With everyone panicking about the coronavirus – stocking up on water and toilet paper, staying in their homes, and making their own hand sanitizer out of Tito’s vodka – it makes sense that delivery companies would want to ensure they are taking extra precautions. If people aren’t leaving their homes, they’re bound to use those delivery services at some point.
DoorDash CEO and co-founder Tony Xu sent an email to customers Friday morning explaining what steps the company would be taking to ensure food is delivered safely.
“Beyond simply monitoring the situation, we are taking active measures to make sure the food that gets delivered to your home is safe and secure. In affected areas, we have begun distributing hand sanitizer and gloves to Dashers. In our app, we are testing enhanced drop-off options for customers and Dashers to more easily enable a no-contact delivery, which we’ll roll out in the coming days. Today, customers who prefer a no-contact delivery can make that request in the delivery instructions,” he wrote.
He continued, saying “The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have no reports of human illnesses that suggest COVID-19 can be transmitted by food or food packaging, but we remain vigilant in working with restaurants to ensure efficacy and safety remain the top priority.”
As for drivers who end up losing money due to increased demand, the company said it has introduced a COVID-19 Financial Assistance program, which would provide up to two weeks of financial assistance for drivers who test positive for the coronavirus and who must be quarantined. The service will be available for all employees in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, as well as Canada and Australia.
“Health and safety are all of our responsibilities. We encourage you to practice safety measures at home and when you&#8217;re out. Wash your hands with soap and water frequently, cover your nose and mouth with a tissue or your elbow if you have to sneeze or cough, and please stay home if you are sick. Take measures to avoid unnecessary contact with large crowds and confined gatherings of people to help slow the spread of COVID-19,” Xu wrote.
The announcement from DoorDash came shortly before reports circulated that President Donald Trump was set to declare a national emergency over the coronavirus outbreak. Bloomberg News <a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-declare-national-emergency-speed-151931686.html">reported</a> that Trump would invoke the Stafford Act “to open the door to more federal aid for states and municipalities, according to two people familiar with the matter.”
“The move would allow the government to martial additional resources to combat the virus, and also marks a symbolic turning point for the president, who has repeatedly compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu and insisted that his administration had the outbreak under control,” the outlet added.
White House coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci tried to allay fears that the U.S. would shut down like China or Italy.
“I’m not sure we’re going to get to that. I think that would be really rather dramatic, but I can tell you that all things are on the table. We just have to respond as things evolve over the days and the weeks,” he said.

DoorDash

Food Delivery Company DoorDash Announces Measures To Ease Coronavirus Fears

Coronavirus

food

Health

As the media continues to spread panic about the coronavirus, one emergency room doctor is warning people not to get too carried away.
Speaking on &#8220;America&#8217;s Newsroom&#8221; this week, Dr. James Phillips, operational medicine fellowship director at George Washington University, said that most people who contract the coronavirus will &#8220;do just fine.&#8221;
&#8220;Most of us are going to get this virus. It&#8217;s undeniable,&#8221; said Phillips. &#8220;You won&#8217;t find a single expert out there who is saying that this is going to be contained. &#8220;And, the more we learn about it, the more we see that the spread is going to be global and, for the most part, that&#8217;s OK because the data we know from China shows that roughly 98 to 99 percent of us are going to do very, very well.&#8221;
Phillips said that the main danger with coronavirus is how it affects the lower respiratory system, which presents itself as pneumonia. He called on everyone to just take a deep breath and calm down.
&#8220;The way that this virus tends to make people sick is really by giving people pneumonia. So, a lower respiratory illness as opposed to most colds that cause upper respiratory infections,&#8221; said Phillips. &#8220;The problem with pneumonia is pneumonia itself can be deadly. Everyone should take a deep breath.&#8221;
Here are some global statistics on the coronavirus from <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/james-phillips-americans-must-live-their-lives-99-of-people-who-get-cv-will-be-fine">Fox News</a>:
<blockquote>Thus far, there are <a href="https://apnews.com/435cb3786f0d6692c8143a07e29c3e79" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 95,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and over 3,300 deaths</a> worldwide. Of those cases, there are at least 129 cases and <a href="https://apnews.com/8a9f6fd50731fd4c63edb2b5f0e568f8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">11 deaths recorded</a> in the United States. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/us-regions/west/washington" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Washington state</a> has been hit especially hard by the virus, with nine deaths at a nursing home near Seattle. The death rate is about 3.4 percent.
Most of those taken by the COVID-19 virus are older, infirmed, or those with weak immune systems and Phillips conceded that there is a &#8220;certain percentage&#8221; of Americans who are &#8220;going to get more sick than others.&#8221;</blockquote>
Dr. Drew Pinsky <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dr-drew-media-needs-to-shut-up-about-coronavirus-youre-more-likely-to-die-of-influenza">has also called</a> on people to calm down amid the coronavirus threat and charged the media with talking too much about it.
“We are not overreacting; the press is overreacting, and it makes me furious. The press should not be reporting medical stories as though they know how to report it,” Dr. Drew said on Daily Beast Live. “If we have a pandemic, I won’t know how to tell that we’re actually having a pandemic because everything is an emergency. People that are infectious disease specialists, the CDC, the epidemiologist[s], need to take this very seriously. The press needs to shut up because you’re more likely to die of influenza right now.”
&#8220;Let me frame it this way: we have in the United States 24 million cases of flu-like illness, 180,000 hospitalizations, 16,000 dead from influenza. Why is that not being reported? Why isn’t the message: get your flu shot? We have zero deaths from coronavirus, we have almost no cases,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;It’s coming here. That community transmitted case you purported on from UC Davis, that means that it’s far milder than we know it is and there are people walking around out there with the virus that don’t even know they have it, it’s so mild. So, it’s going to be much more widespread than we knew, it’s going to be much milder than we knew, the 1.7 % fatality rate is going to fall.&#8221;

SWEDEN-HEALTH-VIRUS-EPIDEMIC

ER Doctor: 98 to 99 Percent Of Coronavirus Victims ‘Are Going To Do Very, Very Well’

The Washington Department of Health on Saturday confirmed the first U.S. coronavirus-related death, according to a press release.
The person lived in King County, which includes Seattle, according to the Washington Department of Health, <a href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/department-health-confirms-first-coronavirus-death-washington-state/XIDPHMLVOJAAREQ5YCL75367PU/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KIRO 7</a> reported.
Washington state health officials will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. PST Saturday to give details.
“Health officials will be providing the latest updates regarding novel coronavirus cases in King County, including new people identified with the infection, one of whom died,” according to a news release issued by the state Department of Health and Public Health Seattle-King County on Saturday morning.
&#8220;It is a sad day in our state as we learn that a Washingtonian has died from COVID-19,&#8221; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said in a statement. &#8220;Our hearts go out to his family and friends. We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus.&#8221;
He added: &#8220;We are strengthening our preparedness and response efforts. I am committed to keeping Washingtonians healthy, safe and informed.&#8221;
&#8220;Three new confirmed or presumptive cases of the coronavirus illness COVID-19 contracted from an unknown source were reported Friday, bringing the total number of what could be &#8216;community spread&#8217; cases in the United States to four,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/number-coronavirus-cases-unknown-source-growing-u-s-n1145781">NBC News</a> reported.
<blockquote>The patients from these four cases have no known travel history or exposure to someone who had traveled or been infected. Not all four have been confirmed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing, but they tested positive locally.
New cases were reported in Washington state, Oregon and California on Friday. Earlier this week, a patient at a Sacramento hospital with no known source of infection was confirmed by CDC testing to have the illness.</blockquote>
&#8220;The number of coronavirus cases in the United States is considered small. Worldwide, the number of people sickened by the virus hovered Friday around 83,000, and there were more than 2,800 deaths, most of them in China,&#8221; the <a href="https://apnews.com/f175d89567a26d59cab27725c9e8a0d7">Associated Press</a> reported.
<blockquote>Most infections result in mild symptoms, including coughing and fever, though some can become more serious and lead to pneumonia. Older people, especially those with chronic illnesses such as heart or lung disease, are especially vulnerable. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.
Health officials in California, Oregon and Washington state worried about the novel coronavirus spreading through West Coast communities after confirming three patients were infected by unknown means.
The patients — an older Northern California woman with chronic health conditions, a high school student in Everett, Washington, and an employee at a Portland, Oregon-area school — hadn’t recently traveled overseas or had any known close contact with a traveler or an infected person, authorities said.
Earlier U.S. cases include three people who were evacuated from the central China city of Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak; 14 people who returned from China, or their spouses; and 42 American passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, who were flown to U.S. military bases in California and Texas for quarantining.</blockquote>

Coronavirus, Tem

BREAKING: First Confirmed Coronavirus Death In U.S. Occurs

Washington

Is spreading mayonnaise on a sandwich too exhausting? Tired of having to open the darned jar? There&#8217;s got to be a better way!
And now there is! Scientists who eschewed the boring work involved in curing cancer have come up with a new sliceable mayonnaise, meaning and end to the drudgery of making an unnecessarily fattening sandwich. You don&#8217;t even need to change out of your sweatpants.
A Japanese food company called Bourbon (no, it doesn&#8217;t make corn mash) has come out with a new line of mayonnaise in slices, like a slice of Kraft American cheese. Dubbed a &#8220;sheet-like condiment&#8221; by the company, it comes in two horrible sounding flavors: a tuna mayonnaise sheet and a mayonnaise and mentaiko slice, which is a spicy cod roe.
&#8220;Bourbon says they’re particularly handy in the morning, since you can slap a slice down on a piece of bread, stick it in the toaster oven, and have a hot, tasty breakfast with just seconds of prep time,&#8221; <a href="https://soranews24.com/2020/02/21/sliced-mayonnaise-and-white-chocolate-now-exist-in-japan-bringing-sandwiches-to-glorious-new-era/">Sora News</a> reports.
And everyone knows that there&#8217;s nothing like a nice slice of toast covered with spicy cod fish eggs smeared on it for breakfast!
&#8220;If you’re feeling fancy, you can add sliced tomatoes, lettuce leaves or other veggies for some extra nutrition and color,&#8221; Sora reports.
Mayo is, apparently, big in Japan.
&#8220;Japan is obsessed with mayonnaise—well, their version of mayonnaise, anyway, a brand called Kewpie,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/news/why-chefs-love-kewpie-mayo">Food and Wine</a> magazine wrote last year. &#8220;So it&#8217;s no surprise that they&#8217;re celebrating with mayo cafes in Tokyo and Nagoya.&#8221;
<blockquote>At the cafes, consumers can gaze adoringly at Kewpie bottles strung from broccoli trees, while noshing on vegetables smothered in limited edition Kewpie olive, basil, and tomato-flavored mayo, Kotaku reports. This is at least the second year this mayo has been so revered in pop-up cafes throughout the country.
Why does Kewpie inspire such devotion? The answer is actually pretty simple: It contains MSG. As chef and Momofuku founder David Chang once told Food &amp; Wine, Kewpie is &#8220;the best mayonnaise in the world, because it has MSG.&#8221;
Kewpie is a little different than American mayo, because it&#8217;s made with only egg yolks — not whole eggs — and with rice or apple vinegar and no added salt or sugar. It&#8217;s bottled in a slim red-and-clear container, with an emblematic baby for its logo. But the real secret to Kewpie&#8217;s cult-following is a healthy dose of MSG.</blockquote>
The Japanese love the condiment so much they even make mayo pudding and mayo ice cream bars.  &#8220;Calorie Monster Cherio Creamy Mayonnaise Flavor boasts a complex mix of cookie, white chocolate, and mayonnaise that might be just sweet and egg-y enough to work,&#8221; <a href="https://soranews24.com/2019/09/26/morinaga-milk-industry-unveils-japans-first-mayonnaise-flavored-ice-cream/">Sora</a> reported last year. The 300-calorie treat has a white-chocolate center that is &#8220;surrounded by mayonnaise-flavored ice cream, then encased in a shell of white chocolate and cookie crumbs.&#8221;
Sliceable mayo joins sliceable ketchup, which emerged last year after a KickStarter campaign. Bo&#8217;s Fine Foods created a thing they call &#8220;Slice of Sauce™: an All-Natural, No-Mess &#8216;Slice&#8217; of Ketchup.&#8221; Sliceable mustard has, we found out with a Google search, existed since 2012.
And that&#8217;s all great with a sandwich or a burger. But what on earth do you do with, say, a hot dog? Oh the humanity!

Mayonnaise

END DAYS: Scientists Create Sliceable Mayonnaise, Civilization Nears End

Crystal and Jarvis Bryant were typical first-time parents, doting on their child and panicking over every hint of distress. To add to their stress, their baby boy, Jace, had several medical issues that resulted in repeated trips to the emergency room and doctors.
Jace suffered from severe acid reflux and a condition known as dysphagia, which caused milk to travel down his wind pipe instead of his esophagus.
“When he was 3 weeks old, he spent 31 days in the hospital and had a feeding tube inserted into his nose and down to his stomach to help him get enough nutrients to survive. At almost 4 months old, Jace had surgery on his esophagus and to place a gastrostomy tube in his abdomen, so his parents could send formula straight to his stomach,” The Associated Press <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/colorado/articles/2020-02-16/parents-charged-with-abusing-child-until-bone-disorder-found">reported</a>. “Then, just before Thanksgiving 2018, Jace was diagnosed with a viral infection that was causing fever and diarrhea. While Crystal showered and did her hair upstairs in their apartment, Jarvis was giving Jace his second bath of the day. Jarvis laid the baby stomach-down along his forearm as he bent over the bathtub, pouring soapy water over Jace’s back. The baby slipped sideways off Jarvis’ arm, his knee hitting the bottom of the tub.”
Jarvis consoled Jace when he started crying, but didn’t think anything was serious enough to tell Crystal. Later that afternoon, however, Crystal noticed Jace was favoring the leg he had hit and was in pain when she picked him up. She was already set to take him back to the hospital since his fever and diarrhea hadn’t gone away. While there, Jace’s leg was X-rayed and doctor’s discovered he had a fractured femur. Jarvis then admitted to his wife that he had accidentally dropped Jace. The couple said they were immediately treated as suspects after the injury was discovered. A full-body workup revealed Jace also had 10 fractured ribs and fractures on both his wrists, all of which were older than the leg injury and had been healing.
Jace was taken from the Bryants and they were charged with felony child abuse. Crystal had just obtained her nursing certificate and had it revoked when the charges were filed. Jarvis who worked for the U.S. Army, had his security clearance revoked, causing him to be reassigned to desk duty.
For the Bryants, the charge of child abuse was a surprise.
“Because of Jace’s feeding problems, nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists — all required by law to report any suspicion of child abuse — had been to the Bryants’ home twice each week since he was 2 months old. They had stripped Jace naked weekly and weighed him on a portable scale placed on the table. Not one made any report of abuse or neglect,” the AP reported. “The baby had been to emergency rooms multiple times, often to replace the tube down his throat when his arms flailed and pulled out the tube, common for babies. Each time, medical staff took an X-ray to make sure it was in the right place. As a first-time mom and self-described ‘hovering parent,’ Crystal took Jace to the pediatrician at the first hint of illness.”
After Jace was taken, Jarvis began researching legal cases as well as medical cases. He came across the stories of two men who had been falsely accused of child abuse when their children actually had brittle bone disorder.
Two doctors looked at Jace’s X-rays. One discovered he wasn’t getting enough calcium due to the feeding tubes and suggested the age of the fractures meant they were actually caused by medical staff during one of his many medical procedures. Another doctor found that the acid reflux medication Jace was put on reduced his stomach acid, which also hurt his ability to absorb calcium.
Seven months later, Jace was returned to his parents. Three months after that, the criminal case against them was dropped.

Baby

They Were Charged With Abusing Their Child. Then Doctors Discovered A Rare Bone Disease.

Children

For 15 years, Walgreens customers in Fremont, Milpitas, and San Jose, California picked up their medications from Kim Thien Le.
Last year, they discovered one of their neighborhood pharmacists wasn’t licensed, yet had been entrusted to handle their medications. The Mercury News <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/30/unlicensed-bay-area-walgreens-pharmacist-issued-more-than-700000-prescriptions-watchdog-says/">reported</a> in January 2019 that California’s pharmacy board was investigating the possibility that the three Walgreens locations had employed someone without a pharmacist license and allowed them to verify and dispense more than 700,000 medications over 15 years.
“According to the pharmacy board’s complaint, 100,701 of those prescriptions were for controlled substances, many verified electronically and remotely. The complaint says the ‘greatest number of verifications had been performed in or for’ the Walgreens at 2600 Mowry Ave. in Fremont. The complaint did not specify how many verifications or where all the 395 stores are located. Walgreens operates at 622 locations in California, and nearly 10,000 across the U.S. and its territories,” the outlet reported at the time.
Le was also accused at the time of signing off on prescription forms that did not meet state requirements to ensure they were not counterfeit or being sold on the black market. At the Fremont store, Le apparently signed off on at least 11 prescriptions that did not meet requirements. The forms were mostly for anti-anxiety prescriptions and some didn’t have the necessary security watermarks to prevent counterfeiting.
Le was employed with Walgreens between 1999 through the fall of 2017, first as a pharmacist intern, and then as a pharmacist, eventually working her way up to the pharmacist-in-charge at different locations.
Le apparently had a pharmacist technician license that expired in 2008. Investigators, however, learned that the license number listed by her name in Walgreens’ records “actually belonged to another licensed pharmacist with a similar name, who was not employed by Walgreens,” The Mercury News reported.
Le was confronted about the discrepancy, and she claimed she had a different license number, which also belonged to a pharmacist with a similar name.
“Walgreens did not have or keep any proof of (Le’s) enrollment in or graduation from an accredited pharmacy school, nor did Walgreens have or keep copies of any of (Le’s) purported licenses,” the complaint against Walgreens said, according to The Mercury News.
The outlet reported on Tuesday that Walgreens “has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a consumer protection lawsuit.”
“Consumers depend on pharmacies to make sure that the person behind the counter preparing and giving out medical prescription drugs is trained, competent and licensed to do so,” said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Tiyen Lin. “Their lives may depend on it.”
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office also released a statement, saying “Walgreens failed to vet Ms. Le thoroughly when it promoted her to positions requiring a license and failed to make sure that its internal systems were strong enough to prevent an employee from evading them.”
Walgreens has since re-verified the licenses of all its pharmacists nationwide, a spokesman told The Mercury News. Walgreens will also have “to create a verification program, post proof that all of its employees are licensed if their position requires one, conduct annual audits, and submit an annual compliance report to the Alameda County DA’s office,” the outlet reported.

Prescriptions

Walgreens To Pay $7.5 Million After Unlicensed Pharmacist Works For 15 Years

Prescription Drugs

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency over the spread of the deadly coronavirus epidemic, as thousands of new cases have been reported and the death toll closes in on 200 people.
&#8220;The decision reversed the organization’s decision just a week ago to hold off such a declaration,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/health/coronavirus-world-health-organization.html">reported</a>. &#8220;Since then, W.H.O. officials said, thousands of new cases in China and clear human-to-human transmission in several other countries — now including the United States — warranted a reconsideration of that decision by the agency’s expert committee.&#8221;
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday that is had confirmed the first person-to-person of the coronavirus in the U.S.
&#8220;The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed that the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has spread between two people in the United States, representing the first instance of person-to-person spread with this new virus here,&#8221; the CDC said in a statement. &#8220;Previously, all confirmed U.S. cases had been associated with travel to Wuhan, China, where an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by this novel coronavirus has been ongoing since December 2019. However, this latest 2019-nCoV patient has no history of travel to Wuhan, but shared a household with the patient diagnosed with 2019-nCoV infection on January 21, 2020.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today CDC and <a href="https://twitter.com/IDPH?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IDPH</a> confirmed diagnosis of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/2019nCoV?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#2019nCoV</a> in a patient who had not traveled from China but had close contact with a traveler previously confirmed with the novel <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coronavirus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coronavirus</a>. Read the press release: <a href="https://t.co/d7FyZLzRed">https://t.co/d7FyZLzRed</a>. <a href="https://t.co/WSzdgpcgrU">pic.twitter.com/WSzdgpcgrU</a>
&mdash; CDC (@CDCgov) <a href="https://twitter.com/CDCgov/status/1222979023623553024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The latest <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/30/coronavirus-cases-top-8200-surpassing-2003-sars-outbreak-in-less-than-a-month.html">figures</a> to come out of communist China indicate that more than 8,100 people have been infected with the virus &#8212; a tenfold increase in just one week &#8212; with at least 170 dead as the virus has now officially spread more rapidly than the SARS virus did in 2002 and 2003.
&#8220;The Committee agreed that the outbreak now meets the criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and proposed the following advice to be issued as Temporary Recommendations,&#8221; WHO said in a statement. &#8220;As this is a new coronavirus, and it has been previously shown that similar coronaviruses required substantial efforts to enable regular information sharing and research, the global community should continue to demonstrate solidarity and cooperation, in compliance with Article 44 of the IHR (2005), in supporting each other on the identification of the source of this new virus, its full potential for human-to-human transmission, preparedness for potential importation of cases, and research for developing necessary treatment.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Full statement on the meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/2019nCoV?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#2019nCoV</a> 👉 <a href="https://t.co/Ia5pFPn3Qi">https://t.co/Ia5pFPn3Qi</a> <a href="https://t.co/YhlPG2YwOJ">pic.twitter.com/YhlPG2YwOJ</a>
&mdash; World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) <a href="https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1222975329360392215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Russia closed its borders with China to prevent the virus from spreading into Russia.
&#8220;Russia on Thursday ordered the closure of its huge land border with China as Moscow scrambles to prevent the deadly coronavirus infection spreading from its southern neighbor,&#8221; The Financial Times <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/75adafb6-4306-11ea-abea-0c7a29cd66fe">reported</a>. &#8220;There have been no confirmed cases of the respiratory illness in Russia but Vladimir Putin’s government is anxious to prevent the virus from crossing a land border that stretches for more than 4,000km. Moscow has already blocked Chinese tour groups from entering the country.&#8221;
President Donald Trump weighed in on the overall situation on Thursday, writing on Twitter: &#8220;Working closely with China and others on Coronavirus outbreak. Only 5 people in U.S., all in good recovery.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Working closely with China and others on Coronavirus outbreak. Only 5 people in U.S., all in good recovery.
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1223004106408833025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This report has been updated to include additional information and corrected to note that the SARS virus outbreak was from 2002-2003, not 2012-2013.

Health care members make first aid to people as they cover

Global Emergency Declared Over Coronavirus; First Transmission Confirmed In U.S.

China

Health Care

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) has admitted it made an error last week when it classified the global risk of China’s new coronavirus &#8212; which can lead to SARS &#8212; as “moderate.” The organization on Monday released a new report late Sunday that stated the risk was actually “very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level.&#8221;
The Agence France-Presse (AFP) <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/who-tries-to-correct-wuhan-coronavirus-risk-level/amp">reported</a> Tuesday that a footnote in the WHO report stated the group had “incorrectly” stated the global risk was merely “moderate.”
“The correction of the global risk assessment does not mean that an international health emergency has been declared,” the outlet reported. “The WHO on Thursday stopped short of declaring the novel coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern &#8211; a rare designation used only for the worst outbreaks that would trigger more concerted global action.”
Eighty-one people have died so far &#8212; all in China &#8212; due to the virus, while at least 2,700 people have been infected worldwide.
Reporters on Thursday questioned WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus about the decision not to declare an emergency. He said the assessment could always change but that right now the risk was “high” but not “very high.”
&#8220;This is an emergency in China but it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one,&#8221; he said. &#8220;WHO&#8217;s risk assessment is that the outbreak is a very high risk in China, and a high risk regionally and globally.&#8221;
The organization also said the current coronavirus assessment was “a global evaluation of risk, covering severity, spread and capacity to cope,” and added that three situation reports contained an “error in the wording,” suggesting the risk was merely moderate.
Co-director of the Swiss School of Public Health told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) of the miscalculation: &#8220;It&#8217;s a mistake. It&#8217;s definitely a sizeable one, &#8230; but I really think it&#8217;s a mistake that has now been corrected.”
More from the AFP:
<blockquote>WHO&#8217;s cautious approach to the outbreak, which has been challenged by some critics, can be seen in the context of past criticism over its slow or too hasty use of the term, first used for the deadly 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.
During that outbreak, the UN health agency was criticised for sparking panic-buying of vaccines with its announcement that year that the outbreak had reached pandemic proportions, and then anger when it turned out the virus was not nearly as dangerous as first thought.
But in 2014, the WHO met harsh criticism for dragging its feet and downplaying the severity of the Ebola epidemic that ravaged three West Africa countries, claiming more than 11,300 lives by the time it ended in 2016.</blockquote>
It should be noted that despite the media attention to the new corona virus, influenza (the flu) has killed far more people than the virus in China. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm#ILIActivityMap">estimated</a> that 8,200 people have already died and 140,000 have been hospitalized so far during the 2019-2020 flu season.

World Health Organization: We Blew It. Risk Of Coronavirus Risk Actually ‘Very High’

On Friday, freshman Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who is very outspoken on the 21s century geopolitical threat <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/end-forever-wars-and-face-chinas-threat-11574634656">posed by China</a>, raised with leading Trump administration officials the possibility of restricting or temporarily outright cutting off travel with the country due to the coronavirus that recently emanated from there.
Hawley &#8220;sent a letter Friday to the heads of four government agencies to ask whether the Trump administration was considering any potential Chinese travel ban to prevent an American outbreak of the coronavirus,&#8221; National Review <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/coronavirus-outbreak-josh-hawley-asks-trump-administration-for-possible-china-travel-ban/">reported</a>.
Specifically, Hawley tweeted: &#8220;As deadly #coronavirus spreads, this morning I’ve written to the Secretary of State and others to ask whether temporary travel restrictions from affected areas in China may be necessary, and if they are, when American travelers will be notified. Public safety must be #1 priority.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
As deadly <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coronavirus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coronavirus</a> spreads, this morning I’ve written to the Secretary of State and others to ask whether temporary travel restrictions from affected areas in China may be necessary, and if they are, when American travelers will be notified. Public safety must be #1 priority
&mdash; Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1220726263956021248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The tweet accompanied a <a href="https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2020-01/Hawley-Letter-Coronavirus-Departments-Health-Homeland-Security-State-Transportation-Travel.pdf">letter</a> that Hawley sent on Friday to four Cabinet secretaries or acting secretaries: Alex Azar of the Department of Health and Human Services, Chad Wolf of the Department of Homeland Security, Elaine Chao of the Department of Transportation, and Mike Pompeo of the State Department.
Hawley&#8217;s letter concludes by asking four questions of the Cabinet secretaries:
<ol>
<li>Does the federal government have in place procedures and evaluative criteria to guide decisions about restrictions on air travel in the event of disease outbreaks such as this one?</li>
<li>Given the rate at which public health officials are capable of gaining insight into the severity of such an outbreak, can you offer guidance as to when and how the federal government would decide to implement travel restrictions in the event that an outbreak like this one merited them?</li>
<li>Have you begun exploring the means by which the federal government might continue to assist China and the international community in containing this outbreak in the event of restrictions on commercial air travel? If not, why not?</li>
<li>In the event that federal officials make a preliminary determination to rule out restrictions on air travel, will you commit to inform the public that such a determination has been made in the interests of transparency and appropriate public scrutiny?</li>
</ol>
&#8220;The virus, which, causes pneumonia-like symptoms, is related to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, a virus that originated in China and killed hundreds of people in 2002 and 2003,&#8221; National Review also noted.
Since the virus&#8217;s breakout, China has quarantined the entire city of Wuhan in an attempt to staunch the virus&#8217;s pernicious spread.
Conservative commentator Daniel Horowitz, of Blaze Media, <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/will-trump-consider-suspending-travel-china-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/">wrote</a> today in support of a Chinese travel ban: &#8220;One would expect that the first course of action of the government would be to prevent Chinese from traveling here or Americans from traveling to China and returning, or at least to impose a travel ban on parts of China. That is the first step to ensuring that the disease doesn’t spread like wildfire in our country. Yet, as with epidemics of the past, there doesn’t seem to be any imminent warning of suspending travel.&#8221;
Taking a somewhat different approach, Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-the-media-wants-you-to-panic-over-the-coronavirus-dont-fall-for-it-here-are-the-real-facts">chalked up</a> the coronavirus as much ado about nothing: &#8220;I don’t mean to spoil the twist ending, but here’s how to protect yourself from the coronavirus if you live in America: Do nothing special at all. Carry on with your life. Wash your hands. Avoid ingesting the bodily fluids of strangers, as much as possible. Do all of the normal things you would do to maintain a healthy life. Media reports indicate that face masks are an &#8216;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-face-masks-not-entirely-effective-2020-1" data-reader-unique-id="14">ineffective&#8217;</a> way of preventing the spread of the virus. What the reports forget to mention is that it would be a sign of delusional paranoia if a person in the United States went around wearing a mask for fear of a disease that almost nobody in this hemisphere actually has.&#8221;

Cargo containers with China and united States flag in the harbor.

Josh Hawley Proposes Possible China Travel Ban In Response To Coronavirus

Immigration

Josh Hawley

It is rather a surprise to learn that we are all going to die from a viral pandemic, considering that we have all already died from swine flu, bird flu, SARS, and that one time when four people had Ebola. Nonetheless, if media reports are to be believed, we are on the verge of yet another planet-wide outbreak. This time, the imaginary global destruction will happen courtesy of the coronavirus.
Back in realityville, the coronavirus has infected 2,700 people, or about .00003% of the global population. Almost all of the cases are in China, where the death toll has reached 82. The majority of these deaths were people who had the misfortune of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/world/asia/coronavirus-victims-wuhan.html">already being old and sick</a> before they contracted the virus, compounded by the disadvantage of living with China&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/ticking-time-bombs-chinas-health-care-system-faces-issues-of-access-quality-and-cost/">ailing&#8221;</a> health care system. Outside of China, there have been around 50 cases, none of them fatal. So far, five people in the United States have been diagnosed and none have died. Of the approximately 327,000,000 people in the U.S., approximately 326,999,995 do not have the coronavirus. There is no good reason to think that the latter number will significantly shrink, as the infected people pose a &#8220;<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/24/799208865/a-second-u-s-case-of-wuhan-coronavirus-is-confirmed">low risk</a>&#8221; to the public, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, none of this has stopped the media from printing <a href="https://www.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-01-27-20-intl-hnk/h_76586a6e47e65a67a3c18ccf644ae736">scary graphics</a> showing how the disease you almost certainly will not contract will affect you if it does, giving <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/chicago-confirms-coronavirus-case-heres-how-to-stay-safe-165352163.html">tips</a> on how to &#8220;stay safe,&#8221; putting terrifying things in their <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/01/26/containing-new-coronavirus-may-not-be-feasible-experts-say/">headlines</a> like &#8220;containing new coronavirus may not be feasible, using the word &#8220;<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/25/inside-the-horrific-inhumane-animal-markets-behind-pandemics-like-coronavirus/">pandemic</a>&#8221; to describe something that is not actually a pandemic, running fantasy <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/scientist-who-simulated-the-global-impact-of-a-coronavirus-outbreak-says-the-cats-already-out-of-the-bag-and-chinas-efforts-to-contain-the-disease-unlikely-to-be-effective-2020-01-24">simulations</a> to show what might happen in a &#8220;hypothetical&#8221; worst-case scenario, and urging the public to &#8220;<a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article239657838.html">protect</a>&#8221; itself.
I don&#8217;t mean to spoil the twist ending, but here&#8217;s how to protect yourself from the coronavirus if you live in America: Do nothing special at all. Carry on with your life. Wash your hands. Avoid ingesting the bodily fluids of strangers, as much as possible. Do all of the normal things you would do to maintain a healthy life. Media reports indicate that face masks are an &#8220;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-face-masks-not-entirely-effective-2020-1">ineffective</a>&#8221; way of preventing the spread of the virus. What the reports forget to mention is that it would be a sign of delusional paranoia if a person in the United States went around wearing a mask for fear of a disease that almost nobody in this hemisphere actually has.
I am not downplaying the significance of this illness. For people who live in China, especially in or near Wuhan, this is a very real public health emergency. But many parts of the world are plagued by many illnesses that either rarely make it onto our shores, or are easily contained and treated when they do. <a href="http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2019/03/tb-us-all-time-low-global-decline-small">Tuberculosis</a> still kills millions across the globe while comparatively few die from it in this country. <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180315091833.htm">Meningitis</a> is a major killer in Africa but claims only a few hundred lives annually in the United States. For all the lumps our health care system takes, deserved and undeserved, the fact is that we generally don&#8217;t die from a great many diseases that kill a great many people elsewhere on Earth. And that is why the relatively high mortality rate of the coronavirus is not proof that the disease itself is significantly deadlier than garden-variety pneumonia. All we know is that it is potentially deadlier in Wuhan, where every disease is potentially deadlier.
If you&#8217;re a U.S. citizen looking for a disease to worry about, I could suggest more relevant options. The common flu, for example, <a href="http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2019/04/us-flu-still-elevated-dropping-deaths-high-57000">killed 57,000 people</a> in the U.S. alone last year, which is actually significantly lower than the death toll the year before. That&#8217;s a body count nearly 1,000 times higher than the current figure for the coronavirus. And we&#8217;re talking about U.S. deaths, in this case. True, most people who die of the flu are either very old or very young. But the same is the case for the coronavirus. Even the aforementioned tuberculosis and meningitis are more reasonable candidates for public panic. Pretty much any disease would be, considering the current death toll for the coronavirus in America is zero. If that number jumps from zero to one, or three, or even fifteen, there still would be no reason for panic. The media wants you to panic because panic means clicks, and clicks generate revenue. Don&#8217;t fall for it. Again.

Office worker tearing up papers and screaming out

WALSH: The Media Wants You To Panic Over The Coronavirus. Don’t Fall For It. Here Are The Real Facts.

Media

The news is grim &#8212; and keeps getting grimmer.
Jonathan Read, a British expert on the transmission and evolutionary dynamics of infectious diseases, predicts that hundreds of thousands of people will soon be infected with the coronvirus sweeping across China and moving already to other countries around the world.
&#8220;In 14 days’ time (4 February 2020), our model predicts the number of infected people in Wuhan to be greater than 190 thousand (prediction interval, 132,751 to 273,649),&#8221; Read and other researchers wrote in a <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.23.20018549v1.full.pdf">new paper</a> titled &#8220;Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: early estimation of epidemiological parameters and epidemic predictions.&#8221;
&#8220;We predict the cities with the largest outbreaks elsewhere in China to be Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Chengdu. We also predict that by 4 Feb 2020, the countries or special administrative regions at greatest risk of importing infections through air travel are Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea,&#8221; the researchers wrote.
Among other key findings in the paper:
<ul>
<li>We estimate that only 5.1% (95%CI, 4.8–5.5) of infections in Wuhan are identified, indicating a large number of infections in the community, and also reflecting the difficulty in detecting cases of this new disease. Surveillance for this novel pathogen has been launched very quickly by public health authorities in China, allowing for rapid assessment of the speed of increase of cases in Wuhan and other areas.</li>
<li>Our model suggests that travel restrictions from and to Wuhan city are unlikely to be effective in halting transmission across China; with a 99% effective reduction in travel, the size of the epidemic outside of Wuhan may only be reduced by 24.9% on 4 February.</li>
<li>We estimate the basic reproduction number of the infection (𝑅𝑅0) to be significantly greater than one. We estimate it to be between 3.6 and 4.0, indicating that 72-75% of transmissions must be prevented by control measures for infections to stop increasing.</li>
</ul>
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday warned that the spread of a deadly new virus &#8212; which starts with a fever and a  dry cough and then, about a week later, leads to shortness of breath, with some patients needing hospital treatment &#8212; is accelerating. The coronavirus has killed at least 41 people and infected some 1,400 since its discovery in the city of Wuhan. There is no known cure or vaccine.
Other projections for similar viruses are far worse. A pandemic simulation conducted late last year, <a href="http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/media" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called Event 201</a>, showed devastating results. Put together by the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins, the World Economic Forum, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Event 21 used a made-up coronavirus.
&#8220;The pretend outbreak started small: Farmers began coming down with symptoms that resembled the flu or pneumonia. From there, the virus spread to crowded and impoverished urban neighborhoods in South America,&#8221; Yahoo News reported. &#8220;Flights were canceled, and travel bookings dipped by 45%. People disseminated false information on social media. After six months, the virus had spread around the globe. A year later, it had killed 65 million people.&#8221;
According to Yahoo! News, the simulated pandemic “also triggered a global financial crisis” that saw stock markets collapse and “global domestic product plunged by 11 percent.” Eric Toner, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Health Security told <a href="https://www.axios.com/who-emerging-health-challenges-pandemic-climate-change-inequalities-f83e0dd1-6d00-40c4-aaca-11523270648c.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Axios</a> the threats from infectious disease outbreaks and another pandemic are “very real.”
“As we demonstrated in our Event 201 exercise in October, the world is ill-prepared for a severe pandemic. Such a global disease outbreak would not only cause widespread illness and death but there would be severe societal and economic consequences as well,” Toner told Axios.

NHS Prepares To Treat Coronavirus

Upwards Of 300,000 Chinese Will Contract Coronavirus In Next 10 Days, Researcher Predicts

The Department of Transportation has <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/resources/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/359646/traveling-air-service-animals-nprm.pdf">proposed</a> relaxing a federal rule that forces airlines to accommodate, free of charge, people traveling with pets classified as emotional-support animals. 
According to the Department of Transportation website, airline companies would now have the authority to “treat emotional support animals, which are not trained to do work or perform a task for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, as pets.” The rule change, which is currently undergoing a 60-day public comment period, would not apply to service dogs. 
The proposal has been designed to curb an influx of passengers who have taken to traveling with a range of untrained pets that they say emotionally support them in various ways. The department cites a number of exotic animals that have caused trouble for airlines and flight crew, including peacocks, ducks, turkeys, and pigs. 
In 2016, the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3406823/This-pig-really-DOES-fly-Meet-Hamlet-hog-provides-comfort-owner-30-000-feet.html">Daily Mail</a> wrote a profile on a pig named “Hamlet” who accompanies his owner, Megan Peabody, on flights around the world. “I love flying, but I suffer with anxiety, so being able to pick Hamlet up, to hold, pet and comfort him makes me feel more comfortable and provides a lovely distraction,” Peabody told the news agency. 
In 2018, a woman made headlines after she was barred from taking her emotional support peacock on a flight, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/airplane-mode/emotional-support-peacock-denied-flight-united-airlines-n842971">NBC News</a>. While the 70-pound bird was denied boarding because it “did not meet guidelines for a number of reasons, including its weight and size,” the new proposed rule would allow airlines to reject future peacocks outright. 
Disability rights activists have taken different stances on the proposed rule change. 
“We acknowledge that some people have misrepresented themselves and their pets as people with disabilities with service or emotional support animals. But it is rare,&#8221; Curt Decker, the president of the National Disability Rights Network, said in a statement obtained by <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2020/01/22/emotional-support-animals-new-dot-rule-would-let-airlines-refuse-them/4540901002/">USA Today</a>. &#8220;These proposals are a vast overreaction to an uncommon problem.&#8221;
Albert Rizzi, founder of My Blind Spot, a nonprofit organization that promotes accessibility for blind people, has called the move a “wonderful step in the right direction for people like myself who are dependent on and reliant on legitimate service animals,” according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/c78235bd8a3408e39de28847c482ff84">Associated Press</a>. 
However, the perspective from airlines and flight crew has been closer to unanimous. They are largely unified in support of the proposed rule.
Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight attendants, has commended the bill, exalting that “the days of Noah’s Ark in the air are hopefully coming to an end,” reports the news agency. 
Nicholas Calio, president of Airlines for America, has drawn attention to the public health focus of the proposal, saying that “the proposed rule will go a long way in ensuring a safer and healthier experience for everyone,” reports the news agency. 
In the proposal, the Department has also drawn attention to the ways that the new rules will improve economic efficiency since “passengers currently have an incentive to claim pets as emotional support animals” for the cost savings.

Art Installation Of Pollution Pods At Brownsea Island

Proposal Would Allow Airlines To Ban Emotional Support Pigs, Peacocks

The deadly coronavirus bringing back fears of SARS to China may have originated with native snakes.
CNN <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/01/22/health/snakes-wuhan-coronavirus-outbreak-conversation-partner/index.html">reported</a> that the Chinese krait and the Chinese cobra have been linked to the virus, which has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/remember-sars-new-virus-spreading-in-china-kills-sixth-person">killed at least six people</a> so far this winter.
“Using samples of the virus isolated from patients, scientists in China have determined the genetic code of the virus and used microscopes to photograph it. The pathogen responsible for this pandemic is a new coronavirus. It&#8217;s in the same family of viruses as the well-known severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which have killed hundreds of people in the past 17 years. The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV,” the outlet reported.
The outlet went on to report that both SARS and MERS are “zoonotic viral diseases, meaning the first patients who were infected acquired these viruses directly from animals.”
“This was possible because while in the animal host, the virus had acquired a series of genetic mutations that allowed it to infect and multiply inside humans,” the outlet continued.
Once transmitted to humans from animals, the virus can then be transmitted to other humans, creating the spread of the disease we see in China now. As The Daily Wire previously reported, the latest version of the coronavirus has killed at least six people, with China confirming more than 300 cases earlier this week, a day-over-day jump since Sunday.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-coronavirus-kills-third-person-spreads-to-more-cities-11579494221">reported</a> that it has “spread quickly around the country and across Asia, infecting 156 new patients in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other densely-populated cities, and reaching South Korea for the first time—a major escalation in the pneumonia-like disease’s transmission.”
CNN previously <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/asia/china-china-coronavirus-sars-intl-hnk/index.html">reported</a>: “Tour agencies have been banned from taking groups out of Wuhan and the number of thermal monitors and screening areas in public spaces will be increased. Traffic police will also conduct spot checks on private vehicles coming in and out of the city to look for live poultry or wild animals, after the virus was linked to a seafood and live animal market, according to a report by state media outlet the People’s Daily, citing Wuhan’s Municipal Health Commission.”
The outlet more recently reported that the virus may have transmitted from snakes to humans, but that bats may have been the actual originators:
<blockquote>The researchers used an analysis of the protein codes favored by the new coronavirus and compared it to the protein codes from coronaviruses found in different animal hosts, like birds, snakes, marmots, hedgehogs, manis, bats and humans. Surprisingly, they found that the protein codes in the 2019-nCoV are most similar to those used in snakes.
Snakes often hunt for bats in wild. Reports indicate that snakes were sold in the local seafood market in Wuhan, raising the possibility that the 2019-nCoV might have jumped from the host species &#8212; bats &#8212; to snakes and then to humans at the beginning of this coronavirus outbreak. However, how the virus could adapt to both the cold-blooded and warm-blooded hosts remains a mystery.</blockquote>

Cobra

SNAKE FLU? Deadly Chinese Virus May Be Linked To Snakes

China is facing another deadly epidemic of the virus that lead to the SARS panic in the early 2000s.
The new version of the coronavirus, a type of pathogen that causes a range of illness including the common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has claimed its sixth life in the communist nation, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/asia/china-china-coronavirus-sars-intl-hnk/index.html">reported</a>. China now has more than 300 confirmed cases of the virus as of Monday, and The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-coronavirus-kills-third-person-spreads-to-more-cities-11579494221">reported</a> that it has “spread quickly around the country and across Asia, infecting 156 new patients in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other densely-populated cities, and reaching South Korea for the first time—a major escalation in the pneumonia-like disease’s transmission.”
On Monday, China’s state-run media outlet Xinhua News Agency reported that China President Xi Jinping called on authorities to “release outbreak information in a timely manner and deepen international cooperation,” in order to stop the spread of the virus. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, said at a press briefing on Monday that the country has “formulated prevention and control plans, treated patients, monitored their close contacts, conducted epidemiological research and released information in a timely matter,” the Journal reported.
More from the Journal:
<blockquote>Beijing, Shanghai and the southern metropolis of Shenzhen—three of the country’s biggest and most prosperous cities—confirmed a total of 14 patients infected with the pneumonia-causing virus, all of them on Monday, according to state media and local authorities.
South Korean authorities, meantime, said Monday that a 35-year-old Chinese woman who had flown into the country from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first occurred, had contracted the coronavirus.</blockquote>
Further, the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, has seen a massive jump in cases – from 62 on Sunday to 198 on Monday. Authorities in the region said 35 of the cases were severe and nine were critical.
On Tuesday, that number increased again by 77, CNN reported, and the country has confirmed that the virus can spread between humans.
“Tour agencies have been banned from taking groups out of Wuhan and the number of thermal monitors and screening areas in public spaces will be increased. Traffic police will also conduct spot checks on private vehicles coming in and out of the city to look for live poultry or wild animals, after the virus was linked to a seafood and live animal market, according to a report by state media outlet the People&#8217;s Daily, citing Wuhan&#8217;s Municipal Health Commission,” the outlet reported.
CNN reported that many now fear it is too late to contain the virus. “Though infections were first detected in Wuhan in mid-December, infrared temperature screening areas were not installed in the city&#8217;s airports and stations until January 14, according to state media.”
Other provinces, including Zhejiang, Tianjin, and Shanghai have also reported an increase in cases as of Tuesday. More from CNN:
<blockquote>The death toll rose to six Tuesday evening, after the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission confirmed that a 66-year-old male and a 48-year-old female died on January 20.
It added that 60 new cases were confirmed by the end of Monday in Wuhan city, where a 15-year-old is the youngest to be infected.</blockquote>

China virus

Remember SARS? New Virus Spreading In China Kills Sixth Person

A convicted sex offender in Michigan is heading to prison for 10–20 years after being caught with child pornography on his computer. What makes this case interesting is the defense that 45-year-old Joseph Gobrick offered in court. Speaking to a judge at his sentencing hearing, <a href="https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/crime/man-sentenced-for-child-sexually-abusive-material/69-7fadc67c-c26e-4a9c-ba51-992caa86caf2">Gobrick claimed</a> that he has a First Amendment right to look at child porn. He also claimed that he identifies as an eight-year-old girl.
“I’ve always been an eight-year-old girl,’’ Gobrick contended. “Even in my drawings and fantasies, I am always an eight-year-old girl. &#8230; There are adults having sex with me in an online forum as an eight-year-old girl.&#8221;
The judge apparently did not find this argument persuasive. No reasonable person would. But an obvious question is raised here. Why exactly can&#8217;t Gobrick identity as a young girl? On what basis can we deny or disqualify his self-identification?
Again, the reasonable among us know the answer. He can&#8217;t identify as one because he isn&#8217;t one. According to all available metrics, he is a 45-year-old pervert, not a third grader. He cannot choose to be a different age. He is the age he is, and that&#8217;s all there is to it. It is either insanity or willful deception that causes him to make this claim about himself. We therefore are perfectly justified in refuting his self-identity and refusing to play along with it. More than merely justified, we are in fact morally obliged to insist on truth over harmful fantasies and delusions.
<iframe title="Worse Than A Slippery Slope | The Matt Walsh Show Ep. 403" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VwxuQaQ-26A?start=126&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
But propagators of left-wing gender theory are not reasonable. Rather, they insist on unreason. They argue that a man can be a woman — not just symbolically or legally, but actually, literally — even in spite of the testimony of his own biological and chromosomal makeup. In the case of a man identifying as a woman, the only thing that matters, they say, is how he feels about himself. The objective facts are irrelevant. Biology is a moot point. He need provide no proof. We are to take him at his word, and that&#8217;s all there is to it.
Well, if biology and physical reality are irrelevant to the question of sex, why should they suddenly be relevant to the question of age? If Gobrick can identify as a female, why can&#8217;t he identify as a female of whatever age he chooses? At least a man who &#8220;feels like a child&#8221; can rightly point out that he was once a child, so he has some frame of reference for judging these feelings. And at least it does make sense, in the case of certain mental disabilities, to say that an adult &#8220;has the brain of a child.&#8221; None of this vindicates Gobrick to any extent at all, but my point is that transageism is actually more credible and makes more sense than transgenderism. It&#8217;s still bogus, but slightly less so. Age does change, after all. I will not be a 33-year-old man forever. But I will be a man forever. If my sex is a fluid characteristic, how much more fluid must my age be?
We have not yet gotten to the point where the Left will openly defend a man like Gobrick and his right to be accepted by society as the child he supposedly believes himself to be. But we will get to that point. We have to. They&#8217;ve already argued his case for him, even if they won&#8217;t admit it and maybe don&#8217;t yet realize it.

Female And Male Symbols

WALSH: Every Sane Person Saw This Coming. Now A Pedophile Claims He Identifies As An 8-Year-Old Girl.

Leftism

Pedophilia

Progressivism

Sexuality

A woman in Sacramento had been using Pond’s Rejuveness cream, which she purchased from Mexico, for the past seven years without incident.
But in July, she began having strange symptoms. At first, the 47-year-old went to a doctor after experiencing what CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/26/health/woman-injured-mercury-skin-cream-trnd/index.html">described</a> as “an odd pricking sensation and arm weakness.” Two weeks later, she went back to the doctor, this time with blurred vision and slurred speech. She was admitted to a hospital at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF). Her condition worsened. Dr. Paul Blanc, part of UCSF’s division of occupational and environmental medicine and the California poison control system, wrote that the woman’s condition declined into “agitated delirium,” according to CNN.
He also wrote that he found “abnormally high” levels of methylmercury in her system. As CNN reported, methylmercury “is highly toxic and can cause permanent nervous system damage.”
The woman is now in a coma, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said her injuries may be permanent.
The woman had purchased the cream through friends. CNN reported it had been tainted after manufacturing, but it is unclear how. The cream is used to lighten skin in order to reduce blemishes and wrinkles.
“Officials tested the cream and found it contained 12,000 parts per million of methylmercury &#8212; a bit over 1.2%. It&#8217;s illegal in the US to sell skin creams that contain more than 1 ppm mercury,” CNN reported.
Dr. Blanc <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2019/12/416266/buyers-beware-skin-lightening-cream-could-cause-neurological-damage">wrote</a> that &#8220;Most harmful skin-lightening creams are intentionally tainted with inorganic mercury,&#8221; but, “in this case, the patient used a skin-lightening product containing organic mercury, which is far more toxic.&#8221;
More from CNN:
<blockquote>The harm methylmercury inflicts upon the nervous system often worsens after patients stop using or consuming tainted products, he said.
The woman&#8217;s condition continued to deteriorate even after she underwent chelation therapy, a treatment to flush mercury through her urine.
&#8220;Central nervous system toxicity, as in this case, is the hallmark of organic mercury &#8212; it typically comes on after weeks to months of exposure,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Once manifested, it quickly progresses and often worsens, despite removal of any further exposure.&#8221;</blockquote>
The outlet reported that the woman cannot speak on her own or care for herself and is currently relying on a feeding tube.
CNN reported there have been more than 60 poisonings in the past 10 years in California due to tainted skin creams, and that most of the creams are purchased “on the street” in Mexico.
“They&#8217;re often packaged in plastic containers without labels or are handmade, and they&#8217;re advertised to remove spots, wrinkles and blemishes,” the outlet reported. “Some of the confiscated creams contained as much as 21% mercury, health officials said.”

Skin cream

Woman Poisoned After Using Skin-Lightening Cream Tainted With Methylmercury

California

On Thursday, <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/fitness/fat-loss/a30105892/jillian-michaels-cover-star/">Women’s Health UK</a> released an interview with author and fitness guru Jillian Michaels.
During the interview, Michaels stated that the celebration of obesity is dangerous, and only encouraged by political correctness:
<blockquote>I think we’re politically correct to the point of endangering people. Yes, we want to be inclusive of everyone [and respect that] everyone comes in all different shapes and sizes&#8230;
That nobody should ever be body shamed or fat shamed or excluded and that everyone is equally deserving and should feel equally valuable. But obesity in itself is not something that should be glamourised. But we’ve become so politically correct that no one wants to say it.</blockquote>
She later added that the reason shows like “The Biggest Loser” aren’t promoted to the degree they once were is due to political correctness: “I think the world has shifted to a place where that format and messaging is considered fat shaming. But it isn’t, and it’s not meant to be. Now we’ve gone so far in the opposite direction.”
A new season of “The Biggest Loser” premiers on the USA network in late-January.
Following the release of the interview, Michaels was dragged on social media:
Actress and abortion activist Jameela Jamil tweeted:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
2/2 Just existing, or even DARING to post a nice picture of yourself feeling beautiful and sexy isn’t glamorizing ANYTHING. It’s just existing and loving yourself. Not a crime. Not a threat to anyone. Shame and erasure doesn’t work. If it did, we’d be a *very* thin world by now.
— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) <a href="https://twitter.com/jameelajamil/status/1203749258047787008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>Elitist ignorance from a renowned long time bully of fat people. Don’t just shame and blame. Cheap food, which most can afford is full of hormones and sugars. Many work too many jobs to have time/money to work out. There’s PCOS, Insulin resistance, Medication side effects, etc&#8230;Just existing, or even DARING to post a nice picture of yourself feeling beautiful and sexy isn’t glamorizing ANYTHING. It’s just existing and loving yourself. Not a crime. Not a threat to anyone. Shame and erasure doesn’t work. If it did, we’d be a *very* thin world by now.</blockquote>
Twitter user @Cyclopticcake wrote a similarly scathing rebuke:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/JillianMichaels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JillianMichaels</a> your women’s health article was trash. it was hurtful and dehumanizing. it negates the humanity of fat folks. if you want better for fat people than stop shaming them. signed, a glamorous fat who will not put up with you.
— jessie oliver (@cyclopticcake) <a href="https://twitter.com/cyclopticcake/status/1204873396997230592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>You know what’s unhealthy @JillianMichaels – feeding people caffeine pills so they’ll lose weight, negating people’s humanity with words like “obese,” telling people that them feeling good about themselves is “glamorizing obesity.” Do you know the damage that does to fat folks mental health, @JillianMichaels? Are you essentially saying that our only purpose is to be confined into a dehumanizing box that you literally profit off of? Would you speak this way about or to any other marginalized group? &#8230; Your Women’s Health article was trash. It was hurtful and dehumanizing. It negates the humanity of fat folks. If you want better for fat people, then stop shaming them. Signed, a glamorous fat who will not put up with you.</blockquote>
User @Joybur10 wrote: “Body positivity isn’t about ‘glamorizing’ obesity, Jillian Michaels. It’s about fighting the pressure to ‘glamorize’ EATING DISORDERS.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Body positivity isn’t about “glamorizing” obesity, Jillian Michaels. It’s about fighting the pressure to “glamorize” EATING DISORDERS. <a href="https://t.co/h4DuQAJGWb">https://t.co/h4DuQAJGWb</a>
— Joy Burton (@joybur10) <a href="https://twitter.com/joybur10/status/1203136963118800896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
“Health at every size” activist Ragen Chastain criticized Michaels in her “<a href="https://danceswithfat.org/2019/12/12/jillian-michaels-is-still-trying-to-glamorize-bullying/">Dances with Fat</a>” blog:
<blockquote>Jillian Michaels is nothing but a bully who wants a world where she can continue to use fatphobia to <a href="https://danceswithfat.org/2016/05/06/the-biggest-losers-big-surprise/">profit off her weight loss lie. </a>That’s bad enough, but trying to co-opt the language of fat activists to do it is a new level of despicable, even for her.</blockquote>
Michaels did find support:
One Twitter user <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jimmyfetish/status/1204800270229811205?s=21">wrote</a>: “I fully support your views on obesity and of course you might not read this, but you were honestly a big inspiration for me! At this point, I’ve lost 70lbs from the original 240lbs I was, and I couldn’t be happier :)”
@Makneekuh wrote: “<a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/JillianMichaels">@JillianMichaels</a> is on point. I love to see my students/clients embracing their journey. You can&#8217;t take this journey without living yourself. But be realistic about where you&#8217;re at and where you need to get to to be the BEST,  HEALTHIEST version of YOU!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/JillianMichaels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JillianMichaels</a> is on point. I love to see my students/ clients embracing their journey. You can&#8217;t take this journey without living yourself. But be realistic about where you&#8217;re at and where you need to get to to be the BEST, HEALTHIEST version of YOU! <a href="https://t.co/ZPoXpPfXE5">https://t.co/ZPoXpPfXE5</a>
— M. H. (@makneekuh) <a href="https://twitter.com/makneekuh/status/1205219111690588160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
Journalist Emily Miller wrote: “Even though I&#8217;m eating my way through holiday season on carbs/sugar/crap, I totally agree with <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/JillianMichaels">@JillianMichaels</a> saying that ‘obesity in itself is not something that should be glamorized&#8230;. We’ve become so politically correct that no one wants to say it.’”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Even though I&#8217;m eating my way through holiday season on carbs/sugar/crap, I totally agree with <a href="https://twitter.com/JillianMichaels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JillianMichaels</a> saying that &#8220;obesity in itself is not something that should be glamorized&#8230;. We’ve become so politically correct that no one wants to say it.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/tTZBuae0wg">https://t.co/tTZBuae0wg</a>
— Emily Miller (@emilymiller) <a href="https://twitter.com/emilymiller/status/1205246061478055937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
Michaels hasn’t responded to Jamil’s tweet, nor has she tweeted anything regarding the backlash her comments have generated.
The <a href="https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/adult-overweight-obesity/health-risks">National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases</a> (NIDDKD) reports that being overweight or obese can contribute to developing Type II diabetes, heart disease, various cancers, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep apnea, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver diseases, kidney disease, and osteoarthritis, among other things.
According to a <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362">study</a> published in The New England Journal of Medicine, “in 2015, high BMI contributed to 4.0 million deaths &#8230; which represented 7.1% &#8230; of the deaths from any cause; it also contributed to 120 million disability-adjusted life-years &#8230; which represented 4.9% &#8230; of disability-adjusted life-years from any cause among adults globally. A total of 39% of the deaths and 37% of the disability-adjusted life-years that were related to high BMI occurred in persons with a BMI of less than 30.”
[Ellipses in the above paragraph indicate where “uncertainty intervals” were removed for clarity. However, as an example, the NEJM article states that “high BMI contributed to 4.0 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval, 2.7 to 5.3).” This means that the authors are 95% confident that the true effect connected to “high BMI” deaths is between 2.7 million and 5.3 million.]

Jillian Michaels.

Fitness Guru Jillian Michaels Gets Blasted For Saying ‘Obesity’ Should Not Be ‘Glamorized’

Jillian Michaels

obesity

Taking contraceptives on a daily basis has harmful effects on the brain, according to at least one study.
According to <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/contraceptive-use-linked-to-shrinking-brain-size-researchers-find">LifeSiteNews</a>, a recent study from the Radiological Society of North America showed that contraceptive pills may have the capacity to shrink a woman&#8217;s brain size.
&#8220;The study looked at MRI scans of 50 healthy women, 21 of whom were taking oral contraceptive pills, and found that &#8216;women taking birth control pills had significantly smaller hypothalamus volume,'&#8221; <a href="https://press.rsna.org/timssnet/media/pressreleases/14_pr_target.cfm?id=2136">reports</a> the outlet. &#8220;The hypothalamus helps to regulate key bodily functions such as the appetite, heart rate, body temperature, and emotions.&#8221;
The study was largely conducted due to the limited availability of &#8220;evidence on the structural and functional effects of hormonal contraceptives on the brain,&#8221; particularly the hypothalamus. In the initial press release, the study found a decreased hypothalamus could have disastrous effects on emotion while diagnosing no effect on overall cognitive performance.
&#8220;Smaller hypothalamic volume was also associated with greater anger and showed a strong correlation with depressive symptoms,&#8221; the study claimed. &#8220;The study found no significant correlation between hypothalamic volume and cognitive performance.”
Dr. Michael Lipton, medical director of MRI services at Montefiore Medical Center, said the differences in brain sizes between women ingesting oral contraceptives versus women who did not were &#8220;dramatic.&#8221;
“We found a dramatic difference in the size of the brain structures between women who were taking oral contraceptives and those who were not,&#8221; said Lipton. &#8220;We validated methods for assessing the volume of the hypothalamus and confirm, for the first time, that current oral contraceptive pill usage is associated with smaller hypothalamic volume. This initial study shows a strong association (between taking oral contraceptive pills and low hypothalamic volume) and should motivate further investigation into the effects of oral contraceptives on brain structure and their potential impact on brain function.&#8221;
As noted by LifeSiteNews, similar scientific studies have found oral contraceptives to have a negative effect on female biology.
&#8220;In 2016, Danish researchers who studied the medical histories of more than a million women over an 18-year period found that women who use hormonal contraceptives are more likely to be depressed,&#8221; <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/contraception-use-makes-women-more-likely-to-be-clinically-depressed-new-st">reported</a> the outlet. &#8220;A study conducted by German researchers in 2016 found that oral contraceptive pills may be damaging women’s sense of emotional connection. In 2017, another Danish study suggested a link between the use of hormonal contraceptives and mood disturbances linked to increased suicide rates.&#8221;
In 2017, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-study-hormonal-contraception-increases-breast-cancer-risk-by-20">another study</a> from The New England Journal of Medicine shows that long-term hormonal contraception ingested for as long as 10 years increases the risk of breast cancer by 38%. Dr. David Agus, a University of Southern California physician, said at the time that the dosage size did not matter.
“This is the first study that had shown intrauterine devices with hormones having association with breast cancer in large numbers,” he said. “With the lower dose of oral contraceptives, we thought there wouldn’t be as much of a risk as the higher dose but it turns out to be the same — about a 20 percent increase in breast cancer overall.”
The risk for breast cancer increases by the year, beginning at 9% in year one and then progressing to 38% by year 10.

Contraceptive pill

STUDY: Oral Contraceptives Linked To Shrinking Brain Sizes

Birth Control

Procedures are put in place for sanitizing equipment to be used in surgeries to avoid contamination and exposure to various viruses. Each step of the procedure, no matter how small, is important to ensure the safety of patients and doctors.
At the Goshen Hospital in Indiana, however, a technician missed a step in this process, thereby potentially exposing more than 1,000 surgical patients to HIV as well as hepatitis C and hepatitis B, <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/25/health/indiana-surgical-patients-exposed-virus/index.html">reported CNN</a>.
Liz Fisher, the marketing specialist for Goshen Health, said in a press release that as many as 1,182 patients who had surgery between April and September of 2019 may have been affected. While this seems frightening, the hospital made sure to emphasize that the risk of exposure is “extremely low.” Just to be safe, the hospital is providing potentially impacted patients with free testing for the potential viruses.
&#8220;While our sterile processing and infectious disease experts believe that the potential transmission of blood borne viruses between patients is extremely remote, out of an abundance of caution, we want to verify through lab blood tests that patients have not been harmed,&#8221; the hospital’s president and chief medical officer said in an update last Wednesday.
Fisher said in her own statement that those who may have been affected by the improper sterilization have already been sent notification letters. A call center has been set up to answer patient questions and set up blood testing.
From CNN:
<blockquote><a href="http://redirect.viglink.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fhepatitis%2Fhcv%2Findex.htm&amp;key=15785bf48552a1cdfab425661118986f">Hepatitis C </a>is a liver infection caused by a blood-borne virus and is usually spread by sharing needles or equipment to inject drugs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fhepatitis%2Fhbv%2Findex.htm&amp;key=15785bf48552a1cdfab425661118986f">Hepatitis B</a> is also a liver infection caused by a blood-borne virus but is spread when bodily fluid is passed from an infected person to someone who is not infected, according to the CDC. <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fhiv%2Fbasics%2Findex.html&amp;key=15785bf48552a1cdfab425661118986f">HIV &#8212; human immunodeficiency virus</a> &#8212; weakens a person&#8217;s immunity system by destroying important cells that fight disease and infection.</blockquote>
Within days of the announced sterilization error, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the hospital, WNDU <a href="https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-Goshen-Health-in-response-to-failure-to-sterilize-565345151.html">reported</a>.
The lawsuit was filed by a woman who had surgery performed on June 24, within the timeframe of those who may have been impacted. She filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and the nearly 1,200 other patients who were affected by the error.
“When we are at our most vulnerable and in need of surgery, we place both our trust and our life in our hospital and its personnel,&#8221; attorney Walter J. Alvarez said in a statement regarding the lawsuit. &#8220;In light of the shocking revelation that over months of time a northern Indiana hospital exposed or potentially exposed thousands of surgical patients to unsterilized instruments and life altering infectious disease such as HIV and hepatitis &#8212; our office, Alvarez Law and the Pavlack law office of Indianapolis have, today, joined forces to bring justice to those affected and hold those responsible to account.&#8221;
The lawsuit seeks “certification for her and others who were potentially exposed as a plaintiff class and damages for emotional trauma, medical expenses and more,” WNDU reported.

surgical equipment

Sanitizing Error At Indiana Hospital May Have Exposed More Than 1,000 Patients To HIV

Indiana

Lawsuit

Women are just victims of everything these days. Born a woman? You’re automatically a victim by today’s standards.
Now CNN is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/24/health/stds-are-sexist-against-women-wellness/index.html?no-st=1572101315">reporting</a> that even sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are sexist. Let’s be honest, STDs are bad no matter what sex, race, sexuality, creed, or disability one has, but CNN, with the help of doctors, has found a way to make the diseases yet another notch in the women-as-victims bedpost.
&#8220;STDs are biologically and psycho-socially sexist at all levels,&#8221; the outlet quoted Dr. Hunter Handsfield as saying. Handsfield is a professor emeritus of medicine and the University of Washington Center for AIDS and STD.
&#8220;Women bear the largest burden of these diseases,&#8221; another doctor, Edward Hook, told the outlet. Dr. Hook is co-director of the Center for Social Medicine and Sexually Transmitted Diseases at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
&#8220;Chlamydia and gonorrhea, for example, are two of the leading preventable causes of infertility and ectopic pregnancies in the United States, and on Earth,&#8221; Hook added.
In heterosexual couples, as CNN reported, men or more likely to transmit STDs to women than women are to men. That&#8217;s because the lining of the vagina is thinner and more delicate than the skin on a penis, so it&#8217;s easier for bacteria and viruses to penetrate and take hold. Once there, the moist environment of the vagina is perfect for growth,” the outlet reported.
Once contracted, some STDs can be more harmful to women than men. Handsfield offered the example of Herpes.
“Because of the nature of the female genitalia, if you get new herpes, there&#8217;s likely multiple painful blisters,&#8221; Handsfield said. &#8220;For men, typically a few blisters.&#8221;
Multiple vs. a few.
HPV was a better example, as women are far more likely to get cervical cancer from human papillomavirus than men are to get penile cancer.
The outlet also couched STDs as sexist because… women might confuse them for a yeast infection.
&#8220;If a woman has a little burning on urination, maybe it was too much time on the exer-cycle, maybe the underwear was too tight, maybe there were spicy foods for dinner,&#8221; Dr. Hook said.
&#8220;Maybe there&#8217;s a little discharge, a little itch,&#8221; Handsfield added. &#8220;It&#8217;s easy for a woman to think it&#8217;s a yeast infection and self-treat while the chlamydia is climbing up into her fallopian tubes.&#8221;
Naturally, CNN had to include an unproven anecdote about one of the doctor’s daughters whose OB-GYN performed an exam and then allegedly lectured her about sex when she asked for a chlamydia test.
Today, we’re told everything is sexist, from <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/stop-finding-sexism-in-everything">telling someone to smile</a> to political disagreement to air conditioning. If a woman says she is inconvenienced, she’s the victim of sexism.
Diseases hurt some people more than others, but it doesn’t have to become a rallying cry for feminists. The moral of the STD story should be that men and women need to be aware of what STDs can do to their body and how they’re at risk. They should take steps to defend themselves from contracting STDs, not just because of what it will do to them but also because of what it might do to others.
The moral should not be that women have yet another thing to claim victimhood status over.

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