Tag: disaster

First outbreak of highly infectious polio has just been detected in UK, Health officials declare national incident

Ricky Scaparo – June 22, 2022

Polio is spreading in the UK for the first time in decades, officials claim. Health bosses urged Brits to check their children’s jabs are up to date after picking up signs of the virus being passed between individuals.

According to TheSun, Experts have detected the same bug in London sewage samples since April – a clear signal of a community outbreak. No cases have yet been confirmed in the UK and the UKHSA said samples were found in East and North London. These chiefs say ‘suggests it is likely there has been some spread between closely-linked individuals’. Because of this, they said these cases could be shedding the virus strain in their feces.

Investigations are currently ongoing and there have not yet been any cases of paralysis reported. Medics today said that the emergence of polio in the UK reminds us that it has not yet been eradicated. The last case of polio being contracted in Britain was in 1984 and the country was declared polio-free in 2003.

Before a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, epidemics would result in thousands of people being paralyzed annually and hundreds of deaths. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) experts believe a traveler – likely from Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Nigeria – shed the virus in their stools after being given the oral polio inoculation.

“Vaccine-derived poliovirus has the potential to spread, particularly in communities where vaccine uptake is lower. On rare occasions it can cause paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated so if you or your child are not up to date with your polio vaccinations it’s important you contact your GP to catch up or, if unsure, check your red book.

“Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk.

“We are urgently investigating to better understand the extent of this transmission and the NHS has been asked to swiftly report any suspected cases to the UKHSA, though no cases have been reported or confirmed so far.”

According to Sky News, The virus presents a risk to anyone who has not been vaccinated, especially children and young adults. The national uptake of the childhood polio vaccine is high but in London, rates are much lower.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

A mega-tsunami in the Pacific north-west? It could be worse than predicted, new study says

Strange Sounds – June 9, 2022

Scientists have discovered the size of the ‘outer wedge’ of a faultline can magnify a rupture’s impact. That’s a worrying news for the people living along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a fault running from Vancouver Island to northern California…

Scientists have long predicted a giant 9.0-magnitude earthquake that reverberates out from the Pacific north-west’s Cascadia fault and quickly triggers colossal waves barreling to shore.

But what if these predictions were missing an important piece of information – one that, in certain scenarios, could tell an even more extreme story?

A new study, published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Earth-Science Reviews, points toward such a missing piece. Researchers revealed a previously unknown relationship between the severity of a tsunami triggered by an earthquake and something known as “the outer wedge”, the area between the main earthquake fault and the seafloor.

Sylvain Barbot, a co-author of the study, described the outer wedge as the “garbage bag of subduction zones”, the place where two tectonic plates crash into each other and can produce an earthquake, because it’s where sediment piles up.

The researchers’ findings suggest that the wider it is, the larger the maximum size of the tsunami will be.

The connection adds a new element to consider when making tsunami predictions, one that the authors suggest could mean heightened worst-case scenario predictions for some faults, including Cascadia.

https://strangesounds.org

Dying children reflect brutal toll of Somalia drought

Mustafa HAJI ABDINUR – June 9, 2022

Arbay Mahad Qasim has already lost two children to a vicious drought, and now the Somali villager fears she could lose a third as her malnourished toddler Ifrah awaits treatment in a Mogadishu hospital.

Barely out of her teens, Qasim is among dozens of weary parents crowding Banadir Maternity & Children Hospital, which has become ground zero for the starvation crisis sweeping across Somalia as a record drought grips the Horn of Africa.

Entire villages have been forced to uproot their lives and flee their homes after poor rainfall destroyed crops and killed livestock.

When the rains failed for a fourth consecutive season last month, UN aid agencies and meteorologists warned that a famine was looming in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

But for many Somalis like Qasim, who has been surviving on government handouts for the past few months, catastrophe has already struck.

Two of her children died of hunger in the last 18 months.

When two-year-old Ifrah’s tiny body began to swell, showing symptoms of severe malnutrition, Qasim wasted no time, spending a day traveling to Mogadishu from her village in the southwest in a desperate bid to save her youngest child’s life.

https://www.spacedaily.com

At least 18 have died from spreading Tick-borne virus that causes ‘nose-bleed fever’

Ricky Scaparo – June 1, 2022

“Nose-bleed fever” is as gruesome as it sounds. More technically called Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, the tick-borne virus has been detected in some 120 people in Iraq since January — including 18 who have died from the disease — health officials have warned, fearing an escalating spread.

The onset of illness causes rapid and severe internal and external bleeding in infected patients, including through the nose, hence its nickname “nose-bleed fever.” Though the virus is hosted in ticks, most individuals pick it up by coming in contact with infected animal blood — usually occurring among those who work with livestock and in slaughterhouses.

The virus is not novel, but it is rare — and apparently spreading at an unprecedented rate throughout Iraq. Between 10 and 40 percent of cases will die from the disease. Aside from profuse bleeding and potential death, early symptoms include fever, body aches, dizziness, neck pain, headache, and sore eyes. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sore throat, and brain fog have also been observed in infected patients, according to the World Health Organization.

The virus also called Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, has been known to cause severe symptoms in patients. In some cases, sufferers have reportedly encountered internal and external hemorrhaging, resulting in blood loss. Iraqi officials say that almost one-third of all deaths, thought to be around 18, have come in the last two weeks, sparking fears of an uncontainable outbreak.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) patients become infected with the virus following contact with the blood of infected animals, including ticks. The virus is not novel, but it is rare and apparently spreading at an unprecedented rate throughout Iraq.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Jamie Dimon Warns of Economic ‘Hurricane’

John Carney – June 1, 2022

A few weeks ago J.P. Morgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon warned that there were storm clouds looming over the U.S. economy.

Now he wants to upgrade the storm forecast to a hurricane warning.

“I said there were storm clouds, big storm clouds. It’s a hurricane,” Dimon said at a conference Wednesday. “Right now it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, everyone thinks the Fed can handle it. That hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way. We don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy. You better brace yourself.”

Dimon’s remarks were reported by Bloomberg News.

Dimon warned that the Fed’s plan to shrink its balance sheet, often referred to as quantitative tightening or QT, was also introducing new risks.

“We’ve never had QT like this, so you’re looking at something you could be writing history books on for 50 years,” Dimon added, according to CNBC.

The Fed has said it will begin to shrink its balance sheet this month by letting maturing bonds roll off at an initial pace of $47.5 billion per month. That is scheduled to double to $95 billion a month in September.

https://www.breitbart.com

An Extremely Deadly Disease With A 30 Percent Death Rate Has Been Detected At 2 Locations In Georgia

– May 30, 2022

Why are so many strange diseases suddenly breaking out all over the globe?  In all my days, I have never seen anything like this.  COVID, bird flu and monkeypox are all making headlines around the world, but of course they aren’t the only pestilences that we are currently dealing with.  As I mentioned a few days ago, the Democratic Republic of Congo is actually facing outbreaks of ebola, cholera, measles, monkeypox, bubonic plague and typhoid all at the same time!  Can you imagine what health authorities in that nation must be going through right now?  A few years ago most of us never gave much thought to disease outbreaks, but now they are seemingly everywhere.

Unfortunately, we have a new one to add to the list.

According to WSB-TV in Atlanta, two mosquito pools in southern Georgia have tested positive for a disease known as “Eastern equine encephalitis”…

Health officials say two mosquito pools in South Georgia have tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis.

EEE is a virus that is spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. Only a few cases are reported in the United States each year.

The name of the disease may not sound that threatening, but it is actually extremely deadly.

WSB-TV says that the death rate for Eastern equine encephalitis in humans is approximately 30 percent…

Although rare, EEE is very serious. Approximately 30% of people with EEE die and many survivors have ongoing neurological problems.

There are no vaccines to prevent EEE or medicines to treat it.

When I first read that, I was stunned.

The death rate for COVID is well under 1 percent, and so a disease with a death rate of 30 percent could be a real nightmare.

http://endoftheamericandream.com

Countries hoarding food supplies as prices spike, hunger crisis looms

Laurel Duggan – May 25, 2022

Countries are imposing export restrictions on food in light of shortage concerns sparked by the war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Export restrictions were quickly imposed after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine to increase domestic supply and slow the rise of prices, but the trend could exacerbate rising global food prices and shortages, according to the WSJ. Ukraine and Russia are both major exporters of grains and vegetable oils.

Restrictions on food or fertilizer exports were put in place in 26 countries in 2022, according to the WSJ. Economists told the outlet these restrictions would temporarily ease the pain of food shortages in the countries that use them, but are a temporary measure that contributes to higher food prices globally.

India, the world’s second-largest wheat producer, banned wheat exports May 13 as domestic prices jumped while Indonesia, which produces 60% of the world’s palm oil, blocked exports of the substance in late April before lifting the ban in late May. Ghana barred maize, rice and soybean exports; Argentina banned beef exports; and Iran and Egypt blocked the export of numerous foods, according to the WSJ.

“It’s one of these classic things where there’s really a short-term sugar high for the government … And then you end up with the same scarcity problem you had before,” said Simon Evenett, professor of international trade and economic development at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, according to the WSJ.

Food prices rose nearly 30% over the past year, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, with the trend accelerating following the invasion of Ukraine. President Joe Biden expressed concern about the food shortages March 24.

“With regard to food shortages, yes, we did talk about food shortages,” Biden said. “And it’s gonna be real.”

https://www.wnd.com

Blackouts This Summer: 1 Billion At Risk

Mac Slavo – May 25, 2022

The ruling classes of the globe are continuing to warn that the power grids all across the globe will be stretched thin this coming summer. There will not be electricity worldwide to meet the soaring demand for more energy, which is threatening more than one billion people with rolling blackouts.

Power grids are already being stretched thin by fuel shortages, droughts and heatwaves, commodity disruptions, soaring prices due to the war in Ukraine, and the failed green energy transition where grid operators retired too many fossil fuel generation plants. Combine this all together, and a perfect storm of blackouts threatens much of the Northern Hemisphere, according to a report by ZeroHedge.

This power crisis, which is going to be affecting much of the world’s top economies, could be less than a month away when summer begins on June 21. Regions that concerned Bloomberg are Asia, Europe, and the US, where there’s not enough power to go around when cooling demand is set to surge as households crank up their air conditions to escape the sweltering heat.

The warnings of blackouts continue as people begin to get ready for their summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Henning Gloystein, an analyst at Eurasia Group, warns if major blackouts spread across the world this summer, “that could trigger some form of humanitarian crisis in terms of food and energy shortages on a scale not seen in decades.”

Since we have already been experiencing food shortages, it is hard to say what we could experience next.

https://www.shtfplan.com

Huge 7.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near remote Australian island

Ricky Scaparo – May 19, 2022

A 7.3 magnitude earthquake has been recorded near a remote Australian island. The Bureau of Meteorology reported the quake near Macquarie Island in the southwest Pacific Ocean at 8.49 pm on Thursday.

According to the Daily Mail, The earthquake was at a depth of 29.3km. BOM and the Australian territory located south of New Zealand on was briefly on tsunami warning but this was lifted by 10pm.

The quake was also recorded by the US Geological Survey. Located 1,600km southeast of Tasmania, Macquarie Island is home is to the Australian Antarctic Division station, which is occupied all year round. It has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997 and is a refuge for large colonies of penguins and seals.

The island is particularly active in terms of seismic activity, sitting on the boundary between the Australian Plate and the Pacific plate. The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre initially put Australia on tsunami alert. According to the International Tsunami Information Centre, a “tsunami warning is issued when a tsunami with the potential to generate widespread inundation is imminent, expected, or occurring.

Warnings alert the public that dangerous coastal flooding accompanied by powerful currents is possible and may continue for several hours after initial arrival”. They later released an update confirming there was no risk of a tsunami.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Meteorologists Warn ‘Megadrought’ in US Southwest is Worst in 1,200 Years

Sputnik – May 12, 2022

A new study has found that the 22-year-long water shortage plaguing the American Southwest and western Mexico is the region’s worst in more than a millennium – a phenomenon dubbed a “megadrought.”

The study, published in Nature Climate Change, found that soil moisture deprivation has exceeded that of a megadrought in the 16th century that was previously the region’s worst known drought.

It’s so bad that University of California Los Angeles geographer Park Williams, the study’s lead author, has warned it would take a prolonged shift in weather patterns to remedy things.

The researchers looked at tree rings to compare the present drought’s intensity with those of years past, since trees generally produce wider rings in wet years and narrower rings in drier years. They found that since 2000, the average soil moisture deficit was twice that of any drought of the past century, with nothing comparable being found until 1,200 years back.

The region has always been quite dry, of course, with four large deserts dominating the terrain and the rest being fairly arid. Indigenous civilization was well-adapted to the precarious conditions, but modern cities have been built without respect to climate – and may soon suffer the consequences.

Reservoirs created by hydroelectric dams, like the famous Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas, Nevada, that holds back Lake Mead, are reaching historic lows. The lake provides the City That Never Sleeps with its freshwater, but has suffered steady water loss since 1983, which has accelerated in recent years, requiring modifications to Hoover Dam’s turbines to allow it to continue producing electricity despite the low water level.

https://sputniknews.com