COVID-19 Coronavirus “Fake” Pandemic: Timeline and Analysis

On January 30th 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in relation to China’s novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) categorized  as a viral pneumonia.  The virus outbreak was centred in  Wuhan, a city in Eastern China with a population in excess of 11 million.

In the week prior to January 30th decision, the WHO Emergency Committee “expressed divergent views”. There were visible divisions within the Committee. On January 30th, a far-reaching decision was taken without the support of expert opinion at a time when the coronavirus outbreak was limited to Mainland China.

There were 150 confirmed cases outside China, when the decision was taken. 6 in the United States, 3 in Canada, 2 in the UK, etc.

150 confirmed cases over a population of 6.4 billion (World population of 7.8 billion minus China’s 1-4 billion).

What was the risk of being infected? Virtually zero.

The WHO did not act to reassure and inform World public opinion. Quite the opposite: A “Fear Pandemic” rather than a genuine Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)  was launched.

Outright panic and uncertainty were sustained through a carefully designed media disinformation campaign.

Almost immediately this led to economic dislocations, a crisis in trade and transportation with China affecting major airlines and shipping companies.  A hate campaign against ethnic Chinese in Western countries was launched, followed by the collapse in late February of stock markets, not to mention the crisis in the tourist industry resulting in countless bankruptcies.

The complexity of this crisis and its impacts have to be addressed and carefully analysed.

What we are dealing with is “economic warfare” supported by media disinformation, coupled with the deliberate intent by  the Trump administration to undermine China’s economy. The ongoing economic dislocations are not limited to China.

There are important public health concerns which must be addressed. But what motivated the Director-General of the WHO to act in this way?  Who was behind this historic January 30th decision of the WHO’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 

Our subsequent  analysis (in the timeline below) reveals that powerful corporate interests linked to Big Pharma, Wall Street and agencies of the US government were instrumental in the WHO’s far-reaching decision.

What is at stake is the alliance of “Big Pharma” and “Big Money”, with the endorsement of the Trump Administration. The decision to launch a fake pandemic under the helm of the WHO on January 30, was taken a week earlier at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF). The media operation was there to spread outright panic.

But this was not the first time that the WHO decided to act in this way.

Remember the unusual circumstances surrounding the April 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic.

An atmosphere of fear and intimidation prevailed. The data was manipulated.

Based on incomplete and scanty data, the WHO Director General nonetheless predicted with authority that: “as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years — nearly one-third of the world population.” (World Health Organization as reported by the Western media, July 2009).

It was a multibillion bonanza for Big Pharma supported by the WHO’s Director-General Margaret Chan. 

In June 2009, Margaret Chan made the following statement:

“On the basis of … expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met. I have therefore decided to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert from Phase 5 to Phase 6.  The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic. … Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), Press Briefing  11 June 2009)

What “expert assessments”?

In a subsequent statement she confirmed that:

“Vaccine makers could produce 4.9 billion pandemic flu shots per year in the best-case scenario”,Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), quoted by Reuters, 21 July 2009)

A  financial windfall for Big Pharma Vaccine Producers including GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Merck & Co., Sanofi,  Pfizer. et al.

CORONAVIRUS TIMELINE 

September 2019: The official US-WHO position is that the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province and was first discovered in Late December. This statement is questioned by Chinese and Japanese virologists who claim that the virus originated in the US.

A renowned Taiwanese virologist pointed to evidence that the virus could have originated at an earlier stage, stating : “We must look to September of 2019”.

October 18-27 2019: Wuhan 2019: CISM Sport Military World Games

Chinese media intimates (without corroborating evidence) that the coronavirus could have been brought to China “from a foreign source” during the CISM Military World Games.

10,000 soldiers from 109 countries will participate

200 American military personnel participated in this 10 day Event.

October 18, Event 201. New York. Coronavirus nCoV-2019 Simulation and Emergency Preparedness Task Force, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health Security. 

Big Pharma-Big Money Simulation Exercise sponsored by WEF and Gates Foundation 

Simulation Exercise of a coronavirus epidemic which results in 65 million dead. Supported by the World Economic Forum (WEF) representing the interests of Financial institutions, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation representing Big Pharma:

In October 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security hosted a pandemic tabletop exercise called Event 201 with partners, the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. …  For the scenario, we modeled a fictional coronavirus pandemic, but we explicitly stated that it was not a prediction.

Instead, the exercise served to highlight preparedness and response challenges that would likely arise in a very severe pandemic. We are not now predicting that the nCoV-2019 outbreak will kill 65 million people.

Although our tabletop exercise included a mock novel coronavirus, the inputs we used for modeling the potential impact of that fictional virus are not similar to nCoV-2019.“We are not now predicting that the nCoV-2019 [which was also used as the name of the simulation] outbreak will kill 65 million people.

.Although our tabletop exercise included a mock novel coronavirus, the inputs we used for modeling the potential impact of that fictional virus are not similar to nCoV-2019.”

Several of the occurrences of the nCoV-2019 exercise coincided with what really happened. In the Event 201 Simulation of a Coronavirus Pandemic, a 15% collapse of financial markets had been “simulated”.

It was not “predicted” according to the organizers and sponsors of the event.

Private sector initiative. Participation of corporate execs, foundations, financial institutions, Banks, Big Pharma, CIA, CDC, China’s CDC. No health officials (with exception of CDC and China CDC) present on behalf of national governments or the WHO. The simulation exercise was held on the same day as the opening of the CISM World Militaty Sports Games in Wuhan.

December 31, 2019: First cases of pneumonia detected and reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province. China.

January 1, 2020: Chinese health authorities close the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market after Western media reports that wild animals sold there may have been the source of the virus. This initial assessment was subsequently refuted by Chinese scientists.

January 7, 2020: Chinese authorities “identify a new type of virus” which was isolated  on 7 January. The coronavirus was named 2019-nCoV by the WHO exactly the same name as that adopted in the WEF-Gates-John Hopkins October 18, 2019 simulation exercise. 

January 11, 2020 – The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announces the first death caused by the coronavirus.

January 22, 2020: WHO. Members of the WHO Emergency Committee “expressed divergent views on whether this event constitutes a PHEIC or not”.

January 21-24, 2020: Consultations at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland under auspices of  the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) for development of a vaccine program. CEPI is a WEF-Gates partnership. With support from CIPI, Seattle based Moderna will manufacture an mRNA vaccine against 2019-nCoV, “The Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, collaborated with Moderna to design the vaccine.”

Note: The development of a 2019 nCoV vaccine was announced at Davos, 2 weeks after the January 7, 2020 announcement, and barely a  week prior to the official launching of the WHO’s Worldwide Public Health emergency on January 30.  The WEF-Gates-CEPI Vaccine Announcement precedes the WHO Public Health Emergency (PHEIC).

January  30, 2020: Geneva: WHO Director General determines that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). This decision was taken on the basis of 150 confirmed cases outside China, First case of person to person transmission in US is reported, 6 cases in the US, 3 cases in Canada, 2 in the UK.

The WHO Director General had the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Big Pharma and the World Economic Forum (WEF). There are indications that the decision for the WHO to declare a Global Emergency was taken on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos (January 21-24) overlapping with the Geneva January 22 meeting of the Emergency Committee.

Both WHO’s Director Tedros as well as Bill Gates were present at Davos 2020. Bill Gates announced the Gates Foundation’s $10 billion commitment to vaccines over the next 10 years.

January 30, 2020 The Simulation Exercise Went Live. The same corporate interests and foundations which were involved in the October 18 John Hopkins Simulation Exercise became REAL ACTORS involved in providing their support to the implementation of the WHO Public Health emergency (PHEIC).

January 31, 2020 – One day later following the launch of WHO Global Emergency, The Trump administration announced that it will deny entry to foreign nationals “who have traveled in China in the last 14 days”. This immediately triggers a crisis in air transportation, China-US trade as well as the tourism industry, leading to substantial bankruptcies, not to mention unemployment.

Immediately triggers a campaign against ethnic Chinese throughout the Western World.

Early February: the acronym of the coronavirus was changed from nCoV- 2019 (its name under the October Event 201 John Hopkins Simulation Exercise before it was identified in early January 2020) to COVID-19.

February 28, 2020: A massive WHO vaccination campaign was announced by WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus  

Who was behind this campaign: GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). It is a Gates-WEF partnership, both of which were sponsors of the October 18, “Simulation Exercise”. The campaign to develop vaccines was initiated prior to decision of the WHO to launch a Global Public Health emergency. It was first announced at the WEF meeting at Davos (21-24 January).

Late February 2020. Collapse of the stock markets, surge in the value of the stocks of Big Pharma.

Early March devastating consequences for the tourist industry Worldwide.

February 24:  Moderna Inc supported by CIPI  announced  that it experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, was ready for human testing.

Late February 2020. Second wave of transmission of the virus (Worldwide) to a large number of countries.

Late February – Early March: China: More than 50% of the infected patients recover and are discharged from the hospitals. March 3, a total of 49,856 patients have recovered from COVID-19 and were discharged from hospitals in China.  What this means that the total number of  “confirmed infected cases” in China is 30,448. (Namely 80,304 minus 49856 = 30,448  (80 304 is the total number on confirmed cases in China (WHO data, March 3, 2020). These developments concerning “recovery” are not reported by the Western media.

March 5, WHO Director General confirms that outside China there are 2055 cases reported in 33 countries. Around 80% of those cases continue to come from just three countries (South Korea, Iran, Italy).

These figures suggested that we are not facing a global health emergency, that the probability of infection was low. And Based on China’s experience  the treatment for the virus infection was effective.

March 7: USA: The number of “confirmed cases” (infected and recovered) in the United States in early March is of the order of 430, rising to about 6oo (March 8). Rapid rise in the course of March.

Compare that to the figures pertaining to the Influenza B Virus: The CDC estimates for 2019-2020 “at least 15 million virus flu illnesses… 140,000 hospitalizations and 8,200 deaths. (The Hill)

Early March:  IMF and World Bank To the Rescue 

The WHO Director General advises member countries that “the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have both made funds available to stabilize health systems and mitigate the economic consequences of the epidemic”. That is the proposed neoliberal  “solution” to COVID-19. The World Bank has committed $12billion in so-called “aid” which will contribute to building up the external debt of developing countries.

March 7:  China: The Pandemic is Almost Over

Reported new cases in China fall to double digit. 99 cases recorded on March 7.  All of the new cases outside Hubei province are categorized as  “imported infections”(from foreign countries). The reliability of the data remains to be established:

99 newly confirmed cases including 74 in Hubei Province, … The new cases included 24 imported infections — 17 in Gansu Province, three in Beijing, three in Shanghai and one in Guangdong Province. 

March 10-11, 2020: Italy declares a lockdown, followed by several other countries of the EU.  Deployment of 30,000 US troops in the EU as part of the “Defend Europe 2020” war games directed against Russia.

March 11, 2020: the Director General of the WHO officially declares the COV-19 Pandemic. Bear in mind the global health emergency was declared on January 3oth without stating officially the existence of a pandemic outside Mainland China.

March 11:  Trump orders the suspension for 30 days of all transatlantic flights from countries of the European Union, with the exception of Britain. Coincides with the collapse of airline stocks and a new wave of financial instability. Devastating impacts on the tourist industry in Western Europe.

March 16: Moderna  mRNA-1273 is tested in several stages with 45 volunteers in Seattle, Washington State. The vaccine program started in early February:

“We don’t know whether this vaccine will induce an immune response, or whether it will be safe. That’s why we’re doing a trial,” Jackson stressed. “It’s not at the stage where it would be possible or prudent to give it to the general population.” (AP, March 16, 2020)

March 21, 2020: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo while addressing the American people from the White House stated that COVID-19 is a live military exercise.

“This is not about retribution, … This matter is going forward — we are in a live exercise here to get this right.”

With a disgusted look on his face, President Trump replied: “You should have let us know.”

April 8, 2020: Mounting fear campaign led by Western media. Very rapid increase in so-called “confirmed cases”. “1,282,931 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 72,776 deaths, reported to WHO” (April 8). Mounting doubts on the reported “confirmed cases” of COVID-19. Failures of the CDC’s categorization and statistical estimates.

March- April: Planet Lockdown. Devastating economic and social consequences. The economic and social impacts far exceed those attributed to the coronavirus. Cited below are selected examples of  a global process: 

§  Massive job losses and layoffs in the US, with more than 10 million workers filing claims for unemployment benefits.

§  In India,  a 21 days lockdown has triggered a wave of famine and despair affecting millions of homeless migrant workers all over the country. No lockdown for the homeless: “too poor to afford a meal”.  

§  The impoverishment in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa is beyond description. For large sectors of the urban population, household income has literally been wiped out.

§  In Italy, the destabilization of the tourist industry has resulted in bankruptcies and rising unemployment. 

§  In many countries, citizens are the object of police violence. Five people involved in protests against the lockdown were killed by police in Kenya and South Africa.

Concluding Remarks

We  are dealing with a complex global crisis with far-reaching economic, social and geopolitical implications.

We have provided factual information as well as analysis in a summarized “common sense” format.

Is is important that COVID-19 be the object of  widespread debate and that the “official interpretations” be forcefully challenged.

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2020

COVID-19 Lockdown: A Global Human Experiment

No matter what’s the origin of COVID-19, the response to this virus lead to a series of drastic and unprecedented changes on a global level. The dystopian future is now. Here’s how this pandemic created the largest human experiment in history.

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic launched the largest human experiment in world history. At the moment of writing these lines, over a third of the global human population is forced into confinement. Furthermore, the global economy came to a screeching halt as several governments ordered the closing of all non-essential businesses.

Never in world history have we seen such sweeping and far-reaching measures that affect each individual at such a profound level. In a matter of weeks, the ability of billions to move around freely and to earn a livelihood completely vanished.

While these measures are said to be temporary in order to stop the propagation of the virus, an important fact remains: They’ve actually become a reality. And this means that they can easily become a reality at any point and time in the future.

Although it is comforting to think that our governments have our health and best interests at heart, it is rather naive to believe that the most powerful people in the world do not see this pandemic as an amazing opportunity. One of the elite’s favorite sayings is “never let a good crisis go to waste”. And this crisis is definitely not going to waste. This pandemic has enabled the “testing” of various authoritarian measures that are exactly in line with the world elite’s long-term plans. In fact, it is difficult to imagine a better plan to simultaneously terrify, isolate, subdue, impoverish and demoralize a society as a whole – creating the perfect context to reshape to fit specific interests.

In short, the dystopian future is now. For years, this site has been warning about plans for a world government that is based on intense mass media indoctrination and high-tech police state surveillance. We are living all of this now – to a degree that many of us did not even fathom a few weeks ago.

If this global lockdown lasts a few weeks, the world might recover and regain some sort of normality (until the next crisis). However, if this goes on months (as some experts predict), the impact on society will take on biblical proportions.

Here’s a look at the many facets of this lockdown and their possible long-term impact on humanity as a whole.

Mass Media Takeover

Mass media preparing the masses for a long crisis.

The first “symptom” of COVID-19 was the complete takeover of mass media on a global level. Nearly every media source – no matter its target audience or niche interest – switched to 24/7 COVID coverage. All other news topics became irrelevant and got evacuated from the public discourse. Nearly all forms of entertainment – most notably professional sports – were put on hold, forcing people to solely focus on the pandemic.

In newspapers, scoreboards displaying sports results were replaced with a morbid “deaths and confirmed cases” scoreboard that is custom-made to generate fear. Every day, billions of humans anxiously follow these “scores”, knowing that their freedom and livelihood depend solely on these government-issued numbers. If the numbers do not go down, the confinement goes on.

As COVID-19 took over mass media, popular culture as a whole instantly turned into a barren wasteland. There are no new cultural products and no artists releasing material that could ease minds, provide some entertainment or, perhaps, provide some much-needed insight. Most artists are reduced to social media “influencers” who repeat the Orwellian orders heard everywhere else around the world: “Stay home and wash your hands”.

In short, nearly all forms of social and cultural distractions were replaced with wall-to-wall COVID coverage. As people consume a steady stream of frightful news, levels of anxiety keep going up, creating an ideal context for the introduction of police-state measures. And these measures were welcomed with thundering applause.

High Tech Police State

Chinese citizens must show a government-issued QR code on their phone in order to take public transportation.

The threat of a deadly pandemic is the perfect context to introduce aggressive police state tactics. People are scared and they want to see decisive measures taken by their government. However, once this is all said and done, will society recover 100% of its freedoms? Or will it gradually go back to about 50%, celebrating each percent as a victory?

The first casualty of the pandemic was air travel. Simply put, it just stopped. All flights were canceled and people abroad were told to go back home as soon as possible. Once everyone got home, everyone was told to remain home. Then, in a matter of days, governments went from banning “large gatherings” to banning gatherings of “2+ people”.

These unprecedented restrictions on human contact generated a climate of fear and paranoia as people began to alert authorities of illegal gathering. While these “snitches” would argue that “the faster the epidemic is eradicated, the faster we all return to normalcy”, precedents are being set.

Police in India beat lockdown violators with sticks.

The pandemic has also justified the use of high tech surveillance at a level never seen before. Here are some examples from around the world:

In China, government-installed CCTV cameras point at the apartment door of those under a 14-day quarantine to ensure they don’t leave. Drones tell people to wear their masks. Digital barcodes on mobile apps highlight the health status of individuals.

In Singapore, the government rolled out an app called TraceTogether. It uses Bluetooth signals between cellphones to see if potential carriers of the coronavirus have been in close contact with other people.

Over in Hong Kong, some residents were made to wear a wristband which linked to a smartphone app and could alert authorities if a person left their place of quarantine.

In South Korea, the government used records such as credit card transactions, smartphone location data and CCTV video as well as conversations with people, to create a system where confirmed cases were tracked. The result was a map that could tell people whether they had gone near a coronavirus carrier.

On Thursday, the South Korean government launched an enhanced tool that it says can help track patients even more closely in near real time, in order to see where the disease was moving.

Meanwhile, Israel’s security agency Shin Bet is using citizens’ cell phone location data to track where they’ve been so they can enforce quarantine controls and monitor the movements of those infected. Controversially, the data has been collected over the past few years and intended to for counterterrorism purposes, the New York Times reported. The newspaper said this data trove and the collection of it had not been previously reported.

Some parts of India were stamping the hands of people arriving at airports telling them how long they had to be quarantined, Reuters reported. Reservation data from airlines and trains were being monitored to make sure those people didn’t travel, the report added. In the south Indian state of Kerala, authorities have been using a mixture of telephone call records, surveillance camera footage and phone location data to track down people who may have been in contact with coronavirus patients.

In the U.S., the government is talking to Facebook, Google and other tech companies about the possibility of using location and movement data from Americans’ smartphones to combat coronavirus.
– CNBC, Use of surveillance to fight coronavirus raises concerns about government power after pandemic ends

Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project believes that most of these measures are here to stay. He stated:

“We have absolutely no reason to believe that the government agencies that are eager to expand their power in response to COVID-19 will be willing to see those authorities lapse once the virus is eradicated.”

The after-pandemic will lead to another major source of concern: The economy.

Major Economy Shift

Initial unemployment insurance claims in the United States. From 2010 to 2020, a steady decline … until a sudden and historical peak.

COVID-19 incited several governments to enact a controversial measure: The closing of all non-essential businesses. This led to millions of workers to instantly losing their jobs. It also led to some unhealthy wheeling-and-dealings with governments to determine which businesses are deemed essential or not.

While most major corporations will weather the storm and hire back employees, a great number of small and medium businesses will not survive the shutdown.

The situation also creates clear winners: Major chains such as Walmart, Costco, Walgreens, McDonald’s and Amazon. In fact, due to a staggering jump in sales, Amazon recently announced the hiring over 100,000 employees to help cope with the demand. However, not unlike most jobs available at these major chains, the offered pay nears minimum wage.

If the lockdown persists, we can expect a major shift in the global economy: Small and medium businesses will struggle and die while gigantic entities will thrive as they turn into monolithic “distribution centers” for essential goods.

To prevent a complete crash of the global economy, governments announced trillions of dollars in financial aid to those impacted by the shutdown. However, this money does not come out of thin air: It will result in massive debts and, most likely, higher taxes. In poorer countries, financial aid is rare or non-existent – a recipe for impending chaos.

In the end, all economic crises always end up favoring the elite. The net result of the financial crash of 2008 (and its bailouts) led to the funneling of tens of trillions of dollars from the pockets of the middle class towards the world elite. This COVID crisis will most likely end with similar results.

In Conclusion

While the above assessment might seem grim, it is an objective analysis of a planet in lockdown. In a matter of weeks, the entire planet went from normalcy to fear, panic, paranoia, confinement, unemployment, police-state surveillance and extreme social distancing. Millions of citizens who thrived on freedom and free enterprise are now on “house-arrest” and must rely on the government for subsistence.

Although the absolute necessity of these measures is up for debate, there is no possible debate about their necessity once the virus is gone. And we need to make sure that the dystopian nightmare we are living now does not become permanent. Because, right now, some power-hungry people are salivating and they will only want more of this.

In these critical times, we must keep track of the many ways society is being altered and we must make sure that, once the virus is gone, liberty is fully restored. Because, as Thomas Jefferson said: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”.

The original source of this article is The Vigilant Citizen

Copyright © Vigilant Citizen, The Vigilant Citizen, 2020

The War on Yemen, 100,000 Deaths, A Crisis Ignored by Mainstream Media Due to Coronavirus Coverage

The world pays constant attention to the coronavirus, occupying the news agencies with a high coverage of the pandemic. Meanwhile, on the global periphery, geopolitics continues at full throttle, with several conflicts occurring unnoticed by most people outside the affected regions. The case of Yemen is a clear example of what we are talking about here. Recently, the conflict in the country completed five years of uninterrupted fighting, reaching the regrettable marks of more than 10,000 killed in the confrontation, in addition to almost 100,000 killed by the social ills caused by the war, such as hunger, mainly among children. The poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula has become a strategic area in strong dispute and a real geopolitical thermometer for Middle East tensions, especially between the two regional powers most involved in the conflict, Iran and Saudi Arabia, which are increasing their rivalry day after day.

The most noteworthy attitude is that of Saudi Arabia, which, aligned with the western axis, has been taking increasingly aggressive stances in the country, causing unnecessary suffering to the local population and prolonging the terror and fear in the region. Human Rights Watch data show that Saudi Arabia has been behind fundamental rights abuses against the Yemeni population, especially in the al-Mahrah region, since at least June last year, when such crimes began to be investigated. HRW Middle East Director Michael Page stated in an interview with PressTV:

“Saudi forces and their Yemeni allies’ serious abuses against local-Mahrah residents is another horror to add to the list of the Saudi-led coalition’s unlawful conduct in Yemen (…) Saudi Arabia is severely harming its reputation with Yemenis when it carries out these abusive practices and holds no one accountable for them”.

Among the abuses reported by HRW, we highlight illegal arrests, torture, kidnappings and compulsory transfer of detainees to Saudi Arabia. In addition, other international crimes had previously been reported by the organization as being committed by the American coalition against Houthi resistance in the region, including bombing homes, businesses and hospitals. In February, at least 30 Yemeni civilians died from airstrikes conducted by Saudi military in the north of the country, in the district of Jawf al-Maslub. The attack was said to have been conducted in response to the downing of a Saudi aircraft by the Houthi forces. In the words of Houthi movement spokesman Yahya Saree:

“As usual, when the most brutal US-Saudi aggression receives painful strikes in the military confrontation fields, it replies with great folly by targeting civilians.”

In March, a fleet of 450 American soldiers landed in Yemen, in addition to an uncertain number of troops from the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. According to information from al-Mashhad, this was the first stage of a project to send 3,000 American and British troops to Yemen, which will land in the regions of Aden, Lahai, Saqtari, Shabweh and al-Mohreh, thus completing a true siege of the country in all geographical directions. In addition, two American warships docked at Balhaf, Yemen’s main natural gas export port. American movements would be motivated in the region to supposedly “fight terrorism”, but several military analysts have already made it clear that the United States intends to intervene in the Yemeni government and install fixed bases in the region, “stabilizing” the situation in the country.

The crisis in Yemen is a real humanitarian catastrophe, with dimensions similar to those of the Civil War in Syria. However, the attention given to the poorest country in the Middle East is minimal, especially in times of the pandemic. Once again, COVID-19 is being used as a “smokescreen” to distract worldwide attention while illegal and aggressive movements are taking place in specific regions of the planet, as has recently become clear with the Israeli advance in the West Bank and the arrival of thousands of American troops to Yemen.

Yet, another factor that is absolutely ignored, being even more serious than military aggression, is the public health crisis and food insecurity generated by Saudi aggression. Yemeni Health Minister Saif al-Haidri recently warned of the neglect with which international society has dealt with the situation, which he called a “disastrous in the shadow of war”. These are his words:

“approximately five and a half million children under the age of five are suffering from malnutrition (…) One child dies every ten minutes in Yemen (…) 80 percent of children in Yemen live in a state of stunting and anemia due to malnutrition (…) Two hundred thousand women of childbearing age or some of they are pregnant or have given birth to malnourished children, which threatens the lives of children”.

Indeed, while the world is distracted by the coronavirus, crimes against humanity are committed with impunity and millions of people starve to death without any humanitarian assistance. Yemen has yet to record any cases of COVID-19, but what can we expect for the near future when Western troops arrive in the country at all times, since the US and Europe are the regions most affected by the pandemic? What will be the future of the Yemeni crisis? Will the West bring peace or the pandemic to the poorest country in the Middle East?

Article by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

Self-isolation May Save Lives, but Exacerbates Mental Health Issues & Loneliness: I See Consequences on a Daily Basis as a Doctor

Millions of elderly and vulnerable people suffering from chronic loneliness are now facing further isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This will cause and exacerbate a different set of problems such as mental health issues.

There have been almost 400,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world, whilst over 17,000 people have died. Although the virus appears to be on the wane in China and South Korea, Europe is now the epicentre with tens of thousands of cases reported.

Governments across Europe have issued lockdowns and advised citizens, especially the elderly, to self-isolate in order to prevent spread and mortality. While self-isolation may save lives, it will cause and exacerbate a different set of problems such as mental health issues and loneliness – the consequences of which I see on a daily basis in my line of work.

One is the loneliest number, as the song written by Harry Nilsson goes. Sadly, this is becoming the reality for an increasing number of people, both old and young, across the industrialised world. The atomisation of society and consequent alienation of individuals from each other is particularly visible in big cities such as London where few speak to, let alone meaningfully interact with, their neighbours.

Three-quarters of British people apparently do not even know their neighbours names and over half hardly speak with them.

Loneliness alongside a lack of social interaction has negative effects upon both physical and mental health. Social isolation increases the risk of developing heart disease, stroke and dementia, can be as detrimental to physical health as smoking, and can be more unhealthy than obesity and lack of exercise.

The Campaign to End Loneliness estimates nine million UK adults suffer from loneliness, four million of whom are older people. Half of all over 75 year olds live alone and over a million older adults can pass an entire month in solitude without talking to friends, family or neighbours. Roughly half of those aged 65 and above report that television or pets are their main form of company.

Those at particular risk of social isolation include middle-aged and older individuals who are also single and suffer from chronic health problems.

Loneliness is also increasing at the other end of the age spectrum and even seems to be a greater problem in the young. According to a YouGov poll, almost a third of those aged 18-24 feel lonely either always or most of the time, whereas only 17 percent of those over the age of 55 reported the same. Similar findings have been reported amongst young adults in the US and Australia, though the factors which cause millennials and Generation Z-ers (or centennials as they are also known) who have been brought up on a diet of social media to feel lonely differ from those of the older generation.

Many of society’s loneliest are also the most vulnerable

Akin to physical illness, mental health problems are both a cause and consequence of social isolation – a situation I frequently come across as a doctor working in a psychiatric hospital. It is common to encounter situations where middle-aged or elderly individuals have either been admitted to hospital as a consequence of depression brought on by social isolation, or who having been treated for their mental health problems are due to be discharged back to living alone, sometimes into poor quality or temporary accommodation, which is likely to lead to a relapse of their illness.

It is disheartening to know that despite helping them recover, their paucity of social support or lack of friends and family may well cause them to be readmitted with the same issues in the future.

Some patients fear being discharged into solitude. Their admission to a hospital ward and subsequent contact with healthcare professionals and friendships forged with fellow patients may be the first decent human interaction they have had in a long time. They often lose this network when discharged and the reality of life and social isolation hits hard.

Evermore stretched and underfunded community psychiatric care can only plug the gaps so much. This is not helped by the fact that community services such as day centres and befriending services have suffered extensive cutbacks since the Conservative Party unleashed austerity measures on the population. For example, in the past eight years the number of adult day centres, a hub for older and vulnerable adults to socialise, have been cut by 40 percent.

Nowadays with coronavirus spreading across Britain and mainland Europe, many countries have gone into shutdown. The over 70s have been advised by the UK health secretary that they may soon have to self-isolate for prolonged periods.

Such measures, perhaps necessary to a degree, will only exacerbate loneliness. As many older people live alone, the question remains who will bring them supplies such as food and medicine. Likewise, their health may deteriorate if routine operations or clinic appointments are cancelled to allow resources to be redeployed elsewhere to deal with the coronavirus epidemic.

Look out for your older neighbours. Check if they need anything and have adequate provisions before they go into isolation. Isolation is likely to have detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of younger people too, especially those who live alone and find themselves becoming increasingly sedentary and spending more time using social media. The likely increase in social media use, alongside an increased focus on news associated with coronavirus, is likely to further fuel people’s collective anxiety.

In the meantime, whilst people are frightened and distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, governments have a unique opportunity to bury bad news and roll-out unpopular legislation, some of which might be justified as being in the national interest. Now is the time to be vigilant and realise that coronavirus, though a major problem, is not the only issue out there.

Article By Tomasz Pierscionek

Global Research, April 01, 2020