{"id":69833,"date":"2022-01-17T15:00:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T04:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=69833"},"modified":"2022-01-17T14:41:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T03:41:09","slug":"the-great-covid-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/","title":{"rendered":"The great Covid cover-up"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

As the pandemic enters its third year, questions about Covid-19\u2019s origins appear increasingly distant. But if we are to forestall another coronavirus pandemic in the 21st century, understanding the causes of the current one is imperative.<\/p>\n

Already, Covid-19 has caused more than 5.4 million deaths<\/a>. But that\u2019s just the beginning: the toll of the pandemic includes increased rates of obesity<\/a>, unemployment<\/a>, poverty<\/a>, depression<\/a>, alcoholism<\/a>, homicide<\/a>, domestic violence<\/a>, divorce<\/a> and suicide<\/a>. And, as the Omicron variant fuels record infection rates and disrupts economies in many parts of the world, pandemic fatigue is morphing into pandemic burnout.<\/p>\n

Our chances of eliminating Covid-19 now appear remote. But, as we attempt to figure out how to live with the virus<\/a>, we must also identify the missteps\u2014accidental and otherwise\u2014that led us here. And that means, first and foremost, turning a critical eye towards China.<\/p>\n

It is well known that Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s regime censored early reports<\/a> that a new, deadly coronavirus had emerged in Wuhan and hid evidence<\/a> of human-to-human transmission, thereby enabling a local outbreak to become a global calamity. What remains to be determined is whether Covid-19 emerged naturally in wildlife or was leaked from a lab\u2014namely, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).<\/p>\n

Here, too, China has embraced obfuscation rather than transparency. Xi\u2019s regime has blocked an independent forensic inquiry into Covid-19\u2019s origins, arguing that any such investigation amounts to \u2018origin-tracing terrorism<\/a>\u2019. After Australia called for a probe into China\u2019s handling of the outbreak, Xi\u2019s government punished it with a raft of informal sanctions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

China had help covering up its bad behaviour. Early in the pandemic, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus parroted the Chinese government\u2019s talking points and praised<\/a> its handling of the outbreak. Instead of verifying China\u2019s claims, the WHO broadcast them to the world.<\/p>\n

Yet, far from condemning this failure of global health leadership, France and Germany took the lead in nominating<\/a> Tedros for a second term at the WHO\u2019s helm, and the United States decided not to field<\/a> a candidate to challenge him. Having run unopposed, Tedros will now lead this critical institution for another five years.<\/p>\n

The West also helped China to divert attention from the lab-leak hypothesis. Not only are several labs in the West engaged in research to engineer super-viruses; Western governments have ties to the WIV\u2014a French-designed institute where US-funded research has been carried out. Both the National Institutes of Health<\/a> and USAID<\/a> have issued grants<\/a> to EcoHealth Alliance, a group studying bat coronaviruses in collaboration with WIV researchers.<\/p>\n

The US government hasn\u2019t disclosed the full extent of its funding to WIV projects, let alone explained why its agencies would fund research at an institution linked to the Chinese military. A January 2021 State Department fact sheet<\/a> proclaimed that the US has \u2018a right and obligation to determine whether any of our research funding was diverted to secret Chinese military projects at the WIV\u2019. But why was that risk deemed acceptable in the first place?<\/p>\n

The conflicts of interest surrounding the lab-leak hypothesis distorted early discussions about the origins of Covid-19. A letter<\/a> published in The Lancet <\/em>in February 2020, signed by a group of virologists, is a case in point. The letter \u2018strongly condemned\u2019 those \u2018suggesting that Covid-19 did not have a natural origin\u2019. The message was clear: to lend any credence to the possibility of a lab leak would be unscientific.<\/p>\n

The letter turned out to have been organised and drafted by the president of EcoHealth Alliance. But by the time the conflicts of interest came to light, it was too late. Major US news organisations and social-media giants were treating<\/a> the lab-leak hypothesis as a baseless conspiracy theory, with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter censoring references to a lab accident.<\/p>\n

It should always have been clear that the lab-leak hypothesis had merit: the 2004 outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in Beijing resulted<\/a> from such a leak. Instead, frank discussion of the possibility was suppressed until May last year, when US President Joe Biden announced<\/a> that a lab accident was one of \u2018two likely scenarios\u2019 on which US intelligence agencies would focus as they carried out a 90-day inquiry into the pandemic\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n

By then, however, Chinese authorities had had plenty of time to cover whatever tracks there may have been. Add to that China\u2019s unwillingness to cooperate in a probe, and it shouldn\u2019t be surprising<\/a> that the inquiry\u2019s results were inconclusive.<\/p>\n

But the exercise was apparently enough to convince Biden to take the pressure off China. Despite pledging<\/a> to \u2018do everything [possible] to trace the roots of this outbreak that has caused so much pain and death around the world\u2019, he didn\u2019t extend the intelligence inquiry and has since avoided any reference to the pandemic\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n

Xi announced<\/a> last September that Chinese labs handling deadly pathogens would face closer scrutiny, but he continues to denounce any insinuation that the coronavirus could have been leaked. Meanwhile, China is profiting from the pandemic; exports are surging<\/a>. The country has capitalised on the crisis to advance its geopolitical interests<\/a>, including by stepping up its territorial aggression from East Asia to the Himalayas.<\/p>\n

But a reckoning may yet come. Nearly three-quarters of Americans now believe<\/a> that it\u2019s \u2018likely\u2019 that Covid-19 was leaked from the WIV. And as China\u2019s neo-imperialist ambitions have become clear, unfavourable views of China have reached record highs<\/a> in many advanced economies. If world leaders wanted a mandate to pursue further inquiries into the pandemic\u2019s origins, it\u2019s safe to say they have it.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first made-in-China pandemic<\/a>\u2014the country produced SARS<\/a> in 2003, the Asian flu<\/a> in 1957, the Hong Kong flu in 1968 and the Russian flu in 1977. If the world keeps letting China off the hook, it won\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the pandemic enters its third year, questions about Covid-19\u2019s origins appear increasingly distant. But if we are to forestall another coronavirus pandemic in the 21st century, understanding the causes of the current one is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":482,"featured_media":54305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[748,52,2658,983,2733],"class_list":["post-69833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-censorship","tag-china","tag-coronavirus","tag-pandemic","tag-who"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe great Covid cover-up | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The great Covid cover-up | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the pandemic enters its third year, questions about Covid-19\u2019s origins appear increasingly distant. But if we are to forestall another coronavirus pandemic in the 21st century, understanding the causes of the current one is ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-17T04:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-17T03:41:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1195315493.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brahma Chellaney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brahma Chellaney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1195315493.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1195315493.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"WUHAN, CHINA - JANUARY 22: (CHINA OUT) A man wears a mask while walking in the street on January 22, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. A new infectious coronavirus known as \\\"2019-nCoV\\\" was discovered in Wuhan as the number of cases rose to over 400 in mainland China. Health officials stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the pneumonia-like disease which medicals experts confirmed can be passed from human to human. The death toll has reached 17 people as the Wuhan government issued regulations today that residents must wear masks in public places. Cases have been reported in other countries including the United States, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. (Photo by Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/\",\"name\":\"The great Covid cover-up | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-17T04:00:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-17T03:41:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/de93656772fd3940ede5d6ca24b86124\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The great Covid cover-up\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/de93656772fd3940ede5d6ca24b86124\",\"name\":\"Brahma Chellaney\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd617a464df31dc4b7d841dc248c299d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd617a464df31dc4b7d841dc248c299d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brahma Chellaney\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/brahma-chellaney\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The great Covid cover-up | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The great Covid cover-up | The Strategist","og_description":"As the pandemic enters its third year, questions about Covid-19\u2019s origins appear increasingly distant. But if we are to forestall another coronavirus pandemic in the 21st century, understanding the causes of the current one is ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2022-01-17T04:00:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-17T03:41:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1195315493.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Brahma Chellaney","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brahma Chellaney","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1195315493.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1195315493.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"caption":"WUHAN, CHINA - JANUARY 22: (CHINA OUT) A man wears a mask while walking in the street on January 22, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. A new infectious coronavirus known as \"2019-nCoV\" was discovered in Wuhan as the number of cases rose to over 400 in mainland China. Health officials stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the pneumonia-like disease which medicals experts confirmed can be passed from human to human. The death toll has reached 17 people as the Wuhan government issued regulations today that residents must wear masks in public places. Cases have been reported in other countries including the United States, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. (Photo by Getty Images)"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/","name":"The great Covid cover-up | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2022-01-17T04:00:02+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-17T03:41:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/de93656772fd3940ede5d6ca24b86124"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-covid-cover-up\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The great Covid cover-up"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/de93656772fd3940ede5d6ca24b86124","name":"Brahma Chellaney","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd617a464df31dc4b7d841dc248c299d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd617a464df31dc4b7d841dc248c299d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brahma Chellaney"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/brahma-chellaney\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69833"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69837,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69833\/revisions\/69837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}