I live in this state, but I don't have to like everything that happens here.
Friday, January 24, 2020
My testimony to a Joint Committee in the Massachusetts Legislature
Note: This page mentions a deadly and highly-contagious disease. Updates about the spread and death toll of this disease are on this page.
Introduction
The Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, sometimes called the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, sometimes forms a joint committee, composed of members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate.
These joint committees hold hearings in this building on legislation that is being considered by the House and the Senate at the same time.
This is sometimes done for the purpose of sending it to the Governor of Massachusetts sooner, so that he can make this legislation part of the Massachusetts General Laws sooner.
A joint committee was formed called the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security. The legislation in the House is H3573. The legislation in the Senate is S1401. A hearing was scheduled today, inside the largest hearing room in the building, called the Gardner Auditorium. Photos of this room are below.
The first photo shows two rows of seats at the front of the room. The seats in the back row are where committee members sit. Anyone who wants to give testimony to a committee or a joint committee sits in one of the four chairs that are at the table that is directly in front of the front row of seats.
At the bottom of the photo you can see rows of seats for the public to sit in so that they can listen to the testimony or to wait to testify. The photo below shows that these seats are only part of the seats that are available for the public to sit in. In this photo, the seats for the committee would be on the extreme left. Those seats were not included in this photo.
There are many seats that face the committee, including a gallery that is just beyond an aisle that is mostly obscured in the previous photo. The photo also shows a balcony at the far end of the room. Underneath the balcony are two doors where the public enters. If they wish, they can also sign up to testify in a small room just outside this auditorium.
This photo shows the gallery seats and the balcony that is at the far end of the room.
The photo below shows the Gardner Auditorium when it's not quite full of people. You can clearly see the aisle that people use to walk from the entrance to the other side of the room.
Uniformed members of the Massachusetts State Police provide security for this building. There's always one officer in this room during hearings. While I was there for this hearing, I heard one woman shouting from the gallery. She was escorted out.
Preparation for my speech
I arrived early for the hearing on these bills, around 9:30am. Before I entered this auditorium today, I signed up to give a three-minute speech. I had been told the specific bill numbers for the Senate bill and the House bill during a conference call last night. I wrote those numbers, along with my name, address, and other information, on a sheet of paper that was on a clipboard, available for any member of the public to use for registering to testify.
After I filled out the one-page form, I entered the auditorium and was very surprised to see that there were only about 20 people in the whole room. I sat down in one of the many empty seats, but I then left the auditorium and went to another room in the building because a press conference on this issue had been scheduled.
By the time that the hearing started, at 11:00am, the room was full, including the gallery and the balcony. The Statehouse has a room where more people can watch the testimony via a television screen. There were so many people who were in the auditorium this morning, this overflow room had to be used.
My speech
This is the complete text of the speech I wanted to give. I was unable to finish it because every speaker had a three-minute time limit. Boldfacing indicate words that I emphasized with my voice. Watch for links to documentation, including a YouTube video that is a good illustration of a relevant concept, that I could not submit to the joint committee because I was giving a verbal speech without any opportunity to make a multi-media presentation.
Members of the Joint Committee, in order for you to have a complete picture of the immigration situation in our state and in our nation, I must give you three pieces of bad news.
When, not if, some of these migrants enter America, without a valid U.S. passport or a U.S. visa, they will not have submitted to any medical examination by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol because this agency will not be able to catch them when they enter. That leaves the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to protect the public health of this state and this nation from a public health emergency that could result in hundreds of our citizens being sick in hospitals and dozens dying.
If this legislation becomes state law, it will prevent our law enforcement agencies from working together towards the common goal of protecting us from current and future threats, including immigrants who are carrying the Corona Virus and who are not found until long after they enter our country.
If this legislation passes, I will pray that none of you will ever have to bury your children.
The video of the public hearing
This page of the website of the Massachusetts State Government includes a video that lasts for just over three and a half hours, but the video begins with me leaving the small table where I gave my testimony. You can only see me, wearing a white shirt with vertical pinstripes, for the first 16 seconds of this video.
This joint committee didn't put the video of my testimony on the video because I testified against the two bills. That's an unacceptable political bias. The public and the members of the House and Senate that will vote on these two bills should hear all of the testimony, including my testimony.
This page has the video of the second half of the hearing. It also lasts for three and a half hours.
Updates on the spread of the virus
The dates in this section are the dates of the news stories. I may have added them to this page later.
Even as China takes more stringent measures to limit the movement of the vast country’s population during the biggest travel period of the year, and as the United States and other countries move ahead with evacuation plans, there are increasing fears that a quarantine will not be enough to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, which so far has infected at least 2,800 people in China and killed at least 82.
Another paragraph in the Washington Post story says that 50 million people have been quarantined. These are two additional paragraphs in this story.
A scientific assessment of the spread of the disease, assuming an optimistic 90 percent quarantine, still predicted more than 59,000 infections and 1,500 deaths — twice the toll of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday there were no new confirmed cases of coronavirus overnight but that it is investigating 110 people in 26 states.
The death toll from the new coronavirus now stands at 106, with the number of infections almost doubling in a day to more than 4,500.
These are the first two paragraphs of a U.S.A. Today story, dated today. The link was in their story.
U.S. consulate staffers and other Americans in Wuhan will be evacuated to California on Wednesday as the death toll rose to 106 from a new virus racing through China.
Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China, is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. The city is one of more than a dozen under tight lockdown as the government struggles to contain the virus.
These are the first three paragraphs of an NBC News story, dated today.
The number of people known to have died from the new coronavirus in China jumped over 24 hours as U.S. officials prepared to evacuate Americans from the locked-down epicenter of the epidemic.
On Tuesday, the death toll stood at 106 — up from 80 a day earlier — according to officials at China’s National Health Commission.
The number of cases has also spiked to 4,515 — up from 2,744 on Monday — of which 976 are considered severe.
January 29, 2020
The third paragraph of my speech mentioned the damage done to the Chinese economy by this virus. I specifically mentioned their travel ban to and from ten of their cities.
These are the first four paragraphs of a Reuters story, dated today.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s economic growth may drop to 5% or even lower due to the coronavirus outbreak, possibly pushing policymakers into introduce more stimulus measures, a government economist said in remarks published on Wednesday.
The fast-spreading outbreak, which has killed more than 130 people and infected almost 6,000 in China, could cut first-quarter GDP growth by about 1 percentage point, Caijing magazine quoted Zhang Ming as saying.
“GDP growth in the first quarter of 2020 could be about 5.0%, and we cannot rule out the possibility of falling below 5.0%,” Zhang said.
Zhang, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences - a top government think tank - said his forecast was based on the assumption that the outbreak will peak in early to mid-February and
end by the end of March.
If the assumption that is being made by this Chinese economist is wrong, and the virus continues to get worse after the early February peak that he predicts, then the Chinese economy will slow down even more.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The person-to-person spread of the new coronavirus in three countries - Germany, Vietnam and Japan - is worrying and will be considered by experts reconvened to consider declaring a global emergency, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
This is the complete text of an NBC story, dated today.
A close contact of one of the patients in the U.S. with coronavirus has been infected with the illness, the first evidence that the new virus has spread person-to-person in this country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.
The new patient lives with a Chicago woman in her 60s who was diagnosed after returning last month from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak that's now sickened upward of 8,000 people.
At least 170 people have died, all in China.
Six people have now been diagnosed with the new coronavirus in the U.S., two each in Illinois and California, and one each in Arizona and Washington state.
This is a developing story, and will be updated.
These other websites published a similar story today.
These are the first four paragraphs of a National Public Radio story, dated today. It includes a clickable link to an audio version of this story.
Nurses in Hong Kong are threatening to go on strike if the city doesn't shut its border with mainland China. Some nurses have already engaged in unauthorized sickouts to protest what they say is a lack of action by Hong Kong officials.
Hong Kong Secretary for Health and Food Sophia Chan broke into tears while being interviewed on a local radio station on Saturday as she urged doctors and nurses to stay on the job. But Chan also said she's aware of the incredible stress the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is placing on medical staff. Hospitals in the city are scrambling to set up isolation wards and are already overwhelmed with nearly 700 possible cases (although there have only been about a dozen confirmed cases through the end of January).
"I'm worried about the emotions of health care workers," Chan said.
Thousands of members of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Employees Alliance say they will walk off the job starting Monday if the city doesn't seal its border with China.
This is the last sentence of the second paragraph.
"Hospitals in the city are scrambling to set up isolation wards and are already overwhelmed with nearly 700 possible cases (although there have only been about a dozen confirmed cases through the end of January)."
The city that has about a dozen confirmed cases of the Corona Virus and almost 700 possible cases is Hong Kong. China has thousands of possible cases.
February 3, 2020
This is the complete text of a Washington Post story, dated today. The links in this story were included.
Coronavirus cases continue to surge in China while new infections are being reported around the world. Stock markets in China, reopening after the Lunar New Year holiday, recorded their sharpest falls in more than four years Monday, reflecting increasing concern about the damage the outbreak is inflicting on the local economy. Here’s what we know:
China’s National Health Commission reported Monday that there are 17,228 confirmed cases in China, including 15 in Hong Kong and eight in Macao. The self-governing island of Taiwan reported 10 cases. The World Health Organization reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside China.
China’s main share indexes plunged more than 8 percent, reopening after a 10-day break, as economists continue to revise growth forecasts downward.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified Congress on Sunday that it might need to transfer as much as $136 million to help combat the epidemic.
The United States recorded its 11th case of the coronavirus, with a couple from central California falling ill after the husband’s trip to China’s Hubei province at the epicenter of the outbreak.
If the Chinese economy becomes really bad, their neighbors in the South China Sea will have more freedom to travel without the fear of the Chinese military harming them.
Major construction at three of China’s large man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea is wrapping up, allowing Beijing to deploy fighter jets and mobile missile launchers to the area at any time, a think tank said Monday.
The building of military and dual-use infrastructure on the so-called Big 3 islands in the contested Spratly chain — Subi, Mischief, and Fiery Cross reefs — is in the final stages, with the naval, air, radar and defensive facilities largely complete, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI).
All three islands boast hangers that can accommodate 24 fighter jets and four larger planes, including surveillance, transport, refueling or bomber aircraft. Hardened shelters with retractable roofs
for mobile missile launchers have also been built on the islands.
China has also constructed significant radar and sensor arrays on all three islands, positioning them close to point defense structures to provide protection against air or missile strikes.
These are the first four paragraphs of a Business Insider story, dated today. The link in the fourth paragraph was in their story.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton suggested that Chinese officials misled the public on the origins of the novel coronavirus that has killed at least 362 people and infected more than 17,400 others, saying it may have originated in a "superlaboratory."
At a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing with US military leaders on Thursday, Cotton described the coronavirus as the "biggest and most important story in the world" and "worse than Chernobyl."
Cotton, a longtime China hawk, suggested Beijing had not been as forthcoming about the number of infections and was "lying about it from the very beginning" to downplay the seriousness of the epidemic. Chinese officials have been accused of lowering the number of cases and tamping down on reports weeks before it was formally acknowledged by the government.
"They also claimed, for almost two months until earlier this week, that it originated in a seafood market in Wuhan," Cotton said, referring to a study published by The Lancet. "That is not the case."
TOKYO (Reuters) - The spread of a new coronavirus could throw “cold water over the growing momentum of the 2020 Games,” Tokyo Organising Committee CEO Toshiro Muto said on Wednesday.
“I am seriously concerned ... I hope this will be resolved as soon as possible,” Muto said at a meeting in Tokyo with the organisers of the Paralympic Games.
Japanese government officials including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have said the government would work hard to minimise any impact from the virus outbreak on the Games, which start on July 24.
The death toll from the flu-like virus that originated in China’s central city of Wuhan has passed 490, as two U.S. airlines suspended flights to Hong Kong following the first fatality there and 10 cases were confirmed on a quarantined Japanese cruise ship.
"The death toll from the flu-like virus that originated in China’s central city of Wuhan has passed 490, as two U.S. airlines suspended flights to Hong Kong following the first fatality there and 10 cases were confirmed on a quarantined Japanese cruise ship."
February 6, 2020
These are the first five paragraphs of a February 6, 2020 Fox News story, dated today. The links in these paragraphs were in their story.
A Chinese newborn has become the youngest person infected with the coronavirus, after it was diagnosed just 30 hours after birth, according to multiple reports.
The baby's mother tested positive before she gave birth on Feb. 2 in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, the BBC reported, citing state media outlet Xinhua. The baby is said to be in stable condition.
The television network says the baby could have either contracted the virus while in the womb or became infected due to close contact with the mother after birth.
"This reminds us to pay attention to mother-to-child being a possible route of coronavirus transmission," chief physician of Wuhan Children Hospital's neonatal medicine department, Zeng Lingkong told Reuters.
The median age for infected patients is between 49 to 56 years old, according to a report by the Journal of American Medical Association.
These are the complete text of a Reuters story, dated today. The links in these paragraphs were in their story.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it was too early to say that China’s coronavirus outbreak was peaking, but noted that Wednesday was the first day that the overall number of new cases in China had dropped.
The death toll from the virus in mainland China jumped by 73 to 563, with more than 28,000 confirmed infections inside the world’s second-largest economy.
WHO official Mike Ryan said there had been a constant increase in cases in Hubei province, at the centre of the outbreak, but that that increase had not been seen in other provinces.
February 7, 2020
These are the first four paragraphs of a NBC News story, dated today. The link in the fourth paragraph was in their story.
The number of deaths from novel coronavirus in mainland China increased to 811 Saturday, China’s National Health Commission said. The death toll now exceeds the number of deaths reported from the SARS outbreak in 2003, which killed 774 people, according to the World Health Organization.
Like the coronavirus, SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, started in China. It later spread across the globe and infected more than 8,000 people worldwide.
As of Sunday, more than 37,190 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported on mainland China. At least 2,649 patients were discharged from hospitals, China's health commission said.
In addition to the mainland deaths, two people who had been confirmed to have novel coronavirus have died elsewhere, one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong, bringing total global deaths to at least 813.
Officials said early Tuesday morning that the death toll from the novel coronavirus had surpassed 1,000, with nearly all of those deaths occurring in mainland China.
On Monday, an additional 65 cases were found on the Diamond Princess, which is quarantined in the port of Yokohama near Tokyo, the Associated Press reported. That's on top of 70 reported earlier. The Japanese government was considering testing all 3,711 passengers and crew on the ship, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said.
Beyond dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, health authorities are scrambling to deliver medicine requested by more than 600 other passengers. Elderly people and others with disabilities and chronic diseases are not getting enough support, a group of Japanese passengers on the Diamond Princess said Monday.
“Our living environment on board has rapidly deteriorated and we need the issues addressed quickly,” the group said Monday in a statement released through Japanese media. They asked officials to speed up the delivery of refills of prescription medicine, dispatch more medical staff and improve their living conditions, including more frequent room cleaning.
“We are increasingly getting worried, as information released to the passengers is insufficient,” they said.
Meanwhile, mainland China reported a rise in cases of the new coronavirus after a sharp decline the previous day, according to AP. The number of deaths there jumped by 97 to 908.
February 11, 2020
These are the first five paragraphs of an OAN News story, dated today.
Another case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the U.S., bringing the national total to 13 cases. A California hospital momentarily released a patient who was unknowingly infected by the coronavirus.
The UC San Diego Medical Center discharged four people Sunday after botched test results came back negative for the disease. Those patients were part of a group who recently evacuated from Wuhan, China.
“Because these individuals were in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak where there is intense and escalating community-wide spread of this novel coronavirus, we consider them at high risk of exposure,” stated Dr. Christopher Braden, Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
After being released from the hospital, they were transferred to the Miramar Air Base where all China evacuees will stay in quarantine.
However, doctors said they received new test results on Monday, which showed one patient did indeed have the virus despite already being released. That person has since been brought back to the medical center, where they will stay for treatment and observation.
February 12, 2020
These are the first two paragraphs of a Taiwan News story, dated today. This story has had several updates. The last one was made on the 15th. The link in the first paragraph was in their story.
A staffer from a funeral home in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, claims the number of bodies she and her co-workers have had to transport and cremate each day is four to five times higher than the usual amount. Based on the account of the Wuhan funeral home staffer, the daily
average number of bodies suspected of being coronavirus victims is estimated at 225, or 4,725 bodies, at a single Wuhan funeral home since Jan. 22.
There are eight registered funeral homes in Wuhan. If the account of the funeral home staffer is true, this would mean there are 1,628 deaths per day in the city and 34,200 over the past 21 days.
This is one of those updates. It is dated February 13, 2020, and the images were included in their story. The link in the first paragraph was in their story.
Publicly available satellite images from NASA's Fire Information for Rescue Management System (FIRMS) show dramatically increased open-air fires during the period of the Wuhan virus outbreak from Jan. 11 to Feb. 11, compared with October 2019.
The image below shows open-air fires in Wuhan (LAT 30.5, LON 114.6) in October 2019, which precedes the earliest reported cases of the disease. In this image, a few scattered fires in dark blue signifying a "fire radiative power" (FRP) of 1 and light blue, signifying an FRP of 5 can be seen.
The second image shows open-air fires in and around the city from Jan. 11 to Feb. 11. Over this period there is a noticeable increase of fires in dark blue, light blue, and green which signifies an FRP of 10.
February 13, 2020
These are the first three paragraphs of a CBS News story, dated today. AFP, mentioned in two of these paragraphs, is a French news organization that is similar to the Associated Press. Their website will automatically load the English-language version of their website if you are reading it in the United States.
The fight against the novel coronavirus took a turn for the worse on Wednesday night, as Chinese health officials in the Hubei province reported 242 new deaths and 14,840 new cases of the flu-like virus. That brings the worldwide death toll to at least 1,357 and the number of confirmed cases to more than 60,000.
The rise in cases comes as Chinese officials broadened their definition of confirmed cases. Now, lung imaging can be used to diagnose the virus in a suspected patient, in addition to the standard nucleic acid tests, according to AFP.
Chinese officials said 13,332 of the new cases and just over half the new death toll can be attributed to the new classification, AFP reported.
February 14, 2020
Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the CDC: "Right now there is no evidence to me that this [Coronovirus] outbreak is at all under control. It is definitely not controlled. And the sooner we can help them get it under control, the better for the whole world." pic.twitter.com/g5aoaVgprh
These are the first five paragraphs of a Nature article, dated today. The links in these paragraphs were in their story.
China has more than 80 running or pending clinical trials on potential treatments for COVID-19, the illness caused by a coronavirus that has thus far killed nearly 1,400 people and infected more than
48,000 across China.
New pharmaceutical drugs are listed beside thousand-year-old traditional therapies in a public registry of China’s clinical trials, which is growing every day. There is no known cure, and
doctors are eager to help those with the disease — but scientists caution that only carefully conducted trials will determine which measures work.
Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO), says that its teams have been taking stock of China’s many trials, as well as drawing up a plan for a clinical-trial
protocol that could simultaneously be run by clinicians around the world. If China’s trials, which include as many as 600 people each, are not designed with strict standards for study parameters, such as control groups, randomization and the measures of clinical outcomes, the efforts will be in vain. So the WHO is working with Chinese scientists to set standards from the start. For example, a person’s stages of recovery or decline should be measured in the same way, regardless of the treatment being tested. “We can hopefully bring some sort of structure into the whole thing,” Swaminathan explains.
The WHO's clinical-trial protocol is designed to be flexible and allow researchers around the world to pool their results over time. It will compare two or three therapies backed by scientific evidence, including an HIV-drug combination (lopinavir and ritonavir) and an experimental antiviral called remdesivir.
“Getting the clinical trials straight is a priority, since if we get information on what is working and not working, we can benefit patients now,” Swaminathan says.
These are the first six paragraphs of a Washington Post story, dated today. The links in these paragraphs were in their story.
In the wee hours of a rainy Monday, more than a dozen buses sat on the tarmac at Tokyo's Haneda Airport. Inside, 328 weary Americans wearing surgical masks and gloves waited anxiously to fly home after quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess, the luxury liner where the novel coronavirus had exploded into a ship-wide epidemic.
But as the buses idled, U.S. officials wrestled with troubling news. New test results showed that 14 passengers were infected with the virus. The U.S. State Department had promised that no one with the infection would be allowed to board the planes.
A decision had to be made. Let them all fly? Or leave them behind in Japanese hospitals?
In Washington, where it was still Sunday afternoon, a fierce debate broke out: The State Department and a top Trump administration health official wanted to forge ahead. The infected passengers had no symptoms and could be segregated on the plane in a plastic-lined enclosure. But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disagreed, contending they could still spread the virus. The CDC believed the 14 should not be flown back with uninfected passengers.
“It was like the worst nightmare,” said a senior U.S. official involved in the decision, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. “Quite frankly, the alternative could have been pulling grandma out in the pouring rain, and that would have been bad, too.”
The State Department won the argument. But unhappy CDC officials demanded to be left out of the news release that explained that infected people were being flown back to the United States — a move that would nearly double the number of known coronavirus cases in this country.
These are the first six paragraphs of a Reuters story, dated today.
SEOUL/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - International concern about the spread of coronavirus outside China grew on Sunday with sharp rises in infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran.
The government in Seoul put the country on high alert after the number of infections surged over 600 with six deaths. A focal point was a church in the southeastern city of Daegu, where a 61-year-old member of the congregation with no recent record of overseas travel tested positive for the virus.
In Italy, officials said a third person infected with the flu-like virus had died, while the number of cases jumped to above 150 from just three before Friday.
Authorities sealed off the worst affected towns and banned public gatherings in much of the north, including halting the carnival in Venice, where there were two cases, to try to contain the biggest
outbreak in Europe.
“I was surprised by this explosion of cases,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told state broadcaster RAI, warning that the numbers would likely rise in the coming days. “We will do everything we can to contain the contagion.”
Italian health authorities were struggling to find out how the virus started. “If we cannot find ‘patient zero’ then it means the virus is even more ubiquitous than we thought,” said Luca Zaia, the regional governor of the wealthy Veneto region.
February 24, 2020
These are the first four paragraphs of a CNBC story, dated today. The link in the third paragraph was in their story.
The White House is planning to ask Congress to approve an emergency spending package to help the Trump administration battle the spread of the coronavirus, a source familiar with the situation told CNBC on Monday.
The proposed spending deal could be sent to Congress as soon as this week, the source said.
The Washington Post first reported the White House’s preparations Monday morning. The Post reported that the package could include a request for about $1 billion in funding — but that amount should not be considered the last word as plans are still being finalized, CNBC’s source said.
The coronavirus has killed at least 2,600 people around the world and infected tens of thousands so far. The World Health Organization declared the virus a global health emergency last month.
These are the first six paragraphs of an Express story, dated today. The links in the first paragraph were in their story.
The deadly virus has now claimed the lived of 2,600 people after infecting more than 79,000 worldwide. Experts now fear a global pandemic, after Italy confirmed six people have died following a surge in cases. Over the weekend, Australian scientist claimed they had developed a vaccine, adding to the list of international researchers trying to bring a cure to market as soon as
possible.
But, Nicola Stonehouse, professor in molecular virology at the University of Leeds, has warned it could take decades before that is a reality.
She told Wired earlier this month: “To make a vaccine conventionally – to test it and actually get it on the market – can take a decade, and has done.
“In fact, it’s taken several decades for some vaccines in the past.”
Unfortunately, she added, creating a vaccine is a slow and meticulous process.
They have to go through multiple stages of development – from discovery to clinical trials before they can be passed as safe.
February 27, 2020
.@SecAzar provides an update on confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States—and how Americans should prepare to keep risk to their families and communities low.
This woman is a reporter for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Her verified Twitter account had 132,000 followers on the day that she posted this tweet. The term "Mps" refers to Members of Parilament. This acronym is also used in Great Britain.
Iran’s Vice president Massoumeh Ebtekar has been tested positive to #Coronavirus. Ebtekar was present at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, sitting not far from President Rouhani. 2 Mps and a deputy health minister have said in past days that they have been infected. pic.twitter.com/kMKUGbmaLX
He is absolutely correct. No public health agency can effectively quarantine someone who has been diagnosed with any disease if that person has the ability to enter or leave the quarantined area.
What's worse, no public health agency can guarantee that a large population that doesn't have a disease will never be infected with it if people whose health is unknown (undocumented immigrants) can enter the sovereign land that is protected by that public health agency.
This video was uploaded in November 2018 by the news division of Canada's public broadcasting agency, CBC News.
It shows a group of people trying to enter the United States at its' border with Mexico. Most of them are succeeding.
None of them have been examined by a doctor to determine whether they are carrying any of several deadly viruses.
These people are a threat to the public health of America.
Historical Note
In March 2016, I gave a three-minute speech to a different Joint Committee, but it was also done in the same room of the Massachusetts Statehouse. The focus of that Joint Committee was about the educational standards in this state. My transcript of that three-minute speech that day is on this blog page.
My testimony that day in 2016 was mostly based on the facts and figures that I wrote about on this page in this blog, which criticized a proposed change in the statewide educational standards.
This essay makes a clear distinction between a true scientist and someone who is only capable of reading a college textbook about science.
I call that person a technician. A true scientist has more capabilities, including the ability to conduct an experiment in his field of expertise, an experiment that follows the Scientific Method. A simple diagram of this process is on the right.
The deadly animal virus epidemic spreading globally may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, according to an Israeli biological warfare expert.
The laboratory is the only declared site in China capable of working with deadly viruses.
Dany Shoham, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who has studied Chinese bio warfare, said the institute is linked to Beijing’s covert biological weapons program.
At an emergency meeting in Beijing held last Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke about the need to contain the coronavirus and set up a system to prevent similar epidemics in the future.
A national system to control biosecurity risks must be put in place “to protect the people’s health,” Xi said, because lab safety is a “national security” issue.
Xi didn’t actually admit that the coronavirus now devastating large swaths of China had escaped from one of the country’s bioresearch labs. But the very next day, evidence emerged suggesting that this is exactly what happened, as the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology released a new directive titled: “Instructions on strengthening biosecurity management in microbiology labs that handle advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus.”
Read that again. It sure sounds like China has a problem keeping dangerous pathogens in test tubes where they belong, doesn’t it? And just how many “microbiology labs” are there in China that handle
“advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus”?
It turns out that in all of China, there is only one. And this one is located in the Chinese city of Wuhan that just happens to be … the epicenter of the epidemic.
That’s right. China’s only Level 4 microbiology lab that is equipped to handle deadly coronaviruses, called the National Biosafety Laboratory, is part of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday released their final report investigating China's actions related to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing Beijing of covering up the virus threat and faulting the World Health Organization for failing to push back.
The 96-page report builds on interim findings released in June by Republicans, and largely backs President Trump's argument that the COVID-19 pandemic could have been prevented if not for the actions of China.
The report accuses China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of destroying evidence, suppressing information about the virus spread and failing to notify the world of the first cases of the disease and under obligations of International Health Regulations.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. State Department late Monday expanded their travel advisories to cover all of China due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The CDC issued a level 3 travel warning, its highest level, recommending travelers avoid all nonessential travel to China. Previously only Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, was at a Level 3. The rest of China was rated Level 2, which recommends "practice enhanced precautions.''
"The outbreak is growing and there is limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas,'' the CDC said in a post on Twitter.
This CNN story, published January 29, 2020, names nine airlines that have suspended all flights to and from China.
As a defensive measure, we must shut down commercial air travel between the United States and China.
As an offensive measure, we need a Manhattan Project level effort to work with our best research scientists and laboratories to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/arKHvuMxaG
.@StateDept is increasing the #China Travel Advisory to Level 4 – Do Not Travel. This is due to the spread of the novel #coronavirus throughout China & the @WHO determination that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. https://t.co/BIIUdavoP0
Starting Sunday, the U.S. will temporarily bar entry to foreign nationals believed to be at risk of transmitting a new virus. All flights from China will be funneled to seven major U.S. airports where passengers can be screened for illness. https://t.co/qPnn4UWLni
The Trump administration on Friday declared the coronavirus a public health emergency, and temporarily banned foreign nationals who have been to China in the past two weeks from entering the United States.
President Donald Trump signed an order denying entry to the foreign nationals, but immediate family of US citizens were exempt from that order.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that anyone who has been in China's Hubei province, where Wuhan -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- is located, in the past two weeks will be subject to mandatory quarantine for 14 days.
The ban comes as American Airlines, Delta and United announced they are suspending flights to China in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak which has killed more than 200 people.
The Trump administration declared a public health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak and said it would take the extraordinary step of barring entry to the United States of foreign nationals who have recently traveled to China https://t.co/ZCetGbw7ajpic.twitter.com/gPv13F4kyS
#Huanggang, a city neighboring #Wuhan that reported the second-highest number of #coronavirus infections, imposes restrictions on local residents from going out. Each household can designate one family member to purchase daily necessities in every two days. pic.twitter.com/fzIRUOhvSw
“There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade.” So declared the World Health Organisation’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on February 3rd after several countries, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, had closed their borders with China or (like America and Australia) announced that foreign citizens who had recently visited China would be barred from entering. Yet many people in Hong Kong want the territory to seal itself off from the Chinese mainland. Their demands are putting new political pressure on the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, after months of pro-democracy unrest.
The global cost of the coronavirus could be three or four times that of the 2003 SARS outbreak that sapped the world’s economy by $40 billion, according to the economist who calculated that figure.
The sheer growth in the Chinese economy over the last 17 years means the global health emergency triggered by the coronavirus outbreak has far greater potential to gouge global growth, according to Warwick McKibbin, professor of economics at the Australian National University in Canberra.
“It’s just a mathematical thing,” McKibbin said in a phone interview. “Most of the GDP loss that we saw in the SARS model, and in reality, was China slowing down. And so, with China much bigger, you’d expect the billions would be much bigger.”
While difficult to pinpoint a precise cost as the crisis is still unfolding, the impact will be experienced mostly through changes in “human psychology,” he said. “Panic is what seems to be the biggest drain on the economy, rather than deaths.”
“Panic is what seems to be the biggest drain on the economy, rather than deaths.” - Warwick McKibbin, Professor of Economics at the Australian National University in Canberra
Every death prevents one person from working and contributing to the economic growth of his city, his state, and his country, but the slow death of a person whose friends and family visit him or her daily in a hospital can prevent many people from contributing to the economic growth of his city, his state, and his country.
The Trump administration has notified Congress that it will tap $105 million from a reserve fund designed to combat infectious diseases as it responds to the novel coronavirus that has sickened thousands in China and put the rest of the globe on high alert.
The money will support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s screening at ports of entry, support lab activity, educate the public and transfer and monitor U.S. citizens being transferred out of China.
Also, the Health and Human Service Department might transfer an additional $136 million from other accounts to combat the outbreak, which is evolving by the day.
“With the disease outbreak expanding rapidly in China, and more cases occurring in the United States, it is not possible to project exact funding needs weeks in advance,” an HHS spokesperson told The Washington Times.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow conceded today the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus in China will affect its ability to purchase massive amounts of U.S. goods and services as part of the "phase one" trade deal.
"The export boom from that trade deal will take longer because of the Chinese virus, that is true," Kudlow said on Fox Business.
China has not formally asked for consultations on meeting a commitment to buy $200 billion in U.S. farm goods, energy products and other goods and services over the next two years. The deal, signed last month by President Donald Trump, will go into effect on Feb. 14.
Kudlow said he didn't "wish China any ill whatsoever," but said the coronavirus could spur business investment in the U.S.
"You may get a step up in production here in the U.S., which would be very beneficial," he said.
This is the opposite of what I expect. I thought that because tens of thousands of Chinese were either sick in hospitals or visiting sick relatives, China's domestic production would go down, yet their people would still need food, gasoline for their cars, electricity for their houses and businesses, and other necessities of life. I thought that non-Chinese countries, because they're suffering far less from the virus, would be in an excellent position to supply the things that China can't get because of the effects of the virus.
For New York-based real-estate agent Xiang Jill Ji, the coronavirus outbreak that began in China has already had an effect on her business.
One client who was planning to purchase property in New York with financial assistance from his parents — who live in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak began — had to back out of a deal when his parents decided against sending him money.
Another client was supposed to travel to the U.S. in early March to close a real-estate purchase. The closing is now postponed indefinitely after the Trump administration announced it will bar all non-U.S. citizens who recently visited China from entering the country.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and fear,” Ji, who works as a broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate, told MarketWatch. “I was supposed to meet some groups of Chinese investors in March and April. At the moment, I don’t think they’re able to travel.”
The spread of coronavirus will reduce GDP growth in the first quarter to just 1 percent, down from a previous forecast of 2.2 percent, according to an S&P Global analysis.
"We expect most of the drag on U.S. growth to be in the first quarter, with a smaller hit in the second quarter and a rebound in the latter half," said Beth Ann Bovino, U.S. chief economist at S&P Global.
But the impact could be more or less severe depending on the longevity and intensity of the outbreak, Bovina added.
“Along with the potentially devastating human toll, if the virus spreads further and lasts longer, the impact on virtually every economy could be far worse,” the report said.
Notice that this news story is reporting on the economic damage to the United States economy, not the Chinese economy. This journal usually reports on U.S. political events, but if this story is about the U.S. economy, they should still say so.
The rapid development of China’s coronavirus crisis coincided with the annual idling of much of the country’s economic activity due to the Lunar New Year break, which typically runs for a week or two. Global economists have been watching the post-holiday economic restart closely. Delayed a week to allow public health officials to get a better handle on the contagion, experts are looking for clues about the extent to which one of the world’s largest economies is coming back to life amid widespread coronavirus concerns. The Gazette spoke with Harvard Business School’s Willy Shih, an expert on Asian industrial competitiveness and the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice.
GAZETTE: Do you have a sense of whether this will be the biggest event affecting the global economy in 2020?
SHIH:I think so. I don’t think people have fully appreciated what the impact is going to be because it occurred during the Lunar New Year break, and many companies that have supply chains or rely on products coming out of China had already planned for the disruption. They already had some inventory on hand and knew there was going to be a break in production. It happens every year. A lot of Chinese companies were supposed to start reopening yesterday, and what I’m hearing from numerous sources is that it’s spotty.
GAZETTE:Why is that, because of virus fears?
SHIH:A lot of workers come from inland provinces, that’s the whole Chinese manufacturing model. Can they get back? With all the transport shut down, it’s really hard, especially the lower-cost, long-distance buses. High-speed rail is too expensive for many workers. So that — and cities basically imposing quarantines — makes it very hard for them to get back to work. Then, if you look at the Chinese manufacturing model, they have a lot of semi-skilled labor that they can throw onto assembly lines for products where you have manual assembly. You have buildings with maybe 10,000 people in fairly close quarters working on assembly of physically small products. If you’re assembling a smartphone, you’ll have workers organized into assembly cells — maybe 15 people, maybe 30 — and they’re passing these products along as they each do one stage of the assembly process. You can imagine being a factory manager: “I have all these people working in close quarters. I don’t have enough test kits. I don’t have enough masks. I don’t have enough protective garments. If one of them gets sick, and I have contagion in the factory, how am I going to quarantine them?” You can imagine that a lot of people are being very cautious about restarting production.
February 21, 2020
This is the subtitle of a February 21, 2020 Wall Street Journal story.
Surveys indicate February U.S. output fell to lowest level in more than six years as global economies started to feel effects of China’s virus outbreak
U.S. officials will have a better idea of how the coronavirus outbreak will impact the economy in “three or four weeks,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday.
Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the G-20 summit in Riyadh, Mnuchin said it was difficult to make strong predictions about the economic impact of the outbreak right now.
“I think we’re going to need another three or four weeks to see how the virus reacts, until we really have good statistical data,” he said.
“Although the rate the virus spreads at is quite significant, the mortality rate is quite small. It’s something we’re monitoring carefully, one of the discussions we’re having here is that countries should be prepared, but I think we’re at a point where it’s too early to either say this is very concerning or it’s not concerning.”
President Donald Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence to head the Coronavirus task force charged with preparing for and preventing outbreaks in the United States Wednesday night.
The White House press briefing came hours after Trump returned from a diplomatic trip to India, and he described the current threat level of the disease as “low” in the U.S. His statement echoed that of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a Tuesday press briefing, where he described the virus as “contained,” but warned that more cases are expected as borders can’t be closed off entirely. Pence will replace Azar as head of the task force and report directly to the president.
Trump went on to cite a study from Johns Hopkins University that found the U.S. was the most well-prepared nation in the world when it comes to a flu-like outbreak such as Coronavirus.
“It could be at a small level or a larger level,” Trump said of the potential U.S. outbreak. “Whatever happens we’re totally prepared. We have the best people in the world. You see that from the study. We have the best prepared people, the best people in the world. Congress is willing to give us much more than we’re even asking for. That’s nice for a change. But we are totally ready, willing and able. It’s a term we use. Ready, willing and able. It’s going to be very well-under control.”
Coca-Cola reported that the outbreak of coronavirus in China could affect its supply chain demands, leading to a shorter supply of goods that go into making the company's diet beverages.
Exports of goods from China, such as artificial sweeteners used in the company's zero-sugar drinks, have been delayed as a result of industrial stalls related to the spread of the virus, according to CNN on Tuesday.
"We have initiated contingency supply plans and do not foresee a short-term impact due to these delays," Coca-Cola wrote in an annual report. "However, we may see tighter supplies of some of these ingredients in the longer term should production or export operations in China deteriorate."
In its report, the company listed sweeteners used in its beverages, including aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, saccharin, cyclamate, and steviol glycosides. Coca-Cola indicated that it
considered sucralose, commonly known as Splenda, a "critical raw material" obtained from suppliers in China and the U.S., the report said.
Chinese manufacturing activity plunged to an all-time low in February, with the first official data published amid the coronavirus outbreak confirming fears over the impact on the Chinese economy.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slowed to 35.7, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday, having slipped to 50.0 in January when the full impact of the coronavirus was not yet evident.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected the February reading to come in at 45.0. A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in sector activity. The farther the figure is below 50, the greater the contraction in activity.
China’s official manufacturing PMI dropped to 38.8 in November 2008 at the start of the global financial crisis.
“The economy experienced huge negative growth in February, the trough has been reached, the duration of the impact should be monitored in the next step. It is the time to call for new infrastructure to turn the crisis into an opportunity,” Ren Zeping, chief economist at Evergrande Research Institute, said on Weibo.
China’s non-manufacturing PMI – a gauge of sentiment in the services and construction sectors – also dropped, to 29.6 from 54.1 in January. This was also the lowest on record, below the previous low of 49.7 in November 2011, according to the NBS. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected the February reading to come in at 50.5.
The House overwhelmingly passed nearly $8 billion in emergency funding to combat the coronavirus on Wednesday amid growing concerns about a widespread outbreak within the United States.
The 415-2 House vote sends the legislation to the Senate, where it will be considered Thursday. That could get the measure to the White House by the end of the week.
Congress is facing intense pressure to act quickly, with California becoming the second state on Wednesday to announce a death from the coronavirus. Eighty cases, including 11 deaths, have been reported in 13 states.
March 6, 2020
These are the first four paragraphs of a March 6, 2020 Bloomberg story. The links in the first and second paragraphs were in their story.
Let’s just say it: The longest economic expansion in U.S. history may already be over, killed by Covid-19.
It might seem crazy to talk about a recession when jobs are plentiful. Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a decline in the February unemployment rate to 3.5%, tying a 50-year low.
But a recession isn’t when things are bad. It’s when they aren’t quite as good as they were at the peak. (Conversely, an “expansion” begins when the economy hits bottom and starts back up.)
When economic historians look back, they may pick February as the peak of the expansion that began in June 2009. That would give it a longevity of 128 months, the longest in records maintained by the National Bureau of Economic Research going back to 1854.
Often, when the economy runs into trouble, it goes through a slow glide from good times to bad. Other times, it is more like a fast car slamming on the brakes.
A potential coronavirus recession looks more and more like the second situation — and that has big implications for how painful a downturn would probably feel.
Biological weapons are real threats
The failed attempt to bring dead birds into America
STERLING, Va. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists recently seized a package of tiny dead birds in a passenger’s baggage at
Washington Dulles International Airport.
The package of pet food from China consisted of tiny dead birds.The traveler arrived on a flight from Beijing, China January 27 and was destined to an address in Prince George’s County, Maryland. During a baggage examination, CBP agriculture specialists discovered a package with pictures of a cat and dog that the passenger said was cat food. The package contained a bunch of unknown small birds, about 2.5 to 3.5 inches in length.
The birds from China are prohibited for import due to the potential threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The avian products were seized on behalf of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and destroyed by incineration, with USDA approval.
“These dead birds are prohibited from importation to the United States as unprocessed birds pose a potentially significant disease threat to our nation’s poultry industries and more alarmingly to our citizens as potential vectors of avian influenza,” said Casey Durst, Director of Field Operations for CBP’s Baltimore Field Office. “Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists continue to exercise extraordinary vigilance every day in their fight to protect our nation’s agricultural and economic prosperity from invasive pests and animal diseases.”
This is the first sentence in the third paragraph.
"The birds from China are prohibited for import due to the potential threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza."
Someone tried to infect Americans with this deadly virus!
Federal agents found 11 Chinese nationals hidden inside a moving truck filled with furniture — which acted as the hiding spots for those inside — when the vehicle was stopped at the San Ysidro border crossing this weekend, officials said.
Agents stopped the 42-year-old truck driver, a U.S. citizen, around 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and held his truck for a secondary search, according to a statement from
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.
Customs officers searched the truck and found 11 people hidden and crammed inside various pieces of furniture. Photos provided by Customs officials showed at least one person crouching inside a washing machine and another squeezed inside a wooden chest.
Agents arrested the driver for attempted human smuggling, and the 11 Chinese citizens were held pending criminal and immigration proceedings, according to the statement.
Every potential immigrant to the United States must be examined by a doctor who is capable of determining whether this person has the Coronavirus, Ebola, or another deadly and communicable disease.
Information for people from other countries
The process of making laws in this state is similar to the process of making laws in the United States. A set of two legislative bodies, each of which is chosen by the people, votes to approve of some legislation. The two bodies, called a Senate and a House of Representatives, often has different versions of this legislation, called a bill.
If there are any differences in the two bills, a small committee of people from the Senate and the House works to produce one bill that is then submitted to the Senate and the House for their approval. If both houses approve of it, by a vote of a majority of their members, this legislation still needs the approval of the chief executive. The United States President is the chief executive of our nation. A Governor is the chief executive of each of our 50 states.
If that chief executive approves of this legislation, by signing it with a pen, it becomes the law and it is enforceable on the day that is specified in the legislation.
Even if the chief executive, whether he's a Governor or the U.S. President, vetoes the legislation, his veto can be overridden if a large majority of both houses of the legislature vote to do so.
This is the fourth paragraph of the story in the Lowell Sun which was linked earlier.
The bill was filed as a response to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees case that public employees cannot be forced to pay fees or dues to a union to which he or she does not belong. Freedom of speech advocates hailed the decision while labor advocates said it was an unjust attack on unions.
Conclusion
Those two bills in the Massachusetts legislature, S1401 and H3573 must be defeated so that our law enforcement agencies will be able to coordinate with each other during this public health crisis.
These joint committees hold hearings in this building on legislation that is being considered by the House and the Senate at the same time.
These joint committees hold hearings in this building on legislation that is being considered by the House and the Senate at the same time.
This is the last sentence of the second paragraph.
To confirm this, these are the first four paragraphs of a March 28, 2017 Japan Times story.
These are the first four paragraphs of a CNBC story, dated today. The link in the third paragraph was in their story.
My testimony that day in 2016 was mostly based on the facts and figures that I wrote about on this page in this blog, which criticized a proposed change in the statewide educational standards.
These are the first four paragraphs of a January 31, 2020 NewsMax story.
These are the first fiver paragraphs of a February 4, 2020 Politico story.
If that chief executive approves of this legislation, by signing it with a pen, it becomes the law and it is enforceable on the day that is specified in the legislation.
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