CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

Seeker22

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
pops88 said:
Someone posted about a FB page being taken down and the account deleted after a woman posted her husband died and was told it was Corona. They're working overtime on this.
Click to expand...

I don't have a Twit account, but for those who do, searching and archiving those Obits that actually get through would be good to have. I can't believe the Chicoms haven't tossed up a dedicated Website for Memorials. It must be terrible and the clampdown on information is even worse.

As I said in a prior post, I believe we are seeing another Communist massacre in real time.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
end game said:
Nitrile gloves have the same issue. I use them to work on the car and the older ones tear easily.
Click to expand...
Ah... good to know. Thanks! I have noticed that the Nitrile gloves I keep in my vet kit seem to last longer than latex before they start wadding up into an inseparable sticky ball, but I haven't kept Nitrile gloves in there long enough for a true comparison...

Summerthyme
 
N

nuance4u

Contributing Member
end game said:
Nitrile gloves have the same issue. I use them to work on the car and the older ones tear easily.
Click to expand...

I worked on a clean room for a microchip plant a while back. We were required to wear two pairs of gloves so that when the outer one tore we could change it out without exposing our bare skin. This was for construction work so it might not normally be needed, but it would help with keeping from being exposed due to torn gloves.
 
N

northern watch

TB Fanatic
The Epoch Times - China Insider‏ @EpochTimesChina now26 seconds ago

“We are beginning to feel really confident that we have no confidence in the government numbers.” A new study suggests the cumulative infections and deaths from #Coronavirus could be “substantially higher” than officially stated—by a factor of 5 to 10.
 
N

northern watch

TB Fanatic
The Epoch Times - China Insider‏ @EpochTimesChina now8 seconds ago

According to reported numbers, tens of thousands have been infected, and over 2,000 have died in #China, the majority of them in #Hubei. However, eyewitness accounts and experts’ analyses show that the authorities have been underreporting cases.
 
N

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Noga Tarnopolsky‏Verified account @NTarnopolsky 19m19 minutes ago

#Breaking: Israel is about to announce a travel warning against travel to Italy, is weighing imposing a quarantine on passengers arriving from Italy
1f1ee-1f1f9.png
#coronaviruslombardia
 
susie0884

susie0884

Dooming since 1998
Capt. Eddie said:
apnews.com

Iran says 12 dead from new virus, rejects higher death toll

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's government said Monday that 12 people had died nationwide from the new coronavirus, rejecting claims of a much higher death toll by a lawmaker from the city of Qom that has been at the epicenter of the virus in the country.
apnews.com apnews.com

Iran lawmaker says 50 dead from new virus in city of Qom

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A staggering 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the new coronavirus this month, a lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday, even as the Health Ministry insisted only 12 deaths have been recorded to date in the country.

The new death toll reported by the Qom representative, Ahmad Amiriabadi Farahani, is significantly higher than the latest number of nationwide confirmed cases of infections that Iranian officials had reported just a few hours earlier, which stood at 12 deaths out of 47 cases, according to state TV.

Health Ministry spokesman Iraj Harirchi rejecting the Qom lawmaker claims, insisting the death toll from the virus remains at 12.

However, he raised the number of confirmed cases from the virus to 61. Some 900 other suspected cases are being tested, he said.

“No one is qualified to discuss this sort of news at all,” Haririchi said, adding that lawmakers have no access to coronavirus statics and could be mixing figures on deaths related to other diseases like the flu with the new virus, which first emerged in China in December.

Still, the number of deaths compared to the number of confirmed infections from the virus is higher in Iran than in any other country, including China and South Korea, where the outbreak is far more widespread.

Farahani, the lawmaker from Qom, was quoted in local media saying more than 250 people are quarantined in the city, which is a popular place of religious study for Shiites from across Iran and other countries. He spoke following a session in parliament in Tehran on Monday, and was quoted by ILNA and other semi-official news agencies.

The lawmaker said the 50 deaths date as far back as Feb. 13. Iran first officially reported cases of the virus and its first deaths in Qom on Feb. 19.

“I think the performance of the administration in controlling the virus has not been successful,” Farahani said, referring to the government of President Hassan Rouhani.

“None of the nurses have access to proper protective gears,” Farahani said, adding that some health care specialists had left the city. “So far, I have not seen any particular action to confront corona by the administration.”

There are concerns that clusters of the new coronavirus in Iran, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread.

A top World Health Official expressed concerns Monday over the virus’ spread. “We are worried about the situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran and in Italy,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“It is an incredible time. Less than two months ago, the coronavirus was completely unknown to us,” Ghebreyesus said. “The past few weeks has demonstrated just how quickly a new virus cans spread around the world and cause widespread fear and disruption.”

The outbreak in Iran has centered mostly in the city of Qom, but spread rapidly over the past few days as Iranians went to the polls on Friday for nationwide parliamentary elections, with many voters wearing masks and stocking up on hand sanitizer.

Authorities in Iran have closed schools across much of the country for a second day. Soccer fans across Iran not permitted to attend matches, and shows in movie theaters and other venues were suspended until Friday. Authorities have begun daily sanitization of Tehran’s metro, which is used by some 3 million people, and public transportation cars in the city.

Iranian health officials have not said whether health workers in Qom who first came in contact with infected people had taken precautionary measures in treating those who died of the virus. Iran also has not said how many people are in quarantine across the country overall.

Neighboring countries have reported infections from travelers from Iran in recent days, prompting several to shut their borders to Iranian citizens.

Kuwait announced on Monday its first cases of the virus, saying that three travellers returning from the northeastern city of Mashhad, Iran were confirmed infected with the coronavirus.

Iran, however, has not yet reported any confirmed cases of the virus in Mashhad, raising questions about how the Iranian government is carrying out tests and quarantines. Iran has confirmed cases so far in five cities, including the capital, Tehran. A local mayor in Tehran is among those infected and in quarantine.

Kuwait has been evacuating some 750 citizens from Iran and testing them as they enter the country after saying that Iran had barred its medical workers from testing travelers at an exit terminal in Iran, despite an agreement to do so.

Travelers from Iran infected with the virus have also been confirmed in Canada, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Ian Mackay, who studies viruses at Australia’s University of Queensland said the latest figures mean that “Iran could become the hotspot for seeding countries that have travel with Iran ... a source outside of China.”

Iran is already facing diplomatic and economic isolation under U.S. pressure. The virus threatens to isolate Iran even further as its neighbors close their borders to prevent its spread.

Afghanistan’s western borders, both official and unofficial, with Iran were closed and a state of emergency was declared along some provinces of Afghanistan and Pakistan that border Iran.

One person in Afghanistan’s western province of Herat who’d returned from Iran tested positive for the virus, the health ministry there confirmed Monday.

On Sunday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced closing the border with Iran for two weeks and suspending all air traffic between the two countries because of the new coronavirus. Azerbaijan also temporarily closed the Bilasuvar and Astara checkpoints on the border with Iran, local media reported Sunday. It remains unclear when the checkpoints will be re-opened.

Iraq has also barred Iranian travelers from entry through its shared border, a move that impacts thousands of religious pilgrims and businessmen.

Georgia too has restricted movement of individuals from Iran to Georgia and vice versa, according to a statement by the country’s Foreign Ministry Georgian authorities said flights between the two countries would be halted.

___

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; Kathy Gannon in Kabul, Afghanistan; Aniruddha Ghosal in New Delhi, India, and Sophiko Megrelidze in Tbilisi, Georgia contributed to this report.
Click to expand...

I am glad the whole article was captured here because when I go to the link there are now missing sentences and ends of sentences. Perhaps it is just my browser, or perhaps the article is being sabotaged.
 
Intestinal Fortitude

Intestinal Fortitude

Have Faith
China bans trade, eating of wild animals in battle against coronavirus

China bans trade, eating of wild animals in battle against coronavirus
  • Fast-tracked decision to prohibit consumption of wildlife comes into effect immediately
  • Authorities should offer financial support to help the industry shift to other businesses
Echo Xie
Echo Xie in Beijing
Published: 10:00pm, 24 Feb, 2020
Updated: 11:22pm, 24 Feb, 2020



A man chops and cleans crocodiles at Huangsha Seafood Market in Guangzhou in southern China. Chan has banned the trade in wild animals. Photo: EPA


A man chops and cleans crocodiles at Huangsha Seafood Market in Guangzhou in southern China. Chan has banned the trade in wild animals. Photo: EPA

China said it will ban the trade and consumption of wild animals, a multibillion dollar industry that employs millions of people, as part of efforts to curb virus outbreaks.

The Covid-19 epidemic
that has killed more than 2,500 people in China and spread overseas has been linked to wild animals carrying a coronavirus and sold in markets for food. Most researchers believe the virus jumped from a market animal to a human host, mutated and then infected others.

“Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the eating of wild animals and the huge hidden threat to public health from the practice have attracted wide attention,” the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress said, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Monday.
The fast-track decision
prohibited the consumption of wild animals and included a crackdown on the illegal wildlife trade to protect public health, the report said, adding that the ban took effect immediately.


Demand for such meat has created a breeding industry in China for animals such as civet cats. The epidemic 17 years ago of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars, which killed more than 800 people worldwide, has been linked to consumption of civet cats in China by the World Health Organisation. The WHO says 70 per cent of global disease-causing pathogens discovered in the past 50 years came from animals.


Environmentalists and wildlife conservationists welcomed the decision, though other commentators said the government would need to give financial aid to companies running breeding farms for such animals. China’s wildlife trade and consumption industry is valued at 520 billion yuan (US$74 billion) and employs more than 14 million people, according to a government-sponsored report published by the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2017.


Coronavirus: Covid-19 daily death toll up 55 per cent in China’s Hubei province

Yang Heqing, deputy director of the Office for Economic Law – part of the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission – said the ban on consumption included wildlife protected by the law, other terrestrial animals, and terrestrial wild animals in breeding farms, according to People’s Daily. The ban also prohibits hunting, trading and transport of terrestrial wild animals for eating.

Aquatic animals, livestock, poultry, and other animals that have a long been bred in the country were not included in the ban, Yang added. Use of wild animals for scientific and medical purposes will be allowed but management of such facilities will be strengthened, according to the report.


“Finally there is a complete ban on eating and the trade in wild animals,” said Zhou Haixiang, a member of the Chinese National Committee for Man and Biosphere, an environmental protection group. “It’s a big step in wildlife protection.”

The decision by the NPC Standing Committee follows Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call to crack down on illegal wildlife markets and trade.

China’s existing wildlife protection law, which covers wildlife conservation, trade and utilisation, was enacted in 1989, but it was riddled with loopholes as consumption of wild animals and captive breeding was allowed for commercial purposes.

“The current law only protects limited species of wildlife, but the ban forbids eating in a general sense, not only animals living in the wild, but also the ones in the breeding industry,” Zhou said.


Deadly coronavirus may not have originated in Wuhan seafood market, Chinese scientists say
Zhou Ke, a professor on environmental and resources law at Renmin University, said the wildlife-related business had become a huge industry in China and so was hard to regulate from the processing end of the industry chain.

“But if consumption is banned and the demand falls off, then no one will breed such animals,” he said.
More than half of people in the industry – about 7.6 million – work in the fur and leather industry, which is worth about 390 billion yuan. About 6.2 million people work in breeding farms or processing animals for food.

In some of China’s impoverished regions, such as Guizhou or Guangxi province, wildlife farming is an important source of income for people.

“The decision will mean economic losses for breeders, so relevant local governments should support them while they shift into other businesses and offer financial support,” Yang said.

Wang Canfa, a professor in environmental law at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said the Chinese government should offer help to transform the breeding industry, considering its large size.

“The policy will influence a large number of people in currently legal operations, so the government should supply schemes to help them adjust,” he said.

Advisers to the NPC Standing Committee on revision to the laws included Zhou Ke and Wang as well as 12 other environmental law professionals. They discussed revisions to the wildlife protection law and submitted six suggestions to NPC members. They included finding alternatives to wild animals for use in Chinese medicine and setting a timetable for an overhaul of the breeding industry.

“The transformation of the breeding industry should be combined with China’s poverty alleviation programmes that have budgets announced every year,” Zhou Ke said.
 
Intestinal Fortitude

Intestinal Fortitude

Have Faith
Xi warns of ‘unavoidable’ impact of virus as priority shifts to economy

Coronavirus: Xi Jinping rings alarm on China economy as country shifts priority to maintaining growth
  • President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the ‘unavoidable’ impact of the coronavirus epidemic on China, but implored local officials to resume production where possible
  • Xi’s comments come as concern grows that the economy could be dragged into a deep slowdown, threatening the country’s 2020 development goals
Frank Tang
Frank Tang in Beijing
Published: 6:26pm, 24 Feb, 2020
Updated: 7:17pm, 24 Feb, 2020
TOP PICKS

481



Chinese President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on economic and social development. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on economic and social development. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on economic and social development. Photo: Xinhua

President Xi Jinping has rung the alarm bell on China’s economic growth as worries mount over the coronavirus’ impact on the economy, unemployment and global supply chains.

Speaking on Sunday, Xi made it clear that the priority for most of the country was to get
the world’s second biggest economy up and running after extensive delays.

“It is unavoidable that the novel coronavirus epidemic will have a considerable impact on the economy and society,” said Xi in a lengthy televised address that was watched by as many as 170,000 officials and published by state news agency Xinhua.

But Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, added the country’s social and economic system “can’t be paused for long”.

The edited version of Xi’s speech was published soon after it was delivered, reflecting the urgency of the guidelines.


It is unavoidable that the novel coronavirus epidemic will have a considerable impact on the economy and society Xi Jinping

The virus, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,500 people and infected more than 77,000 in the mainland, is the biggest public health crisis to hit China and a major test of Xi’s leadership.

Containment measures including mandatory quarantine for workers, partial shutdowns of factoriesand transport restrictions have caused significant disruptions to the economy, which was already growing at record low levels before the virus outbreak.

Xi said that as many as 1,396 counties and districts, some 46 per cent of the nation’s total, had not reported a single confirmed case of the coronavirus.

These low-risk zones, along with areas with only a small number of infections, should “comprehensively restore production” and life as usual, he said.

“Medium-risk” regions should resume production in an “orderly manner”, while the priority for hard-hit areas like Hubei, the province at the centre of the outbreak, was still containing the virus, he said.


Coronavirus: Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the epidemic marks a month under lockdown
The televised conference on Sunday marked a rare occasion in which Xi directly addressed officials at the county-level.

His comments, which grant a degree of autonomy for local government decision-making, come as concern grows that China’s economy could be dragged into a deep slowdown or even temporary contraction in the first quarter, threatening
Xi’s grand goal of building “comprehensively well-off society” by 2020
.
A key part of the vision is doubling the size of the economy from 2010, which economists say will require minimum gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.6 per cent this year.

Xi said China’s economic fundamentals remained sound and the virus’ impact would be “short-term and generally under control”. But he said that macroeconomic policies “must prevent economic growth from sliding out of a reasonable range” this year, without elaborating.


China to postpone the year’s biggest political gathering amid coronavirus outbreak

“As long as we can turn the crisis into an opportunity to restore production and social life in an orderly fashion … we will be able to achieve the economic and social development goals set for this year,” Xi said.

It was widely reported that the government had set China’s GDP growth target at “around 6 per cent” for 2020, although the official number was never published. The growth target and a number of other important economic goals were expected to be unveiled at the National People’s Congressin March, but the annual parliamentary meeting has been postponed due to the virus.

Some economists like Wang Jun, from Zhongyuan Bank, have called for China’s growth target to be eased to “5.5 per cent to 6 per cent” due to the outbreak.

Wu Qi, a senior fellow at Beijing-based think tank the Pangoal Institution, said the televised event was “a tone-setting conference that shifted the priority towards the economy”.

Following the speech, Guangdong, an economic powerhouse and the second hardest-hit province by the virus, announced it would downgrade its public health emergency grade to the second highest level on Monday, paving the way for fewer restrictions on the flow of people and cargo. Shanxi, Guansu, Liaoning, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces have also downgraded emergency levels.

While authorities are ramping up efforts to kick start the economy at home, some observers have raised concerns about the long-term effects for China’s position in the global economy.

“The medium- and long-term impact of the coronavirus has increasingly become a concern, especially whether the coronavirus will dampen the global supply chain or weaken China’s international role,” Wu said.

China must ensure the smooth operation of “the industrial supply chain for foreign trade” and “stabilise its share of the global market”, Xi stressed.
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
Intestinal Fortitude said:
Xi warns of ‘unavoidable’ impact of virus as priority shifts to economy

Coronavirus: Xi Jinping rings alarm on China economy as country shifts priority to maintaining growth
  • President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the ‘unavoidable’ impact of the coronavirus epidemic on China, but implored local officials to resume production where possible
  • Xi’s comments come as concern grows that the economy could be dragged into a deep slowdown, threatening the country’s 2020 development goals
Frank Tang
Frank Tang in Beijing
Published: 6:26pm, 24 Feb, 2020
Updated: 7:17pm, 24 Feb, 2020
TOP PICKS

481



Chinese President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on economic and social development. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on economic and social development. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on economic and social development. Photo: Xinhua

President Xi Jinping has rung the alarm bell on China’s economic growth as worries mount over the coronavirus’ impact on the economy, unemployment and global supply chains.

Speaking on Sunday, Xi made it clear that the priority for most of the country was to get
the world’s second biggest economy up and running after extensive delays.

“It is unavoidable that the novel coronavirus epidemic will have a considerable impact on the economy and society,” said Xi in a lengthy televised address that was watched by as many as 170,000 officials and published by state news agency Xinhua.

But Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, added the country’s social and economic system “can’t be paused for long”.

The edited version of Xi’s speech was published soon after it was delivered, reflecting the urgency of the guidelines.


It is unavoidable that the novel coronavirus epidemic will have a considerable impact on the economy and society Xi Jinping

The virus, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,500 people and infected more than 77,000 in the mainland, is the biggest public health crisis to hit China and a major test of Xi’s leadership.

Containment measures including mandatory quarantine for workers, partial shutdowns of factoriesand transport restrictions have caused significant disruptions to the economy, which was already growing at record low levels before the virus outbreak.

Xi said that as many as 1,396 counties and districts, some 46 per cent of the nation’s total, had not reported a single confirmed case of the coronavirus.

These low-risk zones, along with areas with only a small number of infections, should “comprehensively restore production” and life as usual, he said.

“Medium-risk” regions should resume production in an “orderly manner”, while the priority for hard-hit areas like Hubei, the province at the centre of the outbreak, was still containing the virus, he said.


Coronavirus: Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the epidemic marks a month under lockdown
The televised conference on Sunday marked a rare occasion in which Xi directly addressed officials at the county-level.

His comments, which grant a degree of autonomy for local government decision-making, come as concern grows that China’s economy could be dragged into a deep slowdown or even temporary contraction in the first quarter, threatening
Xi’s grand goal of building “comprehensively well-off society” by 2020
.
A key part of the vision is doubling the size of the economy from 2010, which economists say will require minimum gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.6 per cent this year.

Xi said China’s economic fundamentals remained sound and the virus’ impact would be “short-term and generally under control”. But he said that macroeconomic policies “must prevent economic growth from sliding out of a reasonable range” this year, without elaborating.


China to postpone the year’s biggest political gathering amid coronavirus outbreak

“As long as we can turn the crisis into an opportunity to restore production and social life in an orderly fashion … we will be able to achieve the economic and social development goals set for this year,” Xi said.

It was widely reported that the government had set China’s GDP growth target at “around 6 per cent” for 2020, although the official number was never published. The growth target and a number of other important economic goals were expected to be unveiled at the National People’s Congressin March, but the annual parliamentary meeting has been postponed due to the virus.

Some economists like Wang Jun, from Zhongyuan Bank, have called for China’s growth target to be eased to “5.5 per cent to 6 per cent” due to the outbreak.

Wu Qi, a senior fellow at Beijing-based think tank the Pangoal Institution, said the televised event was “a tone-setting conference that shifted the priority towards the economy”.

Following the speech, Guangdong, an economic powerhouse and the second hardest-hit province by the virus, announced it would downgrade its public health emergency grade to the second highest level on Monday, paving the way for fewer restrictions on the flow of people and cargo. Shanxi, Guansu, Liaoning, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces have also downgraded emergency levels.

While authorities are ramping up efforts to kick start the economy at home, some observers have raised concerns about the long-term effects for China’s position in the global economy.

“The medium- and long-term impact of the coronavirus has increasingly become a concern, especially whether the coronavirus will dampen the global supply chain or weaken China’s international role,” Wu said.

China must ensure the smooth operation of “the industrial supply chain for foreign trade” and “stabilise its share of the global market”, Xi stressed.
Click to expand...

Rotsa ruck.

Fair use cited so on and so forth.

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com www.zerohedge.com

Chinese Workers Refuse To Go Back To Work Despite Beijing's Demands

by Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/23/2020 - 20:55

When we commented earlier that the coronavirus pandemic means that the vast majority of Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have at most 2-3 months of cash left, a potentially catastrophic outcome that will not only crippled China's economy but its $40 trillion financial system, we summarized the circular quandary in which Beijing finds itself, to wit:

... unless China reboots its economy, it faces an economic shock the likes of which it has never seen before in modern times. Yet it can't reboot the economy unless it truly stops the viral pandemic, something it will never be able to do if it lies to the population that the pandemic is almost over in hopes of forcing people to get back to work. Hence the most diabolic Catch 22 for China's social and economic system, because whereas until now China could easily lie its way out of any problem, in this case lying will only make the underlying (viral pandemic) problem worse as sick people return to work, only to infect even more co-workers, forcing even more businesses to be quarantined.
Click to expand...
Shockingly (or perhaps not at all in light of China's tremendous human rights record), Beijing has picked output over life expectancy, and in a furious scramble to restart its economy, which as we showed earlier remains flatlined...
























‘Speak English’ in order to work in UK, Britain tells post-Brexit migrants

... according to most high-frequency metrics, it has been "advising" people to get back to work, even as new coronavirus cases are still coming in, in the process threatening to blow out the current epidemic with orders of magnitude more cases as places of employment become the new hubs of viral distribution.

As Bloomberg picked up late on Sunday, following what we said earlier namely that "local governments around the country face a daunting question of whether to focus on staving off the virus or encourage factory reopenings" China's central and local governments are one again easing the criteria for factories to resume operations "as they walk a tightrope between containing a virus that has killed more than 2,400 people and preventing a slump in the world’s second-largest economy." This schizophrenic dilemma for a government which faces two equally terrible choices, was best summarized by the following two banners observed in China:

  • Banner 1 says: “If you go out messing around now, expect grass on your grave to grow soon.“
  • Banner 2 says, “Sitting at home eats up all your have, hurry up go out & find a job.”
Indeed, a perfectly schizophrenic message from the government to the people:


曾錚 Jennifer Zeng@jenniferatntd
https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1231434194066251777

Banner 1 says: “If you go out messing around now, expect grass on your grave to grow soon.“ Banner 2 says, “Sitting at home eats up all your have, hurry up go out & find a job.” The slogan changes as frequently as they change the criteria for #COVID19 diagnosis. #coronavirus
View image on Twitter View image on Twitter

322
11:22 PM - Feb 22, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
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236 people are talking about this



And yet, even with both options equally terrible, Beijing also has no choice but to pick one. As a result, as Bloomberg writes, "the rush to restart has been propelled by China’s leader Xi Jinping and top leaders, who are urging companies to resume production so the country can continue to meet lofty goals for growth and economic development in 2020."

Regular Zero Hedge readers know the rest: with most of Chinese economic output paralyzed, officials in China’s provinces have taken up Xi’s call, with one region after another relaxing rules that had kept more than half the nation’s industrial base idle following the Lunar New Year holiday.

So as China undergoes a wholesale push to reboot its economy, there is certainly some success. AS Bloomberg notes, "about 600 kilometers east of the virus epicenter of Wuhan, vendors and customers at the Yiwu wholesale market in Zhejiang province are having their body temperature tested at the entrances after the vast complex that wholesales manufactured goods reopened on Tuesday, three days earlier than expected. Power demand has also started to pick up in China, with six major generators reporting that coal consumption - while still below pre-holiday levels - rose 7% on Feb. 20 from the previous day."

Well, "pick up" may be a bit of an exageration but here it is: the smallest possible increment, yet still more than 50% below where it was on previous years, suggesting China's economy is running at half of its capacity, which in GDP terms means an epic collapse, a lifetime away from the traditional 6%-7% Y/Y increase.



Ultimately, the core problem China is facing as we explained earlier today, is one of trust: trust by workers that their employers, and certainly the government, has their best interest in mind when it is urging everyone to get back to work. Or lack thereof.

"Our factory is still missing quite a lot of workers, so we can only resume limited production," said Dong Liu, vice president of a textile manufacturer in Fujian, southeastern China, that employs more than 400 workers. Dong said he applied to the government on Feb. 17 to restart and the inspector came the next day and gave permission. “More and more factories are allowed to reopen this week,” he said, although as they reopen, they find the problem mentioned before: nobody is gullible enough to go back to work. After all why risk it if a return to the place of work with the pandemic still raging means a material chance of a death sentence?

Naturally, China's massive population - while bombarded by propaganda on a daily basis - is hardly naive, and is very well attuned to what is really going on. And what is going on is that China's economy has ground to a halt because nobody trusts the government anymore!

Even Bloomberg admits it: "the push to get production rolling again risks a renewed spread of the virus, about which much is still not yet known" (it's certainly not known where it came from after Chinese scientists disproved the widely held propaganda narrative that it miraculously emerged from some bat at the Wuhan seafood market during the peak of bat hibernation season).

“A peak may come at the end of this month for the whole country but it won’t necessarily indicate a turning point,” Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory disease expert who led research into a treatment for SARS, told reporters in Guangzhou earlier this week. “The epidemic could have a new peak after people travel back to work.”

The last sentence is predicated on two major assumptions:

  1. that workers will decide they want to return to work; and
  2. that they will consider the outsized risk to their lives from returning to work as lesser than the threat to their livelihood from not receiving a salary.
And what happens if they all refuse to come back? What if China, sick of the lies and fabrications of its government, creates the largest, if completely unexpected, labor union in history and one which refuses to work and demands handouts from the government until the coronavirus pandemic is well and truly halted, something which can not be ascertained for a long, long time in light of the government's flagrant and ongoing lies?
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
part 2

Meanwhile, the government schizophrenic, contradictory instructions continue:

“Every day several government departments send representatives to spot check our efforts to curb the virus,” said Melissa Shu, the company’s export manager. “They come from the district government, the center for disease control, the city government, at different times of day and check if we disinfect in time, whether we test the temperature of workers, whether workers have masks, whether one person has a separate lunch seat, whether lunch is properly arranged, etc, etc.”
Shu said at lunchtime, workers need to sit at least one meter apart (about three feet).
“As a result, we can’t ask all the workers to come to work even when they’re in town ready to work,” she said, adding that the plant has about 40-50 staff working in rotation, about half the number employed before the virus.
Ironically, some Chinese factories already have plenty of space, thanks to the long-running trade war with the U.S.
“Compared with the virus, that was much worse” said Hui Zhuo, founder of a wooden furniture manufacturer in Zhongshan, in the Pearl River Delta. “We’ve cut a lot of workers in the last two years -- so I’m not too worried this time because the space in my factory is big enough to avoid being crowded.”
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And speaking of trade war, if the long-running feud between the US and China wasn't enough for Chinese customers to seek alternative supply chains, the coronavirus fiasco is sure to be the tipping point:


In the longer term, the outbreak is likely to exacerbate the damage wrought on China’s factories by the trade war. For some overseas customers in fast-moving industries like fashion, the factory shutdown amid the virus has been another wake-up call that may spur them to reduce their reliance on Chinese suppliers.
“I think for the next season or the next year’s goods, retailers would be looking at sourcing more from other countries,” said AJ Mak, CEO of Chain of Demand, which provides artificial-intelligence systems to retailers in Asia and the U.S. to predict product demand. “I think those conversations which started from the trade war would be definitely accelerated.”
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The irony is that by the time most Chinese workers do return to their jobs, those jobs may not exist anymore.

Meanwhile China’s push to salvage its growth targets won’t be complete until the virus is fully under control - something that is impossible to predict, and will in fact be delayed the more China pushes to restore full factory staffing:

“When can everyone come back to work? No one knows,” said Shu at the Zhenjiang LED factory. “Logistics is still not yet fully resumed, inter-city transportation is still restricted. Only after the epidemic is fully controlled, we can truly return to normal work and life.“
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What we do know, is that for now, when given the choice of the carrot or the stick, Chinese employers and the government are picking the carrot... for now. As China's Global Times reported, fabrication giants such as Apple supplier Foxconn have rolled out incentives to encourage workers to return to their posts amid the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, the company's factory in Zhengzhou said it would award 7000 yuan to back-to-work staff and give bonuses in stages to workers who clock in for up to 55 days.


Global Times

✔@globaltimesnews
https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/status/1231411645995343872

Apple supplier #Foxconn's factory in Zhengzhou said it would award 7000 yuan to back-to-work staff and give bonuses in stages to workers who clock in for up to 55 days. Foxconn rolled out incentives to encourage workers to return to their posts amid the #COVID19: media reports
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So far such "carrot" approaches have failed to yield results, which leads us to think that a far worse eventuality is next: the stick.

And if China's population was already furious at the inept response to the coronavirus pandemic, the information blackout, the self-serving lies by the communist party over the past two months, and the general lack of respect for ordinary people by China's billionaire oligarchs, one can only imagine what happens to the mood across China's workforce - the largest in the world - once the entire nation becomes one giant gulag, where everyone is forced to work for the greater good, or else...
 
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