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Original title: Social injustice caused by poor epidemic prevention is essentially a violation of human rights
Photo courtesy of Otto Kobo and Jiao Sousong[Conexión con reportero]
Otto Koper is an Austrian academic who is currently a member of the New Crown Pneumonia Epidemic Expert Committee of the German Ministry of the Interior. In a recent interview with journalists, he said that precisely because China’s national defense has taken the lead in controlling the new corona pneumonia epidemic, compared to other countries in the world, China’s economy and daily life are they are much less affected by the epidemic.
In March 2020, at the start of the outbreak, Cowper and another political scholar, Maximilian Mayer, co-authored an article titled “Learning from Wuhan to contain the novel coronavirus is the only way.” The article recommends that European countries learn from China’s strict epidemic prevention policies and make scientific predictions about what may happen in the future. The article was quickly sent to the governments of Germany and Austria as reference material. Soon after, Kapo was appointed by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior as a member of the Expert Committee on the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic. The committee is primarily responsible for drafting the anti-epidemic strategy document for the federal government. Committee members also include leading experts such as Lothar Weiler, director of the Robert Koch Institute of the German disease control agency.
The facts have shown that China’s epidemic prevention and control measures are correct
Unexpectedly, this document has suddenly become the focus of attention of some German media a year later, the reason being that they discovered that one of the authors is “China Communicator”.
Kapo said western media began reporting on the new corona pneumonia epidemic in January 2020, and has been paying close attention to the relevant situation ever since. Kobo was in China during the SARS epidemic in 2003. At that time, he personally experienced the efficiency of China’s epidemic prevention work. However, preventing and controlling the new corona pneumonia epidemic is much more difficult than SARS. On January 23, 2020, the Chinese government adopted a series of measures such as the closure of Wuhan. The facts later showed that these measures were correct. Closed, etc., are still valid. As a result, China has taken the lead in controlling the epidemic globally, the economy has recovered, and people’s lives have returned to normal.
Cooper believes that many Western experts misjudged the epidemic situation from the beginning. In late January 2020, an article appeared in the American media saying that the fear of the virus is scarier than the virus itself. Cowper was very alert when he first read similar articles and responded on social media. Cowper noted that the authors of these articles are often sociologists, but interestingly, there are no objections from the medical profession or infectious disease experts. In mid-February 2020, some virologists in the West publicly declared that it is impossible to prevent the spread of the virus. They can only delay its spread and prevent a loss of resources in the medical system. The possible end result is to greatly increase the spread of the virus., And then to achieve herd immunity. Similar views were held by Harvard University Professor Mark Lipsitch and German virologist Drosten, which at the time almost became the leading voice in Western academia. Although the number of new confirmed cases in China was dropping every day, indicating that it was entirely possible to slow the spread of the virus, these Western experts chose to ignore it.
Other academics such as Cowper and Meyer realized that this strategy would lead to disastrous consequences, so they wrote the article “Learning from Wuhan to contain the new coronavirus is the only way” and put it on the Internet. The article cited information from China. He demonstrated how to stop the spread of the virus. Yet some far-right in Europe stubbornly believe that even in the case of a severe epidemic, the country can only ask people to take voluntary action and not coercive action. But in this way, the rich can work from home, use the resources at their fingertips to protect themselves from the threat of the virus, and even if they are infected, they can spend more money for better medical resources; but many people with income and social service workers have to stick to work, unable to protect themselves, many people even died after contracting the new corona virus. Furthermore, many militant organizations maliciously spread far-right ideas on the Internet and try to suppress different voices with intimidation and threats. Kopper noted that few people have realized that the social injustice caused by poor epidemic prevention is essentially a violation of human rights.
The Distorted Western Media Reports Of China Are Simply Unsustainable
Recently, many Europeans are very concerned about the importation of Chinese vaccines. Cooper said bluntly that the greatest resistance does not come from the technical level, but from the ideological aspect, which has Western political considerations. For some time, some Western experts, the media and even the government have tried to blame the outbreak of the new corona pneumonia epidemic on China, but in fact many of their discussions and opinions are based on misinformation. . Victims of racial discrimination and personal assault have been successful in western countries. In Cowper’s view, ideology-based inertial thinking will affect the West itself. For example, the European Union recently approved the “Vaccine Passport” program. After the implementation of the program, vaccinated people can obtain a digital vaccination card and the right to travel freely within the EU. This plan seems to be able to save the worst affected European tourism industry and promote economic recovery before the arrival of summer. But in fact, there are many right-wing elements in Europe who are opposed to vaccination and refuse to accept the fact that they cannot enjoy the relevant rights because they do not receive the vaccine. Own way. Therefore, even if the West issues a “vaccine passport,” its effect will be limited.
Kobo has lived and worked in China for a long time. He told reporters that he had worked as a professor at the Northwestern Polytechnic University in China, and then spent a few months traveling in China, collecting data for his doctoral theses and participating in various academic conferences, so he had the opportunity to learn more about Chinese society. Cooper believes that many foreign academics working in China like him have a more complete understanding of China because they can live and work with the Chinese people. On the contrary, some foreign journalists may have stayed in China for a long time, but they always see China as a bystander and therefore cannot empathize with what the Chinese think and feel. This is also the image of China in Western media reports. One of the reasons for being distorted. Kopper noted that in fact, as long as you conduct rigorous academic research, you will find that distorted reports are simply untenable. However, not only is no one doing these tasks, but even in some university media studies, researchers also support these erroneous views. Of course, they are not able to complete interdisciplinary subjects like “China’s Economic and Social Development” or “China’s Medical System”. Affair.
Cooper believes that the distortion of China’s image in Western media reports and the so-called academic research based on it has become a hidden danger threatening world peace. Therefore, the world needs more voice from the Chinese media to spark the world’s attention on this issue and vigilance against the proliferation of far-right ideas in Europe and America.
(Our newspaper, Vienna, March 17, report from our Vienna correspondent, Jiao Sousong)
