During Passover and Holy Week 2020, the world experiences a challenging set of ‘plagues’
Coronoavirus pandemic, volcanic eruptions, and massive swarms of locusts.
The world is certainly experiencing a challenging set of plagues during Passover Week 2020.
Of course, the pandemic continues to be the most significant international concern. Perhaps the most intriguing development, at least for me as a Californian, is the news that the Golden State was dealing with the Wuhan Coronavirus earlier than the first infections that were officially recorded.
“The virus was freewheeling in our community and probably has been here for quite some time,” Dr. Jeff Smith, a physician who is the chief executive of Santa Clara County government, told county leaders in a recent briefing.
How long? A study out of Stanford suggests a dramatic viral surge in February.
But Smith on Friday said data collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local health departments and others suggest it was “a lot longer than we first believed” — most likely since “back in December.”
“This wasn’t recognized because we were having a severe flu season,” Smith said in an interview. “Symptoms are very much like the flu. If you got a mild case of COVID, you didn’t really notice. You didn’t even go to the doctor. The doctor maybe didn’t even do it because they presumed it was the flu.”
I strongly suspect my son, my best friend, and other family friends have already had COVID-19 during the month of February. It will be interesting to see what the Stanford research project on Californians’ antibody count will reveal about the extent of the infection prior to the first official cases.
The next event of note this Holy Week is that the “child” of the infamous Krakatau volcano in Indonesia erupted on Good Friday.
The Indonesian volcano Anak Krakatau erupted Friday, spewing a large plume of ash 9 miles into the air.
At approximately 11 p.m. local time, the volcano’s loud eruption was reportedly heard by people in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, located more than 90 miles away. Images taken from a webcam near the area show lava flowing from the volcano.
The strong eruption is believed to be the most forceful since December 2018, when it produced a deadly tsunami that killed over 400 people on the coasts of southeastern Sumatra and western Java.
Anak Krakatau, which translates to “the child of Krakatoa,” was formed after Krakatoa erupted in 1883 with a massive explosion 10,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Here is some footage of the volcano’s 2018 eruption:
Finally, a wave of locusts is making its way though Africa.
Weeks before the coronavirus spread through much of the world, parts of Africa were already threatened by another kind of plague, the biggest locust outbreak some countries had seen in 70 years.
Now the second wave of the voracious insects, some 20 times the size of the first, is arriving. Billions of the young desert locusts are winging in from breeding grounds in Somalia in search of fresh vegetation springing up with seasonal rains.
Millions of already vulnerable people are at risk. And as they gather to try to combat the locusts, often in vain, they risk spreading the virus — a topic that comes a distant second for many in rural areas.
May our Legal Insurrection friends and their families have a blessed Easter or Passover. Let us all pray that the worst of the news cycle for 2020 passes quickly.
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Psalm 91:4-6 King James Version (KJV)
4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
Things that make you go Hmmmmmm………
media outlets, some businesses and many politicians appear to be influenced by China; it’s worth revisiting a recent speech by Secretary of State Pompeo that might have been overlooked.
Pompeo’s remarks were made to the National Governors Association (NGA) Feb 8, 2020; and there’s an interesting segment where Pompeo reveals his awareness of a list of U.S. governors compiled by China’s communist party; and their alignment with China’s interests. A transcript of the key excerpt from his speech is provided. WATCH: the last refuge
Must see video on that.
Communist China is making war on U.S. even down to the kindergarten level.
https://youtu.be/g1BbswU3i10
He did not accuse any governor of actively collaborating with China against the USA. What he said was that the Chinese had made a list of all fifty governors, rating each on how friendly or hostile they were to China. There’s nothing wrong with the Chinese doing this; Pompeo just wanted the governors to be aware of it, and therefore to be wary of any approach they might get from people who might be Chinese agents. Especially those who are inclined to be friendly to China need to be on their guard against such an approach.
Townhall:
Someone in the CNN control room was asleep at the wheel Thursday during a town hall event with Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and CDC Director Robert Redfield, accidentally letting a question about Trump Derangement Syndrome make it on screen.
When the audience was asked to send questions for Redfield, one that managed to make it on air was: “Is Stage-4 TDS considered an underlying morbidity?”
While it was only up for a few seconds and Cooper never acknowledged it, the prank didn’t escape careful observers.
Leslie,
I’m glad you remembered to count the locusts. I have plenty of food, my youngest at home where I can keep an eye on him, and had a big, ol’ grasshopper on my window, yesterday.
Fortunately, I have plenty of food for the grasshoppers, too. I am so glad I live here, in the US.
This cloudy day is a good time to remember what God promised His chosen people. He did not promise them that viruses would go away, or that droughts would not happen, or that bugs would not multiply. He promised that the world would go on in the natural order, but that, if the people kept His laws, they would be able to cope with anything that happens.
Today, everybody I know is at home, chafing at the restrictions. But in a larger sense, we are well-positioned to deal with the surge of illness we will get, when we lift this quarantine.
We have relatively low numbers of cases and clusters of cases in most of the country. We have hospitals and equipment in place. We have a better understanding of the course of this disease, including that horrific second phase.
We have identified a half-way effective medicine, hydroxychloroquine, that is very safe, and we have identified ways to round out its effectiveness by assuring an adequate supply of zinc, plus an antibiotic, the Z-pak. We know when to switch out the Z-pak for another antibiotic, namely in cardiac cases.
We have some information about how the combination works: Hydroxychloroquine is an ionophore for zinc, which inhibits viral replication. In addition, Hydroxychloroquine, a known malaria drug, prevents or reverses some of the damage the virus does to the patients’ blood, in the same way it protects people from malaria.
We have reliable tests made and shipped in our country, even if the State of California is foolishly hoarding both them and the medicine. The State of California is not testing symptomatic individuals in their 20s, because those individuals are “low priority.” That’s 20% of the cases, and also the most socially active group.
The only missing piece is a good test for immunity. The only FDA-approved test for immunity is the product of a Chinese company with a flimsy US subsidiary. The FDA has been in the way all along. It needs to get out of the analytical testing business, entirely.
It’s not everything, but it is enough, provided we actually do enough tests, and use the cocktail to prevent hospitalizations.
We also need better information, including clinical trials to explore hydroxychloroquine, expand the list of useable medicines and cocktails, as well as develop new medicines and vaccines.
I would suggest that we open up counties that have low numbers of cases, test everyone that is symptomatic, regardless of age, and prescribe preventive doses of the cocktail that we have, for people who are positive. No more sending people home untested and undiagnosed to wait for their condition to decay. People who have been diagnosed and treated early must self-quarantine until they are cleared by their doctors.
We can do this.
Valerie I thought they ate locusts that many African countries?
Locusts are eaten pretty much everywhere they are found. Apparently they’re delicious; I wouldn’t know, but so I’ve been told. More to the point, when they exist no other food does, so people have to eat them no matter what they taste like. So it’s a good thing they do taste good.
@notamember and milhouse:
Locusts are kosher, according to Lev. 11:22. They have found a bas relief portraying an Assyrian king and queen being offered skewers of locusts by servants. John the Baptist lived on them when he was in the wilderness.
Indeed the Bible names four species of locust that are kosher, and someone who knows how to identify those species can eat them.
But as I understand it the “locusts” John the Baptist ate were not insects but carobs.
Actually He did promise that “If you listen to G-d your L-rd, and do what seems right to Him, and give ear to His commands, and keep His laws, then I will not give you any of the diseases I gave Egypt, because I am G-d your Healer.”
Thank you for posting this Leslie. There are are a couple of “experts” posting who are dismissing these reports using specious arguments while refusing to see the obvious. The Fauci model is NYC-centric yet applies that data to the US at large. That model doesn’t even work in New York state and it is being reported that NYC’s source of the virus is mostly Europe.
California is a real mystery for reasons Rush Limbaugh has made clear. We really should be ground zero but we are far from it. Infections and mortality seem to be concentrated in urban areas with most of the rest their states not seriously impacted. There just doesn’t seem to be a valid case for a blanket shut down of the entire economy.
It’s time for the “experts” and their dubious models to take a back seat and start listening to those who can weigh the cost of committing to the impossible folly of trying protect every single life. Clearly by now, most of the damage has been wrought by our politicians, not the virus itself.
Most of the people I know, Democrat, Republican and others, are growing very angry at the shutdown. We need to start voicing our outrage and push back so Trump can lean hard on the governors to back off before it is too late (if it isn’t already).
Phil be sure to see the video link up above about how many mayors governors and even educational institutions are ON THE COMMUNIST CHINESE DOLE.
Conspiracy theory has proven to be conspiracy fact. As cynical as I have been for so many years, the truth turns out to be so much worse than I could have imagined. We suddenly are “winning” our way right into the lap of socialism. We need a card from a doctor now to claim our God-given rights.
Hear Hear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EVERYONE should make the time to watch that video. The camel is in the tent and already pushing us out.
It seems to me that it makes sense what is going on in Cali if it is true the virus began earlier there. As noted, many people got it but it was just considered the flu.
So theoretically, it would have been peaking before it did in other states and then possibly dropping when they began to test and identify it as COVID. It That’s the case, it should follow a similar pattern in Hawaii due to likewise high volume travel from China/Asia.
Californians would have been developing herd immunity at a much faster rate (free movement in Dec/Jan and Feb) thus further decreasing the rate of infection compared to other states still on the upswing in the curve.
Herd immunity. It needs to be talked about, but it is impossible to do without the collective howl of the self-appointed guardians of the Internet demanding that we must all stay home… forever.
Elle that’s when we tell them “Pluck you Chicken Little!”
“The world is certainly experiencing a challenging set of plagues during Passover Week 2020.”
In other words, the world is in its normal state.
Thanks Berry. That is of course 100% correct.
I thought God was running low on locusts and sent democrats instead….
What’s the difference.
Same difference.
I cannot tell the difference.
“I cannot tell the difference.”
The locusts are the ones that die after 10 weeks or so and disappear. The other ones are sticky.
Thanks, Leslie–and to you and your family, too.
FYI
So where are Democrats objecting to this?
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — African officials are confronting China publicly and in private over racist mistreatment of Africans in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, and the U.S. says African-Americans have been targeted too.
Some Africans in the commercial hub have reported being evicted or discriminated against amid coronavirus fears. And a U.S. Embassy security alert on Saturday said that “police ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin,” and local officials have launched mandatory testing and self-quarantine for “anyone with ‘African contacts.’”
That’s in response to a rise in virus infections in Guangzhou, the U.S. said, adding that “African-Americans have also reported that some businesses and hotels refuse to do business with them.” The U.S. statement is titled “Discrimination against African-Americans in Guangzhou.”
A recent increase in virus cases in China has been largely attributed to people arriving from overseas.
https://www.weaselzippers.us/446999-african-nations-us-decry-racism-against-blacks-in-china-over-virus/
Melania beats the Democrats and the Communist Chinese.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1249321372469395463
First Lady Melania Trump Reads Easter Story “The Little Rabbit”