Allen Yu for The Saker Blog
Despite strong rebukes from the WHO, President Trump and his Administration officials in recent days have made an emphatic point of calling the COVID-19 virus the “Chinese Virus” or “China Virus.” When pushed on the racist overtone of his rhetoric, Trump retorted, “Cause [the virus] comes from China. It’s not racist at all, no, not at all. It comes from China, that’s why. I want to be accurate.”
Sadly, most Americans, even if uncomfortable, appear to agree on the facts, if not the tenor, of Trump’s choice of words.[1]
Here are some facts about the COVID-19 virus that will helpfully set the American public straight.
The True Origin of COVID-19.
First, according to the most recent science research, the origin of the COVID-19 is actually unknown. While officials in China initially believed the virus to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan, subsequent studies by researchers from Japan, Taiwan, and Mainland China itself have cast strong doubts on that theory.[2] China’s official position now is that the origin of the virus should be determined through sound scientific deliberation, without political interference.[3]
Those Bat-Eating Chinese People caused the COVID-19 outbreak.
Second, many in the U.S. appear to believe bat-eating Chinese people caused the current COVID-19 pandemic. Since the epidemic first started in Wuhan, Western social media have been lit up by links to several videos of Chinese citizens eating bat soup, with not so subtle racial insinuations that it is the Chinese people and their culture that have caused the COVID-19 epidemic.
But Chinese people as a whole generally do not have a tradition of eating bats. Journalists from France 24 TV recently tracked down the makers of five of the six most-shared videos and found that none of these videos were filmed in Wuhan, or in China, as many netizens had claimed. Instead, all videos were filmed in Palau or Indonesia, in locales where bats have traditionally been consumed as food,[4] and where adventurous visitors from around the world are welcomed to sample their local, traditional cuisine.
The WHO has warned against naming viruses based on region or ethnicity precisely because of the stigma and racism that these names inevitably provoke.[5]
According to current research, it is unlikely that bat consumption caused COVID-19. Most scientists believe that the COVID-19 virus did not enter the human population directly,[6] but through an intermediate host such as pangolins, civets, ferrets, or even turtles, pigs, or cats.[7] The much studied 2003 SARS virus – a cousin of the COVID-19 virus – for example, is thought to have leaped from bats to civet cats, mutating there before making a final jump to humans.
Demonizing Chinese or bat-eating people – given current understanding of the virus – is just plain bigotry. If zoonotic virus transfer is of overriding concern, then the consumption of beef, pork and chicken should all be categorically condemned as well since viruses can and do periodically jump from cattle, pigs and chicken to humans. Similarly, the keeping of dogs and cats as pets should also be categorically condemned since viruses can and do periodically jump from those animals to humans.
The Wuhan Virus?
Third, the fact that the COVID-19 epidemic first arose in Wuhan does not necessarily mean that the virus must have arisen there. Take the AIDS epidemic as an example. While the AIDS epidemic arose in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, the HIV virus actually arose in the human population much earlier – around 1908, in the southeastern corner of what is present day Cameroon.[8] The virus then mutated and spread within the human population for more than half a century – below everyone’s radar – before exploding onto the global scene in the 1970’s.
In a 2012 interview, science writer David Quammen astutely observed how a virus would have hit “jackpot” if it successfully entered the human population because no species had achieved the numbers and mass that we humans have.[9] To viruses and bacteria, we are all one. We form one large global host system.
A recent study has shown that some 30% of human protein adaptions since our divergence from chimpanzees have been driven by our viruses! We are a true global village. Thus, when a viral epidemic strikes, we need to band together to collectively fight against it lest it spreads to engulf us all.
A Chinese Cover-up?
Fourth, there is no evidence that the Chinese government attempted to cover up the COVID-19 as White House’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien and others in the U.S. have claimed. Here is a short timeline what China did do in the initial days of the epidemic.
On December 31, 2019, the Chinese informed WHO of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan city. Soon afterwards, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission ruled out influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus infection, SARS, MERS and other commonly known respiratory diseases as the cause.[10] On January 7, the Chinese had identified a new coronavirus as the cause. Five days later, China completed and published the genetic sequence of the new virus. On January 21, WHO confirmed the first case of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus. On January 23, China shut down most of the nation and enacted a city-wide quarantine of Wuhan when nation reported some 500 confirmed cases and 17 deaths.
Compare this with the response that would subsequently take place in Europe or America. Italy – despite having a population around 4% of that of China – did not instate a national lockdown until after it reached some 12,462 confirmed cases and 827 deaths. Many doctors there now recall seeing “very strange pneumonia, very severe, particularly in old people in December and even November.”[11] The U.K. talked openly about ignoring the virus to build a “herd immunity” until it abruptly change policy a week after Italy had to lock down. The U.S. did nothing domestically to prepare for the virus until mid-March when hospitals began to be saturated with patients, doctors ran out of basic medical supplies, and cities and states across the nation began shutting down.
Yet Trump officials continue to point a finger at the China. Last week, Secretary Pompeo tweeted that “Beijing must acknowledge its role [in the current global pandemic] and be part of the solution.” Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Adviser, tweeted that “[i]t’s fact there was a massive coverup. China is responsible. The world must act to hold them accountable.” Urged on by supporters, Trump is said to be considering how to “punish China” for starting and spreading the COVID-19 virus.
Dr. Li Wenliang is a Chinese “national hero,” not “whistleblower.”
Fifth, Dr. Li Wenliang is a Chinese “national hero,” not “whistleblower.”
In the West, Dr. Li Wenliang – an ophthalmologist – is often portrayed as a “whistleblower” that forced the Chinese government to relent on an alleged cover up. Reviewing records retrospectively, some critics have indeed alleged that the first case of COVID-19 in China may have arisen as early as November 17,[12] but even they acknowledge that frontline doctors in China did not suspect of a new disease until late December.
The story of Dr. Li is a story of both heroism and tragedy – a story replicated many times by frontline responders over in China during this pandemic. On December 30, Dr. Li posted in a private WeChat group information regarding the string of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan and speculated to his friends about a return of the 2003 SARS virus. He cited details from a then unpublished “government report” and asked his friends to keep silence. But details of what he disclosed got out. On January 3, local officials cited him for spreading rumors and suspended his license to practice. On January 7, after the content of the report – i.e. the existence of a new virus – was verified and the report was published, Dr. Li was told to go back to work. Dr. Li unfortunately soon contracted the COVID-19 virus and would die one month later.
Dr. Li’s ordeal – while tragic – was however not part of a systemic cover up. Dr. Li was an ophthalmologist whose work does not usually touch on infectious diseases. Dr. Li’s hunch about an abnormal type of disease happened to be right, but he also got important details wrong. In China, Dr. Li is considered a hero. While people acknowledge the government’s right to hold up the report until its contents can be verified, many people also believe that the government should have published the report sooner.
America should take responsibility for America’s actions.
Sixth, seriously, the U.S. should take responsibility for its COVID-19 epidemic.
The U.S. had a first confirmed case of COVID-19 on January 20,[13] some two weeks after China had alerted the world of a new virus. On February 5, Trump tweeted “Only 5 people in U.S., all in good recovery.” On February 10, Trump said in a rally, “I think it’s going to work out good. We only have 11 cases and they’re all getting better.” On February 24, Trump tweeted “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.” On February 26, Trump said, “We’re very, very ready for this. … we’re at that very low level.” His was however angry that media like MSNBC and CNN was “doing everything possible to make the Coronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets….” On February 28, in a political rally attended by over ten thousand supporters,[14] he called the growing coronavirus scare “[the Democrats’] new hoax.”
On March 2 when US confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 90, Trump pronounced that a vaccine could be available for the public in as little as a few months. On March 9, Trump compared the coronavirus to the “common flu” and said that life and economy will “go on” as usual.
On March 11, however, in a major policy reversal after U.S. confirmed cases reached 1,000, Trump blamed Europe and China on his first major nationally televised speech about the pandemic. “The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe.”
But the U.S. was on full alert about the new disease since early January. In the three months since, Trump chose to rely on border-control ideology[15] instead of science as the nation’s primary means of defense.
Thus, while the U.S. put up a travel ban targeting Chinese nationals travelling from China, the U.S. put up no restrictions at all on other nationalities traveling to and from China, put up no restrictions on travelers travelling to and from others region of world, and failed to screen many travelers coming into the nation even when they showed overt signs of being sick.[16]
Even more critically, the U.S. failed to conduct any systematic test on the American population, a necessary first step to conducting any public health campaign. It failed to produce the test kits needed by for doctors’ offices. It refused to seek available tests from the WHO and got mired in a disastrous rollout of its own test kits. It failed to ensure the availability of critical of personal protective equipment at home for first responders when the epidemic finally hit … months later.
Challenging an unquestioned assumption?
Finally, American citizens should challenge the unquestioned assumption that the coronavirus arose and spread from China. Over this past weekend, the New York Times put up a beautiful “infographics” showing “how the virus got out” from Wuhan and China despite the “most extensive travel restrictions to stop an outbreak in human history.”[17] The Times overlaid graphics of general movement of people by cars, public transportation, and flights to give readers a visual sense of how the virus might have spread out from China. But other than beautiful graphics, this story only served to propagate an unquestioned narrative without adding any science. The Times could have chosen any other city in the world and overlay general traffic, public transportation, and flight patterns to and from that city and show how the virus got out and infect the rest of the world.
A simple ‘back-of-the-envelop’ calculation shows how big a problem the current presumption about a “China virus” is. Based on current research, the coronavirus virus has a mean infection rate (R0) of 2.2,[18] and a mean incubation rate of 6.4 days.[19] One can calculate an upper-bound growth rate of this virus by assuming that the mean infection period is equal to the mean incubation period (realistically, the mean infection period will probably be much larger, because virally comprised patients such as flu patients typically infect others not just during the incubation period, but after the onset of symptoms and perhaps even during recovery). If the coronavirus had really arrived in the U.S. from China and around mid-January, then it could have grown at most to around 3,844 cases by March 22 in the U.S. According the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Website however, the U.S. already had 33,276 confirmed cases by March 22. That is a 10x discrepancy!
According to Trevor Bedford of the COVID Tracking Project, the actual number of people infected in the U.S. is much larger than confirmed cases, at around 120,000 by March 22.[20] 120,000 against 3,844 is now a 32x discrepancy!
Due to a lack of systematic testing in the U.S., no one knows how many are really infected in the U.S. today. But whatever the number, using basic calculations taking into account basic facts about the virus like the one above, one can easily show how unlikely it is that the virus spread from China to the U.S. in late January or February. More likely, the virus was already established in the U.S. by early January and perhaps December or even November.
These statistics become all the more sobering when viewed in light of other contemporaneous public health developments in the U.S. Last year, mysterious pneumonia cases relating to e-cigarette vaping occurred started popping up around summer in the U.S. X-ray images of lung damage show “ground glass” opacity that now look surprisingly similar to those caused by the coronavirus.[21] According to the CDC,[22] the vaping cases peaked around September, right before the CDC started reporting abnormally early cases of flu in October. Could the mysterious vaping pneumonia cases have been coronavirus cases that are then later lumped into the flu cases?
On March 11, CDC director Robert Redfield admitted during a House Oversight Committee hearing that the CDC had mis-categorized an unknown number of coronavirus cases under flu cases during this past season.[23] It appears that the coronavirus could definitely have been established in the U.S. much earlier than the government is currently admitting.
The New York Times recently featured an amazing story about how Dr. Helen Chu – an infectious disease expert – tried but was blocked from getting answers to such questions.[24] The earliest cases of coronavirus in the U.S. struck in the Seattle area. Throughout February and until mid-March, Washington would dominate the nation in coronavirus count. As luck would have it, for several months as part of a research project into the flu, Dr. Chu happened to have been collecting nasal swabs from residents experiencing symptoms in the area. When the coronavirus outbreak arose, Dr. Chu wanted repurpose her tests to monitor for the coronavirus instead of the flu. Various authorities would block her. When Dr. Chu went to the C.D.C. and F.D.A., officials there told her to “cease and desist.”
The Trump Virus?
Throughout this pandemic, the WHO and many health professionals have lauded China for its response to the outbreak.[25] China has been able to control its epidemic through actions that many thought were too draconian, but that many now think is necessary to controlling the outbreak. China is now at the forefront of the global fight against the pandemic, sharing knowledge and resources.
The Prime Minister of Australia has just announced that some 80% of Australia cases are imported from the U.S., attributing that large number to America’s failure to conduct adequate number of tests on its own citizens.[26] As more data is gathered, many other nations will probably come to the same conclusion.
Trump’s policy of blaming China for the COVID-19 outbreak is not just factually hypocritical, but has antagonized Chinese worldwide. Inside the U.S., it has caused great a surge of racism against Asian American communities.[27] Just Yesterday, Trump made a half-hearted apology by saying and tweeting “It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world. They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!”[28]
Will the U.S. join China in a common global fight, or will it continue to politicize and smear, bumbling along the way and putting millions of additional lives in danger?
If the Trump Administration wants to fight China instead of the virus, would the term “the Trump Virus” be a better moniker than “the Chinese Virus”?
- See, e.g., https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/20/politics/donald-trump-china-virus-coronavirus/index.html ↑
- See, e.g., https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-not-be-source-novel-virus-spreading-globally; https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3051981/coronavirus-did-not-originate-wuhan-seafood-market-chinese; https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-coronavirus-shocking-update/5705196 ↑
- https://m.guancha.cn/internation/2020_03_12_541339.shtml ↑
- See, e.g., https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-indonesia-bats/bat-meat-still-popular-in-parts-of-indonesia-despite-coronavirus-fears-idUSKBN20511R, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJEp-LNcWHs, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4724787/, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/eating-bat-in-the-seychelles ↑
- http://english.cctv.com/2020/03/19/ARTIFtUTmzPdrichXQlfiuBK200319.shtml; https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/488479-who-official-warns-against-calling-it-chinese-virus-says-there-is-no; http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202003/20/WS5e739d6ea3101282172808f1.html ↑
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9; https://mmrjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40779-020-00240-0, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/03/18/coronavirus-fact-check-covid-19-caused-eating-animals/5073094002/, ↑
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jmv.25726, https://jvi.asm.org/content/94/7/e00127-20 ↑
- https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2008/06/revising-hivs-history; https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5450391 ↑
- See Science Talk, March 18, 2020. ↑
- See, e.g., https://www.livescience.com/mysterious-virus-in-china-sars.html ↑
- https://www.npr.org/2020/03/19/817974987/every-single-individual-must-stay-home-italy-s-coronavirus-deaths-pass-china-s ↑
- https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coronavirus-chinas-first-confirmed-covid-19-case-traced-back ↑
- https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191 ↑
- https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/TheBattery/archives/2020/02/28/what-you-need-to-know-about-trumps-campaign-rally-in-north-charleston ↑
- On March 12, the day after the President’s first nationally televised speech on the pandemic, the White House sent out an email with the following quote: “Some 150,000 illegal immigrants from 72 nations with cases of the coronavirus have been apprehended or deemed inadmissible from entering the United States since November,” according to officials. These apprehensions underscore the need for border security and proper vetting. ↑
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/politics/coronavirus-travelers-screening.html ↑
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/22/world/coronavirus-spread.html ↑
- https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-myths.html; see also https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/rounds/how-scientists-quantify-intensity-of-an-outbreak-like-covid-19 ↑
- https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2762808/incubation-period-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-from-publicly-reported ↑
- https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-many-americans-are-sick-lost-february/608521/ ↑
- See, e.g.,. https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020200463 and https://radiopaedia.org/articles/vaping-associated-lung-disease?lang=us. ↑
- https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease.html#overview ↑
- https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-11-20-intl-hnk/h_1319f66f92245a2fe4ec63fe91ab66c9 ↑
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/coronavirus-testing-delays.html ↑
- See, e.g., https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/who-lauds-chinese-response-to-virus-says-world-at-important-juncture-idUSKBN1ZS2EE; https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/who-lauds-china-s-efforts-to-tackle-covid-19-says-global-community-unprepared-to-face-coronavirus-threat/story-zzOQaBAEKo9MI0Na2p5HbM.html; https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-has-vindicated-china-exposed-the-west/?fbclid=IwAR28VFE2s4TE1Rc9jsOK3576MdCDOXvrvhJ6uHMVWYHo4J15iOroFRpc8uo. ↑
- https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-22/PM-Morrison-80-percent-Australia-cases-are-imported-mostly-from-U-S–P41uG3CfWU/index.html ↑
- https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Coronavirus-Asian-American-groups-compile-hate-15144295.php ↑
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/trump-calls-u-s-protect-our-asian-american-community-hours-n1167241 ↑
Allen Yu is a Blogger at Hiddenharmonies.org
People react w/o knowing all the facts, it could just as easily come from a U.S. military base and been exported to a # of places so as confuse it’s actual origination point. Just like the law does when setting up a drug bust, its meant to not identify the original source so as to throw off the victim as to where or how this evil entered into my domain, its all designed to be anonymous as practice makes perfect during war times.
Call it the Mr. T. virus.
After all, what goes after viruses in a healthy body—Mr. T. cells!
CIA government flu
When an absolute moron like Senator Tom Cotton comes out early with a detailed story about how the infection began.You know someone made that story up and put it in his empty head.
Much like Senator Rubio giving detailed information about Venezuela power grid failure as it was happening.Rubio could not give even basic description of power grid in Florida.
If one understands that there is no epidemic only a mass hysteria ‘epidemic’
And that the hysteria was made possible by the inherent Borg like mindset of the Chinese which is exploited by the CCP as a tool in a hybrid war against the US
Then yes the following statement is true
“the Chinese people and their culture that have caused the COVID-19 epidemic.,”
Delusional thinking to justify the selfish hyper-individualized American way of life.
After a life of witnessing USA crimes I’m at this point more than willing to accept the flimsiest of accusations leveled against it. This, however, is more than enough. USA can simply not be trusted and I disregard anything that they say. Same goes for this virus, and I’m happy to believe that it’s a US made virus. I honestly don’t even care, I know it’s not beyond them and so I’ll claim that it did, I’ll simply apply to them the flawed logic they have applied against everyone.
haha, well said, Gorgeous George!
Trumpandemia
Trump is not very careful with his words and in politics that can be dangerous because people who are against him, which there are many, will interpret his words in a manner to put him in a bad light. I just watched part of that North Charleston Sc rally and he talked about the Democrats using the “Russian Hoax” to try and impeach him and then he said that the Democrats were “politicizing the coronavirus,” and that that was the “New Hoax.” He wasn’t saying that the virus was a Hoax, but that the hoax was that the Democrats were blaming him for the virus spreading In the US.
However, Trump himself is politicizing the coronavirus to attack China. But, he’s not the only one, journalists all over Europe are doing it; they were told to.
The coronavirus would have 100,000 frequently flyer miles if the truth be known.
I am convinced from the facts and testimony that it was here in the USA last year, but it went untagged and was the cause of deaths and very sick persons.
It broke out big in Wuhan, but indications are it broke in several parts of that city on the same day. That is why there is no Patient #1. The Chinese local authorities failed to inform the Central Government, but they may have been relying on the Wuhan experts at the Virology Lab. Scientists do methodical work. They don’t do fast political decisions. They had an unknown and needed time. Once they were certain it was a new (novel coronavirus) virus, they worked in lightning speed (5 days) to map its genome and publish it to the world.
The US clearly, from the facts, never identified what killed people here, what infected people here for many months. This was in the USA in 2019.
To blame China for being late or hiding the facts is okay if you blame local Wuhan officials. The Central Government reacted big immediately when it was clear there was an epidemic forming in Wuhan. Day One for the Central Government shows they knew they had a massive problem that was in motion (because of the National Holiday Travel of 5 million people out of Wuhan). They sealed the city and restricted the Hubei Province, subsequently sealing smaller cities also. Their experience with SARS in 2003 had taught them many lessons and they employed them (building hospitals in 6 and 10 days) and converting large venues into hospitals for lesser serious patients. They recruited tens of thousands of doctors, medics, nurses and technicians from all over China for Wuhan’s hospitals. They employed the PLA. And they began the shutdown of their nation’s businesses and industries. It is these examples that all other nations are modeling.
As the author points out, the US reacted with hubris thinking closed borders and keeping Chinese out would suffice. Now, it is playing catch up.
We know far less than we should about COVID-19. It has turned from a serious “flu” without an ID, to an epidemic as a novel coronavirus, to a Coronavirus tagged as COVID-19. It began in who really knows where? Was in the US and China in summer 2019 in the former and winter 2019 in the latter. It broke out big in Wuhan and traveled the world over the last three months. It kills the old and the sickly or whoever has an impaired immune system. It will be with us for several more years before vaccines impair its ability to infect us.
In the meanwhile, scientists may be able to prove the origination of the virus. A lot of politicians and propagandists will try to inform us before the Truth is known.
I will wait for the scientific answer, if there is one possible.
@L-45 (+all)
Unz Review artical has attracted an astonishing comment with source on Harvard prof arrested for his involvement with China.
He was working on nano detection of a range of viruses.
Several interesting commentator exchanges.
Skip past the idiots and/or ad-homs to get the meat.
https://www.unz.com/article/last-man-standing/
Comment 10 (I believe merits a posting here):
Lieber’s specialty was in virus detection tech.
His work in Wuhan enabled China to detect an accidental or intentional virus spread by the US relatively early.
China’s response to the outbreak alerted the US to this fact, so the feds brought the hammer down on Lieber.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2004/10/sensor-detects-identifies-single-viruses/
》Two of the world’s biggest threats may someday be reduced by wires thousands of times thinner than a hair but capable of detecting a single virus.
The specter of worldwide viral epidemics is always with us, so detecting them quickly offers the possibility of saving thousands of lives.
The pathogens also can be stealthy biological weapons, making their positive detection a vital national defense requirement.
“We want to find a single virus before it finds you,” says Charles Lieber, Hyman Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University.
Tests recently completed in his laboratory show that these unimaginably thin nanowires can sense and distinguish between viruses that cause flu, measles, and eye infections.
Lieber believes future versions will be able to spot HIV, Ebola, SARS, West Nile, hepatitis, bird flu, and other dangerous viruses.
“Viruses are among the most important causes of human disease and are of increasing concern as agents for bioterrorism,” Lieber says.
“Our work shows that nanoscale silicon wires can be configured as detectors that turn on or off in the presence of a single virus particle. Such detectors could be fashioned into arrays capable of sensing thousands of different viruses, ushering in a new era for diagnoses, biosafety, and quick response to viral outbreaks.”
《
Who, when and where? It is a muddled mess for sure, but virologists should be able to answer if they are allowed to do so by their governments the question “what” or at least make a working hypothesis. ( dating a virus back to 1908 is a sideline, but interesting academic footnote to how, when and why it burst forth 75 years later). Determining What this virus is and discovering its moves might make for development of an effective treatment plan and a way to separate milder cases from those needing ventilatory support at some point.
Look, I do not believe the CCP line on this at all especially after they were hinting that they might have been infected by US military in some September games near Wuhan. (Besides, just because one can throw up a bunch of footnotes, does not a convincing argument make– I was raised by academics and know well how to wage footnote war). Not doing it.
I find it very interesting that the earliest cases were in Seattle, a great hub along with Vancouver, Canada, for travel to and from China–especially of Chinese citizens. Just saying and, Nope, don’t have some academic footnote to prove that assertion.
To discuss mean infection rates when there is no reliable data does not impress me at all and to throw in a incubation period and then admit that this probably has no real bearing on an undiscoverable infection period just leaves me nonplussed.
And yes, I can agree on this: That the US response was/is criminally insane on many sad levels.. For example, the announcement that masks were not necessary when one could pull academic peer submitted articles by wonderful Chinese MDs testifying to the fact of viral encephalopathy—most likely acquired from the nasal passageways to the brain or along other nerve(Vagus) pathways.
I reprinted that article( neurological effects of Wuhan virus.pdf) ran it over to my neighbor, an ICU nurse at the central Kaiser Hospital in Sacramento and said, “Give this to the Respiratory Therapy Department and they will know what it means.” That is : lots of ventilators for those with no respiratory response to raised CO2 due to pons shut down and lots of problems especially with fibrotic lungs requiring high pressures running the risk of pneumothorax and high oxygen toxicity. Those patients now on ventilators are big problems unlike the Guillan Barre patients on ventilators of the 1970’s bad vaccine batch who were mainly terrified out of their minds but whose underlying lung condition was not diseased.
Kaiser isn’t saying much but they are the one hospital system which has plenty of the masks etc. Evidently, someone was on the ball probably calling China for the most recent updates directly and ignoring the idiots in
the CDC and The Who, playing the political schmooze game.
There seems to be this idea that Chinese travellers/workers “spread” the virus, but the Italy strain and Iran strain are different to the Wuhan strain.
And also, how would those ‘Chinese travelers’ be able to spread it in the US in summer 2019, and in Italy in November 2019, yet in China proper it spread later?
Must be time travelers…
Please tell us the ethnicity of the first infected in Serbia.
I don’t know RATM. I also don’t know if we have the Wuhan or the Italy strain…Anyone?
He is Chinese.
My question had the intention to make you think and realize how little you and others really know yet accept whatever the msm is spewing.
Sorry, I don’t follow. So patient 0 in Serbia is Chinese.. what is this prove? That there is no epidemic?
You said…
“There seems to be this idea that Chinese travellers/workers “spread” the virus, but the Italy strain and Iran strain are different to the Wuhan strain.”
So that’s not just an ‘idea’, but truth.
Dear Allen Yu,
I believe that you have asked the wrong question. It’s irrelevant to question whether this latest Pandemic of Stupidity be named Chinese or Trump, when in fact the origins of this pandemic is WHO!
Go back and study your history. You could go back to the Spanish flu, but perhaps go back to the Great Plague, the ‘Black Death’ and then determine all the lies you have been told.
Dear Mr Andrew S MacGregor
Whose version of history do you recommend the author to study?
In the context of the manipulation of history being understood as a tool of hybrid war.
I would recommend any history which has been suppressed.
Thanks Duck,
If I remember my school days, we were taught that the Great Plague was spread by rats. In other words, the disease jumped from men to rats and then back again, and then all of this was blamed on the infestation of fleas on rats. WOW!
So exactly how did the Great Plague spread back then? The same manner in which it is being spread today, by fleeing. Now the landed gentry mostly shut themselves up in their castles and either lived or died, but some fled into other cities or countries either by foot or boat, and that is how the disease spread, the same back then as it is today. But we couldn’t blame the Merchants of Venice or the sailors so the rats were blamed.
If you consider the Spanish Flu of 1918/19, the most remarkable thing of that epidemic was that the normal persons who were expected to survive, being the fit and healthy 20-50 year olds died, and that was unexpected and there is no record of this previously. However there are records of the US Army being immunised prior to leaving for the Great War in Europe, and their dying started even prior to them getting on board the transport ships. That doesn’t take much to work out does it?
The initial propaganda in regard to the Chinese eating bats being the cause of the virus, should tell any thinking person, that the very same bulldust in the previous SARS/CORONA viruses which were also supposedly origined in China, but the propaganda stated in the USA.. The bird Flu, the Swine Flu, etc etc etc all started in the USA, the bulldust that is. And of course Event 201 gives us a further clue, and the misbehaviour of the CDC is also remarkably telling.
And finally there is the inability of our great leader, the WHO who changed the definition of ‘Pandemic’ back at the last so-called corona virus outbreak, originating from China of course, the Swine Flu.
WHO is part of the UN, and so is the WLO (world labor organisation) which includes most Labor political parties and of course your old favourites, the Democrats.
Even Sir Francis Bacon could understand this problem we have today
And Trump, what was he telling the Americans? how about Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine. And then of course there is Vladimir Zelenko of New York who is using these same drugs very effectively, which will of course deprive Big Pharma of their anticipated profits.
But we must believe the ‘Chicken Littles’!
Andrew S. MacGregor,
I think it is relevant and fitting to name the virus the Trump virus if it is due to the political actions of the Trump Administration that has caused the current crisis in America … and perhaps abroad.
NYT reports that China has masks, USA needs those masks but that the Trump Administration may be too proud to get those masks if getting those make China look good and USA bad.
South China Morning Post reports something similar.
So Trump is still continuing to play a role to make things worse.
Knowing the true origins of a virus can give us vital clues to controlling the epidemic it causes.
I don’t know what history you want me to study up. But for me, the WHO – like any other organization – is not “God.” It is an institution run by man. I don’t worship it.
Are you lamenting that the WHO took too long to declare a world pandemic? If so, I disagree with you.
The WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern on January 30. It did not declare COVID-19 to be a “pandemic” till March 11, but no nation waits to do anything until a health crisis is a pandemic. Nations should be on alert as early as January 30.
Besides, nations are not supposed to look to WHO to run their public health. WHO aggregates and publishes data from countries around world. WHO can help support nations where it can. BUT it is the responsibility of Individual nations to be alert and monitor their populations and run public health campaigns.
Is it WHO not recommending travel restrictions on China? Would travel restrictions have worked? What type of restrictions?
WHO did not recommend travel restrictions and still does not. Blanket restrictions should be done on a short term basis to give time needed to set up the long-term strategy, which is to rely on containment, including active surveillance, early detection, isolation and case management, contact tracing and prevention of onward spread.
See WHO’s original travel restriction guidelines and updated guidelines.
For WHO to officially declare a pandemic is raging has dramatic financial consequences on so called pandemic bonds. If they had managed to delay the declaration until June, when those bonds are due to mature, then they would have spared holders of the 11% issue the loss of their capital, which as it is will be used to help poorer countries cope with the pandemic.
Dear Yu,
What on earth do I know? After all, I never went to university, but I became a Mr Plod, and I definitely learnt all about corruption, both in the police farce and in government bureaucracies.
You have stated that “the WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern on January 30. It did not declare COVID-19 to be a “pandemic” till March 11” Is that right? Are you sure?
The UN, of which the WHO is a part of ran ‘Event 201’ which in reality announced a Pandemic on the 18th of October 2019. One of the 16 people involved in ‘Event 201’ was a Jane Halton who since she left the ANU has worked in the Australian Federal government for forty years, and from 2012-2016 was the Secretary for Health and from 2016 to her retirement in 2019 was the Secretary for finance, and upon retirement was given a membership of the board for the ANZ Bank.
Oh yes, I know corruption and I know payoffs. I also know that neither the UN, or WHO or Bill Gates and his mob are Nostradamus, I also am aware of how the US Military plan their ‘mock games’; it’s the same scenario.
And I will not ignore the facts pertaining to Fort Detrick and its closure in August 2019, nor will I ignore the moves made by Hilary Clinton and her ‘State Dep’t’ in regards to treaties and MoD’s with the UN, and the background players as in George Soros and Bill Gates with their desire for the removal of Donald Trump, and a couple of other little ‘wet dreams’ that may come true due to this ‘Pandemic’.
And perhaps Leonard Horowitz actually knew what he was writing about in 1996 when he wrote the book Emerging viruses and Ebola. Perhaps you should also study that book
The UN instigated ‘Event 201’ on the 18th of October 2019, the very same day that the Military Games started in Wuhan, Isn’t that A coincidence. I don’t think that Xi or Putin thought so either!
That line of comment about the WHO, from the top chinese several times at the time right after this broke over there (for whatever reason), where they claimed to be working in constant close combat along with the WHO, is what made me score a big BLACK mark in the “NOT” or debit column for integrity or genuineness as to who this leadership there has been playing uncle tom to all these years.
Maybe none of them ever heard of nor researched the disgusting fraudulent criminality that went on during the mid 1970’s “swine flu” epidemic stateside, & the tens of thousand of ruined health & ended lives there.
I found a good source of information, from the front line experts, and including videos for a virology course (part of current, and also from last term) by Vincent Racaniello from Columbia University, and covid updates.
See the youtube channel list of what is there.
‘this week in virology #593 coronavirus update – flatten the curve’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDg6Rbaf4I0
Which one thinks they are getting ‘2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS’ from the deal?
Ok. I found a footnote for my claim of criminal negligence by the US medical authorities:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00823-w
And these are some of their own….
I hope Russia and the rest of the world start to change tactics regarding the virus. I mean by this is that no one is talking about how to build up your own immune system to fight this thing. Yes, washing hands, not touching the face are vital but in the end it’s your immune system that decides your fate. This is what I would do if I were in the seats of power:
1. Mandatory wearing of masks in public at all times until the threat subsides. After that people must wear masks even when they have the common cold.
2. Complete and total ban on the sale of cigarettes. Most victims are smokers.
3. Provide the population with vitamins,herbs and nutraceauticals that are proven to fight viruses and build the immune system . For the sceptics go to PubMed and you will see thousands of papers by reputable scientists and institutions that prove vitamin C, D , medicinal mushrooms etc kill viruses. As stated in my earlier posts look into Dr Andrew Saul’s vitamin protocol for coronavirus. These should be supplied to all by the government.
4. Mandatory testing is not necessary. Ok you get tested negative but that doesn’t stop you getting infected say 15 minutes later. Their logic is that you would need to be tested daily.
5. The elderly and people with underlying conditions need to be isolated and treated with extensive care and humanity. Healthy people should continue life as normal. Lockdowns will make things worse with poor nutrition, falling hygiene practice and mental depression, not to mention the potential total economic collapse.
6. Don’t just rely on Big Pharma and vaccines. Look at other healing modalities like naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, Aruveyda etc. Change your lifestyle and eating habits.
Let’s start looking at some real solutions.
Gardening once a week stimulates the immune system. Hands in the soil. In the same way insect chitin in the soil stimulates the immune system of many plants.
Huge amounts of the population are also deficient in many micronutrients and vitamins. We’re all exposed to large amounts of plastic and pesticide/herbicides in non-organic food. We all ingest plenty of plastic either way.
Fasting seems to work well for many religions around the world. I love it, it’s good for the body but it also supercharges the mind. I suspect the reason for this is that during times of hunger the brain gets extra special treatment to figure out a way of obtaining some food.
Good thinking about long term.
Should we depend on a vaccine? MERS still doesn’t have a vaccine even though it has been discovered for almost 10 years. And some people, I think, are legitimately suspicious of big pharma…
Do we build up “herd immunity”? The British wanted to do that in a few weeks … but turned back from doing that … but maybe doing this gradually over months or years instead of weeks is more feasible?
If none of this is good, and COVID-19 becomes a recurring problem season after season, I think if everyone practices better hygiene and get better nutrition and get more fit like you suggested … that should definitely help some….
In India I noted a sudden splurge of Whatsapp forwards blaming China for “creating Coronavirus” in order to “crash the western economy and rule the world”. It was not in the regular media, which of course would be subject to counter by the Chinese embassy, but on Indian WhatsApp, and various versions all appeared at approximately the same time and all featuring English of a markedly better standard than the average Indian conspiracy theory claptrap and anti-Muslim/anti-Pakistani/anti-secularism ranting. I do not think that this is a coincidence any more than I think it is a coincidence that those forwards all appeared just after China successfully crushed the virus. It is obvious to me that this is an orchestrated sponsored campaign to smear China and project America as a helpless victim instead of the primary creator of the conditions that led to a localised outbreak, whatever its origins, becoming a pandemic. There is only one logical source of this sponsored campaign, and I don’t need to tell you who that could be.
What I saw today was this,
This very day, captain spaceballs himself (and company) got on live television and said, “Because of Chinavirus, we want 2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS… (followed by mumbles, rambles, and whatnot)”.
He should have played his batman music the whole time….
Addressing the question posed by the heading of this piece “”Will COVID-19 be known as ‘The Chinese Virus’ or ‘The Trump Virus’?”…
Neither, I hope. About “The Boomerang Bug?” (Pending scientific confirmation of the sort Larchmonter445 is looking for in the last two paragraphs of his comment above).
This one is ‘super weird’…
https://sputniknews.com/us/202003241078699795/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm
More analysis on the origin of COVID19. Yeah it is natural and not man made.
Well, well, well. We didn’t need to wait for too long to hear this music from the department of zombieland security:
DHS Warns ‘Violent Extremists’ May Exploit COVID-19 to Carry Out Attacks Against US
And now, of course, we must get ID implant immediately so big brother can watch over us… Thank you batman, isis, corona, cholera, anthrax …
What is next? Free cookies?
So by the Trumpian logic the HIV virus might be named the ‘California HIV’. Midgets, dwarfs and Trump’s brain have little in common.
Experiments of political movements are all attempts at dissembling and re-assembling, of moving into chaos to discover some new meaning. We should all similarly experiment, especially when we find order stifling creativity. I view it like this: Politicians don’t resolve things politicians construct relationships.
‘I know all of you are on your short lunch break so I hope these few comments on the thoughts of President Trump will help you understand better the intellectual sophistication going on above and over your heads in the White House.
We can further speculated that the only creatures we were likely to come across on the White House lawn are the wedged-tailed Goldman-Sacks, a plump sleek creature which infested the area in swarms and was recognizable by its constant loud barking cry, a sponge like species that can be seen in large flocks gorging themselves in outdoor lunchtime restaurants.
The Spanish influenza had very little to do with the Iberian peninsula and a whole lot more to do with Kansas, but most of the people in the world would never know unless they researched it themselves, and I suspect that the western leaders at the time and their home-team media liked it that way.
I don’t know what they call it in Spain.
Sadly the incumbent in the house has a talent for spin that tends to stick.
I wonder if he has his own “twitter team”.
China and the rest of the axis of resistance need their own western-savvy public relations personnel. Obtuse reference to devils just doesn’t cut it.
“Fort Detrick Fever” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
They call it the “french flu” from where they got it…
Spain, being neutral in the WWI… didn’t got much sympathy from the “allies”
Not to mention the ” black legend propaganda” is still in full force 400 years later
Why create a virus when one very like it will occur every year (flu)?
The economy has collapsed and the people who are to blame can blame it on the coronavirus instead. That’s why all the noise has been generated around this years flu like virus. The lockdowns and such are just part of the noise. Damned lies and statistics, see this:-
https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/23/italy-only-12-of-
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
Trump Virus.
Arguing if it is a Chinese or US made or seeded virus is a sidestep to understanding what really is going on.
There is a hybrid war going on. In part it is economic too. To destroy the West, China shutdown parts of their economy to initiate a global economic breakdown. China did this under the cover of fighting the corona virus (be it new, old, mild or more dangerous – all unimporant). China has done it in a drastic over the top way – it shut down everything – it shut down life (this is a major sign for me but I digress).
China could do that bcs: they have enough reserves to hunker down, the factories are still standing so the restart won’t be too painful, and the Borg mentality of the Chinese to obey their CCP. So a shutdown can work for China, but cannot work for the West, which doesn’t have any reserves, is a service based economy and where people are more individualistic. This is exactly why the CCP choose the shutdown as a tool to attack the West.
So when Trump accuses China for the virus, he is actually accusing them of starting the western economic breakdown. And he is right! The virus is just a cover, the real issue is always money. Don’t get me wrong, the Western bankers are sure guilty for keeping the West weak. Bankers are like corona, they weakened the Western immune system, but it is the Chinese shutdown that is killing the West.
Things are changing though: I am following some industry sites and America and the UK are retooling their industries at an unprecedented pace. I admire this quality the Americans have. And if they loose the neo con dimwits, Oceania can bounce back and become a ferocious competitor to China. North America can easily be self sufficient. It got all it needs. Then they could turn the tables on China and exploit the Chinese shortcomings. We sure live in interesting times.
I had to laugh. The UK’s initial approach was “herd immunity” rather than “herd mentality” as stated in the article. Still, given the bog roll riots, perhaps “herd mentality” is a highly apt, Freudian slip.
Vivian,
Thanks for pointing this out. I had meant “herd immunity,” just to confirm. I will ask to see if the editors can correct it for me.
Meet Wuhan Coronavirus patient one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Xdw1bYryk
Coronavirus could already have infected HALF the British population and been spreading in the UK since JANUARY, Oxford University study claims
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8148529/Coronavirus-infected-half-British-population-say-Oxford-University-experts.html
Do you remember what had happened to the more than a few American tourists who suddenly collapsed and mysteriously died in the Dominican Republic? Remember they thought the tourists were being poisoned. They had respiratory failure and their lungs were filled with fluid! Guess what?! That is also the cause of death from the Coronavirus!
We are dealing here with a bio-terrorist!
See the following article about the mysterious American deaths in the Dominican Republic:
https://nypost.com/2019/07/24/inside-the-reports-of-deaths-sickness-that-have-consumed-dominican-republic/
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/18/us/dominican-republic-deaths-natural-causes/index.html
Sharp dot-connecting dave. I just know in my belly that the picture that we have now is going to change.
There is no way to prove “who did it”. So, let’s look into other questions. If it is true that USA and Italy have had cases of “serious pulmonary diseases”, a spike in pneumonia, say, in 2019, that could have been Covid 19, just unrecognized. We see at the moment countries around the world shutting down, stopping economy, throwing people out of work, – because virus is spreading quickly.
Why nobody asked for shutting down countries back then, in December/January?
By the way, is it possible to find out how many people die in countries, each day, of all causes? If it turns that for example Italy, has about 800 deaths a day (from all possible causes, simply, reported deaths) could it be that numbers coming from MSM are those numbers. No one can confirm this, because we are all in self isolation, or forced isolation, forced to watch absorb mass media explanations and panic raising. Knowing number of people dying in a city/country/state on average day would give us better idea of what is really going on.
I will do my research, internet based, maybe somebody else has better sources…
It’s me again. Data for Canada available from Stats Canad, on this link:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/91-209-x/2018001/article/54957-eng.htm
We have 260,000 deaths per year, which gives a bit more than 710 deaths/day. That is for entire Canada. For large provinces, is larger. Ontario with 10 mil people must have more deaths/day than Princ Edvard Island, or Newfoundland. And so far, we had, what, 5-6 deaths from Corona for two months, all of them very old and very sick before Corona strike.
What gives?
Dr Lee was actually accused of disturbing the public order and somehow sanctioned and silenced. One of the local officials responsible for this treatment was fired when Beijing was apprised of the situation.