Coronavirus?
Bernie Sanders = FEAR MONGER.
Sanders Says Death Toll From Coronavirus ‘May Actually Even Be Higher’ Than World War II
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says that the coronavirus could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
“The virus is on the scale of a major war, and we must act accordingly,” Sanders said during a speech on the outbreak on Thursday afternoon.
“Nobody knows what the number of fatalities may end up being. Or the number of people who may get ill. And, we all hope that that number will be as low as possible,” Sanders said.
He continued:
“But we also have to face the truth. And that is, that the number of casualties may actually even be higher than what the armed forces experienced in World War II. In other words, we have a major, major crisis, and we must act accordingly.”
Watch his comments below:
CBS News✔@CBSNews
Bernie Sanders delivers remarks on coronavirus: “The number of casualties may actually even be higher than what the armed forces experienced in World War II” https://cbsn.ws/2TLXjFo
Additionally, Sanders slammed President Donald Trump’s handling of the outbreak and urged him to declare a national emergency.
“We are dealing with a national emergency and the president of the United States must understand that and declare that emergency. Next, because President Trump is unwilling and unable to lead selflessly, we must immediately convene an emergency, bipartisan authority of experts to support and direct the response that is comprehensive, compassionate, and based first and foremost on science and fact.”
“In other words, Congress in a bipartisan manner must take responsibility for addressing this unparalleled crisis,” he added.
ABC News✔@ABC
NEW: Bernie Sanders calls on President Trump to declare a “national emergency” in wake of coronavirus pandemic, adding that because Trump is “unwilling” and “unable to lead selflessly,” we must “convene an emergency bipartisan authority of experts.” http://abcn.ws/2W5N9AZ
Finally, Sanders used his speech to call for the implementation of Medicare for all. But, in the meantime, Sanders said the government should make treatment and future vaccines for the virus free.
“Obviously, when a vaccine or other effective treatment is developed, it must be free of charge,” he said. “We cannot live in a nation where if you have the money you get the treatment you need to survive, but if you’re working-class or poor, you get to the end of the line.”
Sanders’ speech comes hours after former Vice President Joe Biden laid out how he would address the outbreak as president, as IJR has previously reported.
source: ijr.com
Let's watch precious metals spike now that the Fed is completely out of gas and will instead crash the bond market with helicopter money, raising consumer prices with more and more inflation of the money supply.
Stock futures drop — hit ‘limit down’ — even as Fed slashes rates; Dow futures off 1,000 points
Stock futures plunged Sunday night even after the Federal Reserve embarked on a massive monetary stimulus campaign to curb slower economic growth amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Stock market futures hit “limit down” levels of 5% lower, a move made by the CME futures exchange to reduce panic in markets. No prices can trade below that threshold, only at higher prices than that down 5% limit.
Dow Jones Industrial average futures were off by more than 1,000 points, triggering the limit down level. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were also at their downside limits.
While the central bank’s actions may help ease the functioning of markets, many investors said they would ultimately want to see coronavirus cases peaking and falling in the U.S. before it was safe to take on risk and buy equities again.
“The Fed blasted its monetary bazooka for sure,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “This better work because I don’t know what they have left and no amount of money raining from the sky will cure this virus. Only time and medicine will.”
The Fed cut interest rates down to basically zero, their lowest level since 2015. The U.S. central bank also launched a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program. President Donald Trump said he was “very happy” with the announcement, adding: “I think that people in the markets should be very thrilled.”
“This, coupled with an important fiscal package, should help cushion the economic downside from the virus’ effect on economic activity,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. “It’s going to be positive, but the market is at the mercy of the virus and at the mercy of whether the containment policies work.”
The Fed’s announcement came after they issued another emergency rate cut earlier this month. It also comes on the heels of the market’s biggest one-day gain since 2008, with the major averages all surging more than 9% on Friday.
But the weekend’s news about the coronavirus outbreak was not helping sentiment. U.S. cases have jumped to at least 2,952 and deaths to at least 57, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The Dow and S&P 500 both fell more than 8% last week along with the Nasdaq Composite, tumbling into bear market territory. A bear market is usually defined on Wall Street as a decline of at least 20% from a high.
Investors have been dumping equities amid worries the coronavirus will slow economic growth and take a bite out of corporate profits. Economists at JPMorgan see negative growth for the first quarter while Goldman Sachs downgraded its first-quarter growth forecast to flat from 0.7%.
“The rapid spread of COVID-19 across the globe has dramatically heightened investor uncertainty and rocked global financial markets,” strategists at MRB Partners said in a note, adding the situation will “get worse before it gets better.”
“Looking ahead, the number of active cases is likely to worsen in the near run,” they said.
More than 156,000 cases around the world have been confirmed, data from Johns Hopkins University shows. At least 2,952 people in the U.S. have been infected while the virus’ death toll in the U.S. is at least 57. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged Sunday the Trump administration to mobilize the army to help fight the virus.
To be sure, MKM Partners’ JC O’Hara thinks the market may be getting close to reaching a bottom as sentiment keeps dropping and technical signals “suggest a selling climax is near.”
“We believe the conditions are such that we are closer to a sentiment low,” the firm’s chief market technician said in a note Sunday. “Market bottoms are often made with two distinct lows; a low in price and a low in sentiment, and they don’t always occur at the same time. Both are needed before stocks can move higher.”
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—CNBC’s Jeff Cox and Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.
I agree, as somebody who works in the food supply chain that at least in Northeast North America, we see nothing extraordinary happening in the food supply chain (NO MATTER HOW MUCH FEAR MONGERING YOU SEE ON THE INTERNET). I've talked to actual food suppliers, and unless they all lied to me you can indeed relax a bit.
Also, cortisol, the stress hormone is bad for your health. So there's that. now here's this :
Trump says ‘relax,’ urges against hoarding as coronavirus cases soar and Fed cuts rates to zero
- President Donald Trump urged Americans not to hoard food on Sunday during a White House press conference that came just minutes after the Federal Reserve announced new steps to shield the U.S. economy from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
- “You don’t have to buy so much,” Trump said. “Take it easy. Relax.”
- U.S. cases have ballooned over the last two weeks from roughly 100 confirmed infections on March 1 to almost 3,300 on Sunday, according to data compiled by the World Health Organization, the CDC and Johns Hopkins University.
President Donald Trump urged Americans not to hoard food on Sunday during a White House press conference that came just minutes after the Federal Reserve announced new steps to shield the U.S. economy from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
“You don’t have to buy so much,” Trump said. “Take it easy. Relax.”
Read more: Consumer companies like Clorox are calling on the White House to help prevent product shortages
In brief remarks, Trump cautioned against panic buying and said that food supply chains remained intact. He noted that earlier in the day he had met with executives from consumer and grocery companies including Target, Campbell’s and Costco.
“They have asked me to say, ‘Could you buy a little bit less please.’” Trump said. “I thought I would never hear that from a retailer.”
U.S. cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, have ballooned over the last two weeks from roughly 100 confirmed infections on March 1 to almost 3,300 on Sunday, according to data compiled by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University.
The president declared a national emergency over the coronavirus on Friday, freeing up to $50 billion for states and U.S. territories to deploy to assist Americans affected by the outbreak.
That announcement buoyed markets, which have plummeted in recent weeks amid fears that the global economy is about to be thrust into recession as events are canceled and people stay at home. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average indices both entered bear market territory last week, ending 11-year bull runs.
Just ahead of the White House press conference, the Federal Reserve announced a series of steps to mitigate the economic harm the new virus is likely to wreak.
The central bank said it will cut its benchmark interest rate to near zero and launch a $700 billion quantitative easing program, with purchases beginning on Monday.
Trump, who has long pressed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to take aggressive action to stimulate the economy, expressed delight at the move.
“It makes me very happy and I want to congratulate the Federal Reserve,” Trump said. “I think that people in the market should be very thrilled.”
Dow futures plunged shortly after the president’s remarks despite the central bank action, hitting the 5% “limit down” threshold implemented by the CME futures exchange to prevent panic selling.
-- CNBC’s Dawn Kopecki and Lauren Hirsch contributed to this report.
Don't just stay inside, folks. At least supplement vitamin D!
Covid-19 & The Sun: A Lesson From The 1918 Influenza Pandemic
Authored by Richard Hobday via Medium.com,
Fresh air, sunlight and improvised face masks seemed to work a century ago; and they might help us now.
When new, virulent diseases emerge, such SARS and Covid-19, the race begins to find new vaccines and treatments for those affected. As the current crisis unfolds, governments are enforcing quarantine and isolation, and public gatherings are being discouraged. Health officials took the same approach 100 years ago, when influenza was spreading around the world. The results were mixed. But records from the 1918 pandemic suggest one technique for dealing with influenza — little-known today — was effective. Some hard-won experience from the greatest pandemic in recorded history could help us in the weeks and months ahead.
Influenza patients getting sunlight at the Camp Brooks emergency open-air hospital in Boston. Medical staff were not supposed to remove their masks. (National Archives)
Put simply, medics found that severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better than those treated indoors. A combination of fresh air and sunlight seems to have prevented deaths among patients; and infections among medical staff. There is scientific support for this. Research shows that outdoor air is a natural disinfectant. Fresh air can kill the flu virus and other harmful germs. Equally, sunlight is germicidal and there is now evidence it can kill the flu virus.
`Open-Air’ Treatment in 1918
During the great pandemic, two of the worst places to be were military barracks and troop-ships. Overcrowding and bad ventilation put soldiers and sailors at high risk of catching influenza and the other infections that often followed it. As with the current Covid-19 outbreak, most of the victims of so-called `Spanish flu’ did not die from influenza: they died of pneumonia and other complications.
When the influenza pandemic reached the East coast of the United States in 1918, the city of Boston was particularly badly hit. So the State Guard set up an emergency hospital. They took in the worst cases among sailors on ships in Boston harbour. The hospital’s medical officer had noticed the most seriously ill sailors had been in badly-ventilated spaces. So he gave them as much fresh air as possible by putting them in tents. And in good weather they were taken out of their tents and put in the sun. At this time, it was common practice to put sick soldiers outdoors. Open-air therapy, as it was known, was widely used on casualties from the Western Front. And it became the treatment of choice for another common and often deadly respiratory infection of the time; tuberculosis. Patients were put outside in their beds to breathe fresh outdoor air. Or they were nursed in cross-ventilated wards with the windows open day and night. The open-air regimen remained popular until antibiotics replaced it in the 1950s.
Doctors who had first-hand experience of open-air therapy at the hospital in Boston were convinced the regimen was effective. It was adopted elsewhere. If one report is correct, it reduced deaths among hospital patients from 40 per cent to about 13 per cent. According to the Surgeon General of the Massachusetts State Guard:
`The efficacy of open air treatment has been absolutely proven, and one has only to try it to discover its value.’
Fresh Air is a Disinfectant
Patients treated outdoors were less likely to be exposed to the infectious germs that are often present in conventional hospital wards. They were breathing clean air in what must have been a largely sterile environment. We know this because, in the 1960s, Ministry of Defence scientists proved that fresh air is a natural disinfectant. Something in it, which they called the Open Air Factor, is far more harmful to airborne bacteria — and the influenza virus — than indoor air. They couldn’t identify exactly what the Open Air Factor is. But they found it was effective both at night and during the daytime.
Their research also revealed that the Open Air Factor’s disinfecting powers can be preserved in enclosures — if ventilation rates are kept high enough. Significantly, the rates they identified are the same ones that cross-ventilated hospital wards, with high ceilings and big windows, were designed for. But by the time the scientists made their discoveries, antibiotic therapy had replaced open-air treatment. Since then the germicidal effects of fresh air have not featured in infection control, or hospital design. Yet harmful bacteria have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
Sunlight and Influenza Infection
Putting infected patients out in the sun may have helped because it inactivates the influenza virus. It also kills bacteria that cause lung and other infections in hospitals. During the First World War, military surgeons routinely used sunlight to heal infected wounds. They knew it was a disinfectant. What they didn’t know is that one advantage of placing patients outside in the sun is they can synthesise vitamin D in their skin if sunlight is strong enough. This was not discovered until the 1920s. Low vitamin D levels are now linked to respiratory infections and may increase susceptibility to influenza. Also, our body’s biological rhythms appear to influence how we resist infections. New research suggests they can alter our inflammatory response to the flu virus. As with vitamin D, at the time of the 1918 pandemic, the important part played by sunlight in synchronizing these rhythms was not known.
Face Masks Coronavirus and Flu
Surgical masks are currently in short supply in China and elsewhere. They were worn 100 years ago, during the great pandemic, to try and stop the influenza virus spreading. While surgical masks may offer some protection from infection they do not seal around the face. So they don’t filter out small airborne particles. In 1918, anyone at the emergency hospital in Boston who had contact with patients had to wear an improvised face mask. This comprised five layers of gauze fitted to a wire frame which covered the nose and mouth. The frame was shaped to fit the face of the wearer and prevent the gauze filter touching the mouth and nostrils. The masks were replaced every two hours; properly sterilized and with fresh gauze put on. They were a forerunner of the N95 respirators in use in hospitals today to protect medical staff against airborne infection.
Temporary Hospitals
Staff at the hospital kept up high standards of personal and environmental hygiene. No doubt this played a big part in the relatively low rates of infection and deaths reported there. The speed with which their hospital and other temporary open-air facilities were erected to cope with the surge in pneumonia patients was another factor. Today, many countries are not prepared for a severe influenza pandemic. Their health services will be overwhelmed if there is one. Vaccines and antiviral drugs might help. Antibiotics may be effective for pneumonia and other complications. But much of the world’s population will not have access to them. If another 1918 comes, or the Covid-19 crisis gets worse, history suggests it might be prudent to have tents and pre-fabricated wards ready to deal with large numbers of seriously ill cases. Plenty of fresh air and a little sunlight might help too.
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A local health care provider in Rockford, IL says......
- We are asking every practice member and staff to daily check body temperature. Please bring your log of daily body temperatures to every appointment. You will be denied services without your log of daily temperatures. We will also check your body temperature the day of services. We ask you to self quarantine if there is a rise in body temperature. Monitoring body temperature allows us to, as best as possible, catch and early carrier for Covid-19.
Australian researchers map immune response to coronavirus
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian researchers said on Tuesday they have mapped the immune responses from one of country’s first coronavirus patients, findings the health minister said were an important step in developing a vaccine and treatment.
The coronavirus has infected more than 168,000 people worldwide and killed at least 6,610, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
While the bulk of those infected experience only mild symptoms, it is severe or critical in 20% of patients. The virus mortality rate is about 3.4%, the WHO has estimated.
As scientists scramble to develop a vaccine, researchers at Australia’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity said they had taken an important step in understanding the virus.
By examining the blood results from an unidentified woman in her 40s, they discovered that people’s immune systems respond to coronavirus in the same way it typically fights flu.
The findings help scientists understand why some patients recover while others develop more serious respiratory problems, the researchers said.
“People can use our methods to understand the immune responses in larger COVID-19 cohorts, and also understand what’s lacking in those who have fatal outcomes,” said Katherine Kedzierska, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Melbourne, which took part in the research. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
As researchers monitored the Australian patient’s immune response, they were able to accurately predict when she would recover.
Researchers did not name the patient, but said she was an Australian citizen who was evacuated out of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Health Minister Greg Hunt described the development as “world leading” and a major development in research on the disease.
“It’s about fast-tracking a vaccine by identifying which candidates are most likely to be successful,” Hunt told reporters. “It’s also about fast-tracking potential therapies and treatments for patients who already have coronavirus.”
At least a dozen drugmakers around the world are working on vaccines or antiviral and other treatments for the fast-spreading contagion.
But investment costs for vaccines could run as high as $800 million in a process that, even if accelerated, will likely take more than a year until approval, according to executives from companies involved in the effort.
Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Robert Birsel and Jane Wardell
Rapid Spread of Coronavirus Outbreak Fueled by ‘Stealth Transmission’
Undetected cases, many of which were likely not severely symptomatic, were largely responsible for the rapid spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, according to new research by scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The findings based on a computer model of the outbreak are published online in the journal Science.
The researchers report:
- 86 percent of all infections were undocumented prior to the January 23 Wuhan travel shutdown
- Per person, these undocumented infections were half (52 percent) as contagious as documented infections yet were the source of two-thirds of documented infections
- Government control efforts and population awareness have reduced the rate of spread of the virus in China; after travel restrictions and control measures were imposed, it spread less quickly
“The explosion of COVID-19 cases in China was largely driven by individuals with mild, limited, or no symptoms who went undetected,” says co-author Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School. “Depending on their contagiousness and numbers, undetected cases can expose a far greater portion of the population to virus than would otherwise occur. We find for COVID-19 in China these undetected infected individuals are numerous and contagious. These stealth transmissions will continue to present a major challenge to the containment of this outbreak going forward.”
The researchers used a computer model that draws on observations of reported infection and spread within China in conjunction with mobility data from January 10-23 and January 24-February 8. They caution that major changes to care-seeking or patient documentation practices, as well as rapid developments with regard to travel restrictions and control measures, may make predictions difficult.
“Heightened awareness of the outbreak, increased use of personal protective measures, and travel restriction have helped reduce the overall force of infection; however, it is unclear whether this reduction will be sufficient to fully stem the virus spread,” says Shaman. “If the novel coronavirus follows the pattern of 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza, it will also spread globally and become a fifth endemic coronavirus within the human population.”
Reference: “Substantial undocumented infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2)” by Ruiyun Li, Sen Pei, Bin Chen, Yimeng Song, Tao Zhang, Wan Yang and Jeffrey Shaman, 16 March 2020, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abb3221
Additional co-authors include first author Ruiyun Li, Imperial College London, London; Bin Chen, University of California, Davis; Yimeng Song, University of Hong Kong; Tao Zhang, Tsinghua University, Beijing; and Sen Pei and Wan Yang at the Columbia Mailman School.
A version of the article previously appeared online in medRxiv, a preprint server for health sciences.
This research was supported by U.S. National Institutes of Health grants (GM110748, AI145883). Shaman and Columbia University report partial ownership of SK Analytics, a provider of influenza forecasting and analytics services. Shaman also reports receiving consulting fees from Merck.
source- scitechdaily.com
Amazon to hire 100,000 more workers and give raises to current staff to deal with coronavirus demands
- Amazon said Monday it plans to hire an additional 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers amid a surge in online orders due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- The company is also raising pay for warehouse and delivery workers by $2 per hour in the U.S through the end of April.
- On Saturday, Amazon said some brands in the “household staples” category were out of stock and warned that some of its “delivery promises are longer than usual.”
Amazon is hiring an additional 100,000 employees in the U.S. to meet the surge in demand from online shopping amid the coronavirus outbreak, the company said Monday.
The company is looking to add extra full-time and part-time positions for warehouse and delivery workers. Through the end of April, it will raise pay for these employees by $2 per hour in the U.S., £2 per hour in the UK, and approximately €2 per hour in many EU countries. Amazon currently pays $15 per hour or more in some areas of the U.S. for warehouse and delivery jobs.
Amazon encouraged employees in other industries whose jobs were “lost or furloughed” as a result of the coronavirus to apply, including members of the hospitality, restaurant and travel industries. “We want those people to know we welcome them on our teams until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back,” the company added.
The decision comes as the coronavirus outbreak has continued to worsen. As of Monday afternoon, there were more than 181,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus globally, and at least 7,113 deaths. There were at least 4,281 confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. and at least 74 deaths.
Amazon has been hit with a wave of delivery delays and product shortages. The continued spread of the coronavirus has meant consumers are increasingly relying on online retailers as they avoid going outdoors and face low inventory at physical stores.
On Saturday, Amazon said some popular brands and items in the “household staples” categories were out of stock, while some of its “delivery promises are longer than usual.” Amazon added a notice to the top of its marketplace this weekend that reads: “Inventory and delivery may be temporarily unavailable due to increased demand. Confirm availability at checkout.”
Meanwhile, a quick scan for in-demand items like toilet paper and bottled water showed that many listings were out of stock. Amazon’s normally speedy one-day and two-day delivery options for Prime customers also showed delays of several days. After adding an item to the shopping basket, Amazon said the order would arrive within four days.
Amazon has faced increased demand from customers on multiple fronts amid the coronavirus outbreak. With shoppers stocking up online, services like Prime Now and the Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service reported limited availability for several days or told shoppers they were unable to make deliveries.
The company has been working to avoid disruptions in its supply chain, while some factories in China and elsewhere remain offline. Third-party sellers have also been working to keep up with demand, with many saying their inventory is running low.
Additionally, some fulfillment center employees may not be showing up to work. Earlier this month, Amazon relaxed its attendance policy for warehouse workers, allowing them to take unlimited unpaid time off through the month of March.
Earlier this month, Amazon moved to address the unique needs of fulfillment centers and delivery by launching a $25 million relief fund. The “Amazon Relief Fund” will allow these employees to apply for grants that are equal to or up to two weeks of pay if they’re diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
The company has also taken extra precautions at fulfillment centers, increasing the frequency and intensity of cleaning at all of its sites and requiring that employees sanitize and clean their work stations and vehicles at the start and end of every shift.
Last week, Amazon advised global employees who are able to work from home to do so through the end of March. The directive applies to employees at Amazon’s corporate offices.
