Amidst all the finger pointing -- was the vaccine man-made (unlikely), did it accidentally escape the lab (unfalsified), were there mistakes made (surely), did Chinese government suppress info (also surely) -- there’s one big question that goes pretty much unasked. Because it’s too sensitive and risks the response: Tremble and Obey. The target of the questioning would have to be Xi Jinping, he of whom one must say nary a nasty thing. It’s not only in China that one may not mention “The X factor”.
This is the question: Why did China -- specifically, why did Xi Jinping -- lock down Wuhan to internal travel, but still allowed international flights? That alone led to the huge spread of the disease world wide.
Charles R. Stith does not raise this question (in “... blaming China is.. a waste of energy”) and is pretty dismissive of even trying to find out where the virus originated, saying just that - given so much international travel - it was going to spread anyway, no matter what (there’s no doubt some truth to that, although equally surely the spike out from Wuhan was exacerbated by the international flights out of Wuhan).
Towards the end, he does speak sense:
The world needs to do several things to put us in a better position to manage our lives during this crisis. Put people back to work. End the lockdowns so that people can earn a living and be in a better position to fend for themselves. Get additional food relief to the needy so they can eat better and have stronger immune systems. [my emphasis].
