Posts
Hi again to all.
Trusting that everyone is in the pink - as always!! Our usual disclaimers remain concerning the accuracy of these figures, due to possible discrepancies for financial or political reasons.
MUNDO - World
Total cases - 102,144,523 - (21,168,111) - up 80,976,412 or 382.5%
Deaths - 2,203,253 - 2.2% - (759,328 - 3.6%) - up 1,443,925 or 190.2%
Recoveries - 73,998,240 - 72.4% - (13,984,843 - 66.1%) - up 60,013,397 or 429.1%
Therefore active cases - 25,943,030 - 25.4% - (6,425,939 - 30.3%) - up 19,517,091 or 303.7%. Of the total population (which is estimated to be increasing at the rate of 1,557,692 per week) of 7,842,303,527 (7,804,380,455), the percentage of active cases is 0.331% (0.082%) of the total world population.
Total active cases per 1 million of total population - 3,308 - (1,437)
Compared to last week, active cases are up 449,005 or 1.8%
Recoveries as a percentage of total cases are up (good), active cases as a percentage of total cases are down (good), total active cases per 1 million of total population are up (bad), and percentage of active cases increase over last week is down (good). So, mixed, but overall showing a small improvement. Let's hope the same trends continue for next week.
It has been suggested for some time now that up to 90% of so-called "positive tests" are not C Virus at all and that the world has been lied to with God knows what in economic and human damage. China has done a great snow job on all of us.
Why are "normal" 'flu figures down everywhere?? Have they suddenly morphed into the Chinese Virus??
ESTADOS UNIDOS - United States
Total cases - 26,340,631 - (5,429,115) - up 20,911,516 or 385.2%
Deaths - 443,794 - 1.7% - (170,781 - 3.2%) - up 273,013 or 159.9%
Recoveries - 16,071,748 - 61.0% - (2,844,535 - 52.4%) - up 13,227,213 or 465.0%
Therefore active cases - 9,825,089 - 37.3% - (2,413,829 - 44.6%) - up 7,411,260 or 307.0%. Of the total population of 332,124,463 (331,236.184), the percentage of active cases is 2.958% (0.729%) of the total population.
Total active cases per 1 million of total population - 29,583 - (9,043)
Compared to last week, the comparative figures are:
Total cases up 1,144,545 or 4.5%
Deaths up 23,509 or 5.6%
Recoveries up 970,757 or 6.4%
Active cases 150,279 up or 1.6%
As percentages compared to last week, total case increases are down, deaths are the same, recoveries are down and active cases are well down. So, again a mixed bag but overall showing encouraging signs. The main change is coming from the fact that total case increases have reduced.
Again "false positive" figures are unknown, but how many deaths are attributed to the Chinese Virus, when perhaps they were caused by a bad flu?
An anecdotal aside - after Jean was registered as a nurse, she worked for a time at the old geriatric Cornwall Hospital in Greenlane, Auckland. In the winter of circa 1966 they were losing around 10 patients per day from the 'flu, and this carried on for 5-6 weeks. That's over 400 deaths during that period, and on one night Jean "laid out" 6 patients who had died. Nurses did that job in those days. These figures were not even remarked on, much less written about in newspapers.
As another aside, the Sisters were mainly ex WW2 NZ Army Sisters and were VERY strict. However, unlike many other nurses, Jean got on well with all of them and one, Sister Sumpter, even gave Jean a going away present when she transferred elsewhere. That at the time was unheard of and inspired much jealousy on the part of some other nurses!!
Anyway, unfortunately coming back to the present, it seems that there is so much political crookedness and misinformation, that it is difficult to know where to start!
Perhaps the main points of the past week -
* Joe Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20th. Since then he has signed 25 "executive orders", some of which are actually illegal and are the subject of legal action on the part of various states. By comparison Trump signed 6 and Obama 5.
* The main ones to be concerned about are the spurious attempts to open the southern border. In order from East to West the border states are Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Texas has by far the longest border with Mexico - 1,200 miles. Biden & Co. have also halted all construction on the border wall as well as virtually cancelling normal asylum application procedures, so that illegals can just enter with almost nothing to stop them.
This all comes at a time when the Chinese Virus is still very difficult to control and "caravans" of tens of thousands of would-be migrants are congregating in Mexico, just waiting for their chance to pour uncontrollably across the border. There is virtually no mask wearing and certainly no "social distancing" and certainly no testing.
Opening the southern borders will increase the ease with which China can smuggle Fentanyl into the US again. This horrible drug is mixed with Heroin, Morphine or Cocaine which in turn makes those drugs much more lethal. The smuggling of all of these drugs is being carried out by the Mexican drug cartels who have entered into an unholy alliance with the Chinese murderers. The Chinese never let up in their efforts to attack the US - whether it be by releasing the Chinese Virus or these drug smuggling arrangements as above. And Biden wants to open the border. All he and his cohorts really want is to destroy the USA.
These southern border states will, after trying the softly softly approach, move to openly defy Washington. What else can they do - just sit back and allow their states to be ruined?
* Add to all this Biden & Co.'s attack on the oil and gas industry which among other effects, will ruin 60% of New Mexico's economy (not to mention other states), and you have an inflammatory situation to put it mildly.
* In addition, the Attorneys-General of Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri, and Montana have written a joint letter to Biden to point out the illegality of many of his Executive Orders and again to reinforce the detrimental effects on the economies of their states of these orders.
Biden is obviously not allowed to present himself directly to any searching questions. His minders make sure of that. He is hiding behind them and the executive orders that he does not (yet) have to defend. His Press Secretary never answers any questions either so it's government by decree.
There is so much more that we could write about but for now we'll just limit ourselves to the above. Except to say that all these affected states will not sit on their hands, nor on a bunch of lawsuits. If the Feds do not substantially pull these measures back, then we fear that Secession will result and all that will be left of the once great USA will be the bankrupt Democrat states of the East coast, the NE, the NW and California. These "blue" states will then just sink into bankruptcy and ineptitude. Where in fact they are now and have been for a considerable time.
One positive note - the forensic examination of vote counting in Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona is due to begin in the middle of this coming week and will then take approximately 10 working days to complete. IF it is done properly and with integrity (2 big ifs!), it should overturn the Biden crooked vote there which would then be enough to give the state to Trump. Then with 3-4 other states at this stage almost certainly prepared to undertake the same exercise, and with quite possibly the same results, what happens then? Nobody knows because there is no precedent.
But surely if Trump then held more than 270 Electoral College votes, crooked Biden could not continue as president? He and many others would then be in jail, where they belong.
Time will tell.
COLOMBIA
Total cases - 2,067,575 - (433,805) - up 1,633,770 or 376.6%
Deaths - 52,913 - 2.6% - (14,145 - 3.3%) - up 38,768 or 274.1%
Recoveries - 1,894,384 - 91.6% - (250,494 - 57.7%) - up 1,733,890 or 692.2%
Therefore active cases - 120,278 - 5.8% - (169,196 - 39.0%) - down 48,918 or 28.9%. Of the total population of 51,195,427 (50,948,628), the percentage of active cases is 0.235% (0.332%) of the total population.
Total active cases per 1 million of total population - 2,349 - (1,367)
Active cases since last week are down 746 or 0.6%
The most positive aspect is that active cases are down from last week, but during the week they spiked up to almost 130,000, so the reduction is even more significant - provided always that one can believe these wild swings. Another significant figure is that active cases as a percentage of total cases is also reasonably well down. Again, let's hope that it's the start of another downward trend. On the 30th. the active case figure is now down to 109,000 - a reduction of 11,000 in 2 days!!! Really??
Following are this week's headlines from www.colombiareports.com:
Jan. 25th. Colombia's demobilised guerillas abandon FARC brand
Jan. 25th. Colombia exceeds 2 million COVID infections month before planned vaccination drive
Jan. 26th. Colombia's defense minister dies of COVID
Jan.26th. Death of Colombia's defense minister spurs 3 days of mourning in honor of COVID deaths
Jan. 27th. Duque's misrule: Colombia in "perfect storm", heading towards "a river of blood".
Jan. 27th. Political vultures lurking after Colombia's defense minister dies
Jan. 27th. Will Duque drive Colombia into the ground for real this time?
Jan. 28th. Colombia set to charge former FARC commanders for kidnapping
It was yours truly's birthday on Wednesday (74 misspent years!) and so we went to the Restaurante Torittos La Fe, which is a steak restaurant "up the hill" about 30-40 minutes drive from home. We'd been there before, and once again they did not disappoint. We both had a cut of beef called "Punta de Anca" which is a deliciously moist and tasty cut from the posterior hip area, leg region - a soft, juicy and marbled cut. From long experience, we ordered a half portion as the normal full Colombian portions are HUGE!! Apart from the above noted benefits, this cut is very tasty indeed - far better than ordinary steak, although that is good too. We also had an excellent bottle of Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon. We have come to the conclusion that Argentinian reds are better than Chilean - probably because they are grown in drier regions than may be available in Chile. And often at high altitude which again is very beneficial. And a side benefit is that the Argentinian Peso has depreciated over the last 12 months against the USD by 45% so that probably translates into good prices. The Colombian Peso over the same period has depreciated by 6% against the USD. That may all change quite quickly, given the level of counterfeit fiat money printing going on in the US right now! We know a good wine shop in Poblado, so must see if we can get some through them.
A little annoyance. For the 2nd time we are falling foul of the law! The first time, which no doubt you don't remember, was back in April last year when yours truly at 1 am was on the way home from the hospital where Jean was seriously ill. 2 motorcycle cops observed the miscreant going down a one-way street the wrong way and gave chase. It became quite nasty and it took a bribe of COP200,000 to extricate said miscreant. Now we find ourselves having forgotten to pay the fee for an emissions certificate for the car. All cars over a certain age have to be inspected every 12 months, because of Medellin's pollution issues, but at the time that ours expired last November, the car was in the workshop. We have since discovered that the inspection is at least equivalent to part of a full NZ Warrant of Fitness check, which is actually quite re-assuring.
At that stage we only had a vague idea where to go and kept forgetting about it. Then the car was photographed in Las Palmas on the outskirts of Medellin on Jan. 15th. and the certificate expiration must have come up on the computer! So, today we received a notice informing us of the matter and that we had to pay a discounted fine of COP223,778 (NZD93). So, tomorrow we will go to a place (many in Medellin) and have the car inspected to get a new one. Hopefully it passes - no reason to think that it won't. Maybe we can pay the fine there as well!!
MEXICO, COSTA RICA, PANAMA, ECUADOR, PERU, BRAZIL, CHILE, ARGENTINA, URUGUAY, COLOMBIA
Following are the "cases per 1 million of total population" for each country nominated above. Figures in parenthesis are for the previous week:
Mexico - 2,268 - (2,214) - up 54 or 2.4% - 6th.
Costa Rica - 7,549 - (7,860) - down 311 or 4.0% - 2nd.
Panama - 9,641 - (11,624) - down 1,983 or 17.1% - WORST.
Ecuador - 1,526 - (1,255) - up 271 or 21.6% - 8th.
Peru - 1,379 - (1,395) - down 16 or 1.2% - 9th.
Brazil - 4,289 - (4,240) - up 49 or 1.2% - 3rd.
Chile - 1,334 - (1,322) - up 12 or 0.9% - BEST.
Argentina - 3,627 - (3,763) - down 136 or 3.6% - 4th.
Uruguay - 2,059 - (2,217) - down 158 or 7.1% - 7th.
Colombia - 2,349 - (2,364) - down 15 or 0.6% - 5th.
Interesting to observe the North-South divide between Panama and Chile. Not sure whether that's coincidence or what..........
AUSTRALIA
Total cases - 28,800 - (23,035) - up 5,765 or 25.0%
Deaths - 909 - 3.2% - (370 - 1.7%) - up 539 or 145.7%
Recoveries - 26,035 - 90.4% - (13,634 - 59.2%) - up 12,401 or 91.0%
Therefore active cases - 1,856 - 6.4% - (9,022 - 39.2%) - down 7,166 or 79.4%. Of the total population of 25,670,282 (25,536,969), the percentage of active cases is 0.007% (0.035%) of the total population.
Total active cases per 1 million of total population - 72 - (56)
Compared to last week, active cases are down 29 or 1.5%
There still seem to be isolated outbreaks with the latest being Perth, W Australia. Only ONE infection detected and the whole city is locked down for 5 days.
This disease CANNOT be eradicated; it's yet to be shown whether the vaccines will be effective in dealing with most of it and the balance will become just another flu.
NUEVA ZELANDA - New Zealand
Total cases - 2,305 - (1,714) - up 591 or 34.5%
Deaths - 25 - 1.1% - (25 - 1.4%) - no change
Recoveries - 2,208 - 95.8% - (1,531 - 95.5%) - up 674 or 44.2%.
Therefore active cases - 72 - 3.1% - (49 - 3.0%) - up 23 or 46.9%. Of the total population of 5,002,100 (5,002,100), the percentage of active cases is 0.001% (0.001%) of the total population.
Total active cases per 1 million of total population - 14 - (14)
Compared to last week, active cases are down 1 or 1.4%
We have been intrigued and considerably amused at the incompetent and panicked antics of the NZ health authorities, due to ONE supposedly positive (and now 2 more) community C Virus cases who recently returned from overseas and endured 14 days of quarantine. During that time the first quarantinee (is there such a word?) tested negative twice, but then travelled extensively in southern Northland visiting at least 30 business establishments before finally testing positive. Quelle horreur or que horror!!! All under control now, EXCEPT for one quarantine facility staff member who engaged in intimate relations with another detainee!! With the detainee's consent we presume, although that was not made clear. The staff member has now been summarily dismissed from their job - hope it was worth it!!
The NZ "toilet paper" Herald headlines scream national calamity -
"Covid 19 coronavirus: Northland residents concerned over Govt. border "failure""
"3.5 hour wait for Covid testing as officials urge patience"
"Covid 19 coronavirus: were businesses told first about Northland community case's movements?" Several businesses visited by the woman were not told they were on the list before their names were published on a Facebook page of the Health Dept. of the NZ Govt.!! Talk about courtesy - or the lack of it. Typical Socialist don't care attitude to private business.
And now we have the spectacle of local Maoris in Northland establishing their own roadblocks to keep these dastardly C Virus infected Aucklanders out of their territory during this holiday weekend - Auckland Province Anniversary Holiday. Talk about hysterical and irrational behaviour. But more seriously, it just shows the constant abrasive relations between Maoris and Pakehas (white people) which is being constantly taken advantage of and fed by these types of actions and opportunities. There is no end in sight, even taking into account the over generous Treaty of Waitangi settlements over the years. Appeasement NEVER works, as Britain found out in dealing with Herr Hitler 83 years ago.
Talking of that sort of thing, there is hardly any history being taught in schools or universities any more. There's an old saying that without knowledge of history, it will be destined to be repeated, and that is exactly what is happening to the world right now.
On that happy note we will leave you for another week.
Hope you are all well...................................
Cheers and lotsaluv from the City of Eternal Spring,
Jim and Jean
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