06-07-2021, 04:18 AM
Can’t see how Fauci can be hung out to dry.
At the start of all this, Trump wanted to lavish praise on the Chinese as he was hoping for a big Trade deal that would secure his re-election. Anyone who thinks he would have behaved differently if only he’d been told x, y, & z just hadn’t bothered to check out his modus operandi in the preceding 3 years. At every turn, he has lavished praise on those who he thinks can be charmed into doing what he wants (e.g. Kim Jong Il) only to resort to vitriol when rebuffed (e.g. Pence).
Nothing was stopping Trump from responding to Covid. He admitted to Bob Woodward early on that Covid was a beast that was much worse than the flu but said he wanted to downplay it to avoid panic. You’d have to think that meant he didn’t want Wall Street to panic so he could boast about a buoyant Stockmarket and economy leading up to the election. He even went to the extent of framing masks as unpatriotic.
It was only when Covid was running rampant that he resorted to plan B: calling it the China virus and blaming China at every turn (while ignoring his own failure to protect his citizens from this attack).
I’m intrigued by what relevance the “origin story” has. Obviously, it would be desirable to get to the bottom of this as we’d then be able to minimise the risk of another pandemic and hone responses should one occur. But others want to sheet home blame and punish China. The difference is between holding a Truth & Reconciliation Commission (using the South African model) and Nuremberg Trials. The problem with the latter is that China is a superpower and won’t let that happen. And China’s imperative of refusing to be drawn into the blame game means it won’t participate in a scientific investigation.
Let’s assume it were possible to prove to everybody’s satisfaction that Covid escaped from the Wuhan Lab. Would that mean China would pay reparations? Not bloody likely. At best, there’d be global condemnation and that would destroy China’s reputation. Instead of being the hero to countries benefiting from Sinovac, it would receive a diplomatic black eye. That would be a great result IMO but that’s why China will do everything in its power to discredit that proof. As a convincing case requires evidence from the Chinese, good luck with that.
How badly China’s reputation would be damaged would depend on the extent of Chinese negligence or malfeasance. Remember that countries all around the world experiment with viruses, usually to get ahead of viruses which may cause pandemics in the future. A stuff up at a lab that results in a virus escaping is certainly far from what one might expect from a Bond villain. The international community would be mildly pissed off and expect that China would tighten its precautions in future. Far more opprobrium would attach to attempts to cover up the outbreak and its origin but China has largely been condemned already for failing to cover up the initial outbreak.
What would be more damaging for China is if it were working with Covid in secret as a biological weapon. There has been some reporting that some time ago some unfortunate miners were sent in to clear out bat droppings without any PPE and contracted Covid-like symptoms. The reporting suggests that this virus was then studied in labs but the Chinese never followed the protocol requiring them to notify WHO about the virus and their research. Was that breach of protocol deliberate and does it suggest military research? Perhaps, but a conspiracy theory doesn’t equal proof. Even the most extreme conspiracy theory would stop short of suggesting a deliberate release of Covid. Infecting your own people in the hope planes would carry the virus overseas would be next-level Bond villainy. It would be easier to infect people overseas and avoid fingers being pointed directly at China.
As it stands, the case that it escaped from the a Chinese lab is merely plausible rather than compelling. The weight of scientific opinion remains that it was a natural contagion.
At the start of all this, Trump wanted to lavish praise on the Chinese as he was hoping for a big Trade deal that would secure his re-election. Anyone who thinks he would have behaved differently if only he’d been told x, y, & z just hadn’t bothered to check out his modus operandi in the preceding 3 years. At every turn, he has lavished praise on those who he thinks can be charmed into doing what he wants (e.g. Kim Jong Il) only to resort to vitriol when rebuffed (e.g. Pence).
Nothing was stopping Trump from responding to Covid. He admitted to Bob Woodward early on that Covid was a beast that was much worse than the flu but said he wanted to downplay it to avoid panic. You’d have to think that meant he didn’t want Wall Street to panic so he could boast about a buoyant Stockmarket and economy leading up to the election. He even went to the extent of framing masks as unpatriotic.
It was only when Covid was running rampant that he resorted to plan B: calling it the China virus and blaming China at every turn (while ignoring his own failure to protect his citizens from this attack).
I’m intrigued by what relevance the “origin story” has. Obviously, it would be desirable to get to the bottom of this as we’d then be able to minimise the risk of another pandemic and hone responses should one occur. But others want to sheet home blame and punish China. The difference is between holding a Truth & Reconciliation Commission (using the South African model) and Nuremberg Trials. The problem with the latter is that China is a superpower and won’t let that happen. And China’s imperative of refusing to be drawn into the blame game means it won’t participate in a scientific investigation.
Let’s assume it were possible to prove to everybody’s satisfaction that Covid escaped from the Wuhan Lab. Would that mean China would pay reparations? Not bloody likely. At best, there’d be global condemnation and that would destroy China’s reputation. Instead of being the hero to countries benefiting from Sinovac, it would receive a diplomatic black eye. That would be a great result IMO but that’s why China will do everything in its power to discredit that proof. As a convincing case requires evidence from the Chinese, good luck with that.
How badly China’s reputation would be damaged would depend on the extent of Chinese negligence or malfeasance. Remember that countries all around the world experiment with viruses, usually to get ahead of viruses which may cause pandemics in the future. A stuff up at a lab that results in a virus escaping is certainly far from what one might expect from a Bond villain. The international community would be mildly pissed off and expect that China would tighten its precautions in future. Far more opprobrium would attach to attempts to cover up the outbreak and its origin but China has largely been condemned already for failing to cover up the initial outbreak.
What would be more damaging for China is if it were working with Covid in secret as a biological weapon. There has been some reporting that some time ago some unfortunate miners were sent in to clear out bat droppings without any PPE and contracted Covid-like symptoms. The reporting suggests that this virus was then studied in labs but the Chinese never followed the protocol requiring them to notify WHO about the virus and their research. Was that breach of protocol deliberate and does it suggest military research? Perhaps, but a conspiracy theory doesn’t equal proof. Even the most extreme conspiracy theory would stop short of suggesting a deliberate release of Covid. Infecting your own people in the hope planes would carry the virus overseas would be next-level Bond villainy. It would be easier to infect people overseas and avoid fingers being pointed directly at China.
As it stands, the case that it escaped from the a Chinese lab is merely plausible rather than compelling. The weight of scientific opinion remains that it was a natural contagion.