“Critical Medical Supply Shortage”: The Moment US Woke Up To Disaster Of Always Outsourcing To China
No doubt Americans will look back on this current crisis as the moment the country collectively learned its lesson ‘the hard way’ about the dangers of over-reliance on Chinese manufacturing, or sending the vast majority of our manufacturing abroad anywhere for that matter.
“The critical shortage of medical supplies across the U.S., including testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer, can be tied to a sudden drop in imports, mostly from China,”Associated Press reports after a new investigation.
Likely Washington’s current panicked mobilization to ensure medical equipment and supply needs are met across the country as the numbers of infected Americans begin to track with the kind of exponential growth rate seen in Italy or Iran is due to political leaders already seeing the writing on the wall, or the plain and simple data for that matter. Trump’s invoking the Defense Production Act and reportedly mulling lifting some tariffs against China is a case in point.
Chart and data via the Associated Press
“Trade data shows the decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports,” the AP says.
Whether ventilators, gloves, surgical gowns or N95 masks (which remove 95% of all airborne particles), or even over-the-counter items like thermometers and bandage kits, the US health system overwhelmingly relies on Chinese manufacturing.
But with the United States’ own crisis perhaps in the early stages, and at a moment lack of daily growth in confirmed cases out of Beijing health officials looks promising, the fallout from the prior forced shuttering of many Chinese factories is only now hitting US ports hard and thus is severely depleting hospitals and clinics:
The most recent delivery of medical-grade N95 masks arrived from China about a month ago, on Feb. 19. And as few as 13 shipments of non-medical N95 masks have arrived in the past month — half as many as arrived the same month last year. N95 masks are used in industrial settings, as well as hospitals, and filter out 95% of all airborne particles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by regular masks.
The AP investigation further found that over the past month vital supplies of things as simple as hand sanitizer and swabs dropped by 40%, with N95 mask imports cut down by over half.
Image source: AP
At the moment hospitals on the East and West coasts in the most highly impacted cities are receiving the bulk of recent reduced shipments first; however, as the pandemic potentially continues to spread in cities in the central parts of the country and mid-west, the vastly reduced supplies could send hospitals into the kind of catastrophe and crisis mode that Italy is tragically experiencing.
But doctors on the ground might say we’re already entering Italy levels of the crisis, as the AP alarmingly details: “Doctors, nurses and first responders in the U.S. are resorting to spraying their masks with bleach at the end of each day and hanging them up at home to dry to use for another day, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.”
Many people have likened the battle against coronavirus to a war and invoked imagery of the US fighting World War II. President Trump has even deemed himself a “wartime president.”
The president told reporters at a White House briefing that fighting the virus would require a sacrificial national effort just like it took to defeat the Axis in the Second World War.
Every generation of Americans has been called to make shared sacrifices for the good of the nation. To this day, nobody has ever seen like it, what they were able to do during World War II. Now it’s our time. We must sacrifice together, because we are all in this together, and we will come through together. It’s the invisible enemy. That’s always the toughest enemy, the invisible enemy.”
But listening to all the rhetoric coming from politicians and pundits, one has to ask, where exactly is the sacrifice?
The government is promising bailouts for everybody. We’re just weeks into the crisis and there is already an expectation that the government will be sending everybody checks. Peter Schiff called it “bailout nation.”
Apparently, the government wants “sacrifice” with no pain.
Unfortunately, that’s not a thing.
Americans didn’t get checks from the government in World War II. They got higher taxes. Schiff summed it up in a tweet.
During WWII middle-class Americas sacrificed to support the US government’s war effort. They paid much higher taxes, substantially reduced their consumption, and loaned their savings to the government. The people support the government. The government can’t support the people.”
Therein lies the ugly truth. There is no sacrifice without pain. The government can bail out the airlines. It can bail out the hotels. It can helicopter money in and drop it on your head. You’re still going to pay, either through higher taxes in the future or through inflation.
In the end, economics always wins.
Trump is right. You are going to sacrifice for the government actions surrounding the coronavirus. What he’s not telling you is it’s going to hurt.
The government and central bank response to the economic crisis precipitated by coronavirus are creating the perfect storm for price inflation. The problem isn’t a lack of money. It’s a lack of stuff. We’re all sitting at home and a lot of us aren’t producing anything. Uncle Sam can stuff our mailboxes with checks. That money doesn’t do us a damn bit of good if there is nothing to buy.
The end result will be a lot more dollars chasing a lot fewer goods. That means prices will go up.
When inflation heats up, interest rates rise. That’s the proper response. How exactly is that going to work in a world up to its eyeballs in debt?
This is why Schiff keeps saying we’re on the path to a dollar crisis.
All the money the Fed is printing isn’t going to have value. It isn’t going to buy anything. Prices are going to skyrocket. And in fact, this coronavirus is accelerating that process because the coronavirus is reducing the supply of goods available to buy.”
I’ve always held to the theory that when the doctor tells you “this won’t hurt a bit,” it’s going to hurt like hell. You would be wise to treat politicians the same way. When they tell you the sacrifice won’t hurt because they will make it all OK, you had better hold on to your wallet. Because you will sacrifice. And it will hurt.
“Please Take This Seriously… It’s Brutal” – COVID-19 Survivors Speak Out
COVID-19 survivors are speaking out about what it is like to contract the disease. As of Saturday morning, there are 287,239 confirmed cases and 11,921 deaths that have been reported across the world.
In the US, 19,385 confirmed cases and 231 deaths have so far been reported. Many large metropolitan areas have missed the critical containment window to implement social distancing measures to suppress the epidemic curve, resulting in the mass community spreading, and now an exponential curve in cases.
We have warned for weeks about an exponential curve playing out across the US, as it is only a matter of time before hospital systems are overwhelmed with patients.
The mortality rate of COVID-19 in the US is approximately 0.0119%, mostly because the hospital bed and ICU-level treatment capacity remain open, treating the most vulnerable. But when capacity is full, and the sick cannot get ventilators, that is when the mortality rate will skyrocket, currently playing out in Italy.
The Sacramento Bee has piecemealed six COVID-19 survivor interviews that give personal accounts of what it is like to contract the disease. These survivors are from the US and Europe and have a common theme they want to share: “Please take this seriously:”
Coronavirus Survivor: Connor Reed
Believed to be the first person from the United Kingdom to catch coronavirus, Reed told Sky News the virus progressed in stages. He continued a repeating cycle of getting better, then feeling worse again.
Just 25 years old, Reed told Sky News he lost his voice from an incessant cough. He was unable to make any sounds, he added.
Reed was in China when he caught the virus and told the North Wales Pioneer he was ill for about two weeks.
“The best case of recovery is having enough rest and keeping quarantined and being by yourself,” he told the Pioneer.
Coronavirus Survivor: Chris Kane
A 55-year-old Washington resident, Kane got the virus last month while on a business trip in Florida, according to ABC News. He said his first major symptom was pressure on his chest.
“What got me kind of nervous was when my chest started to feel like, you know, an elephant was standing on (it) basically tough to get your breath,” he told ABC News.
Kane was treated with remdesivir, an antiviral therapy that was used in Ebola treatment, according to NBC News. The treatment was used on the seventh day he was in the hospital, and positive results were shown the following day.
“We are 100,000 percent convinced that the remdesivir turned things around for him,” his wife, Susan Kane, told NBC News.
Coronavirus Survivor: Tara Jane Langston
A 39-year-old gym-goer, Langston urged people while in a London ICU hospital bed not to take any chances with the virus.
She said she had lost count of how many days she was dealing with the virus.
“If anyone still smokes, put the cigarettes down because I’m telling you now, you need your … lungs,” she said in a video posted to Facebook. “Please, none of you take any chances.”
Langston told MailOnline the virus is like “having glass in your lungs. It’s hard to explain, but every breath is a battle.”
She is now recovering, according to MailOnline, and posted the video to warn younger people that they also are susceptible to the virus.
Coronavirus Survivor: Amy Driscoll
Initial symptoms for the 48-year-old Ohio mother included a 99.2 degree fever, along with a headache and heavy cough, she wrote on Facebook. She also said she had low blood pressure and a high heart rate.
She calls herself “the face of this infection.”
“It is brutal and I’m a healthy 48 year old with no underlying conditions,” she wrote. “I’m not 100 percent better but I’m home resting. Please take this seriously. People you love, their lives may depend on it.”
She told BuzzFeed she felt fine when she went to work one day last week, but her symptoms quickly hit her hard. Released from a hospital a couple days after being admitted, she has been in quarantine this week. “Quarantine is not fun, but I would much rather be in quarantine and know I’m not exposing anyone else to this — and I’ll take that,” she told BuzzFeed.
Coronavirus Survivor: Christy Brown
Brown, 73, thought she was having intestinal issues, but she went to the doctor several days later when her symptoms did not subside, according to WFPL.
The Louisville resident told WHAS she did not have many of the symptoms typically shown in the virus, including a fever.
She began isolation on March 8 when her symptoms appeared, according to the Courier-Journal.
Brown said she alerted people she may have been in contact with as soon as she was diagnosed with the virus.
“You never know of course whether you’ve done it as thoroughly as you could do it, because you’ve never had an experience like this,” Brown said on the WHAS podcast The Proffitt Report. “This is new to all of us. It’s an extraordinarily new journey that’s terrifying but we’re all a part of the solution.”
Coronavirus Survivor: Eric Elnes
The pastor of Countryside Community Church in Omaha, Nebraska, Elnes told churchgoers in a livestream he tested positive for the virus after returning from a trip to Spain.
He told the congregation he only has mild symptoms.
“In fact, that’s a source of comfort, but it also should be a source of concern,” he said. “The only reason why I was told to get tested is because I traveled abroad and had that one symptom (slight cough, elevated heart rate).”
He told CNN he didn’t think much of his symptoms, but worries for people he may have been in contact with.
“I can’t even imagine now the people who have been exposed to somebody like me,” he said. Brown
Another survivor has a message for all of us: “If anyone still smokes, put the cigarettes down, because I am telling you, you need your f*cking lungs.”
An Italian virologist says that the country’s attempt not to appear “racist” in the early says of the coronavirus outbreak crippled the ability to properly respond to the pandemic.
Professor of Virology and Microbiology at the University of Padova Dr. Giorgio Palù told CNN that measures imposing travel restrictions and border controls were taken too late due to fears over political correctness.
“There was a proposal to isolate people coming from the epicenter, coming from China,” Palù told CNN. “Then it became seen as racist, but they were people coming from the outbreak.”
Italy is now the hardest hit country in the world in terms of coronavirus deaths, with 3,405 people losing their lives.
The need to minimize potential “racism” and “stigmatization” in response to the coronavirus was a policy endorsed by the World Health Organization itself on numerous occasions and adopted by the left-wing Italian government.
As we previously highlighted, the Mayor of Florence launched a nationwide campaign at the start of February encouraging Italians to hug Chinese people on the street to “stem the hatred.”
Footage of the stunt even shows Italians physically removing a Chinese man’s face mask while closely embracing him.
The Mayor even released a Twitter video of himself hugging an awkward-looking Chinese person to promote the campaign, which was launched to “express solidarity with the Chinese community.”
#coronavirus: seguiamo le indicazioni delle autorità sanitarie e usiamo cautela, ma nessun terrorismo psicologico e soprattutto basta con i soliti sciacalli che non vedevano l’ora di usare questa scusa per odiare e insultare. Uniti in questa battaglia comune! #AbbracciaUnCinesepic.twitter.com/pUdqEl0piW
Now Italian hospitals in some areas are completely overwhelmed and the entire country is on lockdown.
This once again underscores how political correctness, which leftists often define as “just being nice to people,” can often have deadly consequences.
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Turkey Arrests 64 For ‘Provocative’ Coronavirus-Related Social Media Posts
Turkey has established a well-known pattern of shutting down entire social media platforms — like Facebook and Twitter — the moment there’s a crisis in the country which could make Erdogan’s decision-making look bad or come under intense public scrutiny.
Recent events related to Syria, or Turkey’s war on the Kurds, are prime examples which have seen either Twitter blocked inside Turkey, or in some cases internet access to non-state sources temporarily halted altogether.
So perhaps this is entirely to be expected amid the coronavirus pandemic: Turkey has detained 64 people over “provocative and baseless” social media posts about the new coronavirus pandemic, the interior ministry said, regional media has reported.
Image source: Al Jazeera/EPA
Press freedoms in Turkey are already ranked among the world’s lowest, with hundreds if not possibly thousands of journalists locked up across the country. But now citizens need to worry about potential arrest should they post coronavirus-related information that runs afoul of Ankara’s official narrative.
“We have found 242 suspects making baseless and provocative coronavirus posts on social media, and 64 have been detained,” the ministry announced on Twitter Thursday, according to AFP.
Similar to other countries in the region, Turkey has recently enacted a nation-wide bad on public gatherings, shuttering everything from schools to cafes to universities. This as at least 359 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed, including four deaths.
But also similar to other regional countries, Turkey has been accused of downplaying and/or covering up the true levels of the outbreak. Syria to the south has been a prime example of this: the Assad government has ordered the closure of all schools, restaurants, theaters and public places, and yet is still officially reporting zero cases. However, it could also be the case they acted quickly enough, with WHO officials looking on and administering tests, amid all but the Lebanese border being for years shutdown due to war.
Lest anyone think Turkey will be the the only country to began actual legal investigations over citizens’ social media posts related to the pandemic, governments across the globe, especially Israel for example, are fast giving themselves sweeping emergency powers which will likely end in severe online censorship. By the end of this, the locking up of journalists is likely to include other countries as well, possibly in the West, unfortunately.
The new coronavirus and its accompanying disease Covid-19 has stopped the globe in its tracks. Governments, markets and news cycles have become dominated by the pandemic. Europe is now the epicenter for the disease, with reportedly more fatal cases of infection than China where the virus first erupted in December.
Several European Union countries have declared themselves states of emergencies, including Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. The 27-member bloc has sealed off external borders. Some states, such as Poland, have begun closing borders with other EU members. Brussels, the administrative center of the EU, is alarmed because the much-vaunted single market and its core principles of free movement of goods and people is at risk of collapsing.
The European entity which proclaims solidarity and supranational status is reverting to a collection of nation states, each desperately fighting for their own survival amid the Covid-19 pandemic. EU leaders have been criticized for showing lack of central leadership and solidarity. When Italy first reported a surge in infections a few weeks ago, the rest of Europe was slow to respond with the necessary prompt assistance. Now Italy is such a grip of the disease – with thousands dead – that in some parts of the country normal funeral services reportedly cannot even cope with the number of deceased.
In blistering remarks this week, the Serbian President Alexander Vucic lamented that there was “no European solidarity”. Serbia is a prospective member of the EU along with several other Balkan states, but Vucic said his country has received little in the way of aid from the EU in face of the coronavirus threat. Indeed, by contrast, the Serb leader extolled the generosity of China which has sent large shipments of equipment to combat the disease. Beijing has also dispatched aid cargoes and medical teams to Italy and other EU members to help them cope with their outbreaks.
The World Health Organization has praised the prompt and massive intervention by the Chinese authorities in curbing the spread of the disease within their borders. Latest indications seem to show China has halted the spread of the infection.
The dithering response by the EU and its belated nation-based reactions could turn out to be a fatal political incompetence with consequences of huge death toll and ruinous economic impact. The citizens of Europe will not forgive such fecklessness.
Laughably, an EU monitoring group this week claimed that Russia was interfering by spreading disinformation about impacts of the novel coronavirus in such a way as to undermine European governments and to “sow division” among European civilians. This scapegoating for its own incompetence is risible.
Weeks ago when the world could see that the virus outbreak in China was a grave development, the EU administrators and national leaders were sitting on their hands. Now that the disease has become a pandemic across the EU, the European Central Bank has suddenly announced it is pumping €750 billion ($820 billion) to shore up financial markets and institutions while countries struggle to find test kits to detect the disease and ventilators to treat victims. Healthcare systems have been gutted by years of economic austerity under neoliberal capitalism whereby Brussels and European governments have prostrated themselves to the diktat of finance capital.
What is abundantly clear is that the EU has become a financially-driven cartel, not a human-centered federation of nations. An organization that cannot adequately protect the health of its public is not an organization worth defending. The EU’s declarations of democracy and solidarity are being seen for the facade that they are. That facade was always shaky. A microbe is enough to tear it down.
The march towards martial law is something that is often ignored by the general public, often labeled as Quackery or something belonging on conspiracy websites. But what’s happening in this country is exactly what our founders warned us about, and martial law is something they took very, very seriously.
What is martial law?
If you’re looking for a definition, then Martial Law basically means using state or national military force to enforce the will of the government on the people.
Under a declaration of martial law, Constitutional freedoms and liberties are suspended, and civilians are no longer entitled to their civil rights. It basically allows the government, or a tyrannical politician, to shred the Constitution and impose its will through military force.
History of Martial Law in the United States of America
“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”
– Winston Churchill
In one way or another, there have always been tyrants who have used the power of government to suppress and control the public. But if we are looking for specific examples of Martial Law being used inside the United States, we don’t have to look very hard or far to find them.
Using the strictest definition of the term, we can see the roots of martial law in America take hold during the lead up to the Revolutionary war. Although there were many reasons for the war, including resistance to taxes imposed by the British parliament, the main catalyst was England’s decision to use military troops to enforce everyday law throughout the colonies.
The beginning of the end? The Civil War Ushers in a Strong Central Government through Martial Law Enforcement
Flash forward a hundred years, and many of the most egregious examples of martial law can be found throughout the civil war. While today’s history books largely ignore the real reasons for the war or the many atrocities committed by President Lincoln, the facts of what really happened cannot be disputed.
The reason we have lost so many of our liberties can be tied directly to the civil war.
On September 15, 1863, President Lincoln imposed Congressionally-authorized martial law. While history contends the war was fought to end slavery, the truth is, Lincoln by his own admission never really cared about freeing slaves. In fact, Lincoln never intended to abolish slavery, his main interest was centralizing government power and using the federal government to exert complete control over all citizens. The abolishment of slavery was only a byproduct of the war. It actually took the 13th amendment to end slavery, since Lincoln actually only freed Southern slaves, not slaves in states loyal to the Union.
During the Civil War, Lincoln continually violated the Constitution, in some cases suspending the entire Constitution that he swore to uphold.
He suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus without the consent of congress.
He shut down newspapers whose writers displayed any dissent to Union policy or spoke out against him.
He raised troops without the consent of Congress.
He closed courts by force.
He even imprisoned citizens, newspaper owners,and elected officials without cause and without a trial.
Our founders were very wary of using the military to enforce public policy, and concerns about this type of abuse date back to, and largely influenced, the creation of the Constitution. The founders continually warned about using military force to uphold law and order; unfortunately, most Americans are rather ignorant of history and are even more ignorant to what our founders intended when they created the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
What will happen under Martial law?
The actual words martial law will probably never be used.
The first thing you will likely see is a declaration of a “State of Emergency”. This may be done nationally, in cases of war or a large-scale terrorist attacks; or it may happen locally, as witnessed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
In August of 2005, New Orleans was declared a disaster area and a state of emergency was declared by the governor. This allowed state officials to order evacuations and forcefully remove residents from their homes, suspend certain laws, confiscate firearms, and suspend the sale of items like liquor, firearms, and ammunition.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans police, the U.S. Marshals office, and the Louisiana National Guard forcibly confiscated over 1,000 legal firearms from law-abiding citizens.
Depending on the reasons behind the declaration you may also see:
The suspension of the Constitution, probably starting with the first and second amendment.
Confiscation of firearms; it has happened and it will happen again.
Suspension of Habeas corpus: Imprisonment without due process and without a trial.
Travel Restrictions, including road closures and possibly, even quarantine zones.
Mandatory Curfews and Mandatory Identification.
Automatic search and seizures without a warrant.
When can Martial Law be enacted?
When Martial Law can be enacted is a pretty touchy subject, largely because our founders never intended the federal government or a standing army be permitted to take such actions. Unfortunately, most people accept these unconstitutional activities and are more than willing to give up their essential liberties in exchange for peace of mind and not having to think for themselves.
This is something Benjamin Franklin warned about when he famously wrote, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
How likely is martial law in the United States?
Let’s face it, this country is a ticking time bomb. From widespread social unrest, crime, and violence to a growing national debt which includes an entire subset of our population that depends on government assistance to exist, the writing is on the wall: Trouble is Coming.
In my opinion, we are already under a form of martial law. The founders never intended standing armies policing the citizens of the United States; sadly that is exactly what we have.
Drones, armored vehicles with high power weapons, tanks, and battlefield helicopters are no longer something that you see on some foreign battlefield; it’s now standard operating procedure at police stations throughout the country. Our federal government has poured billions of dollars into militarizing and taking over our country’s local police forces, in what can only be described as a domestic military force or standing army meant to enforce federal law.
President Bush Expands Martial Law Authority
On September 29, 2006, President George W. Bush signed the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2007 (H.R. 5122). The law expanded the President’s authority to declare Martial Law under revisions to the Insurrection Act and actually allowed the President to take charge of National Guard troops without state governor authorization.
While certain aspects of the bill were rolled back in 2008, President Obama used the 2012 NDAA to further strengthen the Executive offices ability to declare Martial Law and added provisions that would allow military troops to detain U.S. citizens without a trial.
President Obama Forms National Police Task Force; Uses Social unrest as Justification.
In March of 2015, the Obama administration put together a task force that outlined rules for our nation’s police.
In his Task Force on 21st-century policing report, he outlined the formation of a National Policing Practices and Accountability Division within the federal government. The report went on to describe how the Department of Homeland Security could be used to “ensure that community policing tactics in state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies are incorporated into their role in homeland security.”
Increasing number of Joint Police/Military Drills are using American Citizens as Theoretical Threats.
From the Jade Helm Military drills that classified Texas and Utah as hostile zones, to National Guard troops in California using crisis actors to portray “right-wing” U.S. citizens in their training exercises, there is a growing number of military-style drills that are portraying American citizens as the perceived threat.
Back in 2012, an army report about the future use of the military as a police force within the United States looked at theoretical situations where the U.S. Army could be used against Tea Party “insurrectionists” who take over U.S. cities. During that same time period, the Department of Homeland Security released a report titled, “Hot Spots of Terrorism and Other Crimes in the United States,” where they outlined who the federal government sees as the largest terrorist threat in the country – that threat was U.S. citizens with extreme “right-wing” views.
The United Stated of America that our Founders created is gone; it’s been replaced by a system that has grown so powerful that most people don’t even realize they’ve become enslaved by that very system.
So how likely is Martial Law in the United States? Well, in some form it’s already here; unfortunately, most people choose to ignore the reality of the situation. That being said, to see it fully enacted we will likely first see a major crisis – either real or manufactured – something like a large-scale terror attack, war with a rogue nation, or a major pandemic disease outbreak.
Bugout Planning: During martial law, it’s likely that most routes of travel will be severely restricted making bugging out something you need to think about well ahead of time.
Pandemics and How to Prepare for a Pandemic Outbreak: We list this here because it’s one disaster situation that has the potential to scare the entire populace into accepting some form of martial law, quarantine, and military checkpoints.
Emergency Communication Preparedness Checklist: During times of crisis, especially a martial law situation, uncensored information will be hard to come by. In all likelihood, you will see a sort of digital quarantine on top of the physical barriers with information on the internet and digital airwaves controlled by the government. You need to have a plan to get unfiltered news and information from trusted sources.
Best Emergency Food: The Top Survival Food Supplies: During any type of disaster you need to make sure you have adequate supplies on hand, including food, water, medical supplies, and self-defense supplies.
Half Of Americans Don’t Trust Mainstream Media’s COVID-19 Coverage
Americans are split on whether to trust news media with information regarding the coronavirus outbreak, according to a new poll.
As Statista’s Willem Roper notes, a joint poll conducted by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist, shows that 47 percent of U.S. adults responded by saying “not very much” or “not at all” when asked how much they trusted news media with coronavirus information.
This poll also included questions asking how much Americans trusted President Donald Trump, with 60 percent saying they didn’t trust him with coronavirus information, and on public health experts, with 13 percent saying they had little to no trust.
Unsurprisingly, Americans views on the news media were split along partisan lines. For Democrats, only 33 percent said they had little to no trust in the news media. Republicans, however, responded at a substantial 60 percent on their lack of confidence in the news media handling coronavirus information. Independents were equally high in their skepticism at 47 percent
Democrats and Republicans have been pointing fingers at news organizations since the coronavirus outbreak began to reach the U.S. Some Republicans believed liberal-leaning news outlets were blowing the outbreak out of proportion to damage the presidency and economy, while some Democrats believed conservative-leaning outlets were endangering American lives by not taking the outbreak seriously enough.
The new COVID-19 coronavirus has spread to more than 100 countries – bringing social disruption, economic damage, sickness, and death – largely because authorities in China, where it emerged, initially suppressed information about it. And yet China is now acting as if its decision not to limit exports of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and medical supplies – of which it is the dominant global supplier – was a principled and generous act worthy of the world’s gratitude.
When the first clinical evidence of a deadly new virus emerged in Wuhan, Chinese authorities failed to warn the public for weeks and harassed, reprimanded, and detained those who did. This approach is no surprise: China has a long history of “killing” the messenger. Its leaders covered up severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), another coronavirus, for over a month after it emerged in 2002, and held the doctor who blew the whistle in military custody for 45 days. SARS ultimately affected more than 8,000 people in 26 countries.
This time around, the Communist Party of China’s proclivity for secrecy was reinforced by President Xi Jinping’s eagerness to be perceived as an in-control strongman, backed by a fortified CPC. But, as with the SARS epidemic, China’s leaders could keep it under wraps for only so long. Once Wuhan-linked COVID-19 cases were detected in Thailand and South Korea, they had little choice but to acknowledge the epidemic.
About two weeks after Xi rejected scientists’ recommendation to declare a state of emergency, the government announced heavy-handed containment measures, including putting millions on lockdown. But it was too late: many thousands of Chinese were already infected with COVID-19, and the virus was rapidly spreading internationally. US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has said that China’s initial cover-up “probably cost the world community two months to respond,” exacerbating the global outbreak.
Beyond the escalating global health emergency, which has already killed thousands, the pandemic has disrupted normal trade and travel, forced many school closures, roiled the international financial system, and sunk global stock markets. With oil prices plunging, a global recession appears imminent.
None of this would have happened had China responded quickly to evidence of the deadly new virus by warning the public and implementing containment measures. Indeed, Taiwan and Vietnam have shown the difference a proactive response can make.
Taiwan, learning from its experience with SARS, instituted preventive measures, including flight inspections, before China’s leaders had even acknowledged the outbreak. Likewise, Vietnam quickly halted flights from China and closed all schools. Both responses recognized the need for transparency, including updates on the number and location of infections and public advisories on how to guard against COVID-19.
Thanks to their governments’ policies, both Taiwan and Vietnam – which normally receive huge numbers of travelers from China daily – have kept total cases under 50. Neighbors that were slower to implement similar measures, such as Japan and South Korea, have been hit much harder.
If any other country had triggered such a far-reaching, deadly, and above all preventable crisis, it would now be a global pariah. But China, with its tremendous economic clout, has largely escaped censure. Nonetheless, it will take considerable effort for Xi’s regime to restore its standing at home and abroad.
Perhaps that is why China’s leaders are publicly congratulating themselves for not limiting exports of medical supplies and APIs used to make medicines, vitamins, and vaccines. If China decided to ban such exports to the United States, the state-run news agency Xinhua recently noted, the US would be “plunged into a mighty sea of coronavirus.” China, the article implies, would be justified in taking such a step. It would simply be retaliating against “unkind” US measures taken after COVID-19’s emergence, such as restricting entry to the US by Chinese and foreigners who had visited China. Isn’t the world lucky that China is not that petty?
Maybe so. But that is no reason to trust that China will not be petty in the future. After all, China’s leaders have a record of halting other strategic exports (such as rare-earth minerals) to punish countries that defied them.
Moreover, this is not the first time China has considered weaponizing its dominance in global medical supplies and APIs. Last year, Li Daokui, a prominent Chinese economist, suggested curtailing Chinese API exports to the US as a countermeasure in the trade war.
“Once the export is reduced,” Li noted, “the medical systems of some developed countries will not work.”
That is no exaggeration. A US Department of Commerce study found that97% of all antibiotics sold in the US come from China.
“If you’re the Chinese and you want to really just destroy us,” Gary Cohn, former chief economic adviser to US President Donald Trump, observed last year, “just stop sending us antibiotics.”
If the specter of China exploiting its pharmaceutical clout for strategic ends were not enough to make the world rethink its cost-cutting outsourcing decisions, the unintended disruption of global supply chains by COVID-19 should be. In fact, China has had no choice but to fall behind in producing and exporting APIs since the outbreak – a development that has constrained global supply and driven up the prices of vital medicines.
That has already forced India, the world’s leading supplier of generic drugs, to restrict its own exports of some commonly used medicines. Almost 70% of the APIs for medicines made in India come from China. If China’s pharmaceutical plants do not return to full capacity soon, severe global medicine shortages will become likely.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the costs of Xi’s increasing authoritarianism. It should be a wake-up call for political and business leaders who have accepted China’s lengthening shadow over global supply chains for far too long. Only by loosening China’s grip on global supply networks – beginning with the pharmaceutical sector – can the world be kept safe from the country’s political pathologies.
As COVID-19 Drives People Into Isolation, Wall Street’s New ‘Virtual Workplace’ May Become The Norm
As governments take drastic measures to slow the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, Wall Street – much like a plethora of other industries – has embraced the virtual workplace, according to Bloomberg.
In Hong Kong, bankers have learned to win stock offerings by video chat, and Morgan Stanley is hosting a virtual meeting for a thousand-plus attendees. At Swiss giant UBS Group AG, wealth management executives have realized trips to see clients weren’t as crucial as thought. In California, an investor in hedge funds said he’s pleasantly surprised by how much faster he can confer with them remotely. –Bloomberg
And according to the report, virtual finance may outlast the coronavirus – assuming a treatment is eventually found. Bloomberg notes that there are “early signs that some of the emergency measures Wall Street is rolling out to keep employees safe in a pandemic will become a lasting practice in an industry that’s long mythologized the handshake.”
Early reports of tele-banking success came from Asia, forcing bankers to hunker down as COVID-19 began spreading like wildfire. Many predict their colleagues in other countries will easily adapt to the changes as well – beginning with sales and trading.
“The outbreak has created the urgency to try out new ideas,” says Morgan Stanley’s head of Asia institutional equity distribution, Mehdee Reza, who oversees the firm’s annual investor summit in Hong Kong next week. After the event moved online, reservations jumped 50% – topping estimated participation by more than 400%.
Morgan has moved other events online as well, with one focusing on Indian financial companies seeing a surge in registrants.
UBS, meanwhile, saw travel costs for Asia plunge 90% in February after the outbreak curtailed movement, according to one person familiar with the situation. Now, the financial firm is considering a long-term shift toward remote meetings for bankers who cover the region.
The firm’s dealmakers recently completed at least five pitch meetings on about $2 billion of stock sales with corporate clients via Skype and Zoom as they dialed in from home or from separate rooms, the people said. Citigroup Inc. bankers have been pitching via video conference on five to 10 transactions a week this year across mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt issuance, said Jan Metzger, head of Asia Pacific banking, capital markets and advisory.
“With today’s technology you can interact quicker with a client than ever before and this could be a model for the future even when this situation resolves itself,” Metzger said. –Bloomberg
At UBS’s Zurich headquarters, meanwhile, wealth management officials are considering a significant reduction in travel – though executives will still fly to meet clients who prefer it, or for types of business which must be conducted in person.
Traders and salespeople in New York and London are setting up shop in their dens and kitchens for the long haul – though some are grumbling about lack of access to the full array of resources in the office. Others are parents who have been arguing for years that it’s easy to handle transactions remotely.
LA hedge fund investor Michael Rosen says he’s enjoying the efficiency that telecommuting brings. Instead of traveling to meetings, he uses video-conferencing programs such as Zoom to hold meetings – though he does admit that lack of face-to-face interaction makes it harder to do gut-checks before handing millions of dollars to a fund manager.
“We will return, one day, to in-person meetings, but video technology is here to stay and will only grow in importance,” said Rosen. “I suspect it is now a core feature of how we will work in the future.”
It’s not just small gatherings. Manulife Financial Corp. organized a virtual town hall for 800 staff in Hong Kong and has been sharing its experience with its offices in the U.S. and Canada. Vanguard Group Inc.’s chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region has been holding webcasts for clients to discuss the outlook for the economy and markets.
Even the crucially face-to-face world of recruiting has temporarily moved virtual, according to Ilana Weinstein, the founder and chief executive officer of Wall Street headhunter IDW Group, which counts some of the world’s biggest hedge funds as clients. The market’s swings are stirring up demand for hedge fund managers who can make money in times like these, said Weinstein, who instituted a 10-foot-distance policy before taking her meetings virtual with Skype.
“As this proves efficient, it may be utilized more frequently,” she said. Still, “there’s nothing better than in-person when convincing someone to make a move. It’s about comfort with the unknown, and a layer of distance does not help.” –Bloomberg
According to Morgan Stanley co-chief CEO of Asia-Pacific and co-head of global equities, “There will be a change, there’s no question.”
“I don’t know that we’re going to go all the way back to where we were. I think we will end up somewhere in the middle.”
