COVID-19: A crisis manufactured?

The coronavirus is the turning point of the new millennium, something that’s already made it to the annals of history. After all, it's not everyday one witnesses a global shutdown. While the optimistic upshot will be a colossal upscaling of the healthcare system, the current financial crisis is only deepening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Now the question we all should be asking is, 'Who benefits from this crisis?' Chances are that somebody does. The virus has cleverly created a myopic understanding of the calamity whereby the masses are focused on choosing life over death, ignorant of the upcoming ramifications even if they survive.

It was on October 18, 2019, at the World Economic Forum that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in partnership with The Johns Hopkins Centre For Health Security, hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise in New York. Bill Gates’ foresight to predict this pandemic way back in 2015 has struck the curiosity of sceptics like me. The billionaire philanthropist’s Ted Talks sermon is testimony to the point I’m making. The man has already pledged funding for vaccinations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $5 million to support the response in China, the virus-host. To be distributed among private and public partners that the organisation already works with, the Gates’ funding will reach China’s National Health Commission, Chinese Centre For Disease Control and Prevention and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Why would a business magnate invest millions in fighting an outbreak without any returns in the offing? Beware, because Gates, the psychic, has already warned of similar pandemics every two decades.

That Beijing has already gained a geopolitical edge over the west as it battles to contain COVID-19 is no secret. A big shot in the arm is the dragon’s massive Belt and Road initiative but the recent developments have raised the stakes higher. Not only is China leading with medical supplies to hard-hit countries in Europe and Africa, but it is also buying shares in banks across Asia. Case in point is The People’s Bank Of China buying HDFC's 1.75 crore shares worth 1.01 per cent of the shareholding.

Is COVID-19 a bioweapon? I personally believe that it's beyond just a zoonotic disease. As much as we want to support the idea of vegetarianism and lambaste ecological destruction as the cause for microbes jumping on to humans from animals, nobody can deny that consumption of wild meat is an ancient practice. Whether this virus was manufactured at a Wuhan lab or got leaked and reached Wuhan's wet market remains unanswered. But, the role of the Harvard Professor, Charles Leiber, allegedly setting up a laboratory is again questionable and not just a “coincidence”.

Analysts from the Eurasia group have already rated the current scenario as “the first international crisis" where China is actively taking a global leadership role and it stands in particular contrast to the US, which has disdained international cooperation and invested more political capital in criticising Beijing for its role in allowing the outbreak to spread.”

And perhaps it is the western void in multilateral institutions like the WHO that’s now being filled by China. Critics have questioned WHO’s unjustifiably delayed response in declaring the outbreak as a global pandemic in March when the virus had already surfaced in December 2019 in Wuhan. Moving into a new field- Health, Beijing has found a willing partner in the WHO.

After several denials and coverups, China successfully contained the COVID-19 but exported it to the world, now donning the new role of a public health superpower.

FYI, the WHO is dependent on China for funding. And, it was only when its Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, met with Xi Jinping in the end of January that WHO’s international experts were allowed access to China. Until then information by China was merely parroted by the international health body. Taiwan’s warnings were left unheard. Considering Taiwan’s estranged relationship with the dragon, it's not surprising that the country has no representation in a body that’s ironically part of the United Nations.

Termed as a “whacko” conspiracy theorist by many, David Icke talks about the 1 per cent at the top of the pyramid controlling the global economy and manufacturing total collapse of the current world economic system. He does throw some for food for thought though; What will this unprecedented financial disruption lead to?

Think and be ahead of the curve.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)