Part I of Two Parts
Today is the second day of "deconfinement" here in France, and Parisians have enthusiastically reclaimed their liberty.
At least, as much as the government has allotted us, for now.
This evening along the banks of the Seine near Pont Louis-Philippe, ages young, youthful and old are all out enjoying the evening sunshine, many of them sharing a bottle of rosé, as is customary for this time of year.
Some are wearing masks. Some are keeping a distance from their friends.
Everyone is elated to be out of isolation and confinement. That much is clear.
Yet, what is still not clear, is how Paris became a hotspot for the coronavirus in the first place? In the trickle of new information we are occasionally enlightened with, the BBC is now reporting that the first COVID-19 case in Paris was on Dec. 27, 2019.
This means the virus may have arrived in Europe almost a month earlier than previously thought. Dr Yves Cohen said a swab taken at the time was recently tested, and came back positive for Covid-19. Intrigue seems to heighten on a daily basis, as to the origins and the What, When, Where and How of this COVID19 pandemic. The latest, reported by NBC and Tweeted by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., seems to point to cell phone records from the Wuhan Virology laboratory indicating some kind of anomaly – an accident? — as early as October 2019.
"Would be interesting if someone analyzed commercial telemetry data at & near Wuhan lab from Oct-Dec 2019," Sen. Rubio tweeted. "If it shows dramatic drop off in activity compared to previous 18 months it would be a strong indication of an incident at lab & of when it happened." (NBC).
So while this biocatastrophe keeps unraveling, while at the same time unraveling our economies and the fabric of our societies and lives, there is one thing that remains constant: Until we have a vaccine, COVID-19 remains a deadly virus.
COVID19 may not have started as a bioweapon.
But it is one now — until we have a vaccine, and one that is widely available to rich and poor alike, COVID19 is a bioweapon.
Make no mistake about it.
The Global Competition To Develop a Vaccine
If you haven't yet read Rosemary Gibson's book, "China RX," please do so.
In it, she discusses China's systematic and often ruthless path to becoming the world's supplier of medicines. They even have an official national mandate: to be the world's pharmacy by 2025.
In the U.S. we have been particularly myopic these past decades, willingly allowing ourselves and our loved ones to be potentially enslaved by a rival global power by allowing China near total control of our supply of pharmaceuticals and medicinal raw ingredients.
One could even say that we ceded our health and well-being to a nation bent on profiteering and controlled by an authoritarian communist party.
This is what Ms. Gibson had to say during her 2019 congressional testimony:
"We’re becoming like a developing country with our medicines . . .
"Mothers who give their children generic antibiotics for ear infections;
seniors who take generic antibiotics for pneumonia, and patients in the
hospital with life-threatening sepsis are likely dependent on the mercy
of China to supply core components.
"When it comes to medicines, this is China’s approach to achieving its
stated goal to become the pharmacy to the world." — Rosemary Gibson
Mystery still shrouds this virus outbreak that quickly became a pandemic.
Consider two very relevant facts to this deadly saga known at this time of writing:
That patient zero, a lab researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Lab, was sick, then disappeared and now cannot be found; Wuhan Institute of Virology researcher Huang Yanling, thought to be patient zero, disappeared and her biography was deleted from the lab’s website. The institute denied she is patient zero, saying she is alive.
But no one has heard from her. See the South Asian Journal.
The second relevant fact for us to consider here is that the Chinese Communist Party government has refused, and even blocked, an international inquiry into the origins of this COVID-19 pandemic.
What we do know about this virology institute, according to France24, is:
The institute is home to the China Centre for Virus Culture Collection, the largest virus bank in Asia which preserves more than 1,500 strains, according to its website.
The complex contains Asia's first maximum security lab equipped to handle Class 4 pathogens (P4) — dangerous viruses that pose a high risk of person-to-person transmission, such as Ebola.
The 300 million yuan ($42 million) lab was completed in 2015, and finally opened in 2018, with the founder of a French bio-industrial firm, Alain Merieux, acting as a consultant in its construction.
The world justifiably has questions. And China alone is blocking a judicious, international inquiry. Isn't that a human rights violation? A violation for all those who are infected, all those who died and all of us who lost loved ones to this virus?
Paige Donner has contributed to Newsmax since 2018. She's a media expert and commentator, novelist, and serial entrepreneur. She founded the company, Paris Food And Wine in 2013. In 2018, she founded IoTShipping, a supply chain logistics startup that uses the Internet of Things (IoT) for precision traceability of shipped goods. Paige began her journalism career in Paris, France in 1990. Her first job out of university was with Time-Life's rue Fbg. St. Honore offices. Within the next two years, she took freelancing work as a copy editor for the International Herald Tribune, now re-branded the International New York Times, as well as writing assignments for Variety — the film and television trade magazine. Paige has also clerked for the Senate President of the Hawaii State Legislature. A filmmaker, she has written several television pilots as well as directed television commercials and film shorts. She also contributed to American Cinematographer, the Los Angeles Times, Daily Variety, Huffpost, and a film production trade magazine, Below The Line. As of 2010, Paige has again made Paris, France her home. She has also written for the International New York Times. Since 2013, she has been the sole regular local editor/photographer contributor based in Paris, France for USA Today. Read Paige Donner's Reports — More Here.
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