Covid Timeline Wiki Project: February 21, 2020

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NYT HEADLINES

• Trump Adviser Sentenced to 40 Months

• HOUSE IS WARNED OF RUSSIAN EFFORT TO BOLSTER TRUMP

• Bloomberg Was Primed. Why Did He Sputter?

NYT FRONT PAGE PHOTO

NYT OPINION SECTION

Nothing virus-related

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - REPORTING CASE SPIKE IN ITALY WHEN THERE WAS NO SPIKE

From DOD Coronavirus Timeline:

“COVID-19 cases spike in Italy, signaling an outbreak.”

[NOTE: yesterday, Feb 20, 2020 was the first confirmed case in Lombardy, and the 3rd in all of Italy. There was no spike reported that day or today.]

[This is the case count from the WHO situation report]

[Here’s the case count from tomorrow - Feb 22 2020]

ITALY

First European lockdown, as reported by France 24:

Italy towns shut schools, businesses after recording first coronavirus death in Europe

The first European to succumb to the coronavirus has died in Italy, just hours after 10 towns were locked down following a flurry of new cases.

[NOTE: THE DEATH IS NOT REPORTED IN WHO COUNT - SEE ABOVE. ALSO, THERE ARE ONLY 3 REPORTED CASES IN ALL OF ITALY]

A 78-year-old Italian from the Veneto region who had tested positive for the virus died in hospital, where he had recovered some 10 days earlier for an unrelated health issue, Italy's health minister said. 

Adriano Trevisan, a retired bricklayer from the village of Vo' Euganeo near Padua, had been diagnosed with the virus on an initial test, but the definitive results were still outstanding. A 67-year-old from the same village as Trevisan has also tested positive.

Veneto region head Luca Zaia said earlier Friday "a sanitary ring" would be created around Vo' Euganeo, and all 3,300 inhabitants would be tested.

Fifteen other new cases represented the first infections in Italy acquired through secondary contagion and brought the country's total to 17. The cluster was located in a handful of tiny towns around Lodi, in the Lombardy region, said the Lombardy regional health chief Giulio Gallera.

Five doctors and 10 other people tested positive for the virus in Lombardy, after apparently frequenting the same bar and group of friends, authorities said at a press conference.

Over 50,000 people have been asked to stay at home in the areas concerned, while all public activities such as carnival celebrations, church masses and sporting events have been banned for up to a week.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

From Director-General’s remarks:

I’m also pleased to announce that today we are appointing six special envoys on COVID-19, to provide strategic advice and high-level political advocacy and engagement in different parts of the world.

Professor Dr Maha El Rabbat, former Minister of Health of Egypt;

Dr David Nabarro, former special adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change;

Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention;

Dr Mirta Roses, former Director of the WHO Region of the Americas;

Dr Shin Young-soo, former Regional Director of the WHO Region of the Western Pacific;

And Professor Samba Sow, Director-General of the Center for Vaccine Development in Mali.

[boldface added - for future looking into]

BIOWEAPONS RESEARCHERS/VACCINE DEVELOPERS

As reported by US Right to Know:

In making the case to peer reviewers that the paper [Proximal Origins] was necessary, [Kristian] Andersen said that pangolin coronavirus sequences did not adequately address the pandemic’s origins.

These private emails stand in contrast to Andersen’s public statements that the pangolin sequences were central to his abrupt about-face from suspecting the virus was engineered to viewing that suspicion as “crank.”

Andersen underscored the necessity of weighing an accidental lab leak of a natural virus to establish credibility. Andersen dismissed the possibility of the virus being engineered outright.

“The culturing of SARS-like CoVs from animals is typically performed under BSL-2 and has been ongoing for years. Dismissing this potential accidental scenario out of hand – or considering it in the same category as conspiracy theories about bioweapons and deliberate engineering (that, as we outline, are clearly wrong) – would be irresponsible,” Andersen wrote. “Our manuscript will only serve its purpose if it considers all possible hypotheses equally. Any perceived bias will undermine its credibility.”

[boldface added]