Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Friday, April 03, 2020

Just breathing or talking could spread coronavirus

Harvard doctor warns as Dr Fauci says the US is 'actively considering' telling all Americans to cover their faces in public

Just breathing and talking can spread coronavirus, a renowned medical group warned the White House Wednesday night.

A leading member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and former Harvard School of Public Health dean, Dr Harvey Fineberg, told CNN that while surgical masks should be reserved for health care workers, he himself is going to be wearing a bandanna or other face covering.

Dr Anthony Fauci, a White House coronavirus task force member and leading infectious disease expert said that the subject of having Americans cover their faces in public is a 'very active discussion' among the committee.

Research remains mixed on whether surgical masks work as well as N95 respirators and whether cloth face coverings do much at all to prevent infection, but Dr Fauci noted that they might be protective, and certainly wont do harm - as long as medical workers have enough.

More

What's the TRUE risk of dying from coronavirus if you are in hospital?

NHS data shows 66% of patients hooked up to ventilators will succumb to the killer infection

Two-thirds of coronavirus patients in the UK who need to be hooked up to a ventilator will die from the illness, official NHS data suggests.

A report from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Center (ICNARC) found ventilated patients succumb to the virus 66.3 per cent of the time.

That is double the mortality rate of non-virus patients who were put on breathing support between 2017 and 2019, before the outbreak.

The NHS is still 22,000 ventilators short of the estimated 30,000 it will need during the peak of this crisis, which has infected almost 34,000 Britons

More

Dr. Stephen Smith on effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine: 'I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic'

Dr. Stephen Smith, founder of The Smith Center for Infectious Diseases and Urban Health, said on “The Ingraham Angle” on Wednesday night that he is optimistic about the use of antimalarial medications and antibiotics to treat COVID-19 patients, calling it “a game-changer.”

“I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. I’m very serious,” Smith, an infectious disease specialist, told host Laura Ingraham.

Currently there is no known cure for the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the globe.

Smith, who is treating 72 COVID-19 patients, said that he has been treating "everybody with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin [an antibiotic]. We’ve been doing so for a while.”

More
https://www.foxnews.com/media/dr-stephen-smith-on-effectiveness-of-hydroxychloroquine-with-coronavirus-symptoms-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-pandemic

FISA reauthorizations in doubt after findings that FBI surveillance was riddled with major errors

New findings by the Justice Department inspector general that the FBI has repeatedly violated surveillance rules could impact Congress' pending reauthorization of key powers related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), with top Republican lawmakers already saying the DOJ report will have major consequences for surveillance law.

Several surveillance provisions under the 2015 USA Freedom Act have lapsed in recent weeks, at least temporarily, because the House has not yet passed the Senate's 77-day temporary extension. The House had amended portions of the law in its own proposed three-year reauthorization, but the Senate couldn't reach an agreement on the matter and decided to try to punt the matter so that lawmakers could focus on the coronavirus pandemic.

The three lapsed provisions include the "roving wiretap" power, which enables authorities to obtain a warrant from the FISC without identifying the target, and while following a target from one device to another. Also included is the "lone wolf" power, which allows authorities to obtain a FISA court warrant without demonstrating that the target is working for a foreign entity. A records provision that allows authorities to seize telephone metadata and banking records, among other documents, is also suspended.

The DOJ has called on Congress to renew the surveillance provisions, even as it acknowledged they were not perfect.

More
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fisa-reauthorization-may-be-derailed-by-new-doj-inspector-general-findings-of-widespread-errors

Fauci Says Lockdown Will Continue Until There Are No "New Cases" Of COVID-19

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci says that the United States will not come out of lockdown until there are no “new cases” of coronavirus, prompting some to question precisely how long that will be

During yesterday’s White House briefing, Fauci, who has become the face of America’s response to the coronavirus, was asked by a reporter whether social distancing measures will be imposed until there is a drug or vaccine to treat COVID-19.

“I think if we get to the part of the curve that Dr. Birx showed yesterday when it goes down to essentially no new cases, no new deaths at a period of time. I think it makes sense that you will have to relax social distancing

“The one thing we hopefully would have in place, and I believe we will have in place, is a much more robust system to be able to identify someone who was infected, isolate them and then do contact tracing,” he added.

The prospect of there ever being zero new coronavirus cases appears to be a very long way off, leading some to question if Fauci was asking Americans to adopt social distancing indefinitely, or at least until a vaccine is available.

“Fauci said that we can start to “relax” social distancing once there are “no new cases, no deaths.” Is it just me or is that completely batshit insane?” asked Matt Walsh. “That would keep us in a lockdown for many months or years. And if the virus becomes endemic, forever. How can that be the plan?”

More/Video

Send the marines - The US Marine Corps sheds its tanks and returns to its naval roots

After decades as dirt sailors, the marines are getting back to salt water

The official hymn of the United States Marine Corps, a jaunty tune written by Jacques Offenbach in 1867, proudly declares that “From the Halls of Montezuma/ To the shores of Tripoli/ We fight our country’s battles/ In the air, on land, and sea”. But despite their naval origins and ethos, America’s marines have spent most of the past two decades waging war in the deserts, mountains and cities of Iraq and Afghanistan. On March 26th General David Berger, the corps’s commandant, proposed a radical transformation of the force into America’s first line of defence in the Pacific.

The Marine Corps emerged out of the Continental Marines, the naval infantry force raised in 1775 by the American colonies during the revolutionary war against Britain. As soldiers who were deployed at sea, they served as raiding parties and an insurance policy against mutiny by press-ganged sailors. Over the next century they acquired a legendary reputation for far-flung campaigns.

More

Great Point


Trump Asks Putin for Help in Oil War, Here Are Putin's Conditions

Donald Trump called Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss plunging oil prices that are wreaking havoc on America’s shale oil industry. The two leaders talked briefly about the coronavirus pandemic but quickly switched to Trump’s real concern which is oil production.

For the last month, Saudi Arabia has been flooding the market with crude oil to force Russia to agree to deep production cuts. To his credit, Putin has stubbornly resisted Saudi coercion and maintained current output levels. As a result, prices have plummeted to an 18-year low of $20.09 per barrel which is well below the break-even rate that American frackers need to survive. In less than a month, the capital-intensive US shale oil industry has gone into a steep nosedive that has set off alarms on Wall Street where analysts expect that a wave of defaults will deliver a knockout blow to the big investment banks. That’s why Trump decided to call Putin. He wants to see if he can persuade the Russian president into slashing production.

More

Why The U.S. Will Drown In Covid-19 Cases

Here are examples for some of the reasons why the U.S. will now experience a gigantic epidemic wave.

The reasons include ill discipline, ignorance and incompetence, nutty religiousness and racism.

March 20 2020 - BBC
Crowds of US university students flocked to Florida for their spring break, defying recommendations from the federal government and Center for Disease Control (CDC) over the coronavirus outbreak.National health officials are advising against gatherings of 10 or more people.
April 1 2020 - NYT 
Two weeks ago, amid the coronavirus pandemic, about 70 students from the University of Texas at Austin partied in Mexico on spring break. The students, all in their 20s, flew on a chartered plane to Cabo San Lucas, and some returned on separate commercial flights to Texas.Now, 44 of them have tested positive for the virus and are self-isolating. More students were monitored and tested on Wednesday, university officials said, after 28 initial positive tests.
...
Students at the University of Tampa, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other colleges have tested positive after returning from spring break trips to Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and elsewhere.
More 

MARXIST UN WHO BOSS MUST BE PUT ON TRIAL, CRITICS SAY

Critics say ‘Marxist revolutionary’ should be on trial for crimes against humanity — not sitting atop the WHO

With United Nations World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia serving as a mouthpiece for the Communist Party of China on the global stage, questions and concerns about his shadowy communist past are growing louder. Considering his scandal-plagued background, critics have gone so far as to say that “Marxist revolutionary” Tedros should be on trial for crimes against humanity — not sitting atop the WHO barking orders at national governments and peddling Beijing’s propaganda to humanity. So far, though, the establishment media has largely remained silent about the emerging firestorm.

As The New American reported shortly after his tenure began, Tedros, who has no medical degree but got the top UN job with fervent backing from Communist China, is an actual communist with a long pedigree in the movement. Before taking up his perch at the WHO, Tedros was most prominent for his government posts in a tyrannical regime, and for his key role in leading the murderous communist organization known as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). This ethno-Marxist terror group has declared war on freedom and other ethnic groups within Ethiopia. And Tedros played a major role, serving as a top member of the TPLF’s Politburo Central Committee, according to multiple news reports.

The U.S. government previously designated the Marxist group as a terrorist organization for its murders, kidnappings, terror attacks, and more. Citing at least a dozen terror attacks on private citizens, religious figures, private property, non-governmental organizations, journalists, and other targets spanning more than three decades, the Global Terror Database continues to list it as such. TPLF also joined forces with other mass-murdering Marxist-Leninist parties and formed the “Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front” (EPRDF), an alliance that today rules the nation despite having been formally disbanded last year.

More

"50-Cent" Shifts Away From VIX 'Catastrophe Insurance': "Gold Is Now The Right Place To Be For Battles Ahead"

Having 'come out' as the infamous VIX-whale "50-Cent," London-based fund manager Jonathan Ruffer has called it quits on his VIX-call-buying strategy:

"In sum, the catastrophe insurance did absolutely everything that might be expected of it. And it is now spent.It is likely to be some time before this insurance again prices at levels that makes it attractive as a defensive investment."

So what is he looking at now, and what does the future hold?

The next defence was – and still is – a position in credit spreads. These spreads reflect the difference in yield between, say, a government bond, and a high-quality corporate bond. For years the spreads had been falling – a phenomenon which occurred in the UK in 1936 – and for exactly the same reason. As interest rates came down, the reality of the diminishing income was more eloquent than the shadow of the fear that a less-sound borrower might default. Victorian grandees wanted to know what their future daughters-in-law were worth – worth was expressed as an income figure, not as capital – and her Ladyship would want a second question answered: was this income from government Consols, or something flakier?

Our investments in credit spreads have protected the overall values of the portfolios, as conventional asset prices have tumbled. As I write, there still seems a good deal more mileage in this idea – we had positioned ourselves just outside the ‘safest’ corporates, as these could be the beneficiaries of Federal Reserve intervention. The Fed has intervened, and it will be interesting to know whether this does in fact stabilise the corporate bond market.

Our equities have borne the brunt of the grief, as they did in Q4 2018, falling by every bit as much as the overall indices. We were caught out then because action by the Fed meant that the markets recovered sufficiently to neutralise the effectiveness of our protective investments. This time round, our equity positions would have saved us a fair bit of money if they had performed better. It is worth peering into this part of the portfolios. Commentators divide the market into ‘momentum’ – stocks whose share price pattern is favourable – and value. Generally speaking, the best companies will be in the momentum bucket, and Fred Karno’s army relegated to value.

For the last decade, the gulf between momentum and value stocks has grown wider, and unprecedently so. Some of this may well be justified, as the techie carnivores eat up the Laura Ashleys of this world. But much of it is due to the fact that, recently, more money has come into equity markets through ETFs (exchange traded funds, a passive move to ‘buy the index’) than by specific analysis of each company’s prospects. Many have laughed bitterly at the fund management industry for being sent to the cleaners by index performers. It’s true that we are pretty hopeless, but one would expect a cheap ETF to be in the middle of the fifth decile (about 45th out of a hundred) – its performance median, but, being cheaper, better than an active fund manager who is trying to do the same thing. It feels to us as if the ETF phenomenon is beginning to unravel: they do not always trade at asset value any more, and there could be widespread liquidations. As this happens, momentum stocks will lead the markets lower, since that is where the indices are most heavily weighted.

There was more to our emphasis on ‘value’ stocks, than the ‘less bad’ aspect. The unprecedented monetary looseness in the period since the 2008 crisis has always meant that the economy might find traction – and if it had done, then these companies would have prospered, some of them mightily. Ironically, we believed that 2020 itself was going to be a year when world economies coordinated into a pattern of significant growth. Just as the fat lady reached for the high C, the platform collapsed.

Elsewhere, gold has been somewhat disappointing, with its performance weighed down by forced sellers.

But we think gold is the right place to be for the battles ahead.

More

Death by Individualism: Why USA Can't Do What China Did to 'Kill' COVID-19 Pandemic

USA Today reports that China “stopped” the COVID-19 pandemic with harsh, collectivist tactics that liberty-loving Americans would never accept. Do we run the risk of death by individualism? Or is China still lying on a massive scale about the success of its totalitarian efforts to kill the pandemic?

Bill Whittle Now with Scott Ott is a production of our Members, who foster civil dialogue by engaging the ideas that support the Progressive narrative. Join their common sense rebellion now, and find your people.

More/Video

3.4 million travelers poured into US as coronavirus pandemic erupted

An ABC News investigation offers sobering insight into how COVID-19 has spread and penetrated so broadly, so deeply and so quickly in the United States. It also helps explain why Americans, no matter where they live, must continue to heed the warnings of health officials to self distance and why the virus likely was here far earlier than first realized.

With the advent of COVID-19, the world has officially entered a dangerous new phase where a surge in international travel in recent decades served as the springboard -- jet fuel, really -- for an infectious disease potentially to kill hundreds of thousands in the U.S. and infect the global economy at breathtaking speed.

Travel data of passengers arriving in the United States from China during the critical period in December, January and February, when the disease took hold in that country, shows a stunning 759,493 people entered the U.S.

Those travelers from China included more than 228,000 Americans returning home and hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals arriving for business, academics, tourism or to visit family.

"The numbers are clearly alarming," Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease specialist at South Shore Health, told ABC News.

"It is difficult to estimate the portion of travelers coming from China to the U.S. with COVID-19, but fair to speculate that a large number might have been infected at the time of travel."

More

DHS Halts Bringing More H-2B Foreign Workers to U.S. amid Opposition

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is halting efforts to bring more H-2B foreign visa workers to the United States to take nonagricultural jobs after mounting public opposition.

In March, Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf announced his plan to bring an additional 35,000 H-2B foreign visa workers to the U.S. to take nonagricultural jobs in landscaping, construction, seafood processing, hotels and restaurants, and amusement parks.

On Thursday, DHS officials said they were halting the plan to bring in those additional 35,000 H-2B foreign visa workers “due to present economic circumstances” wherein 6.6 million Americans have now filed jobless claims in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis.

A DHS spokesperson wrote in a statement:

To clear up various misreporting — DHS’s rule on the H-2B cap is on hold pending review due to present economic circumstances. No additional H-2B visas will be released until further notice. Per the statute, H-2B allocations are set in consultation with [the Labor Department].

More

Maryland COVID-19 Statistics for 4-3-2020

COVID-19 Statistics in Maryland
Number of Confirmed Cases: 2758
Number of negative test results: 20,932
Number of Deaths: 42
Hospitalizations: 664 ever hospitalized
Released From Isolation: 159

Cases and Deaths by County (deaths):

Allegany    2
Anne Arundel    249,   (4)
Baltimore City    313,   (4)
Baltimore County    427,   (3)
Calvert    30,     (1)
Caroline    4
Carroll    129,   (5)
Cecil    25,      (1)
Charles    90,      (1)
Dorchester    1
Frederick    54,      (2)
Garrett    3
Harford    41
Howard    166,    (2)
Kent    5
Montgomery    566,    (9)
Prince George's    563,    (9)
Queen Anne's    12
St. Mary's    30
Somerset    4
Talbot    5
Washington    27
Wicomico    7,        (1)
Worcester    5


Cases by Age Range and Gender:
0-9    9
10-19    55
20-29    335
30-39    485
40-49    509
50-59    552
60-69    423
70-79    266
80+    124
Female: 1,435       Male: 1,323

Robert F. Kennedy's granddaughter and her young son missing on Chesapeake Bay, family says

A Kennedy family spokesperson confirmed Friday that two missing people last seen in a canoe off Chesapeake Bay Thursday evening are Maeve Kennedy McKean, 41, and her eight-year-old son, Gideon. Kennedy McKean is the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy and daughter of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former Maryland lieutenant governor.

"At this time our family asks for privacy and that everyone keep Maeve and Gideon in their prayers," said a statement from a family spokesman. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan also confirmed their identities at the start of his coronavirus press conference Friday, and said an "intensive search" was underway.

"I reached out to, and spoke with Lieutenant Governor Townsend this morning," Hogan said. "And, on behalf of the people of Maryland, I expressed our most heartfelt sympathies and prayers to her and to her entire family during this difficult time."

More


Click 'READ MORE' below to read the official press release from the Coast Guard

GOP Senator: Yes, China Killed Americans With Their Gross Incompetence Containing the Wuhan Coronavirus

For some, blaming China for unleashing the Wuhan coronavirus upon the world doesn’t go far enough. China has cooked the bookson its Wuhan coronavirus victims. The number of deaths is not to be believed. The number of infected is not to be believed. It’s much worse than what they’ve been doling out. With the World Health Organization in its pocket, they offered the international community a false sense of security when they told them that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. That was a lie, but China has the WHO’s director-general in its pocket, so it gave them some breathing room before this virus spread all over and body bags began to mount. China lied and people died.

They discovered evidence of a pneumonia-like virus in December, but government officials ordered the samples to be destroyed. They strong-armed doctors trying to inform and warn the public, they kept medical crews in the dark and prevented doctors from reporting that they had new patients infected with this virus. And now, doctors who fired red flares are disappearing, as are the vloggers who had been documenting what was going on at local hospitals.

More

Coronavirus Delaware: Police Authorized To Pull Over Out-Of-State Drivers During Pandemic

DOVER, Del. (CBS) — Police in Delaware have been given the authority to pull over out-of-state drivers during the coronavirus pandemic. Delaware State Police say Gov. John Carney’s state of emergency declaration “authorizes any Delaware law enforcement officer to stop a vehicle driving within the state simply because it is displaying out-of-state tags.”

Once pulled over, state police say the officer will ask questions about the driver’s travel, who will then be told that “they are required by law to self-quarantine for 14 days while in Delaware, or immediately return to their home state.”

More

Inmates Released to Protect Against COVID-19 Already Committing Murder

Inmates across the country who were released to protect prison populations from COVID-19 are already committing crimes in their local communities, including at least one former inmate who admitted to stabbing a man to death just four days after his release.

Jacob Burnett was released in Louisville, KY, two days into his two-year sentence for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Four days after being released, he admitted to stabbing and killing a 60-year-old man in a subdivision just east of the city, according to local media.

Another Louisville inmate, Kenneth Walker, was released to “home incarceration” even though he was accused of shooting local officer John Mattingly on March 13th. Corrections FOP Spokesperson Tracy Dotson told the media that his lodge has denounced Walker’s release.

More

The Story About 3M Masks Being Sold Overseas By The Mainstream Media Is Just Plain Misleading

I used to be a manufacturer. Here's how a manufacturing business works. I manufacture and distribute products and then sell to Master Distributors around the world. That Distributor then sells my product to Dealers who then sell the end users.

Once my product is sold to my Master Distributor, I have NO SAY as to who and where they are allowed to sell that product. 

The Mainstream Media is not telling Americans the truth, or they simply do not understand how business works because not many of you understood this process to start with. Instead they are blaming 3M as if they are purposely hurting Americans. I'm confident 3M is working diligently with their Master Distributors to encourage them to only sell into the United States at this time but let me assure you, this may not be possible according to their contractual agreements with them currently.

I just wanted to clear the air and let the rest of America know this is not 3M's fault. Oh sure, some Liberal will come back in comments and claim 3M should've known better or whatever. NO ONE ever saw this coming. It is the mainstream media who is deceiving the public on this mater because they are too young and too stupid to completely understand ANYTHING about how a real business is run.