Can things get any worse?  Over 100,000 dead from the virus, record unemployment, businesses going bankrupt, another police killing of a black man on camera, peaceful protests turning into riots, burning and looting.  Meanwhile our president says that he going to name a domestic group terrorists and threatens to use the military on our own soil and not against a foreign power.

Well, it certainly can get worse.  With the country opening up as the virus stabilized, we may get a second wave, if not during the summer then likely during the winter.  I think the death rate will decrease because many of the most vulnerable, such as the elderly in nursing homes, have already been victims.  We know more how to protect those who survived and even though we don't have a cure or a vaccine, we will be able to treat patients better.  But there are plenty of people who will be infected because they are not careful, because people around them not careful, or because they have jobs that make them more vulnerable.

Even with businesses opening up, the economy will continue to be poor.  Many people will remain unemployed as businesses go bankrupt.  There will be little confidence in the economy.  Travel, restaurants, entertainment may improve for a time but if there is any outbreak again, people will stay away from these businesses.

Police killing of black men followed by riots are like mass shootings, we are almost numb to them.  A journalist can just use the same article he wrote before, just change the name, date and locale.  Just like mass shooting we don't seem to be able to do anything about it.  Before the trial of the cop who killed Floyd is over, I predict there will be at least another killing of a black man by a cop or vigilante claiming self defense caught on camera.

The frustration of the public, in particular the African American community, is understandable.  But that does not excuse those who destroy properties and loot business establishments.  These people do not honor the men who were murdered.  Nor do they advance the cause of freedom as the peaceful protesters are trying to do.  In fact, the looting and burning will turn some Americans, who may otherwise be sympathetic to the protesters, to against them instead.

One person who is not sympathetic to the protesters is the president.  His leadership from the virus to the trade war, to the division of the country is beyond terrible.  He threatens to send in the military and shoot the "thugs".   I wonder what the protesters in Hong Kong think of the U.S. government after asking it to rescue them from China.  Well, that is for another blog, we have too much problems on our own hands right now.

Fareed Zakaria of CNN is one of my favorite journalist on television.  So when CNN advertised a special report by Zakaria titled "China's Deadly Secret", I was extremely worried that this moderate journalist is joining those who are bashing China.  I have already seen liberal comedian Bill Maher said that those who say that we should not call this the China Virus are being too sensitive.  So with Trump bashing China to deflect his incompetence, I am afraid there will be more hate toward China which will lead to hate toward Chinese Americans and also Asian Americans in general.

So the timeline that Zakaria presented on his show goes like this:
Mid December 2019, patients start to stream into Wuhan hospitals.
Dec. 30, Doctors raised alarm about rate of new type of infection
Early January 2020, Dr. Li Wenliang reprimanded for spreading rumors on internet.   Turned out he was right.  Authorities in Wuhan mandated that approval needed to report cases.
Jan. 9, Virus is identified and genome sent to rest of the world.
Mid January, big banquet in Wuhan to tried to break world record for the largest pot luck party!
Mid January Lots of cases already but local authority failed to report cases.
Jan. 14, teleconference between Wuhan officials and Beijing.
January 20, China warns world
Jan. 21, First known case in U.S. occurred in Washington state.
Jan. 23, Lock down in Wuhan started.

It would seem to me that there were mistakes by the local officials in Wuhan and they were probably tried to cover it up and hoping that it will not be too bad and things will blow over.  But there is little evidence from this CNN timeline that the national government knew exactly what was happening till January 14.  There is a period from the 14th to the 20th that Beijing could have warn the world.

 Xi Jinping did send Dr. Zhong Nanshan, the renown physician who did great work on the SARS epidemic, to Wuhan to investigate.  He reported back on the 20th and while at first he thought things can be controlled and peak in February (later he revised it to April), he did believe this was going to be bad.  Perhaps Xi wanted Dr. Zhong's opinion before giving the warning and start the lock down. 

In any case, Zakaria makes the point that China may have delayed things by 6 days.  But Trump delayed things by 6 weeks.  Peter Navarro, a hawk in Trump's administration, had warned Trump about the infections based on CHINA'S information.  So one can't argue that the lack of transparency by China led to the majority of cases and deaths in this country.  Taiwan got the same information and first case near end of January.  Today Taiwan has 7 deaths.  If Taiwan has the same population as the U.S., they would have only 100 deaths.  So to deflect blame to China is totally absurd.

So the program was not really China bashing.  It is fairly presented, blaming China for some of its early actions or inaction, but points out that it is important for the two big powers in the world to solve problems together, not blaming each other.  I don't think it changes the mind of people in this country.  Trump supporters will still blame China.  The problem I see for Chinese Americans is that even the Democrats are not necessary worry about hatred toward us.  Biden will also blame China even as he and other Democrats blame Trump.  He cannot appear soft on China while Trump appear  to stand up to China.

When Trump announced that he is taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent Covid-19 yesterday, I figure that he may take it back after criticism.  But of course, he doubled down today.  He called the VA study showing HCQ patients did worse than those who did not take it as a bad study by some people against him.  He said there was no down side to taking the medication as discussed with his doctor.  The doctor put out a statement that after discussing with Trump, he feels the risk/benefit ratio make it ok to take the medication.  While I think there are some flaws with the VA study, it is not the only one that is bad for HCQ.  And to believe that the study was rigged is just stupid.  And I don't agree with the risk/benefit ratio as described by his doctor.

HCQ does not kill the virus or prevent it from getting into the body.  It can be what is called an ionophore which means it can help some chemicals get into the cells of our body.  One such chemical is zinc.  Zinc, if it can get into cells, can stop the replication of the coronavirus inside the cell.  Since the virus needs to use the cells to replicate, zinc can stop it from growing to such a viral load that it can overwhelm the body's system. 

So far the only encouraging study of HCQ and zinc working together is that if given shortly after a person is infected, it may stop the virus in its track.  Once it overwhelm the body, HCQ and zinc have not shown to be effective.  By the same token, the combination will have no effect to someone who is not infected since there is no replication to stop!  In this case all you do is getting the side effects without the benefit.

So the risk/benefit ratio for someone who has not been proven to be infected would dictate that you would not take this for prevention.  While zinc at a reasonable dose is probably not dangerous, HCQ has potential very harmful side effect.  It can cause something call increase QT interval on EKG which can lead to dangerous arrhythmia such as ventricular tachycardia and death.  HCQ also can cause severe eye problems.  So to me the risk of this is very high in relation to the benefit.

I think a safer alternative would be to take a herbal med call quercetin which can be an inophore to zinc as well and has little known side effect at regular dose.  Even then I would not take it for prevention since again, there is no replication to stop if you are not infected.

A better prevention method is use of mask.  Today while Trump is doubling down on HCQ at a cabinet meeting.  He and others were not wearing mask.  This is just bad example for the nation:  Taking unproven, dangerous medicine but not doing the easy and prudent thing.

Whenever someone backs up Trump's claim that China not being transparent is responsible for the great number of cases and deaths in this country, I point to South Korea.  The U.S. and South Korea reported their first case on the same date.  Yet the trajectory of number of cases and deaths is vastly different in the two countries.  Was China only non-transparent to the U.S.?  Did China give South Korea more heads up?  The difference in the two country is mostly the difference in the competence of the two governments.  

But not all the difference is in the two governments.  The people of South Korea, like those in most of Asia, are much more community oriented.   In our country, individual freedom trumps everything else.  In Korea, it is the good of the community.  While we have protest about lock downs and people beating and killing workers in stores for trying to enforce the use of masks, the Koreans are compiling with all the restrictions.  There is no complaint about testing and contact tracing which stopped the virus on its track early on.

This past week there were 100 cases in Korea that was started when people went to bars in a certain district.  The outcry was deafening.  People were outraged that these young people were so careless.  One grandparent was infected by his grandson.  There are concerns that since some of these were gay bars that there would be discrimination against the people who were there.  But contact tracing went on anyway.  I think there would be more worry about privacy issue here in the U.S. which may slow down the contact tracing.  Of course, we don't even have a contact tracing system set up in the first place.

Of course, the issue in this case is not whether the people involved were at a gay bar.  The issue is crowded condition and lack of social distancing.  Just like the first surge back in January which occurred at churches.  So if the religious right in Korea makes this about gays, they will be wrong.  But back in January, after some reluctance the church goers did cooperate with the government, just as the bar patrons are today.  In the U.S. there would be lawsuits about religious freedom and privacy. There would be a lack of cooperation.   So while the government action is very important, ordinary citizens must do their part if a country is going to defeat this virus.

There is no absolute freedom in this world.  Sometimes we have to make sacrifices of individual freedom for the good of the community.  Are these sacrifices the right thing to do?  How do we know if the government just want to control us?  It is not possible to always be sure.  But we should listen to neutral experts who have scientific knowledge and no political agenda.  Koreans and other Asians are willing to listen to their experts, we should listen to our experts and do the right thing.

Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man who was running on a Georgia road, was gunned down by two white men.  The two men were arrested after over two months.  They claimed that they thought Arbery was connected with crimes in the area and they were making a citizen's arrest.  That is totally 

BS.  They had not witness him committing a crime so they should not be making any arrest.  If they thought he was a criminal, and they had him in sight while he is on feet and they are in a truck, why didn't they just call 911?

The truth is these citizen arrest laws and stand your ground laws are just justifications for white people to kill black men.  Can you imagine a black guy using citizen arrest law to justify killing a white guy in the streets?  I am not going to be politically correct here.  I don't see a white man confronting a young black man in the streets if the white man was not armed.  Or if there are at least two white men against one black man.  In this case, both are true.  Two white men with guns against an unarmed black man.  There is no justification for this act and yet the lawyers for these two will argue, I am sure, using the citizens arrest law.

It is time to get rid of these laws.  These laws are relics of the past when there was no fast police car response and 911.  Despite the outrage of the public and obvious hate crime tone to this event, there is a good chance that these two men will get away with it, using an unfair law.  If you don't believe this law and those stand your ground laws are not biased heavily in favor of white men, just remember Treyvon Martin.

A few questions come to my mind about this pandemic.  I can't write about all of them in one or two blogs.  So I invite anyone who has thoughts or questions about any of them to write in and continue the discussion on any or all of them.

Saw some people going to protests in various states openly carrying guns, high power rifles and automatic weapons.  So I ask, are they trying to kill the virus with AK-47s?  Do the other protesters feel safe next to these people with the guns?  Are the police arresting them, talking to them or even monitoring them?  What would happen if these gun-toting people are black or Arab?

The government has spent 3 trillion dollars to stimulate the economy.  More will likely be needed.  Where did all these money came from?  We have an annual deficit of about 3,8 trillion which is about 18% of the economy.  So do we have 6.8 trillion deficit this year at least?   If Medicare for all is supposed to cost 3 trillion a year, why can't we fund that if we are funding the stimulus with more than that much this year?  Can we just print money?  If so, why can't other countries do the same when they are in trouble?

There are news out of China that Africans are being discriminated against such as being forcibly quarantined, kicked out of their rented apartments, not allowed to go into certain hotels, restaurants, and stores.  Are Chinese racists?  Do they discriminate against foreigners?

The flu can kill up to 70,000 people in our country in a year.  Covid-19 will pass that for sure, but is it  so much more dangerous than the flu?  After all, we have not shut down the country over the flu even during the worst years, why do we have to shut down the country this time?

When will we have major sports again?  What sports would be more safe to play soon?  Are there going to be fans in the stands when play resumes?

Are we going to recognize the "essential workers" who are on the lower end of the pay scale but have to work to keep the country going?  The janitors, garbage collectors, the grocery workers, fast food workers, meat processing worker etc.  They don't get paid much but they cannot work at home and are at risk every time they go to work.  Are we going to raise the minimum wage after this?

So if you have interest in any of these questions, please start the discussion and I will give my thoughts on it.