NEW YORK — The energy industry braced Wednesday for catastrophic storm surges and winds as Hurricane Laura cuts a dangerous path toward the coastlines of Texas and Louisiana. Oil and gas producers have evacuated platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and companies are shutting down refineries in the storm’s path. Many had already done so while they were preparing for Tropical Storm Marco. Utilities are bracing for downed power lines and blackouts.
Experts say it’s unlikely that the U.S. will suffer from major oil or gasoline shortages due to the hurricane, as other regions fill in the gaps or turn to stored oil. And demand this summer has been at historic lows. And inventories are at record highs.
OFF-SHORE PLATFORMS
Nearly half of the oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico — almost 300 — were evacuated by Wednesday, along with most of the offshore rigs. Producers shut in 84% of the oil produced in the region, taking about 1.6 million barrels per day off the market. The Gulf region usually produces about 15% of the oil in the U.S. Producers also shut in about 61% of the natural gas produced in the Gulf. While some oil production is temporarily suspended, experts say it’s unlikely to cause problems for supply in the U.S. There has been a surplus of oil production this year, and demand for fuel is still well below pre-pandemic levels. Producers outside the region can pick up the slack.
———
REFINERIES
More than half of U.S. refining capacity is built along the Gulf Coast, where the storm is heading. Six refineries, which together have a refining capacity of about 2.2 million barrels per day, were shut down, including refineries operated by Valero, Total and Citgo.
Refineries built in hurricane regions have reinforced their facilities after prior hurricanes to withstand the storm, but it’s likely that there will be disruptions to some major refineries, Burkhard said.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported 279 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus, it’s highest daily jump since early March, as fears grow about a massive outbreak in the greater capital region. The figures released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Sunday brought the national caseload to 15,318, including 305 deaths. The number of new cases was the highest since 367 were reported on March 8, when the country was concentrating public health tools and personnel from nationwide to combat an outbreak in the less populated southern region. The KCDC said 253 of the new cases came from the Seoul metropolitan area, home to 26 million people, where health authorities have been struggling to stem transmissions linked to various places and groups, including churches, nursery homes, schools, restaurants and door-to-door salespeople. Infections were also reported in other major cities, such as Busan and Daegu, a southeastern city that was the epicenter of the country’s previous virus crisis in late February and March, when hundreds of new cases were reported each day. Nick Note: See i live in the world of truth. The cold hard naked truth. Cup half full half empty is bullshit. Read on to see how ugly its getting
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— Millions of seniors live in homes with at least one child, and the new school year could bring new worries for them.
— Fear, language barriers hinder immigrant contact-tracing.
— Testing for the coronavirus drops in Texas as schools reopen and the state prepares for football. The drop comes even as deaths are continuing to climb.
— Thousands of British tourists beat a hasty retreat from France to avoid a mandatory 14-day quarantine at home.
— The year the music might die: British clubs face closure because of coronavirus pandemic. More than 400 grassroots music venues face possible closure despite some short-term government aid.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States jumped by 43,772 in the past 24 hours to reach a total of 5,817,538, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tally. The figure is up from yesterday’s 36,368 new cases and marks the largest daily increase in new infections since Saturday. Meanwhile, the US’ death toll from the disease increased by 1,249 to 179,596 and the number of patients who recovered from the disease jumped by 30,766 to 2,084,465. Nick Note: If you were to listen to the politicians they would have you believe its all over… As they cave in to the travel and leisure, National association of retailers, the National Restaurant Association and the lobbies representing theaters, sporting venues, resorts, airlines, Schools and universities and the like. Virus over everyone back in the pool. Reality is no one is listening to the science. Hard to do when the FDA, HHS and CDC have all be politicized. Now that might be good for a reality TV show ratings where you create a separate reality. Only problem is the plague does not watch TV>
(Bloomberg) — The discovery of coronavirus in the bathroom of an unoccupied apartment in Guangzhou, China, suggests the airborne pathogen may have wafted upwards through drain pipes, an echo of a large SARS outbreak in Hong Kong 17 years ago. Traces of SARS-CoV-2 were detected in February on the sink, faucet and shower handle of a long-vacant apartment, researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a study published this month in Environment International. The contaminated bathroom was directly above the home of five people confirmed a week earlier to have Covid-19. The scientists conducted “an on-site tracer simulation experiment” to see whether the virus could be spread through waste pipes via tiny airborne particles that can be created by the force of a toilet flush. They found such particles, called aerosols, in bathrooms 10 and 12 levels above the Covid-19 cases. Two cases were confirmed on each of those floors in early February, raising concern that SARS-CoV-2-laden particles from stool had drifted into their homes via plumbing. The new report is reminiscent of a case at Hong Kong’s Amoy Gardens private housing estate almost two decades ago, when 329 residents caught severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in part because of faulty sewage pipelines. Forty-two residents died, making it the most devastating community outbreak of SARS, which is also caused by a coronavirus. “Although transmission via the shared elevator cannot be excluded, this event is consistent with the findings of the Amoy Gardens SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003,” Song Tang, a scientist with the China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, and colleagues wrote in the study, which cited unpublished data from China CDC. Apartments in multistory buildings may be linked via a shared wastewater system, said Lidia Morawska, director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at Australia’s Queensland University of Technology. While solids and liquids descend the network, sewer gases — often detectable by their odor — sometimes rise through pipes, said Morawska, who wasn’t part of the research team. “If there’s smell, it means that somehow air has been transported to where it shouldn’t go,” Morawska said in an interview SARS-CoV-2 spreads mainly through respiratory droplets — spatters of saliva or discharge from the nose, according to the World Health Organization. Since the first weeks of the pandemic, however, scientists in China have said infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus in the stool of Covid-19 patients may also play a role in transmission. A February study of 73 patients hospitalized with the coronavirus in Guangdong province found more than half tested positive for the virus in their stool. Previous research has shown that toilet flushes can generate germ-laden aerosols from the excreta, the China CDC scientists said. Those particles can remain in the air for long periods and be dispersed over distances of more than 1 meter (3 feet), particularly in confined, poorly ventilated spaces. Fecal aerosolization occurred with SARS, and it’s possible that it may rarely occur with SARS-CoV-2, depending on sewage systems, said Malik Peiris, chair of virology at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health. The China CDC study found traces of virus, “which is not the same thing as infectious virus,” he said. “But one has to keep the possibility in mind.” In the Amoy Gardens case, warm, moist air from the bathroom of a SARS patient excreting “extremely high concentrations” of virus in feces and urine established a plume in an air shaft that spread the airborne virus to other apartments, research showed. Although toilets are a daily necessity, they “may promote fecal-derived aerosol transmission if used improperly, particularly in hospitals,” the China CDC researchers said. They cited a fluid-dynamics simulation that showed a “massive upward transport of virus aerosol particles” during flushing, leading to large-scale virus spread indoors. “The study finds high plausibility for airborne transmission and outlines the evidence in great detail,” said Raina MacIntyre, professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, who was part of an international team invited to collaborate with China CDC on the study. Previous investigations confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 genetic material was found on toilets used by Covid-19 patients, in the air in hospital nurses’ stations, on air outlet vents, and multiple other sites. The extent to which fecal aerosol plumes are infecting people with the SARS-CoV-2 virus isn’t known, said Queensland’s Morawska. “There are lots of situations where things happen and are pretty unusual,” said Morawska, who was part of a team that investigated the Amoy Gardens contagion. Scientists should investigate the “unusual situations” because, by understanding them, they may find “they’re not that unusual.” Nick Note: i was raised to never ever use a public toilets get this… avoid them like the plague. Once again they new what they were talking about. I would never ever hook up to a public sewer line. In fact we have turned off our aerators and gone back to the underground septic tank with the gravel leach fields…
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials have sparked a wave of confusion after posting guidelines that coronavirus testing is not necessary for people who have been in close contact with infected people.
The CDC previously had advised local health departments to test people who have been within 6 feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes. But on Monday a CDC testing overview page was changed to say that testing is no longer recommended for symptom-less people who were in close contact situations. There was a caveat, however. Testing may be recommended for those with health problems that make them more likely to suffer severe illness from an infection, or if their doctor or local state officials advise they get tested. CDC officials referred all questions to the agency’s parent organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. That suggests that HHS ordered the change, not CDC, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins University public health researcher. Across the country, public health experts called the change bizarre. They noted that testing contacts of infected people is a core element of public health efforts to keep outbreaks in check, and that a large percentage of infected people — the CDC has said as many as 40% — exhibit no symptoms.
“I was taken aback and didn’t know that it was under consideration,” said John Auerbach, president of Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit that works to improve U.S. preparedness against disease. “The recommendation not to test asymptomatic people who likely have been exposed is not in accord with the science.”
Ultimately, restricting testing could be self-defeating, because it could skew the numbers and create a perception that rates of infection are higher. Testing people who appear to be healthy would tend to lower the overall rate of positive results, while narrowing testing to people who are sick would raise the overall positive rate, Auerbach said. Why HHS would order such a change quickly became a matter of speculation. Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious diseases specialist at Emory University, suggested in a tweet that there are two possible explanations. One is that it may be driven by testing supply issues that in many parts of the country have caused delays in results of a week or more, he suggested. The other is that President Donald Trump simply wants to see case counts drop, and discouraging more people from getting tested is one way to do it, he said. Dr. Tom Frieden, who was head of the CDC during the Obama administration, said the move follows another recent change: to no longer recommend quarantine for travelers coming from areas where infections are more common.
“Both changes are highly problematic” and need to be better explained, said Frieden, who now is president of Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit program that works to prevent epidemics.
Frieden said he, too, believes HHS forced CDC to post the changes. He called it “a sad day” because “CDC is being told what to write on their website.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo harshly criticized the new CDC recommendations and said the state would not be following the guidance.
“Why would you reverse yourself on the quarantine order? Because they don’t want publicity that there is a COVID problem. Because the president’s politics are, ‘COVID isn’t a problem We’re past COVID. It’s all about the economy,’” Cuomo told reporters on a conference call.
“What possible rationale is there to say ’You’re in close contact with a COVID-positive person. And you don’t need a test?” Nick Note: Some crazy shit. Trump wants happy thoughts and all those nasty sick and dead people give off a bad vibe.
President Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, declared during his Republican National Convention speech that Trump “successfully fought” the coronavirus pandemic, which is still very much raging in the United States. His use of the past tense was quickly picked up by several journalists, including David Corn of Mother Jones, who tweeted that Kudlow spoke “as if this crisis is over. Thousands are dying every week. This is crazy propaganda.” Tim O’Brien, a Bloomberg Opinion writer, pointed out that Kudlow has been beating this drum for awhile now, saying on March 9 that the coronavirus was “relatively contained.” In late June, right before a major surge in cases, Kudlow declared there was “no second wave coming. It’s just hot spots. They send in CDC teams, we’ve got the testing procedures, we’ve got the diagnostics.” On Thursday, the US coronavirus infections were 5,668,245 and death toll climbed to more than 178,000. Nick Note: It they want to tell the stupid people the infection is over great. They have treated it with spun blood transfusions so be it. And if they want to tell them the monkey vaccines means they can go back to their crows fests… because they are immune….. Hallelujah…. But i know better!!
235 scientists reveal Airborne Transmission of COVID-19
We appeal to the medical community and to the relevant national and international bodies to recognize the potential for airborne spread of COVID-19. There is significant potential for inhalation exposure to viruses in microscopic respiratory droplets (microdroplets) at short to medium distances (up to several meters, or room scale), and we are advocating for the use of preventive measures to mitigate this route of airborne transmission.Studies by the signatories and other scientists have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking, and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in air and pose a risk of exposure at distances beyond 1 to 2 m from an infected individual (see e.g. [1-4]). For example, at typical indoor air velocities [5], a 5 μm droplet will travel tens of meters, much greater than the scale of a typical room, while settling from a height of 1.5 m to the floor. Several retrospective studies conducted after the SARS-CoV-1 epidemic demonstrated that airborne transmission was the most likely mechanism explaining the spatial pattern of infections e.g. [6]. Retrospective analysis has shown the same for SARS-CoV-2 [7-10]. Inparticular, a studyin their review of records from a Chinese restaurant, observed no evidence of direct or indirect contact between the three parties [10]. In their review of video records from the restaurant, they observed no evidence of direct or indirect contact between the three parties. Many studies conducted on the spread of other viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) [11], Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) [8], and influenza [2,4], show that viableairborne viruses can be exhaled [2] and/or detected in the indoor environment of infected patients [11-12]. This poses the risk that people sharing such environments can potentially inhale these viruses, resulting in infection and disease. There is every reason to expect that SARS-CoV-2 behaves similarly, and that transmission via airborne microdroplets [10,13]is an important pathway. Viral RNA associated with droplets smaller than 5 μm has been detected in air [14], and the virus has shown to maintain infectivityin droplets of this size [9]. Other viruses have been shown to survive equally well, if not better, in aerosols compared to droplets on a surface [15].The current guidance from numerous international and national bodies focuses on hand washing, maintaining social distancing, and droplet precautions. Most public health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) [16], do not recognize airborne transmission except for aerosol-generating procedures performed in healthcare settings. Hand washing and social distancing are appropriate, but in our view, insufficient to provide protection from virus-carrying respiratory microdroplets released into the air by infected people. This problem is especially acute in indoor or enclosed environments, particularly those that are crowded and have inadequate ventilation [17] relative to the number of occupants and extended exposure periods (as graphically depicted in Figure 1). For example, airborne transmission appears to be the only plausible explanation for several superspreading events investigated which occurred under such conditions e.g. [10], and others where recommended precautions related to direct droplet transmissions were followed. The evidence is admittedly incomplete for all the steps in COVID-19 microdroplet transmission, but it is similarly incomplete for the large droplet and fomite modes of transmission. The airborne transmission mechanism operates in parallel with the large droplet and fomite routes, e.g. [16] that are now the basis of guidance. Following the precautionary principle, we must address every potentially important pathway to slow the spread of COVID-19. The measures that should be taken to mitigate airborne transmission risk include:Provide sufficient and effective ventilation (supply clean outdoor air, minimize recirculating air) particularly in public buildings, workplace environments, schools, hospitals, and aged care homes.Supplement general ventilation with airborne infection controls such as local exhaust, high efficiency air filtration, and germicidal ultraviolet lights.Avoid overcrowding, particularly in public transport and public buildings. Such measures are practical and often can be easily implemented;many are not costly. For example, simple steps such as opening both doors and windows can dramatically increase air flow rates in many buildings. For mechanical systems, organizations such as ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) and REHVA (the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations) have already provided guidelines based on the existing evidence of airborne transmission. The measures we propose offer more benefits than potential downsides, even if they can only be partially implemented.Figure 1. Distribution of respiratory microdroplets in an indoor environment with (a) inadequate ventilation and (b) adequate ventilation.It is understood that there is not as yet universal acceptance of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV2; but in our collective assessment there is more than enough supporting evidence so that the precautionary principle should apply. In order to control the pandemic, pending the availability of a vaccine, all routes of transmission must be interrupted.We are concerned that the lack of recognition of the risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19 and the lack of clear recommendations on the control measures against the airborne virus will have significant consequences: people may think that they are fully protected by adhering to the current recommendations, but in fact, additional airborne interventions are needed for further reduction of infection risk.This matter is of heightened significance now, when countries are re-opening following lockdowns -bringing people back to workplaces and students back to schools, colleges, and universities. We hope that our statement will raise awareness that airborne transmission of COVID-19 is a real risk and that control measures, as outlined above, must be added to the other precautions taken, to reduce the severity of the pandemic and save lives
XXXX Note: My name does not belong on this page of esteemed scientist who are revealing the truth. Why the opposition to the FACT the coronavirus is an airborne transmission. Because all the paper masks and surgical masks and the PPE equipment has been rendered useless…….. by these revelations.. You can download it here article here:
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/
The following scientists contributed to formulating this commentary:
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has released a video of the distance that a sneeze travels — thus, the impact of an individual with the coronavirus can have on those around them.
This close-up view of a sneeze filmed at 2000 frames per second (duration 0.25 sec) shows it’s a hot, moist, turbulent gas cloud containing air and mucosalivary droplets that travel as far as 26 feet (7-8 meters) . Current social distancing recommendations for the COVID19 pandemic specify 6 feet of separation. The physics of sneezes and coughs have implications for respiratory pathogen transmission and mask and respirator design. Click https://ja.ma/2vQCnE2 for complete details. Nick Note: the N95 coffee filter paper mask is like using a cardboard box as a bullet proof vest
Doctors have warned a coronavirus vaccine may create dangerous side-effects and argued against a ‘no jab, no play’ policy. Vaccine development is typically a long and complex process that can take up to 15 years. Because of the urgency of the coronavirus pandemic, researchers are fast-tracking their testing, hoping to produce a safe and effective innoculation by next year. Australian Medical Association president Omar Korshid said even positive phase three trials would not prove the vaccine candidate is safe. ‘We have to acknowledge it is a rushed approval process and even if the phase three trials on this Oxford vaccine go really well, it’s still not absolutely proven that it is safe, not as proven as is normally the case,’ he told The Age newspaper.
‘That does increase the risk that there might be rare side effects … that we just don’t know about.’
Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has been involved in fast-tracking the testing of the Oxford University candidate vaccine. In May, the CSIRO said it was already at the stage of pre-clinical trials – a position that typically takes up to two years to reach. In ordinary times, a vaccine must pass through the pre-clinical stage, animal testing, then two phases of human trials to study the safety, immunogenicity, proposed doses and method of delivery. If the vaccine passes these hurdles it moves to larger Phase III trials typically involving tens of thousands of people to catch any rare side-effects. Only then is it submitted for approval. The Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is already undergoing phase three trials. To reach a vaccine within 15 months would be record time as the average vaccine takes 10 years to develop, according to The Lancet medical journal. Once a safe and effective vaccine is produced, herd immunity can be achieved by vaccinating the population, and life can return to normal. Australia’s chief nursing and midwifery officer Professor Alison McMillan said on Sunday that any vaccine approved in Australia would be subject to strong regulation to make sure it is safe Herd immunity means enough people have antibodies to the virus so it cannot spread. Dr Korshid said Australia’s peak doctors’ association is very supportive of vaccines generally as they have normally been through rigorous and extensive scientific testing. That cannot be said of the coronavirus vaccine candidates, however, of which more than 100 are in development around the world as scientists, governments and other organisations race to find a vaccine. A vaccine candidate usually has 10 years of testing through a pre-clinical stage, animal testing, two phases of human trials to study the safety, effectiveness and proposed doses before the final phase three trials involving tens of thousands of volunteers (stock picture) In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin sensationally declared that Russia had granted regulatory approval to a vaccine candidate named ‘Sputnik V’ after less than two months of human testing, without even finishing its final trials. Only about 10 per cent of clinical trials are successful and scientists fear Moscow has put national prestige before safety. Nick Note: And Trump is putting his reelection before the safety of America. This will end very very badly!
The Trump administration is considering fast tracking an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed in the U.K. for use in the United States, according to a Financial Times report.
The availability of a vaccine before the U.S. presidential election could allow President Donald Trump to justify his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has faced widespread criticism.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering fast tracking an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed in the U.K. for use in the United States ahead of the nation’s upcoming presidential election, according to a Financial Times report, which cited three people briefed on the plan. One option, according to the FT report, would involve the U.S. Food and Drug Administration awarding “emergency use authorization” for the vaccine, which was developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca told the FT that it hasn’t discussed an emergency use authorization for its potential vaccine with the U.S. government. A spokesperson for Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, told FT that any claim of an emergency authorization for a vaccine before the election is “absolutely false.” The latest revelation comes amid reports that Trump on Sunday will announce the emergency authorization of convalescent plasma for Covid-19. On Saturday, President Donald Trump made a baseless accusation that the FDA was standing in the way of drug companies’ efforts to test potential coronavirus vaccines and treatments for political reasons. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fired back saying on Twitter and called on the FDA to not succumb to political pressure from the White House. She added that Trump’s “dangerous attempt to inject himself into the scientific decisions of @US_FDA jeopardizes the health & well-being of all Americans.” The White House, FDA and Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The availability of a vaccine before the U.S. presidential election could allow Trump to justify his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has faced widespread criticism. During his convention speech on Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden bashed Trump’s response to the public health crisis, calling it the “worst performance of any nation on Earth.” The coronavirus has infected more than 5.6 million people in the U.S. as of Saturday, roughly a quarter of the globe’s reported cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data. On Friday, the U.S. recorded at least 1,100 deaths, bringing the nation’s death toll above 175,000. Nick Note: Rushing a never tried before RNA vaccine to market is a colossal blunder. Trump will do this before election and before the monkey vaccine completes Phase III clinical trials. This is the shit that mass genocide is made off. It would not be the first time that a ill conceived not properly tested vaccine increases people sensitivity to the very disease the vaccine was suppose to protect them from. With limited immunity this vaccine is already up to 3 shot dose and anecdotal evidence indicates the immunity will last a matter of months at best…. Remember this, for a fact immunity to the coronavirus is short lived and yes they do not want you to know…. Would Trump force million of people to take a vaccine not properly vetted to get elected? What do you think?
