China blaming the United States...seems to be a common theme among the nations
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Inside China's high-stakes campaign to smear the United States over coronavirus​

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says it has been 'incredibly frustrating' to get coronavirus data from the Chinese communist party; reaction from Dr. Daliah Wachs, family physician and host of the 'Doctor Daliah' and Dr. Ramin Oskoui, cardiologist and CEO of Foxhall Cardiology.

If you listened to Chinese state-run media, you'd think President Trump went to China and released vials of COVID-19 on groups of unsuspecting men, women and children.

Beijing has been bending over backward trying to convince the world that the United States is the real culprit behind the quickly spreading virus that's already claimed more than 4,600 lives across the globe.

It's a high-stakes strategy for the Asian nation fighting to keep its superpower status amid a national lockdown and palpable anger over claims that Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus, at first covered it up, triggering a worldwide health and economic crisis.

The Chinese government has already published a book in English -- with translations in the works in French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic -- touting its handling of the deadly disease.

"A Battle Against Epidemic: China Combatting COVID-19 in 2020" is a mishmash of glowing state media reports on the accomplishments of President Xi Jinping, the Communist Party and the dominance of the Chinese system in fighting the crisis.

At best, China's aggressive new campaign can be chalked up to ambitious propaganda. At its worst, it's a reckless display from a country that has actively misled the world while working overtime to save its own skin, foreign affairs expert Gordon G. Chang told Fox News.

Chang believes Beijing has been laying the groundwork for a PR attack against the United States for more than a month, first by throwing doubt on the origin of COVID-19 and second, by slamming America's handling of previous diseases like the swine flu, which decimated China's pork industry.

On Sunday, Lin Songtian, China's ambassador to South Africa, said: "Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus is originated from China, let alone 'made in China.'"

Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus is originated from China, let alone "made in China".

Vague and misleading statements like the one from Lin are ripped right out of China's propaganda playbook and attempt to sow doubt about the global crisis.

Chinese officials have also pushed back on the expression "Wuhan coronavirus" -- saying the name used frequently by U.S. conservative commentators unfairly stigmatizes the world's most populous country.

Chang said it's just another tactic in China's playbook, carefully choreographed to make Americans look petty and racist.

"This an all-out assault on the United States," Chang said.

In December, when the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, many media around the world began referring to it as the "Wuhan virus." But last month, the World Health Organization renamed the illness COVID-19 so as not to link it to a specific location or group of people.

The name change didn't stop some, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who blew past warnings and deliberately referred to it as the "Wuhan virus" after China's foreign ministry called it "highly irresponsible" to do so.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, went even further Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up," O'Brien said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank in Washington. "There's lots of open-source reporting from China, from Chinese nationals, that the doctors involved were either silenced or put in isolation, or that sort of thing, so that the word of this virus could not get out. It probably cost the world community two months."

O'Brien said if experts would have had those two months to get ahead of the spread of the virus, "I think we could have dramatically curtailed what happened both in China and what's now happening across the world."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the Communist Party is pointing the finger at the U.S. so it can dampen discontent back home.

“The Chinese military portal Xilu.com recently published an article baselessly claiming that the virus is ‘a biochemical weapon produced by the U.S. to target China,’" Rubio said.

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, has frequently used the term "Wuhan virus" on the Senate floor.

Earlier this week, several social media users took House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to task when he referred to it as "the Chinese coronavirus."

Instead of backing down, Chang believes officials should keep calling COVID-19 the "Wuhan virus" and push back on accusations of racism.

"This isn't a Republican thing. We all need to unite and for people to say, 'this is racist' is irresponsible," Chang said. "There is no race known as Wuhanese."

Chang also said calling COVID-19 the "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese coronavirus" keeps pressure on the Chinese government and forces it to be held accountable by the rest of the world for its initial response to the global crisis, which was widely regarded as abysmal.

China, though, is using everything in its arsenal to paint itself as a global hero, rewriting history and going so far as to demand a thank you for containing the virus as long as it did.

"We should say righteously that the U.S. owes China an apology, the world owes China a thank you," an editorial on state news agency Xinhua read.

Also peculiar is that Beijing -- which is normally quick to censor news -- has refused to step in as a wave of anti-American conspiracy theories flood the internet. Among the rumors is that the U.S. created the coronavirus to make China look bad as well as one that accuses the government of covering up thousands of deaths by classifying them as the regular flu.

"It's more than just some disinformation or an official narrative," Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley's Schools of Information, told The Washington Post. "It's an orchestrated, all-out campaign by the Chinese government through every channel at a level you rarely see. It's a counteroffensive."

 

And that is what makes @shootersa just a phony lying fraudulent partisan. He fucking knows better. It has been proven and explained to him right on this thread why coronavirus is far worse and more deadly than the flu And yet he keeps posting the same lies over and over and over again except the lies keep getting bigger.

All because @shootersa's Chosen One is a mad king dictator that has created a totally incompetent administration and actually did all the right things to make sure cornonavirus spreads all over the country.

And he will never stop.

This is why there are very few cases of coronavirus in places like Hong Kong that actually borders China. Both China and WHO developed a test for the virus almost immediately, And Hong Kong just as one example implemented massive testing. And when they found someone who tested positive they isolated them, tracked down the people they may have come in contact with and isolated them. That is how they stopped the spread of the virus. While over here in the US Trump tried to just ignore coronavirus. And then when they saw it spreading instead of using the already available tests other countries and WHO had the Trump administration said no no we want to develop our own. That took weeks and the virus was already spreading and then when they did send out the tests they were faulty. And in addition hardly anyone could be tested under their protocols. And all that time the virus was spreading across the US and nobody knew it.

So Trump and his administration did all the right things to spread coronavirus in the US. And we are paying the price for it now.

This is actually a very slight inconvenience but is another example of how dramatically coronavirus is impacting the US. And anytime you see someone saying they can just shut congress down you know you are looking at a stupid, ignorant, (two different things) non-fucking fool. Congress deals with threats all around the world every fucking day. And you can't get classified briefings on those threats working from home over the fucking internet. And just as two examples North Korea is rattling and we just had two US service members and a UK civilian killed in rocket attacks in Iraq. And someone has to deal with those threats because Trump is a mentally ill incompetent fool.

Public to Be Barred From U.S. Capitol, House, and Senate Office Buildings as Coronavirus Spreads

*They had Trump so fucking doped up last night he looked like he had coronavirus. He wasn't just his usual orange, he was " Hunter Orange." Trump couldn't seem to open his right eye but you could still see his pupils dilated like black holes even on TV. He slurred his words all through his speech. And the more he talked the faster stock futures fell. There is your Chosen One in a crisis.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/publi...ice-buildings-as-coronavirus-spreads?ref=home

 

Coronavirus cases spike in Middle East, most cases linked to Iran​

Iran has the fourth-highest death toll from coronavirus in the world but many analysts suspect the numbers of cases and deaths are much higher than the country is willing to report.

A slew of new coronavirus infections pushed the number of cases in the Middle East well past 10,000 on Thursday – and many of those infected are linked to Iran.

The Islamic Republic government, which said more than 360 people have died and about 9,000 are infected by the virus, has increasingly come under fire, accused of underrepresenting the impact of the virus on its people.

Multiple top officials in Iran — the senior vice president to Cabinet ministers, members of parliament, Revolutionary Guard members, health workers, and health ministry officials — have contracted the virus. Some of those officials have died.

The rising casualty figures each day in Iran suggest the fight against the new coronavirus is far from over.

"Nobody believes the numbers coming out of Tehran," Matthew Schmidt, national security and political science expert at the University of New Haven, told Fox News recently. "It may well be that Iran is now the epicenter of the outbreak. The government has and continues to misreport the number of cases and deaths. But this is due as much to incompetence as a cover-up."

Meanwhile, the Iranian regime turned the blame-game on the United States and accused the Trump administration’s harsh economic sanctions of stifling its ability to fight the virus’ spread.

“The American administration does not care about Iranian people,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi said at a press gathering on Wednesday. “They shed crocodile tears.”

IRAN BLAMES CORONAVIRUS SPREAD ON US SANCTIONS

Iran has asked for an emergency $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to combat the outbreak. The international lender has said it stands ready to support countries through a Rapid Financial Instrument.

Meanwhile, all of Iran’s neighbors have closed their borders to Iranians and multiple nations have cut travel links -- including shipping in some cases – which will compound the regime’s economic woes.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday officially designated the coronavirus outbreak a “pandemic.” While most infected people will see only mild or moderate symptoms, for others, particularly older adults and people with existing health problems, it could trigger a more severe illness.
There is no vaccine.

Regional stock markets also were down, reflecting investor concerns and nerves felt globally as oil prices plunge and tourism revenue is eroded by the virus.

Elsewhere in the region, only Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon have recorded deaths from the virus.

This week, Qatar reported a massive jump in cases of the new coronavirus late Wednesday, with 262 now infected. In the Gulf Arab island nation of Bahrain, confirmed cases also rose by nearly 70 percent this week to 189 confirmed cases, after some 77 new cases were confirmed on a returning flight of Bahrainis from Iran.

Kuwait on Thursday closed all workplaces and non-essential businesses for two weeks, including restaurants, cafes and health clubs. Schools and universities already have been suspended. All commercial flights are being halted to Kuwait starting Friday. The country has more than 70 confirmed cases of the new virus.

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, reported seven more cases late Wednesday, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 67. In the southern tourist-driven city of Luxor, 70 Egyptian workers and guides remained in quarantine on a Nile cruise ship called the Asara. Earlier this week, 83 foreign tourists left quarantine on the ship and flew home after testing negative for the virus.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, announced a jump in cases from 21 to 45 late Wednesday, 12 Egyptians under quarantine in Mecca were among them. The government has suspended pilgrimages to Islam's holiest sites, barring entry of all pilgrims to Mecca and Medina to curb the virus' spread.

It also has cordoned off the eastern province of Qatif, where more than a dozen cases are confirmed among its mostly Shiite population from people who recently visited Iran.

 

These European travel restrictions to the US have stunned an already crumbling market. Also don’t know why the UK is exempt.

This makes absolutely no sense at all.

 

We just had a briefing from the minister president, the health minister and head of the RIVM.

Self-isolation if mildly symptomatic.
Gatherings of over 100 people banned.
Schools to remain open to secure health and emergency workers.
Work from home.
Dry cough and fever over 38.5 inform health services.

Measures only concerned with public health.

Thinskin

 

I get nervous around people now when they cough, I sneezed and told others dont worry, no fever here...but there are some people out there who should self isolate

 

Commentary, MARCH 12, 2020

The Speech Was a Disaster
by Noah Rothman

The president addressed the nation last night from the solemn setting of the Oval Office seeking to convey calm and competence. Instead, he projected ineptness...

President Trump’s prime time speech erred on the side of toughness. He heaped scorn on China for allowing the coronavirus pandemic to escape its borders and castigated America’s allies in Europe for failing to contain the contagion.

--------

Commentary has become a conservative opinion journal. It has published many articles by Charles Murray. Even a conservative publication with intellectual integrity and a reputation to preserve can tell that Trump is out of his league on this crisis. This is not something Trump can blame on "fake news," or Hillary Clinton.

It does not matter that Trump is not responsible for the coronavirus. Leaders are evaluated by how they respond to unexpected problems. So far Trump has been floating on an economic recovery that began when Obama was president, and the sugar high of an irresponsible tax cut for the rich. How does that stock market look now, shootersa?

This crisis forces the Trump cultists to acknowledge that their emperor has no clothes.

 

If I owned a bar in Washington, DC I would try to buy one of those statues and put it in my bar. Most residents of the District feel for Trump the contempt he deserves. They know that he is a pompous, bloated blow hard.

 

And you might be surprised how business tanks when you do that.
Shooter was in DC the year after Trump took office. Most residents and local people he talked to had no issue with Trump and proudly sported his caps or shirts. Surely, not a scientific poll, but then Shooter was impressed by how DC residents were willing to give Trump the same chance every president should have.

And Shooter is sure, those residents are pleased with his performance so far.

Wait for it ……….

 

NHL has suspended their season. I'm glad, actually; the idea of fan-free games of any sort seemed to be entirely the wrong decision to me.

 

I am of the opinion that this is being made out to be a bigger problem than it really is. However, I also believe that we need to take as many precautions as possible to limit the spread of the virus. And by combating the covid, we are also going to be cutting down on the flu, even if we don't mean to. I'm not worried about ME getting sick. I'm healthy (although very whiny when I'm sick) and I would bounce back. I'm always very careful about spreading germs, but I'm even more careful now. I would hate to ignore the virus, catch it, and infect a more vulnerable person. It would haunt me forever if I contributed to the death of a human being that didn't deserve it.

 

I agree with this as well. Common sense which is a value viewed with disdain on here. Nobody wants to get sick and I always am careful not to spread germs when I know that I am sick. But this thing seems to be contagious even before symptoms appear and most people cannot work from home but have to work. We cannot all hole up until there are no more sick people. It would wreck the economy and we’ve seen that just the fear of this is doing a great job all by itself. Germs are out there and it’s both craven and immunologically undesirable to avoid them all.

“The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable”

 

To defeat an epidemic, people need to trust scientific experts, citizens need to trust public authorities, and countries need to trust each other.

Over the last few years, irresponsible politicians have deliberately undermined trust in science, in public authorities and in international co-operation.

To prevent a catastrophe we need to regain the trust we have lost. You cannot defeat a global epidemic through propaganda and isolation.

The real antidote is scientific knowledge and global co-operation.

Yuval Noah Harari

Thinskin

 

Now Major League Baseball is postponing the season and canceling spring training.

Ok maybe we should shut down restaurants and theatres and all public transit. Anything where people gather in anything but very small groups.

Logically wouldn’t this also make sense?

Does caution have a bottom?

 

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. Don’t forget to add that to the list of fears!

 

In the Netherlands there is a program to randomly sample and test people for covid-19 in order to try to understand and quantify the extent of hidden cases!

Finally someone is thinking!

Thinskin

 

Basically in the US I think you are sqabbling over who pays for the test!

The two under development....development FFS.....are home test kits!

You will reap what you so I am afraid!

S.Korea has tested almost a quarter of a million people!

Thinskin

 

I am getting weary of my social media timelines getting filled with Dr. Drew telling everyone they are overreacting to coronavirus. There is only so many times I can type "a former Loveline host and reality-show addictionologist cannot be trusted with information about novel viral threats."

Here’s a measured but urgent data-driven view. Tl; dr? Swift action here will save lives.

Anyone minimizing this pandemic, or denying it, or being cavalier about not placing themselves in positions to spread the virus is contributing to a higher eventual death rate. It’s not politics, it’s biology.

Want to know what things are going to look like, real soon?



Don’t take my word for it; read, learn, educate yourself. Stop trying to be a ‘cool kid’ and say it’s no big deal.

It might not be a big deal for you. But this? This is a big fucking deal.

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

 

Being informed takes effort sub besides isn't easier to blame someone rather than fix it? That is what the very worst politicians do.

Luckily here in The Netherlands we understand that fixing the dykes is more important than finding someone to blame!

Otherwise we start drowning!

Thinskin

 

The craziness is finally hitting my small town and the mob panic makes it worse. The stores are packed with people buying stuff in a frenzy, thereby spreading the virus quicker. There was a fight in my local grocery store over toilet paper. The stress and tension is escalating. It’s worrisome, but calm the fuck down people. Take it slow and be cautious and take care of each other.