Opinion | How the China 'disease' scaremongering made a comeback

By Tom Fowdy

Over the past week, the mainstream media has relentlessly pushed reports that a "new disease" has emerged in China, described as a form of "pneumonia" that has "overloaded hospitals." Naturally, from the financial perspective of a newspaper, such a story is a bonanza for revenue because fear of new diseases, and especially so from China, sells overwhelmingly. It is only natural as such that every single major news outlet hammered the story, aiming to cast on it an angle of doubt, uncertainty and of course, dishonesty pertaining to China's authorities. Even as data has confirmed these reported illnesses are not from a "novel virus" of any kind, this has not stopped the onslaught of highly speculative coverage.

In reality, the explanation for it all is much simpler and more mundane than these stories would have you believe; Winter has arrived, and for the past few weeks a sudden cold spell swept China. With winter comes the onslaught of cold and flu-like illnesses. However, there is another factor in consideration too. This is China's first "open" winter since 2019, whereby life is back to normal and there are no lockdowns, COVID restrictions or precautions to think of. Likewise, from an epidemiological perspective, the coronavirus is no longer the dominant pathogen as immunity spreads and therefore, old illnesses are making a comeback in a thriving environment they were denied for years.

But of course, a great deal of the Western mainstream public don't think scientifically, they have been bombarded with misinformation on a scale like never seen before which appeals to their cynicism and worst prejudices, and as it happens we might recount that the COVID-19 pandemic, fuelled by geopolitics, was one of the most insidious blame games ever surmounted against a single country by media and politicians, skewering any factual interpretation of what happened. Indeed, the world was misled to believe that Beijing was politically "culpable" for a new and unknown disease that unavoidably spread worldwide, locking China and the West in a toxic narrative battle over who truly was "best" at fighting the disease.

Looking back, I feel a sense of personal trauma about the COVID era, not only because of the political environment it created, but I recognize that the experience of lockdowns, restrictions, and the shutting down of life was a horrible experience for all involved. Despite this, I consider myself one of the lucky ones, my life was not pulled from under my feet. Thus, to some extent it is understandable why there was such great public anger and a rejection of authority, and moreover how easy it was for some people to divert this blame towards Beijing which was deliberately coordinated by the highest levels of government in the United States amongst other countries. It was the most politicized pandemic in history, and I truly hope, as does everyone else, that we never have to see anything like this again in our lifetimes.

Thus, it is only natural that the mainstream media delight in scaremongering over any potential "outbreak" in China. This prejudice is not merely a construction of the COVID pandemic itself, but in fact, it is an age-old, established trope to scapegoat China as a promulgator of disease. This "orientalist" stereotype seeks to paint the West as civilized, clean, hygienic, and orderly, but the Eastern world as dirty, unhygienic, disease-ridden and uncivilized. This creates the benign mental assumption that Western countries "do not" produce diseases, and it was that underlying thinking that made them so complacent when it came to the pandemic.

Thus, for China, a gigantic and hugely populated nation, it has thus become a primary target of this mental association, something which even when it is not being deliberately pushed by governments, becomes a target of the media for financial incentives. This inner racism is concealed in this instance by the façade of anti-Communism, with the Communist Party becoming an ideologically justifiable "mask" to conceal or exhibit people's worst prejudices about the country. Instead of saying China is a dirty or uncivilized place, as it would go, one would just argue "Well, the party covered it up." Thankfully, however, evidence points to this not being a new pandemic, but a seasonal regurgitation of old pathogens returning to the forefront amidst the onset of winter.

Remember, as a final note, that China is a bit behind the West on this premise, because life has been back to normal in Western countries at large since the winter of 2021, yet for China, opening up only commenced in January of this year. In this case, there is absolutely nothing to fear regarding it and the usual suspects are stirring up trouble as usual.