The times are testing as the world battles the pandemic of Coronavirus also known as COVID-19 which has created havoc globally. The governments all over the world are in dilemma as regards curtailing the spread of the virus is concerned. Social Distancing and complete lockdown seem to be the only two guaranteed effective mechanisms to cope with this spread. The deadly virus spread has become a matter of grave concern especially for nations like Italy; who has reported around 12000 deaths till date. Even the advanced countries like the United States, where the number of infected patients has risen to as close as 1,88,647 seems to be in fix as to how better contain the further increase of infected patients. The COVID-19 virus seems to be on a rampage, claiming almost 43,522 lives so far and a sum total of around 8 million people infected.
While the world is battling the pandemic and the government’s hyper-focused on saving their citizens and the economy, there is one nation that claims to be stable when the rest of the world is still experiencing the backlash of the virus. That country, without an iota of doubt, is the People’s Republic Of China.
Timeline Of COVID-19 Spread
The very first instance of anyone being affected by the COVID-19 virus dates back to 17th November 2019 which was reported by the South China Morning Post on 13 March. This is in contrast to the WHO report that says the first confirmed case of Novel Coronavirus in China was detected on December 8. By the time it was the second week of December, the Wuhan doctors were finding cases that the virus was spreading from one human to another. There was a steady rise in the number of cases affected by what came to be dubbed as “pneumonia cases with unknown cause” by the Chinese Authorities. It was reported on December 21 that the staff that was “suspected of contracting pneumonia” has been quarantined. By late December, China saw an exponential rise in the number of cases.
It is very intriguing to note that one Dr. Li Wenliang started warning the medical fraternity of a possible outbreak of a SARS-like illness urging the community to use protective measure against it. By now, the spread of the disease had made it to the media reports outside of China and the Wuhan Municipal Commissioner was forced to give a public statement wherein he claimed that, declares “Investigation so far as not found an obvious human to human transmission and no medical staff infection.” However, on 1st January 2020, Wuhan Public Security Bureau issued summons to Dr. Li and accused him of ‘misdemeanor’ and spreading rumors. Two days later, he signed an acknowledgement promising not to commit further ‘unlawful acts’. Seven other people were also arrested on the same charges and their fate is unknown.
According to a report by the New York Times on 6th of January, 59 people in the city of Wuhan had been sickened by the illness in China so far. By January 8th the spread had been rapid but the Chinese authorities continued with the official stance that no case of human to human transmission of the virus has been found. However, China claims to have identified the virus, yet the government authorities continued to say that the spread is not contagious. Even the WHO in its statement said that “Preliminary identification of a novel virus in a short period of time is a notable achievement and demonstrates China’s increased capacity to manage new outbreaks.” The WHO advised against any travel and trade restrictions on China.
Read: China deliberately glossed over the magnitude of Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: US Intelligence report
Meanwhile, on 10th of January, Dr Li, who was the first medical practitioner to have alerted about the spread of SARS-like disease is found symptomatic of Novel Coronavirus and two days later was hospitalized. The doctors in China continue to find transmissions among family members contradicting an official statement from the city health commission. However, the Wuhan Health Officials continued to say that there are no reports to the contrary that the virus spreads through person to person contact. In fact, a theory emerged that the spread of the virus is occurring because of the bat or animals that are being sold at the Wuhan Sea Food Market; stating that humans are catching it from the animals.
On 13th of January, Thailand reports its first case of Coronavirus; a 61-year-old Chinese woman who was visiting from Wuhan. This is the first case found outside of China. Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health said: “The woman had not visited the Wuhan Sea Food Market and had, in fact, visited a different smaller market in Wuhan who came down with a fever on Jan 5.” A day later, WHO’s official twitter handle said, “Preliminary investigation conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human to human transmission of the novel coronavirus identified in Wuhan China” This comes almost 5-6 weeks late after human to human transmission was already reported in Wuhan.
By this time, millions asymptomatic oblivious Chinese Citizens have already travelled across the world, thus spreading the disease. On Jan 15th, Japan reported its first Coronavirus case. The Officials state that “The person had not visited any seafood market in China. It is possible that he had close contact with another patient with lung inflammation while in China.”
This is when the Wuhan officials change their tune, saying “Possibility of human to human contact cannot be ruled out but the risk of transmission is low”. Given this timeline, it is sufficient enough to say that Chinese authorities suppressed the facts and withheld vital information regarding the danger of the spread of this disease. The People’s Republic of China endangered the lives of 9 billion people; which is the entire human population in existence on Earth.
As of today, the data already discussed above has successfully decrypted China’s lies regarding the spread of COVID-19.
Coronavirus: China’s Bio Warfare
One may ponder as to what has biological warfare got to do with the COVID-19 pandemic. Well, the answer lies within. China has been at forefront in research in bio science. That’s why for the to establish bio safety labs across China comes as no surprise.
Let’s discuss a very interesting anecdote reported by the Yahoo News on March 30th.
A Chinese biologist was held by U.S Customs And Border Protection Agents at the Detroit Metro Airport on charges of carrying biological hazard of three vials; suspicious in nature named as ‘Antibodies’ written in Chinese. The report further states that “Inspection of the writing on vials and the stated recipient led inspection personnel to believe the materials contained within the vials may be viable Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)”
An unclassified report by the FBI which is written by the Chemical and Biological Intelligence Unit of FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction states that they have assessed those vials to contain viruses like SARS and E.Coli. In January of 2018, a Harvard Head of the Department was also arrested by the US authorities under the charges of having close ties with these Chinese scientists who were undertaking this research and importing hazardous and undocumented materials in and out of US. These Chinese scientists were apprehended on charges of espionage of suspected biological pathogens that are hazardous in nature into bio laboratories in China.
A curious case of an unidentified report, which was later pulled down by the Chinese Authorities also renders confusion in the mind of a reader. The said report was written by leading scientists Batao Xiao and Lei Xiao of South China University, Guangzhou who claimed that the virus was slipped from a laboratory situated near the Wuhan Sea Food Market. The published paper stated that it was the only lab in the vicinity of the spread of the disease. Because the patients who contracted the disease were all the residents of the area, nearby. It further claimed that the virus in its current form is a modified version of Coronavirus. The COVID-19 virus hails from the same family as that of SARS and HIV.
There have been instances in the past that because of careless attitude in handling the pathogens, China has been home to spread of many epidemics. Therefore, a mere two months before the spread of COVIS-19, the publication of the report by the FBI about the espionage of pathogens from the US to China makes a compelling case. Some of the scientists have however denied that the virus in its current form has natural origins and didn’t slip out as a result of mishandling in bio testing in labs. There still remains a good amount of scientist who claims it to be otherwise. It is hard to decide who is to be believed.
Whatever the case may be, the role of China in mishandling the situation cannot be ruled out.
China and Coronavirus: The Deception
The Chinese are the masters of deception. Even though the country is named the People’s Republic of China, it is anything but undemocratic and demonic misrule of communist leaders. The rule of the Chinese Communist Party is absolute and the stronghold of President Xi Jinping has become ironclad in recent years. The Chinese rule not with welfare policies but by way of autocratic propaganda. Therefore, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that Chinese rule is the best example of a propaganda-driven mockery of the state machinery.
Chinese citizen is merely a pawn for the government. The massacre of lacs of people under Mao’s rule is testament to that fact. The media is censored, to the extent that if anyone is found speaking even a word or merely questioning the PRC, immediate action is taken against them. There have been cases of hundreds of such journalists who dare spoke against the Chinese rule and were sentenced or either executed or their fate unknown. Therefore, censorship and misinformation seems to be very obvious face-saving tactic for the Chinese government.
In this case, despite initial findings by the Wuhan doctors, that Coronavirus spreads through human to human contact, the Wuhan Commissioner kept on insisting that reports don’t suggest that it is contagious. They continued to peddle the same narrative, thereby falsely reporting the seriousness of the disease. Moreover, the doctor who alerted the community regarding its spread, was later arrested on charges of spreading misinformation. The contradiction can be found wherein, the authorities maintained the stance that COVID-19 is not a case of person to person transmission as against their own medical staff was being quarantined showing signs of unidentified pneumonia as early as December 25. The question arises that if there was no person to person transmission of the disease why were people being quarantined?
Further cover-up can be found when an employee of one of the genomic company received a phone call from an official at Hubei official health commission ordering the company to stop testing samples from Wuhan related to the new disease and destroy all the existing samples. Why was the evidence destroyed? What material facts did China suppress by ordering shut down of research on a possible outbreak of a deadly disease? In order to balance it out one Tao Lina, public health expert, Former Official Expert With Shanghai Centre For disease control and prevention told South China Warning Post, “I think we are (now) quite capable of killing it in the beginning phase given China’s disease control system, emergency handling capacity and clinical medicine support.”
As NYT report suggests, by the time, the situation could have been controlled, millions of residents of Wuhan had already fled the city, spreading the disease worldwide. Transmission had already occurred and the entire world was left vulnerable in the face of a pandemic outbreak. The cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t stop here. In order to detach themselves from the responsibility, the Chinese created a very deceptive yet wonderfully charming campaign claiming that the citizens of China are being targeted and calling the virus “Chinese Virus” is racist in nature. Major liberal-minded population fell for the propaganda. On Feb 4 Mayor of Florence, Italy Dario Nardella urged residents to hug Chinese people to encourage them in the fight against coronavirus. Chinese society in Italy aimed at promoting friendship between two countries and called for respect for novel coronavirus during the street demonstration “I’m not a virus, I’m a human” eradicating the prejudice. Today, Italy is paying a huge price for falling prey to Chinese propaganda.
Furthermore, under the garb of sending aid to badly hit nations, China is exporting defective goods like masks and medicines. Needless to say, the so called aid is another attempt as a face saver and its pre- decided strategy to seize opportunity in the world.
What Can The World Do
This pandemic has left the world with two options. Either let China control the narrative and aid it in becoming the next Superpower or stop relying on China completely.
The economic meltdown on a global level because of this pandemic has been huge. Especially for nations like India, it’s a golden opportunity to increase cooperation with advanced nations like Japan, Vietnam, US and increase the capability of their own Pharmaceutical and Electronic sector, thereby curtailing the dependence on China.
The only way to defeat the dragon is by isolating it. If anything, this disastrous pandemic should be a wake-up call for world governments. The world is poised for a new world order which will be in tandem with Mother Nature and devoid of pollution fallout. Let us pledge again to make this beautiful planet livable and hope that wisdom prevails.
