From BioRvix comes the new study: In a side-by-side comparison of evolutionary dynamics between the 2019/2020 SARS-CoV-2 and the 2003 SARS-CoV, we were surprised to find that SARS-CoV-2 resembles SARS-CoV in the late phase of the 2003 epidemic after SARS-CoV had developed several advantageous adaptations for human transmission. Our observations suggest that by the time
China’s wolf wanker warrior diplomats may be a pack of arseholes. But at least they’ve got a bit of get up and go. By comparison, Australia’s possum pansy diplomats are about as fearsome as a trampled flower bed. At The Guardian today: Australia must work to prevent ties with China slipping into permanent hostility as
Thanks, Xi Jinping: The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could become endemic like HIV, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, warning against any attempt to predict how long it would keep circulating and calling for a “massive effort” to counter it. “It is important to put this on the table: this virus may become just
CCP mouthpiece, The Global Times, yesterday threatened Australian iron ore exports in the latest amusing twist in the China spat. I would quote it for you but the site is down. Has Australia has been geo-blocked? This is a nice measure of how toothless the CCP regime is. It sources 85% of its imported iron
Unbelievable. Via Domain: Liberal senator James Paterson has taken aim at universities’ reliance on international students, using a speech in Parliament to reveal confidential details about the University of Queensland vice-chancellor’s pay incentives to deepen ties with China. In a late-night speech on Tuesday, Senator Paterson said a whistleblower from the university had given him
Via the ABC: There’s a battle of ideas over how to reinvigorate the economy after the shock of COVID-19, but the make-up of the advisory body the Federal Government has set up to lead the recovery gives a good indication of which way it’s leaning. Amid calls for new investment in clean energy to cut
The MSM is clutching its Chinese pearls today. Here are the links, courtesy of Sinocism: Our great brawl with China risks trade war – The Australian Beijing has accused Australia of launching an inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic for political reasons, declaring that “mutual respect and equality” must form the basis of bilateral relations amid
Well oh dear, at Domain: Hospitals are struggling to source drugs including propofol and cisatracurium, used to sedate patients before they are intubated, which are needed to take ICUs to full capacity if there is a second wave of coronavirus infections after restrictions are lifted. “As part of Australia’s COVID-19 response, hospitals are still on
At News: Author Clive Hamilton says the idea the coronavirus originated in December in a Wuhan wet market “simply doesn’t stack up,” as evidence mounts that the virus in fact leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. US and UK intelligence agencies are currently reviewing private analysis of cell phone location data which purports to
George Megalopolis produced some basic data on the weekend with a very strange conclusion: Australia faces a realignment of the economy at warp speed. Almost a third of the 950,000 jobs lost across the economy since March 14 have been in accommodation and food services. Most were casual positions. They are not easily restored without
Via the ABC: Concerns over another spike in coronavirus cases have been raised after thousands of people flocked to shopping centres across Australia on Saturday, many flouting social distancing rules. Although the pre-Mother’s Day boom was a welcome lift for the retail industry, it caused alarm over a potential surge in COVID-19 cases after weeks
Via Domain: Labor leader Anthony Albanese will call for a new focus on fairness in the recovery from the coronavirus crisis, naming housing construction and local manufacturing as two priorities in his economic agenda. …In a major speech in Parliament House on Monday, the Labor leader will instead describe the crisis as a “once in
Via SCMP: China says it supports World Health Organisation efforts to investigate the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, but rejects any “presumption of guilt”, after the global body said it was talking to Beijing about sending another delegation to the country. The remarks came as Beijing is under mounting international pressure – particularly from the
Magnificent! Via UBS: Government suggests ~330k less migrants than expected in the next 18 months With reports suggesting over 300k tourists and temporary residents had already departed Australia by mid-April, and expectations that perhaps another 300k may leave by the end of 2020, a collapse in Australian net overseas migration (NOM) and visitor arrivals is
Former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, claims that Australia’s public service is no longer able to function effectively after being stripped bare by years of outsourcing: Speaking to InnovationAus’ Commercial Disco podcast as part of a virtual book tour to promote his political autobiography A Bigger Picture, Mr Turnbull said one of the big challenges facing
Via Bloomie: Among recovered Chinese Covid-19 patients, about 5% to 15% may have tested positive again, a Chinese study found. The rate of reactivation in China varied among different places, with some regions showing less than 1% of such cases among recovered patients, Wang Guiqiang, director of department of infection at the Peking University First
One week Labor is calling for JobKeeper and JobSeeker to be extended to more than a million temporary migrants, taxpayer bail-outs for all “critical businesses”, taxpayer bail-outs of universities, and taxpayer support for industry superannuation funds that failed to manage liquidity. Now, Labor is calling for an audit into the explosion of federal government debt:
Via The Australian: The national cabinet will today pave the way for a return to retail trading, greater freedom of movement within states and getting people back to work, in a landmark meeting to map out a plan for economic recovery. But Australians will face weeks of tough restrictions in some states as nervous premiers
Via Crikey’s Bernard Keane: How many Australians have to download the Morrison government’s surveillance app for it to be effective in helping health authorities trace contacts of people who have tested positive for COVID-19? At least 40% of the population, says Scott Morrison. Not 40%, say bureaucrats from the Department of Health. In fact, they hadn’t suggested
What other conclusion can you draw from recent behavior. Via SBS: International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywell told SBS News allowing international students back into the country could offer more than just economic benefits. “International education is Australia’s fourth-largest export industry which generates nearly 240,000 Australian jobs and is a key revenue
Via super-uber-glorious China bull James Laurensceson and his zombie pro-China think tank: Executive Summary – Zombie economic ideas are those that should have been slain by an accumulation of facts and evidence but continue to walk the land, stalking public policy. The Australia-China relationship has its own zombie economic idea: that Australian entities engaging heavily
Via Shane Oliver: Introduction Back in January when the bushfires were raging, I feared Australia’s luck had ran out. But right now, I thank god I live in The Lucky Country! Donald Horne’s original conception of the term in the 1964 book of the same name about Australia being run by “second rate people who
SloMo is a poor pollie with a tin ear. Via Domain: “If you’re wanting to hack into the temporary skilled migration program, you’re basically saying you want to hack into the skilled permanent migration program and those communities all around the country,” he said. “I think that’s an insensitive way of dealing with that and
I hesitate to publish about this at all given the opprobrium the Kouk has covered himself with in recent months but here you go: There are a number of vital areas of societal well-being which are being undermined by too much of a good thing, in other words, excessive population growth. Importantly house prices, congestion
This is not super hot news but is an example of the difficulty in confronting the coronavirus longer term, via Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US: Even better news comes from Robert Graham is a biomedical scientist and former executive director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, at Domain: There are more than
Or threaten to do so until the University of Queensland sacks whoever it needs to to wash out the CCP poison. Via The Australian: The University of Queensland is going to extraordinary lengths to silence its most effective critic, a 20-year-old philosophy student who has campaigned against the university’s tight links with the Chinese Communist
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there was a strong case to cut immigration, which has run at turbo-charged levels for 15 years: First, Australian real wage growth has remained stillborn for nearly 10 years: Australia’s labour underutilisation rate has been stuck at stubbornly high levels: Whereas average monthly hours worked has collapsed to record
They craft great chairs but terrible pandemic responses. A fair observation by Josh Depressionberg today: In his address to the National Press Club, the Treasurer has rejected a Sweden-style open-economy approach to coronavirus, and warned that the crisis will affect different sectors disproportionately.CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC “Respectfully, I disagree,” Josh Frydenberg said regarding Sweden’s model of handling
I was interviewed on Radio 2GB last night about Labor MPs coming to loggerheads over the topic of immigration, and why immigration needs to be cut to protect workers and living standards.
Via Daily Boobs: Beijing may have ‘groomed’ prominent Australians like Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest and Kerry Stokes in the hope they will advance its agenda, a China expert claims. The mining magnate and media mogul drew widespread outrage for calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to dump an inquiry into the origin of coronavirus. Mr Forrest
