News Wrap: Impeachment witness Vindman removed from NSC post

Posted on February 7, 2020 by PBS NewsHour - Politics

In our news wrap Friday, a key impeachment witness has lost his White House job. An attorney for Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman says the aide was fired from the National Security Council and escorted from the building. Vindman had testified that President Trump improperly pressured Ukraine's president. Also, a federal appeals court killed a lawsuit alleging the president violated the Constitution's emoluments clause.

The Coronavirus: Is it Time to Panic?

Posted on January 31, 2020 by LifeZette

By LifeZette Staff | January 31, 2020

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably read all the front-page headlines about a deadly outbreak that started in China and has been working it’s way into other areas of the world despite great efforts to contain it.

In fact, last Thursday the World Health Organization declared it a “global health emergency,” and at the press of a button, it seems, has started quite the world-wide panic…

But what are the facts? Should you be concerned, and just how deadly is this new virus?
Well, as it turns out this new apocalyptic contagion is about as dangerous as the common flu.

Dr. Trish Perl, chief of infections diseases and geographic medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center says, “So far the mortality rate for the virus is about the same as a bad year of the flu.”

So basically it’s just a different strain of the common flu?
Yeah, pretty much!

According to the CDC, the worst symptoms associated with the virus include Fever, Cough, and possible Shortness of breath. Other symptoms that could arise are runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever, and maybe a general feeling of being unwell.

What you won’t hear from the news, or many official health sources, is information about how long the symptoms last. I find that rather interesting because the coronavirus does not kill the vast majority of the people it infects.

Telling people that the virus is similar to the common flu and will most likely put you in bed for a week and then you’ll be fine, could calm the panic that they’ve started and that might be a little too anti-climatic for them.

If you read closely you’ll see first world countries are at little risk. World health officials have noted several times that the highest risks were for countries with less sophisticated health care systems.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization commented at a recent press conference, “Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems, and which are ill-prepared to deal with it.”

I don’t mean to take anyone’s health issues lightly, especially something like a virus that has taken human lives, but I also think it’s important to understand the reality of the situation. And the fact is, if you are healthy and have a normal functioning immune system there is no need for panic.

The coronavirus has claimed about 140 lives at the time of this writing. A life is a life, and I send my prayers and condolences to their loved ones.

What should you be worried about?
Even though 140 lives lost is a tragedy, it’s important for us to keep a perspective and understanding of what the most dangerous health risks are and what we should be doing to avoid them. …If you live in an industrialized country like America, chronic disease is the real epidemic!

This year alone worldwide, heart disease will claim 17.9 million lives, cancer 9.6 million lives, and diabetes 2.2 million lives. Those are scary numbers!

The epidemic of chronic disease is nowhere near being contained. Currently 1.9 BILLION adults are overweight or obese. These people are at great risk for developing heart disease, cancer and diabetes if they don’t already have it.

I don’t mean to frighten you, but the most dangerous diseases are already here in this country. They are not spread by air-borne transmission, but by sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, and lack of exercise.

Dr. Tabor Smith, DC is the Executive Producer of A Better Way, the Feature-length documentary film. You can learn more about this film at www.abetterwayfilm.com

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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World Health Organization Declares Coronavirus a Global Health Emergency

Posted on January 30, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 30, 2020

As the first case of person to person transmission of the coronavirus has been reported in the U.S., the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday labeled the virus a global health emergency.

WHO stated the main reason for their announcement was the spread of the disease to countries outside of China.

Russia has shut down its long border with China and international flights continue to avoid the country.

Inside China millions are quarantined and whole regions are under strict restrictions regarding public transportation and meetings.

As rumors fly that the virus is a Chinese biowarfare weapon gone awry, nations all over the Earth are taking stringent measures to guard their populations against the deadly strain.

The coronavirus has killed 170 people in China as of Thursday and has infected 7,711, the Chinese government reports. The number of cases in the last 24 hours has grown by over 20% and climbing.

16 countries are known to be affected, with 6 cases now in the U.S. Common symptoms of the virus first appear as the flu but then increase in respiratory severity until hospitalization is warranted.

Information though is limited at best because the Chinese are not allowing any foreign medical personnel into China to research and combat the disease.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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DEVELOPING: China Dismisses U.S. Help on Coronavirus

Posted on January 28, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 28, 2020

The global coronavirus that has killed over 100 people and sickened thousands across national borders has the potential to jump from China to become a worldwide pandemic.

Thus you’d think the Chinese government would want the aid of the most advanced medical organization in the world, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nope.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar told media that the Chinese have refused more than one offer of help from the U.S. to send CDC officials to China to assist in fighting the outbreak.

The authoritarian Chicom regime is sensitive about losing face to the Americans and admitting its health programs are not up to Western standards. It also likely thinks the U.S. mission would be filled with U.S. Intelligence operatives.

Hopefully, they would be right.

Azar went on to say the virus is possibly a “very serious public health threat” but that currently the threat in the U.S. is low.

At public places in DC, as students from the virus ground zero in China’s Wuhan province are close to the area in Falls Church, VA, thousands of workers and tourists yesterday could be seen wearing surgical masks as they made their way around the city.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Chinese Virus May Have Been Exposed to 21 Students in Virginia

Posted on January 23, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 23, 2020

Like a scene from a classic sci-fi thriller like “The Andromeda Strain,” a fatal Chinese coronavirus that has broken out in the city and province of Wuhan may be present in America.

Inadvertently causing this possible threat are 21 Chinese exchange students from the same province in China.

They were scheduled on Wednesday to attend classes in Falls Church, VA. Multiple media outlets confirm this information.

Fairfax County Public Schools, the students are at Longfellow Middle School, last night decided to bar the students from attending class until February 3rd.

The just-arrived students will instead stay at hotels and visit tourist and cultural sites, which is odd because if they have the virus won’t the chance of contagion be greater at public venues?

At this point, there have not been signs of the virus amongst students or staff. The incubation period is three to 14 days.

The Chinese regime has restricted travel in several cities and suspended public transportation in the Wuhan epicenter of the virus. The government is trying to stop the spread of the pestilence that has killed 17 and sickened 500 and counting.

18 million people are thought to be potentially affected by the spread of the disease, 11 million in Wuhan immediately so.

In a nation like China, where hundreds of millions reside in the close quarters of its teeming cities, that number could grow exponentially to a level that would classify it as a pandemic readily able to surmount national boundaries in a single bound.

Gauden Galea, of the World Health Organization, told The Associated Press, concerning the quarantine of Wuhan, “To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science. It has not been tried before as a public health measure. We cannot at this stage say it will or it won’t work.”

If the peril were to spread outside of Wuhan, perhaps even outside of China and Asia, and successfully jump to the U.S., the public health threat could be grim.

If the virus goes airborne, spread by American travelers from China already back from that country, then a simple visit to a movie theater or a grocery store could act as the accelerant to a health brushfire that could turn into a conflagration making the plot of the film “Outbreak” seem gentle by comparison.

U.S. public health officials are closely monitoring the situation.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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