Former Iranian ambassador to Syria and a hostage-taker of U.S. diplomats, Hossein Sheikholeslam, died Thursday from a Covid19 infection, local news outlets report.
An advisor to the Islamic Republic Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, 68-year-old Sheikholeslam was one of the leaders of the so-called “Muslim Student Followers of Imam’s Line,” who took 52 U.S. diplomats hostage, on November 4, 1979, and released them after 444 days.
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“While the rest of us were arguing about sexism and transgender bathrooms, China was taking control of our health care system”
The Great Decoupling is about to begin.
Updated with this bit of good news — The science behind COVID-19 is now free to access for everyone in the world – every scientist – every healthcare professional, all because of your incredible support. In the previous weeks publishers faced the choice between protecting the value of their intellectual property and protecting humanity during this incredibly urgent medical crisis.
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18/ Lombardy's welfare minister: "every day we get 200 new people to the ER in critical conditions, which means every day we need to find 200 more hospital beds. […] the virus is spreading at an exceptional speed, faster than our predictions and than the data we got from China." pic.twitter.com/yge69JU2cK
— Luca Dellanna (@DellAnnaLuca) March 6, 2020
I have a friend in Italy undergoing cancer treatment that’s unavailable here. From a Facebook post earlier today;
“Yeah, I’m not trying to spread hysteria here but I’m in Italy so I’m seeing this first hand. I was booked to have an operation yesterday for my cancer, it was booked months in advance. I went in, saw the tents outside of the hospital for coronavirus patients, went to meet one of my doctors and she took me to the oncology department which was also the very last ward not being used for coronavirus patients. I wait for 7 hours, then am told that they will not be preforming the surgery this week and they are unsure when they will have any time or space for me.
Too long didnt read? They shut down the fourth building of the hospital of oncology to make beds for coronavirus patients while a doctor in tears told me I would not be getting the life extending operation I booked.
Not trying to be melodramatic but honestly a little sick of people posting memes and telling themselves its nothing to be afraid of. It is effectively capable of shutting down the healthcare systems. Be prepared, especially my American friends.”
And therein lies the biggest risk — it’s not “just the flu”. Health care workers can be vaccinated for the flu. When a high percentage of the people taking care of patients become infected just as the demand on the system surges? See above.
Meanwhile in DiverstyStrongistan… Over weeks of daily crossings, this is the first time 🇨🇦 agents asked health questions.
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Related. The sooner we decouple from China the better.
h/t Alain
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Most of our data has been supplied by unreliable China and Iran. What is the case fatality rate elsewhere?
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The word is “admitted”. Chinese controlled WHO says…coronavirus death rate is 3.4% globally, higher than previously thought.
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Diversity is our strength! Travellers from Iran report NO SCREENING at Toronto’s Pearson Airport
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
Related: Coronavirus takes out aide to Iran’s “supreme leader”
Still, probably nothing.
(And this, I don’t even know what this means.)
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It’s challenging to verify information coming out of authoritarian regimes like Iran.
But Ali’s account dates to 2009, he seems like a real engineer, and he links to a number of sources.
His account is sobering and worth investigating. If even partially true, it’s concerning. https://t.co/T2UGlfFgAs
— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) February 29, 2020
Related: #China’s factories activity plunges, worse than global financial crisis in 2008/9.
Australia has banned travel from Iran.
February 29, 2020: Reader Tips
A test of the Adams Rule of Slow Moving Disasters.
Your weekend begins now!
When the Edge of the Map Moves Inward
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Released to the wild: after Westjet “informed the appropriate authorities” of reportedly unresponsive, feverish passenger from China, Health Canada released the flight and ordered the plane not to be quarantined. Good to know this is being taken seriously by Westjet, at least.
Update: More info here.
Meanwhile in Iran (because diversity is our strength!)… Nothing says ‘we’ve got this under control’ like confirming that a handful of your government’s most-senior officials have caught the virus at the root of a deadly pandemic sweeping the globe.
That’ll teach em for palling around with Chinese weapons deliverymen.
It’s Probably Nothing
Just like they do for the flu: Chinese medical staff request international medical assistance
The conditions and environment here in Wuhan are more difficult and extreme than we could ever have imagined. There is a severe shortage of protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, face shields, goggles, gowns, and gloves. The goggles are made of plastic that must be repeatedly cleaned and sterilised in the ward, making them difficult to see through. Due to the need for frequent hand washing, several of our colleagues’ hands are covered in painful rashes. As a result of wearing an N95 respirator for extended periods of time and layers of protective equipment, some nurses now have pressure ulcers on their ears and forehead. When wearing a mask to speak with patients, our voices are muted, so we have to speak very loudly. Wearing four layers of gloves is abnormally clumsy and does not work—we can’t even open the packaging bags for medical devices, so giving patients injections is a huge challenge. In order to save energy and the time it takes to put on and take off protective clothing, we avoid eating and drinking for 2 hours before entering the isolation ward. Often, nurses’ mouths are covered in blisters. Some nurses have fainted due to hypoglycaemia and hypoxia.
It’s not alarmist to keep a solid supply of non-perishables on hand.
Instapundit has a daily roundup of Coronavirus news.
h/t James
“Study Xi, Strong Nation”
How the Coronavirus Revealed Authoritarianism’s Fatal Flaw
How did Xi Jinping—the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, who has been consolidating his power since taking over the post in 2012—let things get to this point?
It might be that he didn’t fully know what was happening in his own country until it was too late.
Xi would be far from the first authoritarian to have been blindsided. Ironically, for all the talk of the technological side of Chinese authoritarianism, China’s use of technology to ratchet up surveillance and censorship may have made things worse, by making it less likely that Xi would even know what was going on in his own country.
Let’s hope.
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Michael Yon will be on with Steve Bannon shortly, live.
China’s notoriously militant censorship has been turned up to eleven during the coronavirus outbreak. They have made it illegal for healthcare workers, crematoriums, and anyone else involved in the response to discuss the situation – disrupting attempts to provide an accurate picture of what’s going on amid the largest quarantine in human history.
Today, Twitter suspended a great Chinese dissident, our friend Harry Chan @IsChinar. He reported the truth on what’s happening in China during #coronavirus outbreak. A man who fights totalitarianism and CCP oppression. @Twitter @TwitterSupport This is truly shameful! #FreeHarry pic.twitter.com/wcdwGQTuWE
— Max Howroute▫️ (@howroute) February 24, 2020
The situation in Iran is far, far worse than they’ve admitted to: Deputy Minister of Health has coronavirus.
Harirchi coughed occasionally and appeared to be sweating during a press conference in Tehran on Monday with government spokesman Ali Rabiei.
At the time he denied a lawmaker’s claim that 50 people had died from the virus in the Shiite shrine city of Qom, saying he would resign if the number proved to be true.
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As has been predicted for weeks, world markets are finally taking a hit.
Shares on Wall Street have plummeted at the opening bell and European markets are also a sea of red, with the Italian market the worst hit, amid reports of rising deaths from the coronavirus in the country.
The high price of conspiring with China: Iran becomes the new epicenter of infection.
Given the number of exported #coronavirus cases from Iran to other countries, coupled with unofficial reports of a far greater number of deaths inside Iran from #covid19, it would strongly suggest that Iran must have a very large outbreak underway. https://t.co/Jqtmkugbmi
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) February 24, 2020
Now 600 cases in South Korea, who the hell knows what’s going on in the North.
More: Trump’s fury over coronavirus patients being repatriated may be justified
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And then there is this little-known fact: Some Chinese researchers are in the habit of selling their laboratory animals to street vendors after they have finished experimenting on them.
You heard me right.
Updates
Untraceable clusters alarm US officials.
Infections surge in South Korea.
Italy – Tens of thousands of Italians prepared for a weeks-long quarantine…
8 dead in Iran, which seems to have a abnormally high death rate or an abnormally low detection rate.
2 more young doctors die from coronavirus in China
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Well, look at that. The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda rag finally admits what I’ve said for a month: coronavirus didn’t start in Wuhan food market. So where did it originate? Time for answers from CCP. https://t.co/UTvcjvrHNz
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 22, 2020
@AFP #BREAKING Italy’s coronavirus infections jump to 79, including two deaths, says official
Health officials worry as untraceable virus clusters emerge
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Several patients of the deadly coronavirus in China who were discharged from care are testing positive for COVID-19 again, according to Chinese state media.
Beijing-owned newspaper People’s Daily reported Friday a former patient in Szechuan Province in southwest China tested positive for the killer virus behind more than 2,200 deaths in the country.
[…]
The reinfection case in Chengdu is not unique, according to physician Zhao Jianping, a respiratory and critical care specialist at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan. Zhao said one his patients tested positive for the virus after being discharged.
Zhao told Chinese state media a discharge judgment should be “made carefully.”
#COVID19 in #Iran:
18 confirmed cases according to Iran authorities, 758 suspected cases according to Turkey quoting Iran officials, & add 2 cases who traveled from Iran to Canada & Lebanon.This numbers would put Iran st the highest level of coronavirus spread after China. https://t.co/RSWF3CATc3
— Hadi Nili (@HadiNili) February 21, 2020