The vast majority of cases in the USA come from Europe via New York.
“We now have enough data to feel pretty confident that New York was the primary gateway for the rest of the country,” said Nathan Grubaugh, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health.
The central role of New York’s outbreak shows that decisions made by state and federal officials — including waiting to impose distancing measures and to limit international flights — helped shape the trajectory of the outbreak and allowed it to grow in the rest of the country.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/travel-from-new-york-city-seeded-wave-of-us-outbreaks/ar-BB13J7Yx
It’s not the Chinese. It’s those fuckers who live in palaces on Central Park West and jet set back and forth to their villas in Milan and the South of France. It obviously came here to Union County, NJ via New Jersey Transit. Fuck the rich. Fuck New York, and fuck Cuomo and De Blasio. Of course Trump misdirected everybody’s attention to China and refused to shut down travel from Europe to Newark and JFK, but it’s not only Trump.
At this point, if Trump’s redneck base invaded the liberal Northeast with their AR-15s, put us all on lock down, and forced us to salute the flag and say the pledge of allegiance, I wouldn’t blame them at all. Then again, they’re not going to blame Europeans and rich white New Yorkers when Trump (along with the Biden campaign) is stirring up the yellow peril.
Writers Without Money 
but here in Europe, it is the elderly, foremost, but along them also the poor. the refugees, the care workers and the low paid staffers at hotels and bars, who die the most….
Same in the US but the people who carried it from Europe to the USA were rich New Yorkers. Then these same rich New Yorkers left the city after the lockdown to go to their summer houses and spread it to the rest of the country.
The media has spent a lot of time mocking those right wing protests (which are to be fair astroturfed) but not much time at all mocking the wealthy.
you got a point. but two wrongs won’t make a right… sad to say
What pisses me off is that Philadelphia did everything right and locked down early. De Blasio and Cuomo have blood on their hands, mostly Cuomo. De Blasio’s really just a chump under the NYPD’s thumb.
They needed to lock down JFK, LaGuardia and New York and test everybody who flew in from anywhere. Instead they checked people from China and let people from white countries come right though.
The Poles quarantined everybody, even rich Poles coming back from ski trips in Northern Italy. The USA is such a corrupt, racist country it’s hard to fathom sometimes.
But I was in Austria (which is right next to Northern Italy – its my country of origin and I visited my elderly parents as I usually do every winter) in February right before word of this desease got out and nowone checked at all. Two weeks later I went to Cyprus and the island shut down. Had trouble to get a flight back to Berlin – alas, nobody checked anyone at the cram-packed airport in Munic. The plane was full to the last seat up north to Brlin and again – noone was checked for anything…. And yet, Germany’s figures of sick and deaths are nothing compared to NY city and state. So, where is the difference? I think, it’s the speed of lock-down, the amount of testing and the quality of medical system. Over here, in Germany, a land of 80 million, there are 6.800 deaths, of the 68.000 infected, 500.000 plus are well again, the rest is in good care. Hospitals have been emptied for Corona cases and doctors are taking their holidays now, as there are no patients…. Weird, but the government told them to cancel all non-vital operations and treatments and now they are bored….
In NYC it’s a combination of population density and sheer incompetence on the part of the city and state governments. They didn’t even close the schools until mid-March.
That figure of 6800 deaths in Germany is striking. Here in New Jersey, a state with a little over 7 million people, we have 8801 deaths, and they’re mostly concentrated in the northern part of the state near NYC.
It would be too easy just to blame this on our racist President. The Presidents of Poland and Hungary are racist as hell and Eastern Europe has largely avoided Covid-19 (at least the levels of Covid-19 in Western Europe and the USA).
This is really a statement on the failure of neoliberal capitalism and globalism. The “outsource all your supply chains and fuck the poor” system has brought us the plague. But it’s not only population density or neoliberalism.
Los Angeles is more dense than NYC and has only a fraction of the Covid cases. Germany has a more centralized form of capitalism than the USA with a stronger civil society. New York was kind of the perfect storm.
De Blasio and Cuomo should honestly be prosecuted for incompetence but instead the Democratic Party establishment has trashed De Blasio (because he endorsed Bernie) and put Cuomo up on a pedestal (because he runs a powerful right wing state Democratic Party machine). Trump of course will continue to push for war with China and the typical racist middle American (if you want to be depressed check out the Yahoo comments on this story) will make up fantasies about “liberal sanctuary cities” and ‘illegals with drivers licenses going across country.”
maybe it has also to do with diefferences in civil society in each of the cities. LA is known to be ecological, health-orientated etc. whereas I am not sure what NYC stands for. Maybe Wall Street greed and Upper Manhattan spleens? This might also influence the spread of the virus – go fuck yourself mentality seldom helps in crisis situations. One has to say, the Germans as a whole are very responsible, when it gets to follow advise and orders. I think order is THE one term with which a German can be defined…
It might have to do with the fact that LA has less public transportation than New York, but that wouldn’t really explain how quickly the virus spread to North Jersey, which is a similar kind of car culture. I honestly just think it’s about the competency of the government. Philadelphia and California locked down early. New York waited.
New Jersey’s Nursing Homes are basically death camps.
https://patch.com/new-jersey/clark/latest-clark-nursing-home-coronavirus-deaths
it is so sad…
My mother died in 2017 after we both contracted a really nasty case of the flu at a family reunion. She spent the better part of that Spring cycling between several nursing homes, and I honestly think that several times she willed herself to get even sicker so she could go back to the hospital. In the hospital, doctors pay attention to you. They largely ignore patients in nursing homes because they (rightfully) assume nobody’s going to get better. Most of the elderly people inside know it’s a death sentence.
Sorry to hear that. Over here in Europe, in general, nursing homes are better. My father is in one since more than five years now. And he is well taken care of. Despite being unable to speak, recognise people or leave the bed, he likes his food and gives an overall satisfied impression. And yes, he won’t get better at 90 and it is a death sentence. But he lives out his last days as comfortable and peaceful as possible.
Conventional science has no coherent theory about what so-called ‘viruses’ are. The matter is reduced to Procrustean Bed hypotheses which hold so long as one excludes persistent countervailing data. This accounts for the dearth of medical treatments for viral condition especially the utterly stupid vaccines. If you care to pursue investigation of all this it will arrouse latent narcolepsy.
One thing that is certain is that this planet is constantly bathed in organized matter with biological activity from outer space. Whenever some comet or asteroid passes by earth is subsequently drenched in whatever is cast off from such bodies. From the New York Times in 2018 -“Trillions Upon Trillions of Viruses Fall From The Sky Each Day”.
This is the theory of Panspermia. Which is a serious scientific subject despite much grinding of teeth from little scientists. Mainly because the volume of the matter is incontestable. Among the many prominent scientists who have spoken up for panspermia in recent times have been the noted British astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe.
A great deal of historical investigation has also been undertaken. Featuring virulent plagues subsequent to the passing by of observed comets. There’s tons of fascinating material available to those interested. Which will not induce narcolepsy.
So looking for mundane or deliberate terrestrial origins of viruses is a waste of time. Their origin is and always has been from beyond this planet. Which is why they serially and endlessly persist. And why antibody defence if the only defence.
Hmm. It’s an actual article.
You’ve convinced me. I’m going to join the Mobile Infantry.
Coronavirus came from METEORITE which hit China last year – bombshell scientist claim
Nathan Rao
Express (UK)
Tue, 11 Feb 2020 09:41 UTC
THE deadly coronavirus which has killed more than 1,000 people globally came from a meteorite which hit China last year, scientists have sensationally claimed.
…
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, said:
“The sudden outbreak of a new coronavirus is very likely to have a space connection, the strong localisation of the virus within China is the most remarkable aspect of the disease. In October last year a fragment of a comet exploded in a brief flash in North East China. We think it probable that this contained embedded within it a monoculture of infective 2019-nCoV virus particles that survived in the interior of the incandescent meteor. We consider the seemingly outrageous possibility that hundreds of trillions of infective viral particles were then released embedded in the form of fine carbonaceous dust. We believe infectious agents are prevalent in space, carried on comets, and can fall towards Earth through the troposphere. These, we think, can and have in the past gone on to bring about human disease epidemics.”
“We believe this could have happened with the novel coronavirus. While it is likely it arrived as a new infective agent, there could be an element of mutation triggered by DNA arriving in a similar manner. We have evidence that even in the human genome, 40 per cent of our DNA is viral, and it has been incorporated during our evolution. There is growing evidence that says this DNA comes from space and it is carried into our atmosphere on micro-meteorites before dissipating. It is then taken up by bacteria and viruses. That new insert could have come from space. This disturbing outbreak is due to this, there is no doubt meteorites carry living structures.”
Let’s assume that’s right for a second. It doesn’t explain why New York City became the killing fields in a way Los Angeles or Chicago and especially Philadelphia didn’t.
It doesn’t explain why Germany has many times the population of New Jersey and fewer Covid-19 deaths.
It also doesn’t let Trump off the hook for not federalizing LaGuardia, Newark and JFK and ordering them to screen everybody (not just the Chinese).
Whatever the ultimate origin of the virus, American capitalism (and the idiotic neoliberal government of New York State and City) are to blame for the way it spread. New Jersey largely follows New York, but during the first few months there was a dramatic difference between the Philadelphia suburbs and the Manhattan suburbs.
Is that it? Do you reckon surface ‘objections’ like this which were voiced a hundred years ago haven’t been properly answered?
It’s not an “objection” just a simple description of where the virus has been concentrated. There’s been a dramatic difference between the number of cases in New York and Philadelphia. In Philadelphia the city and state government took the right steps. In New York De Blasio and Cuomo dawdled. That seems indisputable at this point.
Allow me to make a couple of points here. One is that it’s not just viral like material that descends from space. Which is low molecular weight stuff, only quasi life-like, but durable. It’s also fully formed bacteria which is much more complicated and fully formed life. And then algae too which is an even more sophisticated form of life. Where the hell did all this stuff come from? If you’re a Catholic or Hindu such shakes the foundation of your faith.
Secondly,humans are not the only vector of infection and transmission. Cows, pigs, dogs, birds too. We have great murrains where entire species die out, Alongside others unharmed. And trees, crops and soil. Dirt is ever brimming with soil-based organisms that exhales, so to speak, clouds of life that get conveniently blown about over great distances.
Thirdly, it’s not that some people in some places show vulnerability to infection. The interesting thing is that so many do not and that always at all time there are regions where there is – unaccountably – no infection. The subject has been much studied.
Fourthly, the distribution of extra-planetary matter is very uneven. The stuff falls to earth here and not over there. Take the Great Mortality of 1348, the Plague. There were very isolated areas where the death rate was total. And other large areas, well connected, where nobody died. This shoots to pieces the conventional theories. Among many other things.
The subject is well studied and panspermia has prevailed against all critics. A lot is not understood as you can imagine.
At this point I introduce ‘pleomorphism’ which is the orders of very small life-forms which themselves compose and regulate the things called viruses. Which you have never heard of. Which is a neat companion to the heresy of panspermia. I’m just throwing that out to tantalize you.
I think there are two issues here:
1.) The origins of the virus and first contact with humans (which we can assume is Wuhan).
2.) The way the virus spreads between humans (and we can assume that in the United States is came via Europe through New York).
Another issue would be the level of resistance people have to the virus itself and their ability to survive it. When my mother and I both got the same (incredibly nasty) strain of the flu at a family reunion, it knocked me flat for a week but I was never in danger of dying. It sent my mother into a final death spiral. She had broken her hip 3 years before. She fell and broke her hip again. Then everything shut down after that.
The Coronavirus seems to be acting in the same way. Most of the deaths are in nursing homes. A 20 year old in New Jersey is going to survive it, even though it’s going to screw up his lungs for the rest of his life. Elderly people in nursing homes are dying at an incredible rate.
BUT both that 20 year old and that 80 year old still picked up the virus from the Wuhan to Europe to New York down New Jersey Transit to New Jersey pipe line.
All I’m saying is that the pipeline could have been disrupted (as it’s been in Vietnam and New Zealand) and that Trump, De Blasio and Cuomo failed.
Are there some people who not only have the ability to shake the virus but never get it? Sure. I suppose there are. Do I have an explanation. No. I’m not a virologist.
The concept of a ‘first contact’ rests on premises that are false, cannot be sustained by hard evidence. Those that advance this bear a burden of evidence they have not nor will not sustain. It’s little more than a religious boogeyman, Satan caused it. Prove it’s plausibility!
You can see the weakness of this line of thinking by observing the wild claims being put forth. It came from Wuhan, Fort Frederick, was around months before, has mutated (true), from Europe, the U.S. This chasing of tails will never end and never has. In any case, unless this and all viruses were deliberately manufactured by humans by what mechanism did any so-called virus come into existence at all? At this point all pretense of science completely evaporates. The critters just arise fully formed sui generis because it pleases them. And so it shall be. We are doomed.
Of course, if the vector is panspermia then the matter is sensible.
The other matter you touch on is an old and ongoing subject of contested dispute. Is it the pathogen or the terrain? Pasteur versus Becamps. A variant of genetics versus epigenetics. Which comes down to this. Spend a lifetime getting stuffed with crapola food, toxic medicine in a poisonous environment and any insult – pathogen – will finish you off. Capitalism is just clearing out the sick houses to make room for the next set of customers to milk. The U.S. population has degenerated into the fat, lazy and stupid and will not prevail against the hardier Chinese and Russians. The U.S. could not sustain a military draft because the population is rotted out. With over 20% GDP blown on corrupt medical care if its not a virus, it’s cancer, heart disease, diabetes or you name it. Time’s up!
Anyway, real science has no bearing on this for practical matters. ‘Science’ is and has been totally corrupted by capitalism. It’s all politics thankfully. And you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
New Harvard Study ‘Galactic Panspermia’ Posits Transfer of Life Between Planets
The Harvard Crimson
By Laura C. Espinoza and Declan J. Knieriem, Contributing Writers
October 26, 2018
Researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics recently released a study claiming that panspermia, an astronomical theory that life is exchanged between planets within solar systems, can be expanded to support exchanging life within the Milky Way galaxy.
The study, “Galactic Panspermia,” concluded that life, or the chemical compounds necessary for life, can be distributed between solar systems or even galaxies by astronomical objects such as meteoroids or asteroids. The study was led by Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Theory and Computation Idan Ginsburg and co-authored by Astronomy Department chair Abraham “Avi” Loeb and ITC postdoctoral fellow Manasvi Lingam.
The theory of panspermia proposes a mechanism by which astronomical objects could feasibly transport life to other planets within solar systems. The presence of life could take the form of anything from chemical compounds to microorganisms.
Kinda shines a new light on things, eh?