I see much chatter on social media about the necessity of finally discovering the true origins of COVID-19. The not-so-subtle undertone is that the purpose of such an investigation would be to definitively pin the blame on China for the world’s woes, because the U.S. government always needs a foreign actor to blame for anything and everything. But why should we care now where it came from? COVID-19 is not an abnormally dangerous virus. In fact, it’s much less dangerous than other infections, including the flu, for the vast majority of people.
It doesn’t matter anymore where it came from. Why? Because China didn’t compel us to lock down our country. China didn’t cause 50 million people to lose their jobs. China didn’t force a mask mandate in the United States. China didn’t incentivize hospitals to kill COVID patients with ventilators. China didn’t air propaganda 24 hours a day, scaring the ever-loving crap out of the entire country. China didn’t push bogus fear porn onto people who couldn’t handle it psychologically.
China did none of this. Our own elected leaders did this. Our government is to blame, not some foreign actor. Your mayor, whose office is across town, did this. Your governor did this. The blame is theirs, and we need to face up to it.
There must be legal repercussions to the devastation caused by the overreaction to COVID. But the first step is assigning blame to where it is due. Not China. Our own government, and the culpable corporate media that manufactured consent for this authoritarian nightmarescape that we are currently suffering under.
