What will it be?

In the Ace of Spades blog today, co-blogger CBD writes,

What To Do...What To Do?
Torch Our Hair? Or Something Fun?
—CBD
It's past the time during which we could approach Wuhan Flu with anything approaching calm, rational discussion and decision-making.

For f&%k's sake...THEY ARE CLOSING THE BARS!

In my neck of the woods, there is an odd juxtaposition between business-as-usual and insane behavior that is just a few steps from burning witches and bleeding to release the foul humors....

I can't shake the deeply held suspicion that the various powers-that-be are frantically assuming the worst of all situations to justify their jobs, consolidate and expand their power, and enjoy ordering around the peons. The mayor of my little town had to robo-call last night at 8:20pm to inform me...breathlessly...that there were five cases of Chinese Lung AIDS in our local hospital. I hung up after a few seconds and returned to my rather good cocktail. At least he had some vague, though self-important responsibility to inform me of this fact, but dude! Not during cocktail hour!

It's better than the incessant emails and letters we have been getting from pretty much everyone about their oh-so-special response to Sino Lung Rot. As much as I am interested in the sprinkler company's epidemiology expertise, I don't think I need a letter. And the car rental people? Really?

So...we are stuck with this new paradigm for the next few weeks or months (that's straight from Anthony Fauci). But what to do during this forced hiatus from our American norm of being friendly and social and high-fiving.

Books and movies and cleaning out the hall closet and finally cooking that elk-antler Chateaubriand and clearing out the DVR of the stuff you wanted to watch (but not really) and a bunch of other things we probably don't know we need or want to do.

So...what will it be?

Don't panic, stay informed!

Ars Technica has a comprehensive guide to the coronavirus that is updated here every afternoon at 3 p.m. EDT.

How we think!

Crisis and opportunity

In American Greatness, Conrad Black writes in part about the coronavirus,

In the United States, if the one key home for the elderly near Seattle (16 deaths) is excluded, the fatality percentage on a little over 1,100 cases is slightly over 1 percent and the average age of the deceased from this cause is 80. That makes it a little easier to target and protect the most vulnerable people. The ban on air travel from continental Europe that the president announced on Wednesday night is prudent, and a sufficiently radical measure to be indicative of the president’s seriousness.

...The president has already extracted two positive elements from this crisis: he can state clearly and mobilize opinion on the necessity of repatriating a good deal of commerce, including sophisticated medicine, from China. Those who were bleating about trade wars when he imposed tariffs on China will be silent as he incentivizes American industry to bring a good deal of strategic commerce back to the United States. And he has turned a public health challenge into an invitation for more temperate political discourse that his opponents will continue to scorn at their peril.

...Donald Trump is not FDR, Ike, JFK, or even Nixon or Reagan as a figure of reassurance, but he pulled his response to the coronavirus together this week and should come through it in good health, politically and otherwise.

Read more here.

The enemy virus

Victor Davis Hanson writes in part in PJ Media,

Nature has given COVID-19 some weapons that its defeated cousins -- the H1N1 swine flu and the MERS and SARS viruses -- lacked.

It is more clever by being less lethal -- and a little tougher in its ability to live outside a host. Viral resiliency ensures that it rarely turns into a suicide bomber by dying with a terminally sick host, and that it does not perish so quickly when orphaned in the air and on surfaces.

The coronavirus has allies. It infiltrates our defenses by using our own weapons against us -- our dirty hands, the habitual touching of the face, and indiscreet sneezing and coughing.

Poor personal and public hygiene gives the virus some sustenance and camouflage. To win -- defined as sickening or killing thousands of us -- COVID-19 counts on our laxity. It hates careful individuals who block its invasion into the eyes, nose and mouth.

Remember, unlike our past human enemies, COVID-19 is invisible to the naked eye, even more so than the most stealthy terrorists or underground enemy agents. It does not leave a smell. It cannot be heard. It certainly cannot be touched. We know COVID-19 only by the damage it does to us, even after it has left, leaving its trail of fever, fatigue, congestion and labored breathing.

COVID-19 also relies on ignorance of its complexity and sophistication. It assumes that our experts will not learn how this new virus originated, how it spreads and how it sickens or kills.

So the virus hopes that we cannot effectively quarantine the sick, or at least not before a pandemic spreads.

In desperation, the enemy virus hopes that even if our researchers can quickly infiltrate the COVID-19 master borg and learn its deepest secrets, we will still be unable to treat it with medicines or prevent it with vaccines -- or at least not before it becomes a plague of biblical proportions.

To a popular culture that laps up creepy zombie movies, the virus certainly knows how to use its greatest weapons: fright and panic. As of early this week, the relatively lightweight bug had killed fewer than 30 Americans. But we seem to be acting as if it has already killed 200,000 of us.

If COVID-19 can create fear that we will end up like the grotesque monsters on television, perhaps we, its enemy, will go on hoarding binges that result in shortages of masks, gloves and supplies for the health providers who need them most.

Or, if the virus can scare us enough that we cease working and interacting, our canceled-out economy will grind to a halt.

Or maybe the coronavirus can cleverly keep hopping on jets between countries and states, sowing dissension as nations blame one other for its creation and contagion, and politicians seek to destroy each other rather than band together to kill the virus.

COVID-19 counts on globalization as it sneaks onto jets and ships. In a few hours, it can find a new home and new hosts to terrify -- even thousands of miles away.

It is a vengeful enemy. It knows we have killed off or rendered impotent most of its fellow viruses. Its cousin, the flu, has not since 1918 translated its annual tactical wins into a strategic pandemic victory.

Viruses and anti-human microbes have not had a major win in America in decades, perhaps not since polio used to terrorize, cripple and kill thousands of Americans annually.

COVID-19 believes our progress, confidence and sophistication are not our strengths but rather our greatest weakness, as our vanity and assumed invulnerability render us ripe for panic.

The battle is upon us. But if we stay calm and rational, we can easily defeat the enemy, whose reputation is likely far scarier than its reality.

Read more here.

"Chinese Coronavirus and the panic the Democrat-Media Complex is sowing will in the end turn around and bite them in the ass"

JJ Sefton writes in part in his Morning Report,

Whether or not this disease sprang up because of Chinese primitive to non-existent sanitary standards with food, lack of actual food to feed a billion people daily, some other insidious theories that have been floating around or even some combination of all of them, would-be Emperor Xi stands to benefit from the chaos. It's both perfect cover to distract his imprisoned citizenry from his country's economic stagnation, blame America and Trump for those problems and suppress internal unrest in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and elsewhere. Not saying the disease was released intentionally but it sure came about at just the right time - that is when the Democrats are imploding and Trump cruising to a landslide.

Taking off the tinfoil yarmulke (it's not quite the size of a homburg for me yet), even with the "crisis" boiling over in the media, Trump is still in the driver's seat, especially in terms of both trade and open borders madness. The Dems are already shooting themselves in the face on those issues. Chinese Coronavirus and the panic the Democrat-Media Complex is sowing will in the end turn around and bite them in the ass, since all of their "solutions" fly in the face of logic. And you can be sure Trump is going to hit them over the head with it.

Go here to read more and click on his links to other reports and writers.

Media-induced panic!

We waited until 8 p.m. to go to the grocery store last night. At that time of night, the store is usually almost empty of customers. Last night the checkout lines were filled with shoppers from wall to wall across the store. The wall that usually has toilet paper was bare. Same with the eggs. Many people had their carts filled with bottled drinking water. Did someone tell them the water supply was going to become contaminated?

You don't think the media has a huge influence on viewers? Seeing this mass panic last night has made me realize that the media's nonstop anti-Trump hatred is not to be discounted as we move toward this fall's election. All the more reason to write a blog, search for truth, and share the truth with as many others as possible!

NBA suspends its season

The NBA has suspended their season after one of the players on the Utah Jazz preliminarily tested positive for the coronavirus. Here is the announcement from the NBA.



Read more here.

Tom Hanks and wife infected with coronavirus

Paul Goldberg reports in News Thud,

Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have just announced they tested positive for the coronavirus.

Both are in Australia working on Baz Luhrmann’s new Elvis Presley film from Warner Bros.

Hanks is set to play Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker. From Deadline:

Deadline received a statement directly from Hanks:

“Hello, folks. Rita and I are down here in Australia. We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive.

Well, now. What to do next? The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks’ will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires. Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no?

We’ll keep the world posted and updated.

Take care of yourselves!” – Tom Hanks

Three more TSA staff infected in California

Three TSA staff who work in the San Jose airport have tested positive for coronavirus, sparking fears that they could have come into contact with thousands of passengers. Rachel Sharp reports in the Daily Mail,

News of the outbreak comes as it emerged that staff had requested better protection, given their direct contact with international travelers.

The union had asked the agency Tuesday for more effective masks for workers, but its request was rejected, Reuters reported.

Read more here.

Andrew Klavan on today's expected events

What will happen in the Michigan primary today?
Media bias against Trump just gets worse.

Cheering for the spread of coronavirus

Former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel went on ABC to exult in the possibility that Trump may not be able to hold rallies if the coronavirus keeps getting worse. Read more here.

"Fever today, funeral tomorrow"

Archie Bunker shows how one can use the possibility of a flu virus to manipulate those we are dependent upon. "Edith, I got the bug!" Edith has something more important to do: protecting an innocent man!

Senator Ted Cruz decides to self-quarantine

Ted Cruz has decided to self-quarantine after shaking hands with someone at CPAC who has tested positive for the coronavirus. Paul Goldberg has the story here.

Iran releases 54,000 prisoners temporarily to stop coronavirus spread

John Hayward reports in Breitbart,

Iran on Tuesday ordered the temporary release of more than 54,000 prisoners, representing about 20 percent of its imprisoned population, to slow the spread of the coronavirus in its notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary jails.

Read more here.

How to take precautions re: Coronavirus

Tamar Lapin reports in the New York Post on how to tell if you might have the coronavirus. She says fever, cough, and runny nose, like the common cold, are present,

If your symptoms are more severe — a fever that won’t go away, shortness of breath and lethargy — then it’s time to call your doctor.

...Importantly, to prevent getting sick at all, the CDC recommends avoiding people who are showing symptoms; avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth; and washing your hands thoroughly and frequently. This means washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

Read more here.

China's cover-up of the Wujan Coronavirus

Sara Dorn reports in part in the New York Post,

Chinese scientists knew about the coronavirus and its deadly effects as early as December — but were ordered by government officials to suppress the evidence, according to a report.

In late December, several genomics companies tested samples from sick patients in Wuhan — the center of the coronavirus outbreak — and noticed alarming similarities between their illnesses and the 2002 SARS virus, the Sunday Times of London reported, citing Chinese business news site Caixin Global.

The researchers alerted Beijing of their findings — and on Jan. 3, received a gag order from China’s National Health Commission, with instructions to destroy the samples.

Rather than hunkering down to contain the virus, Wuhan officials went ahead with their annual potluck dinner for 40,000 families.

The alleged cover-up continued when representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention visited Wuhan Jan. 8, where officials intentionally withheld information that hospital workers had been infected by patients — a telltale sign of contagion.

News of the virus’ highly contagious nature didn’t surface publicly until Jan. 20. Wuhan was locked down and a mass quarantine ordered three days later.

Read more here.

White House stepping up travel restrictions

Rob Crilly reports in the Washington Examiner,

The White House stepped up travel restrictions, banning all travel from Iran and the entry of any foreign nationals who visited the country in the past 14 days, as it introduced measures to restrict the spread of the coronavirus.

Vice President Mike Pence announced on Saturday fresh warnings on travel to specific regions of Italy and South Korea, even as President Trump urged the public not to panic.

In the White House briefing room, Trump also announced he would meet the heads of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies on Monday to discuss progress on a vaccine and said he was considering closing the southern border with Mexico.

Read more here

First U.S. death from the coronavirus

Keith Griffith reports in the Daily Mail that the first U.S. death from the coronavirus has occurred in the Seattle area. Read more here.

"Whoever sent those workers to handle possibly infected Americans without proper training or protective gear and then allowed them to go their way and mingle with the general population needs to be fired."

In PJ Media, Rick Moran reports in part,

A whistleblower has filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel alleging that Health and Human Services Department officials sent workers to process evacuees from Wuhan, China, without proper training or protective gear.

Wuhan is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

The whistleblower also alleges that HHS dismissed her concerns and she was threatened with the loss of her job if she didn't accept reassignment.

Fox News:

"We are hopeful that Congress and the OSC [the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel] will investigate this case in a timely and comprehensive manner," the whistleblower's attorney, Lauren Naylor, told Fox News, adding that the team could not provide a public copy of the complaint. "This matter concerns HHS’s response to the coronavirus, and its failure to protect its employees and potentially the public. The retaliatory efforts to intimidate and silence our client must be opposed."
The American evacuees were in quarantine at the time, but the workers who were potentially exposed to the virus were allowed to interact with the public. Did HHS violate its own protocols? Did HHS have any protocols in place?

Politico:

The complaint alleges that teams from HHS’ Administration for Children and Families were deployed to air force bases from Jan. 28-31 and Feb. 2-7 to receive Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China — the center of the virus outbreak — and that HHS officials broke protocol and ignored concerns about coronavirus exposure in the process.
The whistleblower also says that the workers were not consistently tested for the virus after being exposed. This is the sort of stupidity that leads to epidemics.

An HHS spokesperson said whistleblower complaints are taken very seriously, and that the department is “providing the complainant all appropriate protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act. We are evaluating the complaint and have nothing further to add at this time.”

Two people with knowledge of the situation told POLITICO the whistleblower’s claims were accurate.

Naturally, Democrats pounced.

Reports of the complaint outraged some on Capitol Hill, and at least one lawmaker, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), called on HHS Secretary Alex Azar to resign Thursday night.

“Allowing HHS workers to be exposed to Wuhan evacuees without adequate protection is gross mismanagement that jeopardizes American lives,” Markey wrote on Twitter. “We need someone in charge who will rise to the level of responding to this threat.”

Some small-minded stupid bureaucrat goofs up and then panics when his monumental errors are pointed out to him, threatening to fire the underling who tried to do the right thing. Except, in this case, we're not talking about a paperwork snafu or even malfeasance. This is out and out stupidity. Whoever sent those workers to handle possibly infected Americans without proper training or protective gear and then allowed them to go their way and mingle with the general population needs to be fired.