The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

In your July 9th 2020 edition there appeared a most enlightening and important letter under the heading ‘How we could have prevented pandemic’. I hope as many Bahamians as possible have read this contribution as it is invaluable. I, for one, learned many things I didn’t know about vaccines.

I would like to add my own comments to supplement the letter by ‘Forward, Upward, Onward Together’. These are some facts which have not had great exposure either, as follow: Research released by the University of South Hampton by Dr Shengjie Lai found that if China had acted on December 30 when Ai Fen, a top director at Wuhan Central Hospital, and Wuhan Doctor Li Wen Liang posted information about a SARS-like virus on platforms such as WeChat, the cases of the coronavirus could have been reduced by 95%. Instead, the Chinese government reprimanded the two doctors for spreading information about what turned out to be the novel coronavirus.

If the Chinese government had acted on January 7th, when President Xi Jinping became involved in the response, Dr Lai’s study found that the incidence of the coronavirus would have been reduced by 85%. Instead, China insisted at that point that the disease was not contagious and let it spread outside China.

Finally, if China had begun acting when coronavirus began to spread to other nations, it was detected in Thailand on Jan.13th, China could have reduced the number of cases by 66%. Instead, China continued its disinformation campaign, with the World Health Organisation insisting that Chinese health authorities had seen ‘no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.’ As a result of this irresponsible cover-up, the Annual Wuhan Lunar New Year banquet went forward on January 18th. Tens of thousands of people gathered from all over China for a potluck, which served as a breeding ground for the spread of the Wuhan Chinese coronavirus globally.

Thank you for your space and I hope many Bahamians who read the letter of ‘Forward, Onward….’ will also take the above comments into mind. We must be reminded that those who put privileges before principles are bound to lose both in the end. We must stay informed, our lives depend on it.

C P KNOWLES

Nassau,

July 10, 2020.