Tag: Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

U.S. Intelligence Agencies May Never Find Covid’s Origins, Officials Say

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For three years, the U.S. government has been tied in knots over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, frustrated that China’s hindrance of investigations and unwillingness to look critically at its own research have obscured what intelligence agencies can learn about whether the virus escaped from a lab. Inquiries during the Trump and Biden administrations have yielded no definitive answers. The Energy Department and the F.B.I. favored the theory that a laboratory leak may have caused the pandemic. Five intelligence bodies considered theories of natural transmission — that the coronavirus…

World Bank Projects Weak Global Growth Amid Rising Interest Rates

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The World Bank said on Tuesday that the global economy remained in a “precarious state” and warned of sluggish growth this year and next as rising interest rates slow consumer spending and business investment, and threaten the stability of the financial system. The bank’s tepid forecasts in its latest Global Economic Prospects report highlight the predicament that global policymakers face as they try to corral stubborn inflation by raising interest rates while grappling with the aftermath of the pandemic and continuing supply chain disruptions stemming from the war in Ukraine.…

Cathay Pacific Struggles With Aftermath of Covid, and China Crackdown

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Few major airlines in the world were hit by the Covid pandemic as hard as Cathay Pacific, the flagship carrier of Hong Kong, or have labored so mightily to recover from it. Its business was decimated by some of the industry’s most expansive flight bans and quarantine requirements. And the pandemic wasn’t the start of Cathay’s troubles. In 2019, when Hong Kong was convulsed by pro-democracy protests, Cathay Pacific was caught in the crossfire with Beijing. Flights were canceled or delayed by airport sit-ins involving thousands of demonstrators, among them…

As Covid Infections Rise, China Rejects a Return to Lockdowns

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In December, China abruptly abandoned its draconian “Zero Covid” policies, battered by a surge of infections and rising public anger against lockdowns. Half a year on, Covid cases again are on the rise, but this time the nation appears to be determined to press on with normal life as the government focuses on reigniting economic growth. Though other countries have long settled into such a pattern, it is a shift for China. Until late last year, its national leadership was still ready to lock down whole neighborhoods and districts, even…

Hong Kong Wants More Tourists, but Mostly ‘Good Quality’ Ones, Please

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One by one the tour buses descended on the blue collar neighborhood in Hong Kong known as To Kwa Wan — literally translated as Potato Bay — unloading throngs of travelers from mainland China outside large restaurants where a quick lunch awaited them inside. Outfitted in white, red and orange ball caps to denote which tour they belonged to, the visitors crowded the sidewalks, smoked cigarettes under a “No Smoking” sign and bumped into the glass storefront of a real estate office where Nicky Lam, a property agent, was rolling…

W.H.O. Dismisses Covid Origins Investigator for Sexual Misconduct

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The World Health Organization dismissed a lead investigator into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic “following findings of sexual misconduct,” according to an agency spokeswoman. Peter K. Ben Embarek, an expert on food safety and animal-borne diseases, was dismissed last year; the dismissal was reported by The Financial Times on Wednesday. The findings stem from events that took place in 2015 and 2017, Marcia Poole, the W.H.O. spokeswoman, said in an email. The agency’s investigations team first learned about the allegations in 2018. At the time, “there was a significant…

In China, It’s Time to Splurge Again, and the Luxury Industry Is Relieved

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This time last year, Shanghai — China’s capital of fashion and luxury — was in the throes of a ruthlessly enforced Covid lockdown. The city’s glittering high-end malls and avenues lined with flagship stores stood practically empty. Today it is a different story. Huge crowds on a recent weekend flocked to top retail destinations on or near Nanjing Road, the hub of glamour in China ever since the country’s first large department stores began to open there in 1917. “I splurge more extravagantly,” Sunny Zhang, 24, said as she waited…

Scientist Revisits Data on Raccoon Dogs and Covid, Stressing the Unknowns

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A new study of genetic data from a market in Wuhan, China, said the data did not support the case that the pandemic had started with illegally traded animals, touching off fresh debate about samples that other scientists see as critical pieces of the puzzle of how the coronavirus reached humans. The new study, which examined the relative amounts of animal and viral material in swabs taken from surfaces at the market in early 2020, said it was difficult to draw conclusions about whether given samples of the virus had…

Chinese Censorship Is Quietly Rewriting the Covid-19 Story

Chin@Strategy

Early in 2020, on the same day that a frightening new illness officially got the name Covid-19, a team of scientists from the United States and China released critical data showing how quickly the virus was spreading, and who was dying. The study was cited in health warnings around the world and appeared to be a model of international collaboration in a moment of crisis. Within days, though, the researchers quietly withdrew the paper, which was replaced online by a message telling scientists not to cite it. A few observers…

At least 21 Dead After Fire at Beijing Hospital

Chin@Strategy

At least 21 people died after a fire erupted in a hospital in Beijing on Tuesday, forcing patients trapped inside to cram up against windows, awaiting rescue, while at least one jumped to a roof below to escape the flames and smoke. The fire appeared to be the deadliest in the Chinese capital in the past two decades. It broke out in an inpatient building of the Changfeng Hospital in the city’s south at just before 1 p.m., and firefighters had largely put out the flames within less than 40…