The Lancet which is one of the worlds foremost and respected medical journals have deliberately suppressed crucial information at the behest of the Communist Party of China that proved the Covid virus could jump from human to human and was spreading outside of Wuhan in the early days of the pandemic, reports Dailymail.
Already this medical journal has been discredited for publishing a politically biased article targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Coronavirus crisis in India
As per reports, the editors of the journal failed to share critical evidence that was given to them by brave Chinese scientists who were trying to alert the world to the danger of the new disease capable of spreading by people who were not displaying symptoms.
This new information has come from a new book by Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and a member of the UK Government’s Sage committee who said he was shocked by the behaviour of the journal for suppressing this information that could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives if speedy action had been taken to deal with any emerging virus outbreak.
In his book, he revealed that he was contacted by Thijs Kuiken, a Dutch professor and government adviser, over a scientific research paper that he was sent by The Lancet to review on January 16, 2020, and refers to the paper’s contents as, “One of the standout moments in the whole epidemic, the reddest in a constellation of red flags,”.
The report states that the role of influential scientific media must be questioned for appeasing the Chinese authorities and stifling debate about suggestions that Covid could have leaked from a Wuhan lab.
The lancet in a scathing article published in The Mail last month had revealed how to outrightly refused to publish an article critical of China’s industrial-scale human rights violation and the repression of Uighurs in the Xinjiang province as it might cause problems for staff at its Beijing office.
The medical journal has also been accused of parroting China’s version that Covid-19 does not have a “natural origin” that was drafted by Peter Daszak, whose charity funded high-risk experiments on coronaviruses in a Wuhan lab.
According to Prof Kuiken who had instantly realised this was crucial information unfolding as the entire world faces a health crisis, but his role as a confidential reviewer precluded him from sharing details and had sent his review the next day to The Lancet, expecting it to be published immediately hoping ‘the information should be made public because it was the first scientific proof that the virus was spreading human to human. They either would not or could not do it.’
But when Lancet did not publish his finding, within 24 hours, Kuiken sent an email to Sir Jeremy who agreed the findings should be shared urgently.
‘If there was a novel contagious disease that could spread asymptomatically between people, the world needed to know immediately,’ said Sir Jeremy. ‘Speed matters perhaps more than anything else in disease outbreaks.’
Sir Jeremy then emailed and messaged Richard Horton, The Lancet’s editor-in-chief expecting a reply to no avail.
The following day Sir Jeremy contacted the World Health Organisation (WHO) and that led to and within 24 hours, China belatedly confirmed human transmission and confirmed people in southern China who had caught Covid from family members.
A key study conducted by Southampton University found that if China had acted to lock down Wuhan even one week earlier, according to its estimate the number of cases would have been cut by two-thirds, significantly limiting Covid’s spread. But the Communist regime known for suppressing truth silenced doctors through intimidation, covered up the outbreak’s severity and ensured there was no public discussion.
A leaked memo from a Chinese health official admitted ‘human-to-human transmission is possible’, and warned of ‘a major public health event’.
Richard Ebright, a bio-security expert, said what The Lancet did was “unconscionable and unforgivable and the practice has cost lives”.
Fiona Godlee, editor of the British Medical Journal, said the reviewer was put in a difficult position and The Lancet should have ensured the Shenzhen evidence reached the public domain immediately.
The Lancet, which finally published the study on January 24, refused to divulge when it received the research but said all papers of major public health importance were shared as soon as possible while ensuring rigorous peer-review.
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BS Yediyurappa, a man who never had it easy
The resignation of Rythu Bandhu (farmers friend) Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa as Chief Minister of Karnataka brings a curtain on the long and distinguished career of a people’s politician who built the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state.
Showing poise, dignity, and fortitude, in a tearful speech to his supporters, Yediyurappa said, “I have decided to resign. I will meet the Governor after lunch,”. He called his last two years as the CM of the state during Covid as agnipariksha (trial by fire).
“I thank PM (Narendra) Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda. They gave me the chance to rule as Chief Minister despite being over 75. I had decided to resign some time back. I thought it best to resign today as we mark completion of two years in this term,” he told reporters.
In his farewell address, Yediyurappa showed grace and humility as he thanked Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and his ideologue Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyayaji, former PM Atalji, Advaniji, Murali Manohar Joshij who built the BJP as a national party.
Yediyurappa is one of those rare politicians who always followed party discipline and now leaves behind politics that saw him built the BJP from the bottom up in Karnataka and in that process, he won eight assembly elections one time as a Member of Parliament and as a Member of a State Legislative Council (MLC).
But his highlight was to be elected by his party as its CM four times and three times as the leader of the opposition, making him a giant in Karnataka politics and perhaps the tallest leader to emerge from the Lingayat community.
Yediyurappa was born on 27 February 1943 in a village called Bookanakere in K.R.Pet taluk of Mandya district. At a young age, he lost his mother and in order to support his family, he sold lemons and worked as a factory clerk in a rice mill.
A member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from his college days, Yediyurappa’s public service began when he was appointed as Karyavaha (Secretary) of the Sangh’s Shikaripur unit in 1970. Later with hard work he was elected to the Shikaripura Town Municipality and was also appointed as the President of the Taluk unit of the Jana Sangh.
During the dark period of the Congress-imposed emergency, Yediyurappa was imprisoned and lodged in the Bellary and Shimoga jails.
From there on he went from strength to strength with his dedication and became state president of the BJP in Karnataka in 1988. He won eight assembly elections has been a member of the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Legislative Assemblies (lower house) of Karnataka.
In 1994 he became the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and in 1999, he was nominated by the BJP to become a member of the legislative council (upper house) of Karnataka.
Yediyurappa became Chief Minister of Karnataka in 2007 but only for a week. The 2004 Assembly Election saw a hung Assembly with BJP emerging as the single largest party with 79 seats. The Congress came second with 65 and the JDS third with 58 seats. But then, like it happened 2018, the Congress and JDS came to power only for the government to break within days. Later, the JDS and BJP came together with the BJP agreeing for Kumaraswamy to be CM till 2007. But Kumaraswamy failed to keep the promise at his end by not transferring the power to Yediyurappa to 2008.
Betrayed by their own alliance partner, Yediyurappa once again went to the people and got their mandate with the BJP winning a wafer thing majority. It was after he came to power that he had face another tumultuous period with several charges of corruption against him. He had to quit in 2011 and was arrested. The BJP faced a humiliating defeat in the 2013 Assembly Election coming third as the BJP itself was divided into separate factions.
It was after Modi came to power that the BJP in the state felt rejuvenated. But Yediyurappa still had 4 more years for the 2018 Assembly elections to come. But the BJP once again failed to secure enough majority for it to comfortably form the government. The unholy alliance of Congress-JDS was formed again. Yediyurappa on the other hand swore that he would ensure the BJP sweeps Karnataka in 2019.
And it did. The BJP won 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats. Operation Kamal was launched and Yediyurappa became Chief Minister despite him crossing 75. But the BJP high command made an exception to their ‘retirement at 75 years’ rule for the man’s dedication and hardwork in making the party a formidable force.
By following party orders and resigning without creating an uproar, Yediyurappa has now set an example for others to follow.
The BJP as a party always ensures that stalwarts make space for the next generation of leaders to rise and lead. Yediyurappa will be remembered as the man who built the BJP in Karnataka brick by brick.
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