Conspiracy theories
Anuradha Dutt
Globalisation's sinister
spill-over was manifest
in the speed with
which panic,
engendered by the
World Health
Organisation's declaration on March
11 this year of a corona virus
pandemic originating in China's
Wuhan, spread. Pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan was WHO's
initial alert on December 31, 2019. On
January 30, WHO declared a public
health emergency of international
concern. Relentless news concerning
the disease brought normal life to a
grinding halt amidst conspiracy
theories about the outbreak.
The Chinese and Americans
reportedly accused each other of bioengineering
Covid-19 or Novel Corona
virus in laboratories as a lethal
leverage tool in the ongoing trade war between the two nations. The United
States pushes the free market, human
rights agenda; while the latter,
adhering to the authoritarian
communist module vigilantly protects
its interests.
China's admission into World Trade
Organisation on December 11, 2001
spurred its rise as a formidable
economic power, with relatively
inexpensive gadgets, electronic
accessories and the like flooding
The spread of coronavirus in China has led to a
massive quarantine
markets around the world. China
blocks the American Google, Facebook, YouTube and similar
internet services for security reasons
But its popular Tik Tok video-sharing
app is accessed globally.
The American trade-linked grouse
against China hinges primarily on
"unfair trade practices" and "high
tariffs", to its own detriment. Real
estate tycoon Donald Trump coasted
to victory in the presidential elections
of the United States of America in
November 2016 on his pledge to
"make America
great again".
His current
run for reelection
in
November is
bolstered by the
slogan "Let
America stay
great". Whether
the pandemic
and related
a l l e g a t i o n s
c o m p r i s e
another episode
in the trade war
or not, the
hypothesis is
that Covid-19 is a
new variant of the old Corona virus
which causes common cold, and is said to have spurred outbreak of SARS
(severe acute respiratory syndrome) in
China in 2002, and MERS (Middle East
respiratory syndrome) in Saudi Arabia
in 2012.
This virus is also zoonotic, travelling
from snakes, bats or exotic animals
such as pangolins and civet cats to
humans. The virus apparently spread
from bats to civets and then humans
in the case of the SARs outbreak; and
to dromedary camels to spur the
MERS spread. The wet animal markets
in Wuhan where these creatures are
sold and slaughtered was identified as
the nurturing ground of the Covid-19
pandemic.
The US's use of the term 'Wuhan
virus' triggered further sparring
between the two nations, with China
objecting to the prefix. Curiously,
American Dean Koontz's 1981 thriller
The Eyes of Darkness anticipated a
lethal disease spread, unleashed by
'Gorki 400'. That was the time of the
cold war between the US and Soviet
Union. After the latter disintegrated,
the 2008 edition of the book renamed
the biological weapon 'Wuhan 400',
oblique reference to the new super
power.
The present scenario is a strange
case of life replicating fiction. An
excerpt – "They call the stuff 'Wuhan-
400' because it was developed at their
RDNA labs outside of the city of
Wuhan, and it was the four hundredth
viable strain of man-made microorganisms
created at that centre". Late
psychic Sylvia Browne's 2008 book,
"End of Days: Predictions and
Prophecies About the End of the
World" averred - ""In around 2020 a
severe pneumonia-like illness will
spread throughout the globe, attacking
the lungs and bronchial tubes resisting
all known treatments. Almost more
baffling than the illness itself will be
the fact that it will suddenly vanish as
quickly as it arrived, attack again ten
years later, and then disappear
completely".
Were these books merely prescient
in anticipating future events? Or do
some scenarios intimate covert
strategising via fiction, cinema, news media and oracles in the struggle for
one-upmanship by hidden forces,
termed the 'deep state', well in
advance? Hollywood films have
explored the prospect of annihilation
by disease or science gone wrong. The
Andromeda Strain (1971), 12 Monkeys
(1995), Outbreak (1995), Contagion
Late psychic Sylvia
Browne's 2008 book,
"End of Days: Predictions
and Prophecies About
the End of the World"
averred - ""In around
2020 a severe
pneumonia-like illness
will spread throughout
the globe, attacking the
lungs and bronchial
tubes resisting all known
treatments. Almost more
baffling than the illness
itself will be the fact that
it will suddenly vanish as
quickly as it arrived,
attack again ten years
later, and then disappear
completely".
(2011) and Pandemic (2016) are films
in this genre. Contagion follows a
trajectory, very close to the present
situation. A woman expires of a
strange malady after returning to
Minnesota from Hong Kong. The
disease spreads quickly, spurring
panic, quarantines, airports emptying
and hasty search for a vaccine. The
suspected nexus between Hollywood
and the deep state has long been
subject of surmise. The World Health
Organisation, nodal international
agency to track and control outbreak
and spread of diseases, was charged
by US President Donald Trump with
projecting China's version of the
pandemic. He stopped funding for the
organisation, a big loss as the US was
the biggest donor.
Meanwhile, China claimed to have
curtailed the disease spread. The alert
first issued from the WHO country
office in China on December 31 last
year. However, WHO failed to
pressurise China to close its wet
animal markets permanently,
assuming that the virus originated
there.
In 'Why I'm taking the Coronavirus
hype with a pinch of salt', The
Guardian, March 6, Simon Jenkins
observes - "When hysteria is rife, we
might try some history. In 1997 we
were told that bird flu could kill
millions worldwide. Thankfully, it did
not. The first Sars outbreak of 2003
was reported by as having 'a 25%
chance of killings tens of millions' and
being 'worse than Aids'. In 2006,
another bout of bird flu was declared
'the first pandemic of the 21st century',
the scares in 2003, 2004 and 2005
having failed to meet their body
counts.
Then, in 2009, pigs replaced birds.
The BBC announced that swine flu
'could really explode'. The chief
medical officer, Liam Donaldson,
declared that '65,000 could die'. He
spent £560m on a Tamiflu and
Relenza stockpile, which soon
deteriorated. The Council of Europe's
health committee chairman
described the hyping of the
2009 pandemic as 'one of the great medical scandals of the century'.
Should public life really be
conducted on a worst-case basis"?
Research in developing a vaccine to
counter the virus is ongoing. BCG, an
anti-TB vaccine that has been used
since 80 years is being recommended
to strengthen immunity. Other existing
medicines are also being proposed:
Remdesivir, effective against Ebola,
SARS, MERS; antifever and painkiller
paracetamol; anti-HIV combination
Lopinavir and Ritonavir; Tami Flu
tablets; and time-tested anti-malaria
chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine.
This recycling of old medicines for a
new malady raises questions about
the intrinsic nature of the disease,
especially because persons above 60
and those with pre-existing ailments
are said to be more at risk.
Under siege responses to the
pandemic were determined by local
contexts and followed different
trajectories. • G20 comprises
announced over $5 trillion to boost
world economy and counter the
pandemic. Some members were
reported worst hit by the pandemic,
notably China, India, US, UK, Canada,
France, Italy and Spain. Chinese
migrants in Italy and Spain, employed
in the fashion sector and factories,
were suspected of transposing the
virus after visiting their motherland for
Chinese new year observances.
India was the first SAARC (South
Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation) nation to announce a
grant, $10 million, for a Covid-19
emergency fund. Pakistan responded
with a $3 million grant. Contrary to
India's enforced immobility and home
confinement, Prime Minister Imran
Khan declared that a complete
lockdown was unfeasible. "The chaos
and panic is more dangerous than
corona virus", he said. • Kosovo's
government fell over its handling
of the crisis. • In Hungary, a
state of Emergency was imposed on
March 11, to be extended indefinitely.
Offenders faced a five-year jail term. •
Belarus President Alexander
Lukashenko mocked the pandemic
as "psychosis, advising work on the fields, sports, vodka as remedies.
As nations went overnight into
lockdown and leaders and royals into
quarantine, some chose to play down
fears. Three South American
Presidents – Brazil's Jair Bolasaro,
Mexico's Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador and Nicaragua's Daniel
Ortega – were sceptical of the virus
impact and 'social distancing' mandate
laid down by health experts. • Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
struggling to continue at the helm after
his alliance failed to win a majority in
the elections, went twice into
quarantine. Opponents saw this as a
dilatory tactic. Soon after Brexit, when
Should public life really be
conducted on a worst-case
basis"? Research in developing
a vaccine to counter the virus
is ongoing. BCG, an anti-TB
vaccine that has been used
since 80 years is being
recommended to strengthen
immunity.
UK quit European Union on January
31, British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson was quarantined and sent
into intensive case. This spurred
conjectures about succession. He soon
emerged from the ICU. • The event is
almost a replay of the past.
In 1918, weeks before the end of
World War I, British Prime Minister
Lloyd George was similarly afflicted
during the Spanish Flu pandemic and
placed on a ventilator. He recovered.
US President Donald Trump and his
delegation returned in late February to
the US from India where communal
riots and protests on roads in Delhi by
opponents of Citizenship Amendment
Act and impending population
update was a huge embarrassment for
the BJP-led ruling alliance. Dismissing
the corona outbreak as a "hoax"
geared to sabotage the presidential
polls, slated for November 3, he soon
diluted his stance amid mounting
pressure. Safety measures were implemented in vulnerable areas.
Saudi Arabia called a ceasefire in
the five-year war in Yemen. • South
Korea went ahead with holding
elections. • Here, as flights curtailed,
traffic went off roads, and train
services limited to transporting goods,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made
sombre television appearances,
advising vigilance. On March 22, 5 pm,
Indians, following his counsel, beat
metal plates and blew shankh in a bid
to scare away the virus.. • Following
the prolonged lockdown, beginning
March 24, work places, factories and
construction sites shut down: and
shrines across India closed. Marriages
and festivities were put off, schools
and colleges shut, examinations were
suspended. Washing hands frequently
and "social distancing" were drummed
into the collective psyche via telecast
directives and word by mouth. Sales of
face masks and sanitisers escalated.
Labs and insurance companies
expanded their services to cover the
new disease. • The huge jobless and
homeless migrant work force flocked
to states' borders in a desperate effort
to cross over and return home.
Mr Modi apologised via his audio
broadcast 'Mann ki Baat' on March 29
for the hardship suffered by the
multitude, left to the vagaries of fate.
Temporary shelters and community
kitchens proliferated even as police
patrolling to prevent migrants from
breaching borders intensified. • At the
prime minister's behest on April 5, at
9.9 pm, electric lights were switched
off and candles, oil lamps and the like
dispelled the darkness for nine
minutes across India. This act was
seen to invoke unseen forces.
Astrological undercurrents
enhanced the mystery. • Migrant
inflow was stalled by the closing of
borders by the US, Europe and India
where inter-state borders too were
sealed. Operations to unearth 'virusinfected'
categories honed into
Tablighi Jamaat clerics and even
gurdwara inmates clustering together.
It was an unprecedented crisis that
blurred the line between real and
hidden dangers.
Quarantine or detention
Kapil Sibal
From Carona to Maulana Congress leader Kapil
Sibal stirred up a hornet's nest via his reported
comment equating corona quarantine centres with
d e t e n t i o n
centres. As 'hot
spots' that posed
'virus infection'
risks were
sealed off and
hundreds were
'quarantined',
s t a t e
g o v e r nme n t s
intensified their
search for virus
carriers. Those prone to read between the lines saw
the thrust of the exercise as quite different.
Several hundred clerics, many from abroad, who
had congregated at Tablighi Jamaat's Markaz in
Delhi's Nizamuddin West for a religious event on
Kapil Sibal
From Carona to Maulana Congress leader Kapil
Sibal stirred up a hornet's nest via his reported
comment equating corona quarantine centres with
d e t e n t i o n
centres. As 'hot
spots' that posed
'virus infection'
risks were
sealed off and
hundreds were
'quarantined',
s t a t e
g o v e r nme n t s
intensified their
search for virus
carriers. Those prone to read between the lines saw
the thrust of the exercise as quite different.
Several hundred clerics, many from abroad, who
had congregated at Tablighi Jamaat's Markaz in
Delhi's Nizamuddin West for a religious event on
Maulana Saad
Kandhalv
March 22 were taken away
for testing after the area
was cordoned off. Results
showed some to be
infected. Maulana Saad
Kandhalv heads the Delhi
faction of Tablighi Jamaat,
a revanchist organisation
that engages in
conversions, and has
millions of adherents. His
audio message claimed that
he was in "self-quarantine".
Tablighi Jamaat, blamed
here for increase in cases, is facing flak in Malaysia
and Pakistan too for the disease spread. On April 7,
Assam MLA and India United Democratic Front
(AIUDF) leader Aminul Islam was arrested for giving
a communal twist to testing and quarantine of virus
suspects.