There have been allegations that the covid-19 pandemic is a hoax and that the nature and provenance of the virus are suspect.
My personal opinion is that the virus itself is very real. Fraud and deception have infused the response rather than the thing itself - the virus.
In late December 2019, two health care workers in Wuhan, China notified officials of an emergent respiratory disease outbreak, Dr. Zhang Jixian, head of the respiratory department at a Hubei hospital and Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist, working in Wuhan (Li, 2020).
Dr Zhang Jixian was recognized by the Chinese government as first diagnosing and reporting cases to municipal health authorities on December 27, who subsequently contacted the World Health Organization December 31, 2020 (WHO, 2020).
In contrast, Dr. Li Wenliang was chastised by the government for alerting his professional colleagues of a new SARS-like disease using the social media site, WeChat, after making his official report (Kent, 2020).
[i] Li Wenliang’s private chat was leaked and widely circulated, resulting in surging popular support in China for his perceived heroism in warning the public, but official condemnation for spreading rumors (Li, 2020).
[ii] After Li’s death, the, the hashtag #WeWantFreedomOfSpeech garnered nearly two million views on Weibo, while #WuhanGovernmentOwesDrLiAnApology had tens of thousands of views. The Chinese government responded with increased and “draconian” information control (Li, 2020).
Controlling the narrative is often seen as key for effective crisis communication and yet the uncertainty and dangerousness of crises amplify information sharing, sense-making, and whistle-blowing.
FRAUD & CRISIS COMMUNICATIONThe conditions in China occurring when the virus was sequenced were less than open. The Shanghai lab that first shared the virus sequence publicly was closed for "rectification."(iii)
The conclusions made about the virus phylogeny, traced to bat virus RaTG13 (found in 2013 but not previously published) have been challenged in a retracted study and anonymous posts, but there is no way for the public to know what is true given the requirements of specialized laboratory equipment to represent this incredibly small but potent hazard:
RaTG13 – the undeniable evidence that the Wuhan coronavirus is man-made. https://nerdhaspower.weebly.com/ratg13-is-fake.html
harvard2thebighouse March 19, 2020 China owns Nature magazine’s ass – Debunking “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2” claiming COVID-19 definitely wasn’t from a labhttps://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/03/19/china-owns-nature-magazines-ass-debunking-the-proximal-origin-of-sars-cov-2-claiming-covid-19-wasnt-from-a-lab/
harvard2thebighouse ( March 23, 2020) No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito” – What The Expanse tells us about the COVID-19 pandemic and serial passage gain-of-function research. https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/03/23/no-monkey-ever-reheated-a-frozen-burrito-what-the-expanse-tells-us-about-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Viral provenance - including wet-market
versus lab origins, timeline and intermediate animal, remains obscure at the time this post was written.
The information coming out of China alerting the rest of the world
has been slow as the Chinese government resisted allowing the WHO into the country to investigate and destroyed early virus samples:
Ankel, Sophia (2020, May 16). China confirms US accusations that it destroyed early samples of the novel coronavirus, but says it was done for 'biosafety reasons' https://www.businessinsider.com/china-confirms-that-it-destroyed-early-samples-of-new-coronavirus-2020-5
I am deeply saddened to say that the information shared by the US government has also been less than complete and has been politicized, as illustrated by the absurd politicization of masks.
MASK FRAUD
The mask illustrates everything wrong and fraudulent in the crisis management of this pandemic. The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) offered contradictory advice about the utility of masks across spring 2020.
Perhaps the agency's intent was to conserve masks for health care workers and front-line workers. However, we have since learned that these critical workers had grossly insufficient protective equipment and that no national supply of masks were made available to the people who most needed them and whose work is critical to national infrastructures.
Its also possible the CDC knew that masks incoming from China were fraudulent as well:
A. Hufford (2020, June 18). "Chinese Mask Maker is Charged in the US." The Wall Street Journal, p. A7. Charged for shipping masks with a "filtration efficiency of 22%, significantly worse than the 95% filtration required for N95 masks."
Many masks available for purchase in the spring of 2020 were fake. They promised protection they were incapable of delivering.
TESTING FRAUD And then there is the matter of testing. Everything about the regime of testing has been contaminated with fakeness, beginning with allegations that
early tests from China were contaminated with the virus.
Then the CDC majorly bungled its early test response, producing fake tests that promised valid and reliable results but could not deliver them:
Kaplan, S. (2020, April 18) C.D.C. Labs Were Contaminated, Delaying Coronavirus Testing, Officials Say. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/18/health/cdc-coronavirus-lab-contamination-testing.html
Sloppy laboratory practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caused contamination that rendered the nation’s first coronavirus tests ineffective, federal officials confirmed on Saturday.
Two of the three C.D.C. laboratories in Atlanta that created the coronavirus test kits violated their own manufacturing standards, resulting in the agency sending tests that did not work to nearly all of the 100 state and local public health labs, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
It turns out that the foundational elements of the covid-19 test kits - the test tubes - came from a supplier called out by whistleblowers for routinely contaminating test tubes with dust and other contaminants as workers often labored without protective gear with fans keeping them cool in what were probably hot workplaces - See "Covid-19 Test-Tube Supplier Accused of Workplace Lapses" The Wall Street Journal, 6/19/2020 p. A7).
Contaminated test tubes are fraudulent. They are not what they claim to be.
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA FRAUD
And then there are the cases of data manipulation by the CDC and two southern states - namely Florida and Georgia. For example:
Gay, S., Stolberg, S, Kaplan, S., & Meryosh, S. (2020, May 22, updated May 23). CDC Test Counting Error Leaves Epidemiologists ‘really baffled’. The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/us/politics/coronavirus-tests-
Anderson, Z. (2020, May 20) After scientist fired, Florida governor calls coronavirus data manipulation charge a 'nonissue’ Sarasota Herald-Tribune https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/20/coronavirus-florida-gov-ron-desantis-disputes-data-manipulation/5226744002/
Jarvie, Jenny (2020, May 23). Georgia reopened first. What the data show is a matter of fierce debate https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-05-23/georgia-reopened-first-the-data-say-whatever-you-want-them-to
One common tactic for data manipulation has involved inappropriately combined test results from two distinct types of testing - the testing for (1) the virus itself and (2) the antibody testing.
Since there may be redundancy across the populations tested using these two techniques, the total number of tests across them should not have been combined as the denominator for calculating mortality. But that was precisely what happened and is probably still happening.
The data for understanding the epidemiological consequences of this pandemic are infused with fraud.
POLICY RESPONSE FRAUDAnd then there was the government policy response - the promise to protect displaced workers and small businesses and to aid education and other key infrastructure.
For all those economically impacted, this policy response has
fallen well-short of expectations that were based on false promises.
What is FAKE about the covid-19 pandemic is the social response as it reflects failures to deliver on promised goods, services, and leadership essential for human security.
DARKEST WINTER
National preparedness was revealed to be a fraud.
Dr. Rick Bright was removed from his post as head of the Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority, allegedly after reporting to the
Department of Health and Human Services the importance of investing in vaccine
development and stocking up on supplies:
Ricardo Alonso Zaldivar Associated Press May 13, 2020Whistleblower: US could face virus rebound 'darkest winter’ Northwestern Georgia News. https://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/associated_press/whistleblower-us-could-face-virus-rebound-darkest-winter/article_b3fb5e00-0933-5981-bdb5-8110fac1edcc.html
WASHINGTON — America faces the “darkest winter in modern history” unless leaders act decisively to prevent a rebound of the coronavirus, says a government whistleblower who alleges he was ousted from his job after warning the Trump administration to prepare for the pandemic....
Immunologist Dr. Rick Bright makes his sobering prediction in testimony prepared for his appearance Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Aspects of his complaint about early administration handling of the crisis are expected to be backed up by testimony from an executive of a company that manufactures, respirator masks.
A federal watchdog agency has found “reasonable grounds” that Bright was removed from his post as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority after sounding the alarm at the Department of Health and Human Services. Bright alleged he became a target of criticism when he urged early efforts to invest in vaccine development and stock up on supplies.
We live in a time of fraud when truth sayers are fired to hide alarming findings.
MOVING FORWARD
The US is still in its "first wave."
There are many experts concerned that a fall convergence of covid-19 infections with influenza A and B will present a public health crisis if not adequately planned for now. The food-supply-chain also remains at-risk, as reported recently by the
Los Angeles Times.
Additionally, there remain great uncertainties about "recovery" and the possibility of either or both "
re-activation" or "
re-infection." Some people who contract covid-19 do not recover quickly, or at all, as 14 sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt reveal. These individuals may be especially vulnerable across time.
I still believe there is
no fate but what we make and time is running out....
REFERENCES NOT CITED ABOVE
[i] Kent, C. (2020, April). From Covid-19 to SARS: what becomes of the whistleblowers? Pharmaceutical Technology, https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/covid-19-whistleblowers/
[ii] Audrey Jiajia Li Published: 9:00am, 12 Feb, 2020 Updated: 4:39pm, 14 Feb, 2020. Coronavirus crisis: How the death of Li Wenliang, a doctor and ordinary citizen, sparked Chinese demands for freedom of speech. South China Morning Post
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3049910/coronavirus-crisis-how-death-li-wenliang-doctor-and-ordinary iii Zhuang Pinghui (28 Feb, 2020Updated: 2:48am, 29 Feb, 2020). Chinese laboratory that first shared coronavirus genome with world ordered to close for ‘rectification’, hindering its Covid-19 research . South china Morning Post,
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3052966/chinese-laboratory-first-shared-coronavirus-genome-world-ordered