Jenny Burns

After touring several states in the U.S. south and southwest, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, is warning that at least five more states are in line to become COVID-19 hotspots, unless a concerted effort is made to ensure that citizens follow established guidelines for mask-wearing and social distancing, and states move to close bars, indoor dining and public gatherings.

Over the past week, Dr. Birx visited the five states she strongly recommends “reverse course” now—Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio and Virginia– Bestlifeonline.com reported. She reported that the task force is making this assessment based on current infection rates and daily case numbers per 100,000 people ”We can see what is happening in the South moving North,” she said in a press conference in Frankfort, Kentucky. Tennessee, for example, is considered to now be “critical,” according to the Covid Act Now group of medical professionals, epidemiologists, and researches. The Harvard Global Health Institute puts Tennessee in the highest-risk category. Dr. Birx was especially forceful in her press conference with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, telling reporters and healthcare officials, “Stop going to bars, indeed close the bars and limit your indoor dining and if you wash your hands and social distance, you can have as big an impact as sheltering in place.” During that press conference, Gov. Lee said he would not implement any of those measures or “shut down” any part of the economy..

On July 22, Birx also named 11 cities– Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St. Louis–which she said should take “aggressive” steps immediately to avoid becoming  hot spots. “Until you can see that explosion, it’s hard for people to understand how deeply you have to clamp down,” Birx said. “That’s why we called out the next set of cities where we see early-warning signs, because if you make changes now, you won’t become a Phoenix.”

In addition, Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute has named six other states—Wisconsin, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana–which are not yet hotspots, but are “heading there.” These states don’t tend to be in the news, he said, but they have “limited hospital capacity…and can ill afford to stretch their ICUs.” Both Montana and Wyoming have high infection rates that are “worrisome,” Dr. Jah said. Covid Act Now warns that there is not a single U.S. state that is currently “on track to contain COVID.”

A new study in India has raised hopes that the coronavirus may be significantly less lethal than thought (at least in India) and that achieving herd immunity through infection could be a viable strategy, but the enormous shortcomings of the study make such conclusions mere wishful thinking.

Coverage in the {Hindustan Times} is typical. An article headlined “15% Population May Have Virus Antibodies, Says Private Lab Data” begins “Thyrocare, a private diagnostic laboratory shared data from 60,000 antibody tests across 600 pincodes [postal codes] that it conducted over 20 days. Of those 15% tested positive for antibodies.” This figure suggests that far more people have already contracted and cleared the coronavirus than previously thought, and that the danger per infection is therefore significantly lower.

But such antibody tests have enormous problems, as has been seen in the article by Stanford Professor John Ioannidis, reported on in this publication some months ago, or the April 22 press conference by California doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, which received unmerited attention. The trouble with these studies is the selection of who goes to be tested.

People who think they’ve already had COVID-19 — due to symptoms or known exposure — are more likely to seek out antibody testing. Without a more randomized sampling, the resulting figures will be too high.

In contrast with levels of 15% or 20%, the Indian Council of Medical Research found that less than 0.73% of people sampled — chosen randomly across 83 districts — had antibodies in late April. The {Journal of the American Medical Association} published on July 21 an article describing antibody screening in blood samples taken for other reasons (cholesterol levels, general health checkups, etc.) from March 23-May 12. They found SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 1% of samples from the San Francisco Bay area and in 6.9% of samples from New York City. While these levels are much higher than the number of confirmed cases, they do not support the wishful thinking that we are near herd immunity, or that the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 are low.

China is definitely committed to make infrastructural projects a centerpiece of its strategy to get out of the pandemic-related depression. ECNS reports at some detail that China will add up to nine magnetic levitation railroads of over 1,000 kilometers in total length into its service network in the long term: a tourist railway line in Southwest China’s Yunnan province, intercity passenger lines and urban mass transit lines in places such as North China’s Shanxi province, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Sichuan province in the nation’s southwestern region.

With the country setting the goal to run high-speed maglev trains clocked at 600 km per hour by the end of this year, East China’s Zhejiang province announced it will invest 100 billion yuan ($14.22 billion) and adopt maglev trains to build a railroad connecting Hangzhou and Shanghai, the provincial government unveiled in mid-April in its transportation development plan over the next three decades. It will take about 15 minutes to complete the 162-km journey at this kind of speed, said Feng Hao, a researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission’s Institute of Comprehensive Transportation.

Aside from the Yangtze River Delta region, the Development and Reform Commission of Shenzhen plans to introduce maglev rail lines to the Second Guangzhou-Shenzhen High Speed Railway to ease the operational pressure of regular and bullet trains in the area, the commission said in a feasibility study released last year.

The Second Guangzhou-Shenzhen High Speed Railway is to be built in 2025 and is expected to be completed in 2030, said information released by the Guangzhou government in 2019.

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, also said in its transportation network development plan that it intends to launch maglev services between the city and Chongqing in the future.

China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, the country’s largest rolling stock manufacturer by production volume, is also developing wheel technology-based high-speed trains.
The Europeans and Canadians have failed to compete with China in this field in recent years, said Chen Jian, a professor specializing in railways at Chongqing Jiaotong University.

In addition to three existing maglev railroads in Beijing, Shanghai and Changsha, two short-distance low-speed maglev railways are being constructed in Qingyuan, Guangdong province and Fenghuang county, Hunan province. Both are scheduled to be operational in 2021, said China State Railway Group, the country’s railway operator.

An article in {Cell} reports on an mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate that elicits T cell and antibody responses in animals and has been shown to create immunity in mice. While this is not the first vaccine of its type, its design gives it a one-week shelf life in liquid form at room temperature. This could be a significant advantage in achieving immunization in parts of the world without reliable access to electricity for temperature control — which is itself a situation that must be remedied! https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30932-6

William Binney, the former technical director at the NSA, today put what should be the final nail in the coffin of the “Russiagate” coup attempt against the democratically elected government of the United States by the British and American intelligence agencies, their controlled and corrupt media, and the equally corrupt Congress. Appearing on an internationally broadcast event (sponsored by the Schiller Institute and EIR), Binney, together with his former associate at the NSA Kirk Wiebe and LaRouche PAC analyst Barbara Boyd, demonstrated not only that the entire three-and-a half-year Russiagate witch hunt was a manufactured hoax, but that it was known to be a hoax from the beginning by its perpetrators. The information presented in the event can and must be the launching pad for the American people, and international supporters of the American experiment, to make this pregnant moment in history the turning point in ending the oligarchical destruction of that experiment in republican government, “of the people, by the people and for the people.” see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t4m7VZOFMc&feature=youtu.be

Binney demonstrated, as he has many times before, that the systems he designed for the NSA to root out terrorists and drug kingpins has been turned against the American people, creating the most massive surveillance system by a state against its own citizens (and in this case around the world) in human history. Boyd pointed to the irony that the Democrats and many of the war-mongers surrounding President Donald Trump, led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are prancing around the world denouncing China as a totalitarian state, while the U.S. itself is functioning as a totalitarian state. Not only is everyone’s entire private life available for view to dozens of U.S. government agencies, but also the nation is now going through a “culture war” in which anyone with even the slightest concern about the Jacobin mobs patrolling our streets is declared an “enemy of the people.” Many Chinese are openly expressing their astonishment that the U.S. is replaying the nightmare carried out in China during the last decade of Mao Zedong’s life, the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.”

All three speakers posed the critical point that the current existential crisis of civilization — the pandemic, the economic collapse, the cultural decay and the extreme danger of war — is also an incredible opportunity, if the patriots of the nation can cut through the induced pessimism that nothing can be done, and commit themselves to take action. Every leader, every candidate for office, must be informed, with passion, that they must stop the coup and join the fight to restore the nation, to bring the world together for cooperation in development in scientific and medical research, in space exploration — in creating a future fit for human existence — or be sent home.

There is a great irony in the fact that Mike Pompeo just visited London, lavishing praise on the U.K.-U.S. “special relationship,” taking credit for pressuring the Boris Johnson government in “joining the free world” by cutting off Huawei, and then presenting his disgusting lies about China at the Henry Jackson Society. Why ironic? That society has as a major sponsor Sir Richard Dearlove, the former MI6 chief who personally ran the “Russiagate” coup attempt against President Trump, together with his underling Christopher Steele. Add to that Bill Binney’s description today of his briefing of Pompeo, at President Trump’s request, while Pompeo was still head of the CIA, on the fact that the Obama intelligence team was lying about the Russian hacking of the Democrats’ emails. Not only did Pompeo suppress that information, but he then totally endorsed the lies of Clapper, Brennan and Comey about the Russian supposed hack.

Break this truth about the attempted coup everywhere. Free President Trump to do what he intended to do, for which he was elected: end the endless wars, restore the U.S. industrial infrastructure, establish friendly relations with Russia and China. There are no solutions to the many crises facing mankind on a one-at-a-time basis. The British and their U.S. assets are doing everything in their power to prevent the urgent meeting of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, even if it means war in this age of thermonuclear weapons. Do not be pessimistic — it is a rare and fleeting moment of opportunity, for those willing to fight, for victory.

John Sigerson

A detailed working-through of the latest scholarly edition of Beethoven’s stupendous Missa Solemnis (published by Bärenreiter in 2019), reveals many aspects of the work which have yet to be performed in the way Beethoven clearly specified.

One aspect of Beethoven’s specifications that has been generally ignored, is the relation of the soloists to the chorus. In the “Sanctus” movement, for example, a sloppy copyist’s error resulted in most printed scores indicating that both the opening “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,” and also the following Allegro “Pleni sunt coeli” section, should be sung by soloists only. Most conductors have more or less instinctively concluded that the latter “Pleni” section was obviously meant for the full chorus, yet they have left the opening to be sung by soloists only. However, the new scholarly edition’s notes clearly demonstrate that the opening “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus” should likewise be sung by the chorus, and not soloists.

Even more revolutionary is how Beethoven deals with the soloists and chorus in the great profession of faith in the Creator and in human creativity, the “Credo.” In four of the main source manuscripts—namely in (a) Beethoven’s own working manuscript, (b) the version he presented to his benefactor Archduke Rudolph, (c) the version sent to the publishers for engraving, and (d) the subscription copy he sent to King Frederick VI of Denmark—Beethoven clearly specifies that the soloists should join with the chorus in singing all those sections that do not include separate solo parts! I.e., the soloists must sing everything in the “Credo” and must never be sitting idle as mute “specialists” while faith is being professed.

To quote from the scholarly note on page 278 of the Bärenreiter edition:

“The solo voices are marked ‘Col coro’, written across the four staves, in the first few bars in BCDE [the four aforementioned manuscripts], though not in A or M [the autograph score, and the first 1827 published edition by Schott]. In NGA [Neue Gesamtausgabe published in 2000 by Henle] the annotation is noted in the Critical Commentary but the solo voices are given rests in the main score [!]. The instruction ‘Col Coro’ must have originated with Beethoven, however, and so solo voices should be asked to join with the chorus for the relevant sections of the Credo, as indicated in the present edition, in any performance that is attempting to follow Beethoven’s instructions [emphasis added].”

The Schiller Institute NYC Chorus continues to rehearse the Missa Solemnis via Zoom during this socially-distanced Year of Beethoven, and will definitely follow Beethoven’s instructions at the earliest opportunity, in the hopes that many others will follow.

COVID-19 is now spreading through the vast rural heartland of India, after it struck hard at large urban centers. India has the third largest number of COVID-19 infections in the world, at nearly 1.3 million, and just passed France for the rank of country with sixth most COVID-19 deaths, at 30,601. What is particularly concerning is the rate of new novel coronavirus infections; with 47,520 new infections on July 23, India ranks only behind the United States for new daily infections.

It is reported that the vector of migrant workers, who were working in larger cities until the work dried up, brought COVID-19 to India’s rural belt, home to 900 million Indians—70% of India’s 1.3 billion people. This rural region has health and hospital infrastructure that ranges from moderately to considerably inadequate.

West Bengal, a state of 100 million people—whose capital is Kolkata—has a rural town called Dokangora, The village has been distributing thousands of bottles of sanitizer and bars of soaps and masks, often limited to two masks per family—one family of eight shares two bars of soap—and basic food supplies including rice, dal and cooking oil. The local ambulance is little more than an SUV with no special medical equipment.  The driver ferries people with symptoms —  sometimes more than five at a time—to get testing and help. The July 23 {Wall Street Journal} reports that the regional health centers have “148 beds, but none equipped to look after coronavirus patients.”

Were coronavirus to spread through this area, the medical barriers for resistance would be minimal.

In the larger state of West Bengal, its capital, Kolkata,  has announced a bi- weekly lockdown, which appears to mean, in this setting, two days per week. Banks, post offices, and ration shops are not allowed to open. But in three districts—North 24 Parganas, Birbhum, and Bardhaman—total lockdowns have been imposed.

The success of these operations will depend on enforcement of the lockdowns, but also on a build-up of all the features of health and hospital infrastructure, greatly insufficient, which needs to be built on an emergency basis, as per the LaRouche plan to create 1.5 billion productive jobs.