COVID-19 Pandemic
2020
Timeline of significant global, Australian and SA data points in the initial response and first year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
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The potential “Super Spreader” is born
A Super Spreader is a “phenomenon” where a healthy person, with no symptoms of illness (asymptomatic), is allegedly highly contagious. [1, 2] This “potential” threat to the spread of the virus comes just 8 days after a “diagnostic tool” is released by the WHO, that “could” diagnose the asymptomatic “potential” spreaders of the virus – The PCR test. The WHO recommends (thanks to Drosten et al) to set the test at 40-45 cycles, to diagnose infection of SARS-CoV-2 in all people both with symptoms or healthy. In time, experts reveal that the PCR test used with greater than 35 cycles leads to 97% false positive results – the very people who are classified as asymptomatic super spreaders and labelled as COVID-19 case – statistically ill!
US reports first novel coronavirus case – treated with remdesivir (antibiotics prior!)
On January 21, 2020, the CDC reported the detection of the first person in the United States diagnosed with 2019-nCoV infection. The case history of this 35-year-old male, who became known as patient zero, was published, and said to have returned to Washington state from Wuhan, China on 15th January. [4, 5, 6]
The CDC press release added, “While originally thought to be spreading from animal-to-person, there are growing indications that limited person-to-person spread is happening. It’s unclear how easily this virus is spreading between people.” [3]
Genome testing, confirmed by Kristian Andersen, connected “patient zero” with the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, where nearly half of initial COVID-19 deaths occurred.
The patented drug remdesivir by Gilead and which was “not yet licensed or approved anywhere globally”, was administered intravenously on day 7 of illness this first patient, by 30 January the patients symptoms had resolved, except for a mild cough. The patient was treated with antibiotics on day 6 when pneumonia began to develop! [5] Recovery was “attributed” to remdesivir, but the virus began to clear on day 3 (PCR Ct confirmed), and antibiotics cleared the lung infection!
A few days later China began testing remdesivir on their patients – but they failed to find a benefit.
- In August 2019, remdesivir was pulled from an Ebola trial because it caused excess mortality.
- Gilead’s drug GS-5734 called remdesivir has funding ties with Ralph Baric, who has ties to WIV
- Gilead Sciences is historically a highly profitable, anti-viral focused, pharma company [1, 2]
On January 27, 2020 the CDC confirms 5 cases in the US all involved adults who traveled to Wuhan, China. “At this time in the U.S., this virus is not spreading in the community”, thus the “immediate health risk” to the community is “low” said the CDC. An additional 73 potential cases are still under investigation.
The CDC is creating tests and laboratory guidelines “diagnostic kitsso states can perform their own testing“.
President Trump addressed the WEF at Davos 2020
On January 21, 2020 President Donald Trump gave a “Special Address” to the World Economic Forum’s Davos 2020 providing an overview of the United States achievements made in the past 3 years under his leadership.
“The US is in the midst of economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before.” Trump said
With policies focused on the worker and middle class, he achieved the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years at 3.5%, its a “Blue Collar Boom” he said. The US stock market was up 50%, and 12,000 industries were gained back and growing, following the 60,000 factories lost under the previous 2 Administrations. In early 2019 the US gained 25% share of all foreign investments.
Two trade deals were completed in the same week, one with China the other between US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA), the latter replacing the 25 year NAFTA, setting a “new model for trade for the 21st century” he said.
“To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse…They are the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers”….”Their alarmists always demand the same thing…absolute power to dominate, transform and control every aspect of our lives.”
The very next day Prince Charles launched the platform to drive a “new economic model”, which is counter to President Trump’s non-Socialist vision of:
“A growing and vibrant market economy, focused on the future, lifts the human spirit and excites creativity strong enough to overcome any challenge…”
Trump speaks to the many scientific breakthroughs of the 20th Century which…“have lifted living standards and saved billions of lives” but then says
“we continue to work on things which you will be hearing about in the near future…we have found answers to things that people said would not be possible…certainly not possible in a very short period of time“.
Was he refering to mRNA new technology products called “vaccines”? He did pass an Executive Order in Sepember 2019 to “modernize” influenza vaccines. Was Operation Warp Speed planned?
Prince Charles launched the Sustainable Market Initiative to accelerate a “new economic model”
On the second day (Jan 22, 2020) of the World Economic Forum’s 50th Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland (January 21-24, 2020), Prince Charles launched the Sustainable Market Initiative which “aims to lead and accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainable future by putting nature, people and planet at the heart of global value creation” [1, 2, 3, 6]
The Prince also announced his 10-Point Plan: “Within the framework of sustainable markets and rapid decarbonization, Prince of Wales believes that changing our current trajectory will require bold and imaginative action in 10 key areas” [4]
The Sustainable Markets Initiative is [self appointed] “platform to inspire the innovation urgently needed to demonstrate what is possible, and accelerate the transition to sustainable markets” as they believe “our markets are unstainable” and a “new economic model” [hint] is needed.
Prince Charles began “discussions” months earlier in June 2019 by hosting a round table meeting, followed by his appointed Sustainable Markets Council meetings “comprising leaders from the public, private and philanthropic sectors” who are “working to transition the world to genuinely sustainable markets and a net-zero global economy”. The Council met at the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit in New York in September 2019. Then in November 2019 Prince Charles hosted the inaugural meeting of the Sustainable Markets Council in London which includes WEF members, bankers and AstraZeneca. [5]
The day before Prince Charles, President Donald Trump gave a “Special Address” listing his achievements over the past 3 years of his presidency – in contradiction to the WEF plans [?]
Wuhan, China locks down and sets a “new standard”
Chinese government reported on January 22, 2020 the “Strictest measures enacted to contain viral pneumonia” where the city of Wuhan closed its transport networks and advised it’s citizens not to leave the city”.
11 million people in Wuhan, China, considered the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, are ordered to abide by the restrictions. [1] Wuhan lockdown measures were kept in place until April 8, 2020. It is thought 5 million people departed before the lockdown was put in place.
Locking down healthy people is a public health measure never done before for a virus outbreak.
On 30 January 2020, the WHO’s director general tweeted China’s lockdown measures are “setting a new standard for outbreak response.”
An action not actually based on science, and contrary to an October 2019 WHO report, yet sovereign nations of the world actively followed this unprecedented CCP led “control measure”!
Further key data points from the China report:
- “On Jan 19, President Xi Jinping ordered that resolute efforts should be made to curb the spread of the virus, stressing putting people’s safety and health as the top priority.”
- “The Wuhan Health Commission reported on the morning of Jan 21 that 15 medical workers in the city have been infected.”
- At this time “much remains to be understood about 2019-nCoV, including how it is transmitted, the clinical features of the disease, its severity, the extent to which it has spread and its source.”
- “Health experts agree the possibility exists for mutation of the virus”.
- “Also on Jan 19, the National Health Commission listed the pneumonia caused by the virus among Grade B infectious diseases, a category that includes such major infectious diseases as SARS, AIDS and polio.”
- “Currently, however, the new virus will be treated as a Grade A infectious disease, which requires the strictest prevention and control measures, including mandatory quarantine of patients and medical observation for those who have had close contact with patients, according to the commission.” A classification reserved for “bubonic plague and cholera”, but “managing the new disease as Grade A will greatly help in its control and prevention.”
- “On Jan 21, the World Health Organization said in a statement that sustained human-to-human transmission may exist, and warned more cases of the virus could appear in China and outside in the coming days, given travel patterns and increased testing.”
- “China, along with other affected countries, will attend an emergency committee meeting convened by the WHO on Jan 22 to share information about the disease.”
Dr Ian Lipkin stated “The most important tool we have right now is isolation”…a vaccine will take us “a year or more to do”.
Johns Hopkins launch their coronavirus tracking dashboard
Ensheng Dong, a Johns Hopkins PhD student from China, created the JH online coronavirus tracking dashboard “to collect data to show the public”. [1]
After 12 hours of collecting and translating Chinese data, designing tables and “bulldozed the statistics into a program that would create a map”, the next morning on January 22, 2020 he showed his his supervisor, associate professor Lauren Gardner. “After a few tweaks, the project went live, with red dots ballooning across countries…to show numbers of known cases” and deaths.
The Coronavirus Resource Center “rapidly becomes a premier source around the world for real-time, accurate data about the pandemic. Its dashboard, created by Whiting School of Engineering civil and systems engineering associate professor Lauren Gardner and others, has been viewed more than 1 billion times.”
2019-nCoV genome 96.2% similar to a bat coronavirus
On January 23, 2020 – A team led by Shi Zheng-Li, from Wuhan Institute of Virology, reported on bioRxiv that they ” found that nCoV-2019 is 96% identical at the whole genome level to a bat coronavirus” which shows the coronavirus has a potential bat origin. They also said it had 79.5% similarity to SARS-CoV, the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Reported in the paper they “found a short RdRp region from a bat coronavirus termed BatCoV RaTG13 which [was] previously detected in Rhinolophus affinis from Yunnan Province showed high sequence identity to nCoV-2019.”
An article in Science magazine a week later, states that it still “remains a mystery which animal spread the virus to humans.”
First media connection between Wuhan BSL-3 Lab and the new coronavirus
The British Daily Mail was one of the first to suggest a connection between the new coronavirus and the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory housed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, followed by the Washington Times.
The Wuhan BSL-4 lab is located 20 miles away from the Huanan Seafood Market. The lab happens to be the only BSL-4 lab in China designated for studying dangerous pathogens.
Shortly after, the main stream media and “scientists conspired and dubbed the lab leak possibility as a “conspiracy theory“, frantically steering the narrative towards a natural, animal origin.
China’s CDC director “confirms” seafood market animal as source of SARS-CoV-2
According to China media, on January 23, 2020 at a government briefing on the coronavirus outbreak the Director of the Chinese CDC, Gao Fu stated about the virus origin:
“We have confirmed it was transmitted via wild animals illegally sold at a seafood market in Wuhan.
At first, it was spread from animals to humans. However, the virus has since been mutating and has become adaptive to its host. Human-to-human transmission has occurred, and there has been some community transmission. That is to say, it has gone through three stages.”
No evidence is provided as to which specific zoonotic source, wild animal(s) that is.
In the weeks following this proclamation the media, public health and even scientists around the world used this claim to begin reporting about the threat of animal to human (zoonotic) diseases from seafood markets, such as Australia’s 60 Minutes.
On March 26, 2020 in a report the WHO were unable to identify the origin of the virus, only environmental samples taken at the seafood market were positive for SARS-CoV-2, no animal.
By mid-2021, after 18 months and almost 3 million viruses sequenced in Hubei, China and world wide, the WHO investigation were unable to find a single animal specimen with SARS-CoV-2. [@3:38] [1]
Eurosurveillance Corman-Drosten PCR paper published
On January 23, 2020 Christian Drosten and Victor Corman et al publish in Eurosurveillance , just 24 hrs after submission, their paper titled “Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR” – the basis for PCR testing globally. The paper was submitted only 11 days after genome sequence release on Jan 10, 2020, before anyone outside of China
In acute respiratory infection, RT-PCR is routinely used to detect causative viruses from respiratory secretions….virus isolates or samples from infected patients have so far not become available to the international public health community.”
“We report here on the establishment and validation of a diagnostic workflow for 2019-nCoV screening and specific confirmation, designed in absence of available virus isolates or original patient specimens”.
Aust: Human coronavirus with pandemic potential is added to Biosecurity determinations list
On January 23, 2020 Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a press release stated a “human coronavirus with pandemic potential” was added to the official Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Determination 2016 under the Biosecurity Act of 2015, to enable the use of enhanced border measures. The same day flight MU 749 landed in Sydney Airport coming from Wuhan, China. This determination allowed a Biosecurity emergency to be called in March 18, 2020. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Brandan Murphy stated “Chinese authorities confirmed 571 cases of coronavirus infections and 17 deaths… and have now stopped transport out of Wuhan city.…There have been no reported confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Australia as yet.”
At the time Australia was still recovering from major bush fires.
[SARS-CoV-2 or the disease COVID-19 was never added to the notifiable Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) case registry, but SARS and MERS are!]
CDC publish instructions for use of RT-PCR test
On January 24, 2020 the CDC provided information for laboratories and publish their instructions for use of Real-Time RT-PCR Panel for Detection 2019-Novel Coronavirus along with publishing initial PCR “Primers and Probes” sequences [1, 2, 3, 4]
The charts indicated amplifying cycles up to 45, but stated Under Interpreting Test Results tht “RP should be positive at or before 35 cycles for all clinical samples and HSC, thus indicating the presence of sufficient nucleic acid from human RNase P gene and that the specimen is of acceptable quality.” Their graph indicated the Cycle Threshold (Ct) before the “exponential PCR phase” was between 22 to 28 cycles of amplification.
China: videos of people collapsing in the streets of Wuhan
Around January 24th, 2020, viral video footage had spread throughout the world showing people collapsing in the streets of China, videos were tagged as coming from Wuhan where a new virus had emerged. [1, 2]
Wall Street expert Edward Dowd stated:
“nothing comes out of China unless they want it to”
Were the videos staged or have other explanations but used by the media to instill fear?
Paper describing Wuhan virus sequencing
A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled “A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019” describes how China CDC scientists took “lower respiratory tract samples…from patients with pneumonia of unknown cause” and “who had been present at the Huanan Seafood Market”.
“Extracted nucleic acid samples [RNA] were tested for viruses and bacteria by polymerase chain reaction” (PCR). RNA extracted from lung fluid and culture supernatants was used as a template to clone and sequence the genome using genomic software.” This paper references China’s PCR test.
“Primers were subsequently designed for PCR“.
“Although our study does not fulfill Koch’s postulates, our analyses provide evidence implicating 2019-nCoV in the Wuhan outbreak”.
The resultant genetic sequence that will become known as SARS-CoV-2. A computer generated sequence of a virus not isolated and purified. [1, 2]
Wuhan, China: Clinical features of 2019 novel coronavirus
On January 24, 2020 The Lancet published data out of China, titles Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China.
By Jan 2, 2020, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as having laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection. The median age of the patients was 49·0 years, no children or adolescents were infected.
Of the 41 patients, 13 (32%) were admitted to the ICU because they required high-flow nasal cannula or higher-level oxygen support measures to correct hypoxaemia. Most of the infected were male, less than half with underlying conditions.
Invasive mechanical ventilation was required in four ([only] 10%) patients. . . . As of Jan 22, 2020, 28 (68%) of 41 patients have been discharged and six (15%) patients have died. [1]
Beijing prevent WIV sharing virus isolates with Uni Texas
On January 24, 2020 it is reported in a Five Eyes intelligence report that officials in Beijing, China prevented the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) from sharing virus sample isolates with the University of Texas. [There is a standing agreement between the labs]
“The Galveston National Laboratory is a national biocontainment laboratory built at the University of Texas Medical Branch [UTMB] by the National Institutes of Health and the State of Texas to help combat global health threats” [1, 2]
The UTMB released a statement in April 2020 saying the Galveston National Laboratory “has hosted Chinese scientists for training to work in the high-containment lab” and that its lab “is part of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [NIAID] Biodefense Laboratory Network.”
“According to the U.S. Education Department, the UT system reported 10 contracts with Huawei and 24 contracts with Chinese state-owned universities between 2014 and 2019, totaling nearly $13 million”
Australia: First COVID-19 Case
First case of novel coronavirus 2019 is detected in Australia in a passenger who traveled from Guangdong, China, to Melbourne in the state of Victoria.
War Room: Pandemic is launched – before a “pandemic” is declared
Steve Bannon, former Chief Strategist to President Trump, who tracks world affairs and is focused on the CCP [4], transitioned his 6 day per week War Room: Impeachment podcast into War Room: Pandemic and launched the first episode on January 25, 2020. [3] Because of his relationship with Miles Gao, he already knew the “coronavirus” was a “world historical event out of China”, even before the World Health Organisation officially declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020 [1, 2]
On the first show Bill Gertz presented intel on the Biological Labs in Wuhan, China which handling deadly viruses, and is part of China’s biological weapons program. Simone Gao mentions footage of people collapsing on the street in China.
The next day, on January 26, 2020, Dr Anthony Fauci declared on John Catsimatidis radio show that there is nothing to worry about:
“The American people should not be worried of frightened by this its a very, very low risk to the United States …this is a virus that has emerged and jumped species from an animal reservoir”.
On January 30, 2020 the health freedom media platform The Highwire, which airs on Thursdays, had their first episode that began tracking the pandemic response.
Both The Highwire and Bannons War Room became a go-to source for information and education about the pandemic response and the bigger picture, emerging global affairs, for a growing audience throughout the world, not just America. Both platforms were/are heavily censored and were deleted from YouTube. Both platforms cover content which does not follow the mainstream media narrative. [6, 7, 8]
War Room pandemic Ep 2, 3, 4 – today’s EPISODES, pandemic timeline – ARCHIVE
The Highwire – EPISODES
China warns that coronavirus “spreads before symptoms show” (1 to 14 days)
China’s Health Minister Ma Xiaowei announced that the Wuhan coronavirus “can spread it before they become symptomatic.”, meaning people are contagious during the virus’ incubation period. A highly unusual phenomenon and different to SARS-CoV! The incubation period of the new coronavirus “is anywhere from one to 14 days” officials believe. [1, 2]
CDC advisor Dr Schaffner said this “means the infection is much more contagious than we originally thought,” and “It’s much harder to contain a virus — to track down a patient’s contacts and quarantine them immediately — if the patient was spreading the disease for days or weeks before they even realized they had it.”
“Without symptoms, a person may not know they have the infection, but still be able to spread it.” The Super-spreader that China’s CDC debunked a couple of days ago is back!
The authorities are still not clear about the disease source, but have now banned the sale of wildlife in markets and restaurants.
Many people believe that it crossed to humans from snakes.
SA declares COVID-19 a notifiable disease.
Human coronavirus disease 2019 was declared by the South Australian Minister for Health and Wellbeing to be a controlled notifiable condition by notice in the Gazette dated 28 January 2020 under the South Australian Public Health Act 2011. [1, 2, 3]
As a controlled notifiable condition it became a “legal requirement of all medical providers and laboratories to report any suspected, probable or confirmed cases” to SA Health.
On July 19, 2020, COVID-19 was further added to regulation 5 as a “controlled notifiable condition” under the South Australian Public Health (Notifiable and Controlled Notifiable Conditions) Regulations 2012 (SA).
This legislation amendment provides the Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) a “range of powers to require examination, testing, counselling, quarantine and detention in relation to controlled notifiable conditions”.
Never has COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 been defined by a case definition on the Federal Communicable Diseases Network Australia’s (CDNA) notifiable disease register, yet SARS, MERS, Monkeypox, RSV and many others diseases are there, but not pandemic COVID-19!
White House Coronavirus Task Force setup
President Trump creates the White House Coronavirus Task Force on January 29, 2020 to lead the coronavirus response. This 12-member group was established just before HHS Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency. At that time there were 15 cases of the coronavirus in the US, of which on is in the hospital. “The task force is made up of subject matter experts from across the federal government and has been meeting daily since Monday”. [2]
The “experts” are claiming most people don’t have any immunity to it because it is a ‘new virus’, claiming “none of us have any protection”. [1]
Two days earlier on January 27, 2020, Trump’s staff attended the first full meeting on the coronavirus in the White House Situation Room. Unbeknownst to those in attendance, Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Advisor, had unilaterally called the meeting. He pushed for the travel bans from China while others did not support his suggestion as it would trigger hysteria. [3]
On January 31, 2020, “Pottinger began popularizing the idea of shutdowns within the White House by circulating a Philly study among his White House colleagues” that showed Philadelphia was hit harder allegedly because they didn’t shut down.
Around the same time, Jan 28, CDC physician-scientist, Yen Pottinger, reached out to Deborah Birx on behalf of her husband Matt Pottinger to ask her to meet at the “West Wing”, where Matt then offered Birx “the position of White House spokesperson on the virus.” [3]
AHPPC held first COVID-19 advisory meeting –
On January 29, 2020 the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) who provide advice to the Australian community during emergencies, held their first, of many weekly meetings, regarding COVID-19, following advice they receive form the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA). [1]
AHPPC is comprised of all state and territory Chief Health Officers and and is chaired by the Australian Chief Medical Officer who at the time was Professor Paul Kelly.
This group is equivalent to UK SAGE.
Pandemic preparedness was something Australia had in place for over a decade. The Australian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza (AHMPPI) (v. Aug 2019), and is template document to be used by government decision makers. The decision to formally escalate the AHMPPI through each of its stages will be made by the Chair of the AHPPC, in consultation with AHPPC members and with advice from advisory bodies. Influenza and Coronaviruses are both respiratory viruses, yet AHPPC didn’t use the the AHMPPI plan.
CDC confirms first person-to-person spread of 2019-nCoV
On January 30, 2020 the CDC confirmed that the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) had spread from an infected person [woman from Chicago] to a house hold member [husband], representing the first instance of person-to-person transmission in the US, involving someone who had not traveled to China. He is the 6th case in the US. [1, 2]
“Previously, all confirmed U.S. cases had been associated with travel to Wuhan, China,” this latest case has no history of travel to Wuhan, “but shared a household with the patient diagnosed with 2019-nCoV infection on January 21, 2020.”
“Officials warned that the case of human-to-human transmission indicated that the coronavirus was a “very serious public health situation.”
Asymptomatic transmission of virus is claimed – setting of global alarm
On January 30, 2020 a case study report from Germany is published with Christian Drosten as one of the many “authority” authors, claiming transmission of the novel coronavirus occurred between an asymptomatic contact and infected another. This set off alarm, fear and panic around the world, triggering mass PCR testing, contact tracing of everyone and forced quarantining of the healthy – something never done before!
It was later revealed that the Chinese lady was actually sick when visiting Germany, but had used medicine to suppress her symptoms, so not actually asymptomatic – and it seems no one bothered to ask!
SARS-CoV-2 has novel sequence pointing to lab origin
On January 30, 2020 on the 148th episode of The Highwire program, Del Bigtree spoke with Dr James Lyons-Weiler about his assessment of the recently released Coronavirus virus (2019-nCoV) genetic sequence, later named SARS-CoV-2. Dr Lyons-Weiler revealed [1]:
- There is only a 76% fit to bat coronaviruses
- A Chinese Patented novel vector technology sequence appeared in the genome which is “unusual to find…in a virus that is circulating”
“One thing we can say for certain is that this particular virus has a laboratory origin”
Dr James Lyons-Weiler
By April 2025, the Trump Whitehouse website stands behind Lab Leak origin. [2]
WHO declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
The International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee for COVID-19 held its first meeting on January 22 & 23, 2020 [found COVID-19 not an emergency], then 7 days later on January 30, 2020 they met again and upon the committee’s advice, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesuss declared that the novel coronavirus outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the “WHO’s highest level of alarm“. [1, 3]
- “The Committee also acknowledged that there are still many unknowns, cases have now been reported in five WHO regions in one month, and human-to-human transmission has occurred outside Wuhan and outside China.”
- “The Committee believes that it is still possible to interrupt virus spread, provided that countries put in place strong measures to detect disease early, isolate and treat cases, trace contacts, and promote social distancing measures commensurate with the risk.”
- “The Committee agreed that the outbreak now meets the criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.”
- The Committee emphasized that the declaration of a PHEIC should be seen in the spirit of support and appreciation for China, its people, and the actions China has taken on the frontlines of this outbreak, with transparency, and, it is to be hoped, with success. In line with the need for global solidarity, the Committee felt that a global coordinated effort is needed to enhance preparedness in other regions of the world that may need additional support for that.
“A key factor in reaching their decision – which the WHO had initially been reluctant to make – was that the outbreak was no longer limited to China but had spread rapidly to 18 other countries. Among them, Australia, Vietnam and South Korea which all announced new infections today, while India and the Philippines reported their first cases, and the CDC announced the first person-to-person transmission of the virus in the U.S.” [2]
- Australia is represented by Professor John Mackenzie of Curtin University on the Emergency Committee.
- At the time PHEIC was declared 171 people were determined to have died globally from the novel coronavirus. [4]
- Is this the mark for the start of a technocratic “new economic model”?
Only 5 times before has the WHO declared a PHEIC, since its power to do so was established in 2005 with the IHR:
- 2009 pandemic influenza
- 2014 polio resurgence
- 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa2016 Zika virus outbreak
- 2019 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo
India & the Philippines confirms their first coronavirus case
On January 30, 2020, India confirmed that at least one case of coronavirus has reached the country. The Philippines also confirmed its first case on the same day. [1]
By April 5, 2020, as reported in the Hindustan Times, police surveillance with cameras and drones are used in India, ensuring citizen compliance (stay indoors and maintain social distancing) of COVID-19 lockdown measures.
FDA grants license for new pandemic influenza vaccine using next generation technology
On January 31, 2020 the FDA approved “the first adjuvanted, cell-based influenza vaccine” called of Audenz, designed to protect individuals 6 months and older against the H5N1 avian influenza virus, and is said to be “a major milestone in pandemic influenza preparedness”. [1]
AUDENZTM, an Influenza A (H5N1) Monovalent Vaccine containing the MF59C.1 adjuvant and hidden ingredients, is sponsored by Seqirus Inc and supported by the US government agency, BARDA. Instead of producing the vaccine in chicken embryos, which is said to have “supply” issues in times of a pandemic, “Audenz uses two leading-edge technologies – an antigen-sparing adjuvant and cell-based vaccine technology – that represent a game-changing advance in the state of pandemic influenza preparedness.”
The application was submitted in January 2019, before President Trump’s Influenza EO, on the grounds “for Accelerated Approval of Biological Products for Serious or Life-Threatening Illnesses”. The vaccine will be produced in the US and supplied on demand. The approval letter acknowledged the manufactures “plans to collect additional safety and effectiveness data in the U.S., when Influenza A (H5N1) Monovalent Vaccine, Adjuvanted is used.”
Australia’s CSL (Seqiris part of CSL) has this H5N1 vaccine in “registration” with TGA according to their pipeline.
US declares a Public Health Emergency
On January 31, 2020 in the US, “[a]s a result of confirmed cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)”, HHS secretary Alex Azar determined “that a public health emergency (PHE) exists and has existed since January 27, 2020, nationwide”. “This U.S. public health emergency declaration follows a declaration by the World Health Organization that spread of the virus constituted a public health emergency of international concern.” [2, 3]
This declaration sets up justification for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) of drugs where “the FDA Commissioner may allow medical countermeasures to be used in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions caused by [biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear agents], when there are no adequate, approved and available alternatives.” [4]
In January 2017, FDA finalized the guidance to explain the FDA’s general recommendations and procedures applicable to EUA for industry and stakeholders.
- January 31, 2020 – declared public health emergency under the Public Health Service Act
- March 13, 2020 – two national emergency declarations under both the Stafford Act and the National Emergencies Act (NEA)
- March 18, 2020 – invoked emergency powers via Executive Order under the Defense Production Act
- March 19, 2020 – Trump named the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as the lead agency in the COVID-19 emergency response efforts, a designation previously held by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [5]
WHO releases COVID-19 Case Definitions
On January 31, 2020 the WHO released their interim guidelines for Case Definitions for Surveillance purposes:
- Suspected case
- Probable case
- Confirmed case
A confirmed case: “A person with laboratory confirmation of 2019-nCoV infection, irrespective of clinical signs and symptoms”
WHO Dec 2020 update: A Confirmed Case: “A person with a positive Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT)”, which is simply a positive RT-PCR test, no symptoms necessary. A positive PCR result makes a healthy person “statistically ill”.
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