A new paper out in the Lancet is getting attention.

Very important study, showing "presence of viral elements within endothelial cells … with evidence of endothelial and inflammatory cell death." This suggests #SARSCoV2 is directly attacking the vasculature, and is much more than a respiratory virus. #COVID19 https://t.co/zhugnVnKVg

— Dr Zoë Hyde (@DrZoeHyde) April 18, 2020

Early medical reaction:

This is a huge breakthrough in my opinion. Could explain the myriad of symptoms patients are presenting with, and why hypertension is the most prevalent comorbidity

This suggests #SARSCoV2 is directly attacking the vasculature, and is much more than a respiratory virus. #COVID19

SARS-CoV-2 is not like an ordinary respiratory virus, unfortunately it acts as a ‘deep tissue virus’. It’s bad news for active immunization expectations.

Dr. Theresa Tam is in way over her head. Everyone with even a modicum of objectivity knows it but few have been willing to say it for fear of reflexively getting a called a racist and misogynist. But Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has clearly had enough, as has the Calgary Herald’s Licia Corbella:

We all know what these delays have cost us — more than 1,055 Canadians have died, many more will do so in the weeks to come, our economy has almost completely shut down, children are out of school, people have lost their jobs, others will lose their businesses and homes, public debt that will saddle future generations for decades has ballooned and our inability to visit with loved ones, even when they are on their death beds, is what we all face because Dr. Tam and the WHO failed to act quickly and appropriately on the known evidence.

As Premier Kenney properly suggested, Dr. Tam’s job is not to swallow the propaganda of totalitarian states obsessed with saving face, but to investigate all of the pertinent information and then recommend policy to protect Canadians.

Linked in the article is this excellent March 31, 2020 timeline of Trudeau and Tam’s disastrous politically correct behavior. Speaking of which, Tam is lucky to be working for a guy who clearly demonstrates the Peter Principle daily.

h/t Joe

China denies coverup as it simultaneously ups the death count in Wuhan by 50%! The CCP is the laughing stock of the world. #CCPVirus #ChinaLiedPeopleDied #WuhanVirus https://t.co/F7xqIe75n9

— 😷Kyle Bass😷 (@Jkylebass) April 17, 2020

We also fume (gas) EVERYTHING coming into the barn except for bulk feed as it is heated in the making process
Lunches are to be double bagged with the first bag being left at the lunch window so not to transfer anything from the bag
Emergency phones are disinfectant upon entry

— Maaike (@BirnamPork) April 15, 2020

Thread.

CNBC;

Gilead Sciences shares surged by more than 15% in after-hours trading Thursday after details leaked of a closely watched clinical trial of the company’s antiviral drug Remdesivir, showing what appears to be promising results in treating Covid-19.
 
The University of Chicago’s phase 3 drug trial found that most of its patients had “rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms” and were discharged in less than a week, health-care publication STAT News reported.
 
“The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” University of Chicago infectious disease specialist Kathleen Mullane said, according to STAT News, which obtained a video of her remarks.

Related: Dow futures rip 800 points

Update: Trump Announces 3-Phase Guidelines for Governors to Reopen States

Update (from Kate) — Now Is Exactly the Time to Investigate the WHO’s Catastrophic Public Failures and Internal Rot

People in positions of influence read this site. Instead of complaints about the costs and compromise to civil liberties, let’s hear your ideas.

Here’s mine: implement the “work camp” model for manufacturers, distributors and processing facilities of essential goods and services.

Make rapid COVID tests available to these employers: all employees would be tested prior to the commencement of each crew shift, then housed in designated hotels or work trailers (lots of those sitting idle in the oil industry) before being swiitched out for the next crew at the end of their rotation.

Two weeks in, one week out. If it can work for mining, it can work for industry in general.

The “clean workplace” model could be expanded or adjusted as necessary to fit other commercial facilities, with the primary goal to protect employees from one another,

Your turn.

Reuters;

Cargill Ltd has reduced production at one of Canada’s biggest beef-packing plants, the company and the union representing workers there said on Tuesday, after several dozen workers became infected with the new coronavirus.
 
The Canadian arm of U.S. agribusiness Cargill temporarily idled its second production shift at High River, Alberta, on Monday, spokesman Daniel Sullivan said.
 
It adds to the list of roughly one dozen North American meat plants that have closed temporarily or cut production due to the pandemic.

2 million chickens euthanized in Delaware.

FINGER LICKIN’ TRAFFIC JAM. Chicken processor is selling right out of the trailers near Raleigh, NC what the Colonel can’t take. 40 lbs. cases…jumbo breasts for $45, thighs for $35 and legs for $15. ⁦@NCFarmBureau⁩ pic.twitter.com/Y5btNORsW2

— Max Armstrong (@maxarmstrong) April 16, 2020

China didn’t warn public of likely pandemic for 6 key days

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.
 
President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press and expert estimates based on retrospective infection data.
 
Six days.
 
That delay from Jan. 14 to Jan. 20 was neither the first mistake made by Chinese officials at all levels in confronting the outbreak, nor the longest lag, as governments around the world have dragged their feet for weeks and even months in addressing the virus.
 
But the delay by the first country to face the new coronavirus came at a critical time — the beginning of the outbreak. China’s attempt to walk a line between alerting the public and avoiding panic set the stage for a pandemic that has infected more than 2 million people and taken more than 128,000 lives.
 
“This is tremendous,” said Zuo-Feng Zhang, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “If they took action six days earlier, there would have been much fewer patients and medical facilities would have been sufficient. We might have avoided the collapse of Wuhan’s medical system.”
 
Other experts noted that the Chinese government may have waited on warning the public to stave off hysteria, and that it did act quickly in private during that time.
 
But the six-day delay by China’s leaders in Beijing came on top of almost two weeks during which the national Center for Disease Control did not register any cases from local officials, internal bulletins obtained by the AP confirm. Yet during that time, from Jan. 5 to Jan. 17, hundreds of patients were appearing in hospitals not just in Wuhan but across the country.

The US-China trade deal was signed January 15th.

More discussion today on War Room.

Business Insider;

As questions persist over the exact origin of the novel coronavirus outbreak, newly reported diplomatic cables show that US officials sounded the alarm about possible safety breaches at a Wuhan lab studying coronaviruses in animals.
 
In the cables, obtained by Washington Post national security columnist Josh Rogin, US officials raised concerns about safety issues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2018, two years before the novel coronavirus outbreak.
 
The lab, which holds a level four biosafety research certification, the highest possible rating, was conducting research on coronaviruses in bats.
 
After multiple visits to the lab from a US diplomat in Wuhan and a science diplomat at the US Embassy in Beijing in early 2018, the officials were concerned about safety issues with the lab’s research, they sent two “sensitive but unclassified” cables back to Washington, DC sounding the alarm and asking for assistance to help the lab tighten its safety protocols.

More: Josh Rogin with Steve Bannon

Random links for the morning.

New Rutgers Saliva Test for Coronavirus Gets FDA Approval: “It means we no longer have to put health care professionals at risk for infection by performing nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal collections. We can preserve precious personal protective equipment for use in patient care instead of testing. We can significantly increase the number of people tested each and every day as self-collection of saliva is more quick and scalable than swab collections. All of this combined will have a tremendous impact on testing in New Jersey and across the United States.”

Treatment protocols are changing and better outcomes are the result: “Intubated patients with Covid lung disease are doing very poorly, and while this may be the disease and not the mechanical ventilation, most of us believe that intubation is to be avoided until unequivocally required,”

Not just America: Public Health Authorities Have Failed America at Every Level

Speaking of which: Anthony Fauci Wrong About A Whole Lot

Your own Covid-specific links in the comments.