March 24, 2020

Two Chins, No Waiting!

Timothy Birdnow

On Facebook Dr. Roy Spencer had this to say:

I saw a GREAT meme about isolation on FB I wanted to re-post, but I can't find it now: Skinny young female reaching into the fridge on Day 1 of isolation, not-so-skinny female reaching in on Day 30.

I replied:

Maybe instead of "China Virus" we call it "Double Chin Virus"?



Dana Mathewson replies "Dr. Spencer, see if this is the one you want: https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2020/03/IMG_2713.jpeg?w=534&ssl=1

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Cheap Gasoline from Coronavirus

Timothy Birdnow

I love cheap gas but this isn't good insofar as it will really hurt the American oil industry, which has higher drilling costs. If this goes on for a long time a lot of American drilling will be shut down, and prices will skyrocket when the crisis ends.

Gas in Kentucky Hits 99c a Gallon

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Like Mother Like Daughter

Warner Todd Huston:

Nancy Pelosi’s Daughter Wishes Coronavirus Death on Sen. Rand Paul

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Pelosi Weaponizes Coronavirus Bill

Timothy Birdnow

Here it is.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi Caught Trying to Include Abortion Funding in Bill to Combat Coronavirus

Not only that, she is trying to include things like vote harvesting, so the entire country can become as corrupt and degenerate as her native California.

Conservative HQ has the 411:

Pelosi and Schumer are holding up relief for millions of working Americans, their small business employers and essential industries, such as airlines and aircraft manufacturers, on the premise that Republicans will cave and give them the tools to steal the next election.

And make no mistake about it – defeating Trump and seizing control of the government is what Democrats eat, sleep and breath.

Here are some of the key provisions they want in return for getting out of the way on the Wuhan virus relief bill:

Sec. 321 Early Voting

Each State shall allow individuals to vote in an election for Federal office during an early voting period which occurs prior to the date of the election, in the same manner as voting is allowed on such date.

And:

The early voting period required under this subsection with respect to an election shall consist of a period of consecutive days (including weekends) which begins on the 15th day before the date of the election (or, at the option of the State, on a day prior to the 15th day before the date of the election) and ends on the date of the election.

Section 324 Prohibiting States from Requiring Applicants to Provide More Than the Last 4 Digits of Social Security Number [to obtain ballot]

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 20504(c)(2)(B)(ii)) is amended by striking the semicolon at the end and inserting the following: ‘‘, and to the extent that the application requires the applicant to provide a Social Security number, may not require the applicant to provide more than the last 4 digits of such number;’’.

Sec. 325 Same Day Registration

Each State shall permit any eligible individual on the day of a Federal election and on any day when voting, including early voting, is permitted for a Federal election to register to vote in such election at the polling place using a form that meets the requirements under section 9(b) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (or, if the individual is already registered to vote, to revise any of the individual’s voter registration information); and to cast a vote in such election.

SEC. 120007. Accommodations for Voters Residing in Indian Lands

Mandates "ballot harvesting” be allowed on Indian Reservations

Other election-related provisions:

Mail-in ballots must be sent automatically to all registered voters

States are mandated to pre-pay the postage on absentee ballots and balloting materials.

Political parties receive a bailout in the form of payments to cover the cost of mailing primary voting materials.

Creation of a new auditing entity with the power to review and conduct "risk-limiting audits of the results of elections that it determines have an "incorrect” outcome.

Allows "ballot harvesting” by allowing anyone "designated by the voter” to turn a ballot in on his or her behalf and prohibiting the states from imposing any additional conditions or requirements on the eligibility of the individual to cast the vote by absentee ballot by mail, including— ‘‘(A) requiring any form of identification as a condition of obtaining the absentee ballot; or ‘‘(B) requiring notarization or witness signature or other formal authentication (other than voter attestation) as a condition of the acceptance of the ballot by an election official.

And if there’s a discrepancy between a voter’s signature and the signature on a ballot, election officials must chase down voters and give them an opportunity to cure the fault. The bill also requires a minimum of two officials to pronounce the signature non-matching – and only people who have "received training in procedures used to verify signatures” can make such a determination.

Liberal USA Today even calls it a partisan monstrosity:

The 1119-page bill is Christmas in March for liberal special interests... and a grab-bag of other diversity-themed requirements. It increases the collective bargaining power for unions and cancels all the debt owed by the U.S. Postal Service to the U.S. Treasury. For the global warming crowd there are increased fuel emission standards and required carbon offsets for airlines, plus tax credits for alternative energy programs.”
Did anyone for a second doubt they would weaponize this?  In fact, I believe this was what was intended with the panic ginned up by the media over this virus from the beginning.

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March 23, 2020

‘Google Doodle’ Honors Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, ‘Father of Handwashing’

Dana Mathewson

This is one that has a timely feel. We're being urged to keep our hands clean, and most of us -- today's Democrat Party excepted, obviously -- are paying attention.

But it was not always thus.

Quite amazing how something that today seems practically instinctive was fluffed off by medical "professionals."

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Why COVID-19 Should Not Be Feared So

Timothy Birdnow

Here is an excellent article putting all the numbers surrounding this Wuhan virus epidemic in perspective. I notice it has been scrubbed from a number of places, including Twitter and Facebook. Why, it's almost as if someone wanted to gin up fear and trembling.

It's lengthy but do read it all.

BTW the Zerohedge version of this story was banned by Twitter as "unsafe".  See here.

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In Canada, the Waiting is the Hardest part

This from Willis Eschenbach:

For hose who think "medicare for all" is a brilliant plan, consider Canada. Go to a doctor on January 1st, he recommends a specialist, you get to see her on ... wait for it ... MAY 28TH!

Hopefully, by then you're not pushing up daisies ...

Canada's Wait Times Break New Record: 21.2 Weeks

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Democrats on Cornavirus Funds:Cash for Abortion or no Deal

This from Warner Todd Huston:

Democrats Endanger U.S., Refusing to Approve Coronavirus Spending Without Cash for Abortion

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The real reasons Africa has another locust plague

Paul Driessen

The ChiCom coronavirus and COVID-19 outbreaks, deaths and responses continue to dominate US, European and Asian news. Meanwhile, a very different infestation is devastating East African crops and leaving tens of millions at risk of starvation and death. If COVID hits these weakened populations, amid their malaria and other systemic diseases, it would bring tragedy on unimaginable scales.

"Across Somalia, desert locusts in a swarm the size of Manhattan have destroyed a swath of farmland as big as Oklahoma,” the Wall Street Journal’s Nicholas Bariyo reports. "In Kenya, billions-strong clouds of the insects have eaten through 800 square miles of crops and survived a weeks-long spraying campaign. They have "swept across more than 10 nations on two continents.” In parts of East Africa they "are destroying some 1.8 million metric tons of vegetation every day, enough food to feed 81 million people.”

East Africa has a Desert Locust Control Organization. But it, the region and the individual countries were totally unprepared for the onslaught, unaware the hordes were coming, irresponsibly underfunded, with almost no pesticides or aircraft to spray them. By the time they acted, it was too little, too late.

The massive swarms are hardly unprecedented. Locusts "covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.” [Exodus 10:15] Locusts pillaged long before that, and have returned hundreds of times since.

The 1986-87 plague was calamitous. As the late entomologist Dr. J. Gordon Edwards notedin 1988, four major locust species hatched simultaneously in 15 countries, and the crops were so totally devastated that the UN Food and Agricultural Organization predicted 50 million Africans and Asians might starve to death. Malnourished survivors would suffer reduced mental capacity and have greater susceptibility to diseases. Other near-biblical infestations have ravaged Africa with predictable regularity and results.

The obvious, burning, essential question is this: In this era of amazing modern agriculture, aviation and pest control technologies, how could Africa have reached this frightening precipice yet again?

These 2019-2020 swarms originated in the vast deserts of Oman, Somalia and Yemen, parts of which are lawless and war-torn. That made it difficult and dangerous to monitor them for the emergence of billions of "hoppers,” following tumultuous downpours two years ago – or to spray them with insecticides when they were most vulnerable, before their wings matured and they could fly thousands of miles. But it also means East African countries needed to work together, despite these obstacles, to prevent such plagues.

These are horrifically poor countries, where bureaucrats live relatively well largely on outside donor funds, often corrupt top-gun politicians live very well on the same money, and some 90% of the people exist on a few dollars a day, on the edge of starvation and debilitating disease, tilling tiny patches of land.

Too often their governments’ ability to plan for recurring crises like this are minimal, their priorities are skewed to whatever the donors want, and funding for insect control is minimal at best. Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda didn’t even pay their Locust Control membership dues for years, or decades – much less acquire the aircraft and pesticides they would need for the inevitable next locust plague. Their focus was on elections (getting reelected), essential or just showy infrastructure projects, and climate change.

Indeed, it seems nothing will be allowed to get in the way of the UN, EU and environmentalist obsession with climate change as the single greatest threat facing humanity and planet. But climate cataclysms exist in models and headlines, are decades away, are hardly unprecedented for East Africa, and can hardly be worse than these recurring locust cataclysms. But UN, EU, World Bank and eco-centered foundation money drives the agenda and pays Africa’s leaders and bureaucrats. So recurring real-world crises get short shrift.

When it comes to insect control, the driving force is aid money totally skewed to agro-ecologyand its perverse focus on "food sovereignty,” and "traditional subsistence farming” with wood plows and oxen, "in harmony with nature,” free from Western seeds, fertilizers, tractors and, above all, pesticides.

The new moniker is clever, but the ideology and donor-driven attitudes are nothing new. Dr. Edwards documented themin his 1988 article. The FAO, USAID, USEPA, World Bank, Environmental Defense Fund and other organizations were pushing "all-natural, biological, integrated pest management” practices back then, too. They were totally opposed to the use of dieldrin and other insecticides that actually work. They keep families, communities, clinics and hospitals dependent on minimalist wind and solar electricity.

Just as today, their focus back then was on alleged, possible side effects from modern insecticides, which used properly by trained applicators are safe for people, livestock, wildlife and most non-target insects. The key is having the necessary staff, equipment and chemicals ahead of time. Under pressure by all these external forces, East Africa failed to do that – and now it is reaping the proverbial whirlwind.

The donor agencies and pressure groups’ attitude is akin to demanding that chemotherapy for cancer be banned, because the chemicals impair patient’s immune systems and cause hair to fall out. Saving their lives is inarguably far more important than these side effects – just as saving millions from starvation and associated diseases, and preventing total crop and habitat annihilation, is inarguably far more important than the temporary loss of some insects or even slight risks to cattle, wildlife or people from the sprays.

(An upcoming article will document who is behind the eco-manslaughter today, and who is funding them: from US, EU and UN organizations to their Swiss, Swedish, pseudo-African and other counterparts.)

Back in 1987, Dr. Edwards noted, Senegal requested and received the loan of four American DC-7 transport aircraft that could hold 18,400 pounds of cargo (8.4 metric tons). They sprayed two million acres and killed 95% of that country’s immature locusts. But elsewhere FAO anti-pesticide ideologies prevailed, and billions of locusts matured, flew off, mated and produced tens of billions of locusts the following year. They destroyed croplands, wildlife habitats, communities and lives in a dozen other African countries.


This year’s efforts are far too little, far too late. Kenya has eight small crop-spraying aircraft operating around the clock; the Locust Control consortium has four antiquated little planes. They’re apparently spraying fenitrothion (an effective locust killer), pyrethroids (somewhat effective) and malathion (also somewhat effective though it breaks down within a few hours under Africa’s hot, humid conditions).

But they didn’t get the hoppers. They waited until swarms the size of Manhattan were upon them. Against those countless billions of voracious locusts, ground-based equipment is useless. A dozen small crop dusters makes almost no difference. And traditional methods like banging on pots are a sick joke.

However, there could still be hope. A single Lockheed KC-130 Herculestanker plane equipped with Modular Aerial Spray Systems can cover up to 150,000 acres a day. Each plane can carry 2,000 gallons of the most appropriate pesticide-water mixture. The benefits would be immediate and tremendous.

President Trump could order the Air Force to provide a KC-130 or two and enough fenitrothion, Lorsban or other effective insecticide for a few weeks of locust-eradication spraying. He could save millions of lives – and help change attitudes, policies and practices across Africa and the world.




The President could also order his US Agency for International Development (USAID), State Department and other agencies to end their funding of climate and agro-ecology programs, and start making the East Africa Desert Locust Control Organization the forward-thinking, effective operation it was meant to be.

He could have blunt discussions with the heads of EU nations about their agro-ecology, anti-pesticide and anti-biotechnology policies, funding practices and import restrictions toward Africa – which are an undeniable crime against humanity. Finally, he could direct the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to review (and terminate) the tax-exempt status of organizations and foundations engaged in lethal, eco-imperialistic lies and pressure campaigns in Africa, Asia and South America.

The locust plagues, starvation and deaths from readily preventable diseases like malaria must end – now. The poorest people in these impoverished countries should not be the ones paying the price, too often with their lives. This president is one of the very few politicians who could make these changes happen.

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Golden Opportunity

Timothy Birdnow

Judson Phillips observes:

Great nations don't die. They commit suicide. And we are watching America's economic suicide.

He's right. And few people seem to understand that fact or to care about it.

Normally the news media would have endless stories about bankruptcies, about the human suffering caused by closed businesses and a failing economy. Toiler paper shortages would lead. None of that is happening now. Why?

If I wanted to impose a socialist revolution without bloodshed this is exactly how I would do it. Destroy the economy with a trumped up crisis then have the "fix" ready.

It's just like hunting; flush out the quarry, chase it into a constricted area, force it into the kill zone, then BAM!  In this case America is the quarry, the virus is the constriction, and the economic collapse the kill zone.

The media has wanted a socialist revolution for some time. So do many of the young, who have never grown up enough to want to leave the comforting confines of their parent's homes and so want to extend the basement into national economic policy.

While I don't think this virus is fake itself, I think the forces of collectivism have seen a golden opportunity. Rahm Emmanuel famously admonished "never let a good crisis go to waste". They are milking every drop out of this one.

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March 22, 2020

Fish Gotta Swim, Birds Gotta Fly, Dictators Gotta Dictate...

Dana Mathewson

Not wanting New York Governor Andrew "Fredo" Cuomo to seem tougher than he, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio goes on a mouth-foaming rant here, accusing President Trump of "not doing enough" to fight COVID-19 in New York and demanding the military be called out, and that the President invoke the Defense Production Act to get ventilators manufactured and available sooner.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had a grim prognosis for his city during the coronavirus outbreak and claimed Sunday that if President Trump does not do something soon, it will cost people their lives.

Roughly a third of call cases in the U.S. are in New York City, resulting in much of the city being shut down, with all nonessential workers being told to stay home. The mayor told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he does not expect the situation to improve any time soon.

"The truth is," de Blasio said, "It’s only getting worse.”

De Blasio lamented that Trump's inaction has hampered the city's ability to treat its large numbers of patients.

"The president of the United States is from New York City and he will not lift a finger to help his hometown,” he said. "I don’t get it.”

De Blasio said he asked for the military to be sent out and for Trump to use the Defense Production Act to be used to acquire ventilators for patients suffering from the illness.

"If the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise," de Blasio said.

President Trump tweeted Sunday morning, stating that he and his administration have been working with state leaders to address the crisis.

[...]

When asked specifically what he would like done, de Blasio said that"all military personnel who are medically trained should be sent to places where this crisis is deep --like New York-- right now," claiming they are "the best logistical organization in the nation."

He blamed Trump for the military being kept on the sidelines.

Earth to Bill: Have you ever for one second considered that the President has thought about doing just that and decided it isn't necessary? Just yet, anyhow? And as far as invoking the Defense Production Act, he's already said it is obviously not necessary, that many companies have stepped up to the plate without being ordered to do so.

Would-be dictators just can't believe their orders aren't necessary. The President and his people think, plan, and do, while the de Blasios of the world just shoot off their mouths.  https://www.foxnews.com/politics/de-blasio-if-trump-does-not-act-people-will-die

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Is the World Economic Slowdown Reducing Co2 Levels in the Atmosphere?

This from Dr. Roy Spencer:

Several people have asked me, Is the atmospheric CO2 increase slowing down from reduced economic activity? The latest Mauna Loa data don't show any impact yet. (I took the raw monthly values, detrended the time series, removed the annual cycle, then added the trend back in).(UPDATE: I am NOT claiming this is evidence of a natural source for the increase in CO2. I think it's too early to conclude much of anything from this.)

No photo description available.

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VDH on Wuhan

Timothy Birdnow

The great Victor Davis Hansen weighs in on the Wuhan plague.

From the article:

When we put all these diverse criteria together, we are left only with likely parameters, not known facts, other than the conventional wisdom that the vast majority of Americans will likely recover from the infection in the coming days or weeks. So far, we seem to believe that less than four in 1,000 will likely die of those infected younger than age 40. Likewise, coronavirus lethality rates are weighed by much higher deaths of those above age 65, but especially above 80 (nearly 15 percent)—and not just to advanced age alone, but comorbidity from heart diseases, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses. For the general public, when we talk about supposed degrees of lethality, and then apply those numbers to the population under 40 or 50, the optimistic absolutes that 99 percent will likely recover are seen as more relevant than scary comparisons that far, far more—likely 99.8 percent—will survive the flu. Is that a legitimate concern? Bees and wasps kill about 10 times more people per year than do spiders. Does that mean we should fear walking among pollenating hives (our 40-acre almond farm has about 80 of them), at least far more so than fixing pipes under the house in the spider-infested dark? Or, not at all—given that spiders kill six Americans per year and bees and wasps ten times more so, adding up to about 60 fatalities out of some 2.9 million yearly deaths in the U.S.? The point is one of perception: to what degree do we inadvertently panic the population and wreck the economy by driving home the fact that a possible 98 percent to 99 percent survival rate still means thousands more dead than a conjectured 99.8 percent survival rate?

With new draconian measures of containment, we are entering the realm of cost-benefit analyses, given that for every drastic action there is an equally radical reaction—calibrated by everything from physical and mental health issues to economic, financial, security, legal, and political upheavals. Whether we like it or not, the current sweeping measures to curb the virus come at a huge cost—and the tab isn’t just financial or economic, as is sometimes alleged, by both advocates and critics of quarantines, cancellations, and radical social distancing. It involves health issues as well.

If the country goes into a serious recession or even depression; if trillions of dollars more of investment and liquidity continue to be wiped out while businesses crash and jobs are lost; if millions of unemployed cut back on their scheduled health care; if they increase their use of drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, and get less exercise and suffer depression holed up in their homes or must borrow or scramble to find daycare for their school-age children; if they even contemplate suicide—then the human toll spikes in concrete terms of life and death. In the long term, arming ourselves against the virus could be as serious as the virus itself, though to suggest that in these dark days of plague is heresy.

In 1976, also an election year, the country overreacted to the threat of the swine flu, when the press and "experts” warned of a likely return of a 1918 Spanish flu epidemic that this time around could kill "500,000 Americans” and infect "50 million to 60 million.” By early 1977, Americans were panicked and ready for mass inoculations of a rushed and unproven vaccination. Some 45 million were vaccinated; many had adverse, but limited, reactions, and about 450 reportedly ended up with crippling Guillain-Barré syndrome. The current popular creed that critical vaccinations are dangerous grew in part from the well-publicized 1976 mishap—with unfortunate, and in some cases lethal, consequences in convincing citizens not to get their necessary flu shots. In the end, there were about 200 cases and one death due to the great swine flu pandemic. I remember as a student at Stanford waiting in a campus line for the vaccination, then driving home for spring break and ending up in bed with a bad reaction to the shot.

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Coronavirus Gives Look at "Sustainable" Economy

This from Joe Bastardi:

These are crucial times. But I want to show you an example of what I am talking about, There is some positive news out there, news that the president alluded to yesterday but has been in the pipeline for several days. WUWT had it a few days ago and I showed Dr Roy W. Spencerfindings The DJ futures were sharply lower yesterday but the market finished up Yet not on time have I seen the Drudge Report mention any rebound or something going the opposite way, Now look at these headlines, Despite the chance there is already a drug approved for humans that can mitigate this thing, not one mention of it in the headlines, Fear Fear Fear Its as if the goal is to make sure even if the damage from this dreadful disease by a miracle of God does not come to pass, the damage from the fear in pursuit of the almighty click will. THIS NOT TO DOWNPLAY THIS SITUATION, While I believe this will bring out the best in many, I believe that if one looks, some things will be exposed.. For instance saying its global warming that is amplifying this, when supposedly the virus's protective outer shell dies at higher temps, makes no sense since the warmer, the better if that is the case ( I have checked that fact with doctors) And here is the other thing, You want to see what an economy that has no demand looks like, which is also climate change agenda, well you got it, Want to see what happens when you take a couple of trillion out of the economy yet alone 3-10 trillion, well you got it, Pray , Pray hard that the better angels and news triumphs, Gods will be done.

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The Surreal Life

Timothy Birdnow

Police have had to ask people to stop calling 911 when they are out of toilet paper.

In other news a man was arrested with with 18,000 pounds of stolen toilet paper

This has led the authorities to ask criminals to stop committing crimes and self-quarantine.

It's getting surreal!

Hat tip to Sharon


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Treatment for Wuhan

Timothy Birdnow

A New York doctor says his hospital is using Hydroxychloroquine to treat Wuhan and has had no deaths from the disease.

From The Right Scoop:

Dr. William Grace told Ingraham that they have 100 patients and have had zero deaths after the use of Hydroxychloroquine.

Hydroxychloroquine is the less toxic version of Chloroquine.

Grace said that a big reason older people die from the coronavirus is that their lungs fill up with fluid as part of an immune response to the virus. Hydroxychloroquine works, Grace notes, in both inhibiting the immune response and inhibiting the replication of the virus.

This is really great news and affirms what we are hearing is happening in other countries, as Ingraham points out. Hopefully it will serve as both a cure for the virus and perhaps even a vaccine.

I'm particularly happy as I have health problems making me rather a bit more susceptible to this. Hopefully we will find these treatments effective.

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Be Not Afraid!

Timothy Birdnow

I'm getting tired of talking about the Wuhan Flu, but it's all that's out there. At any rate, I had to rebut this before and it showed up again, so I rebutted it again.

This is making the rounds. Here it is:

Excellent academic explanation

This explains why everything is being closed down.

Feeling confused as to why Coronavirus is a bigger deal than Seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Feel free to share this to others who don’t understand.
It has to do with RNA sequencing, ie. genetics.
Seasonal flu is an "all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year. You get immunity two ways, through exposure to a virus or by getting a flu shot.
Novel viruses come from animals. The WHO tracks novel viruses in animals, sometimes for years watching for mutations. Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1)and (birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But once one of these animal viruses mutates and starts to transfer from animals to humans, then it’s a problem. Why? Because we have no natural or acquired immunity. The RNA sequencing of the genes inside the virus isn’t human, and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it, so we can’t fight it off.
Now sometimes the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human. For years it’s only transmission was from an infected animal to a human, before it finally mutated so that it can now transfer human to human. Once that happened we have a new contagion phase. And depending on the fashion of this new mutation, that’s what decides how contagious or how deadly it’s gonna be.
H1N1 was deadly, but it did not mutate in a way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. It’s RNA was slower to mutate and it attacked its host differently, too.
Fast forward.
Now, here comes this Coronavirus. It existed in animals only, for nobody knows how long. But one day, at an animal market in Wuhan China in December 2019, it mutated, and made the jump from animal to people. At first only animals could give it to a person. But here is the scary part. In just TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability "slippery.”
This Coronavirus, not being in any form a "human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or acquired immunity) took off like a rocket. And this was because humans have no known immunity and doctors have no known medicines for it.
And it just so happens that this particular mutated animal virus changed itself in such a way that it causes great damage to human lungs.
That’s why Coronavirus is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1, or any other type of influenza. This one is slippery and it’s a lung eater. And it’s already mutated AGAIN, so that we now have two strains to deal with, strain S and strain L, which makes it twice as hard to develop a vaccine.
We really have no tools in our shed, with this. History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places has helped in past pandemics. Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918, and they were the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu.
Factoid: Henry VIII stayed in his room and allowed no one near him, till the Black Plague passed (honestly, I understand him so much better now). Just like us, he had no tools in his shed, except social isolation.
And let me end by saying, right now it’s hitting older folks harder. But this genome is so slippery, if it mutates again (and it will), who is to say what it will do.
#flattenthecurve. Be smart. Stay home folks. And share this to those that just are not catching on.

And here is my rebuttal:

There are some big holes in this argument. This is not the first Coronavirus. It's COVID 19, so we've had experience with EIGHTEEN others.- including SARS and MERS. We've been dealing with these for a while. And to say that it is somehow different that this is a cross-species disease is a bit of a stretch. Ebola is such and there was no panic here in the U.S. In fact, we were bringing Ebola patients from overseas to our hospitals, and Ebola is absolutely lethal compared to MERS, which was far more lethal than this Wuhan thing.And H1N1 was also called Swine Flu. But there are other variants many of which come from birds as well..There are many cases of crossover viruses. The Spanish flu was a bird flu, a variant of H1N1. While the sequencing may be different they are variants on "old favorites" as it were. The human immune system is always encountering new things and has to produce antibodies that work. It's why young people get sick more than adults (who've been around long enough to acquire immunity to a lot of this.) But every flu strain that leads to a flu season is generally a bit different than the last, which is why we get sick. In other words, this isn't really that unusual. Viruses mutate all the time; it's why they are still around. Our immune systems adjust. As to the last claims about our having "no tools in our shed" that is demonstrably false. We have much, much better palliative care than did Henry VIII or even the folks in 1918. We have antibiotics to help with opportunistic diseases. And we don't have a vaccine now but are working on it. Oh, and it should be pointed out that vaccines basically give you the disease anyway, usually in an inactive form to stimulate your immune system to work out the cure on it's own. We know much more about Coronavirus 19 than we did about Coronavirus 1 and it should be much easier to develop a vaccine. Now I'm not saying this isn't a danger, especially if you have pre-existing conditions. But there is no cause for panic. Be smart, be careful, but live your lives. There is no good reason to think this thing is going to turn into the Black Death. It is not smallpox. It is not even close to the Spanish Flu. It has a very low mortality rate. More people are probably going to die from the way we handle this than from the illness itself. People DIE from economic collapse, especially in the Third World.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1129 words, total size 7 kb.

St. Louis Goes on Lockdown

Timothy Birdnow

The limousine liberal Democrat who runs St. Louis has just put us on a lockdown

The "shelter in place" order says we can't go out of our homes except to the stores or to work or to doctor's appointments.

We had one death here. One.

Granted, it was a nurse at St. Mary's hospital, where all my doctors are associated (and I'm going to cancel my appointement for next week). Still, I think a lockdown order is a bit much.

This is going to kill a lot of small businesses here. We have a lot of old family restaurants, mainly Italian, which will go out of business. This is a crying shame.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 119 words, total size 1 kb.

Is the Coronavirus the End of Public Transit?

Timothy Birdnow

You know, the powers that be have spent years trying to get us to use trains and buses - public transportation. They hate our use of private vehicles and have endlessly extolled the virtues of public transit.

What will they say now?  Stuffing people into public transports is a recipe for viral transmission.  This should seriously dampen any enthusiasm for getting rid of the automobile.

I rather suspect they will simply ignore that aspect of this and go ahead and promote mass transit anyway.

The Boston Mass Transit Authority has reduced it's schedule as has Bi-State in St. Louis. It appears a number of other cities have reduced or modified their schedules.

Frankly, I wouldn't want to ride a bus or train at this point.

But what happens if things get REALLY bad?  They will have to stop service. Then, if you don't own a car you are in trouble. 

These ideas sound so wonderful in the Ivory Tower and the coffee shops but when they actually are put in practice they fail. 

Will this be the end for public transportation?  No. Will this reduce the demands of the environmentalists and the other public transportation enthusiasts?  I rather doubt it.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Toilet Paper Looting Starts

Timothy Birdnow

Warner Todd Huston chronicles the first rumblings of looting:

Pandemonium: Thief Smashes Car Window in Oregon Just to Steal Toilet Paper

I've been expecting this. As people run out of goods they start getting desperate. Also, the police in many blue states have stand-down orders, orders not to take people into custody or even make traffic stops. So there is no law, desperate people, and the less law-abiding are apt to take what they want. I'm not surprised at this, just surprised it took so long.

I had to buy toilet paper in Hooterville; they were the only ones with any. Been looking for a couple of weeks, frankly. I was lucky though; we always keep a lot on hand and neither of us had to go much.

I don't see why they are out of it to this degree. I used to work as a grocery store manager many years ago, and we would have seen to it that we had enough to get people through. Granted, we had a couple of large stock rooms to store backstock, but even so there are ways. I go to the stores and don't see any big displays, for instance. That is what you do to get your supply out. You don't need big chip displays or spring outdoor stuff when there is no toilet paper. You order more and you build big displays.

It may be the supplier is out of stock. If so, why?  Surely they know they are shorting their customers (the stores). If the suppliers can't get it from the manufacturer, it means the manufacturer has dropped the ball. There is not reason why they cant ramp up production of an item like this. It's not electronics after all.

I wonder who is at fault for the shortage. Yes, the public is acting rather idiotically, but there is no reason for this to be out everywhere. 

My other question is, where is our wonderful government in all this?  People need toilet paper, and that is clearly an emergency service, the kind FEMA handles. Why isn't there FEMA stations distributing toilet paper?  If the stores can't handle it, surely our government - which we have been told we must trust and rely on - should be able to provide. They can charge cost for it; it doesn't have to be free. But where are they?  There are those who want to put these people in charge of our health care but they can't even see that America has proper sanitary material to flush down the sewer.

We used to laugh at the Soviets or the Cubans for having a system unable to provide things like toilet paper. Funny; we're not laughing now.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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