'Something's not right? US H1N1 virus compared with China coronavirus

male hand holding phone with warning virus alert alarm

06/02/2020

Remember the US’s 2009 swine flu pandemic, the one that infected 59m Americans, with 265,000 hospitalised and some 18,500 dead in just one year? Do you remember US borders being closed, whole cities in quarantine, travel bans imposed by foreign governments? No?

So isn’t that an interesting point?

OK, this isn’t really freight, but there is a great article on LinkedIn asking why the Chinese have come under such negative scrutiny – both in terms of its government response, and the actions of people around the world. Why are Chinese restaurants in Arizona empty, for example? The author also points out that in any crisis there is supply chain disruption, and medical supplies often struggle to be delivered on time and in the right quantity. This is no different from any other humanitarian crisis. And the Chinese government response has been pretty astonishing – where else could you build a whole hospital in 10 days? As Bloomberg notes, China has effectively sacrificed a province to save the world – although not everyone agrees with the methods. But the author states: “The world should be applauding China’s unprecedented, broad, aggressive response.”

Read this article, and go to support your local Chinese restaurant this weekend. Because “something’s not right here”.

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James Teng
February 06, 2020 at 3:27 pm
Thanks for publishing this article. Do not let politics and racism ruin humanity.

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Jonathan Holmes
February 07, 2020 at 8:51 am
I think one should be careful when characterizing the response of the Chinese government. The MO of the CCP is to protect the authority of the CCP at all costs including human lives.

Cases of infection showed up in early December and were vehemently denied by the official press until there were so many that it could no longer be denied. Doctors who were treating patients were gagged and in some cases punished. The whistleblower doctor, Li Wenliang, passed away not even a day ago. Please check the details of his story.

Regarding the “hospital” that was built. Basically that is fake news. This is not a hospital in the Western definition. This is a military field facility run by the PLA. It has bars on the windows and the doors lock from the outside. It’s more like a medical brig.

Travel has been suspended and restrictions at borders raised around the world because the governments of the world do not trust the CCP. Their history of violating human rights and civil norms is long and distinguished. People around the world are all too aware of that fact.

CCP Pragmatism in the form of “sacrificing” some lives to save others has been lauded in various circles throughout history. However, we never hear the side of the people being sacrificed. The people who are re-educated through forced labor. The people forcibly migrated into the large urban areas as fodder for factories.
The CCP will never allow that point of view to be widely known as it exposes the brutality of their so-called pragmatism.

Good luck to the people of China

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- Nhs
  February 09, 2020 at 5:02 am
  I really find your comment quite bizarre. This is a world crisis for everyone, you shouldn’t be too political about it. No matter what the CCP’s motives are, like you said human life is also one of their concerns. At this crucial time, if still focusing on the country, you are not humane at all, because you are still very concerned about the CCP, you never cared about the people in China and how they would suffer if you see the CCP as an enemy in this regard.
  Regarding the hospitals that have been built, it does not matter if this is a hospital in a western definition, as long as it contains the virus and helps lockdown the outspread to other regions or nations and offers treatment, then I would support it and applaud to it.
  Thirdly, I don’t think the lockdown of the borders of other countries is due to the distrust for the PPC. In front of virus there is no difference between CCP and other democratic powers. The virus doesn’t distinguish between them. Please check the link below for further information about H1N1 virus. My explanation for the big lockdown is that other countries learned their previous lessons from the H1N1 that how serious the virus is in general.
  https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html
  We should not be targeting one country, this could happen to any country, and what we should do is to fight it back as soon as possible.
  
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