OK, let's pause to reflect on some details here.
The PRC🇨🇳 govt is not denying a dire prediction that the #SARSCoV2#XBB variants have, for the first time, hit #China and will cause a massive epidemic over the next 6-to-8 weeks. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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2/ Zhong Nanshan is a national hero in China, having led combat against SARS2003. At a biotech conference in Guangzhou today he said:
- #XBB will cause 40 million infections/week by the end of May, before peaking at 65 M/wk in late June
- PRC is rushing on a XBB #vaccine
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3/ - The 1st post-Zero-#COVID wave in China peaked with 37 M infections/DAY -- this second wave will be less extreme, he said
- Many people, however, have lost their immunity enough from that 1st wave to now be re-infected with #XBB #China has never released mortality...
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The #G7HiroshimaSummit seems to be unusually productive, with the leaders agreeing on a very large list of actions. Among them, combined with new bilateral US/Australia pacts, are possibly profound energy & #climate resolutions.
2/I'll quote a few examples from the Joint Declaration.
- accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs ), recognizing that reducing poverty & tackling the #climate and nature crisis go hand in hand;
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3/ - preserve the planet by accelerating the decarbonization of our energy sector & the deployment of renewables, end plastic pollution & protect the oceans;
- deepen cooperation through Just Energy Transition Partnerships, the #Climate Club & new Country Packages for...
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Some @POTUS@JoeBiden quips at last night's @WhiteHouse Correspondents Dinner:
"Like I often say, don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.
We added 12 million jobs, and that's just counting the lawyers -- who defended the president." (Laughter.)
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2/ "I had a lot of #RonDeSantis jokes ready, but Mickey Mouse beat the hell out of me & got there first. (Laughter & applause)
Now, look, can’t be too rough on the guy. After his reelection as governor, he was asked if he had a mandate. He said, 'Hell no, I’m straight'.”
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3/ "Look, it’s great the cable news networks are here tonight. @MSNBC owned by NBC Universal. @FoxNews owned by #Dominion Voting Systems. (Laughter)
Last year, your favorite Fox News reporters were able to attend because they were fully vaccinated & boosted.
This year.."
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Boy, I goofed. I confused in my memory banks two different original outbreaks -- Lassa and Marburg, mis-recalling things I wrote nearly 30 years ago.
I apologize. And here, I will quote a section of THE COMING PLAGUE referring to #Marburg in a thread.
2/"In August 1967 three factory workers in #Marburg, German, reported in sick, suffering from muscle aches & mild fevers. The three men were employed at Behringwerke AG, the vaccine-producing subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Hoechst AG, and though their ailments looked.."
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3/ "...like nothing more than flu, it was quite unusual for influenza to appear during Germany's hot summer months. The men were referred to #Marburg University Hospital.
The following day the three became nauseated, their spleens enlarged and were tender to the touch..."
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The #MarburgVirus is a cousin of #Ebola & there are outbreaks now in Equatorial Guinea, on the borders of Gabon & Cameroon & on other side of Africa, in Tanzania, all on the heels of Ghana outbreak last year. @WHOAFRO@WHO & African CDC are mobilized.
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There are 6 major subtypes of #Marburg which is a bat-carried hemorrhagic RNA virus. The subtypes seem to have different fatality rates in humans -- up to 100%. The current strains have not yet been genotyped, so it is unclear what is going on, @WHO says.
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It's possible these are coincident events.
It's also possible something is going on w/bat populations across equatorial Africa, which would be worrying. @WHO 's Dr. Abdi Rahman Mahamoud just said in presser there are "more questions than answers."
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