Hydroxychloroquine versus remdesivir: here’s what you need to know about these two COVID-19 drugs.
DATA:
https://bit.ly/RemdesivirAndCovid19
A New Study Unveiled By Prominent French Virologist Claims HCQ-AZ Combination Removed Novel Coronavirus In 92 Percent Cases Link
COVID-19 and Clotting: https://youtu.be/z8_mq563Dz0
Timestamps
0:10 A big mistake by the World Health Organization
1:13 Remdesivir versus hydroxychloroquine
2:00 A new study
2:40 An amazing story on hydroxychloroquine
In this video, I want to compare hydroxychloroquine versus remdesivir.
A big mistake was made by the World Health Organization when they sent this study to various publications. There was a rush to publish the study right away because of the success of remdesivir, and the wrong study was accidentally sent.
In the study that was sent, there was not an association with statistically significant clinical benefits with remdesivir.
The study that they wanted to publish only showed a moderate improvement in recovery time. Remdesivir is also an expensive drug.
The media has sparked excitement over remdesivir, but is ignoring hydroxychloroquine.
A new study that was done using hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic showed that 91.7% of the patients that were tested for COVID-19, in 10 days did not test positive for COVID-19. The mortality rate was 0.5%, with no cardiac toxicity. Hydroxychloroquine is a very inexpensive drug.
Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:
Dr. Berg, age 55, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan, and is the Director of Dr. Berg’s Nutritionals. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.
#4
Sorry about briefly breaking the Burg — that entirely too long link is now attached to Link.
Text at the link for the second video:
The Cheapest COVID-19 Therapy in the World
Timestamps
0:00 The cheapest potential COVID-19 therapy in the world
0:43 Looking at a unique community
1:14 What puts people at risk for COVID-19?
1:38 Darker skin and vitamin D
2:06 Looking back at the Somalian group
2:33 Distance from the sun and COVID-19
3:08 Looking at all of the factors
Today we’re going to talk about the cheapest potential COVID-19 therapy in the world. What we’re talking about is the sun, and what it can do to give you vitamin D. Of course, this is actually free, all you have to do is go out and get 20 minutes of sun.
Somalian immigrants make up a very small community in Stockholm, Sweden. They make up less than 1% of the entire population of Stockholm. Yet, in Stockholm, 40% of all of the COVID-19 deaths were from this small group.
What puts people at risk for COVID-19?:
• Pre-existing health problems (obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, COPD, asthma)
This group didn’t have many of these problems, and they weren’t all over the age of 60. But, what they do have is darker skin. The melanin that changes the color of the skin—protects against UV. But, it also prevents the absorption of vitamin D. In Chicago, 72% of deaths due to the coronavirus were African American.
The Somalian group also has a dress code that requires them to be almost fully covered, which can prevent vitamin D absorption.
It has also been found that the great majority of COVID-19 deaths were in the Northern hemisphere. This could be related to the distance between where you are and the sun, and how much vitamin D you’re going to get.
Looking at more factors:
Seasonality—
Certain viruses are seasonal. This could have something to do with less vitamin D, temperature, and humidity.
Vitamin D is a very powerful immune modulator—
It directly regulates a lot of different parts of the immune system.
An Indonesian study—
In this study, the mortality rate was much higher in the group that was deficient in vitamin D than the group that had normal levels of vitamin D.
Vitamin D is very anti-inflammatory—
It could help reduce the cytokine storm, which can be deadly.
Vitamin D is anti-thrombotic—
It helps prevent blood clots.
Pre-existing conditions—
People with the pre-existing conditions that could cause complications with COVID-19 typically also seem to have a vitamin D deficiency.
Age—
The older you are, the less vitamin D you have.
#6
Every year about this time I have a bout of acute bronchitis. Coincides with plane flights to and from the annual NRA convention. This year no problems. Being as I'm not going to the NRA convention again until they clean house, I'm good.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2020 10:13 Comments ||
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#7
/\ Gun cleaning helps. Light coats of boiled linseed oil on stock surfaces. The smell of Hoppes bore cleaner, leather slings, etc.
#8
Just being nowhere near Dana Loesh is probably the best curative.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2020 10:31 Comments ||
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#9
NeverTrump piece of filth who made fun of some woman's cancer. Phoney. Piece. Of. ...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2020 10:38 Comments ||
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#10
A family member was on a trans-Atlantic flight in October 2019, of course, very near a coughing passenger (I'll never complain about a crying kid again). Said family member (fit as a flea before the flight) felt ill within days, and it was a nagging illness that took a solid week to go away. So, yeah, moral of the story: flying can be a pain.
#21
She's somebody's idea of a MILF. Definitely not mine.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2020 15:18 Comments ||
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#22
Unaware Dana ever apologized for this...
I have no idea, nor any idea what triggered her explosion in that direction. But everyone was overwrought in 2016, and a great many people said things that should not have been uttered, including here at Rantburg. I’m inclined to be forgiving, in the hope of receiving forgiveness in return.
[Daily Wire] A new report this week outlined an increasing virus problem in Hong Kong, which is attached to mainland China, where rat hepatitis E is jumping from rats to humans for the first time in history, and no one seems to know how it’s happening. New animal based anomaly turns up where again? Hong Kong! Oh, I see. I see.
The first case was reported in 2018 when infectious disease experts at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) examined a man who had just undergone a liver transplant and was having liver problems.
"Tests found that his immune system was responding to hepatitis E — but they couldn’t actually find the human strain of the hepatitis E virus (HEV) in his blood," CNN reported. "With tests for that human strain of HEV negative, the researchers redesigned the diagnostic test, ran it again — and found, for the first time in history, rat hepatitis E in a human."
Dr. Siddharth Sridhar, a microbiologist at HKU, told CNN that "suddenly, we have a virus that can jump from street rats to humans" but added that it was not clear if it was just a "one-off incident."
Since the first discovery, ten more cases have been identified in Hong Kong with the most recently discovered case being identified a week ago in a man who had no recent travel history and had no signs of rats in his home.
Bacteria and viruses that are deadly to one type of creature can evolve quickly to infect another. While the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (which causes COVID-19) is the latest example,a host of infectious and deadly diseases have hopped from animals to humans and even from humans to animals.
The cross-species infection can originate on farms or markets, where conditions foster mixing of pathogens, giving them opportunities to swap genes and gear up to infect (and sometimes kill) previously foreign hosts. Or the transfer can occur from such seemingly benign activities as letting a performance monkey on some Indonesian street corner climb on your head. Microbes of two varieties can even gather in your gut, do some viral dancing, and evolve to morph you into a contagious host.
Diseases passed from animals to humans are called zoonoses. There are more than three dozen we can catch directly through touch and more than four dozen that result from bites. But disease-carrying parasites are not picky about hosts. Human diseases can decimate animal populations, too, from such well-meaning activities as ecotourism.
#8
a doc we know said: "Certain rat hepatitis viruses are coronavirus. There's one being used in the lab in mice as a good model of SARS-COVID-2 infection, as it uses similar receptors and cell entry mechanisms."
#17
..you can have all the talk you want, but if enough of the public is PO'd they won't buy stuff labeled made in China. I'm sure business will pick up in places like SW Asia and Central America for relabeling.
[Daily Wire] Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia celebrated the state’s lowest number of hospitalized novel coronavirus patients and the fewest number of COVID-19 patients on ventilators on Saturday, 15 days since the Republican loosened lockdown restrictions in the face of persistent attacks from the mainstream media and the public disapproval of President Donald Trump.
Respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 "typically appear an average of 5-6 days after exposure, but may appear in as few as 2 days or as long as 14 days after exposure," per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UC San Diego Health notes.
"Today marks the lowest number of COVID-19 positive patients currently hospitalized statewide (1,203) since hospitals began reporting this data on April 8th," Kemp posted to Twitter on Saturday. "Today also marks the lowest total of ventilators in use (897 with 1,945 available). We will win this fight together!"
#2
Good for Georgia! Sure, we can possibly see a spike in cases, which ghouls such as Fauci, Gates, and the MSM would revel in. But, we shall see. Protect the elderly and the infirm and let healthy people go on with their lives.
[Zero] Another leaked intelligence document has been leaked to the press to help support suspicions that the coronavirus currently ravaging the US and much of the global community may have leaked from a biolab in Wuhan.
NBC News reports that a document that has been shared among several Republican lawmakers points to evidence that the virus may have emerged even earlier than the global community believes. In recent days, the French government confirmed suspicions that the country's first case might have arrived as early as December, while in the US, the earliest suspected COVID-19-linked death occurred on Feb. 6, weeks earlier than previously believed.
The earliest suspected case in China may have been observed as early as November, some scientists believe, though others doubt the theory. But the report obtained by NBC News cites cellphone activity data showing a complete shutdown of a high-security section of the lab for 2.5 weeks between Oct. 7 and Oct. 24.
Though it offers no insight into what might have caused the shutdown, and there could be other explanations for the data, it's certainly some food for thought.
The report — obtained by the London-based NBC News Verification Unit — says there was no cellphone activity in a high-security portion of the Wuhan Institute of Virology from Oct. 7 through Oct. 24, 2019, and that there may have been a "hazardous event" sometime between Oct. 6 and Oct. 11.
It offers no direct evidence of a shutdown, or any proof for the theory that the virus emerged accidentally from the lab.
If there was such a shutdown, which has not been confirmed, it could be seen as evidence of a possibility being examined by US intelligence agencies and alluded to by Trump administration officials, including the president - that the novel coronavirus emerged accidentally from the lab.
But that is one of several scenarios under consideration by U.S. intelligence agencies. Many scientists are skeptical, arguing that the more likely explanation is that the virus was transmitted to humans through animals in a Wuhan live produce market. The World Health Organization said Friday it believed the "wet" market played a role in the spread of the disease.
The document asserts that if the virus truly did spread in November and December, then there is reason to suspect that it might have leaked from a lab, or been intentionally released.
— ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) May 9, 2020
France records 80 new virus deaths, lowest daily toll in a month
French health officials on Saturday announced another 80 deaths from the new coronavirus, the lowest figure recorded over 24 hours since early April. The figures for those in intensive care also fell, with 38 people admitted for critical care.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2020 00:00 ||
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[ZeroHedge (Spiegel link auf deutsch)] German intelligence has revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping asked World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Thebreyesus to cover up the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in January, according to Der Spiegel.
During a January 21 conversation - one week after the WHO assured the world there was 'no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission' - Xi reportedly asked Tedros not to reveal that the virus was in fact transmissible between humans, and to delay declaring that the coronavirus had become a pandemic - despite the virus qualifying as one by the WHO's own former guidelines.
And while the WHO announced on the 22nd that data collected through their own investigation "suggests that human-to-human transmission is taking place in Wuhan," which they said more analysis was required "to understand the full extent," they waited all the way until March 11 to declare the virus a pandemic.
As Brahma Chellaney of Project Syndicate wrote last month:
It is now widely recognized that China’s political culture of secrecy helped to turn a local viral outbreak into the greatest global disaster of our time. Far from sounding the alarm when the new coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, the Communist Party of China (CPC) concealed the outbreak, allowing it to spread far and wide. Months later, China continues to sow doubt about the pandemic’s origins and withhold potentially life-saving data.
In mid-January, the body tweeted that investigations by Chinese authorities had found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. Taiwan’s December 31 warning that such transmission was likely happening in Wuhan was ignored by the WHO, even though the information had been enough to convince the Taiwanese authorities — which may have better intelligence on China than anyone else — to institute preventive measures at home before any other country, including China.
The WHO’s persistent publicizing of China’s narrative lulled other countries into a dangerous complacency, delaying their responses by weeks. In fact, the WHO actively discouraged action. On January 10, with Wuhan gripped by the outbreak, the WHO said that it did "not recommend any specific health measures for travelers to and from Wuhan," adding that "entry screening offers little benefit." It also advised "against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on China."
Even after China’s most famous pulmonologist, Zhong Nanshan, confirmed human-to-human transmission on January 20, the WHO continued to undermine effective responses by downplaying the risks of asymptomatic transmission and discouraging widespread testing. Meanwhile, China was hoarding personal protective equipment — scaling back exports of Chinese-made PPE and other medical gear and importing the rest of the world’s supply. In the final week of January, the country imported 56 million respirators and masks, according to official data.
It's no secret that China engaged in a massive cover-up as the Wuhan coronavirus spiraled out of control. At the same time, the CCP allowed tens of thousands of people to travel for the Chinese Lunar New Year.
As the situation continues to evolve and narratives are shaped, take a close look and remember who's defending who.
Nut grafs:
[PJMedia] The thirteen New York City area counties of Queens, Kings, Bronx, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, New York, Hudson, Essex, Middlesex, Richmond, Bergen, and Union have 351,044 confirmed coronavirus cases, roughly 28 percent of the U.S.’s total of 1,244,119. These counties also account for 23,921 coronavirus deaths, roughly 32 percent of America’s total 74,844 deaths (these numbers are likely inflated due to the practice of funeral homes writing "COVID-19" on death certificates even without a confirmed coronavirus death).
If the New York City area does account for between 60 and 65 percent of coronavirus cases elsewhere across the U.S., that represents between 535,845 and 580,499 cases. That means only between 312,576 cases and 357,230 cases came from other entry points, including hotspots like Seattle, Wash., or Miami, Fla. In other words, only between 25 percent and 29 percent of all U.S. coronavirus cases originated from places other than the New York City area.
The vast majority of U.S. coronavirus cases either happened in the Tri-State Area or came from the Tri-State Area.
#1
We don't have a coronavirus problem in this country. We have a New York problem.
De Blasio certainly and probably Cuomo as well are criminally negligent.
#3
I disagree. Viruses will always be with us and a part of us. Fear, panic and anxiety are the true problem. I see this every day. The brown shirts have willingly embraced the day. Power to confront others or report on them is a power they enjoy. The numbers are so bastardized to be grossly inaccurate.
#5
Viruses will always be with us and a part of us.
Not necessarily. We can become extinct. We will, unless we get our shit together. For now, CV19 is - a gentle remainder - that the best way we have to deal with viral diseases is isolating the infected.
#7
- that the best way we have to deal with viral diseases is isolating the infected.
Any transmittable disease. Had they not thrown out that historically tried and tested protocol, hundreds of thousands would be alive today because AIDS/HIV would have been shut down early. They threw away those protocols because of political influence, not science.
#10
They threw away those protocols because of political influence, not science.
Science is what scientists do. And, by now, most of these disagreeable fellows been driven out. In fact, nowadays most universities perfected the methodologies for spotting these pests in their larval phase (students).
#11
Most politicians are lawyers. They understand well the maxim "Never ask a question you don't already know the answer to (or might have an answer you don't like)." What's going on here is that simple.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2020 8:41 Comments ||
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#12
Any transmittable disease. Had they not thrown out that historically tried and tested protocol, hundreds of thousands would be alive today because AIDS/HIV would have been shut down early. They threw away those protocols because of political influence, not science.
And Fauci was a key figure when those decisions were being made.
[JustTheNews] Frontline COVID-19 doctors this week have gone public saying they feel pressured to show COVID-19 as cause-of-death on certificates of patients suspected of having the virus when they also have had underlying medical conditions.
Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, a clinical researcher, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease and the World Health Organization have issued "vague if not misguided recommendations that unfortunately have been adopted by national, state and local leaders."
"It is absolutely critical that we have accurate data to support decision-makers," he also told Just the News. "If the data in our assessments included patients who have not definitively tested positive for COVID-19, that provides misleading information to policy-makers.
In cases of pandemics or epidemics, world organizations set the cause-of-death guidelines to create a uniformity among countries and related, international health agencies.
It is not unusual for the CDC, in conjunction with WHO, to add new codes when a new disease appears.
But it is unusual when there is a new disease and a patient dies and the cause of their death may be their underlying condition like diabetes or congestive heart failure and the doctors are pressured to report the cause of death as COVID-19 instead.
Such reporting could result in inaccurately inflating the number of virus-related deaths and hurt those drafting public health policy for future pandemics or epidemics.
On March 4, Steven Schwartz, director of Vital Statistics at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics released an Alert to hospital administrators to inform them that formal guidance was forthcoming to death certificate certifiers, but that in the meantime, "Coronavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death."
On March 24, 2020, Schwartz sent out a second Alert addressing the World Health Organization's new International Classification of Diseases.
‘"The underlying cause depends upon what and where conditions are reported on the death certificate. However, the rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID19 being the underlying cause more often than not," the report in part states.
"COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death," Schwartz also wrote. "If the decedent had other chronic conditions such as COPD or asthma that may have also contributed, these conditions can be reported in Part II."
"Distinguishing between those nuances is crucial for accurate analysis and appropriately responding to the crisis," Fishbein said.
Fishbein and his colleagues have in response created an independent survey to collect evidence to evaluate risk factors and treatments for COVID-19, with the expectation of more accurately recording causes of death.
The reporting tool was developed by Veracuity and the survey is being conducted in partnership with the Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES).
#2
You're just being "childish" to point that out, you know...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2020 2:00 Comments ||
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#3
with =/= from
Restore integrity to the tallying attribution model and you'll see a somewhat worse-than-normal flu season. Which could have been addressed with focused, limited, narrowly-applied precautions aimed at protecting the elderly.
Future historians will view this as one of the biggest screwups of the modern era.
#5
It's looking more and more like Russiagate. All hot air and though it hurt many more people than Russiagate did, it is basically over with a whimper now.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2020 9:34 Comments ||
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#6
The people providing the magic numbers that are being used to prop up the doom scenarios aren't scientists. They are political (rhymes with) doors, chores, floors. St. Fauci, Scarf woman, CDC Amish beard guy. All hoo-ers.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2020 9:59 Comments ||
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[Guardian] After the lockdown, the exodus. Estate agents are reporting a surge in the numbers of would-be homebuyers plotting a move out of the city to a rural area or smaller town as people conclude that home working is here to stay.
Firms said that during the last few weeks they had seen a big increase in enquiries about well-connected countryside and "out of city" locations — ranging from English market towns to Scottish fishing villages — where people could split their working week between home and office once life starts to return to normal.
The upmarket estate agent Savills said locations that had seen a rise in buyer registrations included the areas in and around Winchester in Hampshire, Newbury in Berkshire, Canford Cliffs in Dorset and the East Neuk of Fife on the east coast of Scotland.
Lockdown appears to be prompting many people to reassess what is important to them, whether that is a desire to continue working from home for part of the week once normal service resumes or wanting a bigger garden for their children to play in.
#1
Progress. A most welcome trend. When people get land and space and a connection to small villages and rural life, they abandon the Woke nonsense and embrace our cultural heritage and traditional values of self-reliance, thrift, service to family before self, common sense etc.
[IsraelNationalNews] Following weeks of accusations from the US administration and many other high-ranking officials worldwide that China was guilty of either gross negligence or deliberate malice in causing the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chinese Foreign Ministry is hitting back.
A 30-page article posted on its website last night began with the famous quote:
As Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people all the time and fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
The article went on to ridicule suggestions that the coronavirus was deliberately created or dispersed from a laboratory in Wuhan, noting that "the evidence" shows that the virus was not man-made.
However, China has consistenly refused to release the actual viral particle that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan which some foreign scientists say would make it far simpler to find a vaccine and/or medication to treat the virus.
[Mail] Highly confidential details of hundreds of Britons taking part in medical trials have been stolen from a lab fighting Covid-19, The Mail on Sunday has learnt.
This newspaper revealed last week how hackers linked to Russia and Iran were behind 'utterly reprehensible' hits on British institutions tackling the virus, including universities and research labs.
Two days after our report was published, the security services released official guidance to research facilities on protecting themselves from such attacks, but insisted that none had been successful.
Today, this newspaper can reveal new details about the scale of the online battle which has left the intelligence community 'stunned' and is a subject of mounting concern at No 10.
#2
Old habits die hard. On the other hand, it was the Brits who accused Russia (on whistled up evidence, IMO) on using neural agents in assassination on British soil.
#5
The US isn't a big consumer of lamb/mutton, but if Australia ran an ad campaign emphasizing that buying their lamb we'd be supporting an old friend against China, I think that could change.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/10/2020 10:22 Comments ||
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[WashingtonPost] It was Jan. 22, a day after the first case of covid-19 was detected in the United States, and orders were pouring into Michael Bowen’s company outside Fort Worth, some from as far away as Hong Kong.
Bowen’s medical supply company, Prestige Ameritech, could ramp up production to make an additional 1.7 million N95 masks a week. He viewed the shrinking domestic production of medical masks as a national security issue, though, and he wanted to give the federal government first dibs.
“We still have four like-new N95 manufacturing lines,” Bowen wrote that day in an email to top administrators in the Department of Health and Human Services. “Reactivating these machines would be very difficult and very expensive but could be achieved in a dire situation.”
But communications over several days with senior agency officials — including Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and emergency response — left Bowen with the clear impression that there was little immediate interest in his offer.
...A senior U.S. government official with knowledge of the offer said Bowen, 62, has a “legitimate beef.”
“He was prescient, really,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. “But the reality is [HHS] didn’t have the money to do it at that time.”
Another HHS official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “There is a process for putting out contracts. It wasn’t as fast as anyone wanted it to be.”
#7
Looks like MSN has co-opted the NYT article. No paywall.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/10/2020 16:27 Comments ||
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#8
Thank you for the link, Bobby — I’ve had my limit of free Washington Post articles, too.
Added what to me are the key paragraphs of the article, and a search of the company’s name. Note that we had an article about them about a month ago. Key bit from that article:
"There is 200 times more demand than there is supply," he told former presidential adviser Steve Bannon on Bannon’s podcast. "My phone is ringing every two minutes. Every one minute I am getting an email."
An examination of his warnings going back more than a dozen years tells the story.
The common theme is that during an outbreak like this, everybody wants to be his customer. But as soon as an outbreak subsides, his customers dump him and run back to China. The reason? His masks may cost a dime each, but a made-in-China mask might go for two cents.
"Last time he geared up and went three shifts a day working his tail off," the mayor recalled. "As soon as the issue died, he didn’t have any sales. He had to pay unemployment for all these people, and he had to gear down."
Bottom line, he needs to figure out a way to get his surge costs covered during an emergency so that he can afford to surge. He tried to get the government to pay for it at the beginning of this thing, when presumably his hospital and private business orders took off, but by then it was already too late. I suspect what he needs to do is set up a price sheet for surge periods, with higher prices explained by as being needed to cover the $X million excess cost to start up and staff up the extra four production lines during the emergency, and the promise to drop back to regular prices once those costs have been paid for.
#9
I remember reading something a few weeks back about a company willing and able to produce masks, but had been burned before and wouldn't produce without a contract.
[Politico] The Agriculture Department said Monday that it will spend $470 million to buy more surplus food amid the widespread disruption to the food supply as a result of the coronavirus.
The move comes a week after POLITICO reported the department had been slow to make such purchases even though demand at food banks has surged. The purchases will target fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy and seafood — which have seen their markets turned upside down as restaurants and other food service businesses have closed.
"President Trump has authorized USDA to support our farmers affected by this national emergency and this action to purchase food and deliver to those in need further demonstrates his unwavering support for the American people during these unprecedented times," Agriculture Secretary Perdue said in the announcement.
"America’s farmers and ranchers have experienced a dislocated supply chain caused by the coronavirus," he added. "USDA is in the unique position to purchase these foods and deliver them to the hungry Americans who need it most."
The $470 million will be spent as a part of a broad authority USDA has had since 1935 that allows for food purchases to help both farmers and people in need through school meals, food banks and other programs.
[Tribune News Service] Troops of nuclear-armed neighbours, India and China have physically clashed at two separate locations along the disputed and un-demarcated frontier between the two countries.
Details are emerging of an ongoing development in Eastern Ladakh that is much bigger in scale and has wider ramifications than the clash in North Sikkim on Saturday.
Sources have confirmed that on the night intervening May 5 and May 6, a clash ensued at a spot called ‘finger 5’ on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso (Lake) in Eastern Ladakh. It was one of the spots were pitched battles were fought during the India-China war (Oct-Nov) 1962.
In an earlier incident in 2017 near the same spot, troops had hurled stones at each other.
In the latest incident Indian and Chinese troops have been injured, confirmed a senior official while with holding back confirmation of either the nature of injuries or the numbers of those injured.
The Northern Army Commander was apprised of the event and he has reviewed the situation. Sources said as a precautionary measure forces have been substantially reinforced on both sides, however, they ruled out any escalation for now. The Northern Army Commander has visited the spot.
It all started on April 27, when troops of both sides came face to face. The tension was brewing on the night of May 5 and 6. The Chinese clashed with the Indian troops, more than 250 men were involved in the fracas at attitude of 14,000 feet. This has been simmering since then. A meeting of senior commanders had been conducted, matters flared up again.
India and China have an un-demarcated 3,448-km boundary called the Line of Actual Control (LAC) running all along the Himalayan ridgeline in an east-west alignment.
The Pangong Tso, a 135 km-wide glacial-melt lake, straddles both countries. It has boat patrols from either side. Eastern Ladakh — a land of barren tree-less landscape dotted with high mountains and equally high passes — has been virtually militarily “tailored” to prevent a repeat of 1962 — when China, with exceptions like Rezang La, literally overran the Indian military defences.
Elsewhere in North Sikkim, a clash on Saturday led to injuries to troops, including four from the Indian side. Aggressive behaviour and minor injuries to both sides took place, sources confirmed. Some 150 troops are believed to be involved in the fracas in which blows were exchanged. “Troops disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level,” Army officials confirmed Sunday morning. At least four Indian and seven Chinese troops are said to be injured.
The incident occurred Saturday in what is the ‘Naku La sector’ ahead of Mugathang, a pass at an altitude of more than 16,000 ft.
As per existing protocol, when troops of either side come face-to-face along the disputed sections of the LAC, they ask either side to return.
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/10/2020 12:05 ||
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[Mail] Video game technology has been brought to life as a 'smart' scope that 'never misses' its target is tested by the British Army.
The device, which can be fitted to any rifle at a cost of £800, is guaranteed to take down its target.
Israeli firm Sharp Shooter developed the scopes to find targets and place a red square around them, reported The Sunday Mirror.
It's been hailed a 'game changer' for infantry warfare and the SAS are particularly keen after the US' secretive Delta Force called it 'outstanding'.
The shooter holds down the rifle's trigger and the system calculated factors including distance, angles, motion and wind speed to send a bullet in exactly the right direction within a millisecond.
[JPost] - Israel’s premier EMS service has been in the headlines quite a bit in recent weeks, due to its role in assisting the public during the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, Magen David Adom has worked side by side with the IDF, the Health Ministry and Israel’s healthcare providers to assist Israelis through this challenging time.
There is another part of the story, however, that must be told in order to fully understand not only the scope of the virus, but also how the world can better prepare for such events in the future.
#7
Mr. Wife told stories about how his taxi driver in Cairo would drive at night with the lights off to save the batteries, g(r)omgoru, and only go one way — inevitably the wrong way — on one-way streets. Surely Tel Aviv is not that bad.
[NYT] - Israel, whose aggressive response to the coronavirus has held its fatality rate to a fraction of those of the United States and other hard-hit nations, is readying a nationwide serological test of 100,000 citizens to see how widely the virus has spread across its population and how vulnerable it may be to a new wave of the contagion.
The survey, to be conducted at clinics run by Israeli H.M.O.s beginning in a week or two, is one of the largest efforts yet to determine the prevalence of antibodies to Covid-19. Germany has also announced antibody testing using a representative nationwide sample.
The results could aid in deciding how quickly businesses and schools should be allowed to return to normal operations. On Monday, Israel announced that citizens could leave their homes after a 40-day lockdown, but many aspects of economic and social life remain curtailed.
Even more important, officials said, the survey’s findings could spur preparations for any strong resurgence of the virus, perhaps when hospitals and health clinics are also busy with seasonal influenza.
...Officials say they hope the survey will identify the portion of the healthy population that has not yet been exposed to the virus, and the portion that has already been exposed but has developed antibodies to it. The answers could have enormous implications for a country’s capacity to withstand a new wave of the virus.
...The World Health Organization has cautioned that no evidence exists that people who have recovered from Covid-19 or have antibodies to it are protected from another infection.
But Dr. Yair Schindel, a member of a health ministry task force on the virus who pushed for a large survey, said the Israeli study could produce such evidence. "Part of what we’re trying to achieve here is to answer the questions the W.H.O. is raising," he said.
Dr. Schindel sketched out two scenarios for Israel.
In the rosier one, the survey would show that 10 percent of Israelis have antibodies to Covid-19. If so, and if a future wave of the virus resulted in the same proportions of Israelis becoming critically ill or dying as have occurred so far, that would mean about 2,300 people would need intensive care, Dr. Schindel said. That would be well within the capacity of the country’s health system.
But in a bleaker scenario, the survey would reveal that only 1 percent of Israelis have antibodies, in which case the number of people needing intensive-care beds in a future wave could exceed 12,000 — well beyond Israel’s capacity, he said. Current capacity
Israel spent nearly $40 million to obtain 2.4 million antibody tests from two suppliers that have received Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration: Abbott Laboratories in the United States, and DiaSorin in Italy. Less than the cost of one warplane.
...Asking so many citizens to submit to something as invasive as a blood test could seem a tall order in a country where a digital-surveillance initiative to identify coronavirus patients using smartphone location data set off political protests and lawsuits. Many Israelis, citing privacy concerns, also declined to download a government-sponsored app that was designed to help them avoid fellow citizens who had tested positive.
But Mr. Bar-Siman-Tov said he did not expect the survey to be a tough sell because participants will be told the results. "I think the people would like to know," he said. "I mean, I think about myself, and I would like to know." He added, "I think that we’ll have more demand than supply." Of course, Israel has a huge advantage other other countries. Israelis see CV19 as just another crisis to be solved - not an opportunity to attack political opponents.
#2
^Don't be sad. We have our own shenanigans - in two weeks the PM is going to corruption trial: he's accused of doing favors for positive media coverage (never seen positive media coverage of Bibi).
[Rudaw] In central Syria, factory owner Rashid al-Faysal watches his staff working tirelessly to churn out a controversial antimalarial drug that Damascus hopes can help treat the novel coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... There is no proof yet hydroxychloroquine works to prevent or cure COVID-19, but Syrian doctors have been told to join others around the world in prescribing it for the time being.
Faysal’s factory is one of several authorities have authorised to manufacture the drug, in a country with 45 official cases of COVID-19 illness, including three deaths.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Politico] The Agriculture Department said Monday that it will spend $470 million to buy more surplus food amid the widespread disruption to the food supply as a result of the coronavirus.
[Tribune News Service] Troops of nuclear-armed neighbours, India and China have physically clashed at two separate locations along the disputed and un-demarcated frontier between the two countries.
