BREAKING: Belmont Resident With Coronavirus Flies To Bejing, Now Under Investigation By China

The Belmontonian ^ | MARCH 19, 2020 | FRANKLIN B. TUCKER

[palmer]

Boston Globe March 10: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/11/nation/how-biogen-leadership-conference-boston-spread-coronavirus/: "Within days, though, the Biogen conference would be infamous, identified as an epicenter of the Massachusetts outbreak of Covid-19, with 70 of 92 coronavirus infections in the state linked to the conference as of Tuesday night, including employees and those who came into contact with them. That doesn’t include a cascade of individual cases in Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Norway, and suspected cases in Germany, Austria, and Argentina."
...
Guests at the Long Wharf conference included people from Italy, a country where the virus had spread, but not people who had been to China, where it originated late last year, [Biogen spokesman David Caouette] said.

From WBUR, March 12: https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/03/12/coronavirus-outbreak-biogen-conference-superspreading: "Among the coronavirus numbers that Massachusetts officials have shared recently, one is particularly striking: Of the state's 95 cases detected as of late Wednesday, they say 77 stemmed from a meeting that the Cambridge biotech company Biogen held in late February."

From WBUR March 14: Known Coronavirus Cases in Mass. Up to 138; 104 Connected To Biogen Meeting

Jie Li From LinkedIn:

Experience
Biogen, Associate Director Biostatistics, Feb 2019 – Present, 1 year 2 months
Sarepta Therapeutics, Associate Director, Jun 2018 – Feb 2019, 9 months
Biogen, 3 years
-- Principal Biostatistician, Aug 2017 – Jun 2018, 11 months
-- Senior Biostatistician II, Jul 2015 – Aug 2017, 2 years 2 months
Virginia Tech Assistant Professor, Jun 2014 – Jun 2015, 1 year 1 month
Department of Statistics, Virginia Tech, Research Assistant Professor, Jun 2011 – Jun 2014, 3 years 1 month
Eli Lilly and Company Research Scientist, Jan 2010 – Jun 2011. 1 year 6 months, Neuroscience, Oncology
Merck. Biometrician, May 2009 – Nov 2009. 7 months

Education
University of Iowa. PhD Statistics, 2009
University of Science and Technology of China, BS Statistics, 2004

[proust]

Meanwhile one person from China infected 39 in Seattle:

https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/03/17/wuhan-report-one-traveller-from-china-infected-39-people-in-washington-state/

[DannyTN]

Jie Li.
She Lie?

[Steely Tom]

It would be racist for China to keep this person out, or even to complain.

I know some Chinese moms, and this story seems completely in character to me.

[palmer]

Super spreading event #2:
https://planetprinceton.com/2020/03/18/single-party-in-princeton-linked-to-most-of-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-the-mercer-county-region/

Two people from the Biogen conference attended a party with 47 people in Princeton NJ on Feb 29 At least 12 were positive as of 3 days ago.

[FreedomNotSafety]

“University of Science and Technology of China, BS Statistics, 2004”

So she went home. One less Chicom agent in the US.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

Mission Accomplished!

[Redcitizen]

That’s like an illegal Mexican crossing the border back into Mexico. Btw I hear Mexico is now in favor of stronger border controls. Who would have thought?

[trisham]

A modern day typhoid Mary.

[Zhang Fei]

[It would be racist for China to keep this person out, or even to complain.

I know some Chinese moms, and this story seems completely in character to me.]

---

I read somewhere that the Chinese media is touting the Party’s ability to control the disease and effect cures (presumably with quinine). This lady probably went back because she believed the bug was under control in China, and figured it would be no trouble for them to treat her problem.

The Chinese government is making a big deal of this because it’s lying about the disease not being a problem in China. They are still getting new cases. They’re just telling “local” officials not to report them.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3826322/posts

What was running through this lady’s mind when she got arrested, even though she thought she’d get treated back home where the disease was no longer a problem, with zero new cases for weeks, and the Chinese media were crowing over ~10 or below daily new deaths? The Chinese goon’s lips would have said one thing, but she would have heard “You f**ked up. You trusted us!”

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china

[Zhang Fei]

[It would be racist for China to keep this person out, or even to complain.

I know some Chinese moms, and this story seems completely in character to me.]

---

The thing about this is - if it’s under control in China, with only 6,000 active cases spread out over 22,000 hospitals, why the caterwauling? They should be welcoming her home, much as the prodigal son was warmly received despite his being less than perfect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hospitals_in_China
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china

[palmer]

What is interesting to me is the super spreading events. There are definitely super spreaders around and they are hard to identify until it is too late.

But there are also super spreading events which may create more super spreaders two days later. Another explanation is that one super spreader attended both the Boston and Princeton gatherings, and was infected before both. Another explanation is slight mutations that affect the spread.

[Steely Tom]

My wife says people on We Chat are very angry at Trump for the “Chinese Virus” thing.

I pointed out that we refer to Volkswagons “German cars.”

She says that in Chinese, the phrase sounds like “a virus that’s carried by Chinese people.”

I grabbed a package of Italian sausage out of the fridge, pointed to the label and said “do you think this sausage speaks Italian.”

[trisham]

We’ll learn much more about this virus, but thanks to China, we and the rest of the world began at a disadvantage.

[artichokegrower]

She flew from Boston to LA on a domestic flight. Everyone on that plane were exposed

[trisham]

Weirdly, I used to run from Watertown to Belmont back in the day. I never anticipated this happening.

[9YearLurker]

Yep, I’ll go there. Sounds like a Chinese agent breaking China’s rules to return “home”.

[Zhang Fei]

[My wife says people on We Chat are very angry at Trump for the “Chinese Virus” thing.

I pointed out that we refer to Volkswagons “German cars.”

She says that in Chinese, the phrase sounds like “a virus that’s carried by Chinese people.”

I grabbed a package of Italian sausage out of the fridge, pointed to the label and said “do you think this sausage speaks Italian.”]

---

My Chinese acquaintances are telling me the same thing. My counterpoint? West Nile disease. Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome. Spanish flu.

What stinks is the Chinese (& Russian and Iranian) attempt to do a Protocols of the Elders of Zion-style blood libel against the US by suggesting that the virus is an American weapon deliberately created to exterminate Orientals.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article177744986.html
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/03/02/postulating-covid-19-a-weapon-against-china/

Shades of the Russian operation against the US to convince the world that Uncle Sam invented AIDS to kill black Africans:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Infektion

[boxlunch]

Any connection between Biogen and Bill Gates? Trying to look up but its unclear.

[Zhang Fei]

[Yep, I’ll go there. Sounds like a Chinese agent breaking China’s rules to return “home”.]

---

Dubious. Who’s gonna work for them if that’s the way they treat their agents - by threatening to imprison them for years and years? The way you keep the recruit pipeline open is by rolling out the red carpet for returnees.