“There was a moment when there existed the danger of a nuclear explosion, and they had to get the water out from under the reactor, so that a mixture of uranium and graphite wouldn’t get into it – with the water they would have formed a critical mass. The explosion would’ve been between three and five megatons. This would have meant that not only Kiev and Minsk, but a large part of Europe would’ve been uninhabitable. Can you imagine it? A European catastrophe. So here was the task: who would dive in there and open the bolt on the safety valve? They promised them a car, an apartment, a dacha, aid for their families until the end of time. They searched for volunteers. And they found them! The boys dove, many times, and they opened that bolt, and the unit was given 7000 rubles. They forgot about the cars and apartments they promised – but that’s not why they dove! Not for the material, least of all for the material promises. Those people don’t exist anymore, just the documents in our museum, with their names. But what if they hadn’t done it? In terms of our readiness for self-sacrifice, we have no equals.”
—
Sergei Sobolev, deputy head of the Executive Committee of the Shield of Chernobyl Association, 1995
I have a feeling lots of Chernobyl misinformation arose because the liquidators all exchanged these stories at the end of the day because they couldn’t trust anyone to tell them the truth.
Remembering hundreds thousands nameless people in Wuhan who are kept in the dark for weeks eventually passed away. Honouring the whistleblowers, the medics and frontlines who dedicated their lives to save the people in Wuhan.
In early February when countries came to realise the threat of the virus and imposed travel bans and immigration restrictions, according to BBC,
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the US actions “could only create and spread fear” instead of offering assistance.
… “It is precisely developed countries like the US with strong epidemic prevention capabilities… that have taken the lead in imposing excessive restrictions contrary to WHO recommendations,” Ms Hua said, according to a Reuters report.
How about WHO?
“Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies,” the head of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said last week.
In early February, CCP was busy at bullying and trolling other countries who dared to impose travel bans and restrictions. WHO and governments of other countries which went along CCP’s party line and lies, because they didn’t want to lose Chinese as trade partners or CCP’s sponsorships, failed to precaution their people, who are now under the imminent threat of highly contagious virus.
But even by late January and early February, it was already too late for the rest of the world. I have been working in China for years. When the first human-to-human infected case was confirmed in December 2019, CCP did everything to cover up the virus. They censored all online discussions. Whistleblowers were arrested. Other countries and Hong Kong which doubted the party narrative which downplayed the severity of the virus were accused of spreading rumours. Hongkongers were urging border closure between the Mainland China and Hong Kong were accused of racial discrimination against Chinese (this tactic sounds familiar to you? It’s a same old trick CCP always play with to shut other views down). I digress. But why too late? Because millions and billions of Chinese low-wage workers and students begin traveling back to their hometown by late December. Wuhan is one of the biggest hubs in the central China, where billions of people transit to other parts of China. Since CCP has kept their people in the dark and silenced those in the known, huge number of people travelled as usual. By end of January and early February, weeks had passed when the initial outbreak took place in the wet market in Wuhan. Countless number of patients with or without symptoms have already helped spread of the virus to every corner of China. Many from Wengzhou went back to Italy. Many others travelled to the US and UK before the Chinese New Year holiday starting on 23 January. It’s too late. The tragedy has been set when no draconian measures were imposed by early February, when WHO and CCP were still accusing anyone taking actions as overreacting.
It’s not a natural disaster. The virus is horribly contagious but not as deadly. If measures were taken at the very beginning, our loved ones wouldn’t die, our healthcare system wouldn’t be overwhelmed, our medics wouldn’t have to risk their lives for us. But CCP deprives you of that chance by shutting people up in Wuhan. WHO parrots CCP’s party lines, misleading the whole world into a false sense of safety. People dies in the hands of CCP, WHO and any governments who just care about not offending CCP for CCP’s money are the accomplices.
I call it Wuhan Coronavirus to remember those nameless people who were kept in the dark and died silently in Wuhan. To honour the whistleblowers who exposed the lies of CCP eventually were arrested and some of them died of the virus. I don’t condone racial discrimination by labelling it Chinese. But the people who sacrificed at ground zero, Wuhan, people in Wuhan who are still being locked down after two months, deserve our remembering and respect.
Tori