In
an essay published on the Saker blog at the beginning of March, I wrote with a restrained skepticism about the novel coronavirus, the narratives surrounding the severity of its adverse health impacts compared to its cousins causing other influenza epidemics, and its reported mortality rates both in Iran and elsewhere. Now, towards the end of March some three weeks, five continents, one hundred ninety two countries, three hundred twenty thousand cases, and thirteen thousand four hundred deaths,
[1] and one official pandemic announcement by World Health Organization later, my original skepticism has evolved into a nagging, nuanced, and forcefully persistent suspicion.
A lot of things just do not add up.
In this essay, I would like to examine this locally-specific globally-diffused novel coronavirus phenomenon from two distinct yet interlinked angles. From one angle, we look at the phenomenon as an infectious respiratory disease epidemic as it is experienced and weathered by ordinary people in Iran while at the same time, juxtaposing the people's experiences with the official reports of morbidities and mortalities that are either confirmed and/or alleged to be caused by nCoV-19 and/or other factors. From the second angle, we follow this phenomenon as part of a socially-constructed phantom pandemic buttressed with multiple connotations of a zombie virus and amalgamated by death from other causes.
Firstly, I am not using the word zombie in a derogatory manner just to be disrespectful of this lifeless creature. Rather, the use of the term is meant to instill an interest in the readers to dig deeper into the history of the development of these sorts of viruses
[2] should they be interested. Cambridge Dictionary defines zombie as "
a frightening creature that is a dead person who has been brought back to life without human qualities. Zombies are not able to think and they are often shown as attacking and eating human beings."
[3] The evidence that grandparent of this virus and its relatives may have been dug up[3] from the remnants of civilians and soldiers who died of influenza in 1918[4], reversed engineered[5], and genetically augmented[6] in series of experiments far exceeds the evidence that it did not. Exploring potentially choreographed intentional and/or accidental releases of the virus with respect to epidemiological trio of person, place, and time, though interesting and informative, is not the topic of this essay.
Comment: Jordan Peterson warned us that, given the right circumstances, we wouldn't be that different from the guards at Auschwitz. This isn't far off. People evidently need little incentive to become Gestapo rats, joyously snitching on their fellow citizens.