CoViD-19 SPECIAL EDITION

February 23, 2020

CoViD-19 Special Edition:

Dear Readers,

Food shortages are eminent or starting in China. Streets in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are empty, and anyone found outside without a mask, or anyone with a fever is liable to be beaten and taken away. The Virus is rampant in the prisons in China, Whole apartment buildings are being welded shut. Wuhan has reportedly just announced several weeks of additional quarantine with no stores to be open and no going out at all.

Globally, lockdowns and quarantines are occurring in dozens of cities: Two large cities in South Korea, 14 provinces in Iran, nearly a dozen cities in Italy -- that was the news as of this morning, tomorrow things will surely be even worse. Dozens of international borders have already been closed.

South Korea has declared a "RED ALERT". Italy has announced "extraordinary measures." The daily rate of new "confirmed" cases of The Virus does not appear to be peaking, despite enormous and even Draconian measures in China and severe efforts, though perhaps not yet Draconian as far as we know, elsewhere.

Air travel is down 90% or more globally -- but that's not nearly enough to stop the spread of The Virus. Thousands of flights every day are carrying and spreading the disease.

Nobody can build enough hospitals fast enough in infected zones, and health care workers are getting infected at alarming rates.

If you are unaware of ANY of this, please start doing some research! (Some suggested links appear below.)

If you ARE aware of most of it, you are probably already preparing for the global pandemic that is probably unavoidable now. You are already stocking several months worth of non-perishable food and water, and you've already purchased dozens of N-95 masks and boxes of gloves. You have tissues and toilet paper. You have several months of whatever medications and vitamins you will need.

If you haven't been doing these things, you can no longer be among the first, but the stores still have most items -- in America, at least. For the moment.

In any case, you also need to be sure to start practicing not just "good hygiene" but "superb hygiene." You must NEVER touch your face or handle food with unwashed hands. And you must learn to wash your hands better than ever before! Do not touch elevator buttons with your own finger tips (to protect others -- use a knuckle, for example -- and a different knuckle next time if you haven't been able to wash in-between). Wash your hands after handling gas pump handles, public door handles or anything else. Don't shake hands with ANYBODY. Elbow bumping shows them you are trying to be safe, and if they elbow bump back automatically, you know that they know the dangers that are all around us now.

And remember that better hygiene is a good goal generally. If you get the flu or worse yet, pneumonia this year, and get The Virus at the same time or soon after while your body is still weakened, that's an additional risk factor you might have been able to avoid. The seasonal diseases already kill tens of thousands of Americans each year.

But what is The Virus? Why is this happening? Is it really "engineered" as some have claimed? We don't know, and in some sense it doesn't matter. The most likely scenario I have seen seems to be that The Virus came out of a lab in Wuhan -- not the seafood market and not the P4 biolab 20 miles away from the city but the virus research center a quarter of a mile from the seafood market (where, admittedly, various wild animals other than seafood probably were indeed available). The most likely scenario is that The Virus was *NOT* released intentionally, it escaped -- possibly because proper procedures were not followed. But none of that really matters now. Whoever made the mistake is probably long gone, for one thing. And for another, they were probably trying to create a vaccine that could fight against ANY coronavirus (such as SARS or MERS), NOT a bioweapon. The research would be surprisingly similar, I'm sure...

Below are some links that contain useful information, especially the first one, which is very recent and includes many additional links.

I have always appreciated each of my newsletter readers and thank you kindly for your years of attention. There are ONLY a couple of hundred people who receive this newsletter directly, so please FORWARD THIS EMAIL to anyone you think might find it useful. Best of luck to all in the coming hard times ahead.

Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, California

This blog is also available online here:

https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2020/02/covid-19-special-edition.html

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Additional links about CoViD-19:
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Past time to tell the public it will probably go pandemic (Feb. 23, 2020):
https://virologydownunder.com/past-time-to-tell-the-public-it-will-probably-go-pandemic-and-we-should-all-prepare-now/

Breakthrough in Coronavirus Research Results in New Map to Support Vaccine Design (Feb. 19, 2020):
https://news.utexas.edu/2020/02/19/breakthrough-in-coronavirus-research-results-in-new-map-to-support-vaccine-design/

CNET article about the above research (Feb. 19, 2020):
https://www.cnet.com/news/coronavirus-breakthrough-first-3d-protein-map-paves-way-for-vaccine-design/

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February 23, 2020

Dear Readers,

I have >500 books on nuclear power (only one of which I wrote!), going back through the entire history of the splitting of the atom. I need to donate these books, plus some videos and related material -- find a permanent home for them at a major university, as quickly as possible. Most are in excellent condition and none are the least bit moldy.

Because of The Virus (more on that below) mere weeks, and certainly months, might be too late forever.

Please contact me directly if you can help get this collection to a good home (contact information at the bottom of this email).

Thank you in advance,

Ace Hoffman
Nuclear Historian
Carlsbad, CA

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Ace Hoffman
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
YouTube: youtube.com/user/AceHoffman
Carlsbad, CA
Email: ace [at] acehoffman.org

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