OT Coronavirus: America in chaos, News and Updates. One million Americans dead and counting

Discussion in 'Blazers OT Forum' started by SlyPokerDog, Jan 3, 2020.

  1. BigGameDamian

    BigGameDamian Well-Known Member

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    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cn...navirus-after-he-admitted-downplaying-it.html

    Trump claims he 'up-played' the coronavirus despite admitting to Bob Woodward that he downplayed it

    KEY POINTS
    • President Donald Trump denied that he had downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, claiming he "up-played" the danger of the disease through his actions.
    • Trump, speaking at an ABC News town hall event with voters in Philadelphia, said his moves early on in the Covid-19 crisis saved lives and demonstrated "action, not with the mouth but in actual fact."
    • Audio from a mid-March interview, released last week, shows Trump saying of the coronavirus: "I wanted to always play it down ... I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."
     
  2. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    thedailybeast.com

    Steve Bannon Is Behind Bogus Study That China Created COVID

    A new study purporting to show that the novel coronavirus was manufactured in a Chinese lab was published by a pair of nonprofit groups linked to Steve Bannon, the former top Trump strategist now facing felony fraud charges.

    The study, co-authored by a Chinese virologist who fled Hong Kong this year, claims that “laboratory manipulation is part of the history of SARS-CoV-2.” Its findings were quickly picked up by a handful of prominent news organizations such as the New York Post, which hyped the “explosive” allegations that run counter to virtually all existing scientific literature on the source of the virus.

    The study is the work of the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation, sister nonprofit organizations that Bannon was instrumental in creating. According to documents posted on the Society’s website last year, he served as that group’s chair. The Bannon connection was first spotted by Kevin Bird, a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University, and shared by Carl Bergstrom, a biology professor at the University of Washington, who called the study “bizarre and unfounded.”

    A search of Google Scholar and the Rule of Law Society and Rule of Law Foundation websites indicates that the organizations have not previously published scientific or medical research, and it’s unclear whether the paper received any peer review. It was posted on Monday on the website Zenodo, a publicly available repository of scientific and academic research to which anyone can upload their work.

    Both of the nonprofits behind the study were formed in conjunction with exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, with whom Bannon has collaborated on a number of advocacy efforts targeting the Chinese government and business endeavors that have drawn the scrutiny of federal law enforcement officials.

    In addition to their work on the Rule of Law nonprofits, Bannon and Guo have also collaborated on a news website, G News, that has published stories suggesting that the coronavirus was manufactured by the Chinese military.

    In July, Bannon appeared to tease forthcoming scientific studies supporting his contention that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. He told the Daily Mail that scientists from the lab had “defected” to the U.S. and were collaborating with American intelligence agencies. On the “War Room: Pandemic” podcast, Bannon has hosted others who have speculated that the virus may have been a Chinese “bioweapon,” but he has said that he believes the most plausible explanation is that it “came out of experiments that were going on” at that Wuhan lab.

    That’s a line that has been echoed by some prominent U.S. officials. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both alluded to intelligence reports supporting that theory. “This evidence is circumstantial, to be sure,” wrote Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) in an April column for the Wall Street Journal, “but it all points toward the Wuhan labs.”

    While an accidental leak from the virology lab in Wuhan remains a theoretical possible source of the initial outbreak in the city, the vast majority of the scientific literature on the virus has determined that its origins were natural, and that it was not laboratory manufactured. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Trump administration’s coronavirus point-person, has stressed repeatedly that all evidence indicates the virus was not man-made.

    The study published by Bannon’s group on Monday is therefore particularly incendiary. “This virus is not from nature,” declared Dr. Li-Meng Yan, one of the scientists who conducted the study, during a Monday appearance on a British talk show. She called reports that the virus originated in a Wuhan meat market “a smoke screen” designed to obscure its true origins.

    But other virologists disagree and say the paper makes false claims about a number of basic facts. “Basically, it's all circumstantial and some of it is entirely fictional,” Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, told The Daily Beast of the study.

    The paper leads with a claim that the coronavirus' genes are "suspiciously similar to that of a bat coronavirus discovered by military laboratories" in China—an assertion Rasmussen says, that shouldn’t be surprising because “they are related SARS-like coronaviruses.”

    The study’s authors made a similar claim about a portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein—which viruses use to breach and infect cells—and wrote that it’s similar to the original SARS virus in a “suspicious manner” and suggests genetic manipulation. “SARS-CoV also used ACE2 as a cellular receptor, as do other SARS-like bat coronaviruses,” Rasmussen says. “It is not suspicious and is in fact expected that the receptor binding domains that bind the same protein would be similar.”

    Rasmussen also said that the paper misrepresented basic facts about another part of coronavirus spike proteins known as furin cleavage sites. The authors claim that SARS-CoV-2’s cleavage site is “unique” and unseen elsewhere in nature. But according to Rasmussen, “Furin cleavage sites occur naturally in many other beta-CoVs, including MERS-CoV and other SARS-like bat coronaviruses.”

    Yan has said that she fled China to avoid reprisals from the government there over her allegations that it was not being forthcoming about the origin and nature of the virus. She said she warned officials in December that the virus was highly transmissible between humans but that her allegations were ignored.

    The University of Hong Kong’s school of public health, where Yan was employed, has disputed her allegations that the university failed to heed her warnings prior to the outbreak in China.

    In August, Yan appeared on Bannon’s podcast. During that show, Bannon said that he was “still not in the camp that believes they purposely let it out but I’ve been strongly in the camp from the beginning that it came out of the Wuhan P4 lab.”

    Unrelated to his work with the Rule of Law groups, Bannon is also facing felony charges over what federal prosecutors say was an effort to extract millions of dollars from a nonprofit seeking to privately finance the construction of a wall on the southern U.S. border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
     
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  3. crandc

    crandc Well-Known Member

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    Talk about punishment fitting the crime! In Indonesia, eight men who violated mask requirements had to dig the graves of people who died of Corona virus.
     
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  4. BigGameDamian

    BigGameDamian Well-Known Member

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  5. Lanny

    Lanny Original Season Ticket Holder "Mr. Big Shot"

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    Trump will be in possession of both the White House and the Noble prize.
     
  6. kjironman1

    kjironman1 Well-Known Member

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  7. kjironman1

    kjironman1 Well-Known Member

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    There is a very big difference this election. Last election Trump could blame things on the current administration.
    This time when he tries to Blame issues on other people the response is "Who Is The Current President"?

     
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  8. ABM

    ABM Happily Married In Music City, USA!

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    Man-made virus? Virologist Dr. Li-Meng thinks so. Many theories out there, so the jury's still out. Apparently, she (and others) will be releasing information soon.


     
  9. lawai'a

    lawai'a Well-Known Member

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    Story at a glance https://thehill.com/changing-americ...6558-university-of-pittsburgh-scientists-find

    • Scientists said they have isolated the “smallest biological molecule” that “completely and specifically neutralizes” the coronavirus.
    • The component has been used to create the drug Ab8.
    • “Ab8 not only has potential as therapy for COVID-19, but it also could be used to keep people from getting SARS-CoV-2 infections,” John Mellors, co-author of the study and chief of the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said.
    long ways away, as only testing presently in mice and hamsters. still, while not a true vaccine, a potential prophylactic if it proves efficacious. in other words a ray of hope.
     
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  10. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    Read the article I posted.
     
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  11. ABM

    ABM Happily Married In Music City, USA!

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    Thanks for that.

    While the Daily Beast definitely has a Left bent, the article is thought-provoking. That said, I don't necessarily trust Bannon. For whatever reason, he seems too much an opportunist to me.
     
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  12. UncleCliffy'sDaddy

    UncleCliffy'sDaddy We're all Bozos on this bus.

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    One reason might be stealing donations for building “The Wall”. Just sayin’.......it case it wasn’t glaringly obvious......and totally illegal.
     
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  13. Road Ratt

    Road Ratt King of my own little world

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  14. BigGameDamian

    BigGameDamian Well-Known Member

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    And what a strong wall it has turned out to be!
     
  15. kjironman1

    kjironman1 Well-Known Member

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    All 4 new miles....
     
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  16. BigGameDamian

    BigGameDamian Well-Known Member

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  17. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    have you considered posting trump's tweets in the 'safe for trump' thread? That's where trump's lies belong, not here....IMO
     
  18. kjironman1

    kjironman1 Well-Known Member

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    The thing is we all hope this is true. We want them working hard to produce a vaccine as quickly as possible. We also all want them to be approved using the safest and most thorough processes available.
    Even if they get one working and approved by years end we still have a very long ways to go. Wide spread vaccinations will take many many months after approval. We are looking at 400K + people dying by years end and possibly close to a million deaths before this completely under control.
    That is 1 million people in this country alone!
     
  19. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    Do eyeglasses lower COVID-19 risks? Study finds spectacle-wearers are FIVE TIMES less likely to be diagnosed with coronavirus than the general public
    • Researchers looked at nearly 300 coronavirus patients and found that 5.8% wore eyeglasses eight hours a day for nearsightedness
    • Meanwhile 31.5% of those living in the Hubei province of China wore spectacle for the same condition
    • This indicates people who wear frames are about five times less likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than the general population
    • Several studies have found that coronavirus can enter through the eyes either via droplets or from hand touching
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...likely-diagnosed-COVID-19-general-public.html
     
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  20. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    Trump says the virus will go away with herd mentality.
     

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