USA - Figures come from slides from a presentation by Dr James Lawler, a University of Nebraska Medical Center professor and hosted by AHA. He said figures are a 'best guess' estimate that could be a lot higher. They show the spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with the crisis 10 times greater than a severe flu season. The shock figures fly in the face of claims made by President Trump who has maintained on many occasions that the risk to Americans is 'low'. Documents from a leading doctor show US hospitals should be preparing for 96 million coronavirus infections and nearly half a million deaths from the outbreak. The spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with 480,000 Americans expected to die from the virus and 4.8 million hospitalized, according to a presentation hosted by The American Hospital Association (AHA) in February.

USA - Before Friday, Devra Torres saw some houses of worship around the country being shuttered for fear of spreading the coronavirus and considered it "extreme." People shouldn't be "left alone" without Communion or confession, said Torres, who has gone to Mass every day for decades. Then came news Thursday that the Archdiocese of Washington was calling for parishes to be closed as well, including St Mark's, to which the 55-year-old freelance editor walks each day at noon to worship. And then came Friday, Torres' final Mass - at least for now. "I feel sad. It may seem fanatical to some, but for me this is a very special time of connection with God every day," Torres, who went Friday morning with her 11-year-old son, said of the closures that right now are scheduled through March 27. Catholics, she noted, "believe Jesus is literally present in Communion. You can't get that on TV."

UK - Elderly Britons may be told to self-isolate for four months under the government’s “wartime-style” effort to combat the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. The government of the United Kingdom is expected to impose a swathe of new measures to fight the further spread of the virus and to prevent the National Health Service (NHS) from “falling over” during the peak of the epidemic. Within the next 20 days, those over the age of 70 will be told to self-quarantine in their homes or care homes for up to four months, a Government source told ITV. Boris Johnson’s government is concerned that the quarantine will lead to the death of elderly people from neglect, and will call on friends, neighbours, and relatives to help older people during their isolation.

UK - Coronavirus’s economic danger is exponentially greater than its health risks to the public. If the virus does directly affect your life, it is most likely to be through stopping you going to work, forcing your employer to make you redundant, or bankrupting your business.

USA - Wherever we look, tensions and divisions exist in society that would have been hard to imagine even ten years ago. And the issues that tear us apart are numerous: the growing influence of ‘identity politics’, whereby people form narrow and rigid alliances defined by their race, sexuality or cultural background; the omnipresent influence of social media; the fanatical intolerance of animal rights activists; the rise of Islamic terrorism; the chaotic state of British politics following the EU referendum.

USA - White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro confirmed Wednesday the administration is working on an executive order to eliminate the government’s reliance on foreign-made medical supplies. The “Buy American” order comes on the heels of concerns expressed by senators during their Tuesday meeting with President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill. Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio said that during the meeting on easing coronavirus-related financial pressures on Americans, he asked Trump to support the Senate’s “efforts to invest in diversifying our supply chain, especially in pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.” The order would prevent federal agencies from purchasing medical supplies, including face masks, gloves and ventilators, from China.

USA - After increases in its repo facility twice already this week, from $100 billion to $150 billion to $175 billion per day, and adding a new 1-month term repo facility, the New York Fed just stunned the market and fired its biggest bazooka since Lehman (not coincidentally, just moments before today's 30Y Treasury auction, as a failed auction would mean, well, game over), by announcing a total of $1 trillion in 3-month repos over two days ($500BN today, $500BN tomorrow), as well as an additional $500BN in one-month repos offered weekly, which means up to $3 trillion in cumulative repos (if fully allotted) may be online by the end of the month.

CHINA - An article in China’s state-run Xinhua news service last week threatened to impose restrictions on medical exports so the United States will be “plunged into the mighty sea of coronavirus.” The Xinhua piece, published on March 4 and entitled “Be Bold: The World Owes China a Thank You,” was largely composed of standard Chinese Communist Party propaganda about how the world stands in awe of China’s amazing response to the coronavirus outbreak. Naturally, it neglected to mention how the virus ran wild in the first place because of Chinese bureaucratic incompetence and cover-ups. The Xinhua article made a point of noting that China has leverage over the US and Europe because it can restrict the supply of medicines that were unwisely outsourced to China in the heyday of globalism.

US - The latest numbers continue to indicate that the coronavirus is not much different than the common flu. The truth is in the numbers. The US has reported 50 deaths to date. Attkisson shares that, “Almost all of the reported coronavirus deaths in the US happened in long-term care facilities in Washington State. And almost all of those occurred at the same facility.” As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, according to CDC numbers, in the US in the 2019-2020 flu season, there were 222,000 confirmed cases of the flu from testing and an estimated 36 million flu cases in the United States. There were 22,000 confirmed deaths from the flu.

UK - Thousands of companies and millions of jobs in Britain are at risk as the UK faces the biggest drop in GDP since the financial crisis. A senior economist has predicted that the economy is likely to contract in the coming weeks by as much as it did in more than a year during the 2008/9 financial crisis. Julian Jessop told the Daily Telegraph that GDP could drop by “6 percent” or “even worse” in just one quarter. He warned that a flood of bankruptcies of previously profitable companies would make a quick recovery in 2021 very unlikely. The sudden collapse in business has prompted major retailers to prepare an appeal to the Government for financial support. Kate Nicholls, the head of UK Hospitality, a trade body, said that without Government intervention, the hospitality sector “will run out of cash in about eight to 10 weeks”. Her comments came after some of the world’s biggest hotel chains reported a roughly 50 percent fall in room occupancy. Industry insiders say that if this continues, then many of the hotels could go out of business, leading to the loss of up to two million jobs.

USA - Minutes before President Donald Trump was preparing Wednesday to reassure a skittish nation about the coronavirus threat, he received a piece of crucial information: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified in California the first US case of the illness not tied to foreign travel, a sign that the virus' spread in the United States was likely to explode. But when Trump took to the lectern for a news conference intended to bring transparency to the spiraling global crisis, he made no explicit mention of the California case and its implications - and falsely suggested the virus might soon be eradicated in the United States.

CHINA - In the grip of a new infection spreading around a planet with no natural immunity, it can feel like the sky is falling. Over the coming months, it’s likely that a significant share of the world’s population will experience some of the dread of the Covid-19 coronavirus that people in China have suffered over the past few months. Many will die.

USA - San Diego County officials declared a public health emergency on Friday triggering the silent activation of local emergency pandemic preparedness and fatality response plans. The heightened state of emergency authorizes certain law enforcement and military personnel the right to detain anyone suspected of being infected with or anyone who may have had contact with someone who was infected with the deadly virus.

USA - An American man who was evacuated by the State Department from Wuhan, China — where his father-in-law died of the coronavirus this month — was forced to pay $2,200 for the flight and billed by a San Diego hospital for the six days he and his daughter spent in mandatory quarantine there, following an order from the CDC. Frank Wucinski, who has lived and worked in China for 15 years, said in an interview on Friday that he was aware when he boarded the converted cargo plane in Wuhan with his three-year-old daughter Annabel that he would have to reimburse the United States government for the steep cost of the flight. But after they both tested negative for the virus and were released from the Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, Wucinski was shocked to receive a bill for the government-mandated stay there.

USA - The same people who want you to panic about coronavirus want you to panic about everything. The news business thrives on chaos. In addition, the media want to destroy Trump, which is why they spread the Russia collusion hoax. Coronavirus is not a hoax, but pundits should be asked if they cared enough about flu — which kills far more people — to get their shot this year. If not, ignore them. Remember to wash your hands, and stay cool.