Moral Innovators perspectives on Covid19 – Comparing to historical events

I found on the internet the first instance of chemical warfare in North America. Gen. Jeffrey Amherst (the namesake for the town of Amherst, Massachusetts) wrote a letter dated July 16, 1763 that approved a plan to intentionally distribute smallpox infested blankets to Delaware Indians to “extirpate” them. Our textbooks also include lessons to explain the American Indian population declined by over 80% allegedly due to new diseases that Caucasians brought to North America. Given where we are with Covid19 and the dire need for medical supplies especially for those in need (i.e. not wealthy), a good class exercise is to imagine being an American Indian at that time when the Caucasians have been vaccinated or were immune. What is the right thing to do today, and what was the right thing to do back then? Let American Indians die like what actually happened? It is heartwarming to read that former NBA star and current Chinese CBA basketball coach Marbury appears to be arranging 10 million PPE face masks to help New York.

When we take another step back and think more, we can draw a parallel to the opioid crisis that has been estimated to cost USA $1.5 trillion dollars over the last 20 years, and over 62,000 deaths in 2017 alone.

The British government gave monopoly power to British East India Company which used the power to produce opium in India and Burma/Myanmar that were delivered to China. The resultant 1 million tons of opium ultimately consumed in China destroyed China that had 35% of the Global GDP in the year 1820 and became bankrupt only 80 years later around 1900. We know that USA and China are the two largest economies today. Please note that USA and China combined today has about 35% of the Global GDP – that China alone delivered in the year 1820.

You ask: What is the relation to the opioid crisis? Let us start with the fact that India is still today’s largest producer of raw materials for painkillers. We have read many stories that the over-prescription of painkillers is a major issue in the opioid crisis which is borderline legal because over-prescription is a judgment call. Outside the law, Indian and Burmese farmers learned from the British to plant very high value harvests for opium that eventually can be processed to heroin. The farmers in South America already knew cocoa leaves have similar effects, so the farmers who considered farming outside the law have a choice of heroin and/or cocaine in different forms. The world would have taken longer to lower our moral standards in selecting to produce opium or cocoa, but when the governments openly and successfully exploit places like China by selling illegal drugs for profit, humans quickly adjusted by lowering moral standards, leading to what we now know as opioid crisis.

Bottom line: What goes around comes around. Let us learn from history and raise our moral standards together. If we do not focus on our collective moral standards, we will have chaos like we see today under a narcissist government. Narcissists will perish like all humans. Please be mindful that Macedonian Alexander the Great, one of the few “undefeated” generals in the last 2200 years, had his entire family and relatives annihilated within 15 years of his death. No power is permanent. Crimes can be prosecuted under new leaders.

USA is a republic, not a democracy, that explains why Donald Trump was elected. USA started with a requirement that only property owners could vote 250 years ago. Today, the cost of elections, when combined with the unlimited contributions by superPACs, sustain the widening of the wealth gap, and consolidate power back to the equivalent of property owners 250 years ago.

The easiest first step to change is to reverse the estate tax that allow the super-rich to keep their wealth from generation to generation. While we can respect the true entrepreneurs like Bill Gates who accumulated tremendous wealth during his lifetime, why should the children of the wealthy keep most of the wealth that they did not earn? Donald Trump is an example of a spoiled child from wealthy parents who was allowed to keep his wealth…

Please stay safe and healthy!

Moral Innovators perspectives on Covid19 – the origins

This is a re-post of the first of two blogs on Covid19. This one focuses on the origin of the virus. The other one focuses on comparing this experience to events in the past.

A popular Chinese hypothesis of how this pandemic started:
1. US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) located at Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland was working on an Ebola treatment when it was shut down in August 2019 by Center for Disease Control (CDC). Among the reasons, WJLA.com reported on January 22, 2020, that USAMRIID systematically failed to ensure implementation of bio-safety and containment procedures… Earlier, on November 24, 2019, Military.com reported that the Army laboratory still did some work after the shutdown.
2. The 7th CISM Military World Games was held in Wuhan, China, between October 17-27, 2019. Wikipedia reported that USA sent 172 soldiers to Wuhan as participants in addition to support personnel. There were two unusual notes related to the USA delegation to these games:  A: There were five soldier athletes who were evacuated from the games during the games, by US transport, not commercial airlines. While it is not clear if she is one of five soldiers evacuated, a bicyclist who allegedly worked in Fort Detrick Veterans Administration Community Clinic, fractured a rib in the last lap of an event has been alleged to be patient zero. She appeared on TV and shared the story of her husband had cancer, but no empirical information on Covid19); and  B: It was the first time since the games started in 1995 that USA did not win a single gold medal.
3. The first known case reported that later became Covid19 (as reported in the March 13th 2020 edition of South China Morning Post) was on November 17th, 2019 in Wuhan, China, while others reported the first case reported was on December 1st, 2019. It is important to note that the person who allegedly contracted Covid19 on December 1st, 2019, had no connection the the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, according to Wikipedia.

A popular US hypothesis of how this pandemic started that was also the original Chinese story:
A1. Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market located in Wuhan sold live wild animals for consumption. There had been speculation that snakes may have been the wild animal that spread the virus to humans. The current hypothesis is the virus came from bats or pangolins. World Health Organization (WHO) was visited Wuhan and was informed on December 31, 2019.
A2.  Wuhan Institute of Virology is a lab that allegedly researched bat virus, and there have been stories in places like Washington Post that address possible leaks from that lab that started Covid19.

B. Between 1-7 million people in Southeast Asia live near bats and may have been infected by cornoavirus (different strain) well before Covid19, according to Wikipedia.  The first known Covid19 case outside China was reported in Thailand on January 13th, Japan on January 16th, and USA (Washington State) on January 17th, 2020, before reaching Europe. Therefore, USA must have known about Covid19 before January 17th, 2020, even if there is an assumption that informing WHO is not the same as informing USA.

Let us remain diligent to protect ourselves with social distance and frequent handwashing.  Now that Donald Trump’s valet tested positive for Covid19,  Donald Trump himself will be tested every day, while testing is severely missing among the plebeians.  Has Donald Trump acknowledged that African Americans represents 60% of US citizens who tested positive for Covid19 (African Americans = ~13% of US population).