Wuhan Virus Watch: UK PM Boris Johnson Discharged from Hospital

Today’s Wuhan Coronavirus update begins with absolutely fantastic news: Doctors have discharged United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson from the hospital.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it “could have gone either way” as he thanked healthcare workers for saving his life after being discharged from hospital.Mr Johnson, 55, was taken to London’s St Thomas’ Hospital on Sunday – 10 days after testing positive for Covid-19.He spent three nights in intensive care before returning to a ward on Thursday.He said in a video on Twitter that he had witnessed the “personal courage” of hospital staff on the front line.Mr Johnson said two nurses – Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal – stood by his bedside for 48 hours at the most critical time and named several other hospital workers who cared for him this past week that he wanted to thank.He said NHS workers “kept putting themselves in harm’s way, kept risking this deadly virus”.”It is thanks to that courage, that devotion, that duty and that love that our NHS has been unbeatable,” he said.

Trump administration seeks ban on China Telecom in the US citing ‘unacceptable’ national security risks

Chinese business opportunities in this country are being given a revised risk assessment in the wake of the pandemic.

A number of U.S. executive agencies have asked the Federal Communications Commission terminate China Telecom’s authorization to operate, citing “unacceptable” national security risks, as the Trump administration’s campaign against the Chinese telecommunications industry continues.State-owned China Telecom is one of the country’s largest mobile networks and broadband providers.The Department of Justice along with other federal agencies including the State Department, want the FCC to revoke China Telecom’s license to carry out international telecommunications services to and from the U.S.“Today, more than ever, the life of the nation and its people runs on our telecommunications networks,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.

China stifles coronavirus research in apparent bid to control the narrative, analysts say

The more the Chinese try to hide, the more they probably have to hide.

Two websites for leading universities in China seem to have published and then deleted academic research about the origins of the coronavirus, according to a report.The posts on the websites of Fudan University and the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) were erased from online caches — in a possible bid to control the narrative surrounding the pandemic, The Guardian reported.The Wuhan university appeared to have published and then deleted posts about academic research that China’s ministry of science and technology needed to approve before publication.Similar apparent censorship turned up in the form of deleted posts originally published on April 9 by the school of information science and technology at Fudan University in Shanghai.

I would like to note that it is not a “conspiracy theory” to suggest the virus may have leaked from a lab. It is a reasonable hypothesis given the suite of data that is currently available.

If the Chinese want to demonstrate a non-lab origin for the virus, they will need to allow foreign scientists to evaluate all their data and records…which they are clearly unwilling to do.

U.S. government gave $3.7million grant to Wuhan lab at the center of coronavirus leak scrutiny

Reports revealed American tax money went toward research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

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.

Boeing plans limited return to work next week after coronavirus shutdown

Hopefully, more American companies will follow Boeing’s lead.

In a message to employees Friday, aircraft manufacturer Boeing said it planned to resume operations on a limited basis, possibly as soon as Monday, according to reports.The company plans to recall about 2,500 employees to work at some of its sites in Washington state, where coronavirus mitigation efforts have been among the most successful in the nation.“There will be new policies and procedures for social distancing and work area cleaning,” the Boeing message read, accordiing to The Seattle Times. “If you are able to support continued production, please reach out to your manager.”

Tags: Boris Johnson, China, Wuhan Coronavirus

CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY