It happens once in a while that a viral disease appears somewhere
on the planet and spreads to the four corners of the globe.
Because we all are members of one and the same humanity, and because
we live on the one and only planet that's available to us, an occurrence such
as that, concerns all of us. We take the pandemic seriously, and most
importantly, we do not play politics with it.
Unfortunately, it can also happen that a disease of the mind so
overwhelms the morally depleted among us, they feed on calamity as if it were a
cup of viruses, they gobble up at breakfast to have the devilish energy that'll
keep them going for the rest of the day.
This is why, despite the fact that the World Health Organization
has praised China for what it did and continues to do to contain the
coronavirus epidemic, you see people like Jed Babbin write articles such as the
one that came under the title: “China and Iran ill-equipped to fight the
coronavirus,” and the subtitle: “United States and Israel are doing a much
better job.” The article was published on March 8, 2020 in The Washington
Times.
It is not surprising to see someone claim that America was doing a
good job fighting the coronavirus at a time when the American Center for
Disease Control was the only major agency in the world to be criticized by
professionals for its shortcomings in handling the virus. That was also the
time when voices were rising to the effect that America may have the equivalent
of a Katrina on its hand. There are many reasons for someone to claim that
America did well when it faltered; one being that to some people, American
jingoism knows no bounds. That's the case with Jed Babbin, and his claim was
taken in that context. But when he went on to say that Israel was doing a good
job too, I became curious for a reason. Let me tell you about it.
It happened that at a time when I was taking blood thinner after
my heart operation, Ariel Sharon who was then Prime Minister of Israel,
suffered a heart attack. He was rushed to hospital where the doctors gave him
blood thinner. The next thing we knew was that Sharon went into a coma.
To explain what happened, the story came out of Israel and was
carried by a triumphant American media, that the Israeli doctors were such a
superior breed, they proved how over-competent they were as they worked on
thinning Ariel Sharon's blood. What they did was give him an overdose of
thinner, causing the blood to seep through the vessels of his brain. This sent
him into the coma from which he never recovered.
That incident reminded me of my doctors telling me to make sure
never to take more than one pill of blood thinner a day because it could cause
complications. Boy, am I glad that my Canadian doctors are not as competent as
those of Israel. If they were, I would have taken more than one pill on a
fateful day long ago, and I'd be dead and buried for years.
With this memory fresh in mind, I went over Babbin's article again
to see what he says the Americans and Israelis are doing above and beyond
everyone else, to be characterized as doing a better job. After all, the
situation is so serious, the world is not talking about the fate of one prime
minister; it is talking about the fate of the entire human race. What follows
is what I encountered reading Babbin's article:
“The coronavirus has spread to 70 nations. India expects a major
outbreak. Democracies are better than despotisms at fighting disease. Contrast
the ways China and Iran are dealing with the coronavirus with the methods
employed by the US and Israel. China quarantined whole cities. Iran sent drones
to spray streets with disinfectant. It has also deployed 300,000 health care
workers to fight the disease. In contrast, Israel has announced that it will
have a vaccine developed in weeks. Scientists in Israel and the US reportedly
can print viruses. It may be possible to develop a vaccine in less time. Trump
has put Mike Pence in charge, promising a whole of government response to the
disease. He is working with pharmaceutical companies to speed development of a
coronavirus vaccine. It is too soon to predict whether our response will
prevent a deadly epidemic in the US. It's a safe bet that it will do better
than China and Iran”.
So, Babbin is telling us that the virus has spread to 70
countries, but doesn't say how many are democratic and fighting the disease
successfully, and how many are not. He says that India, which is a democracy,
expects a major outbreak but doesn't predict how successful it will be at
fighting the disease. He is not telling what India is doing either to prepare
for when the outbreak will occur. As to China, he says it quarantined whole
cities. Iran is spraying the streets with disinfectant. But Jed Babbin doesn't
know what else the two countries are doing in the laboratories to develop a
vaccine.
What he knows is that the US and Israel have the ability to print
viruses. He reckons this will help them develop a vaccine faster. In fact, he
quotes the Israelis as promising they'll have a vaccine ready in weeks.
However, unlike the Chinese and the Iranians who are seen doing things that can
be appraised, what came out of Israel is nothing more than guesses and
promises. The same goes for America, which is why Babbin ends by saying that he
cannot promise there will not be a deadly epidemic in America.