Here we go again. Another unwanted, unexpected, unrelenting new strain of the coronavirus pandemic.
Just about this time, two years ago, we experienced the shocking tsunami that swept the whole globe, killing millions of innocent lives in its wake.
The pain, death, and suffering have persisted stubbornly throughout.
Now, two years later, a new mutation has peered its ugly head, threatening to destroy and kill even more. What is the trusted World Health Organisation (WHO) doing about it?
The obviously crippled WHO had enough power and presence of mind to discard the banal scientific classification of (B1. 1. 529, South African variation), giving this new virus a name worthy of its puissance, Omricron. How lofty, how visionary — even hip. For it is not just a name. It follows the pattern of the Greek code names like Alpha and Delta variations.
What else is WHO up to? There are no clear answers. As there were none before. Not only about Covid-19, but about many killer diseases that thrive in our midst, with WHO helplessly watching. Could it not have attacked one killer disease after another, eliminating them one by one? No. What they do is write reports and collect statistics.
Obviously, a lengthy report will be written about Omicron, its abilities and speed of spreading with a warning that protection from vaccines is yet unknown.
Turning to professor Tulio de Oliviera, director of Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, he declared there was an unused constellation of mutations “that was very different” to other variations that have circulated. “This variant did surprise us,” he added. “It has a big jump on evolution and many more mutations.”
If scientists are baffled, how should we feel?
More vaccines? No, more bad news, as this mutation will not be covered by the present vaccine. In any case, there is enough doubt about the present vaccine and its potency, since millions of primary health workers refuse to be vaccinated. Why are 90 million Americans, doctors, nurses, paramedics, teachers, resist it, at the risk of losing their jobs?
Do they know something we do not know? Does WHO know of the adverse effects reported after vaccination? Does WHO know that the news has been hushed up by the pharmaceutical industry? Does WHO know that Pfizer has been sued for $2.3 million for bribing doctors and suppressing adverse effects? If WHO does not know, who knows?
Now, it has become officially illegal to sue a pharmaceutical company such as Pfizer and Moderna, since the Biden administration has granted them total immunity from any liability, in case something “unintentionally” goes wrong.
This is not to say that vaccines are harmful or useless, but it is to back those individuals in the know, who resist being injected.
Vaccines have by and large been effective, but the boosters, plus the interference of the government despite the given right of any free individual to sue, creates unease and uncertainty, at least with some of us.
The UK has also granted immunity to Pfizer, which can no longer be sued for money damages. Something sounds suspicious to a suspicious mind.
Who are governments rooting for anyway? Their innocent, trusting citizens or the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies? Where does WHO stand?
It is nothing less than mind-boggling, leaving the unsuspecting consumer consumed with questions without answers.
“Follow the science” they say. If the science is flawed, inaccurate and subject to bribery, it is no science. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” quoting the bard, and something is.
Enter the false Fauci. This is his setting. Cameras, lights, Fame. Director of the American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, now the medical advisor of the American president, has become the guru of the world’s health and well-being. Undoubtedly, a partisan politician, he is infatuated with himself, though he has given us misleading, contradictory advice on vaccines, Covid-19, masks, lockdowns, you name it.
Instead of being fired, the present US administration disregarded his shameful failings, and instead has resorted to him for more advice on Omicron. Delighted to be back under the spotlight, wearing his myriad masks, he has declared his instructions, which, as we know, may change overnight.
Fauci, whose institute has heavily invested in the Wuhan lab, which he denied, then admitted, then denied again, believes that Omicron is already in the US, therefore why not all of Africa, why not Asia, Australia? We speculate.
However, its high degree of transmission has already found its way to Israel and Belgium, two more continents. Is WHO aware of that or do they get their information from flip-floppy Fauci?
Our medical guru has more restrictions: we should evade the protection of coronavirus treatments, which puts us between a rock and a hard place. What if we do have that old-fashioned coronavirus? Such a dilemma. How does WHO solve it? Are there treatments for Omicron, or do we dispense with treatment altogether?
Those who enjoyed a little travelling recently, be happy you did. Travel has been highly restricted again.
Scrambling to reach solutions, causes, and cures are the few true scientists in whom we trust. They are out there, laughing at Fauci as they follow real science.
It is up to them, not to WHO, to save us from this malicious, pernicious little organism, which according to a 21 October report has already taken the lives of five million people.
WHO, where are you?
“Books must follow sciences and not sciences books.”
Sir Francis Bacon (1560-1626)
*A version of this article appears in print in the 2 December, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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