COVID-19: Clearing up confusion

(Link on Daily Trust site)

No sooner had the distressing COVID-19 pandemic broken out than some conflicting and inconsistent scientific theories on, among other things, its origin, potency and the extent of damage it inflicts on human, begun to flow triggering the current confusion. 

Since then, reputable scientists in relevant fields with access to the most advanced scientific research equipment would always come up with a supposedly scientific theory only to be scientifically disputed or invalidated altogether after it had been vigorously promoted. Even the supposedly scientifically-proven effectiveness of lockdown and social distancing as preventive measures has been equally scientifically found to have been exaggerated.  

This has, of course, opened the door for all sorts of conspiracy theories over the pandemic in the face of the obvious ambiguity of the Chinese government’s official narratives on the origin of the virus and its (Chinese government) vehement refusal to cooperate with other relevant non-Chinese research centres in this regard. 

After all, all along, President Donald Trump of the United States has suspected foul play insisting that the Chinese government owes the world full disclosure of the circumstances of the outbreak; as he further alleges that the Chinese authorities had deliberately allowed crowds of infected people to flock out of Wuhan, where the disease was first detected, to different parts of the world except within China itself, which triggered the pandemic. He also accuses the World Health Organization (WHO) of conniving with China to systematically mislead the world over the virus; and, therefore, imposed unilateral sanctions on the organization by slashing and subsequently withholding the US financial contribution to it, which is by far the highest in the world.

Interestingly, though President Trump’s harsh criticism of China is apparently a calculated move meant to demonize it, his criticism cannot be entirely dismissed given his unrestricted access to the most sophisticated intelligence sources in the world. This is even though the US, which maintains arguably the largest stockpile of bioweapons in the world and, having, in fact, used it on different occasions in the past, cannot rightly claim the moral high ground in this regard. Besides, President Trump is also apparently driven by a personal vendetta against China, which he accuses of working discreetly to undermine his reelection bid later this year.  

Anyway, with the available scientific and circumstantial evidence that cast doubts on the Chinese narratives about the virus and the circumstances that led to its transmission and eventual outbreak, the most probable theory of what actually happened can only be conceptualized by looking at things in the proper context. 

China has over the last few decades managed to develop into a formidable world power representing a new dimension in the global power equation. This is notwithstanding how it has achieved that, which explains its notoriety for the alleged systematic abuse of intellectual property rights and other unethical industrial practices at the expense of Euro-American manufacturing and high-tech industries.

Countries locked in global power struggle are hell-bent on outmatching and, in fact, undermining one another at all costs. They play the game knowing that, regardless of the rights and obligations of nations under the international law, diplomatic conventions and other relevant treaties, a country’s worth is actually determined by, first and foremost, the amount of its military power, then economic, technological and other advantages. In other words, in international politics, and notwithstanding any supposed diplomatic engagements, a country has its way and even gets away with its excesses according to its military strength.  

A typical global power keeps and indeed always seeks to upgrade its arsenal of not only conventional but unconventional weapons, not necessarily to use it but certainly to literally brandish it as underlying bargaining tools as well. Biological weapons (bioweapons) are some of the unconventional weapons that a typical global power “produces” through painstaking processes of genetic manipulation of microorganisms.   

Being still developing in terms of scientific and technological sophistication compared to its major Euro-American rivals, China is obviously desperate to catch up with them on everything including the bioweapon technology. 

In the light of that, it’s quite reasonable to theorize that some Chinese scientists were probably handling some microorganisms genetically manipulated for bioweapon purposes when somehow at least one person got accidentally infected; and was diagnosed only after the virus had already begun to spread.   

By the way, the presumption of “accidental transmission” in this case is borne out of the absence of any plausible reason, at least for now, to suspect China of doing it deliberately. 

In any case, the situation has also cast doubts on the dedicated efforts said to be currently underway to develop medication and vaccine against the virus. This is given the pre-existing notoriety of the global pharmaceutical industry monopolized by a few pharmaceutical manufacturers driven by wolfish greed who have for decades systematically manipulated and exploited the vulnerable with impunity.   

Whether the development process of the medication is underway, as the manufacturers maintain, or it’s already stockpiled but deliberately withheld as a profit-maximization strategy, as some observers suspect, it’s obvious that the manufacturers and other major stakeholders in the global pharmaceutical value chain stand to make a killing of unprecedented amounts considering the global desperation for the medication, which will almost certainly trigger phenomenal panic bulk purchasing by countries and major distributors across the world.  

Also, while it’s hoped that the pandemic will soon disappear anyway, God willing, contrary to alarmist predictions, the world may never be the same again. The worldwide shock and anxiety associated with the pandemic may continue to haunt the world and may usher in an underlying atmosphere of phobia and irrational suspicion among nations with potentially disastrous consequences on global peace and stability.