Coronavirus Pandemic: Apocalypse Now! Or exaggerated scare story?

[SOTTREADER]

@Niall I thought this was again interesting especially in the light of thinking about information.

Here, you mention an official declaration of some information that points to some disconnection to what could be possibly true i.e. that the official numbers are tailored

I agree with the gist of that article but there's a major caveat with the official US numbers: the CDC criteria - I kid you not - for 'confirming' a case of CoVid-19 are "did the person recently travel to China?" and "has the person recently been in contact with someone who recently travelled to China"!

Specific testing for CoVid-19 viral antigens in patients presenting sudden breathing problems has not been taking place in the US. As of yesterday, just 455 people in the US have actually been tested for CoVid-19 with test kits - and most of those were tested with faulty kits!

Doctors were surprised yesterday when someone in California tested positive (via an actual test kit they begged the CDC in Atlanta for) because the patient had had no known contact with anyone travelling to China!

That's why they're calling it "the first suspected case of 'community spread' of the virus," which suggests that CoVid-19 is already way beyond containment.

'Coronavirus' cases are likely already blending into the annual background flux of seasonal flu/pneumonia. And we'd never get a realistic estimate of the isolated CoVid-19 numbers until they crunch the stats for annual excess deaths, country by country, years from now.

But this information was already floating around in the non-official biosphere at least a week ago as evidenced below (see bit in red)

New cases are blowing up in the following locations

- South Korea now has a full blown situation going on - 204 confirmed cases. 93 just today and counting.

- Japan is up to 104 with an addition of 14 today.

- Iran is upto 15.

- Italy has had an explosion - 15 today bringing the total to 19. It was 4 before!

- There's all sorts of whispers about the US with rumors about suppression but officially, it's now at 27.

China is reporting drastically reduced new cases though, take that as you will.

Coronavirus Update (Live): 135,932,798 Cases and 2,938,372 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer

Live statistics and coronavirus news tracking the number of confirmed cases, recovered patients, tests, and death toll due to the COVID-19 coronavirus from Wuhan, China. Coronavirus counter with new cases, deaths, and number of tests per 1 Million population. Historical data and info. Daily...

www.worldometers.info

Coronavirus: 'Narrowing window' to contain outbreak, WHO says

The World Health Organization says the rise of new cases with no clear link to China is a concern.

www.bbc.co.uk

In the same vein, no doubt in maybe a week, a month or so from now, it'll be breaking news Iran is in the doghouse big time when officialdom pronounce it but just for the record, this information was in the non official biosphere weeks ago, again, as evidenced below (in red). It will therefore not be 'breaking news' when it is pronounced from official spaces. It was breaking a week to 2 weeks ago, but silently.

There's now a conspiracy of silence in the MSM in western Europe and the US on the covid-19 latest position in Italy, Iran and most likely the US. Good luck finding up to date info from any of the major outlets on a situation that is RAPIDLY EVOLVING in these regions.

It's seriously looking like things are about to hit the fan big time!

The situation in Italy is particularly dire only because it's in the EU!!! Iran probably are with the wolves now, good luck to them.

Italy has had 59 confirmed cases, of which 2 have died and 16 are in serious / critical condition (that's a big %!). Cases have now been confirmed in Turin and Milan.

Next week will be critical, if the authorities don't get this under control in Italy, it's going to be ground zero in the EU. If people in affected regions start moving out to other regions, then they will take it with them to those other regions.... You get the picture! This is the time the authorities need to go full on CCP and shut the places cases are popping up down till they get a full handle on it. No trains, no planes, no mass gatherings etc.

Buckle up!


Ps, don't forget we've got an aging population in Europe... All those 70 & 80 year olds won't do well in a Covid-19 outbreak.

Also don't forget our diet is generally horrendous! The authorities better get this thing under control QUICK otherwise it'll be more than just a bad cold if it were to take hold in the west!!!

One emergent phenomenon I'm observing from all this tracking is the lag in time before something becomes apparent unofficially to when it then becomes apparent officially.

I have seen many comments in unofficial spaces say the news in official spaces they are receiving about this virus is a week to 2 weeks out of date. That is to say, the so called non-authorities are ahead of the so called authorities in the issue of an ongoing worldwide phenomenon.

Something to think about for when the real one hits! But also very interesting observation that I never noticed before on any other so called breaking news. Usually the news hits from official-dom first before the non official spaces analyse and pick it apart compared to the other way around.

Ps, this is not to say that non-officialdom is to be trusted. Of course not, not with all the disinfo that exists. But of course, it is nonetheless interesting to see where the information is in 'real time' Vs where it is put through a chain of command to then get that final seal of approval to be released to public by which point, the news is old and out of date.

 

[SOTTREADER]

Last bit of news

The pope of all people might have fallen prey to the virus. He is ill at the moment but the illness is not confirmed.

He is being tested for the virus.

Pope Francis sick a day after supporting coronavirus sufferers

Pope Francis has come down with a “slight indisposition,” forcing him to cancel a planned Mass in Rome, just a day after he expressed his solidarity with coronavirus sufferers around the world &#82…

nypost.com

 

[Metrist]

Watching the youtubes of world events, especially the strange climate and animal die-offs, ect., you start wondering if the outbreak is connected to these climatic occurrences.

Like when that sand storm hit Tenerife, the next day they have a quarantine with the virus. And in the floods, there were scenes of foam washing up on the beaches, that is supposedly sewage. Then there is a link to the virus and sewage. And the wind and rain, not ordinary levels, but extreme. And who knows what are causing the animal die-offs.

I think in matters of climate - especially the type we are witnessing now - it is framed in the media as a issue of 'what can we do'. It is narrowed to a human scope. So the weather is turned into human affairs, with Greta leading the way. But it is something beyond our control, but to keep us calm, they put on a 'we are doing something about it' display - they want us to focus on them - who will assure us, even though it is to just maintain order.

So, if it is a matter out of human hands, it must be framed as if it was, to keep the calm. So, focus was drawn to the virus because we can 'appear to be doing something', but then it only diverts so much away from what's going on, and hopefully the earth changes subsides. So, all through the extreme earth changes a human drama plays out - granted, it is a real outbreak, but perhaps convoluted - in order to keep our minds focused on things within our control. And we confuse the issue in our participation, but that really isn't important, what's important is we are mentally sheltered from the phenomena around us, as we ride out the storm. And we have to be, because we need shelter, even our minds, when we are overwhelmed.

 

[luc]

just a little more to the 'right', a gentle further nudge to the 'left'... if this isn't the device for flipping the switch (which I'm pretty sure it isn't) its certainly a good dry run... as always they learn and we humans don't!

Rationality is out the window for some for sure.

Yes, and whatever else is going on, I find this to be the scariest aspect of it all. Imagine how people would freak out if something really scary happened!

And the "a little more to the left, a little more to the right" is spot on. Both sides in the culture wars seem to agree that we should panic, it seems. Paul Joseph Watson, for example, is ranting on Twitter how "open borders" caused the epidemic! Give me a friggin break. This is just playing with right-wing triggers. As much as I agree with critizising lefty ideas about mass-migration, clearly this has nothing to do with it. Unless you want to close all borders even to business traffic

 

[JEEP]

And that’s the thing — the statistics show the flu is much more deadly than coronavirus.

We should keep in mind that the "statistics" aren't necessarily accurate as Jon Rappoport has pointed out - people have actually died from pneumonia but flu has been officially listed as the cause. Same for Spanish flu - the medical treatment of overdosing with aspirin killed many more than the disease itself but the statistics don't reflect that. As my dad often said, "Figures don't lie, but liars can figure"!

A factor that concerns me, and plays into the current VAXXED movement, is that the hyped fear of this virus is ramping up the desire for a savior vaccine to indeed save humanity from this terrible pestilence as nothing else can! And so the idea that a vaccine is absolutely the answer to conquering this disease is really doing a lot to damage the whole vaccines are bad awakening that was beginning to gain momentum. How convenient!

Meanwhile, what is the story with Iran? Is there more than meets the eye here? And, after reading that the African swine fever was being spread in China by the use of drones (), could something like that also be spreading coronavirus?

Doctors Inside Iran Believe Coronavirus Is More Serious Than Reported, and Getting Worse
FEBRUARY 27, 2020

With dozens of publicly known cases and multiple deaths, Iran is now the epicenter of the coronavirus in the Middle East. Doctors inside the Islamic Republic say the country is now grappling with an “epidemic,” and the response has been hampered not just by government inaction and disinformation but also economic sanctions.

“We think that this virus has been in Iran for the past three to four weeks and has circulated throughout the country. Right now in Iran we are facing a coronavirus epidemic,” said a senior medical doctor at the Masih Daneshvari hospital in Tehran, the country’s top pulmonary public hospital and the main facility overseeing coronavirus patients.

Public officials have not confirmed how the disease arrived in Iran, but it appears to be the locus for the regional outbreak. So far, Afghanistan, Georgia, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Oman reported their first cases of coronavirus, all linked to passengers traveling from Iran.

Since it first announced the presence of COVID-19 last week, Iran has so far reported a total of 245 cases and 26 deaths, a far higher fatality rate than seen elsewhere. The doctor, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said the official tally vastly underestimates the true number of cases. “We didn’t have a way to test people earlier and don’t have the capacity to screen everyone,” he said, in a telephone interview. “Let me put it this way, if in general two out of 100 corona patients die, in Iran, if we now have 20 deaths that means we have 1,000 infected patients.”

The disease is now widely spread across Iran, with the largest concentration reported in the lush northern province of Gilan the holy city of Qom. Earlier this week, a lawmaker from the holy city, Ahmad Amirabadi , announced the death toll in Qom “has reached 50 people”— a claim that was immediately rejected by government officials, including the deputy Health Minister Iraj Haririchi who also advised against mandatory quarantine and called it a “pre world war era” strategy. On Tuesday Harirchi himself tested positive for the virus and is now undergoing treatment.

Since the government’s public acknowledgment of the coronavirus in Iran, a number of public officials have been diagnosed with the disease. As well as Haririchi, they include Tehran’s reformist MP, Mahmoud Sadeghi , a local mayor from Tehran’s 13 district, and the head of Qom’s medical university, Dr. Mohammad Reza Ghadir.

An anesthesiologist at one of Tehran’s top private hospitals, who also requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said she believed officials are victims of their own inaction in tackling the disease. “The reason these government officials are contracting the virus is because, they always want to hide the truth; so they don’t use any protective measures when going from this hospital to another just so they project this image that there’s nothing serious going on. It’s only natural that they have been exposed to the virus.” Speaking in a telephone interview, she claimed government officials held back information out of fear of low voter turn out in last week’s parliamentary election.

Several doctors interviewed by TIME said they thought the virus arrived in Iran far earlier than officials admitted. “In the past couple of weeks there were quite a few patients, mainly elderly, with suspicious symptoms who would test negative for influenza, some of whom have died,” said the doctor at Masih Daneshvari hospital. “Naturally we thought it might be corona, but had no testing kit to properly test for [it].” He added that the first testing kits did not come to Iran until last Wednesday. “The kits were not available for sale to us earlier and we bought the first batch from Germany as soon as they were available.”

The anaesthesiologist said the lack of urgency among public officials is reflected in the number of ordinary Iranians who aren’t taking the outbreak seriously. “Me and my colleagues, we all think people also don’t have a good understanding that they too need to cooperate. I mean the government has shut down the schools and you see people going on family trips! People’s lack of seriousness and care is also contributing to the crisis,” she said.

Medical workers also said that their equipment is badly outdated, a situation made worse by the U.S. sanctions on the Iranian economy. Although the U.S. administration says “humanitarian and medical needs” are exempt from sanctions, few European companies dare to do business in Iran in fear of potential retribution from the U.S. Moreover, sanctions on Iranian banks make it highly complicated to carry out transactions with Europe.

One Iranian entrepreneur who imports and sells medical respiratory equipment told TIME that it takes three times longer to make a simple banking transaction with Europe under the newly imposed sanctions. “In Iran, in times of crisis, we don’t have any effective government-backed emergency task force; and everything we want to do with Europe is done with delay. We have had ICU bed shortages for a while and now we can’t buy the number we need for this corona outbreak in a timely way.”

In light of the coronavirus outbreak, he adds, there is also a shortage of “mechanical ventilators, non-invasive ventilator, and HFNC (high flow nasal cannula)” all of which his company is having a hard time purchasing due to sanctions over Iran’s banking system.

Medicines too are in short supply. The doctor in Masih Daneshvari hospital said the scarcity of U.S. dollars limits purchasing power. Right now he is in dire need of the antiviral medicine Remdesivir, he adds. But despite all the limitations, he says he is doing what he can to fight the coronavirus. “We are the frontline. We need to accept that we have so many shortcomings; but we, the medical professionals, are fighting this war with all of our power. I come to this hospital for the people in need and am willing to give my life.”

Doctors Inside Iran Believe Coronavirus Is More Serious Than Reported, and Getting Worse

Medical professionals inside the Islamic Republic tell TIME they believe the country is now grappling with an “epidemic”

time.com

So the sanctions may be responsible for causing more deaths in Iran than the virus itself! Again, how convenient!

Coronavirus Hits Iranian Vice President, Other Officials As Disease Continues To Spread
February 28, 2020

A vice president, a deputy health minister, a former envoy to the Vatican, the head of a medical university, and at least four parliament members are among the Iranian officials who have been infected with the coronavirus in recent days.

The increasing number of officials testing positive for the virus has raised questions about the management of the outbreak in Iran and whether officials are heeding safety measures to protect themselves amid the disease's outbreak in the country that according to the latest official figures has killed 34 people.

However, the BBC's Persian service said a count conducted by its unnamed sources in several hospitals suggests at least 210 people have died in the country as of the night of February 27. The Health Ministry vehemently denied the report.

"It doesn't inspire much confidence when officials who are supposed to protect us and who claim the situation is under control are falling ill," A Tehran-based observer who did not want to be named told RFE/RL.

Iranian Vice President for Women's Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar -- who served as spokeswoman for the Islamic student revolutionaries who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 -- was reported to have tested positive for the virus on February 27, a day after she was seen taking part in a cabinet meeting and sitting a few seats away from President Hassan Rohani.

It wasn't clear if those attending the meeting with Ebtekar, 59, and Rohani, 71, had been tested for the virus. Ebtekar -- whose symptoms are reportedly mild -- has been quarantined at home.

Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi confirmed he also contracted the coronavirus on February 25, a day after a press conference with government spokesman Ali Rabiei in which Harirchi was seen sweating profusely. Iranian media later reported that Rabiei had tested negative for the virus.

Prominent cleric Hadi Khosroshahi, the Islamic republic's first ambassador to the Vatican, died on February 27 after testing positive for the virus. He was 81 years old.

Two lawmakers, Mojtaba Zolnour -- a representative from Qom and head of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, and Mahmud Sadeghi, an outspoken reformist lawmaker, have also said publicly that they have the virus.

On February 28, lawmaker Mohammad Ali Vakili said four of 30 of his colleagues in parliament had tested positive for the coronavirus, though he did not give their names. "It is possible that the number [of infected lawmakers] will increase because so far we only know about the test results for 30," Vakili told the government news agency IRNA.

Mohammad Reza Ghadir, the director of the medical-sciences university in Qom, the Iranian epicenter of the coronavirus, has also contracted the disease, while the head of Qom's health center has been quarantined due to suspicion he may have also been infected, Iranian media reported.

In a video posted online on February 24, Ghadir said he's recovering.

Some reports have also suggested that Morteza Rahmanzadeh, the mayor of District 13 in the Iranian capital, has been infected with the virus, which originated in China in December and was first reported in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom on February 19.
[...]
Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization's Emergencies Program, warned that the outbreak in Iran could be more serious than realized. "The most likely factor is that obviously this disease came unseen and undetected into Iran so the extent of infection may be broader than what we are seeing," Ryan told reporters on February 27.

"There is a very high clinical capacity for managing severely ill patients in Iran, so I don't suspect this has anything to do with clinical care," he added.

Iran has by far the highest death toll from coronavirus outside China.

In order to prevent the further spread of the virus, authorities have said schools will be closed and Friday Prayers were canceled in Tehran and 22 other cities on February 28.

Jahanpur said on Twitter on February 28 that Health Minister Saeed Namaki had asked parliament to cancel all open and closed meetings until "further notice" to protect lawmakers and citizens from the coronavirus.

Iranian state media on February 28 published images of what they said were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps sanitizing and spraying down streets and sidewalks in Qom.

Coronavirus Hits Iranian Vice President, Other Officials As Disease Continues To Spread

Iran appears to have the highest number of state officials infected with the coronavirus.

www.rferl.org

Well, I guess they're taking it seriously now!

 

[JEEP]

Edit - attempted to add this to the first paragraph but time expired:

And obviously, the more you can get people to be deathly afraid of the flu, the more likely they will clamor for the flu vaccine! Which brings up another point regarding this new virus.

 

[thorbiorn]

Below are some links about the workings of viruses which is such an interesting field, at least if one tries to understand some of the details of how viruses and cells function.
In the following paper there was and explanation of what researchers in the past have done, when they looked for developing a vaccine against SARS. In the paper, they also mention some old types, they say were actually harmful for the liver, so they wish to do better.

Receptor-binding domains of spike proteins of emerging or re-emerging viruses as targets for development of antiviral vaccines

Shibo Jiang,1,2 Lu Lu,1 Qi Liu,1,3 Wei Xu,1 and Lanying Du2
Abstract
A number of emerging and re-emerging viruses have caused epidemics or pandemics of infectious diseases leading to major devastations throughout human history. Therefore, developing effective and safe vaccines against these viruses is clearly important for the protection of at-risk populations. Our previous studies have shown that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in the spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a key target for the development of SARS vaccines. In this review, we highlight some key advances in the development of antiviral vaccines targeting the RBDs of spike proteins of emerging and re-emerging viruses, using SARS-CoV, influenza virus, Hendra virus (HeV) and Nipah virus (NiV) as examples.

In this there are some great illustrations of the principles:

The SARS-CoV life cycle in host cells and its S protein structure. Life cycle of SARS-CoV. SARS-CoV begins its life cycle when its S protein binds to the cellular receptor ACE2. After receptor binding, the conformation change in the S protein facilitates viral envelope fusion with the cell membrane through the endosomal pathway. Then SARS-CoV releases RNA into the host cell. Genome RNA is translated into viral replicase polyproteins pp1a and 1ab, which are then cleaved into small products by viral proteinases. At the same time, polymerase, which produces a series of subgenomic mRNAs by discontinuous transcription, is finally translated into relevant viral proteins. Viral proteins and genome RNA are subsequently assembled into virions in the ER and Golgi, which are budding into the lumen of the ERGIC and then transported via vesicles and released out of the cell. ACE2, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; ERGIC, ER–Golgi intermediate compartment.

S protein is the same as Spike protein. In the drawing there was mention of replicase, which is described here: RNA-dependent RNA polymerase - Wikipedia other Wikis that may be helpful could be mRNA, RNA, Golgi apparatus

On Coronavirus Vs Sars someone put together images of corona viruses:and there are a lot, but in general the image libraries of the search engines have been vastly enriched within the last few weeks, one artist better than the other.

There are also videos about how viruses work, in fact one important side effect of this "panic" is that more people may become interested in the inner workings of cells and the surprising intelligence contained within such small structures as viruses.

Where Did Viruses Come From?
A Virus Attacks a Cell
How do Viruses Reproduce?
Virus Infection Animation
The coronavirus outbreak (2019 nCoV) explained through 3D Medical Animation This one includes an end state where the the cell that was infected actually dies.

Related to understanding the working of the cell are a few other videos
Darwin Day: Discovery Institute's Video series "Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe"
40 Trillion cells in your body and each poses a mystery! Part II of "Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe"
In episode 3 of Secrets of the Cell, Michael Behe tests "the power of evolution"
Revolutionary: Michael Behe and the Mystery of Molecular Machines
Your Body's Molecular Machines
Mitochondria: the cell's powerhouse
ATP synthase: Structure and Function
The Molecular Basis of Life

 

[Gary]

So, if it is a matter out of human hands, it must be framed as if it was, to keep the calm. So, focus was drawn to the virus because we can 'appear to be doing something', but then it only diverts so much away from what's going on, and hopefully the earth changes subsides. So, all through the extreme earth changes a human drama plays out - granted, it is a real outbreak, but perhaps convoluted - in order to keep our minds focused on things within our control. And we confuse the issue in our participation, but that really isn't important, what's important is we are mentally sheltered from the phenomena around us, as we ride out the storm. And we have to be, because we need shelter, even our minds, when we are overwhelmed.

Indeed. Reminds me of that quote, "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship." These two recent articles by Caitlin Johnstone seem appropriate in these increasingly chaotic times.

How to be a mentally sovereign human -- Sott.net

We all showed up naked, slimy and clueless in a world of inexplicable sensory input we couldn't make head or tail out of. We were then taught what's what by people who showed up under the exact same circumstances a blink of an eye earlier. The...

www.sott.net

"The cost of sanity, in this society, is a certain level of alienation"

The late psychonaut/philosopher Terence McKenna once said "The cost of sanity, in this society, is a certain level of alienation," and I think my regular readers will immediately and experientially understand exactly what he was talking about....

www.sott.net

 

[JEEP]

Just came across this on the current Session thread and I think it's very much applicable here along with what I just posted regarding vaccines:

This is a really long and extremely depressing video by Del Bigtree from Informed Consent Action Network. At 1hr 11 minutes he starts talking about the new Coronavirus coming out of China. I was ASTONISHED to hear him put forward (at 1hr 11 minutes) the conjecture that was exactly what the Cs said "yes" to in the transcripts. (option D). I had thought it was more likely a caged animal biting a research scientist in a lab, but no it's much, much worse. Check it out.

This puts an entirely new slant on what has occurred with this escaped virus. I had seen an article that claimed a vaccine had already been produced, but because I switched from an old laptop with windows 7 to a new one, it wasn't in my history. I believe the article is among those pointed out in the above vid. This guy is making a lot a thought-provoking points! And yes, regarding any vaccine that comes out of this, we should be afraid - very afraid! This vid should be widely shared. And to think Vit C can probably defeat this virus easily whereas what any developed vaccine will do by contrast is mind-boggling! Who needs a plague when you've got vaccines!

 

[Joe]

Yes, and whatever else is going on, I find this to be the scariest aspect of it all. Imagine how people would freak out if something really scary happened!

Was thinking the same. I think the significant factor here is not the virus but whatever it is that's 'in the air'. A pretty significant level of hysteria has been gripping the world over the past few years, as we know, on everything from climate change to 'identity politics'. People around the world are primed, it seems, to get hysterical about anything that comes along that fits the bill, and that includes the media of course, who have an additional reason to disingenuously push the alarmist headlines to earn money and serve Western government agendas.

We should keep in mind that the "statistics" aren't necessarily accurate

That's an understatement! Consider the BBC and others' claims about the virus in Iran. Citing "hospital sources" inside Iran, they claim that the Iranian government is under-reporting the numbers of infected and deaths, claiming 210 have died, as opposed to the Iranian health ministry's figure of 34 deaths from 388 cases. Who exactly the BBC's 'sources' are is not revealed. But even the official Iranian claims do not allow us to draw any useful conclusions.

You might think that if there are 34 deaths from 388 infected, the virus has a mortality rate of almost 10% in Iran, but if we don't allow ourselves to get caught up in the hysteria, and think a little more about it, we realize that there could well be millions of tens of millions of Iranians that have been exposed to the virus and never went near a doctor because they treated it as a normal winter illness and recovered. So where does that leave the "388 infected" and 34 deaths claim? 388 infected out of, perhaps, 10 million exposed to the virus? What percentage is that? And 34 deaths from the same 10 million exposed? What mortality rate is that?

So let's all try and be the ones who keep their heads as the rest of the world loses theirs. It might be very important to do so as things progress.

 

[Cosmos]

There is another aspect that shouldn't be underestimated in terms of the hysterics and the effect on the economy. It seems that business leaders and company chiefs in all fields are now rather worried about their companies and understandably so. As it stands now, the simple fact is, if a corona case breaks out in your company (at least here in germany), all hell breaks loose financially speaking for that company. The company will be forced to close down for weeks and months on end. Can you imagine what this means for pretty much every company nowadays and especially the smaller ones? Financial ruin...

I'm bringing that up since I can see it in my own company. The chiefs are worried that the company will be closed down do to Corona and have already let the employees know that they should avoid shaking hands and so forth. Even if company leaders don't believe in the hype, the simple fact of the matter is that their companies run the risk of sinking fast if such a case happens in the company. So they are literally under pressure to go along.

 

[Niall]

@Niall I thought this was again interesting especially in the light of thinking about information.

Here, you mention an official declaration of some information that points to some disconnection to what could be possibly true i.e. that the official numbers are tailored

But this information was already floating around in the non-official biosphere at least a week ago as evidenced below (see bit in red)

The difference is you're citing these figures as evidence that this is a signifiant outbreak that is 'being suppressed'. I'm suggesting it's evidence that the global population has already been substantially exposed to the specific CoVid-19 virus, and that it thus may not stand out as particularly bad compared with other 'background' viruses causing annual seasonal flu.

Maybe this qualifies as being passive aggressive but it's interesting to see how the same information is received differently depending on who is sending it.

It's about how the same information is being used differently depending on the starting assumptions of whoever is saying it.

 

[Woodsman]

Speak of the devil...

I'm feeling one of those flu tickles in the back of my throat...

I guess I'm in for a dry run. I hope I caught whatever it is early enough to evade the suspicions of any panicked masses.

Which makes me think...

That's going to start being a serious consideration in two or three weeks.

 

[SOTTREADER]

There are some people in Germany starting to comment in this thread.

So, when we look at 'official' numbers, the confirmed cases in Germany are now making 'small leaps' everyday.

This morning, we are on 75 confirmed cases. By the end of the weekend it'll probably be over 100.

In all countries where the virus has officially exploded within, the pattern in the same - it starts with a few isolated cases, then it stays like that for a while, it then starts to jump by a handful of cases but hold steady. From there, it explodes! This is the pattern. Germany, this is what awaits.

So yes, expect the situation in Italy, in Japan and in South Korea to visit Germany - maybe in a week, maybe in 2 weeks. That includes - company shut downs, restriction of travel in whatever will be the epidemic centers, empty shelves in supermarket, schools closing down etc etc. All this is coming, the numbers are pointing that way and if anything, Covid-19 is becoming predictable now.


Another country on the list is the US. Have you noticed the CDC have now come out and said Americans should prepare? Trump also spoke, task force has been set etc. Today and yesterday they are now confirming cases indicating community spread. What will this mean? This will mean they expand the testing. What will that mean? That will mean they start finding the cases that have been there for weeks already. What will that then mean? Answer is simple. Look at Italy, South Korea, Japan etc.

 

[Laurs]

There is another aspect that shouldn't be underestimated in terms of the hysterics and the effect on the economy. It seems that business leaders and company chiefs in all fields are now rather worried about their companies and understandably so. As it stands now, the simple fact is, if a corona case breaks out in your company (at least here in germany), all hell breaks loose financially speaking for that company. The company will be forced to close down for weeks and months on end. Can you imagine what this means for pretty much every company nowadays and especially the smaller ones? Financial ruin...

Well said and according to Mike Whitney 'The contagion has not even spread to the United States yet, and look at the mayhem it has created. The virus has exposed the essential fragility of a market system that depends on the endless meddling of outside actors whose only objective is to transfer trillions of dollars in wealth to their voracious constituents on Wall Street.'

'As economist Nouriel Roubini said in a recent article in the Financial Times, “Investors are deluding themselves about how severe the coronavirus outbreak will be. Despite this week’s big sell-off in equity markets, the worst is yet to come.”

NOTE: Thursday’s 1,190 point rout was the Dow Jones’ biggest one day loss in history.' Why are stocks crashing?