Being the text of a contributory article – submitted on January 1st 2021- that should have been published as a part of a University’s March 2021 syndicated book.
AUTHOR’S BIO
Oriyomi Lawal is an independent researcher who runs a fact-checking website that requires him to critically examine available scientific and academic body of knowledge on contemporary issues which he then presents in language appropriate for a lay audience. His cross-disciplinary approach to research stems from a multidisciplined academic background as a computer scientist and a supply chain manager. His writing on Covid-19 and “experts” in March 2020 went viral as he critiqued the “isolate until deadly sick” treatment protocol adopted as standard for Covid-19 infection. His current research is on mRNA vaccines and its effect on the future of the world.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus is named for the spikes on its surface – similar to spikes on royal crowns. Whilst the contemporary lay populace assume SARS-CoV-2 is “the” coronavirus, it is an agreed fact that it is the genus of a family of viruses that include the common cold, bird flu, Spanish flu and some others. It would however appear that the epidemic and consequent pandemic caused by COVID-19 could itself be traced to human “spikes” on the surface of the outbreak itself. Just as the spikes on the coronavirus determine how the virus can lock onto its host cells, the human spikes arguably determined how the pandemic was able to lock onto the society to disrupt the global economy. These “spikes” include WHO, CDCs, Governments, Mainstream media, Social media giants (Big Tech) and the PRC.
INTRODUCTION
Coronaviruses
Coronaviruses are a class of virus whose spikes looks like that seen on crowns, thence the prefix “corona” which means “crown.” (Madigan & Brock, 2009; Quinn et al., 2013). There are different types of coronaviruses affecting the human and animal population (Siddell, 1995; Quinn et al., 2013; Mahajan & Hirsch, 2020). Whilst the latest coronavirus christened SARS-CoV-2 (which causes COVID-19) by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is said to be novel, the symptoms it causes, the mode of transmission and means of propagation appears to be closely identical to all other coronaviruses (Babazadeh et al., 2020). It could thus be argued that SARS-Cov-2 is novel only in nomenclature.
Wuhan in China is mostly agreed to be the location of patient zero for the virus (Perlman, 2020). There was however an attempt by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to obfuscate the exact origin within the city of Wuhan (Smith, 2020). Chinese authority blamed a wet-market where bats were sold in Wuhan for the outbreak as they downplayed the fact a research laboratory near the market is documented working on SARS-CoV-1 virus (Perlman, 2020; “Dr. Fauci backed funding for controversial Wuhan lab studying origin of coronavirus,” 2020). The inability to have access to samples from patient-zero arguably delayed the medical response by other nations in finding a treatment regimen for this virus (Hodge, 2020; “Peter Navarro: Patient zero was in Wuhan mid-November,” 2020).
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
(Credit – Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)
Role in the virus outbreak
WHO could be said to have politicized the outbreak when the organization handling of PRC refusal to allow access to patient-zero is examined (The Washington Times, 2020). The naming of the novel virus appears to be the first indication of the influence of international politics in the response to this virus. It contributed to the build-up culminating in the USA exit of the WHO. Whilst viruses are named by The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, the initial name given by the media and commentators to the virus was “Wuhan/China virus” because it was believed to have emanated from Wuhan due to the reported cases of the first sets of victims who presented with the “pneumonia-like” disease of “unknown” origin (Gorvett, 2020). This nomenclature used by the media follows historically accepted nomenclature for naming diseases by prefixing them with where their outbreak began or where it first became predominant – Wuhan in this case satisfied both. Historical examples include “Ebola Virus” named after river Ebola in Congo where the virus first gained international attention (Gorvett, 2020). Lassa fever (a deadly disease carried by rodents) was similarly named after the town of Lassa in Nigeria where the virus gained prominence, ditto Zika virus which was named after a forest in Uganda where the virus was first isolated in 1947 (“What we know about Zika,” 2019; Gorvett, 2020). The Spanish flu though not originated from Spain but still named after a country (Trilla, Trilla & Daer, 2008; Hoppe, 2018). It thus begs the question why WHO did not attempt to rename these viruses and disease to protect the people in those countries from discrimination (Hoppe, 2018), a case they made in their explanation as to why they didn’t want the virus named after Wuhan or called “Chinese” virus (Thurbun, 2020).
This response by WHO to the origin and nomenclature of the virus greatly affected the response to the virus worldwide going by the loss of US funding as a direct consequence of the US exit from the organization (Griffiths, 2020; Hoffman & Vazquez, 2020). This response eventually became an international row between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China with WHO in the center. It culminated in the exit of the USA from the WHO with the US citing WHO’s refusal to hold China accountable as one of the main reasons for pulling out (Hoffman & Vazquez, 2020).
The foregoing thus arguably puts WHO’s response to the outbreak and spread in question. The process of scientific inquiry welcomes the plurality of opinions and exploration of alternatives theories (Redish, Kummerfeld, Morris & Love, 2018). It would thus be expected that an organization like WHO would welcome findings and opinions from the universe of the academia and the scientific community, but events appear to reveal a quest to push a particular sanctioned narrative which led to unprecedented censorship of information coming from very qualified voices (Koetsier, 2020; Peek, 2020). This action and inaction by WHO cast it in public light as a political tool of some nations rather an international organization whose core mandate is the medical protection of the planet irrespective of where the evidence of leads.
WHO and The Spread of Covid-19
The role of WHO in the international politics of the virus – which the author thinks WHO should have avoided – also arguably counterproductively affected the spread of the virus. The virus attracted international attention circa December 2019 (Mahajan & Hirsch, 2020). One of the immediate concerns was its spread over international borders (Gilbertson, 2020) and how it is propagated. Whilst it was already known at this time that it was a coronavirus (which typically spread from person to person), WHO accepted the official narration from the PRC that there was little/no “evidence” of human-to-human transmission of this particular coronavirus (Perlman, 2020). This narrative directly impacts the eventual subsequently touted most potent defence that could be mounted against such a virus – social distancing protocols. Whilst WHO may have been trying to preserve international commerce and free movement of goods and services, it would appear WHO violated its core mandate going by the articles stated in its own constitution – “The objective of the World Health Organization (hereinafter called the Organization) shall be the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.” (WHO constitution).
The United States nevertheless went her own way, asserted her sovereignty and was the first country to ban commercial and private flights from China into the United States. This travel ban was done in February of 2020 (Tate & Gibertson, 2020) in the bid to stop the spread of the virus into the US. It is on record that WHO spoke against the US ban of Chinese flights, calling it needless (Nebehay, 2020; Ollstein, 2020). This statement found political traction in the United States where the US President’s actions were labelled “xenophobic.” It arguably stalled the required behavioral modification required in the US to quickly halt the spread – pointedly social distancing. Political opposition went on camera mingling with possible Chinese returnees in a possible political showmanship (Re, 2020). It could then thus be surmised that WHO’s position on flight ban could be reason why there was no uniform halt of international movements until well into late March when other countries across the world decided to close their borders in their staggered response to the then declared pandemic (Re, 2020). The early ban of travels from China would later be credited for saving millions of American lives (Italiano, 2020).
Response and Impact of WHO’s Actions
The immediate impact of WHO’s action was the politicization of a public health issue. The investment of time and effort by WHO to keep China’s name from the nomenclature and “praising” of China’s response (Feldwisch-Drentrup, 2020) – despite opacity of information and censorship of Chinese whistle-blowers – negatively impacted the credibility of information coming from the WHO. This subsequently affected the confidence in the treatment protocol published by the Chinese authorities and the Chinese medical community (Wen, Aston, Liu & Ying, 2020). The lack of confidence in information emanating from China could be argued as the reason why treatment protocol began to vary from country to country for the same disease.
Initial treatment protocol that emanated from China included the use of chloroquine phosphate and azithromycin regimen to treat those infected with the virus (Babazadeh et al., 2020). The effectiveness of chloroquine CQ) in successful inhibition of coronaviruses though disputed, had been documented as far back as 2005 (Vincent et al., 2005). Various medical doctors who treated COVID-19 patients also published their findings regarding the efficacy of CQ in combination with the dietary supplement – Zinc Oxide (Miller & Shannon, 2020; ABC7.com, 2020). Other studies and clinical trials however arrived at opposing conclusions stating the over 65yr old drug was not only ineffective but also dangerous (USFDA, 2020), yet others affirm its efficacy (Arshad et al., 2020). Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) – a less toxic analogue of chloroquine – is used for the treatment of lupus, arthritis and routinely prescribed as a malaria parasite prophylaxis for those traveling into malaria prone areas (Ruiz-Irastorza & Khamashta, 2008; Dörner, 2010; Drugs.com, 2020). The very same demography more at risk of developing COVID-19 after contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus (Lee et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2020) are also the ones who mostly are prescribed HCQ to manage arthritis. It thus becomes debatable how the HCQ being taken by an older population was reported as deadly. When it is taken into consideration that the only named reported death outside clinical settings from the use of HCQ in the United States was from the use of an expired fish tank cleaner HCQ clearly labelled as “not for human consumption” (FOX TV, 2020; Webmd, 2020), the “its deadly” narrative perhaps requires a revisit? In Nigeria, there remains no evidence of death from chloroquine outside or within clinical settings. The only story of such reported overdose (Busari & Adebayo, 2020) unlike the US occurrence was nameless, generalized, and appears unsubstantiated.
Madagascar as a country also came up with a drug for the treatment of COVID-19 but WHO along with a subset of the scientific community disputed the efficacy of the Madagascar solution without carrying out clinical trials (BBC, 2020; AA, 2020). WHO could be said to have actively participated in this discrediting. Responses like these appears to negate the very foundations of scientific inquiry – curiosity. In retrospect, the recorded COVID-19 statistics could be said to be anecdotal evidence of its efficacy. Extrapolating data culled from Worldmeter.info (2020) COVID-19 fatality in Madagascar stands at 1.5% of the infected whilst recovery rate stands at about 97%.
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