Yesterday
the folk at TruNews asked the question, “Will Coronavirus Destroy
Communist Party?”
Now, 24 hours later it seems the narrative has changed. Here are just a few headlines that illustrate this.
The
coronavirus epidemic could spread to about two-thirds of the world’s
population if it cannot be controlled, according to Hong Kong’s
leading public health epidemiologist.
His
warning came after the head of the World Health Organization (WHO)
said recent cases of coronavirus patients who had never visited China
could be the “tip of the iceberg”.
Prof
Gabriel Leung, the chair of public health medicine at Hong Kong
University, said the overriding question was to figure out the size
and shape of the iceberg. Most experts thought that each person
infected would go on to transmit the virus to about 2.5 other people.
That gave an “attack rate” of 60-80%.
“Sixty
per cent of the world’s population is an awfully big number,”
Leung told the Guardian in London, en route to an expert meeting at
the WHO in Geneva on Tuesday.
Even
if the general fatality rate is as low as 1%, which Leung thinks is
possible once milder cases are taken into account, the death toll
would be massive.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/coronavirus-expert-warns-infection-could-reach-60-of-worlds-population
“It’s
like Europe in medieval times,” said Jörg Wuttke, the president of
the European Chamber of Commerce in China, “where each city has its
checks and crosschecks.”
Nature
is unpredictable and sometimes vengeful. Different societies and
political systems have different ways of managing it.
Viruses
and epidemics can occur in any country. But they have become more
dangerous and challenging in modern times as globalisation means they
spread faster and farther than ever.
Thus
the coronavirus, thought to have originated in the mainland Chinese
city of Wuhan, is spreading across the world….
...The
coronavirus is a vivid and tragic example of how China’s one-party
rule not only impedes the public’s response to epidemics, but also
helps turn problems from localised health scares into catastrophes on
a nationwide and even worldwide scale.
Nobel
economist Amartya Kumar Sen once concluded that the free flow of
information and transparency were the best weapons in the battle
against the spread of epidemics. China lacks both. China’s
leadership should have learned lessons from Sars. Beijing’s
sweeping anti-contagion measures have come too late. Early on, its
political institutions allowed the virus to fester freely, repeating
the tragedy of Sars. That means what we are witnessing is not simply
a public health problem. It is one of the most severe sociopolitical
crises the party has faced and it threatens to undermine its absolute
grip on power.
Mother
nature has not been merciful to humans during this crisis. And
China’s authoritarianism is making it only more vulnerable to
nature’s wrath.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/new-map-reveals-no-country-safe-from-coronavirus-tentacles/news-story/40ba1fa1068a4f451b00b0cc7afe409d#.73bmm|r78ur
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050077/least-500-wuhan-medical-staff-infected-coronavirus?utm_content=article&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1581430702
However,
just as things look pretty grim we have an accelerator with a Fourth
Grade education helping us along towards Extinction.
President
Donald Trump said Monday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had told
him that the novel coronavirus that spread to the rest of the world
from the city of Wuhan was likely to die off in the spring because of
the heat.
Trump
made the remarks at the White House while speaking at an event with
U.S. state governors.
"I
had a long talk with President Xi—for the people in this room—two
nights ago, and he feels very confident," Trump said. "He
feels very confident, and he feels that...by April or during the
month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of
virus. So that would be a good thing.
"But
we're in great shape, in our country," the president continued.
"We have 11 [confirmed cases of the coronavirus]. And the 11 are
getting better."
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