As more questions are raised about the role of the Wuhan Lab in this pandemic…
Covid-19 coronavirus: Wuhan lab ‘had emergency shutdown’ last October
US intelligence agencies are investigating mobile phone data which suggests the Wuhan Institute of Virology had an emergency shutdown back in October last year.
NBC News has reportedly obtained records which show that a “hazardous event” at the institute’s high security National Biosafety Laboratory may have occurred between October 6 and 11.
This allegedly led to a shutdown of the P4 laboratory from October 7 to 24, during which there was no mobile activity, news.com.au reports.
The laboratory, located a short distance from the Wuhan wet market at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, is the facility the Trump administration is blaming for starting the pandemic.
The report, which NBC says was carried out by private investigators, also suggested roadblocks around the laboratory were set up between October 14 and 19.
…things are heating up diplomatically with China.
Personally I think the most likely explanation is usually the right one. It is most likely this damned plague jumped species through the poorly run wet markets and spread there, but that the Wuhan Lab was working on bat viruses and had previous poor safety standards criticised by visiting American scientists in 2018, the possibility if the Wuhan Lab being the cause of an accidental release does need to be investigated alongside the much more likely role of the wet markets.
Both sources need investigation because you know, millions infected, hundreds of thousands dead and a global economic depression were all sparked by this plague, and knowing where it came form and how to stop it in the future is kinda important.
China doesn’t want an investigation because it is an enormous loss of face and asks hard questions about the deceit China used in the early days of the pandemic where as Trump wants an investigation on China to help deflect attention from his criminal negligence of a response to the American nightmare he has helped spawn with his incompetence.
So we have two Superpowers wanting to deflect. Conflict is almost guaranteed under these circumstances.
And we are seeing that pressure start here…
China bans Aussie meat exports as Covid-19 tensions rise
China has reportedly suspended meat exports from four Australian abattoirs as simmering tensions about the origin of the Covid-19 outbreak rise between the countries.
The Asian giant – which is New Zealand’s biggest meat export destination – suspended four Australian export abattoirs overnight but did not officially delist them, according to The Australian media outlet.
…and here…
China criticises New Zealand over support for Taiwan at World Health Organisation
China has issued a stern rebuke to New Zealand, urging it to “stop making wrong statements” on the issue of Taiwan’s membership of the World Health Organisation or risk damaging the two nations’ relationship.
The comments came from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who told a news conference in Beijing that New Zealand’s stance was a violation of the “one China'” policy, which he said is the political foundation of our bilateral relationship.
“We express our strong dissatisfaction with the statements and resolutely oppose it, and we have already made stern representations with New Zealand,” Zhao said.
“China urges New Zealand to strictly abide by the ‘one China’ principle and immediately stop making wrong statements on Taiwan, to avoid damaging our bilateral relationship.”
…Winston Peters wants to bash the Chinese because China bashing is going to be this election seasons favourite go to punchline seeing as everyone is now a beneficiary and bashing beneficiaries will be considered off limits.
The difficulty NZ has always had in trying to follow two masters is about to get tested, are we American slaves or Chinese slaves?
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For me I can see why people would be for or against either China or America. There’s this humongous gap where ordinarily China and America would be a good thing together but it’s like really bad right now. Honestly why would anyone want to crap jobs that robots or AI could do and save on all this argy bargy but this is not why we have automation. We have automation in order to increase profits.
So now we are in this terrible situation where most human beings exist in this situation between now and the future in which Chinese and American relations can be a good thing and I can see how a Universal Basic Income (UBI) can paper over that gap and provide a bridge to that future except a UBI would have to come out of the profits and that’s the problem of a declining rate of profits.
What is most worrying about a UBI isn’t that it feeds the right wing narrative to get rid of the welfare state or that disabled people might be left behind but what is most worrying is that a UBI extricates capitalist from being held hostage by workers. Yknow if you’re able to deceive workers into taking up arms against each other with out a safety net then capitalists can just fire people who speak up against war or worse.
I’d suggest we should read the Big Kahuna, I guess it’s been updated since about 2000 when I first read it?
A UBI (or similar) would actually save money, as WINZ/MSD basically disappear. IRD get’s scaled back and ‘those civil servants’ get to find a REAL job and see what reality is like for the rest of us.
PLUS and I think this is a MASSIVE benefit, it solves this Govts fear or inability to change WINZ/MSD into a helpful, decent & honest agency. Just close it down and introduce a UBI, at about NZ$300 p/w (best guess f inflation proofing since 2000) for all 16 yrs olds and above.
It will be very interesting to see whether or not Jacinda, Winston Peters, Grant Robertson, James Shaw and Marama Davidson could fully comprehend and appreciate the subtleties and nuances of a UBI.
More New Zealanders work than otherwise, so affording it requires a fall in income for those in Super, a land tax, either a wealth tax an estate tax and an across the board 33% tax rate from the first dollar earned.
Or we could make robots our bitch
The devil is in the detail.
Top has taken this as their big ticket but there is a load of fishooks like flat tax.
I keep hearing “wild card”and “Russia” bouncing around the old thinkbox… Now how could they best use the growing stalemate between their puppet, and their quasi ally?
New Zealand is a puppet of China and America precisely because of the budget cuts to the NZDF and foreign affairs and trade ministries.
Is this meant to be a joke? How much would it cost for a military that is strong enough to resist either?
Military spending depends on the threat profile agreed upon by cabinet in Defence White Papers the last one being released last year. It’s got nothing to do with how much something might cost. Given the best of all possible information it is the responsibility of the government of the day to protect the sovereignty and interests of New Zealand and it’s people.
I honestly would have thought that by now the corona virus would have cured tree huggers of there delusional tolerance for incompetent leadership. Being impotent in the face of this massive shift in power is indeed the highest form of incompetence.
Surely it is a joke aom???
When the U.S president becomes the joker nothing is funny.
There had been a lot of interaction between the Wuhan lab and the fort Detrick lab of the US army bioweapons lab which was shut down in August last year for similar poor safety behaviour . Some of this Interaction involved Fauci the US advisor on controlling this pandemic .
If this virus is a manipulated pathogen then I strongly suspect that both the US and China know a hell of a lot more about it than either of them are prepared to make public, and the US is leveraging on the knowledge that Chine can no more reveal the truth to their public than America can to theirs to manipulate public opinion for domestic political reasons.
D J S
Assuming it is a lab release, from the science it would appear more likely to be a sample of a coronavirus accidentally released from a lab rather than an engineered organism. Once in the wild mutation via Pangolin at the wet market. Before you can prove conspiracy, you first have to rule out incompetence. Anyone who has seen Chernobyl knows how things work in a communist system. It is possible low level functionaries tried a cover up hoping to ingratiate themselves with the party leadership. Senior leadership moved fast when they were made aware. We may never know, but sometimes these people do write everything down. Fort Dettrick and the world military games is a lead that needs following up, if only to rule it out.
Alan the Wuhan P4 lab is a fortress, staffed by Chinese, French , American and other specialists.
It is audited along with all staff regularly by international agencies as well as Chinese authorities.
The virus “escaping” from that lab is plain speculation. The lab is at least an hours drive from the much maligned wet markets in Wuhan.
I have never understood the appeal Winston has to older voters .He is a twisted bitter man being the bridesmaid never the bride . Hopefully he knows he is on the way out and he is determined to settle some old scores . He does not care about the outcome to those hurt by upsetting China . It is a bitter pill to swallow for some but we need China to buy our goods and we do not need Winston upsetting them .
Years ago we upset USA by the nuclear ship ban and it has taken years to get a foot in the door again. We are a small nation a long way for markets and with mass tourism a distant dream we need to draw on our second strength which is food production
Trevor – Peters looks good in a suit. The first politician since Geoffrey Palmer who knows how to wear a suit – and show to advantage the craft of the bespoke tailor like Italian. I might vote for him for that. Good a reason.
He also has a ready wit – better than the usual half wits.
Trevor the USA has no loyalty and will use as is it sees fit.
Join the Dots
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/who-controls-british-government-response-covid-19-part-1
You take their money you are a subservient nation
WWG1WGA
Rick.
“It is becoming apparent that people are getting sick because they are being isolated and effectively living under house arrest, condemned as “murderers” if they so much as think about breaking curfew, being snitched on by neighbours for “gathering” more than two people together in their back gardens.”
Becoming apparent????
That is utter bullshit as is the rest of the sentence.
Just read it slowly.
It’s a testament to NZ’s disappearing identity based on undermining the Treaty of Waitangi, that now people seem to be identifying with..
‘The difficulty NZ has always had in trying to follow two masters is about to get tested, are we American slaves or Chinese slaves?’
Lets go option C, neither!
NZ may be a nation full of government and private sector sycophants to China and US, but most of the population is less than impressed with that destiny.
+1 re option C
Except its actually option A with B C and D being USA, China and Britain, and not necessarily in that order.
+100 saveNZ….jonkey stopped us trading with Russia when we should/could have…follow the money with the Nacts….compromised
Red Buzzard – Why did John Key stop us trading with Russia ?
Like others, I have a huge love of Russian culture, its literature, music and so on – and respect for much of the ancient culture of China; we could have been enriched by closer links with Russia in more than monetary ways – and infinitely more than from the Hollywood-type culture which seemed to impress Key so much that he was prepared to mess up our Kiwi workers to serve it; was he just star-struck or what ?
Key is a club member and Russia is not in his club.
We have supported Taiwan as an observer at WHO and seen this as consistent with our one China policy. Peters has just restated it.
China has simply said they do not see it as consistent with a one China policy, but have not minded as it is not something that comes up often, and certainly not as part of something central to world news – a pandemic.
Peters has stated it because it is relevant during a pandemic.
The Chinese have objected because of connection to WHO investigation of the origin of the coronavirus – it speaks to the issue of competence in pandemic management and wider concerns about Wuhan lab security and its wet market (casts China in a poor light compared to Taiwan) that the USA and Oz have raised.
The associated block on Oz meat exports to China is a warning to us about the way power is going to be exercised in the post pandemic era.
We need to be concerned to broaden our export markets (ASEAN/RCEP and EU) and to avoid the debt trap (pandemic credit card the first year cost and throw the card away) that neo-libs have in store for indebted nation states.
What a lot of bollocks all this China done it is. Can anyone find an actual virologist who supports this theory. The list of those who say it jumped species potentially via an intermediary such as the raccoon dog is long. A case in point from across the ditch is nobel prize winner Peter Doherry who won his prize due to work on the mechanism of viral infection. What does he think of the Wuhan Lab theory?
“Doherty digresses long enough to add that the Chinese provided the virus gene sequence extremely early, which he says is critical for quickly developing a vaccine. It is why he says the politics around China is a colossal exercise in stupidity….”
http://archive.li/nWUHm
Fauci in the Usa says it wasnt from a lab and then there is all these…
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/05/as-death-toll-increases-blame-china-campaign-intensifies.html
And as for Judy Mikovits..
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/fact-checking-judy-mikovits-controversial-virologist-attacking-anthony-fauci-viral
Why the NZ Herald is suddenly an agenda free source for blaming China Im not sure.
Anyhow, Trump will be loving it. Now he gets to gamble with the economy versus peoples lives with a free pass to tote every death onto China. I didnt do this. China did. Its a winning strategy for the election which at the moment is all he cares about
Who own and controls NZ MSM including RNZ
The Sheep gobble up the lies and spread them around the green pastures of NZ.
Yes. And heres more on the neocon origins of the Wuhan lies.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/05/how-the-trump-administration-inserts-blame-china-propaganda-into-main-stream-media.html#more
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