As the article states, Asia has long been right about the wearing of masks, I just think the CDC did not want to have a rush on these masks by the general American public when hospitals needed a chance to stockpile them:
Pedestrians wear face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus on the streets of Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. AP
Debate over masks ends: Asia was right all along
“There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit,” said Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies programme, as recently as Monday.
All that changed this week. On Friday, both the US and Singapore switched to advising citizens to wear masks when they leave their homes. The WHO also made a U-turn itself, with Ryan saying: “We can certainly see circumstances on which the use of masks, both home-made and cloth masks, at the community level may help with an overall comprehensive response to this disease.”
You can read more at the link, but this will be a huge cultural change in the U.S. where walking around with a mask could be confused for criminal activity.
For any foreigner that wants to get easily tested for COVID-19 head on over to the Seoul Sports Complex. The article says it takes about 15 minutes to get tested:
This photo shows a walkthrough screening center set up at Seoul Sports Complex in southeastern Seoul on April 3, 2020. (Yonhap)
A walkthrough virus screening center for overseas entrants opened at a major sports complex in southeastern Seoul on Friday amid a continued increase in imported cases.
The screening center, which Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon claimed could test up to 1,000 people per day, was set up at Seoul Sports Complex, the site of the 1986 Asian Games and 1988 Summer Olympics.
On the first day of operation, the screening venue appeared mostly quiet, with around 10 people visiting during a two-hour slot.
Visitors said they came to the walkthrough to be tested promptly.
“I arrived (in South Korea) on Thursday and have been taking a language course in San Diego,” said a 23-year-old who lives in the northeastern ward of Nowon. “I was told that it would take some time for me to be tested at the Nowon health center, which is why I came here.”
For the fifth straight day another person affiliated with USFK has tested positive for coronavirus, however only 2 of the 19 infections have been uniformed servicemembers:
This image provided by U.S. Forces Korea shows a visitor to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek going through a fever test for prevention of COVID-19. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
An American citizen working for U.S. Forces Korea’s Camp Humphreys tested positive for the new coronavirus Friday, the 19th confirmed case for the USFK community.
USFK said an American construction worker working for the military camp was diagnosed with COVID-19 in the day.
According to USFK, the U.S. citizen last visited Camp Humphreys, the USFK headquarters in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, and has since been under self-quarantine at his home for having been in contact with another coronavirus patient.
Via reader tip comes this odd story of USFK apparently pulling a fast one on a Korean lab testing people for the coronavirus:
A Seoul-based lab tested 72 American troops positive for the novel coronavirus, but the US military in Korea said they belonged to soldiers stationed elsewhere, a local report said Sunday.
A US hospital at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, where the US military here is headquartered, sent clinical specimens to the lab, and it shared the results with the city of Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, as it was bound by law to do so.
The city pressed the US Forces Korea for more details, but it only confirmed that those diagnosed with COVID-19 were US troops on duty elsewhere and not in Korea.
The local report said the specimens sent to the lab for testing were all numbered, rather than named, so the examinees were not identified.
Upon learning the news, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered every lab in the country not to run virus tests on unidentifiable samples.
You can read more at the link, but but what doesn’t make sense to me is that USFK has been stating that the hospital on Camp Humphreys can do its own coronavirus testing. The hospital can supposedly do up to 80 tests a day so has it reached maximum testing capacity by also testing soldiers from outside of USFK?
The article also says that the city wants every soldier, family member, DOD civilian, and contractor living off-post in Pyeongtaek be tested for the coronavirus. How come the city isn’t forcing every Korean in Pyeongtaek to be tested? Why just USFK personnel? Are they saying USFK personnel are somehow more susceptible to be infected by the coronavirus compared to a Korean? This seems discriminatory to me.
The former Captain in charge of the Theodore Roosevelt who was relieved has become something of a folk hero on social media:
Capt. Brett Crozier, then-commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt addresses the crew during an all-hands call in the ship’s hangar bay March 3, 2020. Crozier was relieved of command after his letter that warned sailors could die from the coronavirus outbreak aboard the carrier was leaked to the media.
A cheering and applauding crowd of sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt wished farewell to their captain, whom the Navy relieved of command after he raised concerns about the spreading coronavirus on his ship in a letter that was leaked to the media.
Hundreds were pictured in the gathering in the ship’s hangar deck and many chanted Capt. Brett Crozier’s name in multiple videos posted to social media.
A video posted Friday to the Facebook page of Michael Washington included the hashtags #MYCO and #WEARETRSTRONG.
“That’s how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had,” someone says in the video, then using an acronym for greatest of all time, adds: “The GOAT, the man for the people.”
Crozier was dismissed Thursday due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command and for not using his chain of command to make service leaders aware of his concerns about the virus outbreak that had infected more than 100 sailors on the ship, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said at the Pentagon.
When I first heard about this story I thought initially he got screwed, but unlike social media I actually will go and read more source documents about what happened.
The memo that was leaked is posted on the San Francisco Chronicle website and the first thing I thought while reading the letter is why wasn’t this sent over a SIPR computer which classified information should be sent? The letter was filled with information about the operational readiness of the ship. Sending the message over a classified network would have avoided this whole mess.
Secondly, here is the part of the San Francisco Chronicle article that was buried that no one is talking about; why was the crew allowed to go on shore leave in Vietnam?:
Gilday told reporters last week it was unclear if sailors became infected following the ship’s previous port of call in early March to Da Nang, Vietnam. Gilday said they debated whether to go on with the Vietnam visit, but at the time there were only 16 coronavirus cases in northern Vietnam and the port was in the central part of the country.
Sailors were screened prior to returning on board. The first three sailors tested positive 15 days after leaving Vietnam, officials said.
I read that 16 infected number and instantly did not believe it because it is coming from a regime, just like the Chinese, that can easily suppress information. Vietnam likely has a far larger coronavirus problem that they don’t want the outside world to know about. It seems to me this was a very bad decision to have a port call in a country right next door to the coronavirus epicenter.
Lastly for people that have been to Naval Base Guam, this is not a huge base with a lot of open accommodations for 5,000 people on an aircraft carrier that just showed up. The only place to house that many people in rooms that can be quarantined would be in resort hotels in Tumon. Think of Tumon as the mini-Waikiki of Guam, outside of the military Tumon is the economic engine of Guam with its tourist industry.
How many resort hotels you think were eager to fill their business with sailors possibly infected with coronavirus? Plus how many residents of Guam wanted these sailors in the community when they see photos like this of sailors congregating on the beach in defiance of orders put out by the local government to practice social distancing:
Photos of people on the beach on Guam have shared on social media with accompanying messages claiming these are USS Theodore Roosevelt sailors who are supposed to be quarantined. Joint Region Marianas said none of the people pictured are USS Roosevelt sailors. Joint Reion Marianas said this photo was taken on March 21, before the USS Roosevelt was in Guam.
Getting this many sailors into resort hotels was going to take Navy leaders time to make happen with the local government and hotel owners:
Moving sailors out of Naval Base Guam into hotels was criticized by Sen. Sabina Perez and community groups.
Eight community groups said in a statement: “The decision to house them in the middle of our community is playing a game of chance with the health of our people.”
This was not going to be something easily done especially when you take in consideration the sensitivities the people of Guam have of past colonization. The Navy was going to have to work carefully with Guam’s political leadership to make this happen and all indications are they did:
When the vessel docked, there were no beds and now, a week later, there are almost 3,000 beds for the crew, Modly told reporters at a press briefing. Creating available space for the sailors happened in a week, he said.
“That’s not because of this letter,” Modly said, referring to Crozier’s letter. “That’s because of stuff going on well before the letter was sent.”
Modly added the letter was sent via email and copied to 20 or 30 other people. The letter created the perception the Navy wasn’t on the job and created a degree of panic, he said.
It seems like people on social media are looking for a COVID-19 hero of some kind, but Captain Crozier in my opinion is not it. If people want some COVID-19 heroes here are the people that get my vote.
I find it pretty amazing how different the coronavirus infection and death rates are between Tokyo and New York City. Why is New York City being devastated by the coronavirus while similarly densely populated Tokyo is not experiencing the same problems? That is the real story the media should be looking at:
People check out cherry blossoms, which have been blocked off because of the coronavirus pandemic, at Ueno Park in Tokyo, Monday, March 30, 2020.
As of Tuesday, Japan had 1,953 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 56 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Tokyo has counted 499 cases and 15 deaths as of Tuesday, according the Tokyo Metropolitan Government website.
A national law passed earlier this month allows the prime minister to declare a state of emergency when rapid spread of the virus poses a serious threat to people’s lives and the economy.
The decision to declare a state of emergency will carefully be made based on advice by a wide range of experts, Suga said.
South Korea will begin the new school year with online classes on April 9 following repeated delays due to the novel coronavirus, the prime minister said Tuesday.
The unprecedented move to introduce online classes will be applied step by step at schools, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said, without elaborating.
It took the EU quite a while to figure this out, but this is why President Trump had been pushing back against Chinese disinformation and propaganda by calling it the “China Virus”:
Pedestrians wearing face masks walk past a screen displaying an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping after the city’s emergency alert level for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was downgraded, in Shanghai, China, March 23, 2020. Reuters
The European Union’s top diplomat has fired a warning shot at China’s “politics of generosity,” amid a growing sense of unease over Beijing’s targeted strategy to help certain European countries with medical supplies to fight Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
In an unusual choice of language, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on EU countries to stand ready for a “struggle for influence” in a “global battle of narratives.” (………..)
But two recent developments have changed the EU’s thinking, according to a diplomatic source briefed on the matter, driving EU officials closer to the rhetoric of regarding China as a “systemic rival,” a phrase first used under von der Leyen’s predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker.
First, there is the sense that China’s leadership prefers to deal directly with European countries, rather than through the EU. Von der Leyen was the only major European leader who did not receive a phone call from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While Xi has phoned French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spain’s King Felipe over the past week, it was left to Premier Li Keqiang to make the call to Von der Leyen.
Second, the EU was startled by the reaction of Serbia, which is on course to begin accession talks at some stage to join the EU. When the EU hastily enacted an export ban on medical equipment, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic lambasted EU solidarity as a “fantasy,” turning instead to Xi, whom he called a friend and a brother.
While the EU urgently arranged $8.1 million in aid for Belgrade, China moved swiftly to solidify ties with Serbia, with Xi calling Vucic last week to pledge medical support and heap praise on the “ironclad friendship” between the two countries.
At the same time, Chinese diplomats stepped up what critics describe as a disinformation campaign on Twitter.
The Chinese Embassy to France, for instance, posted a series of tweets claiming the US government had covered up a coronavirus outbreak last year as flu cases, deflecting claims that Covid-19 originated in China.
“Following the surprise closure last July of the largest American research center for biochemical weapons, Fort Detrick base in Maryland, a series of pneumonia or similar cases have occurred in the United States,” one of the tweets claimed.
You can read more at the link, the other thing that hardly anyone in the international media mentions is how the Chinese government is likely not telling the truth about how many of their people have been infected and killed by the coronavirus.
They are doing this to make it look like the Chinese government’s so called “competent” handling ended the virus threat in China while making the U.S. government look incompetent. This is being done for domestic political purposes, but also international reasons to differentiate their governmental model compared to the U.S. and build their influence.
I doubt we will see much change in the international media’s coverage of China because they incredibly hate President Trump more than Chinese President Xi.
Here is another article about foreigners spreading the coronavirus:
Another foreigner has been caught ignoring the self-isolation rules that are being implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Busan City said Sunday a German student, 25, had ignored the instruction after entering the country on March 20. The student, enrolled at Pusan National University, is being treated at the school’s hospital after testing positive for coronavirus on March 28.
The student, whose identity was withheld, entered the country through Gimhae International Airport on March 20, without symptoms of coronavirus infection. Before coming to Korea, he briefly visited the United States and Japan, according to the city.
Despite being devoid of suspicious symptoms, he was subject to mandatory two-week self-isolation in his dorm room. But he ignored this.
It looks like soon Americans will begin getting tested with Korean made coronavirus test kits though there appears to be some confusion of when the approval will officially be given:
The foreign ministry reconfirmed Monday that three South Korean coronavirus test kits can be exported to the United States as they were given pre-emergency use authorization numbers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
On Saturday, the foreign ministry issued a press release that the three unidentified companies have gained preapproval in the FDA’s emergency use authorization (EUA) process and that their diagnostic devices can be sold in the U.S. market.
But the announcement created confusion as it turned out that none of the test kit manufacturers that applied for EUA approval knew about the authorization. Some newspapers accused the ministry of making the announcement in a hurried manner to show it is the result of President Moon Jae-in’s diplomacy toward the U.S.
