New Coronavirus News from 17 Feb 2020a

Heathrow hotel block-booked as coronavirus quarantine facility [The Guardian, 17 Feb 2020]

by Jessica Murray

Holiday Inn will be used for those considered to be at risk but with nowhere else to go

A Holiday Inn at Heathrow airport has been block-booked to be used as a quarantine facility in anticipation of more potential coronavirus cases arriving in the UK.

The hotel will be used for those considered at risk but with nowhere else to go, the Department of Health confirmed. This includes space for people to self-isolate if they have been advised to, and to be tested for the virus and await results.

Guests booked to stay at the Heathrow Ariel hotel on Bath Road have been transferred to sister hotels.

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The move comes as the government considers an evacuation flight to bring home the Britons stuck on the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Japan, where 454 people have now been diagnosed with the disease.

The Foreign Office is in contact with the 74 British nationals on the Diamond Princess ship in Yokohama about the possibility of repatriation flights.

A No 10 spokesperson said: “We sympathise with all those caught up in this extremely difficult situation. The Foreign Office is in contact with all British people on the Diamond Princess, including to establish interest in a possible repatriation flight. We are urgently considering all options to guarantee the health and safety of those on board.”

The government has come under mounting pressure to bring back those stuck on the ship, with other countries organising or having organised flights for their citizens.

The US flew more than 300 American citizens out on Sunday, 14 of whom tested positive for the virus before getting on the plane, but were allowed to travel in isolation from the other passengers. All others will stay in quarantine for 14 days in the US.

Other countries including Canada, Australia, Italy, South Korea and Israel have all made plans to evacuate their citizens from the ship.

In a video uploaded to YouTube, a British passenger, David Abel, said: “It is all getting to us now. It is the not knowing factor that is the real challenge.”

Abel, who is travelling with his wife, Sally, said he had heard reports among passengers t

He also said he had heard stories of passengers receiving a knock at their cabin door and being “frogmarched off” without time to pack if they had tested positive for the disease.

“That is frightening,” said Abel, who along with his wife has yet to hear back about his coronavirus test results. “I am going to start packing a bag just in case.”

Bombshell Chinese Study Fuels Conspiracy of Coronavirus Being a Bioweapon [CCN.com, 17 Feb 2020]

by Ayush Singh

Evidence is mounting that coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab. A Chinese university is the latest to make such claims.

• A bombshell study by the South China University of Technology reveals coronavirus could have started in a lab just 300 yards away from the Wuhan seafood market.
• The study seems believable when you consider the unusual characteristics of coronavirus.
• The Chinese government’s authoritarian practices are fanning the bioweapon-conspiracy flames.

Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the Chinese mainland. As more information leaks out, people are growing concerned that coronavirus is a human-made bioweapon.

During an interview earlier this month, a CBS anchor addressed the concern head-on with Chinese Ambassador Ciu Tiankai. His response was far from a denial.

When asked about U.S. Senator Tom Cotton’s accusation that the virus was a weapon created at Wuhan Virology Institute, Tiankai responded:

A lot is still unknown and our scientists…are doing our best.

He went on to say that the allegations were crazy, but he did not categorically deny them.
Other recently surfaced information has given more fuel to the conspiracy fire that coronavirus may be human-made.

Chinese University Links Coronavirus To Wuhan Virology Institute

Initially, rumors suggested that the patient zero had contracted the virus at the Wuhan seafood market. Just a few yards away from the seafood market lies the Wuhan Virology Institute.

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the institute is China’s first Biosafety Level 4 Lab that researches “the most dangerous pathogens.”

A recent study done by the Beijing-sponsored South China University of Technology concluded that coronavirus “probably” originated from that lab.

Scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao claim the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in labs. The study also mentions that the bats linked to coronavirus once attacked a researcher and “blood of bat was on his skin.”

The study goes on to conclude that the disease could have been a mistake that happened at the lab.

Judging by the study, it’s plausible that the virus leaked and infected the initial patients in this epidemic. But the evidence is not conclusive on its own.

Coronavirus Has ‘Unusual’ Characteristics

Coronavirus has affected its hosts in unusual ways, as George Washington University’s Dr. Steven Hatfill pointed out on a podcast:

This is a very unusual infection that starts out very asymptomatic and mild. A week later, x-ray shows nothing, but after that these unusual changes occur in the lungs. Then, the disease takes off. While the virus is at work, the host is contagious.

Dr. Hatfill has been vigorously studying a coronavirus case in Wisconsin.

Recent reports suggest that the coronavirus can incubate for 24 days, ten more than previously thought.

Theoretically, a “perfect” bioweapon is one that is a super spreader and has an asymptomatic host.

Given how infectious and deceptive the coronavirus is, some believe it’s too perfect to not be made by humans.

The Chinese Government Is Nervous

When Tiankai was quizzed about why China is not letting the CDC examine the situation more objectively, he replied:

We welcome the American experts to join a WHO team and visit China to study the situation better.

While he sounds welcoming, the Chinese government has been wary of assistance. Despite struggling to get coronavirus under control, China has rejected help from the CDC and even President Trump. Is the Communist Party of China (CPC) afraid of what they might find?

The CPC has also been clamping down on coronavirus-information leaving the country. Since the CPC harassed the coronavirus-whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang, two citizen journalists have gone missing.

CPC’s authoritarian measures are adding fuel to the conspiracies. Conspiracy theorists wonder why the CPC would spend resources on censoring information when they have a calamity to deal with on their hands.

This also begs the question: Would the South China University of Technology take the risk of publishing just a speculative paper when whistleblowers are going missing?

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

‘Now We Are Refugees’: A Family in Limbo Amid the Coronavirus Outbreak [The New York Times, 17 Feb 2020]

The family of Chloe Chang, a Taiwanese woman, is effectively trapped in Hubei Province, and in the middle of a spat between China and Taiwan.

Chloe Chang at her grandmother’s apartment in Yichang, China. “Neither side wants us,” she said of China and Taiwan, where she and her family live. “We’ve given up.”

These days, Chloe Chang, a Taiwanese woman stranded at the center of China’s coronavirus outbreak, says she wakes up every half-hour during the night. Sometimes she breaks down in tears.

She and her family are effectively trapped in her grandmother’s apartment building, where a man recently died from the virus. Workers in hazmat suits haunt the surrounding streets, and the neighborhood has a strong police presence. There are shortages of food and other essentials throughout Yichang, the Hubei Province city of more than four million where they have been in limbo for weeks.

“No household can go out at this time,” said Ms. Chang, a 26-year-old industrial artist. She said she feared that even a trip for groceries would increase her chances of contracting the virus.

“My child has eaten nine meals of plain noodles in the past three days,” she said of her 2-year-old son.

Ms. Chang and her family thought they were on the verge of escaping Yichang earlier this month, but the bus taking them to the airport was abruptly turned around.

All she can do now is wait — and hope.

“The government of Taiwan surely will come to our rescue,” her husband, Calvin Fan, who is from Beijing, has reassured her. But the chartered flight they have eagerly awaited to evacuate them has yet to materialize.

“Neither side wants us,” Ms. Chang said. “We’ve given up. Now we are refugees.”

Taiwan and China each say the other is the reason that she and other Taiwan citizens are unable to leave Hubei, a province under lockdown, where hundreds have died from the coronavirus and tens of thousands have been infected.

Ms. Chang and hundreds of other Taiwanese people in Hubei had hoped to go home via chartered jet. But last month, after the first plane carrying evacuees landed in Taiwan with an infected passenger onboard, a backlash ensued on the self-governing island, which China claims as part of its territory.

Some said Taiwan would not be able to handle an outbreak if more infected people arrived. Others said Taiwan should not help to evacuate mainland Chinese spouses of Taiwan residents.
Decades of tensions between the two governments have come to a head over the outbreak, and people like Ms. Chang and her husband — both of who arrived in China last month to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday with family — have become pawns in a complicated and dangerous game of political chess.

Ms. Chang said she was told by Chinese officials that she could return to Taiwan on a second chartered flight, scheduled for Feb. 5. That day, her family boarded a bus bound for the airport in Wuhan, the provincial capital, where the coronavirus first emerged.

But just as the bus was about to leave, she said, a Chinese official hopped on and announced that the flight would not take off, saying: “Taiwan won’t let you go back.”

“I was really devastated, ” Ms. Chang said.

Taiwan had a different explanation. According to officials there, reports in Chinese state media that said a flight was scheduled to leave were untrue — the two sides had never discussed it.

Both governments, and their proxies, have continued to point fingers while Ms. Chang and her compatriots languish in Hubei.

“Taiwan authorities have repeatedly delayed the schedule,” Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, said last week. “Let the Taiwan compatriots return home as soon as possible, and stop making up all manner of excuses and rationale to block them from returning.”

Chen Shih-Chung, Taiwan’s minister of health and welfare, said on Friday that “China still uses all excuses to delay the evacuation, and refuses our plans and suggestions.”

Fears of the virus — and, perhaps, anti-China sentiment — have led Taiwan to escalate preventive measures in recent days.

On Wednesday, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center announced that children who have mainland citizenship but a Taiwanese parent would not be allowed to enter Taiwan for the time being if they were arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau.

Confined to her grandmother’s home for so long, Ms. Chang has turned to her art as an outlet for the helplessness and resentment she feels.

In a satirical cartoon she recently sketched, she portrayed the administration of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president, as deliberately delaying the evacuation.

She depicted the Taiwanese in Hubei as pawns.

Tokyo Marathon Restricted to Elite Athletes Over Coronavirus Outbreak [The New York Times, 17 Feb 2020]

By Talya Minsberg

An estimated 38,000 runners had been expected to participate in the annual event, one of the largest marathons in the world.

The Tokyo Marathon, one of the world’s largest races, with an estimated 38,000 runners, has been restricted to elite runners because of new cases of the coronavirus confirmed within Japan, organizers announced Monday.

After a case of the viral respiratory disease was confirmed in Tokyo, the organizers said in a statement, they could not “continue to launch the event within the scale we originally anticipated.”

The marathon, scheduled for March 1, will be held only for elite runners and wheelchair athletes, a field that now includes about 200 participants.

More than 300,000 runners had applied to run the Tokyo Marathon, which draws hundreds of thousands of spectators and more than 10,000 volunteers annually. The race is one of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, a collection of the six largest marathons in the world.

One runner, Christopher Warnick, was still planning on participating until he heard Monday morning’s news. “Yesterday I ordered enough surgical masks and Purell for a week and was basically planning to troop it out,” he said.

Warnick, from Brooklyn, said the race would have been his sixth Abbott Marathon Major before he turns 60 in April. Running all six major marathons is a bucket list item for many distance runners. “That’s definitely disappointing,” he said, “but at the end of the day people’s health is more important than a race.”

Japan has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases outside of China, most of them linked to a Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined off the coast. The viral outbreak has sickened more than 71,300 people in Asia and killed at least 1,775 people as of Monday morning.

The Tokyo Marathon is the latest in a growing list of athletic events that have been canceled, postponed or relocated as the outbreak spreads, and the last-minute changes are raising questions about whether the epidemic will affect Tokyo’s upcoming hosting of the summer Olympic Games.

The Hong Kong Marathon, scheduled for Feb. 9, was canceled. The World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, were postponed from this March to March 2021. An LPGA Tour event scheduled to take place in early March on Hainan Island in China was canceled. The Chinese Grand Prix was postponed. World Rugby Seven Series events scheduled to take place in Hong Kong and Singapore in March have been postponed to October. Three qualifiers — in China, Japan and the Philippines — for the 2021 International Basketball Federation Asia Cup have been postponed.

“This is yet another example of how this coronavirus is having global impacts beyond the immediate and traditional concerns of public health,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “It’s having economic and social ramifications that are profound.”

A week ago, Tokyo Marathon organizers announced new safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, including handing out alcohol-based hand sanitizers and surgical masks. In a statement, the organizers asked participants to monitor their body temperature and “refrain from participating in the event” if they had a fever or were “experiencing symptoms of respiratory illness.”

Some runners had already decided not to participate in the race, citing fears over the outbreak.

The last time a major marathon was canceled was in 2012, when the New York City Marathon was called off two days before the race in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Tokyo Marathon organizers said 2020 participants could defer their entry to the 2021 race but would have to pay the fees again. They were not offered refunds for this year’s race.

Attention is quickly shifting toward the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for July 24 to Aug. 9, which are expected to draw an estimated 11,000 athletes and 600,000 overseas visitors.

At a gathering in Tokyo last week, the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee president, Yoshiro Mori, insisted the Olympics would go on. “I want to again state clearly that cancellation or postponement of the Tokyo Games has not been considered,” he said. “Let me make that clear.”

But the elephant in the room is looming. The Olympic torch relay is scheduled to begin next month in Fukushima, traveling through Okinawa, Kyoto and Hokkaido before it turns south toward Tokyo.

Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory of Coronavirus Origins [The New York Times, 17 Feb 2020]

By Alexandra Stevenson

Scientists have dismissed suggestions that the Chinese government was behind the outbreak, but it’s the kind of tale that gains traction among those who see China as a threat.

The rumor appeared shortly after the new coronavirus struck China and spread almost as quickly: that the outbreak now afflicting people around the world had been manufactured by the Chinese government.

The conspiracy theory lacks evidence and has been dismissed by scientists. But it has gained an audience with the help of well-connected critics of the Chinese government such as Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist. And on Sunday, it got its biggest public boost yet.

Speaking on Fox News, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, raised the possibility that the virus had originated in a high-security biochemical lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak.

“We don’t have evidence that this disease originated there,” the senator said, “but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says, and China right now is not giving evidence on that question at all.”

Mr. Cotton later walked back the idea that the coronavirus was a Chinese bioweapon run amok.
But it is the sort of tale that resonates with an expanding chorus of voices in Washington who see China as a growing Soviet-level threat to the United States, echoing the anti-Communist thinking of the Cold War era.

Right-wing media outlets fan the anger. Beijing, with its heavy-handed censorship and stranglehold on information, unwittingly gives the conspiracy theories a boost.

The idea of the coronavirus as an escaped weapon has been carried through international news outlets like the British tabloid The Daily Mail and The Washington Times, which suggested that the virus was being developed as part of China’s biowarfare program.

Last month, Mr. Bannon invited Bill Gertz, a Washington Times reporter, to be a guest on the inaugural episode of his radio show “War Room: Pandemic,” a spinoff of his “War Room: Impeachment,” which defended Mr. Trump during the Senate impeachment trial.

“Bill Gertz had an amazing piece in The Washington Times about the biological labs that happen to be in Wuhan,” Mr. Bannon said on his Jan. 25 show. Mr. Gertz appeared on another show several days later to continue putting forward the bioweapons theory.

Fox News has also dabbled in the theory, in one article drawing a connection between a 1980s thriller by Dean Koontz that “predicted coronavirus.” The book is about a Chinese military lab that creates a biological weapon.

The Chinese authorities say the outbreak began in a market in Wuhan where wild animals were sold. The city is also home to a biochemical laboratory.

Although much remains unknown about the coronavirus, experts generally dismiss the idea that it was created by human hands. Scientists who have studied the coronavirus say it resembles SARS and other viruses that come from bats. While contagious, so far it appears to largely threaten the lives of older people with chronic health issues, making it a less-than-effective bioweapon.

A plethora of misinformation has led World Health Organization workers to call it an “infodemic.”

Spreading that information are some well-known critics of the Chinese government like Mr. Bannon and Guo Wengui, a Chinese fugitive billionaire. The two have pledged to raise a $100 million fund to investigate corruption, help people they believe to be victims of Chinese government persecution and, in Mr. Guo’s words, take down China’s Communist Party.

Hours after Mr. Cotton made his comments on Fox News, Mr. Guo took to his own media platform, G News, to boast in a 30-minute video that he had predicted that China would manufacture a crisis like the virus outbreak.

“I said a year ago that Chinese Communist Party might create a massive humanitarian crisis or a natural disaster or a pandemic before it dies,” Mr. Guo said from his $68 million apartment on the edge of Central Park in New York.

“On a wall at the entrance to Wuhan P4 lab, there is a slogan: When you step into this building, you enter into Pandora’s box,” Mr. Guo added, referring to the high-security lab.

He claimed that the lab has military connections, including that soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army serve as guards. He did not offer proof.

Mr. Guo is no stranger to conspiracy theories. The website for G News — which carries the slogan “Truth, Freedom” — is populated with headlines like “Breaking news: China will admit coronavirus coming from its P4 lab” and “Dead: founder of Canada’s P4 Lab, key to Wuhan coronavirus investigation.”

He has also advanced other claims without evidence. In 2018, he claimed that HNA, a Chinese conglomerate, had played a role in the death of its co-chairman, Wang Jian, in an accident in France. The French authorities ruled Mr. Wang’s death an accident. The company declined to comment at the time on Mr. Guo’s claims.

Mr. Guo waged his war against the Chinese government from Facebook and Twitter for months, but then both social media platforms suspended his accounts after he posted the personal information of Chinese people online.

Mr. Guo has had more success as views about China in Washington have grown more sinister. Mr. Cotton on Sunday helped make them part of the American political establishment.

Speaking to the Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo, Mr. Cotton suggested that a dearth of information about the coronavirus’s origins was raising more questions than answers.

“We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” he said on the program “Sunday Morning Futures.”

After receiving criticism for lending credence to what has been largely considered a fringe theory, the senator took to Twitter to say that he did not necessarily think the virus was an “engineered bioweapon.”

That idea, he said, was just one of several hypotheses that included the possibility that the outbreak was a “deliberate release.”

He also said it was possible that the virus had spread naturally, “but almost certainly not from the Wuhan food market.”

Airlines, officials trace path of couple diagnosed with coronavirus that flew from Hawaii [USA TODAY, 17 Feb 2020]

by Jayme Deerwester

Delta Air Lines and Hawaiian Airlines are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Japanese health officials to trace the path of a couple from Nagoya, Japan, who were diagnosed with coronavirus after returning from Hawaii.

Hawaiian state health officials say the couple, who are in their 60s, were in Hawaii from Jan. 28 to Feb. 7 and tested positive after being hospitalized in Japan.

The man, who was diagnosed before his wife, flew on Hawaiian Airlines flight HA265 from Kahului, Hawaii, to Honolulu on Feb. 3, in addition to flying home on Delta flight 611 from Honolulu to Nagoya on Feb. 6 with his wife.

Delta spokesperson Adrian Gee told USA TODAY, "We are aware of reports that two customers who are being treated for novel coronavirus (2019-nCOV) recently traveled together between Honolulu and Nagoya and we are communicating with the appropriate public health officials, including U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local Japanese authorities."

Hawaiian spokesman Alex Da Silva told USA TODAY, "On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asked us for information regarding HA265 from Kahului to Honolulu on Feb. 3, 2020, which transported a Japanese visitor who had since become ill and, upon his return to Japan on another carrier later in the week, was diagnosed with COVID-19."

He added that the airline was working with public health officials to notify passengers and had already contacted employees who worked that flight.

Hawaii's state health director, Bruce Anderson, said Friday that the couple was staying at Hilton Grand Vacations' Grand Waikikian on Oahu when the man began exhibiting symptoms on Feb. 3. He did not seek medical care at that time but was hospitalized upon his return to Japan and initially diagnosed with pneumonia before testing positive for coronavirus.

Hawaii's Department of Heath was later notified that the wife had been hospitalized, spokeswoman Janice Okubo told Hawaiian Public Radio. The Honolulu Star Advertiser and The New York Times and reported that she was diagnosed with the virus on Saturday.

State epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park said officials believe the man was infected either while still in Japan or on the flight to Hawaii because he developed symptoms approximately five days after his arrival. That timeline aligns with the CDC's current theory about the virus' incubation period.

“Our focus at this point is to try and understand who potentially this person may have had close, prolonged contact,” Park said, noting that that officials are focusing on the man's path while on Oahu since that is where he became symptomatic.

"Following the stay of a guest who was later diagnosed with COVID-19, the Grand Waikikian has implemented all recommendations of public health authorities," said Lauren George, the corporate communications director for Hilton Grand Vacations, an independent company which operates timeshares. "While the Grand Waikikian remains open as usual, we are also working with all current and future guests at the Grand Waikikian to ensure their comfort and safety."

The news comes just a few days after Hilton announced it was temporarily closing 150 hotels in China, which translates to about 33,000 rooms.

Hawaiian officials say there are still no confirmed cases of the virus in the state. According to the CDC, the United States has 15 cases in seven states: Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington State and Wisconsin.

In Illinois, one patient who returned from the disease's epicenter in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 13 was found to have passed the virus to her husband, who did not make the trip, making him the first U.S. case of person-to-person transmission.

To date, Japan has had 66 confirmed coronavirus cases and one death. The virus has affected more than 71,000 people worldwide and killed 1,775 people as of Monday morning, according to Johns Hopkins data.

Go read this report on how the coronavirus is pushing Chinese concerts online [The Verge, 17 Feb 2020]

By Dani Deah

Welcome to club living room

Many cities in China are still in quarantine lockdown in efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, pushing most activities online. Day-to-day activities like grocery orders and university classes are affected, but so is live entertainment. Music venues are shuttered across the country, rendering the country’s live music scene “temporarily dead and silent.” With everyone bored and stuck at home, a report by Hyperallergic (that builds off previous pieces by RADII and CDM) reveals how China’s musicians have turned to live-streaming to perform at virtual festivals and club nights.

The report says bands and DJs alike are transforming their homes into performance spaces, with clubs, record labels, and event promoters all hopping on board. Options range from techno to rock to pop, with most of the action happening on BiliBili, a Chinese video sharing website. The site features bullet chatting, a function that superimposes user comments on screen in a way that makes people feel more present. “It’s like going to a karaoke parlor or being in a mosh pit without leaving your house,” one singer told Hyperallergic.

Prominent indie record labels like Ruby Eyes and Modern Sky are streaming “showcases” for artists on their roster, and venues like Shanghai’s Yuyintang are even considering ticketed online performances. Many of these are hosted on the live-streaming site BiliBili, which contains a crucial social feature, Bullet Comments or 弹幕 (“danmu”), that make these events an active expression of community and social bonding, rather than just passive experiences. Bullet Comments are a mix of discussion forum threads, live chat, and participatory art that conjure a powerful online approximation of real-life conviviality, and a raucous vibe akin to a successful party. Comments made on a video fly across the video screen like heckles or encouragement from a virtual audience.

Elsewhere, other bits of how the concert industry has been affected in China have been brought to light. BiliBili itself has gotten into the mix, partnering with a promoter to produce a stay at home concert series, as reported by Variety. Billboard estimates that about 20,000 concerts slated to happen between January and March have been cancelled or postponed.

Hyperallergic’s piece gives a more intimate glimpse into how China’s musicians and fans are not just keeping the scene afloat, but creating community in a time of imposed isolation. A photo of a punk band live-streaming in masks and a hazmat suit to people’s amusement perhaps best sums things up. There’s necessity in making the best of a bad situation.

Quarantines, isolation and lockdowns draw mixed reviews: 'There is no zero risk in the world' [USA TODAY, 17 Feb 2020]

by John Bacon

Quarantine, isolation and lockdown protocols have been strategies in the global assault on the coronavirus that has killed more than 1,700 people since December despite mixed reviews on their value.

Quarantine involves separation of those who have been exposed until confirmation of the presence or absence of the disease. Isolation separates the confirmed cases from the populace to avoid further transmission. A lockdown is aimed at halting movement of all individuals within the concerned area, regardless of whether individuals are exposed, ill or not.

Michael Ryan, who leads the World Health Organization's emergencies program, urged global leaders to carefully strike balances between the common good and the rights of individuals.

"There is no zero risk in the world for anything," Ryan said at a news conference Monday. "We need an approach that allows us to function as a society. ... We need to be extremely measured in what we do."

It's been more than two weeks since the United States began implementing 14-day quarantines. After Japan quarantined a cruise ship off Yokohama, the United States and other countries removed their citizens to bring them home – to more quarantines.

Ogbonnaya Omenka, an assistant professor and public health specialist at Butler University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, told USA TODAY that the U.S. decision to directly oversee the isolation and quarantine processes of Americans makes sense from an intervention perspective.

"These approaches may prevent the wider spread of the disease temporarily," he said, but "they are not guaranteed to stop further transmissions" or deaths.

Why US broke the Diamond Princess quarantine: 'Something went awry'

China ordered massive lockdowns

China has led the way. Last month, President Xi Jinping ordered entire cities locked down to slow the outbreak, including its epicenter, Wuhan, a city of 11 million people. About 60 million people remained locked down Monday.

This week, the government ordered lockdowns expanded to include residential communities within urban and rural areas of the region. The government closed nonessential public places and banned public gatherings and the use of private vehicles.

China efforts draw uneasy support

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director general, said the government's efforts to contain the outbreak at its source "appear to have bought the world time." Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law & Human Rights, warned that such lockdowns can drive an epidemic underground, provoking fear and panic. "Trapping more than 50 million people together in a hot zone of contagion will lead to cross-infection, fear, and social isolation," he wrote in the Health Affairs blog.

US quarantine measures

U.S. citizens returning from China's Hubei Province are subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine to ensure they are provided proper medical care and health screening. Returning citizens who have been in the rest of mainland China within the previous 14 days will undergo proactive health screening at a select number of ports of entry and up to 14 days of monitored self-quarantine to ensure they have not contracted the virus and do not pose a public health risk.

Diamond Princess quarantine

The Diamond Princess was carrying 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew when it was quarantined in Japan after 10 cases of coronavirus were reported Feb. 4. The totals included 380 Americans.

Two charter flights brought American passengers to military bases in California and Texas, and they face a new 14-day quarantine period to ensure they are free of the coronavirus.

Why the US broke the quarantine

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said the quarantine process on the ship failed. "I mean, I'd like to sugarcoat it and try to be diplomatic about it, but it failed," he told USA TODAY. "Something went awry in the process of the quarantining on that ship."

Omenka said the U.S. decision made sense in terms of synchronization of response, "especially when there is no available cure or universal treatment for the disease."

The future is unclear

Almost 72,000 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed, all but a few hundred of them in mainland China. Those few hundred are scattered across more than two dozen nations. Fifteen cases have been confirmed in the USA, but health officials said dozens more Americans apparently have the virus on the ship.

WHO declared a global health emergency, but Ryan stressed that the spread of the disease outside China has been minimal.

"This is a very serious outbreak, and it has the potential to grow," Ryan said. "But outside Hubei (province), this infection is affecting a tiny, tiny, tiny proportion of people. We need to be extremely measured in what we do."

Coronavirus causes mild disease in four in five patients, says WHO [The Guardian, 17 Feb 2020]

by Sarah Boseley

Covid-19 not as deadly as Sars, figures show, and children not affected in same way as adults

Covid-19, the new coronavirus that has killed nearly 1,800 people in China, causes only mild disease in four out of five people who get it, the World Health Organization has said.

“It appears that Covid-19 is not as deadly as other coronaviruses, including Sars and Mers,” said the WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that officials were “starting to get a clearer picture of the outbreak”.

The conclusion comes from analysis of data from Chinese authorities relating to 44,000 cases of Covid-19 in Hubei province, where the coronavirus was first recorded.

“More than 80% of patients have mild disease and will recover, 14% have severe disease including pneumonia and shortness of breath, 5% have critical disease including respiratory failure, septic shock and multi-organ failure, and 2% of cases are fatal,” Tedros said in Geneva.

“The risk of death increases the older you are.”

He said children were not suffering from Covid-19 in the same way as adults, and more research was needed to find out why. There were still gaps in understanding that he hoped the WHO’s team of international experts would be able to work towards filling.

China has reported 70,365 cases of Covid-19 infection, 2,051 of those in the past 24 hours.

The new cases include those confirmed by lab tests and those diagnosed through lung CT scans read by doctors. The vast majority of Chinese cases – 94% – continue to be reported in Hubei province. China says there have been 1,772 deaths. Outside China, there have been 694 cases and four deaths.

Tedros said there appeared to be a decline in the number of new cases in China. “This trend must be interpreted very cautiously. Trends can change.” He said the WHO would continue to work day and night to help countries prepare for the potential arrival of the coronavirus, sending testing kits and protective equipment, working with manufacturers to ensure supplies are maintained, and training health workers.

He thanked countries that had contributed towards the $675m (£520m) that the WHO has said it needs to fight the epidemic, but he added: “We have not seen the urgency in the funding that we need. We have a window of opportunity now. We need resources now to ensure countries are prepared now. We don’t know how long this window of opportunity will remain.”

The WHO’s director of emergencies, Dr Michael Ryan, said the outbreak should not be described as a pandemic, even though it has spread to 25 countries outside China. “The real issue is whether we are seeing efficient community transmission outside of China and at the present time we are not observing that,” he said.

Dr Sylvie Briand, the director of pandemic and epidemic diseases at the WHO, said the organisation was working closely with Japanese authorities regarding the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked off the coast of Japan.

“We need to make sure that we focus on our objective, our public health objective, which is to contain the virus, and not to contain the people, and making sure that we can have the right balance between the health of the population in Japan and other countries, but also the health of the people being currently on this boat,” she said.

There were still many unknowns, she said. “Measures are implemented and assessed currently and monitored on a nearly hourly basis, because we learn every day and every hour more about this disease and this virus.”

Meanwhile, experts said reports that some people may have incubated the virus for far longer than the 14-day quarantine period before falling ill were likely to be anomalies.

The China-based Global Times tweeted that one person had been diagnosed 34 days after being in Wuhan and another 94 days after contact with someone who lived in Wuhan.

Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said: “The last data I saw suggested 95% of people had incubation of less than 12 days. There will be the outlier, the occasional person who has a longer incubation period.” But 34 days and 94 days were extremely unlikely, he said. “Those people will have had another more recent exposure.”

He added: “Incubation period is based on best possible evidence. We are learning and gaining new data all the time so [it is] entirely possible it may be revised as the outbreak carries on.”

As Wuhan’s desperate and sick beg for help, China shuts them down [The Guardian, 17 Feb 2020]

Doctors are told not to cause alarm over coronavirus, social media posts are deleted and vital information is dismissed as rumour

I got a phone call from Dr Song* one night. He had just finished a shift at a hospital in Wuhan and was about to go back to work again. He told me it had been weeks since he had had a full night of sleep or a day off. He couldn’t remember the last time he had spent time with his family or eaten a warm meal. At work, he wraps himself in raincoats due to a lack of protective gear across the hospital. Some of his colleagues wear diapers to work to avoid having to remove their protective suits.

“Maybe you can write something to let the patients know we have all tried our best,” he said. Just a few hours before, when a patient had died at a Wuhan hospital, family members had beaten up and severely injured two doctors. Even though he and his coworkers were working non-stop – overwhelmed, under-equipped and exhausted – they still faced a backlash from patients, many of whom he had to reject due to the lack of hospital beds. Some left disappointedly. Others abused him.

Even now, when the virus has taken more than 1,700 lives, the government is still trying to hide information

I got to know Song when I was helping a medical supplies donation group. He was not the only one pleading for help via social media – I was contacted by dozens of medical workers, who all described a desperate situation. I also received a lot of pleas for help from patients. They had been waiting in packed hospital lobbies for days, in fear of being left untested, untreated and ultimately dying from what is now officially called Covid-19. Some people had felt ill for almost a week, and in that time, their family members had started to feel ill as well. But they had a long wait to be diagnosed and treated.

Lin*, a college student, started to feel light-headed and thought she had caught a cold – at the time, there was still no official information about the coronavirus outbreak – but her condition deteriorated drastically. The ban on local transport meant that she and her mother had to walk for hours to get to the hospital. She waited in the lobby for an entire night, then was given some medicine and advised to come back the next day in case there were coronavirus testing kits available.

She was diagnosed at the end of January. So was her mother, who was infected while taking care of her. They were told again and again to remain confined at home and wait to be taken to hospital. As time went by, her messages seemed more and more depressed. One night, she told me that she felt like she was waiting to die. The last time we spoke, she was back at the hospital, waiting again: “If there is only one bed, I will let my mother take it. Her health is declining rapidly. I will quarantine myself at home.” She couldn’t stop crying.

The coronavirus outbreak has only heightened Hong Kong’s hostility towards Beijing

Lin is not alone. On Weibo, one of the biggest social media platforms in China, there is a group of more than 150,000 people – mostly patients and their families – asking for help. Reading through the posts, it’s clear there is a shortage of everything. Many people have to decide whether to prioritise their mother or daughter, grandson or grandfather, wife or husband.

Knowing how both medical workers and patients are struggling, I couldn’t stop thinking about what caused all these tragedies in a country that should have learned a lot from its Sars outbreak 17 years ago.

According to the Financial Times, there was at least a three-week period when Wuhan authorities were aware the virus was spreading but “issued orders to suppress the news”. In early January, eight medical professionals were reprimanded by the police for rumour-mongering, including Dr Li Wenliang – the whistleblower who died from the disease – who has become a symbol of public frustration over the Chinese government’s censorship and poor management. These “rumours” were actually based on infection cases in hospitals in Wuhan, and if the government had instead put its energy into investigating these cases, then lives could have been saved.

In mid-January, a nurse told me that medical workers in Wuhan had been advised to not wear protective gear to avoid causing panic. Later, Song told me that medical workers had been advised not to appeal for help on public media outlets. Now 1,700 medical workers nationwide have been infected.

Even now, when the virus has made 70,000 people sick and taken more than 1,700 lives, the government is still trying to hide information. Thousands of posts were deleted from the online group asking for help, including Lin’s. I was told by editors of Chinese media outlets that I couldn’t write about anything that reflected negatively on the government.

It is not new for figures in government to put their political interests ahead of public health. But given the rapid spread of the virus and the gravity of the situation in China, I thought the government could put aside the censorship and propaganda for a while. I was wrong.

* Dr Song and Lin are pseudonyms

• The author is a Chinese writer living in north America

They caught the coronavirus that's killed more than 1,700 people and survived [CNN, 17 Feb 2020]

By David Culver, Lily Lee, Ben Westcott and Shanshan Wang,

Beijing (CNN)When 31-year-old engineer Edison Zhang was diagnosed with the deadly novel coronavirus, which has killed hundreds of people in his home city of Wuhan, he was actually relieved.

As Zhang got increasingly sick, the worst part was waiting for a diagnosis.

"At the beginning, I was scared and fearful," he said. But once his case was confirmed, he stopped worrying. "I knew from this point, there's no other choice but to receive treatment," Zhang added.

Zhang was fortunate to receive a diagnosis. There are reports in parts of China that a shortage of testing kits and inaccurate results are leading to long delays in the diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus patients.

As of Monday, there were more than 71,000 cases of the disease globally and more than 1,700 deaths -- the vast majority of which have occurred in Hubei province, the central region of China where the virus was first detected.

But as the death toll rises, so does the tally of those who have survived.

Chinese state-run media has been heavily publicizing the virus-free former patients, showing footage of them receiving flowers and leaving hospital. Zhang is one of more than 10,000 people to have recovered from coronavirus after receiving an official diagnosis.

Family infected

Zhang is currently undergoing a 14-day quarantine in a government-assigned hotel in the city of Chongqing, where he had traveled to with his wife's parents for the Lunar New Year.

He arrived in the city from Wuhan on January 22 with his wife and parents-in-law. The next day, his father-in-law went to hospital because he had developed a cough.

"We had strongly asked for a nasopharyngeal swab test ... because we felt that all his symptoms were similar (to that of coronavirus)," Zhang said. But the county hospital refused to perform the test.

A few days later, his wife came down with a fever. On January 30, a nasopharyngeal swab test showed both she and her father had been infected by the novel coronavirus, officially called Covid-19. The next day, Zhang and his mother-in-law were given nasal swab tests as well. The whole family had been infected.

"Had we done the nasopharyngeal swab tests earlier, maybe not all four of us in the family would be infected," Zhang said.

The family was diagnosed at a county hospital that wasn't able to treat them. "We were all transferred to a higher-level hospital in the city ... the ambulance collected us directly from the county hospital and took us to the city hospital. Point to point. There was no stopover," he said.

During his treatment, Zhang said he was constantly asking doctors about the drugs he was being given. He researched online how his treatment compared to that of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients in 2003, to ensure he wasn't taking medication with long-term side effects.

On February 9, after being discharged from hospital, Zhang was sent to quarantine. He was told almost all his personal belongings, including clothes, books and other items, would have to be destroyed.

So far only Zhang and his wife's father have recovered. His wife and her mother are still in hospital.

Aware of the negative stigma surrounding people who have been infected by the coronavirus, Zhang asked to use a pseudonym in his interviews with CNN.

Even the survivors who are shown on Chinese state-run broadcasters have their faces blurred, as the government understands the social isolation and discrimination a diagnosis can bring.

Still, in many ways, Zhang was lucky. As a young, fit man who plays basketball and has no pre-existing conditions, his chances of surviving the coronavirus appeared to be high.

"(After I was diagnosed) I checked the death numbers published at that time. I found most people who died were senior citizens, many of whom had other conditions. And for me personally, I don't have any other diseases," he said.

'I just treated it as a normal cold'

Quarantined in a hotel in Wuhan, 21-year-old Tiger Ye is waiting for a negative result on his last test before he can go home.

He needs four negative tests before he is declared clear.

Like Zhang, Ye has recovered from the deadly novel coronavirus. He also asked to use a pseudonym for fear of repercussions from speaking out.

Zhang isn't clear how he was infected, but Ye said he likely got infected while studying Japanese at a language school not far from the Wuhan seafood market where the coronavirus is believed to have originated.

"On January 17, while attending school, I felt a little sick and sore. (But) I just treated it as a normal cold and took some medicine," he said. Within a few days, Ye started to lose his appetite and by January 21, he was so unwell he couldn't finish his lunch.

He took a taxi to one major hospital, but found it packed with anxious people. "It was a real mess. There was a lot of people, nurses and doctors in the fever clinic," he said. "I saw the people and checked the map (for another hospital)."

After looking at a map, he identified a smaller hospital and headed there. He was sent away with a prescription but without a proper diagnosis.

Ye's condition kept getting worse and by January 26 he had a "crazy cough" and a high fever.

At the height of his illness, Ye said he "felt cold, but his body was hot," with a temperature above 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit). He suffered from stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea.

After visiting hospital again, he couldn't get a taxi home as Wuhan was now under lockdown, so his father had to come and pick him up in their car. "My dad told me I needed to be in quarantine for about 14 days," he said.

Eventually, Ye returned to hospital. There he was officially diagnosed with the virus and given medication usually used for treating HIV -- an experimental treatment that while uncommon has been provided in China and other countries.

Ye began to recover quickly and on February 9, he was put into a hotel to be quarantined. He had never officially been hospitalized.

"When I was at my hardest point, I thought 'will I die?' But I just had to face this disease and fight it," he said.

Not every survivor has found having the disease a difficult experience. Speaking at a press conference arranged by the Chinese government on Friday, 31-year-old IT worker Li said that she had only minor symptoms and felt safe once she was hospitalized.

"Everyone shouldn't be afraid of this disease, if anyone has got it, you should trust the country, trust the hospital and trust the doctors," she told journalists. "So please go to the hospital for examination as soon as possible when you got it. We can definitely defeat the disease."

Xu Bin, a doctor in Beijing Youan Hospital, said that medics were using a mixture of anti-virus medication and Traditional Chinese Medicine to help patients recover. Doctors were protecting themselves from the virus by wearing hazmat suits, along with another layer of protective clothes and gloves, and N95 face masks.

For patients like Zhang and Ye, the uncertainty around the virus is one of the worst parts of being infected. Even after they have recovered, Zhang said he had heard stories about "negative (patients) turning positive again."

"I watched the news and know there's that possibility. I don't know if that would happen to me and I'm a bit worried about it, because there still isn't clear information about this disease. You can't really say someone is completely cured," he said.

Scared and exposed: Rise in virus cases among China's medics [Al Jazeera English, 17 Feb 2020]

by Shawn Yuan

Long hours, fatigue and lack of protective gear result in 1,716 medical staff in China contracting coronavirus COVID-19.

Chengdu, China - Working long, intense hours, Liu was one of the first healthcare workers to come to the front line to fight the coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least 1,770 people and infected 70,548 others in mainland China.

For days, she helped dispense medicine and administer intravenous therapy to infected patients at a crowded hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic.

Then on January 26, just three days after Wuhan was placed under a lockdown, she developed a dry cough and started to get a fever.

Liu could not remember exactly how and when she might have contracted the virus. But by the time she had received her test results, her body temperature had been hovering above 38.5 degrees Celsius (101.3 Fahrenheit) for over four days.

"When I was admitted to the hospital, a colleague of mine burst into tears and said she was so scared and so tired," said Liu, who asked Al Jazeera to identify her only by her last name.

"At that time, we already had at least 150 colleagues who had either confirmed or suspected to have been infected - we're all very scared.

"Every time someone comes into the ward, I'd try to hold my breath and not talk, because I'm afraid that the virus would spread that way," said Liu.

"Getting them infected is the last thing I want to do now."

1,716 health workers infected

For the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, China's National Health Commission reported on February 14, that at least 1,716 health workers had been infected while treating patients with the virus. This has raised concerns about the capability of the government to protect the caregivers in direct contact with the afflicted.

Zeng Yixin, the deputy director of China's health commission said during a news conference on Friday that infected medical workers comprise 3.8 percent of all those who have contracted the virus across the country.

He told the public the number would not rise as China was increasing its efforts to ensure that supplies of protective equipment for medics would be adequate. However, the high number of coronavirus deaths in China has already set off warning bells in the medical community.

"1,700 is a very large number and shows healthcare workers are at clear risk of infection elsewhere in China and globally," Tom Inglesby, the director of Johns Hopkins SPH Centre for Health Security, wrote on social media.

"Hospitals need administration controls, engineering controls, and supplies and personal protective equipment for their healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19."

But this is not the first time that medical workers in China have been left vulnerable before.

During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemic in 2002 and 2003, a significant proportion of healthcare workers in mainland China also succumbed to the virus with about 20 percent of them contracting SARS.

'Naked in biohazard environment'

"If we can't protect those who are helping us at literally the worst place possible during this battle, then what good are we?" one netizen wrote on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter after the numbers came out.

Despite reports that medical equipment suppliers have resumed work to aid the government's fight against the disease, doctors and nurses have continued to report severe shortages of medical supplies, especially masks and hazmat suits.

A doctor who had contracted the virus 11 days ago and works at Wuhan Central Hospital told Al Jazeera that doctors and nurses in his hospital lacked most of the protective gear needed.

"We are pretty much 'naked' in the biohazard environment," the doctor who requested anonymity said. "It's getting better than the first few days, of course, but the needed medical supplies are still in shortage."

Because of the lockdown, the entire country has been brought to a near standstill, with deliveries of goods and medical supplies to Wuhan also affected.

Long hours at work

Volunteers have also expressed frustration over their donations not getting to Hubei.

As a result, medical workers are exposed to more risk of getting infected, due to the lack of protective gear.

"The initial cover-up of the outbreak by the Chinese government has directly contributed to the large number of healthcare workers infected," Yanzhong Huang a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Coupled with the lack of medical supplies, we have the unfortunate large number of medics being infected."

Li Wenliang, one of the whistleblowers whose death sparked national grief and outrage, for example, contracted the virus while he was treating a then-infected glaucoma patient while not wearing any protective gear.

Additionally, the lack of rest and long hours are putting the health of these hospital staff in jeopardy.

There are currently more than 170,000 healthcare workers battling the coronavirus outbreak, including the more than 20,000 doctors and nurses sent from across the country to Hubei.

Medical workers risking their lives

And health workers in Wuhan are finding it difficult to cope with the sheer numbers as the cases grow exponentially.

"People's immune system will be compromised if the body is not well-rested, and frankly, the majority of the medical workers are working too much for them to be able to cope with such a high level of intensity of medical care," Zhou Liqiang, a doctor at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, said.

Front line healthcare workers are also actively isolating themselves from their families for the fear of spreading the virus.

Wu, another nurse who works in the same hospital as the infected nurse, Liu, and is also helping treat her colleague, told Al Jazeera that she had not gone back home for more than two weeks now.

"I now live in a hotel close to the hospital, because I can't in good conscience go back home and risk spreading the virus to my two-year-old daughter," Wu said on the phone, before having to hang up to treat another patient.

"Thanks to the generosity of the hotel owner, I don't have to pay for the accommodation," said Wu, who also asked that she be identified only by her last name.

"Of course, I miss my daughter and we try to video chat every night," Wu later said in a text message.

"But my husband is taking very good care of her and I'm sure they both understand the decision I took."

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Regardless if you believe in God or not, this is a "must-read" message!!!

All throughout time, we can see how we have been carefully conditioned coming to this point where we are on the verge of a cashless society. Did you know that the Bible foretold of this event almost 2,000 years ago?

In the last book of the Bible, Revelation 13:16-18, we read,

"He (the false prophet who deceives many by his miracles--Revelation 19:20) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666."

Speaking to the last generation, this could only be speaking of a cashless society. Why? Revelation 13:17 says that we cannot buy or sell unless we receive the mark of the beast. If physical money was still in use, we could buy or sell with one another without receiving the mark. This would contradict scripture that states we need the mark to buy or sell!

These verses could not be referring to something purely spiritual as scripture references two physical locations (our right hand or forehead) stating the mark will be on one "OR" the other. If this mark was purely spiritual, it would indicate both places, or one--not one OR the other!

This is where it really starts to come together. It is incredible how accurate the Bible is concerning the implantable RFID microchip. Here are notes from someone named Carl Sanders who worked with a team of engineers to help develop this RFID chip:

"Carl Sanders sat in seventeen New World Order meetings with heads-of-state officials such as Henry Kissinger and Bob Gates of the C.I.A. to discuss plans on how to bring about this one-world system. The government commissioned Carl Sanders to design a microchip for identifying and controlling the peoples of the world—a microchip that could be inserted under the skin with a hypodermic needle (a quick, convenient method that would be gradually accepted by society).

Carl Sanders, with a team of engineers behind him, with U.S. grant monies supplied by tax dollars, took on this project and designed a microchip that is powered by a lithium battery, rechargeable through the temperature changes in our skin. Without the knowledge of the Bible (Brother Sanders was not a Christian at the time), these engineers spent one-and-a-half-million dollars doing research on the best and most convenient place to have the microchip inserted.

Guess what? These researchers found that the forehead and the back of the hand (the two places the Bible says the mark will go) are not just the most convenient places, but are also the only viable places for rapid, consistent temperature changes in the skin to recharge the lithium battery. The microchip is approximately seven millimeters in length, .75 millimeters in diameter, about the size of a grain of rice. It is capable of storing pages upon pages of information about you. All your general history, work history, criminal record, health history, and financial data can be stored on this chip.

Brother Sanders believes that this microchip, which he regretfully helped design, is the “mark” spoken about in Revelation 13:16–18. The original Greek word for “mark” is “charagma,” which means a “scratch or etching.” It is also interesting to note that the number 666 is actually a word in the original Greek. The word is “chi xi stigma,” with the last part, “stigma,” also meaning “to stick or prick.” Carl believes this is referring to a hypodermic needle when they poke into the skin to inject the microchip."

Mr. Sanders asked a doctor what would happen if the lithium contained within the RFID microchip leaked into the body. The doctor replied by saying a terrible sore would appear in that location. This is what the book of Revelation says:

"And the first (angel) went, and poured out his vial on the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore on the men which had the mark of the beast, and on them which worshipped his image" (Revelation 16:2).

You can read more about it here--and to also understand the mystery behind the number 666: <a href=https://2ruth.org>HTTPS://2RUTH.ORG</a>

The third angel's warning in Revelation 14:9-11 states,

"Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.'"

Great hope is in our midst, and is coming in a mighty way--the greatest revival for Jesus in the history of the world where we will see the most souls come to Him of all tribes, tongues, nations, and peoples (Rev. 7:9-10); for we have this promise in God's Word in the midst of these dark times:

"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years (not literal--rather a spiritual label for time spent in eternity); and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while (when the Antichrist and false prophet will rise up and God will test the world)." (Revelation 20:1-3)

"The coming of the lawless one (the Antichrist) is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)"

Who is Barack Obama, and why is he still involved in politics?

So what about his name? The meaning of someone's name can say a lot about a person. God throughout history has given names to people that have a specific meaning tied to their lives. How about the name Barack Obama? Let us take a look at what may be hiding beneath the surface.

Jesus states in Luke 10:18, "...I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."

The Hebrew Strongs word (H1299) for "lightning": "bârâq" (baw-rawk)

In Isaiah chapter 14, verse 14, we read about Lucifer (Satan) saying in his heart:

"I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High."

In the verses in Isaiah that refer directly to Lucifer, several times it mentions him falling from the heights or the heavens. The Hebrew word for the heights or heavens used here is Hebrew Strongs 1116: "bamah"--Pronounced (bam-maw')

In Hebrew, the letter "Waw" or "Vav" is often transliterated as a "U" or "O," and it is primarily used as a conjunction to join concepts together. So to join in Hebrew poetry the concept of lightning (Baraq) and a high place like heaven or the heights of heaven (Bam-Maw), the letter "U" or "O" would be used. So, Baraq "O" Bam-Maw or Baraq "U" Bam-Maw in Hebrew poetry similar to the style written in Isaiah, would translate literally to "Lightning from the heights." The word "Satan" in Hebrew is a direct translation, therefore "Satan."

When Jesus said to His disciples in Luke 10:18 that He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, if this were to be spoken by a Jewish Rabbi today influenced by the poetry in the book of Isaiah, he would say these words in Hebrew--the words of Jesus in Luke 10:18 as, and I saw Satan as Baraq O Bam-Maw.

The names of both of Obama's daughters are Malia and Natasha. If we write those names backward (the devil does things in reverse) we would get "ailam ahsatan". Now if we remove the letters that spell "Alah" (Allah being the false god of Islam), we would get "I am Satan". Mere chance? I don't think so!

Obama's campaign logo when he ran as President of the United States in the year 2008 was a sun over the horizon in the west, with the landscape as the flag of the United States. In Islam, they have their own messiah that they are awaiting called the 12th Imam, or the Mahdi (the Antichrist of the Bible), and one prophecy concerning this man's appearance is the sun rising in the west.

"Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— saying with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.'" (Revelation 14:6-7)

Why have the words of Jesus in His Gospel accounts regarding His death, burial, and resurrection, been translated into over 3,000 languages, and nothing comes close (the Quran about 110 languages)? Because the same Spirit of God (YHVH) who created all people likewise transcends all people; therefore the power of His Word is not limited by people; while all other religions are man-made, therefore they tend to primarily stay within their own culture. The same God who speaks to all people through His creation of the heavens and earth that draws all people around the world likewise has sent His Word to the ends of the earth so that we may come to personally know Him to be saved in spirit and in truth through His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus stands alone among the other religions that say to rightly weigh the scales of good and evil and to make sure you have done more good than bad in this life. Is this how we conduct ourselves justly in a court of law? Bearing the image of God, is this how we project this image into reality?

Our good works cannot save us. If we step before a judge, being guilty of a crime, the judge will not judge us by the good we have done, but rather by the crimes we have committed. If we as fallen humanity, created in God's image, pose this type of justice, how much more a perfect, righteous, and Holy God?

God has brought down His moral laws through the 10 commandments given to Moses at Mt. Siani. These laws were not given so we may be justified, but rather that we may see the need for a savior. They are the mirror of God's character of what He has written in our hearts, with our conscious bearing witness that we know that it is wrong to steal, lie, dishonor our parents, murder, and so forth.

We can try and follow the moral laws of the 10 commandments, but we will never catch up to them to be justified before a Holy God. That same word of the law given to Moses became flesh about 2,000 years ago in the body of Jesus Christ. He came to be our justification by fulfilling the law, living a sinless perfect life that only God could fulfill.

The gap between us and the law can never be reconciled by our own merit, but the arm of Jesus is stretched out by the grace and mercy of God. And if we are to grab on, through faith in Him, He will pull us up being the one to justify us. As in the court of law, if someone steps in and pays our fine, even though we are guilty, the judge can do what is legal and just and let us go free. That is what Jesus did almost 2,000 years ago on the cross. It was a legal transaction being fulfilled in the spiritual realm by the shedding of His blood with His last word's on the cross crying out, "It is finished!" (John 19:30).

For God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23). This is why in Isaiah chapter 53, where it speaks of the coming Messiah and His soul being a sacrifice for our sins, why it says it pleased God to crush His only begotten Son.

This is because the wrath that we deserve was justified by being poured out upon His Son. If that wrath was poured out on us, we would all perish to hell forever. God created a way of escape by pouring it out on His Son whose soul could not be left in Hades but was raised and seated at the right hand of God in power.

So now when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14), where God no longer sees the person who deserves His wrath, but rather the glorious image of His perfect Son dwelling in us, justifying us as if we received the wrath we deserve, making a way of escape from the curse of death; now being conformed into the image of the heavenly man walking in a new nature, and no longer in the image of the fallen man Adam.

Now what we must do is repent and put our trust and faith in the savior, confessing and forsaking our sins, and to receive His Holy Spirit that we may be born again (for Jesus says we must be born again to see and enter the Kingdom of God in John chapter 3). This is not just head knowledge of believing in Jesus, but rather receiving His words, taking them to heart, so that we may truly be transformed into the image of God. Where we no longer live to practice sin, but rather turn from our sins and practice righteousness through faith in Him in obedience to His Word by reading the Bible.

Our works cannot save us, but they can condemn us; it is not that we earn our way into everlasting life, but that we obey our Lord Jesus Christ:

Jesus says,

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

"And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." (Hebrews 5:9)

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.'

Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful.'

And He said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'" (Revelation 21:1-8)
by Sarahmug (2023-04-04 05:24) 

Though it’s tempting to test apps like Life360, it’s extra essential to have trust within the person you’re dating. After filling out our questionnaire, we'll have to check your details and once permitted, you'll view your greatest matches and find new folks to connect with. Our improbable, UK-based customer service workers proceed to examine each new members' profile and image earlier than they appear on-line and are also there to advise you on all aspects of the service, together with on-line safety. There is a second edition. There are plenty of opportunities for folks of any age, as well as probabilities of being accepted with all peculiarities you might need. You is perhaps considering, How? Thermoluminescence emits a weak mild signal that is proportional to the radiation dose absorbed by the fabric. In the means of recombining with a lattice ion, they lose energy and emit photons (mild quanta), detectable within the laboratory. Depending on the depth of the traps (the energy required to free an electron from them) the storage time of trapped electrons will vary as some traps are sufficiently deep to store cost for a whole bunch of thousands of years.

In thermoluminescence dating, these lengthy-time period traps are used to find out the age of materials: When irradiated crystalline material is again heated or uncovered to sturdy gentle, the trapped electrons are given adequate vitality to escape. Oxford Authentication: Home - TL Testing Authentication 'Oxford Authentication® Ltd authenticates ceramic antiquities using the scientific technique of thermoluminescence (TL). Online chat in a less stringent definition could also be primarily any direct text-based or video-based (webcams), one-on-one chat or one-to-many group chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools reminiscent of instantaneous messengers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), talkers and possibly MUDs or other <a href=https://qpidnetworkreview.weebly.com/about-qpid-network.html>qpid</a> on-line video games. The very best sites would come with occupied with web sites. As soon as all parts of the radiation discipline are determined, the accumulated dose from the thermoluminescence measurements is divided by the dose accumulating each year, to obtain the years since the zeroing event. Ideally that is assessed by measurements made at the exact findspot over a long interval. Subsequently, at that time the thermoluminescence sign is zero. As a crystalline material is heated during measurements, the strategy of thermoluminescence begins.

Thermoluminescence dating (TL) is the dedication, by means of measuring the accumulated radiation dose, of the time elapsed since materials containing crystalline minerals was either heated (lava, ceramics) or exposed to sunlight (sediments). 2008. Pure Residual Thermoluminescence as a method of Evaluation of Sand Transport alongside the Coast of the St. Joseph Peninsula, Florida. Keizars, K.Z. 2003. NRTL as a method of analysis of sand transport alongside the coast of the St. Joseph Peninsula, Florida. Morgenstein M. E., Luo S., Ku T. L., Feathers J. (2003). "Uranium-sequence and luminescence dating of volcanic lithic artefacts". Greilich S., Glasmacher U. A., Wagner G. A. (2005). "Optical dating of granitic stone surfaces". Habermann J., Schilles T., Kalchgruber R., Wagner G. A. (2000). "Steps towards floor dating utilizing luminescence". Montret, M., Fain, J., Miallier, D. (1992). "TL dating within the Holocene utilizing purple TL from quartz" (PDF). Sullasi, H. S., Andrade, M. B., Ayta, W. E. F., Frade, M., Sastry, M. D., & Watanabe, S. (2004). Irradiation for dating Brazilian fish fossil by thermoluminescence and EPR technique. Theocaris P. S., Liritzis I., Galloway R. B. (1997). "Dating of two Hellenic pyramids by a novel application of thermoluminescence".

Liritzis I (1994). "A brand new dating methodology by thermoluminescence of carved megalithic stone constructing". Liritzis I., Guibert P., Foti F., Schvoerer M. (1997). "The temple of Apollo (Delphi) strengthens novel thermoluminescence dating methodology". Liritzis I., Sideris C., Vafiadou A., Mitsis J. (2008). "Mineralogical, petrological and radioactivity facets of some building materials from Egyptian Outdated Kingdom monuments". Liritzis, I., 2011. Floor Dating by Luminescence: An summary. Liritzis, Ioannis; Singhvi, Ashok Kumar; Feathers, James K.; Wagner, Gunther A.; Kadereit, Annette; Zacharias, Nikolaos; Li, Sheng-Hua (2013), Liritzis, Ioannis; Singhvi, Ashok Kumar; Feathers, James Ok.; Wagner, Gunther A. (eds.), "Luminescence-Based Authenticity Testing", Luminescence Dating in Archaeology, Anthropology, and Geoarchaeology: An outline, SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences, Heidelberg: Springer Worldwide Publishing, pp. Liritzis, I. (2010). "Strofilas (Andros Island, Greece): new proof for the cycladic last neolithic interval via novel dating strategies utilizing luminescence and obsidian hydration". Liritzis I (2010). "Strofilas (Andros Island, Greece): New evidence of Cycladic Remaining Neolithic dated by novel luminescence and Obsidian Hydration strategies". Aitken, M.J., Thermoluminescence Dating, Tutorial Press, London (1985) - Customary textual content for introduction to the field.

by Chenglee (2023-04-11 10:18)