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Ambulance

Vast majority of UK doctors warn NHS woefully unprepared for outbreak of coronavirus

Dennis Campbell
The Guardian
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:22 UTC
Coronavirus Western general hospital Edinburgh
© Jane Barlow/PA
A makeshift sign at the Western general hospital in Edinburgh.
An overwhelming majority of doctors fear the NHS is not well prepared to deal with a major outbreak of coronavirus, a survey has found.

More than 99% of 1,618 NHS medics questioned appear not to agree with the assurances given by Boris Johnson that the service will cope if it is hit by a surge in the number of people falling ill.

Doctors are worried that the NHS is already stretched and under heavy pressure, and especially that it has too few intensive care beds and that GP surgeries are struggling to meet patient demand.

"Yesterday Mr Johnson said he was 'very, very confident' the NHS would be able to deal with an outbreak of Covid-19. Our survey shows that frontline doctors don't agree," said Dr Rinesh Parmar, the chair of the Doctors' Association UK, which undertook the survey.

"The truth is the NHS has already been brought to its knees and many doctors fear that our health system simply won't cope in the event of influx of coronavirus patients.

"With nearly 10,000 doctor vacancies and 43,000 nurse vacancies [in the NHS in England] the NHS is already understaffed to deal with demand. A&E waiting times are the worst on record. Intensive care units are at capacity and are even struggling to admit patients who are critically unwell or awaiting cancer surgery."

Comment: Quite an understatement - the system has already been rationing services due to chronic under-funding and could be quickly overwhelmed.

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Life Preserver

All of a sudden, people all over America are prepping like crazy

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
face mask

Comment: One would do well to keep in mind that Covid-19 is becoming overblown in the media while reading the following article: As well as: Coronavirus Expert in Leaked Analysis: 'This is Just a Severe, Localized Common Cold'


I can't remember a time when we have seen such widespread "panic buying" all over the nation. Today I spoke with someone that just visited the closest Wal-Mart in this area, and I was told that there are empty shelves all over the store. There are very few canned goods left, some of the most essential medications have been cleaned out, and there was nothing left in the long-term storable food section at all. Of course similar things are being reported at major retail stores all across the United States. All of a sudden, fear of COVID-19 has motivated thousands upon thousands of Americans to start prepping like crazy. But most of the population is still not taking this crisis seriously enough. As the number of confirmed cases all over the world continues to rise at an exponential rate, what are the stores going to look like when most of the country finally realizes that they should be prepping for an extended pandemic?

Over the past several days, this coronavirus outbreak has escalated significantly.

From Saturday to Sunday, the number of confirmed cases in Italy jumped by 50 percent...
Italy reported a 50% increase in coronavirus cases Sunday, as the US further restricted travel and the famed La Scala opera house closed.

Italy's Civil Protection Authority reported the country now has 1,694 confirmed coronavirus cases, up from 1,128 confirmed cases on Saturday. Thirty-four people have died.

Comment: If nothing else, most of the people prepping will have an extra store of supplies for when a much bigger, much badder virus rears its monstrous head. But just as important (if not more) is the amount of good information coming out on how one may naturally boost one's immune system.

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Arrow Up

Wuhan closes one hospital built to respond to coronavirus amid steep drop in cases

Zack Budryk
The Hill
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 14:27 UTC
Wuhan China makeshift hospital
The city at the center of China's coronavirus epidemic has closed one of 16 hospitals built to respond to the illness after the medical facility discharged the last of its recovered patients.

The closure of the hospital in Wuhan accompanied a steep drop in the number of cases of the virus in Hubei province, Chinese officials said, Reuters reported.

"The rapid rising trend of virus cases in Wuhan has been controlled," Mi Feng, a spokesman for China's National Health Commission, told a briefing Monday. "Outbreaks in Hubei outside of Wuhan are curbed and provinces outside of Hubei are showing a positive trend."

Comment: RT's timelapse footage showing construction of Huoshenshan field hospital in Wuhan, China:



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Stop

US will cut number of Chinese state media journalists working in country, limit duration of stay


RT
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 18:10 UTC
News crews
© Pixabay/Engin Akyurt
The US State Department is limiting the number of employees China's four largest state-run media outlets may hire in the US and the amount of time those journalists can stay, intensifying its crackdown on the Chinese press.

The number of journalists legally permitted to work in the US offices of Beijing's top four media organizations will be cut, while those journalists will see the amount of time they can stay in the US reduced, State Department officials told reporters on Monday. The move affects Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, and China Daily Distribution Corp.

"For years, the [Chinese] government has imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment and intimidation against American and other foreign journalists in China," a senior official was quoted as saying by Reuters. The announcement came after China's decision to expel three Wall Street Journal employees last month over an op-ed calling coronavirus-stricken China the "real sick man of Asia." However, the US had previously reclassified the same four media outlets (plus People's Daily Distribution Corp.) as "diplomatic missions," placing them under tighter government scrutiny.

Now some of the same reporters that Washington called "propaganda agents for Beijing" may find themselves unceremoniously hustled out of the country. As of March 13, the affected outlets will only be permitted 100 journalists, down from 160.
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Binoculars

How the SHTF in Syria: What its REALLY like to survive a long-term war

Brandon Turbeville
The Organic Prepper
Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC
Syria war
Did you ever wonder what kind of societal disruption occurs in the middle of a war? Do you wonder what life is like when you're stuck surviving in the middle of a warzone?

A couple of decades ago, Syria was clean, modern, and safe. Now it's filled with ruined buildings, death in a thousand brutal ways, hunger, and filth.

How did this happen? How did a city like Aleppo (or more specifically "East Aleppo,") once filled with markets, mosques, and beautifully kept ancient sites, turn into a place of devastation and despair? (For some before and after photos, check out this article. Most people don't realize what a beautiful place Syria was before the war.)

Some background on how it all began

In 2003, young Syrians sat in their living rooms and watched on television as the American military rolled into Iraq amid missiles, bombs, and the requisite "Shock and Awe." This was not the first experience their country had with America's military in the region but it was the first time this generation had seen the war with the eyes of adults. Iraq, after all, was not Afghanistan. It was practically next door.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

A divided society with a longing for change: Israelis go to the polls for THIRD time in a year

Elizabeth Blade
Sputnik
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 20:42 UTC
Israel ballot box march 2020
© Reuters / Ronen Zvulun
Voting has commenced in Israel's third election in a year
Israel's parliamentarian race that kicked off on Monday morning will be tight, polls show. Although Prime Minister Netanyahu is leading, the country's left-wing circles are determined to end his rule, and it's now up to ordinary Israelis to determine whether there will be a winner, or yet another round.

The raging Coronavirus, a warning to stay away from crowded places and the fact that this is the third time in less than one year that Israelis are going to the polls didn't keep them at home.

It is still early in Israel, but many have already cast their votes, and it seems that the country is just as divided as it was in the previous rounds.
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Attention

Supply chain shift away from China picks up speed

Fan Yu
The Epoch Times
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 18:53 UTC
chinese manufacturing line
© Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images
This photo taken on February 28, 2020, shows workers wearing facemasks polishing eyeglass frames at the Azure Eyeglasses Company in Wenzho, China.
The manufacturing supply chain shift away from China, which commenced during the U.S.-China trade war, is gaining critical mass amid the coronavirus crisis.

Later this year, U.S. consumers will begin to see Microsoft Surface laptops and Google Pixel smartphones labeled "Made in Vietnam."

Despite calls by Beijing leadership to restart factories quickly, many production facilities are still lacking upstream supplies or workers as migrants are largely still quarantined due to the coronavirus outbreak. This supply chain constraint is one reason the Dow Jones Industry Average slumped 3,600 points last week, the worst weekly drop since the 2008 financial crisis.

Comment: China is currently the linch-pin of most of the world's manufacturing industries. Any disruption in the current just-in-time models of delivery will have serious knock-on effects.

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Quenelle

Bereaved outraged as deadly Grenfell fire inquiry gets delayed


The Canary
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Grenfell tower
The Grenfell Inquiry was adjourned moments after Monday's hearings began, following an outburst from members of the public asking the chair: "Have you sold your soul yet, Sir Martin?"

People were heard shouting "why don't you ask the corporates to leave", "it's a disgrace" and "what's the f****** point" as inquiry chairman Martin Moore-Bick invited the day's first witness, Andrzej Kuszell, director of Studio E architects, to start giving evidence.

As the hearing resumed around 10 minutes later, another man in the room addressed Moore-Bick and said: "These people are not bereaved and survivors."

Several people were escorted from the hearing room during the break.


Comment: Naturally, the elite class in the UK would seek to postpone what should ultimately prove to be a damning case against those in positions of power who set the stage for the inferno.

See also:

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Ambulance

Iranian supreme leader's advisory council member dies of coronavirus, Italian Lombardy govt to be screened, first case pops up in Russia


RT
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 17:23 UTC
Seyyed Mohammad Mirmohammadi
© Wikimedia Commons
Seyyed Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a long-standing member of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, has reportedly died from a novel coronavirus infection.

He was being treated at the Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran when he succumbed to the Covid-19 infection at the age of 71. Mirmohammadi's mother, sister of senior cleric Ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani, also died from a coronavirus infection on Monday.

Mirmohammadi was a member of the sixth and seventh Iranian parliaments and was appointed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei as a member of the Expediency Discernment Council in August 2017.

Iran's former ambassador to the Vatican, Hadi Khosroshahi, died of Covid-19 last week, while the country's Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi placed himself in isolation after appearing to sweat profusely and seeming ill while giving a press conference to assuage fears over the outbreak. He later confirmed that he had been infected with the virus.

Iran is battling shortages of medical supplies - exacerbated by US sanctions - but authorities have allocated a number of military hospitals to treat the general public and help stem the tide of infection. Meanwhile, schools, universities and sports centers have been closed and the parliament has been shut down.

Comment: After a regional councilor tested positive in Lombardy, Italy, the entire local government in the region will now be screened for the virus:
Lombardy's regional governor, Attilio Fontana, has reportedly quarantined himself after his government councilor for economic development was found to be carrying the virus. All members of the local government will now be required to be tested for the illness. Necessary procedures keeping with established protocols will be activated, depending on the results, the regional government said in a statement.

Italy is among several European states struggling to contain the virus. As of Monday, the country has confirmed 1,694 cases, with the death toll at 34, according to reports. An estimated 90 percent of the 1,694 cases in Italy are concentrated in the northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia Romagna.
Russia also saw its first coronavirus case on home soil, from a Russian who caught it in Italy:
The case concerns a young Russian citizen who fell sick on vacation in Italy. He flew back to Russia on February 23, and a few days later went to a clinic in Moscow Region with symptoms of an acute respiratory viral infection, which was initially believed to be SARS. Subsequently, he was hospitalized in an infectious diseases hospital. His situation is currently described as stable.

The man is the fourth known Russian national to be infected, but the first inside the country. Two Chinese citizens diagnosed in Siberia in February have since recovered and been discharged. Three Russians fell ill with Covid-19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, and were later evacuated. Also on Monday, it was reported that a foreign citizen who transited through a Moscow airport from Iran to China, on an Aeroflot flight, had been found to have the disease.
In response, Russian medical authorities have hospitalized and quarantined several people who have been in contact with the man:
Within 24 hours of the first signs on Friday that the man might be infected, a full list of his recent contacts was established, including relatives, friends, acquaintances and the passengers who were on the same flight from Italy as him, Sobyanin said in a statement. "Six relatives and five acquaintances of the patient were hospitalized. From the passengers of the flight [from Italy], 13 people were hospitalized, 83 people were quarantined."


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Attention

Fierce clashes, tear gas at border as Greece vows to 'turn back' flow of migrants from Turkey


RT
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 22:05 UTC
Migrant
© Reuters / Alexandros Avramidis
A hooded migrant prepares to throw a stone at a Greek riot police officer, in Kastanies, Greece on March 1, 2020.
Athens vowed to turn back migrants coming in droves from Turkey, announcing maximum "deterrence" at the border. Thousands are trying get into the EU after Ankara declared its border "open," but were met with tear gas.

For the second day in a row, the Greek border is being besieged by thousands of migrants trying to get into the EU. While some braved the waters in small dinghies to land on Greek islands, large crowds gathered at land border crossings only to be turned away.

"When I heard that the borders opened, I have come from Afghanistan to Turkey. Turkey border is open but Greece borders are closed," one migrant told RT's Ruptly video agency.

Some migrants attempted to sneak in, cutting through the border fence erected by Greece after the 2015 migrant crisis, while others tried to force their way in. Footage from the scene shows migrants trying to break through the border crossings, pelting Greek police with stones and setting objects on fire. Police responded with tear gas.
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