A Dark Omen! China’s Outbreak Grows Scarier—Crows Blanket the Sky, Bats Attack People

A person filmed a large flock of crows circling over Pingquan Square in Pingquan Hebei Province on October 12. The video shows the birds gathering so densely that they darken the sky. The man taking the video said, this has been going on for three minutes now. Wow, there must be 10,000 of them. So many, so many. They're over there too. In traditional Chinese beliefs, crows symbolize bad luck, and large gatherings are often seen as a bad omen. During the major COVID outbreak, videos also circulated online showing dense flocks circulating over Jingzhou, Hubei, Harbin, and other places. They caused public alarm. In 2020, one user wrote in a video post, the crows are stirring in Jingzhou, Hubei. Scavengers have a very sensitive sense of smell. They can detect faint odors from decomposing bodies far away and flock towards them. dying patients give off a foul odor that people cannot smell before the person has even died. The crows have already picked up the scent and arrived. The large gatherings of crows in Pingquan Hebei has renewed public concern. According to official CCP notices, COVID is entering another peak this fall and winter. A Chinese virologist said many infected patients in northern China have died suddenly while severe cases continue to rise in Hebei. A Changping laboratory team led by Peking University researcher Chao Yunlong released a study in mid-September. It found that the PJ.2.1 COVID variant binds much more strongly to the ACE2 receptor than other variants circulating at the same time. Chinese virologist Mr Wang told a non-state media reporter the PJ.2.1 COVID variant is the most contagious we've ever seen. It has already caused many severe cases here in northern China. The number is shooting straight up. Mr Wang said wastewater monitoring in several parts of China showed PJ.2.1 peaked in mid-August and has stayed high since then. Medical resources, especially in the north, are being directed towards sentinel hospitals designated for monitoring and prevention. Internal laboratory data shows a sharp increase in sudden deaths among infected patients. He added, cases keep rising in Hebei and Shanxi. Many severe cases are at the affiliated hospital of Hebei University. Some patients were transferred there. It's a very important sentinel hospital and there are others in Jilin and Liaoning. Once you get infected it can trigger other illnesses. Cardiac arrest is now the most common. There are also all kinds of infections including problems with the brain and blood vessels. These are increasing exponentially. Mr Wang said the PJ.2.1 study had left virologists and doctors unable to sleep. He accused the CCP authorities of concealing the outbreak. He said state media had also stayed silent while people who released information faced suppression and censorship. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced in July that 522,000 new confirmed COVID cases were recorded nationwide that month, a 5.6-fold increase from June. A Hebei Health commission employee told a reporter that the figure only counted people who sought hospital care the actual number was higher since people generally went to the hospital only when they could no longer cope he said cases were surging hospitals lacked space and deaths were increasing people were waiting for cremations in many places but officials would not allow the information to be released more troubling news has emerged from Wuhan Hubei where the COVID-19 pandemic began Zhou Pai News reported on October 9 that a bat flew into a company office in Dongxihu District, Wuhan Hubei Province in late September. It scratched a bit four female employees on their heads and faces while they were taking a midday nap. Wuhan Jingyin Tan Hospital treated the employees under the highest rabies exposure risk category. Doctors gave them passive immunization injections and rabies vaccines. The report said the hospital had treated 13 patients bitten by bats over the past two months. The incident sparked discussion among local residents. One user said, That bat was probably infected already. It just started biting. It was acting wildly. Another said, Why are bats showing up in broad daylight? A few days ago, a tiny bat was on my window during the day. I have no idea where it came from. A third said, So many people are getting bitten. There were bats where I lived as a child, but they never attacked people. They just hung upside down under the eaves at night. A doctor at the Animal Injury Treatment Center at Wuhan Jingyin Tan Hospital, Sun Chen, said many people mistakenly think rabies is only a concern after bites from cats or dogs. He said bats pose a much greater risk of rabies exposure and death than common cats and dogs. who also explicitly identifies bats as high risk natural hosts for rabies Sun said that bat bites can be hard to notice the wounds are often tiny punctures that are difficult to see they commonly cause no pain or bleeding so people can easily overlook them and miss the best treatment window that increases the risk of rabies infections once symptoms develop rabies is nearly 100 percent fatal He said any direct contact with a bat, bite, or scratch is automatically classified as Category 3 rabies exposure, the highest risk level. It doesn't matter how small the wound is, whether it bleeds, or whether there is visible skin damage, the full treatment protocol must be followed. Bats can also disturb residents and injure people in several other parts of China. Chinese media reported in August that bats were flying into some Beijing residents' homes, causing concern. In Fentai District, the Fire and Rescue Brigade handled 203 bat-related calls between May 1st and August 18th. That was nearly double the 102 calls recorded during the same period last year. Guangming Online reported on September 15th that Miss Zhao in Zhuji, Zhejiang was struck in the face by a dark object while walking at dusk. I saw it very clearly. It was a bat, she said. At the hospital, an emergency doctor told her, there's no obvious wound, but under the animal bite treatment guidelines, any direct contact with a bat is treated as Category 3 exposure, the highest level, whether you were bitten or not. There was another report at the end of August that a bat flew into an apartment on the 18th floor of a high-rise in Ganjingzhi District, Dalian. A curious boy tried to catch it with his bare hands and it flew around the home. When he cornered and grabbed it, the bat bit his hand. He let it go in pain and the bat escaped through a window. Publicly available information identifies bats as major natural hosts of several coronaviruses and of filoviruses, including the highly lethal Ebola and Marburg viruses. Henipaviruses, including Nipah and Hendra, are mainly spread by fruit bats, also known as flying foxes. bats are the natural hosts of most lyssaviruses worldwide hantaviruses have also been detected in bats in parts of Africa and elsewhere specialists said two developments deserve close attention as bat sightings and injuries rise sharply in China first bats are appearing much more often than in previous years matching this year's sharp increase in extreme weather and disasters second several viruses that bats can carry are rising rapidly a pattern seen before outbreaks. They said this could create a combined threat from viruses and bacteria alongside the recently disclosed pneumonia plague situation in Russia. They described such overlapping infections as a major factor in severe illness and death during pandemics or seasonal outbreaks. In their view, this points to a serious disease situation in China this fall and winter. The outbreak began in July and August and worsened after the October 1st holiday. Demand for funeral supplies has also surged. A funeral supplies trade show in Lingyi Shandong ran from October 10th to 12th and drew large crowds every day. In contrast, the Shanghai Industrial Fair, usually packed each year, was quiet when it opened on October 12th. Staff even outnumbered visitors. Funeral supplies exhibitor Mr Wang said the show at the Lingyi International Expo Center is packed it closes at 4:30 p.m but there are still so many people business in this industry is really booming more young people born in the 1990s and 2000s are joining that tells you there's money to be made exhibitors said buyers were placing large orders demand for funeral supplies has risen sharply since the outbreak began in 2019 they said it is now one of the few profitable industries in China with more people entering the business however a profit margins have returned to normal rather than remaining exceptionally high. Exhibitor Mr. Li said, there aren't many opportunities left in a lot of industries, but the public still doesn't know much about funeral and memorial supplies. We're using this opening to quickly build a reputation in our local market. Product profit margins to 30% to 60% are normal. The crowded funeral supply show also reflects the anxiety surrounding illness and deaths in China. A 35-year-old groom, Mr Xie, sought treatment for a sore throat and fatigue on his wedding day on October 3rd in Junyi, Guizhou. He died while receiving an IV infusion. The doctor diagnosed an acute bacterial upper respiratory infection. Mr. Chen, a staff member at China's Health Ministry, said the groom actually had both COVID and a bacterial infection, but officials concealed the COVID outbreak. He said many people had overlapping infections this year, greatly increasing the risk of death. He added infections keep rising after the holiday. Many people spend everything they have on treatment and still die. Students at school in Tianjin are isolating at home for 10 days and will return on October 19th. This kind of thing is common now. The current forecast is that cases will keep rising in late October and peak in November or December at the latest. Chinese virologist Mr. Zhang told a reporter that infection spread quickly through the air aerosol particles are smaller than droplets and pose a greater danger he said taxi drivers medical staff students and office workers in closed spaces are most vulnerable to infection he said people around me keep getting colds the risk increases each time you get infected infections from smaller aerosol particles are more dangerous and the virus replicates faster in the lungs schools are very risky places you can disinfect surfaces but you can't disinfect the air alongside the covid outbreak the suspected case of deadly pneumonic plague in russia has also alarmed people in china a well-known thai psychic Plae had predicted a devastating outbreak late last year she said it might come from the direction of Russia and leave many people dead. The prediction has resurfaced online but some details have been overlooked. She also accurately predicted the powerful March 2025 earthquake in Myanmar that affected Bangkok. Since last month, Thailand has also experienced unusually severe flooding across 47 provinces affecting more than 4 million people. she had predicted that flooding as well on a program late last year Plae predicted that the greatest danger in 2026 would be an epidemic rather than war she did not call it a virus or an infectious disease she called it something new something never seen before the host asked whether the disease would come from animals or be developed in a laboratory and then leaked Plae said it would originate in a laboratory rather than purely in nature. She said things had already been mixed together, making it more contagious. She emphasized that this was what the gods had told her. Plae repeatedly described it as a hybrid disease. She said an old disease had been mixed with elements from human experiments. She specifically said the gods had shown her two terms, tuberculosis and the black death. Pillai said the outbreak would not be a single massive event people would die in successive groups like falling petals or leaves it might not happen worldwide at the same time but would first concentrate in certain regions and countries she said it might not lead to a complete lockdown where nobody can leave home but she predicted scenes of widespread death in affected areas with so many fatalities that people would become numb she also warned that 2026 would only be the beginning the worst conditions would come in 2027 and 2028 and could continue through 2030. Pillai said the greatest danger in 2026 would be what she called an invisible war, meaning biological warfare rather than the full-scale war people might expect. She said it might not involve nationwide or citywide lockdowns but experimental releases of biological weapons in limited areas. Pillai also said everything might appear normal on the surface yet more people would develop unusual illnesses with no clear cause such as pneumonia that resisted treatment or unusually severe diarrhea. Medical symptoms might be unable to identify the cause. When the host asked whether the diseases would originate in Thailand, she said they would be brought in from outside. She said pathogens could spread in Thailand after foreign travelers arrived by plane. Even the people carrying them might not even know they were infected. Ply concluded that the virus might come from the region in the direction of Russia. Of course, Ply's prediction have not all been accurate. For example, she predicted a major global communications and technology crisis between August and September this year. She said major telecom operators would suffer widespread internet outages along with a worldwide system crash. That has not been seen. Medium analysts say that the vision some psychics describe may change due to varying circumstances. They said the prediction of a possible new outbreak could at least encourage people to stay alert and look for ways to protect themselves. Playa's predictions appear to closely echo the current suspected case in Russia. After a 28-year-old technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute died on October 2, nearly 200 contacts had been hospitalized for isolation by October 6. Local media said Shipunova likely contracted a pneumonic plague after touching a broken test tube. However, a senior Russian epidemiologist said staff at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute where Shipunova worked wore professional protective suits. He said the chance of catching pneumonic plague simply from breaking a test tube was extremely low. He questioned the official broken test tube explanation and suggested the true circumstances might be concealed. Marshall Billingshliar, who served as President Trump's special envoy for arms control, wrote on X that he had worked with Ken Alibek after Alibek fled to the United States in the 1990s. Alibek had been the second-ranking official in the Soviet biological weapons program. He said they had engineered an antibiotic-resistant plague strain and studied plague chimeras. Alibek specifically said the Irkutsk Institute had participated in that biological weapons program. Billingshliar said the recent incident in Russia may not just be plague, it could be something much more frightening. A book titled Biological Warfare, published in the United States in late July this year, described an accident at a high-security laboratory in Siberia, Russia. A genetically modified pneumonic plague pathogen escapes, leading to systemic collapse and anarchy. China observers said that with so many coincidences occurring together, they should not simply be dismissed as unrelated natural events. They suggested that crows overhead and bats behaving unusually might be warnings that something dangerous was already unfolding in China.