coronavirus and bio-warfare blues

while we anxiously await and pray for an end to this global health threat, and while we continue to thank our lucky stars for just three (3) confirmed cases here in the philippines (one dead, two recovered), i can’t help but wonder why the number is so low, parang himala, considering the many mainland chinese, both tourists and workers, licit and illicit, who had been streaming in and out of our shores and airports long before and during the wuhan outbreak, all through december and january, that stopped only when our macho president got scared enough and found the balls to choose his people over bff xi. 

i also hear that in some places in the metro, shops and restaurants catering to chinese-only have closed down, and the many chinese in the streets and malls have disappeared or trickled down to a masked few; they have also reportedly disappeared from some condos. nasaan sila, saan sila nagpunta. on the other hand, says a twitter friend, things are the same-as-usual in other areas: their shuttles and morning and evening roll call/attendance as before in different places in metro.

who knows what’s really going on. if you ask senate prez sotto, it’s all about biowarfare being waged against china by the U.S. and the west, which he said he found “somehow very interesting, if not relieving.” i’m not sure why he found it relieving–perhaps because he thinks it means that the biowarfare is only between china and the west, labas ang pinas diyan? DUH. watch him and the video in the feb4 senate hearing. and stay for secretary teddy locsin’s retort to the senate prez:

LOCSIN. This is an example of the craziest video I have ever seen. It is also a validation of a joke I used to make about North Korea. North Korea kept announcing that we are the greatest power on earth because we are exploding atomic bombs inside North Korea. I said, at the rate North Korea is going, there will be nothing left of North Korea.

Now in this video there are the suspects. China, inflicting it on itself. 99 percent of all infections are Chinese. Now why would they do that. Maybe the plan is for China to create a virus so strong they would first test it on themselves, and when they are all dead, they will spread it to other countries.

Second suspect, US. The US has done this because they can send it across the ocean into Wuhan and kill the Chinese. But then, later on, the other suspects are Canada… at any rate it can also spread to the United States and Europe. Again this is a plot of the United States and the West to destroy China by first destroying itself. This is really ___ [grabe?].   

not that it’s a laughing matter. indeed the global powers-that-be are all into biological weapons research and development, especially since 9-11, and maybe china just got careless, alas. sharing here prof. floro quibuyen’s facebook status on the corona outbreak that reminds of, brings back, the biowarfare angle, to no one’s relief. 

QUIBUYEN: Coronavirus outbreak: two perspectives not being discussed in the media. One is from Prof. Francis Boyle. I’ll start with Prof. Boyle’s: Wuhan Coronavirus is an Offensive Biological Warfare Weapon.

• it appears the coronavirus that we’re dealing with here is an offensive biological warfare weapon that leaped out of Wuhan BSL-4 [lab]. I’m not saying it was done deliberately. But there had been previous reports of problems with that lab and things leaking out of it. I’m afraid that is what we are dealing with today.
• All these BSL-4 labs are by United States, Europe, Russia, China, Israel are all there to research, develop, test biological warfare agents.
• The Bill & Melinda Gates information, they fund this type of DNA genetically engineered biological warfare work.

The other is from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientsts. Coronavirus or antibiotic resistance: Our appetite for animals (wild and domestic) poses big disease risks by Laura H. Kahn,

better paranoid, and medyo safe, than sorry.

Ideas, seismic activity, dinner, and the CCP

By Marian Pastor Roces

THE OUTRAGE spiked social Geiger counters. The Imelda Marcos re-appearance at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), upon the invitation of its Board to be honored as founder, set off rumblings at a time of heightened seismic activity. Even if low intensity, the bubbling-over is as much produced by pent-up steam as Taal’s.

Read on…

ang taal

credits to jenifer aquino on facebook.

praying for a taal miracle

i’m actually surprised that there are no prayer brigades storming the heavens for a miracle that would end the volcano’s level 4 eruption, as well as the  earthquakes and fissures that signify magmatic activity that could escalate into a lethal explosion of level 5 proportions.  

but wait, just found this. Cardinal Tagle urges Filipinos to include Taal Volcano eruption victims in prayers. according to a january 13 circular:

In solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are affected by the eruption of Taal Volcano Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle requests that a second collection be taken at all Masses from the evening of Saturday, January 18 and the whole day of Sunday, Janurary 19.

…We also encourage that intention that the eruptions may end and that all may be safe be included in the Prayer of the Faithful of all our Masses.

rather cryptic and hardly inspiring. but thanks na rin for the second collection (sana the first also) for the taal victims, and yes let’s pray for their safety, but how about praying even harder for taal — lord, let the magma subside, the eruptions end — which would take a miracle, yes, and where else to turn for a miracle, who else to lead prayers for a miracle, for maximum effect, before things get worse.

it would take a lot of faith of course, because we know that not all prayers are granted, but let’s give it a shot, why not. we have more to lose than we’ve already lost and continue to lose, across all classes and sectors, including religious orders that have retreat houses in tagaytay and, of course, the altas of forbes and dasma and the new-rich for whom a resthouse or hideaway with a view of the crater lake had become a status symbol.  

but never mind. baka naman everyone’s already praying hard. what’s important is that we’re all on the same page, praying for the same thing: for taal to calm down. hindi na sana mag-level 5, because that would be catastrophic for quite a major chunk of luzon.  

i guess we thought taal volcano would accommodate us forever just because her last eruptions were rather mild and subdued. and so we thoughtlessly fearlessly took over her slopes, and developed developed developed all the way to the top, the more spectacular the view of the lake, the higher the returns, ka-ching!

the babaylans and shamans say that the gods are angry and need placating, perhaps with a promise to show a little more respect for the volcano, keep our distance, so to speak, and perhaps with a living sacrifice tossed in for good measure, why not indeed.

the scientists are more circumspect but saying essentially the same thing, that we have trifled with, messed up, the unique ecology of a killer volcano, we refused to heed warnings of danger to come, and now we pay the price.