A Global View of Coronavirus, Medical Policy, and Research

Gerard Chaouat — 2020-08-08T10:16:15Z

In 2019, a new virus of the coronavirus family emerged in Wuhan, China, and the disease that was caused by this virus was named COVID-19 to indicate both the virus associated with it and the year it began. “Patient Zero,” the initial patient, appears officially to have started the epidemic in early December 2019 (though there are some unsubstantiated claims of cases as early as November or even September). For one month, the local Communist Party authorities concealed and later minimized the outbreak and even organized a 4,000-person banquet in Wuhan as the epidemic emerged. This is interesting because it sheds some light on the Chinese state-capitalist bureaucracy as well as the issue of local corruption. This behavior certainly helped the initial spread, while a very active containment strategy, such as was performed in Vietnam, might have strangled the epidemic at its very beginning in China. There is, however, no evidence that the Chinese government intentionally created such a virus. The sequencing of the genome has revealed that the virus originated as a bat virus modified by hybridization in a pangolin. If it were intended for biological warfare, as some have suggested, it would have been much easier to work directly on a nonhybrid strain.

Coronavirus: “We could probably have had a vaccine and/or treatment ready...”

Gerard Chaouat — 2020-03-29T21:15:32Z

This interview with doctor Gérard Chaouat, immunologist, CNRS researcher was conducted by l'Anticapitaliste and published on 25 March.

- IV542 - March 2020 / France, Covid-19 Pandemic

International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

A Global View of Coronavirus, Medical Policy, and Research

Coronavirus: “We could probably have had a vaccine and/or treatment ready...”