Virus statistics and other controversies in the news

Virus news: We haz it:





refer to this PDF

Strategypage mentions the batflu in various articles also:

this one describes the terrible outbreak in Iran, where "flattening the curve" was not done early.

On a daily basis, most Iranians have to deal with the covid19 virus. Iran is hard hit in part because the government initially dismissed possibility of the virus posing a serious threat. Compounding that, the government deliberately released false data about nationwide covid19 infections. ...At first Iranian leaders, especially the religious ones who control the government dismissed covid19 as something Allah was using to punish infidels (non-Moslems). That was incorrect ...\

To make matters worse, neighboring nations attribute their local covid19 outbreaks to visitors from Iran. Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan have been most affected by this.

and more here, in an article about the Philippines which is accurate.

While the health impact of covid19 has been minimal in most of the country, especially outside urban areas, the various Islamic terrorists and leftist rebels have been less active. Many of the rebels and Islamic terrorists are part-timers or have family nearby who are at least concerned about the virus showing up. ..

The Philippines has suffered nine covid19 (coronavirus) deaths per million population so far and has 200 known cases of the virus per million people.

In early April the government ordered a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the virus and make it easier to treat those who have it. That quarantine is now being eliminated, especially in the rural areas where there have been far fewer covid19 cases.

that's us. Luckily the lifting of the lockdown has started. This will make it easier for the rice to be planted, and the distribution chain to be kept intact. And the tricycle drivers are back to work (motorcycles with side cars used for local travel/shopping). This means my cook, who has several sons who drive tricycles, won't be asking for extra money to keep her family fed.

Our driver is delivering rice to Manila again this weekend, to restock the high end supermarkets that carry our organic rice. To get into Manila, he has to have a pass saying he is healthy, and then pass a checkpoint to check for fever. I don't know if he has had a test for covid infection yet: so far they haven't done full testing of people without symptoms.... something to keep in mind when you read about the high number of cases in the USA: its because of the large number of tests being done.

A large percentage of cases have few or no symptoms, and of course, many of the deaths of old people will be seen as old age, heart attacks, congestive heart failure or COPD/Asthma. Due to the latest storm system, and spring pollen, my asthma has been bad for the last week. No, not covid: it goes away after an hour when I stay in my room. (because of aircon with hepafilter). Aircons are now cheap enough for the middle class, but the economic shutdown hit them, so many probably can't afford to pay for their electric bill: heck, many can't afford to pay for their BP and heart medicines.

and coming up: Hunger season, when farmers run out of rice and money from the last harvest and the new rice crop is just starting to grow. Kuya will be asked for a lot of loans to keep his contract farmers going. And with the world wide economic slowdown, with many OFW losing their jobs (cruise ships, oil industry, maids, caregivers who lost their jobs) are returning home: this article says 300 thousand are expected to return home in the next 3 months and will need to be in quarantine.

Sigh.

However there is health screening here: To enter a mall here (or even to go into the bank) requires a temperature check and to step onto disinfectant, and in some cases the guard will spray your hands (and check your bags for weapons, a practice which has been going on for years). And you have to wear a mask everywhere.

the SP article I quoted above also mentions the rate of virus in nearby countries:

Neighbors Malaysia have 257 cases and four deaths per million, Singapore has 6,483 confirmed cases per million and four deaths per million while Indonesia has 114 cases per million and seven deaths per million.

I posted about the virus on my Africa blog: LINK1 LINK2 like the Philippines, most cases will just be seen as another fever, and so the data from that continent will be inaccurate.  keep that in mind when you read this article from ALJ:

There are 183,474 confirmed infections and 81,367 recoveries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts warn fragile healthcare systems in many African countries could be overwhelmed in the face of a severe outbreak of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

this is a video discussing African covid (from April so the actual numbers are out of date) to put things into perspective:

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in other news:

this SP article describes how China is militarizing the Spratlys islands in the West Philippine sea .

and then there is the threat of war between India and China...

Sigh.

and this StrategyPage article describes the latest ISIS threat: small quadricopter drones and the Israeli system to stop them.

one hopes that the White House has one of these anti drone weapons system: if you don't know how they could be used to kill a president etc. just watch the "Angel is fallen".




so is the President in danger? Of course. Nothing new there. What has changed is that the opposition party, who weaponized the Russia kerfuffle and then the Ukraine nonsense, has now weaponized racism protests, and the MSM is busy gaslighting people in their coverage;

That didn’t happen.

And if it did happen, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was that bad, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is a big deal, that’s not my fault.
And if it was my fault, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did mean it…
You deserved it.

The 60 secret service men who were injured when "peaceful" (/s) demonstrators tried to breach the WH fence has not been ignored or underplayed by much by the MSM; 

but shame to the military "officers" who condemned the WH for threatening to send in troops (which had been done in past riots but not done by Trump) or condemned that Trump used NG troops to protect buildings and monuments in Washington DC  after the mayor refused to send the cops to stop the vandalism etc. is a major threat to American republic. 

I am old enough to remember when JFK told an interviewer in a woman's magazine that he actually was happy that the women's strike for peace, an anti nuke group, was active: because it helped counter the pressure he got from the Generals, (who he did not name). And I remember when Ike warned about the military industrial complex.

. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience Eisenhower warned, "[while] we recognize the imperative need for this development...We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence…The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

So should Trumpieboy worry if the generals who want to tell him what to do oppose him on many fronts? Diana West discusses the problem here.



Hmmm... is it a conspiracy theory if they name names and point to incidents that actually happened? Who do you believe: The MSM or your lying eyes?

Hmm. that too reminds me of a previous movie: