by Ghassan Kadi for The Saker blog
I have deliberated for some time before deciding to write a Saker article about the COVID-19 outbreak. Firstly, because this is not a forum to write about such issues, and secondly because I am not a medic. But given that this is all that people want to talk and hear about right now, given that COVID-19 articles have already been published on The Saker, I might as well have my say. After all, technically-speaking, I am a scientist, albeit not a medical one.
Before writing this, I have exchanged thoughts and listened to the advice of many friends in the medical profession. As a conclusion, to try to understand what is going on, if we ever can, I feel that we perhaps need to dissect the unprecedented lockdown situation that humanity is facing for the first time in its history; beginning with the nature of the virus itself.
The Virus:
As far as I know, these are the dangerous aspects of COVID-19:
1. It is highly contagious.
2. It causes a vicious infection that requires ICU support.
3. It is potentially lethal.
As far as I know as well, these are the ‘not so bad news’:
1. It is not airborne.
2. It has a very low mortality rate.
If there is more to say about the above, the world leaders will have to come clean and provide more information.
For COVID-19 to become a serious danger, the likes of such that the whole world is shutting down for, it will have to undergo two mutations:
a. It has to become airborne i.e. become transmitted by wind rather than person to person contact, and;
b. It has to become more virulent.
Whilst it is true that those mutations can happen, as far as we are told, they haven’t, at least not yet. Equally, they can happen to any known or unknown virus.
Genetic mutations happen randomly within all living things including viruses. But because viruses have very little genetic material (DNA/RNA) and a very high replication rate, mutations can result in major shifts; and in short periods of time.
Like all mutations, viral mutations happen randomly. In other words, they do not have a targeted approach, and this is why specific mutations are not inevitable. It is not therefore a question of time before the COVID-19 mutates to become airborne and very lethal. Actually, it may mutate in the opposite directions. And even though a mutation that makes the virus less contagious will eventually lead to its own demise, it is only by chance that a mutation that guarantees its survival eventuates. It is a hit-and-miss situation.
Furthermore, the probability for TWO random mutations to happen, instead of only one, in a manner that is specifically dangerous to humans, is much less likely than for either one to eventuate alone. According to the law of probability, a double probability is the mathematical multiplication of both. As we cannot give a mathematical figure to the probability of each of the above mutations to eventuate, it would be almost impossible to give an estimate of both of them happening together. But to give an example, if the chance of each probability is as high as 10% (and in reality, it has to be much lower because it is a random event), then for the two to take place, the probability of both combined goes down to 1%.
In other words, there is a much higher probability for the virus to become just airborne and remain with the same level of virulence than it is to become both airborne and more lethal. The opposite is also true. There is a much higher probability for the virus to become just more lethal and not become airborne than it is to become both airborne and more lethal.
For all we know, it can even mutate to become both less contagious and less lethal. Actually, statistically speaking, the probability of the virus becoming airborne and more lethal is the same as the probability of it becoming less contagious and less harmful.
Unless we are not given the complete information, the COVID-19, according to what we are presented with therefore, does not in its current form pose a serious threat to the human population.
The Statistics:
1. In 2009, Novovirus H1N1 (aka Swine Flu) infected 60 million people worldwide causing 200,000 to 400,000 deaths with 18,000 in the USA alone.
2. Annually, 300,000 to 500,000 people die of the common flu worldwide.
3. The fatality rate of COVID-19 varies with age and physical conditions, but it is under 3% for healthy people under 60 years old.
4. The fatality rate from some strains of Common Flu can be as high as 8%.
5. Thus far, and as far as I know, there is no satisfactory medical explanation that links the death of COVID-19 victims with the actual virus. Doctors don’t know what actually killed the patients other than pre-existing conditions compounded with the COVID-19.
The ‘Conspiracy Theories’:
The COVID-19 scare is giving two groups of people a field day; 1) the conspiracy theorists, and 2) certain religious groups.
I will not even bother trying to write about the mileage that the latter group is aiming to gain from this traumatic episode in human history. As far as conspiracies are concerned, conspiracy theorists do not ‘need’ a Coronavirus scare to come up with new conspiracy material. That said, we must keep open minds and listen to at least some of them. Some of what they say might, just might, make sense. But when they say that ‘Big Brother’ is behind this, which ‘Big Brother’ I ask?
According to some, the USA ‘created’ the virus and had a plan to hold China accountable for a pandemic in the eyes of the world. In such a case, surely the USA would have made provisions to make sure that the disease did not reach it own shores.
Some may argue that those on the top of the hill don’t care about those who live in the fields, but when I see that Prince Charles and UK’s PM have tested positive, The Queen has been shifted out of the Buckingham Palace and Angela Merkel is in isolation, then surely this cannot be a Western political game.
Furthermore, even though the USA is perhaps using the situation to impose more sanctions on Iran, when I see that the USA has become the world leader in infection cases, when I see a unified and consolidated approach to the so-called pandemic among all world leaders, from all divides, something about any conspiracy theory must be amiss.
The Winners and Losers:
In any warfare situation, there are winners and losers, or at least would-be winners and losers.
Surely, some governments are using the scare as an opportunity to introduce draconian laws that they were not able to pass in ‘peace time’. But again, this alone is not enough reason to initiate this situation; and worldwide.
Call me naïve if you wish, but I can only see losers herein and no winners.
Of course, there are those who made, or hope to make, short/long term gains when/if they bought stocks for dirt cheap prices in the hope that those shares will bounce back again. But given those unprecedented events of almost total shutdown, who is to guarantee that those stocks will bounce back? And even if they do, to say that this whole scare was about taking the chance of a stock market bust, followed by boom, is almost impossible to fathom. Why would all governments of the world, collectively, agree to deliberately create mass unemployment and risk cataclysmic financial depression and bankruptcy in order to satisfy the greed of some shareholders, even the likes of the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers?
After all, those trillionaire legacies have had the tradition of manipulating markets for so long without having to orchestrate a crash of such magnitude as seems to be looming. Why did they take this extreme measure now if they indeed did?
Surely, China will be selling more masks and protective gear to the rest of the world, but how can this compensate for all other sales lost?
No explanation seems to make any comprehensive sense at all. This situation leaves far more room for speculation and less room for identifying any clear winners. The winners/losers scenario has never been so chaotic and nonsensical before. By and large, everyone ultimately will be losers in some way or another.
Geo-Political Situation:
Why would the USA/EU walk away from Italy at a time when Italy needed such a level of support? If the USA is trying to ‘punish’ Italy for joining the Chine Silk Road initiative, then this pandemic should provide an ideal opportunity for bringing Italy back in line and for the USA/EU to come to Italy’s help, presenting themselves as Italy’s best and most reliable allies. Instead, they stepped back, leaving the doors wide open for their rivals to step in. This again does not make sense.
Global Consensus:
Never before have we seen global rivals beating the same drum. If the scare were indeed a scam, surely Russia and China would not be playing America’s tune. Neither would we see photos of President Putin dressed in a Hazmat suit. President Putin does not mince either his words or actions. He must have a real reason. Furthermore, China would not have ‘accepted’ that the virus would take off from Wuhan.
Cold-War type politics have always taught us that there are two sides to any political story; and sometimes more. This is why forums like The Saker exist; because they attempt to tell a story that has been suppressed by the empire’s main stream media. But now, all of those rivals are saying the same story, but in a manner that does not much add up.
Medical Opinion:
Many doctors, actually most doctors, in the world are supporting the narrative of governments. Political leaders are saying that they are working on the advice of medical professionals. But there are some eminent doctors who disagree and are saying that the danger of COVID-19 is very comparable to most other previous flu epidemics. I have seen a few videos to that effect, but this link is a composite of 12 interviews with doctors who agree that the pandemic is blown out of proportion https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/24/12-experts-questioning-the-coronavirus-panic/
The Conclusion?
Given what the public has been told, there is no conclusion to be made. Am I saying that warnings should be ignored and that people should go on partying and having close contact with each other? Definitely not. Personally, I am taking all precautions recommended, I cannot chance it, even though I am not fully convinced that humanity is facing an imminent medical catastrophic danger.
Good article. Ghassen, as he alluded to in this article, may be quite naive with regards to this being a planned and implemented outbreak. I don’t doubt for a minute that they are capable of this and that they are stupid enough in their frenzy to let it get completely out of hand, even in their own backyard. What I see is a “test case” where the point has been made that with the push of a button, they can have us all scurry into seclusion. Very, very dangerous place to be.
Not all ‘conspiracies’ are preplanned. ‘Never letting a crisis go to waste’ is an essential element of hybrid war. That it is, at critical times, played out against its own citizenry has been clear since 9/11.
Ijs, excellent point. I may have mentioned it before:
American soldiers may have brought it with them to Wuhan, no reason required, as reading about US navy-men succumbing to this virus in the middle of the Ocean(s) suggests that no Chinese tourists landed on those ships to infect the servicemen.
Whatever it is, it backfired badly.
All that the corona virus has done so far is to create confusion in the minds of people. I have read numerous articles on the virus and listened to numerous medical explanations. We seem to have contradictions in both articles and explanations.
Yes, the virus appears to spread very easily. However, most of the victims seem to be older people. According to one source, 99% of all victims in Italy had additional medical problems. This does not mean that younger people do not get infected. They do.
We are given daily figures on the mortality rate for certain countries. However, no mention is made of mortality rates caused by the common flu.
Medical specialists have stated that it will take more than a year for a vaccine to be discovered for the virus. However, we are informed on a daily basis how many people have been cured of the virus without additional data being given as to how this was achieved. Even more confusing, we are told that some people only get a milder version of the virus, like Boris Johnson in London. What is that suppose to mean ?
Finally, people are divided in their opinion if this is a bio weapon or not, the chief explanation being that those who ostensibly created it (ie. the US) would never risk infecting their own population. Well, the Western elites have for years been concerned with the rise of the worlds population, wanting to reduce it. Back in 1980, when AIDS appeared, we were given the laughable explanation that it originated from monkeys. However, analysts pointed their fingers at Fort Dietrich, the US bio facility. Fort Dietrich has again been mentioned with the arrival of the corona virus.
Can a conclusion be made as to what corona virus is ? At the moment, probably not. Time is the factor.
Fort Dietrick was also identified as the source of the antrax strain distributed to Congress Critters and journalists on the Bush enemies list shortly after 9-11. Two scientists from that facility were actually accused by the FBI of distributing the spores; one proved his innocence in court and the other committed suicide. But the antrax strain matched one produced at Fort Dietrick.
Common flu deaths include pneumonia. Covid19 deaths should be compared to previous records of deaths by pneumonia.
The Common Flu doesn’t overload ICUs but this Covid19 does it globally. Thus, this is not comparable to the Common flu. Does the seasonal Common flu kill and/or disable scores of Health Care Workers including physicians?
People who estimate the mortality rate of the virus w/o considering the time frame of the contagion lose my respect.
For example: 14 days ago there were 20 confirmed cases but out of the 20, 2 have died. That is a mortality rate of 10%.
But if you take the 2 who died today and divide it by the >600 confirmed that exists today they calculate a mortality rate less than 1%. So that is how they make this zombie virus less dangerous than the common flu. They play with the numbers to scare you or to make you relax your guard.
Here are some interesting comments from scientists who do not promote the current COVID-19 narrative:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-19-countering-current-narrative.html
The world’s politicians and media are not presenting us with a balanced viewpoint of the seriousness of the current pandemic, voicing only the narrative that the 2019 – 2020 version of the novel coronavirus is unprecedented and extremely deadly.
Any theory to explain something has to account for the evidence, it has to explain things in a logical manner .it cant skip over things because they dont fit your theory. You cant have a theory that assumes things to be true with no evidence and definitely not those contradicted by available evidence!
So for example Boris Johnson has corona virus . Where is the evidence? Did he look like someone who potentially could die from his condition? Worried in any way? No . Did he display symptoms? No . So why then in the absence of any evidence should we take it to be true?
So then building an argument based upon assumptions with evidence to the contrary ignored undermines the argument.
I found 2 interesting videos
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=8LYjOEib9iI
Explains many surface contradictions .
This short one i found from Ireland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-YUddR7gi4&feature=share
I watched the first one and it nails it in my opinion. The international financial system is ending and the coronavirus is being used deliberately as a cover for the transnational globalists to get their hands on everything they can.
Watch the second , its a very short ” look behind the scenes”
Just what are they trying to get that they dont already have?
Read the protocols of the elders of zion to understand.
Yeah like i’m going to trust those cats after fighting the U.S. gvt for who knows how long.
global governance
I also have been peddling hard for a couple of weeks to get a handle on this Covid-19. Partly because of personal interest in complex problems and helping family and friends get a balanced information flow to make their own informed decisions. And partly because of all the co-morbidity risk factors I personally have put me in the very high 80% risk category should I contract it.
From what I have read and heard so far, your report and analysis is accurate and balanced.
I have already made two comments tonight (my time) so I won’t repeat them here.
I’ll only comment in respect to your:
“5. Thus far, and as far as I know, there is no satisfactory medical explanation that links the death of COVID-19 victims with the actual virus. Doctors don’t know what actually killed the patients other than pre-existing conditions compounded with the COVID-19.”
> Most seem to die from lung complications involving inflammation and fluids (thus drowning) — hence the scarce ventilator madness. Much of the damage and death results from the body’s immune system over-reaction.
The conspiracies about source and intent cannot be resolved at this stage. And probably, like “9/11” (2.0) and Building 7 etc, never will be. What can be said is; the mutation rate of this novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak is around 3-4 months compared to 18-24 months for normal flu/influenza. The strains in China, Italy and Iran are different (or have differences) that can be traced back to a common ancestor strain. The only known country with a source for all three is thought to be the USA.
They like plastic and stainless steel surfaces and are far more resilient than other known coronavirus. Therefore, they are likely to have emerged in environments rich in plastic (micro-plastic) pollution and steel use (sinks and kitchen utensils). I don’t believe there is any conclusive publicly available data that can support anything more than loose speculative scenarios. Many can get it and have little or no symptoms — thus be carriers. Poor or non-existent testing policy (and in the USA case, radical cost$ disincentive and even CDC prohibition).
Without ruling any scenario in or out; there is no need to go beyond dirty tourist, business, or academic carriers spreading the virus (or its earlier predecessor strain) around largely untested social meeting and transportation environments. Apart from the normal flu/influenza tests, which are basically all they are using now I believe (from a local GP’s comments), there is little capacity on the ground to test specifically for the new Covid-19. I understand (but could stand corrected) that it takes around 6-months to create these tests, and at the moment it is largely standard tests and large inference leaps. Therefore, to create a saturated soup of potential viral breakout options just waiting for the ideal environmental conditions is not that hard to imagine. China’s Wuhan wet-meat and wild-animal markets appear to have been the ideal niche. The military games with local and foreign visitor participants appear to have been an ideal source of potential coronavirus species — either the Covid-19, or the immediate predecessor to the Chinese mutation strain.
Arguments that this must have been a new zoonotic leap from bats is plausible; but it lacks evidence, and an intermediate animal, although the bat-pangolin-human combination is a suggested candidate. We can see from all the public images of massive cleaning efforts that even any combination of tourist, military, or wildlife traffickers and locals could have used poorly-cleaned common hotel rooms in quick succession over a few short weeks AND visited the meat markets etc. There is no need for conspiracy; but unfortunately it has no doubt given a whole cohort of 2-cent malcontent ‘terrorists’ some ideas. What the Middle-East has not been able to do with guns, it may be able to achieve with a sneeze.
It’s a whole new potential ballgame. And one being used by many actors to execute their own convenient ‘never miss an opportunity’ agenda — e.g, stage an economic reset of defunct capitalist ideology, failed economic theory, and bankrupt nation state under the rubric that an ‘invisible little hand’ that ‘nobody could have foreseen’ did it.
On the upside, it is an ideal cover for president Trump to honor his candidate Trump pre-election promises (without public dishonor) to pull out of the MiddleEast. He may not of course, but a convenient timeline of options under the cover of a Covid-19 ‘smoke-screen’ through to November 2020 appears to exist.
Covid19=Y2K
In many ways, yes. My thoughts also.
However, I was in IT at the time and had probably written some of that old code at the fringes that used “00” to save a bit of highly expensive limited space in programs that were not going to run more than a few years.
Some hardware (chips) were less clear but the risk of not checking was not worth taking.
But a real problem of some 20% was blown out sky-high 80% by a conspiracy of computer industry shifting produce/services and captured organizational IT management that saw opportunities to milk budgets and upgrade old technology rubbish.
Fear is highly infective and leads to “emerency”
And emergency is like a rope team, once it is formed and ready to leave, everyone wants to be hooked on it, event hose that were against it, because everyone has something to gain by being in the group rather than being left out.
Putin’s yellow suit was already addressed.
It is time for the saker to move away from the corona topic. Same arguments are being repeated ad nauseum. It has become tiresome.
Yes, the Saker is in the process of creating a COVID-19 Café (see Saker announcement above article) … stay tuned! :-)
Sensible article.
There’s nothing wrong with theorizing……….as long as the theory is put to the test….as long as evidence…both welcome and unwelcome…is dealt with.
There’s no need to come to any hasty conclusions….this is not a punch aimed at your face…..or a vehicle headed straight for you…..at 60 mph from 40 yards away.
There’s no need to oversimplify this comprehensively….it has too many diverse elements and ramifications and oversimplification is nearly always the most common source of error.
Individually ones own health and immunity is obviously something everyone should have been paying attention to all along. In many cases, some catching up is worth attempting…VIRUS or NO VIRUS. People like amarynth here are compiling health and nutrition tips that ought to be a permanent point of inquiry and application always….but crisis has a silver lining….for some, it ends the procrastination and sharpens the focus.
Communally one realizes that other people nearby acting sanely or insanely……..could protect …or kill you.
Enlarging “community” to the entire earthly home as opposed to blaming and fearing everyone else..is part of raising the physical fitness to survive…through improving the moral fitness to survive.
Overreaction or under reaction as the case may be to COVID 19 …nearly every “bad effect” has a silver lining…and in my humble opinion….Harley kind of nails it this morning with this IDEA…this “thoughtmass”:
There Is No Return To “Normal”. That’s What Got Us Here.”
https://youtu.be/a0OrnVzLxas
In which the western neoliberalism especially since the “Aquarian Age” paradigm shift of the sixties after Nov 22, 1963 is identified as the REAL disease here.
SO I don’t mind the agitation, the confusion, even trillions in paper assets going up in smoke…if the next shift (the reset…the reorganization………..is not delayed forever…………and is in an upward direction for humanity as a whole ….rather than a lurch…even much lower.
In that regard, and in the spirit of the author’s inability to find a Comprehensive View of this new factor…that makes any sense…and is not rife with contradictions at every single turn….I will offer my best guess:
1. An Outbreak was blamed for and “gamed” by the globalists. Event 201. They are absolute control freaks and fear a Multi-Polar world order of sovereign states made up of sovereign minded citizens. FEAR is their herding mechanism to maintain control and hogging resources while denying resources to a growing or even stable population….including decent culture and leisure in which to even pause and think…..is their policy.
2. The followup to that “modest” and mostly successful goal is to eliminate billions of people who might overcome all the efforts to make them poor and stupid. Efforts in this direction have already lead these psychopaths to commit Crimes Against Humanity ….all the way from unprovoked war…to ritual child murder, sacrifice and even cannibalism.
3. It is possible that the general planetary lockdown is proceeding as planned by the globalist evil doers but with hugely “disappointing” death rates ……but that the “sovereignists” Xi, Putin and yes (don’t spit out your popcorn) even Donald Trump were aware of this multifaceted globalist “exercise” aimed mainly at recovery from the “Black Swan” Event of the 2016 election….in which a US president emerged with the temerity to suggest that “better relations with Russia and China would be a goode thing, not a bad thing” instead of the axiomatic need for division, conflict and fear……and these three for starters are both mitigating the effects on their populations, as they must……but more aggressively…might use the current unprecedented “lay of the land” (“nowhere to run, nowhere to hide”) to cripple the globalist, Empire power structure. If something “striking” (pun intended) along these lines does not occur in April……I may likely discard this hypothesis. Anyone else discarding it in the last 2 days of March…..is prematurely pessimistic, in my view.
Interestingly. Dr Paul Cottrell, whose clear analysis of the Bioweapon microbiology engineering tracks of COVID 19 resonated a great deal here…..last week……and he ..will be the guest interviewed tonight on the Quite Frankly Podcast…Live…at 7 pm east coast time…..I believe. Always recorded for later viewing on the Quite Frankly you tube channel.
Dr Paul’s a bit of a hothead on certain other topics, in my opinion….but very calm and rational on this one….and a few others….and Frank is one of the best, smoothest interviewers you’ll ever see.
This is the problem, we are inundated by counts of how many people have died and how many people are infected, but very little information about the disease itself. Can you imagine if every year we got 24/7 information , as is happening now with Covid-19, of how many people have died and have been infected with diseases like Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, or Influenza?
And of course when medical professionals do talk specifically about how the virus behaves, there is no consensus. This is the first time that I’m reading that the virus is not airborne, others have said that it travels great distances through the air, then there are those that claim to have done experiments with the virus who say that it is not as effective traveling through the air as some have claimed. I also heard one physician say that when a virus moves from an animal to a human being for the first time, it is usually fatal, But that the virus, with time, mutates to become less lethal in it’s new environment, because it is to the advantage of the virus not to kill its host.
With all this doubt, the best thing to do, like Mr. Kadi says, is take all the precautions recommended.
Friend had it 10 days….all the symptoms….thinks transferred from another person at a physiotherapy session in waiting room…..that quickly. And was absolutely horribly wicked..
china wins lol.
+positive reaction from people
+crash western economy
+protests died
+shift blame for illness/death on a virus
+mass surveillance
+virtual world
this kind of reminds me of sheikh imran hosein talk in serbia. he talks about the dream/vision that prophet suleiman saw that he saw a lifeless body sitting on his throne(of holy israel). he understood the vision and then seeks forgiveness before he ask Allah. he ask to give him a kingdom that none shall inherit after him. he understood that the lifeless body to be the antichrist.
if dajjal is a lifeless body, then what he thinks and what he speaks would come from outside… artificial intelligence. so when today generation would be suspended in their virtual reality with their virtual classrooms and virtual money. dajjal can make us dance to their tune.
its not the virus, its the reaction. it is what they have been promoting all this time in their advertisement.
“Artificial intelligence” is a concept to cover a whole range of technology being applied to a range of issues — one being the self programming ‘self-learning’ challenge. Whether anything ‘self-learning’ usefully develops is yet to be seen. Over all it like a knife — a technology which can be used for a range of good or bad purposes.
The challenge is to gain and maintain effective democratic control of the techno-sphere.
The Will To Govern — if that is there then AI may be a very good tool to weed out the criminals at the top and their nefarious networks. Imagine if AI was set lose to audit all individuals who enter public life and commerce that affects the health, wealth and pursuit of happiness in the Global Commons?
As for ‘a lifeless body sitting on his throne” — that is another entirely different domain issue. It more properly belongs to the worldview domain. A cataract in the eye of the beholder. We need the right technology in order to be able to deconstruct these complex issues adequately for balanced response.
I recommend the Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) approach developed by Dr. Sohail Inayatullah. Plenty of online references and sources (including a quick overview on Ted). Follow the worldview issues (how we construct our framing of the events of the day and understand/see the underlying systems etc) down into a deeper myth and metaphor layer and try and find a way to transform the root metaphor and meta-narrative etc. Then real fundamental deep-rooted change can emerge and proceed through other layers of the situation in focus.
Then, perhaps, you may find this “dajjal can make us dance to their tune” theme can be reconstructed with more power to the individual to ‘see’ better/higher within their own contexts and domains of influence. Developing a critical mass of these more liberated points of view will then change society in the only real way — from the bottom-up. The main impediment will be the culture involved. Only culturally feasible solutions will be able (allowed) to emerge into manifesting into the new transformed world visions that motivate and justify systemic change.
If we focuses on a “lifeless body sitting on his throne” image then we are giving it life in our own personal living domain. That is a form of idolatry which distracts from the living present. It is a dark art and magic practices (and propagated) by certain vested interests. It is what the myth of Ibrahim/Abraham walking-away relates to.
And please note here my use of the qualifying word “myth” — it is the myth that is real today, and for many can sit lifeless in our mind’s ecology. I make no comment on the alleged historical reality of the myth. Little can be proven, and in essence it is a (pulling strings) distraction to go there in this context.
I have been to Mecca and performed Umra (c. 1995). And by way of example, I found a deep disturbing dissonance between the Meccan/Wahhabi hyper-strict fundamentalism and obsession with removing historical evidence (such as caves of original revelation) and the annoying (while circling around the Kaaba) and clearly idolatrous “feet of Ibrahim” plastered into the floor with it own little shrine stopping walkers. No such issue in Medina where the prophet of Islam stood and prayed. Go figure! When that splinter in the eye of Islam is finally removed on the ground, then many of the “lifeless” cataracts held in the mind’s eyes’ of many believers will dance less to those ‘strings’ you speak of.
[And, just to be clear, I am not talking about a simple symbolic representation marker on the floor of the Haram; but rather a raising of a small shrine and the clearly false (and without scientific proof, I suggest) ‘fact’ that those two feet markers (and protective shrine overhead) are 100% authentic. I have size 12+ feet and these were far larger. Either leave them there and reduce/soften the absolutist fundamentalist Wahhabi worldview; or remove them as distractions (like caves, for them) to the pilgrims performing their rituals. If it was not there in the time of Mohammad (to be confirmed?) then it should not be here in our times. And I’m happy to be corrected on facts and interpretations etc.]
Hope that helps some…
Has anyone come across any study proving this “virus” causes anything other than an urge for officials to roll out control measures? I’ve been looking, nothing so far. Just like AIDS, a “disease” that remains unproven to have a viral cause. If no such studies exist, we are all chasing our tails.
The writer assumes that actors in the USA are rational and make sense, wrong assumption.
Also, he assumes they are intelligent, think long term and can predict the consequences of heir actions, another wrong assumption.
So, “”conspiracy theories” are the only ones that make sense. taking into account the closure of biolab Fort Detrick, and the miriad biolabs encircling Russia and China.
Down with USA! Their trick backfired, just like the video with Israeli army gassing themselves.
What is so strange about murikans being dumb?
I was trying to peek behind the Viral curtain; troop movement to Europe, they left because of the virus, did they? Proof? Moving 1000 soldiers to the longest unmiliterized border globally. Why? Even the panty waists in Ottawa were mealy mouthed ’bout that (1000 troops on a 4500 mile border, doesn’t even make sense). EU task force off the coast of Kalingrad. Still there I think. Recent battle group sailed through a contested sea south of China. Trooping out of Afghanistan, calling down in Iraq and Syria. Sanctions on all countries threatening Tiwan. Calling up 1 million reservists to the ready. Moving politicos and military to bunkers, test or not and bringing home wandering citizens afraid of the ‘flu’. Things are afoot that may well go………….Viral!
Russia did not seal it’s borders because of CV19…………..but it’s a great cover to control and/or keep out sabateaurs.
Yes im of the opinion that the virus ( is real and biowarfare) is a cover for the economic collapse , the introduction of draconian laws and punishments … see Britains 392 pages of new laws drafted while nothing was done to deal with the virus( take it in the chin) Forced vaccination etc etc. A very concerning new world order is being born.
According to the illuminazi plan revealed a decade and a half ago ( china was to be attacked with biowarfare and a world war started ) so be not surprised if it does….. whether this plan is real, we will find out! Not looking good
I have serious doubts there is such a CV-19 plague happening apart from something a bit above normal bug effecting Asian men of Chinese extraction.
Im wondering if this is more a northern hemisphere thing because up there everything isnt as clean as in the southern hemisphere and there’s lots more people, colder temperatures, more damp air, bug & pollution, and less oxygen.
Its timing is too convenient – just in time for the 2020 US Presidential Race where efforts so far have failed to remove the spectacularly successful Trump have failed, and EU elites are under seige on the home front from nationalist forces.
I myself will be going about business as usual.
The most honest thing I’ve seen written about Covid 19.
I totally agree with the author that there is not enough information to draw any conclusion yet.
Lots of good questions though…like this one…
“Why would all governments of the world, collectively, agree to deliberately create mass unemployment and risk cataclysmic financial depression and bankruptcy in order to satisfy the greed of some shareholders, even the likes of the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers?”
Maybe because they believe the overreaction they’ve been fed & have fallen for the fear/panic?
why have dozens of CEOs of huge corporations resigned in the past 50 days ?
Sweden is not over reacting, Neither the Swiss it seems.
You need to understand the fear and risk-based cultures that exist in government agencies.
“Without fear or favor” fell out the window several decades ago.
Now the office culture environment is highly politicized and tuned to the Minister’s whim.
Courtiers (a polite way of saying the obvious get paid to play) and cultures of mendacity rule the day.
And therefore, with various lobbyist sharks and opportunities ‘advising’ the minister and banging the end of the world drum for the vested interests of their various clients, the usual response is too err on the side of caution and do what everyone else is doing — even if it’s running off the cliff.
Y2K was like that — i.e., some truth in it (20%) but mostly a feeding frenzy by IT vendors and middle management.
”According to some, the USA ‘created’ the virus and had a plan to hold China accountable for a pandemic in the eyes of the world. In such a case, surely the USA would have made provisions to make sure that the disease did not reach its own shores.”
Well, the thing that stood in the Zionazis’ way was Pindo obesity. Junk food with lots of fat and sugar calls for consequences with regard to oxygen uptake capacity and, hence, overall health status. One way not to curry favour with moronic overweight Americans is to take away their unhealthy staple diet. Such provisions are too costly politically. But, never mind: The second amendment should come to the rescue one way or another.
Your last statement says it all. So are the rest of us!
[1] The virus is as good as airborne (in Singapore they found viable virions on air ducts in patients’ rooms) and also transmits via the oral-fecal route. Health care & hospitals are actually a major transmission vector. Instead of getting as many people into a hospital bed, we should be concentrating on keeping people out of there.
[2] Even though this might not be planned, it is the perfect cover story for why the financial world is imploding and we again need to give trillions to buy out and bail out the criminal speculating class at the cost of plumbers and hair-dressers. Finances are not imploding b/c of corona, but because they were already set to detonate sooner or later. Even if not a conspiracy, it may as well have been, shifting the blame for terrible policy and consequences to something external, as if it were a comet striking us.
[3] The idea that we need to lock-down the population (instead of the vulnerable who actually land up overwhelming health care) is ludicrous. You put criminals in the jailhouse, not the rest of society in the safehouse. And to what end? Almost all interventions (oxygen, pills, etc) can be administered at home. Only a very small proportion of those who will not survive at home and need ventilators will survive (5% in Wuhan), so we are committing suicide to give those who would not be viable if they were tagging along with a band of nomads an extra day of life on a ventilator. All to indulge our fantasy about heroic medicine that we are safe from death, if only we find a doctor and a hospital. And what if we get R₀ down to 1.4, then what? Without significant herd immunity (66% to get to R₀=1), everything will start all over.
We should quarantine absolutely the vulnerable (lock them in the nursing homes and forbid old folks and immune compromised from leaving their house), wait for this to circulate through the population for two months, and then lift the quarantine. Pay the food cyclists double to bring them food, etc., would be a damn sight cheaper than trillions.
Latest updates from Swiss Propaganda Research re the deceit and propaganda of the media.
March 30, 2020 (I)
In Germany, some clinics can no longer accept patients – not because there are too many patients or too few beds, but because the nursing staff have tested positive, although in most cases they hardly show any symptoms. This case illustrates again how and why health care systems are getting paralysed.
In a German retirement and nursing home for people with advanced dementia, 15 test-positive people have died. However, „surprisingly many people have died without showing symptoms of corona.“ A German medical specialist informs us: „From my medical point of view, there is some evidence that some of these people may have died as a result of the measures taken. People with dementia get into high stress when major changes are made to their everyday lives: isolation, no physical contact, possibly hooded staff.“
According to a Swiss pharmacologist, the Swiss Inselspital in Bern has forced staff to take leave, stopped therapies and postponed operations due to the fear of Covid19.
Professor Gérard Krause, head of the Department of Epidemiology at the German Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, warns on German public television ZDF that the anti-corona measures „could lead to more deaths than the virus itself„.
Various media reported that more than 50 doctors in Italy have already died „during the corona crisis“, like soldiers in a battle. A glance at the corresponding list, however, shows that most of the deceased are retired doctors of various kinds, including 90-year-old psychiatrists and pediatricians, many of whom may have died of natural causes.
An extensive survey in Iceland found that 50% of all test-positive persons showed „no symptoms“ at all, while the other 50% mostly showed „very moderate cold-like symptoms“. According to the Icelandic data, the mortality rate of Covid19 is in the per mille range, i.e. in the flu range or below. Of the two test-positive deaths, one was „a tourist with unusual symptoms“. (More Icelandic data)
The British Daily Mail journalist Peter Hitchens writes, „There’s powerful evidence this great panic is foolish. Yet our freedom is still broken and our economy crippled.“ Hitchens points out that in parts of the UK, police drones monitor and report „non-essential“ walks in nature. In some cases, police drones are calling on people via loudspeaker to go home in order to „save lives“. (Note: Not even George Orwell had thought that far ahead.)
The Italian secret service warns of social unrest and uprisings. Supermarkets are already being looted and pharmacies raided.
Professor Sucharit Bhakdi has meanwhile published a video (German/English) in which he explains his Open Letter to German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel.
March 30, 2020 (II)
In several countries, there is increasing evidence in relation to Covid19 that „the treatment could be worse than the disease“.
On the one hand, there is the risk of so-called nosocomial infections, i.e. infections that the patient, who may only be mildly ill, acquires in hospital. It is estimated that there are approximately 2.5 million nosocomial infections and 50,000 deaths per year in Europe. Even in German intensive care units, about 15% of patients acquire a nosocomial infection, including pneumonia on artificial respiration. There is also the problem of increasingly antibiotic-resistant germs in hospitals.
Another aspect is the certainly well-intentioned but sometimes very aggressive treatment methods that are increasingly used in Covid19 patients. These include, in particular, the administration of steroids, antibiotics and anti-viral drugs (or a combination thereof). Already in the treatment of SARS-1 patients, it has been shown that the outcome with such treatment was often worse and more fatal than without such treatment.
Incorrect. The mortality rate is high.
The reason for lower mortality in China is due to the very high level of care and treatments given to patients. This level is not, nay cannot be, administered by the West, simply because the West has not the capacity: neither in medical infrastructure nor in political organisation. Were Iran, Italy, others not to have received generous help from China, the mortalities in those countries would be very much higher. The west is still in early days: very much worse is yet to come.
Mortality rate is not high according to the latest reliable evidence. Many deaths are attributable to many other factors than the current flu. Please refer to Swiss Propaganda Research, an update of which is also posted here, as well as other links that many people have posted.
Could you please be so kind as to back your statements with references, as this sort of opinionated commentary is irresponsible and adds further to the already overblown and unwarranted fear and panic amongst people.
Interesting questions.
This article from Off-Guardian is worth noting:
https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/24/12-experts-questioning-the-coronavirus-panic?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=0f229e988daf57adc7d304eb8bf96639098bf554-1585613455-0-AQuXTbfNmRCXqTrTzSXH8oVP_s9q4EO6wbh6Xzq-rJV5L4p4U4lCi1J4zcibOYCH8oCsMqd57o3rTqahS1_Iu8bXsyAp_pFQmnU_WcXZQdg1EIpur_6h9dKc0Q44mfbB-vpjwl2GREPHz9uAG2c61CQoFkjJnG-s087aibR-l0uOnydilh5M64LtxiBmOhElD_qy6WUieBn4VXkeix9ANATylivFTbZp1hNmzc88jTpuoe0ek9SGRdU40YSiaPW1VXYXN45-cAKUf2p1VVYtDl97Ei5a4poV0ZTVoVcNLJ30aYe87luZkaVM2UIxypUDxs3fMAbY8gUt227P0EnIAJYOOsRr3mbUExpIrQAaZsA-
Medical experts muse on why a bad flu season is being allowed to crash the global economy.
Saker,
Might be worth posting this article as a feature?
Just a suggestion on posting links.
The question mark “?” and everything after it to the right are not needed.
In fact, they are the cookie tracking data used for various reasons including where it is posted etc.
Suggest snipping if off to reduce their capacity to do so.
If in doubt simply test it works in a new browser tab first b4 posting.
You’re right … that works … thanx! :-)
… Firstly, because this is not a forum to write about such issues, and secondly because I am not a medic.
Not at all Ghassan. What we need now are good analytical minds (yours, the Saker’s and the other writers’) rather than very clever specialist minds — people who can see the big picture and look at the available data coolly and dispassionately, and unencumbered with attachment to their particular field (virology, mathematics, computer modelling, behavioural science, etc). Really honest, well-meaning and knowledgeable people but unknowingly biased nevertheless. That’s why someone who’s not a medic but who understands the data is sorely required.
As an aside, Saker — and this is no criticism, just an honest opinion — has declined to give an analysis because he’s not a medic. That’s a bit unfortunate I think and the loss is ours. I’m not giving an eulogy or trying to ingratiate myself with Saker here but I really think we can benefit from his thoughts as we do from yours. Thoughts born out of a good analytical mind.
This guy here is not a medic and has written a good analysis of the pandemic. He also cited a retired pathologist (OK, he’s a medic but he’s not an epidemiologist) who’s looked at Covid-19 not with his pathologist’s hat on but also aps an analyst. It’s their train of thought and quality of analysis that’s important, I think, not their lack of qualifications to sort out the nitty gritty of virology, bioinformatics, mathematical modelling etc.
Scientists must look dispassionately at Covid-19 so they can see what it is, not what they fear: Rushed science can be bad science
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/484321-scientists-dispassionately-coronavirus-fear/
This article sums up my suspicions on the topic.
The Chinese and Russians know that this is not a normal virus and are taking it very seriously and taking the necessary precautions.
https://indianpunchline.com/russia-quizzes-us-on-coronavirus-parentage/
Is it more serious or less serious than normal flu? So far, it looks like a normal flu but then why the high precautions from China and Russia?
We are not being given the whole story, that is for sure.
One conspiracy theory says that there is a supranational group who wish to rule the world.
They already control the wealth of the world, they already control the worlds propaganda organs, they already control the governments of the world and therefore the worlds people.
Now they wish to collapse everything and introduce chaos everywhere. This will allow them to create their New World Order for the desperate peoples who survive in the ensuing chaos. A new world with one world government with which they will control everybody and everything.
Of course there are layers and layers withing this conspiracy but that’s it in a nutshell.
So why is Putin in a clown suit? And the Patriarch disavowing the church’s sanctuary by banning services?
Surely theirs is a mighty reason to act so? But what is the reason, if not the pandemic? Are the Russians not free to buck the entire world, if the cause was merely a planned total collapse and the coming reset? What is their gold for if not that? Or, is the shadow government so powerful, or so threatening, that they can hold the whole globe by the shorthairs, and make them dance as marionettes? Or maybe there is more than one plan in the works, at more than one level, some perhaps plan just to live, and others just to rule, but if world power is the coveted throne, are there other means than money for obtaining it? Maybe Russia doesn’t dance to our piper, but her own, and theirs is another plan, perhaps in league with China to create their own system, so the charades we see acted across the board could be to varying ends? What is for sure, you an I are suckers.
It is very difficult to work out what exactly is going on but I think the key may be to understand that there is a layer of “Elite” control of this world that is transnational, i.e. above and not under the control of any government.
Talking about the interests of the USA or China or Russia etc misses this point. It could well be that all 3 have been blindsided by an event staged to concentrate power at a transnational level.
Recent Elite level (Gates etc) war gaming of pandemics, talk of “China catching a cold”, Trump cruising to another 4 years then the economy crashes, Barr/Durham investigation coming to a head. Then this happens. Convenient.
According the Ernst Wolff (video linked above; here it is again
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=8LYjOEib9iI)
the World Health organization is a node for “steering” the panic.
The corona panic then becomes a facade for major maneuverings in the concurrently, or previously, collapsing world financial “system”—actually, bubble. The worldwide lockdown is a made-in-heaven opportunity for major financial actors to plunder the system as it comes down, which also accelerates the collapse.
Short sellers reap millions and billions as share prices plummet. Of course insider trading is rampant.
Helicopter money leads to hyperinflation.
Soon, expect people’s banks account to be raided a la Cypress, to refloat some kind of currency.
Cheers, katherine
Please stop propagating the very dangerous myth that the virus doesn’t propagate via air (yes, the WHO is criminally negligent by doing the same).
The virus can survive minutes or even potentially hours in airborne droplets.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak
Plenty of other examples, too.
I am sorry but the weirdo anti science and disease thinking here actually upsets me.I had thought the people here were wise and far thinking but this – there is no virus stuff really has me bewildered.
The history of humankind is riddled with disease pandemics and they do great harm and change society. The most obvious case was the black death which basically destroyed the European feudal system. No one claims they were some sort of conspiracy. The Spanish flu of 1919 the same, as were the ongoing epidemics of smallpox, typhus, cholera and typhoid. Diptheria was a dreaded disease and I as a child listed to my grandmother’s stories passed to her as a child of those who held the hand of two children (William and Mary) as they died of diptheria. But even with these fearful diseases many, many survived and no doubt there were people dismissing them as minor events.
So the arrival of some highly contagious and virulent pathogen (virus or bacteria) is to be expected. it has travelled around the world at record speed because unlike the older days people are travellers.
The sheer numbers on ships and planes staggers me but it is so. Indeed today it is reported that a staggering 25% of all Australian cases come from cruise ships.
those who say this is just the flu should take my challenge. Since you are all so sure it is not a real thing i assume you will put yourselves out to say do food deliveries for those people made to stay at home. Go down to the local hospital and volunteer. after all if it is just the flu and a giant conspiracy you have nothing to fear. Naturally swallow first your garlic, vitamin C , turmeric and green tea before you go. You will be completely safe you seem to feel.
Would it be fair to state that one presumption of this article is that “the owners” of the United States care about the lives and health of the citizens of the United States. After seventy years in the USA, I have seen little to no evidence to support that statement. Once you take concern for the people out of the equation or analysis, you are quickly taken to an obvious and very clear conclusion.
“Given what the public has been told, there is no conclusion to be made”.
Well said. And this alone indicates that the Mafia Media induced global Corona psychosis is the cover-up, while the global shutdown is the real thing. Rough times ahead.
Trump murdered Soleimani,
He underestimated the response of Iran, to date Trump still hasn’t accounted for 200 US-MIL air-lifted out of Iraq to Germany for ‘head-aches’
The fact is lack of preparation is no argument, as the USA certainly knew the virus would blow-back, but the very fact they were ‘dear in the head-lights’ shows that they didn’t care, but they did care, because Trump’s counsel all sold their stock, before Trump told the public the truth.
All of this was well planned. Too many things in this article are just ‘talking points’ right out of Israel, a country that didn’t get much of any of the virus.
“We will scrape the USA to bone, and then let the dust be blown away in the wind” – Netanyahu
The plan all along is/was to destroy the USA, so that the bankers aren’t accountable, and the reset currency gets a clean-slate clean of USA debt.
As far as I know as well, these are the ‘not so bad news’:
1. It is not airborne.
2. It has a very low mortality rate.
..
It’s air-borne a cough will emit the virus in a 5 meter radius, this is why eveybody must wear masks, even people who don’t know they’re infected.
Low Mortality?? It’s about 3.5% in Spain&Italy, the only place it’s low is in Israel ( 0.01 ), because Israel didn’t infect their own country back in Nov-Dec-2019.
God works in strange ways –
1.) Chinese billionaire companys of North&Central Italy destroyed, most famous brands on earth “Made in Italy” ( by chinese peasants )
2.) Iran, the oil supplier to China, destroyed.
3.) China – Wuhan/Hubei the “Chicago of China” destroyed,
God works in strange ways, indeed he’s destroyed all of Israel’s enemy’s and Trump’s scape-goats.
Those who deny or downgrade the mortality and morbidity of this virus are just denialists and may get a nasty shock.
Look at italy for your answer. Mortality there is running at 11.4%. Get it repeat in your heads 11.4% of all known cases. OK. What is worse if you look at the deaths to recovery factor the mortality rises as high as 44%. This is an overestimate of course as many of those newly infected will recover, nevertheless it Now at the end of the day their overall mortality will end up about 12%.
OK the qualifiers.
1. Not everyone is tested and there are lots of people who get the disease mildly so not so many etc. Well even if only 1/100 get sick enough to call a doctor you still have a death rate 10 times higher than the flu.
2. It is only the old dying and they were going to die anyway. Sure there is of course a large share of the population for whom this virus just happens to be the one which kills but it may have been another tomorrow.. However with so much data in the public arena there is a test for this too. France has a death rate of 6.8% but it does not include deaths in nursing homes, only those in hospitals. So immediately you can eliminate the assumption that his is just like a fast acting flu on the highly vulnerable at the end of their lives.
Israel
Yes just imagine Pompeo, Bolton, et al and their collective glee at these “strange workings”.
They will be absolutely drooling at the mouth.
YCHMTSU
Col
“As far as I know as well, these are the ‘not so bad news’:
1. It is not airborne.
2. It has a very low mortality rate.”
Specialists consider this point as a mistake of WHO. This organization failed to mention that…”Then and above all, a virus that is transmitted by aerosol respects no distance.”
Dear Ghassan: Could you clarify this point?
Virus is airborne in aerosol spray
https://youtu.be/vBvFkQizTT4
Thank you! I just wanted Ghassan to be aware of this fact. Otherwise his article is great.
I thought that technically, “airborne” and “borne in aerosol spray” are two separate things.
Which is it in the case of the CV-19?
Katherine
They have found it in rooms and corridors airborne after a patient dies.