China is to Blame for This

Is China to Blame for this Pandemic and the Shutdown of the Global Economy?

  • Yes

    Votes: 34 77.3%
  • No

    Votes: 10 22.7%

  • Total voters
    44
As for not trying to present facts to liberals? I'm disappointed. I would have read it. I had heard nothing about it.
OK, here it is, one of many.

Criticism of the World Health Organization (WHO) for allowing the Chinese Communist Party to influence its behavior during the Wuhan virus epidemic is intensifying, coupled with calls for Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to resign.​
A petition calling for Tedros’ resignation and Taiwan’s full membership in WHO reached 500,000 signatures on Thursday, ...​
Since the virus first emerged in December, it has spread to more than 30 countries across five continents. By any interpretation, it must be considered a pandemic, yet the WHO continues to drag its feet. Why might this be?​
One far from subtle clue was given earlier this week by Bruce Aylward, the man who leads the WHO-China mission of experts. In an astonishing statement, he lavished praise on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) handling of the outbreak and attacked the governments of other countries for failing to prepare adequately for the disease.​
“China knows how to keep people alive,” Aylward claimed before adding, “That is not going to be the case everywhere in the world … It is a serious disease.”​
Taiwan News cited the danger of the CCP using WHO as a mouthpiece to undermine travel bans, one of the few effective measures available to other nations as they struggled to slow the spread of the coronavirus:​
Perhaps most worrying have been those statements that have urged international governments not to cancel flights to and from China or place any restrictions on the movement of people and goods.​
It is patently obvious that these statements come straight from Beijing’s propaganda department and are focused on propping up China’s ailing economy rather than on any real consideration for the health of people around the world.​
Far from being a responsible international body helping to contain the Wuhan virus pandemic, the WHO has become part of the problem. It now represents the interests of the communist regime, not those of the international community, and its advice and guidance has lost all credibility....​
McCaul said WHO is a victim of the CCP’s “shadow campaign to gain and wield influence at the United Nations.”​
“Now, hundreds of thousands are sick, and thousands have died. That does not deserve accolades from the WHO. It deserves condemnation,” he said.​
“WHO Director-General Tedros’ poor handling of this crisis shows a severe lack of judgment and certainly raises several red flags about his integrity serving in this important post,” McCaul charged.​
RealClearPolitics noted that China pumped $13.6 billion into Ethiopia while Tedros was foreign minister from 2012 to 2016, including funds for a railroad, six-lane highway, metro system, and several skyscrapers.​



As of the time this report was submitted for publication on Friday afternoon, China had reported over 3,300 deaths across the entire country, but some reports estimated that the death toll in the city of Wuhan alone, where the virus originated, could be at least 32,000, a figure that is about ten times higher than the official data.​
The population of China (1.4 billion) is more than four times larger than that of the United States (329.5 million), yet the Asian giant has confirmed far fewer cases and fatalities linked to the coronavirus, the Johns Hopkins University case tracker showed.​
Anonymous members of the American intelligence community allegedly agree that China has been hiding the severity of the viral outbreak within its borders, Bloomberg reported this week.​
Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, health officials are relying on computer modeling that takes data and makes predictions to inform and drive the decisions of private businesses and governments across the globe.​




Gaffney replied, “This is deeply suspicious, whether it’s 21 million people who have ceased to be able to use their cellphones or perhaps no longer exist is very much an open question, but one of the things that ought to be instructive here is the Chinese are now beginning to use cellphones as part of their larger security police state apparatus to establish whether people have the virus.”​
Gaffney went on, “If those 21 million people don’t turn up, it will be a strong indication that something has befallen them that is precluding them from using their phones. We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s an interesting and frightening indication that again, we’re not being told the truth by the Chinese Communist Party.”​
“It seems like the United States media are praising China for having a quick and robust response to [the coronavirus outbreak],” said Marlow, highlighting American news media outlets’ forwarding of Chinese state claims as accurate.​
Gordon Chang, Daily Beast columnist and author of The Great U.S.-China Tech War, also noted the parallel narratives pushed by both America’s left-wing news media and China’s state-run propaganda regarding the coronavirus outbreak.​
Last week, President Donald Trump said some American news media are aligned with China. “The press is very dishonest,” remarked Trump, adding, ”They are siding with China. They are doing things they should not be doing. They’re siding with many others.”​
“The mainstream press in this country is rooting for the other side [and] endlessly amplifying and giving credence to and otherwise legitimating Chinese propaganda,” concurred Gaffney, describing left-wing news media’s forwarding of China’s propaganda as “injurious.”​

That help you? Well here is more:


Birx said, “At the time, when this virus stuck…I was working very intently on HIV at the time, and was overseas in sub-Saharan Africa, watching the data coming from China. And I think when we looked at the profile, first, there was a question about human-to-human transmission. Obviously, in a virus, that’s really key. … So, there was that first question. And I think when you’re in the midst of an epidemic, it’s hard for you to really be testing at the level that you need to to really look for those asymptomatic cases and really look for those people with mild disease. And so, now we’re finding out that most of the reporting was around very severe cases, severe cases that presented in a very difficult situation, and that they weren’t really measuring asymptomatic or mild disease. In that case, that may be a significant portion of the epidemic. And so, we didn’t know how it was spreading. We didn’t know the surface contact. We didn’t know how — I think the bottom line is, we didn’t know how contagious it was. And I think when you make misassumptions around contagion early on, then you don’t prepare in the way that you should prepare for the level of contagion that this COVID-19 exhibits.”​

Meanwhile WHO was praising China for its 'transparency', lol.



Here's the Old Fogey, seemingly in the unshakable belief quoting several hit pieces by Breitbart (commonly known to reside in Trump's cavernous rectum) is a way to establish facts. Anyone able to explain how it is even possible to be so benighted and media-illiterate and still manage to switch on a computer, not to mention to type?
So are you going to be like the right wingers and refuse to read anything produced by "the other side?" I can see why he said he doesn't provide links to liberals.
 
So are you going to be like the right wingers and refuse to read anything produced by "the other side?" I can see why he said he doesn't provide links to liberals.

With all due respect, Lady, this has nothing whatsoever to do with "the other side". It has to do with relying on media following journalistic standards, checking their reporting, on the one hand, and rebleating the droppings of a mendacious disinformation and propaganda outfit like "Breitbart" - that is, Trump's Pravda - on the other. He doesn't provide "links" to liberals because everyone gifted with integrity and a lick of sense laughs at what he considers a "source", and, given the very sensitive glass chin he has, he gets very irate at those who point out his willful delusions.

Breitbart is a leading "source", second only to Faux, for the propaganda circus yelling "China dunnit" day-in, day-out, in order to distract from Trump's monument to incompetence and lethal callousness in his "response" to the pandemic. If an international institution, like the WHO, is being damaged in the course of that tsunami of lies, they think it's all the better. Of course, Trump sycophants work diligently to amplify the narrative.

BTW, I read Jim's entire posting - which is why I know it's all crap. Consider the last one, for instance. Birx talks about the difficulty of planning a policy response to a new, largely unknown pathogen, about which we still learn every day. Breitbart makes it into Birx slamming China (for which there is not even a hint in the actual text) for not knowing everything about the NOVEL coronavirus, and for not informing the world about that which was not yet known.

I say, whoever falls for such pap is either demented, or willfully, belligerently ignorant. Or both.
 
As for not trying to present facts to liberals? I'm disappointed. I would have read it. I had heard nothing about it.
OK, here it is, one of many.

Criticism of the World Health Organization (WHO) for allowing the Chinese Communist Party to influence its behavior during the Wuhan virus epidemic is intensifying, coupled with calls for Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to resign.​
A petition calling for Tedros’ resignation and Taiwan’s full membership in WHO reached 500,000 signatures on Thursday, ...​
Since the virus first emerged in December, it has spread to more than 30 countries across five continents. By any interpretation, it must be considered a pandemic, yet the WHO continues to drag its feet. Why might this be?​
One far from subtle clue was given earlier this week by Bruce Aylward, the man who leads the WHO-China mission of experts. In an astonishing statement, he lavished praise on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) handling of the outbreak and attacked the governments of other countries for failing to prepare adequately for the disease.​
“China knows how to keep people alive,” Aylward claimed before adding, “That is not going to be the case everywhere in the world … It is a serious disease.”​
Taiwan News cited the danger of the CCP using WHO as a mouthpiece to undermine travel bans, one of the few effective measures available to other nations as they struggled to slow the spread of the coronavirus:​
Perhaps most worrying have been those statements that have urged international governments not to cancel flights to and from China or place any restrictions on the movement of people and goods.​
It is patently obvious that these statements come straight from Beijing’s propaganda department and are focused on propping up China’s ailing economy rather than on any real consideration for the health of people around the world.​
Far from being a responsible international body helping to contain the Wuhan virus pandemic, the WHO has become part of the problem. It now represents the interests of the communist regime, not those of the international community, and its advice and guidance has lost all credibility....​
McCaul said WHO is a victim of the CCP’s “shadow campaign to gain and wield influence at the United Nations.”​
“Now, hundreds of thousands are sick, and thousands have died. That does not deserve accolades from the WHO. It deserves condemnation,” he said.​
“WHO Director-General Tedros’ poor handling of this crisis shows a severe lack of judgment and certainly raises several red flags about his integrity serving in this important post,” McCaul charged.​
RealClearPolitics noted that China pumped $13.6 billion into Ethiopia while Tedros was foreign minister from 2012 to 2016, including funds for a railroad, six-lane highway, metro system, and several skyscrapers.​



As of the time this report was submitted for publication on Friday afternoon, China had reported over 3,300 deaths across the entire country, but some reports estimated that the death toll in the city of Wuhan alone, where the virus originated, could be at least 32,000, a figure that is about ten times higher than the official data.​
The population of China (1.4 billion) is more than four times larger than that of the United States (329.5 million), yet the Asian giant has confirmed far fewer cases and fatalities linked to the coronavirus, the Johns Hopkins University case tracker showed.​
Anonymous members of the American intelligence community allegedly agree that China has been hiding the severity of the viral outbreak within its borders, Bloomberg reported this week.​
Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, health officials are relying on computer modeling that takes data and makes predictions to inform and drive the decisions of private businesses and governments across the globe.​




Gaffney replied, “This is deeply suspicious, whether it’s 21 million people who have ceased to be able to use their cellphones or perhaps no longer exist is very much an open question, but one of the things that ought to be instructive here is the Chinese are now beginning to use cellphones as part of their larger security police state apparatus to establish whether people have the virus.”​
Gaffney went on, “If those 21 million people don’t turn up, it will be a strong indication that something has befallen them that is precluding them from using their phones. We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s an interesting and frightening indication that again, we’re not being told the truth by the Chinese Communist Party.”​
“It seems like the United States media are praising China for having a quick and robust response to [the coronavirus outbreak],” said Marlow, highlighting American news media outlets’ forwarding of Chinese state claims as accurate.​
Gordon Chang, Daily Beast columnist and author of The Great U.S.-China Tech War, also noted the parallel narratives pushed by both America’s left-wing news media and China’s state-run propaganda regarding the coronavirus outbreak.​
Last week, President Donald Trump said some American news media are aligned with China. “The press is very dishonest,” remarked Trump, adding, ”They are siding with China. They are doing things they should not be doing. They’re siding with many others.”​
“The mainstream press in this country is rooting for the other side [and] endlessly amplifying and giving credence to and otherwise legitimating Chinese propaganda,” concurred Gaffney, describing left-wing news media’s forwarding of China’s propaganda as “injurious.”​

That help you? Well here is more:


Birx said, “At the time, when this virus stuck…I was working very intently on HIV at the time, and was overseas in sub-Saharan Africa, watching the data coming from China. And I think when we looked at the profile, first, there was a question about human-to-human transmission. Obviously, in a virus, that’s really key. … So, there was that first question. And I think when you’re in the midst of an epidemic, it’s hard for you to really be testing at the level that you need to to really look for those asymptomatic cases and really look for those people with mild disease. And so, now we’re finding out that most of the reporting was around very severe cases, severe cases that presented in a very difficult situation, and that they weren’t really measuring asymptomatic or mild disease. In that case, that may be a significant portion of the epidemic. And so, we didn’t know how it was spreading. We didn’t know the surface contact. We didn’t know how — I think the bottom line is, we didn’t know how contagious it was. And I think when you make misassumptions around contagion early on, then you don’t prepare in the way that you should prepare for the level of contagion that this COVID-19 exhibits.”​

Meanwhile WHO was praising China for its 'transparency', lol.



Here's the Old Fogey, seemingly in the unshakable belief quoting several hit pieces by Breitbart (commonly known to reside in Trump's cavernous rectum) is a way to establish facts. Anyone able to explain how it is even possible to be so benighted and media-illiterate and still manage to switch on a computer, not to mention to type?
So are you going to be like the right wingers and refuse to read anything produced by "the other side?" I can see why he said he doesn't provide links to liberals.
sorry. you are a very nice person. but not everything deserves to be treated as a serious source. THAT is the problem in the USA with your amalgam of news and entertainment. but there is still a divide between legitimate news sources and propaganda mills.
 
As for not trying to present facts to liberals? I'm disappointed. I would have read it. I had heard nothing about it.
OK, here it is, one of many.

Criticism of the World Health Organization (WHO) for allowing the Chinese Communist Party to influence its behavior during the Wuhan virus epidemic is intensifying, coupled with calls for Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to resign.​
A petition calling for Tedros’ resignation and Taiwan’s full membership in WHO reached 500,000 signatures on Thursday, ...​
Since the virus first emerged in December, it has spread to more than 30 countries across five continents. By any interpretation, it must be considered a pandemic, yet the WHO continues to drag its feet. Why might this be?​
One far from subtle clue was given earlier this week by Bruce Aylward, the man who leads the WHO-China mission of experts. In an astonishing statement, he lavished praise on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) handling of the outbreak and attacked the governments of other countries for failing to prepare adequately for the disease.​
“China knows how to keep people alive,” Aylward claimed before adding, “That is not going to be the case everywhere in the world … It is a serious disease.”​
Taiwan News cited the danger of the CCP using WHO as a mouthpiece to undermine travel bans, one of the few effective measures available to other nations as they struggled to slow the spread of the coronavirus:​
Perhaps most worrying have been those statements that have urged international governments not to cancel flights to and from China or place any restrictions on the movement of people and goods.​
It is patently obvious that these statements come straight from Beijing’s propaganda department and are focused on propping up China’s ailing economy rather than on any real consideration for the health of people around the world.​
Far from being a responsible international body helping to contain the Wuhan virus pandemic, the WHO has become part of the problem. It now represents the interests of the communist regime, not those of the international community, and its advice and guidance has lost all credibility....​
McCaul said WHO is a victim of the CCP’s “shadow campaign to gain and wield influence at the United Nations.”​
“Now, hundreds of thousands are sick, and thousands have died. That does not deserve accolades from the WHO. It deserves condemnation,” he said.​
“WHO Director-General Tedros’ poor handling of this crisis shows a severe lack of judgment and certainly raises several red flags about his integrity serving in this important post,” McCaul charged.​
RealClearPolitics noted that China pumped $13.6 billion into Ethiopia while Tedros was foreign minister from 2012 to 2016, including funds for a railroad, six-lane highway, metro system, and several skyscrapers.​



As of the time this report was submitted for publication on Friday afternoon, China had reported over 3,300 deaths across the entire country, but some reports estimated that the death toll in the city of Wuhan alone, where the virus originated, could be at least 32,000, a figure that is about ten times higher than the official data.​
The population of China (1.4 billion) is more than four times larger than that of the United States (329.5 million), yet the Asian giant has confirmed far fewer cases and fatalities linked to the coronavirus, the Johns Hopkins University case tracker showed.​
Anonymous members of the American intelligence community allegedly agree that China has been hiding the severity of the viral outbreak within its borders, Bloomberg reported this week.​
Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, health officials are relying on computer modeling that takes data and makes predictions to inform and drive the decisions of private businesses and governments across the globe.​




Gaffney replied, “This is deeply suspicious, whether it’s 21 million people who have ceased to be able to use their cellphones or perhaps no longer exist is very much an open question, but one of the things that ought to be instructive here is the Chinese are now beginning to use cellphones as part of their larger security police state apparatus to establish whether people have the virus.”​
Gaffney went on, “If those 21 million people don’t turn up, it will be a strong indication that something has befallen them that is precluding them from using their phones. We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s an interesting and frightening indication that again, we’re not being told the truth by the Chinese Communist Party.”​
“It seems like the United States media are praising China for having a quick and robust response to [the coronavirus outbreak],” said Marlow, highlighting American news media outlets’ forwarding of Chinese state claims as accurate.​
Gordon Chang, Daily Beast columnist and author of The Great U.S.-China Tech War, also noted the parallel narratives pushed by both America’s left-wing news media and China’s state-run propaganda regarding the coronavirus outbreak.​
Last week, President Donald Trump said some American news media are aligned with China. “The press is very dishonest,” remarked Trump, adding, ”They are siding with China. They are doing things they should not be doing. They’re siding with many others.”​
“The mainstream press in this country is rooting for the other side [and] endlessly amplifying and giving credence to and otherwise legitimating Chinese propaganda,” concurred Gaffney, describing left-wing news media’s forwarding of China’s propaganda as “injurious.”​

That help you? Well here is more:


Birx said, “At the time, when this virus stuck…I was working very intently on HIV at the time, and was overseas in sub-Saharan Africa, watching the data coming from China. And I think when we looked at the profile, first, there was a question about human-to-human transmission. Obviously, in a virus, that’s really key. … So, there was that first question. And I think when you’re in the midst of an epidemic, it’s hard for you to really be testing at the level that you need to to really look for those asymptomatic cases and really look for those people with mild disease. And so, now we’re finding out that most of the reporting was around very severe cases, severe cases that presented in a very difficult situation, and that they weren’t really measuring asymptomatic or mild disease. In that case, that may be a significant portion of the epidemic. And so, we didn’t know how it was spreading. We didn’t know the surface contact. We didn’t know how — I think the bottom line is, we didn’t know how contagious it was. And I think when you make misassumptions around contagion early on, then you don’t prepare in the way that you should prepare for the level of contagion that this COVID-19 exhibits.”​

Meanwhile WHO was praising China for its 'transparency', lol.



Here's the Old Fogey, seemingly in the unshakable belief quoting several hit pieces by Breitbart (commonly known to reside in Trump's cavernous rectum) is a way to establish facts. Anyone able to explain how it is even possible to be so benighted and media-illiterate and still manage to switch on a computer, not to mention to type?
So are you going to be like the right wingers and refuse to read anything produced by "the other side?" I can see why he said he doesn't provide links to liberals.
sorry. you are a very nice person. but not everything deserves to be treated as a serious source. THAT is the problem in the USA with your amalgam of news and entertainment. but there is still a divide between legitimate news sources and propaganda mills.
I thought I made it pretty clear in my post that I am aware of Breitbart's slant, and that I was waiting to hear the refutation. Instead I got a whole lot of lip from a liberal and not one single bit of information to the contrary. Like I told Jim, I had not heard about any of this before, so I was interested in learning. I doubt if everything the articles reported was false, though. I appreciate your kind warning, but it wasn't necessary. I'm not quite as stupid as I seem.
 
So are you going to be like the right wingers and refuse to read anything produced by "the other side?" I can see why he said he doesn't provide links to liberals.
With all due respect, Lady, this has nothing whatsoever to do with "the other side". It has to do with relying on media following journalistic standards, checking their reporting, on the one hand, and rebleating the droppings of a mendacious disinformation and propaganda outfit like "Breitbart" - that is, Trump's Pravda - on the other. He doesn't provide "links" to liberals because everyone gifted with integrity and a lick of sense laughs at what he considers a "source", and, given the very sensitive glass chin he has, he gets very irate at those who point out his willful delusions.

Lol, so you know it is wrong because of who brings the facts to you??

ROFLMAO, you know what fallacy that is, right?

Breitbart is a leading "source", second only to Faux, for the propaganda circus yelling "China dunnit" day-in, day-out, in order to distract from Trump's monument to incompetence and lethal callousness in his "response" to the pandemic. If an international institution, like the WHO, is being damaged in the course of that tsunami of lies, they think it's all the better. Of course, Trump sycophants work diligently to amplify the narrative.

The United States was ranked the best-prepared country in the world to handle a pandemic in late 2019 by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS) -- an assessment seemingly at odds with claims by Democrats that the Trump administration left the country vulnerable to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.​
The Global Health Security Index was was "developed with guidance from an international panel of experts from 13 countries, with research by the Economist Intelligence Unit" from 2018 to 2019, The Washington Post reported last year. "More than 100 researchers spent a year collecting and validating publicly available data.”​
At the same time, the paper noted that the U.S. score was still not perfect, and that "factors driving down the U.S. score include the risks of social unrest and terrorism, and low public confidence in government."​

Coronavirus Outbreak Timeline

December 31, 2019Cases of pneumonia detected in Wuhan, China, are first reported to the WHO. During this reported period, the virus is unknown. The cases occur between December 12 and December 29, according to Wuhan Municipal Health.

January 1, 2020 – Chinese health authorities close the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market after it is discovered that wild animals sold there may be the source of the virus.

January 5, 2020 China announces that the unknown pneumonia cases in Wuhan are not SARS or MERS. In a statement, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission says a retrospective probe into the outbreak has been initiated.

January 7, 2020 – Chinese authorities confirm that they have identified the virus as a novel coronavirus, initially named 2019-nCoV by the WHO.

January 20, 2020 – China reports 139 new cases of the sickness, including a third death.

January 20, 2020 – The National Institutes of Health announces that it is working on a vaccine against the coronavirus. “The NIH is in the process of taking the first steps towards the development of a vaccine,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

January 21, 2020 – Officials in Washington state confirm the first case on US soil.

January 22, 2020 – Wuhan says it will “temporarily” close its airport and railway stations for departing passengers following news that the death toll from the Wuhan Coronavirus has risen to 17. Chinese authorities confirm at least 547 cases in the mainland.

January 23, 2020 – At an emergency committee convened by the World Health Organization, the WHO says that the Wuhan coronavirus does not yet constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

January 23, 2020 – The Beijing Culture and Tourism Bureau cancels all large-scale Lunar New Year celebrations in an effort to contain the growing spread of Wuhan coronavirus. On the same day, Chinese authorities enforce a partial lockdown of transport in and out of Wuhan. Authorities in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou Huanggang announce a series of similar measures.

January 26, 2020 – The China Association of Travel Services reports that all tours, including international ones, will be suspended.

January 28, 2020 – Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom in Beijing. At the meeting, Xi and the WHO agree to send a team of international experts, including US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff, to China to investigate the coronavirus outbreak.

January 29, 2020 – The White House announces the formation of a new task force that will help monitor and contain the spread of the virus, and ensure Americans have accurate and up-to-date health and travel information, it said.

January 30, 2020 – The US reports its first confirmed case of person-to-person transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus. On the same day, the WHO determines that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

January 31, 2020 – The Donald Trump administration announces it will deny entry to foreign nationals who have traveled in China in the last 14 days.

February 2, 2020 – A man in the Philippines dies from the Wuhan coronavirus — the first time a death has been reported outside mainland China since the outbreak began.

February 3, 2020 – China’s Foreign Ministry accuses the US government of inappropriately reacting to the outbreak and spreading fear by enforcing travel restrictions.

February 4, 2020 – The Japanese Health Ministry announces that ten people aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship moored in Yokohama Bay are confirmed to have the coronavirus. The ship, which is carrying more than 3,700 people, is placed under quarantine scheduled to end on February 19.

February 7, 2020 – Li Wenliang, a Wuhan doctor who was targeted by police for trying to sound the alarm on a “SARS-like” virus in December, dies of the coronavirus. Following news of Li’s death, the topics “Wuhan government owes Dr. Li Wenliang an apology,” and “We want freedom of speech,” trend on China’s Twitter-like platform, Weibo, before disappearing from the heavily censored platform.

February 8, 2020 – The US Embassy in Beijing confirms that a 60-year-old US national died in Wuhan on February 6, marking the first confirmed death of a foreigner.

February 10, 2020 – Xi inspects efforts to contain the Wuhan coronavirus in Beijing, the first time he has appeared on the front lines of the fight against the outbreak. On the same day, a team of international experts from WHO arrives in China to assist with containing the coronavirus outbreak.

February 10, 2020 – The Anthem of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, sets sail from Bayonne, New Jersey, after a coronavirus scare had kept it docked and its passengers waiting for days.

February 11, 2020 – The WHO names the coronavirus COVID-19.

February 13, 2020 – China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency announces that Shanghai mayor Ying Yong will be replacing Jiang Chaoliang amid the outbreak. Wuhan Communist Party chief Ma Guoqiang has also been replaced by Wang Zhonglin, party chief of Jinan city in Shandong province, according to Xinhua.

February 14, 2020 – A Chinese tourist who tested positive for the virus dies in France, becoming the first person to die in the outbreak in Europe.

February 14, 2020 – Egypt announces its first case of Wuhan coronavirus on Friday, according to a joint statement by Egypt’s Ministry of Health and the WHO. The confirmed case marks the first in Africa since the virus was detected.

February 15, 2020 – The official Communist Party journal Qiushi publishes the transcript of a speech made on February 3 by Xi in which he “issued requirements for the prevention and control of the new coronavirus” on January 7, revealing Xi knew about and was directing the response to the virus on almost two weeks before he commented on it publicly.

February 18, 2020 – Xi says in a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that China’s measures to prevent and control the epidemic “are achieving visible progress,” according to state news Xinhua.

February 19, 2020 – Passengers who have tested negative for the novel coronavirus begin disembarking from the stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship, despite mounting evidence from infectious disease experts they could unknowingly be carrying the virus back into their communities.

February 21, 2020 – The CDC changes criteria for counting confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the US and begins tracking two separate and distinct groups: those repatriated by the US Department of State and those identified by the US public health network.

February 25, 2020 – The NIH announces that a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the antiviral drug remdesivir in adults diagnosed with coronavirus has started at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The first participant is an American who was evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan.

February 26, 2020 – CDC officials say that a California patient being treated for novel coronavirus is the first US case of unknown origin. The patient, who didn’t have any relevant travel history nor exposure to another known patient, is the first possible US case of “community spread.”

February 26, 2020 – President Donald Trump places Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the US government response to the novel coronavirus, amid growing criticism of the White House’s handling of the outbreak.

So, on Jan 23 WHO says this is not an emergency but 5 days later the WH is announcing a task force to go to China and investigate the disease. BEFORE THAT, we were already working on a vaccine for it to reduce its spread.


The next day Trump sets of a task force to contain and monitor the spread of the virus.

Two days after that, Trump bans direct travel to and from China, which was what has done the most to buy us time to respond to this thing, as contrasted with Italy and the EU's total fuck up with all of it.

By the end of February, within a month of this thing starting, Trump has Pence in charge of managing our national response, all this while Europe was still completely ignoring any stringent controls at all.


Democrats are not giving Trump a fair shake on this whole thing, much like everything else he does, good or bad, and I think just about everyone realizes this except for those guys.


In addition, Governor Newsom and Cuomo have praised Trumps work and response to COVID19. Only idiot TDS leftwing idiotlogues like OldShyte thinks Trump is doing a bad job despite all our stats being multiple times better than almost all of Europe.

BTW, I read Jim's entire posting - which is why I know it's all crap. Consider the last one, for instance. Birx talks about the difficulty of planning a policy response to a new, largely unknown pathogen, about which we still learn every day. Breitbart makes it into Birx slamming China (for which there is not even a hint in the actual text) for not knowing everything about the NOVEL coronavirus, and for not informing the world about that which was not yet known.

Well, you just had a reading comprehension FAIL. The Chicoms have been hiding the accurate data on COVID19 from the very start, jack ass.

I say, whoever falls for such pap is either demented, or willfully, belligerently ignorant. Or both.

I say, you are an ignorant jack ass fucktard.

But the facts above are on my side, dipshit.
 
sooooo they should have made a vaccine yrs ago before their was a virus ? ok ! maybe they should also make a vaccine for the next disease that does not exist .
Where did you get the idea coronavirus has never existed?

How Capitalism Kills During a Pandemic

"First, pharmaceutical companies could have started to develop a vaccine for the virus years ago. The novel coronavirus that is now ravaging the world is actually one of a family of coronaviruses (including SARS and MERS) with which we have long been familiar."

Cuba has a vaccine.
What's wrong with capitalism, the almighty profit motive, maybe?


Cuba uses "wonder drug" to fight coronavirus around the world despite U.S. sanctions

"Cuba has mobilized its medical corps around the world to distribute a new 'wonder drug' that officials there say is capable of treating the new coronavirus despite the United States' strict sanctions that continue to pressure the communist-run island.

"The drug, called Interferon Alpha-2B Recombinant (IFNrec), is jointly developed by scientists from Cuba and China, where the coronavirus COVID-19 disease outbreak first emerged late last year."
its a different strand idiot !
 
So far, 4 people have voted to let us know what incredible morons they are.
I'll try to keep the count updated.
So far, 4 people have voted to let us know what incredible morons they are.
I'll try to keep the count updated.
I am letting the scientists and researchers decide the answer to whether it's a bioweapon. They have been studying it and they say no. It quite clearly came from animals. (bats, maybe?)
The bubonic plague came from China, too, and was carried by fleas on rats all the way to Europe. Swine flu came from ... pigs in Mexico.
I'm sorry, guys, but this stuff happens. What I was primarily saying "No" to in the poll was whether it was a bioweapon.
If China had not been so typically secretive, would it have mattered? No one knows. Just like when a few cases landed here, no one was very alarmed at first. They didn't know what was coming any more than we did.

In times of real stress, it's easy to waste time and energy pointing fingers. It's not going to help any though.
if that virus would have started in a red state the left would be screaming and blaming republicans leaders in that state if they had covered up and withheld info from the rest of the country ... although leftist have reluctantly started to admit that china should have told us more they still simply refuse to place heated criticism on their chicom allies ! the choice is clear in Nov vote for America or vote for the dems and their business as usual chicom loving policies .
 
Authoritarian government, suppression of critical information, bizarre wet markets, and the third global pandemic in a row?

Discuss.

IF this is the third global pandemic, we probably should have been better prepared.

So it's China's fault that they are a poor, overpopulated country? This is what you are going with?

and they are reopening their wet markets ...if the chicoms truly believed that the virus that shut them down for weeks came from said wet markets why did they open the back up ?? its been rumored that lab animals were sold to wet markets for extra cash after scientist were finished with them .

Rumors are nice and all, but how about facts?

These wet markets existed for centuries and they were the norm in most of the world through most of history. But it sounds scary to us, so let's go with that.
go ahead and run on that in Nov ...China good Trump bad you stupid moron !
 
He never said the virus was a hoax.
Sure he did.

Trump says the coronavirus is the Democrats' 'new hoax'

"President Donald Trump said Friday that Democrats are using the virulent coronavirus as a “hoax” to damage him and his administration.

“The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” he said from a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina.

“One of my people came up to me and said ‘Mr. President they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well.’ They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax that was on a perfect conversation,” he continued.

Are you having trouble remembering all of his lies?

He didn't say the virus was a hoax.

What's True
During a Feb. 28, 2020, campaign rally in South Carolina, President Donald Trump likened the Democrats' criticism of his administration's response to the new coronavirus outbreak to their efforts to impeach him, saying "this is their new hoax." During the speech he also seemed to downplay the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu.




What's False
Despite creating some confusion with his remarks, Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.

 
Authoritarian government, suppression of critical information, bizarre wet markets, and the third global pandemic in a row?

Discuss.

The Daddy of Covid-19

billgates_coronavirus-1230x647.jpg
 
Authoritarian government, suppression of critical information, bizarre wet markets, and the third global pandemic in a row?
Well, ideologues play fast and loose with facts and honesty to protect their ideologies, no matter what.

They highlight and focus on facts that support their ideology, and deny, dismiss, ignore, minimize, distort and deflect from those that don't.

Authoritarians then do everything they can to enforce the above tactics.

So, yeah. Authoritarian ideologues are a pox. It can be a lethal combination. As we're seeing.
 
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I thought I made it pretty clear in my post that I am aware of Breitbart's slant, and that I was waiting to hear the refutation. Instead I got a whole lot of lip from a liberal and not one single bit of information to the contrary. Like I told Jim, I had not heard about any of this before, so I was interested in learning. I doubt if everything the articles reported was false, though. I appreciate your kind warning, but it wasn't necessary. I'm not quite as stupid as I seem.

Nobody in their right mind would, or could, ever come to the conclusion you are stupid, Lady. That isn't even a question.

The main problem with Breitbart and Fox isn't there is a "slant". Rather, it's they have given up on fact-checking and journalistic standards altogether, and, even worse, they are picking up some of the most putrid outgrowths of the rightarded blabbosphere and inject them into the nation's stream of "information". That's how and why these outgrowths then reach Trump, who re-bleats them to even more deleterious effect. It is akin to science giving up on peer review and experiments. It would destroy science in the same way as Fox and Breitbart work to destroy journalism. That doesn't mean everything they report is false; it just means everything they report is suspect, unreliable, and therefore they are not worth considering or reading.

In mid-February, the WHO went on a fact-finding mission to China. On Feb. 28, they published their mission report. I would suggest everybody read it. Just as we need a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, we need an antidote to the rightarded disinformation campaign, and that antidote cannot be anything other than facts, as gathered by the WHO. Because Rightardia is allergic to facts, they now move to decry the WHO (in pretty much the same way as they denigrate competent and standards-based journalism) so as to continue their propaganda campaign unencumbered.
 
So are you going to be like the right wingers and refuse to read anything produced by "the other side?" I can see why he said he doesn't provide links to liberals.

With all due respect, Lady, this has nothing whatsoever to do with "the other side". It has to do with relying on media following journalistic standards, checking their reporting, on the one hand, and rebleating the droppings of a mendacious disinformation and propaganda outfit like "Breitbart" - that is, Trump's Pravda - on the other. He doesn't provide "links" to liberals because everyone gifted with integrity and a lick of sense laughs at what he considers a "source", and, given the very sensitive glass chin he has, he gets very irate at those who point out his willful delusions.

Breitbart is a leading "source", second only to Faux, for the propaganda circus yelling "China dunnit" day-in, day-out, in order to distract from Trump's monument to incompetence and lethal callousness in his "response" to the pandemic. If an international institution, like the WHO, is being damaged in the course of that tsunami of lies, they think it's all the better. Of course, Trump sycophants work diligently to amplify the narrative.

BTW, I read Jim's entire posting - which is why I know it's all crap. Consider the last one, for instance. Birx talks about the difficulty of planning a policy response to a new, largely unknown pathogen, about which we still learn every day. Breitbart makes it into Birx slamming China (for which there is not even a hint in the actual text) for not knowing everything about the NOVEL coronavirus, and for not informing the world about that which was not yet known.

I say, whoever falls for such pap is either demented, or willfully, belligerently ignorant. Or both.
the propaganda circus yelling "China dunnit" day-in, day-out, in order to distract from Trump's monument to incompetence and lethal callousness in his "response" to the pandemic. If an international institution, like the WHO, is being damaged in the course of that tsunami of lies, they think it's all the better.

I found this interesting^^^ At last a reason for all the adamant finger pointing! That would be a narcissist's maneuver; nothing is ever his fault. I've been scratching my head over why some of our posters are even calling for war. But as I said earlier in this thread, I don't think it was Trump's fault either that we are being overwhelmed. We just are, like other countries where it has spread. Like Birx said so poignantly, they just didn't know. (You don't need to repeat all the reasons you think he is at fault; I've read it over and over here.)

The Breitbart article though brought up some points about WHO's response that smell a little. Half a million Taiwanese agree, according to their petition. On January 31, WHO said this:
The World Health Organization, which declared the outbreak a global health emergency this week, has recommended against any travel or trade restrictions in response to the outbreak. Member countries, however, do not have to comply with that guidance.

“Although travel restrictions may intuitively seem like the right thing to do, this is not something that WHO usually recommends,” said Tarik Jašarević, a WHO spokesperson. “This is because of the social disruption they cause and the intensive use of resources required,” he added.

Experts said travel bans could lead to a slew of downstream effects and risk complicating the public health response.

“There’s not only the financial toll on a country that is dealing with this outbreak, but this can discourage transparency, both in this outbreak and in the future,” Worsnop said.

Travel and trade restrictions can lead to dire economic consequences for countries involved, creating a disincentive for them to quickly disclose potential outbreaks to the WHO or other nations. They can hinder the sharing of information, make it harder to track cases and their contacts, and disrupt the medical supply chain, potentially fueling shortages of drugs and medical supplies in the areas hit hardest by the outbreak. They also send a punitive message, which could contribute to discrimination and stigmatization against Chinese nationals, experts warned.


No one advised trade restrictions, that I know of, but travel restrictions would have made perfect sense, considering they knew enough by January 31 to realize how contagious it was:

On January 13, the WHO reported a case in Thailand, the first outside of China, in a woman who had arrived from Wuhan.

On January 16, Japan's health ministry reported a confirmed case in a man who had also visited Wuhan.

On January 17, as a second death was reported in Wuhan, health authorities in the US announced that three airports would start screening passengers arriving from the city.
Authorities in the United States, Nepal, France, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan confirmed cases over the following days.

On January 30, the WHO declared coronavirus a global emergency as the death toll in China jumped to 170, with 7,711 cases reported in the country, where the virus had spread to all 31 provinces.


By January 31, when WHO advised against travel restrictions from China, it seems to me they had more than enough reason to think it advisable; China apparently did too--it had isolated Wuhan province a week prior. The WHO's reasoning seems pretty weak, considering this was a novel virus with no vaccine or prior immunity causing lethal pneumonia AND that is was very clearly highly contagious.

I can see where people would think the WHO was doing their best to keep China's doors open for economic reasons.
WHO's current Director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as prior Ethiopian Foreign Minister has 4 billion reasons to be helpful to China. Wiki: By 2016-2018, Chinese direct investment (FDI) in Ethiopia had reached US$4 billion and bilateral trade had grown to $5.4 billion.

Okay, that got wicked long. Sorry.

What do you think?

P.S. I'm a strong supporter of the UN and of WHO, but humans are fallible.
 
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Okay, that got wicked long. Sorry.

What do you think?

P.S. I'm a strong supporter of the UN and of WHO, but humans are fallible.

As you rightly quoted:

“There’s not only the financial toll on a country that is dealing with this outbreak, but this can discourage transparency, both in this outbreak and in the future,” Worsnop said.

Travel and trade restrictions can lead to dire economic consequences for countries involved, creating a disincentive for them to quickly disclose potential outbreaks to the WHO or other nations. They can hinder the sharing of information, make it harder to track cases and their contacts, and disrupt the medical supply chain, potentially fueling shortages of drugs and medical supplies in the areas hit hardest by the outbreak. They also send a punitive message, which could contribute to discrimination and stigmatization against Chinese nationals, experts warned.​

Moreover, it isn't as if travel restrictions couldn't be circumvented. Among the worst probably is the incentive to suppress information - and not just for those hit, but for pretty much everyone. While it may seem intuitively the right thing to do, travel restrictions do not work, particularly not if the reaper is already in the house. Finally, it creates a false sense of security, serves as an excuse for inaction, and that is exactly how it played out. Still, as of this very day, the entire country is not in lock-down, and thus the most promising measures to counter the spread are not universally in place, and that will prolong the lock-down for everybody else. But hey, there's travel restrictions in place, and the Dear Leader let himself be seen doing ... something.
 

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