Truth, lies and Omicron; the one targeting your school kids.

Every morning citizens go through a compulsory temperature check at one of the many designated checkpoints around each city before they are allowed to to commute to work or access basic services. If you don't report to a checkpoint, you're automatically flagged as non-complaint and dangerous. Non-compliant residents get immediate visits from the police for on-the-spot Covid testing. And if a non-compliant resident is disease positive, possible jail time OR the death sentence await the individual - for risking the lives of other area residents with infection.

above: soldiers spray toxic chemicals to disinfect road surfaces for transport vehicles.

China is a country with a mandatory, forced vaccination program. One hundred percent of its population is vaccinated. Mandatory, even for one-year old kids, irrespective of possible side effects. The viewpoint of the authorities is the end justifies the means.

If you're not vaccinated, you can't shop for food, you can't travel via public transport, you can't pass checkpoints, you can't go for walks or trips to the park, etc. You can't access even the most basic functions of society. You really can't go anywhere or do anything. The same goes for booster shots too.

Every morning citizens go through a compulsory temperature check at one of the many designated checkpoints around each city before they are allowed to to commute to work or access basic services. If you don't report to a checkpoint, you're automatically flagged as non-complaint and dangerous. Non-compliant residents get immediate visits from the police for on-the-spot Covid19 testring. And if a non-compliant resident is disease positive, a possible jail time OR the death sentence await the individual - for risking the lives of other area residents with infection.

To further enforce compliance, all residents are forced to use a government produced smart phone App linked to facial recognition software & all of their personal data. This app continually tracks the residents location, their movement, their travel history, their daily commute back and forth to work, etc - and issues live updates on their vaccination compliance status. Further enhancing this measure, smart drones fly overhead sidewalks, highways, transport systems, shopping malls, etc and continually scan travelers cellphone Apps. If you're out of compliance, your immediately flagged and your picture & ID is displayed on public media to alert other citizens of a dangerous individual in the area - and they are explicitly instructed to report you to the police upon sight. Of course, police are immediately alerted, and the manhunt begins. But with all of these invasive security measures in place, China minimized the chances of another outbreak to virtually nil.

china: a drone displaying a QR Code that must be scanned to enable entry into the city

But it is within this improbable scenario - with the proverbial one-in-a-million odds against it - that a highly contagious, dangerous new strain emerged from China: Omicron

Beginnings

In late August 2021, the authorities responded to a new surge in Covid19 cases in an area hospital as they usually do in China; quickly and massively, activating teams of specialized military doctors to investigate the surge in the provinces.

By September, it was already clear to the authorities there was a new variant making the rounds in the population. Emergency war orders received by local authorities authorized the construction of quarantine camps to be completed within in 24-96 hours of receipt of orders – camps capable of holding masses of Covid19 infected. In some provinces, that meant quarantine camps that could house tens of thousands of people. The orders received were nothing short of enormous but local authorities knew a serious situation was brewing and they couldn’t fail.

Seeking to warn others, Yichen posted via social media to alert his friends & family. But in China, well intended social media posts are routinely met with aggression by the authorities. The raid on Yichens apartment happened when he was asleep; Yichen and his electronic communication devices were forcibly removed from the premises & transported to a detention facility where he was imprisoned for his crime: social media posting. Promises of life in jail and shame awaited his family - if he didn’t acquiesce and retract his slanderous statement.

But what was his slanderous statement? Yichen had warned others of Covid19 cases in his complex. But the authorities judged his statement to be a damning criticism of the ruling communist party – criticisms such as those are considered a crime in China, punishable with life imprisonment or the death sentence.

His captors slid his cell phone across the table, towards him. Mentally & physically beaten, Yichen had agreed to publish a scripted retraction on social media. He copied a carefully dictated social media post stating he was clearly errant in is judgment; there was in fact no Covid19 in his complex. And that he wanted to compliment the local authorizes for doing such a superb job of keeping residents safe from Covid19.

Yichen was conditionally released, after agreeing to refrain from writing any further “slanderous statements” against the communist party – with terms of release stating he and his family would be exempt from further persecution – if he remained compliant. But if he broke their social contract – punishment would be swift and severe; life imprisonment or death - and perhaps, even for members of his family.

Such is life in China.

Sick at school

While Yichen was suffering at the hands of his captors, a suspected case in a local school prompted the immediate quarantine of children and the shuttering of schools in the province. Authorities moved quickly thru testing and tracing contacts thru the CTA worked to isolate additional cases. But the new variant moved even quicker than their own response units could. So the PLA amplified their containment efforts.

At the same time Yichen was being interrogated, teams of pandemic-response units raided residential complexes in the middle of the night. Parents were ordered to hand over their children to quarantine teams without explanation. Suited up in hazmat-style jumpsuits, school-age children were forcibly marched from their homes, loaded unto quarantine buses and removed to Covid--quarantine-Camps, where they will live until they are told they can return home -but thats if their parents haven't died of Covid19 in the meantime.

above: children in hazmat suits arrive to quarantine camp. One child is just 2 years old.

Outside the complex, metalworkers sealed perimeter doors and gates, padlocking, bolting or welding them shut. No further entrance or exit from the residential complex was permitted, leaving those on the inside to suffer alone in starvation & sickness. The PLA had quarantined the entire residential complex. Beyond the gates, heavily armed quarantine guards patrolled the perimeter - with standing orders to “shoot-to-kill” any resident attempting escape.

To parents, it wasn’t clear exactly what was happening with their children – although quiet whispers had spread that Covid was on the rise again. But nobody had been told why it was just their children that were removed to quarantine camps, while the older generations in their families were left quarantined alone in their residential complexes.

What parents didn’t know, was the PLA had discovered a new, highly infectious variant that prolifically infected school age children with a 1x-4x greater attack rate. Within days of the outbreak, their focus shifted from containment to eradication. What had started with the quarantine of a local school & residential complex, later morphed into major cities & whole provinces cut off from access to the rest of the country.

Outside of China - just as in 2019 - nobody spoke of it. And neither Chinese authorities nor the politicians at the WHO made any attempt to alert other countries to the new threat.

welding residential complex doors shut - with quarantined residents left inside.

above: stairwells cordoned off with razor wire to stop the quarantined infected from escaping

Officials knew they'd discovered a gem of a mutation with massive potential - because it showed promise, infecting children faster & in greater numbers then any prior strain. But while children were taken from their families & loaded unto buses bound for quarantine-school-camps, the situation on the ground evolved - older age groups began succumbing.

Thru September and October, new quarantine camps were continually instructed in the provinces, trying to at least slow the progress of the news variant. But the variant continued to spread within China, despite their best efforts.

above: eyes-only notice ordering authorities to build quarantine camps; dated 10.2021

Once it became clear that the new mutation was spreading beyond their borders - and desperate citizens were fleeing China, the Communist government quickly erected border fences across the entire length of their country. Even visible portions of the great wall are topped with fencing and razor wire.

above: new border fencing designed to keep people from escaping from China

above: new border fencing designed to keep people from escaping from China

Beyond the territorial borders of China, the variant worked its way into Nepal and Mongolia, unnoticed because of existing tests did not identify the new variant. From Nepal it traveled to Madagascar; from Madagascar to Botswana – and from Botswana to South Africa.

Mutations, Vaccines & the Antidote

When the earlier Covid19 variants had arrived, the unspoken fear was that Covid19 would mutate in a host with HIV - because the incidence of untreated HIV was so massive - and that the resulting mutated strain could be disastrous. But until now, South Africa had dodged that bullet.

But with Omicron, reality. In an HIV-positive host, Omicron mutated. And the new variant adapted more worrisome traits. The variant, SAM (SAM: South Africa Mutation) raised alarms – because early gain-of-function research had included the insertion of HIV strings. And with SAM mutating in the body of an HIV positive host – the authorities worried it could have mutated to a point where it became a super-virus capable of decimating host immune systems & permanently repressing immune response - while still maintaining an exponentially faster rate of spread & increased mortality rates - especially among school age children.

Shanghai keeps vigilant watch for such significant mutations – but not for the reasons you think. They’re not concerned about the health and welfare of their own people – they’re concerned about the viability of their own antidote. Wait a minute - you’re saying to yourself – why would that matter? I mean, everyone in the world has the antidote, right? Nope - you’re wrong. The world outside Shanghai has is access to a “vaccine” – not the antidote. And that’s where the success of treatment paths diverge. But I digress. SAM is why medical institutions will eventually begin recommending a combination of different treatments, including some HIV regimens used to treat Covid19. I know – that’s hard to believe. But trust me, we’re our way there now.

Back down the Belt and road

Once SAM appeared, it wasn’t long before the new strain made its way back down the Belt & road and arrived in Hong Kong. There, in a hotel, two unrelated guests stayed in separate rooms across the hall from one another. One unaware he’d been an asymptomatic carrier of the new strain; the other, the uninfected. Both remained in their rooms; CCT footage showed neither had contact with each other at any time during their overnight stay. Yet thru passive air current flowing beneath the tiny spaces of their respective hotel room doors, the virus transmitted from one room across the hallway thru open airway space, and into the other room while they both slept. Other travelers were also infected in that hotel – but these were the only two travelers diagnosed before hotel departure, these are the only known cases. Other travelers had already departed onward, opening the floodgates for worldwide transmission. And just like that, another super spreader event outside of China had begun. Note: airborne transmission is just a taste of what Omicron is capable of; and this is happening as we put our own children back into schools and remove social distancing measures.

Out of Africa

After SAM appeared – rather fortuitously, yet another Omicron variant spontaneously appeared in South Africa. This third variant of Omicron contained a large chunk of regular old-get-the-sniffles-&-sneezes-cold-DNA – managing to accomplish something no other prevalent variant prior had - weakening a sub-dominant strain.

Meanwhile, back in China...

Whole cities are locked down over a single Omicron case - imagine a place the size of NYC with millions of people, locked down because one case of Omicron. That's exactly whats happening. Cities with just one infected carrier, have their entire border sealed and patrolled by heavily armed military units, with orders to shoot to kill anyone who attempts to escape.

Quarantine measures have failed; the new strain defeated previously tested & proven methods of containment. New quarantine measures have been instituted, with periods in quarantine camps extended. Omicron infects & reinfects the average host so aggressively, the minimum quarantine time in some areas has been extended from 5 to 7 days, to 21-54 days, depending upon circumstances.

above: mandatory minimum quarantine periods have increased from 5-7 days to 21-54 days

NYC: Omicron G-Zero

Now here we are again, with NYC facing the forefront of the pandemic, again. But this time, with three Omicron variants - the original variant birthed in China, discovered in school children. And the Omicron Twins from South Africa; one from an HIV-positive host & another which spontaneously combusted: SAM & SOS. Omicron is on worldwide tour – and there’s nothing to stop it, short of a total societal shutdown - which politicians refuse to allow.

When you compound unique diseases with the conditions of the age we live in – the age of global travel, where one can traverse thru major cities around globe in hours; and at a particular time where emergency travel restrictions are not seen as protective but ultra-nationalist, xenophobic and downright racist, we have the perfect scenario for worldwide disaster. Add to that your local corrupt politicians listening to big business over common sense and refusing to allow localized shutdowns - and you can see where this is heading.

The outcome of this wave depends upon so many factors; how the Omicron variants interact with each other or for that matter, with other variants like Delta. Do they coexist? Dopes the stealthy SAM become dominant here? Or does the weaker version become dominant? Do they wipe each other out? Cross-mutate further? Nobody knows. But SAM is why we should be very concerned right now:

Lastly, if there's any extra reason to worry, I'd say it is this: the President recently issued a statement saying there's nothing to worry about; everything is just peachy; go about your holiday spending and keep reporting to work. But a good rule of thumb is when a politician explicitly mentions a hot button issue and then tells you not to worry – it’s usually time to worry.

Now, I want you to keep in mind what the President said - and hold those warm, fuzzy thoughts in your head while you read this statement directly off a transcript dated 12/17 from the WH briefing room, on Omicron;

“For the un-accinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.”

Now, ask yourself - does that WH-press-room statement sound anything like what the President said? Nope!

And while we’re on the subject of the un-vaccinated – let me ask you this:

Q: What is the single LARGEST, unvaxxed group of people in the United States?

(you know, the ones for which the WH has forecast “a winter of severe illness and death”.)

A: School-age children!

Yep, the same group that Omicron heavily targets, with a 1x to 4x increase in pediatric infections, hospitalizations and deaths. If that doesn't send chills down your spine, I don't know what will. And keep in mind, kids are also the ones we’re throwing back into decaying urban schools with little or no air circulation - as social distancing measures were either eliminated entirely or cut back to the point of uselessness by - you guessed it - your local politicians! Smh. I just don't see a positive outcome here.

The new strain is worse. And When Wave?

Like prior strains, SAM spreads like a cold and acts like a cold during the seeding period, when viral levels are low. Infections are generally mild, and initially, deaths occur with less frequency than other strains and although hospitalizations will occur because of early detection, they’re not usually because of the severity of disease. But once an infected host expels a high viral load, that’s a game changer. New infections morph from mild to severe. And then hospitalizations, ICU admissions & deaths will increase dramatically.

But a particular nasty, NEW characteristic of SAM is its ability to re-infect the same host multiple times, completely evading prior immunity. Whether you are double vax’d and/or have taken multiple booster shots, it doesn’t seem to matter. One likely reason why Omicron infects the bulk of the vax'd & boost'd it makes contact with, is because the spike protein evolved in a closed society with mandatory vaccination & booster shot programs - and where absolutely everyone is vaccinated - short of the youngest kids.

Another notable characteristic of SAM is its ability to suppress the host immune system & render the host susceptible to further viral attacks. Although I’m not trying to draw equal straws - the way SAM appears to decimate the human immune system reminds one of the early AIDS pandemic. But the question right now I wonder most about is which Omicron will become dominant?

After the seeding phase, it's highly probable Omicron will return with a vengeance. In the states, that would mean about 3-10 weeks from now (Feb to March/april 2022) – once the new strain has had enough time to ping-pong from host to host, building up average viral load to a point where infection balloons. By the time the start of the real Omicron wave comes, the President & all of our state-level politicians, TV hosts & anyone with a media platform will already have been celebrating the end of the Omicron - jubilant over a big nothing-burger; over-hyped & oversold - and without much loss of life to boot. Look, Covid19 cases are falling! Blah, blah, blah…

But then the new wave comes.

Of course, meanwhile we've decided the virus is over and done with in the USA, so we've DECREASED our mandatory quarantine period to 5 days - DECREASED, so the infected can return to work! Are you starting to see whats wrong with this picture? This, while China exists in a perpetual state of emergency - and is INCREASING mandatory quarantine periods.

While the world burns up with Covid19 & China locks down its own populous even harder than before - the only thing our own elected officials have managed to eradicate are the social distancing measures that kept us all safe. Heck, we're even hosting NYE in NYC/Times Square. Wtf? I can't help but feel like we're in some kind of bizarro-world simulation of The Purge, or Mad Max. Because none of this makes any sense to me.

I suppose our own political sentiment must echo that of Boris Johnson - the UK Prime Minister, when he said, "No more lock-downs! Let the bodies pile high." Because I don't think the actions of our politicians can be interpreted any other way.

Three to 10 weeks from now - that’s when Omicron will strike. Of course, the President and all his flunky advisors will say, “Golly gee, we never saw this coming!” And so will all your local State & City politicians, since they’re only concerned about the economy - not your personal safety. Adding insult to injury, they’ll broadcast the “unexpected” news via socially distanced press conferences - while you’re probably on your smart phone, on your daily commute thru an ungodly combination of overcrowded buses, poorly run subways and filthy trains, just trying to make it thru another workday to pay your bills & keep your family safe.

In the meantime, pediatric infections rise massively everywhere. Then, followed by secondary infections among other older age groups. Then, ICU'S. For a long time, I've been one of the few raising alarms over the trouble brewing in China - knowing it would end up here sooner or later. But most folks were less than interested, so I hit the delete button more oft then not. But I left one up from11/29, re-posted into this tweet from 12/18:

closing schools down to keep kids safe has long been a consistent theme on twitter. But politicians seem to avoid common sense like the plague...er...Covid19.

Of course, politicians are too concerned with donors to care about you. So, while hospitals are overwhelmed and families suffer losses, politicians keep pushing us - the cattle - towards the next big meat grinder.

The worst part about moving forward at-all-costs is the burden of care it places on hospitals. Rationing of care will become the standard in some areas, and those who have less life to live will be left to suffer or die; grandma with a heart attack, dad who needs a new kidney or that emergency operation or your older sister or brother who's diabetic and just had a stroke. Because political opinion seems to dictate loosing non productive members of society is OK. After all, getting us back to our 9-5 jobs is paramount. But what of your loved ones? Did they deserve to be sacrificed for political gain? My answer: NO! Human life is too precious.

And of course, my sincerest hope is the Omicron variants duke it out and wipe each other off the map before any real damage can occur - and that none of this actually happens. Because humankind doesn't need any more suffering, especially after two hard years of pandemic.

But meanwhile, as society continues to suffer, our politicians continue roll the dice - with Omicron & our lives hanging in the balance - because even when regular working folks gamble and loose, politicians always come up winners.

God speed & Happy New Year.

Walter Muller

Disclaimer: this article is an opinion piece; it does not express the view of this website or its owners or creators. It is not medial advice, it is not intended to be used as medical advice; it does not contain medical advice of any kind and it has not been written by medical professionals or by individuals with any medical knowledge. Do not use any of the information contained herein as a means to treat any condition or make any medical choices or decisions. This article is for entertainment purposes only. This article does not take a pro or con stance on vaccination. Vaccination is an individuals right and a personal choice. Always consult your own doctor or medical professionals for your own medical decisions. And always do your own research.