Australia must have a 'long, hard' look at further relations with China

Sky News Australia
Australia needs to have a “very long, hard and truthful discussion” about its relationship with China following the crisis caused by COVID-19, Outsiders host Rowan Dean says. Mr Dean said it’s time we no longer take the nation on its word. “When all this is over, Australia needs to have a very long, hard and truthful discussion about any future relationships with China. Warts and all,” he said. “The Chinese communist dictatorship is a sinister and deeply untrustworthy entity, profiting from this calamity when they should be paying for it.”

Wuhan CoronaVirus | Pictures that China doesn't want you to see |

Gravitas

Has China defeated the coronavirus? Is Beijing reporting the right numbers? China says it has the coronavirus outbreak under control. But several reports tell a different tale. In Wuhan, clashes broke out after the restrictions were lifted."

Journalists creating ‘extraordinary alarm and fear’ amid coronavirus pandemic

Sky News Australia
Sky News host Chris Kenny says amid the coronavirus pandemic there is an abundance of journalists and media commentators “who are letting us down at the moment,” who are being “alarmist” and “playing politics”. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Australia has risen past 4,000 as the death toll climbs to 18 people, while New South Wales has reported another 127 cases bringing the state’s total to almost 2,000. Victoria has surpassed 800 cases and Queensland is near 700, while Tasmania confirmed its first fatality on Monday - a woman in her 80s. Mr Kenny said throughout the media landscape there are journalists and commentators who “think they are smarter than you” and are “second-guessing every expert opinion” being handed down by politicians and health officials. He also said the ABC is engaging in “extraordinary stuff” as the broadcaster uses components of the coronavirus crisis “to create alarm and attack the government”. "Yes, surprise, surprise, it is the ABC that has been doing much of the fear-mongering and most of the political sniping during this crisis”.

Australia should 'take back the land' from China as damages

Sky News Australia
China should be made to pay reparations for the outbreak of the coronavirus, but given they are unlikely to do so "maybe (Australia) can take back the land that their foreign owned corporations have as damages" says Nationals MP George Christensen. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has set the dollar value which would trigger a review into a foreign investment bid to zero, meaning all foreign investment bids reviewed by the Foreign Investment Review Boarded will be weighed up against the national interest. Mr Christensen the treasurer understands public sentiment is against letting "state-owned corporations out of China swoop up and pick up Australian companies and Australian farm land for a song". "It's not in the national interest to have state owned corporations owning Australian companies," Mr Christensen said. "Unless they're contributing something … (like) extra jobs, growth, (or) new activity that's going to benefit the whole community, you're going to have to question whether that's in the national interest". He told Sky News hosts Alan Jones and Peta Credlin foreign state-owned companies own Australian milk companies, agribusiness, and even the Darwin Port, but the coronavirus will "ensure there is a big rethink on how we do business with" China. "When you say state-owned corporations, you're mainly talking about China."

‘The Five’ slams media for trying to shutdown Trump’s coronavirus briefings

Fox News
Some journalists push back against airing President Trump's coronavirus briefings; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'

China 'willfully inflicted coronavirus upon the world'

Sky News Australia
According to Sky News host Rowan Dean “China willfully inflicted” the coronavirus upon the world a spectacular display of "communism” at its very worst". “Let’s be absolutely crystal clear, this is an inevitable consequence of communism and totalitarianism,” Mr Dean told Sky News host Peta Credlin. "First of all they tried to shut it up and suppress those individuals who were sounding the alarm" after which they panicked "attributed the blame to the United States which is just laughable," Mr Dean said. “China must be held to account for this...and countries around the world need to start looking at their relationship with China in light of this disaster”. “If it were a company or if it were an individual… that had caused such worldwide damage other countries would be asking for reparations,” Mr Dean said."

Life in Taiwan is 'pretty much the same' as it was before COVID-19

Sky News Australia
University Researcher Mat Carney says "life is pretty much the same as it was" before the COVID-19 outbreak three months ago. "The markets are busy, the shopping malls are busy, people are out and about. The only difference really is everywhere you go... your temperature is taken and people squirt hand sanitiser into your hand," Mr Carney said. Sky News host Andrew Bolt highlighted the effective management of COVID-19 Taiwan has undertaken without the need to close businesses or impose strict social rules. "Taiwan is a country with about our population. It is more vulnerable and has had more people travel to and from China," Mr Bolt said. "But in Taiwan, fewer than 260 people have been infected and just two have died." Taiwan's current strategy involves imposing isolation measures on sick, elderly or potentially infectious individuals rather than the broader population. However, it ensures temperature checkers are used in all public places and hand sanitiser is distributed widely, banning anyone with high temperatures or who refuse to sanitise."

The government is burning down the country in order to save it

Sky News Australia
Sky News host Andrew Bolt says the government’s "extreme measures" to shut down businesses in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus is “burning down the country in order to save it”. Many businesses throughout the economy have been forced to close their doors due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which is forcing thousands of Australians out of jobs and into welfare. Mr Bolt said the government is making a “terrible mistake, destroying the jobs and businesses of hundreds of thousands of Australians”. “Politicians, pushed by many journalists, have panicked; they've overreacted by forcing shut so many businesses and have killed so many jobs”.

Why is the coronavirus mortality rate so much lower in Germany?

The Spectator
Is there something about being Germany which protects the body against coronavirus Covid-19? Probably not, I would guess. In which case why do the latest figures from the Robert Koch Institute show that the country has a case fatality rate (CFR) of 0.3 per cent, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) figures from Italy seem to show a CFR of 9 per cent? To say there is a vast gulf between those figures is an understatement. If nine per cent of people who catch Covid-19 are going to die from it we are facing a calamity beyond parallel in the modern world. If only 0.3 per cent of people who catch it die from it, this pandemic may yet turn out to be no worse than seasonal flu, which as I have explained here before is estimated by the US Centers for Disease Control to kill between 291,000 and 646,000 people a year without the world really noticing. According to John Hopkins University, which is collating fatalities data, 15,308 have died to date.  .....On the other hand, German hospitals do not routinely test for the presence of coronavirus in patients who are dying or who have died of other diseases. Italy, by contrast, is performing posthumous coronavirus tests on patients whose deaths might otherwise have been attributed to other causes. This matters hugely to the Case Fatality Rate for each country. As explained here before, CFR is not to be confused with the genuine Mortality Rate."

The government’s economic response to the Coronacrisis is necessary, but the measures must be temporary

FMC
Some socialists may think that there are no consequences to almost limitless borrowing, but just as the clean up of a drenched house in the aftermath of successful firefighting is arduous and painful, so too will be the consequence of the national fight against Covid-19. The added weight of unspeakably large debt will burden the nation, its taxpayers, and particularly younger generations for years and years to come. This is not a free ride.    .....You cannot borrow your way out of recession or spend your way out of debt. Thankfully, the deficit reduction of the last decade has meant that in a moment of crisis such as the one we now face there is more confidence in our ability to pay it back. Ten years of fiscal restraint left us ready to borrow huge amounts for emergencies."

Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg Confirms this is an Insane Panic

armstrongeconomics.com
"What has taken place with this coronavirus is absolutely insane. This is seriously disrupting the entire world economy. We are staring into the eyes of a very serious Great Depression that will topple governments all because of an overreaction and hyping of this virus. Far more people die of the flu and even smoking than this virus. We do not shut down commerce because of such diseases." What has taken place with this coronavirus is absolutely insane. This is seriously disrupting the entire world economy. We are staring into the eyes of a very serious Great Depression that will topple governments all because of an overreaction and hyping of this virus. Far more people die of the flu and even smoking than this virus. We do not shut down commerce because of such diseases.(Video)

Leading scientist -Professor Neil Ferguson, an Imperial College London virus expert is now in self-isolation

Daily Mail

One of the Government's top coronavirus experts believes he has contracted the virus, he revealed on Twitter this morning. Professor Neil Ferguson, an Imperial College London virus expert who has been advising UK officials for two months, said he is now in self-isolation.

In a tweet posted on Wednesday morning he said: 'Sigh. Developed a slight dry but persistent cough yesterday and self isolated even though I felt fine. Then developed high fever at 4am today. There is a lot of COVID-19 in Westminster.' Professor Ferguson, who is in his early 50s, was one of the main authors of a landmark scientific paper published this week which led to the Government ramping up its action plan and may have saved thousands of lives in the UK."

China is not to be trusted when it comes to coronavirus

PM
One example of official numbers not corresponding with even official records is the case of the February 25th infection toll from Shandong province. The Chinese government reported 775 infections, but leaked internal documents revealed 1,992 infections had been recorded by hospitals.
As early as January, whistleblowers purporting to be hospital workers from Wuhan took to WeChat—China’s WhatsApp and Facebook alternative—to plead for help from the international community. One video which shocked the internet claimed to be from an extremely distressed nurse who overheard Doctors speculating the infection rate was over “100,000.”
We know more about the #coronavirus now. It is 3 times as contagious as a common flu, and deadly to about 3% of those who catch it.    ......
One funeral director noted that the amount of coronavirus victims was being drastically underreported by disregarding those who died from the virus in their homes, or outside of official quarantines.In addition to death and infection tolls which don’t quite add up—coincidences continue to emerge that shock and confuse."

Evidence emerges that China has lied about coronavirus since December

PM
Concern is beginning to mount that officials in China knew about the dangers of the coronavirus earlier than they have previously let on. Scientists were aware of the virus, and suspected how deadly it could become, but government officials urged them to be quiet.
Dr. Li Wenliang, a doctor who worked at Wuhan Central Hospital, raised alarm bells about the virus. He had contacted medical colleagues on December 30, but police instructed him to stay silent and to desist in “making false comments.” He has since died from the illness.
Only 34 years old at the time of his death, Dr. Li was aware of seven cases that resembled SARS, which was also a global pandemic in 2003, but of a lesser magnitude than the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus.  .....China is lying to the world about coronavirus. It has been for since 2019. And now is the time for everyone living in free democracies to put aside ideological differences and reject the propaganda. As more and more evidence of China’s deception emerges, we must realize that calling that out is also standing up for our own democracy, freedom and way of life. In our global age, no nation has the right to withhold information that can impact all of us."

Tucker Carlson: "Poisonous Moron" Acosta & Media Protecting China At All Costs, Priority Is "Wokeness"

RealClearPolitics
"In fact, the outbreak may have begun not in a public meat market but in a poorly run Chinese laboratory. That is not our theory. Anyone who raises that theory is attacked as if they are a conspiracy monger. But this is a theory from a now-censored Chinese paper. A draft paper posted in mid-February: Scientists at the South China University of Technology suggested that the virus outbreak began at the Wuhan Center for Disease Control where an animal may have infected a researcher who then spread the disease outside the facility. The paper is explicit about this, we're going to quote it: "The killer coronavirus probably originated in a laboratory in Wuhan."

Now we have no idea if that is actually true, but again those were Chinese researchers making an evidence-based argument about the origin of this virus. That paper has since been taken down, no explanation has been offered for that you can guess. "

Tucker: This pandemic came out of China

FOX News

Mar. 13, 2020 - 4:41 - China is trying to hide the truth about origins of coronavirus, blaming U.S. for the pandemic.

HANNITY: The Coronavirus Doesn’t Discriminate Based on Political Affiliation or Party Membership

‘Hannity’
Speaking during his opening monologue on ‘Hannity’ Wednesday night, Sean weighed-in on the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak across the country; saying the disease does not discriminate based on political ideology or party affiliation.
“Here’s something the media will not tell you: This is not about politics; this is about our American family. There will be plenty of time for politics down the road,” said Hannity. “We have pandemics from time to time. The President’s mission above all else is to protect the lives of the American people.”

How the coronavirus is deadliest for the over-80s and how patients with underlying health problems

Daily Mail

The study did not break the data down into age brackets or gender for each condition. Therefore it is not known, for example, how a 55-year-old man with high blood pressure would fare compared with a 65-year-old woman with diabetes. The killer virus sweeping the globe can infect anybody, but those with more severe illness and those who ultimately die tend to be elderly or suffer from another underlying illness."

Almost all policies to fight the contagion are ludicrously useless rituals

The Reference Frame

Well, almost none of these hysterical reactions is any helpful to reduce the rate of contagion at the level of the individuals let alone the aggregate numbers. This disease was tamed to near non-existence in China – which has reduced the daily new cases from the peak around 1500 to dozens – but it was at a painful cost.While I have no proof, it seems plausible to me that China did these massive maneuvers because it had bad conscience about the origin of the virus. The virus could have been created in the lab. It could have been leaked due to a scary accident, a bat who bit a researcher. Or its propagation at least depended on the first month of inaction. At any rate, China decided to fight the virus in a hardcore way. It wasn't sufficient to prevent the virus from getting to other countries – it really couldn't have achieved this outcome (the virus was probably present abroad already when the Chinese maneuvers began). But it was sufficient to tame the new cases in China itself."

All of Italy being put on LOCKDOWN!

Peter Sweden
IT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING All of Italy being put on LOCKDOWN! That's over 60 million people in Europe being put on lock down. - No more nightlife - Sporting events banned - Travel banned except for work and urgent family reasons They don't do this for "just the flu" Surreal"

What it's REALLY like to catch coronavirus: First British victim, 25, describes how 'worst disease he ever had' left him sweating, shivering, and struggling to breathe as his eyes burned and bones ached

Daily Mail

Day 22: I was hoping to be back at work today but no such luck. The pneumonia has gone — but now I ache as if I’ve been run over by a steamroller. My sinuses are agony, and my eardrums feel ready to pop. I know I shouldn’t but I’m massaging my inner ear with cotton buds, trying to take the pain away.

Day 24: Hallelujah! I think I’m better. Who knew flu could be as horrible as that, though?  

 .....Day 52: A notification from the hospital informs me that I was infected with the Wuhan coronavirus. I suppose I should be pleased that I can’t catch it again — I’m immune now.

My local paper back in Llandudno, North Wales, has been in touch with me. Maybe I caught the coronavirus at the fish market.

It’s a great place to get food on a budget, a part of the real Wuhan that ordinary Chinese people use every day, and I regularly do my shopping there.

Since the outbreak became international news, I’ve seen hysterical reports (especially in the U.S. media) that exotic meats such as bat and even koala are on sale at the fish market. I’ve never seen that."

The story of the 25 year old British man who had Coronavirus last November in Wuhan

JoNova(Australia)
This 25 year old British man caught the virus in Wuhan on November 25. He must have been one of the earliest cases, and it was only recognised belatedly that he had Coronavirus. Twice, he thought he was well, only to relapse. But he does recover. I suspect this is the rarer “severe” type case in an otherwise healthy young man. Theoretically 80% of people get the easier five day version and recover. Notably, for him it’s 24 days before he feels well properly.   

Did I say disruption was coming?

JoNova(Australia)

And so it begins.
Suddenly there are no more weddings for a quarter of all of Italy. No more movies, pubs, dance halls or trains to some parts of the country either. Italy is about to overtake South Korea for the number two spot on the list no country wants to lead, unless Iran beats Italy to it (which it almost certainly has already). Today 16 million Italians are not free to go about their business, or go to school.
On Feb 21st, Italy had three cases, now 366 people are dead, and 7353 are infected (at least). How life has changed in two weeks and three days. Suddenly France and Germany are about to reach the 1,000 mark. This is what exponential curves feel like.

“We are facing an emergency, a national emergency,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in announcing the government decree in a news conference after 2 a.m. — NY Times

The Frankfurt and London exchanges dropped by 8 percent in early Monday trading, while in Paris stocks were trading 4 percent lower. An index of Europe’s 50 biggest companies was down nearly 6 percent.

Oil prices lost nearly a quarter of their value in futures markets, as two major producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, set off a price war while the world’s thirst for crude is already ebbing. While low oil prices can give consumers a boost, they can also disrupt countries that depend heavily on petroleum dollars to keep their economies running.

Stanford Uni and University of Washington have cancelled all classes and gone online. The first of many.  One student started a petition and got 3700 signatures. Maybe that did it, or maybe the rulers there are smart and worried about catching it themselves.
This is all so predictable."

Researchers capture the first pictures showing 'the real appearance' of the new coronavirus

Daily Mail

• Experts in China used frozen electron microscope analysis technology 
• They captured pictures of a strain of coronavirus after it was inactivated
• Study can help the development of drugs and vaccines against the virus
• Comes as China said first vaccines could be in 'clinical use' next month

'This is war': Doctor leading search for coronavirus vaccine says it's the most frightening disease he's ever encountered

Daily Mail

A doctor spearheading the search for a coronavirus vaccine today said it is the most frightening thing he has ever encountered and far more deadly than flu - as he revealed fighting it will be like a war.  Dr Richard Hatchett, who heads up the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said governments need to adopt an 'aggressive' response to tackling the virus as he revealed it could take between 12-18 months to develop a vaccine and cost £1.5bn ($2bn)."

Coronavirus Patient Zero in Italy Was Pakistani Migrant Who Refused to Self-Isolate

Summit News
The man believed to be coronavirus patient zero in Italy is a Pakistani migrant refused to self-isolate after testing positive for the virus and continued to deliver food.
Health authorities asked the man to quarantine himself at his home in the Pavia area for two weeks, but he ignored the request and continued to work at a Chinese restaurant.
He then compounded the risk of spreading the virus by making home deliveries of Chinese food.
Authorities were alerted to the situation and the military intervened to return the man to his home."

15 MILLION people will die and the global economy will take a $2.3 TRILLION hit from coronavirus in the BEST-CASE scenario

Daily Mail

The global death toll from coronavirus could reach as high as 15million even in the best-case pandemic scenario, a new study says. The research by the Australian National University also found that global GDP could shrink by as much as $2.3trillion even in what they call a 'low-end' pandemic. In the most disastrous scenario, the death toll could reach a staggering 68million including hundreds of thousands of deaths in Britain and the United States. In that worst-case pandemic, some countries' economies would shrink by as much as eight per cent in a global meltdown. "