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Published: April 6th 2020
Covid-19
One of Wuhan's infamous wet marketsDay 11 of the lockdown in South Africa and Covid-19 continues its rampaging and catastrophic tornado across the globe. There is simply no way of stopping this virus in its tracks at this point in time and the only current effective defence mechanism is to try and slow the rate of spread amongst humans. Keep apart and stay at home.
In the midst of the worst crisis to face mankind since the arrival of the HIV virus, there are a number of surreptitious theories starting to bubble to the surface. How did this virus originate? Why did it originate in China? Why has it not been that prevalent in neighbouring countries in Asia? Is there a political “edge” to the virus? There are a string of many other clandestine conspiracy stories and what follows is a brief synopsis of just some of them. No doubt the conspiracies will mutate much like Covid-19 in the months ahead for the simple reason that we humans embrace intrigue and get wrapped up in layers of lies, confusion and
Covid-19
Air pollution in Beijing misinformation. And then insanely we feed the monster.
Before grappling with these intractable questions about Covid-19, a step backwards at the very least puts a foundation in place.
Covid-19 originated in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province. Many of us would have seen the horrific images of the “wet market” in Wuhan and it leads to a very basic question;
what is a “wet market?” These abound across most Asian countries and they sell live and dead animals- including fish, birds, badgers, bats, pangolins and turtles. Theoretically speaking! But add dogs, cats, monkeys and just about anything that hops, crawls, skips or jumps and the market is complete. They are “wet” because water splashes over the sides of open tubs filled with both dead and live land and sea animals and then to complete this seriously disgusting and unhygienic tapestry, countertops and floors are streaked with entrails and blood of all that has been killed. And incredible as it may seem, compounding this horrific scenario, the Chinese Government has been notorious for not imposing strict hygiene and sanitation laws on these wet markets.
So, not unsurprisingly, there has been an alarming increase in deadly viruses emerging
Covid-19
Donald Trump could get pretty grumpy with the Chinese. from human contact with live animals. Here is what China has gifted the World in recent years due to their insane demand for and so called “customs” relative to exotic and live food:
1. Asian Flu 1957-1958 From a mutation in wild ducks. Estimated 1.1 million dead.
2. H5N1 Bird Flu-1997 From Chinese geese. At least 455 dead.
3. SARS in 2002-2003 From wild animals (possibly bats and civet cats). In the region of 774 dead.
4. Covid-19-2019 until the present From wild animals (possibly bats or pangolins). 50,000 dead and counting.
This kind of simple analysis somehow provides perspective and the burning question is:
why has the World allowed China to continue its destructive and insatiable consumption of wild animals given the deadly outcomes to date? National Geographic reports that the Chinese Government allows 54 wild species to be bred on farms and sold for consumption. It’s a huge list and includes snakes and birds of prey. All sold on so called wildlife markets numbering in their hundreds across the country. All under the guise of “rural economic development” after the ruthless reign of Mao Tse-Tung. And then get
Covid-19
Plenty of humour even in these dark days. this! Amongst many Chinese people, eating wild animals had become fashionable as a kind of thrill-seeking display of wealth among a subset of the upwardly mobile. In the wake of Covid-19, the Chinese Government has ordered a freeze on the sale and consumption of wild animals. The World should not hold its collective breath. This “cultural” abomination will simply go underground. There has to be a global sanction in some form or the other to call China to order.
What has this all got to do with conspiracies?
1. Coronavirus is a “Bioweapon” A new lawsuit has been filed by Freedom Watch at the International Criminal Court arguing that COVID-19 is a bioweapon. The basic thesis is that the virus arrived unexpectedly and is aimed at the military of other countries. Trump and many in his leadership team referred to it as a “Chinese virus” right from the outset and recently US intelligence has openly stated that the Chinese Government concealed the true numbers affected in that country. The scientific studies, however, debunk the bioweapon charge but China will have to answer to the charge that they suppressed information and could have curtailed the spread much more
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Its that simple if we want beat this virus effectively.
2. Covid-19 predicted in a novel A 1981 book entitled “The Eyes of Darkness” written by Dean Koontz includes a passage which eerily predicts the coronavirus outbreak. This is it:
“They call the stuff “Wuhan-400” because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research center. Wuhan-400 is a perfect weapon. It afflicts only human beings. No other living creature can carry it. And like syphilis, Wuhan-400 can’t survive outside a living human body for longer than a minute.” Wow! Bearing in mind this was a work of fiction, one wonders what research Dean Koontz did for this book. The conspiracy theorists claim he “predicted” Covid-14. There is one major difference between “Wuhan-400” and the current virus; in the case of the former there is a 100 percent death rate within 24 hours of contracting it.
3. The Italian conundrum A very relevant question is; why did a first World country in Europe get ravaged by Covid-19? Italy has been at the forefront of the coronavirus pandemic and at the time of writing, close to 15000 deaths have been recorded there. By far the highest for any country. Seems that legal and illegal immigration into Italy by way of an economic partnership called “One belt, One road” may have played a role. The partner, China! Estimated that there are close to 400,000 immigrants living in northern Italy, the epicentre of the virus. Largely settled in Prato where they transformed the erstwhile textile hub into a low end/cost garment manufacturing capital. It is now home to the largest concentration of Chinese in Europe and in many towns, they have displaced decades of Italian families. As is the pattern elsewhere, they create their own neighbourhoods and play by a different set of rules. This has not pleased the Italians and they have become increasingly angry and it has led to growing anti-immigrant sentiment. Populism is on the rise. Further Chinese investment has taken place and there is a view that Italy has turned itself into a Trojan Horse, allowing China’s economic, political and military expansion to reach right into the heart of Europe. Maybe the Italians were slow and sloppy in their response but what role did their travelling Chinese immigrants play in the rapid spread? Trump and the US Intelligence brigade are not happy little bunnies!
4. The “5” G Connection Crazy as it may seem, rumours have surfaced about the link between Covid-19 and 5G technology. The reason being that the Chinese switched on some 5G networks in November 2019, about the same time as this pesky virus started to leap from diseased animals to humans. The conspiracy theorists alleged that viral videos of people falling to the ground and fainting in China, were linked to 5G radio waves messing with oxygen levels in the blood stream. These claims have been debunked.
5. The Oil price meltdown Some background. The US in 2019 became self-sufficient in terms of its energy needs and became a net exporter of oil products. A game changer moment as they were no longer dependent on the Middle East for supply of an essential commodity. China, on the other hand, imports around 75 percent of its oil needs. This where it gets interesting. Saudi Arabia and Russia have a little spat about cutting oil production due to reduced global demand. Incredibly the outcome is that Russia announces it will produce more oil than ever and the Saudi’s follow suit. The laws of supply and demand kick and the oil price tanks! This clobbers the US oil industry big time as they need a break-even price of between US$ 48 to US$ 54 per barrel. No surprise as to what happens next; the Chinese increase their purchases of oil hugely at the depressed price of about US$35 per barrel. Was this all engineered to screw the Americans?
The coal story further illustrates that China is in it for the “long game”. They have proven coal reserves equal to 35 times their annual consumption. But they import huge amounts of coal from primarily Australia. They need coal to feed their massive industrial complex and have taken the view that it is better to use up the World’s coal reserves rather than their own. To complete the picture, China is the World’s largest polluting country accounting for 30 percent of global air pollution which is a clear and present danger to the planet.
China is clearly in the cross hairs even allowing for distortions and a margin of error in these listed conspiracy theories. I want to avoid going down the rabbit hole but I would not be surprised if there are major political eruptions as World leaders start to grapple with the events that have run concurrently with Covid-19. This would be a positive outcome. China has a lot to account for!
Covid-19 rages on and as at 5
th April 2020, according to the WHO dashboard, confirmed cases number 1,093,349 with 58,620 deaths. No vaccine in sight. Huge global shortages of masks and ventilators. Health care systems stretched to their limit. A soul searing question is:
When and how will Covid-19 come to an end so that life as we knew it, returns to normal? Please, if you feel so inclined, add your comments, chirps and thoughts on Covid-19. I would like to devote a blog to the accumulated feedback and comments at some point in the future. If you click on images they will enlarge.
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