Fortune makes fools of us all.
The impeachment show that everybody thought would dominate the news indefinitely has taken a back seat to the rapidly developing story of the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.
Though nobody trusted the Chinese government’s patently bogus infection numbers or the blue checks making vapid comparisons to the flu on Twitter, most assumed this epidemic would go the way of SARS. It would fizzle out, and there’s be a South Park episode we’d all have a good laugh over.
The hopeful predictions of a non-event have already been thwarted as the infection has spread to a dozen countries despite China’s quarantine of over fifty million people.
Meanwhile, the disease’s infection and death rates are on pace to equal or overtake those of SARS.
Perhaps most overlooked and most troubling, the number of patients confirmed to have recovered from this coronavirus is significantly lower than the number who’ve succumbed to it.
Even worse, this virus is capable of asymptomatic infection.
That’s not to say I’m predicting a civilization-ending pandemic. The vast majority of cases are still confined to mainland China, and most deaths have been among the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. This outbreak is already a tragedy, and it’s on track to become a major one, but the worst disaster here is the catastrophic failure of leadership.
We don’t know how or exactly where the outbreak started, and odds are we never will. Too many people in high places are invested in saving face. That’s part of the problem, since serious people are considering the possibility that this is an escaped bioweapon.
Could the presence of not one, but two infectious disease research facilities within a short train ride of the first reported case be a huge coincidence? Sure, but Chinese officials’ frustrating habit of keeping vital details close to the vest isn’t helping to resolve the question.
This virus could just as easily be a freak product of the unsanitary preparation of bizarre foods as a black project cooked up to muzzle pesky Hong King protesters. The folks in charge aren’t telling us. Even the World Health Organization was bafflingly slow in taking the outbreak seriously. Add in the possibility of cloak and dagger shenanigans involving the Canadians of all people, and the news starts to look like a dime spy novel.
That’s the real cause for alarm. We knew the global ruling class was peopled with mediocrities going through the motions of operating machinery built by better men. Now they appear too dull-witted and effete to even pull the levers they long ago stopped understanding.
Corona-Chan probably isn’t the harbinger of the apocalypse, but she has revealed that when the actual happening comes, our rulers will have no idea how to respond.
If you want an intelligent, exciting, and fictional spy story, check out Combat Frame XSeed!