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Inspiring Voices - John Sager

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48 pages

English

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A fictional expose of China's attempt to conceal the origins of the novel Coronavirus.

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Publié par	Inspiring Voices
Date de parution	26 juin 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781462413041
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Also by John S ager
A Tiffany Monday – an Unusual Love Story, West Bow Press 2012
Joan’s Gallery, 50 Years of Artistry by Joan Johnson Sager, Blurb, Inc. 2013
Uncovered – My Half-Century with the CIA, West Bow Press 2013
Night Flight, A Novel, Create Space, 2013
Operation Night Hawk, A Novel, Create Space, 2014
Moscow at Midnight, A Novel, Create Space, 2014
The Jihadists’ Revenge, A Novel, Create Space, 2014
Mole, A Novel, Create Space, 2015
Capital Crises, A Novel, Create Space, 2015
God’s Listeners, An Anthology, Create Space, 2015
Crescent Blood, A Novel, Create Space 2016
Sasha, from Stalin to Obama, A Biography, Create Space 2016
Shahnoza – Super Spy, A Novel, Create Space, 2016
Target Oahu, A Novel, Create Space, 2017
Aerosol, A Novel, Create Space, 2017
The Health Center, A Novel, Create Space, 2017
The Conservator, A Biography, Create Space, 2017
The Evil Alliance, A Novel, Create Space, 2018
Tehran Revisited, A Novel, Archway Publishers, 2019
St. Barnabas, A Novel, Inspiring Voices, 2019
The Caravan, A Novel, Outskirts Press, 2019
Senator McPherson, A Novel, Inspiring Voices, 2019
Meetings in Moscow, A Novel, Outskirts Press, 2019
Madam President, A Novel, Outskirts Press, 2019
Kiwi Country, A Novel, Outskirts Press, 2020
CONQUERING COVID

JOHN SAGER

Copyright © 2020 John Sager.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Inspiring Voices
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
1 (866) 697-5313

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-4624-1303-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-1304-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020911353

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 08/15/2020
CONTENTS
Acknowledgement
Author’s Comment
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Epilogue
About the Author
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
As with many of my writings, I want to thank my long-time friend and fellow fly fisherman Sanford Young. Stan and I both are in our nineties and no longer able to fish, but we do have fond memories of the good old days when we were able to fish together. Stan has perused every line of this work and where they are any glitches, typos or other mistakes, they are mine, not his. Thank you, Stan!
AUTHOR’S COMMENT
Although this is a novel—the story traces the development of the novel Coronavirus from its origins to Wuhan, China to its present status as a world-wide pandemic—I use a number of online resources to provide known facts when these are appropriate.
One of these follows, from an unknown author but one who speaks with knowledge and authority.
* * *
Feeling confused as to why Coronavirus is a bigger deal than seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell. It has to do with RNA sequencing, that is, gene tics.
Seasonal flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year… you get immunity two ways…through exposure to a virus, or by getting a flu shot.
Novel viruses come from animals…. the World Health Organization tracks novel viruses in animals, (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1) (birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But as soon as one of these animal viruses mutates, and starts to transfer from animals to humans, then it’s a problem, Why? Because humans have no natural or acquired immunity; the RNA sequencing of the genes inside the virus isn’t human, and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it so we can’t fight it off.
Now, sometimes, the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human, for years its only transmission is from an infected animal to a human before it finally mutates so that it can now transfer from human to human. When that happens we have a new contagion phase. And depending on the fashion of this new mutation, that’s what decides how contagious, or how deadly it’s going to be.
H1N1 was deadly, but it did not mutate in a way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. Its RNA was slower to mutate and it attacked its host differently, too.
Fast forward.
Now, here comes this Coronavirus; it existed in animals only, for nobody knows how long; but one day, at an animal market in Wuhan China, in December 2019, it mutated and made the jump from animal to people. At first, only animals could give it to a person. But, here’s the scary part: in just TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability, “slippery.”
This Coronavirus, not being in any form a “human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or acquired immunity), took off like a rocket. And this was because humans have no known immunity; doctors have no known medicines for it.
And it just so happens that this particular mutated animal virus changed itself in such a way that it causes great damage to human lungs.
That’s why Coronavirus is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1 or any other type of influenza. And it’s a lung-eater.
For this one, we really have no tools in our shed History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places has helped in the past pandemics. Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918 and they were the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu epidemic.
Factoid: Henry VIII stayed in his room and allowed no one near him, till the Black Plague passed. Just like us, he had no tools in his shed, except social isolation.
And let me end by saying that right now it’s hitting older folks harder; but this genome is so slippery that if it mutates again—and it will—who’s to say, what it will do next?
ONE
January 1, 2020.
Zhang Wei Ying awoke to the buzzing of his iPhone. He recognized the voice; it was his cousin Li Wei, calling from his apartment in Wuhan. But before he could speak, the signal faded, then went silent.
“That’s okay. I can call him back after I’ve finished breakfast. Curious, though, that his call didn’t come through. It’s probably something to do with the government’s attempt to monitor calls coming from Wuhan, what with all the trouble they’re having there. Last I heard, fifty or so of the residents in his building were seriously ill and trying to get medical help, some kind of bad virus, apparently.”
* * *
Years earlier, when Zhang Wei was in his teens, his parents determined that their eldest child would make something of himself. For Mr. and Mrs. Ying it had been a difficult time. His only work was tending the rice paddies, some 15 kilometers from their home and 400 kilometers from the center of Beijing . In their village, owning an automobile was something only the local Communist village commandant—the much despised and feared Ye Ru Yong—could afford. Most folks either walked or rode bicycles and that is how Zhang Wei’s father went to and from his work. When the family was at home, they never spoke of their awful living conditions. Why should they? The neighbors next door were no better off. And there was always the possibility that whatever they said would be overheard and then reported to Ye Ru. He was known to attend Communist Party cell meetings, first Monday of every month, seven o’clock sharp. It was assumed that at these meetings, Ye Ru’s comrades would share whatever tid-bits had been gathered and report them to higher authority.
It was this neighbor snitching on neighbor syndrome that persuaded the Ying family never to join the Communist Party. This, despite that fact that everyone knew that if one wanted to succeed, party membership was required.
* * *
In his school years, Zhang Wei’s friends knew that he came from a family that abhorred the country’s Communist leadership. A few of his closest friends came from families who felt the same way and theirs was a coveted friendship.
When it came time for Zhang Wei to apply for admission to Beijing University’s School of Medicine, he deliberately falsified his paperwork, claiming to come from a family dedicated to the Communist cause in which both parents were party members. He knew he was chancing being found a liar, but he thought that just maybe the investigators would fail to notice.
And fail they did.
* * *
Four and a half years later, Zhang Wei had finished his course work, endured six hours of oral examinations, then the written tests which consumed parts of four days. Finally, he was handed his diploma by the university’s Commissar of Medicine. His mother and father had long since passed away and his brother had found work in far-off Shanghai and was unable to attend. But, henceforth, if he wished, he could be addressed as Doctor Zhang