Ross: Did China really win the pandemic?

If President Biden gets his way, in three months we will know the truth about how the coronavirus escaped, and whether or not it was deliberate.

But I hope we’ll discover the answer to an even bigger question: Did China really win the pandemic?

When you look at the official charts, you see that China had it under control by April of last year. Perhaps because they knew it was coming? That’s unclear.

What is clear is that no other major country came close to suppressing the virus the way China did. They were able to do it because China is a police state. Sick people were sent to isolation camps within 12 hours of a positive test – along with anyone they were in contact with. Overnight, the communist government started building huge quarantine camps on commandeered farmland. Travel was stopped and cities were closed.

At the same time, the government made sure factories had all the protective equipment needed to stay open. There were no mixed messages — when people were told to wear masks, they wore masks.

This bothers me, because I like to think we’re the most powerful country in the world, that we’re the country that’s ready for anything. I like to think that what makes us strong is that we can pull together when it counts.

We were slow to accept the reality. Huge numbers of Americans doubted it was real and saw government-imposed restrictions as an unforgivable violation of their right to party.

I doubt we can believe China’s COVID numbers because they’re ridiculously low. Total cases at 91,000, total death toll is 4,636. Washington state alone lost more people than that.

But it’s China’s of way of saying it won the pandemic. While the COVID numbers may be questionable, China’s economic numbers show they did keep their economy going. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that China, for the first time, attracted more new foreign investment than the United States.

Yes, that worries me.

If China did release the virus, shame on them. But if we can’t show that a democracy is as capable of protecting its economy as a police state, shame on us.

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