Pandemics

For those who want more specifics on our past pandemics, here are some write-ups. I suspect that, the Wikipedia entries might be politically shaded, but nevertheless, since you may have lots of time on your hands, here is a way to spend it.

Spanish flu (1919) — Wikipedia Entry

Asian flu (1957) — Britannica Entry

Hong Kong flu (1968) — Britannica Entry

SARS (2003) — Wikipedia Entry

Swine flu (2009) — Wikipedia Entry

MERS (2012) — Wikipedia Entry

Wuhan flu (2020) — Wikipedia Entry

Headlines

Feds seek delay in Michael Flynn case

Coronavirus updates: China pledges $10 billion to fight outbreak, UK confirms fourth case

NYPD: Officer shot, wounded in ‘assassination attempt’ ...

Tesla remotely removes features from used cars without warning

British 5G concerns a ‘witch hunt,’ Chinese ambassador says

Global death toll for new coronavirus soars past 800 to overtake SARS

Taliban claims multiple US soldiers killed in Afghan gun fight ... 2 dead

Buttigieg criticizes electoral college after losing Iowa popular vote

With an avalanche of cash Steyer surges in South Carolina

Tesla seems expensive at these prices even when valuing it like a high-growth tech stock

Republicans raise $100 million during impeachment!

Nancy Pelosi mourns Trump’s ‘shameful’ Alexander Vindman firing

Straight Skinny?

Most everyone is suspicious of the coronavirus statistics being offered by Beijing. Now, an apparent slip by the Chinese Internet company, Tencent, has revealed what might be the terrifying truth ... see: Taiwan News Story.

This leak suggest the real number of cases in China as of late last week was  154 thousand ... and deaths, 25 thousand. This compares with the official Chinese numbers of cases at 14,551 thousand and deaths at 304. As one can clearly see, the real number of cases would be off by one order of magnitude (power of 10) ... and deaths, off by almost two orders of magnitude ... a little scary.

This also suggests that the mortality rate might not be between 2 and 3% as previously reported ... but more like 16% ... higher than what it was for the SARS virus which was 11% ... but not as high as the MERS virus which was over 34%.

If this reporting is accurate, then one can, to get to the truth, multiply the number of cases that China reports by 10 ... and the number of deaths by 100. No wonder whole cities have been quarantined!

Here are the latest “official” results.