|
Ground
Control to Planet Lockdown: This Is Only a Test
By Pepe
Escobar
As much as
Covid-19 is a circuit breaker, a time bomb and an
actual weapon of mass destruction (WMD), a fierce
debate is raging worldwide on the wisdom of mass
quarantine applied to entire cities, states and
nations.
Those
against it argue Planet Lockdown not only is not
stopping the spread of Covid-19 but also has landed
the global economy into a cryogenic state – with
unforeseen, dire consequences. Thus quarantine
should apply essentially to the population with the
greatest risk of death: the elderly.
With Planet
Lockdown transfixed by heart-breaking reports from
the Covid-19 frontline, there’s no question this is
an incendiary assertion.
In
parallel, a total corporate media takeover is
implying that if the numbers do not substantially go
down, Planet Lockdown – an euphemism for house
arrest – remains, indefinitely.
Michael Levitt, 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry and
Stanford biophysicist, was spot on when he
calculated that China would get through the worst of
Covid-19 way before throngs of health experts
believed, and that
“What we need is to control the panic”.
Let’s cross
this over with some facts and dissident opinion, in
the interest of fostering an informed debate.
The
report
Covid-19 – Navigating the Uncharted
was co-authored by Dr. Anthony Fauci – the White
House face of the fight –, H. Clifford Lane, and CDC
director Robert R. Redfield. So it comes from the
heart of the U.S. healthcare establishment.
The report
explicitly states, “the overall clinical
consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin
to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a
case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a
pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and
1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS,
which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and
36%, respectively.”
On
March 19, four days before Downing Street ordered
the British lockdown, Covid-19 was
downgraded from the
status of “High Consequence Infectious Disease.”
John
Lee, recently retired professor of pathology and
former NHS consultant pathologist, has
recently argued
that, “the world’s 18,944 coronavirus deaths
represent 0.14 per cent of the total. These figures
might shoot up but they are, right now, lower than
other infectious diseases that we live with (such as
flu).”
He
recommends, “a degree of social distancing should be
maintained for a while, especially for the elderly
and the immune-suppressed. But when drastic measures
are introduced, they should be based on clear
evidence. In the case of Covid-19, the evidence is
not clear.”
That’s essentially the same point developed by a
Russian military intel analyst.
No
less than 22 scientists – see
here and
here – have
expanded on their doubts about the Western strategy.
Dr.
Sucharit Bhakdi, Professor Emeritus of Medical
Microbiology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in
Mainz, has provoked immense controversy with his
open letter to Chancellor Merkel,
stressing the “truly unforeseeable consequences of
the drastic containment measures which are currently
being applied in large parts of Europe.”
Even New
York governor Andrew Cuomo admitted on the record
about the error of quarantining elderly people with
illnesses alongside the fit young population.
The
absolutely key issue is how the West was caught
completely unprepared for the spread of Covid-19 –
even after being provided a head start of two months
by China, and having the time to study different
successful strategies applied across Asia.
There are
no secrets for the success of the South Korean
model.
South Korea
was producing test kits already in early January,
and by March was testing 100,000 people a day, after
establishing strict control of the whole population
– to Western cries of “no protection of private
life”. That was before the West embarked on Planet
Lockdown mode.
South Korea
was all about testing early, often and safely – in
tandem with quick, thorough contact tracing,
isolation and surveillance.
Covid-19
carriers are monitored with the help of
video-surveillance cameras, credit card purchases,
smartphone records. Add to it SMS sent to everyone
when a new case is detected near them or their place
of work. Those in self-isolation need an app to be
constantly monitored; non-compliance means a fine to
the equivalent of $2,800.
Controlled
demolition in effect
In
early March, the Chinese Journal of Infectious
Diseases, hosted by the Shanghai Medical
Association, pre-published an
Expert Consensus on Comprehensive Treatment of
Coronavirus in
Shanghai. Treatment recommendations included, “large
doses of vitamin C…injected intravenously at a dose
of 100 to 200 mg / kg per day. The duration of
continuous use is to significantly improve the
oxygenation index.”
That’s the
reason why 50 tons of Vitamin C was shipped to Hubei
province in early February. It’s a stark example of
a simple “mitigation” solution capable of minimizing
economic catastrophe.
In
contrast, it’s as if the brutally fast Chinese
“people’s war” counterpunch against Covid-19 had
caught Washington totally unprepared. Steady intel
rumbles on the Chinese net point to Beijing having
already studied all plausible leads towards the
origin of the Sars-Cov-2 virus – vital information
that will be certainly weaponized, Sun Tzu style, at
the right time.
|
