There’s a famous saying: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”.
In 2003, the SARS coronavirus was unleashed on the world by China, with most scientists believing it originated from a wet market in Guangdong Province, where approximately 1,500 probable cases were identified during November 2002 to June 2003.
The below documentary from Canada’s CBC, originally aired in November 2003, documents the saga in great detail:
The parallels to today are uncanny. The disease had been allowed to fester for months in southern China without official warnings or alerts. The World Health Organisation (WHO), knowing for months that SARS was a lethal disease, sat on its hands and refused to warn the world in a timely manner. Accordingly, SARS was allowed to escape first to Hong Kong and then to many other places around the world.
Now fast forward to today’s COVID-19, where history has repeated, only with far greater consequences:
- China never shut down the exotic animal wet markets post SARS. This created COVID-19, this time in Wuhan.
- China hid the virus for months, persecuted whistle blowers, and claimed the virus was under control when it was spreading like wildfire person-to-person.
- China allowed millions of Chinese to travel from Wuhan both domestically and abroad during the Lunar Holiday, thus exporting the virus to the world.
- China pressured foreign governments to keep their borders open when the virus was growing exponentially, accusing everyone of racism and xenophobia.
- The WHO was again late to the party, advising countries not to close their borders.
60 Minutes Australia documents the negligence by China in all its hideous glory:
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Unless the world punishes China for the COVID-19 pandemic and forces change we are likely to experience another global pandemic originating from an exotic animal market in the near future. Only next time it could be far more deadly.
