Israeli top doctors view the coronavirus as a viral disease rather than a pandemic, which makes sense with 2,209 deaths (0,024%) on a population of 9,197,590 (source). Haaretz, 17 October: “My impression is that – if 1 is only a flu and 10 is a colossal disaster – we’re between 2 and 3, at most. Ultimately, this is a viral disease, so there is a movement today that objects to its categorization as a pandemic.” Note LO: I’ve slightly edited the Haaretz text for its readability.
The last pandemic was some 100 years ago, being the 1918 Spanish flu. It’s fatality rate was some 4.5% – or 1 in 22 people. For further details, see my 14 May blog: 2019 coronavirus versus 1918 Spanish flu. The 2019 coronavirus has a fatality rate of some 0.05% – or 1 in 2,000 people. Hence, I must agree with the Israeli doctor. So, why is this viral disease still on the WHO’s A list?
In general, there could be a few reasons, if validity is not one of them:
- conspiracy: this would require (very) many people to cooperate and is thus unrealistic;
- cover-your-ass: updating to a lower status might cause excessive liability for the WHO;
- ignorance: we haven’t dealt with a pandemic, like the 1918 Spanish flu, for too long;
- intentional: this relates to deliberate misinformation.
On 18 May 2020, “China [finally] backed calls for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak, but only after the pandemic is under control” (VOA). Early July, an advance team left for China to organise an investigation (Reuters) and returned early August (AP). The subsequent “deployment of a larger group of experts” (AP) is still held up by China.
Sunday, I received this Wall Street Journal news alert: “China economy grows 4.9% as rest of world struggles with coronavirus”. To date, the official China death toll is 4,634 people on a population of 1,439,323,776 – or 0.000322% – or 1 in 300,000 people (source). Clearly, China isn’t treating the coronavirus as a (pandemic) threat but rather as an opportunity.
On 26 July 2020, Nadège Rolland, a senior fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research and a former adviser on Chinese strategic issues to the French Defense Ministry, [stated]: “Beijing is still intent on seeing China rise to the top in global affairs and it sees the current disorder from the virus as a way to achieve that goal.” (RFE/RL, WaPo)
I cannot and will not answer the question in my blog title but I do have my suspicions.
Suspicious Minds (1968) by Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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