Covid Timeline Wiki Project: February 25, 2020

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NYT HEADLINES

• WEINSTEIN GUILTY OF TWO SEX CRIMES IN LANDMARK CASE

• Fears About Coronavirus Rattle World’s Markets

• Immigration By Legal Path Begins to Fall

NYT FRONT PAGE PHOTO

NYT OPINION SECTION

Is It a Pandemic Yet? It’s now clear that the coronavirus epidemic was never going to be contained. What’s next? (online Feb 24)

by Michael T. Osterholm, an infectious disease expert and Mark Olshaker, a writer and documentary filmmaker

It’s now clear that the epidemic was never going to be contained. At most, its spread was slowed by the lockdown imposed in China and other countries’ efforts to identify infected people and anyone they might have been in contact with.

The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 seems to spread like influenza, through the air, person to person. Unlike Ebola, SARS and MERS, it can be transmitted by individuals before the onset of symptoms or even if they don’t become ill.

In light of the disease’s features, the quarantine of the passengers and crew members on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama Bay in Japan looks like a cruel experiment: While confined, these people were forced to breathe recycled air for two weeks. The measure achieved little except to prove just how effective the virus is at spreading. Trying to stop influenza-like transmission is a bit like trying to stop the wind.

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SAN FRANCISCO

As reported by CNN:

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has declared a state of emergency in the city to better prepare for the potential arrival of coronavirus.

Breed reiterated that there are no confirmed cases in the city, but they are taking the situation seriously. The declaration frees up resources needed to accelerate planning, increase staffing and ensure future reimbursement.

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SEATTLE

As reported by Campfire.wiki:

A Seattle lab uncovered Washington's coronavirus outbreak only after defying federal regulators. They held off for a couple of weeks, but on Feb. 25, Chu and her colleagues “began performing coronavirus tests, without government approval,” the Times reports. They found a positive case pretty quickly, and after discussing the ethics, they told state health officials, who confirmed the next day that a teenager who hadn't traveled abroad had COVID-19 — and the virus had likely been spreading undetected throughout the Seattle area for weeks. Later that day, the CDC and FDA told Chu and her colleagues to stop testing, then partially relented, and the lab found several more cases. On Monday night, they were ordered to stop testing again.¹⁶⁶⁾

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ITALY

As reported by CNN:

An 11th person has died of coronavirus in Italy, the civil protection ministry said on Tuesday. 

Italy is the site of Europe's biggest coronavirus outbreak. The cases are heavily concentrated in the region of Lombardy.

Italy has put several cities and towns in the country’s north on lockdown, banning people from entering or leaving affected areas, suspending public events and closing attractions, such as museums, to the public, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. The measure effectively put an estimated 100,000 people under quarantine.

Conte on Monday night said that the hospital that treated the first coronavirus case in Codogno, known as Patient 1, had not followed protocol. Conte did not elaborate on what protocols were breached.

AUSTRALIA

As reported by Totality of Evidence:

The Australian Prime Minister activated the government’s health emergency response plan, or ‘pandemic blueprint, to an “impending coronavirus pandemic, foreshadowing fever clinics, fast-tracked vaccines and severe pressure on hospitals, blood banks, medical supplies and mortuaries”. [1, 2, 3]

UK /BIOWEAPONS RESEARCHERS/VACCINE DEVELOPERS

According to RFK Jr. in The Wuhan Coverup:

Boris Johnson’s chief advisor Dominic Cummings later acknowledged that the “official view” across the UK government throughout March 2020 was the conventional view that lockdowns of society would be more dangerous than COVID-19. But the same group of unnamed people pressured Cummings and Johnson to discard previous evidenced-based pandemic guidelines. Cummings later reported this fact to a parliamentary committee. He said that “very smart people” approached him around February 25 and persuaded him to lock down the UK.

In an August 2022 article, the Conservative Woman’s Paula Jardine suggests that these “smart people” were “Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, [his Oxford mentor] Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, and Bill Gates, whom [Cummings] mentioned in his testimony that he was receiving phone calls from.” [ref]

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

From 25 February 2020 Situation Report:

POTENTIAL REPURPOSED TREATMENTS

As reported by Totality of Evidence:

French Biologist and Infectious Diseases Specialist – Dr Didier Raoult MD  said reposition old drug molecules with known toxic profiles to see if they could be used to treat the new coronavirus. Cloroquine brings spectacular improvement in trials. [Translation][1]

Didier said “From all respiratory infections [SARS-CoV-2 is] probably the easiest to treat. There’s really no need to rush to produce a vaccine”.

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are listed as WHO Essential Medicines.