Cynthia BrianKate: Another Green Party nutter

Cynthia BrianKate, a member of the GP's Lavender Caucus, almost makes Margaret Elisabeth look normal, in the LC's rabid pursuit of deaccrediting the Georgia Green Party.

This mini-biography will straighten you out. I assume the material quoted below is presented in full seriousness.

I’m Cynthya BrianKate, I live in Eastern Suffolk Long Island, and my story falls under several parts of the otherkin community and then some. The quickest way say where I’m coming from is that I’m a visually disabled, multiracial (both physically and astrally), kinky, goth, sci-fi geek, medium-femme genderqueer-identified hormonally intersex (I myself prefer the old word Hermaphrodite) transgender woman, Shamanic Witch, Spirit-worker (as in I work with various spirits), Deadworker (as in I help dead as well as living people) amd multiple-race Otherkin-blooded Psychic Vampire. 

I’m a psychic vampire (psivamp), as in I absorb life-force/psychic and primarily emotional energy from others, which makes me a relatively strong empathy and pretty good empathic healer. I’m part Iron-Wood Jotun Giant. I’m partly descended from the Jotun race of Giants, also sometimes called Trolls or Ogres, which the ancient Norse and some current shamans speak of. My Jotun ancestry comes from the Iron Wood, which is a sort of freak-jungle known for breeding mutants, so I’m non-standard even for someone who’s part Troll. I’m what I call Noxian, as in also being partly descended from a race once made by the Goddess Nox, which means I’m apparently distantly related to the chaos goddess Eris. I’m also connected to/descended from a huge Tarantuloid being I call Mama Tarantula (guess my spirit animal). I’m a bit of a Therian (shapeshifters/were-creature) as I soften shapeshift astrally into various creature forms, mostly either stereotype Troll-monster shapes or a sort of Spider-Woman. There’s other stuff I may be made of but I’m not sure what. It seems my soul was built rather than born, and for now I’ll say I’ve a very interesting astral body for folks who sense such things well.

Yikes!

I'm going to tackle that "otherkin" nonsense at the end, and related bits from the first graf with it.

First, the psychic vampire. No such thing literally exists, of course, but if you are claiming to be a psychological vampire, I have no doubt of it. I'd run like hell from you.

Second, the New Agey bullshit about spirit animals should say enough about itself. Ditto for claiming to be related to nonexistent Norse gods or the nonexistent Greek goddess Nyx, personified as Nox in Latin.

Now, this "otherkin."

Yes, there are people who believe they're not fully human. That's what it means, and I had to google.

One of the first hits was on this LGB+ alphabet soup site, which claims:

Otherkin refers to someone who involuntarily identifies partially or wholly as something non-human. For example, someone who is elfkin identifies as and considers themself to be an elf. There are many reasons why someone may identify as non-human in the otherkin sense, with explanations ranging from spiritual to psychological. Some common explanations include but are not limited to past lives, imprinting, or having a non-human soul.

Yep, so I guess people like this put a gun to CBT's head and said, you have to declare that you "actually" have Martian DNA in your cells or that you're a descendant of nonexistent Norse gods, or nonexistent Tolkien elves or whatever. (Ignoring that such things are not true, of course.)

What might really be up? Well, the second footnote on that webpage goes here, and among the many nutter claims for why people call themselves "otherkin" is one psychological truth, though the site surely doesn't mean it that way.

It says: "Dissociation." I say yes, if we mean something like Dissociative Identity Disorder. I can see such claims as being not "nutter" in the everyday sense, but as symptoms of a personality disorder. That's not a guarantee that they are, but it is a possibility.

Or, they're dissociation in a more everyday sense, as in a narcissistic refusal to accept that you're one of 330 million Americans and 7.5 billion humans on Planet Earth.

Otherwise, back to the basic issue between a wide variety of feminists, not all of whom are gender-critical radical feminists, and so-called "trans activists."

Gender is not sex.

Gender is not sex.

Gender is not sex.

Just like anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.

Based on thumbnail at the first link and appearance in this YouTube, at upper right, BrianKate, or whatever name he (sic) was born with, appears to be sexually male. Thank doorknobs we're not in Canada, even if Jordan Peterson's pronouns battle may be overstated.

So, I'll use "he" if I don't use "this/that person." I could, by his own lights, use "its" as he claims not to be fully human. I could also, by his own lights, use "its" since he claims to be intersex. I won't use "she."

Oh, and this is yet another reason I consider myself more and more an independent leftist, not a Green. It would be nice not to have the Georgia GP deaccredited, but if it is? Per the likes of Mark Lause back in 2016, I think the Green Party has already reached its best-by date.

The Texas Roundup says: Give me your ladders

There's lots of stuff to consider this week, between strictly Texas news and national and even global items hitting directly upon the Pointy Abandoned Object State™, including fracking, Biden and the border, and other fun stuff, so, let's dig in.

Texas

Ill Eagles are defeating border wall sections built by Trump (and by Dear Leader and Shrub Bush before him) with $5 ladders. Sadly, Status Quo Joe, rather than doing everything he can to cancel more wall-building, as shown by his detention issues, is probably going to do some difference-splitting along with Trump-blaming. (See below under the National subheader about Biden's continuing to use Trump's Title 42 declaration for arbitrary turn-backs at the border.)

A radioactive waste site out west of Andrews is struggling to safely store radioactive oil and gas waste from elsewhere, including Australia. Yes, Australia. But, don't worry; Lloyd Bentsen himself made sure that (the law says) this waste is nontoxic. That's even as the Society of Petroleum Engineers admits the truth. The Railroad Commish alleges it inspects Lotus, but, really? The RRC claims it "inspects" all sorts of stuff.

Frackers are still looking for "bigger fools" to buy them out.

New House and Senate vote bills specifically target urban counties over 1 million. Gee, wonder why. Kuff has more.

 

Permitless carry may still not get through the Senate, at least not in the House's version, says the Trib.

Per that piece, but the Trib has no link to a story of its own, I don't know how I missed it, but Jeebus Shot Sid Miller is suing Lite Gov Danny Goeb over COVID restrictions under the Pink Dome. Getcher popcorn, especially since "Doctor" Steve Hotze is behind the suit and Jared Woodfill is the barratry specialist of record. I guess a COVID shot ain't a Jesus shot? What's more interesting yet is that Patrick actually has apparently abandoned his "duty to die," even though he's over 70 himself; the restrictions are ONLY on the Senate side of the Capitol, but Patrick has essentially done a cross-dome callout to House Speaker Dade Phelan to tell him to get his shit together. That said, the Trib link of the previous graf DOES note that the Sidster has dropped hints about running for higher office in 2022. That leaves just Abbott or Patrick; Pee Bush's office would be a lateral move, and the idea of Sid challenging Glenn Hegar for Comptroller is mind-boggling.

Off the Kuff derides that ridiculous Abbott/McConaughey poll, which could have told us something about 2022 but failed to do so.

Will Derek Chauvin's conviction up north push forward the George Floyd Act?

Dan Solomon does another one of his fellation jobs at Texas Monthly, this one over HornsSawnOff QB Sam Ehlinger and "The Eyes of Texas," with Solomon pretending to ask a question about that.

Will the Lege officially block Strangeabbott from taking away regular state funds any time the feds offer new COVID-related money earmarked for schools? R.G. Ratcliffe looks at that and other budget issues.

Never Trumper Michael Wood hopes to make the runoff in the CD6 special election. Ain't gonna happen, but nice honest try.

Grits for Breakfast reminds us that under current Texas law, a police officer has to be fired twice before they can have their law enforcement license revoked. 

The 19th profiles Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin, the first person to serve on the Houston City Council while pregnant.

John Hryhorchuk explains what's holding up federal stimulus money for Texas public schools. 

Jef Rouner gives a legislative marijuana bill update.

The Texas Civil Rights Project documents some of the ways that the two big voter suppression bills would harm voters.

Zenen Jaimes Perez and Stephanie Gómez show why restricting voting hours makes it extremely difficult for some people to be able to vote.

Amber Briggle had to file a police report for the harassment she's received since testifying against the various anti-trans bills in the Lege.

National

For Earth Day, SocraticGadfly talked about the ecosocialist Earth Day to May Day framing by the Green Party of what a real Green New Deal entails.

Richard Trumka was elected many moons ago on the promise of a new AFL-CIO. Then why is he continuing to hassle the new new AFL-CIO at its Vermont chapter?

 

Gavin Newsom will face a recall, but unlike Grey Davis, he'll almost certainly win — in part because today's California GOP has nobody like an Arnold to lead a non-nutbar, socially somewhat libertarian, conservative opposition. 

Pro Publica, which has previously busted international tree purchasing climate change offsets as largely fake, especially in the tropics, does the same with California.

Ashli Babbitt's family is as much Babbitt grifters / Dum Fuqs as she was if they think they can win a $10 million lawsuit against the Capitol Police. (It will be great to see if white wingnuts lose this in part by being hoist on the sovereign immunity petard.) Family lawyer Terry Roberts will also have a fun time trying to prove what constitutional rights of a person committing multiple felonies at the time she was shot were being violated.

Biden continues to hate on Ill Eagles. And much of BlueMAGA continues to make themselves deliberately unaware, or else defend him in the face of knowing this. The BorderLines newsletter has more about some of the problems this causes when migrants from further south than Mexico are simply shoved back across the Mexican border.

Status Quo Joe serves a heaping helping of American exceptionalism

Even though I'm in the media biz, I long ago stopped watching State of the Union addresses (which is what his really is), let alone pandering efforts like "100 days" stuff. That died long ago, and FDR had a tidal wave in Congress behind him, which Biden doesn't.

The infrastructure stuff? Good.

The more taxes to pay for it? You may have to bribe Joe Manchin, but something more subtle than the Cornhusker Kickback, please.

That said? Not much on health care.

Not much on his just-completed climate change summit.

BUT?

"America is the most unique idea in history."

Not.Even.Close.

Historians and cultural anthropologists might argue over what ideas surpass it, but I'll give you my list.

(Sidebar: This is bad grammar, as "unique" is an absolute adjective and one thing cannot be "more unique" than another.) 

First is the idea that literally gave us history, that is, the invention of writing.

Second would be the invention of agriculture, especially if it includes animal domestication.

Third, and yes, I'm a post-capitalist of some sort, but I'll go with the invention of money.

"America" is like at AA baseball level (didn't Scranton, Pa., used to have one of those, Joe?) compared to what I just mentioned.

===

As for the full speech? Some other notes?

1. You've got a 6% growth rate because Trump fucked up, wouldn't do a hard shutdown at first, and left too much in the hands of governors. That said, had he done more earlier on, you might not be giving this speech.

2. While the power grid in Texas may need improving, its structure didn't cause the Abbott Blackout. Its lack of connection to the rest of the US did. Nothing else on the Green New Deal double-lite or whatever.

3. It was good for him to call for a $15/minimum ... IF it's phased in, and even then, I'd like to see the US do like Oregon and have different levels for rural, suburban and urban areas.

4. Oh, fucking doorknob, the "war on cancer." Stop.

5. Obamacare-plus the only other healthcare item? Sure.

6. Good on calling out the Trump Tax Cut.

7. No mention of Israel violating Palestinian human rights. Of course not.

8. Good on guns.

9. Bad on HR 1, unless you explicitly call on Congress to strip out anti-third party provisions.

10. I wasn't created in the image of god. I wasn't created in anybody's image.

ICE-ing Ed Gonzalez

USA Today reminds us, with Status Quo Joe nominating Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez to run ICE, that even though Gonzalez criticized Trump's immigration policies, as of 2019, he honored ICE 48-hour detainers more than any other sheriff in the USofA. Yeah, the AP says it was "in accordance with Texas law," but, you know, that was after Lina Hidalgo became county judge. Harris County could have had Gonzalez simply stop arresting fewer people for Class C misdemeanors, like the city of San Antonio, and thus avoiding the worst of the 2017 Lege's SB 4. It's true that Kenny Boy Paxton sued over that. It's also true that, as of two months ago, two and a half years after the spavined grifter filed the suit, it's still ongoing.

So, in other words, whether as formally as the city of San Antonio or not, Harris County (along with Dallas County and Travis County, and Austin, Dallas, etc.) could be doing and could have done some slow-walking vis-a-vis SB4.

That all said? That's not news to some of us in Tex-ass who know it was a partial contributor to Harris County Jail overcrowding.

But, it's not the only factor, as my Janis Joplin-fueled paean to Ed's jail overcrowding, inspired by Grits, makes clear. Among other factors is Ed's lockstep marching with anti-pergressuve Harris DA Kim Ogg on opposing everything even close to bail reform.

Hypocrisy? Unconstitutionality? Pandering? All of the above from Texas Lege Senatecritters

I'm referring in particular to a couple of bills touted by my Senatecritter, Drew Springer. Drew is somewhere between wingnut-lite and full wingnut. He was less wingnut than wingnut squared and Christofascist Tim Dunn's darling, Shelley Luther, of course, in the SD 30 race, but, that goes without saying.

He was smart-political enough NOT to attack renewables after the Abbott Blackout, given how many wind farms are in the district.

And, that's about it.

Let's look at how he, at least, seems to be hitting on all three of the above cylinders of the rhetorical questions above, and bragging about it.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 12, SCR 41 and Senate Bill 20 — the third being the notorious "Pack your guns to Motel 6" bill — stick out. SCR 41 is the "Always Nine" shoutout to other "assembly of states" type states to pass a constitutional amendment to always keep SCOTUS at just nine members and SCR 20 is the normal Tenth Amendment panderfest shoutout.

In reverse order? 

SB 20 is hypocrisy from Legiscritters who blabber about the sacred value of private property, only to say that hotel owners don't really have private property. Speaking of SCR12, SB 20 seems to have whiffs of unconstitutionality as well as hypocrisy. Compelling a private actor to engage in a certain behavior does have that sense. But, of course, Drew Springer is a constitutional law scholar, or plays one on teevee, or the Texas Senate cameras or whatever.

SCR12 is hypocrisy from Legiscritters who continue to show zero intention of honoring local government authority, among other things. Drew claims it would also block federal violations of the constitution, but won't cite chapter and verse on current federal proposals that may allegedly actually do so. And, of course, it ignores that the federal court system, since Marbury v Madison, has arrogated the right of constitutional review and state legislatures don't have that. It gives a hat tip to the Ninth Amendment before ignoring it, or, rather, trying to replace "the people" with "state governments" by sleight of hand or gaslighting. 

What? There's gaslighting under the Pink Dome? I am shocked!

Frankly, I doubt Springer even knows what the Ninth Amendment actually gets at. (Sadly, it's had just about ZERO court rulings based on it, and many actual constitutional law scholars consider it little more than a dead letter, if it's even "little more." Oh, to be the philosopher-president of We the People and change that!)

That said, Tenth Amendment shout-outs are always panderfests from pander bears.

SCR 41 of course ignores history, namely that SCOTUS started with six justices. In reality, and beyond BOTH duopoly parties, we really need 13 justices today anyway.

Let me explain.

John Roberts is Chief Justice of the United States, NOT Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He, and his successors, need to focus just on their dual roles of overseeing the Supremes and the federal judiciary system.

Now, today, associate justices don't "circuit ride" like 200 or even 100 years or so ago. Nonetheless, it would be nice to have one justice for each court. We have 11 enumerated circuit courts of appeal plus the D.C. Circuit. (Patent courts, FISA, etc., all fall under the chief's scrutiny.) So, that means 12 associate justices for 13 total.

Coronavirus, week 55: Kids and Indians, Miller and Patrick

Per the header, I 'm going alternate national and global news this week before getting to Texana, and the second half of that header,

• By Indians, we mean not American Indians, but residents of the subcontinental country, as India looks more and more like the new Brazil. It's sad, but not really shocking. Both countries are lead by charismatic, authoritarian, populist heads of government. PM Narendra Modi may appeal to different populist ideas than Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, of course, but, in the big picture, there's lots of parallels. The two countries are also alike in having high degrees of income inequality and a fragile veneer on their BRICS exteriors.

India claims to have a small COVID death rate, per Worldometers, but that, and total case rate, is almost surely unreliable. The NYT agrees that there's certainly an undercount and likely a huge one. An Indian native doctor who's at the University of Michigan says the actual count is likely two-five times higher. That's in part because many Indian doctors are lying on death certificates. If this is all true, then India actually has a million COVID deaths and counting, and a death rate about that of Russia.

Meanwhile, Modi's answer? Pressuring Twitter to censor Tweets in India that are allegedly defamatory of his government. The new version of seditious libel, as India continues to slide further away from democracy. I shudder to think of the situation in Kashmir. I of course did a Twitter callout of Tulsi Gabbard on this.

• Kids? Michigan is kind of the poster child for the surge in juvenile COVID cases in the US.

• Long COVID, at least in older men, appears to be long indeed. SOO glad I didn't get it AND that I'm now shot up.

• Japan is being slow in its vaccination program AND saying that no participants need vaccination. The issue is spilling into Japanese politics. And, if I had money to go to Tokyo, and the time, no, I wouldn't.

• Derek Thompson is right: It's time, or even beyond time, to end outdoor masking rules.

• The NYT editorial board says Biden and the big vaccine makers both need to do more to make sure developing nations have more vaccines. Specifics include the biggie opposed by hypercapitalist conspirator Bill Gates — suspend patents. Biden has responded by offering 60 million AstraZenica doses globally. A start, but dodges the patents issue, and could be seen as "dumping" the most concerning vaccine, relatively speaking.

Biden's Department of Labor, a month late and under Democrat Congresscritter pressure, has finally released its COVID workplace guidelines.

 At the Atlantic, James Hamblin has his latest thoughts (but no new science) on the possibility of a "universal vaccine" for SARS, MERS, COVID-19 and possible future coronavirus assaults.

Texas

I don't know how I missed it, but Jeebus Shot Sid Miller is suing Lite Gov Danny Goeb over COVID restrictions under the Pink Dome. Getcher popcorn, especially since "Doctor" Steve Hotze is behind the suit and Jared Woodfill is the barratry specialist of record. I guess a COVID shot ain't a Jesus shot? What's more interesting yet is that Patrick actually has apparently abandoned his "duty to die," even though he's over 70 himself; the restrictions are ONLY on the Senate side of the Capitol, but Patrick has essentially done a cross-dome callout to House Speaker Dade Phelan to tell him to get his shit together. 

A Palestine doctor is working to overcome social-cultural resistance as well as actual medical fears to get people vaccinated.

She's got her work cut out for her. Even with just one-quarter of the state vaccinated, vaccine demand continues to drop. And, it's rural counties like hers, and presumably rural white wingnuts who have imbibed vaccine conspiracy theories or conspiracy cure theories who are a major part of the problem. I know. I live in one.

Both the feds and state officials have recommended resuming Johnson and Johnson shots.

Robert Rivard worries about the decline in demand for the COVID vaccine. 

More coronavirus tribalism about Vietnam

Vox reports on Vietnam's alleged COVID miracle (with noting some caveats), which I've questioned before, along with other pro-developing world tribalism, noting late last summer that it was easy for Vietnam to claim it had "beat COVID" when it hadn't tested anybody to see if they had it in the first place. Since that time, it's gotten WORSE! From 164th to 175 in per capita testing! Neither Vox nor the Western reporter of a trio — nice polite Canadian, if her Twitter handle's correct — responded to a callout. Shock me. So, I've called it out — AND commenters swallowing the Vox Kool-Aid, presumably BlueAnon / BlueMAGA tribalists — on its Facebook page.

I've still not received feedback from there, either, at least from Vox.

In addition, Vox and the other touters of an alleged Vietnamese COVID miracle also ignore that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the COVID-stricken aircraft carrier, appeared to pick up the coronavirus from a stop in Da Nang. For the carrier to have been that COVID-stricken, it had to hit a number of COVID-positive residents while on leave.

Anyway, this is tribalism at its most simplistic.

(And, update May 29, it's even more fallacious than ever. Vietnam didn't "crush" COVID either earlier this year, nor last year per my "questioned before" link, and it now faces a new wave, based on the Indian variant reportedly combining with the British one.)

First (and doorknob help me for sounding like Robert Wright), but this type of tribalism engages in zero-sum thought when this isn't a zero-sum situation. That is, even if Vietnam WERE a miracle, that by itself is no proof that the US blew it. Or, for the Trumpeys, even if Trump WERE right on everything from interior heat and light (cue Sarah Cooper) to HCQ (cue Ben Carson) that doesn't mean Vietnam was wrong. 

(There may be some types of tribalism that aren't founded on zero-sum tussling, but, in general, it seems to be a foundational idea.)

Second, with Vox being one of those net-only news sites that likes to talk about ideas similar to "fearless journalism" of Daily Beast, my inductive undercutting of their whole story took FIVE SECONDS. I've already got Worldometers' US data for COVID as a standing tab in my browser. I just had to Mac-right-click "countries" to get that to open in a separate tab, click the "testing per 1M" row header to get countries to list by that, do an Apple-F and search for "Vietnam" and then see a "175" next to its name.

Third, such tribalism, especially when of the easily refuted type, is often within the two duopoly parties, or related conservative-vs-liberal arrangement. It's inside a narrow political box and is shallow and stale. It also reflects that, to riff on Clauswitz and per a recent post, a reflection that American politics is becoming ersatz religiousness by other means. It gets even worse when SJW types populate the left hand of the duopoly's tribalism. It's the same type of tribalism that leads BlueMAGA types to give a pass to Fauci for his telling of Platonic noble lies.

Fourth, it's lazy and bad journalism. Plenty of Westerners have shown that elsewhere by naively and uncritically buying claims of the White Helmets while making no effort to be anywhere near Syria.

This all said, why Vox didn't respond, a Vietnamese national DID on its FB page. Here's our dialogue starting with his response to my testing numbers:

Tran Hai 

because why would you test the entire population if there is no breakout? Waste the money for what? Now, if you just look at the tests done per case - you would be in for a ride.  

Me 

Why would you assume there's no breakout if you're not doing more testing? And, tests per case vs general population testing is apples and oranges.  

Tran Hai 

Because 1st: mass testing were done after every breakout and the number of cases can actually be tracked 2nd: Covid is not invisible, as soon as an outbreak hits the hospital will be alerted 3rd: testing per case is using contact tracing, and contact tracing is vastly more efficient then using the whack-a-mole method 4th: using all that money for border screening and immigration testing is money well-spent  

Me

Since you're 175 in per-capita testing, I don't think mass testing was done every breakout. Besides, if Vietnam had only 35 or whatever deaths, there weren't mass breakouts in the first place, were there now? Ooops. Worldometers testing includes contact tracing as part of total tracing; your whack-a-mole comes close to strawmanning. 

Also, contra the first ... the USS Theodore Roosevelt got its mass coronavirus problems from leave on Da Nang, obviously.  

Tran Hai 

what apples and oranges: Taiwan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia - all successful countries with the same application of contact tracing having a similar level of tests per case is too tough for your brain to comprehend? You are the one who play apples and oranges here. 

Me 

Australia, 57th in per capita testing; New Zealand 84th; South Korea 121st; Taiwan 179th. And, all claim low COVID death rates, too. Rather than cite all as success stories, perhaps we need to be suspicious of all of them, too.

Let's go beyond this.

First, re all those countries above, asymptomatic transmission means that looking only at contact tracing means some numbers are missing, surely.

Second, re Vietnam itself? Not sure if the Rainier Sheas of the world would excoriate Vietnam for either right deviationism or left deviationism vs Glorious Xi Jinping Thought, but, it is a Communist nation exercising hard control over data release, just like Beijing:

In the case of Vietnam, only the Ministry of Health can declare the number of positive cases. Hospitals and clinics cannot independently publish numbers, while any unofficial counts can be subjected to a penalty.  ... 

Vietnam’s reporting of a low number of infections and zero deaths helps the Communist Party (CPV) overcome domestic distrust in light of recent legitimacy crises. Before the outbreak, the CPV was under intense pressure from dissidents at home and aboard. A deadly clash between the government and villagers over a longstanding land dispute took place in early January. ... 

However, the Covid-19 outbreak gave the CPV an opportunity to burnish its image after the land grab and other charges of corruption.

Now, it's true that the Lowy Institute of Australia is sort of a Down Under version of neocon-leaning, winger-leaning within the bipartisan foreign policy establishment, so these grafs above should be taken with a small grain of salt. But not, I think, a huge one. One of the links within the Lowy piece has the Vietnamese government claiming this:

According to information from the Ministry of Public Security, taking advantage of the COVID-19 epidemic, hostile and reactionary forces at home and abroad spread on cyberspace a lot of false information, distorting the epidemic situation. and the direction and administration of the Government, the Ministry of Health and ministries, branches and localities in epidemic prevention efforts.  

In addition, many people take advantage of the epidemic situation to spread false information or give information that is inaccurate, unconfirmed, and speculated according to their views, personal perceptions to sentence views, like sentences, and cause confusion. bring in the public opinion.

If a local hospital can't officially report a case as COVID, maybe it's not allowed to do contact tracing, among other things?  Given this above, I'd assume that's likely.

I would like to thank Tran Hai for inspiring me into the additional round of internet search on this issue.