April 30, 2020
By Mark Mazzetti, Julian E. Barnes, Edward Wong and Adam Goldman
Washington - Senior Trump administration officials (click here) have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, according to current and former American officials. The effort comes as President Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic.
Some intelligence analysts are concerned that the pressure from administration officials will distort assessments about the virus and that they could be used as a political weapon in an intensifying battle with China over a disease that has infected more than three million people across the globe.
Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS....
SARS, MERS and Ebola all were stopped before a global pandemic occurred. It was done with ease. The difference between these outbreaks is the leadership of the USA and it's role in international relations. All three of those were stopped successfully and without a great deal of debt. There is nothing that different about this virus.
Trump did not have good relations with China, he removed scientists from the payroll of the federal government and the very stable genius believed he knew more than anyone else and could outfox a virus. That is what occurred in the USA.
It not only occurred in the USA but, the entire world BECAUSE the USA didn't act to end the pandemic before it started. Up to this administration in the White House, the entire world counted on the benevolent nature of the USA. Greed never came before the well being of people. That is not so with some entities of Wall Street, but, it is true of the USA in stopping tragedy.
By Neel V. Patel
Coronavirus testing (click here) in the US is nowhere near where it should be. A recent road map suggested we need to test upwards of 20 million people every day in order to safely reopen the economy (we’re currently running around 150,000 a day). To scale up, we need to move beyond conventional methods—and that might require an entirely different type of test.
The gold standard for covid-19 testing is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. In a PCR test, genetic material collected in a nasal swab is copied millions or billions of times over so that markers for covid-19 infection can be identified (the virus’s RNA is too tiny to identify on its own, but making more copies makes it easier to find). PCR testing isn’t perfect, but it’s seen as the most accurate form of testing available for viruses. Unfortunately, it takes time, energy, and trained personnel to run these tests. That makes PCR testing too hard to scale up to the numbers we really need....
Antigen testing has begun in the USA. It is proving to reveal the underbelly of COVID-19. Many more Americans have been exposed to the virus than previously believed. The current statistics reveal that if the virus went unchecked in the USA that 1 million people would have died rather than 2.2 million. That is still five times more lethal than the annual flu. It was right to stop the virus in it's spread. It is still right to stop the virus in it's spread. It is right to care about the lives of Americans over profits.
The antigen testing needs to go forward with vigor and REVEAL how and when the American workforce can SAFELY return to their jobs.
