WuFlu, the View From 2,700,000 Feet

At this point I believe it is wise to discount any information from the Chinese government regarding the WuFlu, but we have independent evidence that Chinese industry is recovering from the effects:

From WUWT: Nitrogen Dioxide Ramping Up Again Over China

As news of the coronavirus broke out in the Hubei province, China, in late December 2019, stricter measures were put in place. As a result, by late January, factories were closed and streets were cleared as Chinese authorities had ceased daily activities to stop the spread of the illness.

This led to the dramatic reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions – those released by power plants, industrial facilities and vehicles – in all major Chinese cities between late-January and February. The drop in emissions also coincided with Lunar New Year celebrations, which usually sees a similar drop in emissions each year.

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) observed a decrease of fine particulate matter – one of the most important air pollutants – in February 2020 compared to the previous three years. By combining satellite observations with detailed computer models of the atmosphere, their studies indicated a reduction of around 20-30% in surface particulate matter over large parts of China.

As the coronavirus epidemic eases in China, many provinces have downgraded their emergency response levels. Schools, factories and other public spaces are starting to re-open and workers are gradually returning to their jobs.

This animation, using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, shows the nitrogen dioxide emissions from 20 December 2019 until 16 March 2020 – using a 10-day moving average. The drop in emissions in late-January is visible, coinciding with the nationwide quarantine, and from the beginning of March, the nitrogen dioxide levels have begun to increase.

The bad news is that nitrogen dioxide emissions over Italy are still in decline:



Update: from Stacy McCain, Coronavirus: Why Italy?

It was reported yesterday that Italy now has more coronavirus deaths than China, and that there were zero new cases in Wuhan. Everyone immediately became skeptical: Is Beijing lying again?

But there’s another important question: Why has this pandemic hit Italy so hard? Saturday, I suggested the likely answer:

Almost no one in the media is reporting the demographic factors involved in Italy’s pandemic disaster, and I can’t vouch for this “alternative” source’s account about the way manufacturers in Northern Italy brought in thousands of Chinese laborers to work in the leather and textile industries. Nonetheless, seems plausible, because it resembles the way Mexican and Central American laborers have been brought into the United States to work in, for example, meat processing plants.

It proved nearly impossible to find mainstream media reports on this. The only mention I found was by Robert Fisk in the U.K. Independent, and that column was behind a paywall. So I was forced to go digging into the archives to verify what the alternative source had reported:
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Read the rest of my latest column at The American Spectator.