Chapter 1
2020.20- The Covid 19 War
Mark Anthony Waters
Chapter 1
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” -Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s then Chief of Staff
January 21, 2020
The situation room at the White House
The President didn’t waste any time and was the first to speak. He started with the National Security Advisor, Robert O’Leary.
The President spoke quietly and asked, “Well, Bob, what do you think?”
Bob glanced down at his hand scribbled notes, looked up at him and replied, “Mr. President, my team has been going over every angle we could and studied similar situations in the past. We even came up with a couple of prediction models, and our conclusion is that this was a deliberate attack.”
The President sat up in his chair and asked, “That’s pretty ballsy, Bob. Why?”
Bob couldn’t hold back any longer, rose to his feet, and with arms flailing, replied, “Do you think for a minute this came from a fucking fish market? No way!” Then further exclaimed, “The Chinese don’t give a flying fuck about their own damn people, so why would they care about the rest of the world?”
Humorously, the President said, “Now, Bob, don’t hold back. Tell us what you really think, and slow down on the coffee.”
A bit of snickering could be heard. Bob even had a bit of a laugh, then sat down and continued.
“Oh, there is plenty more. We have satellite images of dozens of buses surrounding crematories, all of them carrying something. We think they are bodies. Witnesses are saying that erns are falling off the shelves in Wuhan. Mr. President, the facts seem clear to me. They hid and withheld evidence. Those assholes at WHO are certainly complicit. From where I sit, the world economy is on the verge of collapse.”
Eyebrows raised, the President asked, “But why? What is the motivation?”
“For one thing, the trade deal, Mr. President, they hate it. Call it national pride or whatever, and before we knew a damn thing, they flew contaminated folks all over the world. Curiously, many of the passengers had one-way tickets. It’s going to get ugly very quickly. I already see the handwriting on the wall. Those trips seemed deliberate and intentional to me.”
“It doesn’t make sense that they’d destroy the planet over a trade deal and crippling their trade partners—” then voice raised, said, “Like us for God’s sake!” Then whispered to himself, “Fucking idiots.”
“Mr. President, the trade deal to them is a declaration of war. It was almost predictable with how uncertain things are with tensions in Hong Kong and their own economic ambiguity, plus a possible Taiwan invasion lingering in the background— it adds up to a ticking time bomb.”
“But it’s not a war; it’s business.”
“Begging your pardon, Mr. President, it doesn’t matter to them. It is a war, and the net results are the same whether a single bullet was fired or not.”
Then the President asked, “Where is Fauchi on all this?”
Someone uttered, “Still riding the fence, Mr. President. He is a scientist, not a policy guy. He stays clear of politics.”
“Yeah, right. Just wait until the election nears, I’ll bet his true political colors will fly.”
A few snickers could be heard, then the President asked, “Does anyone think we have seen the worst of this thing?”
“Mr. President, the prediction models tell us we haven’t even gotten started. It will get worse before it gets better. It appears to be spreading like wildfire, and we’re fighting it with a water gun.”
“What do you think we should do?”
Dr. Dale Stein, Director of the CDC, replied, “Mr. President, I believe now is the time to contain the virus at its origin.
“If I understand what you are saying, you are right.” Changing his tone, the President stood up, slammed his fist on the table, and said, “We need to stop the bleeding, and I mean now! I want all flights into and out of China to stop immediately!”
Charles Wolfe from Homeland Security responded, “We’ll catch some heat. They’ll accuse you of overreacting, saying you are a xenophobe or whatever else is in their playbook, especially your pals on the left, maybe even a few on our side.”
“I don’t give a damn, just do it!”
Call it instinct, a gut feeling, or a calculated risk, but that decision most likely saved tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of lives. Charles was right— The President did catch heat mostly from the left and predictably their co-conspirators in the media.
About five days after the travel ban was announced, a second confirmed illness showed its ugly face. The patient recently returned from Wuhan, China, where an outbreak of a mysterious respiratory illness was spreading, probably caused by this novel coronavirus. Reports have shown that it had been around since December 2019.
On January 30, the Director-General of the World Health Organization met with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping and shared information about the virus and promised their cooperation with the WHO to get the virus under control. On the same day, the shit hit the fan.
The World Health Organization announced to the world that the virus was now a public health emergency, and the outbreak met all the criteria for such a warning. Every country was told to prepare for sudden illnesses associated with the virus. The plan included containment, surveillance, early detection, and isolation to reduce human infection and prevent secondary infections.
The Chinese continued to put on a happy face and assured the rest of us they had everything under control. Wrong. The world was beginning to panic as word of a global pandemic spread universally.
The President’s job was to become our Commander in Chief Cheerleader and try to comfort a frightened nation.
“We think we have it very well under control. We think it’s going to have a very good ending for us. That I can assure you.”- President Donald Trump
Before the travel restrictions, it was estimated that 300,000 people came to the U.S. from China in January 2020. At the time, Americans were not limited in their travel to and from China.
On February 2, the travel restrictions with China began. The only flights allowed into the U.S. were those carrying immediate family members of U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and the flight crew. Still, all were subject to a two-week quarantine. The others were refused entry.
Conspiracies and deception were already crowding the information on the internet, but one thing remained a fact. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, was hand-picked by the Chinese government and continued with the narrative that the Chinese government had everything under control. Wrong again.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization had to step up and tell the world that the COVID-19 outbreak was now a global pandemic. The number of infected people in China grew thirteen times as initially reported, and the number of infected countries had tripled. There were more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 victims lost their lives. Three days later, the virus had spread to all of the U.S.…
