Corona virus, is it time to panic? (11 Feb Edit)
Let me say at the outset, I’m not an infectious disease expert, but I was a military Surgeon for ten years, and after getting out of the military served on the D.C. Congressional Committee NRAC which evaluated technology for the US Navy and Marine Corps. That exposed me to senior Defense insiders, and sources in the military that gave me insight into Chemical and Biological threat assessment and our response plans etc. Over the subsequent years, I have made it my mission to follow the bioweapons issues, and have given talks on Smallpox and other bioweapons at national medical and science meetings.
Begin with the proposition that you cannot trust the WHO, CDC, US or Chinese Governments, or the Gates Foundation to be completely honest with the public. Prove me wrong. In fact, my new rule for life is, if the CDC tells you it’s a big deal, it isn’t. Think, “the worst flu season on record” panic year, after year, after year. In this Corona virus situation, since the experts initially said no big deal, I determined it WAS a big deal.
Secondly, you cannot trust the government agencies to give you the information you need in the time you actually need it. Recently, the WHO says it is racist to close borders to Chinese and that borders should remain open worldwide. They are more worried about seeming to be discriminatory than to stop a potential pandemic. Also, we have been conditioned to disbelieve any connecting of dots as a “conspiracy theory” no matter how much information is in support of the matter. The problem is many highly educated people can’t believe things they’ve never heard before—even if there is sound evidence. We have a very hard time believing that anyone would release a bioweapon. And, we are completely hamstrung by normalcy bias, i.e “It hasn’t happened in my lifetime so it can’t be happening now”. It doesn’t help that we have become desensitized to the CDC hype exaggerating the flu, SARS and other diseases that have turned out not to be the “great pandemic”. Recently, Iowa State Epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Pedati said, “Anytime you see the emergent of a new virus that can affect people that’s going to be a concern for public health. Right now, the risk here in Iowa remains low.” That statement is either outright lying or totally misinformed—and it is hard to believe the latter. We have never seen anything like this in our lifetime. As Pedati is saying this, a federal quarantine facility is 10 miles from my office, and exposed people are being flown into Omaha. 14 other Federal Quarantine Centers are being stood up around the US. From reports and videos by Chinese in Wuhan, armed soldiers are dragging people to quarantine. People are being sealed into their homes. No food is arriving. This is not being treated like a flu outbreak. This is being treated like the plague.
Sep 2000, The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) written by US defense insiders said this: “… advanced forms of biological warfare that can ‘target’ specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.” (Emphasis mine)
On June 13, 2012, a 60-year-old Saudi man was admitted to a private hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with a 7-day history of fever, cough, expectoration, and shortness of breath. He had no history of cardiopulmonary or renal disease, was receiving no long-term medications, and did not smoke. Egyptian virologist Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki isolated and identified a previously unknown coronavirus from his lungs. This Coronavirus sample was acquired directly from the source by Scientific Director Dr. Frank Plummer of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg. The Canadian lab grew stocks of the virus and scientists worked to see which animal species could be infected with the new virus.
While this was going on, in 2015, the Pirbright Institute, who counts Bill Gates as a major funder, patented a new corona virus created through genetic recombinant technology. The patent number is 10, 130, 701. I read the patent—and personally, I am not comforted. The patented virus is a mutant design, in which a major portion of the Corona gene coding for “replicase” is altered. They cannot precisely specify the alteration in the genome because it can vary in the process. This is clear from the patent which says over and over, “The variant replicase gene may encode a protein which comprises the amino acid mutation Pro to Leu at position” (pick a number) of SEQ ID NO: (pick a number). In other words, multiple outcomes are possible.
They further specify recombining Corona virus with a portion of the Vaccinia virus. Vaccinia is the “Cowpox” that we use as a vaccine to prevent “Smallpox”—the world’s most deadly disease. Genetically the two viruses have much in common—they are same family, subfamily and genus,—just different species. Like a Pitbull and a Chihuahua…a few different genes make a big different animal. So, they mix Vaccinia and Corona viruses with an imprecisely altered enzyme for replication—what could possibly go wrong? Of course, they tested it for safety—on chickens. Because, how could you possibly do human testing on such a thing? “Mr. Jones, you are perfectly well but we’d like you to volunteer for testing a new recombinant
2017 CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness) was founded in Davos by the governments of Norway and India and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the World Economic Forum. “CEPI’s mission is to stimulate and accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and enable access to these vaccines for people during outbreaks.”
Following an investigation, the incident was traced to
Chinese agents working at NML in Winnipeg.
Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, who was suspected of involvement also collaborated in 2018 with three scientists from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Maryland, studying post-exposure immunotherapy for two Ebola viruses and Marburg virus in monkeys; a study supported by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
July 2019 A public publication underscores the potential for rapid deployment of Inovio's DNA vaccines. Impressively, INO-4700 was advanced into the clinic within nine months of vaccine candidate selection -- the first MERS vaccine in humans. Inovio is planning a Phase 2 MERS vaccine trial to be conducted in areas of the world where outbreaks have occurred, (i.e. China, emphasis mine.)
July 2019 Scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention conduct the second phase of human clinical trials for an HIV vaccine in hospitals in Beijing and Hangzhou with a total of 160 participants.
Then on October, 18, 2019, the Gates Foundation and others held a disease crisis simulation—“Event 201”. From their website: “The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY. The exercise illustrated areas where public/private partnerships will be necessary during the response to a severe pandemic in order to diminish large-scale economic and societal consequences.” They modelled a new “novel” Corona virus. In their scenario, 65 Million people died in 18 mo. Of course, as part of the conference scenario the participants blame internet “disinformation” for deaths, backlash against medical personnel, and prolongation of the pandemic. And predictably, recommendations were made to shut down part or all of the internet to prevent “divisiveness that threatens governments and authentic sources”. “Social media companies are doing all they can to limit false information.” (Because, you know, keeping the general public from sharing knowledge and ideas is always in the public interest.)
December 30, 2019, Dr. Li Wenliang reports seven people who were working at the Wuhan seafood market had contracted a SARS like illness (which later proved to be the novel Corona Virus). Wuhan is a city 20 km from China’s premier Level 4 bioweapons research and development facility built in 2017. Li was subsequently arrested by the Chinese police and forced to retract his statement. Subsequently the disease broke out filling the hospital and the city of Wuhan was Quarantined and placed under martial law.
23 January 2020 CEPI awarded Inovio Pharmaceuticals a grant of $9 million to develop a vaccine against the recently emerged strain of coronavirus (2019-nCoV). This initial CEPI funding will support Inovio's preclinical and clinical development through Phase 1 human testing of INO-4800, its new coronavirus vaccine matched to the outbreak strain.
30 January, 2020, Indian researchers (Prashant Pradhan et al. ) report on spike proteins that were from HIV type gene sequence. They concluded the nCor-19 Corona virus was in fact a manmade product. Shortly thereafter they are asked to withdraw the paper even though they used open source data that could be confirmed. Internet site ZeroHedge, which reported on the study, was de-platformed by Twitter and other media.
By 1 February 2020, as the disease was in full force, the “201” website now published a disclaimer saying twice, we didn’t predict this virus, really we didn’t predict this virus!, they ended with: “Although our tabletop exercise included a mock novel coronavirus, the inputs we used for modeling the potential impact of that fictional virus are not similar to nCoV-2019.”
Around 3 February, 2020, James Lyons-Weiler, PhD, founder of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge and author of 57 peer-reviewed publications, found within this Corona virus a peculiar sequence called “pShuttle-SN” which is a gene splicing tool, thereby substantiating the Indian researchers conclusion that the origin of the virus is in a lab.
On 4 February, 2020, Dr. Frank Plummer the infectious disease researcher, who first brought the Corona virus back to the Canadian lab from Saudi Arabia, dropped dead unexpectedly while participating in a conference in Kenya. The cause of death is at this time unknown.
Sadly, on 6 February 2020, the hero of Wuhan, 34 year old Dr. Li Wenliang, who first reported the virus and was persecuted by the Chinese government for doing so, died of the disease, after being credited with saving many lives.
09 February 2020. Chinese officials finally admit to a 17% death rate. The Lancet reported 83% of those exposed become infected. That high rate requires well over 70% of people in self quarantine/containment to stop the contagion. The official death rate reported recently by Lancet is 15%. This is in line with the Chinese internet site Tencent’s (?accidental) release of data : 154,023 infected/ 24589 dead= minimum death rate of 16%. This also correlates to what the Chinese are telling us in other ways—that 82% of the cases are Mild, but among Serious and Critical categories (18%)--the recovery rate is 1-6%. (Again basic math = death rate around 15%). Uncofirmed but reports from those in China are noting a 5 times greater infection rate for Chinese males. Speculation is made that this may be a genotype targeted bioweapon.
11 Feb, 2020, we learn that five British skiers became infected with Corona at a French resort from a man who had recently been to Singapore. In spite of this knowledge, the man went on to travel to Switzerland and Britain, exposing several plan loads of people and people in two other countries. Contact tracing and quarantine are underway.
Opinion:
I cannot help seeing in this timeline a Shakespearean Tragedy with multiple players—patsies, perpetrators, and victims. The Chinese, with CDC help, have sequenced the nCoV-19 virus and it was not a known variant in the GenBank. But neither the CDC, nor the Chinese say whether it was compared to the variant Corona virus made by Pirbright. And has that variant even been reported to the GenBank? I agree with the researchers above that this is not a natural occurrence. I raised the BS flag about the snake theory right away—since they were hibernating at the time this broke out, and the answer was too quick and too glib. So when snakes failed, then they reported it was bats. And now as that comes under question by a lot of real scientists, the new theory is the Pangolin. Really, what is a Pangolin? As soon as the Indian researchers were hushed, and the Chinese obfuscation became obvious, I became suspicious. The timeline reeks of coordination, or stage management, or at least inside knowledge.
Unless you really think this is a wild virus, there are three possibilities: 1) This is an accidental lab release from the Chinese who were creating a bioweapon or a vaccine. 2) This is a vaccine trial gone wrong, with a test vaccine that ended up being deadly. (This would be the best thing for the world because that means those secondarily infected probably are not dying from disease—just those given the bad vaccine.) 3) This is a bioweapon that was intentionally released. Not to be Debbie downer, but I favor the last, because, I don’t believe in serial coincidences. This happened at the perfect time for a bioweapons release—the biggest travel time, of the biggest holiday, of the biggest country in the world. What’s the chance?
But in that case who is the culprit? The options can get ugly but it is unlikely to be the Chinese against themselves. Having said that, the Chinese one child policy has left them with approximately 35 million unwed men of warrior age. For the Chinese government--who are facing increasing discontent—that poses a threat to the regime. And for the potential military enemies of the Chinese, having so many millions of single men around to take up arms is not ideal. And then there was the PNAC or Policy for a new American Century, written by Defense Department / “Beltway” insiders who consider genotype specific bioweapons a potentially “politically useful tool. I make it a habit never to underestimate the psychopathology of our so called “leaders”.
In terms of disease control, we have no treatment and no clear prevention—we know human to human transmission has occurred outside of China. We believe this is one of the most contagious viruses of its kind and that it may be contracted even wearing a standard mask. Chinese researchers on site reported a transmission rate of 3.6—i.e. an infected person spreads to an average of 3.6 other people. The Lancet just reported 83% of those exposed become infected. That high rate requires well over 70% of people in self quarantine/containment to stop the contagion. The official death rate reported recently by Lancet is 15%. The Chinese have finally reported a death rate of 17%. This is in line with the Chinese internet site Tencent’s (?accidental) release of data : 154,023 infected/ 24589 dead= minimum death rate of 16%. This also correlates to what the Chinese are telling us in other ways—that 82% of the cases are Mild, but among Serious and Critical categories (18%)--the recovery rate is 1-6%. (Again basic math = death rate around 15%). To put this all in historical perspective, the statistics so far of this man-made Corona virus is much worse than the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, which killed about 100 Million people worldwide, including whole families in small places like my area of Harrison County, Iowa.
Although this is the largest quarantine effort in the history of mankind, and was instituted relatively early by the Chinese, the Wuhan mayor reported that at least 5 million Chinese left the city prior to the ring being locked down. Eleven Chinese cities are now in quarantine. And we are now getting spread to all the Asian countries where planes from Wuhan landed after leaving the airport with asymptomatic people. The incubation/ prodrome rate is unfortunately long—at least 24 days and possibly more. We have seen negative “tests” for the virus in travelers who then, 4 days later, came down with the disease. These facts makes quarantine problematic. In Ashland, Nebraska,—my nearest quarantine site which is set up on a National Guard base, they are planning on 14 days isolation. That’s wishful thinking. As I write this, Rebecca Katz, the chief of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at George Washington University, admitted we have lost containment so “all we can do is mitigate”.
I believe Taiwan and Korea can contain this mess, but now as it spreads into South America, and from there to Mexico, I do not believe the Mexicans can mount an effective public health effort. If it breaks out there, we will have a huge massive push to our Southern Border, and we can guarantee pandemic in America unless we close the borders. Even worse, it doesn’t matter whether this was designed to be a bioweapon or whether it was accidentally or purposefully released. Because, this outbreak is probably only the first wave. Consider this: Any terrorist or bad actor nation who wants a bioweapon, no longer needs any investment in advanced labs and technology. They can simply send people to China to get infected, harvest the virus for growth in vats, then release Corona against their enemy (probably us) without warning. No screening can prevent that from happening in the future. Such a weapon could be dropped into Las Vegas, a New York subway, or Milwaukee.
So what can we do? Communities should stress self-reliance and preparedness. Governments are notorious for withholding information, and no modern government can really solve this. Do not depend on government. There are food shortages in Wuhan where citizens are being left to starve by their government to save other cities. Don’t think it can’t happen anywhere given the right circumstances. One thing that did help save lives in the Pandemic of 1918 was self isolation of communities such as Egegik, Alaska, (which lost no one) Fletcher, Vermont, Gunnison, Colorado, and institutions such as Princeton University in New Jersey, Bryn Mawr College, the Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind in Pittsburgh, and the Trudeau Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Saranac Lake, New York. These places were unscathed because they “shut themselves down” isolating the healthy away from the sick.
Our borders need to be secure like we used to do it—with medical screening, and militarily, but communities can institute some form of isolation.
Hospitals will be the first places to collapse if this spreads in America at the rate of the Chinese experience. Currently the Chinese hospitals are filled with doctors and nurses that treated the first wave of patients and now are themselves victims. If we can believe the messages being sneaked out to the West, there are wards where anyone with “pneumonic” presentation are simply stashed to die. The course seems to be bimodal. 83% with mild illness get well and walk away. But the 17% with any serious illness are generally dying. (99% rate among moderate to serious disease). One of the reported findings is a death rate for Chinese males five times Chinese women or anyone else. So far, although a case is reported in one black African male, no deaths have occurred outside China except for one Chinese male. This raises the valid question of a genotype directed bioweapon.
If this was targeted at Chinese males, and we or some other country are in any way to blame, we can anticipate escalation and retaliation. Too often we only consider Nuclear devices as Weapons of Mass Destruction, but in reality WMD includes biologic and chemical weapons as well. And as a cost effective anti-personnel weapon, a biologic costs pennies to kill what would cost thousands of dollars in nuclear armament. But retaliation in kind would potentially include a nuclear response.
Even without further event, the economic chaos and loss of productivity in China will be felt around the world. Specifically, the Chinese produce roughly 90% of our medical and pharmaceutical supplies. This is likely to cause significant hospital shortages in the US, and will be a critical factor if we too are faced with pandemic casualties.
As individuals the ultimate answer is to take your health seriously—be in the best shape you can be in. Eat correctly, exercise, take supplements. We should be preparing to shelter in place which means zero contact with others—for one to three months perhaps. This means store food and water for family for a prolonged period. Ultimately this is about your immune system. If this becomes endemic we will all have to become naturally immune--because it is not just going to go around once. If you only have one choice of supplement, take Vitamin D. I take 10,000 iu a day. No one (not on dialysis) has ever had overdosed at that level and the longest-lived people in the world are estimated to get 30,000 iu a day from the sun. (In northern latitudes we simply cannot get enough from the sun—everyone is low. ) Vitamin D is critical in fighting off virus attacks and a Japanese study showed D levels to be more effective than vaccination in preventing flu. Colloidal Silver gargle and nasal spray make sense. DOD funded researched showed Nano-silver to be effective against Ebola, SARS, and other bad viruses. Linus Pauling was a brilliant guy, and although mainstream medicine didn’t agree (which, when it comes to new ideas generally means nothing) I keep Liposomal Vitamin C around and take 1000 mg/ day. When I get exposed or experience the first trace of any illness I bolus myself with 5-10 grams (you can’t do that unless your C is liposomal or you will get diarrhea.) Boosting Iodine levels with the Japanese dose of 12.mg a day makes sense with or without contagion. Importantly, do not use chemical means to lower a temperature. The use of Aspirin in the 1918 Pandemic may have significantly aggravated the death rate by causing bleeding into the lungs. In studies in India years ago, Anti-inflammatories (such as Advil, Naprosyn, and Diclofenac etc.) caused increased morbidity and mortality in Polio and Tuberculosis patients. If your temperature goes over 103 and you are miserable, use the tepid water sponge bath method of our grandmothers. N-95 masks don’t prevent you from spreading virus as well as they protect the wearer from getting the virus. Regular masks are worthless. Stock up on disposable exam gloves and have Clorox at home. Optimize your lung health. For now, minimize public transport. If disease breaks out closer and closer to your area you will need to reassess your public contact. And prepare for huge economic waves. Keep cash at home for emergency use. If this is not specific to Chinese males, and it is not a Vaccine gone awry, this may not be stoppable. In that case, as a nation, we will need to choose between an economic nightmare/ self quarantine and work stoppage, or accept a massive death rate if we do not take this seriously and keep going to the mall. This really does take a village, preparation, and prayer.
Lee Merritt, MD
See also: https://civilianintelligencenetwork.ca/2020/01/27/bill-gates-the-coronavirus-conspiracy/?fbclid=IwAR1aeQFPZMAft6G9Jh2ntwgL9UF-uo4b_oWnScIOUX8djNr9udGesQab_FI
https://civilianintelligencenetwork.ca/2020/02/12/george-soros-bill-gates-partner-with-china-on-coronavirus-drug/
