One of the very good things to come from this coronavirus crisis has been that people have got a taste of what immigration restriction is like, and it is like a breeze of fresh air, clean as the city air at evening, without so many cars:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/13/ipsos-poll-nearly-8-in-10-americans-want-immigration-moratorium-for-u-s/

“Almost 8-in-10 Americans want immigration to the United States paused during the Chinese coronavirus crisis as unemployment reaches record levels, a new poll reveals. A newly released Ipsos poll finds Americans are almost totally unified in their support for pausing immigration in the midst of the coronavirus crisis and mass unemployment. Overall, about 79 percent of American adults said they want immigration temporarily paused to the U.S. — a policy far beyond just the travel bans that have been implemented on Chinese, Iranian, and European travel to the country by President Trump’s administration. Support for an immigration moratorium has increased in recent weeks. In early March, when Americans were asked about their support for pausing immigration from high-risk countries, about 76 percent said they supported a pause. Similarly, 70 percent of Americans said they support grounding all international flights to the U.S. to stop foreign travel into the country while the coronavirus continues taking its toll on major cities like New York City, New York; Detroit, Michigan; and New Orleans, Louisiana. In early March, just 39 percent of Americans said they supported grounding all international flights — indicating a 31 percent increase in support for grounding all international flights to the U.S. over the course of four weeks. As Breitbart News chronicled, pauses on immigration are not unprecedented. To the contrary, the U.S. has historically cut all immigration in times of crisis and mass unemployment.”

     Poor globalist cosmopolitan socialists, eternally wanting open borders, and regularly ranting and raving in street protests. But times have changed, not all totally bad, there are a few diamonds in the rough, as they come unstuck:
  https://www.sbs.com.au/news/melbourne-refugee-protesters-fined-43-000-for-breaching-coronavirus-rules?cid=news%3Asocialshare%3Afacebook&cx_cid=edm%3Anewswe%3A2019&fbclid=IwAR3jJXJQznsEhi-UUBThkH9WZXVP8H9KXgx6GhOXxyHt_yCx2aQyZKDioyI

“Victoria Police has arrested one man and fined 26 others in excess of $40,000 for breaching a coronavirus stay at home order after a car cavalcade protest called for the release of refugees in Melbourne. Victoria Police has arrested one refugee advocate and fined dozens of others a total of $43,000 for breaching coronavirus stay at home orders by conducting a protest outside a Melbourne hotel housing refugees and asylum seekers. The protesters on Friday formed a car motorcade to protest the situation faced by the men inside the Mantra Hotel in the northern Melbourne suburb of Preston, where they say the men are in danger of contracting COVID-19. The men inside the hotel have themselves been protesting their crowded conditions and what they say is a lack of personal hygiene supplies, such as hand sanitiser. Protest organisers said the demonstration was done in cars so that all protesters maintained their required social distance at all times.”

15 April 2020

    PM Morrison warns of health risks from China’s wet markets. He should also check Wuhan virus labs. And cull fruit bats in Australia. Many Australian towns and parks are infected by millions of messy, noisy fruit bats that can carry three viruses dangerous to animals and humans – Hendra-virus (flu etc), Lyssa-virus (like rabies) and Nipah-virus (encephalitis). These bats wear Green “Protected Species” badges, but unprotected humans are exposed to their noise, smell, droppings, virus dangers and damage to trees and orchards. Do we want the next world plague to be called “The Oz-Bat Epidemic?

     Storms have wrecked homes a plenty here in the American south, but I am ok, and my extensive black rifle semi-auto firearms collection (all legal here in Florida) are fine to, thanks for asking:
  https://weather.com/storms/tornado/news/2020-04-13-tornadoes-storms-impacts-south-carolina-georgia-mississippi-arkansas

“At least 33 people were killed as a tornado outbreak slashed across the South on Sunday and Monday, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses and leaving numerous towns with widespread, severe damage. There were more than 60 reports of tornadoes as the storms that began on Easter Sunday tore a deadly and destructive path from Texas and Arkansas, across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia and into the Carolinas and Tennessee. More than 1 million homes and businesses lost power as a result of the outbreak, according to poweroutage.us. On Monday, outages were the most significant in North and South Carolina, where nearly half a million customers had no electricity Monday morning, but every state from Texas to the mid-Atlantic was affected. High winds were responsible for outages in many areas not affected by tornadoes.”

     Just imagine if some group of white racists had raped tens of thousands, if not a million non-white girls. Why, rightly, the sky would fall. But when the roles are reversed, the rape victims are just told to lay back and think of multiculturalism, literally:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/11/labours-new-leader-promotes-abused-girls-need-shut-their-mouths-good-of-diversity-mp-community-cohesion/

“The Labour Party’s new leader has appointed an MP who shared a tweet stating “Those abused girls in Rotherham and elsewhere just need to shut their mouths. For the good of diversity” as Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion. Naseem ‘Naz’ Shah, the British-Pakistani Labour MP for Bradford West, sparked outrage when she shared the tweet — which she said was “a genuine accident”, although she also “liked” it — in 2017, with tens of thousands of people signing a petition demanding her resignation. She did not resign — indeed, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn actually promoted her to a frontbench role as Shadow Minister of State for Women and Equalities in his Shadow Cabinet the following year. Now Corbyn’s successor Sir Keir Starmer, the devoted anti-Brexiteer hailed by many left-liberals as a “moderate” who can drag Labour back to the so-called “centre ground” of British politics, has also shown favour to Shah, appointing her to the newly created post of Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion.”

     Writing about science issues from a Right-wing fringe dweller position, and proud of it (I have it on a T-shirt), one becomes suspicious of all scientific expert claims, early in the game. Consider all points of view but maintain cautious scepticism at all times.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8221041/America-Europe-hit-FOUR-waves-coronavirus-expert-warns.html

“America and Europe could be hit by up to four waves of coronavirus if it is allowed to ravage Africa, a WHO expert has warned. Director of the World Health Organisations's Center on Public Health and Human Rights, Professor Lawrence Gostin warned that if Covid-19 gets 'out of control' in African countries, Europe and the US could see second, third and even fourth waves of the illness. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday, Professor Gostin said: 'Covid-19 is about to march through sub-Saharan Africa and perhaps the Indian subcontinent like an avalanche. 'Even if the United States and Europe were to get their Covid epidemics under control, if you've got Covid rages in other parts of the world, in this interconnected society we live in, it will come back to Europe and the United States. 'And in fact I could predict that if it gets out of control in these lower income countries that we will see in the US and Europe a second, and a third wave, and even a fourth wave of Covid. 'So we're truly only as safe as the weakest link in the global chain.'”

     Here is important information, not publicised in the mainstream media: a Facebook coronavirus fact checker worked in the Wuhan virus lab, which the US authorities are investigating as ground zero in the coronavirus pandemic. Well, that’s objectivity for you!
  https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/04/16/facebook-coronavirus-fact-checker-worked-with-wuhan-virus-lab/

“Facebook is relying on a “fact checker” that uses “expert opinion” from a researcher who conducted projects with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the biolab next to the wet market in Wuhan where the Chinese virus originated. An article from the “expert,” Danielle E. Anderson, an assistant professor at Duke-NUS medical school, was used by Facebook to fact-check a video from the Epoch Times suggesting the Institute, which is located at the original epicenter of the now-global pandemic, as one of the possible origin points. This is not a fringe claim — CNN reports that the U.S. intelligence community is currently investigating the same laboratory as the possible source of the outbreak. The same thread of investigation that got ZeroHedge banned from Twitter in late January is now being looked at by the U.S. government and reported on by the mainstream media. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the intelligence community is taking a “hard look” at the question of whether the Chinese virus originated in a lab.”

     At last, according to this article, the coronavirus fatality rate is lower that expected, and closely approximates that of the flu:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/13/study-coronavirus-fatality-rate-lower-than-expected-close-to-flus-0-1/
  https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/11/why-a-study-showing-that-covid-19-is-everywhere-is-good-news

“The fatal and highly contagious novel coronavirus has spread faster but is less deadly than official data imply, the Economist magazine reported over the weekend, citing a new study. On Saturday, the Economist reported that the fact that the illness caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread across the United States could be “good news.” “If millions of people were infected weeks ago without dying, the virus must be less deadly than official data suggest,” the magazine determined, using graphs to suggest the faster the disease spreads and hits its peak, the fewer people will die. The Economist article cited a new study by Justin Silverman and Alex Washburne that used data on influenza-like illness (ili) to show that the coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) is now widespread in America. Silverman and Washburne found that the coronavirus mortality rate could be as low as 0.1 percent, “similar to that of flu.”

     I found this little gem at survival blog.com:
  https://survivalblog.com/editors-quote-day-1044/
  http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=545

It got me thinking, something I rarely do, but it happens. If everyone is locked down, where exactly does herd immunity come into play, because won’t people need to get the corona disease, have their immune system fight it, then when a large number of people do this, the bug dies off. If everybody is locked down and thus insulated, what is to prevent further outbreaks occurring, maybe forever? I do not know. “I previously touched on how herd immunity works--after enough people develop antibodies, the rate of infection slows and for certain strains may go almost dormant. Viruses of this type are constantly evolving. There may already be 8 variants of this strain. So, to get herd immunity, PEOPLE HAVE TO GET THE DISEASE. You can't develop immunity by not being exposed. See: First Contact with the New World. (and see my preceding blog post.)  We'll be back to that in a moment. Since we know the elderly and immune compromised and especially both, and with underlying health issues are at risk, those people should be staying inside. EVERYONE ELSE needs to get outside and get exposed, most with zero symptoms, recover, and be immune, so as to minimize transference later. YOU CANNOT STOP THIS TYPE OF VIRUS. The shrieking Karens screaming "GOVERNOR, SHUT THIS STATE DOWN!" are complete idiots.  Back to the New World:  63 days across the ocean is long enough for an entire crew to have a viral infection (cold or flu) and get over it, and have antibodies and not get sick again. …If you all come out now, a bunch of you are going to get sick.  If you hold off until May 1, even more of you are going to get sick, and we'll be in the worst economic depression the world has ever known due to a complete lack of engaging in economy. If you all hide until September, you're STILL going to get sick, and at the worst time of year for it--October-December, just like the flu and other colds. More people will die on top of everyone who's starving to death because we will have literally no economy left. (And I realize idiots don't believe this is true, even though in just two weeks we've gone from 3% unemployment to 10%. It'll be 20% by next week, and likely hit 40% by the end of April, if we don't stop the stupidity right now.)”

     Is everybody enjoying the madness and chaos as much as your ever-loving dysfunctional Uncle Len? Why, even my cockroaches, with whom I share my luxury abode of the shed of life in which I live, keep their distance from me. We all keep in different areas of the sheds, glaring at each other until we get bored, or hungry, or need to pee. Anyway, I digress even before getting to my topic to digress from, which must be some sort of record, even for me:
  https://saraacarter.com/covid19-harvard-study-warns-intermittent-periods-of-social-distancing-until-2022/?utm_source=izooto&utm_medium=push_notifications&utm_campaign=harvard&utm_content=&utm_term=

“A new Harvard study released Tuesday on the novel coronavirus is evoking a feeling of disbelief at the possibility that strict social distancing measures may be required to combat the disease for years to come. Well, at least it is for me. Look at the study below and ask yourself, can you socially distance for years in an effort to fight this virus if no vaccine or therapeutic treatment works? The new modeling study warns that ‘intermittent’ periods of social distancing may be required until the year 2022 in the United States, in order to combat any surge in the virus that could overwhelm the health care system. “To avoid this, prolonged or intermittent social distancing may be necessary into 2022,” states the studies abstract. “Additional interventions, including expanded critical care capacity and an effective therapeutic, would improve the success of intermittent distancing and hasten the acquisition of herd immunity. Longitudinal serological studies are urgently needed to determine the extent and duration of immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Even in the event of apparent elimination, SARS-CoV-2 surveillance should be maintained since a resurgence in contagion could be possible as late as 2024.”

     With all the terrifying news, how about something old school and wholesome for a change? Not that there is much of this, but the little I find I report, and I would rather be doing this in a better world than my present “day job,” but it is, what it is:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8229013/Mother-ten-keen-increase-brood-TWELVE.html

“A mother who's had 10 children in 10 years with her pastor husband, is keen to increase her brood to 12 - just like the couple in the 2003 Steve Martin comedy, Cheaper by The Dozen. Courtney Rogers, 36, who was a virgin bride when she married Chris Rogers, 32, in October 2008, has not been without a baby bump for more than nine months since tying the knot. The couple who live in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, have just one 'date night' away from their children each year. They have six boys and four girls aged between nine months and ten years, all of whom are home-schooled and ferried around their neighborhood in a 15 seater van. The family lives on a 12 acre plot, spending around $1,200 (£975) each month on food. In January the family went on an economy drive in order to save money; they stopped eating out and making fun purchases, because it was costing them well over $1,000 (£812) a month. The children are happy to wear hand-me-down clothes and shoes, and the family shops in the sales to cut costs. Once a year they enjoy a family holiday for a week, camping near relatives in Georgia, 1,500 miles away - which costs them $1,000 (£812) for travel and expenses.”

     Dr Weston Price (1870-1948), warned humanity that most modern Western dental problems were a product of the over-civilised diets of the West, high sugar, refined foods that did not exercise the jaw, and were unhealthy in themselves, especially refined white  sugar, the white death.  He studied native populations at the time of the early 20trh century, and found that they had healthy teeth, until eating Western high sugar diets, after which their dental health disintegrated, literally. Now it seems that the establishment is catching up to Dr Price:
  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-we-have-so-many-problems-with-our-teeth/

“Our dental issues are not normal. Most other vertebrate creatures do not have the same dental problems that we do. They rarely have crooked teeth or cavities. Our fossil forebears did not have impacted wisdom teeth, and few appear to have had gum disease. Indeed, the teeth of modern-day humans are a profound contradiction. They are the hardest parts of our body yet are incredibly fragile. Although teeth endure for millions of years in the fossil record, ours cannot seem to last a lifetime in our mouths. Teeth gave our ancestors dominance over the organic world, yet today ours require special daily care to be maintained. The contradiction is new and is limited largely to industrial-age and contemporary populations. It is best explained by a mismatch between today’s diets and those for which our teeth and jaws evolved. Paleontologists have long understood that our teeth are deeply rooted in evolutionary history. Now clinical researchers and dental practitioners are also starting to take notice. To understand why the teeth of modern-day humans are so prone to decay, we need to consider the natural oral environment. The healthy mouth is teeming with life, populated by billions of microbes representing up to 700 different species of bacteria alone. Most are beneficial. They fight disease, help with digestion and regulate various bodily functions. Other bacteria are harmful to teeth, such as mutans streptococci and Lactobacillus. They attack enamel with lactic acid produced during their metabolism. But concentrations of these bacteria are usually too low to cause permanent damage. Their numbers are kept in check by their commensal cousins, the mitis and sanguinis streptococcal groups. These bacteria produce alkalis (chemicals that raise pH), as well as antimicrobial proteins that inhibit the growth of harmful species. Saliva buffers the teeth against acid attack and bathes them in calcium and phosphate to remineralize their surface. The balance between demineralization and remineralization has held for hundreds of millions of years, and both beneficial and harmful bacteria are found in oral microbiomes across the mammalian order. We evolved to maintain a stable community of microbes, as Kevin Foster of the University of Oxford and his colleagues have put it, to “keep the ecosystem on a leash.”

     Remember all of those articles which I did advocating that the universities be closed down? Well, at present that is close to the state of affairs I would like. Sure, they may be on-line, chatting in their own irrelevant space, but less harm is being done. And, how they are crying about their lost money from the international student/immigration racket, right across the world:
  https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/11/universities-brace-for-huge-losses-as-foreign-students-drop-out?utm_source=amerika.org

“Some universities are already expecting to lose more than £100m as foreign students cancel their studies, with warnings that the impact of coronavirus will be “like a tsunami hitting the sector”. Several organisations are now planning for a 80-100% reduction in their foreign student numbers this year, with prestigious names said to be among those most affected. The sector is already making a plea to the government for a cash injection amounting to billions of pounds to help it through the crisis, as it is hit by a drop in international student numbers, accommodation deals and conference income. Universities are already lining up online courses for the start of the next year, but academics are concerned about the impact on first-year students new to university life. Many institutions have recently borrowed heavily to pay for attractive new faculties, often designed to attract overseas students. It comes against a backdrop of declining numbers of university-age students in the UK and the previous uncertainty around Brexit. Andrew Connors, head of higher education at Lloyds Banking Group, said the crisis has felt “less like a perfect storm and more like a tsunami hitting the sector”. Banks have not had urgent requests from universities, as big financial hits are expected later in the year. However, he said that “while the immediate impact we are seeing in the sector is slower, the overall impact of Covid-19 is potentially deeper and longer”.

     How crazy does it get? Post-holiday photos on Facebook and get fined. Presumably this was evidence of violating social isolation/quarantine, but there is more to this story than meets the eye: 
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8213591/Police-fine-Victorian-couple-non-essential-travel-shared-old-photos-Facebook.html

“A Victorian couple were handed fines totalling more than $3,000 after posting year-old holiday pictures on Facebook during coronavirus lockdown. Earlier this month Jazz Mott and her husband Garry shared photos of their getaway to Lakes Entrance - about a two-hour drive from their home at Traralgon in the state's east. The couple were shocked when police arrived at their home days after the post. 'I was actually stunned when she handed me the fine,' Ms Mott told Daily Mail Australia on Monday. 'The photos were from our trip to the Lakes Entrance in June last year.' Ms Mott said the officer just 'handed her the fine and walked off'. It was only after speaking with her husband she realised the breach must have come as a result of the Facebook post. Ms Mott said she shared the year-old pictures after finding them on a hard drive she'd lost track of when the couple moved house.”

     It turns out that marijuana may be the ultimate feminist drug, cutting out the abortion middle woman, and leading straight to infertility, which must have Women’s Studies classes ecstatic, but unfortunately for them, they cannot meet at university, which is not to say that secret illegal meetings on Macbeth’s heath do not occur:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5TpecxZL88
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEidcxBTu0E
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWyegNZOqQE

    That’s enough Shakespeare for one day, but really, I think Macbeth is his greatest play, certainly making great film, more action than Hamlet. And, the use of the feminism and witch metaphor alludes to the fact that feminists are turning to witchcraft, saying that the patriarchy, and Christianity supressed this, so they said it, not me:
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/05/witches-feminism-books-kristin-j-sollee
  https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/aug/07/monsters-men-magic-trump-awoke-angry-feminist-witches
  https://qz.com/1739043/the-resurgence-of-the-witch-as-a-symbol-of-feminist-empowerment/
  https://www.studyfinds.org/marijuana-use-may-lead-to-female-infertility-study-finds/

“A new study has revealed a concerning link between using marijuana and pregnancy. Scientists say tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient that triggers marijuana’s psychological effects, may also lead to infertility in women. According to a study on embryos at the University of Guelph in Canada, exposure to THC leads to a drastic drop in the chances of a successful pregnancy. Testing the eggs of cows, researchers found that higher levels of the marijuana ingredient delayed the eggs from reaching important milestones in their development. Megan Misner, one of the study’s authors, says doctors regularly warn women to avoid marijuana while getting fertility treatments. Until now however, Misner says the evidence to support that advise hasn’t been strong. “The scientific evidence backing this statement is weak,” Misner said in a press release. “This makes it difficult for physicians to properly advise patients undergoing in vitro fertilization.”

     The US Surgeon General has said that the coronavirus task force has dumped the World Health Organization/Bill Gates model of long-term lock down. The new perspective is based upon real world data, rather than mathematical epidemiological models, the same philosophy as in climate change.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNK9zesHQls

     Well, I got excited listening to Dr Rashid Buttar, but then there was all of this:
  https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/492198-surgeon-general-most-of-us-wont-be-ready-to-open-by-may-1

     The Covid-19 pandemic has allowed all sorts of tag teams:
  https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/2020/04/apple-and-google-partner-on-covid-19-contact-tracing-technology/

“Across the world, governments and health authorities are working together to find solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic, to protect people and get society back up and running. Software developers are contributing by crafting technical tools to help combat the virus and save lives. In this spirit of collaboration, Google and Apple are announcing a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design. Since COVID-19 can be transmitted through close proximity to affected individuals, public health officials have identified contact tracing as a valuable tool to help contain its spread. A number of leading public health authorities, universities, and NGOs around the world have been doing important work to develop opt-in contact tracing technology. To further this cause, Apple and Google will be launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing. Given the urgent need, the plan is to implement this solution in two steps while maintaining strong protections around user privacy. First, in May, both companies will release APIs that enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores. Second, in the coming months, Apple and Google will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into the underlying platforms. This is a more robust solution than an API and would allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, as well as enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities. Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and we look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders. We will openly publish information about our work for others to analyse. All of us at Apple and Google believe there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems. Through close cooperation and collaboration with developers, governments and public health providers, we hope to harness the power of technology to help countries around the world slow the spread of COVID-19 and accelerate the return of everyday life.

     The issue needs to be asked about what exactly constitutes a coronavirus death? Do we count criminals who are released from jail because of the coronavirus, who then go on to murder and rampage, the way libtards want?
  http://archive.is/YHbuR

“A Florida man released from jail last month to help limit coronavirus outbreaks in county lockups was arrested again Monday — accused of murdering a man the day after his release, a report said. Joseph Edwards Williams was facing drug charges when he and 163 other inmates — considered low level offenders — were sprung from Hillsborough County Jail on March 19, according to WFLA, citing the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities believe that Williams was the triggerman who fatally shot a man the next day in the Progress Village area, the report said. Williams was arrested on a warrant Monday in Gibsonton. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister slammed Williams, claiming “he took advantage” of the administrative order to free inmates amid the coronavirus pandemic to “commit crimes.” “As a result, I call on the State Attorney to prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law,” Chronister said. Williams was arraigned via video appearance Tuesday and ordered held on a more than $250,000 bond, WFLA reported.”

    Billy Gates thinks that the world is massively over-populated, yet wants to save everybody by pumping them full of vaccines.  What gives? Here is the “tiger” Richard Wolstencroft laying into Gates, enjoy. Oh, Dick is an earthy Aussie type and uses a four-letter word to open things, so if offended, beware, but surely the issues are so grave that we ignore rough language. Actually, he uses rough language right through it, being so angry, but I think he makes his point.
  https://affirmativeright.blogspot.com/2020/04/report-from-tiger-mountain-27-gates-of.html

     The claim that Bill Gate’s polio vaccine crippled half a million children in India, is regarded as false news by the mainstream fact checking sites, but: 

     More damming evidence against the World Health Organization:
  https://gellerreport.com/2020/04/taiwan-who-email.html/

“Taiwan is accusing WHO of downplaying the severity and spread of the coronavirus in an attempt to pander to China, even after Taiwan sounded the alarm about at least seven cases of atypical pneumonia that they were aware of in Wuhan, where the virus originated. When asked about the cases by the media, Taiwan said China’s health authorities said, “The cases were believed not SARS; however samples are still under examination, and cases have been isolated for treatment,” according to the contents of an email sent by Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention to WHO on Dec. 31. “I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us,” the email said. Taiwan is located about 80 miles off China’s coast but has declared itself an independent nation for over 70 years. China, however, has refused to acknowledge Taiwan’s sovereignty and consistently fights to bring it back under Beijing’s control. As a result, China has successfully persuaded WHO to exclude Taiwan from the organization. The WHO denied that Taiwan ever alerted them to the potential person-to-person spread of the virus, but Taiwan’s CDC said that because they specifically mentioned “atypical pneumonia” – reminiscent of SARS, which is transmitted via human contact – “public health professionals could discern from this wording that there was a real possibility of human-to-human transmission of the disease,” they said in a press release.