Feb 142020
 
 February 14, 2020  Posted by at 10:58 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Alfred Palmer Halftrack scout car brought up to Army standards of smartness. White Motor Company, Cleveland Dec 1941

 

Beijing Lowers Coronavirus Deaths By 108 Due To “Double Counting” (ZH)
Singapore’s Biggest Daily Jump In New Coronavirus Cases Takes Tally To 58 (R.)
Foxconn Denies Reuters Reports On Factory Restart In China (ZH)
WHO Advisor Says Coronavirus May Infect Over 5 Billion People (ZH)
Senate Passes Iran War Powers Resolution Despite Trump’s Opposition (CNN)
Barr Says Trump Tweets About DOJ Cases Make It ‘Impossible To Do My Job’ (CNN)
Foreperson On Roger Stone Jury Revealed As Anti-Trump Activist (DM)
Judge Napolitano: Roger Stone Should Get New Trial (Fox)
Senate Attacks Judy Shelton For Sin Of Being Outside The Mainstream (Mises)
Why Is Bloomberg’s Long History of Egregious Sexism Getting a Pass? (GQ)
Irish MEP Calls Venezuela’s Guaido ‘Unelected Gobshite’ In EU Parliament (RT)
UK Tells 100-Year-Old Man His Parents Must Sign For Settled Status (Ind.)

 

 

I noticed late last night my time that the COVID19 death tally went from an initial 1486 all the way back to 1380. Found that very curious, thought it was an error. But woke up this morning to find they really did it. As Tyler put it at the time: “Hubei province reports 116 new coronavirus deaths and 4,823 cases, bringing the overall official count to 1,486 deaths and 65,213 confirmed. China must feel its credibility is completely shot by now, or they’d be much more careful.

As I wrote this, the numbers are (from various sources, fluid):

• Cases: 64,443 (from yesterday’s 60,108)

• Deaths: 1,383 (from yesterday’s 1,363)

• Suspected cases 10,109

• In serious/critical condition 10,227

• Recovered 6,801

• Health workers infected 1716

• Hubei deducted 1,043 older cases and 108 deaths due to double counting

• 267 new cases and 5 new deaths outside Hubei province

• First death in Japan, 15th case in US

 

 

 

 

The “double-counted” deaths can’t have anything to do with the new accounting measures that lifted the numbers of cases yesterday. So what happened? No explanation. Something Beijing cannot afford.

Beijing Lowers Coronavirus Deaths By 108 Due To “Double Counting” (ZH)

..while China “can now claim it wants to be more transparent (which is odd for a nation that is still refusing to admit the US CDC on the ground) and wants a more comprehensive definition of “infection” because it is suddenly so concerned about all those people it ordered to go back to work on Monday, it somehow also changed the definition of “death”, because at the same time as the explosion in new cases, which clearly indicates that the pandemic is now clearly out of control, the number of reported deaths in Hubei alone spiked by 242 to 1,310.”

One day later China appears to have realized just how flagrant this “mistake” – which exposed the lie which Chinese officials had used until now to avoid a panic, and reset the infection count to a sharply higher number – was, because even as Hubei reported an additional 4,823 cases as of Thursday (and the Chinese National Health Commission said this number was up 5,090 for all of China), there was some major confusion about what the actual number of deaths was. Here’s why. In its official daily update on the coronavirus epidemic on Thursday, Feb 13 – the day of the great surge in infections and deaths – the NHC reported that across all of China, there was an increase of 242 death cases in China, of which 216 in Wuhan to 1,367..

… which is bizarre, because one day later, in its latest update from Friday, Feb 14, the NHC said that while the number of deaths – which as of Thursday recall were 1,367 (see above) – increased by 121, the total number of declared deaths across China was just 1,380. In other words, somehow the jump from 1,367 deaths to 1,380 was an increase of 121 deaths!? But don’t take our word for it: here is JPMorgan’s official count of all related data as of this morning, showing that indeed, as of Feb 13 (so for Feb 12), there was a total of 1,367 deaths reported by the National Health Commission.

Is this just pro-forma, adjusted death math with Chinese characteristics? As it turns out no, because recall that while China may have reset the number of new cases sharply higher, it certainly did not mean to also send the number of deaths surging, as it would means that this had nothing to do with a change in the definition of infection, and everything to do with undercounting the number of infected and dead. So what did Beijing do?


Well, as the NHC “explained” in its Friday statement, that 242 increase in deaths officially reported on Thursday somehow also included 108 deaths that were “double counted.” There was no explanation how or why it was possible to “double count” a death. Which of course, it isn’t and what really happened is that China, having realized its glaring mistake which prompted us to mock its “data” yesterday, had to quickly cut by roughly half the surge in Thursday deaths to make the progression in the number of new deaths “smooth.” And sure enough, this is what the revised death chart looks like after the “double counting” revision: compare the chart up top of the number in new deaths before today’s “revision”, with what the death number looks like now, after the latest “data.”

Read more …

The sign suggests wearing a mask only when you’re already sick. Someone tell 500 million Chinese.

Singapore’s Biggest Daily Jump In New Coronavirus Cases Takes Tally To 58 (R.)

Singapore on Thursday reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus cases, with eight newly infected patients bringing its total to 58, the health ministry said. All of the new patients were linked to previous cases, the ministry said. Of the 58 confirmed cases reported, 15 have recovered and been discharged from hospital while seven are in critical condition in intensive care, it added.


REUTERS/Feline Lim

Read more …

This has been a He Said She Said all week. It gets serious if false reports make shares surge, though.

Foxconn Denies Reuters Reports On Factory Restart In China (ZH)

Foxconn denied a report that it plans to resume over half its production by the end of February, as the Covid-19 outbreak worsens. The report via Reuters noted that 50% of Foxconn’s production would come back online by the end of the month, and the aim for full production for next month. This sent Apple shares to near record highs this week; however, Foxconn ruined the party and said Reuters was incorrect about plant resumptions. The statement by the world’s largest contract electronics maker was published via the Taipei stock exchange on Thursday, and first cited by Reuters. Foxconn is Apple’s main iPhone assembler in China and offered no timetable of when its factories would reopen. Foxconn received the go-ahead to reopen some plants in China this week. However, only about 10% of its workforce had returned to several plants in southern Shenzhen and central Zhengzhou on Monday.


Apple has also extended the shutdown of its retail stores across the country. Stores were supposed to open earlier this week but have now delayed until February 15. TrendForce Corp. said Apple could see a 10% decline in iPhone sales in 1Q, from 45.5 million to about 41 million units, due mostly because of factory shutdowns tied to the virus outbreak. We’ve noted, in the last several weeks, that if Foxconn factories cannot resume production by early February and have full production by the end of the month, shortages would develop for Apple iPhones and AirPods. The one sector with the most exposure to Greater China and the Asia Pacific is also the sector that has outperformed the most in recent months: Tech. This means that supply chain disruptions are about to cause one of the most significant shocks since the financial crisis.

Read more …

Second expert to say this. The media should set the proper context: this is true if no measures to contain the disease are taken.

WHO Advisor Says Coronavirus May Infect Over 5 Billion People (ZH)

In yet another sign of the World Health Organization’s about-face on the coronavirus outbreak, a top epidemiologist and advisor to the organization said Thursday that if the virus isn’t contained soon, it could infect 60% of the global population – or more than 5 billion people – echoing projections made by a Hong Kong scientist who was once labeled an alarmist despite his pioneering work in the fight against SARS. According to Bloomberg, that’s what WHO advisor Ira Longini said after finishing a study of the virus’s transmissibility. His estimates suggest that the virus could one day infect billions of people, far more than the ~60,000 or so cases as of earlier on Thursday.

If the virus truly has a mortality rate of 2% (around the low end of current estimates), at this rate, it would kill more than 100 million. Of course, if the virus manages to spread so widely, it will unequivocally prove that China’s draconian quarantines weren’t effective enough, and that the government effectively set itself up for failure when it hesitated to try and contain the outbreak after it first emerged in Wuhan late last year. In recent days, growing attention has been paid to the lack of reliable virus tests, not just in China, but in virtually all countries where the virus has spread. The difficulties in diagnosing the virus could mean we see another sudden surge of cases – but this time, it could be even larger than last night’s dump from officials in Hubei.

Even if we could find a way to reduce the virus’s ability to spread by half, it would could still wind up infecting more than 2 billion people. “Unless the transmissibility changes, surveillance and containment can only work so well,” Longini, co-director of the Center for Statistics and Quantitative Infectious Diseases at the University of Florida, said in an interview at WHO headquarters in Geneva. “Isolating cases and quarantining contacts is not going to stop this virus.”

Read more …

Excuse me, but doesn’t this give Trump exactly what he would want, a bipartisan vote against the swamp, the War Party, without him having to do the heavy lifting?!

In taking the power away from him, you also absolve him of any responsibility. And that power, BTW, is only that involving Iran. Or course Trump puts up token resistance, but…

Senate Passes Iran War Powers Resolution Despite Trump’s Opposition (CNN)

The Senate passed an Iran War Powers resolution on Thursday, a rare measure that was approved with bipartisan support despite the fact that it has been opposed by President Donald Trump and aims to rein in his ability to use military action against Iran without congressional approval. The vote was 55-45. Eight Republicans voted in favor of it: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Todd Young of Indiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Jerry Moran of Kansas. The President warned the Senate not to green-light the measure on Wednesday, tweeting that “it is very important for our country’s security that the United States Senate not vote for the Iran War Powers Resolution,” and adding, “If my hands were tied, Iran would have a field day.”

The White House has also issued a veto threat against it. Despite that, the resolution, chiefly authored by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, won bipartisan support. Several Republican senators, including Lee, Paul and Collins, signed on as co-sponsors. Earlier on Thursday, potential problems threatened to derail the resolution ahead of an the final vote, with Senate Democrats warning that an amendment filed late Wednesday by GOP Sen. Tom Cotton – that Democrats described as a poison pill – could draw enough support to pass and possibly make it difficult for the underlying bipartisan War Powers Resolution to maintain majority support.

Ultimately, however, the Senate defeated the controversial amendment, clearing the way for final passage. The Senate voted to table — or kill — the amendment. The resolution “directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government or military, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force against Iran.” It includes a provision stating that no part of the resolution “shall be construed to prevent the United States from defending itself from imminent attack.”

Read more …

There were calls for an investigation into Barr and Trump interfering in the Roger Stone case. Barr just reduced Trump’s role to a bunch of tweets. They’re going to investigate a bunch of tweets? And what is there about Barr to investigate when he’s just publicly put a distance between him and Trump? Or do the want to investigate the Attorney General over a decision he hasn’t even made yet?

Barr Says Trump Tweets About DOJ Cases Make It ‘Impossible To Do My Job’ (CNN)

Attorney General William Barr on Thursday rebuked President Donald Trump for publicly commenting on sensitive investigations but insisted the Justice Department had acted appropriately after an extraordinary falling out with career prosecutors who had handled the case of Roger Stone earlier this week. In an interview with ABC News, Barr provided a robust defense of the department’s rank-and-file and said Trump’s online missives made it “impossible” to do his job. “I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” Barr said.

“To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we’re doing our work with integrity,” he said. The criticism was a notable zag for Barr after days of mounting scrutiny over his role in the fraught decision to publicly disavow prosecutors who had sought a stiff punishment for Stone, a longtime friend of Trump. The President had tweeted congratulations Barr for the move, provoking protest from Democrats who demanded an investigation.

The four career attorneys who had worked on the Stone case and signed off on the original sentencing memorandum each withdrew from the case on Tuesday in an apparent protest. On Thursday, Barr said he was “a little surprised” that the prosecutors had stepped down, and told ABC News that it was “preposterous” to characterize his role in the developments this week as an intervention. He argued he had merely acted to resolve an internal department dispute. He has not spoken with the prosecutors, he added. Barr told ABC that he hoped the President would react and respect the criticism of his tweets delivered in the interview. “I hope he will react,” Barr said.

Read more …

Jurors are supposed to be vetted to make sure they’re impartial. This woman may have been selected for being the opposite. She should never have been selected.

Foreperson On Roger Stone Jury Revealed As Anti-Trump Activist (DM)

The foreperson on the jury that convicted Roger Stone has come forward, and is revealed to be a failed Democrat candidate for Congress and activist vehemently opposed to President Donald Trump. Tomeka Hart, a former Memphis City Schools Board President, came forward as the Stone jury foreperson in a Facebook post on Wednesday, voicing support for prosecutors in the case. Hart confirmed to The Daily Memphian that she wrote the Facebook post, but she declined an interview with the newspaper. Stone supporters were shocked when a review of Hart’s social media posts showed that she posted on Twitter mocking Stone’s dramatic arrest prior to being seated on the jury, and frequently denounced Trump, including calling the president and his supporters racists.

It’s unclear whether Stone’s political views and social media history were disclosed during jury selection, potentially raising questions about fairness that could impact the verdict on appeal. [..] Hart unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2012, and is an activist who has participated in anti-Trump rallies and protests. Immediately, journalists and Trump supporters began scouring Hart’s social media history, finding a trove of anti-Trump sentiment. Independent journalist Mike Cernovich was the first to report on Hart’s extensive history of anti-Trump social media posts. In January 2019, Hart also re-tweeted a post by pundit Bakari Sellers mocking Stone’s arrest, and suggesting that racism was the reason conservatives were upset about the use of force in the FBI’s armed pre-dawn raid on his home.

Months later, Hart was impaneled on Stone’s jury. On the day the jury convicted him, she posted emojis of hearts and fist pumps.

Read more …

She was tweeting about the case while it was going on, and she was the lead juror. How ridiculous can it get?

Judge Napolitano: Roger Stone Should Get New Trial (Fox)

Judge Andrew Napolitano said on Thursday that former Trump adviser Roger Stone deserves a new trial in light of resurfaced tweets that indicate partisanship and “inherent bias” from a jury member against Stone. Former Memphis City Schools Board President Tomeka Hart revealed Wednesday that she was the foreperson of the jury that convicted Stone on obstruction charges last year — and soon afterward, her history of Democratic activism and a string of her anti-Trump, left-wing social media posts came to light. “[Stone is] absolutely entitled to a new trial with a member of a jury making these types of revelations about the politics involved in the decisions to prosecute him,” Napolitano told “Fox & Friends.”

Hart even posted specifically about the Stone case before she voted to convict, as she retweeted an argument mocking those who considered Stone’s dramatic arrest in a predawn raid by a federal tactical team to be excessive force. She also suggested President Trump and his supporters are racist and praised the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which ultimately led to Stone’s prosecution. Some of Hart’s posts were written as Stone’s trial was in progress. Hart, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2012, quoted someone in an August 2017 tweet referring to Trump as a member of the KKK. In January 2019, she retweeted a post by pundit Bakari Sellers, who noted that “Roger Stone has y’all talking about reviewing use of force guidelines,” before suggesting that racism was the reason for all the attention Stone’s arrest had received from conservatives.

Napolitano said that he presided over 150 jury trials and “most were criminal.” “It is the duty of the judge to ensure that both the government and defendant get a fair trial and if the judge discovers afterward that there was a built-in inherent bias on the part of a member of a jury against the defendant, that is an automatic trigger for a new trial,” he explained.

Read more …

Can the Fed deal with diversity of opinion?

Senate Attacks Judy Shelton For Sin Of Being Outside The Mainstream (Mises)

Today the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing for President Trump’s two most recent Federal Reserve nominees. In one chair sat Christopher Waller, vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, whose dreadfully dull answers could have been the product of a bot forced to watch 1,000 hours of central bank testimony. Luckily for those watching, most of the questions were directed towards the far more intriguing – and controversial – Judy Shelton. While by no means an Austrian, Judy Shelton’s record includes public support for a modern gold standard, criticism of the Fed’s response to the financial crisis, and even compared America’s central bank to Soviet central planners.

On the topic of competing currencies, Ms. Shelton once referred to Bernard von NotHaus, a man arrested by the US government for the production of silver “Liberty Dollars”, as the “Rosa Parks of monetary policy” for his willingness to challenge the Fed. Beyond monetary policy, she cited government deposit insurance as a program that risks creating moral hazard, suggested that the US could pay off its public debts by selling off assets like the US Postal Service and Federally-held public lands, and even publicly questioned the accuracy of government inflation measures. The recounting of the Greatest Hits of Judy Shelton offered a glimpse of what it would look like to actually drain the swamp of central bankers.

Of course, all of this was sharply – and at times uncivilly – criticized by duly-elected economic midwits that sought to lecture to Ms. Shelton while desperately relying upon the prepared questions of legislative aides. Senator Richard Shelby, at one point the Chairman of the Banking Committee, was particularly appalled at the notion of nominating a Federal Reserve candidate so outside the mainstream. His grilling of Ms. Shelton included sagely pointing out that the amount of gold in the world is worth less than the American GDP, and suggested that the gold standard was a product of the days when the US was a “barter economy.” Of course, it is a reflection of the dilapidated state of modern economics that Shelby’s ignorance would make him a safer choice for the Federal Reserve than either Shelton or her friend James Grant.

Read more …

All the racism and sexism he can buy for $1650 million and counting.

Why Is Bloomberg’s Long History of Egregious Sexism Getting a Pass? (GQ)

In December 2015, employees at Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control organization funded by Mike Bloomberg, arrived at work to find a holiday gift on their desks from their employer: the former mayor’s 1997 autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg. Flipping through the book, staffers found themselves uncomfortably reading their billionaire founder’s boasts about keeping “a girlfriend in every city” and other womanizing exploits as a Wall Street up-and-comer. “A few people started immediately going through it and sending the cringe-iest parts around on email chains,” one former Everytown employee told me. “Hardly the most controversial things he’s said, but it’s still a bad look.”

Indeed, Bloomberg’s casual boasts about his sex life in his own autobiography are now some of the least problematic parts of the his candidacy for president. In recent days, the former New York City mayor’s track record on race is undergoing renewed scrutiny: Bloomberg oversaw and expanded the racist and unconstitutional “stop and frisk” program, and a newly unearthed video shows him blaming the end of a racially discriminatory housing practice known as “redlining” for the 2008 economic recession.

But it takes a telling amount of gall and cluelessness to gift a book with anecdotes about your own womanizing to employees at your gun safety non-profit in the year 2015, especially for a politician with presidential ambitions who has been vigorously denying allegations of misogyny throughout his entire career—including some 40 sex discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits brought against him and his organizations by 64 women over the past several decades. Bloomberg’s sexism, like that of fellow New York City billionaire Donald Trump, has been prolific and well-documented, but for some reason, the stories about him don’t seem to have taken hold. He is still being embraced by the Democratic establishment as a viable option for its presidential nominee. He surged to third place in several 2020 polls this week; the DNC changed its rules to allow him to participate in the next primary debate; Nancy Pelosi said his presence in the primary is a “positive one.”

Read more …

Priceless how the speaker first has to wait for the translation in his earphone. Wonder what the translation was.

Irish MEP Calls Venezuela’s Guaido ‘Unelected Gobshite’ In EU Parliament (RT)

Irish MEP Mick Wallace has been reprimanded for referring to Venezuela’s self-declared president Juan Guaido as an “unelected gobshite” during remarks at the European Parliament. Wallace, an Independents 4 Change MEP, was speaking Wednesday about Venezuela’s ongoing political crisis and the European Parliament’s recent decision to recognize Guaido as the country’s interim president, when he slipped the insult in. Dressed in a neon green t-shirt, the clearly irate MEP said the decision was “an absolute embarrassment to anyone who has to occupy this chamber” and a “disgrace on the part of the member states of Europe” that so many of them have recognized an “unelected gobshite.”


“Gobshite” is a favorite Irish term for a less-than-competent individual. The Ireland South MEP was quickly admonished by the parliament’s vice president Rainer Wieland. “Now, you did use the word ‘gobshite’ sir, and I would reprimand you over that,” he said. Wallace wasn’t in the mood for apologies, however. He later doubled down on the comment on Twitter, saying that Guaido “is” in fact a gobshite and the parliament’s recognition of him is “outrageous.” Fellow Independents 4 Change MEP Clare Daly also tweeted in support of Wallace, saying that his remark was “probably the best contribution EVER” on Guaido at the European Parliament.

Read more …

Just another chapter in the UK morality tale, (mal-)functioning at a 1780 AD level. Fits right in with more Jamaicans being sent back in Windrush fashion.

UK Tells 100-Year-Old Man His Parents Must Sign For Settled Status (Ind.)

A 100-year-old Italian man was told his parents must confirm his identity if he wants to stay in the UK after Brexit. Giovanni Palmiero, who has lived in London since 1966, went to an advice centre in Islington, north London, to apply for settled status. But when a volunteer scanned his passport using the Home Office EU settled status app, it misinterpreted his birth year to be 2019 instead of 1919. An apparent glitch means the system does not recognise triple digit ages and misinterpreted the “19” in 1919 to be 2019. Since the app believed the great-grandfather was only a baby, it asked him to enter his father’s residency details to complete the application.


Mr Palmiero, who will turn 101 on 28 February, moved to London in 1966, before the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973. He worked at a restaurant in Piccadilly and in a fish and chip shop until the age of 94. He has been married to his wife Lucia, 92, for 75 years and they have four children, eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren together. Their son Assuntino Palmiero said it was “like a humiliation” because his father has lived in the UK for so long. He told The Guardian: “I am not worried about him because he has got us but it’s completely unfair on old people.”

Read more …

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle February 14 2020

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #53922

    Alfred Palmer Halftrack scout car brought up to Army standards of smartness. White Motor Company, Cleveland Dec 1941   • Beijing Lowers Coronavir
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 14 2020]

    #53923
    zerosum
    Participant

    Waiting for news
    “It’s one of the possibilities.”

    Death from Old flue replaced by death from New flue.

    It is being contained but not at 2.1%

    #53924
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.contagionlive.com/news/us-flu-cases-increased-by-4-million-over-the-last-week
    US Flu Cases Increased by 4 Million Over the Last Week
    FEB 05, 2020 | MICHAELA FLEMING
    New data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that influenza activity in the United States has increased over the last 2 weeks.

    The most recent statistics, collected through the week ending January 25, 2020, report that there have been 19 million cases of influenza during US 2019-20 flu season. This is an increase of 4 million cases since the last report.

    Additionally, the CDC has recorded 180,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths from the flu thus far. Based on these figures, severity is not considered high at this point in the flu season.

    Over the past week the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia rose to 6.7% but remains below the epidemic threshold of 7.2%. Additionally, the hospitalization rate rose from 24.1 per 100,000 to 29.7 per 100,000, which is considered to be consistent with this time of year from recent seasons.

    However, FluView statistics indicate that hospitalization rates are higher in children and young adults than at this time in recent seasons. At this time the highest rate of hospitalizations have been recorded in adults aged >65 years, followed by children aged 0-4 years, and adults aged 50-64 years.
    ———–
    https://www.contagionlive.com/news/flu-cases-surpass-22-million-as-13th-coronavirus-case-is-confirmed-in-us
    Flu Cases Surpass 22 Million as 13th Coronavirus Case is Confirmed in US
    FEB 11, 2020 | MICHAELA FLEMING

    The last 3 weeks of surveillance indicate that flu activity continues to increase and is expected to continue for weeks to come.

    The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) FluView reports that last week the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza stands at 7.1%, just below the epidemic threshold of 7.2%.

    Visits to clinicians for influenza-like illness increased from 6.0% to 6.7% last week with all regions remaining above baseline. However, overall hospitalization rates for the season are similar to previous seasons with a current rate of 35.5 per 100,000.

    The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for influenza at clinical laboratories also increased last week, rising from 28.4% to 29.8%. At this time, 47 jurisdictions are experiencing high influenza-like illness activity, compared with 44 jurisdictions the previous week.

    Recent estimates indicate that of the 22 million flu cases in the US thus far, 210,000 hospitalizations have occurred, and 12,000 deaths have been reported. In total, there have been 78 pediatric deaths so far this season, with 10 new deaths reported last week

    #53926

    Bringing up the flu as somehow having some kind of link with the coronavirus can only confuse people.

    #53927

    Feel free to steal for your Valentine:

    Heaney

    #53928
    zerosum
    Participant

    map is not up to date
    Look below the map and pick your location for Respiratory Infections
    https://www.contagionlive.com/outbreak-monitor?z=no&type=sub&category=Novel+Coronavirus

    The Contagion® Outbreak Monitor provides details on the number of confirmed cases, deaths, and recent website articles on infectious disease outbreaks.
    Use the Contagion® Outbreak Monitor to learn about infectious disease outbreaks in your geographical region and manipulate the map to find out the latest information on global outbreaks. Click on “Trends” to learn more about trends in the number of cases and deaths.

    #53929
    zerosum
    Participant

    Update
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-says-nearly-2000-doctors-nurses-infected-shortages-medical-supplies-persist
    WHO Turns On China, Demands To Know How Nearly 2,000 Doctors Were Infected With COVID-19

    Update (1040ET): The WHO has just wrapped up its now-daily presser for Friday,
    Summary:

    China says 1,716 medical workers have been infected

    WHO demands to know more about sick doctors, insists group of 12 virus experts will reach Beijing over the weekend

    Singapore reports largest daily jump in cases amid increased human-to-human transmission

    Hong Kong reports 3 new cases

    Hubei’s new party boss orders quarantine tightened

    President Xi touts new “biosecurity law”

    Hong Kong Disney land offers space for quarantine

    Chinese company says blood plasma of recovered patients useful in combating the virus

    US mulling new travel restrictions

    Japan reports 4 new cases; one patient recently returned from Hawaii.

    CDC Director: Virus is “Coming” to the US.

    #53930
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Yeah! What are you doing confusing people with facts and pertinent statistics? Helping people to understand scale and scope is part of ongoing education. Even nurses understand the importance of ongoing education and they label it CEUs as distinct from a physician’s CME. Lest the weak minded become distracted. The message remains China .

    #53931
    cloudhidden
    Participant

    A brave man……….Tsinghua University professor Xu Zhangrun
    Dissent that will not be silenced.
    This may deserve posting as an article on TAE
    http://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/viral-alarm-when-fury-overcomes-fear

    “And that is why people like me—feeble scholars though we are—are useless, for we can do nothing more than lament, take up our pens, avail ourselves of what we write to issue calls for decency and advance pleas on behalf of Justice. Faced with the crisis of the coronavirus, confronting this disordered world, I join my compatriots—the 1.4 billion men and women, brothers and sisters of China, the countless multitudes who have no way of fleeing this land—and I call on them: rage against this injustice; let your lives burn with a flame of decency; break through the stultifying darkness and welcome the dawn”

    #53932

    It makes sense that the cougher should wear masks, not the well. The mask doesn’t protect the eyes, which are not just the windows to the soul, they have a direct line to the sinuses, as well.

    By the way- where is Dr D? I miss his rather unique style of thinking.

    #53934

    Remember the prominence of Michael Avenatti in the media feeding frenzy on Trump when the the whole circus started? He was Stormy Daniels’ lawyer. Private jet and all.

    Avenatti was just found guilty in New York on all 3 counts in the Nike extortion trial. There are more cases coming against him, among others from… Stormy Daniels. Will CNNN apologize for having him on a thousand times spouting lies and nonsense? Of course they will.

    #53935

    ZeroHedge reports an asymptomatic person testing positive in Egypt. It says around a million Chinese live in Africa.

    #53936
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “A fifth case of novel coronavirus has been revealed in B.C. [Canada] on Friday. The woman is in her 30s and flew into YVR from Shanghai recently, before driving to her home in the B.C. Interior region. Four cases are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region; those patients are in stable condition and are still recovering in isolation at home”

    https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/vancouver-news/fifth-case-coronavirus-confirmed-bc-2094855

    #53938
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Roughly, without a Quarantine, the Wuhan coronavirus took a little over a month to overwhelming Hubei Province’s existing healthcare system. The CCP in Beijing, always in control, took over. Its draconian measures – shutting down China – sending in the PLA – gave the rest of the world time. So far only 15 confirmed cases in the USA weeks later.

    Like the time of the Spanish Flu or the Black Plague before, the modern Western Empire is collapsing. It is unable to care for its subjects. Based on a transactional faith based system that only counts pieces of gold as defining one’s worth, the Imperialists are pathologically unable to provide the safety or a purpose in life that humans need to survive. Westerners are literally in limbo. None of the governments are planning, purchasing and storing the personnel protective equipment, health supplies, or intensive care beds needed to treat the pandemic. That costs lots of real money. Unless the virus mutates its corona to be less deadly, the West will shut down like China but without any of their organization. Until a vaccine is developed and distributed, millions will die. Survivors’ lives will be chaotic with the after-effects of illness, debt and grief.

    #53939
    Glennjeff
    Participant

    Went to the Pharmacy (Chemist) to stock up on useful meds this morning. This is the conversation.

    Glennjeff: Could you fill these scipts for me.
    Pharmacist Chan: I cannot supplies some of these, do you have enough to get by.
    Glennjeff: Oh yes, just stocking up in case the supply chains break down.
    Pharmacist Chan: They already are.
    (Australia)

    #53940
    WES
    Participant

    You have to admire the Irish! Especially ones in green t-shirts! They have such colorful words too!

    Stormy Daniels are you going to get you money back? Seems like he just fell down an opened manhole!

    Mr. Palmiero being 100 seems to have run a fowl of Britain’s Home Office’s antiquated computer system! It seems like they miss the y2k event! Even the laser scanner didn’t work either! Imagine facal scanners!

    Reminds me when I gave my Russian interpretor a small box of Sunkist raisins back in 1983. She ate the raisins happily but then spoiled it by asking me what the black and white bar codes on the bottom of the box were for!

    I explained how the cashier at the grocery store would scan the box over the laser scanner at the checkout counter to ring up the price on the cash register!

    As soon as I had finished, I quickly realized that my explanation to this university educated Russian had gone completely over her head!

    She could not fathom a word of what I had said! She had nothing in her world remotely similar to what I had just described! At that time in 1983 the Russians were still using beaded abacas in all of their stores! Sadly that ended our conversation!

    #53941
    WES
    Participant

    Dr. D. Rich:. You are right the focus remains China!

    If there are going to be plenty of Chinese where you plan to go, you simply won’t go!

    #53942
    WES
    Participant

    Raul:. Concerning Trump and Iran. You shouldn’t be giving away the Donald’s secrets to the deep state!

    #53943
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Wes: The focus, as I maintain it, should be to help and support China. The flu statistics posted by ‘zerosum’ are pertinent to this discussion. I spent Chinese New Year’s Eve in the company of my Chinese immigrant friends at a Hunan restaurant in Pittsburgh 10 to 12 ppl per table and I shared dinner with them once a week since then. I’m only avoiding my asshole American friends pretending as if they are immune to coronavirus

    #53944
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    And I will repeat the answer to my question about how their families are coping back in China. This is the answer from the Chinese woman:

    ““We are not afraid, dare to face everything”

    #53946
    sinnycool
    Participant

    Hi Ilargi, I think the flu situation posted above is really interesting.

    a) it shows where we are possibly headed

    – the flu has been with us since before 1918 and countless millions have been spent on developing vaccines and yet look at those huge numbers for a good old “non severe” flu season

    – death rate of the flu is said to be around 0.39% and thats increasing, ref https://tinyurl.com/y2pradry and that is potentially diddly squat compared to what we seem to be seeing from COVID-19

    b) the flu season complicates detection and surely must sooner or later engender panic

    – the flu is accompanied by a fever with a temperature of up to 41.1°C and so far temperature has been the bar below which anyone and everyone has been allowed to wander anywhere.

    – even though Western populations are getting very nervous they seem content to not panic at the moment. But just wait until-if we start getting community clusters and every sniffle cough and sneeze creates fear uncertainty and doubt.

    – for example (Australian) friends of ours just went on a long booked cruise albeit with misgivings. What happens if somebody on board starts complaining of a fever with all the same symptoms that can accompany infection from either virus? Would the captain opt for quarantine and lockdown with all that entails, or opt for quiet isolation and silence given that it is the flu season, and financial interests on that scale sure trump caution and the wrath of one’s owners.

    c) because this is truly “novel” as well as fear inducing people’s brains respond to the situation differently from the same-old resignation that greets the flu. If a true global COVID-19 pandemic was to play out on a similar scale as the flu it would surely take a couple of years and we would be looking at what? Ttwo years of economic disruption until apathy returned?

    #53947
    WES
    Participant

    Dr. D. Rich:. I don’t avoid my Canadian Chinese friends either! But then they haven’t recently travelled to Wuhan! Nor are they willing to travel to China anymore than I would! They know the CCP!

    Notice also how many coming back to North America are self quarantining themselves out of an abundance of caution! So they do care!

    Spain had to cancel their World Mobility convention because over 5000 Chinese were expected to travel to the convention! The problem is China doesn’t have the virus under control yet they have no problems letting their people travel the world spreading the virus!

    I saw a world travel map of 60,000 Chinese out of 5 million who left from Wuhan in the last few weeks. There is no country they did not travel to!

    Having lived and worked a few years in Africa (4 countries), I can tell you there is next to no existing medical services! The Chinese from Wuhan blanketed Africa! Very few African countries have any test kits! Their health authorities publically admit this! If even one case hits them they are in big trouble and they know it!

    We all know China doesn’t have sufficient test kits to test more than a few thousand a day! What is scarier is we here don’t have very many test kits either! We have less than the Chinese do! Also we now know repeated tests are often required! This is a tricky virus to deal with!

    My brother in Detroit has many coworkers/friends in China and he says they are being hit very hard by this virus, example kids schools cancelled, etc.

    I also think the way the Chinese government has been dealing with this is self defeating! They are handling it as a security problem not a health issue! That seems to have only made matters worst!

    And no I am not going to stop eating Chinese food!

    #53948
    lasttwo
    Participant

    It is estimated that there are 1 million Chinese in Africa. How many test kits are there in Africa?

    Bloomberg should have run against trump as a republican. battle of the zero respect for women assholes.

    #53960
    John Day
    Participant

    The dude working on the halftrack reminded me of “Uncle Martin” from “My Favorite Martian” the last time you used his picture, and this time, too. 🙂

    #53995
    sinnycool
    Participant

    Hey WES lay off on the old farts – spare me at least 🙂

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