VIDEO: About the corona virus, can we PLEASE calm down?

I haven't written much about the corona virus pandemic, because I suspect most of you are, if not sick with the disease itself, sick of reading about it. Yes, there is a pandemic that is sweeping the world. Yes, people are dying in the 1000s. This may indeed be the Great Chastisement which Our Lady of Fatima foretold, but let's not get all apocalyptic about it. We... well, our ancestors... have been through this before, 102 years ago and, more recently, in 2009.

For those who don't remember, the 1918 Spanish flu was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected 500 million people -- about a quarter of the world's population at the time.

The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill the very young and the very old, with a higher survival rate for those in between, but the Spanish flu pandemic resulted in a higher than expected mortality rate for young adults.

A 2007 analysis of medical journals from the period found that the viral infection was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains. Instead, malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, and poor hygiene promoted bacterial superinfection. That would explain why the incidence of the corona virus is greater -- and more deadly -- in nursing homes and other facilities where large numbers of already sick people are crowded together.

The Spanish flu was the first of two pandemics caused by the H1N1 influenza virus. The second was the swine flu -- an influenza pandemic that lasted from January 2009 to August 2010. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1, which resulted from a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine, and human flu viruses further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus, thus the term "swine flu".

Some studies estimated that 11 to 21 percent of the global population at the time -- around 700 million to 1.4 billion people -- contracted the illness. This was more than the number of people infected by the Spanish flu pandemic, but only resulted in about 150,000 to 575,000 fatalities -- a lower death rate.  A follow-up study done in September 2010 showed that the risk of serious illness resulting from the 2009 H1N1 flu was no higher than that of the yearly seasonal flu. The WHO estimates that 250,000 to 500,000 people die of seasonal flu annually.

With all the hair-on-fire, we're-all-going-to-die coverage circulating, Still-President Trump's son, "Don Jr.", took to Twitter on Friday with a perfect video to set the record straight. "Every American needs to know this," he wrote. "You won't hear it on CNN. They are only playing bad news."
In the clip from Thursday's White House corona virus task force news briefing, response coordinator Dr Deborah Birx sets the record straight about the supposed shortage of hospital equipment. Check it out.



Dr Birx contradicted the fake news of dire shortages in New York state and explained that the country is nowhere near implementing drastic measures. "There are still ICU beds remaining and there's still significant -- over 1000 or 2000 -- ventilators that have not been utilized yet", she said.

She implored the media and others spreading falsehoods about hospitals being forced to issue "DNR" ("do not resuscitate") orders for patients due to a lack of equipment to cease and desist, saying, "There is no situation in the United States right now that warrants that kind of discussion. To make the implication that when they need a hospital bed, it's not going to be there, or when they need that ventilator, it's not going to be there -- we don't have evidence of that right now."

As the good doctor said, just because cities such as New York may be short on ventilators in reserve doesn't mean there won't be enough if and when the time comes. As she stated, "There are other parts of the states that have lots of ventilators and other parts of New York State that don't have any infections right now. So we can be creative. We can meet the need by being responsive."

Dr Birx is right. State leaders such as NY Governor Cuomo are responsible for figuring out how to shift resources already in their state to meet changing needs. The federal government is only there to provide the next level of assistance. And think about this... The states where the outbreak is most serious, whose governors are hollering loudest for federal government help -- NY, WA, CA, IL, MI -- are all run by Democrats. Think about it.

Further reading:
"Israeli doctor in Italy says new, innovative treatments 'flattening the curve'", Times of Israel, 29/3/20. You probably won't see this in the lamestream news. It defeats the planned hysteria. Thanks to Agent 35 for the link.
"Saint Corona - Patron against plague and epidemics", WWW 24/3/20.

VIDEO: Wuhan woman risks life to complain about Communists

Agent 35, bless her, has passed along an interesting video posted on social media (such as it is) in China but a woman from Wuhan -- the original focal point of the corona virus -- who is fed up with... well... everything in general and the Communist Party of China in particular. The woman has since disappeared!



Agent 35 writes:
The woman's comment about TV holds true in our country too. When I was growing up, I used to hear TV referred to as the "idiot box" or "boob tube", which I thought was a comment on its frivolity. Today the two labels are still true, but more insidious is its new use as a propaganda source found throughout our homes in various rooms and even in our pockets.
This woman is imprisoned in the type of society the Left envisions as Utopia for us.

Please don't pass corona virus to your pet doggy!

Covid-19, the corona virus, is said to have originated, in China's Hubei province, because of the unfortunate Chinese tendency to eat anything and everything, including wild animals. (Both Agents 78 and 88, who should know, acknowledge that this is a fact of life in China.) The virus has always been present, researchers say, in bats found in caves in the Wuhan area, and was likely transmitted to humans who ate them. Or maybe it was pangolins, but no matter; the route or transmission was animal to human.

Then came human-to-human transmission, which spread the virus from Hubei to other parts of China, and onward to such hotspots as South Korea, Italy and of course Iran, where faithfulness to the teachings of the Prophet failed to confer immunity. (I'm pretty sure the Qu'ran forbids eating bats, but my Arabic isn't that good so who knows.) And let us not forget Washington, not DC but the state, where human-to-human transmission has led to dozens of cases and ten deaths, so far.

The question arises whether humans can give Covid-19 back to animals. The answer, coming today from... wait for it... Hong Kong, seems to be YES. The puppet government of the Chinese "Special Administrative Region" are warning people to avoid kissing their pets, after a dog repeatedly tested "weak positive" for coronavirus. The HKG Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said experts unanimously agreed the results suggested the dog had "a low-level of infection and it is likely to be a case of human-to-animal transmission."

The dog in question is a Pomeranian, much cuter than the pug pictured here. Its owner was infected with Covid-19 but the dog itself was not showing symptoms, authorities said. They warned pet owners in the city, where 103 people have been infected with Covid-19 and thousands are in self-quarantine, not to panic. "Pet owners are reminded to adopt good hygiene practices (including hand washing before and after being around or handling animals, their food, or supplies, as well as avoiding kissing them) and to maintain a clean and hygienic household environment," they said. "People who are sick should restrict contacting animals. If there are any changes in the health condition of the pets, advice from a veterinarian should be sought as soon as possible.”

The Society for the Protection of Animals in Hong Kong said being infected was not the same as being infectious, and capable of spreading the virus. And dog lovers [Ed., what happened to that story from Zimbabwe we posted a few days ago?] criticized those who say that kissing their pets is unnatural as "speciesist".