Vitamin D and Flu Resistance, or Why Quarantines May Backfire

I don't know if the following is bunk or incredibly important, but it seems to me at least somewhat plausible, so I have lifted it in its entirety from LewRockwell.com.

By Bill Sardi,  via Lew Rockwell.com The mistaken presumption that a person “catches a cold” from someone else, or a flu virus, or a coronavirus, is the basis for calling a quarantine. The fallacy of person-to-person transmission is ingrained in the population as news reports of vacationers trapped in China during a coronavirus are flown back to the US and are found to have COVID-19 corona virus that may spread to their family members.  But COVID-19 is not spreading into the community.  Online maps showing the almost stagnant number of coronavirus-confirmed cases in each State are rapidly vanishing from view on the internet. There is person-to-person transmission of the virus, but not necessarily person-to-person transmission of the disease.  To better explain this, we have to dig back into the annals of epidemiology (the study of disease). A couple of decades ago it was epidemiologist Edgar Hope Simpson who asked some questions about the incongruities between published dogma about the spread of flu viruses and current epidemics that caused him to ask these questions: Where is the flu virus in between epidemics? Why do flu epidemics end so abruptly? What explains the frequent coincidental timing of flu epidemics in countries located at a similar north-south latitude? Why, in previous ages, did epidemics spread so rapidly despite the lack of modern transportation? Why do volunteers who have flu virus instilled into their nasal passages fail to produce symptoms of the flu in all cases? Why do hospitalization and mortality rates fail to decline when vaccination rates dramatically increase? Why does the flu strike in concert with the earth tilting on its axis away from the sun during the Winter solstice in northern latitudes. Dr. John Cannell cites an experiment conducted among six volunteers who were inoculated with a flu virus similar to the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu that reportedly killed millions. Of the six volunteers, just one experienced moderate symptoms; three had mild symptoms, one very mild, and one no illness at all. In another similar experiment, 46 of 55 inoculated volunteers failed to develop symptoms. A consistent fact is, immunization rates have risen in recent times among the elderly, without a decrease in mortality. Hope-Simpson had an over-arching question: What is the seasonal stimulus for influenza?  If it comes and goes, where does it go when it doesn’t come? The answer is that the humans are exposed to viruses throughout the year but they remain dormant when sunshine vitamin D blood levels are within a normal range. Viral disease erupts as vitamin D blood levels decline.  Which is why wintertime infectious disease travels faster than people travel. Viruses hidden within Some viruses, like herpes, remain dormant within the body, hiding in an inactive state in nerve sheaths. The type of herpes that caused chicken pox in youth remained hidden deep in nerves, only to erupt later in life as immunity declined.  You end up with a case of the shingles.  Or consumption of arginine-rich foods (chocolate, nuts) triggers eruption of herpes on the lip (herpes labialis), a so called cold sore.  The amino acid lysine (in high doses) is its countermeasure.  Supplemental vitamin D is of course, another antidote. A problem 93-million miles away Ninety-three million miles away is another complicating problem.   Sun spot activity is unusually low (zero), reducing intensity of solar ultraviolet radiation that produces vitamin D in human skin.  This year the problem is acute. Quarantines may backfire Predictably, the coronavirus epidemic will worsen with quarantine, which is precisely what happened on a cruise boat off the coast of Japan and what happened in Italy.  People deprived of sunshine vitamin D, particularly the elderly, may succumb to any pathogenic bacterium or virus. The aftermath of a quarantine on an ocean liner  After about a month of quarantine on the Diamond Princess the number of confirmed cases out of 3711 people quarantined on the boat  who became infected rose from 174 to 712 over a 1-month period of time (334 of the 712 had no symptoms). Governments have a different play book But governments have a different understanding.  The idea of social distancing is in vogue at the moment and its effectiveness appears to be complete but would never head off the onset of a viral epidemic when people are not aware of a need to maintain social distance. It appears there is no foolproof way to halt the spread of infection.  The COVID-19 coronavirus was reported in circulation in the U.S. prior to the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China.  For every known case of coronavirus there are another 5 to 10 cases undetected.  But the masses in the U.S. aren’t getting sick or dying in large numbers. It appears the federal government in an effort to prolong the life of less than ~1000 unhealthy 80 year-olds in the U.S. for a short while, particularly seniors who smoke tobacco and over-consume alcohol, they are willing to crash the economy, kill businesses, particularly churches and restaurants that are unlikely to have the resources to re-open their establishments, and coerce people to stay indoors, a practice that will further lower vitamin D levels and result in widespread infection and death among retirees. The cost per life saved is estimated to be in the range of $100-300 billion. The cost per life saved appears to be in the range of $100-300 billion.  We are talking about 2-6 million people losing their income, at least for a significant period of time, to extend the lives of a few unhealthy people by maybe as little as a few months. Pray for an early spring Researchers note that COVID-19 coronavirus favors cool and dry climate and therefore, looking forward on the calendar to April and May, “a worst-case scenario of synchronous global pandemic is improbable. “ Yes, with the onset of Spring, the intensity of sun rays reaching the surface of the earth increases and the epidemic is expected to vanish.  Yes, the President of the United States was predictably correct in saying on February 27 that: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” Fortunately, someone figured out how to take sunshine vitamin D and bottle it. Click on this link to see how a little bit (50 micrograms/2000 units) of vitamin D can quell viruses. Adults ought to be taking 8000 units of vitamin D per day; 2000 units per day for young children.

Related:
The Harvard Gazette: Study confirms vitamin D protects against colds and flu
Science News: Vitamin D protects against colds and flu, finds major global study
BMJ: Martineau et al., 2017. Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data

Russia's Eurovision Song Contest Entry

Via Vox Day: I blame Chernobyl

Hydroxychloroquine: Ten-Cent-a-Pill Bat Flu Antidote. So Can We Please Now Get on With Our Lives

As reported by Anthony Watts:

An effective treatment for #Coronavirus #COVID-19 has been found in a common anti-malarial drug Encouraging news: three new medical studies show a commonly available anti-malaria drug known as chloroquine aka chloroquine phosphate is showing strong results against COVID-19 infections in both China and South Korea. Excerpts from three studies, including one published in Nature are below.

 

Corona Virus Mortality in Italy:
 Italy's National Health Authority reports that of 2500 corona-virus-linked deaths, 99% were of people with other illnesses: more than 75% had high blood pressure, about 35% had diabetes and a third suffered from heart disease. Moreover, as of March 17, 17 people under 50 had died from the disease. The average age of those who died was 79.5. All of which raises the question, is COVID19 any more hazardous than any other kind of flu. Based on these statistics, that seems doubtful. Although the numbers vary greatly from year to year, Italy has, in recent years, had an average of around 15,000 flu deaths per year.

Related:
Journal of Critical Care: A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19
Bloomberg: 99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says
Tech Startups: New academic study reveals over-the-counter anti-malaria med Chloroquine may be highly effective at treating coronavirus
Guardian: Japanese flu drug 'clearly effective' in treating coronavirus, says China
The Connexion: French researcher posts successful Covid-19 drug trial
Pharmaceutical Technology: UK bans parallel export and hoarding of three Covid-19 drugs
Prime PubMed: A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19.
Prime PubMed: Expert consensus on chloroquine phosphate for the treatment of novel coronavirus pneumonia
Int'l. J. Antimicrobial Agents: Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as available weapons to fight COVID-19

Today's Most Uninteresting News Headline

The day the stock market collapsed, US global hegemony ended, Trump's reelection prospects dived, and the Covid19 epidemic took off in both Britain and America, the Daily Caller had this headline:

Daily Caller: Lindsey Graham Tests Negative For Coronavirus

MEANTIME:

Guardian: UK coronavirus crisis 'to last until spring 2021 and could see 7.9m hospitalised'

WSJ: People Fleeing Coronavirus Head to a New Safe Haven: China

IWB: MAJOR ECONOMIC DEPRESSION AHEAD? Global Oil Demand To Fall Drastically

IWB: Panicked Fed Slashes Rates to Near 0%, Throws $700 Billion QE on Top, after $1.5 Trillion Shock-and-Awe Repos Fizzled. Stock Futures Plunge 5%, Hit Limit Down

How Herd Immunity Is Supposed to Work: Pretty Cool — If It Works

This three-minute video explains how vaccination works to protect a population, even when many, perhaps most, are not vaccinated.



The same logic applies in the case of naturally acquired immunity within a population.

Here's the explanation of the UK Government's policy in response to the bat flu, as provided by Guido Fawkes:

The government’s internationally unique strategy is premised on the idea that the majority of us will inevitably get the coronavirus and for most of us it will be merely an unpleasant experience from which we will recover. Letting the healthy get it, with the more vulnerable kept physically separated from the majority, in the expectation Britons will develop herd immunity and because immune people cannot infect others. [Thus], in the long run, [there will be fewer] fatalities.

The British Government policy reponse to COVID19 benefits from the Chinese experience. What that experience shows is that the virus-caused demand for hospital care and mortality rises sharply with age, doing so strongly over the age of 60. The UK response reflects this fact.

Thus, the authorities are allowing the infection to spread throughout the population to the point it impacts a substantial number of the elderly. At that point, the elderly will be required to go into quarantine for four months for their own protection.

Quarantining the elderly will have two effects:

(1) it will prevent mass infection of those most liable to life-threatening disease symptoms, thereby limiting both mortality and demand for hospital care;

(2) it will reduce the average number of people each infected person will infect, i.e., the reproduction rate or R_nought. The latter effect, combined with the rise in the proportion of the under-65 population who by then will have acquired immunity, will drive the reproduction rate down, hopefully below 1.0, at which point the epidemic will die out.

Perhaps Britain's current crop of bureaucrats and government advisers are smarter than the old guard:



But: Did they get the timing wrong?

Related:
Buzzfeed: The UK Only Realised "In The Last Few Days" That Its Coronavirus Strategy Would "Likely Result In Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths"
Business Insider: People over 70 in the UK will be quarantined at home for 4 months in a 'wartime' effort to tackle coronavirus

The Markle Debacle and Why Harry Is Right to Escape the Toils of the Royals

There is nothing in Britain's unwritten constitution to suggest the need for a royal family. All that is required in the way of royalty is a Monarch. On the death of the Monarch, the crown passes to another person in accordance with law as laid down, and from time to time changed, by the British Parliament. Under current law, the monarchy will pass on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, to her eldest son, Charles, and on the death of Charles, to his oldest son William.

There is no Constitutionally or legally determined rule according to which the successors to the British crown must undertake a public role. Except by virtue of other titles or appointments, neither Prince Charles nor his son William have any constitutionally mandated function unless and until they succeed to the throne. Yet today, not only Charles and William but a large number of other relatives of the British monarch, now widely referred to by the ludicrous term "Royals," engage in public activities, publicly funded, as if this were an essential requirement of the British system of government.

In fact, the "Royals" are for the most part an unnecessary burden on the taxpayer and a frequent embarrassment, the Queen's son, Prince Andrew, being a prime example. Prince Harry's marriage to a  bitchy minor TV actress with vaulting ambition is a further example, except that Harry and his wife have opted to quite their public role as British "Royals." To that we say Bravo, and good luck. Now let us hear no more about them.

Unz Review Blames American Covert Attack on China for Bat Flu Now Beginning to Ravage the Western Nations

A commenter at the Unz Review writes: "Defense One is smearing Philip Giraldi (an Unz Review contributor) as a “conspiracy monger” who works for Russia."

Patrick Tucker said, “another piece of PressTV’s COVID-19-as-bioweapon coverage cites Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer and conspiracy monger writing for the Moscow-backed Strategic Culture Foundation. Giraldi’s evidence that the United States, and not China, is the source of the virus? There are some regions of China with more bats than Wuhan, he argues, but somehow those regions have fewer cases of COVID-19.”

Well, at least that bit's accurate as is evident from the first paragraph of Giraldi's Unz Review article:

The most commonly reported mainstream media account of the creation of the Coronavirus suggests that it was derived from an animal borne microorganism found in a wild bat that was consumed by an ethnic Chinese resident of Wuhan. But there appears to be some evidence to dispute that in that adjacent provinces in China, where wild bats are more numerous, have not experienced major outbreaks of the disease.

Can't say if Giraldi works for the Russians. But other arguments that Giraldi and his defenders present in support of the notion that the bat flu is an American biowarfare agent loosed with malicious intent upon China, are about as absurd as the one Defence One cites.
Another Unz Review commenter remarks:

As soon as COVID-19 is attributed to the US government (and that won’t take long,)

Which is as clear an admission as one will find at the Unz Review that there is currently no evidence whatsoever to attribute COVID19 to the US Government. Where this death dealing virus came from, I have no firm opinion. But I would like some real evidence before presenting a conclusion that could legitimately be taken as a justification for war.

Related:
Moon of Alabama: Coronavirus - The Hidden Cases - Why We Must Shut Everything Down And Do It Now

Communists will shut down a city to prevent a deadly epidemic from going exponential. Our neo-liberal leaders only started to care when the Dow Jones went down. Don't expect them to call for a shutdown as that will cost their donor's some money. As mostly elderly people will die they are probably calculating how much money the pension funds will save.

Vox Popoli: Italy shuts down harder

the Italian premier just announced that all retail stores are closed across the country except for pharmacies and grocery stores.

In other news out of Italy, the Boomercaust is officially upon us "as country's top doctors say intensive care units should stop treating the elderly."

How China Ended the Corona Virus Epidemic -- If It Has Ended

Infectious diseases cause epidemics when infected individuals infect, on average, more than one other person, causing the total number of infections to grow despite recovery or death of those previously infected. The number of individuals infected by each infected person is call the Reproduction number (R0).

Epidemics end when R0 falls below one. The COVID19 epidemic in China went exponential in January, with an R0 peaking at almost 4.0, and then tailed off throughout late January and February.

Why did it tail off?

Simple: quarantines and sequestrations.

Quarantine means restricting people's movement. This may mean restricting or prohibiting travel from one city to another, often referred to as a "lock-down,"or it may mean closing schools, universities, and places of business, thereby keeping people largely confined to their homes, rather than crowding together in the streets, on trains and buses, and in all places of assembly where those who are infected but asymptomatic can pass on the infection.

Quarantines may extend to ordering people to stay home, or even physically barring them from leaving their homes.

Sequestration means keeping the infected out of contact with the uninfected, including their own family or others with whom they share accommodation. In Wuhan, that was achieved by the creation of many thousands of beds in isolation facilities. These facilities are not primarily treatment facilities, they are simply places where sick people are put together out of contact with healthy members of their family and community.

The effectiveness of sequestration can be greatly enhanced if infected and infectious, but asymptomatic, individuals can be identified. Simple and rapid COVID19 tests have been developed, although control of the epidemic in China seems to have been achieved prior to widespread use of testing.

China's success in controlling COVID19 is proof of the effectiveness of China's authoritarian form of government in handling a crisis of the kind that would be experienced in the event of a biological WMD attack. As the virus spreads around the world, we will learn whether Western governments are can achieve by gentler means, China's remarkable success in containing this novel Corona virus.

But China's success remains to be confirmed. As reported here, some in China say the victory over the bat flu is FAKE.

Related:
Moon of Alabama: Coronavirus - The Hidden Cases - Why We Must Shut Everything Down And Do It Now
Zero Hedge: WHO Declares Covid-19 A Pandemic, Deeply Concerned At "Alarming Level Of Inaction"
WSJ: Italy, With Aging Population, Has World’s Highest Daily Deaths From Virus (Corona virus has killed 5% of known cases in Italy)

Robot submarine able to kill without human control

Source: New Scientist.

Uh uh! Look out World! See who's building this thing.
Related:
CanSpeccy: Boeing: Building Planes Designed by Clowns Supervised By Monkeys
Daily Mail: NASA's uncertainty over Starliner astronaut capsule made clear as Boeing is told to take 61 'corrective actions' after failed mission sent craft into the wrong orbit

The novel Corona Virus Is Going Global and If You're Retired, It May Just Have Been Targeted On You

Over at the Unz Review, multiple articles and lame arguments have been presented for the notion that Covid19 is an American biowarfare agent aimed at China, intended to disrupt China's economy.

Problem is there's virtually no way of knowing if that is true, and if it were true it would indicate that the US Government is inept beyond belief, since such an act of sabotage would almost certainly come back on America and cause devastation at least equal to that wrought in China.

In any case, debate about the source of the novel corona virus, whether it derives from a Chinese biowarfare lab or from an American biowarfare lab, or maybe from Israel, and who, if anyone, is responsible for launching it upon the world, is futile.

There is no way of knowing how this pandemic started, short of total incompetence or confession on the part of those responsible.

To launch a plague undetected is the easiest thing in the world.

The responsible party, whether acting with deliberation or by inadvertence, will almost certainly never be identified.

But one thing's for certain. There's no need for 300 American soldiers in Wuhan to do the job, to mention a theory to which Ron Unz repeatedly alludes.

Just one person with a pair of contaminated gloves will do it:  visit the supermarket, touch this, touch that, smear the shopping cart handle, then drop the gloves where someone is likely to pick them up and contaminate themselves and others, then stand back and watch as the magic of exponential growth takes over.

Next thing you know the newspaper front page announces in 256 point type:

CONTAINMENT IS FUTILE

Followed by, in slightly smaller type:

In Canada, local transmission “is going to be widespread, it’s going to be severe”.

And that's a key fact you have to understand if you want a plausible theory of the origin of this plague. The thing's a boomerang. It hits those who launch it as hard as those they launched it against, assuming, that is, that this plague is is the result of deliberate human action, unlike all the other plagues that have emerged from China without human intent, from the Black Death in the 14th Century, to the Asian flu of 1958, the swine flu the chicken flu, etc. 

Another key fact about this novel Corona virus, whether it is man-made or naturally occuring, is that it kills the old, not the young.

So who benefits?

Both China and America: each with rapidly aging populations and a problem financing the maintenance of the elderly.

What's a government to do? Kill off the useless eaters with this handy virus, obviously.

So no, pretty certainly, China didn't do this to America and America did not do this to China. But it could be a joint operation using a virus modified by scientists of both countries, working, as we know, in collaboration on means to enhance the pathogenicity, or achieve gain-of-function, as the techies of doom like to say, of bat flu viruses.

Related: 

Zero Hedge: Italy Reports 2nd Straight 1,000+ Jump In Cases As Mortality Rate Hits 5%
Zero Hedge: "This Is The Most Frightening Disease I've Ever Encountered In My Career" Says Architect Of National Pandemic Strategy

Saving the British Nation from Elite-driven Genocide

Over at the Unz Review, the current headline story is about the firing of a UK Government special adviser named Sabitsky who advocated the forced sterilization (by means of a long-lasting contraceptive treatment) of those of low IQ, particularly African immigrants.

The Unzites are, true to form, in uproar against this appalling stifling of the hideous reality of low black IQ and the urgent need for measures of racial hygiene. In fact, however, Sabitsky is a young and obnoxious fool to have advocated compulsory contraception, i.e., sterilization. That's not what can happen in a free country.

His proposal however, does address a real problem: namely, Britain's catastrophically dysgenic reproductive policies, which yield, contrary to the pattern of all past ages, higher fertility among the poor and stupid than among the rich and intelligent.

And as one commenter over at Unz.com, notes: Correcting the disastrous demographic trend in Britain requires four things:

First, barring immigration except to those of British extraction prior to 1950, when the waves of mass immigration began. Second, bringing back teenage pregnancy. The idiots and self-hating morons who devised sex "education" have destroyed an essential part of the mechanism for population self-replacement. In 1950's Britain there was essentially no sex "education", no pill, and abortion was rare, dangerous and criminal. Hence smart lads and cute, unwed, teenage girls subject to irresistible impulse accounted for one third of all conceptions. The result? Sharp good-looking kids. In about one third of all cases the parents of these children married in haste. The majority of the remaining kids were adopted and well brought up. Third, make welfare for indigent mothers dependent on identification by DNA test of the father(s) of their children, while compelling father's thus identified to make child support payments or go to debtors' gaol. (That way, no need for compulsory contraception. Only the most imbecile of the fathers of welfare children will fail to use a condom, and those who do fail will end up in gaol.) Fourth, give intelligent women who bear and raise children vastly greater economic security in this age of no-fault divorce by instituting a child allowance paid to the mother for the rest of her life in the form of a large (at least 25%) tax refund, based on the earnings of both parents whether married, unmarried or divorced.

Related: 
Zero Hedge: Marine Le Pen Calls For Referendum To Stop "Submersion" Of France Via Mass Immigration

Is the Corona Virus Global Pandemic a Hoax?

Ron Unz, over at the Unz Review, is running several articles arguing that the novel corona virus, COVID-19, is a US biowarfare agent most likely launched by the US armed-forces contingent at last December's Military Games in Wuhan, China. The purpose for this dastardly deed? To wreck China's economy and give the US a chance to remain global hegemon for at least another few months.

The idea seems dopey to me. To date, Covid-19 has killed far fewer than the regular late-fall flu. What's more, those said to have died are mostly, like me, over 65, i.e., a burden on the economy, not a productive asset to be preserved.

True, in response to the outbreak of this supposedly deadly virus, China has really hammed it up, barring citizens in their homes, locking down whole cities, building multiple massive hospitals overnight.

Sure makes it look like the virus is a real threat. Yet in America, the reaction to the arrival of COVID-19 is almost somnolent, with fewer tests for the virus having been conducted in the whole of the US than have been conducted in the single Canadian Province of British Columbia.

Meantime, here in test-crazy BC, life continues seemingly unaltered. The streets are filled with vehicles, the stores are filled with shoppers, and although stores are said to have sold out of face masks, no one I've seen is wearing this life-saving device.

But why fake an epidemic? Well, for China, it provides an opportunity to test their biowarfare response systems, while for Donald Trump it allows him to breeze through the crisis exuding optimism and confidence and demonstrating that America is truly so great again that it can just shrug off the non-existent virus while hardly moving a finger to stop it.

Who knows? But for me, as a commentator, it looks to be a win-win situation. If the bug's for real and I join the ranks of the elderly victims of viral voracity, I won't be around for anyone to ridicule me, but if I'm still here by summer, I'll take a bow.

And as the 2019—2020 season flu death toll in the US heads for 20,000, the New York Post reports: Coronavirus death toll reaches six in US. To that, I say — with all due respect for the diseased, LOL.

Related:
CanSpeccy: The novel Corona Virus Is Going Global and If You're Old, It May Just Have Been Targeted On You
Jon Rappoport: How to stage a fake epidemic (and brainwash billions of people)

Repurposing Britain's New, Superb, and Totally Useless Warships

Speaking of Britain's newest additions to the Royal Naval fleet, the Aircraft Carriers HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth, Lord Alan West, former British Admiral and Labour peer, has stated that the US feels a touch of jealousy toward the Royal Navy. The reason for this supposed jelousy is the alleged superiority of the British vessels relative to those of the American navy.

But as someone over at the Russian website Sputnik points out, whether an aircraft carrier is British or America:

... all it takes is one well placed super fast missile ...

And it's not just Russia that has a few of those.

But given that these ships have been built and the fact that, at least to look at, they are mighty impressive ships, the best thing to do with them is convert them to emergency relief vessels. As such, they would be equipped with helicopters and fixed wing aircraft for the deliver food, water, a prefab hospital and other medical aid, temporary housing, and equipment for infrastructure repair wherever on the face of the earth life has been disrupted by hurricane, earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami or disease.

Such a transformation would provide concrete evidence of post-Brexit Britain's aim to be friend of all the world. Meantime, Britain should emulate Switzerland by creating a civilian militia, every able-bodied male between the ages of 18 and 65 to possess and know how to use a rifle — just to remind any future continental Hitlerian that invading Britain would be a bad idea.

Also, the Brits need to get back to training native citizens as engineers in place of the imported brains they've come, like the Americans, increasingly to rely on,. Then, purely for the purpose of deterrence, they should get back to the drawing board and develop a credible independent delivery system for Britain's nukes.

As for the Trident subs, they can sell 'em to the Canadians, to replace the earlier consignment of British-built dud subs now reaching the end of their expensively unproductive life.

Trump Organizing 2020 Landslide

Washington Post:  U.S. signs peace deal with Taliban agreeing to full withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan

New York Times:  U.S. Strikes Deal With Taliban to Withdraw Troops From Afghanistan

And this:

Tass: Trump ready to meet with leaders of Russia, China, Britain, France to discuss arms control

And if he were to add reform of the banking system, Trump would truly set the US on course to renewed greatness.

Who Said Asians Aren't Creative

China is reportedly gathering a 100,000-strong army of ducks which they will send to Pakistan to help combat a massive locust infection, according to the Associated Press, citing local media.

As a result, Pakistan will be rid of millions of locusts, and when the Chinese avian army returns home, China will have 100,000 well fattened Ducks ready to roast. Brilliant!

COVID-19, an Agent of Demographic Change: How the New Corona Virus Will Change the World

 The novel corona virus COVID-19 has three interesting properties:

(1) It is highly infectious;
(2) It has a high lethality, killing something like 3% of those infected;
(3) Risk of mortality increases with age.

What that means is that:

(a) Most people throughout the world will likely contract the disease within the next couple of years;
(b) Several hundred million people worldwide will die from the disease;
(c) Most deaths will be of pensioners in the most developed nations.

What that all means is that:

(i)  The burden of social security in the most developed nations will be radically lifted as the number of pensioners is cut by 10 to 30%, and perhaps by well over half if the virus returns over a number of years;
(ii) The number of young people engaged in the "eldercare" business will be radically reduced;
(iii) The cost of housing will fall and fertility rates will rise as the transfer of assets from the old to the young accelerates.

The most important net effect will be to save the Western nations from self genocide by suppression of native fertility (due to the burden of high housing and social services costs) and an end to mass population replacement immigration as native workers are released from service to the older generation, and thus freed to take the jobs that "natives won't do."

Whether as the result of a lucky accident or the planned release of an engineered virus, the overall effects will likely be judged by historians to have been beneficial.

Related: 
CanSpeccy: The novel Corona Virus Is Going Global and If You're Old, It May Just Have Been Targeted On You
Real Clear Science: Five Reasons not to Panic About the COVID-19 Coronavirus

Emerg. Micr. & Infections: Discovery of a subgenotype of human coronavirus NL63 associated with severe lower respiratory tract infection in China, 2018
ZH: Did China Close First Lab To Sequence Covid-19 Out Of Fear It Would Lose Bat Soup Narrative?
NY Post: Don’t buy China’s story: The coronavirus may have leaked from a lab
ZH: UK Prepares Giant Morgue in London's Hyde Park
The Economist: A broadguess is that 25-70% of the population of any infected country may catch the disease
The Lancet: RETRACTED: Chinese medical staff request international medical assistance in fighting against COVID-19
James Howard Kunstler: Hey, It’s Not Just Corona Virus
DM: Now a DOG tests positive for coronavirus

Independent: Coronavirus could kill half a million Brits and infect 80% of UK population

ZH: Japan, China Close Schools Nationwide\
South China Morning Post: Coronavirus far more likely than Sars to bond to human cells due to HIV-like mutation, scientists say
ZH: Covid-19 Infects Iranian Vice President, Kills Iran Ambassador To Vatican
ZH: Pope Cancels Event Over "Slight Illness" After Shaking Hands With 'Mask-Wearing' Public In St. Peter's Square

The Argument for Mass Immigration:

Immigrants take the jobs natives don't want:

Nigerian, Billy Chemimir, accused serial killer healthcare worker tied to a THOUSAND unexplained deaths of elderly patients is indicted on additional murder charges. Source

Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate Highlights

Bloomberg: How I Bought Forty Congress Critters:

Biden-Gone-Bonkers: How Gun Violence Will Kill Us All:

Are Prince Harry and Meghan More Than Britain Can Afford?

Daily Mail: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's security plans are 'unworkable' as the Met Police is 'severely lacking trained officers' warns ex-protection officer as bill rockets to £20m-a-year.

Simplest thing, really, would be for the Queen, in her capacity as Commander-in-Chief of Britain's armed forces, to order Harry back to Afghanistan for a bit, while sending Meghan to cool off at the Tower of London.

And In Other News:
Harvard Epidemiologist: Y'all Gonna Get the Corona Virus
(but it probably won't kill ya)

MSM Money: Stocks Continue Monday's Plunge
(This could kill ya, or at least your pension fund, already off 7%).

The Russian Rocket Engine That Takes Americans into Space

The Russian-built RD 180 Rocket engine that powers America's
Shuttle replacement -- Boeing's CST-100 Starliner.

Boeing Corporation depends on Russia not only for the supply of rocket engines to power it's Space Shuttle replacement, the CST-100 Starliner, but also for titanium components for its aircraft manufacturing business. According to this Zero Hedge report, at least 40% of Russian titanium aircraft parts have been sold to Boeing in the last several years (Russia has since threatened to halt titanium exports to the US). This should surprise no one familiar with Boeing's management, with it's board of directors comprised of novelists, song writers, accountants, and female ex-diplomats, but not a single engineer.

Sussex ex Royal Sour Grapes

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have caved to pressure from the British throne and abandoned their "Sussex Royal" brand. That seems only reasonable since they apparently wish to have nothing to do with the British Royal Family business. Perhaps Prince Harry will drop the Prince too, which would have the advantage of making him eligible for citizenship in Canada where he and Meghan are presently residing. 

Meantime, though, there is a certain sourness in the tone of an announcement on the "Sussex Royal" website concerning the planned change in branding:

While there is not any jurisdiction by The Monarchy or Cabinet Office over the use of the word ‘Royal’ overseas, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use ‘Sussex Royal’ or any iteration of the word ‘Royal’ in any territory (either within the UK or otherwise) when the transition occurs Spring 2020.

Bizarrely, the statement also includes the following:

As agreed and set out in January, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will retain their “HRH” prefix, thereby formally remaining known as His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will no longer actively use their HRH titles as they will no longer be working members of the family as of Spring 2020.

Um, so they are to be known as His and Her Royal Highness, while not actively using the His and Her Royal Highness appellations, which is only sensible since, in Canada where they presently reside, foreign titles are not recognized. [There is no exception in the case of Canada's Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II either, since the Queen is, by a 1953 Act of the Parliament of Canada, Queen of Canada, and hence the only person with a legally recognized Canadian title.]

But what, then, are we supposed to call this troubled and somewhat troublesome pair? Mr. and Mrs. Battenberg (the original name of the British Royal family)? Sounds good. A very suitable family name for recent immigrants to Canada. Should fit in well with the existing mix of odds and ends of European humanity who make up most of the Canadian population.

But how then will plain Mr. and Mrs. B  make a living? For now that seems to remain an open to question, but Harry could perhaps earn a bit, as  an advocate for a baldness cure. Meantime, taking advantage of the family name, Mrs. B's charming face could perhaps grace advertisements for a commercial variant of the Battenburg cake, invented to celebrate the wedding of Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, who married Prince Henry of Battenberg, from whom the present Royal family derived its name (now Anglicized to Mountbatten).

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