China shows world how to combat virus

Measures taken reaffirm the country's basic socialist character, website article says

China is showing the world what is needed－and possible－to combat the outbreak of a new, highly contagious virus, said an article published on Feb 11 on the website of Workers World Party, a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States founded in 1959.

The steps China has taken around the coronavirus reaffirm the basic socialist character of the Chinese state, Sara Flounders, a US political writer, said in her article. In a crisis or emergency, the welfare of the people comes before capitalist profits, she said. "Such steps are unheard of in capitalist countries."

The article cited how Chinese workers built the 1,000-bed Huoshenshan Hospital in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, in 10 days.

It said China imposed a limited quarantine on 35 million people in Wuhan city and Hubei province, and now extended far wider. "It restricts all unnecessary social interaction until more is known about the virus."

According to the article, Lunar New Year celebrations were canceled nationwide, and schools, factories and workplaces closed for an additional week to control contagion.. The whole population was asked to self-quarantine and limit social interaction. Only food deliveries and other essential services continued nationwide, it said.

Flounder said China made allout efforts to learn and share with the world the genome of the virus, how contagious it is, its symptoms, what organs it attacks, the mortality rate, and what treatments or combinations of treatments have been most successful.

Worldwide, influenza causes up to 5 million cases of severe illness annually, killing up to 650,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.

Some viruses are new and more dangerous than others because humans are not yet immune to them and vaccines have not been developed to control their spread.

The article said the H1N1 swine flu virus, which began in the US in 2009 and spread worldwide, infected more than 1.63 million people and caused 284,500 deaths, with a fatality rate of 17.4 percent.

No efforts were made by the US government to slow the spread of this particularly dangerous flu, which especially targeted young people, it said.

Flounder said China's massive efforts around the current outbreak of the coronavirus, however, have restricted the fatality rate so far to around 2.1 percent－lower than usual for a new disease. By Feb 1, the number of people cured in China exceeded the deaths, indicating that the epidemic is controllable. "But it is not yet controlled, and determined work is continuing, including building solidarity with Wuhan."

"Each day new medical teams go to Wuhan and Hubei from other parts of China," she said.

"One-on-one support systems have been established in 19 provinces and municipalities to help cities in Hubei battle the epidemic," the article said, adding that faster diagnosis and treatment plans are being aggressively tested and immediately disseminated worldwide.

"Spending government funds in preparation for an impending health crisis or natural disaster is just not on the US agenda," she said.

So far this winter, the flu virus has sickened 22 million people in the US, with 210,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC says that 20 percent of people in the US come down with the flu each winter. In a bad season, like the one in 2017-18, the flu killed more than 60,000.

China built two major hospitals in 10 days, the article said. "It has mobilized thousands of healthcare workers. How? Through socialist planning and the cohesive leadership of the Communist Party," it said.

Flounder said thousands of medical volunteers have responded to the government's call to assist in Wuhan. With mass transit shut down to lessen contagion, squads of free taxis are operating for those who need healthcare or shopping, she said.

"Food is easily available and quickly delivered. Fresh fruits and vegetables are being shipped in. There are no desperate people breaking into shops for food."

Rather than spending billions to improve healthcare or basic infrastructure, Washington lavishes money on military bases to surround China and new weapons to threaten the world, she said.