By Eric Zuesse for the Saker Blog
At of the start of the day on April 9th, the United States, which has 4.2% of the world’s population, had 28.7% of the world’s known Covid-19 (or “coronavirus-19”) cases.
This infection-rate tends to be higher in cities than in rural areas. 82% of America’s population is urban. 55% of the world’s population is urban. The most-urbanized nations (100% urban), and their respective number of Covid-19 cases as of April 9th (shown in parentheses), are Bermuda (39), Cayman Islands (45), Gibraltar (120), Hong Kong (961), Kuwait (855), Monaco (81), Nauru (none shown), and Singapore (1,623).
Hong Kong has 7,483,870 population, and that’s 2.2% as large as America’s population. If Hong Kong had as high a percentage of its population as Covid-19 cases as the U.S. does, it would have 9,862 cases, not 961. If Singapore (population 5,839,210) did, it would have 7,697 cases, not 1,623.
Japan is 92% urban, and has 4,667 cases, and if it had the same percentage of its population being infected with Coronavirus-19 as U.S. does, Japan’s number of confirmed cases would be 12,227, instead of 4,667.
Russia is 74% urban (not much different from America’s 82%). If it had the same percentage of its population infected with coronavirus-19 as the U.S. does, it would have 192,454 cases. Instead, it has 8,672 cases.
Why is this? Some of those differences between the U.S. and other countries are enormous, but all are multiples, not merely percentages. Regarding Covid-19 infections, the U.S. really has no competitor: it is the world’s lone giant.
At the present stage, only a hypothesis can be put forward, not a theory. Here are the news-reports that particularly inform mine:
“Oversight sputters as Trump starts doling out billions in coronavirus aid”, from Kyle Cheney, at Politico.
“The Post-Coronavirus World Will be Far Worse Than the Pre-Coronavirus World”, from me, at Global Research (and elsewhere), explaining what Kyle Cheney reported.
My hypothesis, therefore, is that America is actually the world’s most corrupt country (other than, perhaps, some countries south of the equator, which are yet to be hit hard by Covid-19 as their winter comes on).
One of those nations is Venezuela. America’s National Public Radio’s (NPR’s) “Morning Edition” program headlined on April 9th, “Economic, Political Crises Hinder Venezuela’s Pandemic Battle” and reported that, “Venezuela is in no position to fight COVID-19. Its health care system collapsed long before the virus hit, leaving hospitals without running water and soap, much less ventilators or PPE.” As one would expect in a profoundly corrupt country, that report is hostile toward the Government of Venezuela, though Venezuela has never invaded nor even threatened to invade the United States. It’s treated as an enemy though not explicitly said to be an enemy. The report opened: “Venezuela is in particularly weak position to fight this pandemic. The country is in the middle of an economic and political crisis. Nicolas Maduro’s government has reported ONLY 165 corona virus cases, but many people doubt those numbers, and they worry that a humanitarian crisis is about to get a lot worse.” The slant (the propagandists’ assumption) is that “Nicolas Maduro’s government” is to blame for this and is lying because that’s what America’s ‘enemies’ (such as Venezuela — which actually never endangered Americans) do. The appeal is to the stupidity, the misplaced trust, of the American people. It’s to that the American people’s having been indoctrinated so as not to understand the difference between the function that inter-national law is supposed to serve — to control the interrelations between nations — and the function that intra-national law is supposed to serve (to protect the rights of all of the people who are living in that nation). This confusion started on 26 July 1945, barely three months after U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) died on April 12th of that year, and Harry S. Truman — a well-intentioned fool who quickly became duped by America’s wealthiest citizens and their agents, who surrounded him — became suckered, mainly by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to believe that if the Soviet Union would not become conquered ultimately by the United States, then the United States would become conquered ultimately by the Soviet Union. The next stage of that basically organized criminal and secret operation occurred on 24 February 1990, when U.S. President G.H.W. Bush secretly started, on that date, instructing America’s European vassal-nations that after communism in the Soviet Union would soon end and the U.S.S.R. would soon break up and the Warsaw Pact (the Soviets’ military alliance they had established in response to the U.S. regime’s having established its anti-Soviet NATO military alliance as a consequence of Truman’s having been duped on 26 July 1945 to start the Cold War) would also soon end, the U.S.-and-allied side would secretly continue the Cold War after Russia would quit it (which happened in 1991) — continue it in order to conquer, ultimately, Russia itself. The United Nations, which FDR had established right before his death, in order to put in place international law as being truly and exclusively international and no merely national legislation, became established under Truman as instead allowing international law to dictate (as ‘human rights’) what laws individual nations must have. This, of course, destroyed the U.N. at its very start, and presented the U.S. Government’s conception of “human rights” as being a ‘just’ cause for America and its vassals (“allies”) establishing international sanctions against, and for perpetrating coups against, and even for outright militarily invading, any country it wished.
All of these things are what one would reasonably expect to come from the world’s most corrupt nation: a psychopathically ruled country, which ceaselessly seeks to impose itself upon the rest of the world as the unchallengeable global empire, ruling, actually, everywhere. The way that U.S. President Barack Obama stated it was that “The United States is and remains the one indispensable nation”, so that every other nation is “dispensable” and therefore could justifiably be destroyed by America if America’s rulers — its billionaires — collectively decide to do that. This is, for example, the reason why European nations cower in fear of having the U.S. regime’s crushing secondary sanctions imposed upon themselves if they fail to comply with the U.S. regime’s sanctions against Iran and Venezuela. These are economic blockades against Venezuela and Iran, that are intended to destroy Iran and Venezuela if those countries fail to overthrow their exsting Governments and replace those with stooge-regimes that America’s billionaires sill find acceptable.
Here is an excellent 1992 BBC documentary about how Truman’s CIA used supporters of Hitler and of Mussolini after World War II so as to fool European publics to hate and fear the Soviet Union, by setting up terrorist incidents in America’s European allies, so as to be falsely reported to have been perpetrated instead by the Soviet Union. This is remarkably similar to what U.S. President Barack Obama did to Ukraine (and which his successor Trump continues there). It is equally effective now, as it was under Eisenhower.
This is what one would expect the world’s most corrupt country to do. The ferocity of the Covid-19 epidemic inside America itself is entirely consistent with America’s being the world’s most corrupt nation, and can reasonably be said to result from this extraordinary corruption.
While I agree that the US is very corrupt at the national level, I don’t see how that affects the extent of the initial infection here. It seems pretty obvious that the places most infected were where there’s lots of travel to/from all over the world, and large public gatherings, i.e. New York, N’Orleans, and where there was direct transmission from China, as in the Seattle area.
Of course, the incompetence and unpreparedness of government, especially at the federal level, has helped fuel that into massive outbreaks. The countries that have the best outcomes have been those (e.g. South Korea) that were quick to institute testing, quarantine, and contact tracing, which is still not being done here.
So I guess if you consider that incompetence a direct consequence of the persuasive corruption present in the top levels of industry/government, then you’re right. Observe how they’ve been very effective and speedy about pumping trillions towards themselves,
Reqarding your “the extent of the initial infection here,” you are referring to something that’s neither discussed by this article nor necessarily relevant to it.
Regarding your “the incompetence and unpreparedness of government, especially at the federal level,” you are again off-topic. This article is purely about the corruption in the federal Government.
If you don’t know what the topic is, then you simply aren’t able to comment on it. Though you have written here some words, they are not germane to this article. They may be tangential to it (and I think that they are, because there may be some relationship between corruption and incompetence), but they are not germane to it. At best, such a comment simply brings up a new and tangential issue. It does not address the issue at hand.
Sorry to set you off, but I was pretty much agreeing with you. I certainly was addressing the issue you bring up, which is why the US has the most infections. You assert that it’s purely because of “corruption”, and I was pointing out how that it could also be explained by the nature of travel in/out of this country, and simple incompetence at multiple levels.
The issue of incompetence deflects from the root issue of corruption.
The incompetent are in positions of power because of the corruption.
“The ferocity of the Covid-19 epidemic inside America itself is entirely consistent with America’s being the world’s most corrupt nation, and can reasonably be said to result from this extraordinary corruption.”
What are you saying here? What’s the link between corruption and high rate of Covid-19? You clearly make a cause and effect relationship between the two.
However, in your reply in the comments you say that you think there may be some relation between incompetence and corruption while maintaining that these two issues are not relevant.
Can you be more explicit?
You make an explicit cause and effect relationship between corruption and high covit-19 cases.
Then say there may be a relation.
Then say the two are not relevant.
?
I believe that Eric has a good point.
A corrupt government simply asks “what’s in it for the insiders?” A good government says, “how do I protect the people of this nation.”
When this virus broke out, the US had about two months warning.
What was done?
Nothing.
It was only when the GDP was threatened that action was taken.
And then what action was taken?
Corporations who had squandered cash on “stock buybacks” to benefit corporate insiders were bailed out.
Immediately.
On the other hand, I know of no individual who has received their paltry “stimulus payment,” though I just heard from one who told me that she did not qualify. From what I hear, a lot of people “will not qualify” for one ridiculous reason or another.
This is exactly how corrupt governments behave.
Thank you, Mike, for having answered that even before I checked back here to see the question which had been asked by Zeroborta. I therefore shall address another part of Zeroborta’s question:
“What’s the link between corruption and high rate of Covid-19? You clearly make a cause and effect relationship between the two.
However, in your reply in the comments you say that you think there may be some relation between incompetence and corruption while maintaining that these two issues are not relevant.
Can you be more explicit?”
Both corruption and incompetence by government are likely to exacerbate an epidemic’s impact because both weaken a government’s ability to reduce to a minimum that impact. I never said “these two issues are not relevant” to an epidemic’s impact. Both the absence of corruption and the absence of incompetence are crucial to a government’s effectiveness at reducing an epidemic’s impact.
I am shocked that there are readers who misunderstand what I thought I had clearly stated.
How can anyone doubt that the absence of both corruption and incompetence are crucial to a government’s effectiveness at reducing an epidemic’s impact? I don’t understand how anyone can doubt it. Even worse, I don’t understand anyone’s having difficulty in understanding what my argument was regarding “Why America Leads the World in Covid-19 Cases”. Could I have made it any clearer? Perhaps I wrote it poorly? If so, I want to know, and to know how I could have made the case clearer than it is.
I was referring to your response in the comments;
“Though you have written here some words, they are not germane to this article.”
Either way its great you endorse Mike’s understanding as that was easier to understand.
Hi Eric, Thanks for another though provoking article….Reqarding your “Why America Leads the World in Covid-19 Cases” have you considered the reason is simply that it started in the US some time ago?
For me the genome studies in China/Japan are showing that Haplotypes are markers that provide evidence of US being ground zero. While i am no expert on this, the reality on the ground in China and the US would seem to support that China is a cluster outbreak and that the US is the real deal……..That is why i call the US the Corona capital of the world. (that got me banned in Breitbart, after 5 years of posting there)
Your hypothesis that America is actually the world’s most corrupt country (other than, perhaps, some countries south of the equator, which are yet to be hit hard by Covid-19 as their winter comes on). is counter intuitive, ie your hypothesis should show more corrupt countries with greater infection rates. This is just simply not the case although i take on board your distinction that it is not their flu season yet.
David and Charles Koch are to blame for Trumps “White Supremacist” attack on Venezuela. The Koch’s built the giant Flint Hills Corpus Christi Refinery to process heavy crude from Venezuela. At the time the plant was built Koch Industries were pillaging Venezuelan heavy crude for a fraction of its true value.
After 4 centuries of white rule Chavez finally won the country back with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo (indigenous) population. When Hugo Chavez became President of Venezuela he insisted Koch Industries pay full price for the heavy crude. Maduro, Chavez’s chosen successor has continued his policies.
The corruption in the US is endemic and institutionalised, textbook description of Italy style fascism in my opinion. Thats a discussion all of its own.
Regards
Doom
I question the vaping deaths last fall. Over 2K kids died then….. poof. Nothing more said and the issue fell into the memory warp.
Doctors reported severe flu last fall around the same time.
I’m not saying those were a trial run but it does make me wonder.
Please, “Doom,” supply me a link sourcing your allegation that “The Koch’s built the giant Flint Hills Corpus Christi Refinery to process heavy crude from Venezuela. At the time the plant was built Koch Industries were pillaging Venezuelan heavy crude for a fraction of its true value.”
I had thought that the Kochs’ involvement in tar-sands oil had to do with their having purchased lots of Athabasca Canadian tar-sands land. I had thought that their refinery was intended for refining Canadian tar-sands, not for Venezuela’s tar-sands. Was it being used for both? (Allegedly, the Kochs wanted the Keystone XL pipeline to be built in order to reduce the transportation costs for their Athabasca oil to reach their Texas refinery.)
Also: refining tar-sands oil is intrinsically very costly. Why are you alleging that “Koch Industries were pillaging Venezuelan heavy crude for a fraction of its true value.”
“they are not germane”. Say what?
What on earth do the Germans have to do with all this?
The word “germane” in English means ” being at once relevant and appropriate” and has indeed nothing to do with Germany or Germans (it is not ‘germane’ to ‘Germans’).
Ali G. once said about the topic ‘euthanasia’: Why is it always about the ‘youth in Asia”.
Irresistable, as the word is so rarely used, but a poor attempt at humour on my part to emulate Buford T. Justice in “Smokey and the Bandit” without the adjective that would invoke censorship.
But thanks for the correction! As a silver lining I now know about ‘youth in Asia’. I must remember that one.
You can learn a lot about your native language from a different viewpoint by listening to those who have learnt it as a second or more language. I remember some particularly inedible backpacking reconstituted ‘gag in a bag’ food from a company called ‘ Alliance’. This was while on a multi-day backpack trip and a Swiss gentleman suggested that instead of ‘Alliance food’ it was better described as ‘Aliens food’.
https://quotesgram.com/smokey-and-the-bandit-movie-quotes/
https://www.quotes.net/mquote/87882
Regarding the federal bureaucracy that regulates my company, I have been saying for the last 5 years that the BEST thing that I can say about the bureaucracy is that it is extremely incompetent. This bureaucracy is definitely designed to destroy small businesses. They will use incompetency to explain their corruption, because their main function is to also avoid accountability like they did in the 2008 crisis. Their methods include strictly enforcing minor rules (made up by them), to reduce the probability of a minor event to zero percent. This type of enforcement is designed to cause systemic collapse which the shut-down laws are also accomplishing.
A plate full of reasons served again by Eric Zuesse, thank you sir!
Absence of evidence of coronavirus reminds me of absence of airliner debris on Pentagon lawn.
Just saying
Here is an interesting look at the World Health Organization’s ultimate plan for reducing the transmission of the COVID-19 virus:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-world-health-organizations-ultimate.html
It is increasingly looking like we are living in an alternate reality.
U.S.A. also has one of the least educated, i.e. least disiplined, populations. I do not mean to be insulting, but this is a truth, and a major factor regarding attempts to institute collective health controls.
I am an American.
I am not insulted by what you say because it is the simple truth.
However, understand these dynamics.
Our educational system, 1) teaches a false history of the country, 2) rewards conformity, and, 3) (in the spheres of politics and economics) punishes and ridicules any attempt at critical thinking.
Our “media” is not a true media at all, it is a well paid, very efficient public relations firm for vested interests.
Finally, citizens are told that if they are not successful, it is because of their inherent failures as a human beings. They believe that. This deflects criticism away from a rigged system back onto the average man and woman so as to crush their spirit.
This is the reason why Americans seem so ignorant and docile in the face of exploitation.
I don’t see the ordinary people from any other western country taking to the streets to oust the perpetrators of this corona virus propelled lockdown.
Maybe its not only the citizens of the USA who have been beaten into submission.
Brad, that is probably true. Every time I have traveled in Europe in the past few years, I hear the outrage. I also sense the feelings of powerlessness.
It is not just the US, it is the whole western world. So far, only the “yellow vests” have stood up and said “no more.”
How quickly we forget. Occupy Wall Street? Once it went beyond a street protest, i.e. started to pose a real threat to the establishment, OWSers were pepper sprayed, tasered, beaten, and thrown in jail. ‘Twas ever thus. From the 19th century through the IWW to OWS, threaten the system and the jackboots hit the streets.
Sometimes I think that the American police were militarized for that very reason.
If propaganda and brainwashing no longer work, bring in the armored personnel carriers.
The lie of the 20th Century was the official explanation of the causes of WW1. How Herbert Hoover (before his presidency) helped Oxford publish the false history books is a major story in itself. The lie of the 21st Century is the official explanation of the causes of 9ll. Another study just came out saying that WT7 was a controlled demolition.
The purpose of these lies is to hide who are real enemies are.
There are a couple of other factors involved.
First, the virus first hit hard in China during the Chinese New Year. I happened to be in China at that time. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students – who had been studying in the United States – were home for the New Year’s celebration. The Chinese New Year is the Chinese equivalent of Christmas in the USA. It is a very big family affair. Lots and lots of family interaction and get togethers. But this disease is extremely contagious. Undoubtedly, lots of those kids were infected and then went back to their schools in the US.They brought the virus back to the USA in huge numbers.
Second, American Customs was totally unprepared. I flew back to the US just after the Chinese New Year. Almost everyone on the plane was wearing a mask – including me. When we got off the plane at JFK airport in NYC, everyone was told by Customs to take off their masks. Everyone was then herded into tight queues. The reason for this was to expedite passport control. But the practical effect of this was to open up all the passengers to infection from any other passenger who might have the disease. Moreover, no attempts were made upon entry to take forehead temperature checks or to do any other type of health related screening. I was actually shocked by the whole thing. It seemed to be an invitation to disaster.
Now, it would be one thing if the US Government had not known about the existence of the virus – but, by that time, the whole world knew of it.
Accordingly, a large part of the huge spread of cases in the US was due to 1) a huge influx of people came back from China, just as the pandemic was starting, and, 2) nothing being done to prevent the spread of the disease by people coming back from China.
That was pretty much my point as well, sheer incompetence and unpreparedness of officials up and down in the government, and not simply corruption per se, although surely the gross corruption of many in the upper levels leads exactly to just this. I think the corruption is more evident in the manor in which the “bailout” was handled.
VictorNoel,
I agree about the bailouts. People should be outraged by this.
Ordinary citizens will be lucky to see a “stimulus check.” There are so many strings attached to it that many will not qualify at all.
Meanwhile, corporations (and their insiders) who looted their companies are being handed billions.
It is at one and the same time, outrageous and typical.
Mike, I live in Thailand a major tourist destination for Chinese, especially younger Chinese. Probably similar age to the travelers back to the USA. My city is a tourist destination for Chinese. And yet, Thailand,with a population of about 1/5 that of the US has an infection rate of less than 2500, vs US 400,000 and only 30 deaths vs US over 10,000 deaths.
It had one infection noted in the Thai press of a Western guy who came infected from Italy. And Thailand didn’t start real efforts to stop the spread (social distancing) until 12 days ago, although it’s true that the number of tourists from China did drop after the virus became known. Basically, Thailand today has 1400 people still under treatment, 1000 recovered, 33 dead. So it’s affected Thailand far far less than one might expect compared to the US. It might be that in Asian countries, people are used to using masks. That’s the only explanation I can think of.
It’s shocking how incompetent the airport security people were in NYC to demand that people in close quarters not wear masks.
strange indeed how countries which have a big flow of people with China get relatively small rate of infection, yet the most infected countries are ones for which flow of people with China is small.
Maybe the source of the pandemia is not in China after all, despite what the MSN want us to believe.
I learned that the “Spanish flu”, despite the name, didn’t originated in Spain at all… could it be that the “Chinese virus” as some want to name it didn’t originated in China at all?
China has been the first country to identify and fight it; maybe that just means that the health system, and the politic resolve, are stronger in China than in some other countries ?
One may wonder what would be happening in the US had not China identified the virus and showed the world how to efficiently fight it. Maybe the US would be in a much much much worst situation right now.
I have to say that I agree with you about the level of corruption exhibited by the United States government. I came to the same conclusion many years ago. For a long time the corruption was fairly well hidden, at least to those who were not directly victimized by it. However I do believe that it has always been there, just under the surface, hidden from view.
If one were to compare the number of deaths that can be directly (and indirectly) attributed to the policies (through all levels of government interactions) of the US government with both internal and external populations (since the Republic’s founding), with any other nation on Earth, then how would the US fare? Rather poorly I expect, if we are being honest with ourselves.
I think the reason for more cases in the U$A is because only the U$A is home to all 5 strains of this “novel” virus. Here is the Link BTL the previous Zuess article:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-coronavirus-shocking-update/5705196
This deep-lung variant of a common flu has been in the U$ a long time; the U$ military reported it to the POTU$A in November 2019 but their report was suppressed until yesterday April 9:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intelligence-report-warned-coronavirus-crisis-early-november-sources/story?id=70031273
The total world update from WHO for today April 10 reads as follows:
1,099,599 Currently Infected Patients, 1,051,520 (96%) in Mild Condition,
48,079 (4%) Serious or Critical
This fits the Chinese figures from the author’s own Link (WHO 9th April):
China total cases 81,865, Recovered 77,370 (94%), Deaths 3,335 (4%)
http://archive.is/xCr3L
But the U$ figures are a puzzle: Total tests 2,209,041, Active cases 397,248 (18% of those tested), Total recovered 22,891 (6% of active cases; 1% of total tested), Total deaths 14,788 (4% of active cases; 0.6% of total tested). Active cases (397,248) represent less than 20% of the total tested (2,209,941). What happened to the remaining 80%? My guess is they will prove to be either “positive but mild” (as in the majority of the 1,099,599 updated WHO cases above) or “positive but symptom free” (indicating exposure to the virus and complete recovery at some time in the past). Or they could simply have been 80% corona-negative.
My point is, that unlike the figures from China and the WHO, the U$ figures do not tally. But I also think that, taken together with yesterday’s new release of an “under-reported report” from the U$ Army to the President’s Office in November, this large number of U$ Active Cases suggests these 5 “novel” virus strains have been incubating for quite a while in the U$A before China brought Cov19 swiftly to the WHO’s attention and rolled out their highly effective Civil Defense Against Novel Pathogens after a lady cyclist from Uncle $cam’s Army team had to be hospitalized during the Military Olympics at Wuhan.
http://archive.is/xCr3L
I sympathize with Eric Zuesse’s hypothesis that America is the world’s most corrupt country, and that its exceptionalism is a curse, but he can’t prove it by his numerical comparisons of Covid-19 cases among countries. He might unintentionally demonstrate it by his attempt.
First off, the infection numbers, and death numbers, as of today are piddling small. Significant, scary numbers will develop over the next several months. The relation of American numbers then to other nations’ numbers then might be completely different from now.
Secondly, the great noise made by America, echoed by Mr. Zuesse, about its present Covid-19 numbers are themselves corrupt and exceptionalistic. His numerical case is selective and therefore invalid. More plausibly, consider Western Continental Europe, consisting of the 13 countries Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy. Their total population is 335 million, about the same as the USA’s. The Western Continental European countries have shown unequal competences relative the epidemic, as have the different USA states. As of today, the total reported infections for the 13 European countries is 655 thousand. Compare that to 469 thousand for the USA. Infections are poorly reported, so it’s better to count deaths. The 13 European countries have had 56 thousand. The USA just 17 thousand. As of today, America: please shush!
The US is now overstating the problem, after initially understating it, to assume the victim position, hype the disaster, and steal the oxygen of any other narrative so theirs is the only one heard. Their narrative is that those terrible Chinese did this to us/you, and deserve to be punished. cf. 9/11 et al.
Any country that thinks gun shops are an “essential business” and that stock indices are more important than anything else is a country that *will* go under to any epidemic.
“Why America Leads the World in Covid-19 Cases” There is corruption of course. Then the way the health care (in the US) is organized. It is very deficient, why? Consider for instance that many Americans (even with good economy) have to go to Mexico for adequate medical care, why? Because it is too expensive (in the US). Think about the poor Americans then, they have no chance for good medical care in the US. The US has the most expensive medical care in the world in relation to their GNP and this does not reflect in the quality of attention to their population. Why? Because is completely profit-oriented. It reminds me the situation with the military industry producing very expensive weapons which does not match the quality of the russian (weapons) with considerably less budget. Think about this, “tiny, poor” Cuba has better numbers in infant and maternal mortality compared to “rich, powerful” US!
Why America Leads the World in Covid-19 Cases?
Because the US is the best at everything it does.
Lies, damned lies…..and statistics.
Just from a quick read of the article and its overload of numbers and percentages plus the comments debating the details…..it is clear what the ruling method is here:
Empiricism.
If that word has an uncanny resemblance to Empire…………..that is not an accident.
Empiricism, knowledge gained through the 5 bodily senses, rather than the higher faculties of the mind and spirit…………..IS the ruling methodology of Empire.
Trust the statistics??? NoSiree, Bob ….I DO NOT!
A bias toward faking death certificates to make as many deaths as possible COVID 19 “caused”…in identifiable cases 100% wrong……and a big push by Hillary, Obama and others for testing testing, testing by the likes of Bill Gates related “health” entities do not give you pause??
You do not see they NEED to pump the numbers way up…….and therefore YOU need to suspect their tests of false positives and/or deliberate new infection…..through the mass tests themselves?? NO ONE is THAT evil???
How naïve. Babes in the woods.
Higher faculties such as intuition, reason, hypothesis formation and testing of such hypotheses very very quickly…….MONTHS AGO…..could have told you that this is less about health……than political control.
Just a quick CLUE for y’all for now: Timing is everything. You’ll find corruption everywhere…not just ‘Murica…not just China either……but certainly in both……..and I’d look to the Deep State players and their counterparts on opposite sides of oceans to dissect what is going on here rather than the absurd premises:
1. America ALL bad!
2. America ALL good!
3. China ALL bad!
4 China ALL good!
Here’s the timing to focus on briefly and at least put in the back of your mind….and work on it …over days and weeks ahead, as “haste makes waste: January 14 and January 15
Listen to Nancy on the latter date about “Time is Everything……and how we “mark it” (Market)
https://youtu.be/GWw25Jyq0YM?t=156
and seconds later……”TRANSMIT”…..the articles of impeachment.
No Deep State Code in effect????
Slow learners. Let’s pick up the pace.
I am surprised by the negative response to this article from various readers. In the first place, Mr. Zuesse clearly says that this is an hypothesis. In that perspective, he is exploring the issue. However, his thoughts are well in point: corruption is the source of this health crisis affecting the whole nation.
Corruption enabled the upper crust of people to pursue their own interests: making money even from the Federal Government. They used money that belongs to the people to increase their own wealth. Such action resulted in the lack of preparation for Covid-19 crisis. No PPE, no ventilators (because bigger corporations decided not to allow cheaper respirators in production) no vaccines, no tests (because free enterprise wants to produce them??) The Federal Government seems captive to the free enterprise (the oligarchs). In Russia, the government entered into the fight without waiting for the entrepreneurs. Russia has the oligarchs under check mate. Is that the reason they can help others? Why is it that USA has fail to help other nations and is taking their resources instead? Isn’t that corruption???
Mr Zuesse. Thank you for naming evil.
In the Land of the Free, corruption is so pervasive because it has been LEGALIZED in all but name.
As such, hardly anybody questions this American corruption.
A case example is the corrupt exercise called (snicker) American democratic elections–which are essentially a contest between multimillionaires or billionaires, who have the financing necessary to run and win elections in the first place.
America has the best democracy in the world …. that money can buy, that is.
Similarly, the American healthcare system is a thinly disguised racket to benefit the Health Insurance industry, pharmaceutical corporations, and hospitals.
The primary agenda of this healthcare system is not to provide healthcare for the hapless American masses but to generate PROFITS for healthcare industries–insurance, Big Pharma, hospitals, and doctors.
America thus also has the best healthcare system in the world … as long as you have the money to afford it, that is.
In America, healthcare is not a right. It is a *privilege* based on your ability to pay.
The word “germane” in English means ” being at once relevant and appropriate” and has indeed nothing to do with Germany or Germans (it is not ‘germane’ to ‘Germans’).
Ali G. once said about the topic ‘euthanasia’: Why is it always about the ‘youth in Asia”.
There are other factors to explain the virus spread in the USA. The virus prefers a certain temperature/humidity combination. Seattle, New York, Lombardy, Tehran and Wuhan were in it in March. New York also attracts a lot of international travelers. Flu season is over now, here in Houston. It should be over in California now too, maybe France too. Russia has been too cold. It is a more attractive climate for the virus now in April.
Dr.NG Maroudas has good points. The last 2 flu seasons have been bad. I have wondered if some of this flu was not new this year but a holdover from last year or the year before.
The bailouts have surely been corrupt. The economic depression is far more significant than the virus.
A different article speculated that individuals in the USA unlike the UK did not volunteer in this crisis, out of fear of medical costs. I am unaware of any such call for volunteers here in the USA. If nobody calls, nobody volunteers. Also, corporations do not want to be sued if their employees/volunteers get sick. Corporate fear of litigation is a bigger factor here, than personal fear of medical costs.