The Pandemic Started In China, But Europe Helped To Spread It

The Intercept: Coronavirus Started in China, but Europe Became the Hub for Its Global Spread

When the coronavirus began to spread, Mongolia took sensible precautions. It halted border crossings from China, with which it shares a 2,877-mile border. Mongolia also imposed travel bans on people from South Korea and Japan, the other epicenters of the pandemic at the time. Yet the virus nonetheless found its way to Mongolia, where the first infected person — known as the “index case” — was a Frenchman who had come to the country from France via Moscow.

The story is the same for many other countries that became part of the pandemic due to infected people carrying it from Europe. South Africa’s first coronavirus cases had gone to northern Italy for a skiing trip. South America’s first case was a Brazilian who had traveled to Italy’s Lombardy region, and Bangladesh’s first cases were Bangladeshis who had also come from Italy. Panama’s index case was imported from Spain, and Nigeria’s first experience with coronavirus was an Italian business traveler. Jordan’s was imported from Italy.

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WNU Editor: Many in Europe at the beginning called for air travel and the borders in Europe to be shut down to stop the spread, but helped by a media campaign from China and their supporters in Europe, these moves were branded as racist and xenophobic, thereby stalling any move to impose restrictions (see below).

The mayor of Florence, Italy, @DarioNardella initiated "hug a Chinese" on Twitter on Feb 1, opposing anger toward China amid the #nCoV2019 outbreak, and calling for "Unity in this common battle!" Many Italian netizens responded by posting photos of themselves with Chinese. pic.twitter.com/LutXfPyXc7

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 4, 2020

It was only when the hospitals in northern Italy started to overflow with dying patients that measures were enacted, but it was already too late. The coronavirus was already in every European country, and community spread had become the rule rather than the exception. And from Europe it then easily entered Africa, Latin America, and the eastern U.S. In hindsight that one month delay has cost tens of thousands of lives, devastated the European economy, and may end the EU as we know it. And as for China who initially opposed enacting border and travel restrictions, they have put up their bamboo curtain, and have imposed even more stringent air and border restrictions, restrictions that they were quick to label as racist only two months ago.

Update: The Chinese are not the only ones to blame. Many in the global community (including the media) opposed imposing travel and border restrictions because they believed it would not only be ineffective, but it would also stoke racism .... Coronavirus quarantine, travel ban could backfire, experts fear (Politico). More here .... Virus Travel Bans Are Inevitable But Ineffective (Foreign Policy). To say that they were wrong is an understatement. This opposition to travel and border restrictions not only only help to speed-up the spread of this virus, but it has also damaged public trust in these institutions.

Update #2: I leave the best for the last. WHO completely failed in their mandate to protect the world from this disaster. They opposed travel and border restrictions in the beginning, and they are now silent when it comes to China imposing some of the world's harshest border and travel restrictions. It is also hard to believe that WHO labelled this as a pandemic only three weeks ago .... WHO declares coronavirus a pandemic (The Hill). What were they thinking?