Our Covid-19 nightmare vexes us.

Perhaps if Donald Trump in his ultimate pique against America hadn’t dismantled the apparatus established by Bill Clinton, then improved upon by George W. Bush, then these further bolstered through Barack Obama, the United States’ situation wouldn’t be so dire.

Der Trump’s predecessors might not have known much about virology, but each was smart enough to accept the advice of experts who did.

Americans had medical and science personnel on the ground in China. Their sole purpose was to give us and the rest of the world warning when another viral threat from the East erupted. They were there for Covid. If we recall H1N1 and swine flu, among other mystery sicknesses out of Asia, the West limited their deadliness.

That could’ve been Covid’s same fate.

Western science and technology combined to halt the epidemic global spread of the above vaguely remembered viruses. What could’ve easily morphed into plagues which could’ve reaped untold numbers more than they cumulatively did, were thwarted. Through these successful efforts our scientists learned more about viral perniciousness; more about what bred them; plenty about what blunted them.

That should’ve been the case if Der Trump’s senses of insecurity and inferiority hadn’t condemned however many tens of millions of Americans to seclusion, burdened our economy with restrictions as well as possibly condemn upwards to several hundred thousand of us to death. A real leader would’ve shoved his pettiness aside for his countrymen. A real adult wouldn’t have been so uncaring and likely taken pleasure in the agony he’s propagated.

Not only is Donald Trump a thief and traitor, through his indifference and neglect he’s also abetted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

On Tuesday, the great American electorate will judge the vile pig. One hopes his is an utter and absolute rejection on November 3rd, 2020. It would just start the short-fingered vulgarian’s deserved anguishes.

Americans as we are, we’ve already forgotten how Covid has made the planet bow, not only the United States. But with a second wave now breaking out will our attention be broadened? The only fact we recall is the scourge emanates from Wuhan, China. But how? Here’s where we have divergence.

What American doesn’t know that China may have its main biological weapons center in Wuhan? Allegedly that’s were a lot of microscopic pests have come to life which have besieged the planet over the last several decades.

Those aligned in the sinister suspicions camp claim the Chinese are in quest of a biological agent which assaults specific human types. Though unsubstantiated, the charge shouldn’t be reflexively rejected. We’ve made terrific progress in decoding our genomes. If such uncovering can benefit us, how much harder might it be to twist results into the most personal of weapons? One of those strands where the right/wrong genetic factors can either doom the infected or simply be a benign presence in our bodies.

Have no doubt our scientists and those of the Russians are cobbling together the same sort of contagions accused of the Chinese. Be assured, rest easy. These governments, maybe others as well, only seeks ways to turn helix into gruesome weapons only to keep their populations safe. And yes, the same deterrents could be deployed against restive segments of a nation’s own population.

Aside from that last, the difference is the mania the West and the Russians have for stringency in sanitation and preventative safeguards. As has been shown across the years and illnesses, the Chinese don’t perform these measures with comparable rigorous diligence.

If some facilities in Wuhan were dedicated to inventing an agent that wipes out taegeted people bearing certain traits, it’s not impossible to believe just enough of it got loose to wreak the havoc we today endure. That is before authorities recognized the problem and tried covering the escaped pathogen’s tracks as they worked feverishly to contain the menace on their soil, among their own people.

Give the Chinese this – at least they worked hard to save their citizens, unlike America’s real estate fraud.
But again, withdrawal of Western personnel at the epicenter’s outbreak opens to plenty of speculation. More likely, and far more disturbing, is the line of blame from the sloppy camp. They think interspecies contagions somehow mixed and mutated in the closed, unsanitary confines of an open-air wet market in Wuhan.

The mixture of pangolins and bats may prove the culprits behind the disease whose cure we feverishly seek.
Pangolins and bats in proximity to one another may be the fuse and explosion bedeviling mankind these days. With resemblance to armadillos, pangolin scales are predominately sought and harvested to concoct traditional Chinese remedies. Both bats and pangolins find themselves on dinner plates. An acquired taste doubtlessly.

It is possible cross contamination might’ve developed between the pair. Carcasses of the two “delicacies” hung in close proximity in conditions akin to a Petrie dish serving raw and cooked takeout. From there what had formed took root in human lungs, igniting respiratory ailments around the world.

Scoff at either of the above explanations if so wished. Both are scientifically plausible. And someday our successors and inheritors – if mankind survives Covid – will find and reveal answers that won’t invite skepticism.
However, this being Halloween there exists a third possibility. In our quest for discovery, say, unearthing mysteries unmeant for mortals, perhaps we’ve overstepped; have been arrogant. Maybe Covid-19 is Mother Nature’s – or a more malevolent entity’s – rebuke to our yearning to know?

Years ago, I read a newspaper article announcing an arctic expedition had discovered 1918 Pandemic victims during its survey through the frozen region. The dead men formed part of a scientific crew dispatched almost a century prior. Buried where they had been, the corpses remained in excellent condition.

Since that pest flared and faded on its own, and post mortems then hindered by technology we consider simple, answers on its how’s and why’s were deficient. But given our vastly improved ability today to parse our beings into sub-atomic realms, wouldn’t now have been an excellent time to augment what stymied prior researchers?

Here was a gift to science. Unearthed in some remote frigid place were well preserved specimens. Given all kinds of advancements in the decades between, what a fine opportunity to solve a riddle that killed somewhere near 40 million people worldwide! One that disappeared without leaving tracks.

Without a second thought the new adventurers disinterred the bodies of the old explorers and returned them to our time. That’s when I feared a mistake had been made. Indeed, those bodies shouldn’t have been disturbed. They ought’ve been left to continue their rest.

Who isn’t for expanding knowledge? However, must we know every secret under the sun? Remaining as they were in the arctic, the bodies and what they contained remained benign. Brought into our century, and despite the best intentions and protections, couldn’t an accident have revived the malignancy which scythed them as well as tens of millions of others?

There are plenty of scenarios in which just enough frozen corporeal ooze thaws and liquifies. Then after some inadvertent contact that matter gets transferred beyond laboratories into our lives.

Next thing we know we’re wearing masks and wondering why. Happy Halloween.