Why Taiwan's success has become a problem for WHO

Comment Central
Taiwan first notified the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the virus on 31 December 2019, specifically in relation to its concern regarding for potential for human-to-human transmission. But, regrettably, Taiwan are not members of the WHO and they chose to respond by publicly dismissing these concerns. Instead the WHO has chosen to accept, with no scrutiny or criticism, the word of the Chinese government.  Despite this, Taiwan is now outperforming the rest of the world and this will only advantage them more in the long run. It has been estimated that the economic cost of a one-month lockdown is a 3 percent contraction of full year GDP. Whilst the rest of the world is going to have to take tough economic decisions to bring their finances back on track after the pandemic passes, Taiwan will find itself in a very fortunate position."

Covid-19 Is Not Natural, Withdraw My Nobel Award If I’m Wrong – Dr. Tasuku Honjo

Naijakoko
According to the professor and Doctor, he has done 40 years of research on animals and viruses. It is not natural. It is manufactured and the virus is completely artificial.

“I have worked for 4 years in the Wuhan laboratory in China. I am fully acquainted with all the staff of that laboratory. I have been phoning them all, after the Coronavirus surfaced. But all their phones are dead for the last 3 months. It is now understood that all these lab technicians have died.”
“Based on all my knowledge and research till date, I can say this with 100% confidence – That the Coronavirus is not natural. It did not come from bats. China manufactured it. If what I am saying today is proved false now or even after my death, the government can withdraw my Nobel Prize. China is lying and this truth will one day be revealed to everyone.”

COVID-19 will last up to two years – with massive long-term social, economic & psychological effects

Guido Fawkes
Economic historian Dr Stephen Davies outlines the profound and lasting effects of the coronavirus in a new video from the Institute of Economic Affairs – GOING VIRAL: The history and economics of pandemics.  Dr. Davies – Head of Education at the IEA – says history suggests the pandemic will last up to two years and come in a series of waves – with the second wave likely to be the biggest and most damaging. Likely economic outcomes include massive falls in GDP, much higher inflation and a massive debt crisis accompanied by a significant revaluation of assets – and a retreat from globalisation and economic integration. At the same time, creativity and adaptability will lead to innovation and the intensification of trends such as online shopping and working from home  GOING VIRAL is accompanied by a report out today, outlining a number of steps that could mitigate future risk. You can read it here: iea.org.uk/publications/going-viral

A THIRD of UK coronavirus patients who go to hospital never come out - and 53% on ventilators die

Daily Mail

A third of coronavirus patients admitted to NHS hospitals die from the disease and more than half of those on ventilators do not survive, according to a major study.Researchers analysing almost 17,000 COVID-19 hospitalisations in the UK found 33 per cent died, 49 per cent were discharged and 17 per cent are still receiving care. The study, the biggest of its kind in Europe, found just a fifth of intubated UK patients made it home alive. Fifty-three per cent have died while on a ventilator and 27 per cent are still hooked up to the machines at the time of writing. Of those in ICU, 45 per cent succumbed to the virus, 31 per cent went home after beating the illness and just under a quarter are still being treated."

‘For the first time in my life, I’m frightened of my government’: Andrew Bolt

SkyNews(Australia)
Sky News host Andrew Bolt says “for the first time in my life, I am frightened of my government” as the catastrophic coronavirus laws are "smashing" the nation into another depression. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison had stressed Australia is “not too far” from restrictions being relaxed as he spruiked the COVIDSafe app as being the “ticket” to the road back. “For just a second today, I thought, at last the prime minister now gets it". Instead, Mr Bolt said "for the first time in my life, I am frightened of my government”. Mr Bolt said it wasn’t “just the federal government” he fears, but also the Victorian government which is “the most insanely militant of all state governments” in the country. Mr Bolt argued the strict social distancing measures are having vast negative effects on society and that the threat of coronavirus has been exaggerated. “I accept my freedom has its limit,” however some of the coronavirus bans “are mad and random with no real link between them and the danger they’re supposedly saving us from”. Mr Bolt said he obeys the coronavirus laws “not because I respect them but because, a bit like a criminal, I just fear the punishment”. “Government is now not my protector but a threat”

US doctors claim that Trump's controversial hydroxychloroquine drug DOES help 91% of coronavirus patients

Daily Mail

• The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons wrote a letter to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey urging wider use of hydroxychloroquine to treat covid
• They claim that data on 2,333 coronavirus patients reveals the drug helped 91% of patients recover 
• Their data is mostly taken from observations of various doctors, many of whom - including Dr Oz - report treating only one or two patients 
• Dr Anthony Fauci has advised caution in using hydroxychloroquine until clinical trials provide more data 
• FDA issued a warning against using hydroxychloroquine outside hospitals due to its potential to cause heart arrhythmias in some patients 
• Hydroxychloroquine has shown promise in labs and anecdotal reports, but a VA study found more patients treated with it died than those given standard care
• AAPS dismisses these results, arguing the veterans involved were very sick and their outcomes were not representative 

Businessman Luke Johnson wants an end to lockdown, calling it "Project Fear Mark 2

TalkRadio(Twitter)
Businessman Luke Johnson wants an end to lockdown, calling it "Project Fear Mark 2... A frightened society is a failing society. Enough is enough." Listen in full ► http://youtu.be/SrQd56Briv8

YouTube Censors Viral Video Of California Doctors Criticizing "Stay-At-Home" Order

ZeroHedge
YouTube has censored a viral video in which two doctors criticized the logic of whether California’s stay-at-home coronavirus order is necessary.
The video, which had racked up over 5 million views, featured Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi, co-owners of Accelerated Urgent Care in Bakersfield, Calif.

In the clip, Erickson asserts that there is only a “0.03 chance of dying from COVID in the state of California,” prompting him to ask:

“Does that necessitate sheltering in place? Does that necessitate shutting down medical systems? Does that necessitate people being out of work?”

Erickson also asked why fatalities were being counted as COVID-19 deaths when other ailments were actually more to blame.

“When someone dies in this country right now, they’re not talking about the high blood pressure, the diabetes, the stroke. They’re saying ‘Did they die from COVID?'” Erickson said.
“We’ve been to hundreds of autopsies. You don’t talk about one thing, you talk about comorbidities. ER doctors now [say] ‘It’s interesting when I’m writing about my death report, I’m being pressured to add COVID. Why is that?”

The video was deleted late last night for “violating YouTube’s terms of service.”

Covid-19: WHO is to blame?

Guido Fawkes

The World Health Organization (WHO) has a mandate to establish global health policy, coordinate global responses to health emergencies, and combat disease.
But just how well has it performed in relation to Covid-19? With a US$2 billion annual budget could it have done better? Did it make the right decisions? Should it have intervened faster and firmer? Indeed, had it intervened in China earlier could the whole pandemic have been averted?
In this new video from the Institute of Economic Affairs, Patrick Basham, founding Director of the Democracy Institute, details the shortcomings of the United Nations’ public health agency – and puts forward radical proposals for protecting global health in future."

"When I writing up a death report, I am being pressured to write COVID, why is that?"

Twitter

Dr Erickson, CA USA, completely destroys the MSM narrative on death rate & lethality of coronavirus, whilst highlighting the consequences of the lockdown. "When I writing up a death report, I am being pressured to write COVID, why is that?"

Dr Erickson COVID 19 Briefing Pt 1

 

Dr Erickson COVID 19 Briefing, Pt 2..Actual Facts..

 

Dr. Erickson COVID-19 Briefing (Vimeo)

 

Western Spy Agencies Investigating Wuhan Scientist Highlighted By Zero Hedge In January

ZeroHedge
Western intelligence agencies are "looking closely at the work of a senior scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Peng Zhou," as part of a joint international investigation into the origins of COVID-19, according to the Daily Telegraph.
In a stunning expose, the Australian newspaper reports that "the Five Eyes intelligence agencies of Australia, Canada, NZ, UK and US, are understood to be looking closely at the work of a senior scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Peng Zhou, as they examine whether COVID-19 originated from a wet market or whether the naturally-­occurring virus may have been released from the level four laboratory in Wuhan that was studying deadly coronavirus pathogens from bats."
Of course, the name of Peng has been long familiar to our readers, and would have been familiar to far more people had Twitter not decided to arbitrarily suspend the Zero Hedge account over a report exposing Mr. Zhou."

The inconvenient truth for Boris’s critics is that he did follow the science – and it’s working

Mail on Sunday

Over the past week the Government's Covid-19 response has come under sustained assault.  

The Cabinet was too slow to appreciate the enormity of the looming pandemic. When they did finally react, they moved with all the assurance of the Keystone Cops. And at every stage, narrow political ideology – a desire to protect the markets and unleash 'herd immunity' on an unsuspecting public – drove their strategy. It's a lie. Not a false narrative or partial perspective, but a destructive fiction. Because the truth is this: When the Chinese wall of silence finally collapsed, Boris and his Ministers had no choice but to follow the science. They did follow the science. And the science worked. "

Don’t be fooled by the sunshine – there are only dark days ahead

Mail on Sunday

Except, in this case, we will all be permanently less free and permanently poorer. And that will, of course, include the sacred NHS, which the nation love-bombs every Thursday night but which is already so threadbare that it cannot properly equip its doctors and nurses. Just wait and see how much worse this gets in the coming era of post-shutdown austerity.Not to mention all the various zealots and fanatics who already see this new world as an opportunity to impose their various dogmas and fads on us. ........They cannot admit they (govt) gravely overestimated the danger of the virus, and gravely underestimated the damage they would do to the economy. .....Tell them that this has gone on long enough and is now bound to cost more lives than it saves, as well as all the other damage.... For, if something does not give soon, I very much fear that millions will simply cease to obey rules which no longer make sense. Without a clear hope of release from house arrest and forced idleness, many people will despair. And it will be grim for us all if that happens. "

2,700 cancers MISSED every week: Coronavirus crisis causes urgent GP hospital referrals to plummet as patients are reluctant to visit their doctor

Daily Mail

Cancer Research UK said the numbers being referred by doctors for urgent hospital appointments or checks had dropped by 75 per cent since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

Sarah Woolnough, from the charity, said about 2,300 cancers were being missed every week as a result, and many patients' operable cancers would become inoperable if they remained undetected.

Separate figures estimate that another 400 cancers a week are being missed because screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancer has been suspended."

Why is Sweden still faring BETTER in coronavirus crisis than Britain - despite having NO lockdown?

Daily Mail

• Sweden's average daily rise of 53 coronavirus cases per million people is lower than UK's current figure of 66  
• Sweden has emphasised 'individual responsibility', arguing people will accept voluntary distancing for longer
• UK coronavirus cases may have stalled before the lockdown when government was taking similar approach

Number of deaths at home has soared by 50% during coronavirus crisis

Daily Mail

• Number of Britons dying at home has risen by 51 per cent since the crisis began
• Yesterday 616 Covid-19 patients died in UK and taking the official toll to 18,783
• However growing concern that patients are dying from other illnesses at home

WHO boss provides false figures to support his failure to act early

Sky News Australia
The leader of the World Health Organisation had to be corrected by his staff after falsely claiming there were only 82 cases of coronavirus when he declared an international health emergency in January when the true figure was several thousand"

Latest Chinese Consulate Pansygram Arrives

Telegraph(Australia)

On 22 April, The Daily Telegraph newspaper in New South Wales of Australia published an article that included a defaced design of China's national emblem maliciously linking COVID-19 with China.

The image – shown above, and to be shown repeatedly until its pixels are worn down to invisibility – accurately linked the Wuhan flu to China.

This act has gravely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people …

Doubtful. You know what really hurts the Chinese people? Executing thousands of them every year.

The Chinese Consulate General in Sydney strongly condemns and firmly opposes it.

Whatever. Makes no difference to us.

It is not clear yet where the COVID-19 virus originated.

Wuhan. It originated in Wuhan, China.

Professor Warns Cancer Deaths Due to COVID Disruption Will Be Greater Than Deaths From Coronavirus

Summit News
A professor at King’s College London has warned that there will be more excess cancer deaths over the next 5 years than the number of people who die from coronavirus in the UK due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus lockdown, which is preventing cancer victims from getting treatment. Richard Sullivan, professor of cancer and global health and director of its Institute of Cancer Policy, said: “The number of deaths due to the disruption of cancer services is likely to outweigh the number of deaths from the coronavirus itself over the next five years.”

Who will pay for this Covid catastrophe?

Unherd

Magic money trees do exist but their fruit is poisonous

This year it’s projected that the US Treasury department will issue $3 trillion (i.e. three thousand billion dollars) of new bonds (a bond, by the way, is basically an IOU).
In the UK it’ll be hundreds and hundreds of billions of extra borrowing.
In the EU things are horrendously complicated by the single currency, but there’ll be colossal borrowing requirements there too — and across the world.Interest rates are at record lows right now, but economic recovery implies that that they will at some point come back off the floor. So how will governments cope then? Will public finances be chewed up by the cost of servicing these loans? What if multiple countries default, sending the global financial system into meltdown? One way or another, the recovery could be crushed by the sheer weight of debt.
However, there is a way out: monetisation. This means that central banks, like the Bank of England, will be the biggest buyers of the extra debt. They will simply create new money (by electronic means rather than physically printing banknotes) and use it to buy government bonds.
Given that a central bank is owned by the state, the state effectively borrows money from itself and owes it to itself. So no sovereign debt crisis.

*

That’s how western governments get out of the economic frying pan, but in doing so will they plunge into a political fire?

 

Sweden Is Right - The Economy Should Be Left Open

ZeroHedge
Sometimes, the best thing to do, is to do nothing at all. Take Sweden, for example, where the government decided not to shut down the economy, but to take a more thoughtful and balanced approach. Sweden has kept its primary schools, restaurants, shops and gyms open for business even though fewer people are out in public or carrying on as they normally would.  .....What the Swedish experiment demonstrates, is that there’s a way to navigate these unprecedented public health challenges without recklessly imposing police state policies and without doing irreparable harm to the economy. And, yes, the results of this experiment are not yet known, but what we do know is that most nations cannot simply print-up trillions of dollars to counter the knock-on effects of bringing the economy to a screeching halt. These countries must dip into their reserves or take out loans from the IMF in order to recover from the lack of production and activity. That means they’re going to face years of slow growth and high unemployment to dig out from the mess their leaders created for them."

Swedish Epidemiologist Lays Out Sweden’s Thinking

Guido Fawkes

• The flattening of the curve we are seeing now is due to the most vulnerable dying first as much as the lockdown
• UK policy on lockdown and in other European countries is not evidence-based
• The correct policy is to protect the old and the frail only
• This will eventually lead to herd immunity as a “by-product”
• The initial UK response, before the “180 degree U-turn”, was better
• The Imperial College paper was “not very good” and he has never seen an unpublished, non-peer-reviewed paper have so much policy impact
• Is dismissive of the 510,000 figure that was predicted if mitigation measures were not implemented
• The Imperial College paper was much too pessimistic and did not factor in the now much increased ICU capacity
• Any such models are a dubious basis for public policy anyway, taking no account of real world specifics
• The results will eventually be similar for all countries
• Covid-19 is a “mild disease” and similar to the flu, and it was the novelty of the disease that scared people.
• The actual fatality rate of Covid-19 will in all likelihood turn out to be in the region of 0.1%
• At least 50% of the population of both the UK and Sweden will likely be shown to have already had the disease when mass antibody testing becomes available

His Swedish blunt logic is not an eccentricity, he was the first Chief Scientist of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and an advisor to the director general of the WHO. Guido increasingly thinks we need to move towards “climbing down the rungs” of lockdown. This eminent epidemiologist makes a convincing case that this 3 week extension should be the last unless and until there is a second wave…

US State Department Cables Warned Of Potential 'SARS-Like Pandemic' After Visiting Wuhan Lab Experimenting With Bat Coronavirus

ZeroHedge
The US State Department received two cables from US Embassy officials in 2018 warning of inadequate safety at a Wuhan, China biolab conducting 'risky studies' on bat coronaviruses, according to the Washington Post, which notes that the cables have "fueled discussions inside the U.S. government about whether this or another Wuhan lab was the source of the virus."

Ease the lockdown and we can still save business and jobs

CW
Meanwhile, as some of us forecast, the stringent policy of preventing many companies from trading and stopping many people working is having a hugely damaging effect on jobs, businesses, tax revenues and our capacity to supply ourselves beyond the essentials.   ....
When restrictions are eventually lifted, there will be far fewer companies and people able to respond. There will also be less demand, as the many people who have suffered financially from the closure period will not be able to pick up where they left off with discretionary spending.
So we now need a policy which still gives priority to protecting the elderly and vulnerable from the virus, whilst getting more companies trading and more people back to productive work.  .....We can only afford the NHS if we have a strong economy. Government schemes to pay companies and the self-employed some money in lieu of work cannot make up for the huge losses, and so far the schemes have proved slow to open and patchy in coverage. We need faster action to save jobs and business.

IMF chief: World facing worst economic crisis since Great Depression

Telegraph

Even in the best-case scenario, the IMF expects only a "partial recovery" next year, assuming the virus fades later in 2020, allowing normal business to resume as the lockdowns imposed to contain its spread are lifted. But she added this ominous caution: "It could get worse."
There is "tremendous uncertainty around the outlook" and the duration of the pandemic, Georgieva said. The IMF will release its latest World Economic Outlook on Tuesday, with grim forecasts for its members this year and next. In January, the IMF projected global growth of 3.3 percent this year and 3.4 percent in 2021. But that was a different world.
The US economy has purged 17 million jobs since mid-March, with the latest weekly data issued on Thursday showing 6.6 million workers filed for unemployment benefits, and economists projecting a double-digit jobless rate this month."

economic damage to the UK due to 'lockdown'

Arron Banks
Economic damage to the UK ,will kill more than the virus. we are likely to lose 30% of economic output ,unemployment in double digits, bank losses, a credit crunch & a slump in demand. The tax base will dramatically shrink. Anyone not concerned about this is a fool "

Hydroxychloroquine rated 'most effective therapy' by doctors for coronavirus: Global survey

Washington Times
An international poll of more than 6,000 doctors released Thursday found that the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine was the most highly rated treatment for the novel coronavirus.
The survey conducted by Sermo, a global health care polling company, of 6,227 physicians in 30 countries found that 37% of those treating COVID-19 patients rated hydroxychloroquine as the “most effective therapy” from a list of 15 options."

Doctors waiting at St Thomas's hospital for Boris Johnson to arrive only realised he wasn’t coming when they saw him on TV

Daily Mail
Medics were expecting Boris Johnson to be rushed to hospital three days before he was finally admitted – and only realised that he wasn't coming when they saw him clapping for the NHS that evening on their television screens.     .....

A Government source described Mr Johnson as 'resistant' to the idea of going into hospital for fear of it looking like he was receiving preferential treatment, but Downing Street last night insisted that he acted on the advice of his doctors. It was agreed on April 2 that he would remain in self- ­isolation above No11 with his symptoms reviewed on Saturday morning. However, Ministers, aides and friends now say privately that he should have gone into hospital much earlier. 'It was clear he was in a terrible state all week,' said one. According to NHS sources, the team at St ­Thomas' were already 'scrubbed up and in PPE' [personal protective equipment] at a secret entrance to the hospital on Thursday evening when they were told that the PM was no longer coming. "

Did Boris Johnson have hydroxychloroquine ?

@CllrBSilvester Thousands of lives of Brits have been lost unnecessarily because of the refusal of @GovUk to offer #chloroquine to ALL #CoronaVirus patients. This is a scandal of huge proportions and the media and politicians don't seem in the least bit interested.
@Ian56789 it is extremely suspicious that no hydroxychloroquine or HCQ + Z-Pak + zinc trials have been announced in the UK like they have in a number of other countries and it has been successfully used to treat #Covid19 in China, South Korea, France and New York - Doncha think?
Helen Pen
@quiscustodis  Quite right. #HydroxychloroquineAndAzithromycine are being used in Malaysia, Italy, France, India, USA, South Korea and China.
These results are being globally replicated particularly if #Hydroxychloroquine and #Azithromycine is given early.

“flattening the curve”

 Guido Fawkes

It didn’t dawn on me immediately that “flattening the curve” did not reduce the area under the curve, it just spread it out over time. The total number of deaths will likely still be the same without a vaccine."

Treatment options for #COVID19 in USA:

@JamesTodaroMD

Treatment options for #COVID19 in USA:

Hydroxychloroquine:
- $0.63 per pill
- generic
- 11 US manufacturers

Azithromycin:
- $0.84 per pill
- generic
- 12 US manufacturers

Remdesivir:
- $1000 per pill
- on-patent
- 1 US manufacturer (Gilead)...

China is heading for 'worst financial crash in 60 years

Daily Mail

The effect of the lockdown on China's economy is thought to be an indicator of what European and US markets could expect to see once they start to relax restrictions.

Experts have warned the huge impact on finances, businesses and consumer spending could see the UK economy shrink by as much as 15 to 25 per cent over the coming weeks and months.

Globally, at least 1.7 million people have been infected, 102,000 have died and 404,000 have recovered from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University."

Iceland has tested one-tenth of its population for coronavirus at random and found HALF of people have the disease without realising

Daily Mail

Iceland has tested one-tenth of its population for coronavirus at random and found that half of people have the disease without realising. 

They also discovered that 1,600 people have been infected with Covid-19 since the start of the outbreak. Of these cases, there were only seven deaths, indicating a fatality rate of just 0.004 per cent, which is significantly lower than other countries, including the UK.  

The findings were made during Iceland's rigorous testing campaign, conducted with the help of Reykjavik-based biopharmaceutical company deCODE genetics, which has seen 10 per cent of the 364,413 population swabbed, something yet to be achieved by any other nation.   

An estimated 50 per cent of those infected with the virus, the company found, do not show any symptoms. "

Understanding Covid needs open minds – and vigorous debate

Spectator

Now consider the politics. At the moment, one particular approach to modelling the Covid-19 epidemic - that of Imperial College, London - is holding court in the UK. The actions that we are taking were based on these modelling results. Barely a day goes by without a politician saying that they will be 'led by the science'. But what we are seeing with Covid-19 is not 'science' in action. Science involves matching theories with evidence and testing a theory with attempts to falsify it, so that it can be refined to better match reality. A theory from a group of scientists is just that: a theory. Believing the opinion of that group without a critical verification process is just that: belief. 

The modelling results may be close to the truth, or they could be very far from it. The idea of science is that you can test the data and the assumptions, and find out."   ......And as I have previously argued, the way we are recording causes of death in terms of respiratory infection is different in this epidemic from any previous one, meaning that our observation and recording of Covid-19 deaths is more comprehensive and therefore potentially more alarming.Death figures, or indeed any other figures, on their own mean nothing without context."

Sweden sees just 77 new deaths from coronavirus and number of new infections drops by a quarter

Daily Mail

Sweden's daily death toll and its number of new coronavirus cases both fell today as the country continues to hold out against imposing a lockdown. 

The 77 new deaths - down from 106 yesterday - bring the total from 793 to 870, according to figures from Sweden's public health agency. The number of confirmed infections went up by 544, a drop of nearly a quarter from yesterday's near-record figure of 722. It takes the total number of cases from 9,141 to 9,685. These figures will likely be used to pressure governments which have resorted to lockdowns to battle Covid-19 to lift the draconian restrictions.

How the World Health Organization got it so WRONG on coronavirus

Right Scoop
This is why so many, including former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton, are calling for the head of the WHO to resign:

The @WHO is an accomplice to China's massive coverup of Covid19. That's why I support efforts by @marcorubio & @tedcruz pushing for resignation of WHO director general. He misled the world by blindly trusting a communist regime intent on deception.

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) April 6, 2020

He’s right. “Blindly trusting” China is a great way to put it, especially considering what we know now about the obscene measures China has been taking to ‘contain’ the virus.
And that’s not even mentioning the silencing of doctors within China who were warning others about the virus. And the fact that WHO is now admitting that they ignored December transmission concerns from Taiwan because they didn’t want to upset China.
When Trump says that WHO has been far too “China centric”, he’s not wrong."

the man running World Health Organisation is a career politician who worked for a Communist junta

Daily Mail

• Tedros Ghebreyesus is Director-General of the WHO and leading global response to coronavirus pandemic
• He studied in the UK before serving at the top of Ethiopia's government and was part of hard-left TPLF party
• During that time, contributions by China to Ethiopia via various UN programmes increased dramatically  
• In 2017 he was elected to lead the WHO, amid allegations of heavy lobbying by Chinese diplomats 
• His response to the pandemic has been heavily criticised, particularly his praise for China's government

Former WHO executive and Number 10 advisor reveals four-step 'exit strategy' to ease UK out of lockdown

Daily Mail

• Professor Karol Sikora is the former director of the UN body's cancer unit
• He said small business could reopen on April 27 followed by schools on May 4
• Offices, bars and restaurants could be allowed to operate again on May 18
• Restrictions on international travel and mass gatherings could be lifted on June 1

Germany’s virus response shines unforgiving light on Britain

FT
"Even more stark is relative performance on testing. The UK and Germany entered the crisis in lock-step, working together on virus tests, some of the first developed in the world. But Germany’s labs ran at more than five-times the NHS rate, completing 918,460 tests versus Britain’s 163,194. Only on Thursday did Matt Hancock, the health secretary, declare Britain would “ramp up” efforts by harnessing private facilities — just as the global supply of chemicals and testing equipment was being squeezed. “Germany had 100 test labs at the start, largely thanks to Roche, but we had to start from a lower base,” he said. “We are going to build a British diagnostics industry at scale.”

Chinese Biological Experiments To Infect Humans With Coronavirus Exposed In 2015 By Italian State Media

ZeroHedge
Five years ago, Italian state owned media Company, Rai – Radiotelevisione Italiana, exposed dark efforts by China on viruses. The video, which was broadcast in November, 2015, showed how Chinese scientists were doing biological experiments on a SARS connected virus believed to be Coronavirus, derived from bats and mice, asking whether it was worth the risk in order to be able to modify the virus for compatibility with human organisms."

The WHO has failed us again

Unherd.com
The Canadian physician, a trained epidemiologist, is one of the most influential officials in global efforts to beat this pandemic through his role as assistant director-general at the World Health Organisation (WHO). Much of his time has been spent in the media, often praising China for its response to an epidemic that emerged last year in the central city of Wuhan. Aylward led a WHO mission there last month and was clearly impressed, even saying if he had the virus he wanted to be treated there. Yet Aylward, raised in one of the world’s most benign societies, panders to the crude narrative of Communist Party chieftans, who now pose as heroes of this pandemic. So when a Taiwanese journalist asked about her country’s laudable response to the virus, he paused for several seconds, pretended not to hear the question and then appeared to hang up on her call. The reporter dialled back, but was brushed off with the reply that “we’ve already talked about China — and when you look across all the different areas of China, they’ve actually done quite a good job.”
Such words could have spewed from the mouth of a tremulous Beijing bureaucrat."

WHO’s early coronavirus response raises awkward questions about Beijing relationship

The Globe and Mail

In the early afternoon of Jan. 31, the lead World Health Organization representative in Beijing held a video briefing to update diplomats on the spread of a deadly new virus – and to laud China for everything it was doing.

Only a day before, the WHO had declared a “public-health emergency of international concern” over the deadly new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, after an initial outbreak in China’s Hubei province began to spread around the world. The WHO also said no restrictions on travel or trade were necessary.

On the video briefing, the WHO’s top man in China, Gauden Galea, praised the Chinese virus response. Then he went a step further, calling on other countries not to step out of line with the WHO recommendations, a key concern for Beijing, which was furious that countries were beginning to close their borders to Chinese travellers.

Any United Nations member country “will have to scientifically justify” any measure that "goes beyond UN recommendation. This justification will be made public,” Mr. Galea said, according to notes of the meeting made by one of the participants and seen by The Globe and Mail."

How WHO Became China’s Coronavirus Accomplice

FP News
After initial denials and cover-ups, China successfully contained the COVID-19 outbreak—but not before it had exported many cases to the rest of the world. Today, despite the falsehoods it initially passed on, which played a critical role in delaying global response, it’s trying to leverage its reputed success story into a stronger position on international health bodies.
Most critically, Beijing succeeded from the start in steering the World Health Organization (WHO), which both receives funding from China and is dependent on the regime of the Communist Party on many levels. Its international experts didn’t get access to the country until Director-General Tedros Adhanom visited President Xi Jinping at the end of January. Before then, WHO was uncritically repeating information from the Chinese authorities, ignoring warnings from Taiwanese doctors—unrepresented in WHO, which is a United Nations body—and reluctant to declare a “public health emergency of international concern,” denying after a meeting Jan. 22 that there was any need to do so."

‘Chloroquine’ used to treat Covid-19 patients since first wave, says Health D-G

malaymail.com
PUTRAJAYA, March 29 — Chloroquine, a drug used for malaria, has been used to treat Covid-19 patients since the first wave of the outbreak in Malaysia and shown its efficacy, says Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the anti-inflammatory properties of the drug were effective in treating Covid-19 which caused inflammation in the lower respiratory tract.

“When the Covid-19 virus attaches to the lower respiratory tract it causes inflammation and replication of the virus and this drug helps treat the inflammation,” he told a press conference here today. Besides ‘Chloroquine’, Dr Noor Hisham said the combination of ‘Lopinavir and Ritonavir’ and Hydroxychloroquine have also been used by Ministry of Health (MoH) since the first wave of the outbreak. He said the drugs used in the first wave of the infection showed promising results in treating Covid-19, however, further research was still required."

Ventilators aren’t a panacea for a pandemic like coronavirus

Spectator
I am a critical care physician, specialising in the use of such machines. I’m flattered by all the attention our tools are receiving. But I fear the current clamour reminds me of nothing so much as the panic buyers of toilet-paper stampeding over each other in early March. When the history of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Western world is written, I do not believe 'massive ramp-up of ventilator manufacturing,' will be credited with our deliverance. Let me explain why.
Ventilators do not cure any disease. They can fill your lungs with air when you find yourself unable to do so yourself. They are associated with lung diseases in the public’s consciousness, but this is not in fact their most common or most appropriate application.   ......Clinical trials of new and old medications are ongoing. But right now, I am sorry to say there is no proven treatment for Covid-19 infection. It is therefore at least conceivable that putting patients on ventilators for Covid-19 pneumonia could be a bridge to nowhere.

Locals in Wuhan believe 42,000 people may have died in the coronavirus outbreak there not the 3,200 claimed by Chinese authorities

Daily Mail

Wuhan locals claim coronavirus has killed 42,000 people in the city alone, more than ten times the national figure claimed by Chinese authorities.

The killer bug, which originated in Wuhan in China's Hubei Province has claimed the lives of 3,300 people and infected more than 81,000.

Of those, 3,182 deaths were reported in Hubei Province.

But residents in Wuhan claim 500 urns have been handed out to grieving families every day from seven separate funeral homes all serving the city.

This means the ashes of 3,500 people are distributed every 24 hours.

The homes - in Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang - have told grieving families that they will receive the ashes before April 5, the date of Qing Ming festival where people tend the graves of their ancestors. 

This means that 42,000 urns could be distributed in that 12-day period.

Earlier reports stated that the Hankou premises received two shipments of 5,000 urns in just two days, according to local media. "

Italy Finally Starts Mass Treatment with Hydroxychloroquine

.trustnodes.com

Doctors in Italy have finally began widely prescribing hydroxychloroquine in certain combinations in Rome and the wider region of Lazio with a population of around six million.
According to Corriere della Sera, a well known Italian daily newspaper, Dr. Pier Luigi Bartoletti, Deputy National Secretary of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners, explains that every single person with Covid-19 that has early signs, like a cough or a fever for example, is now being treated with the anti-malaria drug.
The drug “is already giving good results,” Bartoletti says while Malaysia reveals they have been using it since the very beginning. Bartoletti further adds that the drug:
“Must be used with all the necessary precautions, it must be evaluated patient by patient. It can have side effects. But those that take it are responding really well.

We have just understood that the virus has an evolution in two phases and that it is during the second phase, after a few days (about a week), that the situation can suddenly, in 24 or 48 hours, worsen and leads to respiratory failure requiring intensive care.

The results that we are starting to accumulate suggest that hydroxychloroquine administered early, gives the possibility of avoiding this evolution in a majority of patients and is also helping us to prevent hospitals from filling up.”

Molecular Biologist Says COVID-19 Could Have Leaked From Wuhan Biolab

ZeroHedge
To clarify, Professor Ebright categorically does not believe that the virus is an engineered bioweapon, due to the scientific evidence showing otherwise. However, the notion that the strain of coronavirus that has spread around the world, and since mutated, came from the Wuhan lab is a real possibility in Ebright’s opinion.
This notion is also supported by the fact that according to a study contributed to by the ‘bat-woman’ herself, Shi Zhengli, the novel coronavirus is 96.2% identical to a viral strain that was detected in horseshoe bats from the Yunnan Province, which is over 600 miles away from Wuhan.
Separate Chinese research confirmed this and cited testimonies from close to 60 people who lived or stayed in Wuhan for lengthy periods, saying that the bat “was never a food source in the city, and no bat was traded in the market.”
The research paper, which was uploaded to Research Gate on Feb. 6, concluded that “The killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.”

Modern society is 'so afraid of death' no one asks if lockdown measures to battle coronavirus are the right approach

Daily Mail
Lord Sumption went on to list a number of historic epidemics such as Bubonic plague, smallpox, cholera, typhoid, meningitis and Spanish flu, reminding people that such outbreaks with higher mortality rates were met with less 'hysteria'.     Meanwhile Professor Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, warned that certain cancers which were until now thought survivable are to become 'inoperable' due to delays in the current crisis.......

Professor Swanton added: 'There is a risk that trusts may have to make a choice between ventilatory support for an acutely unwell patient with Covid-19 at the expense of an elective admission for primary surgery for a potentially curable tumour requiring a short post-operative stay in intensive care.' A source close to The Department of Health told The Sunday Times that it was possible more people, including cancer patients, could die from delays to their treatment caused by the virus than from the coronavirus."

'Lockdown is a grave MISTAKE that needs to end now

Daily Mail
60 Second Sound Off: 'Lockdown is a grave MISTAKE that needs to end now – or our grandchildren will pay the price' says Peter Hitchens. Do you agree? 

De-Sinofication is Inevitably Coming

Guido fawkes
On the wider point of Chinese integration with the global economy, you don’t have to be a Trump supporter to think that relying on China for strategically important goods is no longer going to be considered a great idea. In recent years China has made great play of it being a force for good in international affairs. Pundits even started comparing it favourably to the Trump administration when it came to the global rules based order. No longer.
Since President Xi extended his term of office the signs are that China is reversing liberalisation and becoming more of a technology-enabled totalitarian state, with increasing repression of minorities and continuing suppression of human rights of dissidents. On the international front it is becoming increasingly belligerent in the region, not forgetting it is North Korea’s protector."