Who Knew What When?
In an attempt to show he was on top of things, Chinese president Xi claims to have been Fighting Virus Earlier Than Previously Reported.
China’s Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, issued internal orders about the coronavirus epidemic in early January, about two weeks before his first public remarks on the outbreak, according to a speech by Mr. Xi that was published Saturday.
Is that believable?
If so, that means the government hid concerns for two weeks.
Either way it looks bad to me.
#XiJinping admitted it is he who covered up the #COVID19 #coronavirus epidemic in #China. In a speech he made on Feb 3(full text in Chinese: https://t.co/U918GdPjCk), he said he started overseeing the disease control campaign as early as Jan 7. #習近平 1月7號就知道 #武漢肺炎疫情 pic.twitter.com/065BYqJZPJ
— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) February 15, 2020
Other News Headlines
- The U.S. says it will evacuate Americans from the cruise ship quarantined off Japan.
- France announces the first coronavirus death in Europe and its 12th case.
- China reports more than 2,000 new cases and 139 deaths, most in Hubei.
- Africa rushes to train health workers.
- Protests against coronavirus clinics spring up in Hong Kong. Many of the demonstrators, numbering in the hundreds, were dressed in black, the signature color of the city’s anti-government protests.
- At least two workers who helped build a new coronavirus hospital in 10 days are infected.
China’s Banks Quarantine or Destroy Cash
The central banking authorities of China are disinfecting, stashing and reportedly even destroying cash in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, said at a news conference on Saturday that the cash collected by commercial bank
Cash collected from hospitals and food markets must be handled separately and disinfected before depositing the notes to the People’s Bank of China, Mr. Fan said. In severely hit regions, the collected cash must undergo ultraviolet or high-temperature disinfection and be stored for 14 days before going back to the market, he added. In less affected areas, the bank notes must be disinfected and stored for a week before use.
A People’s Bank of China branch in the southern city of Guangzhou is even destroying bank notes that came from hospitals, food markets and public transportation, according to a report by Nanfang, a state-owned outlet in Guangdong Province.
Family Death Cascade
湖北电影制片厂常凯(1964年生人）一家四口17天内死于 #新冠肺炎 。他的夫人也已染病。#武汉肺炎 https://t.co/dr1d4H4hPC
— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) February 15, 2020
Seven-Day Doubling
My take: We’re seeing a 7-day doubling time on EX-China data. While the dataset is still small, the fact it’s doubling every 7 days is enough to make it clear a global pandemic all but assured.
Remember, it’s early days ex-China, so most cases not detected because not tested.
— Erik Townsend 🛢️ (@ErikSTownsend) February 14, 2020
Fear and Boredom on Cruise Ship
About 1,000 tested, 285 infected. 2,700 still waiting … for something.
“I can’t wrap my head around the fact that I could die from this cruise.” Fear and boredom reign on the Diamond Princess, a luxury ship under quarantine for coronavirus. https://t.co/AMjLeIWNt2
— Jim Bianco (@biancoresearch) February 15, 2020
Supply Chains
It’s even bigger than that. We’re going to see very soon how dependent and exposed we all are to China. This might be the beginning of the end of out “China addiction” https://t.co/Z0UkkCWL9y https://t.co/X6HWJEnuMP
— Rich Kleinbauer (@RMKOutFront) February 15, 2020
Medical Supplies
https://twitter.com/FMarquises/status/1228674943858216960
Global Pandemic Likely
Harvard Professor Says Global Coronavirus Pandemic is Likely
Thanks to Jennifer Zeng, @jenniferatntd for an excellent series of Tweets on the lies, coverups, and cell phone traps.https://t.co/y0s2ozrUVi
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) February 14, 2020
About Those Tests
Dr. Anthony Facci was on Bloomberg radio this morning and said the rt-PCR tests were only ~40% sensitive, which I took to mean an unacceptably high rate of false negatives.
That happened in CA already when a sick patient tested negative for nCoV and was released from quarantine
— Gary Haubold (@GaryHaubold) February 14, 2020
WHO says China Bought the World Time
This is a hoot: WHO says China Bought the World Time
These hypocrites praise China for quarantines while condemning other countries for flight bans.
It’s those flight bans that may have stopped the spread internationally.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
“The central banking authorities of China are disinfecting, stashing and reportedly even destroying cash…”
There too!!!???
When a frail 80 year old American tourist gets a heart attack on the flight to Cancun and then dies 2 weeks later in a Mexican hospital, does it count as a Mexican death?
The case in France was an 80 year old Chinese man who got sick in China before arriving in France.
It is immutable law that actions have consequences. Learning from consequences, being responsible for them, and changing how we act is the ONLY way humanity moves forward.
My question to Xi Jinping: what exactly are you going to do about it? Besides sell us more cheap widgets?
Noteworthy from the article and explaining why China will not let CDC, etc into the country is to control the narrative much as they punished Dr Li posting in a medical chat group warning other doctors to be wary and protect themselves.
“Xi’s absence from this crisis is yet another demonstration that he doesn’t so much lead as he does command,” Mr Blanchette says. “He’s clearly worried that this crisis will blow up in his face, and so he’s pushed out underlings to be the public face of the CCP’s response.”
Already there are signs that the censorship is being ratcheted up once again, with Mr Xi ordering senior officials to “strengthen the control over online media”.
So the Diamond Princess acts as a control group for us, and nobody has died yet. 3,000 people from a wide range of backgrounds (passengers and crew). About 10-15% have caught the virus even with the isolation protocols in place.
“Seventy new cases were confirmed on the cruise liner on Sunday according to Japan’s minister of health, labor and welfare, Katsunobu Kato, taking the number of cases on the ship over 350.
“So far, we have conducted tests for 1,219 individuals. Of those, 355 people tested positive. Of those, 73 individuals are not showing symptoms,” Kato said.”
If this disease is anything like as virulent as the chattering classes claim, then we should be seeing a mounting death toll over the next few weeks.
In today’s news, there are seventy more cases on the cruise ship today, bringing it up to 355 infected, nearly 10% of the passengers. Also, there was a death in Tiawan, bringing the total deaths outside of China to 5.
In other news in my opinion the amount of news is declining
When governments decide that this is unstoppable will they just censor and let it run its course?
“In other news in my opinion the amount of news is declining”
In my opinion the amount of Coronavirus news is increasing and will continue to do so as this spreads. Govts are now acknowledging preparation plans.
TOKYO – Japan is bracing for the coronavirus outbreak to worsen, as Health Minister Katsunobu Kato on Sunday (Feb16) pointed to several untraceable cases and an emergency government meeting of experts noted that the onset is likely only “at an early stage”.
“We have to get our health system ready to face a possible pandemic propagation of the virus, and therefore the spreading of the virus across France.”
I truly hope you are right and I am completely wrong.
While some govts are taking steps to prepare, no doubt politics will play a role.
Particularly in the US with an election coming up, I am reminded of Nixon putting the election ahead of American lives in Vietnam. Is Trump more concerned with maintaining the elevated stock market and winning the election rather than American lives lost to a potential coronavirus pandemic????
Meanwhile our idiot PM in Canada, Im sure is more interested in photo ops than anything else and will only take steps when it bites him in the ass.
I think that everything you (or I, or anyone) knows about what will happen in the election is completely wrong. The Coronavirus will decide the election. It almost certainly will escape in the US at some point prior to the election, and once it does, it will overwhelm all other issues. If Trump addresses it aggressively, and seeks unity in combating it, he is likely to win. If he tries to downplay it, he will surely lose.
I agree that Coronavirus will escape into some point at time, not sure on timing. Trumps focus going into the election is propping up the stock market and using that as a measure of his last 4 years.
Trumps attitude towards the Cornavirus thus far:
I think the news is declining at the moment also, in the sense that we are into official announcement as distraction from detail. It is a bit like “forget the details, we are aware and in charge now” . Maybe just a lull because that happens when there is nothing dramatic to report, but I don’t find the critique that is deserved in msm, not on numbers, not on pathology, not on epidemiology re. China or the cruise ship even, not on Africa or other countries – all absent. This is information nescessary at this point to inform people properly imo , instead it is the slow motion disaster being presented after it unfolds, with enough uncertainty to keep people guessing but undecided, creating a fatalism that suits ineptitude, just enough to mesmerise and keep people there. OTOH maybe I am just particularly cynical today 🙂 .
How much work loss is already baked into the cake? China’s new year was supposed to start around the 3rd week of January and last about 2 1/2 weeks. The quarantine is going into it’s fourth week on Monday. So far, they have lost an extra 3 days of work over quarantine vs new year.
Red Army sending 25000 med workers to Wuhan, how ominous is that? It hints that many local med workers have gotten Cvirus, now time for human wave attack on virus by medics with questionable training. Good night Irene!
Based on the theory that you can believe things based on what they do more than what they say, that tells you two things. One is that the situation in Wuhan continues to be out of control, despite the construction of the new hospitals. The other is that the situation is not out of control elsewhere, or these people would be needed in other provinces as well
… and this, I suppose, explains the recent rise in Bitcoin.
and gold is still asleep.
Another common sense idea would be to do more frequent airliner air-conditioning maintenance. Due to long incubation period, there is scant chance to trace infection to a particular flight, hence there is no money in it. The order has to come from above.
Some have a kind of electrostatic disinfection of the air system I think, and all use HEPA filters afaik, which is supposed to be quite stringent e.g.
but it is everyday items that are difficult. The seat fabric, or the reverse side of a volume control, the passenger two rows down who sneezes into his hands then grabs the head support of the seat in front of you as he walks to the toilet and then vomits as he walks past you on the way back, that sort of thing I think.
What is freaky is the diamond princess though, I don’t have a good explanation for that unless the virus is much more contagious than first thought or they messed up with the air system. Just now it is 70 more confirmed I think, which is not far off the hundred and something confirmed across the whole of China except Hubei.
Just makes you wonder what is really going on in both, and elsewhere.
Perhaps it’s an experiment and data is being collected but no participant informed they are being used as a lab rat?
It was certainly serendipitous for the WHO to have a ship full of people in close quarters.
Of course what we dont know is whether this virus is really working its way around the ship or just through the cabins of those already infected. At least some of the cabins are family ones with 3-5 people in them.
…or there are many thousands infected outside Hubei. When I try to picture how so many became infected on the ship in the space of about ten days till quarantine by one passenger it doesn’t add up. After quarantine a few more, maybe double the number, but still that is almost two hundred before. So it is odd, maybe incubation is much longer and transmission occurs often during that , or there was a “super-spreader” amongst the guests and not the original patient, or it is just very contagious and survives in air over a long distance…etc. The reliability of tests is odd also, maybe a long low level incubation that doesn’t register is a possibility.
I don’t know.
Not to rush with announcing a public scare makes sense; there is always an element of uncertainty. But it won’t matter as common sense is in short supply at this point.
Look what’s happening officially in your neighborhood. Nothing, and that’s after the confirmed pandemic outbreak.
At this point quarantining cash is a commendable action, but hopefully won’t lead to banning cash.
Many have wondered if it would go back to barter. Can you imagine if linen cash was too risky? Gold and silver might come back big. If that’s the case there will be plenty, and plunder too.
Arrrrghhh…..
Dystopiamare :
Everyone must be permanently tracked to trace infection.
Supply breakdown leads to government command of economy with rationing, where government credit is the only access to by now restricted resources.
Cash gets banned and you get a tattoo to be part of the system.
Hillary Clinton becomes presidenta.
People vote for the above.
So solly. Vilus spill vely bad.
All die.
Amelicans must make for self if still alive.
So solly.
Jerk!
The chinks did the best they can.
Hope this bug loses speed.
Mutate or die.
Exactly. Regardless of what mistakes were made earlier in the outbreak, the Chinese are like Leonidas and his Spartans at this point. Nothing that is done in the West will come close to the tough decisions that have been made in China.
They can’t win the media battle. We criticise them for not taking action, on the other we criticise them for tough quarantine. We accuse them of making up numbers, even though there is no evidence that there has been deliberate subterfuge. We invent rumours (body burnings, empty apartments) that, strangely, don’t get officially fact checked, unlike every pronouncement by conservative politicians.
There is literally no chance that western governments would have the political courage to take the necessary actions that China has, destroying its own economy.
As for the cash quarantine, this smells like desperation but does have some scientific evidence behind it. I have a picture in my head of exhausted CCP officials say around a table , head in hands, with Xi asking if anybody can think of ANYTHING that hasn’t been tried.
The last video from David Abel on the diamond princess and he was pretty much at his limits with UK not doing anything for them. I don’t know if he is expat or what, but my experience as expat has been just that, they literally don’t reply if you ask anything beyond standard service, not embassies not whitehall and everything between. Abroad there is little you can do and they know that, but it does open a window on how they work and think (or not work and not think maybe) in the civil service, their priorities are usually somewhere else nowadays. So the day they have to take on the whole audience and not for show, well I’m not sure they will make it through the crowd to the podium they are so far behind, if they even wanted to. So in the west it will be reliant on civil cooperation by the public, which actually is maybe better than having the military on the street, but if it drags on and leads to unrest well I don’t think they would hesitate too much in reply. So different way around it, less proactive (they could screen/quarantine passengers from now if they wanted for example, national border national cause) and waiting till so difficult that they are seen to be fully justified or needed.
The term ‘filthy lucre’ has sprung back into relevance.