Okay, thanks.

Iran Reports 9 Coronavirus-Linked Deaths As WHO Warns Number Of Cases Outside China 'Won't Stay Low For Very Long'

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...es-suggests-outbreak

Talk about a spike in deaths: Iran is now reporting 9 deaths after shocking the world by revealing that two Chinese nationals infected with the virus had died in the city of Qoms earlier this week.

It's just the latest sign that the cases and deaths ex-China are accelerating.

CNBC's Eunice Yoon reports that Beijing has warned Hubei not to allow people back to work before March 10.

Local leaders said yesterday that they would launch a special financing vehicle to help struggling companies in the province survive the outbreak.

Following the WHO's daily press conference, Director General Dr. Tedros said the WHO had confirmed 1,000 cases outside mainland China (with more than half of them infected aboard the 'Diamond Princess'), and 7 deaths, likely excludes some of the deaths announced over the past 12 hours. Though he added that the data coming out of China "appeared to show a decline in new cases."

"Outside China, we have seen a steady drip of new cases, but we have not yet seen sustained local transmission, except in specific circumstances like the Diamond Princess cruise ship," he added.

More ominously, Dr. Tedros exclaimed that the outbreak is far from over, and if governments don't take adequate steps to fight the virus, the number of cases outside China "won't stay low for very long."

Worried about more shortages of personal protective equipment like facemasks, Dr. Tedros pleaded with a dozen different manufacturers to do whatever they can to keep up appropriate global supplies.

The director said the WHO expects to have more data from two clinical trials for treatments in roughly 3 weeks.

Since we haven't posted a breakdown of new cases yet today, we figured we'd share this list of countries, cases and deaths courtesy of the Associated Press:

According to the Associated Press, the latest figures provided by each government’s health authority as of Thursday in Beijing are:

Mainland China: 2,118 deaths among 74,576 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei
Hong Kong: 65 cases, 2 deaths
Macao: 10
Japan: 727 cases, including 634 from a cruise ship docked in Yokohama, 3 deaths
Singapore: 84
South Korea: 51, 1 death
Thailand: 35
Taiwan: 24 cases, 1 death
Malaysia: 22
Vietnam: 16
Germany: 16
United States: 15 cases; separately, 1 U.S. citizen died in China
Australia: 14
France: 12 cases, 1 death
United Kingdom: 9
United Arab Emirates: 9
Canada: 8
Iran: 5 cases, 2 deaths
Philippines: 3 cases, 1 death
India: 3
Italy: 3
Russia: 2
Spain: 2
Belgium: 1
Nepal: 1
Sri Lanka: 1
Sweden: 1
Cambodia: 1
Finland: 1
Egypt: 1

In other news, UK passengers aboard the 'Diamond Princess' will be evacuated by their government on Friday. The chartered evacuation flights (following the standard template) will land at Boscombe Down airbase in Wiltshire. Elsewhere in the anglosphere, Australia has extended its travel ban for arrivals from China into a fourth week. It will last until Feb. 29, the Guardian reported.

* * *

Hours after Japanese press reports claimed that two passengers who contracted COVID-19 aboard the 'Diamond Princess' died yesterday - news that was later confirmed by Japanese authorities - South Korea reported its first fatality while one of its major cities asked citizens to stay inside and avoid venturing outdoors, according to the Washington Post.

According to Japanese government officials, both of the virus-related fatalities were Japanese citizens in their 80s who had been moved off the ship more than a week ago for treatment in a Japanese hospital, though the government has so far declined to release names.

The latest reports Thursday morning confirmed another 13 cases aboard the DP bringing the total to 634. The odds that individuals being released from the 2 week quarantine on Thursday and Friday might have contracted the virus, but have yet to show symptoms, remains high. The death in South Korea raised the death toll ex-China to 10.

The speed is hardly a surprise for those who have been paying attention to all of the new research, instead of dismissing it for being 'alarmist' and 'not peer reviewed'.

Finally, earlier this week, researchers published the largest study yet of the outbreak, which confirmed that COVID-19 is more contagious than SARS and MERS, leaving it on par with seasonal influenza.

Still, experts insist that the virus's fatality rate is probably around 2%, meaning that it's less deadly than SARS, but the wider spread will result in more deaths, CNN reports.

"My sense and the sense of many of my colleagues, is that the ultimate case fatality rate ... is less than 2%," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Jim Sciutto on "New Day" Tuesday. "What is likely not getting counted is a large number of people who are either asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic, so the denominator of your equation is likely much much larger."

"So I would think at tops it's 2% and it likely will go down when all the counting gets done to 1% or less. That's still considerable if you look at the possibility that you're dealing with a global pandemic," he added.

Even as President Xi does everything in his power to present an image of success to the Chinese people - in his speeches, he claims the Chinese government's strict quarantines have been an unmitigated success - global experts, including the WHO, have warned that the disease will continue to spread globally, and that the end of this crisis is still far from certain.

And as new confirmed cases dropped substantially on Wednesday in Hubei, everywhere else, the rate of new infections is accelerating.

In South Korea, the number of cases soared by almost two-thirds to 104 overnight, further emphasizing our observation that the number of cases ex-China has started to accelerate notably as the curve starts to resemble an exponential progression.

One WHO health expert told a Japanese TV station on Thursday that the virus is "a moving target" making it difficult to collect information and treat people: "Nobody has ever had to deal with this situation before, this is a new virus on a ship with 4,000 people, there are no guidelines for that." He added that he suspects there was a substantial amount of transmission before it arrived in Yokohama, adding that it was "not possible" to isolate everybody individually.

The WHO senior epidemiologist was responding to claims made by another expert in infectious disease that the Japanese had failed to observer proper quarantine protocols.

Back in Korea, the mayor of Daegu, a city of 2.5 million where 10 South Koreans contracted the disease from a church service, asked residents to stay indoors. Iran also reported two infected that then died.
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Experts suspect that one woman in Daegu may have infected at least 40 others by going to her Christian church, according to Yonhap. The alleged 'superspreader' is the reason for the huge jump in new cases on Thursday. Experts say the city is now facing an "unprecedented crisis" following the spike in cases.

"We are in an unprecedented crisis," Daegu’s mayor, Kwon Young-jin, told the press.

Cases are also surging in Singapore, where Deutsche Bank confirmed that an employee in its Singapore office had contracted the virus.

Adding to its woes, Iran reported three new cases on Thursday a day after it confirmed two virus-related deaths in the city of Qoms.

Warnings about the virus's economic blowback are increasing, as Goldman said Thursday that stocks aren't completely pricing in the risks from the virus.

Meanwhile, Air France-KLM, Qantas, and the global container shipping giant Maersk became the latest companies to warn about the financial impact from the continued spread of the coronavirus.

As President Xi balances the risks to tens of thousands of lives on one hand, and keeping his promise to double the size of China's economy by 2020 on the other, it seems the leadership in Beijing are beginning to believe their own propaganda. Premier Li Keqiang, Xi's No. 2 who is in charge of the committee managing the crisis, local governments should seek to increase the rate of resumed production and work, according to China Central Television.

Put another way: Come on in, the water's fine, and if you get the virus and die, we'll cremate your body and tell your family you died of "pneumonia."

China's smartphone shipment declined 50%-60% during the 2020 Spring Festival holidays due to the coronavirus outbreak. About 60 million smartphones remain unsold.

Chinese officials are pulling out all the fiscal and monetary stops to protect China's damaged economy, and on Thursday local officials from Hubei announced a new lending scheme - a "special financing vehicle" - worth 50 billion yuan (more than $7 billion) to stabilize financing for local companies.

To be sure, the drop in new cases last night was largely caused by health officials reversing their decision to include "clinically diagnosed" patients - i.e. those who haven't yet tested positive due to a shortage of effective tests - in the case totals.

The spate of deaths rattled investors overnight, and US equity futures are pointing to a lower open on Thursday, and a rush of risk-off trading in Asia has pushed the BBG dollar index to a 4-month high following the latest piece of evidence that the coronavirus isn't simply "another flu".

quote:

Originally posted by Killer:
Forgot to add this little tidbit. I train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with a guy who is a adopting a Chinese girl with Downs syndrome. I ran into his wife on Saturday and she told me they still plan on going to China at the end of this month to get her. Her reasoning is the girl is in southern China so it would be fine.

Wuhan from Hong Kong/Shenzen is about the same distance as Chicago to Dallas. That said, there's been a narrative within China that the gov has encouraged 'outing' people from Wuhan; essentially turning people on one another. Given the cultural distinctions within China, its very easy for people of one region to castigate and dismiss another, passing it 'their problem'.

Was your sparing partner told by the adoption agency, they shouldn't be worried or, their reasoning is distance equals safety?

This is all my observation and opinion however these virus outbreaks show the weakness we the world has for relying on China for most of our manufacturing and the need for the USA to diversify our manufacturing to other countries and especially even in-house in the USA. Instead of just relying on one country to do it all, manufacture's should setup and open shop locally and in 2 or 3 different countries. This will also help the local country's economy. Why not setup shop in countries in Africa which can help the local people earn a better wages and give them skills, etc. while still keeping the cost of the product low, etc. ??? God Bless

quote:

Instead of just relying on one country to do it all, manufacture's should setup and open shop locally and in 2 or 3 different countries. This will also help the local country's economy. Why not setup shop in countries in Africa which can help the local people earn a better wages and give them skills, etc. while still keeping the cost of the product low, etc. ???

Because, money.
Companies are in business to make money, welcome to the low bidder, Walmart buyer economy.

If Americans were willing to pay for "manufacturing diversity", it would be happening, but it's not, because we're not.

quote:

there's been a narrative within China that the gov has encouraged 'outing' people from Wuhan; essentially turning people on one another.

This is a common tactic of tyrants.
However, in the long run it dis-spirits people. Eventually, people realize that their neighbor is not the enemy and that the government is the problem.

quote:

Originally posted by Fenris:

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:
The was an incident in Indianapolis today on the CBS 11 pm news. I find no mention of it on their website

Could you be a bit more specific?

Turned on the tv a little after 11pm. Was bringing home carry out. Local news stated that a facility was temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution for corona virus. Don't remember the facility name and is not on the web site

quote:

Originally posted by VBVAGUY:Instead of just relying on one country to do it all, manufacture's should setup and open shop locally and in 2 or 3 different countries.

Already doing so, given the rise of Indonesia, Malaysia and the new Philippine free-trade zones (formerly Clark AFB). One of the issues is the sophistication of the factories, for the above mentioned countries are limited, as they're only able to handle basic cut n'sew work for apparel: cotton clothing such as t-shirts, sweatshirts and cheap denim. Vietnam has gotten a lot better in its variety and its capacity to increase and handle variables however, they don't deal with electronics, which is the next step in manufacturing investment and sophistication. As an example look at S.Korea, they developed heavy industries right after WWII, in steel and chemical, which helped spawn a shipbuilding, apparel and automotive industry in the 80's. This in turn has given rise to a sophisticated electronics industry.

quote:

Why not setup shop in countries in Africa which can help the local people earn a better wages and give them skills, etc. while still keeping the cost of the product low, etc. ??? God Bless

Manufacturing location in large part is dictated by the sourcing of raw materials and transportation infrastructure. You want your raw goods relatively nearby to the mill or, factory that will make the finished product. That finished product needs to be transported and shipped in an uninterrupted chain to the markets. India should be able to handle an enormous amount given the amount of cotton they produce, however, their transportation system (particularly rail) is almost completely geared for people, not freight. China, on the other hand has a large, sophisticated and modern freeway system for truckers to go from mills to the factory and then directly to the ports.

Africa has the ability (and population) they're just not sophisticated in its manufacturing and transportation; their chemical industry (synthetic textiles, rubber, plastic) is geared for heavy industry and energy usage, their road systems are poor, their rail system is limited and their ports are small. Nigeria has the most potential, as does S.Africa, Kenya and Tanzania but, they're a ways off.

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:

quote:

Originally posted by Fenris:

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:
The was an incident in Indianapolis today on the CBS 11 pm news. I find no mention of it on their website

Could you be a bit more specific?

Turned on the tv a little after 11pm. Was bringing home carry out. Local news stated that a facility was temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution for corona virus. Don't remember the facility name and is not on the web site

Maybe it is this: Linky. Nothing about a facility being closed, however.

Possible case of coronavirus identified in northern Indiana

PORTER COUNTY, Ind. — State and federal health officials are investigating a possible case of coronavirus in Porter County.

The Porter County Health Department identified a patient traveling through Porter County as potentially infected with the coronavirus. The patient was isolated at a Porter County hospital out of an abundance of caution.

The patient is under active medical supervision pending results of laboratory tests by the CDC. The department said all applicable protocols have been implemented in the interim.

While the CDC reports the immediate health risk from the coronavirus to the general American public is low, they encourage people to take precautions. People can help prevent the spread of any respiratory infection, including coronavirus and flu, by following proper preventative measures.

The department says updated reports will be released as further information becomes available.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

quote:

Originally posted by Killer:
Forgot to add this little tidbit. I train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with a guy who is a adopting a Chinese girl with Downs syndrome. I ran into his wife on Saturday and she told me they still plan on going to China at the end of this month to get her. Her reasoning is the girl is in southern China so it would be fine.

Was your sparing partner told by the adoption agency, they shouldn't be worried or, their reasoning is distance equals safety?

He didn't say, I can ask him tonight if I see him.

quote:

China Expels 3 WSJ Reporters

On the previous page I posted a story about WSJ Reporters being expelled from China.
But the propaganda efforts go much farther...


Chinese Regime Deploys 1,600 Online Trolls To Suppress Information On Coronavirus

The propaganda department in virus-stricken Hubei Province has engaged over 1,600 censors to scrub the internet of “sensitive” information relating to the coronavirus outbreak, according to an internal document obtained by The Epoch Times.

The internal report, dated Feb. 15, detailed the agency’s efforts to ramp up censorship measures. It was drafted after a speech given by Chinese leader Xi Jinping via video link on Feb. 10 to “frontline responders” of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, where the virus first broke out.

The revelations come as the Chinese regime tightens information controls over the worsening outbreak, as netizens have increasingly turned to the internet to vent their frustrations about the authorities’ response, or document what is happening on the ground.

The illness has seen a steadily growing official list of infections and deaths on a daily basis. Experts and commentators, however, believe the actual number of infections to be far greater, due to underreporting and shortages in testing kits and hospital beds—meaning many people are left undiagnosed.

1,600 Trolls Deployed

According to the document, the department has hired more than 1,600 trolls, known as the 50-cent army in China, to regulate internet speech continuously, 24/7.

The trolls, through technological and manual screening, had identified as many as 606,800 posts online with “sensitive or harmful information,” it said.

Their approach, it said, was to “timely dispel the online rumors” and “strike powerful blows offline.”

As of Feb. 14, the online censors had deleted as many as 54,000 such “rumors,” and had social media influencers write nearly 400 commentary articles to shape the narrative.

The regime’s propaganda efforts, the report said, should be directed toward promoting the effects of officials’ outbreak control measures and the “moving deeds” of volunteers, community workers, and the police.

Some professional “internet commentators” had also made 400,000 comments to “counter the negative public opinions,” according to the document.

Posts mourning whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang, who died of the virus he was warning about in December, quickly disappeared from the internet in the hours after the news of his passing was first announced. “I want free speech,” a phrase that became trending on Chinese social media following his death, was also swiftly erased.

Wuhan citizen journalists Fang Bin and Chen Qiushi also recently disappeared after posting regular videos online highlighting the severity of the outbreak.

As of Feb. 11, over 2,500 people had signed a joint online petition expressing anger over Li’s death and criticizing the government for suppressing free speech during the outbreak. Several co-signees were subsequently summoned by local police. At least one was detained.

The department has also set up 11 work groups for the purpose of “wartime propaganda” work. The groups were communicating daily with propaganda officials from the central government to “coordinate public opinion” in real time on issues “online and offline,” “inside the country and overseas,” it stated.
Ousting Local Reporters

According to the leaked report, at least 60 reporters from 33 overseas news agencies came to Wuhan after the coronavirus outbreak began earlier this year. However, at least 47 of them agreed to leave, through the department’s “communication and persuasion.”

As of the evening of Feb. 14, only five non-mainland outlets had reporters in Hubei.

Meanwhile, the propaganda department as of Feb. 4 has sent over 300 state-run media reporters to Hubei to promote positive media coverage.

To “lead overseas media to objectively report on the outbreak information,” the department has set up an international language section and have published 200 pieces on the outbreak from official channels in seven languages, the document said.

On Jan. 14, a group of reporters from at least four Hong Kong media were taken to a police station located within a hospital in Wuhan after trying to interview patients, according to local media.

The police searched their belongings and asked them to delete the videos taken around the hospital. They were only released after 1 1/2 hours of interrogation.

Censorship Overdrive

The Chinese regime has made the suppression of information about the virus a priority.

At a Feb. 3 meeting, the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the top decision-making body, called for authorities to “strengthen internet and media control.”

This has filtered down to local authorities cracking down on people for “spreading rumors” on the internet about the outbreak.

Chinese state-run media have warned people not to “spread fake information” about the coronavirus, lest they be in violation of China’s Criminal Law.

A provision of that law states that anyone found fabricating and spreading false information on an epidemic, disaster, or police activity, can be sentenced to three to seven years in prison.

Washington-based nonprofit Chinese Human Rights Defenders documented 254 cases of arrests between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28, in which Chinese citizens were punished for “spreading rumors” relating to the virus. The forms of penalty included fines, verbal warnings, and forced confessions.

In a list of 167 cases of people punished for rumor-mongering published by U.S.-based website China Digital Times, the majority of the “offenses” were posts about confirmed or suspected cases in their city or neighborhood. Some included the number of deaths.

For instance, a man in Baoding City, Hebei Province, wrote on his blog: “I truly believe the authorities have not revealed the true number of infected patients. I heard that in a village about 20 kilometers [12.4 miles] from ours, the number of confirmed cases was six on Jan. 26. All were sent to the hospital for quarantine. But I have not seen any official reports that included these six cases.”

He received five days of administrative detention for this posting. Administrative detention refers to the arrest and detention of an individual without trial.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...ormation-coronavirus

Omg anyone in US still planning to go to China right now serious need to get their head exam. US media heavily under report had bad is in China now.

quote:

Originally posted by skyline009:
Omg anyone in US still planning to go to China right now serious need to get their head exam. US media heavily under report had bad is in China now.

Believe me I agree. Their reasoning for taking the risk is because this girl they are adopting turns 14 in March. If she isn't adopted before she turns 14 then she can no longer be adopted. I talked to two nurses last night that I train with and they both laughed it off as nothing but the flu, I told them I hope they are right.

That was weeks ago

Maybe it is this: Linky. Nothing about a facility being closed, however.

Possible case of coronavirus identified in northern Indiana

PORTER COUNTY, Ind. — State and federal health officials are investigating a possible case of coronavirus in Porter County.

T

quote:

Originally posted by FiveFiveSixFan:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Anyone know why the US case count suddenly went from 29 back down to 15? It must have been because the 14 that were added a few days ago have been subtracted for some reason, but I didn’t see mention of that anywhere.

Because they did not contract it in the United States, they were subtracted from the US total and added to 'Other'.

That doesn't make sense. Very few people actually contracted it in the US. It's more likely the numbers are based on where the person was when they were diagnosed with it.

quote:

Originally posted by synthplayer:
link

Little hard to take this guy seriously. He asks why evil Bill Gates is funding someone who patented this deadly Coronavirus. A quick search for the patent number listed on the page he shows turns up the patent (see for yourself at patent) which was granted for an attenuated version of a Coronavirus that affects meat birds. From the background:

“Avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), the aetiological agent of infectious bronchitis (IB), is a highly infectious and contagious pathogen of domestic fowl that replicates primarily in the respiratory tract but also in epithelial cells of the gut, kidney and oviduct. IBV is a member of the Order Nidovirales, Family Coronaviridae, Subfamily Corona virinae and Genus Gammacoronavirus; genetically very similar coronaviruses cause disease in turkeys, guinea fowl and pheasants.“

This patent was granted in 2018 and is related to a bird bug, not COVID-19.

As I learned earlier in this thread, the virus that causes COVID-19 is the sixth known Coronavirus that affects people. Four are basically common colds, the fifth is the one that causes SARS, and the subject of this thread is the sixth. From a quick scan of the beginning of the patent, I’d guess there are other Coronaviruses that affect animals, but do not (yet anyway) affect people.

This guy probably needs to get some help from leavemebe on saving money on his taxes.

quote:

Little hard to take this guy seriously. He asks why evil Bill Gates is funding someone who patented this deadly Coronavirus.

Yeah, I doubt that Bill Gates has anything to do with this.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by FiveFiveSixFan:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Anyone know why the US case count suddenly went from 29 back down to 15? It must have been because the 14 that were added a few days ago have been subtracted for some reason, but I didn’t see mention of that anywhere.

Because they did not contract it in the United States, they were subtracted from the US total and added to 'Other'.

That doesn't make sense. Very few people actually contracted it in the US. It's more likely the numbers are based on where the person was when they were diagnosed with it.

You are correct. I should have said that the first 15 on the list all turned positive after returning to the US while the 14 in question had already tested positive prior to returning to the US.

Thanks slosig.

quote:

Originally posted by synthplayer:
Thanks slosig.

D’accord.

And to be clear, I am not arguing that this couldn’t be a Chinese bio weapon that got away or that they deliberately released on their own people (though it is hard to imagine they’d have released it deliberately without already having vaccinated themselves.). I’m just saying that not only is he stringing together to date unproven conspiracy theories, but he is also injecting pure bullshit into them.

Edit: fix with where I meant without. Must learn to proofread.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: slosig,