COVID-19: WHAT CHINA WOULD NOT ANSWER?

COVID-19: WHAT CHINA WOULD NOT ANSWER?

By

Lt Gen PG Kamath (Veteran) 

Since last year I have been writing that the origin of the Chinese Virus was from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). It is not a zoonotic transmission from bats to humans in the Wild Life Market at Wuhan; a hypothesis peddled by China.

Firstly, virologists need to study the method of such transmissions in detail. Let me take a random example: As per Wildl J, “Fatal Herpesvirus Haemorrhagic Disease in Wild and Orphan Asian Elephants in Southern India”; 65 per cent of deaths of young Wild Asian Elephants have been attributed to haemorrhagic diseases associated with a novel DNA virus (EEHV)1; whatever it means? Should we then conclude that this virus will be transmitted to the villagers living close to elephant habitats and elephant parks, and in times to come get transmitted to humans? Similarly of the 1.3 million species of mammals in the world with all the freedom to get infected by several billions of bacterias, fungi and viruses; who can say how many zoonotic transmissions to human beings can occur in natural form? If so; it should be certainly the beginning of the end of ‘Homo Sapiens’? The discovery would be of vital importance to the existence of the human race. A double variant has also mutated in a period of less than a year which has made the Chinese virus highly infectious and is ravenously gorging and slurping the human race with a rising toll, already over 3.5 million? In Vietnam, a combo variant of the UK and the Indian strain of the Chinese virus has been isolated among patients which is considered much more infectious than the rest.

Now let us presume that China is a righteous country with noble leaders; no doubt the assumption is ridiculously outrageous; but, still, stretch your imagination to start with that premise. All that China has to answer are my following questions.

Q1.    The outbreak of SARS in Nov 2002 was also a coronavirus; the source was identified to a civet and later to a bat. Again, the animal to human transmission has been alleged to have infected initially food handlers who killed and cooked such animals in restaurants. Even in the present case it has been attributed to Wuhan Wild Life Market and has been pinpointed to bat. As the source in both the cases is the same; what remedial actions were taken between 2002 to 2019 to ensure that such transmissions do not take place?

Q2.    It is obvious that the measures as taken by you if at all, were inadequate. Why did you not seek help from WHO and other countries to prevent similar infections? It could have saved the world from this deadly pandemic?

Q3.    Don’t you feel as a responsible nation you owe it to the world to ensure such things are not repeated?

Q4.    Have you shared your findings on the origin of SARS 2002/03 with the international community? It raises doubts, whether it was also a product of research in a laboratory?

Q5.    Even during the outbreak of SARS; Dr Jiang Yanyong was a whistle-blower who was not paid heed to by the government. The government tried to cover up the track of the epidemic. The same narrative was repeated in the case of Covid-19 when Dr Li Wenliang blew the whistle on 30 Dec 2019. In this case, he was reprimanded for spreading rumours. The government obfuscated the truth about human-to-human transmission from the world and also from its own people. Why did you not learn from your past experience? How can the world trust you for the third time when you have let them down twice already?

Q6. Chinese Military Scientists and Senior Public Health Officials had written a paper on Covid Virus as a ‘New Era of Genetic Weapons’ in 2015.  It is understood Military Scientists also carry out military research in WVI along with their civil counterparts. Did you follow up on the paper in WVI by the use of bats?

Q7.    The first case of Covid infection had taken place anytime between 01 Nov to 10 Dec 2019. South China Morning posts pin it down to 17 Nov 2019; entailing the real infection that could have occurred a couple of days earlier. What about the three officials of WVI, who were admitted to the hospital with symptoms akin to Covid 19 infection in Nov 2019? It was only on 9 Jan 2020 the WHO said that China has reported an outbreak of a novel Corona Virus; it was the first report by WHO to the world.  Why did you not take the issue seriously and alert the world community and take WHO on board to nip the virus in the bud?

Q8.    Dr Li Wenliang let the cat out of the bag and posted about the mystery illness on WeChat on 30 Dec 2019. Why did you take 23 more days to quarantine Wuhan when you knew that the deadly infection had already been unleashed in the city?

Q9.    The first international patient of Covid-19 was detected in Thailand on 13 Jan 2020. The WHO gave an innocuous statement on 14 Jan 2020 that limited human to human infections is possible. You took another six days to announce it. Wuhan with an 11 million population was shut down on 23 Jan 2020. Hubei province with a 60 million population was locked down on 24 Jan 2020. From the end of Jan 2020 till the end of Mar 2020, more than 430,000 had flown out of China to the US alone. Just imagine how many would have travelled from China to other parts of the world. International airlines continued to operate from China to the rest of the world even after the domestic flights were stopped. Why did you delay the announcement? Why was its seriousness not communicated to the world? Why didn’t you invite experts from WHO and from across the world to initiate a global response to contain the virus?

Q10.  Dr Li Meng Yan, a Chinese virologist working in WVI who had fled China in April 2020 says in no uncertain terms that the COVID-19 originated in WIV. Would you like to comment on it?

Q11.  Caixin Global an independent Chinese media revealed that Chinese laboratories had identified a mystery virus by late December 2019. It is understood that they were ordered to stop testing, suppress the news and destroy samples. Please comment.

Q12.  As per the recent study by British Profs Angus Dalgleish and Birger Sorensen, the Chinese Virus was manipulated in a lab. It was created by Chinese scientists and later reverse engineering was done to cover up its tracks. Further, the structure of positively charged amino acids has been artificially tampered with to make them very infectious. Such structures do not occur in the natural form. The study appears to be a ‘smoking gun; otherwise, you would not be reluctant to cooperate with the team from WHO. Please explain. 

Q13. How do you explain Covid-19 breakout across the globe in 220 countries which is counting at 171 million with 3.5 million deaths but in the whole of China it is less than .11 million (109693) with 4905 deaths?  Leaving aside the Hubei Province whose capital is Wuhan; mysteriously, the four other provinces Guangdong, Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang have recorded confirmed cases ranging from 2431 to 1364 with deaths ranging from 13 to 1. All the remaining cases were from Hubei province which approximately works out to less than a lakh of confirmed cases and deaths less than 4870.  Remarkable! Isn’t it? It obviously means that you hid the crucial facts from WHO and the world at large. Does a doubt arise whether it had been done deliberately to cripple the world with the bioweapon?

Q14. The first infection was reported at the end of 2019 and the WHO team could come to China only in Jan 2021. Why did you delay giving permission for the visit of the team from WHO by over a year?

Q15. The entire exercise by the team from WHO to investigate the origin of Covid-19 ended without any conclusions due to your non-cooperative attitude. Firstly, you tried to put off the visit of the team, delayed their clearances and visas and lastly ensured raw data and biological and blood sample of the initial patients were not made available to the team. What is your purpose and why are you adopting such an indifferent disposition and callous attitude towards such a serious issue that has claimed over 3.5 million deaths across 220 countries?

Q16.    When Australia demanded independent investigations into the origin of Covid, you suspended all activities of the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue. You also suspended beef imports and levied huge tariffs on Australian barley. Do you understand that Australia was airing the feelings of the whole world ravaged by the pandemic and it is in the interest of the human race that the mystery that surrounds the origin of the pandemic is discovered? If you are innocent, you should be as much concerned to know the origin of the pandemic and welcome the Australian proposal. Do you have something to hide?

Q17.  WHO declared on 30 Jan 2020 that the Covid-19 was a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’. Even at this point in time, it did not recommend any travel restrictions to and from China. After more than a month on 11 Mar 2020, WHO declared it as a pandemic after it had spread to 114 countries. Obviously; you did not disclose to them the full impact of the severity of the disease allowing it spread worldwide. You not only delayed your announcement but also gave selective information to WHO ensuring delay in declaring it as a pandemic. 

Q18.  Even now you are glib about the origins of the pandemic; is it possible that the leak from WVI was not accidental, but a cold and calculated plan to use it as a bio-weapon and win the Third World War?

China, don’t you feel even now that you have to take the world community into confidence? 171 million infections, over 3.5 million deaths across 220 countries; millions of enterprises have bit dust, a billion impoverished and over 4 billion have been adversely affected directly or indirectly by the onslaught of Covid-19. Who should be held accountable for the apocalypse? China; please come out clean!