(OPINION) By now, you have probably heard that the Chinese government has put the entire city of Xi’an under a very strict lockdown. Residents have literally been forbidden to leave their own homes without permission, and we are being told that this was done because COVID has been spreading in the area.
But there are less than 200 confirmed cases in a city that has a population of approximately 13 million. Locking 13 million people in their own homes for less than 200 COVID cases doesn’t make any sense. Could it be possible that the main reason why millions of Chinese are being imprisoned in their own homes is being suppressed?
According to Radio Free Asia, there are actually two different outbreaks in the city of Xi’an right now…. Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Xi’an have placed the city of 13 million under lockdown, amid a sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and fears over a recent outbreak of epidemic hemorrhagic fever, local residents told RFA.
I had not heard about a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in China until today, and that is because the corporate media in the western world has almost entirely ignored it. But this seems like a big story to me. One resident of Xi’an that was interviewed by Radio Free Asia is calling this “a double epidemic”…
“No hemorrhagic fever was found in Wuhan [in early 2020], but Xi’an is now faced with a double epidemic,” she said. “Everyone in China is paying attention to Xi’an right now,” she said. So is this something that we should be concerned about on the other side of the globe?
At this point, it is hard to say. Chinese officials are insisting that this is a type of hemorrhagic fever that they have seen before, and they are telling us that it is extremely unlikely that it is spreading from human to human. But other reports are contradicting those claims.
For example, WION News is telling us that there have been “multiple community transmission chains” involving hemorrhagic fever, and it is also being reported that some of the cases were “coming in from international flights”… After China lockdown millions in Xi’an city in northwest Shaanxi province, reports claim there has been “multiple community transmission chains” including hemorrhagic fever cases.
China’s state-run Global Times quoting public health officials reported that it is a “grim and complicated epidemic situation”. The Chinese daily said the hemorrhagic fever “shared similarity in early-stage symptoms with COVID-19”. The report said there were also cases imported from abroad coming in from international flights.
Hopefully, any confusion about this new outbreak will soon be cleared up and we will start getting solid information out of China. I know that “hemorrhagic fever” sounds quite scary. Ebola is a type of hemorrhagic fever and so is Marburg, and they both have extremely high death rates. But other forms of hemorrhagic fever actually have death rates that are very low.
Hopefully, the hemorrhagic fever that has erupted in China is not too serious. One thing that has many outside observers concerned is the type of equipment that medical personnel in Xi’an are wearing. The protective suits that they are using look like something that would be worn if Ebola or Marburg was spreading. Of course,
the Chinese do things very differently, and maybe they just want to make sure that they don’t catch COVID. But to me, the “spacesuits” that they are donning appear to be overkill if they are just worried about COVID. READ MORE
