Image Source: Twitter.
Most of the latest reports on the coronavirus deal with the genome research, symptoms, spread, and recovery and death rates of the virus. A scary, non-peer-reviewed article (here), based on clinical data coming out of China, places the Ro at 4.08!
There is a growing emotional toll in the quarantined zones. Some complaints by Chinese locals are reaching social media, as with this man, who leaked footage from Wuhan hospitals and was arrested - or this woman, who lost one or more family members. The translation and commentary on her video are here. Popular dissatisfaction with the Chinese Communist Party is brewing, even as the Wuhan coronavirus hospitals are nearing completion.
Unconfirmed: Wuhan Hubei China Coronavirus Latest | What's Going On? | Video Footage Dump/Archive Part 5 武汉冠状病毒 (1 February 2020). Video Source: Youtube. More leaked videos here and here.
【武汉市第五医院最新情况】— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) February 1, 2020
有武汉市民2月1日进入武汉第五医院,发现多具因肺炎死亡的病人,尸体就地打包直接送去火葬场。医护人员忙于抢救垂死的病人。 pic.twitter.com/CzJN4wlRQj
Translation: "RFA said (in a translated tweet): '[Latest Situation of Wuhan Fifth Hospital] Some Wuhan citizens entered Wuhan Fifth Hospital on February 1st and found many patients who died of pneumonia. The corpses were packed directly to the crematorium. Paramedics are busy rescuing the dying patient.'"
2/1 #CoronavirusOutbreak— 西行小宝 (@htommy998) February 2, 2020
Lockdown Wuhan is turning to a coronavirus tortured hell. Some infected people died at home before even getting a chance to the hospital. WHO is criminal to lie in front of the world. The bought-off Dr Tedros should apologize and resign immediately! pic.twitter.com/5sR4ynFg5f
The car& #coronarovirus took her mother away, listen!she followed the car and shouted “mama!mama!”💔💔💔— runrunblue(no.2) (@2Runrunblue) February 2, 2020
The CCP doesn't care about the lives of people, continues to conceal the truth. 😡 #CoronavirusOutbreak pic.twitter.com/lFsOggLo8v
We passed a cluster of flower shops that were all closed for the lockdown. Many had placed funeral arrangements outside their store fronts, asking people to scan a QR code for payment (50rmb/arrangement.) Rare to see the honor system in China. pic.twitter.com/OwT10GjbxF— Amy Qin (@amyyqin) February 1, 2020
Allegedly this is armed soldiers or police patrolling the streets of China.#coronavirus pic.twitter.com/ojlQPvrX9Z— Darren of Plymouth 🇬🇧 (@DarrenPlymouth) February 1, 2020
Oops Air Canada Flight May have endangered flight crew and passengers on flight from China to Toronto on Jan 24th. Wuhan Virus was now a known threat for human to human contact. This is a serious breach of public trust.https://t.co/2aeqAMBGPz— Bored Toronto Blue Jays Fan (@JohnEvanoff15) February 1, 2020
GW fantazjuje na temat "ostatniego lotu z Chin", podczas gdy LOT na swojej stronie nadal sprzedaje bilety na 07.02.— Joanna Teglund🇵🇱🇸🇪 (@JoannaTeglund) February 1, 2020
W innych krajach na przylatujących z Chin czekają badania i kwarantanna, w Polsce "maseczki i łzy".https://t.co/DvFaLvWIlc#2019nCoV #koronawirus🦠#coronavirus pic.twitter.com/CsQ4fQYeYH
"Pentagon approves using military bases to quarantine 1,000" https://t.co/ypSOphvCWh #coronavirus #TravisAFB #LacklandAFB #MCASMiramar #FortCarson— Tony Prudori (@milnews_ca) February 1, 2020
The #Pentagon is preparing to house up to 1,000 people at military sites who may need to be quarantined due to the Wuhan #coronavirus outbreakhttps://t.co/MhsrMpFZVe— Oden (@Gjallarhornet) February 1, 2020
UMass Boston student confirmed as EIGHTH US #coronavirus case as new study projects 75,000 people could be infected in Wuhan where 259 have died and the Pentagon prepares 1,000 quarantine beds https://t.co/ANuucXFAUf pic.twitter.com/elhBJ0JM5p— Tony De Jonker (@TonyDeJonker) February 1, 2020
Bird Flu in Hunan Province
At the same time, in Hunan province, south of Wuhan's Hubei province, there has been an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu; over 17,000 chickens were slaughtered at one farm to stop the spread of the virus.
Planets aligning for Perfect Interstellar Storm#BirdFlu #H5N1 #Coronavirus #Wuflu— WuFlu (@WU_FLU_HAN) February 1, 2020
China reports outbreak of deadly bird flu among chickens in Hunan province, close to coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan https://t.co/iVydBaqIZc via @scmpnews
Bat Flu: HIV and Henipah (Hendra-Nipah) Virus Connections
22. The authors dunked this final conclusion: “This uncanny similarity of novel inserts in the 2019- nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag is unlikely to be fortuitous”. Wow, they sure just went straight there! 😱 What a bold paper... I don’t know what to say 🤷🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/KWcDdknMO4— Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 31, 2020
An Indian team has linked this version of the bat-sourced and snake-sourced coronavirus to HIV; the non-peer-reviewed paper is here. The results have not yet been reproduced elsewhere. Researchers have generally focused on bats in this field because they can carry several deadly viruses without dying: Ebola, SARS, Nipah, and the coronavirus.
Incidentally, there is a small Nipah virus outbreak in India and Bangladesh now, due to local consumption of raw fruit juices contaminated with infected bat urine.
Other quarters have linked this novel coronavirus to SARS and Ebola. This may explain why HIV and Ebola therapies are being used on infected patients who have the coronavirus. A failed Ebola drug (Remdesivir) may be implemented to treat the coronavirus.
The Henipah virus was shipped with Ebola from the Canadian Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory to Beijing on 31 March 2019. Protocols were ignored (CBC later claimed protocols were followed) in the virus transfer and promoted an RCMP investigation. Note that the Chinese researcher, Xiangguo Qiu, at the centre of this controversy was dismissed in Winnipeg, but not charged. She helped develop ZMapp, the Ebola vaccine.
This rumour arises amid crackdowns on social media "misinformation." On 27 January 2020, the CBC published a weird story denying any wrong-doing on the part of this scientist, despite an earlier article stating she was under investigation. The CBC's larger concern seems to be that the Winnipeg story will lead to public distrust of authority and Sinophobic racism. They interviewed Fuyuki Kurasawa, director of the Global Digital Citizenship Lab at York University:
This hand-wringing over misinformation and racism on social media simply muddies the waters. It pushes authoritative discourse management and identity politics without really getting to the bottom of what happened last year between the Winnipeg lab and Chinese labs."The broader damage is that there grows a mistrust toward both government authorities, public health officials, the media, authoritative sources of media, and there there becomes a social media environment where speculation, rumour and conspiracy theories take over and wash out the factual information that is being promoted online."
Nor does the MSM crackdown on the alt-media rule out a bioengineered virus, which passed through the wet market of Wuhan, but did not originate there. There is something very strange going on and it is obvious that the public are not being told the whole truth.
Unconfirmed: Wuhan Coronavirus Pneumonia - Chaos at a hospital in Wuhan (1 February 2020). Video Source: Youtube.
If the virus is a bioweapon, medical staff and researchers must be informed. If it is a bioweapon and they are not informed, then we can only conclude that the deaths which ensue are deliberately caused.
Only one conspiracy theory site I have seen connects the coronavirus to the Nipah virus. The same site stated that the Chinese Hongmen (洪門), also known as the 'Heaven and Earth' secret society, have vowed to hunt down and kill any engineers of the coronavirus, if it was indeed engineered. You can see videos depicting the Hongmen, here, and immediately below.
Chinese Secret Society [Heaven and Earth Society] | Real Stories | THE SHIFT (21 March 2019). Video Source: Youtube.
Espionage and Nanotech
What is less discussed, or outright denied, is the potential of bio-espionage. Buzzfeed is one of the American online outlets currently condemning Zero Hedge for doxxing of one of the scientists at the Wuhan lab over this possibility. The Guardian also absolutely denied that the virus is a bioweapon, based on a Washington Post survey of "expert" opinions.
There is no evidence that it was a bioweapon, and any claims that it is willfully spreads misinformation and is incredibly irresponsible. In fact, it would be a terrible bioweapon because of blowback. A good bioweapon in theory has high lethality but low, not hi, communicability https://t.co/kMOtv1LbTt— Vipin Narang (@NarangVipin) January 25, 2020
Nevertheless, bioweapons and bio-espionage do exist and it is fair to ask if they are a factor in this epidemic. It is easy to deny the possibility based on lack of evidence. Obviously, intelligence agencies operate secretly by definition. They are not going to provide evidence to the press and public.
In 2017, CNN reported that a bioweapons danger came from China's ally, North Korea. In response, the Trump administration formulated a National Biodefense Strategy in 2018, to be administered by the US Department of Health and Human Services. You can read the 2018 strategy statement, here.
Press Briefing with Members of the President's Coronavirus Task Force (31 January 2020). Video Source: Youtube.
The coronavirus epidemic unfolds against a backdrop of Chinese spies running amok globally. Harvard Professor Charles Lieber was just arrested in relation to his activities in Wuhan (and will be freed on USD $1 million bail). The Chinese paid Lieber USD $50,000 per month plus USD $1.5 million to set up a lab in Wuhan. Lieber is also an expert on nanotechnology.
The Lieber arrest prompted the social media conspiracist Joseph P. Farrell to ask grimly if there was a connection between nanotech development and bioweapons.
Even China's Thousand Talents Plan, which funds and recruits foreign scientists, does not prove that the coronavirus has anything to do with bioweapons or bio-espionage. Neither does a recent arrest over attempted Chinese smuggling of biological materials at Boston University. However, the links below confirm a general situation in which many individuals, countries and corporations are fending off, or falling under the sway of, Chinese intelligence.
- On 24 January 2019, the FBI arrested a Raytheon defense contractor for taking US missile defense secrets to China. You can read the arrest warrant here.
- Disputed stories about Huawei's bid to implement 5G in Canada claim that it poses a security risk to Canada. The same Huawei worries concern Germany. The Germans are said to have received proof from the Americans that Huawei works with China's security service. Meanwhile, as of 31 January 2020, the UK has welcomed Huawei's construction of the British 5G network, despite American warnings.
- Chinese US embassy staff expelled in autumn, 2019 after taking part of a security breach at a US Special Forces base in Virginia.
- Chinese spies at Harvard charged, January, 2020.
- Chinese spy arrested at President Trump's Florida property, Mar-a-Lago.
- Chinese spy whistle-blower in Australia, a disputed story.
- Chinese tourist accused of spying in California in June, 2019.
- Australia fears plot to plant Chinese spy ring in Australian parliament.
- Belgium seen as Chinese espionage gateway to Europe.
- Former EU envoy investigated over Chinese espionage claims.
- Chinese spies scanning LinkedIn profiles.
5G, Drones, Surveillance
Walking around without a protective face mask? Well, you can't avoid these sharp-tongued drones! Many village and cities in China are using drones equipped with speakers to patrol during the #coronavirus outbreak. pic.twitter.com/ILbLmlkL9R— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 31, 2020
Drones are flying over Chinese communities, checking that people are wearing their masks. There is an online rumour that 5G was rolled out in Wuhan first as a test city, and that 5G causes virus-like symptoms and depresses immune systems. The MSM have denied this possibility as misinformation.
Venture Beat and RCR Wireless News were much more optimistic, claiming that 5G-powered gear lets doctors remotely diagnose the virus. In fact, the coronavirus epidemic is a terrific opportunity to test 5G capabilities in the implementation of remote medical treatment:
In other words, this disaster is aiding the rapid entrenchment of the new 5G networks, while the notion that that 5G entrenchment might exacerbate health problems associated with the disaster is dismissed as highly speculative."Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, 5G’s potential for remote medical services was largely theoretical, as carriers and practitioners spoke of the future prospect of performing remote surgeries or offering diagnoses to patients in far-flung areas. The use of 5G communications to enhance practitioner safety in circumstances such as this, where a virus’ transmission characteristics and other vectors remain unclear, is fairly new but represents a highly practical test of the high-bandwidth wireless technology.China’s adoption of 5G has outpaced many other countries thanks to a combination of government subsidies and top-down coordination, as well as significant availability of locally produced 5G networking hardware. While domestic companies such as ZTE and Huawei have been restricted or prevented from supplying 5G gear in some countries — a ban that nearly led to ZTE’s collapse in 2018 — their hardware has since enabled Chinese carriers to launch 5G services in somewhere between 30 and 50 cities — no easy feat given the country’s size and population. The country expects to have 5G in every prefecture-level city by the end of this year."
See all my posts on Epidemics here and here.