March 29, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today's News: March 30, 2020

World News

How coronavirus mutated and eight strains raced around the world after initial outbreak in China as global cases top 660,000 and deaths hit 30,847

Daily Mail – Scientists around the world are tracking at least eight strains of coronavirus around the world, using genetic detective work to show how the virus spreads.
Researchers say the virus appears to mutate very slowly, with only tiny differences between the different strains, and that none of the strains of the virus is more deadly than another.
They also say it does not appear the strains will grow more lethal as they evolve.
‘The virus mutates so slowly that the virus strains are fundamentally very similar to each other,’ Charles Chiu, a professor of medicine and infectious disease at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, told USA Today.
However, scientists around the world have been able to compile their genetic sequencing data at NextStrain.org, generating a map that tracks how the deadly virus has raced around the world.
Tracking the different strains of SARS-CoV-2, as the virus is officially named, allows scientists to see whether containment measures are working, by showing whether new cases are from community spread, or imported from a different hotspot.

Ventilator ‘rationing’ begins in UK

Daily Mail – Ventilator ‘rationing’ has begun in the UK as only patients with a ‘reasonable certainty’ of survival are to be put on the machines at a London hospital.
The UK coronavirus death toll has risen by 209 in 24 hours from 1,019 to 1,228, as infections jumped by 2,483 to 19,522.
Machines used to keep patients breathing are being restricted on medical grounds, not because of a lack of capacity, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust told the Daily Telegraph.
The trust said that ‘very poorly patients with coronavirus may need to be on a ventilator for extended periods’, adding that ‘for some patients this would not be in their best interests’.

Tokyo infection spike AFTER Olympic delay sparks questions…

AP – Before the Olympics were postponed, Japan looked like it had coronavirus infections contained, even as they spread in neighboring countries. Now that the games have been pushed to next year, Tokyo’s cases are spiking, and the city’s governor is requesting that people stay home, even hinting at a possible lockdown.
The sudden rise in the number of virus cases in Tokyo and the government’s strong actions immediately after the Olympic postponement have raised questions in parliament and among citizens about whether Japan understated the extent of the outbreak and delayed enforcement of social distancing measures while clinging to hopes that the games would start on July 24 as scheduled.
With the Olympics now off, many are voicing suspicion that the numbers are rising because Japan suddenly has no reason to hide them.
“In order to make an impression that the city was taking control of the coronavirus, Tokyo avoided making strict requests and made the number of patients look smaller,” former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a tweet. “The coronavirus has spread while they waited. (For Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike) it was Olympics first, not Tokyo’s residents.”
Experts have found a rise of untraceable cases mushrooming in Tokyo, Osaka and other urban areas — signs of an explosive increase in infections.

South Africa Struggles to Enforce Quarantine, Social Distancing As Coronavirus Spreads

Information Liberation – South Africa’s newly implemented 21-day lockdown is off to a rocky start.
“Police and soldiers have struggled to enforce the new restrictions in poor areas of South Africa as cases of coronavirus increase to more than 1,000,” Sky News reported Saturday.
From Reuters, “South Africa Struggles With Lockdown as It Records First Coronavirus Death”:
Bustling streets and long queues at supermarkets highlighted South Africa’s struggle to adapt to a new lockdown on Friday, as the country recorded its first coronavirus death.
In the poor township of Alexandra near Johannesburg’s financial district, a group of men drank openly in the street until police intervened and ordered the supermarkets to close.
“How can you stay home without food? The reason we are here is because we are hungry. We are here to get groceries so we can be able to stay indoors, you can’t stay indoors without food,” Alexandra resident Linda Songelwa told Reuters.
[…] Police Minister Bheki Cele said there had been “a few issues” with the lockdown, including in Alexandra and where people had not observed social distancing in shop queues.
“Sometimes people that join those queues are not even there to make the shopping, they are there for outing because they don’t have other activities… So we are sifting all those things, and we are going to be very tough with those people.”
The Guardian said on Friday that the West “must dig deep” to save Africa because they “won’t beat coronavirus on [their] own.”

TWITTER removes Bolsonaro tweets questioning quarantine

AFP – Two tweets by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in which he questioned quarantine measures aimed at containing the novel coronavirus were removed Sunday, on the grounds that they violated the social network’s rules.
The far-right leader had posted several videos in which he flouted his government’s social distancing guidelines by mixing with supporters on the streets of Brasilia and urging them to keep the economy going.
Two of the posts were removed and replaced with a notice explaining why they had been taken down.
Twitter explained in a statement that it had recently expanded its global rules on managing content that contradicted public health information from official sources and could put people at greater risk of transmitting COVID-19.

Canada Bans Passengers Showing Virus Symptoms From Domestic Flights & Trains

Activist Post – Canada has over 6,243 confirmed coronvirus cases, including 64 deaths as of Sunday, which compared to the United States – at over 135,000 cases and rapidly growing – appears to be doing a much better job at fighting the spread.
Though nationwide transport systems, including flights and trains, are still active, Canada announced Sunday that starting Monday any passengers showing symptoms related to Covid-19 will be banned from domestic flights and trains.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the new nation-wide rule from his residence in a press briefing, which reads “people showing any signs whatsoever of Covid-19 will be denied boarding on all domestic flights and intercity passenger trains,” according to Politico.

300 people die in Iran drinking methanol in mistaken belief it cures coronavirus

Daily Mail – The death toll from alcohol poisoning in Iran has risen to 300 after people started to consume methanol because of a rumour that high proof alcohol could cure the coronavirus.
Iranian media reports that more than 1,000 have been sickened so far by ingesting methanol across the Islamic Republic, where drinking alcohol is banned and where those who do rely on bootleggers.
It comes as Tehran announced 144 new deaths from coronavirus on Friday, bringing its death toll to 2,378, and another 2,926 new confirmed cases, with a total of more than 32,300 infected.
There have been a spate of fake remedies spreading across social media in Iran, where people remain deeply suspicious of the government after it downplayed the crisis for days before it overwhelmed the country.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

FAUCI PROJECTS ‘100,000-200,000’ DEAD

AP – The coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert warned on Sunday as smoldering hot spots in nursing homes and a growing list of stricken cities heightened the sense of dread across the country.
Faced with that grim projection the possibility and that even more could die in the U.S. without measures to keep people away from each other, President Donald Trump extended federal guidelines recommending people stay home for another 30 days until the end of April to prevent spread of the virus

USNS Comfort Arrives in NYC Monday to Help Hospitals With Non-Coronavirus Patients   

NBC – A floating hospital in the form of a Navy ship arrived in New York City on Monday to relieve pressure on hospitals already overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.
The USNS Comfort docked around 10 a.m. and will be ready to take in patients within 24 hours. While the ship won’t treat people with COVID-19, its 1,000 beds and 12 operation rooms are ready to bolster the overtaxed health care system.
“On behalf of all 19 million New Yorkers, we are very grateful for what the people of this nation have done for us and we will return the favor,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a pierside briefing as the ship arrived behind him.
The Comfort, along with USNS Mercy, which was sent to the West Coast, will be able to treat anyone from minor cases to patients in critical condition. In addition to the extra room, the ship has laboratory facilities and oxygen-producing plants.

REPORT:  Armed ‘vigilantes’ in Maine cut down tree to quarantine men from New Jersey

Daily Mail – A group of armed vigilantes are said to have cut down a tree on the Maine island of Vinalhaven, using it as a roadblock to try to quarantine three New Jersey workers.
Police said they were called on Friday afternoon to reports of ‘several people with guns’ threatening one man who had left his home to see why his cable service was down.
In a Facebook post Knox County Sheriff’s Office said: ‘Deputies have learned that there is a general belief by some island residents that the Cripple Creek Residents are supposed to be quarantined because they came here from another state and could have Covid-19.’
Rep. Genevieve McDonald confirmed the incident, writing on her Facebook page: ‘There are two guys from [New Jersey], on Vinalhaven who have been renting a house since September while working on a construction job.’
McDonald said the men ‘were targeted because of their license plate’ after they came back from a trip to the mainland.
She added: ‘A group of local vigilantes decided to take matters into their own hands and barricaded these guys into their rental property.’

Field hospital set up in New York’s Central Park

AFP – In New York’s Central Park on Sunday, a field hospital was going up.
Dozens of people worked in a drizzle to erect the facility for an expected influx of COVID-19 patients at the epicentre of the US coronavirus pandemic.
Samaritan’s Purse, a US-based Christian global relief agency, is setting up the hospital on the park’s East Meadow lawn, where workers in face masks unloaded a white tarp and other equipment on the grass. The site is right across from one of the facilities in the Mount Sinai hospital group.
“There’s lots of cases here in New York and a lot of people that need help,” said Elliott Tenpenny, a doctor and team leader for Samaritan’s Purse COVID-19 Response Team.

Economy & Business

As Millions Of Americans Become Unemployed, Trump Admin Expands Importation Of Foreign Workers

Information Liberation – Despite record unemployment claims exceeding 3 million in one week, President Donald Trump’s administration is rapidly expanding H-1B, H-2A and H-2B foreign worker programs to take Americans’ jobs and suppress wages
From Breitbart, “Trump’s DHS Starts to Import 85,000 H-1B Graduate Gig Workers”:
President Donald Trump’s deputies announced Friday that they had begun the process of importing 85,000 H-1B gig workers to take white-collar jobs that will be needed after October by the millions of American graduates who are now losing jobs in the coronavirus crash.
“This is just an unspeakable action,” said Marie Larson, a co-founder of the American Workers Coalition, which opposes the many visa worker programs that have transferred at least one million white-collar jobs to foreign workers. “I don’t believe President Trump ordered this — the swamp went ahead with this,” she said.
A memo released by Pompeo reads:
The H-2 program is essential to the economy and food security of the United States and is a national security priority. Therefore, we intend to continue processing H-2 cases as much as possible, as permitted by post resources and local government restrictions. Secretary Pompeo, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, has authorized consular officers to expand the categories of H-2 visa applicants whose applications can be adjudicated without an in-person interview. Consular officers can, if they so choose, now waive the visa interview requirement for first-time and returning H-2 applicants who have no apparent ineligibility or potential ineligibility. [Emphasis added]
This expansion also increases the period in which returning workers may qualify for an interview waiver. Applicants whose previous visas expired in the last 48 months, and who did not require a waiver of ineligibility the last time they applied, do not need to be interviewed in-person if they are applying for the same visa classification as their previous visa. We anticipate the vast majority of otherwise qualified H-2 applicants will now be adjudicated without an interview. [Emphasis added]
The directive effectively allows agricultural and nonagricultural businesses to quickly import foreign workers on H-2A and H-2B visas without standard interview and application procedures — a move that echoes President George W. Bush’s decision to waive visa requirements in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

AMAZON to run daily temp checks on workers

The Sun – AMAZON said Sunday it will start running daily temperature checks of its employees after reports that at least 17 company locations have workers who have tested positive for coronavirus.
The retail giant will begin screening at sites in Seattle and New York City, local news reports.
Amazon said in a statement that it intends to expand daily temperature screenings to other sites as soon as possible.
Although the company has not confirmed how many of their employees have coronavirus, Reuters reported Saturday that the infection has spread to at least 17 warehouses in the US.
On Sunday, CNBC reported that nearly 100 Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island are planning to strike from Monday.
Their hope is that they will call attention to the lack of protection for employees who are still going into work amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The news comes just one day after Amazon staff said they are struggling to get sick pay and are worried their colleagues are coming to work with coronavirus.

New Yorkers who break distancing rules face fines of $500

Politico – New York City residents who break social distancing rules will be subject to fines up to $500, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.
As New York battles the spread of coronavirus, the state has ordered nonessential businesses to shut down, banned gatherings of any size and mandated that people stay six feet away from each other. Not everyone has listened.

UN Warns: Global Food Shortages Start Now

NaturalBlaze – The UN has warned of GLOBAL FOOD SHORTAGES starting in the next weeks. This is a final warning to start growing your own food in order to keep your family fed: they are locking up the pantry to take total control. People are reeling, and may be open to new ideas, so PLEASE spread the word NOW to ensure that as many people understand what is going on (and why — the totalitarian agenda behind these events!), any how to prepare and fight back.

The Economic Depression Of 2020: Many Of The Restaurants, Bars And Retailers That Have Closed Will Never Open Again

Michael Snyder – It appears that we are heading into the worst economic downturn of the post-World War II era, and that is going to be true no matter how this coronavirus pandemic ultimately plays out.  There are some that believe that this virus will only kill thousands, and there are others that are warning that it could kill millions, but everyone can agree that this outbreak is causing an unprecedented amount of fear.  And even once this pandemic starts to fade, a certain percentage of the population will continue to be afraid to go to restaurants, bars and other small businesses that are open to the public. Of course many restaurants, bars and small businesses were just barely scraping by during the “good times”, and so many of them will simply not be be able to survive if a substantial portion of the population is literally petrified to step through their doors for the foreseeable future.
As long as fear of the coronavirus persists, the U.S. economy is going to be in for a world of hurt, and it looks like we may still be in the very early stages of this pandemic.
In fact, we are now being told that the death toll in the U.S. “could reach 100,000 or more”
Of course the death toll could ultimately be much lower than that if effective treatments are made widely available to the general public.
We shall have to wait and see if that actually happens.
But meanwhile, fear of the coronavirus is absolutely devastating the economy.  According to the National Restaurant Association, our restaurant industry has lost 25 billion dollars in sales so far this month.
As this crisis stretches on, all of the dominoes in the commercial mortgage market are going to begin to fall.
What we are watching is deeply tragic, because those that work in our restaurants are some of the hardest working people in the entire country.  At this point, 3 percent of our restaurants “have already permanently closed”, and another 11 percent “anticipate they will permanently close within 30 days”
Three percent of restaurants have already permanently closed due to the coronavirus crisis, according to research from the National Restaurant Association. Forty-four percent of operators have temporarily closed their restaurants, and 11% anticipate they will permanently close within 30 days.
Can you imagine that?
By the end of next month, 14 percent of all restaurants in America could be gone for good.
And the longer this pandemic lasts, the higher that number will go.

After Fed Unleashes Firepower, Washington Rearms Central Bank

WSJ – The Federal Reserve quickly deployed a half-dozen emergency lending programs over the past two weeks to ensure cash keeps coursing through the U.S. financial system. Now, Congress wants it to go much further, approving $454 billion to reload the Fed’s own ability to lend.
Washington is relying on the Fed, to an unprecedented degree in peacetime, to preserve business balance sheets after elected officials and private industry have put the economy into the equivalent of a medically induced coma to stop the spread of the coronavirus…

Health

FDA Gives Emergency Authorization of Hydroxychloroquine Use

Breitbart 0 The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency authorization Sunday for hydroxychloroquine, a drug already used to treat malaria and other ailments, which has shown anecdotal efficacy against coronavirus.
The use of the drug — often paired with azithromycin — has not yet been proven in clinical trials to be effective against the disease. However, given reported success in a growing number of small, non-randomized studies; as well as testimonials from doctors and patients about the use of the “off-label” drug regimen, doctors are said to be prescribing the treatment to patients who are severely ill. Anecdotally, many doctors are taking it prophylactically.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a statement on Sunday:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to BARDA to allow hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate products donated to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible.
HHS also noted that it had “accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate donated by Sandoz, the Novartis generics and biosimilars division, and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, for possible use in treating patients hospitalized with COVID-19 or for use in clinical trials.”
Earlier, the French government had approved similar drugs to treat the virus.

WSJ: ‘Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin Continue to Show Results’ for Coronavirus Patients

Information LIberation – Dr Jeff Colyer, the former governor of Kansas who is a practicing physician, reported Sunday in the Wall Street Journal that the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin is continuing to show “promising” results in coronavirus patients.
From The Wall Street Journal:
In the fight against Covid-19 though we might look forward in doom, one day we will look backward in awe. In an article last week, I discussed a promising drug combination to treat the disease. There is now new data supporting this treatment. Since then, Kansas City area physicians, including Joe Brewer, Dan Hinthorn and me, continue to treat many patients, and some have shown improvement. Major medical centers including the University of Washington and Mass General have added hydroxychloroquine to treatment options. […]
Physicians are using two drugs in combination—hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, which I’ll abbreviate HC and AZ—to treat patients with advanced Covid-19 symptoms. We use a regimen reported in a recent open-label trial in Marseille, France, which was updated March 26, and which doctors may modify in any given case.
[…] Clinical information has also emerged from Covid treatment. During the initial Chinese outbreak, Wuhan doctors observed that patients with lupus—a disease for which HC is a common treatment—did not seem to develop Covid-19. Of 178 hospital patients who tested positive, none had lupus and none were on HC. None of this Wuhan hospital’s dermatology department’s 80 lupus patients were infected with the novel coronavirus. The Wuhan doctors hypothesized that this may be due to long-term use of HC. They treated 20 Covid-19 patients with HC. Their result: “Clinical symptoms improve significantly in 1 to 2 days. After five days of chest CT examination, 19 cases showed significant absorption improvement.”
Second, consider AZ—the antibiotic marketed as Z-Pak—combined with HC. The French study showed that 57% of 14 Covid-19 patients receiving HC without AZ tested negative for the virus on a nasal swab on day six. But 100% of the six patients who received both HC and AZ tested negative on day six. Compare that with 16 infected patients at another hospital who didn’t receive either treatment: only 12% tested negative on day six. These are small samples, but significant.
The authors of the French study last week published the results of an additional 80 hospitalized patients receiving a combination of HC and AZ. By day eight of treatment, 93% showed a negative nasopharyngeal swab for the virus. “This allowed patients to rapidly be discharged from highly contagious wards with a mean length of stay of five days,” the authors write. “Other teams should urgently evaluate this cost-effective therapeutic strategy, to both avoid the spread of the disease and treat patients as soon as possible before severe respiratory irreversible complications take hold.” I agree.

Nutrition and Natural Strategies Offer Hope Against COVID-19

Mercola – The only real defense against COVID-19 is your own immune system, which works best when fed right. While changing your diet is a commonsense solution for the long term, a rapid-response strategy would be to use vitamin C.
Vitamin C strengthens your immune system and kills pathogens, including viruses, when taken in high doses.
Other important immune boosting nutrients are vitamin D, magnesium and zinc.
A Korean doctor who’s giving patients and hospital staff 100,000 IUs of vitamin D and 20 to 24 grams of vitamin C by IV reports virus-infected patients are getting well in a matter of days.
If you own a sauna, now’s the time to put it to regular use. By increasing your core body temperature, which is what happens when you have a fever, your body becomes more efficient at killing pathogens

Raisins Are Laden With Pesticides

Newsmax – Every year, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) releases its annual ranking of the produce items with the highest amount of pesticide residue — the Dirty Dozen — and those with the least — the Clean Fifteen. The group says nearly 70% of the fresh produce found in the U.S. contains potentially harmful chemical pesticides, but this year’s dirtiest produce commodity turns out not to be a fresh fruit or vegetable but a dried one — raisins.
According to the EWG, almost every sample of non-organic raisins tested — 99% — had residues of at least two pesticides. Surprisingly, a full 91% of organic raisins had the same results. This is the first year the EWG included raisins in its annual Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. Their data comes from the result of tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Americans Already Too Diseased to Go Back to Work Right Now

Dnyuz – Public health measures to slow the spread of Covid-19 have already taken a staggering toll on the economy, with the prospect of worse to come. The strategy at the heart of prevention, physical distancing, will continue to be tremendously disruptive to society.
With businesses facing bankruptcy, schools closed and sports events canceled, President Trump and others have now asked: Is the cure worse than the disease?
According to this way of thinking, we should refocus our efforts on those most at risk for complications from coronavirus, the elderly and people with chronic disease, so that others can soon return to a semblance of normal life.
But this strategy is dangerously misguided for one simple reason: The huge burden of obesity and other chronic conditions among Americans puts most of us at direct risk. In fact, with obesity rates in the United States much higher than affected countries like South Korea and China, our outcomes — economic- and health-wise — could be much worse.
Despite common perceptions, it’s not just the elderly and frail who are at significant risk of a life-threatening complication. Data from China suggest that many chronic health problems increase the likelihood of a bad outcome, including cardiovascular disease, which affects nearly half the adults in the United States in some form, and diabetes, which affects about 10 percent. In Italy, 99 percent of the fatalities were people with pre-existing medical problems, especially hypertension.
Moreover, in the United States, obesity-related metabolic conditions may put the public at exceptional risk. Today, more than two of three adults have high body weight, and 42 percent have obesity, among the highest rates in the world. Almost two in 10 children have obesity. Excessive weight, and the poor-quality diet that causes it, is strongly associated with insulin resistance, chronic inflammation and other abnormalities that may lower immunity to viral respiratory infection or predispose to complications.

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