Economics

China Acknowledges ‘Sporadic’ Human Bird Flu Cases

Authored by Lily Zhou and Luo Ya via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

“Sporadic” cases of human avian influenza infections have been identified in China, the regime has said, after staying quiet about outbreaks in poultry.
Rescued chickens gather in an aviary at Farm Sanctuary’s Southern California Sanctuary in Acton, Calif., on Oct. 5, 2022. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The announcement comes after two workers in China’s disease prevention and control sector told The Epoch Times the regime had covered up the severity of respiratory disease outbreaks in the country. One of the workers also said there had been limited human-to-human transmission of H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu.

On Feb. 27, Beijing Daily, which is under the control of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), cited the regime’s infectious disease prevention and control unit, saying there had been a rise in outbreaks of norovirus disease; hand, foot and mouth disease; tuberculosis; and other diseases.

The report also said that COVID-19 was spreading at a “relatively low level” and that outbreaks of mpox (previously known as monkeypox) and human avian influenza had been “sporadic” and “low-incidence,” without providing details.

Microbiologist Sean Lin, a member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China and former researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, criticized the CCP’s failure to disclose more information.

“[The regime] had to acknowledge there are cases of avian influenza in humans,” he told The Epoch Times. “It said [the infections were] ’sporadic‘ and ’low-incidence,’ but didn’t reveal the exact numbers of cases, severe cases, or fatality. Neither did it clarify where the cases are or whether there are high-risk areas. This is very irresponsible.”

On March 3, the municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in China’s southwestern Chongqing city included human avian influenza in its notice of health risks in March.

The municipal CDC in Huaihua city, Hunan Province, held a training session in late February on the response to respiratory diseases including the flu, COVID-19, and human avian influenza, the local government said on March 2.

Shanghai’s municipal authorities, which banned the trading of live poultry in the city in 2024, have also extended the ban to the end of 2027.

A Shanghai resident posted a photo of a sign on social media that was reportedly taken at an emergency department in mid-February. The sign asks patients to inform medical staff if they have been in contact with birds in the past 10 days, have been in contact with COVID-19 patients, or have travel history to certain parts of the world in the past two weeks.

Lin said actions taken by local governments suggest they are very concerned about potential large-scale outbreaks of bird flu among humans.

Bird flu, which includes several subtypes, is a highly pathogenic disease caused by the influenza A virus. It has mainly affected birds and other animals. People can catch the viruses from milk, feces, or other bodily fluids from infected animals, but known human-to-human transmission of the virus has been extremely rare,…

Is Pakistan The Canary In China’s BRI Coal Mine?

Authored by Milton Ezrati via The Epoch Times,

Pakistan is failing, in large part because of its close association with Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Because coal mines tend to emit large quantities of poisonous carbon monoxide, miners in the old days would carry a caged canary into the mine with them. The bird’s more delicate constitution would succumb to rising gas levels long before the miners and signal that human life might be in jeopardy. The bird’s death cued the miners to get out. Pakistan, as an early and enthusiastic participant in the BRI, is suffering as a consequence and may well be issuing a signal for other participants to leave this particular “mine.”

Pakistan’s biggest problem centers on the power grid built for the country by the BRI, also known as “One Belt, One Road.” It was expensive from the start, and because China built considerably more generating capacity than Pakistan needs, the burden of debt Pakistan now faces is simply unsupportable.

Tellingly, the problem is not just an unfortunate miscalculation of the sort that occurs frequently when nations invest. More ominously for all BRI participants, it is a feature of how Beijing’s scheme works.

In the scheme, Beijing approaches a less developed nation and offers to build the kind of infrastructure that presumably will help that nation make economic gains. Beijing offers to arrange loans for the recipient to pay for the project, always from state-owned Chinese banks. It also arranges for Chinese contractors to do the construction and for Chinese management to run the project once it is complete.

All the advantages lie on Beijing’s side. If, for some reason, the recipient nation cannot meet the financial obligations of the loan, ownership will revert to Beijing. Even if the recipient nation can repay the loan, that recipient remains beholden to Beijing to sustain the project and make it worthwhile.

There is another source of difficulty. Because Chinese authorities choose the projects, always for political and diplomatic rather than economic reasons, the projects often miss the needs of the recipient nation’s economy or are too large or too small. Since Beijing is using the recipient nation’s money, albeit in a loan, it has little incentive to match the projects to needs. What makes matters worse is that the nations approached by the Chinese regime seldom have the ability to assess the economic needs accurately.

For Pakistan, China’s initial offer, about a decade ago, looked attractive. The country was short of electric generating capacity. China came in and built a whole series of coal, solar, and hydroelectric plants, an effort that cost the equivalent of some $25 billion, a huge sum for Pakistan. In addition to the obligation to repay the loan in only 10 years, Pakistan also had to pledge to take all the electricity generated by the array of Chinese-managed facilities for the next 40 years and further promised the Chinese state companies running them a 34 percent return on the effort.

It should have…

One Florida Town Just Tripled Its HOA Fees To Over $3,300 A Month

So much for moving to Florida to pay less due to taxes…

That’s because one Florida town has shocked residents by tripling HOA fees to over $3,300, according to The Daily Mail.

Winter Park Woods, near Orlando, raised its monthly fees dramatically, the Daily Mail reported, citing WESH. Longtime resident Lorraine Roy now pays $3,371.79 for her three-bedroom condo.

“This is way too high,” she said. “And I love this location, which is why I stayed here all this time, through the ups and downs.”

Roy is currently resisting offers to sell her condo but acknowledges it may be necessary in the future. The Winter Park Woods Condominiums Association raised fees due to millions owed to Orange County for code violations, WESH reported.
Winter Park Woods

The Daily Mail report says that the hike also covers increased insurance costs and new legislative requirements following the 2021 Surfside condo collapse, which mandates structural inspections for condos over 30 years old and additional repair funds.

Insurance costs have risen due to more frequent natural disasters like hurricanes and flooding, pushing HOA fees higher for repairs and mitigation. “We underfunded the reserves, that has been happening,” Roy admitted.

Resident Shane Costa’s fee rose from $634 to over $2,100, prompting him to attempt to sell. However, an investor offered him only $70,000, far below the value. “The simple truth is developers are going to come in and redevelop these properties,” said Jeff Brandes, Founder & President of the Florida Policy Project.

Costa added, “I’m in a little bit better circumstance than most people right now, but there’s people losing their homes.” Steve Fieldman, another resident, agreed: “There are people who live here no more, and they just couldn’t withstand the pressure and had to sell out for a much lower price than they feel was fair.”

Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com, noted, “HOAs are getting tough all across the country lately, but especially in Florida.”

Tyler Durden
Wed, 03/05/2025 – 18:00…