Recently in Medicine and Health Category

From the Whidbey Island News-Times:

COVID-19 uptick deemed no cause for alarm
Thirteen additional people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Island County in the last two weeks, putting the total at 195 since the start of the pandemic, according to Island County Public Health.

The number of deaths is still at 12 people.

Keith Higman, director of Island County Public Health, said the increase isn’t cause for panic.

The county isn’t investigating any clusters. Some of the cases were within families and some were associated with travel to other parts of the state.

“Our numbers look good,” he said, “compared to other places across the state and compared to other states.”

Higman said he believes nobody is currently hospitalized in the county with COVID-19.

Running the numbers, the US Census estimates Island County as having 85,141 citizens as of July 1st, 2019. Assuming for modest growth, let's make that 90K for now. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center puts the US at 2,936,007 Confirmed with 39.82 Deaths per 100K population. Island County has 10.8 Deaths per 100K population so we are doing pretty well.

The US Census estimates the United States population at 329,920,000. The number of Confirmed cases (2,936,007) is 0.889% of the total population. Island County Confirmed is 0.216% of the total population.

We are doing just fine - isolation really helps but the majority of the people here are just going about their daily lives. I travel to the mainland several times/week shopping at Costco and WalMart and I know many other people who do the same. Yes, the overall Confirmed numbers are up but that is an artifact of the enhanced testing. The critical numbers - mortality and hospitalization - are way down. Falling since April.

This thing is so overblown - political and not medical.

What a difference 82 days makes. The bias at CNN in two pictures:

The current "spike" in covid Wuhan Flu infections?

Trying to create a crisis. From American Thinker:

Is the COVID Surge More Fake News?
“The coronavirus surge is real, and it’s everywhere” says Axios and most of the DNC media.

Time to panic. They pile on, “The coronavirus pandemic is getting dramatically worse in almost every corner of the U.S.”

We are told new cases are rising by double-digit percentages, including: “The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus.” Hospitalized with or from coronavirus? Is this really a surge or simply fear-mongering fake news?

It is an artifact of the massively increased testing. The disease is pretty evenly spread through the general population by now and when you test more people, you will find more disease. The dirty little secret:

A Texas hospital CEO lets the fake news cat out of the bag.

Health officials in Texas are logging every single COVID-19-positive hospital patient in the state as a COVID-19 hospitalization, even if the patients themselves are admitted seeking treatment for something other than the coronavirus.

Most hospitals require a COVID test before elective surgery. This means that patients coming to the hospital for a non-COVID reason are tested for COVID, and if positive are being counted as a “COVID hospitalization.” If a patient goes to the hospital for a new hip or cataract surgery, and happens to test positive for COVID, they are counted as a COVID hospitalization.

Just like inflated death counts, there is a big difference between dying or being hospitalized due to coronavirus or with coronavirus. George Floyd tested positive for COVID but no one is attributing his death in Minneapolis to COVID. Yet that is how hospitalizations are being counted, leading to this so-called surge in cases.

Yeah - the actual deaths from COVID have been falling since March and April. There is no "new" outbreak but the liberals and the media need a crisis and this is what they have to work with. Remember the H1N1 SARS pandemic in 2009 - under President Obama's administration? There were just as many deaths from it then as their are from this today. Just as bad. Remember the lockdowns? Me neither.

Hold my beer - from The Beeb:

Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China
A new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.

It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.

The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.

While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has "all the hallmarks" of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring.

As it's new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.

A bit more:

So far, it hasn't posed a big threat, but Prof Kin-Chow Chang and colleagues who have been studying it, say it is one to keep an eye on.

The virus, which the researchers call G4 EA H1N1, can grow and multiply in the cells that line the human airways.

They found evidence of recent infection starting in people who worked in abattoirs and the swine industry in China.

Hmmm - the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic - was also an H1N1 variant. It killed over 570,000 people worldwide. Remember the masks? Remember the scramble for ventilators? Remember the lockdown? Remember how the media excoriated President Obama for his piss-poor handling of the event? Remember how it caused a huge spike in unemployment? Remember the travel bans and the quarantines?

Me neither...

From John Hinderaker writing at Powerline:

THE SANE VS. THE INSANE
Via Ann Althouse, check out this confrontation between a young woman who is a BLM activist and an older African-American man. They are standing in front of, and arguing about, the Emancipation Statue that freedmen paid for and where Frederick Douglass spoke. You don’t have to understand the words the young woman is screaming to know that you are witnessing a dialogue between a normal person and one with serious mental or emotional problems:

We see this all the time with the protesters. All the time. Shrill yelling with zero attempt at holding a discussion. Their agenda, all the time.

The poster child for this mental illness is, of course, triggly puff:

Behavior so aberrant that it is worth an entry in DSM. This entry from October 2015 is satire but it is so close to the mark as to be real enough:

DSM-IV 301.95 Progressive Personality Disorder
Nails it - from John Moore:

DSM-IV 301.95 Progressive Personality Disorder
A. A pervasive pattern of progressive political and inter-personal thought and action, rooted in discredited leftist (neo-Marxist) beliefs, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by at least five of the following (individual must be at least 18 years of age to qualify for the diagnosis of Progressive Personality Disorder, as many of the criteria are age-appropriate for adolescents). This disorder often coexists with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

1. 1. 1. Utopian thinking, e.g. a delusional belief that there exist simple, linear, side effect-free solutions to all social problems.
      2. Lack of historical knowledge and perspective, and repression of personal memories dissonant with this belief system. e.g., the national mood post 9-11, including that of PPD patients, is suppressed in order to avoid conflict with subsequent reversal of beliefs as the PPD delusions were reinstated - hence the downplaying of terrorism as a threat and the obsessive concern for the "rghts" of temporarily feared and hated terrorists. (Note to clinician: please differentiate between mere historical ignorance, e.g., a doctorate in history from an elite university, vs. neurotic or psychotic delusions necessary to sustain these beliefs. )
      3. Anthroplastic delusion, e.g. The delusion that behavioral conditioning performed by the government or some other collective will cure all behavioral and social problems, rooted in denial of fixed human nature. Implicit in this delusion is the idea that human beings are infinitely malleable and subject to behavioral manipulation leading to perfect control and predictability. Free will, personal conscience, and objective morality are denied, devalued or denigrated.

Much more at the site - this nails it perfectly.

From Swiss Policy Research:

Facts about Covid-19
Fully referenced facts about Covid-19, provided by experts in the field, to help our readers make a realistic risk assessment. (Regular updates below)

“The only means to fight the plague is honesty.” --Albert Camus, 1947

Overview

1. 1. According to the latest immunological and serological studies, the overall lethality of Covid-19 (IFR) is about 0.1% and thus in the range of a strong seasonal influenza (flu).
   2. In countries like the US, the UK, and also Sweden (without a lockdown), overall mortality since the beginning of the year is in the range of a strong influenza season; in countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland, overall mortality is in the range of a mild influenza season.
   3. Even in global “hotspots”, the risk of death for the general population of school and working age is typically in the range of a daily car ride to work. The risk was initially overestimated because many people with only mild or no symptoms were not taken into account.
   4. Up to 80% of all test-positive persons remain symptom-free. Even among 70-79 year olds, about 60% remain symptom-free. Over 95% of all persons develop at most moderate symptoms.
   5. Up to 60% of all persons may already have a certain cellular background immunity to Covid19 due to contact with previous coronaviruses (i.e. common cold viruses).
   6. The median or average age of the deceased in most countries (including Italy) is over 80 years and only about 4% of the deceased had no serious preconditions. The age and risk profile of deaths thus essentially corresponds to normal mortality.
   7. In many countries, up to two thirds of all extra deaths occurred in nursing homes, which do not benefit from a general lockdown. Moreover, in many cases it is not clear whether these people really died from Covid19 or from weeks of extreme stress and isolation.
   8. Up to 30% of all additional deaths may have been caused not by Covid19, but by the effects of the lockdown, panic and fear. For example, the treatment of heart attacks and strokes decreased by up to 60% because many patients no longer dared to go to hospital.
   9. Even in so-called “Covid19 deaths” it is often not clear whether they died from or with coronavirus (i.e. from underlying diseases) or if they were counted as “presumed cases” and not tested at all. However, official figures usually do not reflect this distinction.
   10. Many media reports of young and healthy people dying from Covid19 turned out to be false: many of these young people either did not die from Covid19, they had already been seriously ill (e.g. from undiagnosed leukaemia), or they were in fact 109 instead of 9 years old. The claimed increase in Kawasaki disease in children also turned out to be false.

These are ten nails into the coffin of the Pandemic. There are twenty more at the site. All with links to corroborating data. At the end of this list is an excellent article amplifying these "inconvenient truths" and going into further detail. The lockdown is a power-grab. Nothing more, nothing less.

I was thinking it was the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa but this is a viable option as well - from RedState:

Behold the Next Plague: West Nile Virus Is Ready to Rock 2020
It seems it’s been one thing after another in 2020, right? As Red State‘s Nick Arama reminded us Friday, it’s “proven to be one of the most ‘What the Heck Is Going On’ years” in our lifetimes.

But if the Wuhan coronavirus, hordes of carnivorous rodents (of Unusual Size) and murder hornets,  or the comets whizzing past don’t take down Planet Earth, maybe this will…

According to WILX:

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is reporting the first case of West Nile virus in 2020.

The MDHHS said the virus was reported in a captive hawk from Lapeer County.

Just wonderful... 2019 was bad for me and I was hoping that 2020 would be better.
Fat chance for that...

• All the democrat malarkey
• The Wuhan Flu
• Murder hornets
• Rioting and murder

And now, say hello to our little friend - from the New York Post:

New Ebola outbreak reported in Congo
Authorities in Congo are reporting a new outbreak of Ebola in the western part of the African nation on Monday.

And this is just after they declared another outbreak finished. The kicker? This is 620 miles away from the previous outbreak. Congo is locked down for the Wuhan COVID. This outbreak is in a city of 1.5 million souls. Stay tuned and pray...

Gary Varvel has a behind the scenes look at the CDC:

Hat tip to Mostly Cajun

Looks like the shit could be hitting the fan here. From Reuters:

Monkeys steal coronavirus blood samples in India
A troop of monkeys in India attacked a medical official and snatched away blood samples of patients who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, authorities said on Friday.

The attack occurred this week when a laboratory technician was walking in the campus of a state-run medical college in Meerut, 460 km (285 miles) north of Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

“Monkeys grabbed and fled with the blood samples of four COVID-19 patients who are undergoing treatment ... we had to take their blood samples again,” said Dr S. K. Garg, a top official at the college.

And reassuring words from the Doctor:

“No evidence has been found that monkeys can contract the infection,” Garg told Reuters.

No evidence either way - just what we need. A repository living and commingling with a large population. A little mutation here and there and whammo.

Disgusting. From Disrn:

Nursing homes, assisted living facilities account for 42% of COVID-19 deaths despite being just 1.6% of U.S. population
Around 42% of coronavirus deaths have been in nursing homes, according to analysis done by The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.

The foundation focused on deaths both in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Minnesota had the highest percentage of deaths occurring in a nursing home or assisted living facility at 81%.

Just 1.6% of the population lives in nursing homes or residential care facilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Among states reporting nursing and residential care home fatalities from COVID-19, nursing homes account for 42.1% of those deaths," the report said. "If we simply assume that this share holds true in non-reporting states, we get to a national share of 42.1% (i.e., identical to the share in reporting states)."

More at the site. Disgusting but not surprising. I would kill myself before being committed into one of those places. Some are good but some need to be shut down, their buildings raised and the earth salted.

Scary - from United Press International:

Risk for MS 30% higher for those living in cities, study finds
City-dwellers are nearly 30 percent more likely to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis than those living in more rural areas, a study presented Friday at the European Academy of Neurology Virtual Congress has found.

Based on the results, which will also be published in European Journal of Neurology, air pollution could be a risk factor for the development of the disease, according to the authors, who conducted their research in Italy.

"It is well recognized that immune diseases such as MS are associated with multiple factors, both genetic and environmental," co-author Dr. Roberto Bergamaschi, of the IRCCS Mondino Foundation in Pavia, Italy, said in a statement.

"We believe that air pollution interacts through several mechanisms in the development of MS and the results of this study strengthen that hypothesis," he added.

Maybe that will point them in the direction of a cure. I know two people with it - not fun. A major impact into their quality of life.

From Campus Reform:

Dem senators support resolution calling 'Chinese Virus' racist
A former Democratic presidential candidate has introduced a resolution condemning the phrase "Chinese Virus" as racist.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) ran unsuccessfully for president and has since endorsed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Harris introduced Wednesday in the U.S. Senate a resolution, which states, "whereas the use of anti-Asian terminology and rhetoric related to COVID–19, such as the ‘'Chinese Virus,' 'Wuhan Virus,' and ‘'Kung-flu,' have perpetuated anti-Asian stigma."

And:

Two dozen other Democratic senators supported the resolution, including Sen. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Sen. Diane Feinstein (Calif.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), and Sen. Corey Booker (N.J.). 

Citing how "the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognize that naming COVID–19 by its geographic location or linking COVID–19 to a specific ethnicity perpetuates stigma," the resolution "calls on federal law enforcement officials, workingf with State and local officials—to expeditiously investigate and document all credible reports of hate crimes, incidents, and threats against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the United States."

The resolution further "condemns all manifestations or expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, anti-Asian sentiment, scapegoating, and ethnic or religious intolerance."

And of course, naming a disease after its locus of origin (or a person) has never ever happened before.

Here is a list of warnings about Dihydrogen Monoxide - dangerous stuff.

From Stilton Jarlsberg:

Should never have been allowed to get this bad. From NBC News:

Trump admin taps startup to build nation's first stockpile of key drug ingredients
Seeking to secure the nation's supply of critical medications, the Trump administration has signed a $354 million contract that would create the nation's first strategic stockpile of key ingredients needed to make medicines.

The agreement was signed Monday with Phlow Corp., a generic drug maker based in Virginia. According to a news release to be made public Tuesday, the project will use federal funds from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority under the Department of Health and Human Services.

The goal is twofold: to enable the U.S. to manufacture essential drugs at risk of shortage and to create a reserve of active pharmaceutical ingredients to reduce the dependence on foreign suppliers.

Phlow's CEO, Dr. Eric Edwards, told NBC News that the company had been in discussions with the administration back in November but that the project was fast-tracked once COVID-19 hit.

Very well thought out move - not only the drugs themselves but their precursors. The chemicals needed to manufacture the drugs. We need to be independent of other nations.

Obama could have done this but noooo... The Bushs? Clinton? Same thing - could have but didn't.

Sobering story from the New York Post:

Bruce Springsteen guitarist Nils Lofgren sues New Jersey nursing home
The mother-in-law of the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, contracted the coronavirus at an upscale nursing home in Morris County, New Jersey, according to a lawsuit filed last week.

Rocker Nils Lofgren and his wife Amy moved her mother, Patricia J. Landers, into Brookdale Senior Living in Florham Park where the home had promised the family 24-hour security and a staff trained to deal with residents who have dementia.

Landers, 83, “left unattended escaped” the facility in the middle of the night for hours on April 8, says the lawsuit, and was eventually located by police officers — three miles away, bruised and confused.

After she returned to the facility, the family was told she tested negative for the coronavirus.

A week later, Landers was admitted to a hospital in Montclair, where she tested positive for COVID-19 and was suffering from pneumonia.

Landers is now recovering and has been transferred to another facility.

Rope. Tree. Some assembly required. This level of negligence is unconcionable.

China is not operating in our interests. From The Daily Caller:

Chinese Official Confirms That China Ordered Labs To Destroy Coronavirus Samples
A senior Chinese government official confirmed Friday that authorities ordered laboratories to destroy samples of coronavirus in early January.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had accused Chinese officials of ordering the samples’ destruction as part of the regime’s cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak in its early stages.

Pompeo said on April 22 that China “censored those who tried to warn the world, it ordered a halt to testing of new samples, and it destroyed existing samples.” He offered more specificity on May 6, stating that China’s National Health Commission [NHC] ordered virus samples destroyed on Jan. 3.

NHC official Liu Dengfeng conceded at a briefing on Friday that the agency had ordered the labs to destroy the samples, but said that the order was given for safety reasons.

They need to pay and pay big-time. Their cause, their cure.

Some really funny numbers out there - from Colorado's The Durango Herald:

Montezuma County disputes state’s coronavirus death count
The Montezuma County Coroner’s Office is disputing the state’s claim of a third fatal case of the coronavirus in Cortez, saying the person died of alcohol poisoning.

County Coroner George Deavers said the person tested positive for COVID-19, but an investigation by him and the pathologist determined the cause of death was ethanol toxicity. The person’s blood-alcohol content was 0.55, or almost seven times the legal driving limit of 0.08 in Colorado, Deavers said. A BAC of 0.3 is considered lethal.

“COVID was not listed on the death certificate as the cause of death. I disagree with the state for listing it as a COVID death, and will be discussing it with them this week,” he said Tuesday.

The hospitals and state Health Departments get a lot more money for COVID-19 deaths - a bounty if you will.

Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself, he was just one of the first COVID-19 fatalities.

Makes more sense than most of the stories going around:

Who are you going to believe - a two-fer:

First - from CNN:

Georgia's daily coronavirus deaths will nearly double by August with relaxed social distancing, model suggests
As some Southeastern US states start to reopen, Georgia is projected to see its number of daily Covid-19 deaths nearly double by early August, according to a model shared by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and created by independent researcher Youyang Gu.

The epidemiological model, which provides projections for 40 countries and every US state, has been included among the seven models CDC highlights on its website for Covid-19 forecasting.

And the money shot:

Out of the 12 states in the Southeast United States, the model's projections for Georgia are the only that assume statewide social distancing will be relaxed starting on May 1, to reflect Gov. Brian Kemp's orders to reopen the state. The projections for the state of Georgia show the highest uptick in deaths per day will be between May and August for the region.

Second - from The Daily Wire:

Narrative Fail: 15 Days After Lockdown Ease, Georgia Sees Lowest Day Of COVID Hospitalizations
Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia celebrated the state’s lowest number of hospitalized novel coronavirus patients and the fewest number of COVID-19 patients on ventilators on Saturday, 15 days since the Republican loosened lockdown restrictions in the face of persistent attacks from the mainstream media and the public disapproval of President Donald Trump.

And the money shot:

“Today marks the lowest number of COVID-19 positive patients currently hospitalized statewide (1,203) since hospitals began reporting this data on April 8th,” Kemp posted to Twitter on Saturday. “Today also marks the lowest total of ventilators in use (897 with 1,945 available). We will win this fight together!”

Who are you going to believe? A computer model designed by people with an agenda or the actual numbers.. One of these is based in reality, one of these is based in narrative. Time to end this foolishness and get back to work.

President Trump said that we needed ventilators - he is getting them.   From Associated Press:

Becoming ‘King of Ventilators’ may result in unexpected glut
As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March, President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold claim: His administration would have 100,000 within 100 days.

At the time, the Department of Health and Human Services had not ordered any new ventilators since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January. But records show that over the following three weeks, the agency scrambled to turn Trump’s pledge into a reality, spending nearly $3 billion to spur U.S. manufacturers to crank out the breathing machines at an unprecedented pace.

An analysis of federal contracting data by The Associated Press shows the agency is now on track to exceed 100,000 new ventilators by around July 13, about a week later than the 100-day deadline Trump first gave on March 27.

Their bias is showing: it is an "unexpected glut" because his advisors were grossly overstating the seriousness of the Wuhan Flu. Shipped on time too. And if we do not use them now, we will need them at some point in the future. Remember, New York City had a nice stash of them but Mayor de Blasio auctioned them off to make money.

Now, we have enough for the next pandemic. When it happens. Not IF, it is WHEN

Things are not as they seem - from Zero Hedge:

"We Sent Them Samples Of A Goat, A Papaya & A Pheasant": Tanzanian President Catches WHO In Epic Lie
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases explodes across Africa, the creeping involvement of the WHO has made some leaders suspicious of the NGO. Tanzanian President John Magufuli was growing suspicious of the organization, so he reportedly decided to investigate whether the organization was as trustworthy and reliable as it claimed to be.

He played what the local press described as "a trick" on the organization: He sent the WHO samples of a goat, a papaya and a quail for testing.

All three samples reportedly tested positive. When the president heard the news, he reportedly confronted the WHO, then kicked the organization out of the country. Though, to be sure, the WHO has yet to comment on the situation.

Most rational people would probably accept the latter scenario as the most accurate one.

Indeed - either they are marinating in the virus or the WHO is using the crappy Chinese tests that yielded high false-positives. Or, the WHO lied to try to preserve their relevance. My guess is on the latter...

Shut down the restaurants and it trickles all the way down the food chain - from the Baltimore, MD ABC affiliate:

Exterminator says he's receiving more house calls for rodent infestation since stay-at-home order was announced
Frank Simms has been busy responding to residential homes and apartments for rodent control. The owner of Q Pest Control says rats in particular are on the move.

"There’s less trash in restaurant dumpsters," said Simms. "They're going to be looking for easy meals. So they’re going into people trash cans, especially the trash cans that don’t have any lids on."

A prime example of what rodents are attracted to was in an alleyway near E. Baltimore Street and E. Conklin Street.

"This is what rodents are looking for," said Simms. "More people are staying home so they're producing more trash."

It is getting warm enough to where fleas are a problem - Bubonic Plague on top of the Wuhan Flu? Glad I do not live in a city.

From the Michigan branch of National Public Radio:

White House Coronavirus Task Force To Wind Down
The White House's coronavirus task force will wind down its work around Memorial Day, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters on Tuesday.

"I think we're starting to look at the Memorial Day window, early June window as a time when we could begin to transition back to having our agencies ... begin to manage our national response in a more traditional manner," Pence said.

He said the task force has already begun to talk about a transition plan with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that the White House intends to keep coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx "every bit as long as we need to."

Good - we are on the downhill slope so it is time to close that bureaucracy, send its people home and get back to work again. Definitely keep an eye out for future pandemics as well as go through and get the individual cities and states better prepared (something they need to pay for themselves - they have already had their fair measure of our taxpayer dollars).

Party's over - time to go home.

If only:

The headlines are all you need:

April 28th, 2020: DR. FAUCI BACKED CONTROVERSIAL WUHAN LAB WITH MILLIONS OF U.S. DOLLARS FOR RISKY CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH

May 4th, 2020: DR. FAUCI DISMISSES WUHAN LAB AS SOURCE OF CORONAVIRUS, CONTRADICTING TRUMP AND POMPEO

Of course Fauci is not going to blame the Wuhan lab - that is his baby. They would not let him do this work in the USA so he outsourced to China. We know what kind of quality they are capable of...

Great post - kudos to the European Union for finally standing up to them. From TechDirt:

China Tried To Get The EU Not To Release A Report On China's COVID-19 Disinformation Efforts
It's becoming an unfortunate regularity that we keep writing posts highlighting how China is trying to suppress criticism around the globe regarding its terrible handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we've said over and over again, what the world needs right now is radical transparency regarding the disease and various responses, and instead we're getting standard operating procedures from the Chinese government which is all about suppressing bad information and denying everything (with a healthy does of spreading more disinfo everywhere -- make sure you check the comments here a few hours after we post this, because it seems to show up in a timely manner).

The latest example comes from the EU, where the Chinese government pressured officials in Brussels not to release a report about the Chinese government's disinformation efforts regarding COVID-19. While the EU did eventually release it, it put it out on a Friday evening (the classic news dump of where you hide stuff) and some of the criticism of China was supposedly "rearranged or removed."

Four diplomatic sources told Reuters that the report had initially been slated for release on April 21 but was delayed after Chinese officials picked up on a Politico news report hat previewed its findings.

A senior Chinese official contacted European officials in Beijing the same day to tell them that, “if the report is as described and it is released today it will be very bad for cooperation,” according to EU diplomatic correspondence reviewed by Reuters.

The correspondence quoted senior Chinese foreign ministry official Yang Xiaoguang as saying that publishing the report would make Beijing “very angry” and accused European officials of trying to please “someone else” - something the EU diplomats understood to be a reference to Washington.

The four sources said the report had been delayed as a result, and a comparison of the internal version of the report obtained by Reuters and the final version published late Friday showed several differences.

For reasons that are unclear, Reuters, despite breaking this story and it seeming to be an opportune time and place to do so, does not link to the report that was released. You can read it here. It seems to focus mostly on Russian disinfo campaigns, and, while it does include China, suggests that China is less active in such disinformation campaigns. Also, the key parts about China are at the very end of the document, which is apparently not where they were originally.

At this time, we need transparency, not obfuscation. China needs to realize that its weakness and failure to communicate is painting it in a very bad light. Its leadership is used to a compliant citizenry and is not prepared to handle global examination and criticism. Time for China to grow up and join the adults on the world stage.

At stage five myself...

Hope justice prevails - from The Washington Free Beacon:

Police Investigating Death of Arizona Man From Chloroquine Phosphate
The Mesa City Police Department's homicide division is investigating the death of Gary Lenius, the Arizona man whose wife served him soda mixed with fish tank cleaner in what she claimed was a bid to fend off the coronavirus. A detective handling the case confirmed the investigation to the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday after requesting a recording of the Free Beacon's interviews with Lenius's wife, Wanda.

Gary Lenius, 68, died on March 22. Wanda, 61, told several news outlets last month that both she and her husband had ingested a substance used to clean aquariums after hearing President Donald Trump tout one of its ingredients, chloroquine phosphate, from the White House briefing room.

Detective Teresa Van Galder, the homicide detective handling the case for the Mesa City Police Department, confirmed that the investigation is ongoing but declined to provide additional details.

The information that prompted the probe?

News of the police probe comes after a series of Free Beacon stories raised questions about the portrayal of the couple in the initial NBC News report that vaulted the story onto the national stage.

Though that report and others suggested the couple mindlessly followed the president's medical advice to disastrous results, friends of Gary Lenius told the Free Beacon they were skeptical he would knowingly ingest fish tank treatment.

Rather, they described Lenius as a levelheaded retired engineer and recounted a troubled marital relationship that included a previous domestic assault charge against his wife, of which she was ultimately found not guilty. The Free Beacon also reported that Wanda Lenius was a Democratic donor whose most recent contribution went to a "pro-science" super PAC.

"What bothers me about this is that Gary was a very intelligent man, a retired [mechanical] engineer who designed systems for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa, and I really can't see the scenario where Gary would say, ‘Yes, please, I would love to drink some of that Koi fish tank cleaner,'" one of his close friends told the Free Beacon. "It just doesn't make any sense."

What is not being mentioned in the reports is that the fish tank cleaner is Chloroquine Phosphate and the drug used to treat the Chinese COVID virus is Chloroquine Sulfate.

You may think that there is little difference between Xyzzy-Phosphate and Xyzzy-Sulfate but remember that Sodium Chloride is simple table salt and Sodium Hydroxide is highly caustic and poisonous - it is used as drain cleaner. A few atoms here and there do make a huge difference.

Something smells very fishy and I hope that they investigate. A pre-meditated murder.

Check out this paper:

Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread
Background
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by a newly discovered coronavirus (SARS-CoV). No effective prophylactic or post-exposure therapy is currently available.

Results
We report, however, that chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS-CoV infection of primate cells. These inhibitory effects are observed when the cells are treated with the drug either before or after exposure to the virus, suggesting both prophylactic and therapeutic advantage. In addition to the well-known functions of chloroquine such as elevations of endosomal pH, the drug appears to interfere with terminal glycosylation of the cellular receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. This may negatively influence the virus-receptor binding and abrogate the infection, with further ramifications by the elevation of vesicular pH, resulting in the inhibition of infection and spread of SARS CoV at clinically admissible concentrations.

Conclusion
Chloroquine is effective in preventing the spread of SARS CoV in cell culture. Favorable inhibition of virus spread was observed when the cells were either treated with chloroquine prior to or after SARS CoV infection. In addition, the indirect immunofluorescence assay described herein represents a simple and rapid method for screening SARS-CoV antiviral compounds.

Looks pretty cut and dried - a lot more at the site. The numbers are really plain and clear - the stuff works.

What is interesting is that this paper was published on August 22nd, 2005 by the National Institutes of Health. That would be Dr. Fauci's stomping ground. He knew and yet he promoted the development of a new vaccine instead of this simple, cheap, known and effective cure. Dr. Fauci let tens of thousands of people die all so he could promote the expensive vaccine development.

I am most definitely not anti-vax - the common and known ones: Smallpox, MMR, Polio, etc... are life saving and need to be given. What Gates, Fauci, et. al. are doing is unconscionable though. Big difference...

Words of wisdom:

Proven to be better for your mental health too. Best medicine ever.

To keep in mind:

Looks like Barry's legacy just shrunk a little bit more - from FOX News:

Supreme Court rules government must pay insurers enrolled in ObamaCare program
The Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision Monday that the federal government must pay out $12 billion to insurers who had enrolled in the Affordable Care Act's "risk corridor" program, reversing a lower court's decision that had left Washington off the hook.

The program limited both profits and losses for insurance companies that offered plans through the online exchange created by the Affordable Care Act – commonly known as ObamaCare – by having certain profits go to the Department of Health and Human Services, which in turn would give money to plans that did not bring in profits. The result was the government owing over $12 billion more than was brought in.

"We conclude that §1342 of the Affordable Care Act established a money-mandating obligation, that Congress did not repeal this obligation, and that petitioners may sue the Government for damages in the Court of Federal Claims," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the court's opinion.

Justice Samuel Alito, was the only dissenter. This falls directly in Nancy Pelosi's lap - "we have to pass this bill so we can see what's in it".

Someone did a nice bit of investigative reporting. From the London Daily Mail:

U.S. government gave $3.7million grant to Wuhan lab at center of coronavirus leak scrutiny that was performing experiments on bats from the caves where the disease is believed to have originated
The Chinese laboratory at the center of scrutiny over a potential coronavirus leak has been using U.S. government money to carry out research on bats from the caves which scientists believe are the original source of the deadly outbreak.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook coronavirus experiments on mammals captured more than 1,000 miles away in Yunnan which were funded by a $3.7 million grant from the US government.

Sequencing of the COVID-19 genome has traced it back to bats found in Yunnan caves but it was first thought to have transferred to humans at an animal market in Wuhan.

The revelation that the Wuhan Institute was experimenting on bats from the area already known to be the source of COVID-19 - and doing so with American money - has sparked further fears that the lab, and not the market, is the original outbreak source.

And a bit more:

According to documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday, scientists there experimented on bats as part of a project funded by the US National Institutes of Health, which continues to licence the Wuhan laboratory to receive American money for experiments.

And the director of the lab at that time? Anthony S. Fauci

The website for the NIH does not seem to list Fauci as Director for 2018 - the website turns up 404. The internet is forever though - the Wayback Machine has this entry from April 25th, 2018:

The next year is going to be interesting - a lot of things are being swept under the rug.

The Fake News misquoted Trump about injecting sanitizers - the Meme patrol were on it:

Available today in pharmacies and drug stores near you - right next to the Tide Pods...

But it fits the narrative:

One of the reasons I volunteered to deliver groceries - it gets me out of the house and I learn new areas of the island:

A handy guide for doing it yourself from Kay Pruitt:

Makes me glad I do not live there - from the New York Post:

NY issues do-not-resuscitate guideline for cardiac patients amid coronavirus
New York state just issued a drastic new guideline urging emergency services workers not to bother trying to revive anyone without a pulse when they get to a scene, amid an overload of coronavirus patients.

While paramedics were previously told to spend up to 20 minutes trying to revive people found in cardiac arrest, the change is “necessary during the COVID-19 response to protect the health and safety of EMS providers by limiting their exposure, conserve resources, and ensure optimal use of equipment to save the greatest number of lives,’’ according to a state Health Department memo issued last week.

First responders were outraged over the move.

“They’re not giving people a second chance to live anymore,’’ Oren Barzilay, head of the city union whose members include uniformed EMTs and paramedics, fumed of state officials.

Ho. Li. Crap. - there goes Cuomo's chance at a Presidential run. Talk about stupid regulation.