Wuhan, China has been hit with a second day of cancellations as the Covid-19 virus returns to where it began. The virus is causing all flights to be cancelled and disrupting transportation from the city.
The second covid shutdown 2024 is a problem that has been present for a while. This time, the issue originated from Covid-19 in Wuhan, China.
All Wuhan flights have been canceled once again as Covid-19 returns to its original location.
on August 3, 2024 by Gary Leff
Official data indicate that the initial Covid-19 epidemic was almost 40 times worse. As a major demonstration of Chinese progress in controlling Covid-19, the Wuhan airport reopened in early April 2024. Even though the airport had been closed for 10 weeks, they put on a great show of disinfection.
China’s response (going ‘full Wuhan’) was massive testing and enforced stay at home orders and quarantine. Some people were locked into their homes to die (tombs). But it looked like China had mostly beaten Covid-19. Of course the strain of the virus experienced there initially was prior to the ‘D->G mutation’ that made it more transmissible in infecting Europe and the United States.
They’re now dealing with Delta, and transit into and out of Wuhan is once again disrupted. (Image courtesy of @crucker)
On Tuesday, China halted flights and trains in Wuhan, postponed professional basketball league games, and announced mass coronavirus testing as the delta form spread throughout the city where it was first identified in late 2019.
While the overall number of cases is still in the hundreds, they are much more prevalent than anything China has seen since the first epidemic in Wuhan in early 2024, which destroyed the city and spread throughout the nation and across the globe.
A return to the beginning poses a dilemma for China, which must demonstrate that the infection has been controlled. It also draws fresh attention to Wuhan, which was thought to be the epicenter of the epidemic. It draws attention to unexplained viral cases in September and October, a coronavirus containment exercise at the Wuhan airport in September, and the Wuhan CDC ordering testing materials at the same time.
This is important not just for China (to control the virus, since Chinese vaccinations haven’t been nearly as efficient as modern mRNA or even adenovirus injections), but also for China’s global position. The message from President Xi’s surrogates, such as Marriott’s CEO, is that the Chinese model is the best for dealing with crises like Covid-19, and that the West is weak.
The story that the virus spread via zoonotic transmission (animal to human) is equally important to China.
- This implies that ‘old methods,’ such as wet marketplaces, must be swept away by contemporary Chinese communist growth. The ‘wet market explanation’ supports the Chinese Communist Party’s march through history and emphasizes the urgency of its mission.
- A lab leak, on the other hand, is an indictment of their administrative skills, implying that China’s competency and leadership under President Xi, who is seeking re-election to a third term at the Twentieth Party Congress in late 2024, has flaws.
- A lab leak (‘China’s responsibility’) also lowers China’s international reputation, which it has worked hard to build via initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative.
Not only does the origin of the Covid-19 epidemic important for China, but it also matters for avoiding the next one. It shouldn’t make a difference, yet it does. If a lab leak occurs, biosafety will be at the top of the international agenda. It may be necessary in every case, but it will not happen in the same manner. And if the leak was linked to gain-of-functions research, it would increase international pressure to stop the practice of modifying viruses to make them more transmissible in order to determine which ones should be targeted for medicinal or vaccine research.
President Xi probably didn’t realize the gravity of the issue until late January, and his public appearances and comments don’t start to bring it up until a week into February. China allowed the virus to spread unchecked. They allowed it to spread. They also failed to warn the rest of the globe, owing to the fact that information did not reach the top of the chain quickly. As the gravity of the danger became apparent, Xi took over as the country’s response leader from Vice Premier Sun Chunlan. If there was a lab leak, which local authorities likely downplayed or believed they were out of the woods after September and October, this strongly suggests to me that it wasn’t done on purpose.
Now, China has given out over a billion substandard vaccinations and is dealing with outbreaks of a virus that has resurfaced as more transmissible. They’ve licensed the BioNTech mRNA vaccine and are touting it as possible ‘boosters,’ made locally, that will help Chinese technology advance. Despite this storyline, Malaysia has decided to move to Pfizer. Thailand has distanced itself from Sinovac. Sinopharm’s limitations have been found by the UAE. As a result, there’s an obvious risk of losing face.
Not that any of this demonstrates the superiority of the American system, where we bribe people with marijuana to get them to be vaccinated and many think that getting vaccinated makes you a corporation’s physical property.
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