Global Health Effects on Markets and Mining Stock

The fear factor is very high, and with good reason, but it is also ingrained in our culture to bravely persevere. There are a lot of things we can worry over, but I try not to editorialize too much without at least providing references. I was recently criticized on this, and also on another thread, because I “cut and paste” a lot. I do this because experts can express most things far better than I can. Full context for a fuller understanding is usually quite long and tedious reading. If I wanted original content I’d tune in to Netflix! :wink:

Also, there is increasing evidence, despite the interference and misdirection, to discover what led to the outbreak. The Chinese government at the expense of the Chinese people made the situation worse within China, and allowed the Covid virus to spread throughout the world. So far, to date the spread of this virus has resulted in 2.7 million deaths worldwide.

The Covid-19 pandemic almost didn’t happen, a new genetic dating study shows

The coronavirus pandemic almost didn’t happen, a new study shows.

Researchers working to show when and how the virus first emerged in China calculate that it probably did not infect the first human being until October 2019 at the very earliest. And their models showed something else: It almost didn’t make it as a pandemic virus.

Only bad luck and the packed conditions of the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan – the place the pandemic appears to have begun – gave the virus the edge it needed to explode around the globe, the researchers reported in the journal Science.

“It was a perfect storm – we know now that it had to catch a lucky break or two to actually firmly become established,” Michael Worobey, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who worked on the study, told CNN.

“If things had been just a tiny bit different, if that first person who brought that into the Huanan market had decided to not go that day, or even was too ill to go and just stayed at home, that or other early super-spreading events might not have occurred. We may never have even known about it.”

The study indicates the virus did emerge in China’s Hubei province and not elsewhere, the researchers said.

MSN

Pandemics have plagued humankind throughout written history. Pandemics generally can run a course of many years (plagues), to much shorter durations of just a year or two. The 2018 Spanish influenza lasted just two years (without vaccines or modern therapies). SARS lasted just two years as it spread in China, the United States, Canada, Southeast Asia, South America, Europe without an effective vaccine or cure, but did essentially disappear on it’s own. There does not appear to be just one all-inclusive answer on what will defeat the pandemic we face today.

(How Long Historical Pandemics Actually Lasted)

We all know that modern technology and science has created many cures and therapies used in medicine. Science also contains the possibility of creating many of the problems humanity faces. I think we all have seen enough doom and gloom in our lifetimes, and more recently, caused by this one Coronavirus, which almost certainly had originally come out of a research lab in Wuhan China. Many labs around the world have been using CRISPR to alter DNA sequences, including China’s first biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) laboratory. The current coronavirus pandemic appears to have first appeared and spread out of the Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei China.

CRISPR (/ˈkrɪspər/) (which is an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. – Wikipedia

Along with miracle cures there has been much portrayed in films and discussed in articles on the threat of using such advances in science to cause harm, rather than better humanity. One such article written in March of 2019 states, “The motivation for a bioterrorist to carry out acts of bioterror stems from a consciousness of ignorance.” The same article mentions the movie “Rampage” where CRISPR research led to using it as a biological weapon. The article goes on to state, “Besides, bio-terror attacks, unlike nuclear and chemical weapons, are not confined to a limited area; they spread worldwide and have worldwide ramifications.”

(Threat of Bio-terror from crispr | Threat of Bio-terror from crispr)

An even earlier article from August 2017 warned:

Some of these applications – such as the engineering of mosquitoes to resist the parasite that causes malaria – effectively involve tinkering with ecosystems. CRISPR has therefore generated a number of ethical and safety concerns. Some also worry that applications being explored by defence organisations that involve “responsible innovation in gene editing” may send worrying signals to other states.

Concerns are also mounting that gene editing could be used in the development of biological weapons. In 2016, Bill Gates remarked that “the next epidemic could originate on the computer screen of a terrorist intent on using genetic engineering to create a synthetic version of the smallpox virus”. More recently, in July 2017, John Sotos, of Intel Health & Life Sciences, stated that gene editing research could “open up the potential for bioweapons of unimaginable destructive potential”.

An annual worldwide threat assessment report of the US intelligence community in February 2016 argued that the broad availability and low cost of the basic ingredients of technologies like CRISPR makes it particularly concerning.

(Could CRISPR be used as a biological weapon?)

I’m generally very much a realist and optimist and believe that despite all hardships encountered, Americans will overcome this pandemic. While it is important to stay informed, there are so many threatening situations the world faces without having to worry about all of them. I do worry about the political division that seems to enter every facet of our lives. The solution is not found in Democrats or Republicans … it is found in the opening statement of the US Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The political finger pointing that seems to arise in far too many viral discussions is unnecessary, does not lead to solutions, or lead to the ideals stated in the preamble of the Constitution. Each of us as individuals can look to personal responsibility for ourselves, and those around us, in the best way we can. We should do so respectfully realizing the fact that our opinions are based on our own life observations and experiences. Opinions are formed and evaluated as new facts emerge.

1 Like

Interesting. Seriously, I wonder if users of Superbeets show a similar decreased incidence of Covid from the nitrous oxide boost. Probably has similar health affects. “SuperBeets is a popular supplement that allegedly lowers blood pressure, improves circulation, and increases energy.” It sounds farfetched, but there are reports that there may be a role for supplements such as D3, C and Zinc in decreasing effects or incidence of Covid. Nitrous oxide has been mentioned in many non-mainstream articles as having a role in preventing the virus from easily entering the cells in the lungs. Maybe there will be more investigation into the therapeutic use of nitrous oxide in treating the onset of a Covid infection.

1 Like

I once again find myself in the nation’s hot spot for COVID…i.e. Michigan.

The U.K. variant is spreading like wildfire through the communities that generally have grown weary of COVID restrictions and have let their guard down. Those that I know that have had COVID continues to increase. Most disturbingly are those that have come down with Long COVIDS symptoms that are left with no recourse but to suffer indefinitely. (Note: Best strategy…get vaccinated as it can help with the symptoms and take supplements that address chronic inflammation.)

It is not yet clear if what is going on in Michigan with spread to other states since the rate of vaccination nation wide is at a rather incredible 4 million doses per day right now.

Still, there is large % of Americans who are going to refuse to get vaccinated not to mention the 70 million under the age of 16 that aren’t eligible for the vaccine so it seems a further increase in cases is all but assured.

One neat thing for me personally. Tomorrow, it will have been 12 days since I received my first Pfizer vaccine shot. At the 12 day mark, it is when the data shows that enough antibodies have been generated to offer excellent protection against COVID; especially the severe form. I’m already feeling a sense of relief.

1 Like

Beat you by a week re: shot. Everyone in my house has had the shot here, as Northern health has been targeting places that are hotspots and giving everyone 18+ the shot if they want it. I also know some longhaulers and mentioned an article to them I saw out of Australia. Gal there had got relief from symptoms after getting a shot. FWIW

Here, it is real hit/miss on vaccine availability. I signed up in 5 different ways in an attempt to get the vaccine but none of them actually came through for me. The reason appears to be they were all tied to availability within a very few miles of one’s zip code; automatically excluding areas further away. Locally, there was simply nothing available for low risk groups. Using a search engine for CVS pharmacy, I was finally able to score an appt only 45 minute drive away. (I noted a pattern in their webpage interface. They only allowed one to schedule something like 4 days in advance. Early in the morning, they added a whole slew of new appointments for the next available day which I quickly snagged.)

Note: Only side effect from the first shot was a moderately sore shoulder for a few hours. However, I know several who have significant side effects such as being sick in bed for several days. I’m a little more concerned about shot number 2 that is coming up. It is very clear that the younger one is, the more likely to experience side effects.

1 Like

Looking at the U.S. data this morning and all things considered, it is apparent that the threat of another surge has passed. Even in the worst hit places like Michigan, cases have leveled off/starting to fall. It is evident that the number of vaccinated people combined with up to 1/3 of Americans who have immunity from already having been infected has become significant enough to lower the R0 values to below one.

I’m think we are good till next Fall when complacency sets in coinciding with the start of the traditional virus season, restart of school and likelihood of vaccine defeating variants being around.

Global death toll from COVID now in excess of 6.9 million and will likely rival the Spanish flu by the end of the pandemic. New analysis finds global Covid death toll is double official estimates

Perhaps Gold and Silver prices are up because there is a growing concern with the economy and the news that the US dollar could collapse by the end of 2021.

Nasdaq futures jump 1%, Dow negative after weak jobs data

By Shreyashi Sanyal and Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - Futures tracking the Nasdaq jumped more than 1% on Friday as mega-cap growth stocks rallied after a downbeat jobs report eased valuation concerns and worries about the U.S. Federal Reserve reducing its massive stimulus program anytime soon.

The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report showed U.S. employers hired far fewer workers than expected in April, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by only 266,000 jobs last month after rising by 770,000 in March.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls advancing by 978,000 jobs.

Highly valued stocks such as Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Facebook Inc rose more than 1% each in premarket trading.

“One number doesn’t make a trend, but it takes some of the heat off the economy overheating and inflation moving dramatically higher,” said Larry Adam, chief investment officer at Raymond James. “This puts less pressure on the Fed to prematurely talk about tapering.”

The report also showed unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in April from 6.0% in March.

Economically sensitive cyclical stocks reversed earlier gains, with planemaker Boeing Co down 0.1%, lender Goldman Sachs Group Inc falling1.4% and oil major Chevron Corp dropping 0.6%.

At 9:06 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 32 points, or 0.09%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 13 points, or 0.31%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 154 points, or 1.13%.

The Nasdaq Composite index is set to fall 2.3% this week, its worst weekly decline since late February. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average indexes, however, are on track for weekly gains.

Payments firm Square Inc rose 4.7% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profit, as surging demand for bitcoin fueled a jump in cryptocurrency transactions on its application.

Streaming device maker Roku Inc jumped 11.4% following upbeat revenue outlook, while fitness equipment maker Peloton Interactive gained 5.6% as it laid out steps to improve the safety of the equipment.

Gold Rises to a Three-Month High as a Weak U.S. Jobs Report Sends Dollar and Bond Yields Lower

BY MT Newswires
— 9:17 AM ET 05/07/2021

09:17 AM EDT, 05/07/2021 (MT Newswires) – Gold prices rose early on Friday as the dollar and bond yields plunged after the country reported its economy added just 266,000 new jobs last month, will under the consensus forecast from economists predicting nearly one-million new positions were added last month.

Gold for June delivery was last seen up US$25.70 to US$1,841.40 per ounce in Comex electronic trade, the highest since Feb.11…

The gains come as the dollar fell following the disappointing jobs report, making the metal more affordable for international buyers. The ICE dollar index was last seen down 0.56 points to 90.39.

Bond yields also plunged after the release, with Action Economics reporting the U.S. 10-year bond yield “knee-jerked” 11 basis points lower to 1.475 points as inflation worries abated with the weak data.

“The April jobs report clearly is at odds with other labor data, and there are likely myriad anomalies in the data, and the economy eroding relationships. Nevertheless this report will surely keep the FOMC in very patient mode,” Action Economics said in a note.

All the deaths due to Covid not what most Americans wanted to see, but very predictable aftermath, all things considered:

U.S. hiring takes big step back; shortages of workers, raw materials blamed

By Lucia Mutikani, Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth unexpectedly slowed in April, likely restrained by shortages of workers and raw materials as an economic recovery bolstered by rapidly improving public health and massive government aid fueled a boom in demand.

The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday, which showed a plunge in temporary help jobs - a harbinger for future hiring - as well as decreases in manufacturing, retail and courier services employment, could heat up the debate on generous unemployment benefits.

The enhanced jobless benefits, including a government-funded $300 weekly supplement, pay more than most minimum wage jobs. The unemployment benefits were extended as part of a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 pandemic relief package approved in March. Montana and South Carolina are ending government-funded pandemic unemployment benefits for residents next month.

Economists say some workers could still be fearful of returning to work even as all adult Americans are now eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. Others also cited problems with child care as in-person classes remain limited in many school districts. Shortages of raw materials, documented in several business surveys, are also hindering hiring.

“The employment gain is understated in part because of the generous largess from Washington,” said Sung Won Sohn, a finance and economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “Short-staffed restaurant owners are working overtime, truck drivers are impossible to find even after a hefty increase in hourly wages and loading docks at warehouses are keeping trucks idle as there aren’t enough workers.”

Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 266,000 jobs last month. Data for March was revised down to show 770,000 jobs added instead of 916,000 as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls would advance by 978,000 jobs.

That left employment 8.2 million jobs below its peak in February 2020. Twelve months ago, the economy purged a record 20.679 million jobs as it reeled from mandatory closures of nonessential businesses to slow the first wave of COVID-19 infections. That plunge could have thrown off the model that the government uses to adjust the data for seasonal fluctuations, resulting in the April payrolls number being below forecasts.

Unadjusted payrolls increased by 1.089 million jobs after rising by 1.176 million in March.

“We have warned frequently that the COVID-19 shock last spring would echo through the seasonally adjusted data and cause significant volatility,” said Scott Ruesterholz, portfolio Manager at Insight Investment in New York. “That is likely what is happening with this report.”

As such, the report did little to change expectations that the economy entered the second quarter with strong momentum and was on track for its best performance this year in almost four decades. New claims for unemployment benefits have dropped below 500,000 for the first time since the pandemic started.

Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher. The dollar was weaker against a basket of currencies. Prices of longer-dated U.S. Treasuries fell.

SCRAMBLE FOR WORKERS

Many states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, have lifted most of their coronavirus capacity restrictions on businesses as more Americans get vaccinated. But the resulting burst in demand, which contributed to the economy’s 6.4% annualized growth pace in the first quarter, the second-fastest since the third quarter of 2003, has triggered shortages of labor and raw materials.

From manufacturing to restaurants, employers are scrambling for workers. The moderate pace of hiring could last at least until September when the enhanced unemployment benefits run out.

For a graphic on U.S. labor market by sector:

https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/UNEMPLOYMENT/xegpbagnqvq/USA-ECONOMY-LABOR-SECTOR.jpg

Leisure and hospitality gained 331,000 jobs in April, with hiring at restaurants and bars accounting for more than half of the increase. Government employment picked up as school districts hired more teachers following the resumption of in-person learning in many states.

But temporary help services employment dropped by 111,400 jobs. Manufacturing employment fell by 18,000 jobs, with payrolls at motor vehicle manufacturers dropping 27,000. A global semiconductor chip shortage has forced production cuts.

In the transportation and warehousing industry, employment for couriers and messengers fell by 77,000. Retail employment dropped by 15,300 jobs. With workers scarce, employers boosted wages and increased hours for employees. Average hourly earnings jumped 0.7% after dipping 0.1% in March. The average workweek rose 0.1 hour to 35 hours.

April’s employment report could bolster President Joe Biden’s plan to spend another $4 trillion on education and childcare, middle- and low-income families, infrastructure and jobs. The Federal Reserve has signaled it intends to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate near zero and continue to pump money into the economy through bond purchases for a while.

The unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in April from 6.0% in March. The jobless rate has been understated by people misclassifying themselves as being “employed but absent from work.” Without this misclassification, the unemployment rate would have been 6.4% in April.

Despite last month’s sharp moderation in hiring, the labor market is improving. The labor force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, climbed to 61.7% from 61.5% in March.

Still, at least 4 million people, many of them women, remain outside the labor force. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, dropped to 10.4% from 10.7% in March.

The employment-to-population ratio, viewed as a measure of an economy’s ability to create employment, edged up to 57.9% from 57.8% in the prior month. About 4.183 million people have been out of work for more than 27 weeks, accounting for 43.0% of the 9.8 million people classified as unemployed last month. That was little changed from March.

To you get yourself in the mood for the weekend, I suggest this video:

I think maybe this will be accurate for the U.S. this Summer?

1 Like

Kuddos - Loved the Gutsy commercial! Entertaining and Enlightening.

Can we admit that we don’t know it all? We need to update our knowledge base with new information constantly. This is an interesting fact we can’t avoid dealing with. The following are only a few short excerpts from a recent article as the full article is a long read. I have included only a few key points. This is a topic that is far too important for the readers on this forum to simply ignore. Why is the article so controversial? In retrospect, what was controversial about the Great Barrington Declaration?

Origin of Covid — Following the Clues
Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?

Nicholas Wade - May 2 - 43 min read

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted lives the world over for more than a year. Its death toll will soon reach three million people. Yet the origin of pandemic remains uncertain: the political agendas of governments and scientists have generated thick clouds of obfuscation, which the mainstream press seems helpless to dispel. …

A Tale of Two Theories

After the pandemic first broke out in December 2019, Chinese authorities reported that many cases had occurred in the wet market — a place selling wild animals for meat — in Wuhan. This reminded experts of the SARS1 epidemic of 2002 in which a bat virus had spread first to civets, an animal sold in wet markets, and from civets to people. A similar bat virus caused a second epidemic, known as MERS, in 2012. This time the intermediary host animal was camels. …
… It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Dr. Daszak’s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Dr. Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet’s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, “We declare no competing interests.”
… And that’s it. These are the two arguments made by the Andersen group in support of their declaration that the SARS2 virus was clearly not manipulated. And this conclusion, grounded in nothing but two inconclusive speculations, convinced the world’s press that SARS2 could not have escaped from a lab. A technical critique of the Andersen letter takes it down in harsher words.

Doubts about natural emergence

Natural emergence was the media’s preferred theory until around February 2021 and the visit by a World Health Organization commission to China. The commission’s composition and access were heavily controlled by the Chinese authorities. Its members, who included the ubiquitous Dr. Daszak, kept asserting before, during and after their visit that lab escape was extremely unlikely. But this was not quite the propaganda victory the Chinese authorities may have been hoping for. What became clear was that the Chinese had no evidence to offer the commission in support of the natural emergence theory.

This was surprising because both the SARS1 and MERS viruses had left copious traces in the environment. The intermediary host species of SARS1 was identified within four months of the epidemic’s outbreak, and the host of MERS within nine months. Yet some 15 months after the SARS2 pandemic began, and a presumably intensive search, Chinese researchers had failed to find either the original bat population, or the intermediate species to which SARS2 might have jumped, or any serological evidence that any Chinese population, including that of Wuhan, had ever been exposed to the virus prior to December 2019. Natural emergence remained a conjecture which, however plausible to begin with, had gained not a shred of supporting evidence in over a year.

And as long as that remains the case, it’s logical to pay serious attention to the alternative conjecture, that SARS2 escaped from a lab. …

The records of the Wuhan Institute of Virology certainly hold much relevant information. But Chinese authorities seem unlikely to release them given the substantial chance that they incriminate the regime in the creation of the pandemic. Absent the efforts of some courageous Chinese whistle-blower, we may already have at hand just about all of the relevant information we are likely to get for a while. …

The main takeaways concluding the article are well worth reading, even if the length and detail of Dr. Wade’s revelations are absolutely time consuming to get through. Here are partial excerpts of where Dr. Wade puts the blame followed by a very small excerpt from the conclusion.

1. Chinese virologists

First and foremost, Chinese virologists are to blame for performing gain-of-function experiments in mostly BSL2-level safety conditions which were far too lax to contain a virus of unexpected infectiousness like SARS2. If the virus did indeed escape from their lab, they deserve the world’s censure for a foreseeable accident that has already caused the deaths of 3 million people. …

2. Chinese authorities

China’s central authorities did not generate SARS2 but they sure did their utmost to conceal the nature of the tragedy and China’s responsibility for it. They suppressed all records at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and closed down its virus databases. …

3. The worldwide community of virologists

… Virologists knew better than anyone the dangers of gain-of-function research. But the power to create new viruses, and the research funding obtainable by doing so, was too tempting. They pushed ahead with gain-of-function experiments. They lobbied against the moratorium imposed on Federal funding for gain-of-function research in 2014 and it was raised in 2017. …

4. The US Role in Funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology

From June 2014 to May 2019 Dr. Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance had a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, to do gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Whether or not SARS2 is the product of that research, it seems a questionable policy to farm out high-risk research to unsafe foreign labs using minimal safety precautions. And if the SARS2 virus did indeed escape from the Wuhan institute, then the NIH will find itself in the terrible position of having funded a disastrous experiment that led to death of more than 3 million worldwide, including more than half a million of its own citizens. …

In Conclusion

… The US government shares a strange common interest with the Chinese authorities: neither is keen on drawing attention to the fact that Dr. Shi’s coronavirus work was funded by the US National Institutes of Health. One can imagine the behind-the-scenes conversation in which the Chinese government says “If this research was so dangerous, why did you fund it, and on our territory too?” To which the US side might reply, “Looks like it was you who let it escape. But do we really need to have this discussion in public?” …

If ignorance is bliss, you probably are better off not bothering to see what it is that has caused such a stir in the news lately. After all, does it really matter who is responsible for the devastation and upheaval this virus has caused across our world? Actually, we all know it matters. The truth is always worth the knowing. If you have an inquisitive mind, then read the full article in the link.

(Origin of Covid — Following the Clues | by Nicholas Wade | Medium)
Spike Proteins on Corona Virus

Well China, if you say it came from a wet market why are they
ALL NOT SUT DOWN??? Didn’t you have a couple other human killing viruses come from the same type of markets??

At this point in time, it is a near certainty that the virus escaped a lab in Wuhan from infected lab researchers in November 2019. China has done what they could to spin the story in other directions using their considerable influence but there is no getting around it. It likely all began in a copper mine filled with bat guano in 2012 that infected workers cleaning out the tunnel and became sick/died and later studies done on this particular virus sequence being studied at Wuhan. It is possible that the virus may have been altered at the lab but that might be pushing it a bit. Yes, the U.S. may have even helped fund some of the research to add insult to injury.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/25/timeline-how-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-suddenly-became-credible/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&twclid=11398435274321956866

1 Like

When the Washington Post does a 180 degree turn on it’s stories over how the pandemic started, it’s probably past time to wake up and pay attention. The theory of Lab Origin for the SARS CoV2 virus was never a fringe conspiracy theory. It was the most likely origin theory that needed to be suppressed, so it was repeatedly reported and labelled as a fringe theory with no supporting facts. The opening line from the above posted article link by MG begins like this:

The source of the coronavirus that has left more than 3 million people dead around the world remains a mystery. But in recent months the idea that it emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — once dismissed as a ridiculous conspiracy theory — has gained new credence.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/25/timeline-how-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-suddenly-became-credible/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&twclid=11398435274321956866)

The embedded links does give the WP’s article the appearance of legitimacy and being well researched, but these “facts” have come out continuously over the past year and been largely ignored. The WP article recounts numerous snippets of news (with links) from the past 16 months pointing to the same conclusion that Nicholas Wade enumerated in his detailed article more than 3 weeks ago. Many journalists and scientific spokespersons over the past year chose to recount the Big Lie meant to cover-up what was so obvious to many. International politics is really very complicated with consequences needing to be weighed before policies are implemented or removed. It is quite obvious that China has a lot of leverage over global commerce in technology and health care. It really points to the problem governments have with conflicting goals in avoiding blame. Is the only course misreporting, or at least misrepresenting what governments “know” but cannot tell? Dr. Wade alluded to this quite succinctly in his conclusion when he said:

" In Conclusion
… The US government shares a strange common interest with the Chinese authorities: neither is keen on drawing attention to the fact that Dr. Shi’s coronavirus work was funded by the US National Institutes of Health. One can imagine the behind-the-scenes conversation in which the Chinese government says “If this research was so dangerous, why did you fund it, and on our territory too?” To which the US side might reply, “Looks like it was you who let it escape. But do we really need to have this discussion in public?” …

Why is this coming out in the open now? Both the much shorter WP article and Nicholas Wade’s article should be read to reach an informed conclusion. What policies need to be enacted?

There is improvement in those being testing.

Just when you thought it might be safe to take your mask off; new report out. The Delta variant(aka India variant) is taking over. A full 30% of deaths from this variant have happen in the fully vaccinated. It is 66% more infectious than the highly infectious U.K. variant. It is hitting the younger crowd much harder than previous variants as well. It now is the fastest growing variant in the U.S; already dominant in the U.K. Mostly driven by politics/business interests, the U.S continuously seems to open things back up just a little too soon before the science says its safe.

??? Mostly driven by politics/business interests, the U.S continuously seems to open things back up just a little too soon before the science says its safe.

Maybe you could expand on this …

Thanks in advance…