Month: January 2020

Summary:

• UK confirms first two coronavirus cases after multiple scares
• Confirmed cases in China rise to 9,692 from 7,700 a day earlier
• Risk-off mood hits stocks
• Impact of virus “not fully reflected” in rigged China PMI number
• At least two-thirds of China’s economy to stay shut.
• Goldman disagrees with Ross, says virus blowback will wipe 0.4% off US GDP growth
• ‘The U.K. health department confirmed two cases of coronavirus in England on Friday, while the U.S. and Japan advised citizens to avoid traveling to China.
• Hong Kong schools shuttered until March 2
• Singapore closes borders to Chinese travelers, first southeast Asian nation to do so.
• 43 airlines cancel flights to China
• France successfully evacuates citizens
• 1,000 suspected virus cases ‘under observation’ in India

* * *

Update (0650ET): India has only confirmed a single case of the virus, and the victim’s condition is said to be improving, But the Guardian just noted that there are 1,000 people under observation in various parts of Kerala. 15 are in isolation wards in various hospitals.

Authorities were attempting to contact all the passengers who traveled on a flight from Kolkata to Cochin on Jan. 23 that the infected patient had been on, a day after she traveled from Beijing.

* * *

For a few hours on Friday, the global community will turn away from obsessively following outbreak news to acknowledge the UK finally leaving the EU. But with US stocks on track to open in the red once again now that the first cases have been confirmed in the UK after multiple scares, all other news on Friday will be more or less irrelevant.

Though the WHO insisted that restricting travel to China during the outbreak simply wouldn’t be necessary, airlines and governments continued to cancel flights and tighten border restrictions. American Airlines has acquiesced to the pilots union, which filed a lawsuit demanding that flights to China be cancelled, and cancelled two of its routes. According to Business Insider, 43 airlines – Lufthansa, British Air, United, American, Air Canada, Air Seoul, Air France, etc. – have cancelled some or all routes to China, with some of the cancellations stretching out until late March. Most have cited a drop in demand as the reason as passenger plane traffic has plummeted. Russia has closed its border, Italy has cancelled flights to China, while the US and Japan have implemented the most urgent travel warnings advising citizens not to travel to China. Other governments, including the UK, have warned against travel to Hubei.

Singapore has also closed its borders to all Chinese travelers, becoming the first southeast Asian country to do so.

The number of cases and the death toll haven’t budged from late Thursday in New York, when we filed our last update. However, speculation about underreporting by the Chinese government has intensified in recent days. Though the total number of cases of the novel coroanvirus outbreak has already surpassed the total from the entire 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.

Research suggesting (though not confirming) that the virus can spread asymptomatically – meaning that individuals are contagious before they’re even aware they have contracted the virus.

Roughly half of Chinese will stay home from work next week, and indefinitely until the virus is contained, according to local officials. This is tantamount to two-thirds of the economy – the second-largest economy in the world – virtually guaranteeing that knock-on impact to global growth will be severe.

Now to the big news on Friday: UK health officials have confirmed two cases of the virus in England. The victims are being treated at a hospital in Newcastle.

BREAKING: two cases of coronavirus being treated at Newcastle’s infectious disease unit.
New Gov advice: anyone coming back from China with respiratory symptoms should self isolate for 14 days.
Anyone coming back from Wuhan, with symptoms or not, should self isolate for 14 days.

— Kate Proctor (@Kate_M_Proctor) January 31, 2020

As Beijing scrambles to contain the outbreak, the contagion has spread to all 31 of mainland China’s provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, and at least 19 other countries or territories. After confirming its first cases on Thursday and cancelling all flights to China, Italy has declared a state of emergency to last six months.

Though officials are touting unexpectedly strong progress on their two slap-dash coronavirus hospitals – Huoshenshan and Leishenshan – being erected in Wuhan to house another 2,300 patients, Beijing has sent more than 7,000 medical workers to the province to help fight the disease. As of Thursday, the province had reported 5,806 confirmed cases, with 32,340 people still under observation for infection. A total of 804 patients were in severe condition and 290 in critical condition. Across China, there were more than 100,000 people under observation as of Friday morning, according to Bloomberg.

France is the latest country to complete a chartered evacuation flight has rescued dozens of citizens from virus-plagued Wuhan.

As mask shortages led to absurd price gouging, China is importing more than 56.228 million masks in the past week, according to the General Administration of Customs. Some 290 million yuan (US$41.8 million) worth of protective gear was imported between Jan. 24 and Jan. 30. That included the masks, 69,000 pairs of goggles, and 738,000 items of protective clothing, according to the SCMP.

Shocking photos published by the Guardian that were allegedly smuggled out of Wuhan show nurses at a hospital making their own makeshift facemasks out of cloth.

Hong Kong schools have announced that they will remain closed until March 2. Many countries, including Vietnam and the US, have suspended some or all visa processing for Chinese citizens, or residents of Hubei.

Goldman said it expects the outbreak to wipe 0.4 percentage point off US GDP growth during Q1. However, the investment bank believes growth will rebound in Q2, and that the long-term impact would be negligible. Labor Secretary Wilbur Ross disagrees, arguing that the outbreak will help bring more jobs back to the US.

One thing’s for sure: The total economic fallout will be difficult to gauge until we figure out how long it will take to implement a vaccine. If a vaccine really is a whole year away, that could become a problem.

The first human-to-human transmission of coronavirus in the U.S. was confirmed on Thursday, hitting all media outlets, which will drive fears and push consumers to purchase virus masks online and or at brick and mortar stores. There’s just one big problem: virus masks are all sold out.

The run on virus masks started several weeks ago. We first documented the run seven days ago, noting how Google searches for “n95 mask” were exponentially rising across the world. 

Six days ago, we documented how the 3M N95 Medical Mask was sold out in Asia as the deadly virus spread across China and surrounding countries.

Then four days ago, we started to notice “virus mask” and “n95 mask” searches in the U.S. were continuing to rise.

While searching for 3M N95 masks at Home Depot stores across the country, we found that many of the stores from New York to California were sold out. 

Now the Financial Times has joined in the reporting on updating on the mask situation in the U.S. and Europe. 

Their report notes “online retailers, manufacturers and pharmacies in the EU and U.K. selling out of the products in the past week,” which is in-line with our reporting. 

In a statement from 3M, which supplies the N95 mask, the company said it expanded production and is “working with distributors to help ensure they have inventory to meet end-user demand.” 

S.P. Services, a UK-based medical supplier, said it just experienced several years’ worth of demand in the last two weeks as a huge run on masks is underway thanks to coronavirus fears.

Simon Leggett, managing director of S.P. Services, told the Times that “3M brand is the hot one, the one that everybody wants at the moment.”

Again, F.T.’s report is in-line with our reporting, as many in Asia have only demanded 3M N95 masks. We noted in one instance, prices of 3M N95 masks in Japan skyrocketed many folds last week as a shortage was seen.

“It’s crazy — it’s the first time I’ve seen a global scale mask event,” said Chris Dobbing, CEO of Cambridge Mask Company, a UK-based group which makes masks.

Dobbing said its production facilities in Xiamen,China, and Batam, Indonesia, had been ramped up to the highest production output to meet the unprecedented demand.

China said on Thursday that is has urged domestic manufacturers to increase mask output as confirmed cases jumped to 8,200 worldwide, with 170 fatalities.

CVS, a major US pharmacy chain with 9,000 stores, said that it requested more virus masks from suppliers as they’re flying off the shelves in all 50 states.

“They’re sold out everywhere,” said a manager at a CVS pharmacy in Manhattan’s SoHo district. 

One minute from my house in OC, Ca. The panic is real. #CoronaVirus #WuhanCoronavirus #CoronavirusOutbreak pic.twitter.com/qaXmza3mFK

— Yellow Red Sparks 🌕 (@yellowredsparks) January 30, 2020

“I have never experienced anything this significant,” said Ray Scott, owner of ATC Medical in Tennessee, an online medical products company.

 “[Consumers] are buying any type of mask. At first, they were particular about a certain kind, but inventory went to zero. Then they started looking at other types of masks, and that all went to zero,” said Scott. 

Boots, one of the largest pharmacy retailers in the U.K., said many of its virus masks have sold out in the last several weeks.

The company said it was “working to make additional stock available for customers to purchase in store and on boots.com which we hope will land over the next week.”

Amazon sellers in the U.S. and Europe have also sold out of certain virus masks, as the confirmed cases have now exceeded the entire SARS epidemic.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

EU Vice-President Mairead McGuinness cut off Nigel Farage’s mic and ordered British flags to be removed from the European Parliament in a moment that was emblematic of why the UK voted to leave in the first place.

The incident occurred during the formal vote to rubber stamp Britain’s departure from the globalist body.

Farage gave a rousing speech to mark his final appearance in the chamber just two days before Brexit is finally completed on Friday.

“We love Europe, we just hate the European Union,” said Farage, labeling the EU an “anti-democratic” institution that gave technocrats “power without accountability.”

Nigel’s last speech in Parliament: powerful, emotional, inspirational.

We raised our flags with great pride.

Brexit is finally happening! 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/dr1kAoyvd9

— Michael Heaver MEP (@Michael_Heaver) January 29, 2020

The Brexit Party leader then spoke of a “historic” battle taking place in the west.

“It is globalism against populism and you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing, it’s becoming very popular,” said Farage.

“I know you want to ban our national flags, but we’re going to wave you goodbye,” said Farage before his audio was cut.

Shortly after Brexit Party MEPs began waving the flags, McGuinness cut Farage’s microphone and ordered the Union Jacks to be removed.

“If you disobey the rules, you get cut off, could we please remove the flags,” said McGuinness.

And that in a nutshell is the very reason why Britain is leaving the EU.

https://t.co/HJas0dGBnd pic.twitter.com/Tv1zAga4iD

— ☦️Rivers🌲 (@PreezerWim) January 29, 2020

*  *  *

My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me. Please sign up for the free newsletter here. Donate to me on SubscribeStar here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced that Turkey had deployed two Turkish warships, anti-aircraft missiles and air defense systems to the capital city of Tripoli.

In addition to this accusation, the LNA said the Turkish military sent at least 3,000 Syrian militants to Libya since late December.

“The number of Syrian mercenaries transported by Turkey to Libya exceeded three thousand,” the Libyan National Army spokesman, Major General Ahmed al-Mesmari said at a press conference yesterday evening, noting that “Ankara transported dangerous terrorists from Syria to Libya through the Misrata and Mitiga airports and Port of Tripoli.”

Weeks after the Turkish government announced plans to send various forces to Libya to support that country’s internationally recognized government, there are now indications that those deployments are well underway. Two Turkish Navy Gabya class frigates have appeared off the coast of Tripoli, the official Libyan capital, and there are reports emerging now that Turkish troops and heavy armor are arriving in that city, too.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, accused Turkey of violating the pledges it had made during the Berlin conference held on January 19 to settle the Libyan crisis, noting that France had monitored during the past days ships transporting Syrian mercenaries to Libya. — The Drive

Big News: Turkish Frigates Appear Off Tripoli, Libya amid Reports of Turkish Troops and Tanks Landing Ashore

Islamist Erdogan’s warships, soldiers & tanks arrive from Turkey to support GNA militias & Syrian mercenaries against Libyan Parliament-backed LNA https://t.co/Tyj9MNgoHo

— James Wheeler (@wheelertweets) January 29, 2020

Macron said, during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Paris, that “Turkey has broken its promises it made during the Berlin conference.”

Macron further said, “In recent days, we detected Turkish ships carrying Syrian mercenaries who arrived in Libya.”

⚠️ If the picture is real, then Turkish Navy frigates TCG Göksu or TCG Gökova , (O.H. Perry frigates) is in Tripoli #Libya https://t.co/kerzSITEV7

— Yörük Işık (@YorukIsik) January 28, 2020

The Turkish Foreign Ministry for its part criticized Macron’s statements, saying that “France is responsible for the problems that Libya has experienced since the crisis began in 2011.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has routinely boasted about the creation of a powerful EU Army, but Macron’s ‘Napoleonic’ ambitions may have run into a major issue with the German military falling apart.

The latest report exposes how a major war exercise, which started last Thursday across Europe, had German troops using their own vehicles because of a shortage of infantry tanks as many were in disrepair. 

The shortage of infantry vehicles is so bad that some soldiers are using their own cars, RT News said, citing local reports. 

The exercise is one of the most massive drills in two decades, started last Thursday with thousands of German troops, along with other soldiers from ten different nations. 

RT News said only about one-fifth of Puma infantry fighting vehicles were operational in mid-2019, which is one of the top reasons why combat troops had to use non-military vehicles for transportation during drills. 

In 2018, the German military had 71 Pumas, only 27 were combat-ready, and 44 were in repair. 

The military has struggled with keeping its forces combat-ready for years, with vehicle and troop shortages.

We’ve noted before that tanks breakdown on the regular, planes can’t fly, and vessels aren’t seaworthy; the German military is a disaster. 

In 2017, the German Navy had many of its submarines in repair, basically had its entire fleet out of service, noted RT News.

It has also been reported that at least half of German recruits are unfit for combat. 

President Trump has slammed Germany and other NATO leaders to increase their defense spending targets from 2 to 4%. He’s demanded that European countries must pay their fair or purchase weapons from US defense companies. 

Given all these problems, perhaps pooling their resources with other nations (like France) in the form of an EU-wide army would make sense.

Germany will have a tough decision to either increase funding for its military or pay its fair share as a NATO member.