The Coronavirus and the Conspiracy Theory About it
Leave a comment03/07/2020 by socialistfight
By Dov Winter
The coronavirus has generated a lot of confusion. The denial about its deadly effects by some on the Left is shocking. We can understand why Trump’ supporters and outright fascists deny the deadly effects of the virus. But conspiracy theories run deeply not only within the right and outright fascists, but it is also accepted by some in the Left, including Wilhelm Speklin who is a sympathizer of Socialist Fight.
It is below my dignity to waste my time and engage in a debate whether vaccines are bad and can kill you. I leave this debate for charlatans and ignorant people. The conspiracy theorists tell us that virus is not as bad as they say it is, and that it is at best only a bad form of the common flu. So far, the virus killed more than half a million worldwide. But The conspiracy theorists tell us that the flu kills many more each year which is false. As we’ll see later, the coronavirus is killing 10 times more people than the flu, and the coronavirus killing machine has just begun running at full capacity.
Perhaps the most idiotic part of conspiracy theory is the notion that the ruling class created the coronavirus crisis to repress the masses and the working class by establishing a new dictatorship, and using the quarantine to keep the people at home frightened and isolated. This has been proven to be wrong. After the murder of George Floyd, millions marched on the streets throughout the world against police brutality. But at the same time the virus has sickened millions more people, including people who participated in the demos against police brutality. It has proven that the virus does not kill only old people but it killed many thousands of young people without any pre-existing health problems. As of today (July 1, 2020) there are 512,000 official worldwide death from the virus. But the real number is much higher because many of those who die at home are not added to the official number.
The claim by conspiracy theorists that the ruling class created an artificial crisis to better oppress the masses falls apart with just basic examination of the data. The virus has created a depression, and with the depression, the profit in industries is plummeting. Why do the capitalists want a depression to better oppress the masses? The bottom line of capitalism is always profit, and a depression cut profit severely. Capitalism would NEVER exchange a severe decline in profit for destroying bourgeois democracy and creating an open brutal dictatorship. To show how bad are profits these days let look at China, the second biggest economy after the US:
“The profits of China’s major industrial companies dropped by 19.3 per cent year on year between January and May this year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.” (https://menafn.com/…/Chinas-industrial-profits-drop-19-in-1…). This shows that the last thing capitalism needs is a pandemic that destroys a vast part of the world economy.
A Comparison of the Coronavirus to the Typical Flu
The conspiracy theorists tell us that the coronavirus is just a flu, and it is used by the ruling class to better control and oppress the masses. But the only candidate that can remotely be compared to Covid-19 is the flu in 1918 that killed millions of people. The 1918 flu was the biggest killer from a flu for at least 100 years:
“On average, seasonal flu strains kill about 0.1 percent of people who become infected. The 1918 flu had an unusually high fatality rate, around 2 percent. Because it was so contagious, that flu killed tens of millions of people.” (https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-vs-flu.html…)
While the official number of death from Covid-19 is “only” exceeding half a million, it will take at least two years for a vaccine to arrive, and in reality at least 4 to 5 years, and we may never develop a vaccine for this. We do know that Covid-19 is as contagious as the 1918 influenza. So, the half million death will jump to millions and it will be likely compatible to the death from the 1918 flu before it will be under control (although today’s medicine is much more developed than it was in 1918. And may reduce some of the fatalities). Dr Fauci makes this reality very clear:
“Dr. Fauci has cited the 1 percent estimate, emphasizing that it is 10 times the death rate from seasonal flu.” (https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-vs-flu.html…).
And:
“Each person with the coronavirus appears to infect 2.2 other people. . . By comparison, the figure for the seasonal flu is roughly 1.3. The reproduction number for the flu of 1918 was about the same as that of the new coronavirus” (Ibid)
And:
“In the current [flu] season, there have been at least 34 million cases of flu in the United States, 350,000 hospitalizations and 20,000 flu deaths, according to the C.D.C.” (Ibid)
So far in the US, Covid-19 (as of today July 1, 2020) is responsible for at least 125,492 death since Feb. 29. This is more than 10 times the number of people who died from the flu this year!
Covid-19 Destroys Key Organs in the Body
Covid-19 is the most devastating illness that the human race has encountered for centuries. It can devastate and destroy all the critical organs in the body, including the heart, lever, and kidneys.
According to most reputable medical online Covid-19:
“can cause rapid breathing, a fast heart rate, dizziness, and sweating. It damages the tissues and blood vessels in your alveoli, causing debris to collect inside them. This makes it harder or even impossible for you to breathe.” (https://www.webmd.com/lu…/coronavirus-covid-19-affects-body…)
And:
“As fluid collects in your lungs, they carry less oxygen to your blood. That means your blood may not supply your organs with enough oxygen to survive. This can cause your kidneys, lungs, and liver to shut down and stop working.” (Ibid)
And:
“Among the most important findings, consistent across several studies, is confirmation the virus appears to attack the lungs the most ferociously. They also found the pathogen in parts of the brain, kidneys, liver, gastrointestinal tract and spleen and in the endothelial cells that line blood vessels, as some had previously suspected. Researchers also found widespread clotting in many organs.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/coronavirus-autopsies-fin…/)
And:
“A new modeling study has estimated that about 22 percent of the population — or 1.7 billion people worldwide, including 72 million in the United States — may be vulnerable to severe illness if infected with the virus. According to the analysis published this month in Lancet Global Health” (Ibi“Most [sic] recently, a study out this month in the Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine, found abnormal clotting in the heart, kidney and liver, as well as the lungs of seven patients, leading the authors to suggest this may be a major cause of the multiple-organ failure in covid-19 patients.” (Ibid)
And:
“One of the most frightening early reports about the coronavirus from China was that a significant percentage of hospitalized patients — up to 20 to 30 percent — appeared to have a heart problem known as myocarditis that could lead to sudden death. It involves the thickening of the muscle of the heart so that it can no longer pump efficiently.” (Ibid)
The virus does not attack only the above organs. It attacks the nervous system as well:
“An early study from China, published in the BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal, in March, found 22 percent of the 113 patients had experienced neurological issues ranging from excessive sleepiness to coma — conditions typically grouped together as disorders of consciousness. In June, researchers in France reported that 84 percent of patients in intensive care had neurological problems, and a third were confused or disoriented at discharge. Also this month, those in the United Kingdom found that 57 of 125 coronavirus patients with a new neurological or psychiatric diagnosis had had a stroke due to a blood clot in the brain, and 39 had an altered mental state.” (Ibid)
The virus can deprive oxygen from reaching the brain:
“He found snippets of virus in only some areas, and it was unclear whether they were dead remnants or active virus when the patient died. There were only small pockets of inflammation. But there were large swaths of damage due to oxygen deprivation. . . When the brain does not get enough oxygen, individual neurons die, and that death is permanent. (Ibid).
So, this is one of the worst pandemic that the human race encountered. As I wrote in the past, it shut down most functioning in capitalist society, as capitalist society, that is responsible to the emergence of the disease, is getting closer to the gate of barbarism. Without an effective vaccine, the virus can last for years.
But there is so much and so long that the oppressed and the working class can passively suffer. A response of massive struggles against the system that is responsible for the decease will come sooner than later. All the ingredients and their contradictions show that explosive struggles will emerge in ways that we have not seen in decades. I would even dare to suggest that the mass struggles could be compatible to the struggles after First-World-War that led to the 1917 revolution. What is needed urgently is building a revolutionary leadership for the coming struggles.
MENAFN.COMChina’s industrial profits drop 19% in 1st 5 months of 2020
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