Lots of blame has been issued and lots of conspiracy theories thrown about, but what is the fact about the origin of the virus and what happened at the early stages of it appearing in humans?:
The fact is that it took some time before anybody realized what it was (first thought to be just pneumonia) but soon recognized as caused by a new (novel) corona virus. (later given the official name, SARS-cov. 2.
At first the local authorities in Wuhan and Hubei Province tried to hide the facts from the central Govt. by silencing anybody that saw it as the beginning of a potential new SARS epidemic. (Eventually a âwhistle blowerâ managed to raise the alarm)
But the central Govt. wasnât too keen on sharing the news either.
They eventually put Wuhan into lock down and informed the WHO,but did not allow a delegation sent to China to investigate full access (Especially since Americans were part of the WHO delegation)
Some neigbouring countries and territories (Singapore, HK, Taiwan and South Korea especially) took early action by stopping travelers from Wuhan/Hubei from entering and implementing restrictions learnt during the SARS epidemic in 2003/4.
WHO and most of the rest of the world did not see the need for strict travel control and other restrictions at the earl stages.
(Donald Trump did restrict travel from all of China, but thought that would be enough)
By the time the virus had established local clusters in many countries the world reacted. But too late to avoid a Pandemic to develop around the globeâŚ
2 Likes
Not exactly. He just restricted travel for foreign nationals that had been to China.
1 Like
Whoâs to blame for Covid-19? Norway.
With their superior intellect, they knew it was coming but didnât bother to warn us.
3 Likes
Itâs a vast conspiracy caused by Jeffrey Epsteinâs ghost penis, Hillaryâs Peadophile Pizzeria, the WHO, Trumps hairstylist, and Amazon.
2 Likes
Whatâs to blame for COVID19? The nesting habits and immune systems of the Chinese horseshoe bat.
Whoâs responsible to make sure new diseases are spotted before they spread on American shores, and to ensure plans and supplies are in place to deal with them?
Truman wasnât scared to push the button. The buck did stop there.
Cheeto is in on it. Does everyone remember his tweet where he left off with COVfefe? That was a message to China!
Howâs that for a conspiracy?
1 Like
Whatâs your level of confidence in this statement on a 1-10 scale?
The answer to this question will require you to go on record one way or the other so I know this is uncharted territory.
China has increased the figure for people who died of Covid-19 in Wuhan:
No, not because they have been covering up the numbers deliberately but because, like in many other countries, the way things have been reported by various hospitals and health authorities has been different, especially at the early stages of the epidemic/pandemic.
(Sorry conspiracy theory enthusiast and China haters)
1 Like
Well, if weâre rating things with numbers and all, my confidence level is 0. Hereâs the reason: the original question is ambiguous.
âWhoâs to blame for Covid-19?â is like saying âWhoâs to blame for smallpox?â COVID19 is a disease. The cause of the disease is a germ the CDC refers to as âthe novel coronavirusâ. (They probably have a more science-y name for it, somewhere). So the answer, strictly speaking, is that the novel coronavirus is to blame for the disease COVID19.
Now, to ask who is to blame for the novel coronavirus is like asking who is to blame for sequoia trees or frogs. Those are replicating things that come about by evolution, or whatever Background Agency you choose to believe in.
The evolution of the novel coronavirus is complex, but right now the horseshoe bat is being implicated in much of the evolutionary development, along with, perhaps, pangolins(!?).
Thereâs a theory, so far unsubstantiated, that the Chinese were examining or tinkering with the novel coronavirus in a lab, for whatever reason, and it âgot outâ. My view on such theories is show me the proof and weâll talk. Journalists are working on proving/disproving the theory even as we speak. if the journalists are reliable, Iâll listen.
1 Like
Now that will solve it, bring the journalists into this. Most reliable people on the planet. Always looking for a story. No thanks.
They have, it is SARS Cov 2. It is one of the many viruses of the corona family and known to cause sickness in humans, known as Covid-19.
What Covid-19 actually IS is less certain, it mostly attack the lungs of older or sick people, but may not cause any detectable sickness in children, the young and those who have been less exposed to the virus. (They MAY still spread the virus though)
The latest is that it it MAY cause permanent lung damage and MAY also attack other organs. (Time will tell)
You have your opinion on journalists, and I respect that. A healthy distrust of news sources is essential to a democracy, IMO.
But I have admiration for good journalists. How else are we going to learn news? How else does accurate news get to us?
I trust the journalists of WAPO, NYT, NPR, Seattle Times, etc. as much as I trust anyone. Iâve followed some of them for nearly 60 years and I know their track records. I donât expect them be right all the time, because no human is. But I do trust them to try to be right all the time.
One good of way telling which sources to trust is to see if they fire people who knowingly get stories wrong. The news sources above do that. I donât trust news sources I donât know, and I donât trust news sources who fire journalists for getting stories right.
4 Likes
Actually each country is to be blamed, especially Medicine as science, as establishment, as a mean to protect, to give cure. What is carantine? what is isolation? this is just the method to give medical people chance to breath, to hospitals not to be full. But is doesnât work. Moreover fake news and mass media - that is what really more powefull then coronaEvil, sorry virus 
This statement is contradictory. You say quarantine and isolation are a method to avoid hospitals from being overwhelmed. True. But then you say the method isnât working, which is false.
It is not working 'cause plenty of societies like Church representatives and many more make plenty of protests against government regulations, Court representatives, for example. What is the formula for being infected? The statistics which we gain from media X 10 (or 20). The statistic gives only positive cases? What about others? Not everybody stay home. Not everybody understand the problema. Not everybody tries to be Cool, I mean keep fit, good meal, be positive, look straight ahead! A virus (each virus!) works on special frequencies. Normally, who is infected? If You are said, or worried. Be Cool and never give up! That is the formula for Stay Health.
According to one caller to a conservative talk radio program we know lots about COVID-19 âcause there were eighteen of them before this one.
2 Likes
As far as the efficacy of control measure, I look at my home state, Washington. The infection curve is now flat, instead of rising. Hence, in my locality, the measures are working. Once the curve starts dropping, then we can say they are working very well.
I will agree that not everyone is taking the emergency seriously, but even so, the measures, at least where I live, are reducing infection. Where I work we should be seeing respiratory infections of all kinds. We are seeing none, telling me that the extra measures we take at work are also effective.
The next thing that has to happen is systematic testing throughout the populace, ala South Korea.
1 Like
Thatâs the kind of impecable logic thatâs hard to argue with 8-^)
