Saturday 21 March 2020

Is it right to call the pandemic the Wuhan virus?

Blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic which has hit pretty well every country in the world has become a very public verbal war game. Trump started it by referring to the virus as the China virus. Then Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, started to call it the Wuhan virus. That seriously angered the Chinese government which called Pompeo's remark despicable. Beijing even said it was possible the virus began, not in China, but somewhere else, like the United States perhaps. Pompeo responded by saying, somewhat mysteriously, that the US was pretty confident where the virus had begun its life. China, yes, Wuhan, yes but where in Wuhan exactly? Is there any tiny chance that the rumours circulating some weeks ago that a coronavirus leak may have taken place at the Wuhan biological defence laboratory outside the city may have some substance to it? A leak of the virus which IS tested at the Wuhan laboratory has been widely debunked by knowing scientists. But Pompeo's remark, especially coming from a former director of the CIA, seemed to be hinting at something other than the explanation put out when it all began, that the virus came from wild animals being sold in food markets in Wuhan. The National Bio-Safety Laboratory at Wuhan, also called the Wuhan Institute of Virology, deals with deadly viruses such as coronavirus. It's run by Chen Wei, a major-general in the People's Liberation Army. No one in the Trump administration has suggested that this laboratory may have leaked the deadly virus by mistake. But Pompeo's choice of words was clearly deliberate. The first the world knew about new coronavirus was when it emerged in Wuhan. So calling it the Wuhan virus was techically accurate unless Beijing can come up with proof that it began in another country and was imported into Wuhan. Mind you, I'm not sure the world would believe China if it claimed it had evidence the virus came into Wuhan via a foreign carrier. For now the dead animals theory is the one that most people seem to be believing. And somehow, frightening though the pandemic is, the speculation that the virus could have leaked out from a top secret biological laboratory would be even more scary. I hope the Chinese are telling us the truth and nothing but the truth.

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