Geopolitics and the Wuhan Flu

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with the Castle Report. Today I will talk about China, the United States, the Wuhan Flu, and how they seem to relate in today’s world. Please keep in mind that this story changes daily, hourly and sometimes even minute by minute. So by the time you hear it the numbers have already changed. Please keep in mind as well that I’m not a doctor or scientist, but I can read.

Sources of information on the Wuhan Flu (Coronavirus)

I can read, and therefore can read the reports of people who live or have recently lived in China. And I can read the reports of the (Communicable Disease Center) CDC and other health agencies. I can call people in government or the military that I know personally. They have spent part of their careers working with China. Finally, I can talk to neighbors who are of Chinese descent and are traveling in Asia right now. From all these things I can draw conclusions and form opinions which I can then tell you.

The obvious news of the Wuhan Flu

The strain of Coronavirus that has come to be known as Wuhan flu, and which has frightened the world and sent the world stock markets teetering and plunging downward, apparently originated in the city of Wuhan in mainland China. That’s the story we hear now anyway. You know that China considers this new flu strain serious because they canceled the Lunar New Year, China’s most important celebration. In addition, Disneyland China has closed, airports have closed, 14 cities are in quarantine with no one allowed in or out, and 48 million people are under travel restriction. Foreign nationals are evacuating from quarantined cities to their home countries. I saw a video of an airliner filled with Americans returning from China. People in hazmat suits escorted them from the tarmac in California to quarantine quarters.

From a weird meat market…

News reports tell us that the virus likely started in a local fresh meat market in Wuhan. That market apparently sells normal meat that westerners would be used to, but also wild animals such as snakes and bats. Yes, apparently people sometimes eat bat soup. The virus, the story goes, originated most likely in snakes. Those snakes in the meat market were then able to infect humans. That’s basically the explanation coming out of China and it is what they would have us believe.

…to worldwide spread

From that one case in one meat market in Wuhan China, the virus has spread around the world. The first case, or Patient Zero, as the CDC would call him, was traced back to December 10. But the Chinese authorities didn’t admit that case until January 10. They then admitted they had a new strain on their hands and 41 people were sick. Ultimately those 41 hospitalized people were studied to get a fatality record and 15% of them have died. As of this recording, 10,000 are infected and 213 have died.

Blaming the critical delay for the spread of the Wuhan Flu

That month’s delay, according to the CDC, was very critical and allowed the virus to breakout in populations around the world. From the West Coast of the United States, to Europe, to the Middle East, cases are being reported and people are infected. The CDC and other international health agencies say that if they are allowed into China to help, which probably means take over the battle, they could probably still contain it. The Chinese seem reluctant, however, and will only allow them to help from a distance. Within two weeks from the date the disease was publicly identified 600 people around the world were infected and several had died.

No border inspections stopped the virus from boarding an airplane and flying all over the world, including the United States. According to the University of Hong Kong Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the Chinese government didn’t act quickly enough to stop the disease from spreading.

Comparing the Wuhan Flu to earlier mass-infection events

So, the questions about all this are numerous, but the answers are few. Is this new virus a real threat to humanity or just another over hyped media event? Is it worse than SARS, the black death, Spanish Flu, and other global disasters? Or is it much ado about nothing? I learned something about the SARS virus a few years ago. I had a client who had contacted SARS through her job, or at least we alleged that she did. So I had to learn something about how it worked and how it spread. We know for certain that the Spanish Flu epidemic killed an estimated 18 million people during the four years of World War I. Wuhan Flu actually is worse than SARS right now, with a higher total infection rate and higher number of deaths.

Why this virus can spread so easily?

I learned that viruses are quasi-living organisms that reproduce by replacing a cell’s DNA with their own. Coronavirus refers to a family of virus, including Wuhan and SARS, which have a distinctive genetic structure. There are many strains of coronavirus many of which have evolved or mutated to be able to infect other species including humans. There was once a barrier, or at least I thought there was, that prevented transmission of viral disease pathogens existing in animals from infecting humans. What happened to allow the virus to cross the animal to human barrier? Your guess is as good as mine, but I’m sure there are scientists who can explain it.

Why didn’t the Chinese act sooner on the Wuhan Flu?

Question number two then, is why the Chinese would allow this potential disaster to get out of hand, to escape into the world, before they did something to contain it. Fortunately, that question is much easier to answer than the previous one. The government of China is completely authoritarian and completely corrupt. In such governments, especially with the societal mindset of China, the government would not want to look weak and incompetent. So they would enforce the utmost secrecy until they could no longer contain the news or the disease.

Is China a perfect setup for something like the Wuhan Flu to spread?

China is huge but also, in once sense modern, because of manufacturing in the cities and the resulting accumulation of foreign currency reserves. In other ways, perhaps the most important ways regarding the virus, China is just an extremely large, highly populated, third world country. Public health conditions and public sanitation in the cities is not close to Western standards. There is no government agency which regulates food for sale to the public, including wild animals.

Motives for Chinese and American governments to lie

Therefore, we cannot look for truth to come from China. Nor can we expect it to come from American business doing business with China. Several American airlines have canceled flights to China. The U.S. State Department has also issued a travel advisory, which has now expanded to all of China. Why is there no temporary ban on immigration from China until the virus is contained? Only the government seems to know for sure.

Is it possible to believe the statements of any government, anywhere? Probably not, because they lie about everything and nothing they say or do can be trusted. The Chinese government is at least unburdened by the bureaucratic snafus and blockages that American companies have. Apple can make a million iPhones in China, while in America they would still be seeking permission. The same can be said for transportation projects such as high-speed rail, etc. On the other hand, diseases that threaten the global population rarely break out from our public markets.

Was Wuhan Flu a biological warfare weapon?

Believe it or not, there are people who believe that this virus did not originate in snakes or some other wild animal, but in a bioweapons lab. It just so happens that a bioweapons research facility, and you can call that a lab, exists just 20 miles from where the first case happened. Just a coincidence probably. Yes, it’s probably just a coincidence. A similar coincidence occurred a few year ago when the Lyme Disease pathogen jumped from deer ticks to humans. Just a simple coincidence that across the river from the first case was a bioweapons lab.

What do the Chinese know about it?

Could the reason that the Chinese authorities are arresting people without masks and quarantining those with sniffles be that they know something we don’t? Perhaps they know that this virus is far worse than they are willing to admit. Could it be that the virus was stolen abroad and then weaponized in a Chinese lab to airborne infection and that they have unleashed something that scares them. Some people obviously know whether my speculation Is true or not, but they are not speaking. Could this speculation be the reason that the World Health Organization (WHO) just declared a worldwide public health emergency. I mean, it’s a little early for that isn’t it unless they know something we don’t, that is. The WHO declaration will have an immediate effect on travel, on tourism, and many other economic factors.

How to make a killer virus

People who do that kind of work, mad scientists, I suppose one could call them, write that developing a pathogen from animal tissue that can jump to human is easy. The hard part is enabling the disease to be transmitted airborne. If a deer tick actually has to bite someone, then transmission time will be too slow to satisfy a mad scientist. You don’t want the incubation period to be too fast because the disease would kill a few and then burn out as in Ebola. The Wuhan Flu, on the other hand, has the perfect incubation period for transmission, about two weeks, so its victims could have traveled anywhere in the world and infected people before the host even knew he was sick.

A disturbing hypothetical

How does one engineer a deadly pathogen to become transmissible airborne so that it can be transmitted just by breathing? One person could theoretically infect thousands by flying on an airplane. He then passes through busy transportation hubs where people from all over the world travel to their home cities. The mad scientist takes the pathogen, the virus, and he somehow attaches it to the virus causing the common cold. Its transmitted with the cold so at first the victim thinks he only has a cold.

The Wuhan Flu: coincidence?

Am I saying that the Wuhan Flu is a deliberately created bioweapon which, accidentally or deliberately, escaped from a lab? No, I’m not saying that at all. I have no information to lead me to that conclusion except, of course, coincidence. I am saying that when a group of mad scientists start messing around with bioweapons, it creates a perfect environment for a fatal coincidence.

Underreporting

I’m also saying that the number of cases being reported from China are probably significantly underreported. That’s just the nature of authoritarian government. At the time of this recording, Chinese authorities are reporting 10,000 cases with 213 dead, and that’s just in China. Nations around the world are cutting off air service with China and restricting immigration. That combined with falling rates of trade and crashing orders for goods will tend to make China more forthcoming about this disease. One can feel panic starting to set in as the various national governments start to realize what this virus is. They have most likely been told the truth, but they would never pass the truth on to us because its not in their nature.

This virus is deadly because its one of first impression. Its as if it were dropped on us from another planet so no one has any immunity to it.

Worry causes people to speak

According to The New York Times, China’s population, like never before, has started to openly complain online. Worse, they have stopped self-censoring their speech. They are worried. And their willingness to speak Is making it difficult for China to control the narrative of what’s really happening. The cancellation of the Lunar New Year holiday has fueled public outrage.

Face masks are common on the street all over Asia but especially so in China. One doctor I read said the pollution in Chinese cities denies sunlight, thus promoting infection and reducing immunity. Masks are sold out in much of the United States although many doctors think they are ineffective at stopping a microscopic organism except possibly through stopping saliva, however, people on the streets in China without masks are being arrested, and that shows the level of concern because they know what they are dealing with.

A vaccine will come too late but still rake in big $$

On the pharmaceutical front what about a vaccine to stop the virus? Johnson and Johnson (J & J) says it is right on top of it, and can probably have an effective vaccine in about a year. Of course, the virus will probably burn itself out in a month. So when J & J’s vaccine is ready in a year everyone will be ordered to take a useless vaccine. For which J &J will make billions. On the other hand, many agencies, such as CDC, are also working on a vaccine.

The Wuhan Flu has become a threat to government power

Think about what we hear about this virus and about viruses in general. That is, that this virus infected humans through a very rapid mutation. It’s apparently very smart and mutates constantly to spread and avoid destruction. How could a vaccine that is not available for a year possibly stop a virus that has mutated hundreds or thousands of times since then? Governments must tell us something in order to fool us into keeping the power addicted in power. Governments, especially authoritarian ones like China, would not want a billion people charging into the capitol with pitchforks and axes. They must placate the people so as not to allow the desire to revolt and escape the plantation to grow.

This Coronavirus, the Wuhan Flu, is therefore a threat to government power around the world. It’s a threat to the government’s ability to keep order and it’s a threat to the international economies and markets that feed business and tax rolls.

Is it a threat to humanity also?

Finally, folks, is the Wuhan Flu a threat to humanity or just much ado about nothing. I know that it’s something, but I hope and pray that it’s not much.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle.

Editor’s Note:

This article appeared at its original source more than one week ago. The author has since published another on the same subject.

About the image

“Guiyuan Temple, Wuhan” by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0