Here is evidence that the coronavirus is not another black death, dangerous to certain sectors of the population, but still so widespread that many people have antibodies to it and did not know until randomly tested:
  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/health/coronavirus-antibodies-california.html

“Two new studies using antibody tests to assess how many people have been infected with the coronavirus have turned up numbers higher than some experts had expected. Both studies were performed in California: one among residents of Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, and the other among residents of Los Angeles County. In both cases, the estimates of the number of people infected in those counties were far higher than the number of confirmed cases. The studies, conducted by public health officials and scientists at Stanford University and the University of Southern California, have earned the ire of critics who questioned both the recruitment methods and the analyses. In the Santa Clara County study, researchers tested 3,330 volunteers for antibodies indicating exposure to the virus. Roughly 1.5 percent were positive. After adjustments intended to account for differences between the sample and the population of the county as a whole, the researchers estimated that the prevalence of antibodies was between 2.5 percent and a bit more than 4 percent. The county’s population is 1.9 million. That means that 48,000 to 81,000 people were infected with the coronavirus in Santa Clara County by early April, the investigators concluded. In Los Angeles County, researchers conducted tests at drive-through sites and at participants’ homes and estimated that 2.8 percent to 5.6 percent of the county’s adult population carried antibodies to the coronavirus. There are 10.4 million people in Los Angeles County. If accurate, that would mean that 220,000 to 442,000 residents had been exposed. By comparison, only 8,000 cases had been confirmed in the county by early April, when the testing was done. While finding volunteers was not difficult, it’s not clear how representative they were of the populations at large.

     When my academic friend in Florida got his book banned, I said that he should just write about the Wuhan flu, and not the coronavirus, and if he knew more about what the Chinese did in their lab, he would surely agree:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/health/renowned-microbiologist-claims-wuhan-lab-did-absolutely-crazy-things-coronavirus

“A world renowned Russian microbiologist says that the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of Wuhan scientists doing "absolutely crazy things" in their laboratory. Dr. Peter Chumakov of the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology and Russian Academy of Sciences claims that while the Wuhan scientists' goal in creating the coronavirus was not malicious - instead, they were trying to study the pathogenicity of the virus, according to the Daily Mail. "In China, scientists at the Wuhan Laboratory have been actively involved in the development of various coronavirus variants for over ten years," he said. "Moreover, they did this, supposedly not with the aim of creating pathogenic variants, but to study their pathogenicity." "They did absolutely crazy things, in my opinion," he said, adding " For example, inserts in the genome, which gave the virus the ability to infect human cells. Now all this has been analyzed." 'The picture of the possible creation of the current coronavirus is slowly emerging.' He told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper: 'There are several inserts, that is, substitutions of the natural sequence of the genome, which gave it special properties. 'It is interesting that the Chinese and Americans who worked with them published all their works in the open (scientific) press. 'I even wonder why this background comes to people very slowly. 'I think that an investigation will nevertheless be initiated, as a result of which new rules will be developed that regulate the work with the genomes of such dangerous viruses. 'It's too early to blame anyone.' -Daily Mail

     Believe the worst in a time of over-the-top censorship because what have they to hide? Amazon is censoring books about the coronavirus freak-out saying that it will refer to official information. Here, a rejected author sent me an email from them, and I cut and paste their exact words for your amazement: 

“Your book does not comply with our guidelines. As a result we are not offering your book for sale. Due to the rapidly changing nature of information around the COVID-19 virus, we are referring customers to official sources for health information about the virus. Please consider removing references to COVID-19 for this book. Amazon reserves the right to determine what content we offer according to our content guidelines. You can find our content guidelines on the KDP website: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200672390 ”

     With the Trump administration questioning the legitimacy of the World Health Organization, raising the issue of undue Chinese influence, our prime minster wants to give the World Health Organization more power. What is this guy thinking? Did he get the memo Trump sent? I did.
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-22/morrison-to-push-for-anti-pandemic-inspection-powers/12173806

“Prime Minister Scott Morrison is seeking to build an international coalition to give the World Health Organisation (WHO) — or another body — powers equivalent to those of a weapons inspector to avoid another catastrophic pandemic. Key points:

     With the last few drops of free speech left, before total New World Order corona darkness, let me say that I do think that all of this is a globalist conspiracy, and I would not be surprised that down the track something big will leak out, like 9/11, or the sinking of that boat that we are not supposed to talk about.
  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/u-s-intel-community-examining-whether-coronavirus-emerged-accidentally-chinese-n1185371

“The U.S. intelligence community is examining whether the coronavirus that caused the global pandemic emerged accidentally from a Chinese research lab studying diseases in bats, current and former U.S. intelligence officials tell NBC News. Spy agencies have ruled out that the coronavirus was man-made, the officials say. But scientists at a military and a civilian lab in Wuhan, where the virus originated, are known to have conducted ongoing research on coronaviruses, officials say. They say intelligence agencies have gathered and are weighing evidence that an employee of one of the labs could have become accidentally infected and left the facility with the virus. "It's a possibility, though not the most likely possibility," one official said. Asked about the intelligence on NBC's "TODAY" show, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said, "this is something we've been watching closely now for some time," adding that the results of the investigation are thus far "inconclusive."

     Thinkers are already speculating about the effects of the second rounds of Covid-19, while of course, the Dissent Right is still divided as ever. There are even debates about the method of transmission, with some thinking it could be highly airborne, travelling on air pollution particles:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/scientists-find-more-evidence-novel-coronavirus-can-travel-air-pollution-particles

“Now, a team of researchers who have been studying air pollution levels in Italy's Bergamo Province have found more evidence that the virus can travel on air pollution particles, the Guardian reports, which might offer some insight into the issue. Leonardo Setti at the University of Bologna in Italy, who led the work, said it was important to investigate if the virus could be carried more widely by air pollution.  am a scientist and I am worried when I don’t know,” he said. “If we know, we can find a solution. But if we don’t know, we can only suffer the consequences." To be sure, while the scientists found evidence of viral genetic material on air particles, the research offers no insight on whether these particles can actually transmit the virus in a way that would allow it to infect other humans. Here's more from the Guardian: The Italian scientists used standard techniques to collect outdoor air pollution samples at one urban and one industrial site in Bergamo province and identified a gene highly specific to Covid-19 in multiple samples. The detection was confirmed by blind testing at an independent laboratory. […]

     In supporting uncritically Joe Biden as Democratic presidential nominee, the Left are even suppressing the rape allegations against him:
  https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/04/26/rose-mcgowan-calls-on-joe-biden-to-drop-out-as-tara-reade-allegation-roils-campaign/
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/26/nolte-16-reasons-why-i-believe-joe-biden-sexually-assaulted-tara-reade/

“When Reade originally came forward in April of 2019, she joined about a half-dozen women who have credibly accused Biden of unwanted touching. And I say “credibly” because Biden has serially committed acts of unwanted touching in public. We have countless videos of Biden making women and children uncomfortable with inappropriate hair-sniffing, nuzzling, kissing, and getting handsy. Now, however, Reade tells a much more lurid and disturbing story of being sexually assaulted by Biden. While working for the then-Delaware Senator while in her mid-20s, she says he cornered her in a hallway, thrust his hands up her skirt, penetrated her vagina, and when she objected, he said something to the effect of, “Come on, I heard you like me.” Reade further alleges that after she complained, there was retaliation. She lost her job. So here are the reasons why I now believe Joe Biden sexually assaulted Tara Reade…

     Here is more information to balance the coverage, this time putting the case that Covid-19 is a bioweapon:
  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/04/26/is-coronavirus-a-biological-weapon.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20200426Z1&et_cid=DM521257&et_rid=859027512

“Francis Boyle, a former advisory board member for the Council for Responsible Genetics, is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. His educational background1 includes an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, a juris doctor (lawyer) degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. in political science. For decades, he’s advocated against the development and use of bioweapons, which he suspects COVID-19 is. In fact, Boyle was the one who called for biowarfare legislation at the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972, and the one who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, which was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress and signed into law by George Bush Sr. In our first, March 8, 2020, interview, Boyle shared his views on the origins of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Here, we continue our discussion, as more details have emerged about this virus. One of the criticisms raised since our last interview is that Boyle has no formal training in virology. When asked what makes him qualified to speak about this particular virus, he says:

     First, it was stockpiling hand sanitizer then toilet paper, then food, and for some, increased gun sales, but now people are getting down to the real fundamentals, of stockpiling seeds, and making home gardens. I am very impressed with this level of survivalist wisdom, probably a product of people having a steady diet of disaster film, such as TV shows like The Walking Dead:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/health/its-not-just-toilet-paper-seed-shortages-spread-locked-down-americans-turn-growing-their-own

“Americans are panic hoarding plant seeds as the coronavirus outbreak confines millions to their homes, crashes the economy, and disrupts food supply chains. This has resulted in people questioning their food security. A Google search of "buy seeds" has rocketed to an all-time high across the US in March to early April, the same time as supermarket shelves went bare. Seed companies who spoke with CBS News said they have stopped taking new orders after unprecedented demand. George Ball, chairman of Pennsylvania-based Burpee Seeds, said the recent increase in new orders is "just unbelievable." The company will start accepting orders again on Wednesday after it stopped taking new ones for several days to catch up on the backlog. Americans in quarantine are becoming increasingly concerned about their food security. What has shocked many is that food on supermarket shelves that existed one day, could be completely wiped out in minutes via panic hoarding. Some people are now trying to restore the comfort of food security by planting "Pandemic Gardens." "If I had to put my thumb on it, I would say people are worried about their food security right now," said Emily Rose Haga, the executive director of the Seed Savers Exchange, an Iowa-based nonprofit devoted to heirloom seeds.  "A lot of folks even in our region are putting orders into their grocery stores and having to wait a week to get their groceries. Our society has never experienced a disruption like this in our lifetime."

     One line of thought emerging is that the lock-downs will continue until there is a vaccine, because if people are let out of their cages, they may get infected in round 2, 3, 4, … of this coronavirus pandemonium. But, there is a problem, that of the endless mutations that is the day job of viruses:
  https://www.foxnews.com/science/significant-coronavirus-mutation-discovered-could-make-vaccine-search-futile

“Researchers have discovered what they described as a "significant" mutation of the novel coronavirus, which they believe "raises the alarm" that the search for a vaccine could become "futile" down the line. The study, published on the biorxiv.org repository, notes researchers were able to analyse a sample of SARS-CoV-2 from India on January 27 and found a mutation that "leads to weaker receptor binding capability." The receptor, known as ACE2, is an enzyme in a person's lungs. "The discrepant phylogenies for the spike protein and its receptor binding domain proved a previously reported structural rearrangement prior to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2," researchers wrote in the study. "Despite that we found, the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is particularly more conserved, we identified a mutation that leads to weaker receptor binding capability, which concerns a SARS-CoV-2 sample collected on 27th 26 January 2020 from India. This represents the first report of a significant SARS-CoV-2 mutant, and raises the alarm that the ongoing vaccine development may become futile in future epidemic if more mutations were identified." The research has not yet been peer-reviewed. Despite the ominous discovery, the researchers were also able to discover that SARS-CoV-2 "has a much lower mutation rate and genetic diversity" than severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which appeared in China in 2002. The researchers also discovered "the spike (S) protein encoding gene of SARS-COV-2 is found relatively more conserved than other protein-encoding genes, which is a good indication for the ongoing antiviral drug and vaccine development."

     All hail mighty China, leader of the unfree world; we are but primitive savages before your majesty, or words to that effect:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8240963/The-no-match-China-Beijings-state-media-compares-America-primitive-society.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus

“A Chinese newspaper has slammed America's handling of the coronavirus crisis and compared the US to 'a primitive society' in a recent opinion article. Beijing's state media Global Times claimed that the US is 'no match for China in terms of anti-epidemic organization and mobilization' in a column published on Sunday. The startling comment was followed by another opinion piece in which the newspaper declared that 'American democracy is dying'. It comes as Chinese officials stated yesterday that the enemy of the US is the coronavirus rather than China. In a column titled 'Smearing China a lame trick to aid reelection for White House', the Global Times described the escalating epidemic in the US is 'like that of a primitive society', blasting Washington's poor handling of the virus outbreak. 'The COVID-19 spread in the US is almost like that of a primitive society. It should not have been like this if the US had the slightest science and organization,' the Chinese state media outlet said. 'To put it bluntly, the U.S. is no match for China in terms of anti-epidemic organization and mobilization. 'The US political system has been hit by the pandemic on its weak side and we were willing to show understanding for that. After all, every system has its weaknesses,' the newspaper asserted.”

     The World Health Organization, which for the moment has taken top spot of hatred of all Dissent Righter like me, does not want their coronavirus lockdowns to be lifted … under pain of the virus getting a second life:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8239301/WHO-warns-lifting-coronavirus-lockdowns-gradual.html

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness. The warning comes as governments across the world start rolling out plans to get their economies up and running again. Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said: 'This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future.' He said governments must remain vigilant to stop the spread of the virus and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must be done gradually and strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function. Australia said it will allow the resumption of non-urgent surgeries from next week as health authorities grow more confident that hospitals there will not be overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients. The reopenings come as politicians grow weary of soaring unemployment and the prospect of economic depression. Asian shares followed Wall Street lower on Tuesday after US oil futures plunged below zero because of a worldwide glut as factories, with cars and aeroplanes not being used. The cost to have a barrel of US crude delivered in May plummeted to negative $37.63 as traders run out of places to store it. It was at roughly $60 at the start of the year. Businesses which start operating again in the US are likely to engender goodwill with President Donald Trump at a time when his administration is doling out billions of dollars in relief to companies.”

     Here is what happens to someone questioning the vaccination world bview, even if that person is at the top of the tennis tree, or is it racket?
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-8236039/Novak-Djokovics-reluctance-halt-world-No-1s-tennis-career-post-coronavirus-crisis.html

“World No 1 Novak Djokovic's opposition to vaccines could stand in the way of his return to tennis when it eventually it resumes following the coronavirus pandemic. A push is growing for all players to be vaccinated when tennis starts again, provided one is produced by then. Former world No 1 Amelie Mauresmo last month said tennis should not resume unless players can be vaccinated, although the scientific community has repeatedly said that may be a year away. 'Personally I am opposed to vaccination and I wouldn't want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel,' Djokovic said in a live Facebook chat with several fellow Serbian athletes on Sunday. But if it becomes compulsory, what will happen? I will have to make a decision. 'I have my own thoughts about the matter and whether those thoughts will change at some point, I don't know. 'Hypothetically, if the season was to resume in July, August or September, though unlikely, I understand that a vaccine will become a requirement straight after we are out of strict quarantine and there is no vaccine yet.'”

     In the future, when the press come out here in the scrub to find a wild man with a Cold Steel Bowie, to give preppers a bad name, well, I will send them on their way to Bill Gates:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/23/bill-melinda-gates-stored-food-pandemic/

“Appearing recently on BBC Radio Live, Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, revealed she and her husband stored food in their basement years ago in anticipation of a pandemic. A transcript is as follows: EMMA BARRETT: In terms of your own — again, just to talk about you and Bill for being so familiar with this — had you made any preparations? I was very struck by when I rewatched Bill’s talk from 2015, he rolled that barrel onto the stage and said, “When I was growing up, nuclear was kind of the threat, everyone was very worried about bombs and all sorts of threats like that, and we had this barrel in our basement where we’d have to go and eat out of it if we went in.” Had you done preparation in your own lives? MELINDA GATES: We had done some preparation, yes. BARRETT: What does the mean in terms of — because we had issues here in the UK with people panic shopping — how does a couple like you, who has this insight, how do you get prepared for that? GATES: A number of years ago, we talked about, “What if there wasn’t clean water? What if there wasn’t enough food? Where might we go? What might we do as a family?” So, I think we should leave those preparations to ourselves. We had prepared, and had some food in the basement in case needed, and now we’re all in the same situation.”

     Pop singer Taylor Swift has done a lot of leftist things in recent times, but one part of leftism is to criticise the rich, and sometimes, the enemy of your enemy is your friend … no, still your enemy!
  https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/04/23/taylor-swift-slams-soros-familys-shameless-greed-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/

“Pop star Taylor Swift said the Soros Family is driven by “shameless greed in the time of coronavirus” over their role in the digital release of an unapproved album composed of a live radio show performance she did in 2008.
The left-wing singer shredded Soros and power manager Scooter Braun in a lengthy Instagram message. “Hey Guys – I want to thank my fans for making me aware that my former record label is putting out an “album” of live performances of mine tonight. This recording is from a 2008 radio show performance I did when I was 18. Big Machine has listed the date as a 2017 release but they’re actually releasing it tonight at midnight,” Taylor Swift said. “I’m always honest with you guys about this stuff so I just wanted to tell you that this release is not approved by me.” the Grammy-winner continued. “It looks to me like Scooter Braun and his financial backers, 23 Capital, Alex Soros and the Soros family and The Carlyle Group have seen the latest balance sheets and realized that paying $330 MILLION for my music wasn’t exactly a wise choice and they need money.” “In my opinion… Just another case of shameless greed in the time of coronavirus. So tasteless, but very transparent,” Swift’s message concluded. Pitchfork reported that the album, Live From Clear Channel Stripped 2008, will be release on “digital storefronts and streaming services.” As Billboard notes, the album is called Live From Clear Channel 2008. It was recorded during a radio show performance and it has already been released in select timezones. In December 2019, Swift slammed Braun after he bought the rights to her music with funding from the family of left-wing billionaire George Soros.”

     In this time of China bashing, rightly or wrongly, it is good to take a deep breath and reflect on some of the great things China is doing in terms of social capital, forgetting about organ harvesting, bad social credit, and all that. Criticism where it is needed, but always be balanced, unlike the Left.
  https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/04/26/beijing-to-punish-uncivilised-public-behavior-during-coronavirus-pandemic/

“Beijing wants citizens to “dress neatly,” stop spitting and refrain from defecating in public places as it strives to eliminate “uncivilized” behavior amid the deadly Chinese coronavirus outbreak. Rulebreakers will be hit with fines for those offences as well as not wearing a mask when ill, the municipal government announced Friday on its website, as it sought to improve standards of public hygiene. The new laws require public places to set up one metre distance markers and to provide communal chopsticks and serving spoons for shared meals. Citizens were cautioned on the  “dress neatly” requirement to end the practice of local men going shirtless in summer — an apparent reference to the so-called “Beijing bikini” practice where males of all ages roll T-shirts up to expose their stomachs in hot weather. The state-run Global Times said the rule equalled a “total ban” of the practice in public places. Beijing already discourages a range of “uncivilized” behaviours including public spitting, littering, walking dogs unleashed, throwing things from high buildings, public defecation and smoking in places where it is prohibited. Now miscreants face the possibility of a fine as well as censure because Beijing’s new laws encourage police to report serious offences, which may affect a person’s social credit score — a fledgling system which aims to assess individual actions across society — though it did not provide more specifics. This is not the first time the matter of public hygiene in China has been addressed during the coronavirus outbreak.”

     Covering the coronavirus pandemic has given me great intellectual heartaches, and headaches, because of the way the evidence cuts both ways. In some respects, my inclination is to go with the New World Order conspiracy view, yet, not every piece of evidence fits that, and it is important that we, a leading conspiratorial organisation do not cry wolf, giving False negatives. On the other hand, sites like Natural News.com, surely a brother freedom organisation to our own, see the coronavirus pandemic as real, even apocalyptic. Take the scenes in Ecuador for example:
  https://www.brighteon.com/6d79b62d-960c-4ee3-917d-6e31c4dba75e
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-04-19-dead-bodies-litter-the-beaches-ecuador-coronavirus-video.html

“The video, found at this link [as above], appears to depict dead bodies washing up on the beaches of Ecuador, most likely outside Guayaquil, the coastal city that has been hit the hardest by covid-19. The video, narrated by ZGoldenReport, warns America this is what happens when societies don’t practice social distancing and sensible lockdowns. (Ecuador has been reluctant and slow to recommend aggressive lockdowns.) Notably, thousands of Floridians flocked to Florida’s newly-reopened beaches last night and today, grossly violating basic precautions of social distancing and wearing masks. It won’t be long before some of those #FloridaMorons are dead, too. The video appears to show the construction of mass graves in Ecuador in preparation for many thousands of dead bodies. While we could not confirm the origins of this video, it’s worth noting that I lived in Ecuador for two years and all the building architecture shown in the video is consistent with Ecuador. The clothes people are wearing, the shapes of their bodies and the vehicles depicted in the video are all consistent with Ecuador. With many other media outlets reporting the shocking scale of the covid-19 tragedy in Guayaquil, it seems unlikely this video is a fake. As someone who lived in Ecuador, I can also assure you that Ecuador’s health care system is rudimentary at best. It is truly a third world infrastructure when it comes to medicine. And Guayaquil, in particular, is a chaotic city largely run by powerful criminal gangs and corrupt officials. (Bribery and corruption is rampant in Guayaquil, which is a key air and sea port for the importation of drugs and weapons, among other things.)”

     First, earlier in the year, it was all of that climate change nonsense from Greenies about how we needed to save the planet by not eating meat, although that was reserved for the West, China, as a developing society, whatever that means, could eat meat, just to catch up. But now, enter the world of coronavirus shutdowns and a real threat to the meat industry, at least overseas at present, but the same trend will come to Australia no doubt:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/price-meat-climbing-quickly-more-food-processing-plants-close

“As we pointed out earlier in the week, China-owned Smithfield Food's decision to temporarily shutter the largest pork processing plant in the US, based in Sioux Falls, SD, due to a coronavirus outbreak is a much more significant even than the mainstream media gave credit for. While WaPo focused on bashing the state's governor, whose refusal to issue a 'stay at home' order was blamed for the outbreak, the real significant wasn't accorded sufficient time and attention, we feel. The real takeaway here, is that the supply chain for American staples was badly damaged by the outbreak, with the damage still more extensive and stubborn than government officials have really acknowledged. Two months on, and millions of Americans are still having trouble finding toilet paper and sterilizing wipes. A comprehensive list of products in perpetual short-supply would be quite lengthy, at this point. For all we know, Smithfield might be only the beginning. Earlier on Sunday, we noted a Hormel foods plant in Illinois has been forced to close temporarily after a cluster of cases in the surrounding counties was traced back to workers at the plant. That could leave millions of Americans without access to popular processed foods like Spam. An unopened can of Spam can keep for between 2 an 5 years, depending on storage conditions. If closures like these continue, it could add further strain on the supply chain. Everywhere you look, you see experts talking about an overabundance of food thanks to the closure of restaurants, which has resulted in unprecedented levels of food waste. But sadly, thanks to the way our food distribution is set up, if there's no way to process the products, package them and then distribute them to markets around the country, then the food will spoil before it's eaten. And if enough hungry, scared, desperate and irrepressibly, unceasingly furious Americans hear that piles of food are being left to spoil in the farm belt as the country starves - or if a sudden burst of inflation rattles both the Fed and hungry Americans as one of the many worst-case "supply-side" shocks unfolds - well, they just might riot. Bloomberg warned on Sunday that these closures, along with a handful of others, are already putting upward pressure on meat prices at the point of sale in the market. As more processing facilities close, supermarkets are left with fewer options - because unfortunately many farmers who sell mostly to restaurants simply aren't equipped to ship to supermarkets, and these types of changes unfortunately take time, as frustrating as that might sound.”

     That is how many of us feel here in Florida, but I    understand from League emails from Australia, you Aussies may not have been as hard done by as we by our overlords here in the US, and the police are out in force to keep us locked down, and enjoying their power, as US police are known for.  So, what happens if there are multiple rounds of the coronavirus, with successive mutations? Lockdown forever?
  https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2020/04/19/coronavirus-florida-brevard-hasc-plus-social-distancing-score/5155543002/
  https://www.zerohedge.com/health/what-will-you-do-if-they-try-extend-covid-19-lockdowns-next-year

“We are seeing a massive backlash against the coronavirus lockdowns all over the United States, and it is likely that the protests against these lockdowns will only intensify in the days ahead. But some elected officials are doubling down and are insisting that “shelter-in-place” orders will remain in effect in their jurisdictions for quite a few months to come.  I honestly do not know how that is possibly going to work, because after just a few weeks millions upon millions of Americans have become deeply frustrated with these lockdowns.  Trying to confine people to their homes for the foreseeable future is likely to spark tremendous explosions of anger, but that appears to be exactly what authorities intend to do in some of our largest urban areas. For example, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio just told Fox News that he expects his city will be shut down until July or August… New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Bill Hemmer today on FOX News Channel. The mayor told Hemmer he does not expect New York City to open until July or August. Does he honestly believe that New York City residents will put up with being confined to their homes for another three or four months? Over on the west coast, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently told the press that there probably will not be mass gatherings in his state “until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine”… “The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine,” Newsom told reporters at his press briefing. “Large-scale events that bring in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of strangers … [are] not in the cards based upon our current guidelines and current expectations,” he said. It is exceedingly unlikely that we will get to the point of “herd immunity” in the United States this year, and most experts do not anticipate a vaccine until some time in 2021.

     Thanks to young Brian Simpson for sending me this link about the McDonald effect. The author of the piece, Arthur Eby takes on a tour of one of New York’ best restaurants, the Rainbow Room, serving exquisitely tasting food. He chooses the dish the Parmesan profiteroles with herbed goat cheese, a delicious cream puffed éclair lightly toasted with fine oil and garnished with sweet dill. Only problem, at least for the health conscious is that these compare poorly even to McDonald’s French fires, having more saturated fat, sugar and sodium. Yes, most people do not think of the expensive cuisine as junk food, which it is. Thus, “this burrito has 1950 calories, 128 grams of fat, 910 mg of cholesterol, 3640 mg of sodium, 114 g of carbs, and 16 g of sugar. Equivalent to eating six egg McMuffins from McDonald’s! Hard to believe that something this fancy could be that high-calorie.” Indeed, it is.

“The McDonald’s effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers are more likely to believe that items which are more rare, more expensive, and/or harder to attain are more valuable in ways which appeal to them, i.e. healthier, taste better, more productive, more beautiful, etc. McDonald’s, as one of the most common, well-known, and cheap retailers of food in the world, constantly meets with criticism and much backlash as to their products and procedures. Hence the name, the “McDonald’s effect”. In reality, the price, time of production, and quantity do not actually play a role on quality of food. For example, many consumers are more likely to believe that food from a cheap, common burger restaurant like McDonald’s is less healthy compared to an otherwise more expensive, rare restaurant. One common belief caused by the McDonald’s effect is that foods which are less commonly eaten, which are harder to find, or which are harder to prepare, are somehow more “healthy” than more common foods. The McDonald’s effect is related to the IKEA effect in the sense that some of the food produced today requires little to no preparation by the individual buyer. Bread can be bought from the store easily in today’s world, and a consumer can enjoy it quicker and more easily than if a consumer were to buy and put together all the ingredients oneself. A consumer may conclude that because he/she is working to produce the bread, the bread tastes better, or is healthier. All the ingredients are the same, but the consumer may believe that the additional work they do to produce it makes it better. The phenomenon which involves perceived greater reward for greater effort has been observed in mice, pigeons, and even humans in experimental procedures. In one experiment, mice were given food from two different dispensers. One dispenser required one tap of a lever to dispense a food pellet, the other dispenser required 20 taps to dispense a food pellet.”