There was a time when we were considered “the sick man of Asia.” They were speaking mostly in economic terms. That label was erased during the Aquino administration.
Three Wall Street Journal writers wrote last week an item and called China, “the Real Sick Man of Asia.” They were promptly expelled by Chinese authorities. The authorities claimed the title/headline of the article “slandered the efforts of the Chinese government and the Chinese people to fight the (coronavirus) epidemic.”
It is not the first time that a deadly virus originated from Wuhan, China. There was a similar one in Wuhan some 40 years ago, or in 1981.
An American mother then thought her son had died because he mysteriously disappeared while on a trip. She exerted efforts to locate her missing son since there were persisting signs indicating he may still be alive.
She would eventually track her son, who was being held in a military facility after having been accidentally contaminated with a man-made microorganism created at a research center in Wuhan. It was explained to her that a Chinese scientist named Li Chen had defected to the United States carrying a “record of China’s most important and dangerous biological weapon.”
The weapon was developed at the RDNA laboratory outside the City of Wuhan, as part of a military biological weapons program. “It was the 400th viable strain of man-made microorganism created at that research center.” And so, it came to be called the “Wuhan-400.”
Wuhan-400 was called the “perfect” biological weapon because it afflicts only human beings. Civilians, however, soon became sick after accidentally contracting the virus. “The Chinese tested it on many political prisoners and they were never able to find an antibody or an antibiotic that was effective against it.”
What is the difference between the Coronavirus disease-2019 (Covid-19) from the Wuhan-400 of 1981?
Covid-19 is real. The Wuhan-400 is contained in a work of fiction, written by author Dean Koontz. The title of his fictional Wuhan virus work, which was written in 1981, is “Eyes of Darkness.” Very few copies of the book now exist.
How could an author, some 40 years ago, write and describe a phenomenon that is uncannily similar to what is taking place today? He even pinpoints the exact location in China where the virus first appeared or was created. And that is Wuhan. Is this merely a case of a weird coincidence?
If you want to muddle the mix some more, there is also a report that an alleged Chinese “defector” named Miles Guo, who like the fictional scientist in the “Eyes of Darkness,” has emerged and claims that Chinese authorities plotted the present-day Coronavirus Project.This is a fringe conspiracy theory that many claims is false or has been debunked.
Guo, however, insists on his claim and that what he describes as the so-called Pandora’s box will be revealed Feb. 29 and the world will see the real seriousness of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Should we believe him, assuming such a character really exists? Well, Feb. 29, Saturday, is not too far away. The test of the pudding is in the eating. Let us see what happens on Feb. 29 and hope he is wrong and that all of this was “much ado about nothing.”
In the meantime, however, Covid-19 is true. It exists and continues to wreak havoc, not only on the health of many people in many countries around the world, but is also adversely affecting the world economy.
The Philippines has been lucky so far. Even without so much as seriously lifting a finger, we have managed to escape the virus. We hope it shall stay that way.
April 26, 2024
