China remained the only concern in the West, with regard to the global epidemic (the new Corona virus). Exaggerations in the alleged numbers of her infections and deaths from the virus. And this is despite the fact that the virus is ravaging other places with no less force than in China. While the cumulative number of infections in the ten countries that top the list of countries in the world most affected by the global epidemic is increasing, and Japan is steadily advancing to rise to a higher rank in that list – as it advanced over South Korea, to become sixth in the world, after America, India, France, Germany and Brazil – In Western media, China is portrayed as the only country affected by the virus, as if it will be the source of a new global outbreak of the disease. The British health data company, Irfinity, led speculation about the extent of the Chinese health crisis, by announcing, yesterday, that at least 9,000 people die daily in China due to Covid-19. Last week, the company estimated the possible number of deaths in China with Covid-19 at five thousand deaths. The British company stated that the cumulative number of deaths in China since the beginning of December 2022 may have reached 100 thousand deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in China since the outbreak of the Corona virus at the end of 2019 to 18.6 million deaths! And the company indicated, in a statement, that it expects that the current outbreak in China will reach its peak by January 13, 2023, with a number of new infections amounting to 3.7 million infections per day. She added that she expects that Covid-19 deaths will reach their peak in China by January 23, at a rate of 25,000 deaths per day. Accordingly, the company expected that the cumulative number of deaths in China with Covid-19 since December 2022 would rise to 584,000. Officially announced figures in China say that the country's death toll from the global epidemic does not exceed 5,246 deaths since the outbreak began. Irfinity says it expects China to have 1.7 million deaths by the end of April 2023. China's chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyun said (Thursday) that the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention plans to estimate the number of deaths in a different way. The fact that the West is suspicious of everything China intends to do cannot be neglected. The United States (Friday) expressed its concern simply because Chinese President Xi Jinping received, on Thursday, a video call from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Regarding Covid-19, Western countries have started a game of requiring Chinese travelers to present a negative result of a recent examination, as a condition for entering their territories. The United States said that it will start compulsory examination of Chinese travelers, starting from January 5. Any person arriving from China aged two years or older will be required to present a negative result of an examination conducted no more than two days prior to their departure from China, Hong Kong or Macau. Yesterday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that Americans should reconsider any decision to travel to China, Hong Kong, and Macau. In New Delhi, Indian Health Minister Manchukh Mandawia said that his country imposed a negative result for a corona examination by anyone coming from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. Sanitary isolation will be imposed on any person coming from the aforementioned countries if it is confirmed that he is infected with the virus after his arrival in India. Japan imposed a similar measure on those coming to it from China as of December 30, 2022. Italy, Spain, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea joined the list. But other countries decided not to take a similar step. But she announced that she is closely monitoring the health situation in China. Those countries are Australia, the Philippines, and Britain. In a letter to the 27 member states of the European Union, Stella Kyriakidis, the health commissioner at the European Union presidency in Brussels, said that they should consider intensifying genetic sequencing of Covid-19 infections. And also to intensify the examination of wastewater, including airports, to detect any mutated strain that may come from China. However, the European Center for Disease Control and Control said that it does not currently recommend taking any action against travelers coming from China, and that the virus strains spreading in China are already present on the territory of the European Union. Yesterday, the English-language Chinese newspaper Global Times quoted Chinese experts as saying that the steps taken by the United States, Japan and other countries were "absolutely incorrect" and "discriminatory". She added that the real aim of these measures is to discredit China and thwart the efforts that China has made over three years to control the spread of the virus. The Global Times reported that Chinese virologists assured it that China had never stopped testing infection samples for any new mutated strains. They added that the number of new cases in China is a drop in the ocean of its counterparts around the globe, and that the most likely possibility is that the risks of new mutated strains will come from abroad, and not the other way around. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that China believes that the reactions of those countries towards the Chinese health crisis should be based on science, and be applied to all peoples of the world without affecting travel and people's communication with each other.
Britain is terrified of the "flu", not Covid
The British newspaper (Daily Mail) reported horrific scenes from British hospitals full of influenza patients. She wrote that many patients had to wait in emergency departments for up to 40 hours before doctors could take care of them. And it quoted official health documents that dozens of patients are being treated in hospital corridors, after the number of seasonal influenza infections increased sevenfold during December 2022. The National Health Service complains of a significant increase in the number of patients with Covid-19, in addition to recording an unprecedented rate of absence of health personnel due to Influenza. And a number of health service officials said that they fear that the fear of a “double pandemic” that combines influenza and Covid-19 has become a reality. The Ambulance Service asked Britons not to call for an ambulance, unless their lives were in imminent danger. Ambulance drivers and crews complained that they had to wait more than an hour in front of hospitals before emergency doctors authorized them to admit their patients. Yesterday (Saturday), the National Health Service in England announced that 63,000 health staff were absent daily during the week ending at Christmas (December 25, 2022); Of them, 8,000 staff were absent due to Covid-19. She added that the number of those who were hospitalized with influenza on the night of December 23, 2022 reached 3,800 people. The Guardian dubbed the onslaught of influenza "Flu-Nami," a portmanteau of influenza and tsunami. The newspaper added that official figures indicate that the number of influenza patients reached an average of 3746 people every day during the week ending December 25. This is an increase of no less than 79.4% compared to the situation in the previous week. The medical director of the NHS, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said the increase in the number of people hospitalized with influenza confirmed the accuracy of previous warnings of a "double epidemic" during the winter. The number of those transferred to intensive care units due to complications from influenza reached 267 people last week, compared to only one person who was admitted to intensive care for influenza in the same period in 2021. In Brussels, severe warnings were issued that lifting preventive restrictions aimed at protecting against the Covid-19 virus 19 It may be behind the abnormal increase in the number of people infected with influenza and respiratory syncytial infection. And European scientists said yesterday that they are on the brink of a catastrophe, as Europe will be exposed to a “triple epidemic”, as a result of the outbreak of Covid-19, the influenza virus, and the respiratory syncytial virus.
Yassin Ahmed (London) “Okaz” (Beijing, Brussels, Washington) @OKAZ_online