Sycophancy to China Is the Only Possible Explanation for Western Elites’ Incoherent COVID Narrative

Having their cake and eating it too

The western political class’s narrative about Covid is logically and deadly incoherent. And sycophancy toward China is the only possible explanation.

To simply understand why, briefly suspend what you know about how dangerous Covid actually is, and entertain that there are only two possibilities: Either the virus is a pandemic-level supervirus justifying an indefinite state of emergency, or it is not.

First, the possibility that the virus is a pandemic-level supervirus. This is, of course, the narrative that western elites have been imposing on their own people for over two years. In the United States, the Biden administration just announced its intent to extend the pandemic state of emergency through early 2023, citing as fact that Covid has supposedly claimed over a million American lives and stating that “Covid is not over. The pandemic is not over.” This would bring the pandemic state of emergency to a full three years.

But here’s the problem: Authorities have already widely confirmed that the Chinese government knew the virus was spreading by mid-December 2019 at the very latest—several weeks before it informed the rest of the world. So if Covid is, in fact, a supervirus that claimed over a million American lives, justifying a three-year state of emergency, then China’s coverup of the virus amounts to the murder of thousands of American citizens—an unforgivable crime against humanity for which western elites must seek accountability.

There is, however, a second possibility: The virus is not a supervirus that claimed over a million American lives. (This is, of course, what all the scientific evidence shows.) In that case, China’s initial coverup of the virus wouldn’t be a crime in itself, because the virus was never really that dangerous to begin with.

But that’s not what western elites have been saying. Instead, they’ve spent over two years telling us that the virus is a pandemic-level supervirus that’s claimed over a million American lives, justifying a three-year state of emergency pursuant to which our fundamental rights have been suspended. The suspension of these rights—primarily the initial lockdowns—has now led to the deaths of over 170,000 young Americans. And this suspension of rights has been justified, from the outset, by the initial data received from China showing that the virus is a pandemic-level supervirus.

Western elites have thus spent over two years treating the virus as if it’s a pandemic-level supervirus for purposes of their domestic emergency powers, while simultaneously treating the virus as an ordinary virus for purposes of relations with China. In short, they’re having their cake and eating it too: Wherein having the cake means suspending the fundamental rights of their own people, and eating it means getting all that Chinese money while they do.

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Michael P Senger is an attorney and author of Snake Oil: How Xi Jinping Shut Down the World. Want to support my work? Get the book. Already got the book? Leave a quick review.