COVID-19 from the start: The definitive coronavirus timeline

Editor’s Note: This comprehensive coronavirus timeline is, as far as we’ve been able to find, the only one of its kind. There are partial timelines scattered throughout various news outlets, but none of them are nearly complete.

We will be updating this as more data come available.

• • • • 11/17:  Internal Chinese government data, obtained by the South China Morning Post (in March), show that Chinese government investigators found an earlier case of COVID-19 on November 17. It is not clear that Chinese authorities knew that they were dealing with a new virus at the time.
        • “Some of the cases were likely backdated after health authorities had tested specimens taken from suspected patients,” the newspaper reports. “Interviews with whistle-blowers from the medical community suggest Chinese doctors only realised they were dealing with a new disease in late December.” From the 55-year-old patient on November 17 onwards, one to five new cases of COVID-19 are reported each day, according to the government records.
        • Note: A report in The Lancet by Chinese doctors from Wuhan’s Jin Yin-tan Hospital refers to the first patient in the study occuring on Dec. 1, 2019.
        • Source: 4
      • 12/1:  The symptom onset date of the first patient identified was Dec 1, 2019. None of his family members developed fever or any respiratory symptoms. No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases.
        • Source:  https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2930183-5
      • 12/6:  Five days after a man linked to Wuhan’s seafood market presented pneumonia-like symptoms, his wife contracts it, suggesting human to human transmission.
        • Source 8
      • 12/10: Wei Guixian, one of the earliest known coronavirus patients, starts feeling ill.  Source: 3
      • 12/16: Patient admitted to Wuhan Central Hospital with infection in both lungs but resistant to anti-flu drugs. Staff later learned he worked at a wildlife market connected to the outbreak. Source: 3
      • 12/17:    Two dozen leading South Korean infectious diseases specialists tackled a worrying hypothetical scenario: a South Korean family contracts pneumonia after a trip to China, where cases of an unidentified disease had arisen.  
        • The hypothetical disease quickly spreads among the colleagues of the family members and medical workers who treated them. In response, the team of experts at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) developed an algorithm to find the pathogen and its origin, as well as testing techniques.
        • Source: https://mobile-reuters-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN21H0BQ
        • Source: https://twitter.com/ThomasWelch15/status/1251974917735747585
      • 12/27: Wuhan health officials are told that a new coronavirus is causing the illness. Source: 3
      • 12/30: Ai Fen, a top director at Wuhan Central Hospital, posts information on WeChat about the new virus. She was reprimanded for doing so and told not to spread information about it. 
        • Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang also shares information on WeChat about the new SARS-like virus. He is called in for questioning shortly afterward.
        • Wuhan health commission notifies hospitals of a “pneumonia of unclear cause” and orders them to report any related information.  Source: 3
      • 12/31:  Wuhan health officials confirm 27 cases of illness and close a market they think is related to the virus’ spread. 
        • China tells the World Health Organization’s China office about the cases of an unknown illness.  Source: 3
      • 12/31:  “…Yet officials in Taiwan raised concerns (of person to person transmission) as early as December 31…”   Source 8
      • 12/31:  On December 31, Chinese authorities started censoring news of the virus from search engines, deleting terms including “SARS variation, “Wuhan Seafood market” and “Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia.”  Source: 8
      • 1/1:  CDC begins developing situation reports, which are shared with HHS. Source: 9
      • 1/1:  Wuhan Public Security Bureau brings in for questioning eight doctors who had posted information about the illness on WeChat. 
        • An official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission orders labs, which had already determined that the novel virus was similar to SARS, to stop testing samples and to destroy existing samples.  Source: 3
      • 1/1:  WHO: “No evidence of significant human-to-human transmission.  Does not recommend any specific measures for travelers.” Source: 5
      • 1/1:  On January 1 without any investigation into where the virus originated from, the Wuhan seafood market was closed and disinfected.  Source: 8
      • 1/1:  Because of the Lunar New Year travel, “[t]he timing of the outbreak could not have been worse.”
        • China “went ahead with New Year celebrations despite the risk of wider infections” and let “some five million people leave Wuhan without screening.”
        • Many of these travelers went not only to other parts of China, but spread out across the globe.  
        • Source: “How the Virus Got Out,”The New York Times (Mar. 22, 2020), available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/22/world/coronavirus-spread.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
      • 1/2: (January 24th study):  Indications of  person to person spread.
        • “By Jan 2, 2020, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as having laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection. Of the 41 patients…27 had been exposed to Huanan seafood market.”
        • Evidence so far indicates human transmission for 2019-nCoV. 
        • Concerned 2019-nCoV could have acquired ability for efficient human transmission.  
        • Airborne precautions, such as a fit-tested N95 respirator, and other personal protective equipment are strongly recommended.  Serum antibodies should be tested among health-care workers before and after their exposure to 2019-nCoV for identification of asymptomatic infections.
        • Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext
      • 1/2:  New York Times reports that individual animals and cages were not swabbed “eliminating evidence of what animal might have been the source of the coronavirus and which people had become infected but survived”. The Hubei health commission ordered genomics companies to stop testing for the new virus and to destroy all samples. Source 8
      • 1/2:  A tweet from the Global Times states: “Police in Central China’s Wuhan arrested 8 people spreading rumours about local outbreak of unidentifiable #pneumonia. Previous online posts said it was SARS.” This had the intended effect of silencing other doctors who may have been inclined to speak out.  Source: 8
      • 1/2:  Chinese researchers map the new coronavirus’ complete genetic information. This information is not made public until Jan. 9.  Source: 3
        • Although a state-affiliated lab had documented the full virus genome by Jan. 2, the Chinese regime didn’t share the sequence with the WHO until Jan. 12. That was one day after a Chinese lab published the genome sequence on virological.org without authorization by authorities, AP reported. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later lauded the regime’s efforts in sharing the virus sequence as “very impressive, and beyond words.”  
          • Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/who-praised-beijing-in-public-while-complaining-internally-about-its-withholding-of-virus-data-report_3373682.html
      • 1/3:  News breaks of the drone strike death of Qassam Soleimani. 
        • Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/qassem-soleimani-dead-why-now-and-what-now/604387/
      • 1/3:  CDC Director Robert Redfield sent an email to the director of the Chinese CDC, George Gao, formally offering to send U.S. experts to China to investigate the coronavirus.  Source: 6
        • Director Redfield emails and speaks on the phone with Dr. George Gao, Director of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Source:  9
      • 1/3:  Director Redfield speaks with Secretary Azar, and HHS notifies the National Security Council (NSC)  Source:  9
      • 1/3:  Chinese scientists knew about the coronavirus and its deadly effects as early as December — but were ordered by government officials to suppress the evidence.
        • In late December, several genomics companies tested samples from sick patients in Wuhan — the center of the coronavirus outbreak — and noticed alarming similarities between their illnesses and the 2002 SARS virus.
        • Researchers alerted Beijing of their findings — and on Jan. 3, received a gag order from China’s National Health Commission, with instructions to destroy the samples.
        • The alleged cover-up continued when representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 8 visited Wuhan, where officials intentionally withheld information that hospital workers had been infected by patients — a telltale sign of contagion.
        • Source:  https://nypost.com/2020/02/29/china-officials-knew-of-coronavirus-in-december-ordered-cover-up-report-says/
        • H/T:  John P. Arshon @JohnParshon
        • NOTE:  There are no primary sources referenced in this article. 
      • 1/3:  China’s leading health authority, the National Health Commission, ordered Wuhan pneumonia samples be moved to designated testing facilities or destroyed, while instructing a no-publication order related to the unknown disease.  Source: 8
      • 1/4:  “Yet officials in Taiwan raised concerns (of person to person transmission) as early as December 31, as did experts in Hong Kong on January 4.”  Source 8
      • 1/4:  The head of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Infection warns “the city should implement the strictest possible monitoring system for a mystery new viral pneumonia that has infected dozens of people on the mainland, as it is highly possible that the illness is spreading from human to human.” Source: 2
      • 1/4:  Director Redfield emails Dr. Gao again offering CDC assistance, stating, “I would like to offer CDC technical experts in laboratory and epidemiology of respiratory infectious diseases to assist you and China CDC in identification of this unknown and possibly novel pathogen.”  Source:  9
      • 1/5:  CDC Director Redfield sent another email to the Chinese CDC Director, George Gao, formally offering to send U.S. experts to China to investigate the coronavirus outbreak  Source: 6
      • 1/6:  Wuhan Municipal Health Commission stops releasing daily updates on new cases. Continues until January 18.  Source 8
      • 1/6:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issues a “level 1 travel watch — the lowest of its three levels — for China’s outbreak,” according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. The CDC said the “cause and the transmission mode aren’t yet known, and it advised travelers to Wuhan to avoid living or dead animals, animal markets, and contact with sick people.” The CDC also offered to send a team to China, but China declined.  Source: 2
      • 1/6:  Michael Osterholm from the University of Minnesota, an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology, praises the Chinese authorities for the information they have made public so far. 
        • “This much information this early into an outbreak is a very positive thing,” Osterholm said. “I feel confident at this point that the appropriate public health measures are being taken to both investigate the outbreak and to contain it as much as possible…. And I think hopefully over the next several days it will become much clearer what the [causative] agent is.”
        • Osterholm said it is critical to establish — or share, if one has been established — a case definition. That’s the tool public health officials use to rule in and out possible cases in an outbreak. Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cause-of-wuhans-mysterious-pneumonia-cases-still-unknown-chinese-officials-say/
      • 1/6:  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci begins doing interviews on the outbreak. Source:  9
      • 1/6:  At the request of Secretary Azar, Director Redfield sends a formal letter to China CDC offering full CDC assistance.  Source:  9
      • 1/7:  Xi Jinping becomes involved in the Chinese virus response.  Source: 3
      • 1/7:  The CDC established a coronavirus incident management system to better share and respond to information about the virus.  Source: 6
      • 1/8:  The World Health Organization (WHO) declares, “Preliminary identification of a novel virus in a short period of time is a notable achievement and demonstrates China’s increased capacity to manage new outbreaks.”  Source: 2
      • 1/8:  CDC alerts clinicians to be on the look-out for patients with respiratory symptoms and a history of travel to Wuhan, China.  Source: 1
      • 1/8:  CDC distributes an advisory via the Health Alert Network, which communicates to state and local public health partners, alerting healthcare workers and public health partners of the outbreak.  Source: 9
      • 1/9:  CDC and FDA begin collaborating on a diagnostic test for the novel coronavirus. Source:  9
      • 1/9:  China announces it has mapped the coronavirus genome.  Source: 3
      • 1/10:  China shares viral sequence, allowing NIH scientists to begin work on a vaccine that evening.  Source:  9
      • 1/10:  PRC official Wang Guangfa says the outbreak “under control” and mostly a “mild condition”.  Source 8
      • 1/11-17:  Important prescheduled CCP meeting held in Wuhan. During that time, the Wuhan Health Commission insists there are no new cases.  Source: 3
      • 1/11:  China reports its first coronavirus death.  Source: 2
      • 1/11:  Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, said he’s pleased to see that health officials and scientists in China have released as much information as they have. The main focus now turns toward identifying the animal species that transmitted nCoV to humans and determining Based on the current reports, there’s no obvious evidence of human-to-human spread yet, Osterholm said, noting that red flags, for example, would be infections in patients’ family members who weren’t at the market and infections in healthcare workers. 
        • Source: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/01/china-releases-genetic-data-new-coronavirus-now-deadly
      • 1/12:  Professor Zhang Yongzhen’s lab in Shanghai is closed by authorities for “rectification”, one day after it shares genomic sequence data with the world for the first time.  Source 8
      • 1/13:  While public health officials should remain vigilant, there is no need for undue alarm, Osterholm said, emphasizing that the focus should be on learning from this outbreak to prepare for future ones. 
        • “Panic never works period,” he says. “To me it appears that if anything, [the outbreak] is under control… it seems to be over [in Wuhan] as we haven’t seen any secondary transmission.
        • “Now the question is, if the market opens up again, what will happen. We need an understanding of what, in fact, was the source, and if that source is likely to come back into contact again with humans?”
        • Source: https://www.healthpolicy-watch.org/mystery-virus-in-wuhan-identified-as-novel-coronavirus-researchers-still-searching-for-animal-host/
      • 1/13:  First coronavirus case reported in Thailand, the first known case outside China.  Source: 3
      • 1/14:  DNC Debate.  Coronavirus is never mentioned. 
        • Source: https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/04/19/821622/
      • 1/14:  The WHO announces, “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in Wuhan, China.” Meanwhile, according to The Associated Press, internal Chinese documents show that government officials acknowledged likely human-to-human transmission of coronavirus, and said they were following orders from the president of China to keep it under wraps.  Source: 2
      • 1/14:  PRC National Health Commission chief Ma Xiaowei privately warns colleagues the virus is likely to develop into a major public health event.  Source: 8
      • 1/15:  The House of Representatives votes to send articles of impeachment to the Senate. Pelosi and House Democrats celebrate with a signing ceremony featuring commemorative pens.  Source: 10
      • 1/15:  Trump and China sign “phase one” of a trade deal to rein in a historic and damaging trade war.  Source: 2
      • 1/15:  The patient who becomes the first confirmed U.S. case leaves Wuhan and arrives in the U.S., carrying the coronavirus.  Source: 3
      • 1/17:  CDC announces that 3 airports in the United States will begin screening incoming passengers from China: SFO, JFK, and LAX. Two more airports were subsequently added before the 1/28 announcement of an additional 15. Source: 1
      • 1/17:  WHO: “Does not recommend any specific health measures for travelers.”  Source: 5
      • 1/18:  The Wuhan Health Commission announces four new cases.  Also, Annual Wuhan Lunar New Year banquet. Tens of thousands of people gathered for a potluck.  Source: 3
      • 1/19:  Beijing sends epidemiologists to Wuhan.  Source: 3
      • 1/19:  WHO hedges: “Not enough is known to draw definitive conclusions about how it is transmitted, the clinical features of the disease, the extent to which it has spread, or its source, which remains unknown.”  Source: 2
      • 1/20:  First case is announced in South Korea.  Source: 3
      • 1/20:  Zhong Nanshan, a top Chinese doctor who is helping to coordinate the coronavirus response, announces the virus can be passed between people. Source: 3
        • “Despite evidence of human-human transmission from early December, PRC authorities deny it until January 20,” it states.  Source 8
        • “The World Health Organisation does the same. Yet officials in Taiwan raised concerns as early as December 31, as did experts in Hong Kong on January 4.” Source 8
      • 1/20:  Dr. Fauci announces the National Institutes of Health is already working on the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus.  Source: 6
      • 1/20:  The WHO held an emergency call, attended by many HHS officials, during which it advised that “the outbreak is a big problem.” After the call, Dr. Bright and his team discussed the need to make HHS leadership aware of the urgent necessity for funding to combat the virus.  By email dated January 20,2020, Dr. Robert Johnson, Director of BARD A Division of Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases, asked Dr.Bright:“ Is the ASPR (and hopefully through him) the [Secretary Azar aware of just how BARDA’s hands are tied due to lack of funding, and precious time being lost?” 
        • Source:  https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6930-rick-bright-complaint/2a40b07e589ad4c5357b/optimized/full.pdf
      • 1/21:  CDC’s Dr. Nancy Messonier “announced that a few days earlier the CDC had ‘finalized development’ of its test and used it to confirm the first coronavirus infection in the US, a man in Washington State who had traveled from the Wuhon region.” 
        • “In coming weeks, we anticipate sharing these tests with domestic and international partners” she said.  “… we continue to believe of this novel coronavirus to the American public at large remains low at this time.”  Source: Washington Post 4/18 “Contamination at CDC lab delayed virus tests’ rollout” 
      • 1/21:  1st travel related case in country (Washington State) Source: 1
      • 1/21:  CCP flagship newspaper People’s Daily mentions the coronavirus epidemic and Xi’s actions to fight it for the first time.  China’s top political commission in charge of law and order warns that “anyone who deliberately delays and hides the reporting of [virus] cases out of his or her own self-interest will be nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity.”  Source 3
      • 1/21:  WHO: “There is possibility of ‘sustained’ human-to-human transmission of new virus in China”  Source: 5
      • 1/21:  REPORT:  China asked WHO to delay report that virus can be spread person to person.
        • https://twitter.com/CollinSLKoh/status/1259002292834955264?s=20
        • English translation:
          • According to another report from Der Spiegel, the German Federal Intelligence Agency has shown that after the outbreak, China urged the World Health Organization to postpone the issuance of a global warning at the highest level. The report pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping asked the organization in a call with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, on January 21 to postpone the release of information about human-to-human transmission and pandemic warnings. The German weekly said that the German Federal Intelligence Agency estimated that due to China ’s information policy, the world lost four to six weeks to fight the virus.
          • However, the analysis of Der Spiegel pointed out that the German government is reluctant to escalate the conflict with China, because: Germany needs protective equipment produced in China. After German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Xi Jinping called, there was a special coordination in Beijing ’s Ministry of Commerce Contact person for related material transportation. In exchange, Chinese leaders demanded to show people in a helpful image. In a report to the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee last week, a diplomat pointed out that Beijing hopes that after each mask or protective clothing arrives in the receiving country, the local will host an event that will cause a public effect. Governments in some European countries reportedly cooperated well.
          • This report was denied by China the following day.
      • 1/21:  The Wuhan Institute of Virology, part of the China Academy of Sciences, has applied to patent the use of Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir to treat the current coronavirus outbreak.
        • The Wuhan Institute submitted the patent application jointly with the Military Medicine Institute of the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Military Science. Researchers with both organizations noted in a paper published in Nature’s Cell Research this week that both remdesivir and chloroquine, used to treat malaria, may be effective in stalling the coronavirus.
        • The Wuhan Institute indicated it filed the patent application on January 21, but also noted it would temporarily drop the patent claims if it had the opportunity to collaborate with foreign biopharma companies to battle the epidemic.
        • Source:  https://www.biospace.com/article/china-s-wuhan-institute-files-to-patent-the-use-of-gilead-s-remdesivir-for-coronavirus/
        • Related:  
          • Gilead’s remdesivir is an experimental drug that isn’t licensed or approved anywhere in the world. It is being rushed into clinical trials in China. Gilead’s chief medical officer, Merdad Parsey, told Bloomberg that the drug could enter clinical trials in China as early as next week in patients with moderate and severe symptoms.
          • China can manufacture chloroquine and currently wants access to remdesivir. Bloomberg points out that the country’s decision to seek a patent “instead of invoking the heavy-handed ‘compulsory license’ option that lets nations override drug patents in national emergencies, underscores the delicate balancing act before China as it signals commitment toward intellectual property rights alongside curbing the virus outbreak.”
          • “The fact that they have applied for a patent means there’s growing awareness about this in the country,” said Wang Yanhu, a senior partner at Albright Law Offices in Beijing. “The government is compelled to avoid using the compulsory license because it has been making efforts to show China respects intellectual property rights and the abuse of compulsory licensing will draw international criticism.”
          • Gilead is presently shipping enough doses of the drug to China to treat 500 patients and is increasing its supply in case the clinical trials are effective.
          • Source:  https://www.biospace.com/article/china-s-wuhan-institute-files-to-patent-the-use-of-gilead-s-remdesivir-for-coronavirus/
      • 1/21:  WHO R&D Blueprint for experimental therapeutics
        • As of 20 January 2020, 278 confirmed cases were reported in China, including 51 severe cases, 12 in critical condition and 6 deaths.Among the 278 confirmed cases, 15 are reported to be healthcare workers. During the call, 4 additional cases were reported to have occurred in Shanghai and that have been hospitalized.In addition, 2 separated exported cases were reported in Thailand, 1 in Japan and 1 in S. Korea.
        • RCT to determine whether lopinavir/ritonavir is safe and effective in treating patients infected with nCoV has been recruiting patients in Wuhan and is close to complete enrolment. (Not Remdesivir)
        • Source: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/330695/WHO-HEO-RDBlueprintnCoV-2020.5-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
      • 1/22:  Biden Advisor Ron Klain:  Wuhan is the 7th largest city in China — as San Antonio is in the US. Also, it is probably too late for this to be effective, and tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of people have left this city for other parts of China.
        • Source: https://twitter.com/RonaldKlain/status/1220058103288344576?s=20
      • 1/22:  Trump responds to whether he’s concerned about a possible pandemic, “No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” Trump was referring to a resident from Snohomish County, Wash., who came back from China on Jan. 15 and was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Source: 2
      • 1/22:  Trump says the U.S. and China will be “closer” after a recently-signed trade deal and praises President Xi as “a man who truly loves his country. Much more to come!”
        • Source:  https://justthenews.com/video/bad-worse-tit-tat-timeline-deteriorating-us-china-relations
      • 1/22:  WHO: “I was very impressed by the detail and depth of China’s presentation.”  Source: 5
      • 1/22:  An interagency diagnostics working group is set up by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which includes, BARDA, CDC, FDA, NIH, and the Department of Defense (DOD).  Source: 10
      • 1/22:  The Post reports Mike Bowen, owner of the largest surgical face mask producer in the US — Prestige Ameritech in Texas — contacted top officials in the Department of Health and Human Services. 
        • Source:  https://www.vox.com/covid-19-coronavirus-us-response-trump/2020/5/10/21253689/covid-19-masks-trump-white-house-prestige-ameritech
      • 1/22:  Shock Video:  Scores of people are trying to leave Wuhan, China, before the city of 11 million is put on lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus 
        • Source:  https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1220156684947132417?s=20
      • 1/23:  China barred people from leaving or entering Wuhan beginning in a surprise middle-of-the-night announcement and expanded that to most of the province in succeeding days. Trains and flights were canceled and checkpoints set up on roads into the central province.
        • Source:  https://time.com/5808736/china-ends-hubei-coronavirus-lockdown/
        • “That was like, whoa,” a senior U.S. official involved in White House meetings on the crisis told the Washington Post. “That was when the Richter scale hit 8.”  Source 4
      • 1/23:  WHO: “There is now more evidence 2019-nCoV spreads from human-to-human transmission.” Source: 5
      • 1/23:  Vox publishes an article stating that travel bans to fight viruses “don’t work.” The article initially referred to the “Wuhan coronavirus,” before being edited weeks later. The article’s URL remains unchanged. Source: 2
      • 1/23:  China seals off Wuhan, cancelling plane, train and bus travel.
        • Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says in a Journal of the American Medical Association podcast that the U.S. wouldn’t implement shutdowns of cities like what was occurring in China: “There’s no chance in the world that we could do that to Chicago or to New York or to San Francisco, but they’re doing it.  So, let’s see what happens.”  Source: 2
      • 1/23:  The CDC sought a “special emergency authorization” from the FDA to allow states to use its newly developed coronavirus test.  Source: 6
      • 1/23:  ASPR convenes a Disaster Leadership Group (DLG) to coordinate strategies and countermeasures government-wide. The Trump administration begins discussions with manufacturers of N95 masks about more than doubling usual production. Source: 10
      • 1/24:  WHO publishes R&D Blueprint
        • As of 24 January 2020, a total of 846 confirmed cases of a novel coronavirus (2019-nCov,hereafter referred to as nCoV) have been reported, of which 830 cases were reported from China. Other confirmed cases were reported outside of China in six countries (see https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200124-sitrep-4-2019-ncov.pdf?sfvrsn=9272d086_2). Of the 830 cases, 177 cases have been reported as severely ill and 25 deaths have been reported to date.
          • The number of reported confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV has increased by 265 cases since the last situation report published on 23 January 2020, including China which reported additional 259 confirmed cases.
          • The strategic objectives of the response are to interrupt the transmission of the virus from one person to another in China, to prevent exportation of cases from China to other countries and territories, and to prevent further transmission from exported case if they were to happen. This can be achieved through a combination of public health measures, such as rapid identification, diagnosis and management of the cases, identification and follow up of the contacts, infection prevention and control in healthcare settings, implementation of health measures for travellers, awareness raising in the population, risk communication.
          • Note: Error in situation reports published on 23,24 and 25 January as originally published, which incorrectly summarized the risk for global level to be moderate.
          • Details of each nation’s response that has had an infected person
        • It was agreed that candidate therapeutics that are still in preclinical phase of evaluation should not be prioritized over more advanced candidates with available clinical safety and efficacy data, as the purpose would be to identify products that could be ready for testing at the earliest.
        • Among the different therapeutic options, Remdesivir was considered the most promising candidate based on the broad antiviral spectrum, the in vitro and in-vivo data available for coronaviruses and the extensive clinical safety database(in particular coming from the Ebola virus disease clinical trial and MEURI) in eastern Congo). Further, studies in mice using Remdesevir showed superior efficacy over Kaletra + IFNbeta. A clinical trial is being planned in China to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Remdesivir in association with optimized standard of care.
        • Among the repurposed drugs, the investigation of the antiretroviral medicine (HIV protease inhibitors), lopinavir/ritonavir, either alone or in combination with IFNbeta1b, which is a combination currently investigated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the treatment of MERS-CoV(MIRACLE trial), was considered a suitable second option for rapid implementation in clinical trials.
        • Among the products that should not be prioritised, there was consensus that Ribavirin does not appear like a candidate worth further investigating, based on the available evidence.The experience with its evaluation in SARS in Canada in 2003 may have resulted in higher mortality than in other countries. It also reduced haemoglobin concentration-a side effect that is undesirable in patients with respiratory disorders.
        • Immunosuppressants and immunostimulators (e.g. corticosteroids/steroids) were also identified as products to be deprioritised as there is not enough information when the treatment should be given,and they may possibly be harmful in the context of mild illness, although there is evidence of efficacy in the setting of severe illness. This again underlines the importance of differentiating between mild and severe disease. 
        • Chloroquine was also mentioned as a product for which there is insufficient evidence to support its further investigation.
        • Source:  https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/330680/WHO-HEO-RDBlueprint%28nCoV%29-2020.1-eng.pdf
      • 1/24:  Trump tweets in praise of China’s “transparency.” 
        • “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus,” tweets the President. “The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”  Source 4
        • (On April 1, the Biden campaign mocked the president for the tweet, and claimed Biden “publicly” warned Trump not to trust China.) Source: 2
      • 1/24: Politico reports that the Trump administration held a briefing on the coronavirus for senators, but it was “sparsely attended” in part because it “was held on the same day as a deadline for senators to submit their impeachment questions.” 
        • “The initial thought from the Dems, I think, is that we were trying to distract from impeachment,” a GOP Senate aide told Politico. The outlet added that a White House official “recalled feeling surprised at the ‘incredibly’ poor attendance, noting that it came ‘even though the amount of concern expressed then was rather intense.’”  Source: 2
      • 1/24–30: China celebrates the Lunar New Year holiday. Hundreds of millions of people are in transit around the country as they visit relatives.  Source: 3
      • 1/24: China extends the lockdown to at least 13 cities covering 36 million people and starts to rapidly build a new hospital in Wuhan. From this point, very strict measures continue to be implemented around the country for the rest of the epidemic. Source: 3
      • 1/24:  2nd travel related case (Illinois) Source: 1
      • 1/24: Chinese inspection records (SEE 4/2) show the beginning influx of massive acquisition (hoarding) of 2 billion face masks and other medical protective gear purchased from multiple nations.  
        • Source:  https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/revealed-china-stockpiled-2-billion-face-masks-and-25m-medical-items/news-story/5304e5a5080bd4087e4a9be9de210b97
      • 1/24:  Officials in Beijing prevent the Wuhan Institute of Virology from sharing sample isolates with the University of Texas.
        • Source 8
      • 1/24:  The Lancet publishes a study that finds a 10-year old boy in China was “shedding [the] virus without symptoms,” raising concerns of asymptomatic carriers. 
        • Source 4
      • 1/25:  Mr. Bowen wrote Dr.Bright and Dr. Wolf that his company was getting lots of requests from China and Hong Kong” for masks.  
        • https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6930-rick-bright-complaint/2a40b07e589ad4c5357b/optimized/full.pdf
      • 1/25:  As per the China National Health Commission, at this point China only had 1,298 cases.
        • Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51363132
      • 1/26:  “The American people should not be worried or frightened by this. It’s a very, very low risk to the United States,” Fauci says on The CATS Roundtable. “It isn’t something that the American public needs to worry about or be frightened about.”  Source: 2
      • 1/26:  Additional travel related cases (1st case in California) Source: 1
      • 1/26:  1st case in Arizona (national case #5) Source: 1
      • 1/26:  CNN- China’s health minister Ma Xiaowei made a startling statement Sunday about the Wuhan coronavirus: He said people can spread it before they become symptomatic.   (asymptomatic)
        • “This is a game changer,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a longtime adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
        • It’s much harder to contain a virus — to track down a patient’s contacts and quarantine them immediately — if the patient was spreading the disease for days or weeks before they even realized they had it. 
        • “It means the infection is much more contagious than we originally thought,” said Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “This is worse than we anticipated.” 
        • Ma didn’t explain why he thinks the virus can be spread before someone has symptoms. If the Chinese health minister is right — and there are those who doubt him — that means the five confirmed cases in the United States might have been infectious while traveling from Wuhan to Arizona, California, Illinois and Washington state, even if they had no symptoms at the time.
        • On Sunday, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the risk to the American public for contracting this virus continues to be low.
        • “We at CDC don’t have clear evidence that patients are infectious before symptom onset, but we are actively investigating that possibility,” Messonnier said.  “We need to be preparing as if this is a pandemic, but I continue to hope that it is not,” she added.
        • US health officials believe the Wuhan virus has an incubation period of about two weeks, CDC officials said Friday during a media briefing.
        • “Based on what we know now about this virus, our concern for transmission before symptoms develop is low, so that is reassuring,” Dr. Jennifer Layden, an epidemiologist with the Illinois Department of Health, said at the Friday briefing. 
        • The update on Sunday from the Chinese health minister should encourage health officials to change that thinking, some infectious disease experts told CNN. 
        • “Assuming that Ma is correct, we’re going to have to re-evaluate our strategy, that’s for sure,” Schaffner said. 
        • Dr. Paul Offit, another longtime CDC adviser, said given Ma’s news, he thinks health officials should alert people on the flights that the three US patients took from Wuhan that they might have traveled with someone who was infectious.  “I think the conservative thing to do would be to cast a wider net,” he said. 
        • The United States’ top infectious disease doctor wants a team of CDC disease detectives to go to China and check on these crucial questions about how the Wuhan coronavirus is spreading.
        • But there’s something stopping them: China first has to invite the CDC.  “Up to now, to my knowledge, we have not been invited,” Dr. Anthony Fauci
        • The implications of Ma’s statement that the coronavirus is transmissible before symptoms are so important “that in my mind it’s absolutely critical that we ourselves see the data, because what goes on over there has implications for what happens here,” Fauci said.  He added that to his knowledge, the Chinese did not tell US health authorities that the virus could spread before someone is symptomatic, a crucial aspect of any disease investigation. He said he learned about it after reading a CNN reporter’s email. Fauci said that CDC disease detectives would need to see precisely how Chinese health authorities have gathered their data and how they came to their conclusion.  “To my knowledge, we have not seen the precise minute, granular data and how they collected it,” he said. “We need to get to the real bottom line of how they collected their data and see if it’s valid.”
        • “The Chinese have good people. I don’t want to impugn their capabilities,” Fauci added. “But when it’s something as important as this, our people who are trained epidemiologists need to go over their data and the best way to do that is go there and see how they’re collecting it.” 
        • CDC’s Messonnier said Sunday the CDC has staff in China, but the team is not directly involved in the Wuhan coronavirus response. The agency hopes to have “additional engagement” on the outbreak in China in the coming days, she said.
        • In a tweet on Sunday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “I am on my way to Beijing, [China] to meet with the Government & health experts supporting the #coronavirus response. My @WHO colleagues & I would like to understand the latest developments & strengthen our partnership with [China] in providing further protection against the outbreak.”
        • Some experts are skeptical because of the lack of data from China.
        • “I seriously doubt that the Chinese public officials have any data supporting this statement,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “I know of no evidence in 17 years of working with coronaviruses — SARS and MERS — where anyone has been found to be infectious during their incubation period.” 
        • “My gut says we’re going to be able to contain this real quick — we’re going to be able to put a moat around this fire,” said Offit, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “I think this is going to be much more like SARS or MERS than the movie ‘Contagion.’”   “But then,” the Philadelphia-based doctor said, “I’m an Eagles fan, so I tend to be optimistic about things.”
        • Source:  https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/26/health/coronavirus-spread-symptoms-chinese-officials/index.html
      • 1/26:  ASPR holds first meetings of healthcare resilience, medical countermeasure development, and supply chain task forces, which continue several times a week or daily in the coming weeks.  Source: 9
      • 1/26:  Kobe Bryant helicopter crash.
      • 1/27:  WHO: “Does not recommend any evaluation at the points of entry regarding this event, nor any restrictions on travel or commerce.”  Source: 5
      • 1/27:  The Biden campaign, including its top coronavirus adviser Ron Klain, praise China for being “transparent” and “candid.” Speaking to Axios, Klain asserts: “I think what you’d have to say about China is, it’s been more transparent and more candid than it has been during past outbreaks, though still there’s problems with transparency and candor.” Even as he says there were “many” areas in which China hasn’t been transparent, Klain asserts that China had helpfully released a “sequence of the virus.” Klain goes on to say there isn’t “any reason” for anyone to postpone essential travel to anywhere except the Wuhan area. In fact, China reportedly destroyed virus samples rather than release them.  Source: 2
      • 1/27:    Three days before Trump closes off most travel from China, Klain says he opposes that measure.  “That’s premature.”  Source: 2
      • 1/27: Secretary Azar shares that HHS is “proactively preparing for the arrival of the novel coronavirus on our shores,” noting that “the novel coronavirus is a rapidly changing situation, and we are still learning about the virus.” “While the virus poses a serious public health threat, the immediate risk to Americans is low at this time,” Azar says, noting that he spoke on the morning of January 27 with China’s Minister of Health and WHO Director-General Tedros speak to discuss the novel coronavirus.  Source: 9
      • 1/27: CDC hosts a tele-briefing with Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who notes that new travel recommendations are coming and that “there may be some disruptions” to Americans’ lives as a result of the public health response, but that “this virus is not spreading in the community” in the U.S.  Source: 9
      • 1/27: CDC and State Department issue Level 3 “postpone or reconsider travel” warnings for all of China.  Source: 9
      • 1/27:  FDA begins providing updates about processes for approval and authorization to developers of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other countermeasures for the novel coronavirus.  Source: 9
      • 1/27:  CDC’s Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases, Jay Butler, holds a call with the nation’s governors on the novel coronavirus.  Source: 9
      • 1/27: Biden Op-Ed in the USA Today 
        • “…in favor of reactionary travel bans that would only have made things worse. He advocated abandoning exposed and infected American citizens rather than bringing them home for treatment.”
        • “That’s how we broke the infection curve on Ebola. In September 2014, CDC projections warned that over 1 million people could be infected if we failed to act. By February 2015, thanks to the leadership of our administration, the number of new Ebola cases was fewer than 400. A few months later, the epidemic was essentially extinguished.”
        • Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/01/27/coronavirus-donald-trump-made-us-less-prepared-joe-biden-column/4581710002/
      • 1/27: The White House Coronavirus Task Force starts daily meetings to help monitor and contain the spread of the virus and provide updates to the President.  Source: 6
      • 1/27:  Secretary Azar discusses the coronavirus situation with China’s Minister of Health and World Health Organization Director-General Tedros  Source: 10
      • 1/27:  WHO R&D Blueprint
        • Unfortunately, Dr. Zheng-Li Shi (“Bat Woman) from the Wuhan Institute of Virology,the lead investigator on the initial report of the nCoV isolated from 5 patientsin Wuhan, China (Zhou et al, 2020), was unable to join this initial consultation but has been in touch with the Blueprint Team and will join subsequent calls.
        • Dr. Zheng-Li Shi’s laboratory is successfully growing virus isolated from patients in Wuhan, China. They have published their culture methods in their initial report (Zhou et al, 2020). It is not yet clear how or when (if at all) this virus will be made available for distribution.The US CDC is also growing virus isolated from a patient in the United States. While the Chinese scientists do not report any difficulties growing their virus isolate,scientists from the US CDC reports that their virus isolate is quite slow-growing, hampering efforts to grow a large batch to make available for distribution. For the time being, there are no other known sources of virus isolates, but this may change as new cases are reported in other countries.
        • nCoV virus isolate is urgently needed to properly address the question of cross-reactivity. The US CDC is willing to share an isolate but these efforts are hampered bythe slow-growing nature of their isolate under the culture conditions being used. Investigators from the Wuhan Institute for Virology are encouraged to engage with US CDC scientists to see if they can assist in optimizing culture conditions.
        • https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/24_01_2020_NFR_WG_CrossReactivity_with_other_CoV.PDF?ua=1
      • 1/28:  CNBC Interview with Biden Advisor Ron Klain
        • Concerned, not fearful
        • 8,000 arrive every day from China
        • Lots of unknowns
        • Can people spread without symptoms?  There are reports.
        • Differences from Ebola
          • Level of people coming from China v W Africa
          • Differences are greater than similarities
        • Premature to ban travelers. It’s important for trade, tourism.
          • 250,000 have already come from China since it broke out.
        • China’s been more candid and transparent.  Case count seems low.  Lots to be doubted.
        • Models say there are several hundred thousand cases.
        • No cars are leaving, but there are long line of trucks into Wuhon bringing supplies.
        • We have the best experts and great leadership.
        • Huge investment in preparing 60 US specialty infectious disease hospitals.
        • Help state and local governments.  The burden is on them.
        • WHO should have declared a global health emergency.  Not sure why the committee voted it down.
        • Source:  https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/01/28/still-a-lot-of-unknowns-with-coronavirus-former-ebola-czar.html
      • 1/28:  Dr. Carter Mecher, a senior medical adviser at the Department of Veterans Affairs, emails dozens of his colleagues in government and at universities about the coronavirus.
        • “The chatter on the blogs is that WHO and CDC are behind the curve. I’m seeing comments from people asking why WHO and CDC seem to be downplaying this. I’m certainly no public health expert (just a dufus from the VA), but no matter how I look at this, it looks to be bad,” he warns in the email chain later leaked to the N.Y. Times. “The projected size of the outbreak already seems hard to believe, but when I think of the actions being taken across China that are reminiscent of 1918 Philadelphia, perhaps those numbers are correct. … Any way you cut it, this is going to be bad. You guys made fun of me screaming to close the schools. Now I’m screaming, close the colleges and universities.”
        • The email chain, dubbed the “the Red Dawn String” by its members based off the 1984 movie about a group of Americans trying to save the United States from a foreign invasion, later includes: Dr. Jerome Adams (Surgeon General of the United States), Dr. Larry G. Padget (State Department), Dr. Anthony Fauci (NIH), Dr. Robert Kadlec (HHS), Dr. Robert Redfield (HHS), Col. Matthew Hepburn (DARPA, DOD), nine other senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, eight senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, among other academics, private sector employees, former government officials and state officials.  Source: 4
      • 1/28:  HHS hosts press briefing by Secretary Azar, Dr. Fauci, Director Redfield, and Dr. Messonnier. Azar says, “Americans should know that this is a potentially very serious public health threat, but, at this point, Americans should not worry for their own safety.” He underscores, “This is a very fast moving, constantly changing situation…. Part of the risk we face right now is that we don’t yet know everything we need to know about this virus. But, I want to emphasize, that does not prevent us from preparing and responding.”  Source: 9
      • 1/28:  WHO: “Confident in China’s epidemic and control ability.” Source: 5
      • 1/28:  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that 15 additional U.S. airports (bringing the total to 20) would begin screening incoming travelers from China. LAX, SF, O’Hare, JFK, Atlanta, Houston, DFW, SD, SeaTac, Honolulu, Anchorage, MN-St. Paul, Detroit, Miami, Dulles, Philly, Newark, Boston, El Paso, San Juan. Source: 1
      • 1/28:  United Airlines announced it would cut 24 flights between the U.S. and China for the first week of February. Source: 1
      • 1/28:  CDC Director Robert Redfield to colleagues: “While we believe the 2019-nCoV poses a very serious health threat, the virus in not spreading in the US at this time and the CDC believes the immediate health risk from 2019-nCoV to the general American public is low.”  
        • Also indicates Chinese authorities have identified person to person spread. 
        • Source: https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1247132550730047488?s=20
      • 1/29: Trump announces Coronavirus Task Force 
        • Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-presidents-coronavirus-task-force/
      • 1/29:  WH Advisor Peter Navarro Memo to NSC entitled: “Should the White House Order a Travel Ban to Combat a Potential Coronavirus Pandemic?”  
        • The Jan. 29 memo set out two stark choices: “Aggressive Containment versus No Containment.”  Created a matrix of risk/reward based on scenarios.  
        • Navarro compared cost estimates for the choices and wrote that the Council of Economic Advisers’ estimates for stopping travel from China to the U.S. would be $2.9 billion per month. If the virus turned out to be a pandemic, that travel ban could extend 12 months and cost the U.S. $34.6 billion.
        • Doing nothing (the “No Containment” option) could range from “zero economic costs” to $5.7 trillion depending on the lethality of the virus.
        • On the high end, he estimated a scenario in which the coronavirus could kill 543,000 Americans.
        • Source: https://www.axios.com/exclusive-navarro-deaths-coronavirus-memos-january-da3f08fb-dce1-4f69-89b5-ea048f8382a9.html
      • 1/29:  American Airlines announced it would suspend flights from Los Angeles to Shanghai and Beijing from Feb. 9 through March 27, 2020. It will maintain its flight schedules (10 daily A/R) from Dallas-Fort Worth to Shanghai and Beijing, as well as from Los Angeles and Dallas-Fort Worth to Hong Kong. Source: 1
      • 1/29:  Shock Video: Zeke Emanuel, later added to Biden Task Force 
        • “I do think we need to put this somewhat into context. Which is… its likely to spread… it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. And we know that there will be people that unfortunately die from this. But, is this likely to break out into some major pandemic around the world? Unlikely. We’re likely to be able to contain it. Obviously it would have been better if we had done some containment earlier on and the Chinese had been a little more open earlier on. But these kinds of things are often hard to figure out about what the right measure is, especially when you don’t know how severe it’s going to be right at the start. But I would put in context we have tens of thousands of people in the United States who die every year from the flu…. Whatever this Coronavirus is, its very, very, very unlikely to be that severe. And yet our response, because its new and novel, tends to be much more histrionic I think than it is… We live with the flu, it’s just the flu but it also kills a lot of people. It may not kill at the same high rate but it does kill tens of thousands of Americans and your chance of getting it from colleagues is low.”
        • Source: https://noqreport.com/2020/04/01/april-fools-lie-joe-scarborough-rewrites-coronavirus-history-with-dr-ezekiel-emanuel/
      • 1/29:  CDC hosts a tele-briefing with Dr. Messonnier, who notes that “despite an aggressive public health investigation to find new cases [in the U.S.], we have not.”  Source: 9
      • 1/29: CDC posts infection prevention and control recommendations for novel coronavirus patients in healthcare settings, updated regularly in the coming months.  Source: 9
      • 1/29: The Chinese government sends email to HHS acknowledging offer of U.S. expert assistance; HHS begins soliciting nominees for mission from across the department.  Source: 9
      • 1/29: ASPR, CDC, FDA, NIAID, and DOD host a listening session with industry—1,468 participants—on medical countermeasure development, health system preparedness, supply resilience, and medical surge needs. Source: 9
      • 1/29: The first repatriation flight from Wuhan, China arrives at March Air Reserve Base in California, beginning the safe repatriation of Americans and marking the first use of federal quarantine power in more than 50 years. The operation eventually totals more than 3,000 repatriations, with citizens from Wuhan and passengers from cruise ships. Repatriated Americans praise the work of the quarantine teams—including a couple who spent an extended honeymoon at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.  Source: 9
      • 1/29:  According to an account in the Wall Street Journal, Secretary Azar told President Trump that the coronavirus epidemic was under control and that the U.S. government had never mounted a better interagency response to a crisis.
        • https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6930-rick-bright-complaint/2a40b07e589ad4c5357b/optimized/full.pdf
      • 1/30:  WHO: Declared a global health emergency over the new virus 
        • “I left in absolute no doubt about China’s commitment to transparency, and to protecting the world’s people.”  Source: 5
      • 1/30:  President Trump states that the U.S. has the virus “under control” and hosts a campaign rally in Iowa.   
        • “We think we have it very well under control,” states President Trump. “We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you.”  Source: 4
      • 1/30:  CNN publishes a piece by Brandon Tensley, “Coronavirus task force another example of Trump administration’s lack of diversity.” Tensley, who claims to cover the “intersection of culture and politics,” was unable to offer medical analysis in the article.  Source: 2
      • 1/30:  US State Dept issues a Level 4: Do not travel to China Alert (the highest level of Alert) Source: 1
      • 1/30:  CDC confirms 1st person to person case (Illinois, national case #6) Source: 1
      • 1/30:  CDC: “Given what we’ve seen in China and other countries with the novel coronavirus, CDC experts have expected some person-to-person spread in the US,” said CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, M.D.  “We understand that this may be concerning, but based on what we know now, we still believe the immediate risk to the American public is low.”  For the general public, no additional precautions are recommended at this time beyond the simple daily precautions that everyone should always take. It is currently flu and respiratory disease season, and CDC recommends getting vaccinated, taking everyday preventive actions to stop the spread of germs, and taking flu antivirals if prescribed. Right now, CDC recommends travelers avoid all nonessential travel to China. Source: 1
      • 1/30: Declaration by WHO that the coronavirus outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.  Source: 1
      • 1/30: The Trump Administration hosts a call with Secretary Azar, Director Redfield, Dr. Fauci, and others with the nation’s governors to present the Administration’s action plan on responding to the outbreak.  Source: 9
      • 1/30: In an appearance on Fox News, Secretary Azar notes that, whether the WHO declares a public health emergency of international concern (declared January 31), “That doesn’t change anything about what we are doing here in the United States. … The President is ensuring that we are proactively preparing and also taking the necessary steps to prevent or mitigate any potential further spread here in the United States.”  Source: 9
      • 1/30: Trump Administration budget officials begin discussions about funding needed for development of vaccines and therapeutics, purchases of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the Strategic National Stockpile, surveillance and testing, and state and local support.  Source: 9
      • 1/30: ASPR launches a coronavirus portal to receive market research packages and meeting requests from industry stakeholders interested in developing or manufacturing medical countermeasures. Source: 9
      • 1/30:  Three drugs fairly effective on novel coronavirus at cellular level
        • Chinese researchers have found three existing drugs with fairly good inhibitory effects on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) at the cellular level, a local newspaper has reported.
        • The three drugs are Remdesivir, Chloroquine and Ritonavir. They are now under relevant procedures to gain approval for clinical use, said Hubei Daily on Wednesday.
        • The discovery was jointly made by researchers from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
        • Previously, researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under the CAS and ShanghaiTech University jointly selected 30 existing drug candidates, biologically active natural products and traditional Chinese medicines which may have therapeutic effects on the novel coronavirus.
        • The candidates included 12 anti-HIV drugs like Indinavir, Saquinavir, Lopinavir and Carfilzomib, two anti-respiratory syncytial virus drugs, an anti-schizophrenia drug, an immunosuppressant, as well as traditional Chinese medicines including Polygonum cuspidatum.
      • • • Source:  http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-01/30/c_138742163.htm

       

    • 1/31:  “Once coronavirus starts to spread, there’s no stopping it until it’s done.” Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy’s Michael Osterholm, PhD, argues coronavirus will not be able to be contained and that within months the world will become like China is now.   Evidence is it can be spread from asymptomatic people.  What we don’t want to do is overreact and be panicky.  Before the lockdown, 5m people of the 65m Wuhon area fled the city.   Source:  https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6128645093001/#sp=show-clips
    • • 1/31:  Rebecca Katz, later named to Biden Task Force, comments on missing elements to the WH Task Force.  (Note, the Biden Task Force when named also did not have representation in these fields.)
        • Government  task force missing some major players in the world of global health security”: no one from the
        • Department of Defense, U.S. Agency for International Development or Department of Agriculture.
        • Those voices could be crucial if the government has to respond to a contagious disease that spreads between humans and animals, and is moving around the globe
        • Source:  https://time.com/5775289/trump-coronavirus-preparedness/
        • H/T: Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 1/31:  Trump issues the “Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus.” 
        • Later in the day, Biden campaigns in Iowa and tells the crowd that Americans “need to have a president who they can trust what he says about it, that he is going to act rationally about it. … This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia – hysterical xenophobia – and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”  Source: 2
      • 1/31:  China Travel Ban
        • The action will effectively prevent any foreign national who has been to mainland China within the past two weeks from entering the country, with exceptions made for immediate family of American citizens and permanent residents.
        • “We have a presidential proclamation in place that suspends entry of foreign nationals who have visited China within the past 14 days into the United States,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a briefing on Monday.
        • US citizens returning home who have been in China’s Hubei province within the prior 14 days will be quarantined for up to two weeks, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said at a press briefing on Friday.
        • Source:  https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-us-foreigners-travel-ban-china-2020-1
      • 1/31:  Speaker Nancy Pelosi issues a statement about the Travel Ban
        • Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released this statement after the Trump Administration announced it is adding Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Tanzania and Sudan to the travel ban that the President instituted three years ago:
        • “The Trump Administration’s expansion of its outrageous, un-American travel ban threatens our security, our values and the rule of law.  The sweeping rule, barring more than 350 million individuals from predominantly African nations from traveling to the United States, is discrimination disguised as policy.      
        • “America’s strength has always been as a beacon of hope and opportunity for people around the world, whose dreams and aspirations have enriched our nation and made America more American.  With this latest callous decision, the President has doubled down on his cruelty and further undermined our global leadership, our Constitution and our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants.
        • “In the Congress and in the Courts, House Democrats will continue to oppose the Administration’s dangerous anti-immigrant agenda.  In the coming weeks, the House Judiciary Committee will mark-up and bring to the Floor the NO BAN Act to prohibit religious discrimination in our immigration system and limit the President’s ability to impose such biased and bigoted restrictions.  We will never allow hatred or bigotry to define our nation or destroy our values.”
        • Source:  https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/13120-2
      • 1/31:  An article in NYT quotes epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm as saying that Trump’s decision to restrict travel from China was “more of an emotional or political reaction.”  Source: 2
      • 1/31:  Washington Post: Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the process for testing people for the new strain of coronavirus had proved very imprecise so far and that this is one of the reasons for the aggressive U.S. response. He said there was evidence that people who initially tested negative for the virus actually had contracted it. Officials also believe that at least one person, in Germany, has obtained the virus from someone who didn’t exhibit any symptoms. These developments have caused the U.S. government to markedly escalate its response. 
        • “These are extraordinary measures to be implemented at this point,” Ali Khan, former director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the CDC, said of restricting foreign nationals. “We’re a global economy, people move, and if you have excellent public health and you are able to combine port-of-entry screening with follow-up of people, there should be no reason to put undue burdens on people around travel.”
        • President Trump so far has remained uncharacteristically muted on the coronavirus and praised China’s extraordinary response to the growing outbreak. On Wednesday, he tweeted photos of his Situation Room briefing and said his administration was working closely with China to contain the outbreak.
        • But even before U.S. officials announced such a drastic escalation in travel restrictions on Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry criticized the United States for making “unfriendly comments” during the coronavirus outbreak and said a U.S. warning against travel to China went against recommendations made by the World Health Organization to not restrict travel or trade. “In disregard of WHO recommendation against travel restrictions, the US went the opposite way,” the ministry’s spokesman said in English-language messages on Twitter on Friday. “Where is its empathy?”
        • Even with the Senate in the midst of Trump’s impeachment trial, a number of GOP lawmakers have begun pushing the administration on its response to the virus. The steps the administration announced did not go as far as some wanted.
        • Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) called Friday for the administration to issue an outright ban on travel to and from China.
        • “Given the severity of the coronavirus in China and its rapid spread across the region, as well as the mounting public fear, it’s imperative that this disease is contained,” Cruz said. “The administration should take every precaution in preventing additional cases from arriving in the United States, including temporarily halting flights to and from China and implementing additional screening at all U.S. airports.”
        • Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/01/31/trump-weighs-tighter-china-travel-restrictions-response-coronavirus/
      • 1/31:  Santa Clara CA Public Health Dept regarding 1/26 1st case in CA:  “We understand that this news may be concerning, but based on what we know today, the risk to residents of our community remains low,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Health Officer, Santa Clara County. “This news is not unexpected. Santa Clara County has the largest population in the Bay Area, and many of our residents travel for both personal and business reasons.”  
        • Even with news of this case, the risk to the general public remains low because the patient remained at home. Santa Clara County residents, students, workers, and visitors should continue to engage in their regular activities and practice good health hygiene since this is the height of flu season. Healthy people should not be excluded from activities based on their race, country of origin, or recent travel. Anyone with respiratory symptoms, such as a cough, sore throat, or fever, should stay home, practice proper cough etiquette and hand hygiene, and limit their contact with other people.  Source: 1
      • 1/31:  US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared the 2019 novel coronavirus a public health emergency and ordered any US citizens returning from the center of the outbreak in China to be quarantined for two weeks as a precaution Source: 1
      • 1/31:  Former Vice President Joe Biden calls Trump’s travel ban “hysterical xenophobia” and “fear-mongering.”  Source 10
      • 1/31:  CDC issues Federal quarantine for 14 days affecting 195 American evacuees from Wuhan, China.  Source: 1
      • 1/31:  President Trump signed an order for the U.S. to deny entry to foreign nationals who traveled to China within the preceding two weeks, aside from the immediate family of U.S. citizens.  Source: 1
      • 1/31:  Delta, American and United Airlines announce the will temporarily suspend all their mainland China flights.   Prior to this announcement, Delta had not adjusted its schedule from the US to China and was the only airline with direct flights to China that had not yet taken action.  Source: 1
      • 1/31:  NYC health officials vehemently denied the rumor regarding a virus case in the city. Source: 1
      • 1/31:  Washington Post:  “How our brains make coronavirus seem scarier than it is”  
        • Source: https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1250928917013303302?s=20
      • 1/31:  Vox tweets: “Is this going to be a deadly pandemic? No.” The tweet was deleted weeks later.  Source: 2
      • 1/31:  FDA holds a virtual meeting with American Clinical Laboratory Association about the emergency use authorization application process.  Source: 9
      • 1/31:  Washington state coronavirus patient treated with investigational, unapproved Ebola drug
        • Remdesivir has not been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration, although doctors can pursue “compassionate use” of a drug in the event of a serious health condition where the benefits outweigh the risks. The patient consented to this treatment.
        • “To my knowledge, this is the first reported case in the world where this drug has been used in a human application against this virus,” Dr. Jay Cook, chief medical officer at Providence Regional Medical Center, said in a press call Friday.
        • Source:  https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/jan/31/washington-state-coronavirus-patient-treated-with-/
      • 2/1:  WaPo: “Get a grippe, America.  The flu is a much bigger threat than coronavirus, for now.”   
        • Source:  https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1250928917013303302?s=20
      • 2/1:  NYC health commissioner reported that there is a test being performed on a person under 40 who had returned from China, developed matching symptoms, and tested negative for the flu. Source: 1
      • 2/1:  Additional travel related case, 1st case in Mass (national case #8) Source: 1
      • 2/1: “Our priority is not only to protect and inform the residents of Boston but also to help this man continue to recover. We are pleased that he is doing well,” said BPHC Executive Director Rita Nieves. “Right now, we are not asking Boston residents to do anything differently. The risk to the general public remains low. And we continue to be confident we are in a good position to respond to this developing situation.” 
        • Although the risk of the coronavirus to Massachusetts residents remains low, people are advised to take many of the same steps they do to help prevent colds and the flu.  Source: 1
      • 2/2:  U.S. citizens, permanent residents and immediate family who have visited China’s Hubei province will undergo a mandatory 14 days quarantine and, if they have visited other parts of China, they would be screened at airports and asked to self-quarantine for 14 days. The last time the CDC had issued a quarantine was over 50 years ago in the 1960s, for smallpox.  Source: 1
      • 2/2:  “There’s a virus that has infected 15 million Americans across the country and killed more than 8,200 people this season alone,” CNN tweets. “It’s not a new pandemic — it’s influenza.”  Source: 2
      • 2/2:  New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot  tweets: “As we gear up to celebrate the #LunarNewYear in NYC, I want to assure New Yorkers that there is no reason for anyone to change their holiday plans, avoid the subway, or certain parts of the city because of #coronavirus.”  Source: 2
      • 2/3:  WaPo: “Why we should be wary of an aggressive government response to coronavirus”   Source: https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1250928917013303302?s=20
      • 2/3:  WHO: “Closing borders could even accelerate the spread of the virus, if travelers enter countries unofficially.”  Source: 5
      • 2/3:  The CDC had a team ready to travel to China to obtain critical information on the novel coronavirus, but were in the U.S. awaiting permission to enter by the Chinese government. Source: 6
      • 2/3:  Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping stated on that he “made requests for prevention and control of the new coronavirus pneumonia” in early January, but the evidence indicates that by then, the PRC had deliberately prevented the dissemination of knowledge necessary to stop the illness from spreading.6 
        • Notably, the CCP took early measures to silence individuals in China’s scientific and health communities from publicizing information about the disease.7 These actions delayed the world’s understanding of—and response to—the novel illness.
        • Source: 7
      • 2/3:  China says the U.S. “inappropriately overreacted” to the coronavirus and disputes the Trump administration’s claim that it offered assistance.
        • Source:  https://justthenews.com/video/bad-worse-tit-tat-timeline-deteriorating-us-china-relations
      • 2/4:  Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro
        • Our findings reveal that remdesivir and chloroquine are highly effective in the control of 2019-nCoV infection in vitro. Since these compounds have been used in human patients with a safety track record and shown to be effective against various ailments, we suggest that they should be assessed in human patients suffering from the novel coronavirus disease.
        • Actual study received by Nature’s Cell on 1/25/2020
          • http://www.natap.org/2020/newsUpdates/s41422-020-0282-0.pdf
        • Source:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0282-0
      • 2/4:  Dr. Michael Osterholm: So, how do we prepare for a possible pandemic? First, stop messaging that this a low risk situation for the U.S. – as if we somehow have an impenetrable border to viruses. Instituting global travel restrictions will only slightly slow the spread of coronavirus. The microbial earthquake at its core has already happened. We can’t fix all the years of neglect in preparing for priority diseases in time for this outbreak. We must do the best we can with what we have, and authorities should level with the public about what we do and do not know.  Source: https://time.com/5777923/america-prepared-pandemic-coronavirus/
      • 2/4:  The White House directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to step up coronavirus diagnostic testing procedures. 
        • Source: https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/31/the-real-coronavirus-chronology-shows-trump-was-on-top-of-it-while-biden-was-mocking-the-danger/ 
        • Via: https://twitter.com/heymikey80/status/1252132618709225479?s=20
      • 2/4:  In his State of the Union address, Trump remarks: “We are coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China.  My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rips up the speech as soon as it ends.  Source: 2
      • 2/4:  Doubts are quickly raised about the (NEJM) study, but Fauci tells the New York Times (on Feb. 4), “This paper may or may not be flawed — it needs further investigation. But I don’t think it negates the concept.” “We had been getting reports from highly reliable people in China — scientists, investigators and public health people who we’ve known over the years — and they’ve been telling us, ‘There’s asymptomatic disease, for sure, and we are seeing asymptomatic transmission,’” Fauci says.  Source 4.
      • 2/4:  The FDA is directed to step up coronavirus diagnostic testing procedures by the White House  Source 10
      • 2/5:  Gilead’s Remdesivir Begins Trials as Researchers Publish Positive In Vitro Results
        • The trials were announced as having begun a day after the experimental drug and a marketed anti-malarial, chloroquine, showed promising preclinical results.
        • “Our findings reveal that remdesivir and chloroquine are highly effective in the control of 2019-nCoV infection in vitro,” the researchers reported in “Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro,” a study published as a letter to the editor of the Nature-owned journal Cell Research.
        • “Since these compounds have been used in human patients with a safety track record and shown to be effective against various ailments, we suggest that they should be assessed in human patients suffering from the novel coronavirus disease,” the researchers added.
        • The research team consisted of investigators from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences / National Center for Biosafety and the National Academy of Military Medical Research Institute of Emergency Medicine for Prevention and Control of Drugs.
        • The researchers published their recommendation Tuesday, the same day that China’s Ministry of Science and Technology first said it would launch human clinical trials of remdesivir after a batch of the drug arrived in the country, Xinhua reported.
        • In their study, the researchers assessed remdesivir and chloroquine and five other drugs against a clinical isolate of 2019-nCoV in vitro. The five were: ribavirin, penciclovir, nitazoxanide, nafamostat, and favipiravir (T-705 or Avigan).
        • “Notably, Remdesivir (EC50 = 0.77 μM; CC50 > 100 μM; SI > 129.87) and chloroquine (EC50 = 1.13 μM; CC50 > 100 μM, SI > 88.50) potently blocked virus infection at low-micromolar concentration and showed high SI [selectivity index],” the researchers reported.
        • A time-of-addition assay showed remdesivir to function at a stage post virus entry, which according to the scientists appeared to reflect its putative anti-viral mechanism as a nucleotide analogue.
        • “Our data showed that EC90 value of remdesivir against 2019-nCoV in Vero E6 cells was 1.76 μM, suggesting its working concentration is likely to be achieved in NHP,” the researchers added. “Our preliminary data showed that remdesivir also inhibited virus infection efficiently in a human cell line (human liver cancer Huh-7 cells), which is sensitive to 2019-nCoV.”
        • Remdesivir proved sufficient effective, the institutions added in a statement issued by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, that they have applied for Chinese invention patents on January 21 “in accordance with international practice and from the perspective of protecting national interests (Resistance to new coronaviruses in 2019).”
        • The institutions stated that they also plan to pursue multiple patents worldwide as allowed under the global Patent Cooperation Treaty.
        • However, the institutions added that should Gilead “intend to contribute to China’s epidemic prevention and control, we both agree that if the state needs it, we will not require the implementation of the rights claimed by the patent for the time being.”
        • The institutions have opted not to pursue patents for chloroquine, which is already marketed in China, also with the aim of encouraging partners to join them in efforts to prevent and control the spread of coronavirus.
        • Gilead said on January 31 that it will partner with officials to carry out clinical trials of remdesivir, and has offered the Nuc inhibitor for use in a “small number” of patients with 2019-nCoV for emergency treatment in the absence of any approved treatment options. The company added that it is also expediting “appropriate” laboratory testing of remdesivir against 2019-nCoV samples.
        • Gilead chief medical officer Merdad Parsey, MD, PhD, has cited positive in vitro and in vivo activity shown by remdesivir in animal models against MERS and SARS, coronaviruses that are structurally similar to 2019-nCoV.
        • Remdesivir also showed “no adverse events” after it was administered as a treatment to the first American confirmed to be infected with 2019-nCoV, according to “First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States,” a case study published Friday in The New England Journal of Medicine by members of the Washington State 2019-nCoV Case Investigation Team.
        • Source:  https://www.genengnews.com/news/coronavirus-gileads-remdesivir-begins-trials-as-researchers-publish-positive-in-vitro-results/
      • 2/5:  House Foreign Affairs Committee holds first public hearing assessing the outbreak and response to Coronavirus
        • Congressman Sherman was impressed by the Admin team that provided briefing to Congress.
          • Doesn’t seem to be against Trump China travel ban
          • We need Chinese cooperation.
        • Congressman Bera:  40:35  China is putting in a stellar effort into this.  That alone should be of concern to all of us since they’re indicating they have it under control
        • Congressman Bera: 42:35  “Reliable sources…over 100,000 people that’s been exposed.”  Duplication rate estimated 2.5-3.0
        • Biden Advisor Ron Klain
          • “I am a political partisan, that’s well known.”
          • What we need: 
            • Single high level official overseeing response. 
            • China will not accept thousands on the ground like we did with Ebola
            • Science guides our actions.  We have the expertise.
            • Send funding package to Congress.
            • Congress should respond to requests quickly.
            • Renew funding set to expire in May.
            • Seems very unlikely Coronavirus poses a similar threat to Spanish flu.
          • 300,000 came here from China the month before the ban.  “The horse is already out of the barn.”
          • There are signs this is more severe in China than being reported.
          • Very skeptical of Chinese internal quarantine working.
          • Makes a good point that trying to get US CDC into China is a matter of diplomacy and not the role of HHS Azar. 
          • Answer to Congressman Perry:  50:02  Can we trust WHO to give impartial assessment? No. WHO is performing better now. The delay in announcing the public emergency is a sign of Chinese influence.
          • Klain DOES NOT KNOW if Trump has spoken to Xi of China.  He should be doing it.  (Then Perry chews up Klain bc his experience is not with China and for being a partisan.)
          • Congressman Mast: What would be defense 1?  Klain- “Get out”  Defense 2: “Social distancing.”  How would you physically protect yourself? “Stay away from other people.”
          • “Reducing the amount coming out of China is a good thing.”
          • We have the best experts in the world.  We’ve been trying for over a month to get our people in.  Why they’re not allowed in is hard to justify.  (1:23:10) 
        • Source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=BSO8jW_TDCI&feature=emb_logo
      • 2/5:  The Senate acquits Trump on two counts of impeachment, in a widely expected result that dominated journalists’ and politicians’ attention for months.  Source: 2
      • 2/5:  Over 5,000 passengers on two cruise ships in Asia are ordered into quarantine as the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus reaches 490.  Source: 2
      • 2/5:  The Trump Administration and health officials briefed lawmakers on the Federal Government’s coronavirus response efforts.  Source: 6
      • 2/5:  CNN: A report that suggested Wuhan coronavirus could spread before the onset of symptoms was flawed, according to public health experts. 
        • Chinese officials had previously said that patients can be infectious even if they are not presenting symptoms. An early study on asymptomatic transmission of the virus, published last week in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine and appeared to confirm Chinese health officials’ assessment.  But public health officials now say the report may be flawed.
        • Interviews with the Chinese patient at the center of the case revealed she may have actually had mild, nonspecific symptoms. The original report said a Shanghai resident came to Germany on a business trip and did not exhibit symptoms of illness while she interacted with several German colleagues. On her return flight to China, she became ill and later tested positive for the novel coronavirus.  After her visit, four individuals at the company — two of whom had direct interactions with their Chinese colleague — tested positive for the virus. 
        • In an email to CNN on Tuesday, German public health officials said the report was incorrect.
        • “In contrast to first reports according to which the index case (a Chinese traveling in Germany) seemed to have been asymptomatic during the time of likely transmission here, recent interviews by the Bavarian health authorities and the Robert Koch Institute in Chinese language revealed that she might have had mild un-specific symptoms including back pain and also took antipyretic medication.”
        • One of the paper’s authors previously told CNN they relied on interviews with the German patients.  “This was likely an error of being inadequately careful by the authors, an error that is understandable in a crisis situation, but is still problematic,” said Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Lipsitch was not involved with the NEJM study.
        • “Data has circulated that the new coronavirus would be infected throughout the incubation period,” The Public Health Agency of Sweden posted on its website. “This information has not been presented in a way that provides scientifically substantiated facts. Rather, it has emerged that the data is unfortunately based on misconceptions. We believe that it is impossible for the new corona virus to infect throughout the incubation period … This applies, among other things, to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that has subsequently proven to contain major flaws and errors.” 
        • Before German public health officials addressed the report’s flaw, US health officials and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website had cited the research. 
        • “It was not clear whether an asymptomatic person could transmit it to someone while they were asymptomatic. Now we know from a recent report from Germany that that is absolutely the case,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a news conference of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force on Friday. 
        • CNN reached out to the New England Journal of Medicine. Representatives from the medical journal said it is working on a response, “but we’re not yet in a position to make a statement.”
        • CNN also reached out to Fauci and the CDC and has not yet received a response.
        • The World Health Organization said in a weekend report that “the main driver of transmission … is symptomatic cases.” The organization said it’s “aware of possible transmission” from asymptomatic individuals in a few instances but said that this may be rare and not a major player in the spread of the virus.
        • Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/05/health/wuhan-coronavirus-flawed-report/index.html
      • 2/5:  Senator Schumer: “The premature travel ban to and from China by the current administration is just an excuse to further his ongoing war against immigrants. There must be a check and Balance on those restrictions.”   
        • Source: https://twitter.com/plkarter/status/1251845802420510721?s=20
      • 2/5:  1st case in Wisconsin (national case #12)  Source: 1
      • 2/6:  As per 4/21 report:
        • Officials in Santa Clara County, California announced that the county’s first coronavirus death actually occurred on February 6, more than a month before previously thought. 
        • Prior to the announcement it was believed that the first Wuhan flu death in the United States occurred in Washington State on February 29. The determination was made after tissue samples taken during autopsy were tested by the Centers for Disease Control.
        • County officials believe that the individual’s infection, along with those of two individuals who died February 17 and March 6, originated within the community. Until the autopsy tissue results were received, county health officials believed that the first coronavirus death in Santa Clara occurred on March 9.
        • Source:  https://www.redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2020/04/22/first-us-coronavirus-death-occurred-in-early-february-autopsy-results-show/
      • 2/6:  China’s internet watchdog tightens controls on social media platforms.  Source: 8
      • 2/6:  The CDC began shipping CDC-Developed test kits for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus to U.S. and international labs.  Source: 6
      • 2/7:  Dr. Rick Bright says in a meeting with HHS leadership, officials said they “didn’t yet see a critical shortage” of masks: “My response was, ‘I cannot believe you can sit and say that with a straight face’ … Lives were in danger, and I believe lives were lost.”
        • https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1260962477887627265?s=20
      • 2/7:  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces that the United States has donated nearly 18 tons of medical supplies to China.  
        • The State Department transports 17.8 tons of medical supplies to China, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials. “These donations are a testament to the generosity of the American people,” says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  SOURCE 4
      • 2/7:  Barbot strikes again, assuring residents, “We’re telling New Yorkers, go about your lives, take the subway, go out, enjoy life.” City lawmakers have called for Barbot to be fired because of the comments.  Source: 2
      • 2/7:  DNC Debate: “Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar mentioned China, but only in the context of climate change. Pete Buttigieg said: “The next president is going to face challenges from global health security, like what we’re seeing coming out of China,” but he didn’t frame this as an immediate danger.”   
        • Source: https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/04/19/821622/
      • 2/8:  Dr. Bright met with Mr. Navarro at the White House. Dr. Mr. Navarro clearly shared Dr. Brights concerns about the potential devastation the United States would face from the coronavirus and asked Dr.Bright to identify the supply chain and medical countermeasures most critical to address at  that time. Dr.Bright emphasized the need to secure N95 masks and to ramp up mask production.  He also informed Mr. Navarro about other actions that were urgently needed to develop diagnostic tools, drugs, and ultimately a vaccine, to combat the virus.  In the short run, Dr. Bright urged Mr. Navarro to take immediate action to increase the mask supply, amass Remdesivir, and fund and initiate a “Manhattan Project for vaccine development. 
        • https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6930-rick-bright-complaint/2a40b07e589ad4c5357b/optimized/full.pdf
      • 2/8:  Australian-based Chinese property company Risland shipped 90 tonnes worth of vital medical supplies to Wuhan from Perth.
        • Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8178365/China-imported-2billion-masks-peak-coronavirus-crisis.html
      • 2/9:  Mark Levine, the chair of New York City Council health committee and a Democrat, tweets: “In powerful show of defiance of #coronavirus scare, huge crowds gathering in NYC’s Chinatown for ceremony ahead of annual #LunarNewYear parade. Chants of ‘be strong Wuhan!’ If you are staying away, you are missing out!”  Source: 2
      • 2/9:  Task Force briefs Governors at NGA  
        • Source: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/02/09/representatives-of-coronavirus-task-force-brief-governors-at-nga.html
        • Via: https://twitter.com/heymikey80/status/1252108642943414278?s=20
      • 2/9:  Citizen-journalist and local businessman Fang Bin disappears.
        • Source 8
      • 2/11:  Klain, the Biden adviser, remarks that the evidence “suggests” the coronavirus won’t be a “serious pandemic.”  Source: 2 
        • Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=h8KZ3F7JwT0&feature=emb_logo
      • 2/12:  Chinese drug developer BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology Co., said it has successfully manufactured the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) of remdesivir (GS-5734), the Gilead Sciences antiviral candidate being tested in China human clinical trials as a treatment for 2019-nCoV novel coronavirus. [BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology]
        • Source:  https://www.genengnews.com/news/coronavirus-chinas-brightgene-manufactures-apis-of-gileads-remdesivir/
      • 2/12:  The U.S. shipped test kits for the 2019 novel coronavirus to approximately 30 countries who lacked the necessary reagents and other materials.  Source: 6
      • 2/12:  House of Representatives committee votes to issue a report to the full chamber recommending the NO BAN ACT be considered further. Only about 1 in 4 bills are reported out of committee.  This bill had been dormant in Committee since April 10, 2019 and would curtail the President’s ability to ban travel into the US.  
        • Source:  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2214
      • 2/13:  Joe Biden appears on The View.  He does not mention Covid 19.
        • Source:  
      • 2/13: Secretary Azar announces that the government will establish a “surveillance” program in five cities which will then be expanded nationally, but the plan is delayed for weeks.  (This is what the original CDC tests were for.) 
        • The plan is supposed to help experts measure the disease and predict next hot spots. “We were flying the plane with no instruments,” one official told the New York Times. The Washington Post reports that the plan would require diagnostic tests produced on a mass scale for rapid deployment.  Source: 4
      • 2/13:  “There are ZERO confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York City, and hundreds of Chinese restaurants that need your business!” the New York City mayor’s office tweets. “There is nothing to fear. Stop by any Chinatown for lunch or dinner!” 
        • New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio adds: “It was my honor to spend time with our Asian-American owned small businesses in Flushing today. This vibrant community is standing strong but they need YOUR support. Our Chinatowns are open for business — make some dinner plans, do some shopping and stand with our neighbors!”
        • Klain then praises de Blasio: “We don’t have a #COVIDー19 epidemic in the US but we are starting to see a fear epidemic. Kudos to @NYCMayor (and others) for standing against that.”  Source: 2
      • 2/13:  Senator Burr sells stocks that are collectively worth between $628,000 to $1.7 million. Some of the stocks include stocks in hotel and tourism industries. Three other senators (Dianne Feinstein, James M. Inhofe, Kelly Loeffler) sell major holdings around the same time. Sen. Loeffler’s husband also purchases stocks in a major PPE provider four times in February and March, as revealed by Sen. Loeffler’s financial disclosure forms.  Source 4
      • 2/14:  Rebecca Katz, later named to Biden Task Force, with CNN’s Jake Tapper: 
        • We probably don’t know everything the Chinese Government knows about the outbreak
        • There is much we don’t know about this virus
        • We don’t know about:
          • Asymptomatic transmission
          • How many people have become ill
          • Case fatality rate
          • How deadly it is
          • On China – a lot has changed in 17 years since SARS but it is still against the law to share information outside official channels
        • I would not be scared but I would be concerned
        • Source:  https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/02/14/lead-rebecca-katz-live-jake-tapper.cnn
        • H/T:  Jill Wallis  @jillwallis1
      • 2/14:  The HHS and the National Security Council produce a memo titled “U.S. Government Response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.”  
        • In a memo, the HHS and National Security Council outline possible U.S. responses to the coronavirus, including what more severe community mitigation measures would look like:
          • significantly limiting public gatherings and cancellation of almost all sporting events, performances, and public and private meetings that cannot be convened by phone. Consider school closures. Widespread “stay at home” directives from public and private organizations with nearly 100% telework for some.
        • President Trump later cancels the meeting with senior HHS and National Security Council officials, when officials intended to present the memo and their recommendation for enhanced mitigation measures. “The White House focused instead on messaging and crucial additional weeks went by before their views were reluctantly accepted by the president — time when the virus spread largely unimpeded,” the New York Times reports.  Source: 4
      • 2/14:  Azar told CNN that he and CDC director Redfield officially offered to send a CDC team into China on Jan. 6 but still had not received permission for them to enter the country. HHS oversees the CDC.  
        • “Dr. Redfield and I made the offer on January 6th – 36 days ago, 60,000 cases and 1,300 deaths ago,” Azar said. “We made the offer to send the CDC experts in to assist their Chinese colleagues to get to the bottom of key scientific questions like, how transmissible is this disease? What is the severity? What is the incubation period and can there be asymptomatic transmission?”
        • Days later, the World Health Organization secured permission to send a team that included two U.S. experts. The team visited between Feb. 16th and 24th. By then, China had reported more than 75,000 cases. 
        • Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv/exclusive-u-s-axed-cdc-expert-job-in-china-months-before-virus-outbreak-idUSKBN21910S
      • 2/14:  Rebecca Katz, later named to Biden Task Force, admits “There’s still so much we don’t know about this virus.”  “It could spread or just become embedded in our communities. We just don’t know.” 
        • Source: https://noqreport.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-timeline-how-to-find-the-actual-truth/
      • 2/14:  The CDC began working with five labs to conduct “community-based influenza surveillance” to study and detect the spread of coronavirus.  Source: 6
      • 2/17:  Fauci announces that the risk of coronavirus infection in the U.S. is “miniscule,” according to USA Today. Fauci, one of the top experts in the field and a senior White House coronavirus adviser, also told the paper that people shouldn’t wear masks unless they are contagious. (By April 3, Fauci appeared to endorse national stay-at-home orders.)  Source: 2
      • 2/18:  HHS announced it would engage with Sanofi Pasteur in an effort to quickly develop a coronavirus vaccine and to develop treatment for coronavirus infections.
        • Source:  https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/05/06/831974/
      • 2/18:  In remarks at Joint Base Andrews, Trump states: “I think President Xi is working very hard.  As you know, I spoke with him recently.  He’s working really hard.  It’s a tough problem.  I think he’s going to do — look, I’ve seen them build hospitals in a short period of time.  I really believe he wants to get that done, and he wants to get it done fast.  Yes, I think he’s doing it very professionally. We’re also working with him and helping him, as of the last few days, as you know.” Pressed on whether he trusted China’s coronavirus data, Trump responds, “Look, I know this: President Xi loves the people of China, he loves his country, and he’s doing a very good job with a very, very tough situation.”  Source: 2
      • 2/19:  DNC Debate.  Coronavirus is never mentioned.  
        • Source: https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/04/19/821622/
      • 2/19:  Iran reports two coronavirus cases — the country’s first. Hundreds of passengers leave the Diamond Princess for the first time since the quarantine.  Source: 2
      • 2/19: Trump assures the public against worrying about the coronavirus.  Trump states, “I think it’s going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus.” Source: 4
      • 2/19:  Dr. Lisa Monaco, later added to the Biden Task Force, compares the virus to the common flu. “I do think that kind of perspective is very important. Governor Cuomo recently said the common flu remains a far greater threat to New Yorkers so it’s important to keep that in perspective.” 
        • Source: https://noqreport.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-timeline-how-to-find-the-actual-truth/
      • 2/22:  A WHO team of international experts arrives in Wuhan, China.
        • Source:  https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/05/06/831974/
      • 2/23:  Coronavirus infections surge in Italy and South Korea; authorities in Italy begin locking down towns.  Source: 2
      • 2/23:  Second Memo from Peter Navarro requesting supplemental appropriation for supplies.  Sets out number of masks, etc. needed. He asked for $3B 
        • There is an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls. 
        • To minimize economic and social disruption and loss of life, there is an urgent need for an immediate supplemental appropriation of at least $3B to support efforts at prevention, treatment, inoculation and diagnostics.
        • This is not a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill.  Uncertainties associated with developing a vaccine and viable treatment options should NOT slow down investments in these high risk, high reward ventures.  
        • In this Administration, we take appropriate risks to protect the public.  We move in Trump Time to solve problems. We always skate to where the puck might be- in this case, a full blown pandemic.  
        • Then details what they conservatively need as far a masks, etc.  Suggestions they’ll need a billion masks for a 6- month period.  
        • Page 4: “It is critical that vaccine development be supported- the apparent risk averse culture among some members of the Task Force have caused us to already lose precious days.” 
        • Source: https://www.axios.com/exclusive-navarro-deaths-coronavirus-memos-january-da3f08fb-dce1-4f69-89b5-ea048f8382a9.html 
      • 2/24:  President Trump gives false assurance that the stock market is “starting to look very good” and the coronavirus is “very much under control.” Stock markets decline sharply following news of the spread of the novel coronavirus.  
        • “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA,” tweets President Trump. “We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”  Source: 4
      • 2/24:  “It’s exciting to be here, especially at this time, to be able to be unified with our community,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tells reporters as she visits San Francisco’s Chinatown. “We want to be vigilant about what is out there in other places. We want to be careful about how we deal with it, but we do want to say to people ‘Come to Chinatown, here we are — we’re, again, careful, safe — and come join us.’”  Source: 2
      • 2/24:  The White House submits a request to Congress for $2.5 billion in supplemental spending to help combat the coronavirus outbreak. The request includes $1.25 billion in new money, with the rest coming from unspent funds.  Source: 2
      • 2/25:  The first day the CDC told the American public to prepare for an outbreak at home, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of mishandling the epidemic through its “censorship” of medical professionals and media.  
        • Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv/exclusive-u-s-axed-cdc-expert-job-in-china-months-before-virus-outbreak-idUSKBN21910S
      • 2/25:  The US Army’s National Center for Medical Intelligence raises the warning level that it is likely and imminent COVID-19 will become a pandemic. A CDC director says that a severely disruptive outbreak is inevitable.   
        • The Army’s medical intelligence center raises its warning that the coronavirus would become a pandemic within 30 days from WATCHCON 2 — a probable crisis — to WATCHCON 1 — an imminent crisis. The warning is provided in an intelligence briefing to the Joint Chiefs of Staff two days later. The center’s analysis is usually shared with defense and health officials, including the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Source: 4
      • 2/25:  A CDC director says that a severely disruptive outbreak is inevitable. And mainland China reports 78,064 cases of coronavirus and 2,715 deaths.  
        • Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, states that the outbreak is inevitable and may lead to severe disruption to everyday life. She adds that she talked to her own children that morning. “While I didn’t think they were at risk right now, we as a family ought to be preparing for significant disruption to our lives.” Source: 4
      • 2/25:  The President’s National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow is asked about Dr. Messonnier’s comments. He tells CNBC, “We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight.” “I don’t think it’s going to be an economic tragedy at all,” he adds. He also says he sees no problems with supply and availability of medical equipment. Source: 4
      • 2/25:  DNC Debate- Buttigieg was the first Democratic candidate to mention the coronavirus explicitly. His only policy suggestions, if you can call them that, were for the president to “listen to scientists, listen to your own intelligence and coordinate with an international community that this president has alienated because his idea of a security strategy is a big wall.” 
        • CBS’s Gayle King later queried the candidates about closing the border to Americans who’d been exposed to the virus. Ms. Klobuchar vaguely asserted that she would “better coordinate throughout my presidency to be ready for the next pandemic and to prepare for this one” and said she favored “investing in education” because “I know the vaccine is out there in the head of some kid right now in school.”
        • Mr. Biden rambled about Ebola and establishing an office in the White House to handle pandemics and spoke of increasing funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. Mr. Sanders said much the same. Tom Steyer briefly mentioned the coronavirus before declaring that “the biggest threat to America right now in terms of our safety of our citizens is climate.”
        • Source: https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/04/19/821622/
      • 2/25:  NIH clinical trial of remdesivir to treat COVID-19 begins
        • A randomized, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational antiviral remdesivir in hospitalized adults diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha. The trial regulatory sponsor is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. This is the first clinical trial in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19, the respiratory disease first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
        • Clinical trials of remdesivir are also ongoing in China. NIAID developed the current study taking those designs into account, and in accordance with consultations convened by the WHO on the development of a therapeutic trial for patients with COVID-19
        • Source:  https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-remdesivir-treat-covid-19-begins
      • 2/25:  Gilead surges after WHO says remdesivir may combat coronavirus
        • Shares of the US biotech were up nearly 5% on Monday after the World Health Organization said remdesivir could be a potential therapy.
        • Bruce Aylward, an assistant director-general at the WHO, said at a press conference in Beijing: “There is only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy and that’s remdesivir.”
        • Source:  https://pharmaphorum.com/news/gilead-surges-after-who-says-remdesivir-may-combat-coronavirus/
      • 2/26:  Fauci comments on remdesivir:
        • “We urgently need a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19. Although remdesivir has been administered to some patients with COVID-19, we do not have solid data to indicate it can improve clinical outcomes,” said NIAID Director and U.S. Coronavirus Task Force member Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “A randomized, placebo-controlled trial is the gold standard for determining if an experimental treatment can benefit patients.”
        • “We will know reasonably soon whether it works – and if it does, we will then have an effective therapy to distribute,” Fauci said.
        • Source:  https://www.labroots.com/trending/microbiology/16931/niaid-tests-remdesivir-treatment-covid-19
      • 2/26:  President Trump falsely assures the public that the number of cases will go down.  
        • “We’re going to be pretty soon at only five people,” President Trump falsely assures the public. “And we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time.”  
        • Q — in the last couple days.  What would you say to Americans out there who right now are looking forward to the summer or the upcoming months and saying to themselves, “Should I make my summer plans?  Should I go travel abroad?”?
        • Well, hopefully, they’re going to be able to do that.  We think — we hope — that it’s going to be in good shape by that time.  But, you know, they’re going to have to remain a little bit flexible.
        • Yeah, I would say travel-related company, certainly right now, that would be — that would be — they would be hurt.
        • At the same time, this ends.  This is going to end.  Hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later.  And I think the business that they lost will be picked up at a later date.
        • But, you know, right now, I think they’re not going to be — probably not going to be going to China; they’re not going to be going to certain countries where the problem is far greater than it is in the United States.
        • What it’s going to do is keep people home, and they’re going to travel to places that we have.  We have the greatest — it’s the greatest tourism country in the world.  So instead of leaving our country, leaving our shores, they’ll stay here.
        • And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.
        • Source: 4
        • Full transcript:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-conference/
      • 2/26:  The first case of suspected local transmission in the United States was announced by the CDC. President Trump that day named Vice President Pence to lead the Coronavirus Task Force.  Source: https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/31/the-real-coronavirus-chronology-shows-trump-was-on-top-of-it-while-biden-was-mocking-the-danger/ 
        • Via: https://twitter.com/heymikey80/status/1252132618709225479?s=20
      • 2/26:  Gilead Sciences Initiates Two Phase 3 Studies of Investigational Antiviral Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19
        • — U.S. FDA Grants Investigational New Drug Authorization to Study Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19 —
        • Remdesivir is not yet licensed or approved anywhere globally and has not been demonstrated to be safe or effective for any use. Working with government agencies, non-governmental organizations and local regulatory authorities, Gilead is providing remdesivir to qualified patients with COVID-19 on a compassionate use basis for emergency treatment outside of ongoing clinical studies. 
        • Source:  https://www.gilead.com/news-and-press/press-room/press-releases/2020/2/gilead-sciences-initiates-two-phase-3-studies-of-investigational-antiviral-remdesivir-for-the-treatment-of-covid-19
      • 2/27:  Pence named Dr. Deborah Birx to serve as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator.  Source: https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/31/the-real-coronavirus-chronology-shows-trump-was-on-top-of-it-while-biden-was-mocking-the-danger/ 
        • Via: https://twitter.com/heymikey80/status/1252132618709225479?s=20
      • 2/27:  HHS Secretary Alex Azar tells lawmakers that it’s unlikely that large numbers of Americans will need to be hospitalized.  
        • “The immediate risk to the public remains low,” says HHS Secretary Alex Azar in testimony before the House Committee on Ways and Means. “It will look and feel to the American people more like a severe flu season in terms of the interventions & approaches you will see.” Source: 4
      • 2/27:  NYT Ginia Bellafante:  “I fundamentally don’t understand the panic: incidence of the disease is declining in China. Virus is not deadly in the vast majority of cases. Production and so on will slow down and will obviously rebound. cc: @opinion_joe”  Source:  https://reason.com/2020/04/20/dont-get-fooled-by-fake-photos-of-coronavirus-lockdown-protests/
      • 2/27:  A prominent Chinese doctor says that “the coronavirus first appeared in China but may not have originated in China.”
        • Source:  https://justthenews.com/video/bad-worse-tit-tat-timeline-deteriorating-us-china-relations
      • 2/28:  Rebecca Katz, later added to Biden Task Force: 
        • Don’t panic, but prepare
        • We’re not going into a crazy movie situation where the world is on fire, but we may be going into a situation where there are people walking around who are sick.”
        • Purchase a couple of weeks’ supply of foods and other essentials
        • Daily medication – have as much as your insurance will allow
        • Plan for schools and day care to close
        • Source:  https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/28/21156128/coronavirus-prepare-outbreak-covid19-health
        • H/T:  Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 2/28:  At a campaign rally, Trump calls Democrats’ criticisms of his coronavirus response “their new hoax.” Biden and other Democrats then falsely accused Trump of calling the virus itself a hoax. Several fact-checkers, including The Washington Post, make clear that Trump was referring to the Democrats’ response to the virus.  Source: 2
      • 2/28:  Full Trump “Miracle” quote:
        • “We have done an incredible job. We’re going to continue,” Trump said during a Black History Month reception at the White House. “It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear. And from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows.”
        • Source:  https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-trump-claims-covid-19-could-disappear-2020-2
      • 2/29:  The Trump administration rolls back Obama-era regulations in order to speed up coronavirus testing. Source: 10
      • 2/29:  Fauci says that Americans do not need to change their daily practices and the current risk is low, but could change.  On the Today Show, Dr. Fauci says, “There’s no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day by day basis. Right now the risk is still low, but this could change.”  
        • Here’s the full exchange:
        • Question: “So, Dr. Fauci, it’s Saturday morning in America. People are waking up right now with real concerns about this. They want to go to malls and movies, maybe the gym as well. Should we be changing our habits and, if so, how?”
        • Fauci: “No. Right now, at this moment, there’s no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day by day basis. Right now the risk is still low, but this could change. I’ve said that many times even on this program. You’ve got to watch out because although the risk is low now, you don’t need to change anything you’re doing. When you start to see community spread, this could change and force you to become much more attentive to doing things that would protect you from spread.”
        • Question: “Dr. Fauci, quickly, how does this all end?”
        • Fauci: “You know, it ends if you — it depends on the nature of the outbreak. I mean, this could be a major outbreak. I hope not. Or it could be something that’s reasonably well controlled. At the end of the day, this will ultimately go down. Hopefully we could protect the American public from any serious degree of morbidity or mortality. That’s the reason why we’ve got to do the things that we have in our plan.”  Source: 4
      • 2/29:  1st case in Oregon (national case #17)  Source: 1
      • 2/29:  1st cases in Washington State (national cases #18-19) Source: 1
      • 2/29:  The first coronavirus death in the U.S. is confirmed in Washington State  Source: 2
      • 2/29:  The Trump administration suspends travel with Iran, bans foreign citizens who visited Iran in the previous two weeks from entering the United States, and announces a Level 4 Travel Advisory to Italy and South Korea. Source: 10
      • 3/2:  “Since I’m encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives + get out on the town despite Coronavirus, I thought I would offer some suggestions,” de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, tweets. “Here’s the first: thru Thurs 3/5 go see ‘The Traitor’ @FilmLinc. If ‘The Wire’ was a true story + set in Italy, it would be this film.”  Source: 2
      • 3/2: President Trump claims that a vaccine will be readily available. 
        • “We’re moving aggressively to accelerate the process of developing a vaccine,” says the President at a coronavirus roundtable meeting. “A lot of good things are happening and they’re happening very fast. I said, ‘Do me a favor, speed it up, speed it up.’ And they will — they’re working really hard and quick.” The president suggests the vaccine may be ready “over the next few months,” but Fauci quickly interjects to say, it would be “a year to a year and a half.”
        • At a campaign rally in North Carolina that evening, the president says, “We had a great meeting today with a lot of the great companies and they’re going to have vaccines, I think relatively soon. And they’re going to have something that makes you better and that’s going to actually take place, we think, even sooner.”
        • Earlier in the week, Dr. Fauci had explained: “So although this is the fastest we have ever gone from a sequence of a virus to a trial, it still would not be applicable to the epidemic unless we really wait about a year to a year and a half.”  Source: 4
      • 3/2:  NY Governor Cuomo: “When you’re saying, what happened in other countries versus what happened here, we don’t even think it’s going to be as bad as it was in other countries.” It’s a familiar idea: New York is what it is, whether it’s budgeting for subways or picking up garbage, and will take no lessons.  Source: https://slate.com/business/2020/04/coronavirus-new-york-city-outbreak-blame.html
      • 3/3:  Rebecca Katz, later added to Biden Task Force:  
        • Public health is a police power that is delegated to the states
        • The power is not only to order quarantines or isolations, but also to enforce them.
        • Many states’ quarantine laws have not been updated in decades, or don’t provide clear protections for civil liberties. 
        • Source:  https://www.vox.com/2020/3/3/21161232/coronavirus-usa-quarantine-isolation-social-distancing
        • H/T:  Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 3/3:  Vice President Pence announces that the CDC will lift federal restrictions on testing for the coronavirus.  
        • “Today we will issue new guidance from the CDC that will make it clear that any American can be tested, no restrictions, subject to doctor’s orders,” informs the Vice President.  Source: 
      • 3/3    Announcement from WHO 
        • Key points:
        • In the past 24 hours, China reported 129 cases, the lowest number of cases since the 20th of January. Outside China, 1848 cases were reported in 48 countries. 80% of those cases are from just three countries: the Republic of Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Italy.
        • 12 new countries have reported their first cases, and there are now 21 countries with one case. 
        • We understand that people are afraid and uncertain. Fear is a natural human response to any threat, especially when it’s a threat we don’t completely understand.
        • But as we get more data, we are understanding this virus, and the disease it causes, more and more.
        • This virus is not SARS, it’s not MERS, and it’s not influenza. It is a unique virus with unique characteristics.
        • Both COVID-19 and influenza cause respiratory disease and spread the same way, via small droplets of fluid from the nose and mouth of someone who is sick.
        • However, there are some important differences between COVID-19 and influenza. 
        • First, COVID-19 does not transmit as efficiently as influenza, from the data we have so far. 
        • With influenza, people who are infected but not yet sick are major drivers of transmission, which does not appear to be the case for COVID-19. 
        • Evidence from China is that only 1% of reported cases do not have symptoms, and most of those cases develop symptoms within 2 days.
        • Some countries are looking for cases of COVID-19 using surveillance systems for influenza and other respiratory diseases. 
        • Countries such as China, Ghana, Singapore and elsewhere have found very few cases of COVID-19 among such samples – or no cases at all.
        • The only way to be sure is by looking for COVID-19 antibodies in large numbers of people, and several countries are now doing those studies. This will give us further insight into the extent of infection in populations over time.
        • WHO has developed protocols on how these studies should be done, and we encourage all countries to do these studies and share their data.
        • The second major difference is that COVID-19 causes more severe disease than seasonal influenza.
        • While many people globally have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains, COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity. That means more people are susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease. 
        • Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected. 
        • Third, we have vaccines and therapeutics for seasonal flu, but at the moment there is no vaccine and no specific treatment for COVID-19. However, clinical trials of therapeutics are now being done, and more than 20 vaccines are in development. 
        • And fourth, we don’t even talk about containment for seasonal flu – it’s just not possible. But it is possible for COVID-19. We don’t do contact tracing for seasonal flu – but countries should do it for COVID-19, because it will prevent infections and save lives. Containment is possible.
        • To summarize, COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick, it causes more severe illness than flu, there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, and it can be contained – which is why we must do everything we can to contain it. That’s why WHO recommends a comprehensive approach.
        • These differences mean we can’t treat COVID-19 exactly the same way we treat flu.
        • But there are enough similarities to mean that countries are not starting from scratch. For decades, many countries have invested in building up their systems to detect and respond to influenza.
        • Because COVID-19 is also a respiratory pathogen, those systems can, should and are being adapted for COVID-19.
        • But we are concerned that countries’ abilities to respond are being compromised by the severe and increasing disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment – caused by rising demand, hoarding and misuse.
        • Shortages are leaving doctors, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers dangerously ill-equipped to care for COVID-19 patients, due to limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, and aprons.
        • We can’t stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers.
        • Prices of surgical masks have increased six-fold, N95 respirators have more than tripled, and gowns cost twice as much.
        • Supplies can take months to deliver, market manipulation is widespread, and stocks are often sold to the highest bidder.
        • WHO has shipped nearly half a million sets of personal protective equipment to 47 countries, but supplies are rapidly depleting.
        • WHO estimates that each month, 89 million medical masks will be required for the COVID-19 response; 76 million examination gloves, and 1.6 million goggles.
        • WHO has guidelines on how to rationalize the use of personal protective equipment in health facilities and manage supply chains effectively.
        • We’re also working with governments, manufacturers and the Pandemic Supply Chain Network to boost production and secure supplies for critically affected and at-risk countries.
        • Globally, it is estimated that PPE supplies need to be increased by 40 per cent.
        • We continue to call on manufacturers to urgently increase production to meet this demand and guarantee supplies.
        • And we have called on governments to develop incentives for manufacturers to ramp up production. This includes easing restrictions on the export and distribution of personal protective.  Source: https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—3-march-2020
      • 3/3:  Federal restrictions on coronavirus testing are lifted, allowing any American to be tested for coronavirus upon a doctor’s orders. Source: 10
      • 3/4:  Barbot, the top New York City health official, declares, “There’s no indication that being in a car, being in the subways with someone who’s potentially sick is a risk factor.”  Source: 2
      • 3/4:  On CNN, Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta downplay the virus. 
        • “The flu right now is far deadlier,” Cooper says. “So if you’re freaked out at all about the coronavirus you should be more concerned about the flu, and you can actually do something about it, and get a flu shot.”
      • 3/4:  “15,000 people roughly have already died of the flu this season,” Gupta responded. “Couple years ago, 60,000 people died of the flu.”  Source: 2
      • 3/4:  At a Fox News town hall, Bernie Sanders says he would not close the border, even if it were necessary to halt the spread of coronavirus. He then attacked Trump’s “xenophobia.”  Source: 2
      • 3/4:  Fauci remarks that going to campaign rallies may not be a bad idea: “You know, I can’t comment on campaign rallies. It really depends. We are having as we all said — this is something in motion. This is an evolving thing. So I’m not sure what we’re going to be able to say at the time we’re going to have a campaign rally. If you’re talking about a campaign rally tomorrow, in a place where there is no community spread, I think the judgment to have it might be a good judgment. [But] if you want to talk about large gatherings in a place you have community spread, I think that’s a judgment call, and if someone decides they want to cancel it, I wouldn’t publicly criticize them.”  Source: 2
      • 3/5:  The House of Representatives committee issued a report on the NO BAN ACT, which often provides helpful explanatory background on the issue addressed by the bill and the bill’s intentions.  The NO BAN ACT would curtail the ability of the President to ban travel within the US. Source: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2214
      • 3/6:  Dr. Lisa Monaco, later added to Biden Task Force  
        • “It cannot be overstated how much this is about State and Local response.”  
        • “The job of the Federal government is to support the response.” 
        • Source: https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1242152179835621378?s=20
      • 3/6:  Trump claims:  “Anybody that wants a test can get a test,” he says to reporters after a tour of the CDC in Atlanta.  “That’s what the bottom line is.”  Source: 4
      • 3/6:  Governor Andrew Cuomo banned the use of HCQ in the entire state of New York on March 6, the Democrat governors of Nevada and Michigan soon followed suit, and by March 28 the whole country was under incarceration-in-place fatwas.
        • Source:  https://onenewsnow.com/perspectives/bryan-fischer/2020/04/27/fauci-knew-about-hcq-in-2005-nobody-needed-to-die
      • 3/6:  Vice President Pence announces that over 1 million tests have been distributed and promises that 4 million COVID-19 tests would be distributed by the end of the week. Source: 4
      • 3/9:  Dr. Anthony Fauci:“…if you are a healthy young person, there is no reason if you want to go on a cruise ship, go on a cruise ship,” according to Forbes.
        • Source:  https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/20/new-york-times-blame-fox-news-sean-hannity-death-man-coronavirus/
      • 3/10:  Rebecca Katz, named to Biden Task Force the next day
        • Quarantine, by definition, is curtailing individual rights. You are impacting population movement. And not all societies are OK with that.
        • When we talk about these types of measures we’re not just focused on the spread of disease, but also on the population that’s impacted.
        • Infection rate seems to be 10 times more deadly than flu
        • We are facing a respiratory virus that is easily transmissible
        • No medical counter measures
        • Social Distancing is one tool we do have
        • Public health communities haven’t had to make these types of decisions at this type of scale for approximately 100 years. 
        • There’s not a massive evidence base that we can be drawing on for all these decisions.
        • Decision-makers are going to be operating with a bit of uncertainty. 
        • We’re going to be studying this for a long time to come.
        • Source:  https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/03/10/quarantines-coronavirus-united-states
        • H/T: Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 3/10:  President Trump and VP Pence met with top health insurance companies and secured a commitment to waive co-pays for coronavirus testing.  Source: 6
      • 3/11:  The World Health Organization (WHO) declares that COVID-19 is a global health pandemic.  “This is not just a public health crisis, it is a crisis that will touch every sector,” remarks WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “So every sector and every individual must be involved in the fights. … We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”  Source: 4
      • 3/11:  Trump blocks most travel from continental Europe.  Source: 2
      • 3/11:  Trump declares a national emergency, authorizing $50 billion in federal funds to go to the states.  Source: 2
      • 3/11:  Study estimates that by the end of February 2020 there were a total of 114,325 COVID-19 cases in China. It shows that without non-pharmaceutical interventions – such as early detection, isolation of cases, travel restrictions and cordon sanitaire – the number of infected people would have been 67 times larger than that which actually occurred.
        • The research also found that if interventions in the country could have been conducted one week, two weeks, or three weeks earlier, cases could have been reduced by 66 percent, 86 percent and 95 percent respectively – significantly limiting the geographical spread of the disease. However, if NPIs were conducted one week, two weeks, or three weeks later than they were, the number of cases may have shown a 3-fold, 7-fold, or 18-fold increase, respectively.
        • Source: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2020/03/covid-19-china.page
        • Via Source 3
      • 3/11:  Biden puts together Coronavirus Task Force (six weeks after Trump Admin did) 
        • According to CNBC, the six-member committee includes a number of former Obama administration officials, including former Office of Management and Budget health policy advisor Dr. Zeke Emanuel, former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and former homeland security advisor Lisa Monaco.
        • Dr. Rebecca Katz, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security, former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler, and Dr. Irwin Redlener, a professor and disaster preparedness expert at Columbia University’s school of public health, are also on the committee.
        • Source: https://noqreport.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-timeline-how-to-find-the-actual-truth/
      • 3/12:  Biden Task Force’s Dr. Rebecca Katz 
        • “There are estimates all over the place for exactly what’s going to happen. Its hard to know exactly what the right answer is…”
        • Source: https://noqreport.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-timeline-how-to-find-the-actual-truth/
      • 3/12:  WHO releases A COORDINATED GLOBAL RESEARCH ROADMAP: 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS
        • Another study indicated that as of 23rd January 2020 most Chinese cities had already received a large number of infected cases, and that travel quarantine delayed overall epidemic progression by only 3-5 days. The travel restrictions have had a more marked effect on an international scale, with modelling indicating that the number of case importations would be reduced by 80% by the end of February 2020.
        • There were early reports of an asymptomatic patient in Germany (Rothe et al, 2020), but there has been limited further research to support this thus far. However, China’s health minister has warned that there may be pre-symptomatic transmission occurring, and it is an urgent priority (Cowling and Lueng, 2020). Therefore, it is a matter of public health importance to determine whether asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission is potentially happening, and the impact it has on transmission dynamics.  
          • Source:  https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/coordinated-global-research-roadmap.pdf?sfvrsn=21b0f5c4_1&download=true
      • 3/12:  President Trump imposed travel restrictions on Europe and elsewhere. Biden criticized that decision also.  Source: https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/31/the-real-coronavirus-chronology-shows-trump-was-on-top-of-it-while-biden-was-mocking-the-danger/ 
        • Via: https://twitter.com/heymikey80/status/1252132618709225479?s=20
      • 3/13:  Biden Task Force member Rebecca Katz with Adam Schiff
        • Fatality rate 10 times higher than flu
        • Case fatality rate 1 to 3.5%
        • We are behind in responding but have to focus on what we do now
        • There could be up to 1 billion cases around the world by end of June
        • There could be 1 million cases in US by end of June
        • Assuming 1% fatality rate of 1% that means half a million people will die of coronavirus in the US. 
        • We need to be more than concerned
        • Source: https://youtu.be/369rUednxcc
        • H/T: Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 3/13:  The Food & Drug Administration granted Roche AG an emergency approval for automated coronavirus testing kits and issued an emergency approval to Thermo Fisher for a coronavirus test within 24 hours of receiving the request.  Source: 6
      • 3/13:  NYT- The World Needs Masks. China Makes Them, but Has Been Hoarding Them
        • NYT ran a story documenting China’s hoarding of PPE, saying China has “claimed mask factory output for itself.”  
        • Source:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/business/masks-china-coronavirus.html
      • 3/13:  Dan Crenshaw says longstanding Food and Drug Administration regulations “created barriers to the private industry creating a test quickly” for the coronavirus.  
        • Source: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/23/dan-crenshaw/did-fda-regulations-slow-testing-coronavirus/
      • 3/13:  WHO R&D Blueprint COVID-19  informal consultation on the potential role of chloroquine in the clinical management of COVID 19 infection
        • On the 27th of January, WHO convened a meeting of experts to examine the available evidence and prioritize promising therapeutic agents for further evaluation in the ongoing outbreak. The expert panel recommended the direct-acting antiviral agent, Remdesivir, and the protease inhibitor, Lopinavir/ritonavir for evaluation in randomized clinical trials. At the time, there was insufficient evidence to support chloroquine’s further investigation. However, chloroquine has received significant attention in countries as a potentially useful prophylactic and curative agent, prompting the need to examine emerging evidence to inform a decision on its potential role. At the time of convening this meeting, about 500 clinical trials were ongoing in China,with at least 13 evaluating chloroquine’s efficacy.This expert consultation convened clinical care partners and experts in the field of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), preclinical studies,and chloroquine pharmacology for evaluating newly available evidence.
        • A recent in vitro study shows hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to have greater antiviral activity against SARS CoV-2 in Vero cell lines than chloroquine. However, another recently published RCT study in China with hydroxychloroquine involving 30 COVID 19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms shows no significant reduction in time to clinical improvement or viral clearance in the hydroxychloroquine arm compared to the conventional therapy control group
        • Source:  http://origin.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/RD-Blueprint-expert-group-on-CQ-call-Mar-13-2020.pdf
      • 3/13:  President Trump announces plans to partner with the private sector to set up drive-through coronavirus testing sites.  Source: 10
      • 3/13:  President Trump directs the Department of Energy to buy oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Source: 10
      • 3/13:  The FDA gives emergency approval to Roche AG and Thermo Fisher for their coronavirus tests. Source: 10
      • 3/13:  HHS announces it is funding the development of two new rapid diagnostic tests. Source: 10
      • 3/14:  Rebecca Katz, Biden Task Force
        • Every hospital system needs to read this and solidify ICU plans
        • (Refers to a report from Italy) 
        • Source:  https://twitter.com/RebeccaKatz5/status/1238789960754479106?s=20
        • H/T:  Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 3/14:  The Trump Administration announced the European travel ban will extend to the UK and Ireland.  Source: 6
      • 3/15:  HHS announced it is projected to have 1.9 million COVID-19 tests available in 2,000 labs this week. Source: 6
      • 3/15:  DNC Debate: on the eve of the first week of our quarantine, many of the questions concerned the coronavirus. This was the first debate which included only Biden and Sanders.  At no point during any of the debates did a Democratic candidate suggest that the country should have been locked down or taken other social-distancing measures sooner.  
        • Source: https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/04/19/821622/
      • 3/15:  During Sunday night’s debate, while leveling criticism at President Donald Trump’s handling of the national response to the coronavirus pandemic, former Vice President Joe Biden (FALSELY) said the Trump administration refused to get coronavirus testing kits from the World Health Organization.
        • “Look, the World Health Organization offered the testing kits that they have available and to give it to us now. We refused them. We did not want to buy them. We did not want to get them from them. We wanted to make sure we had our own,” Biden said.
        • A similar claim about WHO test kits has also been circulating on Facebook.
        • The Biden campaign referred to a Politico article that said the WHO shipped coronavirus tests to nearly 60 countries at the end of February, but the U.S. was not among them. That is technically correct, but it suggests that the United States would have been on the list under any circumstances.
          • https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-testing-failure-123166
          • In the same article: Other failures appear to have been related to a lack of preparation within agencies that spanned administrations but certainly continued through the first three years of Trump’s tenure.
          • Masks and gowns were in short supply despite years of talk about bulking up federal emergency stockpiles — without Congress appropriating enough money. 
        • The countries WHO helped are ones that lack the virology lab horsepower that exists across the United States. The outreach work by the Pan American Health Organization is a case in point.
        • Source:  https://khn.org/news/biden-falsely-blames-trump-administration-for-rejecting-who-coronavirus-test-kits-that-were-never-offered/
      • 3/15:  Mayor Bill de Blasio via Twitter 
        • Our lives are all changing in ways that were unimaginable just a week ago. We are taking a series of actions that we never would have taken otherwise in an effort to save the lives of loved ones and our neighbors. Now it is time to take yet another drastic step.
        • The virus can spread rapidly through the close interactions New Yorkers have in restaurants, bars and places where we sit close together. We have to break that cycle. Tomorrow, I will sign an Executive Order limiting restaurants, bars and cafes to food take-out and delivery.
        • Source: https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/trump-was-getting-things-done-as-ny-leaders-stood-by-when-exponential-surge-of-infections-exploded-on-subways/
      • 3/15:  Disney closes theme parks 
        • Source: https://twitter.com/just_mindy/status/1251866458260414465?s=20
      • 3/16:  Coronavirus: Biden’s Scary Advisers
        • Lisa Monaco, an Obama administration official with precisely zero public health credentials other than her inept management of the Ebola scare in 2014.
        • Lisa Monaco, the president’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, is a lawyer with a background in federal law enforcement, criminal prosecution and crisis response. She was formerly assistant attorney general for national security and spent years working inside the FBI. For several years she served as counsel and chief of staff to then-director Robert Mueller.
        • The highest-profile committee member is none other than our old friend Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a proud proponent of medical rationing, who has long advocated denying health care to the elderly. In 2009, for example, he co-authored an article in the Lancet that promotes allocation of health-care resources according to the age of the patient.
        • Source: https://spectator.org/coronavirus-bidens-scary-advisors/
        • H/T:  Jill Wallis  @jillwallis
      • 3/16:  Asst. Secretary for Health confirmed the availability of 1 million coronavirus tests, and projected 2 million tests available the next week and 5 million the following.  Source: 6
      • 3/16:    Imperial College study indicates without an unmitigated epidemic, we would predict approximately 510,000 deaths in GBand 2.2 million in the US, not accounting for the potential negative effects of health systems being overwhelmed on mortality.  For an uncontrolled epidemic, we predict critical care bed capacity would be exceeded as early as the second week in April, with an eventual peak in ICU or critical care bed demand that is over 30 times greater than the maximum supply in both countries.  
        • Source: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf
      • 3/16:  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio violates his own government’s recommendations and hits the gym in Brooklyn amid the coronavirus shutdown
        • New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio worked out at his YMCA on Monday morning as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced all non-essential businesses, including gyms, would be forced to close indefinitely. 
        • The New York City government has requested that all residents remain in their homes except for essential activities like grocery shopping, medical services, and work, if they’re not able to work from home. 
        • The mayor’s decision to go to the gym despite the city lockdown provoked criticism and ridicule from some reporters and city residents. 
        • The mayor defended his last workout before the shutdown.
        • “The mayor wanted to visit a place that keeps him grounded one last time,” a spokesperson said.
        • Source:  https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-goes-ymca-announcing-closure-gyms-2020-3
      • 3/16:  The President announces Social Distancing Guidelines to be in place for two-weeks.  The Guidelines are subsequently extended through the month of April.  Source: 4
      • 3/17:  The Department of Defense announced it will make available to HHS up to five million respirator masks and 2,000 ventilators.  Source: 6
      • 3/17:  Rebecca Katz, Biden Task Force
        • 33% increase in cases every day
        • Cases doubling every three days
        • By June or July over 100 million Americans sick. Between ½ million and 1 and a half million deaths
        • Health service unable to provide sufficient beds or respirators
        • Source:  https://www.reviewjournal.com/videos/wynn-ceo-and-dr-rebecca-katz-go-over-coronavirus-video/
        • H/T:  Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 3/17:  Remdesivir provisionally approved for use for COVID‑19 patients in a serious condition as a result of the outbreak in the Czech Republic.  Source: https://populartimelines.com/timeline/Remdesivir
      • 3/17:  France imposes a nationwide lockdown. European Union leaders agree to mostly seal off the bloc for 30 days.  Source: 2
      • 3/17:  President Trump announces that the CDC will suspend entry into the United States from persons from Mexico and Canada. 
        • Source: 4
      • 3/18:  President Trump signs an Executive Order allowing for use of the Defense Production Act, but the president and vice president make statements suggesting the administration will not use the Act.  Source: 4
      • 3/18:  Axios Timeline: The early days of China’s coronavirus outbreak and cover-up
        • Why it matters: A study published in March indicated that if Chinese authorities had acted three weeks earlier than they did, the number of coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95% and its geographic spread limited.
        • This timeline, compiled from information reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the South China Morning Post and other sources, shows that China’s cover-up and the delay in serious measures to contain the virus lasted about three weeks.  Source: 3
      • 3/18:  Biden Advisor LIsa Monaco
        • Monaco said that the Trump administration and its predecessors did not do enough to fund America’s public-health infrastructure, which in the coming weeks is at risk of being “overwhelmed by the onslaught” of cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
        • Source:  ·       https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/pandemic-coronavirus-united-states-trump-cdc/608215/
        • H/T: Jill Wallis  @jillwallis
      • 3/19:  NYT reports on the 2019 simulation of a flu-like outbreak code named “Crimson Contagion.”  Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-outbreak.html
      • 3/19:  Rebecca Katz, Team Biden Task Force
        • When Katz was asked what the first thing she would have done had she been fully in charge of the US response, she replied: 
          • Started the response in early January!
        • Decision makers did not take this seriously enough early on. 
        • Difficult to convince the general public that they need to take action
        • Very distressing to see so many people out at bars Saturday night. This is dangerous
        • Multiple models out there for how much of the population may become infected, ranging from  10 percent to over 80 percent. Estimates are directly related to how many social distancing measures are put in place and for how long.
        • Best guess is that we may see a peak sometime between late May and mid-July.
        • A person is virus free after 14 days total quarantine 
        • NOTE:  See earlier in the timeline for what she was actually saying in real time
        • Source:  https://slate.com/technology/2020/03/rebecca-katz-ask-me-anything-on-the-novel-coronavirus-contagion-and-more.html
        • H/T:  Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 3/19:  The CDC issues updated guidelines instructing medical professionals how to use homemade masks “as a last resort” if PPE is not available.  
        • “In settings where facemasks are not available, [healthcare personnel] might use homemade masks (e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort,” reads the updated CDC guidance. “However, homemade masks are not considered PPE, since their capability to protect [healthcare personnel] is unknown.”
        • The same day: President Trump states that the responsibility of supplying PPE to medical professionals lies with state governors, not the federal government.
        • “Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work, and they are doing a lot of this work,” President Trump says at the daily White House briefing. “The Federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping. You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.”  Source: 4
      • 3/19:  Trump announces hospital ships USS Comfort and Mercy will be “launched over the next week or so.”  (emphasis added) 
        • Source: https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1244687171048661000?s=20
      • 3/20: Rachel Maddow:  “There is no sign that the Navy hospital ships that the president made such a big deal of, the Comfort and the Mercy, there is no sign that they’ll be anywhere on-site, helping out anywhere in the country, for weeks yet.” 
        • Maddow allegedly quoting Trump: “One of those ships will be OPERATIONAL in NY Harbor next week.” (Maddow actually misquotes Trump.  He said launched, not operational- See 3/19)  
        • Source: https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1244669123570937863?s=20
        • Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/usns-comfort-ny-rachel-maddow
      • 3/20:  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shut down “non-essential businesses” after millions had gone through the turnstiles.  Source: https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/trump-was-getting-things-done-as-ny-leaders-stood-by-when-exponential-surge-of-infections-exploded-on-subways/
      • 3/20:  United States President Donald Trump announced that remdesivir was available for “compassionate use” by people with COVID‑19; FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn confirmed the statement at the same press conference.  Source:  https://populartimelines.com/timeline/Remdesivir
      • 3/20:  Washington Post reports Trump was getting daily briefings in early January in February warning of a likely pandemic: 
        • -The US intelligence community was warning President Donald Trump about an impending pandemic as early as January, The Washington Post reported.
        • -Officials were giving Trump classified briefings on the matter at the same time the president was publicly downplaying the risk of the novel coronavirus and insisting the US was well prepared to handle the outbreak.
        • -“The system was blinking red,” a US official told The Post. “Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were — they just couldn’t get him to do anything about it.”
        • Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-intelligence-warned-trump-of-pandemic-in-january-2020-3
      • 3/20:  The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense airlift 500,000 swab and sample kits for COVID-19 tests from a private company located in Italy.  
        • The Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense coordinate an airlift of 500,000 swab and sample kits commonly used in COVID-19 diagnostic tests from Copan Diagnostics, a private company located in Italy.  Source: 4
      • 3/21:  Rebecca Katz, Biden Task Force
        • Models of how Covid19 could spread relies on data and assumptions about population dynamics, demographics, health care capacity and other factors.
        • Limited testing makes designing models challenging because the number of infected cases is not known.
        • Source:  https://www.wifr.com/content/news/How-long-will-Americans-be-fighting-the-coronavirus-569001541.html
        • H/T: Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 3/21:  Adm. Giroir confirmed 10 million testing kits had been put into the commercial market from March 2 through March 14  Source: 6
      • 3/22:  Statement by Joe Biden
        • “It was obvious to the entire world for months that coronavirus was a grave threat to people everywhere”
        • Note:  As per Biden’s leadership section of his own website, he made no statements about Covid-19 from 1/27-3/18.
        • Source: https://joebiden.com/covid19-leadership/
      • 3/22:  President Trump announced that the USNS Mercy will be deployed to Los Angeles.  Source: 6
      • 3/22: NY State’s stay at home order takes effect   
        • Source: https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1250420913264373760?s=20
      • 3/23:  Gilead voluntarily suspended access for compassionate use (excepting cases of critically ill children and pregnant women), for reasons related to supply, citing the need to continue to provide the agent for testing in clinical trials.  Source:  https://populartimelines.com/timeline/Remdesivir
      • 3/23: Dr. Vladimir Zelenko reported that he had treated around 500 coronavirus patients with HCQ and had seen an astonishing 100% success rate. That’s not the “anecdotal” evidence Dr. Fauci sneers at, but actual results with real patients in clinical settings.
        • “Since last Thursday, my team has treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel and another 150 patients in other areas of New York with the above regimen. Of this group and the information provided to me by affiliated medical teams, we have had ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations. In addition, I have not heard of any negative side effects other than approximately 10% of patients with temporary nausea and diarrhea.”
        • “If you scale this nationally, the economy will rebound much quicker. The country will open again. And let me tell you a very important point. This treatment costs about $20. That’s very important because you can scale that nationally. If every treatment costs $20,000, that’s not so good.
        • All I’m doing is repurposing old, available drugs which we know their safety profiles, and using them in a unique combination in an outpatient setting.”
        • Source:  https://onenewsnow.com/perspectives/bryan-fischer/2020/04/27/fauci-knew-about-hcq-in-2005-nobody-needed-to-die
      • 3/23: Britain imposes a nationwide lockdown.   Source: 2 
        • March 23-27, 2020: Hospitals report facing severe shortages of testing supplies, widespread shortages of PPE, difficulty maintaining adequate staff, and overall shortages of critical supplies. 
        • Principal Inspector General Christi Grimm at the Department of Health and Human Services surveys 323 hospitals across 46 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico from March 23-27, 2020. Grimm reports that hospitals are facing severe shortages of testing supplies, widespread shortages of PPE, difficulty maintaining adequate staff, and overall shortages of critical supplies. She also finds that in some cases the protective gear that the federal government provided to hospitals was expired or dry-rotted.  Source: 4
      • 3/23: Fact checking Dan Crenshaw’s 3/13 tweet: 
        • Crenshaw said in a tweet that longstanding FDA regulations “created barriers to the private industry creating a test quickly” for the coronavirus.
        • Crenshaw’s statement is accurate. FDA procedures adopted in 2004 meant laboratories had to seek the agency’s approval before developing and using tests in communities, a policy many health care officials have said prevented the country from taking early action in response to the novel coronavirus.
        • It is important to keep in mind that other factors have contributed to the low levels of testing for the virus, beyond the FDA regulations.
        • But Crenshaw’s statement is accurate. We rate it True.
        • Source: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/23/dan-crenshaw/did-fda-regulations-slow-testing-coronavirus/
      • 3/24:  Dr. Deborah Birx announced the U.S. has conducted more coronavirus tests in the last week than South Korea has over the prior eight weeks.  Source: 6
      • 3/24: India imposes a nationwide lockdown.   Source: 2
      • 3/25:  Jill Biden tweets about social distancing, her first tweet about Covid 19
        • Source:  https://twitter.com/DrBiden/status/1242963290348826626?s=20
      • 3/25:  Imperial College study from 3/11 is revised massively downward 
        • Then a funny thing happened. A mere nine days after announcing his model, Ferguson said a better number for the U.K. would be only 20,000. The equivalent would be fewer than 80,000 American deaths. Technically, that U.K. number was buried in a table in the report under what might be called “a fantastic case scenario.” But could that reduction possibly reflect a mere nine days of restrictions? No.
        • Source: https://issuesinsights.com/2020/04/18/after-repeated-failures-its-time-to-permanently-dump-epidemic-models/
      • 3/26:  Sidney Morning Herald: Chinese-backed company’s mission to source Australian medical supplies PPE
      • • “Basically all employees, the majority of whom are Chinese, were asked to source whatever medical supplies they could,” one company insider told the Herald. This exercise went on for weeks through January and February, he said.
        • The entire accounts department, contract managers, the human resources team and even receptionists were sent on a mission to find bulk supplies of surgical masks, thermometers, antibacterial wipes, hand sanitisers, gloves and Panadol.
        • “There were numerous requests from the HR manager and even our direct reporting line [which] prioritised the assisting of the company in gathering these supplies over other work activities,” said the source. The entire accounts department were absent for days as they were out purchasing supplies, he said.
        • Source:  https://www.smh.com.au/national/chinese-backed-company-s-mission-to-source-australian-medical-supplies-20200325-p54du8.html
      • 3/26:  President Trump announced the USNS Comfort will depart for NYC on Saturday to assist in the coronavirus response – 3 weeks ahead of schedule!  Source: 6
      • 3/26:  State Department announces Covid-19 international assistance
        • Today’s $274 million will provide resources to 64 of the world’s most at-risk countries to better combat the pandemic and enable the UN High Commissioner on Refugees to assist some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.  These new pledges include nearly $100 million in emergency health assistance.  It also now includes $110 million in new international disaster assistance, which together with our emergency health funding, will be provided for up to 64 of the most at-risk countries.  Importantly, our response adds $64 million in humanitarian assistance for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to assist in its pandemic response efforts for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
        • The funding is an initial investment, on top of the continuing funding we already provide to multilateral organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF.  
        • President Trump signed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, which includes $1.3 billion in additional U.S. foreign assistance to help countries around the world respond to this pandemic.
        • With more than $1.5 billion in donations and assistance provided by American businesses, NGOs, and charitable organizations, and the incredible ongoing work of implementing partners overseas, we are truly mobilizing as a nation to confront this deadly virus.  We welcome continued, no-strings-attached contributions from other donors to further catalyze global response efforts underway.
        • Our leadership in the COVID-19 response is another example of how America—our government, our businesses and organizations, and our people—continues to be the world’s greatest humanitarians. Between existing resources, supplemental funding, the private sector, and the generous spirit of the American people, the United States is leading – and will continue to lead – the effort to combat this dangerous pathogen and its threat to global health and security.
        • Source: https://www.state.gov/u-s-foreign-assistance-in-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/   via Source: 7
      • 3/26:  Peter Navarro, White House Trade Advisor stated that Beijing “did not tell us early to mid-December that there was a crisis of human-to-human transmission with a new novel coronavirus. That has set the world back six weeks.  Source: 7
      • 3/26:  Chinese state-run media cite an American conspiracy theorist to push claims that coronavirus was brought to China by a U.S. military athlete.
        • Source:  https://justthenews.com/video/bad-worse-tit-tat-timeline-deteriorating-us-china-relations
      • 3/27:  Biden Advisor Zeke Emanuel tries to frighten the public
        • “Right now, if you look at the numbers, we probably have a million COVID-19 cases in the country. And if this is doubling every three to four days, that means that we’ll have 100 million people who have COVID-19 in about four weeks, and that’s a frightening thought.”
        • Actual confirmed US cases: 83,672 
        • Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20200327000121/https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
        • Source: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/03/27/ezekiel_emanuel_us_will_have_100_million_cases_of_covid-19_in_four_weeks.html
      • 3/27:  A senior WHO official cuts off an interview after a reporter implies Taiwan, which is not a WHO member state, is independent of China. The official, Canadian doctor Bruce Aylward, initially pretended not to hear the question before terminating the Skype call with the reporter.  
      • 3/27:  The USNS Mercy arrived in the port of Los Angeles to help relieve the strain on hospital facilities in Southern California.  Source: 6
      • 3/27:  Trump signs a $2 trillion stimulus bill into law.  
        • The emergency legislation implements broad ranging remedial measures designed to curb the economic impact of the pandemic. It also modifies the FDA drug approval process, emergency paid sick leave programs, health insurance coverages for COVID-19 testing and vaccination, medical product supplies, and Medicare and Medicaid.  Source: 4
      • 3/27:  The same day: President Trump issues a statement that he has directed “the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act” to get General Motors to produce ventilators.  
        • GM says that the company is unaware of any order and that the president’s actions do not change plans that were already in the works to produce the ventilators.
        • The same day: President Trump questions whether state governors truly need the ventilators that they are requesting. 
        • “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” President Trump tells Fox News Host Sean Hannity. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now, all of a sudden, they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’” Source: 4
      • 3/28:  Cuomo: Travel Restrictions On New York Are ‘Federal Act Of War’
        • Cuomo also criticized Trump’s suggestion of limiting travel from the tri-state area. Trump told reporters he is concerned about travel from New York to Florida, which is a frequent destination for retired New Yorkers.
        • “This would be a declaration of war on states, a federal declaration of war,” Cuomo said of any travel ban.
        • Source:  https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/28/cuomo-war-coronavirus-quarantine/
      • 3/29:  The first “Project Airbridge” shipment of medical supplies from abroad, organized by FEMA, landed at JFK airport, carrying 80 tons of masks, face shields, and other vital medical supplies.  Source: 6
      • 3/29:  60 Minutes (Australia):  Whistleblowers silenced by China could have stopped global coronavirus spread | 60 Minutes Australia
        • “Had China acted immediately instead of covering up, it’s estimated that 95% of the eventual pandemic could have been prevented.”
        • Dr. Ai Fen tried to warn the world but was stopped.  She’s since disappeared.
        • Then 60 Minutes splits the blame between Xi and Trump, quotes information from “intelligence agencies” (see 4/9)
        • Lauri Garrett (obvious Trump hater):  “We’ve now had the President say openly on more than one occasion that he’s weighing in the balance the future of the stock market against dead bodies in this country.”
        • This could have been avoided?  Garrett:  “Absolutely, and China knows it, which is why they’re working so hard to create a different narrative that doesn’t put the blame on Beijing.”
        • Source:  https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1254485474615472130?s=20
      • 3/30:  Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. issue stay-at-home orders, joining other states. In all, approximately 265 million Americans are now under indefinite lockdown. Source: 2
      • 3/30: USS Comfort docks in NYC 
        • Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/usns-comfort-ny-rachel-maddow
      • 3/31:  Rebecca Katz, Biden Task Force 
        • “No matter what model you look at, no matter who you speak with, you hear the urgency in *acting now* to get ahead of high caseloads.”
        • Source: https://twitter.com/NTI_WMD/status/1245037254072041480?s=20
        • H/T:  Jill Wallis @jillwallis1
      • 3/31:  WHO R&D Blueprint
        • A vital issue was raised about the dose of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) proposed in the Mahidol study. Modelling Analysis done by the Gates foundation predicts that there would be a major challenge ensuring the global supply of hydroxychloroquine for use in healthcare workers at the dose used in the Mahidol study (daily dosing). Indeed, previous PK modelling suggests that a third of the dose used in the Mahidol study could be equally effective. However, it is recognised that these models are based on assumptions of active free drug penetration and accumulation in the lungs in sufficient amounts with no confirmation from human studies.It is pertinent that this is further discussed within WHO expert group.
        • The CROWN CORONATION (Chloroquine Repurposing for Healthcare Workers for Novel Coronavirus Mitigation) Trial is an international multicentre trial with a primary focus on Africa, but also New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The study is based on pre-exposure prophylaxis rather than PEP. The African focus is intended to correct the skewed distribution of research relevant to COVID-19. There are > 200 African sites represented in the study. The study also aims to determine the optimal dose of chloroquine; hence, three different doses (high, medium,and low) would be tested compared to placebo. Overall, 55,000 healthcare workers are expected to be randomized.
          • The Study:  https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT04333732
        • Source:  https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/informal-consultation-therapeutics-covid19-prophylaxis.pdf?ua=1
      • 3/31:  Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Taskforce stated on March 31 that experts modeling the virus spread “were missing a significant amount of the data” from China. Source: 7
      • 4/1:  Joe Scarborough declares in an interview with Biden Task Force member Zeke Emanuel that “Everybody saw this coming in early January.”  (See Emanuel video from 1/29) 
        • Source: https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1245313313715650560?s=20
      • 4/2:  Biden wants sanctions relief for Iran
        • Source https://medium.com/@JoeBiden/statement-from-vice-president-joe-biden-on-sanctions-relief-during-covid-19-f7c2447416f0
      • 4/2:  REPORT:  In January, China stockpiled more than 2 billion surgical masks and essential medical supplies in a global panic buy now impacting the worldwide shortage of protective equipment. 
        • The two billion masks and 25 million pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) were imported from Australia and other overseas countries between January and March.
        • Chinese government report detailing its foreign trade for the first two months of the year was uncovered, Daily Mail Australia reported.
        • When the Wuhan-originated virus was at its peak, the Chinese government went on a global campaign to recruit Chinese-owned companies in foreign countries to raid stocks of the items.
        • While Australia’s first COVID-19 infected person arrived on a plane from China on January 19, the virus had only just begun to spread globally when the big buy-up began.
        • China saw a “rapid growth in imports of commodities and key consumer goods” comprising 2.46 billion medical supply items.
        • These included masks, gloves, hand sanitiser, hazmat suits, ventilators and other materials.
        • The National Customs in China inspected the billions of items between January 24 and February 29.
        • Source:  https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/revealed-china-stockpiled-2-billion-face-masks-and-25m-medical-items/news-story/5304e5a5080bd4087e4a9be9de210b97
      • 4/2:  The New York Times reported that the Central Intelligence Agency had warned the White House since early February that PRC officials had been “lying about infection rates, testing, and death counts.  Source: 7
      • 4/2:  Kushner Controversy
        • Media takes Kushner comments out of context, lambastes him for saying:  “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”
        • The very next sentence, omitted from media reports:  “So we’re encouraging the states to make sure that they’re assessing the needs, they’re getting the data from their local — local situations and then trying to fill it with the supplies that we’ve given them.”
        • The proximate reason for Kushner’s comment about the state stockpiles was a dispute between the Trump administration and New York governor Andrew Cuomo. New York City was running out of ventilators. The administration had sent 4,400 but learned that 2,000 of them were being held by the state and hadn’t made their way to the city.
        • The controversial sentence was part of a long answer setting out the administration’s strategy on ventilators that has, despite all the hue and cry, clearly worked. The emphasis — with Jared Kushner and his team in the middle of it, and capable leadership from Rear Admiral John Polowczyk at FEMA and Admiral Brett Giroir at HHS — was on data and shrewd allocation, so that ventilators did not go to states simply on request.
        • Source: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-response-ventilators-trump-administration-handled-potential-shortage-deftly/
      • 4/2: The Trump administration continues to adopt an approach allowing states to adopt an uneven patchwork of state stay-at-home orders.  Multiple states continue to resist implementing stay-at-home orders as the Trump administration continues to reject calling for nationwide stay-at-home orders, but instead says that each governor should decide for themselves. 
        • Note: It is not clear whether a president has the authority under existing federal statutes to adopt a binding nationwide stay-at-home order.  Source: 4
      • 4/4:  President Trump announced that the U.S. government has repatriated over 40,000 Americans from 75 countries.  Source: 6
      • 4/5:  Adm. Polowczyk announced that three Project Airbridge flights of medical supplies landed across the US today carrying: 1 million gowns, 2.8 million surgical masks, 11.8 million gloves. Source: 6
      • 4/5:  When issuing new guidance that more people should wear masks, CDC acknowledged, “We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms.”
        • The implications are large, but were often not mentioned or accounted for in death rate projections and other information released to the public.
        • By way of example, if the U.S. has one million documented cases and 53,928 deaths, the death rate is 5.4% when asymptomatic cases are ignored. But factor in the undiagnosed cases, as one must for an accurate statistic, and the 5.4% rate is more than seven times too high. There are actually an additional 6.14 million cases for a total of 7.14 million coronavirus cases in this example, making the true death rate instantly fall to .76%
        • Source:  https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/number-undiagnosed-coronavirus-patients-should-not-be-surprising
      • 4/5:  60 Minutes (Australia) report details of secret shipments of medical supplies from Australia to China  PPE
        • A witness has told 60 Minutes he saws tonnes of gloves, masks, gowns, sanitiser and other vital medical supplies being packaged to be shipped out of Australia to China.
        • It comes after Australian healthcare workers have reported shortages of important Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in hospitals across the country.
        • The anonymous witness worked at Greenland, a Chinese-owned property development company in Sydney.
        • He told 60 Minutes reporter Liz Hayes he saw boxes of vital medical equipment being prepared to be sent to China in January and February this year.
        • “Meeting rooms, lunch rooms and the boardroom, starting to be filled with different types of items getting unpackaged and repackaged and labelled,” he told 60 Minutes.
        • “It definitely rose (sic) my suspicion. The concern to me is if all these medical items leave the country, what’s left for us?”
        • The man says employees of the company were asked to procure different medical items from shops and pharmacies, and that full-time employees were utilized in the packaging and repackaging of the items.
        • “It is very unsettling that essential equipment can just leave our borders in massive commercial quantities,” he said.
        • But what 60 Minutes’ witness saw in one Sydney office was being repeated in companies around the world.
        • In just two months, it is estimated China amassed an estimated 2.4 billion pieces of protective equipment, including more than two billion masks.
        • Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3s6kcXi4pA
        • Source:  https://9now.nine.com.au/60-minutes/vital-medical-supplies-sent-to-china-ppe-australia-hospital-shortages/94deca73-5640-4f08-913f-1ca1069b9473  
      • 4/7:  President Trump removes the Department of Defense inspector general who was in charge of overseeing the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package.  
        • President Trump removes Glenn Fine as the chair of the Inspector General of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a committee in charge of overseeing the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. Fine was nominated to the position by his fellow inspector general colleagues. In response to questions on the matter, President Trump insinuates that there are a lot of inspector generals left over from the Obama administration and that there are reports of bias. 
        • Note: Glenn Fine was first appointed as Inspector General of the Department of Justice by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and served in that capacity through both the Bush and Obama administrations.
        • The same day: President Trump threatens to withhold money from the WHO. He also suggests that the WHO may have adverse political motivations and is “China-centric.”  Source: 4
      • 4/8: People with a clean bill of health will be allowed to leave, the provincial government said, easing restrictions on movement that were unprecedented in scale. The city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in December, is to remain locked down until April 8.
        • Source: https://time.com/5808736/china-ends-hubei-coronavirus-lockdown/
      • 4/8:  A timeline of pandemic events published by the WHO but omits many of the incriminating facts contained in this situation brief and demonstrates the continued efforts of the WHO leadership to participate in the CCP’s coverup.  Source: 7  
      • 4/8:  ABC News reports US intelligence officials had been tracking COVID-19 since November 
        • US intelligence officials were warning as far back as late November that the novel coronavirus was spreading through China’s Wuhan region and posing a threat to its people and daily life, according to ABC News.
        • The US military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) compiled a November intelligence report in which “analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” one of the sources of the NCMI’s report told ABC News.
        • The source told ABC News that the intelligence report was then briefed “multiple times” to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House.
        • Repeated briefings were held through December across the US government, including the National Security Council, culminating in a detailed outline of the threat in the President’s Daily Brief in early January, according to ABC News, whose report cited four sources briefed on the matter.
        • The Trump administration has faced criticism for not responding quickly enough to contain the novel coronavirus in the US, which now has the most confirmed cases globally. The intelligence report is the latest indication that the Trump administration had prior warning of the virus well before the first case was confirmed in the US in late January and further undercuts President Donald Trump’s claims that the crisis was an unforeseen and unexpected problem.
        • Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/politics/us-intelligence-report-china-coronavirus/index.html
      • 4/8:  Daily Mail:  Texas nursing home tests Trump’s experimental coronavirus treatment for him by treating residents with hydroxychlorquine (HCQ) after 83 got infected with virus and one died
        • Source:  https://victorygirlsblog.com/texas-nursing-home-media-ignores-good-news/
      • 4/9:  DNI refutes story about briefings since November 
        • “However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists,” Day added.
        • Source: Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/politics/us-intelligence-report-china-coronavirus/index.html
      • 4/9:  Dr. Fauci has minimized and dismissed HCQ at every turn instead of pushing this thing from jump street.  He didn’t even launch clinical trials of HCQ until April 9, by which time 33,000 people had died.
        • https://onenewsnow.com/perspectives/bryan-fischer/2020/04/27/fauci-knew-about-hcq-in-2005-nobody-needed-to-die
      • 4/10:  Chinese study on HCQ
        • Despite our small number of cases, the potential of HCQ in the treatment of COVID-19 has been partially confirmed. Considering that there is no better option at present, it is a promising practice to apply HCQ to COVID-19 under reasonable management. However, Large-scale clinical and basic research is still needed to clarify its specific mechanism and to continuously optimize the treatment plan.
        • Source: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.22.20040758v3
      • 4/12: Former CDC director Tom Frieden told City & State:
        • If New York had shut things down earlier, it could have cut the death toll by as much as 80 percent. 
        • New York’s stay-at-home order began five days after California’s, and its schools were closed four days after Seattle’s. 
        • “History will be pretty critical of Cuomo and de Blasio for not taking the same decisive decisions that Mayor [London] Breed took in San Francisco,” said Dr. Michael Reid, an infectious disease specialist in San Francisco who is running that city’s contact tracing program.  
        • Source: https://slate.com/business/2020/04/coronavirus-new-york-city-outbreak-blame.html
      • 4/12:  “Obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously no one is going to deny that,” says Dr. Fauci on CNN this past Sunday night. “If we had, right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been different. But there was a lot of push back for shutting everything down back then.”  Source: 4
      • 4/13:  CDC head on Today Show Once CDC saw community spread on Feb 28th, the CDC did in fact recommend mitigation steps… DIRECTLY TO THE STATES SHOWING PROBLEMS. This put the onus of the response where it should have been, on the states themselves w the Feds acting as a backstop.  Source: https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1249659261606596609?s=20
      • 4/13:  Vice President Pence announced that there are currently just under 7,000 ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile, and that no one has been denied a ventilator who needed one. Source: 6
      • 4/13:  States begin planning to re-open their economies.  Source: 4
      • 4/14:  On March 16, the White House issued initial social distancing guidelines, including closing schools and avoiding groups of more than 10. But an estimated 90 percent of the cumulative deaths in the United States from Covid-19, at least from the first wave of the epidemic, might have been prevented by putting social distancing policies into effect two weeks earlier, on March 2, when there were only 11 deaths in the entire country. The effect would have been substantial had the policies been imposed even one week earlier, on March 9, resulting in approximately a 60 percent reduction in deaths.  Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/opinion/covid-social-distancing.html
      • 4/14:  Trump halts WHO funding 
        • “We will continue to engage with the WHO to see it can make meaningful reforms. For the time being, we will redirect global health … and we’ll be discussing with other countries and influential global health partners what we do with all that money that goes to the WHO.”  Source: 4
      • 4/15:  Biden Advisor Lisa Monaco
        • We are not where we need to be… I think we have made a lot of strides in the last couple of months. My concern is we did squander ten weeks between December January and the middle of March.
          • This is based on reports Admin was getting Intelligence briefs in Dec and January.
        • Federal Government was following the states. Guidance from the federal Government about things like social Distancing didn’t happen until mid March.
        • Source;  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-lisa-monaco-speaks-with-michael-morell-on-intelligence-matters/
        • H/T: Jill Wallis @jillwallis
      • 4/15:  NY begins sending ventilators to other states
        • https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1250472768786911233?s=20
      • 4/16:  Aborted Brazilian Study:  Chloroquine diphosphate in two different dosages as adjunctive therapy of hospitalized patients with severe respiratory syndrome in the context of coronavirus
        • called a halt to a clinical trial of chloroquine at high doses after they observed high rates of arrhythmias and a large number of deaths.
        • authors’ recommendation that the high dose of chloroquine “should not be recommended” for patients with severe Covid-19 due to the safety concerns. An accompanying editorial by three American physicians advised that the results “should prompt some degree of skepticism toward the enthusiastic claims about chloroquine and perhaps serve to curb the exuberant use”. 
        • By day 13 of enrollment, 6 of 40 patients (15.0%) in the low-dose group had died, compared with 16 of 41 patients (39.0%) in the high-dose group. 
        • Thus, one can only conclude from this trial that high-dose chloroquine (and by close association, hydroxychloroquine HCQ) in combination and azithromycin and possibly oseltamivir, is potentially associated with increased mortality among patients with severe, suspected COVID-19.
        • Source:  https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.07.20056424v2
      • 4/16: WSJ: China’s Export Restrictions Strand Medical Goods U.S. Needs to Fight Coronavirus, State Department Says 
        • Products made by 3M, Owens & Minor, PerkinElmer sit in warehouses; GE ventilator production line in Wisconsin nearly brought to a halt 
        • New Chinese export restrictions have left American companies’ U.S.-bound face masks, test kits and other medical equipment urgently needed to fight the coronavirus stranded, according to businesses and U.S. diplomatic memos.
        • Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-export-restrictions-strand-medical-goods-u-s-needs-to-fight-coronavirus-state-department-says-11587031203?mod=hp_lead_pos2
      • 4/16:  President Trump announces his Guidelines for Opening Up American Again. 
        • The guidelines propose a three-phase approach to opening up the country, which would be implemented at the discretion of each state governor on a statewide or county-by-county basis.  Source: 4
      • 4/18:  CNN’s Brian Stelter breaks down.
        • Last night, I hit a wall. Gutted by the death toll. Disturbed by the govt’s shortcomings. Dismayed by political rhetoric that bears no resemblance to reality. Worried about friends who are losing jobs; kids who are missing school; and senior citizens who are living in fear.
        • I crawled in bed and cried for our pre-pandemic lives. Tears that had been waiting a month to escape. I wanted to share because it feels freeing to do so. Now is not a time for faux-invincibility. Journos are living this, hating this, like everyone else.
        • Source:  https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1251532172089004032?s=20
      • 4/18: “CDC made its test in one of its laboratories, rather than in its manufacturing facilities,” the FDA spokesperson told CNN on Saturday. “CDC did not manufacture its test consistent with its own protocol.” 
        • The government has never fully explained what stalled the rollout of a crucial test needed to begin measuring the extent of the spread of Covid-19. It would take until the end of February to correct and the US continues to lack extensive testing capability even as some states prepare ease up on restriction and reopen to a degree.
        • Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/18/politics/cdc-coronavirus-testing-contamination/index.html
      • 4/18:  Trump warns China that it should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic.
        • Source:  https://justthenews.com/video/bad-worse-tit-tat-timeline-deteriorating-us-china-relations
      • 4/19:  At Coronavirus Task Force Press Conference, reporter tells President Trump there are “Nazi flags” being displayed at lock down protests.  
        • Trump:  “To that I would say, NO WAY.  I didn’t see that.  I’m sure the news plays that up.”  Source:  https://youtu.be/7SVVLpnawyk?t=4695
      • 4/19: Peter Navarro interview with Maria Bartiromo
        • “But here is what I can tell you about China. If you think about what China did over the course of this thing, they did four things that led to the deaths of many people worldwide. I mean, first of all, the virus was spawned in China. Second of all, they hid the virus behind the shield of the World Health Organization. The third thing they did was basically hoard personal protective equipment, and now they are profiteering from it. And if you walk through that, you were one of the first in the media to raise the question of whether that P4 lab was involved. That’s an interesting issue.”
        • And then here is what I think should be very disturbing to every American. During that period of time, that six-week interval when they were hiding this virus from the world, China went from a net exporter of personal protective equipment — they are the largest producer of that in the world — to a large net importer.”
        • “They basically went around and vacuumed up virtually all of the PPE around the world, including a lot from this country, which was, for humanitarian reasons, sharing our PPE with them,” Navarro added. “And what that did was leave people in New York, Milan, and everywhere in between defenseless when it came time to have that PPE. Now what’s happening today, which is equally alarming, is China is sitting on that horde of PPE, where it cornered the market, and it’s profiteering. I have cases coming across my desk where 50-cent masks made in China are being sold to hospitals here in America for as much as $8.”
        • Source: https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/04/19/navarro-china-went-from-a-net-exporter-of-ppe-to-a-large-net-importer/
      • 4/20:  After last week’s protest around the Michigan Capitol, a picture of someone holding a large swastika flag that said “TRUMP PENCE” began circulating on social media as a sign of the supposed Nazi leanings of Trump supporters and the people protesting. But after some viral outrage about the kind of people the conservative organizers of these protests were in cahoots with, it turns out that the picture in question actually came from a March 2 Bernie Sanders rally in Boise, Idaho. 
        • Source:  https://reason.com/2020/04/20/dont-get-fooled-by-fake-photos-of-coronavirus-lockdown-protests/
      • 4/20:  NYT accuses Fox News’ Sean Hannity of causing the death of a man who went on a cruise.  Man went on cruise 3/1.  Hannity comments 3/9.
        • Source:  https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/20/new-york-times-blame-fox-news-sean-hannity-death-man-coronavirus/
      • 4/20:  President Trump temporarily suspends immigration into the United States
        • Source:  https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1252418369170501639?s=20
      • 4/20:  Cuomo on COVID-19 in Nursing Homes: ‘It’s Not Our Job’ 
        • Refusing to take any responsibility for the climbing death toll in New York’s nursing homes, Gov. Cuomo responded to a question during his April 20 press briefing saying he “did not know” about the (see this video, 33:12) policy that required nursing home patients who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 to be readmitted to nursing homes. At that point, the governor turned to Zucker, who acknowledged the policy of readmitting COVID-infected patients back to the nursing home population.
        • Fifty-eight percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the state of New York have occurred in nursing homes in New York City.
        • An analysis of the demographics of the death rates by National Public Radio (NPR), revealed that New York City’s nursing homes with the highest percentages of African Americans and Latinos were also the nursing homes with the highest death rates. New York’s African American residents of nursing homes in the five boroughs were significantly more likely to die from coronavirus than any other nursing home residents in the city.
        • Source:  https://spectator.org/cuomo-on-covid-19-in-nursing-homes-its-not-our-job/
      • 4/21:  Joe Biden, speaking to donors during a phone call Tuesday night refers to the COVID 19 crisis as “exciting” because it gives Democrats an opportunity to pursue their far-left political agenda. “My Lord, look at what is possible. Look at the institutional changes we can make without us becoming a socialist country or any of that malarkey. That we can make to provide the opportunities to change the institutional drawbacks from education all the way through to all the other things we talked about.”
        • Full quote:  https://twitter.com/PhilipWegmann/status/1252790054780633093?s=20
        • Source:  https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2020/04/22/joe-biden-this-wuhan-coronavirus-crisis-is-actually-really-excitingfor-our-agenda-n2567410
      • 4/21: Missouri sues the Chinese government and other top institutions for the role they played in the coronavirus pandemic and the effects it has had on the state, accusing the country of covering up information, silencing whistleblowers and doing little to stop the spread of the disease, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Tuesday. 
        • At least 6,105 people have been confirmed to have the virus in Missouri and at least 229 have died, according to numbers from Johns Hopkins University.
        • Schmitt, in his official role as attorney general of Missouri, filed the civil lawsuit in federal court in the eastern district of Missouri.
        • The lawsuit, the first of its kind, claims “Chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, permitted millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment—thus causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable.” 
        • Lawsuit:  https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/2019/prc-complaint.pdf?sfvrsn=86ae7ab_2
        • Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/us/missouri-lawsuit-china-coronavirus/index.html
      • 4/21:  NIH Covid-19 Treatment Guidelines
        • The panel said that there was insufficient data to “recommend either for or against” hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) or chloroquine. However, the panel recommended against the use of hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin due to the risk of cardiac arrhythmia.
        • The Panel recommends against using high-dose chloroquine (600 mg twice daily for 10 days) for the treatment of COVID-19 (AI), because the high dose carries a higher risk of toxicities than the lower dose.
        • Source:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/22/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-scientific-studies-research
      • 4/22:  Citing economic concerns, President Trump suspends immigration into the United States. Steven Miller, a senior advisor to the President and key architect of President Trump’s immigration policy, tells conservative allies in a confidential call that this proclamation will reduce immigration beyond the coronavirus.  Source: 4
      • 4/22:  Costa Rica using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for COVID-19 treatment
        • The drug’s use in Costa Rica follows the guidance of medical experts from China, where the novel coronavirus is believed to have originated.
        • “In Costa Rica, we have been using hydroxychloroquine since we had a teleconference meeting with personnel from China, personnel from Shanghai and Wuhan,” said Mario Ruíz, Medical Manager of the Costa Rican Social Security System (CCSS, or Caja).
        • “They were the ones who attended the emergency that arose in China, and hydroxychloroquine has its specifications and specific doses. Thanks to this help provided by the Chinese scientific community and a therapeutic care manual, we are using these treatments at the established doses.”
        • Costa Rica received “a substantial amount” of hydroxychloroquine from Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, earlier this month. At the time, CCSS said it would use the drug to treat patients and collect clinical data on its efficacy.
        • Source:  https://ticotimes.net/2020/04/22/costa-rica-using-hydroxychloroquine-for-covid-19-treatment
      • 4/23:  Video puts patient zero in September
        • Source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=471&v=GZWgdFdSb5Q&feature=emb_logo
      • 4/24:  Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and coronavirus: a guide to the scientific studies so far
        • Source:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/22/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-scientific-studies-research
      • 4/24:  Experimental Virus Drug Remdesivir Failed in Human Trial
        • The experimental coronavirus treatment remdesivir has failed in its first randomized clinical trial, inadvertently released results showed Thursday, dampening expectations for the closely watched drug. 
        • A draft summary went online briefly on the website of the World Health Organization and was first reported by the Financial Times and Stat, which posted a screenshot.
        • But Gilead Sciences, the company behind the medicine, disputed how the now-deleted post had characterized the findings, saying the data showed a “potential benefit.” 
        • The summary said the Chinese trial involved 237 patients, with 158 on the drug and 79 in a control group. Remdesivir was stopped early in 18 patients because of side effects.
        • The authors said remdesivir was “not associated with a difference in time to clinical improvement” compared to the control.
        • After a month, 13.9% of the patients on remdesivir had died compared to 12.8% of those in the control group. The difference is not statistically significant.
        • The WHO told the Financial Times that the draft is undergoing peer review and was published early in error.A spokesman for Gilead told AFP: “We believe the post included inappropriate characterizations of the study,” saying it was terminated early due to low enrollment and was therefore not statistically meaningful.
        • “As such, the study results are inconclusive, though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit for remdesivir, particularly among patients treated early in disease,” the spokesman added.
        • The study does not represent the final word on the matter, and there are several large-scale trials in advanced stages that should soon provide a clearer picture.
        • Remdesivir, which is administered intravenously, was among the first drugs suggested as a treatment for the novel coronavirus and as such has great hopes riding on it. 
        • Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who was not involved in the research, said “the trial was too small in numbers recruited” to detect either benefit or risk.
        • Source:  https://www.courthousenews.com/experimental-virus-drug-remdesivir-failed-in-human-trial/
      • 4/24:  See 3/27 video of Biden Advisor Zeke Emanuel
        • Predicted 100 million US cases by this date (100x growth)
        • Actual US cases on 4/24: 878,974 (10x growth since 3/27)
        • Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20200424000004/https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/  
      • 4/26:  Cuomo Doubles Down on NH Policy
        • “There is no way for us to prevent the spread under these conditions,’’ the head of the Cobble Hill Health Center, Donny Tuchman, wrote in an e-mail to the department on April 8.
        • He said he asked to move some patients to the makeshift wards at Manhattan’s Javits Center and aboard the city-docked USNS Comfort amid the pandemic, only to be told those two spots were receiving only patients from hospitals.
        • “I made specific requests to transfer patients, and it didn’t happen,’’ Tuchman told The Post. “There weren’t options.”
        • Source: https://nypost.com/2020/04/26/cuomo-doubles-down-on-sending-coronavirus-patients-to-nursing-homes/
      • 4/26:  Nancy Pelosi tells Jake Tapper that the travel ban was not strong enough
        • “…if you’re going to shut the door, then shut the door.”
        • See 1/31 Pelosi press release calling the ban “outrageous,” “un-American” and promising to bring forth the “NO BAN ACT.”
        • Source:  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/pelosi-suggests-trumps-china-travel-ban-should-have-shut-the-door-on-american-citizens
      • 4/27:  Statement by Joe Biden
        • We all agree on the need to reopen the economy and allow some semblance of normalcy as soon as possible. The economic pain and suffering are simply too great to delay unnecessarily.
        • Source:  https://joebiden.com/covid19-leadership/
      • 4/27:  Washington Post Runs a Debunked Conspiracy Story for the Sole Purpose of Trying to Damage President Trump
        • U.S. intelligence agencies issued warnings about the novel coronavirus in more than a dozen classified briefings prepared for President Trump in January and February, months during which he continued to play down the threat, according to current and former U.S. officials.
          • This story was refuted on 4/6  https://twitter.com/wjhenn/status/1248045989497311232?s=20
        • Source:  https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/04/28/827136/
      • 4/28:  Sweden records deadliest week of century after resisting lockdowns
        • There were at least 2,505 Swedes who died between April 6 to April 12, amounting to 358 fatalities per day, Swedish outlet The Local reported
        • “The authorities and the government stupidly did not believe that the epidemic would reach Sweden at all,” Bo Lundback, professor of epidemiology at the University of Gothenburg, told the outlet.
        • Sweden has recorded more than 19,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday afternoon, resulting in 2,355 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. By comparison, Sweden’s Nordic neighbors — Denmark, Norway and Finland — have recorded just 434, 206 and 199 deaths, respectively, as of Tuesday afternoon.
        • Source:  https://nypost.com/2020/04/28/sweden-records-deadliest-week-of-century-after-resisting-lockdowns/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
      • 4/29:  Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice
        • The state is about to find out how many people need to lose their lives to shore up the economy.
        • Public-health officials broadly agree that reopening businesses—especially those that require close physical contact—in places where the virus has already spread will kill people. Even so, many other states are quietly considering similar moves to Georgia’s. Most are taking a more measured approach—waiting a bit longer to reopen, setting testing or infection benchmarks that must first be met—but some, such as Oklahoma and Colorado, have already put similar plans in motion. By acting with particular haste in what he calls a crucial move to restore economic stability, 
        • Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georgia-reopening-coronavirus-pandemic/610882/
      • 4/29:  Bloomberg reports that the Trump Administration is working on a program to speed up the development of a vaccine . The program is called “Operation Warp Speed.”  
        • The Trump Administration is working on a program–called Operation Warp Speed–to accelerate the development of a vaccine. Financed by the government, the program brings together private pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and the military to condense the amount of time vaccine development typically requires. 
        • This kind of program has never been done before. Michael Caputo, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human services, says that the president refused to accept the timeline for standard vaccine development. 
        • If successful, vaccines could be available by the end of the year, instead of by next summer.  Source: 4
      • 5/1:  Nevada Health Response Team confirmed cases in December in January
        • “Based on information we have seen from other states, we know there were earlier cases than the first positive reported in Nevada.”
        • https://www.ktnv.com/13-investigates/earlier-coronavirus-timeline-confirmed-in-wake-of-13-investigation
      • 5/1:  Trump says he’s seen evidence that suggests coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.
        • Source:  https://justthenews.com/video/bad-worse-tit-tat-timeline-deteriorating-us-china-relations
      • 5/1:  WHO Blueprint
        • Meghan Mclandes gave an update on the PrEP study among healthcare workers evaluating the prophylactic efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). The research team is also experiencing slow recruitment, due partly to a plateauing of cases, but also to the new perceived safety concerns around hydroxychloroquine. The team would benefit from rapid safety analysis of ongoing studies involving hydroxychloroquine and publication of the outcome to allay fears.
        • Source:  https://www.who.int/who-documents-detail/informal-consultation-on-the-role-of-therapeutics-in-covid-19-prophylaxis-and-post-exposure-prophylaxis—1-may-2020
      • 5/3:  Pompeo reiterated that there is “enormous evidence” the coronavirus outbreak originated in a Chinese lab.
        • Source:  https://justthenews.com/video/bad-worse-tit-tat-timeline-deteriorating-us-china-relations
      • 5/4:  Australia’s Daily Telegraph reports on “5 Eyes” dossier that lays out case against China bat virus program
        • https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/coronavirus/bombshell-dossier-lays-out-case-against-chinese-bat-virus-program/news-story/55add857058731c9c71c0e96ad17da60
      • 5/5:  Top Adviser to Joe Biden Admitted Obama and Biden Botched the H1N1 Response
        • “It is purely a fortuity that this isn’t one of the great mass casualty events in American history,” Ron Klain said of H1N1 in 2019. “It had nothing to do with us doing anything right. It just had to do with luck. If anyone thinks that this can’t happen again, they don’t have to go back to 1918, they just have to go back to 2009, 2010, and imagine a virus with a different lethality, and you can just do the math on that.”
        • The Obama-Biden administration had predicted in the summer of 2009 that they would have 160 million H1N1 vaccine doses by late October but ended up with fewer than 30 million. According to a study by Purdue University scholars, this failure cost lives because the H1N1 vaccine would arrive “too late to help most Americans who will be infected during this flu season.” The study determined that the CDC’s planned vaccination campaign would “likely not have a large effect on the total number of people ultimately infected by the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus.”
        • Even Politico couldn’t deny the facts. “An extensive review of the handling of H1N1, including the examination of public records and congressional testimony, suggests the response was not the panacea portrayed by the Biden camp and its defenders,” they explained. Biden’s role in the response has even been overstated—not just by Biden, but by Barack Obama, who in his endorsement video credited Biden with helping him “manage H1N1” and preventing the Ebola pandemic from spreading.
        • The Obama-Biden response to the Ebola virus was also panned. Obama didn’t mention that it became the worst Ebola outbreak ever recorded, or that The Hill described it as “an anchor threatening to sink the Obama presidency” after both the White House and the CDC said that there were multiple “shortcomings” in the administration’s response. Obama didn’t appoint an Ebola czar to coordinate the administration’s global efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic until seven months after the outbreak began. Ron Klain was ultimately appointed to that position.
        • Source:  https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/05/05/even-joe-bidens-top-adviser-admits-obama-biden-botched-the-h1n1-response-n388144
      • 5/5:  Texas Nursing Home: Media Ignores Good News
        • Dr. Armstrong probably underestimated the percentage of residents he could have lost. We are seeing now that close to 50% of the deaths from the Wuhan Bat Lab Virus have come from nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, close to 40% in Texas alone.
        • However, because of Dr. Armstrong’s decision to put his residents health ahead of political considerations, and taking care to carefully monitor his residents reaction to the drug cocktail, including administering EKGs, only one resident died out of the 56 residents who tested positive. As tragic as that one death, it could have easily been 22.
        • Source:  https://victorygirlsblog.com/texas-nursing-home-media-ignores-good-news/
      • 5/5:  “Covid-19 was already spreading in France in late December 2019, a month before the official first cases in the country,” the team at Groupe Hospitalier Paris Seine in Saint-Denis wrote in a study published Sunday in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.
        • The first official reports of Covid-19 in France were reported on Jan. 24, in two people who had a history of travel to Wuhan, China.
        • Source:  https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/04/health/france-coronavirus-december-death-intl/index.html
      • 5/7:  New York City’s coronavirus outbreak grew so large by early March that it became the primary source of new U.S. infections, new research reveals
        • Source: https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1258418844529496064?s=20
      • 5/7:  Report- Coronavirus may have jumped to humans as early as October, study says
        • Results suggest the global health crisis may have started at some point between October 6 and December 11
        • The findings are based on analysis of more than 7,000 genome sequence assemblies collected from around the world since January. By examining the evolution of the mutations, researchers from University College London and the University of Reunion Island were able to rewind their molecular clocks to a common starting point.
        • Source:  https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3083211/coronavirus-may-have-jumped-humans-early-october-study-says
      • 5/11:  Cuomo refers to COVID-19 as “European” virus  
        • Source:  https://twitter.com/BryanDeanWright/status/1259927178751258624?s=20
        • https://twitter.com/BarstoolNewsN/status/1259920447967244293?s=20
      • 5/14:  Leaked data suggests China may have 640,000 coronavirus cases, not 80,000
        • China’s ruling Communist Party, which has blocked US scientists from coming to the country to study the virus, claims it has seen only 4,633 deaths and 82,929 cases as of Thursday.
        • These figures are considered highly untrustworthy by the international community, with the US now at 85,601 deaths and 1.4 million confirmed cases.
        • Suspicions that China was hiding the true scale of the outbreak were only furthered when state media last week suddenly increased the coronavirus death toll in the city of Wuhan by 50 percent.
        • It’s this information that US health officials have been crying out for to try to understand the nature of the pandemic which began in Wuhan in December. The Chinese government is refusing to share it.
        • “It can serve as a valuable trove of information for epidemiologists and public health experts around the globe — a dataset that Beijing has almost certainly not shared with US officials or doctors,” the Foreign Policy article states.
        • US intelligence agencies have informed the White House that they believe China undercounted its number of infections and deaths, hindering modeling efforts and leading to calls from the international community for a probe into the origins of the outbreak in December.
        • A damning dossier leaked from the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance claimed China deliberately lied to the rest of the world about human-to-human transmission of COVID-19, made whistleblowers disappear, and refused to hand over samples of the virus to scientists in the West so they could make a vaccine.
        • Source: https://nypost.com/2020/05/14/leaked-data-suggests-china-may-have-640k-coronavirus-cases-not-80k/
      • 5/17:  Antibody tests continue to suggest COVID-19 far more widespread, less deadly than initially thought
        • What the tests have shown so far has been, in many cases, astonishing. In New York City, tests indicated that as many as 25 percent of residents had contracted the disease. Around a third of test subjects in Chelsea, Massachusetts tested positive for antibodies, about 16 times more than the known infection rate at the time. Researchers in Miami-Dade County last month said the infection rate there could be 20 times higher than official numbers.
        • These numbers seem to confirm what scientists initially suspected of the virus: it is highly communicable and spreads relatively easily among populations. It also conflicts with earlier assumptions that it is catastrophically fatal to the general population. Unlike the deadliest pandemics in human history, the vast majority of COVID-19 victims appear to be older and sicker individuals, who are also prime targets for regular, seasonal influenza deaths.
        • Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/antibody-tests-continue-suggest-covid-19-far-more-widespread-less
      • 5/18:  Trump’s doctor releases letter that the President is taking HCQ as a prophylaxis 
        • https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/05/19/840264/
      • 5/18:  Neil Cavuto warns of using Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)
        • “I cannot stress enough. This will kill you. So, again, whatever benefits the president says this has, and certainly it has had for those suffering from malaria, dealing with lupus, this is a leap that should not be taken casually by those watching from home or assuming, well the president of the United States says it’s OK,” he said.
        • Cavuto cited a Department of Veterans Affairs study that demonstrated the risks of taking hydroxychloroquine if a patient has respiratory or heart ailments. The study showed patients, who had these conditions and took the drug, died.
        • He also pointed to other studies that showed the drug’s usage had no statistical different result on treating coronavirus.
        • Source:  https://thehill.com/homenews/media/498400-fox-news-cavuto-warns-hydroxychloroquine-will-kill-you-after-trump-announces
      • 5/19:  Joe Biden Claims That Trump Taking Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) Is Just Like Injecting Clorox In Your Veins
        • It’s like saying maybe if you inject Clorox into your blood it may cure you. C’mon, man! What is he doing? What in God’s name is he doing?
        • Source;  https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/05/19/840264/
      • 5/19:  Joe Scarborough declares Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) “will kill you.”
        • Trump “is not taking something his own Administration said will kill you, that his own FDA said will kill you, that the VA said will kill you.”
        • https://thehill.com/homenews/media/498485-scarborough-says-trump-not-taking-antimalaria-drug-warns-against-use-listen-to
      • 5/25:  Following a conference call with Chinese experts on March 18, Costa Rica was the first and only Central American country to immediately adopt hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) against COVID. The resulting divergence of the course of the pandemic grows more spectacular day after day.
        • Source: https://twitter.com/Covid19Crusher/status/1264837406802444288?s=20
      • 5/26:  1st George Floyd Protest
      • 5/26:  WHO temporarily halts Solidarity Trial (HCQ)
        • The announcement follows the publication Friday by the Lancet medical journal of an observational study on hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine and its effects on hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
        • “The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the safety data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
        • He said that more than two months ago, the WHO initiated its “Solidarity Trial” to evaluate the safety and efficacy of four drugs and drug combinations against COVID-19.
        • Lancet:  We were unable to confirm a benefit of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, when used alone or with a macrolide, on in-hospital outcomes for COVID-19. Each of these drug regimens was associated with decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias when used for treatment of COVID-19.
          • Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31180-6/fulltext
        • Source:  https://www.aa.com.tr/en/latest-on-coronavirus-outbreak/who-suspends-hydroxychloroquine-trials-for-covid-19/1853478
      • 5/29:  COVID-19 may have an infection fatality rate as low as 0.26%, a number that is double the seasonal flu but significantly lower than earlier estimates.
        • In early February, modelers at Imperial College London estimated that around 1% of infections of COVID-19 would ultimately result in death. That number, which is about 10 times higher than the seasonal flu, shocked much of the world, including the U.K. government and most of the 50 U.S. state governments, into shutting down major swaths of their economies and placing many of their citizens under strict stay-at-home orders. 
        • the overall fatality rate of infections that show symptoms is around 0.4%. Yet the CDC says it estimates that around 35% of all infectious are asymptomatic, meaning that the total infection fatality rate under the agency’s “best estimate” scenario is around 0.26%, or a little more than twice that of the seasonal flu. 
        • Those numbers, while much lower than the earlier estimates that drove the lockdowns, still represent a significant number of deaths, as well as a significant burden on local healthcare systems that can become overwhelmed by COVID-19.
        • The CDC estimates that as many as 60,000 Americans die of the flu in an average year, meaning—if the agency’s current estimates are correct—the U.S. could still see tens of thousands of more deaths before the fatalities begin to recede. 
        • The disease itself also appears to spread more easily than seasonal influenza, meaning even if COVID-19’s infection fatality rate were equal to that of the flu, the total number of deaths from it would still likely exceed that of influenza simply because it would infect more people.
        • Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/cdc-says-coronavirus-infection-fatality-rate-could-be-low-026-nearly
      • 6/1:  Biden Blames 60k Deaths on Trump Not Shutting US Down ‘A Month Earlier’
        • Source: https://www.mediaite.com/news/biden-blames-60k-deaths-on-trump-not-shutting-us-down-a-month-earlier-forgets-he-held-rallies-through-march-10/
      • 6/2:  Questions raised about data surrounding key Hydroxychloroquine published studies (HCQ)
        • But just as quickly, the Lancet results have begun to unravel—and Surgisphere, which provided patient data for two other high-profile COVID-19 papers, has come under withering online scrutiny from researchers and amateur sleuths. They have pointed out many red flags in the Lancet paper, including the astonishing number of patients involved and details about their demographics and prescribed dosing that seem implausible. “It began to stretch and stretch and stretch credulity,” says Nicholas White, a malaria researcher at Mahidol University in Bangkok.
        • Today, The Lancet issued an Expression of Concern (EOC) saying “important scientific questions have been raised about data” in the paper and noting that “an independent audit of the provenance and validity of the data has been commissioned by the authors not affiliated with Surgisphere and is ongoing, with results expected very shortly.”
        • Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/mysterious-company-s-coronavirus-papers-top-medical-journals-may-be-unraveling
      • 6/2:  Coronavirus ‘Key Information’ Withheld by China, Leak Shows
        • Communist China withheld vital information from the World Health Organization concerning the deadly coronavirus during the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan, according to leaked documents.
        • Confirming what many had suspected, recordings leaked to the Associated Press show that Communist Chinese strongman Xi Jinping’s government “sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome” of the novel coronavirus “for over a week after multiple government labs had fully decoded it.” As a result, health officials at WHO, in the U.S., and around the world were missing “details key to designing tests, drugs and vaccines.”
        • Beijing kept the details of the genome to itself, wasting precious time and lives as the coronavirus went global. According to the AP, the Communist government only released the data after it was leaked to a virology website on January 11. “Even then,” the report states, “China stalled for at least two weeks more on giving WHO the details it needed” to begin the fight against this new coronavirus out of Wuhan.
        • The AP says that “strict controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were largely to blame,” all of which are dysfunctions common to an authoritarian state.
        • The leaked material quotes WHO’s Dr. Gauden Galea is saying, “We’re currently at the stage where yes, they’re giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on [Communist Chinese-run TV network] CCTV.” So Beijing could claim to have given the coronavirus information to WHO that they needed, but certainly not in time for WHO to do anything useful with it.
        • Source: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stephen-green/2020/06/02/coronavirus-key-information-withheld-by-china-leak-shows-n482876  
      • 6/3:  Malaria Drug (HCQ) Promoted by Trump Did Not Prevent Covid Infections, Study Finds 
        • “The take-home message for the general public is that if you’re exposed to someone with Covid-19, hydroxychloroquine is not an effective post-exposure preventive therapy,” the lead author of the study, Dr. David R. Boulware, from the University of Minnesota, said in an interview.
        • Source:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/health/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-trump.html
      • 6/3:  WHO resumes Hydroxychloroquine Studies (HCQ)
        • The WHO last week temporarily suspended the hydroxychloroquine arm after a separate study published in the Lancet raised warnings about the drug’s safety.
        • Like the Lancet study, other observational studies had not found any apparent benefit for the drug in Covid-19. But the Lancet study prompted additional concerns because it found the drug was also associated with higher mortality.
        • Outside experts, however, have since questioned the sources and analysis of the patient data included in the Lancet study, which were provided by a little-known company called Surgisphere. They cited inconsistencies in the data — some of which have since been corrected — and a lack of transparency about which countries and hospitals provided the information.
        • The Lancet study led the WHO to pause the hydroxychloroquine study so the trial’s data safety monitoring board could analyze the results generated so far and see if any safety concerns were apparent.
        • Source: https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/03/who-resuming-hydroxychloroquine-study-for-covid-19/
      • 6/4:  Biden gets fact checked by WAPO, earns 2 Pinocio’s for trying to re-write his own Covid history
        • Nevertheless, in his recent remarks, Biden leaves the impression he had offered more specific plans to combat the virus. He did not say back in January that it was a pandemic, only that it was a possibility. Moreover, he did not specifically call for social-distancing measures as early as March 1 or even March 8, though he implies that he did. Biden earns Two Pinocchios.
        • Source:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/04/how-specific-were-bidens-recommendations-coronavirus/
      • 6/15:  FDA revokes emergency use of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)
        • Based on ongoing analysis and emerging scientific data, FDA has revoked the emergency use authorization (EUA) to use hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19 in certain hospitalized patients when a clinical trial is unavailable or participation is not feasible. 
        • We made this determination based on recent results from a large, randomized clinical trial in hospitalized patients that found these medicines showed no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery. This outcome was consistent with other new data, including those showing the suggested dosing for these medicines are unlikely to kill or inhibit the virus that causes COVID-19.
        • Source: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-cautions-against-use-hydroxychloroquine-or-chloroquine-covid-19-outside-hospital-setting-or 
      • 6/16:  NIH STRONGLY recommends against Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), recommends Remdesivir
        • Source:  https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/antiviral-therapy/
      • 6/28:  Biden Gaffe:  120 MILLION infected with Covid
        • https://nypost.com/2020/06/26/joe-biden-wrongly-says-we-have-120-million-dead-from-covid/
      • 6/20: NIH halts clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)
        • Study shows treatment does no harm, but provides no benefit
        • A clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of adults hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been stopped by the National Institutes of Health. A data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) met late Friday and determined that while there was no harm, the study drug was very unlikely to be beneficial to hospitalized patients with COVID-19. After its fourth interim analysis the DSMB, which regularly monitors the trial, recommended to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of NIH, to stop the study. NHLBI halted the trial immediately.
        • The Outcomes Related to COVID-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine among In-patients with symptomatic Disease study, or ORCHID Study, was being conducted by the Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) Clinical Trials Network of NHLBI. The data from this study indicate that this drug provided no additional benefit compared to placebo control for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients.
        • Source: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-halts-clinical-trial-hydroxychloroquine
      • 7/2:  Modelers were “Astronomically Wrong”
        • During the coronavirus pandemic, experts may have unintentionally brought about one of the most serious human disasters in modern history by removing choice from individuals with superior local knowledge.
        • “We should not blame anyone for acting ferociously…”
        • Risk to those under 65, in many locations, is in the range of driving from home to work.
        • “Numbers suggest the infection fatality rate is likely to be in the same ballpark as seasonal influenza.”
        • https://fee.org/articles/modelers-were-astronomically-wrong-in-covid-19-predictions-says-leading-epidemiologist-and-the-world-is-paying-the-price/
      • 7/2:  WHO quietly changes their timeline
        • The World Health Organization quietly changed its timeline of the coronavirus pandemic’s first days on Tuesday, clarifying that the Chinese Communist Party never informed the organization of the pandemic on December 31, despite previous claims to the contrary.
        • In the new timeline, which the WHO says has been updated “in light of evolving events and new information,” the organization reveals that its Chinese Office “picked up” an online statement — which has since been deleted — made by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission describing cases of “viral pneumonia.” The WHO says it also received open-source intelligence suggesting there was “pneumonia of unknown cause” in Wuhan.
        • The additions clarify the WHO’s previous timeline, which simply stated that on December 31, “Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan” — implying the report was made to the WHO. In its initial report on the outbreak, the WHO said its China office “was informed” of the unknown pneumonia cases, without clarifying that the information was not provided by the Chinese Communist Party.
        • https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/29-06-2020-covidtimeline
        • Source:  https://www.nationalreview.com/news/who-quietly-changes-covid-timeline-following-republican-questioning/
      • 7/2:  Biden’s blasting of Trump gets fact checked
        • “Without a uniformed plan and guidance from the federal government that state and local leaders can use to inform their reopening plans,” Biden said, “it’s just going to continue to be worse than it would have been otherwise.”
          • Facts First: While not mandatory, the administration has released guidance and criteria for states to reopen.
        • “Our health care workers are still rationing personal protective equipment,” he said.
          • Facts First: It’s true that some hospitals and health care workers are having to ration or use alternatives to PPE because of shortages.
          • Requires Congressional Appropriations:  Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday afternoon that “the issue of PPE — personal protection equipment — is back front and center.”
        • During the speech, Biden said “has (Trump) done anything, anything real to prioritize support for working Americans who need help now?”
          • Facts First: Trump has signed legislation aimed to help working Americans, though it’s unclear what Biden means by “prioritize support.”
        • Biden also said that Trump and Republicans “dole out taxpayer money to big corporations with zero accountability.”
          • Facts First: While it’s unclear what funds Biden is specifically referencing, there have been red flags when it comes to oversight on funds from the CARES Act.
          • “zero accountability” is an overstatement..
        • Criticizing the administration’s response to coronavirus, Biden asked whether Trump has “even once expressed any real empathy for those families who will never again be whole because of this virus.”
          • Facts First: Though we can’t fact check how “real” his empathy has been, Trump has expressed condolences for the families of those lost to coronavirus more than once.
        • “Has Donald Trump even acknowledged the disproportionate impact this disease is having on black, brown and Native American communities?” Biden said. “You know the answer. Of course not.”
          • Facts First: Although Biden could argue the President could do more, Trump has acknowledged the disproportionate impact coronavirus has had on Black and brown communities in the US. He has also made an effort to engage with some Native American communities as the virus continues to spread
        • Source:  https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/03/politics/joe-biden-attacks-donald-trump-on-coronavirus-fact-check/index.html
      • 7/2:  The Biden Covid plan
        • “Insist” people wear masks.
        • With Biden in office, you won’t see politicalization you see today.  
        • No estimate of cost
        • Most if not all of his plan would require Congress
        • Source: https://www.axios.com/joe-biden-coronavirus-response-52072778-bd60-4657-af48-32cf0dd567dc.html
      • 7/2:  Coronavirus:  Why everyone was wrong
        • Assumption that there was no immunity
        • “The immune response against the virus is much stronger than we thought.”
        • Source:  http://archive.is/8rLzi#selection-359.127-359.198
      • 7/2:  Treatment with Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) Cut Death Rate Significantly in COVID-19 Patients, Henry Ford Health System Study Shows
        • In a large-scale retrospective analysis of 2,541 patients hospitalized between March 10 and May 2, 2020 across the system’s six hospitals, the study found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. None of the patients had documented serious heart abnormalities; however, patients were monitored for a heart condition routinely pointed to as a reason to avoid the drug as a treatment for COVID-19. 
        • The vast majority received the drug soon after admission; 82% within 24 hours and 91% within 48 hours of admission. All patients in the study were 18 or over with a median age of 64 years; 51% were men and 56% African American.
        • “We attribute our findings that differ from other studies to early treatment, and part of a combination of interventions that were done in supportive care of patients, including careful cardiac monitoring. Our dosing also differed from other studies not showing a benefit of the drug. And other studies are either not peer reviewed, have limited numbers of patients, different patient populations or other differences from our patients.” 
        • “Our analysis shows that using hydroxychloroquine helped saves lives,” said neurosurgeon Dr. Steven Kalkanis, CEO, Henry Ford Medical Group and Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer of Henry Ford Health System
        • Source:  https://www.henryford.com/news/2020/07/hydro-treatment-study
      • 7/4:  Man infected for second time
        • He said this recent infection is much worse than the one he had in March, calling the first one “Corona Lite” and the recent one “Corona Extra.”
        • Source:  https://www.foxla.com/news/koreatown-man-reinfected-with-covid-19-after-attending-several-protests
      • 7/5:  Miami-Dade Mayor Says Protests ‘Had a Lot to Do With’ COVID-19 Surge in Florida
        • “I think it’s all the above. I think obviously the protests had a lot to do with it,” Gimenez said. “We had, you know, thousands of young people together outside, a lot of them not wearing masks. And we know when you do that, and you are talking, and you are chanting, etc., that really spreads the virus.”
        • “So absolutely, the protests had something to do with it,” Gimenez continued. “But also our people, our residents, did not—I think they let their guard down and started to socialize. And again, that also has to do with it. So it’s all the above. I’m not saying it’s just that, but it was a contributing factor.”
        • Source:  https://www.theepochtimes.com/miami-dade-mayor-says-protests-had-a-lot-to-do-with-covid-19-surge-in-florida_3412741.html?utm_source=CCPVirusNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020-07-06
      • 7/5:  Experts believe the virus is airborne
        • In an open letter to the agency, which the researchers plan to publish in a scientific journal next week, 239 scientists in 32 countries outlined the evidence showing smaller particles can infect people, the NYT said nyti.ms/2VIxp67.
        • Source:  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-airborne/hundreds-of-scientists-say-coronavirus-is-airborne-ask-who-to-revise-recommendations-nyt-idUSKBN2460O7

      MAJOR SOURCES

      • SOURCE 1:    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/#timeline
      • SOURCE 2:    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/from-new-york-to-canada-to-the-white-house-initial-coronavirus-responses-havent-aged-well
      • SOURCE 3:    https://www.axios.com/timeline-the-early-days-of-chinas-coronavirus-outbreak-and-cover-up-ee65211a-afb6-4641-97b8-353718a5faab.html
      • SOURCE 4:    https://www.justsecurity.org/69650/timeline-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-u-s-response/
      • SOURCE 5:     https://twitter.com/Justsaytruthnow/status/1251608121451085826?s=20
      • SOURCE 6:    https://www.donaldjtrump.com/media/timeline-the-trump-administrations-decisive-actions-to-combat-the-coronavirus/
      • SOURCE 7:  https://www.victimsofcommunism.org/sb/chinese-communist-party-world-health-organization-culpability-in-coronavirus-pandemic
        • Twitter thread compiling timeline data by subject matter as presented by Source 7.  https://threader.app/thread/1255139800253788160
      • Source 8: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/coronavirus/bombshell-dossier-lays-out-case-against-chinese-bat-virus-program/news-story/55add857058731c9c71c0e96ad17da60
      • Source 9:  https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/24/new-hhs-documents-show-the-wall-street-journal-missed-the-real-story-in-its-azar-hit-piece/
      • Source 10:  https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/05/18/the-real-coronavirus-timeline-liberals-dont-want-you-to-see-n400638

Editor’s Note: It’s odd that with mainstream media’s vast resources, nobody has put together a timeline as comprehensive and accurate as this one. One might speculate that they’re trying to keep us as uninformed as possible.

COVID-19 may take down an independent news outlet

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