Periodically, petitions containing the signatures of "scientists" who are sceptical of human-induced global warming emerge, which seek to counter the views of climate scientists.

Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly highlighted one such recent petition on Facebook in October.

"WHY ARE THEY IGNORING 500 SCIENTISTS & PROFESSIONALS?" Mr Kelly's post began, which reproduced in full a petition known as the European Climate Declaration, declaring there is "no climate emergency".

Mr Kelly went on to say that Labor "denied the science and joined the climate crazies declaring a 'climate emergency'".

A letter to the UN Secretary General which accompanied the petition introduced the signatories as "knowledgeable and experienced scientists and professionals in climate and related fields".

Australia's representative, Viv Forbes, has been writing sceptical articles for over a decade. He is the administrator of long-running climate sceptic blog Carbon Sense.

He is also the executive director of climate sceptic organisation the Saltbush Club, which was constituted in November 2018 to "change the climate of public opinion, thus changing the political agenda".

A document listing  the "founding members" of the Saltbush Club, says of Mr Forbes:

"He has spent his working life in the resource and pastoral industries of northern Australia, for five years as a government field geologist and then in private industry.

He has held almost every job from rouseabout and field assistant to Financial Analysis Manager to Chairman of the board, in metals, oil, gas and coal, and focused on feasibility studies, investment analysis, mine development, lecturing and writing.

He has been self-employed for about 35 years."

Guus Berkhout, from the Netherlands, is one of the founders of climate sceptic organisation, Clintel, which was founded this year and is the progenitor of the petition.

On his website, Mr Berkout lists professional experience as a professor of geophysics at TU Delft, ending in 2016. His biography also details his time working for petroleum company Shell in the 1960s and 1970s.

There are a number of notable Australians listed in the petition, including:

• Jeremy K. Ellis, former chairman of mining company BHP
• Hugh Morgan, former CEO of Western Mining Corporation
• Ian Plimer, an academic geologist who is a prominent climate sceptic
• Peter Ridd, a former professor at James Cook University
• Des Moore, a former deputy secretary of the Federal Treasury

The petition can be read in full below, including the full list of 75 Australian names.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-27/who-are--scientists-professionals...

Amazing... I did not spot Jo Nova on the list...

Read also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33287

In Hubei Province, China, where the ‘new’ virus was first diagnosed, and where the vast majority of the cases have occurred, it’s no longer considered necessary to test for the presence of CV antibodies before diagnosing the disease.

Let’s say that again. 

The epicentre of the so-called new virus outbreak is currently diagnosing new cases of the disease without testing for the virus.

Instead they are relying on ‘clinical diagnosis’, which is defined as [our emphasis]:

The estimated identification of the disease underlying a patient’s complaints based merely on signs, symptoms and medical history of the patient rather than on laboratory examination or medical imaging.

Which means physicians look at presenting symptoms and make a guess on what is causing them.

Now if you’re talking about something like Smallpox that option can make some sense – because Smallpox presents with one very distinct clinical feature – a recognisable rash – that makes it fairly easy to distinguish from other viral agents or other disease processes.

But the ‘new’ coronavirus does not do that. In fact, symptoms of the ‘new’ CV are exactly like symptoms of the numerous ‘old’ CVs, and indeed of the common cold or flu. Cough, fever, malaise, upper respiratory tract inflammation and (in severe cases) lung involvement – up to and including full-blown pneumonia.

The only way to differentiate a case of ‘new’ CV from severe regular flu, viral pneumonia or even environmental lung disease, is by testing for antibodies. If they aren’t doing this, physicians in Hubei Province are now at grave risk of essentially diagnosing every single case of pneumonia or lung inflammation they see as the new CV.

Which goes quite a long way to explaining the sudden increase in cases [our emphasis]:

China’s Hubei province reported an additional 242 deaths and 14,840 new cases as of Feb. 12 — a sharp increase from the previous day. The province said it is starting to include “clinically diagnosed” cases in its figures and that 13,332 of the new cases fall under that classification.

By CNBC’s figures, fully 89% of the “new cases” reported in Hubei province have never been tested for the virus.

According to Our World in Data, roughly 180,000 people die of pneumonia in China every year. Under this new system, all of those people could be diagnosed with coronavirus.

Further, “signs of pneumonia” don’t have to be a sign of any disease at all. Pneumonic symptoms can come simply as the result of being exposed to a heavily polluted air, something very common in China’s densely populated urban centres.

A major question here has to be – why? Why take a step that inevitably increases the number of false positives? Why intentionally inflate the apparent caseload? What rational benefit can there be in that?

Is it some form of hyper-caution? They would rather throw the net too wide than risk missing cases? 

Or is it, as Jon Rappoport suggests, a cynical bid to drive up the numbers in pursuit of ever-valuable fear porn?

That this alleged outbreak is being used to promote fear as a backing for a number of control-based agendas is undeniable, and we have already pointed this out in previous articles (not to mention the financial aspect). The simple truth is that the reality of this ‘new’ virus, even as defined by those promoting panic, does not merit the fear being sold to us on its behalf.

Here are some stats for you, compiled by Kit Knightly.

• There currently 80,348 cases, or 0.0011% of the global population.
• Over 77,000 (97%) cases, and 2664 deaths (98%) are from China, and a large portion of those were “clinically diagnosed” (ie. untested).
• The 2707 deaths (allegedly) due to Coronavirus mean it has death rate of just 3.4%. (For cases outside China, that number drops to 1.6%)
• Conversely, over 40,000 cases are considered mild, and over 27,000 have been cured.

For the sake of further reassurance, study these tables:

Essentially, unless you are either elderly or already sick, there’s very little chance you are in danger. 

On what rational basis can a disease with this profile possibly justify the government and media response worldwide? Are we really approaching a “tipping point”? Does this sound like a “public health emergency”?

Why is Italy going into lockdown and granting itself “emergency powers” based on seven deaths from a disease with a mortality rate about the same as severe regular flu?

Why has the UK government granted itself similar powers based on a disease that has infected only 13 citizens, 8 of whom are already recovered?

Why are hotels and cruise ships being quarantined?

Some (including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo) are claiming the disease is being under-reported by China (and Iran), and the panic is a response to much more alarming but hidden statistics. 

Well, that is possible of course. But similar claims were made about SARS, Swine Flu and all the other non-event overhyped ‘death bugs’ we have been told about in recent times. 

At this stage, it might seem more likely that ‘new CV’ is just another one of these. The latest scare tactic being used to close down rational thinking in the world populace and normalise increased government control. 

That the Chinese government might be party to any such idea might seem unthinkable to those who like their geopolitics simple and binary, but can’t be rationally excluded. 

Time will tell of course. But if – as we consider overwhelmingly likely – this ‘new’ scare bug turns out to have been as overhyped as all the rest, maybe those panicking in our comments and elsewhere will learn a valuable lesson, and decline to play along with this particular sick little game next time?

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2020/02/25/coronavirus-hysteria-reaches-tipping...

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As the impact of the coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc on the world’s economy, the problem for Australia is that it has come at a time when our government has been more worried about the budget surplus than the actual economy. And now with the surplus almost certainly gone, the weak domestic economy is laid bare for all to see.

On Tuesday the prime minister, treasurer and health minister all fronted the media to deliver the bad news about the impact of Covid-19. For Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison the impact on the economy was just as important to highlight as that of the health concerns.

For a government that has placed so much store in achieving a budget surplus, the news was not good, but for the broader economy the news was worse.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2020/feb/26/the-coaliti...

And let's not forget the Insurance Industry...  Imagine people who are detained on ships and hospital with no disease to show for, having to be compensated for the inconvenience... In Europe, such insurance damage is palpable and the industry is ropable... Read from top.

“THE ART OF WAR”

The Fear Virus Pandemic

by Manlio Dinucci

The exaggeration of the dangerousness of the coronavirus compared to other diseases and the preparation of the response of the main actors two months before the epidemic leave one stunned. It is not possible to draw any conclusions at this time.

Given that the coronavirus should not be undervalued and that the 10 preventive rules of the Ministry of Health should be followed, an 11th fundamental rule must be adopted: To prevent the spread of the fear virus. It is spread mainly through television, starting with the Rai, which devotes the news almost entirely to the coronavirus. The fear virus thus penetrates every household through the TV channels.

While they raise the greatest alarm for the coronavirus, they hide the fact that seasonal flu, a much more deadly epidemic, has caused in Italy during the 6th week of 2020 - according to the Higher Institute of Health - an average of 217 deaths per day, also due to pulmonary and cardiovascular complications related to the flu. They hide the fact that -according to the World Health Organization- more than 700 people die in Italy in one year from HIV/Aids (an average of two a day), out of a world total of about 770,000.

Regarding the alarmist campaign on the coronavirus, Maria Rita Gismondo - director of clinical macrobiology, virology and bio-emergency diagnostics at the laboratory of the Sacco Hospital in Milan, where samples of possible contagions are analyzed - says: "It’s madness. We’ve turned an infection that is little more serious than influenza into a lethal pandemic. Look at the numbers. It’s not a pandemic". But her scientific voice does not reach the general public, while every day, from the Rai service, which should be public, to the Mediaset channels, and not only, Italians are spreading fear among Italians about "the deadly virus that is spreading from China to the world". A campaign in fact corresponding to what US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in an interview with Fox Business: "I think that the coronavirus will contribute to the return of jobs from China to the USA. In China there was first SARS, then swine fever and now coronavirus. So, comments the New York Times, "China’s loss could be America’s gain. In other words, the virus could have a destructive impact on the Chinese economy and, in a chain reaction, on the economies of the rest of Asia, Europe and Russia, already affected by the fall in trade and tourism flows, to the benefit of the economically unscathed USA.

Global Research, the research centre on globalization headed by Professor Michel Chossudovsky, is publishing a series of articles by international experts on the origin of the virus. They argue that "it cannot be excluded that the virus was created in a laboratory". This hypothesis cannot be regarded as "conspiracy" and exorcised as such. Why not? Because the United States, Russia, China and other major powers have laboratories where research is conducted on viruses that, when modified, can be used as biological warfare agents, including on targeted sectors of the population. This is an area surrounded by the greatest secrecy, often under the guise of civilian scientific research.

But some facts are emerging: the presence in Wuhan of a bio-laboratory where Chinese scientists, in collaboration with France, conduct research on lethal viruses, including some sent by the Canadian Microbiology Laboratory. In July 2015, the British government’s Pirbright Institute patented an "attenuated coronavirus" in the USA. In October 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security conducted a coronavirus pandemic simulation in New York City, forecasting a scenario that, if it became a reality, would result in 65 million deaths [1]. But we are not simulating the pandemic of the fear virus, which is spreading with destructive socio-economic effects.

Manlio Dinucci

Translation 

Roger Lagassé

Source 

Il Manifesto (Italy)

Read more:

https://www.voltairenet.org/article209342.html

First aid for the red zone and for tourism

Andrea Colombo

Taxes suspended until April 30 in crisis areas and throughout Italy for the tourism sector. Mattarella: stop irrational fears (stop a paure irrazionali)...

https://ilmanifesto.it/edizione/il-manifesto-del-29-02-2020/

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