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Friday, February 28, 2020

Coronavirus Fragments 6: Is It Real?


Pope's brief security incident 31 December 2019; the pope's illness has prompted conspiracy theorists to ponder this incident. Gif Source: 4chan.

A lot of people doubt the seriousness of the novel coronavirus pandemic and think the huge media coverage of it is fear porn. They believe that nCov exists but that COVID19 is not that scary an illness. Perhaps it is (they say) a US-election-year psyop; a cover story for economic covert conflict between China and the US; a trumped-up excuse to reset a broken global economy; an excuse to suppress the alternative media; an excuse to suppress populations around the world and put them in quarantine centres; a hostile attack on Iran, masked as an epidemic, and so on.

Nevertheless, the drastic actions in China and smartphone footage leaked to Chinese social media belie this theory. This shows how the Internet and mainstream media create a sense of unreality about everything. Could it really all be faked?


Here is a partial summary of a flood of information on the novel coronavirus:
  • South China Morning Post (28 February 2020): Pope slightly ill, seen blowing nose at mass, canceled appointments
  • Novel coronavirus can survive for 9 days on surfaces. However, note that two other coronaviruses, transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) and mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), can survive for 28 days on surfaces at 4 degrees Celsius (The Journal of Hospital Infection DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.01.022). This may or may not be relevant.
  • New York Times (27 February 2020): "Iran Vice President Is One of 7 Officials to Contract Coronavirus Masoumeh Ebtekar, President Hassan Rouhani’s deputy for women’s affairs and the highest-ranking woman in the government, was at least the seventh Iranian official to test positive."
  • Daily Mail (28 February 2020): Could be 1000 times more infectious than SARS
  • Dim Sum Daily (28 February 2020): Pet dog infected with COVID19 in Hong Kong; UK vets express skepticism, saying it could be a false positive (see also here, here, here)
  • Dim Sum Daily (29 February 2020): Pet cat quarantined, but tested negative for COVID19 in Hong Kong
  • Dog N95 masks (one of many vendors, no promotional)
  • Animal contraction questions and antibody dependent enhancement (ADE): can sheep, horses, cows, chickens, rats, mice etc. contract the virus? (speculation, also here)
  • Microbes and Infection (22 February 2020): "Is COVID-19 Receiving ADE From Other Coronaviruses?": "One of the most perplexing questions regarding the current COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic is the discrepancy between the severity of cases observed in the Hubei province of China and those occurring elsewhere in the world. One possible answer is antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) of SARS-CoV-2 due to prior exposure to other coronaviruses. ADE modulates the immune response and can elicit sustained inflammation, lymphopenia, and/or cytokine storm, one or all of which have been documented in severe cases and deaths. ADE also requires prior exposure to similar antigenic epitopes, presumably circulating in local viruses, making it a possible explanation for the observed geographic limitation of severe cases and deaths."
  • 4chan speculation about ADE and nCov19 (28 February 2020); see also here: "So basically, it's starting to look like it has ADE because of prior infections with coroanviruses, that would include the two that cause the common cold. However, I'm also thinking that specifically SARS/MERS antibodies gives SARS-CoV-2 a major boost in infectious rate, because right now, the countries that are getting hit the hardest, China, Iran, SK, Italy, all had outbreaks of SARS/MERS. I also believe that SARS/MERS flew under the radar with milder symptoms for a majority, which means that those countries are most likely walking around with antibodies for SARS/MERS and is the reason they are getting hit the hardest. However, this is also troubling because this gives reinfection a much clearer danger."
  • nCov19 may use other receptors besides ACE2? Antiviral Research (8 and 10 February 2020): The spike glycoprotein of the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV contains a furin-like cleavage site absent in CoV of the same clade
  • South Korea sets up drive-thru COVID19 testing facilities
  • IB Times (26 February 2020): "North Korea's first confirmed Coronavirus COVID 19 patient shot dead: report"
  • Lancet (30 January 2020; DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30251-8): Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding
  • Next Big Future (25 February 2020): Coronavirus Is Bat Coronavirus With SARS Receptor: "Genetic analysis of the COVID-19 virus shows that it is very similar to a coronavirus in bats but the receptor binding looks like the receptor for SARS. This could happen naturally with slow changes of one in ten thousand sequences each year. This appeared all at once. This gives support to the belief that the Wuhan lab took the bat virus and attached the SARS receptor. However, this could happen with the mechanism of antigenic shift. While influenza viruses change all the time due to antigenic drift, antigenic shift happens less frequently. Antigenic shift is the process by which two or more different strains of a virus, or strain of two or more different viruses, combine to form a new subtype having a mixture of the surface antigens of the two or more original strains. The term is often applied specifically to influenza, as that is the best-known example, but the process is also known to occur with other viruses, such as visna virus in sheep. Antigenic shift is a specific case of reassortment or viral shift that confers a phenotypic change."
  • 4chan (28 February 2020): "I don't have the pdf at hand, but they tried treating nCov patients with SARS antibodies and found it had no effect. So not sure to what extend older infections of other viruses affect the illness."
  • 4chan (28 February 2020): discussion of cytokine storm: "chances are this could actually during infection just hijack antibodies, which would explain the asymptomatic period, because your body reacts to something then the virus hides in the antibodies basically, just giving you mild symptoms, until the virus is everywhere and it causes a cytokine storm, or septic shock." and a related answer: "Well, I read something similar, and some specific research for SARS, which indicated that it could actually worsen the infection if continued under a longer period. Also, if they treat already infected patients it wouldn't do anything more than spread the disease further, which is hard to detect if the patient naturally is getting worse. I would like to see someone with added SARS antibodies then get infected."
  • 4chan (28 February 2020): discussion of HIV and similarity to nCov interacts with PACS1 protein: "'In addition, the human protein plays a role in HIV-1 Nef-mediated downregulation of cell surface MHC-I molecules to the TGN, thereby enabling HIV-1 to escape immune surveillance.' So there seems to be more and more credence to the HIV parts as well, not that it's spliced with it, but that it uses similar ways to avoid detection and so on."
  • AFP / El Heraldo (27 February 2020): WHO criticizes Italy for testing too thoroughly
  • Zero Hedge (28 February 2020): Whistleblower claims corrupt cover-up of mishandlings and mishaps at US quarantine facilities
  • Zero Hedge (28 February 2020): Record numbers of CEOs departed in January 2020, prompting speculation about their golden parachutes prior to crash
  • Zero Hedge (28 February 2020): summary update for that day


Images Sources: Lancet via Next Big Future.


UK planning. Image Source: Twitter via 4chan. Click to enlarge.



Image Source: 4chan.


Image Source: Twitter.



See all my posts on Epidemics here and here.


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Thursday, February 27, 2020

Coronavirus Fragments 5: The Toll on the Public


Coronavirus outbreak: House Foreign Affairs, CDC speak on COVID-19 response (27 February 2020). Video Source: Youtube.

The CDC made a statement today, in which they mainly focused on funding and logistics - and controlling information about the novel coronavirus. Authorities' insistence on dominating the narrative is creating a divided public.
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Coronavirus Fragments 4: The Toll on Officials



DR. NANCY MESSONNIER SAYS THE AMERICAN PUBLIC NEED TO PREPARE WITH EXPECTATIONS THIS COULD BE BAD. (25 February 2020). Video Source: Bitchute.

For today, see reports which illustrate the toll on officials and medical professionals when dealing with the pandemic. From DIM SUM Daily:
"2nd February 2020 – (Japan) According to Sankei News in Japan, a Japanese government official who was responsible for the evacuation of Japanese nationals from Wuhan has committed suicide. The Japanese government is expected to send a fourth chartered flight in the middle of this week or later to evacuate Japanese citizens still in China’s Hubei Province, which includes Wuhan at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the Foreign Ministry said today.

A government official who worked for the Cabinet Secretariat committed suicide by jumping off the top of National Institute of Public Health of Japan in the Saitama Prefecture. The premises is used by the government as a quarantine centre for the Japanese nationals who were evacuated from Wuhan. He was allegedly involved in handling the evacuation of the Japanese nationals, some of whom were confirmed to be infected with novel coronavirus. Unaffected Japanese nationals were placed under medical observation at the National Institute of Public Health of Japan. They were forced to share isolation ward with others and many were displeased with the lack of privacy.

Sources revealed that the government staff was under tremendous stress before he killed himself. Others said that he ended his life because he felt guilty for causing the spread of the virus among the evacuees who returned from Wuhan. Police are still investigating the case."

Local reports: An official from the South Korea Justice Ministry who was in charge of national emergency situations and crisis management jumped to his death on 26 February 2020 from Dongjak Bridge, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Image Source: Yonhap News via The Filipino Times.

South Korean official in charge of 'coronavirus outbreak' commits suicide - The Filipino Times [UNVERIFIED BUT CORROBORATED] from r/Prepare_For_Worst

"Pope Francis kisses a child in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican before leaving after his weekly general audience, on Feb. 26, 2020." Image Source: Alessandra Tarantino—AP via TIME.

The Pope marked Ash Wednesday on 26 February 2020 without a mask and kissed and embraced hundreds of Italian worshipers. On 27 February 2020, the Vatican stated that he felt unwell and had canceled his appointments.



There are new cases, including one in Poland, and one - with no known source - in California, USA. The CDC telebriefing on the novel coronavirus from 21 February 2020 is here.

WHO ACCUSED OF UNDERESTIMATING CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK; MINUS 107 CASES OF CORONAVIRUS REPORTED (27 February 2020). Video Source: Bitchute.

NOTE: These are fictional depictions of quarantine posters. PANDEMICS IN POP CULTURE PT 4: POSTERS (27 February 2020). Video Source: Bitchute. For fictional depictions of quarantines in America, go here.



See all my posts on Epidemics here and here.

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Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Pandemic Chats in the Darkness 2: COVID19 Cracked


Image Source: Natural News.

Pandemic Chats is the thread I am using for dubious, unsourced, unproven coronavirus information, which is nonetheless of interest. Please see my disclaimer at the bottom of this post.

You may notice that health authorities, politicians and the MSM are saying little about actual research, or about the way the virus evidently works based on what we saw in footage from China. They speak mainly of numbers and unfolding events. We do not have much concrete or helpful information on whether there is anything we can do, besides avoiding catching the virus and stockpiling supplies. Any informal or alternative discussions about the virus are dismissed by the mainstream as crackpot, dangerous, snake oil lunacy.

You may then wish to read the following leak as a cultural artefact in the early stage of the global pandemic, in which social media generated a pseudo-scientific sub-narrative. Or if you are red-pilled and don't trust establishment authorities, you may want to know what someone had to say because it sounded plausible.

On 22 and 26 February 2020, an anon went on 4chan /pol/ and claimed to have solved the way the virus works. The thread was reproduced in a thread today, here. Anons archived the thread here. Bear in mind that while 4chan /pol/ definitely lives up to its name of being 'politically incorrect,' it is one of the last unfiltered places left on the mainstream Web. This is why people who work in the establishment sometimes go there to leak information when they are angry or disenchanted because of red tape or corruption. I can't say that this anon was of this type, but he or she was more articulate than the usual sludge-slingers.

Image Source: 4chan. Click to enlarge.

Please read the disclaimer at the bottom of the post. My posting this information does not constitute my personal belief that this information is true, nor am I in any way advocating it as medical advice.

My comments, based on other information I have found are inserted below in square brackets. This is the TL;DR of what the anon said.
  • The virus suppresses the immune system
  • Virus builds slowly
  • Highly contagious R9+
  • It was released in October in China and Iran
  • Because it was released in October, you're already infected
  • It binds to ACE2 receptors, [found in the lungs, testes, gastro-intestinal tract, heart, kidneys, liver, placenta, central nervous system]
  • Asians have more ACE2 receptors [see a related study]
  • The fewer ACE2 receptors you have in your body, the longer it takes for the virus to colonize your body [which is why some people can be positive but have no symptoms; or they can test negative several times and then test positive]
  • "It's not 'reinfecting', it's being smashed out by your immune system, then pulls the old 'Dengue' effect, it then infects those antibodies and this is what leads to the Cytokine storm."
  • "Once you get to critical levels of the virus load (and this is why we see damage in testes, kidneys and lungs because they've been there for quite some time) your body will fight it off, unless you get a secondary viral or bacterial infection."
  • "Once you produce the antibodies to it, the viral store (just like HIV) reemerge and cause the cytokine storm, which is why they are observing the 'reinfection' causing sudden death."
  • "Elderly have weak immune systems, it's why they fall ill faster. Everyone on that cruise ship is infected, symptoms or not. Testing for fever isn't effective, since it suppresses the fever reaction."
  • "Kids will get sick last, die faster."
  • There are two or more stages of the disease, with false apparent recovery in between. Reappearance of the disease is worse and can kill with a cytokine storm.
  • "Anti-HIV drugs work because it's keeping the viral load down and not triggering the cytokine storm response. It won't let the immune system be as suppressed, so you can fight it off."
  • "The longer it runs inside you, the faster and deadlier the cytokine storm will be. Stop the Cytokine Storm and stop the Immunosuppressant action and you stop the death rate."
  • "You will stay infected after you get better, you need to help keep the viral load down until they finally make DRACO a reality. It's highly likely due to the size of the RNA in Covid-19 that DRACO will prove to be highly effective in eliminating it from your body."
  • "USE A NETI POT TO CLEAN YOUR SINUSES to keep the viral shed low and it from being constantly put back in your lungs and back in your body. Don't wear a respirator without cleaning your sinus cavity first."
  • "Vitamin D has been said to stop a Cytokine Storm."
  • "Don't keep in close contact with anyone as it could increase the amount of viral shed you take in and lead to a faster immune response."
  • "Western countries lag time will be twice that of Asian Countries, it won't take off here until Mid-March."
  • "[T]he CDC ignored every submission I gave to them."
  • "Take Vitamin D, go outside, clean your sinuses and find ANYTHING that is known to suppress viral replication."
  • [Same anon, commenting on the 26 February 2020 thread] "The kill switch triggers the liver to release the stores of Vitamin A, it presents itself as reinfection due to vitamin a poisoning looking like ili, but then causes internal hemorrhage and massive heart attack. Chloroquine is now a no go since it can cause that. Vitamin A release is [related to] the cytokine storm." 
  • [Same anon, commenting on the 26 February 2020 thread] Problems with malaria drug, chloroquine: link and link
  • [Same anon, commenting on the 26 February 2020 thread] "No real way to reduce vitamin a stores in the liver that we've been able to come up with. I'm still trying to find a method to do it, maybe another Anon knows. Vitamin D has been shown to reduce the cytokine storm, but now that we know the kill switch, unsure if it works to stop the vitamin a poisoning. Again, as soon as I get the info I will post it. I'm still supplementing vitamin D and C."
  • [Preventing cytokine storms, dietary suggestions.]
I have to wonder, given the fact that the anon mentioned the anti-viral DRACO, whether the anon is connected to the MIT lab that was developing this drug.

During the 1918 flu epidemic, patients recovered in solariums for vitamin D's supportive properties. Photograph taken in Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. Image Source: Daily Mail.


Disclaimer for all 'Pandemic Chats' Posts
Warnings against Reading Weaponized Disinformation

 My posting of this information does not constitute my belief in this information, nor my desire to spread fear. This 'Pandemic Chats' series is published here to make people aware of the scope of discussion. I do not know whether this is a milestone in the history of real bioweapons in public health or a milestone in the evolution of weaponized online propaganda. Or both.

 There are good reasons why you should read this information with extreme caution and discernment. It is possible that the virus is a bioweapon or it may have arisen naturally. Either way, the Chinese government may perceive this outbreak as a bio-weaponized attack.

 As such, the coronavirus epidemic might invite Chinese revenge. That retribution may come first in the form of a wave of Internet disinformation warfare, intended to spread panic and violence.

 Read this information at your own risk. Treat it as a toxic waste neo-cultural cyber-event. Examine it with the sober reserve of an anthropologist. Coronavirus rumours may be an extreme new type of online propaganda. Do not presume the information is true.

 But also understand that if these are real leakers and they are telling the truth to the Internet Underground to relieve their consciences, then the world is now a different place.

 I cannot assess the veracity, sources or accuracy of this (dis)information. Some of these fragments and citations refer to legitimate medical publications, which you can read, if you have time. If the rumours are true, you don't have time.

 Click to enlarge any posted images. Read them with great care and pray that this is only the next level of dark social media, and not a milestone in biological history of our species.


See all my posts on Epidemics here and here.

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Coronavirus: Alt Media Comments on Authorities


WHO: Carnivorous "worse than Ebola" | CDC: "People need to Start preparing" (25 February 2020). Video Source: Youtube. (The vlogger Ed at The Outer Light has a dyslexic tendency to misspell titles.)

Two videos from today reflect the basic sentiment of the alt media on how authorities - governmental, international and the MSM - have mishandled the coronavirus pandemic thus far. Members of the alt media have been fielding communications from people on the ground in places where the virus is spreading. Locals are leaking this information at great personal risk onto social media. As a result, the alt media are far more aware than the general public of the full extent of the crisis and they know that authorities are lying to preserve current power hierarchies, the economy, and social order. The vloggers who release this information are being censored by big tech platforms and condemned by the WHO and mainstream media.

UN chief praises China's contribution to global fight against COVID-19 (25 February 2020). Video Source: Youtube.

You couldn't make up the irony which unfolded over the past few days in Iran, where the Deputy Minister of Health - a coronavirus nay-sayer - succumbed to COVID19 on camera, while he was in the process of playing down the spread and seriousness of COVID19. He has probably infected other members of the Iranian government. It made me feel like I was watching The Simpsons, transformed into reality.

The Simpsons Predicted The Corona Virus!! (1 February 2020). Video Source: Youtube. Reproduced under Fair Use.

The Simpsons - Ship Doom! (14 December 2018). Video Source: Youtube. Reproduced under Fair Use.



See all my posts on Epidemics here and here.


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Tuesday, February 25, 2020

New Post at Vocal Media: The Coronavirus Consciousness: If There Was No More Time


Image Source: 4chan.

I have published a new post at Vocal Media about the coronavirus as a lens of crisis, through which we see authorities and ourselves:

The Coronavirus Consciousness
Take Prepping to a New Level: Be Ready to Save Yourself

It might be a good time to look at Stephen King's novel, The Stand (1978); see the graphic novel version here and the movie version (while the link lasts). In The Stand, a killer virus escapes a secret lab at a military base in the United States and it wipes out almost the entire global population. That will not likely happen in reality, unless the coronavirus mutates. But the themes in The Stand are relevant. Mainly, they involve the way a pandemic causes societal collapse. Without an outer apparatus and authorities to define and enforce social order, the crisis brings out the core of who people really are.





Source.
One of the things I discussed in the Vocal Media article was the toll taken by the virus on medical professionals. COVID19 engulfed them in Wuhan within seven weeks. There are reports and leaked calls from medics in the Wuhan hospitals that many - if not most - doctors and nurses are infected. We do not know enough about the disease yet to know if it comes back for a second or third wave. But infected people can become reinfected (it is possible that the disease goes dormant and flares back up, and infected people appear to recover, but never do and remain infectious). That is why we may face a future where hospitals, doctors and nurses are initially swamped, then unavailable.

Extreme conditions lead to extreme measures. This is the type of unconfirmed information circulating on Chinese social media. China has finally crossed the line. (25 February 2020). Video Source: Youtube.

The same concern goes for governmental authorities. Within one week, three Iranian MPs with fevers sat at a closed parliamentary session with the rest of the Iranian government. On 22 February 2020, Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini was hospitalized in Bratislava with an upper respiratory infection and fever and has cancelled all his upcoming appointments. This happened after he attended several meetings with world leaders. His office denied he has contracted the coronavirus. All it would take is one asymptomatic politician or bureaucrat to attend one top-level meeting. It is not hard to imagine what could happen.

Coronavirus outbreak: Iran health minister appears ill at news conference before COVID-19 diagnosis (25 February 2020). Video Source: Youtube. Subtitled version here.

There are ways for individuals to face these circumstances now in a frame of mind that will make things turn out for the better. Every person has a chance now to change the course of collective future responses by strengthening inner resolve in a moment of soul-searching. I made the following observation in the Vocal Media piece:
"In this epidemic, people can and will disappear, and you will just not know what happened to them. Whether that is due to infection or oppression, you may never find out. If you need to track people down, to say what you need to say, or anything else, now is the time to do it."
The virus has emerged out of a world that was filled with shortcomings. It can push us now to address those shortcomings, starting at the micro level. We should all consider what we would do if there was no more time - not in panic - but because this is a watershed moment. At that watershed moment, we have a chance to improve general circumstances by becoming less passive, less dependent on authorities, and by connecting to reality and other people, without judgement, in a more awakened and aware way.

Are there old friends or family you should to contact? Who would you call? Or write? Do you have apologies to make? Do you need to tell someone you love them? Do you need to settle scores or resolve problems? Do you have fears to conquer? What are your real priorities? Is there work to complete?

In that spirit, I may make some related posts at my other blog, The Dragonfly, in coming days.

Reckon with these completions now, in the best of senses and with the highest of intentions, and perhaps a vaccine will be developed in good time. We may wake up and everything will return to normal, and perhaps the world will be a better place on the other side of crisis.


See all my posts on Epidemics here and here.

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