Wuhan Virus Watch: Trump warns of ‘consequences’ if China is ‘knowingly responsible’ for pandemic
Comedian Bill Maher derides “Panic Porn” and hope shaming. MIT study shows NYC subways “major disseminators” of virus. Poor lab practices at the CDC contaminated first test kits.
During Saturday’s Coronavirus Task Force briefing, President Donald Trump sent a striking message to China about its actions related to the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned China on Saturday that it should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic, as he ratcheted up criticism of Beijing over its handling of the outbreak.
“It could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn’t, and the whole world is suffering because of it,” Trump told a daily White House briefing.
…“If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, I mean, then sure there should be consequences,” Trump said. He did not elaborate on what actions the United States might take.
Trump also slammed the press for essentially regurgitating the case numbers China offered without questioning them.
Trump also voiced doubts on the death rate being reported by Chinese officials. At one point, when Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, was presenting charts comparing the U.S. mortality rate to that of other countries, Trump interrupted.
“Does anybody really believe this number?” Trump said, referring to China’s reported mortality rate of 0.33 per 100,000 people. Birx responded that she had included China on the chart to show how “unrealistic” those numbers were. The U.S. mortality rate is 11.24 per 100,000, which Birx said is half to a third of other countries. Belgium led the world with 45.2 fatalities per 100,000, followed by Spain with 42.81, and then Italy with 37.64.
As Birx moved to the next slide, Trump asked her to go back to the mortality chart, where he then expressed incredulity about Iran’s reported mortality of 6.06 out of 100,000.
Trump is asking why the media is not pointing out China’s ridiculous coronavirus case numbers … Some of us did, a few days ago. ??? https://t.co/Twbhk7yNQA
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) April 18, 2020
Dr. Birx also clearly supported the notion that both Iran and China’s numbers were “unrealistic”.
Iran claims to have recorded 5,000 deaths and China reports fewer than 4,700, even after Beijing acknowledged this week it had underreported cases in the region around Wuhan, the origin of the global spread of the virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19.
“Does anybody really believe this number?” Trump repeatedly asked reporters, interrupting a presentation from immunologist and White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx as she referenced a slide on mortality rates in countries around the world.
Birx, whose presentations are ordinarily heavy on statistics about the virus and its effects, more subtly questioned the figures, describing China’s numbers as “basically unrealistic.” She stressed the need for countries to report accurately how a new disease has affected their populations, particularly those countries that were among the first to experience it.
“This is why the reporting is so important,” she said.
“Does anybody believe this number?” – @realDonaldTrump points out what Dr. Birx called “unrealistic” #WuhanVirus deaths reported by Iran and China. pic.twitter.com/vE2J0V6rSm
— Len Khodorkovsky (@MessageFromLen) April 19, 2020
HBO’s Maher rips media: ‘Panic porn’ in coronavirus coverage could help reelect Trump
Though his goal is entirely different than Trump’s, comedian Bill Maher took the media to task over its coverage of the coronavirus as well.
HBO’s Bill Maher ripped the news media on Friday night and urged journalists to stop offering up what he described as “panic porn” when reporting on the coronavirus outbreak, cautioning the practice could help get President Trump reelected in November.
“Now that we’re starting to see some hope in all this, don’t hope-shame me,” the liberal “Real Time” host said on his HBO program. “You know, the problem with nonstop gloom and doom is it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist, and optimists tend to win American elections.”
“FDR said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. You know, as full of shit as he is, I could see Trump riding that into a second term, and then there will be no hope left for you to shame,” the host added.
MIT study: Subways a ‘major disseminator’ of coronavirus in NYC
There is mounting evidence that the coronavirus impact on New York City is not really applicable to the rest of the country. A new Massachusetts Institute of Technology study sheds light on why that is likely to be the case.
The paper, by MIT economics professor and physician Jeffrey Harris, points to a parallel between high ridership “and the rapid, exponential surge in infections” in the first two weeks of March — when the subways were still packed with up to 5 million riders per day — as well as between turnstile entries and virus hotspots.
“New York City’s multitentacled subway system was a major disseminator — if not the principal transmission vehicle — of coronavirus infection during the initial takeoff of the massive epidemic,” argues Harris, who works as a physician in Massachusetts.
While the study concedes that the data “cannot by itself answer question of causation,” Harris says the conditions of a typical subway car or bus match up with the current understanding of how the virus spreads.
“We know that close contact in subways is fully consistent with the spread of coronavirus, either by inhalable droplets or residual fomites left on railings, pivoted grab handles, and those smooth, metallic, vertical poles that everyone shares,” he writes.
Poor lab practices at the CDC contaminated first test kits, delaying U.S. response by weeks
An investigation by the The Washington Post found that the lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta ‘violated sound manufacturing practices, resulting in contamination of one of the three test components used in the highly sensitive detection process.’
Scientists with knowledge of the matter told the Post that cross contamination likely occurred because ‘chemical mixtures were assembled into the kits within a lab space that was also handling synthetic coronavirus material.’
Issues with the COVID-19 testing kits were first reported in January when the CDC’s initial batch of tests produced false-positive results.
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WHAT consequences? Stop selling them wheat and soybeans? Good luck getting that past the farm lobby.
Stop buying their manufactured goods? Good luck getting that past Apple, Boeing, Whirlpool (“Built in America” of a lot of Chinese-sourced parts), GM’s Buick division, and countless others.
Easy, turn the container ships arriving from China around.
China dies a quick death if its exports dry up.
No shots need be fired unless China starts a war.
Would it be done? Sure, if you find China intentionally spread a virus that has killed 30K+ Americans. Therein lies the difficulty, finding that proof.
I left out –
Proof will shut apple, GM, and whirlpool up.
FYI.
Well that’s $150 Million going directly to the benefit of the COMMUNIST CHINESE.
Global Citizen’s star-studded “One World: Together at Home” concert came under fire as some criticized the televised event for raising money for the World Health Organization’s coronavirus response.
The two-hour primetime show curated by Lady Gaga raised more than $150 million for the organization’s Solidarity Response Fund, organizers said.
Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, Stevie Wonder, former US first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion and Taylor Swift all participated in the special.
But critics of the WHO lashed out on social media in response to the broadcast event, which was the largest celebrity gathering so far to fight the pandemic.
“Each and EVERY ‘celebrity’ involved is a traitor to humankind and an equal conspirator is covering up the @WHO and Communist China’s CRIMES against humanity,” one Twitter user wrote.
The backlash comes…….
https://nypost.com/2020/04/19/global-citizen-concert-criticized-for-helping-raise-money-for-who/
Usually product is paid for before it leaves China. So take the shipments and seize the ship 🙂
The virus has hardly killed anyone. It has, on numerous occasions, given a little push to those already standing at the edge of the cliff. Old age and co-morbid conditions was the main reason that people in this group died.
On a plus note, I am glad to see that older white conservative men are gaining some recognition for leading the herd immunization movement. We live to serve.
One of my friends used to thank Prius drivers for keeping the price of gas low so that he could afford to drive his Suburban. I feel the same way about those who wear a mask so that I don’t have to, especially the millenials who have a 1 in 10,000,000 odds of getting sick or dying, but it does allow them to virtue signal.
“The virus has hardly killed anyone.”
Sure, many older and those with medical conditions are standing at the edge of the cliff.
But if Xi pushes my father off the cliff I plan to hit him back.
Boeing has changed so much since the merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1998. About 1987, I remember watching a video produced by the Boeing Management Association (BMA), which hosted a speech by the owner/CEO of Harley Davidson. He talked about how they brought HD back from the brink, not by line-level layoffs, but by flattening the management pyramid to 3 managers – himself, and one manager each for the 2 main buildings they operated in. What was previously done by management was turned over to line-level production teams. I’m sure his message caused indigestion for the top heavy BMA crowd.
What the owner/CEO said that was so memorable for me, had to do with Boeing plans at the time to produce the 7J7 – significant parts of which would be built in Japan. He cited the rapid erosion of HD market share when Honda began producing the Gold Wing and flatly told the BMA they would take Boeing knowledge of airplane manufacture and use it to build entire airplanes better, faster and cheaper in Japan thereby decimating Boeing market share.
If memory serves, it wasn’t long after that the 7J7 program died a quiet death and that particular BMA video disappeared from the BMA film library. That I recall, the HD CEO/owner wasn’t especially PC in his speech – which I’d expect from a HD hog guy. But clearly his message had an impact on out sourcing at the time.
I’ve no idea how much Boeing is in bed with the Chinese these days. On the one hand I can understand it … every time Boeing sought expansion in the Puget Sound region, there would be the municipal governments of Everett, Kent, Renton, Seattle, Auburn – lining up with their hands out looking for scratch. So Boeing went looking for virgin ground in TX, TN, SC and found friendlier governments than libtard WA.
Is there video or a transcript of that CEO of Harley Davidson speech at Boeing?
Not that I ever saw; all I have is my memory of it nearly 35 years ago. I can remember who watched it with me – and we had a good talk about it as one of our co-workers was picked up by the 7J7 program for a management slot and lost it when the program never made it to production.
I should have added IIRC, the HD CEO/owner had similar arrangement with Japan to help produce parts / subassys for the HD bikes – before Honda took the tech/knowledge and started producing the Gold Wing. So HD had been burned by Honda and he was speaking from direct experience. I vaguely recall him going so far as to call Boeing management behind the 7J7 push foolish.
Thanks.
Sounds like something Tom Peters would have covered in his TV programs or books so I’ll check there.
Honda needed no help form HD to build whatever bike they wanted to compete with.
HD simply refused to innovate or compete in the market just like the British let the Japs whip them. HD survived only because enough good old boys and good old boy wannabe’s wanted a Hog.
HD could have kept the Hogs and produced other bikes.
I wouldn’t listen to what the HD dude had to say other than outsourcing will always result in you sharing your expertise and secrets with your future competitors.
Consequences how to guide. For both the PRC and these new sprung neo-confederate state coalitions which may be seeking to unnecessarily delay economic activity for partisan politics.
1. PDJT could utilize DPA to increase the ability of ports located in states where the nation’s economy isn’t being held hostage. Charleston, Savannah, Miami, Tampa, Pensacola, Mobile,Biloxi, NO, Galveston etc.
Of course expenditure of federal funds to increase capacity would require a return on investment so long term contracts would be required from shipping companies. This would have the unfortunate effect of permanently redirecting port activity from blue state ports to red state ports.
2. If these states are too dangerous for economic activity to resume, according to their governor’s then we should take them at their word. Air, rail, bus, common carrier transport of both goods and passengers from those States must cease.
3. Suppliers located in the PRC are already relocating. The tariffs and USMCA narrowed down much of the loopholes. The covid is hastening that process. PDJT should declare certain industries have strategic value; pharmaceutical, medical equipment, ppe, telecommunications, computers. Those industries could be provided incentives to relocate domestically. Full expensing for say 36 months.
4. Every non U.S. flagged vessel would be subject to full search upon reaching US water. ‘Gee this may take a while as we have 250 container ships in front of you…please excuse the delay but with the covid we have to be careful…’
5. Work through every international organization to minimize the influence of the PRC and maximize the influence of the U.S., starting with audits, investigation and prosecution of those individuals who directly or indirectly abetted the PRC at the expense of the truth in terms of health or propaganda or false accounting.
6. Make it crystal clear through our diplomatic relations that there is going to be a choice and consequences for choosing the interest of the PRC over that of the U.S., economic, political, military alliance/basing/spending.
Why aren’t we seeing video of the subway cars and stations in NYC being cleaned? I saw plenty of video of cleaning in China, Japan, India, etc. I queried NYC subways and cleaning and found articles dated early March saying that they are stepping up the cleaning process of doing the stations every day and the cars every 72 hours!
Cleaning the subway stations and train cars would not stop transmission via breathing. New York’s subways may have emptied out lately, but the usual state of a rush-hour subway car is that it’s packed with people standing as well as a few sitting, and there’s just no way to obtain any distance to speak of between yourself and others in the train.
As far as I know there is no forced-air ventilation in the subway tunnels: it’s always worked by having the moving trains push air out of the tunnels through the occasional street-level grate, and then draw fresh air into the tunnels behind the moving trains. That was a clever solution for 1904, but, perhaps not so good for limiting the spread of a virus that can be transmitted via respiration.
Even assuming 72-hour cleaning of the system was even possible: the stations are cavernous and the stairways and corridors endless, even before one considers all the places riders hang onto in the moving trains and how quickly they’d become (re-)contaminated after having been cleaned.
It’s not clear that the City handled the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic any better, although apparently in 1918 the City did work with businesses to stagger work hours so as to reduce crowding in the subways (and elsewhere).
Then again, there’s probably grime in the New York Subway that’s been there since 1918, so perhaps it would be best not to disturb it. Even if we had a latter-day Hercules available for the task.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862336/figure/FU1/?report=objectonly
So, it’s ok for the NYC subways and buses to remain dirty with no obvious daily cleaning attempts. And, people can continue to use them without regard to social distancing.
But, it is just awful for those beaches in Florida to be opened for exercise in the hot sunny day. From the pictures I’ve seen, the non-family groups are walking apart from each other.
I sure hope that the yankees stay up north and not try to escape the virus down in the south and southwest.
The difference is that the transport system has to run, or essential workers will have no way to get to work.
What workers and how many are essential in the center of NYC? And what makes them essential?
Note: I’m not saying there are none.
Everyone who works in health care, groceries, pharmacies, sanitation, post office, essential government offices (those functions that can’t be done at home), the transit system itself, etc. And not the center of NYC; everywhere in the city.
Plus people who need to get to their doctor or to some other essential service that isn’t within walking distance of their homes. For instance sooner or later I’m going to need some food items that aren’t available where I live, and will have to take a bus or train to get to a supermarket that carries them.
Here’s a list of what NY considers essential. It’s quite long, and most of the people who work in these industries need the transit system to get there and back.
I think that we have more than enough information to make a depraved indifference case regarding CCP Virus. I also think we have learned first hand that it is unwise to depend on China as a sole source for anything important.
It is time to stick it to them.
Close the borders, children. This was the world’s most avoidable pandemic. Can we risk open borders again? Remember, one person lost to this thing is too many.
This is an overly simplistic view. I’m all for border security, but the most effective border shutdown in history without a complete halt to international tourism would have done nothing to stop the virus. And that would absolutely cripple a major US industry.
A big fat ‘no’ on that. Yes, of course I’m asking for a complete halt to tourism, that’s what 100% closed borders means, Ask any epidemiologist about this issue. Closed borders would’ve stopped the outbreak 100%. Anybody calling for open borders literally has blood on their hands, the lives of 30,000 Americans. Don’t those lives mean anything to you?
As for our ‘crippled industry’, of course allow commercial traffic through, so you can get all your cheap crap from China. Let’s work on moving drug production and other strategic interests back to the US.
Consequences? Everyone agrees there needs to be “consequences”.
Exactly what? Deer in headlights look.
“Exactly what? Deer in headlights look.”
Are you capable of reading? No one here is looking like a deer.
More BS from Trump! He stated at his Friday briefing the sins of China on corona, but he’s all talk just like when he was threatening to declare Congress adjourned and make recess appointments. If only he had the balls to follow through with his threats
Mark, the king of balls.
How about “consequences” for the U.S. Swampers who funded the lab and for the Swampers who did nothing when the commendable State Department staff located in China expressly, plainly and clearly told them that the lab was an extreme bio-hazard that required immediate remediation, but the Swampers did nothing? Consequences for Fauci and the lady who looks like a real estate agent with the scarf fetish?
That be Obama and his back group, The Whore-letyes.
Lets see. They shut down Wuhan and let infected people on international flights. That would be intentional spreading of the virus to the world.
Don’t forget that they bought up international stockpiles of PPE before anyone else knew about the problem and stopped exporting their own regular supply streams.
That is a Giant Tell.
Lenin talked of capitalists selling the communists the rope they would hang the capitalists with. Now, we don’t make the rope so it is bought from the communists first.
The idea was that bringing China into the global economy would make communism soften and fade away. True believers can’t be bought. Think of all the Soviet spies in the USA who lived in and could compare this society with theirs. It didn’t make a difference.
It made a difference with Boris –
https://blog.chron.com/thetexican/2014/04/when-boris-yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-clear-lake/
If it’s true that somebody in the CDC labs contaminated the test components, hopefully someone will face the consequences. We love to complain about the lab practices of others while possibly having our own issues.
I believe it was sabotage just like the Colorodo meat packing incidence was probably sabotage.
@Trump … Good God man … I don’t give a s*** about you trying to prove your dick is bigger. Quit frigging rebelling against every little thing and threatening this or that. Buckle your ass down and concentrate on the virus and saving lives … or would you rather keep proving your a candy a**?
Comrade PODken has Trump confused with the head New York commie, Comrade Cuomo.
LOL, I read this again and wonder about the mental anguish that propels a wimp like PODken to call President Trump a “candy ass”. It must really grate on you that you are a tiny person with a small mind.
Consequences for China:
1. Formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation and immediately conclude a mutual defense treaty with it. Offer membership in that treaty to China’s other non-communist neighbors, like NATO.
2. Because at least 3 virulent new viruses have emerged from China in two decades (SARS, H1N1, COVID-19), enact permanent quarantine measures: Everyone arriving here on a Chinese passport, or with visa stamps from China within the previous 21 days, will be held in medical quarantine for 7 days. Also, all products arriving from China or apparently originating in China must be disinfected for 48 hours before release from customs. This quarantine will continue until both houses of Congress and the President agree that China has reformed by eliminating agencies capable of carrying on a cover up, and made itself as open to domestic and international news reporting as the US is.
I’m not calling for the public execution of Xi, the head of the Chinese health agency, etc., because without a full reform of the system, executions merely bring forth a new generation of psychopaths. And I don’t think the Chinese leadership is any more psychopathic than Congress or most of the Presidents since Eisenhower – but we have a governmental system that usually restrains the psychopaths we elect.