I’d like to thank readers for their comments about the missive entitled “The WHO” (https://www.cumber.com/market-commentary/who). Here are some of the responses. As you will see, they reflect a wide disparity of views and political perspectives. In my view two components are compelling.
The first is a common thread of distrust for China and the lack of transparency about China. That is a dominant theme about which most folks seem to agree. It is true even as many folks realize that China (1) has four times the population of the US; (2) is the second largest economy in the world; (3) is a massive regional force in Asia; and (4) has a one-party communist system.
The easy conclusion is that we don’t trust them, but we have to find ways to coexist with them. In some of our strategic zoom calls, themes from the past like “the Cold War” or “peaceful coexistence” or “mutually assured destruction” creep into the conversations.
The second component is alarming in that it reflects the deep political divide in the United States. Responses to “The WHO” varied from hardened Republican right wing to the hardened Democrat left wing. Most notably, everyone is firmly convinced that their view is correct. There is and was very little “middle” in the responses. That suggests an impossibly deadlocked political solution until some event or external shock or other factor causes these disparate views to coalesce.
In one private zoom meeting we were discussing this issue and mostly concluded that it will take an external shock of large proportions or an internal shock of monumental proportions to alter this division. Clearly, one million excess American deaths from COVID are not enough. History shows that kind of shock happened with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Few remember that the country was very divided prior to the attack. Few remember that there was a strong minority position in the United States that favored Nazi Germany. Few remember that there were 20,000 Nazi sympathizers at a rally in Madison Square Garden in New York City only two years before the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, which followed the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland. And few remember that it was that attack that triggered America’s entry into World War 2. Even fewer remember that Roosevelt didn’t have the votes to go to war until Pearl Harbor united America.
One wonders if it will take a viral outbreak like the one that triggered the response in the country in 1918. That was when a form of flu mutation became so rapidly transmissible and prevalent that it killed large numbers of people in full public view. In Philadelphia in 1918 at the peak of the Spanish Flu outbreak, younger, healthy people were going to work in the morning and lying dead in the afternoon. John Barry’s book documents this history well.
Anyway, here are some of the responses to our missive about the WHO.
For readers who were not able to open the discussion written by Ben Hunt, we have reached out to Ben, and he is opening the link from his paywall for an extended time so that the piece he wrote will be available to anyone who wishes to read it. We thank Ben for his permission. Here, again, is the link:
“Defund the World Health Organization, https://www.epsilontheory.com/defund-the-world-health-organization/.
Ben Hunt included the link below in his missive. This report preceded the pandemic by two years; however, it demonstrates how much credibility and integrity is critical for public health policy and not just at the WHO:
“Candidate to Lead the W.H.O. Accused of Covering Up Epidemics,”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/health/candidate-who-director-general-ethiopia-cholera-outbreaks.html?referringSource=articleShare
Now let’s hear from readers:
Ted scolded me.
Please David—where are you? You sound like AOC. The solution isn't to 'Defund' Anything. If you don't care for the present, change the process that got us here. Fund those insiders motivated to bring about change. And, if they aren't there already, find and fund credentialed disruptors. You are too experienced in the ways-of-the world to opt for ‘cancel culture.’ P.S. registered center-left Democrat.
Mary Ann sent this response:
“I am often amused and also disgusted when people criticize how other individuals and governments (more individuals) spend the resources they have to solve a global problem. The presumption seems to be that those with resources are intentionally seeking failure.
Why generate anger and animosity over the naming of a plague when cooperation is your goal? Naming the next hurricane ’Joe Biden’ and hoping that it causes widespread destruction may make some ultra-right-wing Republicans happy, but what is the worth?
To the naysayers, I say ‘Roll up your sleeves and Help.’ Or get out of the way and continue whining to your friends — silently!”
Leonard noted:
From a casual observation point, the WHO, as configured, is an incompetent organization and did way too much to protect the Chinese.
Marv wrote:
As a retired physician, I am extremely disappointed in the WHO & other Health Organizations, including Dr. Fauci for completely misleading he American Public on COVID & the Wuhan Lab!!
Howard wrote:
In light of the piece on the WHO I thought you might find this piece on the IMF interesting if you haven’t seen it already.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-did-that-imf-covid-cash-go-special-drawing-rights-11638223617?mod=opinion_lead_pos5.
Charley sent this:
I wasn’t aware of the extent to which right-wing media had seized on this issue until an Australian friend forwarded this to me:
"Tucker Carlson: What Really Happened in Wuhan (EXCLUSIVE),” Sky News Australia, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U8OcBWI47w
Fred wrote:
I agree WHO needs change, David, but the elephant in the room being ignored is the arrogant self-serving and calamitous lack of leadership by the US White House as the pandemic took hold.
WHO cannot have the power to “lead” the world by applying US law to “prevent the importation and interstate transmission of pathogens.” Nations will not give them that power. It can only be achieved by exemplary leadership from a nation like ours.
ONLY Trump (A. Azar to be specific) had that power and Trump refused to act when he could have been effective, on 12/30/2019, because he wanted a $200 B October “soybean surprise” from Xi. So he sold out US public health because he wanted “a favor” from China that Congress impeached him for extorting from Ukraine.
That failure IS the worst-ever single mistake by a US President. It will live forever in infamy. Six million have died and the world faces many years of inflation problems by the destructive impact of that leadership failure on labor participation. Workers who cannot rely on protection from “death by gathering” have every right to demand enough money for self protection and that far, far, far exceeds the cost of any and all public health measures Trump had the full power to exercise the necessary power as an example for the world but refused to lead.
In the 14th Cent, the plague led to creation of merchant guilds and eventual destruction of the entire feudal system. The world will never empower WHO to do what Trump could have done but failed to do.
I understand why GOP leaders refuse even to mention that, but everyone else must or the US system will die like feudalism did.
We failed because he failed to “lead, follow or get out of the way.”
Stewart (a healthcare entrepreneur with personal experience with myalgia encephalitis) wrote:
You’re the Paul Revere of Long COVID. Thank you!
There’s an interesting paradox forming with Omicron — high transmissibility but apparent mild symptoms. Some are touting this possibility as the end of the pandemic. We’ll see how mild it is in short order, but given the transmissibility, I wonder if the Long COVID incidence will continue. While increasing the likelihood of herd immunity with low death rates is an appealing outcome, people may not realize the Long COVID storm that may be brewing with Omicron.
A Texan, Alan G., sent me a copy of Dave Barry’s book about Florida, Best State Ever. Thank you, Alan. Then he wrote:
I find it amazing that medical personnel will be fired if they don’t get the vaccine. Many of them risk their lives as first responders treating patients even though they did not have safe PPE. So now we will have fewer doctors and nurses to fight Covid.
David S. wrote a critical message about my COVID reporting including my recent “Nu” (Omicron) of November 26th. He said:
It was hype and hyperbole then and continues to be today.
Finally, John wrote:
When I think of the WHO, I am reminded when Rotary International went to WHO in the early 1980s with a plan to eradicate polio (down to 2 countries now). Rotary officials were left cooling their heels, and the WHO would not meet with them, as they thought there was little that Rotary could help with. A few years, 100 million dollars raised, and Rotary efforts started on their own, the WHO finally relented and offered to help Rotary. A lumbering organization on many fronts.
We’ve tried to present diverse views, and readers can decide for themselves. Thank you to all who emailed. Please be safe.
We’re going to close with a couple of recommendations. First, looking to the weeks and months ahead, we suggest taking three minutes for the Associated Press story below:
“Omicron v. delta: Battle of coronavirus mutants is critical,”
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-southern-africa-pandemics-2a445501cff8d0354fabcf493418365e
Second, we would like to recommend that readers carve out focused time to watch a video presentation by Amy Proal, a microbiologist who runs the PolyBio Research Foundation (https://polybio.org/team/amy-proal/). She’s a coauthor of the key paper “Long COVID or Post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC): An Overview of Biological Factors That May Contribute to Persistent Symptoms,” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34248921/. Proal studies the causes of chronic inflammatory diseases and explains in this video how small amounts of pathogens that linger in the body may play a role in post-infectious syndromes, including long COVID. Here’s the video, which comes to us from the Long COVID Alliance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl_wotEViy0
Proal was also interviewed for the BBC feature article “What Covid-19's long tail is revealing about disease,” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210609-how-long-will-long-covid-last. The article offers the gist of the findings she reports.
David R. Kotok
Chairman of the Board &Chief Investment Officer
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