Corona virus is a fake news: a simple, innocent but a very serious and shocking question that somebody asked me directly in a gathering. Though I was caught unaware, nevertheless I replied, “perhaps not corona, but its origin is definitely controversial”. Then I decided let’s blog on that. Who knows, there might be several others also wanted to know the answer for which I don’t have a straight answer. Sorry readers, I am detracted again, because this is not what I planned but, I am sure this episode will clarify the actual situation if somebody wants to know what has and is being happening around CORONA.
What the world is saying?
France and the World Health Organization (WHO)
“Corona virus is a human-made virus and escaped in an “industrial accident” from the laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan where scientists were attempting to develop a vaccine against HIV which is a RNA virus like COVID-19”. A French Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier proclaimed this.
Both France and WHO immediately denied the allegation. saying that, “no evidence was found to establish a link between corona virus and work of P4 laboratory’s research in Wuhan.
French president in an official statement said. “there is a broad scientific consensus that novel corona virus originated in bats and that the available evidence on the origins of the virus is “totally consistent with a jump from an animal to a human.
The then U.S. President said “our government is trying to determine whether the coronavirus has emanated from a laboratory in Wuhan?
Mike Pompeo: former Secretary of State said this in a statement given to Fox News on February 9th, 2020 “What we do know is we know that this virus originated in Wuhan, China, and U.S. government is working diligently to figure it out (Link-1).
The four statements are from very respectful personalities who are not supposed to be involved in “disinformation” thus, the reader can decide whom and whom not to be believed?
Chinese response
Xinhua: the official Chinese news agency on July 9th, 2020 (link-2), strongly denied the allegation believing that it was driven by a malicious intention of scapegoating China to cover up the lax U.S. response to COVID-19. U.S. Secretary of State has been repeatedly calling the novel coronavirus as “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus” in public, and the perception is that he is largely accountable for the virus disinformation.
“Speaking of credibility” the agency said, the United States, under the banner of “America first”, had repeatedly deserted its own international commitments and obligations, frequently withdrawn from treaties, and quit international organizations, and had become the biggest troublemaker in recent years, said spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a news briefing. “Speaking of the facts”, I want to ask if the U.S. government could tell the truth and explain to the U.S. people and the international community issues including the “Fort Detrick bio-lab”, and the “EVALI: and her biological laboratories worldwide”? (Link-2).
Response from the Scientists
- In an interview by French television, the immunologist and head of French Government scientific advisory council who advises the French government on the COVID-19 pandemic said, “the hypothesis that a virus was created in a laboratory in Wuhan (commonly known as Wuhan Institute of Virology: WIV) sounded a conspiracy vision that does not relate to the real science.”
- Shi Zhengli: the head of a group that studies bat coronaviruses in the city of Wuhan said, “my colleagues and myself discovered the virus in late 2019 in samples from patients who had a pneumonia of unknown origin. Before that, we had never been in contact with or studied this virus, nor did we know of its existence”. The U.S. President claim that SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from our Institute is totally the contradiction of facts. It jeopardized and affected our academic work and personal life. “He owes us an apology” Shi added.
- Peter Daszak: the head of the EcoHealth Alliance (a non-governmental organization working on “One Health”) said, “he has worked with Shi for more than 15 years. In 2005, Shi published a study in Science with Daszak and other researchers from China, Australia, and the United States as the first evidence that bats harbored coronaviruses closely related to the lethal virus that jumped from Civets (A small, lean, mostly nocturnal mammal native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests) to humans and caused the worldwide outbreak of SARS in 2003. With NIH funding, we kept working and published 18 more papers together about viruses discovered in bats and rodents. But the U.S. government has suddenly terminated funding of a research project of vital human importance being run for over a decade.
Whom and whom not to believe? I leave it to the readers to decide but an extraordinarily strong perception is that “it is a part of the project to discredit research and the researchers” because nobody wants research on this topic (has it already been done?).
Why is China accused of lack of transparency? And why questions are being asked to China on this subject?
Did corona virus existed earlier then reported by China in December 2019?
As mentioned earlier, Xinhua strongly believed that it is driven by a malicious intention of scapegoating China to cover up the lax U.S. response to COVID-19. U.S. National Institute of Health (USNIH) found corona virus presence in water sample collected from sewage treatment plants in Northern Italy and tested during October 2019 to December 2020, nearly two months before the first case of local corona patient was reported in February 2020.
The presence of corona virus in sewage water has also been discovered in France, Japan, Australia, and Neither land but can this be used as evidence that COVID-19 may have been around before China reported the first case on December 31st, 2020?
A French hospital also reported the possibility of unknown coronavirus infection upon re-testing old samples from pneumonia patients.
After these findings, everybody in the west started asking “how long did China cover up the coronavirus”?
A white paper on coronavirus release by China described, “the virus was first noticed on December 17, and virologist confirmed human to human transmission on December 19 and imposed lockdown in Wuhan from January 23”.
Scientists in Barcelona described a combination of biological and social factors which may have led to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan.
Harvard however, postulated in early June that disease could have spread as early as August 2019 because the satellite images showed a traffic surge outside Wuhan hospitals from August 2019. The traffic spike coincided with a rise in online searches for information on symptoms like “cough” and “diarrhea”. The Harvard research group told this to ABC news that there was some level of social disruption taking place well before the start of corona virus pandemic.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman dismissed the findings as “incredibly ridiculous”. “I think it is ridiculous, incredibly ridiculous, to come up with this conclusion based on superficial observations such as traffic volume,” she said.
An extraordinarily strong and widely believed perception is that the west wants China to be implicated in spread of corona at any cost and want to punish her for several reasons. That’s why they are using obscure claims, un-scientific reasoning, and elusive arguments like “China lied, People died” was a slogan like “Remember the Maine”: A slogan of the Spanish-American war in which the United States battleship Maine mysteriously exploded and sank in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, in 1898.
China strongly believes that corona is an American disease that might have been introduced by members of the U.S. Army who visited Wuhan in October 2019. A spokesman from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs pushes the theory that is linked to a video of the director of the “U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” who testify before the U.S. House of Representatives on March 11th, 2020 and suggested that some flu deaths in US might have been caused by the coronavirus (link 3).
CDC director says, “some coronavirus-related deaths have been found posthumously” (link-4) but when and where these deaths occurred? and since how long before the first corona case was reported on December 31st, 2020? are not known. The spokesman also asked questions on twitter: When did patient zero begin in US? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent, Make your data public, US owe us an explanation.” Zhao appeared to refer to the Military’s War Games, which were held in Wuhan in October 2019.
Is it a coincidence that “people at HARVARD kept monitoring the hospital parking areas, search in traffic outside Wuhan hospitals, and online searches for the words “cough” and “diarrhea” associated with the symptoms of coronavirus on the Chinese search engine “Baidu” which seemed to emerge at the same time? Does this mean that Harvard people knew that something is going to happen?
Country’s latest responses on corona
A new world is possible. Let’s not go back to what wasn’t working anyway
- Denmark said it would lift almost all Covid-19 restrictions and stop designating it a “societally critical” disease: a latest sign that Western and European countries are easing or even eradicating strict measures brought in to combat the Omicron coronavirus variant (link-5).
- Germany has reported a new daily record of coronavirus infections, but restrictions may still be loosened in March because hospitalization and death rates remain relatively stable, said the German justice Minister. Germany has gained momentum following neighboring Denmark’s decision to drop restrictions
- Europe and North America; late-night partying at clubs. Elbow-to-elbow seating in movie theaters, and going without masks in public, has started in Europe and North America (link-6).
Remember: US president himself caught CORONA virus infection during election 2020 campaign and ran away from the hospital saying that “corona is a fraud, there is no such things like corona virus infection and the patient admitted in the hospitals are all actors”. OMG this is the statement of president of a country where according KFF, 518 145 deaths have occurred due to corona virus infection till March 4th, 2021.
Looking at this discussion, it appeared, that as for as corona pandemic is concerned, no one is sure enough to predict what will happen tomorrow? or everyone everywhere is either ill-informed and/or confused? In my view, the ill-informed are spreading dis-information. There are numerous UTube videos that says, “corona is manmade” and “Bill gate is behind this melodrama”.
Some people say,
that- “US deliberately got it fabricated for spreading it into China to destroy her economy”,
that- “it is the aftermath of 5G launching in Wuhan, China”,
that- “it was slipped out of bioweapon laboratory in Wuhan, China,”
that- “China is asking for 5 Americans who exported virus to China”,
that- “US considered China responsible for the spread of virus throughout the world and thinking of putting ban on the entry of Chinese into US”,
that- “Israel responsible for it because “Simpson Cartoon” predicted it years ago”,
that- “Israel spread the virus after she made and tested the vaccine, but it is only for Israel and American people and no one else will get it”,
that- “Medical people around the world have been instructed to treat every incoming patient to hospital as “corona patient” and forcefully put patient onto ventilator” and
that- it a “scripted drama”.
What do you say dear readers? Confused, aren’t you? No problem, relax.
“The pandemic reinforces what we already know. We can’t keep people healthy if they don’t have a roof over their head and food on the table”.
David Raths: Senior Editor for Healthcare Innovation
Link-1.(https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mike-pompeo-evidence-coronavirus- originated in China-lab)
Link-2. (http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-07/09/c_139200756.htm).
Link-3. (March 11, 2020, CNN post)
Link-5. (https://www.ft.com/content/789f0799-8583-4cbb-b513-8924561caf74)
