Written by John Furlan
Dems, Media, Experts Must Demand Pompeo Prove His Covid-19 China Allegations or Leave
Last Sunday Pompeo claimed that “there’s enormous evidence” that Covid-19 came from a China lab. Either Pompeo produces the evidence or he should be fired. Otherwise he will have done grave damage to the international credibility of the U.S., already quite low due to Trump’s dysfunctional response to Covid-19.
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So far no reputable officials, including Fauci, doctors, scientists and science-based organizations have agreed with Pompeo’s charge. So Pompeo should either put up or be fired. Doing so by Trump will at least start to restore a modicum of rationality to his administration.
That Pompeo put up or leave should be demanded by Democratic politicians, starting with Biden and Pelosi, if they don’t do so, then they will be complicit with the Trump administration in its rapidly deteriorating relationship with China, which has been negatively impacting public opinion about China, e.g. a recent Pew poll.
It should also be demanded by editorials in the major liberal media, especially the NYT and WaPo, and by honest journalists. American China experts who posted a WaPo op-ed last July 4 on the escalating trade/tech war should do so again on Covid-19 issues.
“Pompeo should not be allowed to hide behind the excuse of national security and compromising sources.”
Most importantly, scientists and medical experts should also organize to post their own op-ed on not making Covid-19 a political football and on the necessity of global cooperation, e.g. on vaccines (see my May 4 article).
Pompeo should not be allowed to hide behind the excuse of national security and compromising sources. That’s how Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush lied the U.S. into the Iraq war and its subsequent quagmire on false charges that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and ties with Al-Qaeda. Pompeo’s charges against China are going down a similar slippery slope, especially if Trump’s re-election seems in trouble.
What Actually Happened in China
If interested in the details go to the Wikipedia article titled “Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic,” and the two timelines there for November to December and January. Excerpts from timelines, numbered footnotes in Wiki:
Dec 31: “The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission released a briefing on its website about the pneumonia outbreak in the city.[27] The message on finding pneumonia of unknown cause was circulated through news agencies, including state television[22] … international news agencies Reuters and Deutsche Welle as well as Hong Kong based South China Morning Post: Hong Kong takes emergency steps as mystery ‘pneumonia’ infects 27 in Wuhan[24]”
Jan 1: “US CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield was briefed about the severity of the virus from his Chinese counterparts Dr. George F. Gao when he was on vacation with his family – according to reports, what he heard “rattled him.”[10]”
Jan 2: “WHO declared that its three concerned levels (China country office, Regional Office for the Western Pacific and headquarters) have been working together to respond to the outbreak.”
“China locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, far larger than NYC, on January 23. Experts in the U.S. soon reacted, but Trump waited until mid-March to heed such advice.”
Jan 3: “China formally notified US on the outbreak. At a White House briefing in March 20, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said officials had been alerted to the initial reports of the virus by discussions between CDC director Robert Redfield and Chinese CDC Director Dr. Gao on Jan. 3. Mr. Azar also told his chief of staff to make sure that the National Security Council was aware that “this (the outbreak) is a very big deal” [17][18][19]”
China locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, far larger than NYC, on January 23. Experts in the U.S. soon reacted, but Trump waited until mid-March to heed such advice.
E.g. Luciana Borio and Scott Gottlieb, two now very well-known Covid-19 experts, on January 28 posted a WSJ Op-Ed titled “Act Now to Prevent an American Epidemic. Quarantines, flu vaccines and other steps to take before the Wuhan virus becomes widespread.”
Does Pompeo Think No One Would Notice His Political Shell Game?
Pompeo’s attacks against China have occurred at the same time as a huge increase in projected U.S. Covid-19 deaths, partly due to the opening up of many states. E.g. IHME on May 4 increased its projection of deaths by August 4 from 72,433 to 134,475.
Did Pompeo think no one would notice the correlation and timing? Perhaps Fox News‘ most die-hard viewers won’t.
But those who have understood include the leaders and citizens of China. While its top leaders have exercised restraint so far to Pompeo’s provocations, it is increasingly hard for others in China to “bide their time.”
Reactions in China to recent U.S. China bashing range from incredulity, to anger, even pity that U.S. politics has sunk so low. Perhaps unwittingly, Pompeo is making Xi’s case for the superiority of China’s system to its citizens, thus lessening chances of China reform, perhaps to the benefit of hard-liners and chagrin of reformists there.
“the U.S. continues to travel down Trump’s slippery slope of confrontation between China and the increasingly dysfunctional U.S. political system”
Pompeo’s accusation are part of a larger Trump narrative trying to shift the blame for Covid-19 onto China. China is certainly not blameless, and it admits as much, even in the editorials of its nationalist Global Times, e.g. from a May 5 editorial:
“Wuhan didn’t send out strong enough alert at the early stage. However, we have to be clear that it took time for medical experts in China to learn about the new virus.”
But the main blame for the huge number of U.S. deaths, currently 78,616, far more than any other nation, falls squarely on Trump, who was extremely slow to react to impending crisis. I won’t cite the details of his failure, they are repeated ad nauseam by the liberal media.
It is critical that the mainstream media and editorial boards, especially NYT and WaPo, get the Pompeo story right, otherwise it will also be responsible if the U.S. continues to travel down Trump’s slippery slope of confrontation between China and the increasingly dysfunctional U.S. political system, see my May 1 article on the latter.
Make America and World Awesome, MAWA.
This article was adapted from a commentary at Medium 06 May 2020.
Photo credit: timesofisrael.com
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