Author: BlackMask Financial

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Three rockets hit US embassy in protest-hit Iraqi capital

Iraqis have been protesting since early October against a government deemed corrupt and incompetant

Baghdad (AFP) – Three rockets slammed into the US embassy in Iraq’s capital on Sunday in the first direct hit reported after months of close calls, as thousands of protesters kept up anti-government sit-ins across the country. The attack marked a dangerous escalation in the spree of rocket attacks in recent months that have targeted the embassy or Iraqi military bases where American troops are deployed. None of the attacks has been claimed but Washington has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions in Iraq. On Sunday, one rocket hit an embassy cafeteria at dinner time while two others landed nearby, a security source told AFP. A senior Iraqi official told AFP at least one person was wounded, but it was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were and whether the person was an American national or an Iraqi staff member working at the mission. The US embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The US State Department called on Iraq late Sunday to “fulfil its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities”. The attack took place earlier in the day than usual, with AFP reporters hearing the booms on the western bank of the river Tigris at precisely 7:30 pm (1630 GMT). Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammed Halbusi both condemned the incident, saying it risked dragging their homeland into war.

Iraq has already been dragged into a worrying tit-for-tat between the United States and Iran over the last month.

A similar attack on a northern Iraqi base killed an American contractor, and the US retaliated with a strike on an Iran-backed faction known as Kataeb Hezbollah. Less than a week later, a US drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani outside the Baghdad airport — prompting Iran to fire ballistic missiles at an Iraqi base where US troops are stationed. Some 5,200 Americans are stationed in Iraq to lead the global coalition fighting the Islamic State militant group, but the US strike on Baghdad has rallied top Iraqi figures around a joint call to order them out. Vehemently anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr organised a mass rally in Baghdad on Friday, where thousands of his supporters called for American troops to leave. Sadr had previously backed separate anti-regime protests sweeping Iraq’s capital and south, even though he controls the largest bloc in parliament and top ministerial posts. Bolstered by his own protest on Friday, Sadr announced he was dropping support for the youth-dominated reform campaign rocking the country since October. His followers, widely regarded as the best-organised and well-stocked of the anti-government demonstrators, immediately began dismantling their tents and heading home. Activists feared that without his political cover, authorities would move to crush their movement — and indeed, within hours, riot police tried to storm protest camps. Those efforts continued into Sunday, with security forces using live rounds and tear gas to try to flush protesters out of squares and streets they had occupied for months. One protester was shot dead in Baghdad and another in the flashpoint southern city of Nasiriyah, medical sources said, and dozens more were wounded across the country. In the capital, riot police have tried to clear streets around the main protest camp of Tahrir Square but have yet to enter the symbolic area, where many protesters stood their ground even after tents there were dismantled. Despite the renewed violence, thousands of students flooded the streets in the capital and across the south in a bid to keep national attention focused on their demand. “Only for you, Iraq!” read a sign held by a young protester in the shrine city of Karbala, hinting at the movement’s insistence on not being affiliated with any political party or outside backer. In Basra, hundreds of students gathered to condemn the riot police’s dismantling of their main protest camp the previous day, according to an AFP correspondent. The youth-led protests erupted on October 1 in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and rampant corruption before spiralling into calls for a government overhaul after they were met with violence. More than 470 people have died, a vast majority of them demonstrators, since the rallies began. Protesters are now demanding snap elections, the appointment of an independent premier and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed. Nick Note: The US broke it and refuses to fix it. Like a kid who knows how to break things they have not learned how to fix them. If you let Iran put  Iraq back together again it will look like Frankenstein. You do not know how a revolution will turn out till you get through the counter revolution…… This is a oil story. Iraq has produced a miracle in oil production. Which is over 5 MBPD. within 5 years it cold be 10 MBPD rivaling the US, Russia and Saudi oil production. Before we get their the odds are very good that the counter revolution will serious affect Iraqi oil output.

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Libya oil production falls by 75% amid blockade

The Libyan National Army’s (LNA) decision to halt exports from a number of ports brings more pressure to bear on the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) but does little to upset the international oil market. This is to the benefit of the LNA. If it had caused prices to increase, it would have triggered more of a response from the US. A lack of drive to intervene from the international community provides some leeway for the head of the LNA, General Khalifa Haftar, to press ahead with his plans. He has shown little patience for a political solution, preferring to rely instead on force. This has been seen mostly clearly in his assault on Tripoli, which began in April 2019 and has made slow progress, ignoring potential alternatives. “The blockade sets the stage for a new offensive, with major quantities of weapons being provided to east Libya, in response to the Turkish intervention in west Libya,” the Clingendael Institute’s Jalel Harchaoui said to Energy Voice. “Once LNA forces renew their offensive into Tripoli, perhaps managing to enter downtown this time around, then the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) will come back into play. The aim of Haftar and his foreign backers is to precipitate a change in the leadership of the CBL in Tripoli.” Verisk Maplecroft’s MENA analyst Hamish Kinnear said that the base case would be for the blockade to be lifted by the end of next week, “with the possibility that it could drag on for one to two months”. Kinnear also highlighted the importance of the CBL, and the National Oil Corp. (NOC), noting that stopping the flow of revenues would have an impact on both sides. The CBL is believed to be paying salaries to some fighters from the GNA and the LNA. This oil blockade followed the January 13 meeting in Moscow, backed by Russia and Turkey. The LNA has received some support from Russia, while the GNA signed a deal with Turkey in November 2019. The blockade was launched on January 18, the day before international talks were held in Berlin. “The Russian-Turkish peace talks were mishandled,” said Kinnear. “Russia excluded the Emiratis and the Egyptians, both backers of Haftar, while it also agreed to recognise Turkey’s maritime claims.” The GNA and Turkish deal of late last year secured military support for the Tripoli government, in addition to establishing a new maritime border. The latter point proved to alienate the excluded eastern Mediterranean states. Harchaoui also noted the discontent for the United Arab Emirates as a result of being excluded from the Moscow meeting. Following this snub, he said, plans began for the oil blockade. Triggering this stoppage just before the Berlin conference “was not coincidental. Obeying a logic of blackmail, it served to set the atmosphere before talks began.”

The Zawiya, Zueitina, Hariga, Brega, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports are under force majeure. Once storage at these facilities has filled, the National Oil Corp. (NOC) will have to halt production from fields.

The six ports shuttered as a result of the LNA action has taken around 900,000 bpd of exports offline, Vortexa said.

Haftar and the LNA’s decision to impose the blockade now is much better timed than the mid-2018 shuttering of exports. Globally, the oil balance was tighter in 2018, with demand higher in the summer. This time around, amid a backdrop of gloomy Chinese demand and US production, price has been much less reactive. The response from major powers, most notably the US, has been muted. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in comments following the Berlin conference expressed the “hope that [the blockade] will be opened up as a result of this conversation”, going on to call for a “political solution”. Given the difference of opinions from those who are involved, there is unlikely to be an international consensus, which puts the ball in the court of those who favour “the logic of appeasement”, said Harchaoui. “The factions backing Haftar do not care about the consequences on the oil market or the price, they have a single minded focus on one main battle, which is for control over the CBL.” Nick Note: I find it very interesting that a cut of  1 million BPD in oil supplied to the market is a nothing event. The market is so focused on the China pandemic that it is ignoring all else. I think we could have fun with this.

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Virus death toll in China rises as US prepares evacuation

BEIJING (AP) — A new viral illness being watched with a wary eye around the globe accelerated its spread in China on Sunday with 56 deaths so far, while the U.S. Consulate in the city at the epicenter announced it will evacuate its personnel and some private citizens aboard a charter flight. China’s health minister said the country was entering a “crucial stage” as “it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger.” Ma Xiaowei declined to estimate how long it would take to bring the situation under control, but said travel restrictions and other strict measures should bring results “at the lowest cost and fastest speed.” President Xi Jinping on Saturday called the outbreak a grave situation and said the government was stepping up efforts to restrict travel and public gatherings while rushing medical staff and supplies to the city at the center of the crisis, Wuhan, which remains on lockdown with no flights, trains or buses in or out. The epidemic has revived memories of the SARS outbreak that originated in China and killed nearly 800 as it spread around the world in 2002 and 2003. Its spread has come amid China’s busiest travel period of the year, when millions crisscross the country or head abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday. The latest figures reported Sunday morning cover the previous 24 hours and mark an increase of 15 deaths and 688 cases for a total of 1,975 infections. The government also reported five cases in Hong Kong, two in Macao and three in Taiwan. Small numbers of cases have been found in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France and Australia. The U.S. has confirmed cases in Washington state, Chicago, and most recently Southern California. The latest patient announced Saturday night traveled from Wuhan and is in isolation at a hospital and in good condition. Canada said it discovered its first case, a man in his 50s who was in Wuhan before flying to Toronto. Singapore and South Korea each reported one new case Sunday, while Thailand reported three new cases. A notice from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said there would be limited capacity to transport U.S. citizens on a Tuesday flight from Wuhan that will proceed directly to San Francisco. It said that in the event there are not enough seats, priority will be given to to individuals “at greater risk from coronavirus.” The French Consulate also was considering an evacuation of its nationals from the city. It said it’s working on arranging a bus service to help French citizens leave Wuhan. French automaker PSA Group said it will evacuate its employees from Wuhan, quarantine them and then bring them to France. Japan was also making preparations to fly its nationals out of Wuhan. Chinese travel agencies have been told to halt all group tours, and concern is growing over the potential impact of millions of people traveling back to the cities after the Lunar New Year holiday ends on Thursday. China’s National Health Commission said anyone traveling from Wuhan is now required to register with community health stations and quarantine themselves at home for 14 days — the virus’ maximum incubation period. Beijing has decided to delay the start of classes after the Lunar New Year holiday ends, the official Beijing Daily reported on its website. That will extend to all schools in the capital from kindergartens to universities. Hong Kong announced similar measures on Saturday and on Sunday two of that territory’s biggest attractions, Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park, announced they were closing for the time being. In the heart of the outbreak where 11 million residents are already on lockdown, Wuhan banned most vehicle use, including private cars, in downtown areas starting Sunday. The city will assign 6,000 taxis to neighborhoods to help people get around if they need to. China cut off trains, planes and other links to the city Jan’ 22, and has steadily expanded the lockdown to 16 surrounding cities with a combined population of more than 50 million — greater than that of New York, London, Paris and Moscow combined. Wuhan is building two makeshift hospitals with about 1,000 beds each to handle the growing number of patients. The city has said the first is expected to be completed Feb. 3. Medical workers in Wuhan have been among those infected and local media reported a doctor died on Saturday morning. The 62-year-old physician was hospitalized on Jan. 18 and died a week later. Xinhua also said medical supplies are being rushed to the city, including 14,000 protective suits, 110,000 pairs of gloves and masks and goggles. Videos have circulated online showing throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for examinations and there have been complaints that family members had been turned away at hospitals that were at capacity. The National Health Commission said it is bringing in medical teams to help handle the outbreak and the Chinese military dispatched 450 medical staff, some with experience in past outbreaks, including SARS and Ebola, Xinhua reported. The new virus comes from a large family of what are known as coronaviruses, some causing nothing worse than a cold. It causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath. It can worsen to pneumonia, which can be fatal. First detected last month, the virus is believed to have originated in a type of wild animal sold at a Wuhan market to be consumed as food. Chinese authorities announced a temporary ban on the trade of wild animals Sunday, saying they will “severely investigate and punish” violators. They also called on the public to refrain from eating wild animal meat. Investigators are closely observing whether the virus was mutating, but thus far found “no obvious signs,” that it is doing so, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, told reporters. That could make it easier to develop vaccines against the virus, something the center is already working on. Xinhua quoted center official Xu Wenbo as saying the they had isolated the virus and were identifying seed strain. The rapid increase in reported deaths and illnesses does not necessarily mean the crisis is getting worse but could reflect better monitoring and reporting of the virus. Those killed by the virus have mostly been middle-aged or elderly people, sometimes suffering from other conditions that weaken their ability to fight back. It is not clear how lethal the new coronavirus is or even whether it is as dangerous as the ordinary flu, which kills tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone. Nick Note: I think we are getting ready to have some fun. A plague is a terrible thing to waste. Besides to be a good Samaritan you got to have money to pay the hotel bill. In essence you got to spend your treasures on earth to build them up in heaven…. And if you got no treasures on earth your screwed. Having a meaningful life is NOT living in a tent and not painting yourself green and pretending to me the statue of liberty.  In the cities around here the beggars can take your credit card….. If your into that sort of thing!

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China coronavirus spread is accelerating, Xi Jinping warns

The country is facing a “grave situation” Mr Xi told senior officials

https://youtu.be/NbuAADl5N7Q

The spread of a deadly new virus is accelerating, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned, after holding a special government meeting on the Lunar New Year public holiday. The coronavirus has killed at least 42 people and infected some 1,400 since its discovery in the city of Wuhan. Meanwhile, UK-based researchers have warned of a real possibility that China will not be able to contain the virus. Travel restrictions have come in place in several affected cities. From Sunday, private vehicles will be banned from central districts of Wuhan, the source of the outbreak. A second emergency hospital is to be built there within weeks to handle 1,300 new patients, and will be finished in half a month, state newspaper the People’s Daily said. It is the second such rapid construction project: work on another 1,000-bed hospital has already begun. Specialist military medical teams have also been flown into Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. The urgency reflects concern both within China and elsewhere about the virus which first appeared in December. Lunar New Year celebrations for the year of the rat, which began on Saturday, have been cancelled in many Chinese cities. Across mainland China, travellers are having their temperatures checked for signs of fever, and train stations have been shut in several cities. In Hong Kong, the highest level of emergency has been declared and school holidays extended. Several other nations are each dealing with a handful of cases, with patients being treated in isolation. A coronavirus is a family of viruses which include the common cold. But this virus has never been seen before, so it’s been called 2019-nCov, for “novel coronavirus”. New viruses can become common in humans after jumping across the species barrier from animals. The Sars [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] outbreak of 2003 started in bats and transferred to the civet cat which passed it on to humans. This new virus also causes severe acute respiratory infection. Symptoms seem to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough and then, after a week, lead to shortness of breath and some patients needing hospital treatment. Based on early information, it is believed that only a quarter of infected cases are “severe”, and the dead are mostly – though not exclusively – older people, some of whom have pre-existing conditions. The Chinese authorities suspect a seafood market that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals” was the source of the outbreak. Scientists at the respected MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis in the UK have warned that it may not be possible to contain the virus to China. They say self-sustaining human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus is the “only plausible explanation” for the scale of the epidemic. Their calculations estimate each infected person is passing it onto, on average, 2.5 other people. The centre praised the efforts of the Chinese authorities, but said transmission of the virus needed to be cut by 60% in order to get on top of the outbreak. This is a massive challenge, the scientists suggest, which will require finding and isolating even patients with only mild symptoms that could easily be confused with other diseases. Elsewhere, a team at Lancaster University have published their estimates of the number of cases suggesting 11,000 have been infected this year. If true, that would be more than Sars. There are now 1,372 confirmed cases across China, though most are concentrated in those provinces closest to Hubei. But it has also spread abroad – in isolated cases affecting small numbers of patients. On Saturday, Australia confirmed its first four cases – first in Melbourne, and then three more in Sydney. It has also spread to Europe, with three cases confirmed in France. Tests in the UK on 31 people have come back negative, the government has said. Officials are trying to trace around 2,000 people who have recently flown to the UK from Hubei province. The cases largely involve people who had recently travelled from the affected region in China. China’s neighbours in the Asia region are on high alert, however, with cases reported in Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea and Nepal. There are also cases in the United States. The city of Wuhan is effectively on lockdown, with heavy restrictions on travel in and out, and public transport options from buses to planes cancelled. It is a major population centre with up to 11 million inhabitants – comparable in size to London. Pharmacies in the city have begun to run out of supplies and hospitals have been filled with nervous members of the public. Officials have urged people to avoid crowds and gatherings. “The whole transport system has been shut down,” Kathleen Bell, who is is originally from the UK and works in Wuhan, told the BBC. “From midnight tonight private cars are not allowed on the road. And taxis aren’t running.” Major Western brands such as McDonald’s and Starbucks have closed in the city and in others nearby. The US, France and Russia are among several countries trying to evacuate their nationals from Wuhan, reports say.

China is also suspending from Monday all foreign trips by Chinese holiday tour groups, state media reported.

The outbreak has severely restricted Lunar New Year celebrations in China, when millions of people normally travel home. Major public events have been cancelled and tourist sites shut. Nick Note: This is a enormous profit opportunity either way it goes. Bottom line is i expect the news to get far far wore. Reality is in a early assessment this is a epidemic NOT a pandemic. And that means their is gold in those coughs! Let me show how they jerk you off. In the US alone we saw 45,000,000 people come down with the flue and 68,000 confirmed deaths in 2017 – 2018. For the 2018-2019 flue season the figures are not all in yet… but the estimates are they will equal previous years.  So excuse me if i am not running around like a chicken with its head cut off over  under 1,000 dead at most  in this latest outbreak……. The sky is falling!!! Wolf wolf wolf!

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Wall Street set for weekly loss on gathering virus fears

People participate in an emergency exercise on prevention and control of H7N9 bird flu virus organised by the Health and Family Planning Commission of the local government in Hebi, Henan province, China June 17, 2017. Picture taken June 17, 2017.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street lost ground on Friday as mounting worries over the scope of the coronavirus outbreak overshadowed positive corporate earnings. All three major U.S. stock averages extended their losses after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the second case of the virus on U.S. soil, this time in Chicago. For the holiday-shortened week, all three indexes are on course to post a decline with the Nasdaq set to snap a six-week winning streak. Market participants kept a wary eye on developments surrounding the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed “an emergency in China,” having now killed 26 people and infected more than 800 on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday.

“There’s not much confidence in actual fundamentals, and a scare like the virus can be enough to force investors to rethink if markets have run too far too fast for too long,” said David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York. “There’s lots of uncertainty in the markets and the virus scare has only added to that.” Analysts now expect earnings to have contracted by 0.5%, on aggregate, in the October to December quarter.

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Oil slumps, on track for more than 7% weekly decline, as China virus fears shadow market

West Texas Intermediate oil for March is on track for its fourth straight decline

Oil futures fell sharply Friday on fears the spread of the coronavirus in China elsewhere will undercut demand for crude which has seen prices already under pressure due to worries about a potential oversupply. On Friday, China’s National Health Commission confirmed more than 800 cases of the coronavirus, an illness akin to severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. So far, the death toll has risen to 26 from 17, according to the commission and state media. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a second case of coronavirus. Cases have also been reported in other countries, though the World Health Organization on Thursday said it was too early to declare a global health emergency. “In the last few days the oil price has suffered, with four consecutive trading sessions in the red as investors are seeing growing chances – again – of oversupply for the next few months, particularly with US inventories rising earlier this week,” wrote Carlo Alberto De Casa, chief analyst, ActivTrades, in a Friday note. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery CLH20, -2.37%  was down $1.34, or 2.4%, at $54.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after falling 2% on Thursday, marking its lowest finish since Nov. 29 for a front-month contract, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The U.S. benchmark is on track for a weekly fall of more than 7%. China has restricted travel in and out of Wuhan, where the first cases of the coronavirus outbreak appeared last month, but a number of other cities also have limited travel. The World Health Organization stopped short of declaring an international health emergency due to the coronaviruses spread but did describe the outbreak as a China emergency at gathering on Thursday.

“Moreover, there is some anxiety for the possible impact from Chinese flu, even if at this stage we cannot understand how this fear is justified and how it will impact on oil demand,” De Casa said.

Oversupply concerns, despite a disruption to Libyan oil production, have been additional worries for the investors of the commodity. “The key, of course, for oil is to determine how quickly the quarantines will be lifted and whether this virus is really under control or does it continues to spread,” wrote Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group. Nick Note: I can not help myself i just gotta buy the shit out of this silkiness

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New China virus: Five questions scientists are asking

Researchers are racing to find out more about the epidemiology and genetic sequence of the coronavirus spreading in Asia and beyond.

Health authorities around the world are worried about an outbreak of a mysterious virus that originated in Wuhan, China, last month. Officials there have confirmed more than 500 cases of the infection, which causes a respiratory illness, and 17 deaths. Several cases have been spotted elsewhere in Asia and one in the United States.

Researchers are racing to learn more about the virus and to discover whether it has the potential to cause an outbreak similar to the 2002–03 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which emerged in southern China and killed 774 people in 37 countries. Both are members of a large virus family, called coronaviruses, that also includes those responsible for the common cold. Efforts to understand the outbreak are especially crucial, because mass travel from Friday for the Chinese New Year holiday could spread the virus farther and faster.How does the virus spread? The most urgent question surrounding the outbreak is determining how it spreads. Chinese authorities have confirmed that some cases have been caused by transmission between humans, but it’s still unclear whether this can happen routinely. “What’s critical to understand is whether that’s occurring at a rate and with a level of efficiency which would sustain a human epidemic,” says Neil Ferguson, a mathematical epidemiologist at Imperial College London. Monitoring the rate at which new cases appear, and when symptoms began for each case, should tell scientists how easily the virus can pass between humans and whether the outbreak has the potential to persist. High rates of pneumonia among the first people infected had many researchers worried that the Wuhan virus was especially pernicious. Those concerns have receded slightly, as more mild cases turn up. With at least 17 deaths in more than 500 cases, the virus does not seem to be as deadly as SARS — which killed an estimated 11% of the people it infected. But “It’s too early to be sanguine about the severity,” Ferguson says. Authorities are working on the theory that the virus originated in an unidentified animal or animals, and then spread to humans at a large animal and seafood market in Wuhan. Identifying the animal source of the virus could help to control the current outbreak and gauge its threat — and potentially prevent future epidemics, say researchers. Genetic sequencing suggests that the Wuhan virus is related to coronaviruses that circulate in bats, including SARS and its close relatives. But other mammals can transmit these viruses — SARS was probably spread to humans by civet cats. The live-seafood market where the outbreak seems to have originated — now closed — also sells wild animals. Tracing other cases to the market could help to identify the source, as could tests of animals from the market, or containers and cages, for viral genetic material, says Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong. Genetic sequencing of the Wuhan coronavirus offers clues to its origins and spread. Laboratories in China and Thailand have sequenced the genomes of at least 19 strains found in infected people and have made them publicly available. That’s “pretty remarkable, given that we’re two weeks after work has begun,” says Trevor Bedford, an evolutionary geneticist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, who is analysing the sequences as they come in. “People are extremely fast and excellent about data sharing,” Bedford adds. Bedford says that the most striking thing about the sequences is how similar they are to one another. “There’s very little diversity. I expected to see more and I think other people did as well.” The lack of genetic diversity suggests that the common ancestor of the different human strains emerged in November or December and has spread rapidly, and hasn’t gained many mutations. Those it has gained tend to be distinct for each virus sequence. However, Bedford adds, the genomes don’t yet indicate whether the rapid expansion of the virus occurred in humans or in an animal reservoir. Evolutionary geneticist Andrew Rambaut at the University of Edinburgh, UK, posted an analysis on 20 January that came to a similar conclusion. Bedford says that, with further virus sequences, it might be possible to find out whether most cases are caused by repeated spillover of the virus from animals into humans, with limited human-to-human transmission, or whether the virus spread to a small number of humans and most cases are now being caused by secondary human-to-human transmission. “I think that would be the big epidemiological goal for everyone at the moment,” he says. Genetic information from the animal or animals that transmitted the virus to humans would also be helpful in identifying the extent of human-to-human transmission, Bedford adds.

Such sequences, he says, could also identify any genetic changes that might have helped the virus make the jump from animals to humans. And if the outbreak drags on because of extensive human-to-human transmission, Bedford and other geneticists will be looking for signs that the virus has gained further mutations enabling it to spread more efficiently in humans. Bedford cautions that these conclusions are preliminary, because so few data are available. “Adding a few key samples can change the story significantly,” he says. No drugs have been shown to be effective in treating SARS or other coronavirus infections in humans, and no vaccines aimed at preventing these infections have been licensed. A team at China’s National Engineering Research Center for the Emergence Drugs in Beijing is working on finding therapies that would work by blocking the receptor on human cells that the virus latches on to and uses to infect. A comparison of the SARS and new China virus sequences, published on 16 January, found that they bind to the same receptor. The team is hoping to revive efforts to develop treatments for SARS and adapt them in a bid to make a drug could work against the latest virus.

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WHO says not declaring virus a global emergency but taking it seriously

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that the new coronavirus that has emerged in China and spread to several other countries does not yet constitute an international emergency but it was tracking its evolution “every minute”. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement after its Emergency Committee of 16 independent experts reviewed the latest evidence and made its recommendations, which he accepted. “Make no mistake, though, this is an emergency in China,” Tedros told a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva. “But it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one.” China put millions of people on lockdown on Thursday in two cities at the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 18 people and infected more than 630, as authorities around the world worked to prevent a global pandemic. Nick Note: The height of incompetency. The virus is spreading like wild fire. Of course they should declare a health emergency. At a time that diseases travel at damn near the speed of sound in those 747 disease incubators ALL ALL airports should screen ALL passengers and people from patient zero land in China sholud face at least 48 hour quarantine when they arrive anywhere in the world…..

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Inside Wuhan’s quarantine zone amid coronavirus outbreak

Soldiers wearing face masks screened people Thursday for the coronavirus in Wuhan, China — where doctors wore hazmat suits to treat patients sickened by the mystery illness, photos from inside the city show.  Wuhan government officials called the situation a “state of war” after a public transportation ban and other safety measures were issued in the central Chinese city where the disease emerged, according to NPR.

Enlarge ImageA militia member checks the body temperature of a driver on a vehicle at an expressway toll gate in Wuhan.
A militia member checks the body temperature of a driver of a vehicle at an expressway toll gate in Wuhan.EPA

“Strictly implement emergency response requirements, enter into a state of war and implement wartime measures to resolutely curb the spread of this epidemic,” officials warned, according to the report. The officials further urged residents to remain in their homes, saying, “Homes must be segregated, neighbors must be watched.”

Wuhan issued a travel ban Wednesday that suspended all public transportation in an effort to contain the spread of the virus, which has sickened more than 600 people and killed 17. The mandate banned travel out of the central Chinese city on trains, long-haul buses and flights. Soldiers were photographed wearing face masks as they barricaded the entrances to the city’s train stations Thursday morning to prevent travel out of Wuhan.Cars were still allowed to leave Wuhan on Thursday, but officials began to close down major highways, NPR reported. Officials said they were screening anyone leaving or entering the city for symptoms such as fever. The city is home to 11 million residents, who received less than eight hours’ notice of the quarantine, according to the report.

The deadly virus can spread from person to person, but the exact nature of that transmission is not known, officials said.

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Infected people seen ‘dead in streets’ in quarantined Chinese virus city

EXCLUSIVE: Disturbing images on Instagram from inside Wuhan show residents dropping to the floor following a lockdown of the city by Chinese authorities. Disturbing images of Wuhan residents dropping unresponsive to the floor have emerged on Instagram following the diseased Chinese city’s coronavirus lockdown.

MAY BE FAKE NEWS WARNING!

Wuhan has been branded a “zombieland” by frantic locals after Chinese authorities told residents they are not allowed to leave yesterday morning. It appears as though the man was waiting in line for paperwork when he collapsed while wearing a disposable face mark for protection. As the scene unfolds, a medic dressed in all white approaches the man and bends down to offer assistance.

The situation was witnessed by a line of six people but the incident does not seem isolated as other residents have posted images of the same scenario. Pictures from inside the city paint an apocalyptic picture as medics patrol in hazmat suits and gas masks. In an upload direct from Wuhan, a man can be seen lying unresponsive on the floor as concerned individuals look on. The situation was witnessed by a line of six people but the incident does not seem isolated as other residents have posted images of the same scenario. Nick Note: Take this story with a grain of salt. I am/was reluctant to post this story that is not collaborated. I decided to go ahead with is as it became apparent that something BIG is going on here. Two cities in China are quarantined….. unprecedented. One thing for sure something big is going on here. I will keep you posted!