Ross: Is US playing into China’s hands by reopening early?

I can see there’s a campaign underway to persuade us that China deliberately engineered this whole pandemic.

So, let’s run with that for a moment.

Let’s say that back in 2019, Chinese leadership was brainstorming ways to punish us for the trade war, and someone at the table – let’s call him Dr. No – suggests releasing a super-contagious virus. The type of virus that would require buying protective equipment that only China makes.

And somebody raises the question – yes, but won’t it look bad when everyone gets infected except us?

Ah, but we will be infected, says Dr. No. We will keep it secret until enough infected people have traveled to the West. Then we will release the news that we are fighting an epidemic, and impose sweeping social controls of a type the West would never accept.

We will close entire cities, and force infected people into isolation, and we will quickly succeed.

But in the West, they will waste their time arguing over who’s to blame, and thus they will never be rid of it.

At which point Dr. No permits himself to smile.

Now that’s a conspiracy I just made up.

But here’s the weird thing: With these new numbers showing the infection spreading even as we reopen, we may be on the verge of making it come true.

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