The Negative Consequences Of Large-Scale Quarantine Are Insufferable

AIER |  For two to three months, Americans have suffered the loss of liberty, security, and prosperity in the name of virus control. The psychological impact has been beyond description. We thought we could count on basic rights and freedoms. Then over a few days in March, it all ended in ways hardly anyone could believe possible. 

The manner in which governments dealt with foundational principles of modernity has been shocking. They put half the country under house arrest and managed every movement in disregard for the Bill of Rights and all legal precedent, to say nothing of the Constitution. It felt like a coercive unraveling of civilization itself. It’s like we are all waking up from a bad dream only to look around and see the wreckage that proves it was all real.

So how can we deal with this terror that befell us? One way is to figure out some aspect in which our sacrifice has been worth it, maybe not on net given the consequences, but surely some good has come out of this. If my email and feeds are correct, this is how many people have been justifying this. The psychology here is rooted in the sunk-cost fallacy: when you commit resources to something, even when it is a proven error, you tend to find justifications by doubling down rather than just admitting the mistake. 

Thus have many people written me to say that whether you agree or disagree with the lockdown, we have to admit that it has saved millions of lives. I always write back and ask how they know that. They send me a link to a projection – those very projections that presume all kinds of things about cause and effect that we cannot know and which have proven wrong time and again throughout this crisis. 

So let’s just grant that it is possible that lockdowns can be credited with slowing the spread of the virus, and perhaps preserving hospital capacity (which turned out to be unnecessary). Still, the virus doesn’t then get bored and move by to Wuhan or to another planet. It still sticks around, so at best, these measures only “prolong the pain,” in the words of Knut Wittkowski. 

So even if lockdowns slow the spread in the short run, it’s not clear that they have saved lives from the coronavirus, even if it results in more death overall from deferred surgeries and diagnostics, suicides, drug overdoses, and depression. 

The trouble here is that certain features of this experience stand out to contradict the idea that lockdowns are saving lives over the longer term. In New York, two thirds of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 were in fact sheltering in place during the lockdown, essentially living in forced isolation. The lockdown didn’t help them; it might have contributed to making matters worse.

Hasidic Jews Are Disproportionately Dying From Coronavirus

NYTimes |  The coronavirus has hit the Hasidic Jewish community in the New York area with devastating force, killing influential religious leaders and tearing through large, tight-knit families at a rate that community leaders and some public health data suggest may exceed that of other ethnic or religious groups.

The city does not track deaths by religion, but Hasidic news media report that roughly 700 members of the community in the New York area have died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Borough Park is a leafy neighborhood of low-rise buildings and small businesses like the kosher bakeries and Judaica shops on Raoul Wallenberg Way that cater to the local Hasidic population. More than 6,000 people there have tested positive for the virus, with one of the neighborhood’s ZIP codes being the city’s fifth most heavily affected, according to data released by the city.

Other neighborhoods with large Hasidic populations, like South Williamsburg and Crown Heights, have some of the city’s highest levels of positive Covid-19 test results, the data show.

Hasidic groups say they prepared for the pandemic — for example, making decisions on the closure of schools and events — by taking their cues from the state and federal authorities, whose response to the crisis has been at times halting and inconsistent.

But community leaders say Hasidic enclaves in New York were also left vulnerable to the coronavirus by a range of social factors, including high levels of poverty, a reliance on religious leaders who were in some cases slow to act and the insular nature of Hasidic society, which harbors a distrust of secular authorities that is born of a troubled history.

That distrust has manifested itself in ways that have risked spreading the virus and have drawn the attention of law enforcement, which in recent weeks has been called to disperse crowds at events like weddings and funerals in Hasidic areas of Brooklyn, upstate New York and New Jersey. 

That, in turn, has led to concerns over anti-Semitism in places like Rockland County, which has one of the highest per capita infection rates in the nation and was also the site of an anti-Semitic attack in December that killed one Hasidic Jew and injured four others.

You Dirty, Wicked, Backsliding Rascals Fitna Put That Filthy Swine DOWN!!!

bloomberg |  A wave of shutdowns at some of North America’s largest meat plants is starting to force hog producers to dispose of their animals in the latest cruel blow to food supplies.

Shuttered or reduced processing capacity has prompted some farmers in eastern Canada to euthanize hogs that were ready for slaughter, said Rick Bergmann, chair of the Canadian Pork Council. In Minnesota, farmers may have to cull 200,000 pigs in the next few weeks, according to an industry association. Carcasses are typically buried or rendered. 

“This is an unacceptable situation and something must be done,” Bergmann, who is also a farmer, said Thursday.

The culling highlights the disconnect that’s occurring as the coronavirus pandemic sickens workers trying to churn out food supplies just as panicked shoppers seek to stock up on meat. Wholesale pork prices in the U.S. have surged in the past week.

bloomberg |  As businesses around the globe buckle under the strain of Covid-19, the world’s biggest pork producer is fighting not just one highly contagious virus, but two. And the outcome could determine whether Americans will have enough hot dogs, bacon, and ham this summer.

Hong Kong-based WH Group Ltd. is struggling to cope with the virus that causes African swine fever (ASF), a deadly malady that’s devastated hog herds and helped more than double pork prices in China, while also spreading to other countries in Asia and Europe. Like Covid-19, ASF is currently incurable and researchers have yet to come up with a vaccine. China’s pork production fell 29% in the first three months of 2020; the swine disease has slashed the size of the country’s hog herd by about half.

Now the coronavirus is piling on. Smithfield Foods, the Virginia-based subsidiary of WH Group, shut three of its U.S. plants this month because of Covid-19. They include a processing facility in Sioux Falls, S.D., that accounts for about a quarter of the company’s U.S. revenue.

When Smithfield announced the indefinite closure, more than 200 workers were sick; that number has risen to more than 700—almost half the state’s total. With the Sioux Falls site alone handling about 5% of all hog processing in the U.S., the maker of Farmland bacon, Farmer John hot dogs, Eckrich sausage, and Armour ham warned of possible supermarket shortages. “The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge.

They Don't Work, Pay Taxes or Do Military Service - So Let The Virus Do "God's Work"...,

jerusalempost |  Israel Police arrested six suspects belonging to the Peleg HaYerushalmi after they were found gathering in a synagogue in the Haredi city of Modi'in Illit, violating Health Ministry instructions issued to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

The suspects refused to listen to police instructions to leave and refused to identify themselves and began clashing with police.

"We call on the public to listen to directives and instructions by the Health Ministry and to follow them completely," said Israel Police in a statement. Most of the public in the city is listening to directives and Israel Police is acting and will continue to act with increased forces to enforce [the rules] on those who break them and endanger public health."

timesofisrael |  Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen has written a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials demanding a general closure on the neighboring city of Bnei Brak, which has become one of the main coronavirus hotspots in the country.

Shama-Hacohen says the situation in Bnei Brak is placing his own residents in mortal danger.

The mayor says if action is not taken immediately he will petition the High Court of Justice on the matter tomorrow.

Cain't B'Lee Dis Fool Din't Douche Up With The Cow Urine Like Swami Told Him To...,

Swami tried to tell y'all...,

gulfnews |  At least 15,000 people who may have caught the coronavirus from a 'super-spreader' guru are under strict quarantine in northern India after the Sikh religious leader died of COVID-19.

The 70-year-old guru, Baldev Singh, had returned from a trip to Europe's virus epicentre Italy and Germany when he went preaching in more than a dozen villages in Punjab state.

It has sparked one of India's most serious alerts related to the pandemic and special food deliveries are being made to each household under even tighter restrictions than the 21-day nationwide stay-at-home order imposed by the government.

"The first of these 15 villages was sealed on March 18, and we think there are 15,000 to 20,000 people in the sealed villages," said Gaurav Jain, a senior magistrate for the district of Banga, where Singh lived.

"There are medical teams on standby and regular monitoring," he told AFP on Friday.

Nineteen people who were in contact with the preacher have already tested positive for the new virus, said Vinay Bublani, a local deputy police commissioner.

Results are being awaited from more than 200 others.

The guru and his two associates - who have also tested positive - ignored self-isolation orders on their return from Europe, and were on their preaching tour until Singh fell ill and died.

N-1 Controlavirus Eschatology -THAT'S Entertainment!!!

TruNews |  Today on TruNews we detail the coronavirus solution being put forward by billionaire eugenist Bill Gates, to fund the deployment of implanted microchips and vaccines with digital capsules inside every American to track the tested and infected. We also address the threat of blood tests and transfusions, as the Red Cross admits donors are not being tested. Lastly, we react to the shocking announcement by President Trump that up to 1 million reservists are being called up to active military duty for up to 2 years. Rick Wiles, Edward Szall, Doc Burkhart. Airdate: 03/27/20.

When Ya Pimp-Hand TRULY Strong You Protect Deeze Heaux' Cash Flow

greenvilleonline |  The worshipers filed in row by row, sedans in front, trucks in back. It was Friday night after a long week of news centered around the novel coronavirus and this congregation came to sing, to dance, to laugh and to connect – and to do it all from their cars.

In a new uncertain era, American ingenuity notched another victory at Relentless Church in Greenville Friday evening as Pastors John and Aventer Gray led worship drive-in style for hundreds of people who each sat isolated yet not alone – cars running, windows rolled up, listening along on the radio – as Gray danced his way to the microphone and welcomed them to an innovative service before a pre-recorded video of an hour-long church service played on a giant projection screen.

“We are in the middle of a global pandemic, but we are still the church and we are not going to allow anything to stop us from doing two things: worshiping God and honoring our elected officials who have told us to maintain social distancing,” Gray said as he opened the service. “And so even though the enemy doesn't want us to gather, he can't stop us from worshiping in our cars.”

When Ya Pimp-Hand Strong But Ya IQ-75...,

LATimes |  Pentecostal preacher Tony Spell didn’t just stand before his congregation on Sunday in defiance of the governor’s order to stay home: He leaped into the pews, paraded, hugged and laid hands on worshipers’ foreheads in prayer.

“We’re free people. We’re not going to be intimidated. We’re not going to cower,” the Rev. Spell said from the pulpit of Life Tabernacle Church in a suburb of Baton Rouge. “We’re not breaking any laws.”

Across Louisiana, the coronavirus has infected more than 3,500 people and led to 151 deaths as of Sunday, with one of the highest per-capita death rates in the country down the interstate in New Orleans. To limit its spread, Gov. John Bel Edwards banned gatherings of more than 50 people earlier this month and on March 22 issued a stay-at-home order. 

To comply, Catholic churches canceled Mass and switched to virtual services. Many Protestant churches did too. But some have continued to gather, with none drawing more attention than Life Tabernacle.

 The 60-year-old church has continued to use its fleet of two dozen buses to bring hundreds of congregants to services three times a week from five surrounding parishes, including congregants from mobile home parks and public housing in low-income neighborhoods. More than 1,100 people of various races worship by age group at seven sanctuaries on the property. In addition to spiritual guidance, the church offers free breakfast. Only about 10% have stayed away, said Spell’s father, the Rev. Tim Spell, 66, including his own 90-year-old father who has been sheltering at home.

This Fool Here KNOW He's Soon For The "Pleasing White Light (And The Cleansing Blue Fire)"

japantimes |  When the elderly leader of a South Korean religious sect knelt before the nation on Monday (March 2), he had hoped to defuse public anger over his church's role in spreading the coronavirus.

Yet Lee Man-hee's apology for the national "calamity" instead whipped up more outrage - due to a watch he was wearing.

The gold-coloured watch, visible on his left wrist, was apparently given by disgraced former President Park Geun-hye, who was impeached and jailed in 2017 for corruption and abuse of power.

Images of the watch quickly trended on Twitter, while "Lee Man-hee watch" was the most searched phrase on South Korea's biggest search portal Naver.

"He is bragging about Park's gift," fumed one Twitter user. "His watch was shiny and crystal clear, like his loyalty and ties with Park Geun-hye," jibed another.

There was no comment on the controversy from Lee. But a leader at his Shincheonji Church of Jesus said there was nothing untoward about the watch, which was given as a merit award.

"It has nothing to do with politics," the official told Reuters, noting that Lee was a veteran of the Korean War. "He wears it because he doesn't have anything else."

Coronavirus Blues: No Matter How Good The Chicken, Cain't Be No Finger Lickin!

nydailynews |  Kentucky Fried Chicken is suspending its signature slogan — for obvious reasons.

On Friday, the fast food chain announced it would suspend an advertising campaign focused on its famous “finger lickin’ good” motto amid the coronavirus crisis.

According to The Independent, Advertising Standards Authority — the self-regulatory agency focused on the British advertising industry — received 163 complaints about the U.K.-based television ads that started running in February.

“Our team in the UK didn’t feel like it was the right time to be airing this particular advertisement, so they’ve decided to pause it for now,” a KFC spokesperson told the Daily News Monday evening.

Weeks ago, the American-headquartered fried chicken giant announced a search for a “professional finger licker” willing to show off their skills with a widespread billboards campaign that went up across Britain.

With health officials all over the world stressing the dire importance for hygiene and hand-washing, the idea of any kind of finger-licking doesn’t quite strike the right tone.

For the time being, there won’t be any ads featuring people licking their fingers after eating the company’s flagship product. The slogan was trademarked by KFC, also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, in 1956,

Judaism As A Group Evolutionary Strategy

nih | MacDonald argues that a suite of genetic and cultural adaptations among Jews constitutes a “group evolutionary strategy.” Their supposed genetic adaptations include, most notably, high intelligence, conscientiousness, and ethnocentrism. According to this thesis, several major intellectual and political movements, such as Boasian anthropology, Freudian psychoanalysis, and multiculturalism, were consciously or unconsciously designed by Jews to (a) promote collectivism and group continuity among themselves in Israel and the diaspora and (b) undermine the cohesion of gentile populations, thus increasing the competitive advantage of Jews and weakening organized gentile resistance (i.e., anti-Semitism). By developing and promoting these movements, Jews supposedly played a necessary role in the ascendancy of liberalism and multiculturalism in the West. While not achieving widespread acceptance among evolutionary scientists, this theory has been enormously influential in the burgeoning political movement known as the “alt-right.” Examination of MacDonald’s argument suggests that he relies on systematically misrepresented sources and cherry-picked facts. It is argued here that the evidence favors what is termed the “default hypothesis”: Because of their above-average intelligence and concentration in influential urban areas, Jews in recent history have been overrepresented in all major intellectual and political movements, including conservative movements, that were not overtly anti-Semitic.

Keywords: Jews, Anti-Semitism, Group conflict, Gene-culture coevolution, Kevin MacDonald, Culture of critique

 

In the 1990s, Kevin MacDonald wrote a trilogy of books arguing that Judaism is a “group evolutionary strategy,” and the pursuit of this strategy by Jews had far-reaching consequences for world history. In A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy (1994) he proposed that, since its inception, Judaism has promoted eugenic practices favoring high intelligence, conscientiousness, and ethnocentrism. As a consequence, the contemporary Jewish population (at least the Ashkenazi population) is marked by a high level of these traits, including a mean IQ of 117 (weighted on verbal intelligence). In Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism (1998b) he argued that anti-Semitism is a reaction by gentiles to competition for resources with less populous but more organized and competent Jewish groups. In The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements (1998a), he argued that post-Enlightenment Jews who abandoned the religion of Judaism invented a substitute: liberal political, intellectual, and scientific movements with the same social and organizational structure as Judaism, and the same ultimate purpose to promote the evolutionary success of Jews.

According to The Culture of Critique, the most influential of these intellectual movements—Boasian anthropology, Freudian psychoanalysis, and Frankfurt School critical theory—were headed by charismatic and authoritarian leaders (analogous to rabbis), they placed great value on verbal brilliance and internal consistency rather than testability or agreement with external reality (analogous to Talmudic scholarship), and they promoted Jewish group interests at the expense of gentiles. The movements advocated separatism and ethnocentrism for Jews, discouraged ethnic identification among white gentiles (in order to prevent group consciousness among white gentiles that might lead to a sense of competition with Jews and thus anti-Semitism), undermined and destabilized traditional European culture to weaken resistance to Jewish control, “pathologized” anti-Semitism, and denied that Jewish behavior plays a role in anti-Jewish attitudes.

MacDonald argues that Jewish intellectual and political movements were responsible for major trends in twentieth-century scientific, political, and demographic history. These movements, he says, were responsible for the rejection of Darwinian thinking among most mainstream social scientists, and also for large-scale nonwhite immigration to European and European-colonized countries (the United States, Australia, etc.).

Tard Bidnis Moratorium: HandWashing Whooey To Outlawing Large Gatherings

Michigan |  Community Mitigation Strategies Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS)

Interim Recommendations for COVID-19 Community Mitigation Strategies

(PDF Download of this document)

Community Mitigation Strategies - Spanish

Community Mitigation Strategies - Arabic

March 11, 2020

[The most up-to-date guidance on these and other mitigation strategies is available at www.Michigan.gov/coronavirus. This matter is rapidly evolving and MDHHS may provide updated guidance.]

Community mitigation strategies are crucial to slowing the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Michigan, particularly before a vaccine or treatment becomes available. These strategies provide essential protections to individuals at risk of severe illness and to health care and other critical infrastructure workforces. Preventing a sudden, sharp increase in the number of people infected with COVID-19 will help minimize disruptions to daily life and limit the demand on health care providers and facilities.

These recommended strategies apply at the individual, organizational, and community levels. They apply to businesses, workplaces, schools, community organizations, health care institutions, and individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and health profiles. Everyone has some measure of responsibility to help limit the spread of this disease. Even individuals who are healthy can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 to others.

Michiganders have been preparing for COVID-19 for weeks, and all individuals should continue to take the following basic personal-hygiene measures to prevent the spread of the virus:

• wash your hands often with soap and water or use hand sanitizer;
• avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands;
• cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing;
• avoid handshakes;
• avoid contact with sick people who are sick; and
• stay home when you are sick

metrotimes |  Just days after recommending events of more than 100 people be canceled to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered an official ban on all large gatherings.

Executive order 2020-5 prohibits all gatherings of people of 250 people or more starting at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 13, and ending at 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 5. The executive order also closes all K-12 school buildings to students from Monday, March 16, until Sunday, April 5. Child care facilities will remain open.

Violating the ban is a misdemeanor offense.

AIPAC and CPAC America's N-1 SARS-CoV2 Super Spreader Nodes

forward | The tens of thousands of devotees who attended last week’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference and the Conservative Political Action Conference at the end of February have all gone back home, bringing with them new ideas about U.S.-Israel relations and strategies for Republican victories in the 2020 election, respectively. Some have also brought back the coronavirus.

At least five attendees of AIPAC and one from CPAC — two of Washington’s marquee annual political events — have tested positive for the virus, diagnoses that have rippled out to create quarantines and school closings from Cleveland to California. Neither AIPAC nor CPAC would address reports on social media that the infected CPAC attendee also attended AIPAC, which started the next day.

With New Rochelle, N.Y., being declared a “contamination zone” on Tuesday, scores of schools and universities going online only, many businesses asking employees to work remotely and thousands of gatherings large and small getting postponed indefinitely, there have been some complaints about the approach taken by the two advocacy organizations.

CPAC in particular has come under fire for a lack of adequate communication with individuals who came into contact with the affected attendee. Raheem Kassam, a conservative author and commentator, and Brandon Darby, a reporter for the right-wing outlet Breitbart, are among several people who were at CPAC and claim that VIP attendees have gotten access to more information faster than have the rest of the 20,000 people in attendance. The American Conservative Union, which organizes the conference, did not respond to inquiries on Tuesday.

Politico reported that the CPAC attendee with the virus ate at a Shabbat dinner Feb. 28, and held a gold-level ticket that provided access to Republican lawmakers including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Paul Gosar of Arizona and Doug Collins of Georgia. All four are self-quarantining. The Washington Beacon, a conservative Website, reported Tuesday that the infected person was at a VIP congressional reception on the opening night of the conference, Feb. 26.

March Madness in KillaCity: Phugg a Coronavirus...,

bizjournals |  The Big 12 men's and women's basketball tournaments still will have crowds in Kansas City, despite a decision by the NCAA to bar fans from coming championship events out of fears the coronavirus will spread at its events.

The ban includes the men's Division I basketball tournament known as March Madness. Big 12 Director of Media Services Joni Lehmann said in an email to the Kansas City Business Journal that as of Wednesday afternoon, fans would be allowed in Wednesday evening's games, beyond that, she said she could not offer any additional information.

The NCAA released a statement Wednesday afternoon that will effectively bar fans from attending any championship because of concerns about large crowds congregating as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the U.S. The statement said, in part, that the games will have only essential staff and limited family attendance.

The NCAA statement made specific reference to the NCAA basketball tournament but did not mention the conference-specific tournaments that are taking place this week. Downtown Kansas City and Sprint Center have played host to the men's Big 12 basketball tournament for the past several years, and the event provides a big boost for regional tourism and hotels, while offering a spotlight for Sprint Center and the larger downtown area.

The women's Big 12 basketball tournament is returning to Kansas City and Municipal Auditorium for the first time since 2012. On Wednesday afternoon, fans in the Kansas City Power & Light District and the area around Sprint Center began gathering for Wednesday's games.

Many fans were in nearby bars and restaurants while small crowds began trickling in, awaiting a decision on the game. The men's tournament was set to begin its first round of games at 6 p.m. Wednesday with the tournament wrapping up Saturday. The women's tournament starts at 6 p.m. Thursday and is scheduled to end on Sunday.

DC Wrecked By One Infected Episcopal Rector...,

cbsnews |  The first person to test positive for coronavirus in Washington, D.C., is the prominent leader of a historic Episcopal church in Georgetown, the church said Sunday.

The Reverend Timothy Cole, rector of Christ Church Georgetown, was diagnosed at the hospital Saturday night and is in stable condition, according to the Reverend Crystal Hardin, the assistant to the rector, who spoke at a press conference outside the church Sunday. 

In an email to parishioners obtained by CBS News, Cole confirmed he has tested positive, and said services were suspended "out of an abundance of caution for the most vulnerable among us." All services were canceled Sunday, the first time the church has closed since a fire in the 1800s, Hardin said. 

"I can now confirm that I am the individual who tested positive for the Coronavirus," Cole wrote in his email. "First, I want to assure you that I will be okay. I am receiving excellent care and am in good spirits under the circumstances. I will remain quarantined for the next 14 days as will the rest of my family."

The church was founded in 1817 and is a fixture of the upscale Washington community, with a congregation that includes many government officials. Cole has been rector of the church since 2016.

First Confirmed Case In Missouri (Catholic N-1 Might As Well Been a Shiite Licking Shit...,)

stltoday |  Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill School will close Monday after administrators learned that a St. Louis County woman infected with the coronavirus is the older sister of a Villa Duchesne student.

Moreover, a message from the schools to parents, circulating on social media, warns that the father and sister of the infected patient attended a school father-daughter dance Saturday night at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton. They also apparently attended a pre-dance gathering at the house of a Villa student.

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said Sunday that the patient’s family had been told on Thursday to self quarantine at their home in Ladue. Page said the patient’s father had not followed health department instructions. Page spoke at a news conference Sunday evening.

County health officials told the man on Sunday, Page said, “that he must remain in his home or they will issue a formal quarantine that will require him and the rest of his family to stay in their home by the force of law.”

The Villa Duchesne message advises students and parents, “If you attended the dance, please be attentive to any symptoms you are experiencing.”

abcnews |   According to Missouri statute, someone who is issued a formal quarantine and "evades or breaks quarantine" could be found guilty of a class A misdemeanor. 

He called it "a tale of two reactions" and "a study of how people should and should not react to the coronavirus." 

"From everything we can gather, the patient had conducted herself responsibly and maturely and she is to be commended for complying with the health department's instructions," Page said. "The patient's father did not act consistently with the health department's instructions." 

The county is planning to implement state-of-the-art strategies and provide information through it's various channels including the hotline, website and social media to disseminate resources and updates on coronavirus. 

Page reiterated the importance of hand washing, covering mouths when sneezing or coughing, staying home if sick and following all the CDC recommendations -- especially if you have been in contact with anyone who is symptomatic. 

County health officials have communicated their expectations for the family in a letter and Page said he expects them to follow the quarantine guidelines. 

A similar case occurred in New Hampshire where one presumptive positive patient, who works at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, allegedly ignored a directive to self-isolate and attended an invitation-only event on Feb. 28, health officials said. Health Department officials then attempted to track down all the attendees and instruct them to follow the recommended 14-day self-isolation.

This Is No Way To Lick The Coronavirus

NYPost |  Shocking footage has emerged of Iranians tempting fate by licking the doors and a burial mound at the Fatima Masumeh Shrine in Qom, the epicenter of the Islamic Republic’s COVID-19 outbreak.

Journalist Masih Alinejad shared video of the disturbing practice, noting that officials have refused to shut down the religious shrines — while the death toll in the country stands at 66, with more than 1,500 infected.

“These pro-regime people are licking the shrines & encouraging people to visit them,” he said in a tweet. “Iran’s authorities are endangering lives of Iranians & the world.”

Pilgrims routinely kiss and lick religious shrines, including in Qom, which is considered a “place for healing,” according to the UK’s Daily Star.

Those who were photographed licking the doors said they “don’t care what happens,” the news outlet reported.

Despite restrictions on who is allowed in and out of Qom, the seventh-largest city in Iran, it has not been locked down during the medical crisis.

“The smell of disinfectants has become my nightmare. The city smells like a cemetery, a morgue,” said retired teacher Ziba Rezaie, according to the Star.

Meanwhile, it was reported Monday that a close adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died of the illness.

Two key officials also have been confirmed to be infected, including Masoumeh Ebtekar, a vice president better known as “Sister Mary,” who served as spokeswoman for the students who seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

SARS-CoV2: A Biological Referendum On Competing Political Cultures and Economies

WaPo | On Friday, the Iranian government finally began to acknowledge what the world already knows: the covid-19 virus has hit that country extremely hard and it’s likely to get much worse.

In a televised news conference, the spokesman for Iran’s coronavirus task force announced that 4,700 cases of the virus have now been confirmed, including more than 1,200 in the previous 24 hours. The official death count stands at 124.

The ways in which key leaders’ responses differ from those of ordinary citizens tell you everything you need to know about the deepening gulf between the Iranian people and their government and how it might contribute to the spread of the disease.

The sudden sense of alarm contrasts starkly with how Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other officials initially downplayed the threat.

In the early stages of the virus story, officials in Tehran were worried about turnout in the Feb. 11 parliamentary elections. They feared that low voter turnout — which, as anticipated, was aggravated by the Iranian military’s shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger jet in January — would further undermine the notion of public support for the system. Authorities prioritized their political concerns over the risk of the virus spreading.

Now, though, the news that an increasing number of ministers and lawmakers have tested positive for the virus — two of whom have already died from it — has shattered what was left, if anything, of the government’s credibility.

“Today, the country is engaged in a biological battle,” Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said. “We will prevail in the fight against this virus, which might be the product of an American biological [attack], which first spread in China and then to the rest of the world.”

Almost Like It Was Optimized to Clip Tards...., (sarc)

In Daegu, 1900 Shincheonji Church members have been tested for coronavirus.

1300 had symptoms & 600 did not.

Among those 1300 with symptoms, 87.5% were confirmed with the virus .

BUT out of the 600 WITHOUT symptoms, 70% were confirmed with coronavirus.

— Laura Bicker (@BBCLBicker) February 29, 2020

Put another way:

Out of a population of 1,900
1,300 were symptomatic
600 asymptomatic

420 tested positive but asymptomatic
1,131 tested positive and symptomatic

= 1,551 infections out of 1,900 = 81%

— Jay Reynolds (@jaycreynolds) February 29, 2020

Insane attack rate

Where is this thing from

— Ani in the coronapocalypse🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 (@anabellebf) February 29, 2020

South Korean Cults, Conservatives, and Coronavirus

FP |  South Korea initially seemed to have the COVID-19 epidemic under control, armed with efficient bureaucracy and state-of-the-art technology. However, since Feb. 18, the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea has exploded to more than 1,700 as of Thursday. The battle plan against the epidemic was derailed by the oldest of problems: religion and politics.

When it came to preparation, it helped that South Korea had one hell of a practice run: the MERS outbreak in 2015 that caused 38 deaths. At the time, the incompetent response by the conservative administration of then President Park Geun-hye put South Korea in the ignominious position of having the greatest number of cases outside of the Middle East. The fallout, which contributed to the public distrust of government that culminated in Park’s impeachment and removal, pushed the South Korean government to significantly revamp its preparation for the next viral event.

South Korea has been preparing for a potential new strain of coronavirus since as early as November 2019. Without knowing what virus would hit the country next, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) devised an ingenious method of testing for any type of coronavirus and eliminating known strains of coronavirus such as SARS or MERS to isolate the new variant of coronavirus.

For the first four weeks of the outbreak, South Korea marshaled high-tech resources to respond aggressively while promoting transparency. The government tracked the movements of travelers arriving from China, for example by tracking the use of credit cards, checking CCTV footage, or mandating they download an app to report their health status every day. For those infected, the government published an extremely detailed list of their whereabouts, down to which seat they sat in at a movie theater.

The info was also presented (with names removed) in an interactive website that allows the public to trace the movement of every single individual with coronavirus. To be sure, there were real privacy concerns—as when one unfortunate patient in Daejeon had news of their visit to a risqué lingerie store blasted to every smartphone in their city. Yet on balance, these disclosures did much to calm the nerves and prevent unnecessary panic in the population. By Feb. 17, South Korea’s tally of COVID-19 patients stood at 30, with zero deaths. Ten patients were fully cured and discharged, with some of the discharged patients declaring the disease was “not something as serious as one might think.” The government seemed ready to declare victory.

That all came to a crashing halt last week thanks to the 31st case. Patient No. 31, discovered on Feb. 18, was a member of a quasi-Christian cult called Shincheonji, one of the many new religious movements in the country. Founded in 1984, Shincheonji (whose official name is Shincheonji, Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony) means “new heaven and earth,” a reference to the Book of Revelation. Its founder Lee Man-hee claims to be the second coming of Jesus who is to establish the “new spiritual Israel” at the end of days. The cult is estimated to have approximately 240,000 followers, and claims to have outposts in 29 countries in addition to South Korea.

Shincheonji’s bad theology makes for worse public health. Shincheonji teaches illness is a sin, encouraging its followers to suffer through diseases to attend services in which they sit closely together, breathing in spittle as they repeatedly amen in unison. If they were off on their own, that might be one thing—but according to Shin Hyeon-uk, a pastor who formerly belonged to the cult, Shincheonji believes in “deceptive proselytizing,” approaching potential converts without disclosing their denomination. Shincheonji convinces its members to cover their tracks, providing a prearranged set of answers to give when anyone asks if they belong to the cult. Often, even family members are in the dark about whether someone is a Shincheonji follower. The net effect is that Shincheonji followers infect each other easily, then go onto infect the community at large.

It is not yet clear exactly how Shincheonji cultists were infected with COVID-19 in the first instance. (KCDC said Patient No. 31 is likely not the first Shincheonji follower to be infected, given the timeline of her symptoms.) Although investigations are still pending, South Korean authorities have been focusing on the funeral of the brother of Shincheonji’s founder held in early February. Shincheonji has 19 churches in China, including in Wuhan, and it may be possible that followers from around the world attended the funeral.