Coronavirus Compensation? Assessing China’s Potential Culpability and Avenues of Legal Response: Matthew Henderson, Dr Alan Mendoza et al, HJS (Henry Jackson Society, Apr. 5, 2020
Xi Jinping’s China Did This: Irwin Cotler and Judith Abitan, Times of Israel, Apr. 12, 2020
Terry Glavin: COVID-19: Beware the Wartime Propaganda as We Battle this Plague: Terry Glavin, National Post, Mar. 25, 2020
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The Coronavirus Cover-Up: A Timeline Victims of Communism, Apr. 10, 2020
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have deceived the world about the coronavirus since its appearance in late 2019. In this situation brief, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation compares the timeline and facts with China’s ongoing disinformation campaign about the coronavirus’ origins, nature, and spread. This brief also demonstrates how the World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted and helped legitimize China’s false claims.
The consequences of China’s deception and the WHO’s credulity are now playing out globally. It is normally difficult to assign culpability to governments and organizations charged with ensuring public health in any pandemic, but the coranavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is materially different. The denial of information, outright fabrications, and disregard for human life—both within and outside of China’s borders—is so shocking and pervasive that the contracting of the virus by millions worldwide and the resultant death toll was not only foreseeable but entirely avoidable.
If the Chinese Communist Party had taken early steps to warn the world instead of covering up its spread, and if the WHO had simply questioned or cautioned against China’s assertions, the harm would have been significantly reduced. Instead, the PRC’s actions and WHO’s inaction precipitated a pandemic, leading to a global economic crisis and a growing loss of human life. … [To read the full report, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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Coronavirus Compensation? Assessing China’s Potential Culpability and Avenues of Legal Response
Matthew Henderson, Dr Alan Mendoza et al
HJS (Henry Jackson Society, Apr. 5, 2020
Global lawsuits against China for “patent breaches” of the International Health Regulations over its handling of COVID-19 could run to at least £3.2 trillion from just the nations of the G7, according to a newly released report.
The report claims that the Chinese government’s early handling of the disease and failure to adequately report information to the WHO breached Articles Six and Seven of the International Health Regulations [IHRs], a Treaty to which China is a signatory and legally obliged to uphold. These breaches allowed the outbreak to rapidly spread outside Wuhan, its place of origin.
In particular, our research has discovered that the Chinese government:
Failed to disclose data that would have revealed evidence of human-to-human transmission for a period of up to three weeks from being aware of it, in breach of Articles six and seven of the IHRs.
Provided the WHO with erroneous information about the number of infections between 2 January 2020 and 11 January 2020, in breach of Articles Six and Seven of the IHRs.
Failed to proscribe avoidable vectors of lethal zoonotic (animal-originated) viral infection, instead actively promoting the massive proliferation of dangerous viral host species for human consumption in breach of Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. … [To read the full report, click the following LINK– Ed.]
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Xi Jinping’s China Did This
Irwin Cotler and Judith Abitan
Times of Israel, Apr. 12, 2020
There is authoritative and compelling evidence — including a study from the University of Southampton — that if interventions in China had been conducted three weeks earlier, transmission of COVID-19 could have been reduced by 95 percent.
For 40 days, President Xi Jinping’s CPC concealed, destroyed, falsified, and fabricated information about the rampant spread of COVID-19 through its state-sanctioned massive surveillance and suppression of data; its misrepresentation of information; its silencing and criminalizing of its dissent; and its disappearance of its whistleblowers.
In late December 2019, Dr. Ai Fen, director of the Emergency Department at the Central Hospital of Wuhan — “The Whistle-Giver” — disseminated information about COVID-19 to several doctors, one of whom was Dr. Li Wenliang, and eight of whom were later arrested. Dr. Ai has recently disappeared.
Dr. Ai also detailed efforts to silence her in a story titled, “The one who supplied the whistle,” published in China’s People (Renwu) magazine in March. The article has since been removed.
On January 1, 2020, Dr. Li Wenliang — the “hero” and “awakener” — was reprimanded for spreading rumors, and was summoned to sign a statement accusing him of making false statements that disturbed the public order. Seven other people were arrested on similar charges. Their fate is still unknown. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK– Ed.]
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Terry Glavin: COVID-19: Beware the Wartime Propaganda as We Battle this Plague
Terry Glavin
National Post, Mar. 25, 2020
It’s a terribly imperfect metaphor, and it’s already something of a cliché, but fair enough, too. The global struggle with the disaster of the coronavirus that first emerged last December in the Chinese city of Wuhan is, without question, something very much like war. And almost everybody who’s saying so is relying on pretty well the same formulation.
U.S. President Donald Trump has lately fashioned himself as a ‘wartime president,” determined to defeat a “horrible, invisible enemy.” French President Emmanuel Macron: “We are at war. The enemy is invisible and it requires our general mobilization.” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis: “We are at war with an enemy that is invisible, but not invincible.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “This is a battle for public health … We are at war with an invisible enemy.”
So yes, fair enough. But we should be very careful that we don’t allow the confines of approved terminology and the banalities of official diction to leave us unmoored from the objective realities of the crisis we’ve all found ourselves stumbling through. Because that’s how colossally stupid public policy mistakes get made. It’s also how the powerful get away with occluding the truth and telling outright lies.
Its how the powerful get away with occluding the truth
The official exertions dozens of nation states are taking to deal with the calamity of the virus are of the kind that is ordinarily made only in wartime. After all, in Canada’s case the statutory antecedent of the Emergencies Act, which Justin Trudeau’s cabinet is quite sensibly considering as a “last resort,” is the War Measures Act, which was invoked only once after the Second World War, during the October Crisis of 1970. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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“It’s the end of a cycle, not the end of the world.” He hopes that in a shift “from I to we,” Americans may more deeply cultivate the virtues we need as a democracy, “which include the virtues of the Christian and Jewish traditions—humility, mercy. We are so quick to judge. We need to be easier on each other, turn down the judgment 80% or 90%,” – columnist Peggy Noonan quotes social psychologist Jonathan Haight, author of “The Righteous Mind.” She writes about what the coronavirus teaches us about ourselves as individuals and as a society. (WSJ, Apr. 9, 2020)
“Let me give you one example of Beijing’s treachery. On January 23rd, they shut down air travel from Wuhan to every other Chinese city – couldn’t go to Beijing, couldn’t go to Shanghai, couldn’t go to Shenzhen, but you could still travel to any city around the world with direct flights from Wuhan to include New York and San Francisco. That meant that thousands of cases were being seeded all around the world before the W.H.O. and China were even acknowledging human to human transmission. China was looking out for its own people by shutting down domestic travel while continuing to let this virus spread all around the world,” – Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) told Fox Newsregarding China’s complicity in starting and spreading the virus. (Daily Wire, Apr. 10, 2020)
IS ISRAEL HEADING TO A 4TH ELECTION? (Jerusalem) — The political establishment was described as “tense” by Israel Hayom since Blue and White leader Benny Gantz requested on Saturday night a 14-day extension to build a governing coalition. That request was rejected by President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday. On Monday at midnight, Gantz’s mandate ends. (WIN, Apr. 12, 2020)
ISRAELI COVID-19 TREATMENT SHOWS 100% SURVIVAL RATE – PRELIMINARY DATA (Jerusalem) — Six critically ill coronavirus patients in Israel who are considered high-risk for mortality were treated with Pluristem’s placenta-based cell-therapy product and survived, according to preliminary data provided by the Haifa-based company. The patients were treated at three different Israeli medical centers for one week under the country’s compassionate use program and were suffering from acute respiratory failure and inflammatory complications associated with COVID-19. Four of the patients also demonstrated failure of other organ systems, including cardiovascular and kidney failure. Not only have all the patients survived, according to Pluristem, but four of them showed improvement in respiratory parameters and three of them are in the advanced stages of weaning from ventilators. Moreover, two of the patients with preexisting medical conditions are showing a clinical recovery in addition to respiratory improvement. (Jerusalem Post, Apr. 12, 2020)
UPDATE: FLIGHTS TO ISRAEL RESUMED SUNDAY AFTER BEN GURION AIRPORT BLUNDER CORRECTED (Jerusalem) — At a joint consultation of the Interior and Transport Ministers with the Justice Ministry on the eve of Passover it was decided to approve all flights bringing Israeli citizens home. Dozens of passengers landed at Ben Gurion Airport Saturday morning on a flight from New York and were then allowed to hail taxis or drive independently to their destination, all without being tested for the coronavirus. According to the Prime Minister’s instructions, travelers returning to Israel are required to stay in quarantine hotels and not return to their homes. Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan addressed the incident, saying that “there is currently no legal obligation for those returning from abroad to stay at the hotel. They are permitted to stay in isolation in their home or in any home they choose. Police can only enforce a legal requirement.” (Jewish Press, Apr. 12, 2020)
ISRAEL SELLS RECORD $25 BILLION IN BONDS AS INVESTORS SHOW CONFIDENCE IN ECONOMY(Jerusalem) — To cover the rising costs of the coronavirus pandemic, and a near total economic shutdown, Israel’s treasury sold a whopping $25 billion in long-term bonds. The sales, which took place as the world grapples with economic uncertainty, represent an indication of confidence by investors in the nation’s economy and future, experts say. (JNS, Apr. 8, 2020)
BDS LEADER WIDELY MOCKED FOR SAYING IT’D BE OK TO TAKE ISRAELI-DEVELOPED CORONAVIRUS VACCINE (Facebook) — Top BDS activist Omar Barghouti was widely mocked on social media after he said that it would be permissible for boycotters of Israel to use an Israeli-developed vaccine for the coronavirus. In response to Barghouti’s statement, former IDF spokesman Peter Lerner tweeted, “What’s this boycott Israeli everything, except Israeli medication?” International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky commented, “We might find cure for #CoronaVirus, but not sure we can find vaccine for this kind of mega hypocrisy!” (Algemeiner, Apr. 7, 2020)
FRIDA WATTENBERG, FRENCH JEWISH WW2 CHILDREN’S RESCUE HERO, DIES FROM CORONAVIRUS(Paris) — A French Jewish woman who risked her own life to save Jewish children from the clutches of the Nazis has died from the coronavirus at her home in Paris. Frida Wattenberg passed away on Sunday, just a few days before her 96th birthday. (Algemeiner, Apr. 7, 2020)
THE TRUE SCALE OF CHINA’S MEDICAL STOCKPILE IS REVEALED: MORE THAN TWO BILLION MASKS WERE IMPORTED INTO WUHAN IN JUST ONE MONTH AS THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS ESCALATED(Beijing) — China imported more than two billion masks and 25 million pieces of protective clothing from overseas before the coronavirus outbreak reached pandemic levels, it has been revealed. (Daily Mail, Apr. 1, 2020)
JEWISH GENERAL SET TO ROLL OUT GAME-CHANGING APP IN CORONAVIRUS BATTLE (Montreal) –– Medical staff and patients at the Jewish General Hospital will be using a potentially powerful new tool in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the coming days — a smartphone app that will allow users to monitor their vital signs by simply staring into their phone’s screen. The medical-grade app, developed by a Tel Aviv company in collaboration with a Montreal health technology firm, is believed to be the first of its kind in the world. Although the app was not designed with COVID-19 in mind, the Jewish General will be using it in three distinct ways during the pandemic. (Montreal Gazette, Apr. 9, 2020)
AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA RABBI YAAKOV PERLOW, 89, DIES AFTER CONTRACTING COVID-19(NYC) — Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, head of the Agudath Israel of America, passed away Tuesday morning. He was 89 years old. More commonly known as the Novominsker Rebbe, he was the rosh or “head” of Agudath Israel for the last 2o years and a member of the Council of Torah Sages for decades. The Novominsker Rebbe was reportedly suffering from COVID-19, and because of the coronavirus the funeral was limited to family members only. (JNS, Apr. 12, 2020)
