First it was our Prime Minister Scott Morrison who made the call for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. It invited a deluge of Chinese wrath.
Now the former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also come out and backed the call asking for an investigation into the origins of the pandemic. She has softened it adding ‘it should not be about pointing fingers’.
Can there be an investigation trying to find where the pandemic began, find its origin and not name it? Heaven forbid but that is how people seem to be cautious as there is so much at stake when it comes to dealing with China and Chinese wrath.
It is too premature to back any conspiracy theorists and declare the virus was lab-designed and unleashed on the globe to achieve some ulterior motive. Even if that was true, it will not be simply – ‘turn on the microphone and make the announcement’.
This may be the precursor of soft version of chemical world wars of the future and an area of interest for some select few futuristic scholars who may fundraise for flights to other planets and sell that idea to very few loaded people who can and would like to secure their safety by flying away from this ‘wretched globe’ – which no longer feels safe.
The truth may never be known for certainty or it will be known – only when it can cause no real consequences and will just embellish the history books for those interested in the digital DNA of relics of the past hidden layers of international diplomacy. There may be documentaries made of little interest or of interest to only select few – the way WMD documentaries are today.
And it make perfect sense to know not only the origins of COVID-19 but also how it got so out of hand that it has managed to kill more than 300,000 people worldwide and brought the whole world on its knees within weeks.
“If a major health challenge for the world started anywhere, in any country on earth, then it is good to have a process which enables us to learn every lesson so that we can keep humanity safer for the future,” Julia Gillard told the ABC.
“I think that that message applies today to current circumstances, and it will apply for as long as there are shared health challenges for us to combat.”
China has reacted with utter displeasure to Australia’s push for a global investigation. From bans and increased tariffs on Australian produce, the true colours of Chinese wrath are too vocal in the stakes which are so high for Australian exports.
But Ms Gillard said the inquiry was not about finger-pointing.
“… I do think that, as rational human beings, we can also say to ourselves that whether a problem originates in Sydney, in China, in Portugal, in Brazil, in the United Kingdom, in any country on earth — wherever a problem originates that’s got a possibility of having a profound impact on human health around the planet, then of course it needs to be studied, it needs to be understood.
“Not so that fingers can be pointed, but so that lessons can be learned.”
Against the record of other international investigations in the last few decades, let us hope this time around if an inquiry takes place, it does offer help to the world.
Julia Gillard who is the boss of Beyond Blue has been named the next chair of UK-based health foundation Wellcome Trust, which will have a stake in the search for a COVID-19 vaccine.
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