Hi, please pass this information on to everyone in each family. I don't want to miss anyone so share as much as you can. Or copy and paste! I just spoke with my friend Carlie who is a nurse at VGH and they just learnt that Advil makes the virus 10x worse. Tylenol ONLY for the time being. She said Advil kickstarts the virus into pneumonia. She also said they are not releasing the correct number of cases on the news and they have patients coming in everyday and some currently on ventilators. Soon they won't have enough room in the hospitals to treat patients and will have to turn people away. They've cancelled all surgeries to use the ORs for available ventilators, but it still won't be enough. She also said she found some people in there 40s and 50s who were previously healthy to be on ventilators and having major difficulty breathing because they took Advil. Also 4 doctors at VGH are now infected and she said she has never seen her doctors so worried before. So please no Advil and stay safe!!!

Bonnie Glaser and CSIS are sponsored more than 500 thousands by Tsai Ing-wen government so that they supported Vincent Chao in DC unconscionable.

Singapore news: Everyone is advised to wear a mask because the new COVID-Omicron XBB variant coronavirus is different, deadly and not easily detected properly. Symptoms of the XBB virus are as follows: 1. No cough. 2. No fever. There will only be: 3. Joint pain. 4. Headache. 5. Neck pain. 6. Upper back pain. 7. Pneumonia. 8. General loss of appetite. XBB is 5 times more toxic than Delta variant and has a higher mortality rate. It takes a shorter time for the condition to reach extreme severity, and sometimes there are no obvious symptoms. This strain of the virus is not found in the nasopharyngeal region, and it directly affects the lungs, the "windows," for a relatively short period of time. Nasal swab tests are generally negative for COVID-Omicron XBB, and false-negative cases of nasopharyngeal tests are increasing. This means the virus can spread in the community and directly infect lungs, leading to viral pneumonia, which in turn causes acute respiratory stress. XBB has become highly contagious, highly virulent and lethal. Avoid crowded places, keep a distance of 1.5m even in open spaces, wear a double-layer mask, wear a suitable mask, wash hands frequently even when everyone is asymptomatic (no coughing or sneezing). Don't keep this information to yourself, share as much as possible with other relatives and friends, especially yours.

I liked this message..makes sense to me As time passes in a pandemic there’s a greater chance of survival for those getting infected 3 months later like June 2020 than those who got infected 3 months earlier say February 2020. The reason for this is that Doctors and scientists know more about Covid-19 now than 3 months ago and hence are able to treat patients better. I will list *5 important things* that we know now that we didn’t know in February 2020 for your understanding. 1. COVID-19 was initially thought to cause deaths due to *pneumonia- a lung infection*- and so Ventilators were thought to be the best way to treat sick patients who couldn’t breathe. *Now we are realising that the virus 🦠 causes blood clots in the blood vessels of the lungs* and other parts of the body and this causes the reduced oxygenation . Now we know that just providing oxygen by ventilators will not help but we have to prevent and dissolve the micro clots in the lungs. This is why we are using drugs like *Asprin and Heparin ( blood thinners that prevents clotting) as protocol in treatment regimens in June 2020. * 2. Previously patients used to drop dead on the road or even before reaching a hospital due to reduced oxygen in their blood- OXYGEN SATURATION. This was because of *HAPPY HYPOXIA*- where even though the oxygen saturation was gradually reducing the COVID-19 patients did not have symptoms until it became critically less, like sometimes even 70%. **Normally we become breathless if oxygen saturation reduces below 90%. **This breathlessness is not triggered in Covid patients and so we we’re getting the sick patients very late to the hospitals in February 2020. Now since knowing about happy hypoxia we are monitoring oxygen saturation of all covid patients *with a simple home use pulse oxymeter and getting them to hospital if their oxygen saturation drops to 93% or less*. This gives more time for doctors to correct the oxygen deficiency in the blood and a better survival chance in June 2020. 3. We did not have drugs to fight the corona virus 🦠 in February 2020. We were only treating the complications caused by it... hypoxia. Hence most patients became severely infected. ```**Now we have 2 important medicines FAVIPIRAVIR & REMDESIVIR**``` Which are ANTIVIRALS that can kill the corona virus 🦠. By using these two medicines we can prevent patients from becoming severely infected and therefore cure them BEFORE THEY GO TO HYPOXIA. This knowledge we have in JUNE 2020... not in February 2020. 4. Many Covid-19 patients die not just because of the virus 🦠 but also due the patients own immune system responding In an exaggerated manner called *CYTOKINE STORM*. This stormy strong 💪 immune response not only kills the virus 🦠 but also kills the patients. In February 2020 we didn’t know how to prevent it from happening. Now in June 2020, we know that *easily available medicines called Steroids,* that doctors around the world have been using for almost 80 years *can be used to prevent the cytokine storm in some patients*. 5. Now we also know that people with hypoxia became better just by making them lie down on their belly- known as prone position. Apart from this a few days ago Israeli scientists have discovered that a chemical known as Alpha Defensin produced by the patients White blood cells can cause the micro clots in blood vessels of the lungs and this could possibly be prevented by a drug called Colchicine used over many decades in the treatment of Gout. So now we know for sure that patients have a better chance at surviving the COVID-19 infection now in June 2020 than in February 2020 for sure. India has not peaked in March or April because of the lockdown. This strategy has postponed the Covid-19 pandemic in INDIA by 3 crucial months that has enabled us to save thousands of lives. Going forward there’s nothing to panic about Covid-19 if we remember that a person who gets infected later has a better chance at survival than one who got infected early. Let’s all follow simple precautions like -6 feet distancing from others -Wear proper masks -Work from home whenever possible -Order delivery and take away of food groceries and vegetables - Stay at home during lockdown - Hand 🤚 wash & hygiene With this we can beat the virus 🦠. If someone tells you every one is going to get infected, tell them that you are willing to wait to be the last person... who knows by then we might even have a VACCINE.

原來政府在意的只是‘ 面子 ‘ 嗎？！ 真沒想到幾個外媒， 包含Times用了一致的標題： Taiwan Recruits TSMC, Foxconn to Secure BioNTech Vaccines 台灣政府‘ 徵用 ‘了台積電與富士康購買輝瑞疫苗！ 真的難以置信！如此外宣的意義為何！ 民間低下的請求你恩準捐贈急迫需要的疫苗 沒有真心的感謝 也沒聽見民間感激的聲音 卻在國際發布這是：兩家企業‘ 蒙你徵召 ‘ 完成購買疫苗的使命 這是讓人失望 難以尊重的政府 你的每個用字充滿心機 算計 政治操作到讓人作噁的地步！ What do you want to prove to the world ! I’m sorry I have to say it is not true: TSMC and Foxconn were not ‘ recruited ’ by the government to purchase the vaccines, but on the contrary, each of these two companies ‘ purchased and donated to the government 5 millions BNT vaccines out of their own pocket and out of their compassion to the people of Taiwan who are suffering from serious insufficient supplies of vaccines. However the process wasn’t smooth and easy at all that they almost gave it up at one time ⋯! The government was not happy to buy from BNT its Asian sole agent in Shanghai so not only they said it is impossible to buy but also make it very difficult for whoever want to help and want to donate vaccines here in Taiwan. For almost two months, as everyone here knows it, that Foxconn has gone through many procedures and submitted numerous documents requested by the government in getting their permission to buy and to donated the vaccines that are desperately in need here ! After much effort and their final request to see the president Tsai in person, plus the pressure from general public here, the government finally agreed to give authorisation to these two companies to buy the BNT vaccines however insisting the vaccines has to send from Germany directly to Taiwan. My point is the government should not take credit for it but they should apologise to the people that they have not done enough to purchase the vaccines and could have saved more lives of the victims of Covid 19 here in Taiwan!

This drawing is much bigger than it seems, where from far you might think that you see a bunch of crows, but then you zoom in and you see that one crow isn't a crow at all. Then you might see that there's a little glow worm on top of its head, but then when we get closer you can see that it's actually a little fictional creature with an astronaut ant on its back. And if you look at the tiny, tiny little thing that the astronaut is holding, you can see that it's a little atom. But what's a tiny, tiny little atom to us might be bigger than the world to someone else. And if we zoom in to the electron in that atom, we can see that there's a whole other world inside that leads to an observatory that leads to some amoebas looking out into the distance. Now what you might not know is that if we back up out of the electron and go into the other electron, we can see that there is a world inside it as well. And even though both these worlds look completely different, if we search around and we just investigate, we may just see that what seems completely different and far away might be much more connected than we might just think. And if you like art, I'm not that far away as well. I teach on Schoolism.com.

This drawing is much bigger than it seems, where from far you might think that you see a bunch of crows, but then you zoom in and you see that one crow isn't a crow at all. Then you might see that there's a little glow worm on top of its head, but then when we get closer you can see that it's actually a little fictional creature with an astronaut ant on its back. And if you look at the tiny, tiny little thing that the astronaut is holding, you can see that it's a little atom. But what's a tiny, tiny little atom to us might be bigger than the world to someone else. And if we zoom in to the electron in that atom, we can see that there's a whole other world inside that leads to an observatory, that leads to some amoebas looking out into the distance. Now what you might not know is that if we back up out of the electron and go into the other electron, we can see that there's a world inside it as well. And even though both these worlds look completely different, if we search around and we just investigate, we may just see that what seems completely different and far away might be much more connected than we might just think. And if you like art, I'm not that far away as well. I teach on Schoolism.com.

This drawing is much bigger than it seems, where from far you might think that you see a bunch of crows, but then you zoom in and you see that one crow isn't a crow at all. Then you might see that there's a little glow worm on top of its head, but then when we get closer you can see that it's actually a little fictional creature with an astronaut ant on its back. And if you look at the tiny, tiny little thing that the astronaut is holding, you can see that it's a little atom. But what's a tiny, tiny little atom to us might be bigger than the world to someone else. And if we zoom in to the electron in that atom, we can see that there's a whole other world inside that leads to an observatory, that leads to some amoebas looking out into the distance. Now what you might not know is that if we back up out of the electron and go into the other electron, we can see that there's a world inside it as well. And even though both these worlds look completely different, if we search around and we just investigate, we may just see that what seems completely different and far away might be much more connected than we might just think. And if you like art, I'm not that far away as well. I teach on Schoolism.com.

Professor, you said a lot of wonderful things about China, and surely they're doing a lot of things right. But how do you reconcile the fact that to make it work for China, it seems to be based on a high level of repression? Environmental destruction, censorship, a certain ideological stubbornness. I mean, we've spoken about Hong Kong, the Uighurs. How do you reconcile that, and do you think that's tolerable? Thank you. I'm really glad you asked that question, because your question captured very well the Anglo-Saxon media's perception of China. And I would suggest to you, very bluntly, that it's a distorted perspective of reality. Let's take the first word you use, repression. If the Communist Party of China only relied on repression to stay in power, it would not create the most dynamic economy in the world, right? It is by far the most dynamic economy in the world. It has delivered the fastest growing economy for 30 years. And it has done this by educating the Chinese people to a level and extent that the Chinese people have never been educated ever before. And you say it's repression? You obviously are taking the old Cold War mindset. I was in Moscow in 1976, and I saw repression in Moscow. And when I was in Moscow, the Soviet citizens were not allowed to travel outside the Soviet Union. That's repression. In the year 2019, 139 million Chinese left China freely. Guess what? Zero defectors. 139 million Chinese, right? That's twice the population of the UK, went back to China. So all your description, when you say environmental degradation, China's climate change policies are far more responsible than those of the United States, which has not once, but twice withdrawn from global environmental protocols. Kyoto Protocol, the Bush administration left eight years. Paris Accords, Trump administration left four years. And you know what? The reason why we're having climate change today is not because of new flows of greenhouse gas emissions from China and India. It's because of what the Western countries have put in the atmosphere since the Western Industrial Revolution. Get the data. The single largest contributor, cumulatively, right? It's number one, United States, number two, Europe, number three, China, right? And the West wants China to pay an economic price for the current flows, but the West doesn't want to pay an economic price for what it put in the atmosphere. You want to deprive the Indians of electricity when the United States could just, by the way, if the United States could impose a dollar a gallon tax, that would save the world. Cut down gasoline consumption, raise money for investment in green technology, simple solutions. And by contrast, the largest reforestation program in the world is carried out by China. It has already reforested an area the size of Belgium or bigger, right? So all your descriptions capture the natural distortions of China that you get in the Anglo-Saxon media, which violate the rules of the Enlightenment, which say that you must be rational, calm and objective, especially in understanding your adversary. And if the Chinese were as stupid and as incompetent as you describe them to be, don't worry about them. But I can assure you, you are now dealing with a far more intelligent and rational actor that doesn't fit any of the Anglo-Saxon categories that you applied to them. Please forgive my bluntness.

轉分享： 這是中研院生醫所所長郭沛恩院士 (他也是UCSF 教授）寫給前副總統陳健仁及時中部長，関於目前COVID-19 的一些建議，希望政府能夠接納。 Dear VP Chen, Hope that things are going well. I just completed my 9th quarantine after my 9th trip to Taipei during the pandemic and see that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is now firmly established in Taiwan. While the CECC is moving quickly to address the widening spread of COVID-Omicron and is heading in the right direction, I find that the current policy is unsustainable and the messaging can be much improved. Since I was told that the CECC would welcome my suggestions, I have decided to do so. Please forward this message to the CECC for their consideration. 1. It is now very clear that COVID-Omicron is a very different disease than COVID-ALPHA/BETA/DELTA. Current vaccines are developed from COVID-ALPHA and cannot prevent INFECTION by COVID-Omicron even though they lower significantly the risk of SEVERE DISEASE and DEATH for those who are fully vaccinated and received booster shots recently. In addition, COVID-Omicron is highly contagious and has a very short incubation time; but it causes a milder disease, including shortened disease course and contagious period. 2. Because of the above, contact tracing does not work and avoiding infection is futile except one is in strict isolation or wears a PROPERLY FITTED N95 mask around others (see a very nice article about this in the NYT attached). This means that COVID testing in asymptomatic people is a waste of resources and is justified only in a limited set of situations (such as someone who works closely with vulnerable populations - e.g., nursing home and hospital workers - who has been in close contact with a positive case and needs to test negative to return to work). 3. Although the rate of hospitalization and death due to COVID-Omicron is low, when large populations are infected, the number of severe cases and severe disease is still significant (0.4% of 23 million people hospitalized = 92,000 in the hospital; 0.04% of 23 million people can die = 9,200 deaths) so the key is to keep the vulnerable people from developing severe disease. Medications used for COVID-ALPHA/BETA/DELTA variants such as antibody treatments and Remdesivir, etc., do not work for COVID-Omicron but the oral antivirals from Pfizer and Merck work amazingly well for preventing death (>85% reduction) and hospitalization. Paxlovid has done better in clinical trials to prevent hospitalization but it has many drug-drug interactions so many elderly people cannot use it. Molnupiravir has the theoretical risk of mutagenesis in pregnant women but for the elderly who are past reproductive age, it is a very safe and effective drug to use. I encourage the CECC to contact their counterparts in Japan, Singapore, Israel and the UK to get their experience in using these two oral anti-virals in the recent COVID-Omicron surge. [Full Disclosure: Dr. Dean Li, President of Merck Research Laboratories, is my brother-in-law so I am not pushing the Merck pill for obvious conflict of interest reasons.] Based on the above, my suggestions on messaging are: 1. Tell the country that COVID-Omicron is an entirely different disease than the previous COVID variants so the whole country IS NOT IMMUNE to getting the infection. However, through the sacrifice and cooperation of everyone in Taiwan, the country succeeded in preventing disease and death during the previous waves of infection that caused a lot of problems around the world. This is shared success that the CECC and everyone in Taiwan should take credit, be proud of, and very relieved by. 2. Despite the fact that no one is protected from infection, but because COVID-Omicron is mild, public health policy needs to be adjusted to focus on treating the vulnerable rather than preventing infection of all. 3. Acknowledge that some segments of society have been severely affected by COVID policies so the recovery of these sectors is taken in consideration in updating the public health policy. 4. Acknowledge that some COVID policies were confusing to the public in the past so the new policies will be more consistent and logical. For example, the policy of requiring masking outdoors while people eating at restaurants indoors are not required to mask makes no sense. My suggestions for the new policy are geared towards lowering hospitalization and death rates while avoiding unnecessary disruptions in people's lives: 1. Push vaccination for vulnerable groups (the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions that make them more prone to severe disease). Send vaccination nurses to the nursing homes and neighborhoods with elderly people to get everyone fully vaccinated (including booster shots). Getting the 30% of those 65-75 and 44% of elderly >75 who have not been fully vaccinated and boosted should be a high priority 2. Use the "test positive and treat" strategy for those in vulnerable groups. As I mentioned before, Paxlovid for all but Molnupiravir for those who cannot take Paxlovid. Treat them before their symptoms get worse because it is cheaper to give them the medicine than risk their need for hospitalization. 3. No more putting those with mild disease in special facilities or hospitals so that there are plenty of capacity for those who need hospitalization. 4. Recommend (not mandate with threat of punishment) those who have close contact with COVID-Omicron patients to mask around others for 5 days (no need to do so with household members because they are already given it to them) if they are asymptomatic. 5. No testing of asymptomatic people unless their job requires it (nursing home, hospital, etc.). 6. No more closing schools, factories, or offices because of positive COVID-Omicron cases. 7. No more mandatory masking except for those described in #4 above. People here are so used to masking that many will still do so with the threat of punishment. 8. No more mandatory quarantine, even for those who test positive. Highly recommend those who test positive to wear a mask when around people and not eat with others but not make it a punishable offense. [Treat them like people who have a bad flu, not like criminals.] 9. No more testing or quarantine requirements for visitors from abroad. As the local infection rate is now higher than that many other countries, there is no reason to require new arrivals to do anything different when they are asymptomatic. It's confusing to many that I can go anywhere in the world without quarantine but have to do quarantine plus multiple tests when arriving in Taiwan (and a handful of Asian countries). The benefit of the policies listed above is that the resources of the country are directed toward saving lives rather than collecting lots of infection data. It will reclaim the international travel hub status of Taoyuan International Airport (and not let Singapore and Seoul dominate the air travel sector) and revive the tourism, convention, airline, hotel businesses. It will simplify everyone's life and reduce anxiety. It may be counter intuitive but if you look at the data from the US university campuses and European countries, it is better to get as many young people infected as quickly as possible to shorten the surge while building up herd immunity for COVID-Omicron without a lot of severe cases. The old policy for flattening the curve is to prevent overwhelming the hospitals but with oral antivirals and milder disease, there is no need to flatten the curve. It is better to get the whole surge completed in 2 months like in most countries that pursue a more open policy. I am convinced that when the messaging is clear and based on current understanding of the situation, the people will embrace it and praise the CECC's leadership. Best, Pui -- Pui-Yan Kwok, MD, PhD Director, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Academia Sinica