the unprecedented quarantine of millions of mainland residents, which has also contributed to the stockpiling in Hong Kong.

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THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK SHOWS “NO SIGNS OF SLOWING” AS CREMATORIUMS BURN BODIES 24 HOURS A DAY

The Coronavirus Outbreak Shows “No Signs Of Slowing” As Crematoriums Burn Bodies 24 Hours A Day

We have entered a time of great chaos for the entire planet, and this virus certainly has the potential to greatly accelerate that chaos

Michael Snyder | Economic Collapse – FEBRUARY 6, 2020

The outbreak of this mysterious new coronavirus is getting more frightening with each passing day. 

As you will see below, even the mainstream media is admitting that the number of cases shows “no signs of slowing” even though the Chinese government has implemented draconian measures in a desperate attempt to contain the virus.

Many in the western world continue to insist that this disease is not any more dangerous than the common flu, but the Chinese never locked down entire cities for the flu before.

In recent days, the images that have been coming out of China have been absolutely horrifying.

If these images are accurate, people are literally dropping dead in restaurants, in shopping malls and in public transportation hubs.

Dr. Francis Boyle, who drafted the Biological Weapons Act, joins Owen Shroyer on The Alex Jones Show to expose the 2019 Wuhan coronavirus as an offensive biological warfare weapon that the World Health Organization (WHO) already knows about.

At the epicenter of this outbreak, crematoriums in Wuhan are burning bodies 24 hours a day as they try to keep up with the flood of dead bodies coming in, and the workers at those facilities are completely and totally overwhelmed.

When I last posted an article about this pandemic on The Economic Collapse Blogthree days ago, there were 14,637 confirmed cases and the death toll had risen to 305.

Since that time, both numbers have nearly doubled…

The death toll and number of people infected by the Wuhan coronavirus continues to grow, with no signs of slowing despite severe quarantine and population control methods put in place in central China.

The number of confirmed cases globally stood at 28,256 as of Thursday morning, with more than 28,000 of those in China. The number of cases in China grew by 3,694, or 15%, on the previous day. There have been 563 deaths so far, all but two of which were in China, with one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong.

Can you imagine how bad things are going to get if the numbers keep roughly doubling every three days?

Of course many are extremely skeptical that the official numbers that the Chinese government is giving us are accurate.  Anecdotal reports seem to indicate that the situation is far worse than we are being told, and that includes firsthand testimony from a funeral home worker in Wuhan…

One worker at the Caidan Funeral Home, in suburban Wuhan, has claimed employees are working “24/7” to deal with the bodies, reports Epoch Times.

The worker said staff are exhausted and are working without proper equipment.

Identified only as Mr Yun, he said: “90 percent of our employees are working 24/7 … we couldn’t go back home.”

Chillingly, he claimed: “All Wuhan cremation chambers are working 24 hours.”

According to Mr. Yun, his facility needs “at least 100 body bags” every single day.  If every other cremation center in the city is handling a similar workload, that would strongly indicate that the true death toll is far, far larger than the official numbers we are being given.

Video footage that has been circulating on social media also seems to back up Mr. Yun’s claims…

Meanwhile, videos from workers dealing with the crisis have been circulating on social media, including one from a worker at a Wuhan funeral home who shared footage of more than 10 bodies lying on gurneys, lined up for cremation.

Some netizens also shared videos they shot within different hospitals in Wuhan, showing bodies waiting to be transferred from the hospitals to funeral homes.

Here in the western world, a lot of people are not taking this crisis very seriously yet.

But over in China things are happening that are absolutely crazy.

If you can believe it, Chinese authorities have actually started locking some victims inside their own homes…

The clip shows two officers padlocking the door while asking the resident inside, “Do you have enough rice and vegetables at home?“

“I think so,” responds the person inside.

“OK, so don’t come out,” responds the officer, adding, “We are locking your door from outside. Don’t come out. It’s good for everyone.”

Eventually the police will go back and check on those victims.

If they are no longer living, they will be put in body bags and shipped off to a crematorium.

Could we soon see similar things happen in western countries?

Let us hope not, but it has become quite clear that this is a very serious outbreak.

Out of all the stories I have come across, perhaps the most heartbreaking of all is the story of a woman that passed the virus on to her newborn baby…

A Chinese baby has been diagnosed with coronavirus just 30 hours after a woman who had tested positive for the deadly disease gave birth in the epicenter city of Wuhan, according to state media.

Doctors at the Wuhan Children’s Hospital on Wednesday cited the case as evidence that pregnant women infected with the virus may be able to pass it to their unborn children, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Can you imagine how heartbroken that mother must be right now?

Unfortunately, it looks like it won’t be too long before this is a true global pandemic.  At this point, Singapore and South Korea both have more than 20 confirmed cases…

Singapore announced a new confirmed case of the coronavirus today, bringing its total to 25.

South Korea also confirmed four more cases today, bringing the national total to 23.

And here in the United States we now have our 12th confirmed case…

Wisconsin has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, state officials said on Wednesday.

The new patient, of undisclosed age and gender, is the twelfth confirmed case in the US after testing positive for the virus at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.

As I keep stressing, we still don’t really know how bad this outbreak will eventually become in the western world.

We have entered a time of great chaos for the entire planet, and this virus certainly has the potential to greatly accelerate that chaos.

But this outbreak could also fizzle out soon, and then it would be regarded by most people in western countries as a “false alarm”.

For now, we will continue to carefully watch the latest developments each day.  The World Health Organization says that there are “no effective remedies” for this virus, and the number of cases continues to escalate.  China has already been completely gripped by panic, and if this outbreak continues to spread it is only a matter of time before more nations are paralyzed by fear as well.

 

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