Note (05JUL2021): Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, one might say, “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time, and them’s darn good odds.” Applying that saying to the Chinese Communist Party seems apt. They have become masters of deception even when their deceit is obvious.
Firstly, with the aid and technical support of the fools at the NIH, the Chinese fabricated a new and lethal virus derived from bats. Secondly, they allowed it to spread itself worldwide, mutating into increasingly virulent variants. Thirdly, ironically they developed a less than effective vaccine against the pathogen that they themselves created and peddled their “snake-oil” worldwide. The Indonesians bought the hoax and are suffering mass casualties among those fully vaccinated with Sinovac.
中国人
欺骗大师
-End-
NOTE (28JUN2021): As predicted in the posting below, while the nation celebrates the end of the plague, the underlying trend remains ominous. New, more virulent variants of the original Wuhan-virus. Adverse side-effects of the current vaccines. “Breakthroughs” despite having been vaccinated fully.
Will COVID-19 become the dreaded “Disease X” predicted by microbiologists and result in a mass extinction of the human species? Possibly. Recall that the Black Death of bubonic plague in the 14th-century killed 60% of the world-population. Today there still is no approved vaccine; and, whereas there is treatment with antibiotics, it is effective only if administered early in the course of the disease.
Will COVID-19 result in a total extinction of the human species? Unlikely. As to be described in a future posting, the human genome might be more resistant and more resilient than some believe. Even so, there is an irony inherent in the trend as addressed in the future posting.
-End-
Bad dying? Plague!
PART ONE: Background
For some years, biologists had been predicting an infectious disease, probably viral, would cause a mass human extinction. They called it “Disease X”. It was to come to pass, a nightmare come true known as Retribution Fever as depicted in the eponymous novel.
“The single biggest threat to man’s continued dominance on the planet is the virus.” -Joshua Lederberg, PhD (1925-2008)
In a government-operated laboratory in Wuhan, China, microbiologists had drawn a virus from Nature. The Chinese government operates under the authoritarian control of the anti-American Chinese Communist/Fascist Party. Although seemingly paradoxical, the National Institutes of Health in these United States partially was financing their work despite awareness of the sub-standard level of precautions and continues to do so.
The Chinese scientists were manipulating the viral genetic code intentionally to make it a virulent pathogen in the extreme. The pretty euphemism for the ugly procedure is called “gain of function”. They succeeded. They fabricated a line of sub-microscopic monsters. Apparently, no one involved had read Mary Shelley’s classic novel, Frankenstein (1818).
Given the deficit in precautions, one early autumn some minute monsters escaped their confines to infect workers in the laboratory. These monsters were man-made, having by-passed normal evolution. The workers carried them outside to the surrounding city.
People in Wuhan began falling perilously ill. Some dying. The afflicted filled hospitals then cemeteries. An epidemic had begun.
The epidemic affrighted local politicians. Initially, they tried to conceal a frightening fact that could not be concealed.
Regional politicians soon learned of the growing black cloud of death. Their fright quickly spread to the national politicians, who tried minimizing to the public the severity of that which was to become a worldwide pandemic. They even claimed no human-to-human transmission, knowing it a lie. Under Chinese pressure, international medical authorities confirmed the deceit.
Infected people began travelling to and from the city. The national government banned domestic flights but not international ones. Curious, no? It issued strict measures harshly enforced for quarantines and against public gatherings. Meanwhile, it quietly began accumulating medical supplies from around the world.
“The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.” -Petronius (1st-century A.D.)
People worldwide believed the deceit. They wanted to believe it. Despite Chinese reässurances, the virus began appearing in country after country. The epidemic became a pandemic — a plague! Politicians everywhere tried deceiving the people by claiming minimal threat. Their deceit, too, soon failed as hospitals then cemeteries filled and medical supplies depleted. Panic filled the streets while toilet-paper vanished from shelves.
In developed “democracies” voters had allowed their elected politicians and non-elected bureaucrats enormous, autocratic powers. The consequence was whole populations became weak, passive, and dependent; exactly that which the politicians and bureaucrats wanted.
In these United States, Fascism had been brewing in the background in the name of “democratic socialism”. Power loves power. With power comes corruption. The virus became a catalyst to enrich the toxic brew.
“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” -Lord Acton (1834-1902)
Biologically, those young and healthy developed antibodies against the virus but did not fall clinically ill. The pathogen was felling mainly the old and the chronically ill, especially those with compromised immunological systems such as those afflicted by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) or those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Such people form a reservoir for pathogens to mutate into more virulent forms, especially a virus composed of single-stranded ribonucleic acids (RNA). The Wuhan-virus was a RNA-virus.
Specifically, the Wuhan-virus was one of the four types of coronaviruses — a beta-coronavirus, the type most virulent for humans. At the time, no safe and effective treatment existed for any coronavirus nor did any vaccine for prevention.
Politically, by law the younger young could not vote while by inclination the older young often chose not to vote. Not so with the old and their supporters, some of whom were organized unlike the young. The voting old frightened the politicians. Accordingly, the politicians almost universally in “democratic” countries elected to forfeit the financial futures of the young to ameliorate the political pressure from the old. Sacrifice the young. Save the old. A formula for future ruin. Inter-generational, financial warfare had begun, but the naïve young predictably failed to notice as they had failed to notice that the old were bankrupting the country even before the plague via Medicare.
Contrary to governmental propaganda, by keeping the old and chronically alive to suffer prior to dying, the medical establishment was providing the virus increased opportunity to mutate. Had it merely swept through the population, the young and healthy might have survived by quickly eradicating the virus themselves; whereas, the old and sick quickly would have succumbed before the virus could mutate. Such a policy was a horrific anathema to the self-appointed, self-righteous “humanitarians” who had turned the word into an obscenity, typically sacrificing the whole permanently to save a part, often an unworthy part, temporarily.
PART TWO
An Uncertain Experiment
Early during World War Two amid the Nazis’ Blitz pounding Britain, the saying there had been, “Keep calm and carry on.” Those years harbored a generation in the UK and the USA different from that of today. In these United States today, in response to the viral blitz the old and their supporters panicked. They howled for government to do something. Accordingly, government did do something — the wrong thing.
To begin, it issued speeches filled with misinformation. A narcissistic President bleated for two hours daily day after day, hoping to calm agitated voters while enjoying the spotlight himself. He was facing reëlection, which had been a near-certainty prior to the plague. For him, the plague was to prove a political nightmare as predicted by this commentator from the onset. Surrounding him at these boring, theatrical productions were other politicians and bureaucrats, most notably the self-serving Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President. He was an ill-advised and ironic choice given his previous support of the Chinese adventure for bad dying.
Almost immediately, a number of inexpensive treatments already available became touted, some having a documented scientific basis. Hydroxy-chloroquine. Vitamin D. Zinc. The clinical results were inconclusive. In contrast, one new, expensive pharmaceutical, remdesivir, was released with great fanfare; it proved of little value.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies new and old began a government-financed race to develop an apparently safe and effective vaccine. In amazingly short time, several succeeded … or did they?
Were any safe in the long run? No one knew. Were any effective in the long run? No one knew. Would any be effective against all variants of the original virus that arose via mutations? No one knew. The non-approved vaccines remained categorically experimental. These experimental vaccines of unknown safety and effectiveness, nevertheless, became available to billions around the world. What would be the inescapable consequences? No one knew.
Even in the short-run, recent reports now suggest that the vaccine may cause a sometimes fatal myocarditis, especially in young males. Experimental, indeed.
Some Americans, nevertheless, demanded administration of the experimental vaccine be mandated officially, an explicit violation of the principles listed by the court at the Nuremberg Trials of defeated Nazis in 1945. Mandatory acceptance enforced officially was rejected. Unofficially, it was initiated; for example, at colleges and universities throughout the nation. What about the risk of the vaccine to the young otherwise at negligible risk from the virus? Nary a peep from The Left.
PART THREE
Consequences
(Note: The following is a fictional account of a risk inherent in administering an experimental vaccine on a mass basis. A scientific foundation exists for the tale told. Let us pray that the tale remains fictional.)
True to the claims, several vaccines had proven relatively safe and effective, in the short term although one alarming side-effect had been described. Time would tell the tale. It was to be grim — “Disease X!”
Time had passed. The original Wuhan-virus survived. Early on, it had begun a series of mutations that ultimately were to prove catastrophic to mankind. Initially, different, pathogenic, single mutations evolved in different geographic locations. Would the current vaccines confer sufficient resistance? Yes, at first.
Then double mutations. Then triple mutations. The original vaccines proved decreasingly effective. People previously vaccinated fell ill. Some died. Initially the old and the chronically ill then the vaccinated younger and healthier. Panic returned to the streets. Toilet-paper vanished from the shelves. The worst, however, was yet to come.
Ironically, a particularly virulent variant arose in China, where the plague had begun with American financing. It was particularly lethal for those previously vaccinated against other variants. After contact with the virus, vaccinated victims quickly fell ill. They developed high fevers and bled from eyes, nose, mouth, and rectum as do victims of Ebola Fever; most succumbing within a few days of agonizing misery.
Initial public response? Disbelief. Then shock. Then panic. Then rage.
The mob justifiably began blaming politicians for prematurely promoting an inadequately tested vaccine against a plague puny by historical standards — a plague that rarely was fatal; and, even when, felled almost exclusively the old and the chronically ill. It blamed them for forcing the vaccine upon the young and healthy and even upon infants, few of whom were at risk. The program had been a giant experiment — one of many adverse consequences of the politicization of medicine. Members of the mob seemed to have forgotten, however, that it was they who previously had demanded action from panic-stricken, power-hungry politicians.
Throughout the developed world, a world characterized by knowledge and relative wealth, mortality soared. Once the thick cloud of death had passed, a majority of its citizens, most vaccinated, had perished. They succumbed from having been vaccinated.
Conversely, throughout the undeveloped world, a world characterized by ignorance and poverty, mortality remained largely unchanged. Once the thin cloud of death had passed, a majority of its citizens, few vaccinated, had survived. Those who did die succumbed to the virus not to having been vaccinated.
With the dead cremated, surviving Americans faced a nation with a crumbled foundation and a collapsed framework, a context that had begun well before the plague. So, what to do? How to do it? Unlikely as it may seem today, perhaps — just perhaps — Americans might embrace Biobehavioral Science as described in detail in the novel, Retribution Fever, and employ it to resurrect the nation and the vision that had begun it.
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always To be Blest.” -Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-The end-
© Gene Richard Moss (2021)