Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 06, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Health is now requesting that travellers arriving, either directly or in-transit, from China, Hong Kong or Macau produce a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter Guyana. This represents the first new travel restriction which has been imposed since the relaxation of testing restrictions effective June 18, 2022.
But on what basis did the Government decide to impose these restrictions? It certainly could not be evidence based.
While it’s true that there has been an increase in COVID-19 infections in China, the numbers of recorded cases pale when compared to what is taking place in western countries such as the United States. On Wednesday last, the United States registered more than 40,000 new COVID cases as compared to China which had 7,689 new cases even though its population is four times that of the United States.
While the COVID-19 virus is believed to have originated in China, that country quickly brought its deaths and infections under control and went as far as sharing the genetic sequence of the original virus with the rest of the world, allowing for the rapid development of vaccines to combat the virus.
The United States has been the foremost incubator of the virus. The United States has recorded more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country. The USA has registered 102 million cases, the highest number of recorded cases in the world and twice that of India which has the second highest number of infections. And this despite the fact that the USA hogged the greatest supply of vaccines when these were first rolled out.
The United States also recorded more than one million coronavirus deaths, which is far higher than Brazil (694,000) and India (530,000). It was through a person who visited the United States that the virus first entered Guyana.
The United States today still has the second highest number of active corona virus cases. More than two million Americans are presently infected with the virus. Only Japan which has seen a spike in recent months has a higher case load. On a per capita basis, only a few developed countries rank higher than the USA for infections.
Yet, the Government of Guyana has opted to impose travel restrictions on persons arriving from China. The reasons for this have to do with the hysteria that is being drummed up in the West over the recent spike in infections in China. It is all part of the ant-China hysteria.
Yet, China has proven adept at controlling outbreaks, albeit through extremely harsh lockdowns and quarantine measures. China has demonstrated that it is more than capable to controlling outbreaks within its borders and is capable of doing so far better than the Americans and other western countries which have seen it fit to allow demand testing for persons arriving from China.
The primary concern of the alarmists is not the amount of cases in China but the fear that given China’s size and population, a major outbreak could lead to the development of new variants. But those making those claims have produced no evidence about the variants which is now causing the spike in cases in China.
The World Health Organization however has done so. The WHO is reporting that China has sequenced more than 2,000 genomes of the locally-acquired infections. Omicron lineages were said to account for 97.5% of all cases.
However as is well-known, the Omicron variant did not originate in China. The West has claimed that the virus was first observed in Botswana and South Africa.
So why then is the Ministry of Health in Guyana imposing testing requirements on persons arriving from China, Hong Kong, and Macau? Has the Ministry ingested too much of Western propaganda and is simply copycatting from what these countries are doing without considering the evidence.
If the Ministry of Health is serious about containing the spread of the virus, it should re-impose testing restrictions on persons coming from the United States and the United Kingdom where cases are swelling.
The Embassy in China in Guyana should protest the arbitrary imposition of testing on persons coming from mainland China. There is no scientific evidence to justify this measure and it is all part of the anti-China hysteria which is being drummed up to deflect away from the evidence-based fact that it is the United States of America, which the world needs to fear the most when it comes to COVID-19 infections.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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