by Bill Sardi, Lew Rockwell:

There are two hotspots in the world for coronavirus infections: Wuhan, China (Hubei Province) and Italy.  Both of these geographic areas were grappling with tuberculosis outbreaks prior to the eruption of the mutated COVID-19 coronavirus.  Strangely, coronavirus appears to spread to the rest of the world from these hotspots via airplane travel.  But the infection remains in those infected and may spread within a household, but not into the community.  Other geographical outbreaks must be questioned as there are too many false positive tests to confirm COVID-19 coronavirus, which at this point in time may be nothing more than a passenger virus that accompanies tubercular infections.

The COVID-19 epidemic in Italy, which has that country in a lockdown, is worthy of investigation because of the politics and migration in that country.

In a prior report I cited the pre-coronavirus outbreak of tuberculosis in Wuhan China coupled with culling and incineration of herds of pigs infected with African swine flu that created aerosolized pig waste particles that infected humans with a Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Tuberculosis is largely a lung disease that kills 1.7 million humans annually.  TB may be the origin of this deadly infection as normally coronavirus produces mild infections.  Tuberculosis fills the lungs with fluid and the patient drowns in their own secretions.  That is what is happening in Wuhan.

Of interest, most cases (70%) of TB in the U.S. emanate from immigrants who travel to the U.S. or who are foreign born and acquired TB years ago, only for latent TB to erupt into symptomatic disease when the immune system could no longer keep it in check.  Are reported cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. occult tuberculosis?

Inexplicably, there are far more cases of COVID-19 in Italy than other European countries.  These cases of COVID-19 coronavirus infection occurred, like in China, in a background outburst of TB infections.

Prime minister weighs in

Italy’s Prime minister Matteo Salvini claims migrants have brought on this TB plague to his country.  News reports dating back to September of 2018 cite Salvini’s assertion that a TB “invasion without rules or controls” has swept through Italy, carried by indigent migrants seeking asylum in his country.

At the same time, denials that migrants are spreading coronavirus throughout Italy have been aired and political criticism has been launched against Prime Minister Salvini for not being humanitarian by blocking entry to Italy by migrants.  Political opponents say: “Rescued migrants have been disembarking in Italy for many years; this has not led to any major outbreaks of disease among Italians.”

But now what is to explain the exceptionally high number of COVID-19 infections in Italy compared to other European countries?  Maybe it IS TB and not COVID-19.

While TB rates in Italy have generally been low, the rate of COVID-19 infection on a comparative basis is now greater in Italy than in China (97.3 cases per million in Italy, 56.1 cases per million in China)!

It is not necessarily newly arriving migrants that are carrying TB, masquerading as COVID-19 coronavirus, to Italy.  TB can remain in a latent state in the human body for many years before it erupts into disease symptoms.

The Trojan horse: latent TB

It is latent TB that largely threatens Italy.  Poverty, squalid living conditions and stress is thought to reactivate latent cases of TB among migrants in Italy.  An estimated 52% of TB cases in Italy emanate among foreigners in Italy.  In a study of TB cases in Italy, 65% of study subjects were immigrants and their median time since arrival in Italy was 3.6-12.5 years, which suggests latent rather newly acquired TB predominates.  Italy has drastically reduced the number of new immigrants for foreign lands.  But it is too late.  Latent TB has taken hold.

Closing the borders to migrants in Italy may not quell the number of cases of TB.  According to a recent report, there are ~6 million immigrants in Italy.  Apart from immigrants, Italy has a very low rate of TB.  Place of birth predicts latent TB which predominates in immigrants.  Fortunately, while one study shows ~33% of immigrants with TB exhibit no symptoms and could be carriers of TB to infect others, transmission from migrants to the host country population is uncommon.  This is believed due to the health status of native Italians.

Migrants: 80-times higher risk

According to a 2017 report published in Clinical Infectious Diseases in 2017, the prevalence of tuberculosis of the lungs is 6.7 per 100,000 Italians, however the prevalence among migrants is 80 times greater!

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