Coronavirus Pandemic: Apocalypse Now! Or exaggerated scare story?

[Gaby]

New research from University of Cambridge published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS):

COVID-19: genetic network analysis provides ‘snapshot’ of pandemic origins

Study charts the 'incipient supernova' of SARS-CoV-2 through genetic mutations as it spread from China and Asia to Australia, Europe and North America.

www.cam.ac.uk

Mutated versions of ‘A’ were seen in Americans reported to have lived in Wuhan, and a large number of A-type viruses were found in patients from the US and Australia.

Variant ‘A’, most closely related to the virus found in both bats and pangolins, is described as “the root of the outbreak” by researchers. Type ‘B’ is derived from ‘A’, separated by two mutations, then ‘C’ is in turn a “daughter” of ‘B’.

The A and C types are found in significant proportions outside East Asia, that is, in Europeans and Americans. In contrast, the B type is the most common type in East Asia

Smoking gun?

Here's the original paper available in entirety:

Phylogenetic network analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes

This is a phylogenetic network of SARS-CoV-2 genomes sampled from across the world. These genomes are closely related and under evolutionary selection in their human hosts, sometimes with parallel evolution events, that is, the same virus mutation emerges in two different human hosts. This makes...

www.pnas.org

Notice that this research only covers COVID-19 samples from December 2019 until March 2020 and from a very specific database. Giuseppe Remuzzi, the director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, has said that general practitioners remember having seen very strange pneumonia, very severe, particularly in old people starting from November. Ideally those and other so far unsuspected samples should be analyzed to better track patient zero phylogenetically.

 

[shellycheval]

Sorry I couldn't get all this in one post--need more coffee. In the "We Are Living in 12 Monkeys" video, they show how it appears there is a plan for enacting periods of required social distancing over the next 18 months (until a vaccine is ready) and how social isolation is used
as a Pavlovian conditioner to get people to accept extreme reductions in their freedoms "for their own good." I watched it for a second and found it to be even more chilling--and relevant.

 

[Jasophoria]

I am not an internet expert.
But i literally unplugged my internet completely.
And i still had normal internet on my phone, i dont mean the 4g data from your phone provider.
I even walked out of the house, and the connection remanded, until i was about 50 meters away from my house.
I also saw the connection fluctuating, getting stronger and weaker, so there was definitely a connection.
Maybe it's between my ears, but I was also able to breathe better when the connection was broken.
Now the internet is back on, the shortness of breath becomes worse again.

This screenshot is with unplugged internet.

 

[Yupo]

That's true. About 1 out of a 100 people will not fall into the trap. Fortunately for the ruling elite, there are always the 99 others.
I feel like Ron Paul was one they had nothing on. I was often amazed at the things he dared say and he was still there a week later. Not so sure about Sanders, for example. When he was pushed out of the previous election by fraud and then endorsed Hitlery, the psychopathic **** who forced him out, I had to wonder what was up with that. He must have known it was fraud and did nothing about it, afaik. And he stepped out again recently.

Then again, there's much going on behind the scenes we don't know about, so I don't know. But I think the ones who can resist are very few. Plus there's always the "If you don't do what we say, we know where your children go to school" approach. Few people will risk when it gets to that point.


There's also the fact that somebody has been saying "vaccination will be mandatory everywhere within a year" every year for quite a long time. Mandatory vaccinations may get introduced in some places in the near future, but we're far from this being global. There are many countries where even governments would resist that (never mind the people), just like Sweden and Belarus are refusing quarantine.


I have no clue about the situation in NYC, but there can be other reasons for this uptick. Like, what if somebody decided, "we have a lot of corpses we need to bury, and most cemeteries around here are small, but Hart Island has plenty of space, so let's just take them all there to make things easier."
Again, no clue about cemeteries around there, so I'm just speculating. The media never provide objective context, as it would usually make the stories less interesting and less scary, so things like that might be worth checking if it's possible.


Yeah, so let's elect Biden and start a war somewhere.

Ron Paul is interesting. On the Ali G show, Ron Paul and Donald Trump were the only ones that saw right through his nonsense and enforced their boundaries.
Paul:

Trump:

 

[Jacques]

After reading so much reactions of a lot of people here and there in social media and elsewhere, what strikes me the most is that if all this BS works so much is because some like fear of death. And a virus is very more efficient in that regard that a terror threat. And we could grant this to postmodernism, materialistic view of the world, etc.

As for myself, I don't care to die, even if it means that my "personality" will disappear, but I'm surely afraid of more suffering at all levels while alive. And what it means to be alive if you can't even sharing with others, seeing the others, the nature etc. ?

So, it seems to me that all this little new nazis etc are like zombies, dead alive, or better, alive dead !

It was just my rant of the day !

Thanks for sharing your rant @Maat. May I make it mine for today?

So ditto to that.

 

[Jacques]

Or.... Hillary as vice president, taking over once Biden resigns because of his mental illness

Sorry to say that @luc but Hillary has already passed the point of mental illness.

 

[biuta]

Could some of them have just left if they were no longer getting what they needed there?

They are lining up to apply for the Government subsidy

 

[MikaelYosef]

So apparently the Himalayas are visible from parts of India for the first time in decades thanks to recent overreactions:

People in India say they’re seeing the Himalayas for first time in decades amid drop in air pollution

People in Punjab, India, say they’re seeing parts of the Himalayas clearly for the first time in decades as the country’s government has linked its coronavirus lockdown to a recent improv…

thehill.com

Ignoring the plight of billions of fellow beings into the future, surely the Greta girl and her handlers will now have something to be less angry about. It may be dire times, but lets not forget a few people will be rejoicing.

 

[mirex]

On the other hand, I've recently heard on the local radio station, how people are reporting other people not complying with anti-virus procedures. For example, elderly women reported in the live show, how she saw family riding bikes through the local park and not staying at home. She and the radio host ware all freaked out because of it. There are a number of such cases. And it's interesting that most of the reports are coming from elderly women. However, I can also confirm that I'm getting a lot of similar cases of ordinary people who are very suspicious of government measures and all this BS pandemics. Not to mention the situation in the business world. Entrepreneurs are completely outraged. The government was already broke even without lockdown. Consequences in business world are beyond scope.

From my daily 2 hour walks po kvartu ( around the hood ), there is ton of people, most of the time its like any other day, families, bike riders, old and young, sunbathing etc.... only apparent difference is bars are closed that are usually full any time of day

Almost all my friends are still working, and almost all live alone and hangout from time to time ( all of them are not afraid of it, but dont really care about the facts or anything, just waiting it to pass and all will be normal )
I cant have that luxury, still with my parents that are scared ( I understand them and I am not going anywhere but its starting to get to me, after Easter Im going back to work, and that will be very interesting giving the nature of my work, going to houses fixing, did tell them over a month ago go to your village house and stay there, but that window is gone now, to much out of there comfort zone, will they get the pass, then the argument about the crazy village people that will look at them wrong :D, even though some are family ), well I cant really complain at all since im still living at home, irony would be if I were alone I would be in a bad financial situation

Back to the people outside ( cant believe Im actually writing a report of people going outside and doing things! ), no cops in sight, MSM is absolutely atrocious, articles with 100% lies and propaganda, one day news is like look empty streets thats good, next day OMG people on the streets, more and harder restrictions!!!

Government is just IDK pure evil, today a woman 92 years of age, with heavy cancer and other deadly things died of corona, people this is like a plague! and reports to that nature

And as my side of facebook goes, most people are against any of this and call lots of things BS, good!

 

[Eboard10]

Related?:

Where have all the heart attacks gone? Except for treating Covid-19, many hospitals seem to be eerily quiet

The hospitals are eerily quiet, except for Covid-19. I have heard this sentiment from fellow doctors across the United States and in many other countries. We are all asking: Where are all the patients with heart attacks and stroke? They are...

www.sott.net

Interesting read. Have you also seen a drop in patients recovered for heart attacks and strokes at your hospital? What is a bit puzzling to me is that if more people are staying at home rather than being treated at the hospital like they normally would, shouldn't that result in a higher number of people with serious conditions and deaths? And yet it loos like total mortality is dropping in many western countries...

At first thought, one could almost deduce that many people are generally dying due to being hospitalised rather than being saved because of it.

 

[biuta]

Interesting article....

Coronavirus: who will be winners and losers in new world order?

Are state responses to the virus shifting the balance of power between China and the west?

www.theguardian.com

Coronavirus: who will be winners and losers in new world order?

Yet world leaders, diplomats and geopolitical analysts know they are living through epoch-making times and have one eye on the daily combat, the other on what this crisis will bequeath the world.

In France, Macron has predicted “this period will have taught us a lot. Many certainties and convictions will be swept away. Many things that we thought were impossible are happening. The day after when we have won, it will not be a return to the day before, we will be stronger morally. We will draw the consequences, all the consequences.” He has promised to start with major health investment. A Macronist group of MPs has already started a Jour d’Après website.

In Germany, the former Social Democratic party foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel has lamented that “we talked the state down for 30 years”, and predicts the next generation will be less naive about globalisation. In Italy, the former prime minister Matteo Renzi has called for a commission into the future. In Hong Kong, graffiti reads: “There can be no return to normal because normal was the problem in the first place.” Henry Kissinger, the US secretary of state under Richard Nixon, says rulers must prepare now to transition to a post-coronavirus world order.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said: “The relationship between the biggest powers has never been as dysfunctional. Covid-19 is showing dramatically, either we join [together] ... or we can be defeated.”

In Europe, the US and Asia the discussion has broadened out. Public life may be at a standstill, but public debate has accelerated. Everything is up for debate – the trade-offs between a trashed economy and public health, the relative virtues of centralised or regionalised health systems, the exposed fragilities of globalisation, the future of the EU, populism, the inherent advantage of authoritarianism.

The Crisis Group thinktank, in assessing how the virus will permanently change international politics, suggests: “For now we can discern two competing narratives gaining currency – one in which the lesson is that countries ought to come together to better defeat Covid-19, and one in which the lesson is that countries need to stand apart in order to better protect themselves from it.

“China will now be able to sell its digital police state as a model of success against the pandemic. China will display the superiority of its system even more proudly.” He claims western voters, attracted to safety and community, might be willing to sacrifice those liberties. There is little liberty in being forced to spend spring shut in your own flat.

“Coronavirus will accelerate the shift of power and influence from west to east. South Korea and Singapore have shown the best response and China has managed well in the aftermath of its initial mistakes. The governments’ response in Europe and the US has been very sceptical and likely to weaken the power of the western brand.”

The loser at the moment, apart from those like Steve Bannon who argued for “the deconstruction of the administrative state”, risks being the EU.

“The EU’s lack of preparations, its powerlessness, its timidity are staggering. Of course, health is not part of its competency, but it is not without means or responsibility.” The first instinct was to close borders, hoard equipment and assemble national responses. In times of scarcity it emerged every person was for themself, and Italy felt most left to itself.

The former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta has been scathing about Dutch resistance to helping Italy, telling the Dutch press that the Italian view of the Netherlands has been seriously damaged: “It did not help that a day after German customs officials stopped a huge amount of masks at the border, Russian trucks carrying relief supplies drove through the streets of Rome and millions of masks were sent from China

Europe’s chief solace is to look across the Atlantic and watch the daily chaos that is Donald Trump’s evening press conference – the daily reminder that rational people can plan for anything, except an irrational president. Nathalie Tocci, an adviser to Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs chief, wonders whether, much like the 1956 Suez crisis symbolised the ultimate decay of the UK’s global power, coronavirus could mark the “Suez moment” for the US.

As I said in a previous post, this moment might be a controlled collapse of the US Empire and a shift to the East, putting China and its model front and center.

 

[Z...]

Something told me this guy is not a real doctor so I checked and he is a chiropractor-nevertheless valid rant

 

[Persephone]

Due to CV earth's best telescopes have closed... worry? don't worry?... a bit incoherent this article or it's me not being enough good in English... And apart the incoherence, what do they want to hide?

Earth's best telescopes have closed, but the hunt for dangerous aster

Despite more than 100 major telescope closures in recent weeks, key asteroid detection efforts remain online.

astronomy.com

Here some extracts:

"more than 100 of Earth’s largest research telescopes have been forced to shutter their doors, Astronomymagazine reported this week.

It’s the perfect time for an asteroid to strike, many space fans deadpanned in reply.

But there’s no need to worry about an incoming asteroid — at least, not any more than usual. Despite the closures, Earth’s top asteroid-hunting instruments remain on the prowl for potentially deadly space rocks.
NASA funds most major asteroid-hunting efforts. The space agency has a congressional mandate to find some 90 percent of near-Earth objects (NEOs) larger than 460 feet (140 meters) across. As the name implies, NEOs are comets and asteroids that get a little too close for comfort.
The workhorse instruments in that effort are the twin Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) telescopes in Hawaii, as well as the three Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) telescopes in Arizona. And both of those efforts continue. NEOWISE, a NASA space telescope repurposed to hunt for near-Earth objects, is also still operating."

(what a relief... but then...)

"Detecting potentially hazardous space rocks is obviously step one, but follow-up is also an extremely vital aspect of NEO discovery. It’s hard to characterize an asteroid’s size, composition and orbit without collecting several observations of the object over the course of multiple nights. Just one-third of new NEO finds are eventually confirmed.
In normal times, astronomers send new NEO entries to the Minor Planet Center, and observers worldwide then take additional observations to refine the objects’ trajectories.
But with most telescopes closed, there are fewer instruments left to confirm and collect details on new discoveries. As a result, the Catalina Sky Survey and Pan-STARRS have both been forced to tackle more of their own follow-up work. In recent weeks, they’ve had to double back so often that it’s reducing their ability to make new discoveries.
One group that is still following up on new discoveries is the Las Cumbres Observatory global network, which has managed to keep several of its telescopes up and running. But even many small, robotic telescopes have had to close as their mountaintop sites are put on lockdown.

Chambers, the Pan-STARRS director, agrees. “We are adapting our observing strategy to do more self-follow-up,” he says. “This will mean we make fewer discoveries and that we will miss some objects that we would have found in normal times.”

The other long-term problem is that social distancing restrictions have stopped maintenance work. The Pan-STARRS telescopes, for instance, will only be able to operate as long as the equipment continues to function properly.

Similarly, if a staff member comes down with COVID-19, the telescopes will be shut down. So, to avoid bringing things to a grinding halt, no two members of the Pan-STARRS team are allowed in the same building at the same time."

“To protect either people or equipment, we may need to cease operations at any time,” Chambers said.

(but don't worry because...)

"Contrary to headlines in tabloid news, Earth’s chances of getting hit by a large asteroid are very slim at any given time.

Even the small, so-called “city killer” asteroids — those spanning a couple hundred feet across — probably only reach Earth roughly once every few centuries. And because most of our world is covered in water, they’re unlikely to actually hit a city, despite the name."

(but then...)

"Earth got relatively lucky with Tunguska, but that doesn’t mean asteroids aren’t still a major risk to our planet. In 2013, a space rock the size of a house exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring more than 1,000 people as a powerful shock wave blew out countless windows, sending out shards of glass and debris. And just last year, one of these “city killer” asteroids, dubbed 2019 OK, actually passed between Earth and the Moon without astronomers noticing until just before it happened.

Earth will get hit with a major asteroid again, it’s just a question of when. And that’s why astronomers think it’s important to keep a constant watch, even during a pandemic."

(but don't worry because...)

"Fortunately, there’s only a slim chance humanity will have to face two global crises at once. And that’s something we can all be happy about right now."

 

[biuta]

South Korea says recovered COVID-19 patients re-testing positive

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/south-korea-coronavirus-covid19-reactivated-positive-1.5529066

South Korean officials on Friday reported that 91 patients thought cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again.

The prospect of people being re-infected with the virus is of international concern, as many countries are hoping that infected populations will develop sufficient immunity to prevent a resurgence of the pandemic.

But if immunity doesn't happen naturally for this virus, how would a vaccine work???

 

[biuta]

Due to CV earth's best telescopes have closed... worry? don't worry?... a bit incoherent this article or it's me not being enough good in English... And apart the incoherence, what do they want to hide?

Earth's best telescopes have closed, but the hunt for dangerous aster

Despite more than 100 major telescope closures in recent weeks, key asteroid detection efforts remain online.

astronomy.com

Here some extracts:

"more than 100 of Earth’s largest research telescopes have been forced to shutter their doors, Astronomymagazine reported this week.

It’s the perfect time for an asteroid to strike, many space fans deadpanned in reply.

But there’s no need to worry about an incoming asteroid — at least, not any more than usual. Despite the closures, Earth’s top asteroid-hunting instruments remain on the prowl for potentially deadly space rocks.
NASA funds most major asteroid-hunting efforts. The space agency has a congressional mandate to find some 90 percent of near-Earth objects (NEOs) larger than 460 feet (140 meters) across. As the name implies, NEOs are comets and asteroids that get a little too close for comfort.
The workhorse instruments in that effort are the twin Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) telescopes in Hawaii, as well as the three Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) telescopes in Arizona. And both of those efforts continue. NEOWISE, a NASA space telescope repurposed to hunt for near-Earth objects, is also still operating."

(what a relief... but then...)

"Detecting potentially hazardous space rocks is obviously step one, but follow-up is also an extremely vital aspect of NEO discovery. It’s hard to characterize an asteroid’s size, composition and orbit without collecting several observations of the object over the course of multiple nights. Just one-third of new NEO finds are eventually confirmed.
In normal times, astronomers send new NEO entries to the Minor Planet Center, and observers worldwide then take additional observations to refine the objects’ trajectories.
But with most telescopes closed, there are fewer instruments left to confirm and collect details on new discoveries. As a result, the Catalina Sky Survey and Pan-STARRS have both been forced to tackle more of their own follow-up work. In recent weeks, they’ve had to double back so often that it’s reducing their ability to make new discoveries.
One group that is still following up on new discoveries is the Las Cumbres Observatory global network, which has managed to keep several of its telescopes up and running. But even many small, robotic telescopes have had to close as their mountaintop sites are put on lockdown.

Chambers, the Pan-STARRS director, agrees. “We are adapting our observing strategy to do more self-follow-up,” he says. “This will mean we make fewer discoveries and that we will miss some objects that we would have found in normal times.”

The other long-term problem is that social distancing restrictions have stopped maintenance work. The Pan-STARRS telescopes, for instance, will only be able to operate as long as the equipment continues to function properly.

Similarly, if a staff member comes down with COVID-19, the telescopes will be shut down. So, to avoid bringing things to a grinding halt, no two members of the Pan-STARRS team are allowed in the same building at the same time."

“To protect either people or equipment, we may need to cease operations at any time,” Chambers said.

(but don't worry because...)

"Contrary to headlines in tabloid news, Earth’s chances of getting hit by a large asteroid are very slim at any given time.

Even the small, so-called “city killer” asteroids — those spanning a couple hundred feet across — probably only reach Earth roughly once every few centuries. And because most of our world is covered in water, they’re unlikely to actually hit a city, despite the name."

(but then...)

"Earth got relatively lucky with Tunguska, but that doesn’t mean asteroids aren’t still a major risk to our planet. In 2013, a space rock the size of a house exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring more than 1,000 people as a powerful shock wave blew out countless windows, sending out shards of glass and debris. And just last year, one of these “city killer” asteroids, dubbed 2019 OK, actually passed between Earth and the Moon without astronomers noticing until just before it happened.

Earth will get hit with a major asteroid again, it’s just a question of when. And that’s why astronomers think it’s important to keep a constant watch, even during a pandemic."

(but don't worry because...)

"Fortunately, there’s only a slim chance humanity will have to face two global crises at once. And that’s something we can all be happy about right now."

There has to be something coming from the skies as well. There has to be a reason why they want to keep all of us inside and have curfews in place and planes off the skies and ships off the seas...