I am living in the middle of the emergency over coronavirus in Finland. Due this reason the update cycle to make posting to this blog could be slowed down.
The Finnish government announced on Monday nationwide school closures in order to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Read more on the following aricles:
Finland closes schools, declares state of emergency over coronavirus
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finland_closes_schools_declares_state_of_emergency_over_coronavirus/11260062
Daycare centres are to stay open but parents were asked to keep their kids home if possible. The government also published a 19-point list of emergency legislation that takes effect on 18 March.
Coronavirus latest: 359 cases confirmed in Finland, S-Group shuts its Helsinki eateries, bankruptcy fears mount
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/coronavirus_latest_359_cases_confirmed_in_finland_s-group_shuts_its_helsinki_eateries_bankruptcy_fears_mount/11249610
Here is a link to an earlier post related to Coronavirus:
https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2020/02/12/mobile-trends-2020-mwc-canceled/
1,657 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
20 ways to protect yourself from COVID-19 & stimulus payment scams
https://medium.com/@brothke/20-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-covid-19-stimulus-payment-scams-b42e28058434
COVID-19 is a tragedy that is affecting nearly everyone. On the positive side, it has brought out the best in people. There are countless stories about people donating plasma, food, money, and much more. There are large groups of people using their 3D printers to make masks and other PPE for healthcare workers that are facing these critical supply shortages.
Sadly, scammers are out in force also. Ironically, they were quite quick to mobilize, often quicker than the relief groups. And it is not just COVID. Whenever there is a natural disaster, scammers often react before international aid arrives on-site.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What tech has been most helpful in Europe’s coronavirus response? We asked GE Healthcare’s Chief Medical Officer for Europe for his take.
Q&A: GE Healthcare’s Chief Medical Officer for Europe on Which Tech Is Helping Most in COVID-19 Response
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/imaging/qa-ge-healthcare-chief-medical-officer-europe-tech-covid19-response
When the last global pandemic broke out, in 1918, it ravaged a population with essentially no technological countermeasures. There were no diagnostic tests, no mechanical ventilators, and no antiviral or widely available anti-inflammatory medications other than aspirin. The first inactivated-virus vaccines would not become available until 1936. An estimated 50 million people died.
For the current outbreak, a best-case scenario could limit fatalities to 1.3 million, according to projections by Imperial College London. That in a world with 7.8 billion people—more than four times as many as in 1918.
Many factors will lessen mortality this time, chief among them better, more consistent implementation of social-distancing measures. But technology will also be a primary bulwark. Enormous sums are being spent to ramp up testing, diagnosis, modeling, treatment, vaccination, and other tech-based responses.
Spectrum: Which technologies are you seeing particularly high demand for?
Goyen: We see an explosion in the demand for medical equipment. Starting with normal X-rays to CT, of course, as the imaging modality to assess the lung. But also ultrasound. Probably ultrasound is not a natural candidate, you might think, to assess the lung. But here, dealing with the pandemic, all of a sudden ultrasound really has a major role. You can use it right in the ICU; you don’t have to bring the patient to the radiology department. It’s inexpensive; it’s available; it’s a bedside test. There’s a huge, huge demand. [Editor’s note: A recent Spectrum article described surging demand for ultrasound systems.] It’s safe to say that COVID-19 has helped accelerate the adoption of digital health technologies.
Spectrum: It seems like there are some particular technologies that are really rising to the top and will probably benefit substantially when all this is over.
Goyen: Exactly. I would say the overriding theme is AI, artificial intelligence. Because if you look at it, AI is playing a part in each stage of the COVID pandemic. From predicting the spread to also powering tools that can really help humans in the hospital to limit human interaction. I mean, robots can help hospital personnel or can disinfect rooms. They can provide telehealth. And electronic health records—it’s very important in the ICU to have access to those.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dozens Of Patients In Wuhan Have Developed ‘Chronic’ Coronavirus Infections
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/dozens-patients-wuhan-have-developed-chronic-coronavirus-infections
A few weeks ago, we reported on several Reddit threads where COVID-19 patients from around the world – many of them young men – shared their struggles with a virus that they just couldn’t seem to shake. Some patients who were six or seven weeks post-confirmation (meaning they probably had contracted the virus two months earlier, or possibly even longer) complained of symptoms coming back in waves, while others complained that they were still testing positive for the virus weeks after their symptoms disappeared.
Though rare, these cases have alarmed researchers who fear that some patients might become chronic carriers of the virus. And the scientists leading China’s response to the outbreak are particularly concerned about dozens of apparently chronic patients in Hubei who still haven’t cleared the virus, even as the region – which was bolted shut during the outbreak crisis – slowly reopens to the outside world.
Typically, patients infected with COVID-19 will test negative on nucleic acid throat swabs roughly 20 days after detection. However, for a small number of patients, throat swabs will produce positive tests for more than 40 days.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UutisetKoronavirus
Ruotsissa valmisteltu salassa elintarvikkeiden säännöstelyä – ”Voisimme sanoa, että maitoa voi ostaa vain kaksi litraa”
Eilen klo 11:48
Elintarvikehuollosta on tullut kuuma kysymys koronapandemian aikana.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/koronavirus/a/4ee29a62-c013-4ea1-9692-0b165ced13cd
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do We Need A “New” Capitalism?
https://alhambrapartners.com/2020/04/30/do-we-need-a-new-capitalism/
Everyone, or at least all the right-thinking people, believes that capitalism needs to be reformed. Elizabeth Warren calls her version Accountable Capitalism. Marco Rubio dusted off an 1891 speech by Pope Leo to advocate what he calls Common Good Capitalism. Both are attempts to correct what these lawyers see as flaws in the current incarnation of economic organization that is sneeringly referred to as Shareholder Capitalism. Milton Friedman apparently infected several generations of capitalists with an insatiable greed by informing them that they should run their companies for the sole benefit of owners. You know, the people who actually provide the capital that gives capitalism its name.
Warren’s new version of capitalism is one where putting capital at risk entitles you to nothing more than the right to have someone else tell you how to deploy it. Elizabeth Warren will be in charge of your capital structure and workers will sit on your board of directors where they can make sure they get their fair share of what you’ve risked. Your existence will depend on your ability to satisfy all your “stakeholders” rather than just your customers.
Derivatives are the market’s rational response to the uncertainty created by an unstable currency. Derivatives are necessary to hedge the commodity, interest rate, economic and financial asset volatility created by currency uncertainty. Commodity volatility, as an example, has more than doubled since the Nixon shock of 1971.
Three recessions, two of which were (are) the worst in decades, three bear markets and the election of Donald Trump doesn’t sound like moderation to me.
The idea that unsound monetary policies create unequal outcomes – inequality – is an old concept.
The inequality problem is not though a failure of capitalism. It is a failure of the Republicans who style themselves as its stewards during the good times and abandon it during the bad. Capitalism requires a moral compass, a policing of the tendency to greed that is inherent in all humans. Even Adam Smith knew that you couldn’t trust business people to do it themselves but the form of that guidance matters. It must be done in broad ways, by constructing a framework – sound money, fiscal prudence, competitive markets – that allows capitalists to succeed – and fail – without overbearing political influence.
One of the main benefits of sound money is that it levels the playing field between rich and poor by providing an equal opportunity – time – to respond to change. Sudden changes in monetary conditions, by contrast, always favor a few, bestowing undeserved benefits on some citizens through mere luck and often at the expense of others.
Sound money is only one part of a strategy to restore capitalism to its rightful place. The Federal Government needs to lead by example, living within its means as all Americans must. Government is a cost to the citizenry, the price we pay for a just society and most Americans would agree, I believe, that despite record spending, we haven’t been getting our money’s worth. We should not just seek to shrink government but to make it efficient
Corporate governance also needs to be addressed. The COVID-19 virus has revealed for all to see the consequences of boards ignoring their fiduciary responsibilities. They must be held to account. I have heard repeatedly, especially from President Trump, that industries should be bailed out because this wasn’t “their fault”. I disagree.
The stock buybacks and exorbitant management pay packages that weakened corporate balance sheets were choices. Poor choices. The managers and board members who approved them should be dismissed by shareholders, sued for breach of fiduciary duty, and bonuses clawed back.
hire managers who will operate them for the long-term benefit of all shareholders.
Our economy needs to be operated more conservatively. I don’t mean the political definition of a conservative
We need business leaders of more caution and moderation, real conservatives who won’t abandon principles they really hold dear. Change is inevitable and beneficial but only with the proper vetting of time.
It is up to shareholders to hold their management teams to account.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Royal Dutch Shell Plc cut its dividend for the first time since at least the Second World War as the oil slump triggered by the coronavirus pandemic reshapes the energy industry.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-30/shell-cuts-dividend-as-pandemic-hammers-energy-prices-demand?utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&cmpid=socialflow-facebook-business&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=business
Tomi Engdahl says:
SUVs Are Being Parked In The Middle Of The Ocean As Auto Inventory Crisis Deepens
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/suvs-are-being-parked-middle-ocean-auto-inventory-crisis-deepens
What happens when you have an auto glut that simply won’t go away? What do you do with all of those unsold cars?
we could have never predicted that a pandemic would be the black swan that would have caused the next historic buildup of auto inventory. But now, with ports at capacity, tankers carrying automobiles – at least those tanker that aren’t carrying oil – are being told to stay out at sea.
Such was the case on April 24 when a cargo of 2,000 Nissan SUVs was approaching the port of Los Angeles. They were told to drop anchor about a mile from the port and remain there. The port was full and the glut is indicative of just how the industry has collapsed in the U.S.
: “It is very abnormal for a container ship, a car carrier or a cruise ship not to go right to the berth, discharge and be on their way.”
: “It is very abnormal for a container ship, a car carrier or a cruise ship not to go right to the berth, discharge and be on their way.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple and Google contact tracing is a dystopian nightmare
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WRalTWAFBY4&feature=youtu.be
Apple and Google are developing contact tracing mass surveillance system based on Bluetooth Low Energy that is being rolled out as forced updates into users phones without their consent. Let’s talk about this!
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Reports on Virus in Kids Fuel Uncertainty on Schools
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloombergquint.com/amp/business/children-with-coronavirus-may-be-just-as-infectious-as-adults
Children with the new coronavirus may be as infectious as adults, according to a study from Germany that stoked confusion over kids’ role in the pandemic.
Levels of virus in the respiratory tract — the main route via which the pathogen is transmitted — don’t appear significantly different across age groups,
The findings add to a contradictory body of work over children’s response to Covid-19 and the role they play in its spread, with another report showing kids aren’t passing the virus to adults. The World Health Organization said Wednesday more research was needed on the topic.
“All we really know at this point is that with a small number of exceptions, children are mildly affected by this infection,”
For now, household transmission studies indicate that children are less likely to transmit Covid-19 to adults than the reverse
Such observations may be “misunderstood as an indication of children being less infectious,” Drosten and colleagues said. They cautioned “against an unlimited reopening of schools and kindergartens in the present situation.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Viranomaiset hyväksyivät lääkkeen koronapotilaiden hoitoon Yhdysvalloissa – IS seuraa https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000006488202.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sosiaali- ja terveysministeriö ja THL ie taaskaan suostu vastamaan kysymyksiin maksisuosituksista.
“Saksassa suun ja nenän peittävä maski on nyt pakollinen joukkoliikenteessä, suurimmassa osassa maata myös ruokakaupoissa. Sama velvoite tulee viikon päästä voimaan Italiassa ja Belgiassa. Myös Tšekissä, Slovakiassa ja Puolassa kasvosuojan käyttäminen on pakollista. Itävallassa maskipakko kaupoissa ja joukkoliikenteessä on ollut voimassa viikon.
Alueellisia maskipakkoja on käytössä myös muualla, esimerkiksi Ranskassa.
Yhdysvaltojen tautikeskus CDC suosittaa kangasmaskin käyttöä julkisilla paikoilla muiden ihmisten suojelemiseksi, ja useissa Aasian maissa maskeja on käytetty epidemian alkumetreiltä lähtien.”
https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000006494300.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.verkkouutiset.fi/suomalaistutkija-ylella-kotimainen-koronarokote-lahes-valmis/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://juliusinfinance.blogspot.com/2020/04/why-cb-balance-sheet-expansion-during.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.e-ville.com/hengityssuojainten-ja-varusteiden-hankinta-kiinasta/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2020/04/11/the-secret-history-of-the-first-coronavirus-229e/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Protesting During A Pandemic Isn’t New: Meet The Anti-Mask League Of 1918
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2020/04/29/protesting-during-a-pandemic-isnt-new-meet-the-anti-mask-league/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coronavirus: Cyber-spies seek coronavirus vaccine secrets
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52490432
The US has seen foreign spy agencies carry out reconnaissance of research into a coronavirus vaccine, a senior US intelligence official has told the BBC.
Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said the US government had warned medical research organisations of the risks.
But he would not say whether there had been confirmed cases of stolen data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US germ warfare research leads to new early Covid-19 test
Exclusive: test has potential to identify carriers before they become infectious
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/us-germ-warfare-lab-creates-test-for-pre-infectious-covid-19-carriers
Scientists working for the US military have designed a new Covid-19 test that could potentially identify carriers before they become infectious and spread the disease, the Guardian has learned.
In what could be a significant breakthrough, project coordinators hope the blood-based test will be able to detect the virus’s presence as early as 24 hours after infection – before people show symptoms and several days before a carrier is considered capable of spreading it to other people. That is also around four days before current tests can detect the virus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
These are the ways doctors think coronavirus can attack the body
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/covid-19-lungs-heart-blood-brain/
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted millions of people in countries around the world.
Studies show COVID-19 can attack organs like the heart and brain, as well as the respiratory system.
A growing body of research is revealing new information that could help tackle the disease.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Prepare for the worst’, Australia’s political and military leaders warned
https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/key-enablers/6005-prepare-for-the-worst-australia-s-political-and-military-leaders-warned
With each passing day, the national security challenges to Australia’s sovereignty continue to evolve. Now it has been revealed that the Department of Defence war-gamed a myriad of contingencies ranging from great power conflict to global pandemic, with a startling warning: “prepare for the worst”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Comic Strip Tour Of The Wild World Of Pandemic Modeling
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-comic-strip-tour-of-the-wild-world-of-pandemic-modeling/
Tomi Engdahl says:
German club holds drive-in rave to circumvent coronavirus restrictions
The trend of drive-in performances is gathering pace in Europe
https://www.nme.com/news/music/german-club-holds-drive-in-rave-to-circumvent-coronavirus-restrictions-2658551?amp
Tomi Engdahl says:
Based on trends from places like Wuhan and New York City, more people in their 30s and 40s are experiencing deadly strokes due to COVID-19. The symptoms of a stroke include slurred speech, weakness in the arms or legs, and changes in vision.
https://www.nbc12.com/2020/05/01/doctors-warn-covid-has-caused-strokes-young-people-with-mild-coronavirus-symptoms/
Tomi Engdahl says:
FDA Grants Emergency Authorization To Roche Antibody Tests
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/05/03/fda-grants-emergency-authorization-to-roche-antibody-tests/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://gizmodo.com/when-your-freedom-depends-on-an-app-1843109198
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trolls and bots are flooding social media with disinformation encouraging states to end quarantine
https://www.businessinsider.com/trolls-bots-flooding-social-media-with-anti-quarantine-disinformation-2020-4
Protests have popped up around the US calling for states to end quarantine and reopen businesses.
An analysis from Bot Sentinel, a bot tracking platform, found that bots and trolls have been stoking sentiments online that have fueled the protests, using hashtags like #ReopenAmericaNow and #StopTheMadness.
Online disinformation seemingly used to stoke political tension in the US has been frequently reported on since the 2016 election when Russian actors used bots and active trolling to support Donald Trump, organize events, and spread political memes.
Brooke Binkowski, managing editor of the fact-checking website Truth or Fiction, says that reporters need to do a better job of reporting on the protests in the context of the disinformation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Synkkä arvio Saksassa: poikkeusolot kestävät kaksi vuotta, rokotteen kehittäminen vie vuosia
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/e7556d3f-0f61-4c84-9721-6180f727e828
Saksassa poliittisen johdon arvio koronavirustilanteesta synkkenee. Varaliittokansleri Olaf Scholz sanoi Anne Will Talkshow -nimisessä keskusteluohjelmassa, että poikkeusolot jatkunevat jopa kaksi vuotta. Hänen mukaansa täytyy tottua siihen, että poikkeusolojen kanssa eläminen on uusi normaali seuraavat kaksi vuotta.
– Emme saa antaa sellaista mielikuvaa, että tähän olisi helppo ratkaisu.
Terveysministeri Jens Spahn on puolestaan sunnuntai-iltana lausunut, että rokotteen kehittäminen voi viedä vuosia.
Hänen mukaansa toivoa on, mutta rokotteen kehittäminen on todella haastavaa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Covid-19 and America’s Vulnerabilities – A Way Forward
https://www.eetimes.com/covid-19-and-americas-vulnerabilities-a-way-forward/
The unfolding Covid-19 crisis exposed America’s significant economic and security vulnerabilities. We no longer produce — indeed are unable to develop — many of the things we need to run a modern, prosperous economy. From swabs, facial masks, drugs and ventilators to simple computers to advance 5G telecommunication products, we are largely dependent on overseas suppliers. The supply networks that underpin both the production and innovation of those goods long ago moved from the U.S. to Greater China. In so doing, that exodus left us with hollowed-out capabilities, broken production capacities, underutilized engineering and technical talent as well over-reliance on one relatively small region of the world.
This is precisely why the pandemic might be our last opportunity to regain prosperity. In the last two decades we have been lulled into following a specific path of financialization-induced offshoring. The huge short-term profits, coupled with the impressive decrease in the prices of consumer goods, soothed us to such degree that we lost sight of the critical requirements of a vibrant economy.
Covid-19 represents a sudden burst of heat that should awaken us to the fact that we are being cooked to death. Nonetheless, let us be clear: We are already damn-well cooked, losing so much productive capacity that to revive our economy will require us to overcome significant coordination and collective action challenges, and then sustain those efforts over multiple years — even as the pandemic recedes to the background.
This we must do. Not only is our long-term prosperity is at stake, but also because the next crisis disrupting our global production chains is already around the corner, be it medical, natural, political or manmade.
Creating incentives, engineering a response
There are two critical spheres of action. First, dealing with the managerial and financial regulations and incentives that have made offshoring the rational, sometimes the only, option, for too many U.S. companies. Second, engineering a response to rebuild our depleted production capacities, from skills to the production networks of suppliers and sub-suppliers that will allow us to both produce and innovate in producing finished products.
I will focus on the second set of tasks. However, we should not expect public companies to stop offshoring without changing the financial incentives of both managers and investors. That requires a fundamental shift away from focusing on short-term stock prices utilizing financial engineering tools such as stock buybacks and the use of a complex network of offshoring companies
After two decades of accelerated offshoring, the obstacles to reshoring are currently so significant that we should not assume that even our best-run corporations can overcome these financial obstacles by themselves. In order for a high-end manufacturer to produce, it needs a constant supply of two resources: components, from screws and pins to various sub-systems; along with technicians, engineers and managers with highly honed production skills.
We are severely lacking in both.
Even mighty Apple Inc. found itself unable to overcome those obstacles when it tried to shift production of its Mac Pro laptops to Austin, Texas, in 2012. The consumer electronics giant quickly realized it could not even locally source components such as simple screws (when demand dried up in Texas, local producers shut down production lines and sold their equipment to China manufacturers). Worse, Apple could not find enough tooling engineers, and its top management — having developed the best global talent for offshoring and outsourced supply network management — lacked the skills necessary for actual in-house production.
In June 2019 Apple announced that the next version of the Mac Pro will be produced in — you guessed it — China.
Thus, we shouldn’t expect North American companies, working in isolation, to solve what is now a systemic problem. It is not rationale to expect a single corporation to expose itself to the higher costs and bottlenecks that come with reshoring. The market will not fix by itself the sub-optimal Nash equilibrium we created over twenty years. Nor will a massive one-time injection of stimulus funds.
Needed: stable demand
Instead we need to acknowledge the obstacles and figure out how to solve them, collectively.
The first such obstacle is demand, and not just a momentary peak demand. Rather, it must be stable, long-term demand. Without demand for domestically produced products and components, no company would invest in building up production capacity, and no worker, manager, and investors will invest in acquiring and honing the necessary skills. Demand cannot be a one-time spike. For long-term reshoring and the rebuilding of our production capabilities and innovation facilities, all economic actors need to know that an elevated level of demand is here to stay.
Production tech ingenuity
If there is one area where the United States still leads the world, it is new production technologies. If properly utilized, such technologies can give the U.S. a sustained dual advantage. The reason is emerging production technologies allow for the development and manufacture of new products that cannot be produced using older technologies. Thus, American companies can develop and produce domestically products as much as a decade ahead of global competitors. Those rivals would need their Chinese contract manufacturer to first master the new technologies before they can even start to play with them. This will also allow American producers to help shrink the ever-increasing U.S. trade deficit.
Too often, however, those technologies never reach the market; in their infancy, no single company has sufficient demand to make it financially rational to prototype new production technologies, much less build a full-scale factory. Among the solutions is a form of “infant production technologies protection.” This approach should include the availability of matching funds to build the new factories that would be utilized as shared assets, that is, production facilities that allow multiple companies to produce small batches of products based on the new technologies.
The second prong in infant production technology protection should be legal covenants preventing the transfer of those technologies abroad for at least a decade, thus ensuring that all American taxpayers, who after all paid for their development, also enjoy the prosperity they generate.
Bridging the skills gap
The second obstacle to reshoring is skills. Here, the problem is not just shop-floor production skills, but also system, production and tooling engineering and production management. Add to the mix investment skills needed to grow, develop and sustain organizations that produce, instead of organizations that outsource and manage offshore supplier networks. American workers are often faulted by U.S. corporations for lacking the necessary production skills. But given how much of production has been offshored, how do those managers expect workers to gain or retain these skills?
Nonetheless, those skills are not gone — not yet. They exist, either in several isolated pockets across the United States, or are embodied in the many industrial retirees
Last Chance to Act
Covid-19 has brutally exposed our weaknesses. Fortunately, it did so just before our frog was boiled to death. The task in front of us is difficult and will take years to bear fruit. However, the pandemic gives us one last chance to secure prosperity for future generations of Americans, as well as ensuring that the next crises will not find us so vulnerable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Om Malik / On my Om:
The pandemic brought tech-enabled behaviors previously considered on the fringe into the mainstream and compressed years of digital transformation into months — Disruptions, downturns, and recessions make the weak weaker and the strong stronger. It was true centuries ago, and it is true today.
The inevitable has happened.
https://om.co/2020/05/03/the-inevitable-has-happened/
Disruptions, downturns, and recessions make the weak weaker and the strong stronger. It was true centuries ago, and it is true today.
The 2001 downturn turned telecom and cable giants into the Internet’s gatekeepers. Microsoft emerged victorious with its Internet Explorer. During the 2008 financial crisis, when cash was king, the big banks — JP Morgan Chase, for example — became more prominent and more pervasive. In a similar fashion, the present pandemic is making big tech bigger. And it is not just that their coffers are overflowing coffers. They suddenly have a much larger and more receptive audience.
Last week, we saw the mid-pandemic report record results for Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. Spoiler alert: they’re not exactly suffering. Microsoft saw its revenues go up to $35 billion for the quarter, compared to $30.5 billion for the same quarter in 2019. Amazon’s revenues came in over $75 billion. Even with a shutdown, Apple reported earnings of $58 billion. You get the drift.
Even with worsening economic conditions over the next year or so, these companies are likely to come out big winners.
The startup ecosystem might contract. But overall, this is a big moment for technology, and it’s only going to get bigger.
If you live long enough, you experience enough downturns to develop at least one of two things: mental resilience or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Over the past few months, we have experienced the mainstreaming of technology-enabled behavior previously thought of as being on the fringe. Shopping for groceries online and having them delivered, for example, was something of coastal luxury. Now, it has been experienced and used by millions across the country.
growth in telemedicine and online education, two technologies (for lack of a better term) that have been around for so long that we often overlook them
Zoom has 300 million daily participants (which is not the same as users), while Slack has seen as many as 10 million simultaneously connected users. Microsoft’s Slack competitor, Teams, now has more than 75 million daily active users. No matter what, most companies have now experienced “working from home,” and they are unlikely to just return to their old ways. Once we get accustomed to new behaviors, it is hard for us to go back.
Technology became us, and we became technology. If anything, recent history has been focused on fractionalizing what were once luxuries for the top five percent and making them commonplace.
The economic downturn at the beginning of the millennium saw the emergence of broadband connectivity and its pervasiveness. Seven years later, we all embraced the social web, and then the mobile and app revolution. And as the pandemic ravages our social fabric, we are seeing a wholesale digital transformation in a compressed time frame. Each economic setback creates a craving for convenience, and in the long-term, this opens the door for the widespread adoption of technology.
“We have seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months,” noted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a call with Wall Street analysts after reporting earnings that were just shy of astounding. Box CEO Aaron Levie noted that “years of IT acceleration being compressed into months.”
Levie also quipped that he had spoken to “multiple Fortune 500 CIOs in the past two days who have been implementing a fundamentally different IT strategy than they would have had a year ago.” They are all thinking more cloud, more digital, and more automation. Others have observed this shift in perspective. In a call with investors, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott noted that the pandemic has been an accelerant for digital transformation, which has now become a business imperative.
Together with data, cloud, and automation — companies are going to be looking at a more resilient future, one that sits on top of a network. It is not as if they had a choice. COVID-19 has exposed one harsh truth: digital channels are more flexible and faster to adapt to change than physical channels. And now, the world is almost entirely running on the network. This affirms my long-held beliefs. It is a testament to the inevitability of the Internet, which I wrote about in 2008 — and again in 2013.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Piileekö tässä loppu rajoituksille? Professori esittelee 4 kohdan strategiansa
https://www.iltalehti.fi/terveysuutiset/a/146f2873-9370-41b9-90fb-9603d0aefdd3
Professori Juhani Knuuti ehdottaa koronarajoitusten purkamiseen ESTE-strategiaa, jonka yksi osa on laadukkaiden maskien käyttö.
Koronarajoitusten purkamiseen sisältyy riski taudin nopeasta leviämisestä.
Rajoitukset pitää purkaa hallitusti.
Yksi mahdollisuus olisi neliosainen strategia, joka koostuu etäisyyden pitämisestä, suojautumisesta, laajasta testaamisesta ja taudin saaneiden eristämisestä.
Covid-19-epidemiaa ei Suomessa pystytä pysäyttämään, mutta sitä voidaan hidastaa niin, että potilaiden suuri määrä ei ylikuormita terveydenhuoltoa.
Professori Juhani Knuutin mukaan tässä hidastamisessa on onnistuttu Suomessa yllättävänkin hyvin.
Knuutin mukaan ehdotettu testaa/jäljitä/eristä -strategia ei riita rajoitusten hallittuun purkamiseen, koska valtaosa koronainfektioista on oireettomia.
Täysin oireeton, itsensä aivan terveeksi tunteva henkilö saattaa olla niin sanottu supertartuttaja, joka infektoi tietämättään suuren määrän muita ihmisiä.
Knuuti ehdottaa blogissaan paranneltua strategiaa, jonka hän nimeää blogissaan ESTE-strategiaksi. Nimi tulee toimien ensimmäisistä kirjaimista.
https://juhaniknuuti.wordpress.com/2020/04/28/este-ulospaasystrategia-covid-19-epidemiasta-suomelle/
Kun Covid-19-epidemia levisi suomeen, nopeasti havaittiin, että epidemian leviämistä ei enää kyetä pysäyttämään. Tuossa vaiheessa keskeisimmäksi tavoitteeksi asetettiin epidemian hidastaminen niin, että potilaiden suuri määrä ei ylikuormittaisi terveydenhuoltoa.
Tässä hidastamisessa onnistuttiin Suomessa yllättävänkin hyvin.
https://blogit.ts.fi/terveys-tiede/este-ulospaasystrategia-covid-19-epidemiasta-suomelle/
ESTE-strategiaksi. Nimen kirjamet tulevat strategian toimista.
E = Etäisyyden noudattaminen ihmisten kontakteissa sekä muita suositeltuja toimia, kuten sairaana olevien pysyminen kotona, käsien pesu ja oikeat tavat yskiä ja aivastaa.
S= Suojautuminen. Tämä tarkoittaa kasvomaskeja. Vaikka ne eivät suojaa käyttäjäänsä, on selvää, että hyvälaatuinen ja oikein käytetty maski vähentää pisaroiden leviämistä muihin ihmisiin ja sillä voi olla pieni tartuntoja vähentävä vaikutus, kun joudutaan olemaan toisen ihmisen läheisyydessä.
T= Testaaminen. Laaja riskiryhmien, iäkkäiden, terveydenhuollon henkilökunnan ja muiden jatkuvasssa ihmiskontakteissa olevien henkilöiden toistuva testaaminen.
E= Eristäminen. Tartunnan saaneet ja heidän jäljitetyt kontaktinsa eristetään, niin etteivät pääse levittämään tautia.
Näillä toimin minimoidaan todennäköisyys, että epidemia pahentuisi rajoitteiden poistuessa. On epätodennäköistä, että epidemia kyetään kokonaan sammuttamaan. Jos niin kuiteniin tapahtuu, olkaamme tyytyväisiä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BBC was biggest news website globally in early April as new figures suggest interest in Covid-19 has peaked
https://pressgazette.co.uk/biggest-news-websites-april-2020/
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Covered Up Coronavirus To Hoard Medical Supplies, DHS Report Finds
https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/05/04/china-covered-up-coronavirus-to-hoard-medical-supplies-dhs-report-finds/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
China covered up the severity of COVID-19 and delayed telling the World Health Organization in order to import more medical supplies to respond to it, according to a new report by the Department for Homeland Security, seen by the Associated Press.
China “intentionally concealed the severity” of the novel coronavirus, while ramping up imports and decreasing exports of medical supplies according to the report, dated May 1 and seen by AP.
Chinese authorities also held off from telling the WHO that the unknown illness was a “contagion”, to buy officials time to import more PPE, including facemasks and surgical gowns, the DHS report found.
The U.S. and China have locked horns over the coronavirus crisis, inflaming earlier trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies and President Donald Trump seeks to shift blame on China for downplaying the virus and trying to thwart his chances of reelection in November.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Many companies have responded to COVID-19 with innovative pivots that push them into new markets. Instead of shutting down or taking a break, these large companies are making big transformations to stay alive and stay relevant.
10 Examples Of How COVID-19 Forced Business Transformation
http://on.forbes.com/61881APKk
From small startups to large corporations, no one has been spared the wrath of the coronavirus pandemic. The worldwide crisis has nearly shut down entire industries and forced companies of all sizes to adapt and evolve. The one silver lining could be that organizations are forced to expedite their use of technology to make employees and customers’ lives easier and better. One exercise you can do is to imagine if there was *no* retail location for your business; would it survive? Many companies have now had to ask themselves that question, and the answer is no.
While technology can greatly aid businesses of all kinds that are not prepared for an increasingly digital future, not all transformations right now depend entirely on technology. Many companies have responded with innovative pivots that push them into new markets. Instead of shutting down or taking a break, these large companies are making big transformations to stay alive and stay relevant.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tältä näyttää Helsingin alle suunniteltu koronasairaala – teltat voidaan pystyttää tarpeen tullen pikavauhdilla
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11334016
HUS raotti koronapotilaiden varalle hahmotellun sairaalan tiloja medialle. Sairaalaa voidaan tarvita, jos uusi korona-aalto yllättää syksyllä.
Varasairaalaa kaavaillaan Helsingissä Meilahden sairaala-alueen maanalaisiin pysäköintitiloihin. HUS tiedotti suunnitelmistaan aiemmin huhtikuun alussa.
HUSin mukaan päätös varasairaalan rakentamisesta tehdään, mikäli tilanne sitä edellyttää.
Tänään maanantaina HUS esitteli sairaalan ensimmäisessä vaiheessa rakennettuja mallitiloja. Varsinainen varasairaala rakennettaisiin mallitiloja monistamalla. Se voitaisiin pystyttää nopealla aikataululla, sairaanhoitopiiri kertoo.
– Luonnollisesti toivomme, että epidemiatilanne pysyy hallinnassa ja varasairaalaa ei koskaan jouduta ottamaan käyttöön.
varasairaalaan voidaan tarpeen tullen rakentaa tilat noin 150 potilaalle.
– Pystymme antamaan täällä hengitysvajauspotilaan tarvitsemaa tehohoitoa siinä laajuudessa kuin se on yleensä mahdollista muutenkin.
HUSilla on yhteistyökumppanina rakentamisessa Suomen Punainen Risti eli SPR, jolla on runsaasti kokemusta sairaaloiden rakentamisesta esimerkiksi katastrofialueille sekä erityisosaamista vakavissa epidemiatilanteissa toimimisesta.
– Täällä on jouduttu miettimään sitä, että paikan korkeus on tullut vastaan telttojen suhteen. Lisäksi on pohdittu, että miten teltat sijoitetaan. Muuten täällä on erittäin hyvät olosuhteet pystyttää niitä
Meilahden pysäköintitilaan pystytettävät teltat ovat samoja, joita käytetään kenttäsairaaloissa ympäri maailman
Parkkihalliin voidaan pystyttää kaikkiaan kolmekymmentä telttaa potilaille
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Photos: Denmark’s Drive-In Venue Gets Around Coronavirus Event Ban
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2020/04/29/in-pictures-denmarks-drive-in-venue-gets-around-coronavirus-event-ban/#6dc2c49b61bb
Major events have been banned for several weeks across Scandinavia due to the ongoing coronavirus restrictions. Despite this, one Danish city found an ingenious way around the regulations in order to put on an outdoor concert.
500 tickets sold out in minutes when the drive-in concert featuring Danish singer-songwriter Mads Langer was announced with just six days’ notice. It was the first in a planned series of drive-in concerts
“I’ve played many concerts in my life, but this is really a first,” said Langer from the stage. During the concert, his performance was transmitted into the cars via FM radio. Concert attendees also had the chance to interact with Langer using the Zoom videoconferencing software.
Friis said that no fines had been given, although they had to remind several people of the restrictions: “There are many people, but most keep a good distance from one another. We’ve been around with patrols, reminding people to keep their distance, even in a queue.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Key Drivers In New Chip Industry Outlook
CEOs and analysts examine winners and losers and where demand is shifting.
May 4th, 2020 – By: Ed Sperling
https://semiengineering.com/key-drivers-in-new-chip-industry-outlook/
How well the semiconductor industry fares over the next 12 to 24 months depends upon the evolution of a virus. That alone will determine the correct model for an economic rebound — V, U, extended U, or maybe even a double U.
But what’s also becoming clear is those models don’t apply uniformly to all sectors or sub-sectors. From a high level, the entire semiconductor industry will be affected, but not all sectors will be affected equally. For example, consumer electronics sales have boomed since the start of shutdowns, especially in the area of webcams and gaming. Automotive sales, meanwhile, have slumped, and the planned rollout for 5G has been pushed out at varying levels across multiple regions.
Current models range from 6% positive growth in 2020 to 28% decline in some segments, depending upon the length of the impact, the liquidity of markets over that time, how many more shutdowns there will be, and how quickly consumer confidence rebounds. None of this is clear at this point, and no one is quite certain when it will be.
“Opinions are all over the place,” said K. Charles Janac, chairman and CEO of ArterisIP. “If you look at high tech, about 60% of the segments are down, 40% are up. What’s up is infrastructure, which includes data centers, networking, cameras, security, entertainment and video games. What’s down are the end points — smart phones, cars, some consumer, industrial and automotive. The big question is whether this is due to the pandemic and overreaction, or whether this is going to be a debt-driving mainstream crisis.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unimpressed by Online Classes, College Students Demand Refunds
https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/05/04/0741208/unimpressed-by-online-classes-college-students-demand-refunds?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
They wanted the campus experience, but their colleges sent them home to learn online during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, students at more than 25 U.S. universities are filing lawsuits against their schools demanding partial refunds on tuition and campus fees, saying they’re not getting the caliber of education they were promised.
https://apnews.com/f18a0a48925a19586e4d810f6e88eff3
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Emerson / OneZero :
The pandemic has forced many restaurants to pivot towards take-out options, putting them at the mercy of food delivery startups like DoorDash and GrubHub
https://onezero.medium.com/the-coronavirus-puts-restaurants-at-the-mercy-of-the-tech-industry-e104f6e670f4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paige Leskin / Business Insider:
Anti-quarantine protesters, who are being kicked off Facebook, are moving to freemium social site MeWe that became a refuge for conspiracy theorists and others
Anti-quarantine protesters are being kicked off Facebook and quickly finding refuge on a site loved by conspiracy theorists
https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-quarantine-protesters-mewe-facebook-groups-conspiracy-theorists-social-media-2020-5?op=1&r=US&IR=T
Tomi Engdahl says:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Poynter Institute launches a COVID-19 chatbot on WhatsApp that uses information from 100+ independent fact-checkers in 70+ countries to debunk falsehoods
Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network launches chatbot on WhatsApp to debunk thousands of coronavirus-related hoaxes
https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/04/poynter-institutes-international-fact-checking-network-launches-chatbot-on-whatsapp-to-debunk-thousands-of-coronavirus-related-hoaxes/?tpcc=ECTW2020
Tomi Engdahl says:
Applen toimitusjohtajan viisaat sanat vastavalmistuneille: ”Rakentakaa parempi tulevaisuus kuin se, jota piditte varmana”
https://www.tivi.fi/uutiset/tv/d64e7148-c197-4708-973d-8e8ef98b9aa4
Applen toimitusjohtajalla Tim Cookilla on tapana pitää keväisin puhe tutkinnon suorittaneille. Tällä kertaa kohteena olivat Ohion osavaltionyliopiston valmistuneet, jotka saivat nauttia puheesta virtuaalisesti
Video: Tim Cook delivers virtual commencement address to Ohio State graduates
https://9to5mac.com/2020/05/03/tim-cook-ohio-state-commencement/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Carl Miller / BBC:
Investigation by BBC and ISD think tank into the COVID-19 “infodemic” on Facebook finds right-wing misinformation had far more interactions than the WHO and CDC
Coronavirus: Far-right spreads Covid-19 ‘infodemic’ on Facebook
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52490430
“What if [they] are trying to kill off as many people as possible” reads one Facebook post.
“Eventually, these scum will release something truly nasty to wipe us all out, but first they have to train us to be obedient slaves” reads another.
A third: “Coronavirus is the newest Islamist weapon.”
Many of us by now will have seen something of the “infodemic” the World Health Organization (WHO) warned is swirling across society.
Whether popping into your online timeline or maybe forwarded by a relative, it would have been a rumour or revelation so eye-grabbing, so shockingly different from the norm, that they’re hard to ignore.
Yet while false claims about coronavirus have been hard to miss, the interests and ideologies underneath them have been far less visible.
Now, a co-investigation by BBC Click and the UK counter-extremism think-tank Institute of Strategic Dialogue, indicates how both extremist political and fringe medical communities have tried to exploit the pandemic online.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hanaa’ Tameez / Nieman Lab:
How Politico, NYT, NBC’s Nightly News, and a freelance journalist in SF are producing projects that inform kids about the pandemic without scaring them
https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/05/heres-how-4-news-organizations-are-building-new-ways-to-inform-and-comfort-kids-about-coronavirus/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Devex:
The economic fallout of the pandemic on news orgs worldwide makes global efforts like the $1B/year International Fund for Public Interest Media even more vital — It’s hard to think of a time in recent history when access to trustworthy information has been more important.
Opinion: Free media can be a life-saver in a pandemic; let’s save it from extinction
https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-free-media-can-be-a-life-saver-in-a-pandemic-let-s-save-it-from-extinction-97145
It’s hard to think of a time in recent history when access to trustworthy information has been more important. Across the planet, millions of people are seeking out credible, potentially life-saving, news about COVID-19, and how to respond.
The BBC, as the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism showed this week, has seen an unprecedented spike in audiences, with over 70% of the U.K. population tuning into its peak bulletins and almost 600 million page views globally of its coronavirus stories. This pattern is being replicated in many countries around the world: in the Philippines, for example, the independent online news site Rappler is attracting record audiences; its founder, Maria Ressa calls this trend a “flight to quality.”
Yet, as we mark World Press Freedom Day this Sunday, the bitter reality for many independent media outlets is that, at a time when they are so desperately needed and valued as part of the social infrastructure required to beat COVID-19, they have never been under greater threat.
The impact of trusted, public interest journalism may be felt more indirectly than medicines, but it is an essential foundation of healthy democracies, especially during crises like this one.
—
The economic fallout of the pandemic is already biting hard. The Reuters Institute estimates that news organizations worldwide will lose more than $20 billion through the decline in advertising and other revenues brought about by the COVID-19 crisis.
A $20 billion revenue loss would gut the news sector at the best of times. Even before the pandemic, the economic and political conditions for independent media were at crisis point, with a huge fall in advertising dollars going into news and the rise of authoritarian governments cracking down on robust reporting. This chronic decline has now been overlaid by an acute crisis that could easily lead to a “media extinction event.”
Governments will need to run huge public information campaigns to achieve the necessary social and behavioral changes; and yet the public interest news infrastructure needed to do this has never been weaker.
The pandemic reveals the challenge and the scale of the response required in shocking clarity.
In the immediate term, the world needs to mount an urgent emergency response to limit the decimation of public interest media during the pandemic. Some philanthropic foundations and tech companies have already set up funds to support the media, but further funding and better coordination are urgently needed, especially to ensure that independent media organizations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia stay afloat.
But even if we limit the collapse of media outlets during the short-term, the compound impact on public interest news will be deep and long-lasting. It will take an extended global effort and substantial financial capital to revive independent media, especially in low- and middle-income countries, until new, sustainable business models take effect.
At present, a tiny fraction — just 0.2% — of U.K. official development funding goes to support media projects
The impact of trusted, public interest journalism may be felt more indirectly than medicines, but it is an essential foundation of healthy democracies, especially during crises like this one. It is a critical time to support media outlets that shine a light on our governments and societies: if we fail to do so, the world will soon be a lot darker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Pictures: Italy Eases Lockdown, With More Than 4 Million People Back To Work
https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/05/04/in-pictures-italy-eases-lockdown-with-more-than-4-million-back-to-work/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
Some 4 million people across Italy are returning to work on Monday after a two month lockdown—which saw businesses and workplaces close—is now being eased as the number of new coronavirus infections and deaths continue to fall.
Offices can reopen from Monday, but should abide by social distancing rules, while residents can leave their homes to visit relatives within their region.
People can also visit public parks, while construction and manufacturing sites have also reopened.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Näin Kiina peitteli lepakoilla tekemiään koronaviruskokeita – australialaislehti sai käsiinsä Five Eyes -tiedusteluyhteisön raportin https://www.is.fi/ulkomaat/art-2000006496487.html
Coronavirus NSW: Dossier lays out case against China bat virus program
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/coronavirus/bombshell-dossier-lays-out-case-against-chinese-bat-virus-program/news-story/55add857058731c9c71c0e96ad17da60
China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak in an “assault on international transparency’’ that cost tens of thousands of lives, according to a dossier prepared by concerned Western governments on the COVID-19 contagion.
The 15-page research document, obtained by The Saturday Telegraph, lays the foundation for the case of negligence being mounted against China.
It states that to the “endangerment of other countries” the Chinese government covered-up news of the virus by silencing or “disappearing” doctors who spoke out, destroying evidence of it in laboratories and refusing to provide live samples to international scientists who were working on a vaccine.
It can also be revealed the Australian government trained and funded a team of Chinese scientists who belong to a laboratory which went on to genetically modify deadly coronaviruses that could be transmitted from bats to humans and had no cure, and is now the subject of a probe into the origins of COVID-19.
As intelligence agencies investigate whether the virus inadvertently leaked from a Wuhan laboratory,
Its major themes include the “deadly denial of human-to-human transmission”, the silencing or “disappearing” of doctors and scientists who spoke out, the destruction of evidence of the virus from genomic studies laboratories, and “bleaching of wildlife market stalls”, along with the refusal to provide live virus samples to international scientists working on a vaccine.
RISKY BAT RESEARCH
In Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province, not far from the now infamous Wuhan wet market, Dr Shi and her team work in high-protective gear in level-three and level-four bio-containment laboratories studying deadly bat-derived coronaviruses.
At least one of the estimated 50 virus samples Dr Shi has in her laboratory is a 96 per cent genetic match to COVID-19. When Dr Shi heard the news about the outbreak of a new pneumonia-like virus, she spoke about the sleepless nights she suffered worrying whether it was her lab that was responsible for the outbreak.
Since her initial fears, Dr Shi has satisfied herself the genetic sequence of COVID-19 did not match any her lab was studying.
The Australian government’s position is that the virus most likely originated in the Wuhan wet market but that there is a remote possibility — a 5 per cent chance — it accidentally leaked from a laboratory.
CREATING MORE DEADLY VIRUSES
The Western governments’ research paper confirms this.
It notes a 2013 study conducted by a team of researchers, including Dr Shi, who collected a sample of horseshoe bat faeces from a cave in Yunnan province, China, which was later found to contain a virus 96.2 per cent identical to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID-19.
“The SARS virus antibodies and genes were tested in the State Key Laboratory of Virology in Wuhan and the Animal Health Research Laboratory in Geelong, Australia,” it states.
UNLIKELY CLAIMS VIRUS CREATED IN LAB
Scientific consensus is that the virus came from a wetmarket. But the US’s top spy agency confirmed on the record for the first time yesterday that the US intelligence committee is investigating whether COVID-19 was the result of an accident at a Wuhan laboratory.
Despite Mr Grenell’s statement and scientific consensus that the virus was not created in a laboratory, based on its genome sequence the governments’ research paper obtained by The Telegraph notes a study that claims it was created.
South China University of Technology researchers published a study on February 6 that concluded “the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high-risk biohazards laboratories”.
“The paper is soon withdrawn because it ‘was not supported by direct proofs’, according to author Botao Xiano,”
CHINA’S COVER-UP OF EARLY SAMPLES
The paper obtained by The Saturday Telegraph speaks about “the suppression and destruction of evidence” and points to “virus samples ordered destroyed at genomics labs, wildlife market stalls bleached, the genome sequence not shared publicly, the Shanghai lab closure for ‘rectification’, academic articles subjected to prior review by the Ministry of Science and Technology and data on asymptomatic ‘silent carriers’ kept secret”.
It paints a picture of how the Chinese government deliberately covered up the coronavirus by silencing doctors who spoke out, destroying evidence from the Wuhan laboratory and refusing to provide live virus samples to international scientists working on a vaccine.
THE LAB WORKER WHO DISAPPEARED
Out of all the doctors, activists, journalists and scientists who have reportedly disappeared after speaking out about the coronavirus or criticising the response of Chinese authorities, no case is more intriguing and worrying than that of Huang Yan Ling.
A researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the South China Morning Post reported rumours swirling on Chinese social media that she was the first to be diagnosed with the disease and was “patient zero”.
Then came her reported disappearance, with her biography and image deleted from the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s website.
DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE
On December 31, Chinese authorities started censoring news of the virus from search engines, deleting terms including “SARS variation, “Wuhan Seafood market” and “Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia.”
On January 1 without any investigation into where the virus originated from, the Wuhan seafood market was closed and disinfected.
Doctors who bravely spoke out about the new virus were detained and condemned.
“Despite evidence of human-human transmission from early December, PRC authorities deny it until January 20,” it states.
“The World Health Organisation does the same. Yet officials in Taiwan raised concerns as early as December 31, as did experts in Hong Kong on January 4.”
The paper exposes the hypocrisy of China’s self-imposed travel bans while condemning those of Australia and the United States, declaring: “Millions of people leave Wuhan after the outbreak and before Beijing locks down the city on January 23.” “Thousands fly overseas. Throughout February, Beijing presses the US, Italy, India, Australia, Southeast Asian neighbours and others not to protect themselves via travel restrictions, even as the PRC imposes severe restrictions at home.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
India orders mandatory use of COVID-19 contact tracing app for all
workers
https://www.zdnet.com/article/india-orders-mandatory-use-of-covid-19-contact-tracing-app-for-all-workers/#ftag=RSSbaffb68
The Indian government announced on Friday that all workers, both in
the public and private sectors, are required to install the nation’s
COVID-19 contact tracing app as it begins to ease some of its lockdown
measures for lower-risk areas.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Valtion pitäisi kuitenkin kriisirahoituksessaan olla valmis ottamaan korkeampaa yritysriskiä kuin mihin luottolaitokset tai yksityiset sijoittajat kykenevät. Lainojen ja takausten lisäksi tarvitaan myös omaa pääomaa.” Lue Vesa Heikkilän blogipostaus yritystuista.
https://blog.kauppalehti.fi/taaleri/ilmainen-raha-on-kalleinta-rahaa
Tomi Engdahl says:
3 Coronavirus Facts Americans Must Know Before Returning To Work, School
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpearl/2020/04/21/3-coronavirus-facts/
We can’t un-bungle our nation’s COVID-19 response. Political leaders acted too slowly, health agencies committed unforced errors with testing kits and, amid the confusion, an information fog settled over the land.
Americans remain afraid, perplexed and chronically misinformed (despite wall-to-wall coronavirus coverage across the leading cable-news programs and print publications).
To counter the uncertainty, any plan to get us out of the coronavirus crisis must first acknowledge and broadly communicate three immutable, scientific facts.
Fact 1: Staying home saves lives but it doesn’t kill the virus
Weeks of social distancing and self-isolation in the United States have made us all safer. These precautions slowed the spread of COVID-19, thus helping to “flatten the curve.” Doing so buys hospitals and critical care centers enough time to staff up and stock diagnostic tests, protective gear and ventilators.
Whenever we return to our jobs, schools and community gatherings—be it this spring, summer or fall—infections will rise. It’s not a prediction. It’s a biological fact.
Fact 2: We’re in this for the long-haul
As federal and state officials hammer out plans to reopen the economy, our nation must accept the unfortunate truth that every path forward is booby-trapped.
Fact 3: Our nation is ignoring the most important metric
Early data suggests the R0 of COVID-19 is between 2.5 and 3.0. However, the actual number depends not only on the biology of the disease but on the actions people take.
For example, when people observe social distancing and adhere to rigid shelter-in-place measures, the number drops. In the UK, where strict lockdown protocols and frequent testing are in place, the R0 is low (currently estimated to be 0.62). Conversely, the R0 value grows much higher in densely packed conditions including sports arenas, large conferences and events like Mardi Gras.
If R0 is less than 1.0, each infected person transmits the virus to less than one other individual. As a result, the disease incidence will decline and the virus will slowly die out.
Facts Save Lives
About 90% of the country has been on some form of lockdown order for several weeks now. People are losing patience. As our nation eagerly eyes the future, we must let science inform our decisions about reopening small businesses, allowing students to return to class and easing social restrictions.
If we move ahead too quickly, we risk losing lives unnecessarily. If we move too slowly, we also risk unnecessary deaths. We can’t allow politics or panic to push our nation too far in either direction. These three facts, based on science, should guide the way.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fauci: No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in a Chinese lab
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/anthony-fauci-no-scientific-evidence-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-chinese-lab-cvd/
In an exclusive interview, the face of America’s COVID-19 response cautions against the rush for states to reopen, and offers his tips for handling the pandemic’s information deluge.
ANTHONY “TONY” FAUCI has become the scientific face of America’s COVID-19 response, and he says the best evidence shows the virus behind the pandemic was not made in a lab in China.
Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, shot down the discussion that has been raging among politicians and pundits, calling it “a circular argument” in a conversation Monday with National Geographic.
“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated … Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” Fauci says. Based on the scientific evidence, he also doesn’t entertain an alternate theory—that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped.
Fauci is most concerned that the United States will be put to the test this fall and winter by a second wave of COVID-19 if the country does not blunt the infection rate by the summer.
“Shame on us if we don’t have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter,” he says, advising that the U.S. needs to make sure we not only have an adequate supply of tests available before a second wave hits, but also a system for getting those tests to the people who most need them.
“I don’t think there’s a chance that this virus is just going to disappear,” he says. “It’s going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.”
He also stressed the importance of continuing to social distance everywhere until the case counts start to fall in cities and states. The U.S. witnessed about 20,000 to 30,000 new cases every day in the month of April, suggesting the country is stuck in its peak.
Still, he remains optimistic that a vaccine will be ready within an historically short time frame, citing one promising candidate that he thinks may move into advanced clinical trials by the early summer. Fauci has said that he thinks a final vaccine could be available for general use as early as January, which would break records for the speed at which previous vaccines were developed.
One reason for his confidence is the “impressive” results being seen now in animals tested with a vaccine candidate made by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna Therapeutics, which brought it into human trials in a record 42 days. The candidate is what is known as an mRNA vaccine—a drug that uses snippets of a virus’s genetic material—rather than the dead or weakened virus itself—to build the proteins that trigger the body’s protective immune response.
To date, no type of mRNA vaccine has been licensed for use in humans,
“For some reason that we’re still struggling with, the body does not make an adequate immune response to HIV,” he says. To fight off that virus, a vaccine has to work better than the body’s own natural response. By contrast, “it’s obvious that many people make a very adequate immune response” to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the animal trials so far show that modest doses of the mRNA vaccine for coronavirus have also generated a strong immune response.
One of the important advantages is what we call targeted drug development. Viruses cause disease by binding to receptors on cells in your body, be they in your upper airway or in your lung, in the case of COVID-19. They then replicate at a rapid rate that triggers a variety of pathogenic processes. Targeting drugs to interfere at one or more vulnerable sites within this replication cycle is something that we learned with HIV.
SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19] has the same sort of vulnerable points. We need to identify them and develop drugs, either alone or in combination, to block the replication.
The two most widely discussed vaccine candidates are an mRNA vaccine from Moderna, which reached human trials in a record 42 days, and Oxford University’s candidate, based on what’s known as a nonreplicating viral vector. Yet no vaccine based on these two technologies has ever been licensed for human use.
As states move to reopen businesses and warmer weather lures people outside, how concerned are you about a fresh spike in infections in the U.S.?
Take a look at the guidelines for Opening Up America Again. There are very well delineated checkpoints. There’s a gateway where infections must go down for 14 days before you can enter into phase one for reopening. If you fulfill the requirements of phase one, you move to phase two. If you do it there, you go to phase three.
Do you fear a second wave?
What’s impressed me the most—but clearly in a disturbing way—is the extraordinary efficiency of how the virus spreads. It spreads so much more efficiently than influenza does. You see situations where people at home try and physically separate; they have no contact except they’ve touched the plate or a doorknob, and they wind up getting infected.
The clusters in families, the outbreaks on the Teddy Roosevelt aircraft carrier, the enormous spread on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama harbor—it’s a very, very transmissible virus.
If we do it correctly, then we could be able to blunt and diminish the daily rate of infections in this country as we get into the summer. I can’t guarantee it, but if we do things right, that likely will happen.
But I don’t think there’s a chance that this virus is just going to disappear. It’s going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge. We now will have a few months—May June, July, August—to prepare, by making sure our health system is adequately supplied with ventilators, ICU beds, personal protective equipment, etcetera. We need to not only have tests, but to make sure the people who need tests can get tested.
So that by the time we get to September, we don’t have the dialogue continually fixating on do you have enough tests? Shame on us if we don’t have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter.
What’s your position on the general public wearing face masks?
I’m glad you asked, because it has evolved over the weeks and months. When there was first discussion, it was at a time when face masks—either surgical masks or N95 respirators—were at high scarcity.
Let’s assume that we now have enough masks or that you could easily make a cloth covering, as was suggested appropriately by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I think those are reasonable assumptions. We know that the masks are better in the health-care setting to prevent someone who’s infected from coughing and sneezing and infecting people in the environment. When you look at what the mask does for the general population, the data are not 100 percent: It doesn’t 100 percent protect you from infecting somebody else, and it certainly doesn’t 100 percent prevent somebody else from infecting you.
But if you wear a mask, you are getting some protection for yourself, and if you happen to be infected and don’t know it, you’re to some extent preventing transmission to someone else. Given that, it just makes sense that first of all, the best way to prevent spread is to maintain the physical distance of six feet.
So, if you’re in a situation where you’re in contact with no one, then you don’t have to be walking around with a mask all day, that’s for sure. But if you are in a situation where you are going to be within the realm of six feet—the grocery store or even walking out on the street—then wear it.
So, what’s your advice to the public at-large for sifting through the headlines and making sense of it all?
Anybody can claim to be an expert even when they have no idea what they’re talking about—and it’s very difficult for the general public to distinguish. So, make sure the study is coming from a reputable organization that generally gives you the truth—though even with some reputable organizations, you occasionally get an outlier who’s out there talking nonsense. If something is published in places like New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Nature, Cell, or JAMA—you know, generally that is quite well peer reviewed because the editors and the editorial staff of those journals really take things very seriously.
One topic in the news lately has been the origins of SAR-CoV-2. Do you believe or is there evidence that the virus was made in the lab in China or accidentally released from a lab in China?
If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats, and what’s out there now is very, very strongly leaning toward this [virus] could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated—the way the mutations have naturally evolved. A number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that it evolved in nature and then jumped species.
Sure, but what if scientists found the virus outside the lab, brought it back, and then it escaped?
But that means it was in the wild to begin with. That’s why I don’t get what they’re talking about [and] why I don’t spend a lot of time going in on this circular argument.