Category Archives: pandemic

New York’s Cuomo warns against ‘blindly’ reopening states – Reuters

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday pushed back against what he called premature demands that he reopen the state, saying he knew people were struggling without jobs but that more understanding of the new coronavirus was needed.

Source: New York’s Cuomo warns against ‘blindly’ reopening states – Reuters

These Scientists Saw COVID-19 Coming. Now They’re Trying to Stop the Next Pandemic Before It Starts. – Mother Jones

“How did this happen? And could it happen again?”

Source: These Scientists Saw COVID-19 Coming. Now They’re Trying to Stop the Next Pandemic Before It Starts. – Mother Jones

Sixty percent of new infectious diseases—diseases that, like COVID-19, have never before reached humans—originate in domesticated animals and wildlife, often bats, rodents, or non-human primates. Scientists estimate that there are as many as 800,000 of these so-called zoonotic viruses lurking in the natural world that could infect humans. The animals carrying these viruses often don’t get sick; instead, they serve as “reservoirs,” amassing pathogens as they eat, sleep, and socialize. It’s a good deal for the viruses: They get a free ride, while they wait for a chance to make a cross-species leap.

The problem is that those deadly leaps are becoming more common. Population growth and environmental and habitat destruction are bringing humans into more frequent contact with certain species—and the viruses that they carry.

Nearly 900 workers at Indiana meat plant test positive for coronavirus as food shortage fears grow | The Independent

The number of reported coronavirus cases at a Tyson Food plant in Indiana soared to nearly 900 this week as fears of a potential collapse in the meat and agriculture supply chains amid the coronavirus pandemic. 
— Read on www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-tyson-meat-plant-food-shortage-fears-indiana-cases-a9494901.html

NIH’s axing of bat coronavirus grant a ‘horrible precedent’ and might break rules, critics say | Science | AAAS

The research community is reacting with alarm and anger to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) abrupt and unusual termination of a grant supporting research in China on how coronaviruses—such as the one causing the current pandemic—move from bats to humans. The agency axed the grant last week, after conservative U.S. politicians and media repeatedly suggested—without evidence—that the pandemic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, that employs a Chinese virologist who had been receiving funding from the grant. The termination, which some analysts believe might violate regulations governing NIH, also came 7 days after President Donald Trump, asked about the project at a press conference, said: “We will end that grant very quickly.”

Source: NIH’s axing of bat coronavirus grant a ‘horrible precedent’ and might break rules, critics say | Science | AAAS

Covid-19 coronavirus: Donald Trump blames China for unleashing virus due to ‘mistake’ – NZ Herald

Donald Trump has floated a dramatic theory about the origins of the coronavirus
— Read on www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm

His desperation to avoid blame for deaths he is responsible for because of his inaction and denial in January, February and March is unlimited. The result will be more deaths from his lashing out instead of leadership!

Covid-19 not man-made or bio-engineered!

https://news.yahoo.com/us-intel-agencies-covid-19-134132888.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — US intel agencies: COVID-19 virus not man-made or altered, but still studying if outbreak began in China lab accident.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/03/17/covid-19-coronavirus-did-not-come-from-a-lab-study-shows-natural-origins/#8bf85eb3728c

https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-lab.html

SARS-CoV-2 is very closely related to the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which fanned across the globe nearly 20 years ago. Scientists have studied how SARS-CoV differs from SARS-CoV-2 — with several key letter changes in the genetic code. Yet in computer simulations, the mutations in SARS-CoV-2 don’t seem to work very well at helping the virus bind to human cells. If scientists had deliberately engineered this virus, they wouldn’t have chosen mutations that computer models suggest won’t work. But it turns out, nature is smarter than scientists, and the novel coronavirus found a way to mutate that was better — and completely different— from anything scientists could have created, the study found.

Another nail in the “escaped from evil lab” theory?  The overall molecular structure of this virus is distinct from the known coronaviruses and instead most closely resembles viruses found in bats and pangolins that had been little studied and never known to cause humans any harm.