Trump stops funds to the WHO because it only has one major job and it failed

The real question is why is this even news? The WHO is there to prevent mass pandemics from spreading and killing people, and they have not saved one single country in 2020. The US wasted $900 million dollars, 15% of the WHO budget, on an organization so corrupt it has been captured and become a Chinese advertising agency directly working against the interests of the Western nations that fund it.

Donald Trump says US will halt funding to WHO over handling of coronavirus pandemic

Mr Trump, speaking as the US death toll from COVID-19 passed 25,000, said the United Nations health agency had “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable”.

He said the group had promoted China’s “disinformation” about the virus, and said the outbreak could have been contained at its source and lives could have been saved if the WHO had done a better job of investigating initial reports coming out of China.

The big news is that Australia, and most other countries are still funding the WHO. When will our media start asking why we do that? Is Scott Morrison afraid of the UN, afraid of China, or afraid of the ABC?

This is the WHO in January 2020 — it’s what abject failure looks like

Back then, the WHO could have saved the world:

Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies,” the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. — BBC 

President Xi’s personal guidance and deployment show his great leadership capability, Tedros said.

He said that China has released information in an open and transparent manner, identified the pathogen in a record-short time and shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus in a timely manner with the WHO and other countries.

China’s measures are not only protecting its people, but also protecting the people in the whole world, he said. — FMPRC

UPDATE: If you wonder why Tedros sold his medical soul and grovelled for President Xi, read my post from Feb 3rd 2020: Follow the money — or rather the Belt and Road. Tedros was the Foreign Minister for Ethiopia from 2012-2016. Ethiopia now owes China $13b which it can’t pay. China bought WHO approval one African state at a time.

The answer is because the mainstream media act as if the WHO are Gods, and never ask them a hard question.

UPDATE: When the media do, they might want to ask about this WHO tweet on January 14th. The first cases of the SARS-Cov-2 Virus were circulating in November in Wuhan.

Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China,” the organization had said.- FoxNews”  h/t to Leo Morgan #21 below.

The Guardian is still apologizing for the WHO – claiming lamely that it said the right things, but doesn’t have any power. They  quoted Tedros on March 11 warning of ““alarming levels of inaction” from many countries. “. But by then the virus was everywhere, tens of thousands were infected and coronavirus was practically slapping world leaders in the face.

If the WHO was controlled by Donald Trump, the socialist mainstream media would be all over its failures. But because the UN is a mini World Government, effectively The Vatican of left wing loving writers, it gets a free pass.

Enough is Enough. Here’s that petition again, just in case you haven’t already signed it, but we need to send letters to the media, and to our ministers to find out why we send money to a group that is worse than useless.

Call for the resignation of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General

Not only do we not need Tedros Adhanom, we don’t need the WHO, The UN, or The ABC and BBC either. None of them were serving Australians, Brits, or Americans, or even Ethiopians. How many will now succumb to Coronavirus that might have been saved?

h/t Dave B

9.5 out of 10 based on 122 ratings

344 comments to Trump stops funds to the WHO because it only has one major job and it failed

  • #
    Reverse Transcriptase

    “identified the pathogen in a record-short time and shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus in a timely manner”
    Of course they did. They designed it in the first place, so the code was already known.

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  • #
    MudCrab

    Meanwhile, over on the ABC, Kevin – who is clearly doing it tough with out razor blades – has forgiven the [snips] and is ‘appalled’ by Trump’s acts against the WHO.

    Kevin goes on to remind everyone that he was PERSONALLY involved in helping draft a raft of changes for WHO in relation to pandemic management back in 2017, but none of them have been implemented. This, apparently, is not because WHO is more concerned with Lady GaGa, but because none of the member nations have been prepared to hold WHO to account.

    So… sort of like how Trump is not telling them to sort their act out or never receive US funding again?

    Not sure what the last 7 minutes of the interview was about. First 2 were more than enough.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Another organization which is truly unaccountable to anyone but expects to be well paid, take long holidays and not have to live by the laws which bind the private media, like media coverage rules which would have the ABC broken up years ago.

      331

    • #
      TdeF

      By rat, I assume you mean anything on four legs except a table. And anything on two legs except a waiter.

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  • #
    TdeF

    You can tell it’s a political organization when countries lobby to control the Presidents job and when the person appointed is not qualified.

    Consider Pachauri, railway engineer in charge of the IPCC. Why not a actual senior Meteorologist from the WMO?
    Or socialist Christiana Figureres, daughter of the former President of Costa Rica and anthropologist.

    And the President of WHO should be the most qualified real medical doctor they can find. And the job should rotate through other senior medical doctors.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Someone who has actually graduated from Medical school and taken the Hippocratic oath or similar.

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      • #
        Raving

        Don’t know Adhanom’s qualifications and perhaps it doesn’t matter. He seems to have some really good people behind him. He listens to them and isn’t fazed when politically leaned upon to say otherwise. Excellence performance…

        … that is except save for excessive congratulating China and crying about Taiwan. Congratulating China is fine. He owes them a debt of gratitude. But crying about Taiwan being racist? (wince, cringe) Its below him and his position

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        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          Don’t know Adhanom’s qualifications

          Nor much else about him it would seem. A three minute Google search would remove your ignorance, if it’s that and not Sinophilia which afflicts you.

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          • #
            sophocles

            A three minute Google search …

            What? Three minutes? Are you using a PC XT there Sam?

            He’s a microbiologist and “internationally recognised” malaria researcher.
            Supposedly.

            Oh, and he’s from Africa.

            😀

            40

            • #

              Everything you need to know about him: just Google joannenova and Tedros

              Follow the chain, or rather the Belt and Road February 3, 2020

              The WHO Director General is Tedros Adhanom of Ethiopia. From 2012 – 2016 he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the one party government that rules Ethiopia. This is the same party that borrowed billions from China to build a railway line, then struggles to pay it back. In Africa, Ethiopia is the second largest debtor nation to China — owing $13 billion. As Foreign Minister Adhanom praised China for African loans, looks like he was the man to line them up. We also note that the one-party ruling party of Ethiopia is called the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front which was once a Marxist Lenninist far left group — labels it dropped after the Soviet Union collapsed.

              Suddenly there might be a reason why Tedros went out of his way to praise President Xi of China…

              That’s why he grovels for China.

              I shall add a note to the post to remind everyone.

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              • #
                Raving

                Tedros has close ties to China. Okay the WHO is a global entity and whoever leads it will probably favor some counties. Unavoidable.

                I can forgive his effusive praise of China. Even if he is in favor of them, the WHO also prefers to work in close cooperation with China because it is a key player in the pandemic. Tedros already being eager to please China is a benefit in this covid19 outbreak.

                What is wrong is when Tedros allows his fondness for China to intrude on his responsibility as the head of WHO.

                Taiwan is another story. Banning it from the world health organization on the grounds that its interests are already taken care of by China is absurd. When China controls Tiawan then they can claim to represent its healthcare, not before then

                Tedros singling out Taiwan for racist comments went too far. Not acceptable.

                As for the WHO ccaling for the closing down borders, it is more nuanced. To clam that the WHO held for the sake of pleasing China might have had some influence but there are other significant things to consider as well. See next response below.

                Tedros is NOT the WHO, thankfully. What is being advised also originates from experts other than Tedros who lends credence to the job by giving weight to those other WHO expertsTedrosmay favor Chnia but he defers to other expert advice within his orgsnization. I know that all organizations say this. Yet there are times when knowing to deferr to other opinions really does matter and also represnts good leadership

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              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                but he defers to other expert advice within his orgsnization

                Evidence please.

                70

              • #
                Raving

                @sceptical Sam .. See the bland advice below. It’s like a public health formed by a committee of experts.

                https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/20/who-offers-tips-for-living-under-coronavirus-quarantine-dont-drink-smoke-or-watch-too-much-news.html

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              • #

                I missed this the first time around but could that 13 billion Ethiopia owes to China have come out of he pockets of Americans, Aussies and New Zealanders who have been forced to buy products made in China because we were all asleep at the switch and allowed our whole manufacturing base to be shipped off to an enemy state?

                I daresay that’s the truth of the matter. And China has citizens to waste for the next 199 years and the government doesn’t need to put up much more than a sham effort at fighting CV19. I’ll bet there’s but one reason for developing the virus in the fist place and that’s to use it as a weapon. Too bad it got away from them.

                And all there is to support what I just said is circumstantial evidence. But mark my word, China is building attack and missile launching submarines along with every other implement needed to fight a war on the sea and in the air and doing it with our money and our technology. They are controlling important world institutions like WHO, not to mention probable malign influence in our governments. And they are doing it with our money.

                And they will defeat us with our money. It isn’t the WHO we should defund, it’s China.

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              • #

                Nice rant, Roy. But can China really go to war with the world? I doubt it. They depend on us to keep on buying Chinese made goods. And they make some good stuff.

                My OPPO blu-ray player is the finest piece of consumer electronics I have ever seen. No smart TV is as versatile and I’ve never seen a product sold with its own carrying bag and a complete user manual in hard copy. My couple of contacts with their customer support got me native English speaking technicians who, unlike most, actually understood what I was talking about. Who else measures up to that? It’s made by OPPO Consumer Electronics in Cupertino, California. That manufactured by is misleading a bit though. There is a long list of on-screen credits identifying the source of nearly all the internal software and it’s all off-the-shelf open source. Smart.

                The US company is owned, not surprisingly, by the Chinese company, OPPO electronics. Folks the Chinese are outdoing us in product capability, quality and support and doing it with stuff developed in the non communist world. Admittedly the player is high end stuff, price a little above $500. But why don’t American companies do as impressive a job? Labor and everything else is too costly here compared with the rest of the world, that’s why.

                China is cleaning our clock for us. Don’t worry about the WHO, defund China.

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              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Raving,

                Seriously?

                You think we need a $7.5 billion international blood-sucker to tell us:

                Don’t smoke, limit alcohol, exercise and try not to watch too much news.

                They’re on the public drip-feed. High on the hog. It’s a nepotistic, lazy, incompetent and corrupt organisation. It has blood on its hands. It is owned and controlled by the enemy of the democratic, freedom-loving, Western nations.

                Let the Australian Government put our contribution into our international aid program instead of into this appalling organisation.

                30

              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Oh and BTW, Raving, that’s not evidence.

                Where’s your evidence?

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              • #

                Skeptical Same wants evidence. Good. So here it is. I have watched the world go by for an 81 year lifetime. as an adult I quickly learned to remember little bits and pieces of information that came to me because enough of those pieces of information could be put together to make a case for something.

                And that’s all I’ve done here. So my case is all circumstantial. I’m not privy to meetings, files or anything else that could be hard evidence. But how much weight of obvious circumstances does it take to make a case. If you’ve ever been on a jury and asked by the prosecution to convict on all circumstantial evidence you’ll understand the problem circumstantial evidence presents. No one piece of evidence means anything. But a large body of circumstantial evidence all pointing to the same conclusion becomes a crushing weight that says yout conclusion is right.

                Sam I’d be happy to have you throw darts at my case. 🙂

                20

    • #
      sophocles

      Consider Pachauri, railway engineer in charge of the IPCC.

      Do we have to?

      Is that sleaze bag still fighting his court case? Last I saw, I remember thinking he must have had one or more rather good lawyers … and that was a few years ago …

      First Pachauri, now Tedros. I hope Patty Espinoza has kept her Teddy Bear packed.

      This is not the first epidemic the UN has caused, but it’s the biggest. There was the 2010 cholera epidemic in Haiti. That was “only one country” but this one is the world.

      When it comes to global health, there is none so dangerous as the UN. WHO? The UN needs purging from the top down to get rid of the incompetent.

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      • #
        Captain Dave

        Pachauri died on Feb 13/2020. Not to speak ill of the dead, but it was no great loss.

        150

      • #
        sophocles

        Singapore came out of lock down and has announced they are experiencing fresh infections (Thurs 10/04/20 ) in a resurgence of Sars-Cov-2 (WuFlu or Covid-19) infections.

        Aus and NZ have their CC&F season yet to come: August-September.
        Don’t be surprised at anything which happens.

        30

        • #
          sophocles

          I’ve incurred that insulting moderation script’s ire yet again.
          It now doesn’t like notice of Singapore’s announcement of fresh Wuflu.

          40

  • #
    Virtual reality

    All the hype around this will cause us to loose more personal freedoms. Instead off learning from this we will see more efforts being made to infringe on our rights to move freely and it will all be under the good intentions of saving the planet. Haven’t we been fighting this on another topic? Oh yes, I do believe it was global warming!

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    • #
      PeterS

      Same players but different crisis. Hence same agenda.

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      • #
        R2Dtoo

        Were “climate change” and “pandemics” not on the original Club of Rome list of possible issues to affect world control???? In the late 1960’s!

        80

  • #
    Raving

    The WHO is doing a great job. They learned after having really messed up an Ebola outbreak some years ago. The WHO as it exists now is a success. They have given very good guidance in the face of inaction by some countries and calls by other countries to do otherwise

    It is possible for the UN to create a competent organization that does a good job with its mandate. There are so many organizations under the UN umbrella that do things badly.

    My biggest complaint was when Adhanom complained that the Taiwanese were being racist. Vividly pointed to Chinese influence weighing in on the WHO. He should have resisted that partiality

    Go ahead and flame me. This is how I see it

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Consider your self flamed !
      Thw WHO needs to be re-named
      The “WAO’- World Affliction Organisation’
      Why ?

      Because we are all ‘Afflicted’ by it
      It does not serve the people of the world
      It serves it’s own interests
      And those of it’s Chinese mates

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      • #
        Raving

        The WHO is advocating to maintain a strong lockdown until

        – cases are reduced to a small number of containable and managable clusters
        – testing and tracing can be done within 24 hrs to identify and contain new clusters
        – the vulnerable and elderly are iron ringed protected
        – … until a vaccine is available

        Isnt’t this or better what you and Jo want for Australia?
        At present , Spain Italy and Austria have relaxed constraints without reaching the WHO’s recommended standard of control.

        The WHO maintains this stringent guidance despite strong global pressure to relax constraints more quickly and leniently

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        • #
          Analitik

          Too bad they didn’t advocate these actions until AFTER the outbreak had been somewhat contained within China (through draconian lockdowns in the worst afflicted provinces due to early inaction and denial)

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          • #

            Raving, see my comment above #3.1.1.1.1

            The WHO worked to stop nations closing flights when it could have stopped this infection spreading. Back in January the WHO could easily have saved the world, but instead they advised travel to stay open, thus guaranteeing the virus would spread. They waited til it had reached 18 nations before declaring an emergency.

            Tedros is well qualified. He knew what he was doing but did it anyway. His likely reasons for his medically negligent advice were explained in http://joannenova.com.au/2020/02/stinks-slow-wmo-let-coronavirus-run-but-ethiopian-chief-was-part-of-chinas-debt-trap-diplomacy/.

            I was so baffled at the medical failure of the WHO’s ridiculous advice That was my second and third posts on Coronavirus.

            Our Chief Medical Officer even cited the WHO as a reason not to act. That’s Brendan-kill-them-first-Murphy. Apparently people needed to die before we would do what needed to be done.

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            • #
              Raving

              I was also surprised at the WHO’s reluctance to call for closing down travel with China and other hot spots. Our health minister’s explanation that it wouldn’t work because people would circumvent and sneak in didnt seem reasonable. Later it was suggested that closing the border was impractical because infections were already pouring in from the U.S.. Eventually we closed the U.S. border by mutual agreement but still with little teeth to enforce quaranteen

              why keep borders open and hold off on calling an epidemic? Yes it might have saved Australia and some other countries for a while but that would also mean blocking movement from all other known hot spots. Our early infections in Toronto mostly came from Italy Iran and Egypt.

              About the time of calls to stop travel from China, the Chinese were frantically locking down Wuhan stopping travel within their own country. It was the lunar new year.

              The calls for quaranteen came when China was heavily invested in quaranteening itself, as it should be.. Travellers leaving China to infect elsewher isa bit of an afterthougt at this stage because the infection was already established elsewhere. or maybe I have this wrong.

              contniued…

              17

              • #
                Raving

                Its easy to appeal to advice from WHO when you want to support local policy. Australia wants to keep on good terms with China so apealing to the WHOs recommendation is a convenient explanation. (Appeal to Authority argument)

                When things are not desired its easy to blame the WHO. (Passing the buck)

                So what about closing borders?
                -Aus is good at it
                – It takes some time and planning to get the ball rolling
                – There are millions of Expats from each country floating around the world. This is a huge problem when it comes to shutting the border

                The big problem with closing off a hot spot is that you are still open to other hot spots which also need to be closed immediately … and fairly soon you end up closing down the whole world which is what has happened in reality

                The WHO held off with the pandemic call to encourage countries to detect and isolate infections. The epidemic call was enough to close and quarantine borders. The threat to raise to pandemic encouraged taking the epidemic seriously,

                Most of the infections here were from places other than China, from cruise ships, from European holiday makers and returning Canadians who wintered elsewhere. Blocking travel from China to Canada would have done little to alter our current situation

                Yes it is nice to close borders but viligance testing and isolation is more important, especially when the cat is out of the bag and widely dispersed

                07

            • #
              Raving

              You talk about the medical failure of WHO and yes they might have failed. Nevertheless there are many aspects to a n evolving epidemic. Many decisions for catasprophic failure and multipart hard won success. You are denouncing the WHO on one or a few decisions out of many consequential decisions

              By contrast, a lot of Western countires with supposed expertise have been making a large number of horrible decisions regarding this epidemic. Heck Ontarion got rid of all its deep inspections of assisted living facillities to cut red tape and please the private sector.. No infection control plans now. Covid19 infections are exploding in these nursing homes. Its tragic. It would have happened sooner or later because of the relaxed oversight recarding infection control Thwt is just one of many bad choices.

              Do we fire all the experts?

              07

              • #
                sophocles

                Raving while raving away, asked:

                Do we fire all the experts?

                No, just the X-Spurts, especially when they are ex-terrorists and work for the UN.

                10

            • #
              Raving

              From your Feb 1 BBC REFERENCE .. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51338899

              “Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies,” the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

              Yep that’s what happened even with a delay in closure

              Given that China was intesnsely involved in shutting itself down at that time, External calls to quarantine off China would not have been a big insult but would demean the effort China was making on its own part.

              Yes the WHO should have called for travel restrictions from China but it probably would have made no difference to the global spread which happened before that time

              06

              • #
                robert rosicka

                Raving the sun doth not shine out of the WHO’S posterior, they have one job and they failed miserably by favouring China .
                Why is subject to opinion but doesn’t alter the incompetence.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Consider this –

          https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/10/5-shocking-facts-about-who-chief-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus/

          “The director-general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-influenced World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is not a medical doctor and is a member of a Marxist-Leninist Ethiopian political party that analysts have listed as a perpetrator of terrorism.

          “Tedros Helped Beijing Hide the Severity of the Chinese Coronavirus Outbreak

          “On January 14, months after health officials are believed to have detected the first case of the virus in China on November 17 of last year, the WHO was promoting a Chinese claim via Twitter that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” Meanwhile, the disease was spiraling out of control.

          “Tedros is Not a Medical Doctor

          “The WHO director holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Community Health from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and a Master of Science (MSc) in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the University of London

          “The WHO Director is a Member of the Leftist Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)

          “As a member of the violent and powerful communist Ethiopian political party known as the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tedros rose through Ethiopia’s autocratic regime as health (2005-2012) and foreign minister (2012-2016). Analysts, reportedly including American government officials, have listed the TPLF in the Global Terrorism Database.

          “Tedros Helped Indebt Ethiopia to China

          “Ethiopia has borrowed billions from China, reportedly including more than $13 billion during Tedros’ tenure as foreign minister between 2012 and 2016.

          “An editorial published by the Hill in mid-March pointed out:

          “We note China’s connections to Tedros’s homeland of Ethiopia, now called East Africa’s ‘Little China’ because it has become China’s bridgehead to influence Africa and a key to China’s Belt and Road initiative there.

          “Tedros named Robert Mugabe a WHO ‘goodwill ambassador’

          “In October 2017, Tedros named Mugabe a “goodwill ambassador” to help combat non-communicable diseases in Africa, provoking outrage from medical professionals and human rights groups

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          • #
            Bill In Oz

            So he is in fact very ‘well’ qualified
            To run the World Health Organisation
            For the CCP ?

            Just incompetent at doing anything useful
            To prevent pandemics !

            130

            • #
              sophocles

              In a way, he is an honourable man: once bought, he’s stayed bought.

              But he should resign forthwith. Look at the cost!

              100

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Consider your self flamed !
      The WHO needs to be re-named
      The “WAO’- World Affliction Organisation’
      Why ?

      Because we are all ‘Afflicted’ by it
      It does not serve the people of the world
      It serves it’s own interests
      And those of it’s Chinese mates

      71

    • #

      Raving,

      Yes, right on. And Satan is a choir boy at your local church every Sunday. He’s always there looking for suckers. But you don’t dare listen to him. Get the analogy?

      Consider yourself flamed. 🙁

      150

      • #
        Peter C

        I think Raving is being ironic.

        31

        • #

          He defends himself, not only in the present comment but later on. But if you’re right then he can consider my comment in the same vein.

          That’s one of the beauties of human communication quite independent of the language, that we can manage to say yes while saying no, agree while disagreeing and so on.

          Irony, sarcasm, context in which something is said, they all make for a rich playground for having fun, having misunderstanding, turning a friend into an enemy or lambasting the WHO. Or getting confused, it’s 5 AM and maybe I need a cup of coffee before I answer you. 🙂

          70

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      This is how I see it

      No you don’t.

      You’re just another stirrer.

      But one day you will understand that this is beyond a good old Aussie stir.

      70

  • #
    Rocket Rod

    Breaking news.
    CV-19 in India mutating making vaccines pointless.
    Eugenecist Gatesy will not be happy.
    Awwwww….
    End the lockdowns and let the virus do what it does, because what will come after it will be far worse otherwise.
    You can’t cheat fate or reality.
    The reality of this craziness is rapidly becoming clear now. Learn from history.

    https://www.foxnews.com/science/mutation-strain-from-india-could-kill-current-research-efforts-for-coronavirus-vaccine-report

    105

    • #
      PeterS

      Well Bill Gates won’t be happy too.
      Is Bill Gates the Dark Lord?
      I’m not yet convinced but I have my suspicions. Either that or he’s delusional.

      71

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Do you think the hydroxychloroquine/zinc cocktail will stop the new variant? Sounds to me that it might.
      Cheers
      Dave B

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      • #
        Analitik

        I’m coming around to the viewpoint that we won’t have a vaccine to control SARS-Cov-2 and it’s a community disease that we will just have to cope with – at least for quite a while. Once effective treatments have been established and reliable diagnosis is available then we can return towards our old lifestyle (hopefully one where climate hysteria has been firmly quashed)

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        • #

          But not until the police state is fully in place.

          Tony.

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          • #
            OriginalSteve

            That’s where the smartphone snitch-ware comes in…and apple and Google are faithfully providing operating system changed to support the next generation of govt sponsored spying ….er…cov19 contact tracking on citizens…

            Of course none of the MSM bolshie-compatible media are asking what happens after cov19 goes into the background but the snitch-ware is still there.

            Of course we know the govt will switch if off…..

            10

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Analitik I do not know who your ‘we’ are.
          But know who my ‘we’ are : we are Australians
          And ‘We’ are destroying the virus
          So it is not here any longer.

          Other countries & places may face different circumstances
          And make their own choices.
          And face the consequences of those choices.
          That’s their problem.
          But Oz is emerging as great example of
          How to eliminate this dangerous disease.

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          • #
            Kalm Keith

            Land of Hope and Glory
            Mother o’of The Free
            How shall We ,,,,,,,,,,

            In our current politician squalor I can’t see any “emergence” as anything but good luck.

            KK

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          • #
            farmerbraun

            The fact that you are destroying democracy in OZ and placing yourself under the rule of a global “elite” is of no consequence whatsoever.

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          • #
            farmerbraun

            Looks like jingoistic horse shirt to me Bill, but you go right ahead and tell Mr Xi what you think .
            Let us know how he replies; I’m sure he’ll listen.

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            • #
              Bill In Oz

              No where are those mods ?
              Needed for your content zero comments.

              11

              • #
                farmerbraun

                it must be about time that you got some decent “fit-for-purpose” Hate Speech laws in OZ , don’t you think Bill?
                You might think that there’s a problem in identifying hate speech, but just trust your “instinct”.
                You’ll know it when you see it , just like Princess Jacinda said.

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            • #
              Kalm Keith

              There’s significant amounts of content in this post. I’d say almost 97%.

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        • #
          sophocles

          Analitik said:

          I’m coming around to the viewpoint that we won’t have a vaccine to control SARS-Cov-2 and it’s a community disease that we will just have to cope with

          Brilliant.

          It’s a corona virus. One of the notable characteristics of corona viruses is the high rate of change/mutation. The other seven human infecting corona viruses share this characteristic.

          The best treatment is to not catch it. Keep your immune system tuned up by keeping your Vitamin D3 high.

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          • #
            el gordo

            Couldn’t we just exterminate all the bats in China, except for small control groups?

            42

            • #
              farmerbraun

              We have bats in NZ too. I’m sure you’ve got some over there. Can they catch nasties from humans?

              22

              • #
                Graeme No.3

                But we have wind turbines which are killing those bats off.

                40

              • #
                el gordo

                FB we recently had the Hendra virus, which impacted the racing industry.

                ‘Its a virus that mainly infects large fruit bats (flying foxes) which can be passed on to horses. The infection has occasionally been passed onto people who have been in close contact with an infected horse.’

                20

              • #
                sophocles

                We’ve got wind turbines in NZ too. On the hills round Palmerston North where

                The Hills are alive with the sounds of the Windmills

                and the slopes are littered with dead and dying birds

                20

            • #

              El Gordo — pointless and futile trying to get rid of all bats. It won’t stop this pandemic, and it won’t stop the next one arising from one of the other mammals around the world. I doubt we could do it anyhow. Bird Flu. Swine Flu. Cow Pox. Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)… there are bezillions of animal viruses that could cause pandemics.

              The answer is:

              1. Stop the flights immidiately next time and every time.
              2. Develop Biotech so we can generate: Stemcells, monoclonal antibodies, CRISPR, RNAi, and anti-virals. And better detection kits faster.
              3. Make good hygiene a cultural practice everywhere all the time. We shouldn’t have to put up with so many annual flus either.

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              • #
                Bill In Oz

                Fruit bats are NOT native to SA or Victoria
                They invaded Vic in the 1990’s and SA in 2019-10
                And are now a major pest of all orchard operations
                Yet they are a ‘protected species’ under some Act or other.
                And yes the fact that they carry dangerous viral diseases is well known now.
                All the native fauna protection groups advise anyone working with bats to get vaccinated.
                They know that bat viral diseases are deadly !

                30

              • #
                el gordo

                Okay Jo, thanks.

                20

            • #
              JanEarth

              1/4 of all mammal species are bats. Impossible task and extremely ill considered.

              00

      • #
        Peter C

        Do you think the hydroxychloroquine/zinc cocktail will stop the new variant?

        Does it stop the old variant?

        So far the reporting on Chloroquine has been very disappointing!

        The media seem to want to slam Trump, whatever the result.

        Here is what I have gleaned so far:
        1. Initial positive reports for Chloroquine have not been confirmed.
        2. Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine is being used clinically.
        3. Side effect have stopped some trial that were using very high dose because of cardiac (heart) side effects.
        4. The results of the clinical use has not been reported. Did Boris get Chloroquine? Who would know?

        Still waiting for more updates.

        85

        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          3. Side effect have stopped some trial that were using very high dose because of cardiac (heart) side effects.

          Have you seen the report or are you just going on the press rumour on this?

          In terms of your #2 how does that align with #1? Seems to me if it doesn’t work it wouldn’t be used. But it is being used and the empirical evidence of its efficacy is pretty good.

          For example, have you seen these patient notes? They’re from a California based medico who says he’s had 21 COVID-19 patients successfully dealt with plus more currently under treatment.

          The notes start at the 19 minute 20 second mark:

          https://youtu.be/Q7voUXgMCSs

          90

          • #
            Peter C

            Thanks Sceptical,

            1. Yes I read the report.

            2. Hydroxychloroquine is being used. But effectiveness is not proven.

            3. Your YouTube account is dismissed ( not watched by me) is anecdotal . I don’t necessarily agree with the dismissals but science needs to be robust.. That means that we need to see what happen to people who were not treated as comparison.

            4. So far all the reports I have read have reported side effects but none have given effectiveness outcomes.

            53

            • #
              Sceptical Sam

              Look. I understand that.

              However, in the period of time between the commencement of double blind studies and the publication of results, thousands of people have died. Are dying.

              Are you OK with that?

              I’m not.

              Even if HCQ + Zn + Azithromycin only works in 50% of cases it’s better than doing nothing. The trade off is the win/loss ratio. How many are saved v how many are lost?

              So, according to their ABC (tonight’s 7:30 report and that expert in all matters scientific Norman Swan) the use of HCQ may extend to QT interval in the electrocardiogram. In some cases that may be fatal. But that’s not new. Read the side-effects for HCQ. It’s been known for as long as the medication has existed. It’s a rare event. Especially when compared to the seemingly positive empirical evidence of its efficacy for this Chines virus.

              I’m afraid I don’t accept the “purist” view of science research in this set of circumstances. The arrogance and inhumanity is totally unacceptable (to me). And, hopefully, all the true scientists who visit this site.

              Science is not inhumane. When empirical evidence exists of efficacy, science has an obligation to roll it out. Not back off until the proof is inarguable. Human beings are not lab rats.

              Sorry. But that’s how I think most thinking people feel. 🙂

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              • #
                Roy Hogue

                Forgive my 2 cents worth of hot air but science is neither humane nor inhumane, it’s neither honest nor dishonest. Scientists can be those things and have been many times throughout history since Aristotle began thinking that actual observation of nature was better than guesswork.

                Science is just a tool like the familiar wrench you use to change a tire. And like that wrench, science can be used correctly or abused. And it’s certainly misunderstood by many.

                Science as it exists today requires proof that you’re right, something not always easy to get. It can be complicated and messy to reach the truth…and time consuming. What do you do when time is lacking because people are dying? That’s not an easy question to answer and frankly the answer is more a matter of emotion than science. And if I were dying of some virus and because of my age the approved treatments don’t look too good, I would want to try hydroxychloroquine or any other cure that has some base of support from being tried.

                Nearly all diagnoses by a physician, especially in emergency rooms are matters of opinion based on observation of the patient and any available information about the patient and his complaint…and physician experience. An opinion is not fact, it’s not proof, it’s just a starting place for investigating what’s really wrong with he patient.

                You are right in that just because I’m sick, you give me X cure and I get better does not prove that I’m cured by x. I might have recovered on my own. After all, the human body has remarkable ability to beat infection and go on living.

                The difference between a clinical diagnosis and a diagnosis based on real investigation of the problem can be as wide as the Grand Canyon.

                These are things I have personally had to learn the hard way in just the recent past. The doctor is not always right, not always honest, not always capable and sometimes downright malicious. And we must put ourselves in the hands of human doctors with all our human frailties when sick or injured. Good luck! Thankfully most are honest and capable. But sometimes you must make a wild assed guess and go with it.

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              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Yes Roy. Well said.

                However, it’s far better if that “wild assed guess” of yours is based on empirical data from a number of different sources, published in respected, professional journals and trialled by medical professionals who have the interest of their patients at heart. Which is the case here with HCQ, Zn and Azithromycin.

                In the wash, it may not be as good as hoped. Nevertheless, little harm will have been done, since the side effects are very well understood by the medical profession.

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              • #

                Sam,

                I don’t want to beat this to death so let me just say I think you’re right all the way regarding the way we should do things. But something about strict following of the rules bothers me when an alternative treatment is getting some actual support from trying it, anecdotal though that support may be. And sometimes time does not permit publication in medical journals.

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              • #

                Whatever effect the zn Chloroquine combo has will likely be the same in a mutated virus. The Zn effect works on our own polymerases that the virus needs. They will be the same and it’s unlikely the virus will mutate to get around that. Unless some biolab adds a new gene to it…

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              • #
                TedM

                Well said Sam and Roy. I don’t think anyone could have said it better.

                10

            • #
              Sceptical Sam

              1. Yes I read the report.

              Can you post the link, please.

              I’ve not been able to locate the report.

              30

        • #
          David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

          Peter,
          You’ve not included zinc in your comment. To my reading, zinc is the critical ingredient which actually kills the virus. The Hydroxychloroquine opens up the wall of the cell nucleus to let the zinc inside. Without the zinc supplement the value of the Hcq is dependent on the availability of dietary zinc within the patient’s system. That is often insufficient.
          Did the studies you refer to include zinc?
          Cheers
          Dave B

          50

          • #
            Bill In Oz

            So does Potassium David

            20

          • #
            Lank

            Silver is much more effective than zinc in breaking down the virus cell wall.

            20

          • #
            David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

            Thanks Bill and Lank. I didn’t know about potassium and silver in this context, but nor have I seen them mentioned in relation to CoVid-19 trials. Have I missed something? Do you have any suggestions for possible use in destroying this virus?
            I have seen a suggestion that the combination of vitamin C and zinc might work.
            Cheers
            Dave B

            40

            • #
              Lank

              The Chinese have been working on silver medical treatments for quite some time and I suspect that they have used it successfully for Covid19. Here is a link to a draft 2014 research paper by a team of Chinese scientists. Scan down…. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260194209_Inhibitory_effect_of_silver_nanomaterials_on_transmissible_virus-induced_host_cell_infections
              Unfortunately colloidal silver has a bad reputation in the west because it is promoted and sold as a cure-all by untrained good-doers. When prepared and applied appropriately it can be used to treat most bacteria and many vitus types like Coronavirus.

              40

              • #
                Bill In Oz

                Decades ago a friend who worked with livestock
                Used colloidal silver to stop bacterial & viral diseases in her livestock.
                We mammals are not that different at that level.
                I know some folk have used it successfully
                To throw off the effects of the mosquito spread Barmah Forest virus
                But of course there are no patents on colloidal silver.
                So there are no vast profits in it for pharmaceutical companies.

                20

              • #
                Lank

                There seems to be negligible research into silver nanoparticles as a treatment for Coronavirus outside of China and a huge press campaign/pushback against silver treatments because of the recent commercialisation of many bogus silver colloid medicines as a cure all.
                Because silver nanomaterials, when prepared and applied correctly, attack and breakdown the microbe wall they will likely be effective for subsequent mutations of Coronavirus.
                Why on earth are our researchers not at least trialing silver nanomaterials as treatments?

                40

    • #
      WXcycles

      Good grief, ridiculous POV. If someone gets it wrong by actions or misfortunes that’s not actually a rationale or signal to throw in the towel and fail as well. It’s more reason to make sure we do better so we can help them when and where we can.

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      • #
        WXcycles

        That changes nothing, if and when it mutates you isolate it, and it falls apart. The END.

        It can mutate all it wants but if we isolate the mutation as a mater of course (and we will), we still win, and in the same time frame. And as if we were not expecting mutations on a weekly basis already. Mutations change the course and end result not one bit.

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    • #
      Alfred

      There is a fundamental misunderstanding about “Herd Immunity”. Like in all networked systems – such as human society – some nodes are more busy than others.

      A person such as Tom Hanks gets invited to more “jollies” in a week than I do in a decade. That means that his chance of getting infected through breathing or handshaking is vastly higher than mine. When he gets infected, he can pass it on to far more people in a month than I could in a lifetime. Once the active “nodes” become either resistant or die, they cease being a bridge for the infection and the disease stops spreading.

      The point I am getting at is that if 15% of the people in a town in Germany have anti-bodies, the infection will stop. This is because these 15% compose the most socially active members of the community. They will be the insulator that will protect the less extrovert people.

      A good analogy is the internet where there are a vast number of websites that get hardly any visits and a much smaller number that get 80% of the traffic. Tom Hanks is like FT.com or something like that. Donald Trump is more like Yahoo.com. To prevent the internet from working satisfactorily (i.e. pass on infections), it suffices to shut down Google.com and a handful of others.

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  • #
    JanEarth

    The big issue I have with the WHO is that Taiwan is not a member. That is also my issue with the UN. As you will have figured out I hate the Chinese Communist Party with a passion and that is nothing to do with the Chinese people who are hard working people with similar aspirations to us.

    If Trump made that the central issue then I could say yeah well done. Whatever the ensuing diplomatic row is going to be interesting to say the least.

    I would really appreciate it if OzGov did the same but that will never happen…They are frightened of the CCP for very good reasons.

    Off to the Global Times to see what the CCP has to say…

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    • #
      PeterS

      Taiwan from China’s point of view is a member because China considers Taiwan as part of China. Of course it’s not true but tell that to anyone in the Chinese leadership and the WHO. You would get smacked down hard or cut off during the conversation. Make no mistake about it, communism is a disease and it must be treated as such. The problem of course is the ABC is on their side and yet we can’t even do anything about that. Go figure.

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    • #
      Raving

      Booting Taiwan out of WHO is pure political arm twisting. No place for that sort of thing in an organization giving guidance to pandemics.

      Was impressed by the way Aylward handled the issue in the HK interview. He angrily and very deliberatly ignored it in totality, refusing to even acknowledge the absurd sanction

      019

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        Aylward when asked what he thought of taiwan’s handling of this infectious disease
        Didn’t ‘hear’ the question
        And then hung up !
        Bugger Aylward..He’s a political dumbnut !

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      • #
        TdeF

        I hope you are being paid for this. I would chekck.

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    • #
      toorightmate

      Israel is also in the WHO black book.

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  • #
    george1st:)

    On Sky today a commentator was saying the Chinese would not let the WHO staff into Wuahan to identify any problem .
    He says its China’s fault , nothing to do with the WHO .
    How many ways can u look at a statement like that ?
    And China clears the Who .
    and the WHO blames EU and USA .
    Politicians and Bureaus at their best , look after themselves first and foremost and stuff the rest of the world .
    Trump is the Worlds Commander in Chief .
    He does what he thinks and knows is right .

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    • #
      tonyb

      The WHO is Chinas stooge, being run by their placeman from one of their client states. The previous head of the WHO for a decade was Chinese.

      200

  • #
    Bill In Oz

    The ABC says that Australia contributes 0.75% of the WAO’s $7.5 billion each year.
    Morrison was complaining about the WAO the other day
    For being slow, political & incompetent.
    I wonder of he will stop that 0.75 % contribution ?
    I certainly hope so !

    81

  • #
    Raving

    Fair enough to consider bashing the WHO for it’s lousy performance.

    Consider too the cruddy performance of advanced and democratic first world countries. Fact based decision making is having a crisis

    017

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      They ALL listened to the incompetent & china focussed WAO !
      Remember WAO said . do not introduce travel bans !
      Big mistake !
      And now they are suffering as a result.
      It’s the WAO which is CRUDDY !

      51

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      They ALL listened to the incompetent & china focussed WAO !
      Remember WAO said . do not introduce travel bans !
      Big mistake !
      And now they are suffering as a result.
      It’s the WAO which is CRUDDY !

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      • #
        DOC

        What gets up my nose is, China had been handling the outbreak since December, or earlier.
        It was bad enough for China to have its nationals and expatriates to strip the shelves of
        other nations of masks, gloves, PPE and whatever else, to send to China. China spent so much
        time in denial that it had a problem, even as it was all for keeping international travel
        open that sent its citizens around the world, and it, along with its puppet, the WHO, decried Trump closing the US to its aircraft, abusing it via US media puppets, as being racist (that now meaningless terminology for anything).

        If I wanted to spread contagion, I would have acted in exactly the same way. Having played that
        game to its limit, China can now pretend to be the universal friend of the world as it views
        with satisfaction the huge destruction of world wealth and freedoms from what it has sowed.

        Its problem is going to come from this destruction. The wealth it has manufactured is going to be
        hit from three directions. One from loss of demand for those products. Second, from withdrawal
        of western companies to alternative nations willing to provide the same cheapness of
        manufacture without the power to threaten. Third, it will create unrest in its own population which is the biggest thing feared by Xi.

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        • #
          TdeF

          And the denial means guilt, a cover up. All to save face regardless of how many lives it costs in China and everywhere else. President Xi must go if China is to even begin to undo the damage to its image around the world. This is at least the fourth lethal virus out of Wuhan. At what point does the Chinese government take responsibility for its actions?

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    • #
      Raving

      Y’all are so blinded by hatred of anything ‘global warming’ that you cannot hear a pin dropping …

      Fact based decision making is having a crisis

      028

      • #
        Analitik

        And what country has done better than the guidelines set by the WHO in your opinion?

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      • #
        DOC

        I tend to listen with my ears. I use my eyes to read what you write here.

        I don’t actually hate global warming; I think that overall it is a positive. Feeds so many!

        What I don’t like is a con job trying to force me to believe carbon dioxide is the cause. That’s unproven and has never happened in known geological history. You would have me believe that in anywhere between 100 and 1000 years hence (when we and maybe many generations are all dead, added to that CO2) the average temperature will be forced up, by said CO2, by 1.5-3C. Like we control an airconditioner?

        Prove the basis of your beloved theory and I will defend it to the death.

        Have you realised yet, whether the world av, temp rises or falls, and all the overhyped changes you see reported to try to garnish the lack of a proven basis for the CO2 tale, are totally meaningless. Until you have the proof of theory, all those changes can be explained by known atmospheric sciences ie they are ‘natural’ until proven otherwise. See, in science, its not up to anyone to prove the contrarian argument. In science it’s up to the scientist to prove the theory. You and everyone else know that, but with Anthropogenic Global Warming ie ‘man made’ as against common old global warming, you
        try to get away from actually proving your theory. In fact, imo, that’s attempted scientific fraud, on a global basis (or just UN and EU???)! (‘you’ I use generally not specific to you)

        Now, I see that as the logical course of thought process. I don’t need a bevy of well paid scientists employed to prove or push a con job theory – which it is until proven – to waste time helping some international body force an opinion down my throat to destroy my nation’s economy on the basis I must believe them. I have a limited but existent basis of stats and science to look at what I am told, and I can read (as can most people, but they can’t be bothered)to make up my own mind on how the land lies. When the best you can do is toss inane, over-the-top unreproducible prophecies using data distorted prior to putting into computer programs that have failed on every forecast, then, I don’t believe you. Sorry about that!

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      • #
        sophocles

        Silly statement.

        61

        • #
          sophocles

          Just in case you’re wondering DOC, my comment 10.3.3 is
          aimed at Raving @ 10.3.

          60

          • #
            DOC

            Thanks Sophocles. I should have addressed ‘Raving’ to be clear.
            However, feel free. It’s a give and take sort of world in blogs.

            20

      • #
    • #
      Alessandro

      Maybe you should go and live in China or maybe you already do.

      20

    • #
      sophocles

      Y’all are so blinded by hatred of anything ‘global warming’ that you cannot hear a pin dropping …

      Fact based decision making is having a crisis

      Oh?
      And you — after the fact — can do better?

      I have seen lines and lines of relatively silly opinion, goose-gabble like the above, emanate from you, Raving, but so far, very few solid, reliable facts. If any.

      Faugh.

      20

  • #
    DOC

    We talk of the march of the left through the institutions, but think we are only
    talking nationally. The fact is, the non-western governments learned early as well
    and have marched through the international institutions the same way. This, from a
    western perspective, is what has destroyed their value. It’s no longer a matter of
    helping out the poorer parts of the world. It’s a matter of nations looking to extend
    their own power over the rest, undermining where they can undermine and getting away with it
    because the western world finds it easier to bend from its own values than to fight any longer
    for their preservation. The cancer is even spread through our own media on many fronts.

    From the point of value, imo, you can bundle the UN, the WHO,the Human Rights Commissions, the EU Commission in the same bin. Where the former values of assisting poor nations in health, education, agriculture, nutrition and water is preserved, then preserve that function in a new international organisation alnog with the ability to debate world crises. The rest is western wealth destroying rubbish and needs to get tossed.

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    • #

      Amen! You’re right on the money again.

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    • #
      Slithers

      The Almighty Dollar, (not necessarily the US one) has become the driving force for most people and significantly for most governments. I think the CCP has different values, POWER.
      The true currency of human society is TRUST.
      How much trust do these Chinese infiltrated organization’s have left?
      I for one have always had poor trust in ‘Made in China’ goods for many years. This pandemic will cause many millions of people to do the same.
      How can you trust a government minister who does exactly the opposite to that which his government is advocating for all citizens?
      The times they are a changing!

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      • #

        You have that right, trust or distrust really drives what people do. If you put your trust foolishly where you shouldn’t, you get hurt.

        Donald Trump put the life back in the American economy, not by wasting stimulus money but by the simple move of restoring trust that if you do business here you won’t be strangled by regulation and be taxed to death. It happened overnight, an amazingly fast turnaround.

        Which of us, after earning our paycheck by doing a good job, by hard work (and I worked pretty hard) does not want to keep what’s in his pay envelope on payday? I wanted to keep all of it if I could. Business wants the same thing. I avoid paying every dollar of tax that I can and business does the same thing for the same reason. We’re all in business to make money, period. Even the employee is in the business of selling his labor and should sell it to the highest bidder available.

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  • #

    So much for another grandiose consortium of nations. Remind you of at least one other grand idea, say…maybe the UN human rights commission with North Korea in charge? Remind you of the UN itself?

    Why do we create these monsters in the first place? There is a big difference between an idea on paper and making it work in reality. The United States seems willing to believe it should put itself in the hands of the rest of the world. If you aren’t the top dog on the block you get eaten by the top dog. Right now China is the top dog.

    These organizations are always going to fail us. When will we learn?

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    • #

      I think Donald Trump has realized or at least has begun to realize the folly of being at the mercy of the rest of the world.

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      • #
        farmerbraun

        And that is why Donald Trump is very very dangerous . The 5 a.m. news here informed me of this , in the item where Warren has now endorsed Biden.
        It seems that only assassination can now stop this very dangerous man ; that was what I took from it.
        Putting his name on the IRS cheques being sent out has seen the gloves come off.
        How dare he.
        I think you are getting into a very dangerous place now in the U.S.
        I’d love to be wrong.

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        • #
          Kalm Keith

          Earlier this morning I came to this comment and it brought back memories of a flight that my wife and I were on.

          Two adjacent passengers were engaged in a weird style of conversation, sound bites, that were hyper, histrionic and disconnected. Voices obviously from the U.S.

          What triggered that memory was the image of Elizabeth Warren in Farmer’s post.
          Over the last few years I’ve watched very little TV, mostly while on holidays, and am amazed at the content: have seen Elizabeth and others performing for the cameras.

          Looking up the string of comments brought me to this;
          http://joannenova.com.au/2020/04/trump-stops-funds-to-the-who-because-it-only-has-one-major-job-and-it-failed/#comment-2311600

          My everlasting thanks Raving for having initiated the cascade of comments below.

          Thanks for the brilliant contributions:
          Doc.
          Roy.
          Slithers.

          Going further up there are great exchanges, PC and SS and many others that examine important points well.

          The main thing is this, Jo has created a brilliant blog and this particular thread illustrates what true journalism should be.

          The media is wrecked: whether printed or electronic, it’s little more than a tool for the elite to use in directing the masses.

          This upheaval in the world may have an upside if it can empower our politicians to examine world bodies that have become dysfunctional sewers and get out of them.

          EEU, stuffed. UNIPCCC, no point. U.N. the Balkan crisis?

          WHO: What Health Organisation?
          It’s got nothing to do with health.

          Exit All and give the money saved to support and develop Australian farming.

          KK

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    • #
      The Depraved and MOST Deplorable Vlad the Impaler

      “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.”

      — unknown

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  • #
    tonyb

    The current leader of the WHO is simply unqualified for the job, but the west stood aside to let a former official of the Ethiopian Marxist Leninist revolutionary party -a country heavily in debt to China-be placed at the head of this important organisation. The previous head for a decade was Chinese.

    The WHO, like the UN and the EU need huge reorganisation in order to function properly and there are numerous organisations within organisations-such as the UN’s IPCC- that also need action-preferably disbanding.

    Hopefully the West will see that it is in danger of being undermined and replaced by a system headed by the Chinese that is the very antithesis of what the West has striven for since Ancient Greece

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    • #
      Raving

      so a technocrat is suitable for the job?
      How about a scientist, diplomat or politician. Would they be better suited as spokesman and/or manager?
      Maybe an actor or Nobel prize winner would do better

      I used to believe a physician or technocrat was best suited for heading up the WHO. Now I am not sure. The person needs to be some effective combination of figurehead, spokesman and manager. Its a job for the head of a team

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  • #
    Another Ian

    “UN announces new PR unit “to flood the internet with facts and science” ”

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/04/un-announces-new-pr-unit-to-flood-the-internet-with-facts-and-science-.html

    I’d guess that Trump won’t be funding that either

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  • #
    RickWill

    Australia might also get a backbone and stop paying WHO:
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8219731/How-Australia-donates-World-Health-Organisation.html

    WHO do they think they are? How Australia’s $63MILLION yearly spend on the World Health Organisation is almost TWICE as much as China’s – but they spend their time sucking up to the Communist regime

    Australian taxpayers have donated vastly more money to the World Health Organisation (WHO) than China according to financial documents – even though WHO appears to be in the Communist nation’s pocket.

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under pressure from his own MPs to slash funding to the UN agency after US President Donald Trump announced he would stop funding WHO over its bungled coronavirus response.

    Federal Cabinet ministers on Wednesday were shocked that, in a further sign of submission, WHO signed off on China re-opening its ‘wet markets’ where COVID-19 is believed to have first transmitted from bats to humans.

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    • #
      PeterS

      PM Morrison never really had a backbone. Look at his mantra over reducing emissions. So don’t expect him to stop funding the WHO. It would be a surprise if he did, and he should.

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        You just might have to eat those words PeterS.

        His backbone was demonstrated in spades when he stopped the boats. When he toughened the borders. When he reduced Labor’s Budget deficit. When he provided tax relief for families and small businesses. When he put in place an assistance package, like none ever before in the nation’s history, to help mitigate the adverse economic affects of COVID-19.

        42

        • #
          PeterS

          Then why doesn’t he grow a spine and stop funding both the ABC and the WHO? Otherwise your comparison is moot.

          42

        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          Of course he’s not going to defund their ABC. Your criticism and call to defund is so transparently mischievous as to be laughable.

          That’s just what the socialist/left Labor activists would like him to do. They know how to engender a political backlash.

          Their ABC needs to be dealt with. However, defunding is not a sensible strategy. The Australian population is starting to see how biased it is. How it lives in its own bubble. How it only employs lefties in “face-to-public positions” – especially interviewers.

          Nope. The answer to their ABC’s political bias is to give it more rope.

          Make it even more outrageous than it already is. Swamp the board with radical lefties. Lefties that are even more extreme than those there at the moment. Get more maddies onto the board. The out-and-out Communists. Fabians. Rabid socialists. Unionists of the radical genre. Left wing academics with a known traitorous relationship with Australia’s enemies – China’s Confucius Centres, Iran, PLO, Hamas, Cuba, Venezuela and so on. Nothing is too far out.

          Then let the country see it for what it becomes. The nation’ll be demanding it be reformed.

          11

  • #
    WXcycles

    The Guardian is still apologizing for the WHO – claiming lamely that it said the right things, but doesn’t have any power. They quoted Tedros on March 11 warning of ““alarming levels of inaction” from many countries. “.

    That was evident by the end of February, and WHO said nothing much until it was too late.

    China case and deaths data verses the rest of the World’s data

    https://i.ibb.co/56cjJb0/Case-and-Death-Curves-China-v-World.png

    The Guardian seems to never be on our side when it matters, even by chance.

    110

    • #
      PeterS

      The ABC too is siding with the WHO. However, there is as much chance of PM Morrison stop funding the WHO as stop funding the ABC. He is spineless.

      90

      • #
        WXcycles

        You’ve got to wonder why there’s no vision or recognition of the problem with the guy, he should have nailed the ABC in June after their antics earlier in the year. Not a sausage. Mal would be proud. Makes me wonder if the ABC maybe have a file of Scomo wearing lingerie, make-up and a boof.

        112

        • #
          PeterS

          He is showing a complete lack of ignorance of the seriousness of the situation with regards to how the ABC is treating him and the rest of us. If Trump were in his place how long do you think it would take for him to defund the ABC? 1 minute?

          100

          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            He is showing a complete lack of ignorance

            That’d be knowledge, understanding, perspicacity then?

            Yep. You got that right PeterS.

            42

  • #
    PeterS

    OT but couldn’t help it. Coronavirus hoarder tries to return $10,000 worth of goods to Adelaide supermarket but is given the finger. Wonderful!
    https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2020/04/14/947718969080331951/640x360_MP4_947718969080331951.mp4

    90

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      A wonderfull ‘finger’ from the Drakes Supermarket man !
      He deserves a promotion !

      60

      • #
        Ian Hill

        Where to Bill? He and his brother are co-owners of Drakes, Drake being his surname! 🙂

        30

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Touche Ian !
          Soooo he can’t get a promotion.
          But I hope that he does get lots more shoppers !
          🙂

          50

          • #
            sophocles

            He handled the “hoarder” well. I wonder how long the hoarder will not need any new rolls for? Two years? Five? Ten, perhaps?
            Heh.

            40

            • #
              PeterS

              He must have panicked big time at the start to have bought so much. So he should keep them for the next crisis if he had any sense. Perhaps he’s one of those who tried to profit from the situation. He admits he tried to sell the stuff elsewhere, such as eBay. Perhaps he was charging too much and had to recoup his costs by asking for a refund. If that’s the case he should be charged. All the police need to do is investigate how much he was charging when he tried to sell them.

              40

              • #
                Ian Hill

                Peter it was definitely a business venture. According to a different article I read the man had a team of twenty people to do the shopping at the time.

                50

              • #
                PeterS

                In that case his venture failed and he should cop it by selling his stuff at a loss in a liquidation sale.

                50

          • #
            Ian Hill

            Yes Bill, as the saying goes any publicity is good publicity but in this case Mr Drake is a genuine hero!

            40

            • #
              ianl

              Nope. Drake should have bought it all back at 5c in the $ that the bloke initially paid and then put it all back on the shelf at a discount. The bloke and his mates are embargoed from buying again.

              That way, the loser is the bloke at 95c in his $. The winners are the store owner, who gets to sell it twice, and the shoppers, who have sudden access to a pile of stuff at a discount.

              50

  • #
    TedM

    On another but still covid-19 related topic; 93% of the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt have been tested for covid-19, 15% (589) have tested positive one has died, one in ICU. Source Epoch Times.

    50

  • #
  • #
    Peter C

    I am going to add, Defunding of the WHO, to my “Achievements of Trump”.

    More Winning!

    170

    • #
      PeterS

      Too bad our PM Morrison doesn’t follow suit. He should add the ABC and Paris Agreement to the list. I wonder if we could get Trump to hold a loud hailer to Morrison’s ear and shout out “PULL YOUR FINGER OUT!”.

      111

    • #
      WXcycles

      I’m hoping he announces a full review of US funding of the UN and a State Dept inquiry to see if it serves US interests to continue within it or to withdraw NAFTA style, reform or we do something else that doesn’t include any of you.

      91

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        …to see if it serves US interests…

        I understand America first. However, the real test is to see if it serves the interests of the world.

        The answer is the same. But the moral/ethical position is so much more powerful.

        Thank goodness for President Trump; an independent thinking genius.

        62

        • #
          PeterS

          Yes President Trump is an independent thinking genius when compared to all the other leaders of the world, including ours. He even tried to promote world peace but was effectively given the finger by the respective leaders, and attacked by the MSM for daring to try for world peace. Given Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for his pathetic performance for world peace, Trump should get a dozen of them, but of course he won’t. We now know we have real enemies close to us, dare I say a fifth column?

          80

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Jo, if this all checks out, this is a bombshell…anyone else feel queasy reading this?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-department-cables-warned-safety-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/

    “Two years before the novel coronavirus pandemic upended the world, U.S. Embassy officials visited a Chinese research facility in the city of Wuhan several times and sent two official warnings back to Washington about inadequate safety at the lab, which was conducting risky studies on coronaviruses from bats. The cables have fueled discussions inside the U.S. government about whether this or another Wuhan lab was the source of the virus — even though conclusive proof has yet to emerge.

    “In January 2018, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing took the unusual step of repeatedly sending U.S. science diplomats to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which had in 2015 become China’s first laboratory to achieve the highest level of international bioresearch safety (known as BSL-4). WIV issued a news release in English about the last of these visits, which occurred on March 27, 2018. The U.S. delegation was led by Jamison Fouss, the consul general in Wuhan, and Rick Switzer, the embassy’s counselor of environment, science, technology and health. Last week, WIV erased that statement from its website, though it remains archived
    [snip]

    “”Most importantly,” the cable states, “the researchers also showed that various SARS-like coronaviruses can interact with ACE2, the human receptor identified for SARS-coronavirus. This finding strongly suggests that SARS-like coronaviruses from bats can be transmitted to humans to cause SARS-like diseases. From a public health perspective, this makes the continued surveillance of SARS-like coronaviruses in bats and study of the animal-human interface critical to future emerging coronavirus outbreak prediction and prevention.”

    ““The cable tells us that there have long been concerns about the possibility of the threat to public health that came from this lab’s research, if it was not being adequately conducted and protected,” he said.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211257/Wuhan-lab-performing-experiments-bats-coronavirus-caves.html

    “Wuhan lab was performing coronavirus experiments on bats from the caves where the disease is believed to have originated – with a £3m grant from the US

    “The laboratory at the centre of scrutiny over the pandemic has been carrying out research on bats from the cave which scientists believe is the original source of the devastating outbreak.

    “Documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday show the Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook coronavirus experiments on mammals captured more than 1,000 miles away in Yunnan – funded by a $3.7 million grant from the US government.

    “Sequencing of the Covid-19 genome has traced it to bats found in Yunnan’s caves.

    70

    • #
      PeterS

      It requires a thorough investigation to determine if it’s true or not, and the reasons why in either case.

      40

  • #
    Leo Morgan

    You could add to your collection of WHO failures, the WHO tweet of 14 January advising that Chinese authorities had found no evidence of human to human transmission.
    https://www.foxnews.com/world/world-health-organization-january-tweet-china-human-transmission-coronavirus

    80

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Bombshell 2

    US NIH appears, under Fauci, to have provided funding for Wuhan lab on corona virus…..

    Um…hang on….

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/revealed-national-institute-health-awarded-wuhan-lab-studied-bat-coronavirus-3-7-million-us-grant/

    “As early as 2018 US State Department officials warned about safety risks at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab on scientists conducting risky tests with the bat coronavirus.

    “US officials made several trips to the Wuhan laboratory.

    “Despite the warnings the US National Institute of Health (NIH) awarded a $3.7 million grant to the Wuhan lab studying the bat virus. This was after State Department warned about the risky tests going on in the lab.

    “And now we know that US officials took several trips to Wuhan and the NIH under Dr. Fauci gave the China Wuhan lab a nearly $4 million grant.

    70

    • #
      PeterS

      US officials? So is the left’s attempt to overthrow President Trump? Have they stooped that low? These and many more questions need a thorough examination. I smell a rat as well as a bat.

      40

  • #
    Ian of Brisbane

    Morrison never misses an opportunity to disappoint.

    62

  • #
    Ian of Brisbane

    Duplicate

    31

  • #
    Meglort

    Tedros tweeting that there was no human to human spread Jan 14, when they had been told this was in fact the case with evidence by Taiwan Dec 31. Then promulgating keeping the planes flying to the four compass points for another 2 months or more, suggests he should hang and his WHO accomplices. The Health of the World was simply not WHO’s concern. It has blood on its hands.

    “Is Scott Morrison afraid of the UN, afraid of China, or afraid of the ABC?”

    Probably all three, but also perhaps happy to turn a blind eye to the excesses of the CCP to lap further at their gravy train and that would mean further sycophancy to the incompetent and corrupt UN and their rotten appendages.

    80

  • #
    toorightmate

    The best way to confront graft and corruption is to turn off the tap.
    Let’s hope Trump keeps the tap turned off.

    90

    • #
      PeterS

      Agree. However, we should do likewise otherwise we are effectively siding with the WHO and Chinese Communist Party, and thumbing our noses at Trump, which are absurd and disgusting. Come on PM Morrison, pull your finger rout and do it. While you are at it start withdrawing from the Paris Agreement as Trump has done. It makes absolutely no sense now to stay with that nonsense agreement under the current circumstances anyway.

      90

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Uh oh….

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3760572/

    “Hydroxychloroquine cardiotoxicity presenting as a rapidly evolving biventricular cardiomyopathy: key diagnostic features and literature review
    Emer Joyce, Aurelie Fabre, and Niall Mahon

    “Cardiotoxicity is a rare but serious complication of hydroxychloroquine, a 4-aminoquinoline increasingly used in the treatment of rheumatological disorders. We describe typical clinical, echocardiographic, and histological features of this rare condition according to the currently available literature, illustrated with a recent new biopsy-proven case of hydroxychloroquine cardiotoxicity in a 52-year-old female with rheumatoid arthritis.

    “Presentation in this case was of a rapidly progressive decompensated biventricular cardiomyopathy associated with recurrent biomarker elevations, conduction system disease, and possibly neuromyotoxicity.

    “Death occurred suddenly 2 months after diagnosis despite drug discontinuation and clinical improvement. The potential role of cardiac magnetic resonance delayed gadolinium enhancement imaging in the prognosis of this toxic cardiomyopathy is also introduced. This case-based literature review highlights that, although rare, hydroxychloroquine cardiotoxicity can be fatal, particularly if irreversible histopathological changes have occurred prior to drug discontinuation.

    “Given this, regular screening with 12-lead electrocardiography and transthoracic echocardiography to detect conduction system disease and/or biventricular morphological or functional changes should be considered in hydroxychloroquine-treated patients in addition to recommended ophthalmological screening.

    20

  • #
    george1st:)

    Blame game will go on forever , he said , she said .
    The responsibilty at this point in time is non essential , we all know or think what we believe .
    Now it is a matter of dealing with the circumstances and reducing the consequences , economic,health and social .
    Emphasis on social **
    The economic or health problems could create far worse and greater social problems in the days,weeks,months, who knows time to come .
    We need a Churchill atm to fight them on the beaches and instil a will to beat this together despite the personal problems .

    30

    • #
      PeterS

      Yes that’s true. What is done is done. We need a recovery plan very soon if not now, not in 6 months by which time we would be in a severe depression. They better be working on it day and night right now. This is no joking matter. Our economies are in a collapsing mode and they need fixing not just life support.

      40

    • #
      PeterS

      A “Churchill” would most likely do these things right now.
      1. Start procedures to get out of the Paris Agreement.
      2. Scrap all emission reduction projects and plans.
      3. Build dams for people and agriculture.
      4. Build coal fired power stations for people, industries and agriculture.
      5. Remove the restriction on nuclear power.
      6. Remove the restrictions on developing/building nuclear powered vessels and weapons.
      7. Defund the ABC until they get their act together.
      8. Stop kowtowing to the Communist Party of China (or as some would prefer to say the Chinese Communist Party).

      and many more.

      100

      • #
        AndyG55

        “Defund the ABC until they get their act together.”

        I see no need for a nationally funded broadcaster at all.

        Maybe some subsidised broadcasting to the bush.

        120

        • #
          PeterS

          Yes that’s a better idea. We have enough news media outlets via the internet anyway.

          50

        • #
          Graeme#4

          Public broadcasting in the U.S. and Canada is funded by public subscriptions. There is no reason why Australia couldn’t do the same.

          41

          • #
            RicDre

            “Public broadcasting in the U.S. and Canada is funded by public subscriptions.”

            That is mostly true in the U.S. but PBS (TV) and NPR (Radio) do get some Government funding which they claim they don’t need but will squeal like a stuck pig if a politician tries to remove the Government funding.

            40

        • #
          Greg Cavanagh

          Technology changes through the ages. It won’t be long now and the old public broadcast model will be well and truly past its use-by date.

          There is no need to publicly fund anything like this anymore. The original purpose has long since been defunct. And soon enough the entire technology will be obsolete.

          51

  • #
    Crakar24

    Watching abc right now and the dippy blonde had a shot at trump, its constant, its blatant and its very unprofessional and our useless PM sits there and condones it by his silence

    80

  • #
    Ruairi

    Donald tightens the strings of his purse,
    In fighting the world COVID curse,
    Claiming W.H.O helped it spread,
    Leaving thousands more dead,
    Thus making this pandemic worse.

    151

  • #
    JanEarth

    I do have issues with fighting the WHO during a pandemic… This has given me reason to think carefully about this and as a result I will not be signing this petition. I have come to the conclusion that Taiwan does not need the WHO but they do need to be brought into the UN. They need to be recognised as an independent Nation and control their own destiny.

    Once this is over then a petition should be set up to recognise Taiwan in the UN. This should happen for two reasons 1) To send a clear message to the CCP that any attempt to invade Taiwan will be a declaration of war thereby effectively drawing a clear line in the sand and 2) provide security for the brave people of Taiwan who have been steadfast in their opposition to a cruel and ruthless regime. An added effect would be to cause loss of face to the CCP which would weaken the regime in the eyes of its oppressed people.

    We need to be properly prepared for what China will do to us…they are capable of providing a world of hurt to Australia without even firing a shot…we need to be ready unlike the way we were so ill prepared for this pandemic.

    I have been reading about Taiwan’s response to this. After SARS they had set up a trained task force and built a command centre and also developed a national plan to deal with the next pandemic to come from China which they knew would happen. They were actively testing every plane from Wuhan in late December , the minute they realised what was happening. They spent a lot of money and effort to make sure they were prepared. They carefully tested and were diligent in contact tracing. They used IT intelligently so they could easily track active cases. No concerns about privacy there they did what they had to do. They did not belly ache about the wet markets but instead prepared themselves for the inevitable. They were so prepared for this that they did not even have to lockdown…for all intents and purposes life in Taiwan went on as before.

    This is what Australia needs to do after this is over. If we don’t we are doomed to go through this all again. China will not close it’s wet markets no matter how much we complain. Another virus will come from there to sweep the world. The threat can also come from anywhere in the world so for us to become pandemic ready is the only sensible thing to do. It needs to be a national priority. We can’t be caught in the situation where are only response is to clobber our economy with another panic driven lockdown. Unfortunately because of our slack preparation a damaging lock down was our only choice.

    We are pretty pathetic in planning for national disasters as our poor response to the bushfires prove. I for one just can’t figure out why we are so short sighted. I hope this changes. “She’ll be right mate” should disappear from our vernacular.

    71

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Jan Daning tango means I have many friends in many countries – including Taiwan.
      My Taiwanese friend lived here in Oz till January whne she went home to care for her mum in this crisis.
      Taiwan acted early and stopped this pandemic, true.
      But it had lockdowns as well in it’s big cities the same as here.
      Bill

      20

      • #
        JanEarth

        Bill

        Thanks for that info… I must however put that in the useful anecdote category. I am being misled perhaps by information like this

        As you can see the headline implies that there was no lockdown in Taiwan but there is scant evidence in the guts of the article… I am left with the conclusion that Taiwan did lock down light rather than our lock down tight and this article backs that up Note it states that

        Taiwan, despite being just 100 miles from mainland China with regular flights to and from Wuhan, has successfully staved off the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. The country has so far seen five deaths and just under 350 confirmed cases, and most schools and businesses remain open.

        There is further evidence that Taiwan did not lock down in the same sense we did and now their economy is going along at it’s usual pace. This only strengthen my thoughts that Australia needs to be well prepared for the next one.

        Cheers and Be safe

        30

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          The Taiwanese acted early. In fact they had an infectious diseases team visit Wuhan in early January.
          They also checked all travellers from China for fever from mid Jan.
          There was some community transmission in Taiwan
          Started by Chinese from asymptomatic carriers who flew in to Taiwan.
          Localised lock downs followed.
          But not nation wide,
          The other major difference is that all this happened with out any of the force deployed in China !

          20

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Jan
      Dancing tango means I have many friends in many countries – including Taiwan.
      My Taiwanese friend lived here in Oz till January whne she went home to care for her mum in this crisis.
      Taiwan acted early and stopped this pandemic, true.
      But it had lockdowns as well in it’s big cities the same as here.
      Bill

      10

    • #
      WXcycles

      China will not close it’s wet markets no matter how much we complain. Another virus will come from there to sweep the world.

      But down the page you are saying it was accidental release from a Lab.

      And as far as wet-markets go, they’re claiming it was from a seafood market, i.e. no bats, just fishy stuff, so clearly not the source of bat virus.

      40

  • #
    Alfred

    The WHO is being sponsored by Bill Gates. Any such institution should never receive sponsorship from private individuals or their fake “charities”

    I draw your attention to the fact that Bill Gates has advocated a reduction in the world’s population – as has his father. He also sponsored various “Global Warming” initiatives that were actually subterfuges for bringing about the collapse of the modern society. Look it up.


    Meet the world’s most powerful doctor: Bill Gates

    The software mogul’s sway over the World Health Organization spurs criticism about misplaced priorities and undue influence.

    Bill Gates is no doctor, no virologist, no epidemiologist. He is a megalomaniac. No more and no less.

    111

    • #
      PeterS

      Well if Bill Gates wants to reduce the world’s population then why is he advising everyone should be vaccinated? Doesn’t anyone see the contradiction? Either he is so naive he doesn’t see it or he has an evil agenda in mind. Take your pick. I suspect it’s a bit of both.

      50

  • #
    brian jones

    In case you haven’t noticed the US is effectively bankrupt and cannot & will not continue
    to fund organizations they don’t control. If the rest of the world thinks the WHO is the geatest
    thing since sliced bread then they should fund it. Most of what the UN does is laughable like having
    the human rights tribunal led by the Chinese.

    102

    • #
      PeterS

      Most of us here have come to those conclusions a long time ago. It’s taken a pandemic to allow Trump to act accordingly. We no longer should kowtow to the communists. They started it by refusing to accept Trump’s attempts for world peace via the Northern Korean visitations. China should have made North Korea follow through with Trump’s attempts to have a peaceful coexistence. Now that China by proxy have given Trump the finger it’s time to give them the finger back to the Communist Party of China. They will always have the opportunity to say sorry and retract their finger but of course that’s highly unlikely given their stubbornness.

      20

    • #
      RickWill

      US is effectively bankrupt and cannot & will not continue to fund

      The US is not effectively bankrupt. They create the global currency. The country cannot go broke unless the world accepts a new currency and that is a long way off despite UN efforts to promote SDRs as a international currency that they would administer through a global reserve bank. Any organisation that has authority to create money has extensive power. They could create their own army to underpin their authority.

      The UN seeks out every opportunity to provide an independent income stream so they do not have to beg annually for more funding. In 1999 UN proposed an email tax. I guess they saw emails as a rapidly growing means of contact and taking a fraction of a cent for each email would soon mount up; easy to monitor and easy to tax. The IPCC Climate Fund is another UN initiative to get their hands on an income stream so they can wield their authority over nations. Trump can make career administrators very nervous.

      71

      • #
        PeterS

        They can go broke once they the world loses confidence in the US. Not there yet by a long shot. The worry will be what happens after Trump finishes his second term. No one is even on the horizon who is good enough to fill his shoes. It would be nice if Trump could find a way to circumvent the constitution and keep going for the Presidency at future elections indefinitely. I’m almost sure he would still win at least two more elections. Alas I don’t think there’s much hope of him finding a away around the 2-term limit. Oh well, best of luck US in about 4+ years. I hope you find someone even half as good as Trump.

        20

        • #
          WXcycles

          The current vice president is a capable replacement IMO.

          40

          • #
            PeterS

            What little I know of him I tend to agree. Let’s hope so because all the candidates on the other side are a complete waste of space.

            00

  • #
    Edwina

    The UN founded in 1944 doesn’t resemble the UN of 2020. Too many small undemocratic nations have been added with equal voting rights. Most are Communist, Middle Eastern or plain dictatorships. A new UN consisting of democracies should be formed.

    120

    • #
      TdeF

      When teenager Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations on Climate Change, you knew that it had become a completely fake populist organization for overpaid retired world tripping, party going politicians on great salaries with a New York party life. A reward for opportunists and Foreign Ministers to live the millionaire lifestyle without accountability.

      The only real power is in the Security Council which still functions as a forum for nuclear nations. The rest is another world government run by countries which do not matter, 75% of which are military dictatorships. The IPCC is fake and now the WHO is fake in that the truth is secondary to the political ambitions of the member states.

      The simplest and best move would be to make the WHO and WMO completely independent of the UN. Putting more and more power in the hands of the UN is self defeating. Organizations can become political anyway, run by politically correct opportunists but not all the time. Inside the UN they metastasize into permanently useless.

      And Trump is right. I would fire the lot of them too, just based on job performance. With the internet, the whole concept of a world body is unnecesssary.

      All that is needed is a way to communicate and coordinate. Not buildings full of administrators and run by career politicians who travel the world. The IPCC’s Railway Engineer Pacauri travelled 360,000 km a year. In an internet world, why? The very idea of the UN/WHO/EU/IMF meetings like COP26 Glasgow are not only extraordinarily costly and self defeating and utterly hyporcritical, they are completely unnecessary useless junkets.

      150

      • #
        PeterS

        Well said.

        60

      • #
        PeterS

        Also, there are really good videoconferencing facilities that make you feel everyone is in the one place. They should use them all the time. Albeit they are expensive they are far cheaper than having all those buildings and the cost of travelling and accommodation.

        60

      • #
        RickWill

        The UN egomaniacal administrators will be frantically pressing to get their Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 funding compact signed off. The whole thing is aimed at increasing the authority of the UN over sovereign nations and locking in long term funding agreement. All significantly higher than at present.

        Trump is a clear and present danger to the cushy life of UN administrators. We can only hope he gets a second term to keep them on their toes and maybe take a few kneecaps.

        The UN is a drain on the global economy. The organisation commands vast resources and produces little value; in fact vast negative value in some cases. The CV19 disaster beyond china can be placed clear at their feet. The IPCC agenda is a constant drain on all developed countries.

        110

  • #
    el gordo

    ‘Liberal MP Dave Sharma, a former senior diplomat, said Australia and other countries should undertake a global review into the World Health Organisation.’ SMH

    60

    • #
      PeterS

      What’s the point? The termites have gained control. Scrap it and start again.

      70

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Any UN body is about establishing a global strait jacket on the global population.

        If you look at it through that simple reality, every single UN body and the UN itself needs to be abolished. .

        40

        • #
          PeterS

          Agree. I suspect Trump would agree too. Rudd, Turnbull, Gillard and all the other despots we managed to cultivate of course would disagree. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see Trump, us two and many others here are on the good side and the others are on the evil side.

          20

  • #
    RicDre

    Update:

    White House doubles down on WHO funding cutoff, details coronavirus ‘mismanagement’

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-doubles-down-on-who-funding-cutoff-details-coronavirus-mismanagement

    50

  • #
    RicDre

    Also on a related topic:

    Sacramento Bee: Elon Musk’s Plan Is ‘Move Fast and Fake Things’

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/04/15/sacramento-bee-elon-musk-plan-is-most-fast-and-fake-things/

    50

  • #
    RicDre

    WHO is not the only one spreading Chinese propaganda about the coronavirus:

    CNN updates article after being accused of publishing ‘Chinese propaganda’

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-article-accused-publishing-chinese-propaganda-military-coronavirus-response

    80

    • #
      PeterS

      Nice to see the left scurry away like cockroaches when light is finally placed on them. More please. Cockroaches need to be eradicated from our society. That includes the ABC here.

      80

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    I notice they have switched tactics now for a more softer “do the right thing, Mom” approach…..targetting the women…again….notice the vantage point its written from.

    Using classic FUD – “But Mom…how will you protect your children….will you do the “right” thing?”

    Very sneaky….its a form of abuse of womens trust.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-16/coronavirus-tracing-app-should-i-download-it/12151324

    “At 5:30am yesterday my seven-year-old son and I took our golden retriever for a 5 kilometre stroll. While shivering, we passed runners, walkers and fellow pet lovers.

    “We’ve no way to know if any were infected with COVID-19, which is why we’re walking so early and maintaining our social distancing.

    “Sometime in the next couple of weeks the Federal Government is going roll out a new phone app to trace COVID-19 victims’ movements before they show symptoms.

    “The Federal Government wants to drastically improve its ability to trace those who are infected, and who they’ve been in contact with.

    “This contact tracing ability will provide the Government with a means to prevent and trace clusters of infection. It’s amazing how the language of virology and pandemics has become increasingly part of our daily language.

    “All Australians are going to be asked to download and use the app: The Government needs about 40 per cent of us to participate to make this system work.

    “So, will you download the app?

    >>>> “What did you do in the war, Mummy?”

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    • #
      MudCrab

      So the government wants us to download an app that helps them track us?

      They expect us to volunteer our locations and habits for ‘The Greater Good’. Bet these same Government types would cry blue murder if we tried to implement a system that could be used to track their movements within Parliament House.

      What bemuses me greatly is how deeply people claim that Big Brother is the ultimate evil and how we must NEVER surrender our freedoms, then willingly download, upload, like share and subscribe their entire life on social media.

      60

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        Well it’s voluntary Mudcrab.
        I doubt many pollies would volunteer !

        30

      • #
        WXcycles

        Like they can’t use TELCO data to locate us via triangulation with real time logging without such an app already. They just want to make it precise with GPS to sub 5 meter level plus the elevation so they can tell what room we are in. To hell with that.

        60

        • #
          robert rosicka

          WXcycles I’m ok with the idea of tracking but I have a few if’s !

          If tracking is only used for covid positive patients and to identify anyone who had been in close contact with them .

          If it’s only a limited term thing with a sunset clause that can’t be recalled without majority consent of voters .

          If Information gained cannot be used to convict anyone of a crime other than a positive covoid case trying to avoid quarantine and no exceptions.

          If any breaches of personal information being released about a non infected person or for non covid related reasons the minister/s and all responsible serve 12 months minimum in prison and lose all parliamentary titles and superannuation benefits etc.
          All benefits confiscated are paid to whoever had their rights breached in the form of a fine .

          50

          • #
            Kalm Keith

            Love it!

            Could please run for Prime Minister next election.

            Sadly there are no consequences for anyone in public life.

            20

  • #
    Penguinite

    ” Is Scott Morrison afraid of the UN, afraid of China, or afraid of the ABC?

    All the above! Doesn’t appear to be bothered by negative comments from home though?

    50

    • #
      JanEarth

      Peguinite most of all he is afraid of China for very good reasons. Australia is the only country that has not had a recession for 30 years while the rest of the developed world had 3. That is wholly due to our mineral exports to China.

      It is going to take guts to stand up to that disgusting totalitarian regime. Morrison does not have what it takes.

      There is only one person in the liberal party, in my opinion, that does not have the stink of CCP money on their hands and that is Andrew Hastie. He is not in a position to exert much influence perhaps for the reason that he lives in the state that has benefitted most from the CCP. If you live in WA try and support him in any way you can, he needs all the help he can get because he is pushing a big pile of manure uphill.

      30

  • #
    Steve of Cornubia

    Dithering and agonizing over trials or actual delivery of new treatments makes me wonder how other emergencies we might face would turn out, should red tape, bureaucracy and politics be as stifling as it is now.

    Imagine (God forbid) another world war.

    Imagine Australia’s subs are useless in the face of advanced Chinese military technology.

    Imagine several untried, new or ‘outside the box’ responses are suggested.

    “Well, that sounds fine, but where is the actual proof that it will work? What if it doesn’t? We should build a few first, which will take a year or so, then conduct thorough testing, which might take another year … “

    50

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Great conspiracy theory except for these unanswered questions.

    Where is the proof that the WHO could have acted in any other way
    Where is the proof that China has undue influence on the WHO
    Where is the proof that WHO procedures were no followed

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Peter we know the nature of the WHO
      From it’s ‘works’ on the only major pandemic in a 100 years.
      Basically the WHO has been missing in action.
      Waste of money mate
      Defund it
      Or Reform it completely
      Or Replace it with a mob that do the job.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      You always were one to DENY all facts put in front of you.

      And then make up non-facts to suit your fantasy agendas.

      61

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      WHO is in charge of world health.
      Sorry that should be who.
      Who is in charge of world health?

      Nobody, obviously; so why is some organism asking to be funded to do a job that isn’t being done?

      I don’t know who.

      WHO?

      80

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘Great conspiracy theory except for these unanswered questions.’

      This is the real conspiracy theory.

      ‘The US president’s TV network of choice, Fox News, has reported that “multiple sources” in the American government believe initial transmission of the virus was bat-to-human in a virology lab in Wuhan. Due to weak safety protocols, an infected lab worker then went to a wet market where the virus spread.

      ‘When Fox News reporter John Roberts put this to Trump at a press briefing on Wednesday, he replied: “Well, I don’t want to say that John, but I will tell you more and more we’re hearing the story.”

      Guardian

      00

  • #
    PeterS

    Trump stops funds to the WHO because it only has one major job and it failed.

    We should now see from our leader:

    Morrison stops funds to the ABC because it only has one major job and it failed.

    80

  • #
    Bill In Oz

    Just in case anyone missed my comment about this News.com article
    On asymptomatic spreaders..

    The answer is as Jo has said for weeks : FACE MASKS !
    Some journos are very slow learners !

    https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/health/coronavirus-australia-how-invisible-spreaders-with-no-symptoms-are-behind-outbreak/news-story/9162274e93d42bd6d94483329181eee7

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    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      Yep – interestingly New York is mandating their use now, against the wishes of President Trump

      12

    • #
      Alfred

      Sorry Bill you are all being played by the media.

      Here is what is happening in New York:

      If you want to become a doctor right now you can become one without years of training in New York City. Just attribute all deaths to COVID-19 so Governor Cuomo can justify keeping everyone locked down in a desperate attempt to boost Democrats for the 2020 elections. It is astonishing how COVID-19 has become a miracle cure for all diseases. Nobody is dying of even a heart attack for the last two weeks. Just sneeze, and that is good enough to classify you with Coronavirus

      COVID-19 Miracle Cure for All Other Disease Prevents Heart Attacks

      My apologies ladies and gentlemen. It is the Global Warming scam all over again.

      02

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        So this bloke in the USA knows more than us here in Oz about what’s happening in Oz ?
        That’s a dopey proposition !

        10

  • #
    dinn, rob

    herbal remedies for prevention and treatment of viral respiratory illnesses
    https://balance10.blogspot.com/2020/04/herbal-remedies-for-prevention-and.html

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  • #
    TdeF

    And on the East Coast at least with 90% of Austrlia’s population, the total at lunchtime is 16 reported new infections for the whole of Australia! As expected. The numbers have been held up with the two hotspots in NSW and now Burnie but new cases are now 0.25% of existing cases, 3% of the new infection rate of three weeks ago. More importantly, we should be at zero very soon. Then it’s a two week wait as the hospitals empty and all traces of the Wu Flu virus vanish as quickly as it came.

    Then it is about vigilance at airports with more thousands of Australian passport holders overseas asking to come home, government assisted. Personally if they left after they were told not to go, I wouldn’t do it. If are residents, they can stay where they are, say in Lebanon which is not a tourist destination in or next to a war zone. If they hold dual passports, they can stay where they are and enjoy their rights.

    Most importantly with only 61 deaths nationally, we are showing the world how its done, saving at a minimum, tens of thousands of Australian lives. Despite the opinions of so many people who still think they were not worth saving. Worldwide, millions have been saved. Britain is at 12,000 deaths with lockdown, like Italy, France, Germany.

    And I looked it up. Deaths in Australia by falling from ladders is higher at 100 per month. Usually older males but wives know that. I am always being asked to climb ladders.

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    WXcycles

    Deaths jumped to a new global high today, as expected after Easter, but new cases were still ~15,000 below the peak growth day on the 3rd of April.

    Daily Deaths Graph:
    https://i.ibb.co/XZFD9Sk/Daily-Deaths-Graph-15th-April-2020-data.png

    Countries with more than 250 active cases and over 2.5% deaths.

    % Died | Country | Act cases | New Cases
    15.56 … Algeria … 1,116 … 90
    13.22 … Belgium … 22,026 … 2,454
    13.11 … Italy … 105,418 … 2,667
    13.07 … UK … 85,264 … 4,603
    11.61 … France … 99,741 … 4,560
    11.13 … Netherlands … 24,769 … 734
    10.41 … Spain … 90,994 … 6,599
    10.09 … Sweden … 10,343 … 482
    9.16 … San Marino … 304 … 21
    9.13 … Indonesia … 4,221 … 297
    8.49 … Hungary … 1,253 … 67
    7.52 … Mexico … 2,868 … 385
    7.40 … Honduras … 379 … 12
    7.31 … Egypt … 1,733 … 155
    7.05 … Bolivia … 362 … 43
    6.40 … Philippines … 4,751 … 230
    6.27 … Morocco … 1,668 … 136
    6.25 … Iran … 21,679 … 1,512
    6.14 … Brazil … 12,827 … 3,348
    5.90 … Burkina Faso … 284 … 14
    5.58 … Iraq … 524 … 15
    5.23 … Dominican Republic … 3,217 … 328
    5.16 … Romania … 5,627 … 337
    4.94 … Ecuador … 6,690 … 255
    4.90 … Andorra … 471 … 14
    4.89 … Slovenia … 1,022 … 28
    4.82 … Bulgaria … 606 … 34
    4.70 … Switzerland … 9,697 … 400
    4.65 … Greece … 1,821 … 22
    4.63 … Denmark … 3,624 … 170
    4.62 … North Macedonia … 831 … 66
    4.49 … Tunisia … 702 … 33
    4.43 … USA … 566,859 … 30,206
    4.36 … Argentina … 1,863 … 294
    4.22 … Colombia … 2,522 … 126
    4.06 … Bangladesh … 1,132 … 219
    4.06 … China … 1,137 … 46
    3.77 … Poland … 6,628 … 380
    3.69 … Bosnia and Herzegovina … 816 … 27
    3.56 … Canada … 18,390 … 1,316
    3.54 … Ireland … 12,026 … 1,068
    3.41 … India … 10,440 … 883
    3.36 … Channel Islands … 363 … 7
    3.31 … Portugal … 17,109 … 643
    3.19 … Lebanon … 552 … 17
    3.19 … Afghanistan … 716 … 70
    2.95 … Cuba … 639 … 48
    2.95 … Nigeria … 267 … 34
    2.87 … Ukraine … 3,513 … 392
    2.82 … Germany … 58,349 … 2,543
    2.78 … Mauritius … 250 …
    2.75 … Lithuania … 923 … 21
    2.75 … Panama … 3,573 … 177
    2.74 … Austria … 5,859 … 124
    2.63 … Czechia … 5,316 … 190
    2.50 … Estonia … 1,248 … 27

    Countries with more than 50 dead and higher than 5.0% daily spread

    % New v Active | Country | Total Deaths | New Deaths
    26.1 … Brazil … 1,757 … 225
    19.3 … Bangladesh … 50 … 4
    15.8 … Argentina … 112 … 10
    15.2 … Russia … 198 … 28
    14.4 … Peru … 254 … 24
    13.4 … Mexico … 406 … 74
    11.3 … Pakistan … 111 … 15
    11.2 … Ukraine … 108 … 10
    11.1 … Belgium … 4,440 … 283
    10.2 … Dominican Rep … 189 … 6
    10.2 … Saudi Arabia … 79 … 6
    9.8 … Japan … 178 … 32
    9.3 … Serbia … 99 … 5
    8.9 … Egypt … 183 … 5
    8.9 … Ireland … 444 … 38
    8.5 … India … 422 … 29
    8.2 … Morocco … 127 … 1
    8.1 … Algeria … 336 … 10
    7.3 … Spain … 18,812 … 557
    7.2 … Canada … 1,010 … 107
    7.0 … Indonesia … 469 … 10
    7.0 … Iran … 4,777 … 94
    6.9 … Turkey … 1,518 … 115
    6.8 … Chile … 94 … 2
    6.0 … Romania … 372 … 21
    5.7 … Poland … 286 … 23
    5.4 … UK … 12,868 … 761
    5.3 … Hungary … 134 … 12
    5.3 … USA … 28,529 … 2,482
    5.0 … Colombia … 131 … 4
    5.0 … Panama … 103 … 8

    1.7 … Australia … 63 … 2

    Tomorrow’s data should be more stable.

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  • #
    PeterS

    Martin Armstrong is reporting governments are starting to see listen to reason but is far from over. His letter to President Trump (from the download link) is an eye opener on a number of fronts.
    Thank you for Your Help – We are Scoring Victories Behind the Curtain

    20

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Sometimes I wish I could put up a question mark, ‘?’
      Instead of a green thumb or red thumb.
      This is one such occasion.

      12

      • #
        PeterS

        I understand very well. I don’t agree with everything he says. His model is not perfect but it’s so close to being perfect it’s not funny. His latest prediction picked the top of the market within 2 days. I could have shorted the market or bought reverse ETFs and made millions but that goes against my grain to take advantage in such dire circumstances. The main thing I disagree with him is he believes the pandemic although real is not so serious and the world has over-reacted. I emailed my reasons why I think he could be wrong since we don’t yet know all the facts, and so it was proper to take the precautionary approach. In any case what’s done is done. We now need to start planning for the new future. I’m glad to see PM Morrison say the same thing today. The only worry I have though is he might to act soon enough. He’s still talking about 6 to 18 months. That’s unthinkable. As Martin Armstrong stated his model says if we don’t act by May the world will enter a deep depressions that will last for over a decade. He is very critical of the UN, the WHO and Bill Gates and I tend to agree with Armstrong there.

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      If it’s the Martin Armstrong I’m thinking of he has done big jail time for financial dealings in the past and also has some ideas that would make cube theory seem valid .
      His predictions are a joke as are the millions of dollars he claims to spend on using supercomputers.
      Even a broken clock is right twice a day .

      10

      • #
        robert rosicka

        It looks like it is the same Armstrong and although there are many links for once wiki seems the best source .

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_A._Armstrong

        10

      • #
        PeterS

        Yes that’s the one and I know the full story. He was thrown into prison on a trumped up charge because… well I better not say more for fear of being thrown into prison myself. In any case he was eventually released after they could not legitimately charge him on anything. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet )obviously).

        10

  • #
    Ross

    Who would believe the positive test figures after reading this

    https://off-guardian.org/2020/04/15/has-covid-19-testing-made-the-problem-worse/

    Where I come from we call this a “dogs breakfast”

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      I remember the stuff up by the USA CDC was discussed a lot in late Feb- early March.
      That lead to the USA CDC abandoning it’s monopoly of testing in the USA
      Other independent, private labs developed and marketed their own
      Just as the pandemic really hit the USA.

      Also time has moved on.It’s now Mid April.
      And here in Australia we have gone our own way with testing.
      This article offers nothing vis a vis Australia which is naturally my own focus..

      10

    • #
      farmerbraun

      Well you are right about believing the results.
      But it does look like exactly the sort of testing on which you could base policy and strategy;
      any strategy you like.

      11

    • #
      WXcycles

      Off-Guardian is a bigger crazier propaganda factory than the Guardian.

      51

  • #
    JanEarth

    We need to start talking about plans to end the lock down now. We need a plan and we need to get the economy on its feet pretty soon. Too early to end it now but the conversation must begin.

    30

    • #
      farmerbraun

      Look to NZ for guidance on this . We are the lab rats.

      11

    • #
      WXcycles

      Look around, all the critically important ‘needs’ parts of the economy are functioning right now, and all the biggest industries we have are also still working. Things are not dire, we can get this country back to relative normality by June, but doing it too early is not the way, that will just lead to more disruption and closure.

      We get one shot at getting the right, otherwise we’ll be right back to whole of state lock-downs before the end of June. So don’t rush it. If you think we can’t afford lock-down, we definitely can’t afford to do it all again. Slow down, do it right, its the result that matters, otherwise we’ll blow it this one chance to clear a whole continent and keep it clear indefinitely.

      51

  • #
    Robber

    Are our CMOs and CHOs any better than WHO? They all jumped quickly onto the worst case scenario modelling saying ICU beds would be overrun and we could have 50,000 deaths. Perhaps they are now enjoying the spotlight and the power as they dictate the closure of shops and schools, and police patrol the streets demanding reasons for any excursion. But now with that power, they face the dilemma that if they relax restrictions, and just one more person dies, they will be criticized. So even though we are down to only 40 new cases per day (and way lower in some states), and just 1-2 deaths, they prefer the cautious approach of super controls. Never mind the economy, not their problem.
    Meanwhile, in Australia, influenza on average causes 1,500 to 3,000 deaths, about 18,000 hospitalisations and 300,000 GP consultations each year.

    13

  • #
    MCMXLIII

    Alcohol is consumed in excessive quantities in the European Region, and leaves too many victims. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we should really ask ourselves what risks we are taking in leaving people under lockdown in their homes with a substance that is harmful both in terms of their health and the effects of their behaviour on others, including violence …

    … says Carina Ferreira-Borges, Programme Manager, Alcohol and Illicit Drugs Programme, WHO/Europe.

    They can’t help themselves, they’re busy trying to micromanage other people’s lives — grown competent adults — while at the same time being totally incompetent and grossly negligent themselves.

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    • #

      Could you even begin to even imagine what would have happened had they declared Bottle shops as …..NON essential.

      Tony.

      70

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      Or, to put it another way, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

      That’s the thing with people who have a mission in life – they become obsessed and every single event thereafter has to be framed in terms of how it affects, or can be used to further, that mission.

      30

  • #
    TdeF

    Australia has been so remarkably successful with shutting down this virus that people will start to say it was not necessary. There is just no pleasing some people.

    Consider that Britain has had 13,000 deaths! And it is only two and a half times the the population of Australia. By our numbers they should have only 150 deaths. And it’s not as if 100,000 sick people are having a picnic either. Ask Boris Johnson.

    Still with the wisdom of hindsight, the nervous nellies will criticize the best job in the world. Either they could have done better or it was never going to be bad anyway. The same in the US where WHO, the Democrats and Hollywood and Joe Biden called Trump a racist for closing flights from China. And the head of the EU when Trump closed off flights to the EU. Now he is criticized for not moving faster! Go figure.

    Frankly, it was a very near thing in Australia. And if not for the insane and criminal decision to just empty the Ruby Princess, we might have had the same 19 deaths but not those infected by sick travellers, as in Burnie

    Now we need to keep this virus out and all the other viruses. With at least the energy and cost of keeping fruit fly or Isl*mic terrorists out.

    91

    • #
      Annie

      The UK was in winter, now in spring. We were in summer, now in autumn. That made a difference I rather think.

      00

  • #
    JanEarth

    I knew about this about 2 days ago during my research into the origins of this virus. I was loathe to bring it to the attention of this blog because there are a lot of people drinking Kool aid here. But now the MSM has taken it up so here it is

    The idea the virus was engineered has been debunked for a long time. Also the idea that it was deliberately let lose on the population is just nonsensical…the CCP is ruthless but they are not stupid. They are hanging on by the skin of their teeth at the moment and the damage done to the Chinese economy has made their predicament worse. The evidence that it was accidentally let lose is very strong. The evidence that the CCP invented the story that it originated from the Wet Market rather than escaped from their labs is also very strong. The US spy network knows exactly what happened and they are starting to leak this information slowly. As time goes on you will start to get to the nitty gritty so if you are interested in the truth keep your eyes on the unfolding story.

    The French and the US warned China a long time ago that the research they were doing was extremely dangerous. Unfortunately the CCP with it’s usual arrogance decided to ignore the warning. Now the rest of the World pays the price 🙁

    The CCPs days are numbered providing those in power in the West can keep a cool head and play their hand carefully. I for one am watching with extreme interest…this is way more intriguing than the silly conspiracy theories I have been reading here.

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    • #
      PeterS

      I hope you are right and the communist party’s days are numbered. It will be much easier now given what we know so far. I suspect that’s Trump’s plan B. He tried the “nice guy” approach but that didn’t work as China effectively gave him the finger for trying to develop a peaceful co-existence with North Korea. I consider the communist party not only untrustworthy but also terribly arrogant and unwilling to compromise. So be it at their detriment.

      40

    • #

      What JanEarth writes above I would wholeheartedly agree with, and I would base that from personal experience.

      You all know I was in the Royal Australian Air Force for 25 years, and before being posted back to Wagga Wagga to teach the electrical trade, I worked as an NCO and then Senior NCO on the large electrical crew for the implementation of the PaveTack Modification on the F111, a weapons delivery platform for Precision Guided Munitions.

      I was back at Wagga Wagga when the First Gulf War broke out. Each night, as part of the TV news on the progress, they would show footage hosted by a USAF General explaining the bombing, and how targeted it was, and you all remember watching that footage. They showed individual footages each night of actual bombs exploding in specifically targeted building, and ONLY those buildings.

      I had a couple of separate ‘civilian’ groups of friends I used to associate with as I wanted a life outside of the RAAF as well as my military life.

      ALL (let me accentuate) ALL of those civilians knew absolutely that the footage being shown was in fact computer generated footage, not at all real, and in fact fake. It was all I could do to try and explain that the footage they were seeing was in fact ….. fact. I knew all this from being part of that PaveTack Mod Team, and what weapons delivery was now capable of doing. Even so, at least half of those people did not believe a word of what I was telling them. I wasn’t letting out any secrets mind you, just confirming what was being shown for one and all by the people who originated all of what was being shown.

      As part of a military force at that time, and at the pointy end, the RAAF and with this latest addition to front line aircraft, and this new state of the art weapons delivery platform, I knew what the Americans were capable of, and as was explained to me by our good friend, the American Liaison Officer on the project, what we were aware of on this Team was the tiniest fraction of what the US was capable of. Actually, what you see in some of those action movies is close to, but well behind what they are capable of.

      So, I am strongly of the opinion that the Americans know EXACTLY what was going on in the case of this Wuhan Virus, and when the time comes, that will be made (partially) public. You won’t hear the half of it, just enough to know conclusively what happened.

      Tony.

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      • #
        PeterS

        Are you saying then the US spy network knew what was happening in China but kept it secret from the US government, in particular Trump, and allowed thousands of US citizens to die before ringing the alarm bells? Or are you saying the US government including Trump also knew from the start?

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        My opinion is that the Chinese Government didn’t know at first. The local bureaucrats downplayed how serious it was**, until that (now deceased) doctor “spilled the beans”. The central authorities were not necessarily aware for some weeks about the possible leak from the biological laboratory, and certainly reacted very slowly as they were negotiating a ‘get out clause’ in the new trade agreement with the USA. By then they were aware how bad it was and panicked, taking drastic action. Too late for Wuhan, and with millions of workers sread around China for the Lunar Holiday, too late for the rest of China and ultimately the World.

        **They may not have been that aware anyway, probably preoccupied by the coming Lunar Holiday.

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        • #
          PeterS

          Regardless of what happen and how, what the Communist Party of China MUST do is come to the party and work with the rest of the words, INCLUDING the US and not let this happen again. I doubt very much they even want to do that simply because like all communist regimes, new or old, they are arrogant and pig headed to the extreme.

          30

      • #
        PeterS

        So does anyone know who is patient zero?

        20

        • #
          Graeme#4

          In the recent video, it was suggested that it was a deceased nurse from the Wuhan lab.

          10

        • #
          JanEarth

          Peter S patient zero was a scientist at the P4 virus lab in Wuhan… Huang Yanling. Huang was the first victim that died . The Director of the Lab Shi Zengli was the director but she was sacked after her sloppy management of the Lab caused the Virus to escape, She was replaced. An officer of the peoples liberation army was then appointed director over the lab her name is Chen Wei. That was February the 7th. On February the 14th Xi Jinping called for inclusion of biosecurity into Chinas national security framework and to accelerate a biosecurity law. This was due to the bungling at the P4 lab. Huang Yanling died and the Wuhan P4 lab went into overdrive to refute the rumours circulating on the Chinese internet and social media…that was Feb 17th.The CCP removed her Photo CV and Thesis from the Wuhan labs website but left her name up on a staff list online.

          It’s all here:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bXWGxhd7ic

          You need to give the claims that it was manufactured with a good pinch of salt. I have read and watched a lot of information in the past two days and experts are sure it is a natural virus. The link with the HIV for instance has been debunked and this was from a paper out of India which was later retracted. The lack of proper biosecurity at the Lab is not unique to China as there are similar issues in the US but not quite to the same level of incompetence .

          They were dealing with a very dangerous virus using sloppy techniques. If you are aware of the damage the CCP did when testing anti satellite weapons back around 2007 you know how their rush for dominance leads to them to making fatal errors. If you want to read about that it is easy to Google. This quote from wikipedia

          This event was the largest recorded creation of space debris in history with more than 2,000 pieces of trackable size (golf ball size and larger) officially catalogued in the immediate aftermath

          That bit of Hubris from the CCP put the lives of all astronauts who venture into space in danger but that pales into insignificance to what they did here.

          The CCP is dangerous and their rush for world dominance puts every human on this planet in danger. They have to go.

          10

  • #
    Robber

    Interesting observations from the PM’s just completed press conference, with latest modelling also presented by the CMO:
    – Australia is endeavouring to suppress CV19 whereas NZ is aiming for eradication with level 4 vs level 3 restrictions, yet both are on almost identical trajectories.
    – Latest charts show significant reductions in spread of CV19 – models to be released later today
    – States are likely to act within next 4 weeks to selectively ease controls
    – WHO does useful work in the western Pacific helping smaller countries to control measles, malaria, etc although they deserve criticism for their slowness to act on CV19.

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      given the infection rate in Australia, New Zealand’s approach is likely producing only marginally better controls than Australia’s so they are statistically the same. Soon the main thing to do will be to monitor well, have rapid response procedures in place in case of an outbreak and quarantine all arrivals from OS.

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        Peter C

        Soon the main thing to do will be to monitor well, have rapid response procedures in place in case of an outbreak and quarantine all arrivals from OS.

        Excellent Gee Aye! A plan for the way out of this mess. You a well ahead of the PM and his advisors.
        Possibly they are thinking along similar lines but are too timid to say so.

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      Ross

      NZ talking of eradication is stupid ( I am a Kiwi). Australia is going the right way. It is fantasy to talk of eradication. Assuming it is possible, what do you do next? Keep the borders closed permanently because it is always going to be out there in the world.

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        Bill In Oz

        Trade will not be affected.
        Travel will until there is a reliable effective vaccine
        And the new tests being developed if they are proven effective and reliable
        Can be used to screen out any infected persons before travel.
        The globalised world is changing.
        No one has the right to bring infectious diseases here to Oz.
        I suggest most Kiwis would think the same.

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      • #
        WXcycles

        plotted the rates of new coronavirus infections of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain. The numbers told a shocking story: irrespective of whether the country quarantined like Israel, or went about business as usual like Sweden, coronavirus peaked and subsided in the exact same way. In the exact, same, way. His graphs show that all countries experienced seemingly identical coronavirus infection patterns, with the number of infected peaking in the sixth week and rapidly subsiding by the eighth week.

        Sorry Ian, this is BS, have a look on worldometer, the things Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel is claiming here simply have not occurred as yet!

        These sorts of assertions remind me of the papers in early March that said COVID-19 would not be severe or highly contagious in hot countries, but in fact it spreads faster, is as severe with same levels of mortality.

        Another academic with a theory and an agenda it seems. The question is who benefits from making such premature and more or less fake claims?

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    Steve Robinson

    We should be ok financially after China has paid us and the rest of the world reparations 😉

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    TdeF

    7pm EST. And the total of new infections for the day is ONLY 22.
    It’s one thing to expect something, another to see it happen. No infections next week.
    I would also expect under 1,000 people with live infections left.

    Then you want at least two weeks with no infections in the country. The world needs to copy our hard borders solution.

    And we need to be very careful with every point of entry. Shipping is slow, so the real source in infection will be anything shipped by air.

    By Mid May, we should be completely clear. That seems unbelievable but true.

    I do not see a vaccine as the essential solution to everything, which is the way we handle flu. Plus updates each year as the virus mutates. I would rather see hard borders to all pathogens, quarantine as standard for anyone sick including children and a slowing down generally of the vast amount of travelling done by Australians. 12 million people a year overseas seems incredible, especially when so many people never go overseas.

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      TdeF

      And I would love to see our government actually advertise for people to travel within Australia. The horizontal falls near Broome, the Daintree rainforest, the many wine regions, the Blue mountains, the Flinders ranges, Ayers rock (non PC name), Kakadu, even the Gold Coast. These are actually things I have never seen, except local wine regions. Twice as many Australians leave as tourists arrive. Without overseas tourists and with overseas countries closed, it is time people started booking their holidays in Australia.

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        Steve of Cornubia

        I came to Oz from Blighty back in ’99 and, in that time, I’ve visited pretty much every corner. There’s still plenty to see though, and many places we will visit again.

        However, I suspect that, by the time we are allowed to travel within Australia again, we won’t be able to afford to. Not just because we’ll all be broke, but because we’ll only have one, very expensive, airline and, with international travel not possible, already high accommodation costs will skyrocket.

        Mind you, I’m old enough now to buy a caravan and join the grey nomads, so there’s always that.

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          Kalm Keith

          I last traveled on QANTAS in early 1975.

          And that’s it.

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          TdeF

          I wonder. QANTAS is an international airline but it has a lot of stock and international flights will be hard to sell. There is an impasse with the public not being prepared to pay much more to fly inside Australian than overseas. It is comparable to fly Melbourne to Sydney with Melbourne to Paris. We will see if QANTAS tries low price, high volume internal flights. I’m hoping they have no choice.

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            PeterS

            They will have no choice because all the other airlines will do likewise.

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            Steve of Cornubia

            A large component of domestic flight costs is actually charged by the airPORTS, not the airLINES. That seems crazy to me. Airports operate as a ‘local monopoly’ and make an absolute fortune from the airlines themselves, but also from passengers in the form of ridiculous charges for food, drinks and parking. No doubt the government(s) take a cut, too, besides what they earn in rates and GST etc.

            When the airports are more profitable than the airlines, something is out of whack, IMO. This is yet another example of how successive Australian governments have failed to ensure consumers are protected from anti-competitive practices.

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    RickWill

    Jeff Bezos is up USD24bn already this year. The lock down has worked wonders for his business model.

    His wealth alone would cover the entire Australian Government’s CV19 initiatives.

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    Rocket Rod

    Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel of Tel Aviv University, who also serves on the research and development advisory board for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, plotted the rates of new coronavirus infections of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, France,w Germany, and Spain. The numbers told a shocking story: irrespective of whether the country quarantined like Israel, or went about business as usual like Sweden, coronavirus peaked and subsided in the exact same way. In the exact, same, way. His graphs show that all countries experienced seemingly identical coronavirus infection patterns, with the number of infected peaking in the sixth week and rapidly subsiding by the eighth week.

    https://townhall.com/columnists/marinamedvin/2020/04/15/israeli-professor-shows-virus-follows-fixed-pattern-n2566915?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=1b79efb0d1dfbcfca8dbe136dfdab384&recip=20881332

    Never let a good panic go to waste.
    ScoMo alluded to today as to what’s coming AFTER thus CV fiasco, and that will be significant socio-econonic fallout. No kidding…as I’ve said more than once..
    CV is a non topic to me now.
    More import matters to be concerned with.

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      PeterS

      Hmmm, perhaps Martin Armstrong is right after all. See post #49.

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        WXcycles

        No, this guy is Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel is claiming things that have not even happened, at best he’s talking about a model’s output. Have a look at his claims then go check the data, it’s BS.

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          PeterS

          OK, I’ll go back and site on the fence. What’s done is done. All I really care about now anyway is how to start relaxing our restrictions promptly in a controlled fashion, and how to start rebuilding our nation while at the same time telling the left to get out of the way or else be treated as trait0rs.

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            WXcycles

            I think we all feel like that now, we just need to not stuff it up before the remnant virus is wiped out. We’ll win, and soon.

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    PeterS

    PM Morrison made one comment that’s out of this world. We will have to maintain social distancing until we have a vaccine. Well we better have a vaccine very soon because there is no way we can maintain social distancing indefinitely. Some say a vaccine is only a couple of months away, which would be fine but others say it could be years given we haven’t found a vaccine for many other even more deadly viruses. As I suspected some time ago we might end up resorting to the herd immunity option and take all the necessary precautions say for the vulnerable. We simply can’t keep our economy in a coma for more than another month or two for a number of reasons.

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      joseph

      Here’s some information on vaccine development from Children’s Health Defense.

      “In this video footage, Offit, Hotez and even Anthony Fauci (in an unguarded moment), warn that any new coronavirus vaccine could trigger lethal immune reactions “vaccine enhancement” when vaccinated people come in contact with the wild virus. Instead of proceeding with caution, Fauci has made the reckless choice to fast track vaccines, partially funded by Gates, without critical animal studies before moving into human clinical trials that could provide early warning of runaway immune response.

      Gates (in the video) is so worried about the danger of adverse events that he says vaccines shouldn’t be distributed until governments agree to indemnity against lawsuits. On February 4, 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, there were only 11 active CV cases in the USA, yet the U.S. quietly pushed through Federal regulations giving coronavirus vaccine makers full immunity from liability”.

      https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/heres-why-bill-gates-wants-indemnity-are-you-willing-to-take-the-risk/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=c94b3721-ea3d-464f-b8cc-68adb387220c

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      TdeF

      That’s just silly. If there is no virus in the country, there is no point. It’s just that people argue this is not possible. They are wrong. The virus is able to be completely wiped out and if we check at points of entry, it will stay that way.

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        TdeF

        Everyone must be tested on entry. And if it does sneak in, the speed of response is everything. We may even ask people to self isolate for two weeks until we are certain of the testing. Or regardless if there is any sign of a fever or illness in any party. That would prevent reinfection completely. Better for a few to isolate than a whole country. You might have to report and be tested a week after arrival as well.

        For the next few years, a weekend in Singapore will be out of the question. It simply will go back to the way it was. The onus was always on the visitor to prove immunisation or they were refused entry.

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        WXcycles

        Went to the supermarket once more today, things had changed for the better again, they finally had foam hand sanitizer in pump bottles on every checkout for the staff to use between every customer. When I finished packing the bags I asked if I could have a squirt of the hand sanitizer, and of course, no problem. That and some masks and cleaner habits and the risk of transmission drops off a cliff. I’d say there’s no chance the virus can survive in Australia if we keep that up. It’s cornered and getting wiped-out. We may get back to normal domestic activities before anywhere else at this rate. Isn’t going to happen if we let people through the borders without strict quarantine control measures though. But I’m reasonably confident we won’t make that silly obvious mistake (once again).

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          JanEarth

          No new cases again in SA. 🙂

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          Slithers

          My main worry are the reports of Felines contracting COVID-19. They could be silent carriers and virtually un-traceable.
          Influenza has been with us for centuries if not much longer. There has to be a non-human reservoir of asymptomatic carries to keep influenza alive during our Spring/Summer/Autumn.
          It may be that COVID-19 came via bats, but Human to Bat cross infection must be exceedingly rare. In the case of Influenza where does hide out and could our pets be our worst enemy with COVID-19?
          The small number of cases, post curve flattening is also a worry, how many asymptomatic humans can carry and distribute the damn virus. Remember that ‘Typhoid Mary’ was infecting people for years before she was found.
          A vaccine cannot do much with quick mutations that are being reported that SARS-COV-2 is already showing.

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    TdeF

    The Swedish experiment in herd immunity continues. Over 12,000 infected and 500 dead with a 10million population. 4%. Doubling every 10 days, that will be 100,000 infected people in three weeks and 4,000 dead.

    The question is how far they want to go and whether 50-500,000 graves is going to be acceptable to the voting public.
    This with less than half the population of Australia which has lost only 61 people and more as a result of falling off ladders in the same time.

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      Bill In Oz

      TdeF, The SOV ( Save Our Virus ) mob don’t care about death numbers.
      They just want to do their wildcard experiment.
      And later as now, they will claim it wasn’t their virus
      It was co-morbidities !
      I’m sure the families of the dead will like that a trice.

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    JanEarth

    I just saw one of the most brutal interviews I have ever seen…Not sure if it was the Governor of Louisiana but he was very open about the fact that he did not care about any deaths he only cared about the economy. Straight out did not even try to couch it in a gentle way. I am flabbergasted !

    So much for the vets of ww2, The Korean war, The Vietnam war they are expendable. Still shocked about that one.

    On a lighter note in a discussion on reopening Australia Norman Swan said ” I think the problem is the Government relies too much on the modelling ” I almost spat my coffee out. I am sure the massive irony of that brain fart is not lost on the denizens here.

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      Bill In Oz

      I think he is a denizen here as well Jan.
      At least on this COVID 19 disease.

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      Jan, I too am amazed at the callous lack of concern. There must be many who think that but wouldn’t say it.

      OR perhaps they’ve lost a lot of money or a livelihood and they are saying things they would not normally say.

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    JanEarth

    News from Iceland…as you are all aware Iceland has done the most testing of their population than any other country.

    They have discovered 528 mutations to the Virus ! The scientist who was being interviewed, Dr Kári Stefánsson, hypothesises that there are more than two strains out in the wild.

    This report from March lists 40+ mutations

    Dr Kári Stefánsson also outlines a way out of this without lockdown.

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      Bill In Oz

      The size of the population makes difference
      Iceland’s population is about 260,000.
      And their disease strategy is suitable
      For a population of that size.

      But countries with much larger populations
      Like Australia with 23.5 million
      Ore India with 1.3 billion
      Need to do things differently.

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    DonS

    Hi Jo

    Look, it’s all very easy to put the boot into the W.H.O. but what’s your alternative to coordinating international response to health issues? Using the normal diplomatic channels would be even slower than the current setup, so what can be done? Cutting the funding is a good way for the largest contributor to force change but what about all the other programs that actually make a difference in some of the poorest parts of the world?

    I agree that the current W.H.O. leadership should be dumped and replaced with non political appointees. Are there no Nobel prise winners in medicine that can be found to do the job? But I do feel for the teams on the ground trying to fight scourges like malaria with one hand tided because there green coated communists at the UN will not let them use DDT or other pesticides that could knock out 99% of the malaria carrying mossies.

    It’s not just the W.H.O. but the UN in total that needs a big shake up. The fact that Kevin Rudd has just got his long hoped for appointment to some UN body or other tells you everything you need to know about the caliber of people they appoint!

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      Steve of Cornubia

      “Cutting the funding is a good way for the largest contributor to force change but … ”

      You got it, well done you!

      Any Western ‘democracy’ that doesn’t openly demand a complete revamp of both the UN and the WHO are complicit in the ongoing takeover of hitherto useful organisations by the CCP. We can only assume they do so for personal gain, because their politics align more closely with the Chinese dictatorship or they’re cowards. Many on the Left are guilty of all three.

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    Matt

    Good on Trump for pulling the WHO’s funding, it might cause a closer examination of just where the funds go, at present mostly to Embassy cocktail parties, first class International travel, 5 star accommodation, long lunches and Swiss Chalets. Viva Trump. !

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