(Minghui.org) The year 2020 saw the world ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, and the 2021 new year is already marred by uncertainty, with new virus variants emerging across the globe. All indications, be they based on science or prophecy, point to a possibly more deadly new wave of the virus. It is time for us to take a step back and rethink how to stay safe amid the pandemic. This article aims to provide historical and cultural perspectives on the coronavirus, with the goal to help us gain a better understanding of the challenges we are facing and how we might positively cope with them. 

New Coronavirus Variant Highly Infectious and “Out of Control”

On December 21, 2020, the official first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned people of an “out of control” new strain of the coronavirus. “Cases have absolutely rocketed, so we’ve got a long way to go,” Hancock remarked, “I think it will be very difficult to keep it under control.”

This was about one year after the virus was initially identified in Wuhan, China. As a result of a top-down cover-up and continued disinformation by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the virus spread to over 200 countries and regions, with over 84 million cases and more than 1.8 million deaths by the end of 2020. Many people called it the CCP Virus due to its origin. 

But the virus seems to have gained new force in recent weeks. Although dozens of countries have imposed travel bans from the U.K., the new strain nonetheless crept into more than 30 countries, including European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain), all Nordic nations, Asia (China, Japan, India, Hong Kong), Oceania (Australia, New Zealand), North America (United States, Canada), and South America (Brazil and Chile). 

Increase in New Cases in the U.K. Accelerated Twice: In October and Again in December

According to the chart on the left in the following image, in 2020, the cumulative coronavirus cases in the U.K. had been relatively stable between April and October (250,000 by mid-May, or close to 2,000 per day), but 1.5 million more cases were reported between October and December in about 2.5 months (close to 20,000 new cases per day). The cases increased even faster from December 2020 to January 2021. 

Coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom. Left: Cumulative cases since January 27, 2020. Right: Daily new cases increased several times between early December 2020 and early January 2021. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) website. 

More specifically, the daily new cases (per chart at right) have also shown an overall increasing trend between December 2020 and early January 2021. 

The rapidly growing cases also coincided with the U.K. government's deepening relationships with the CCP.

“Until recently, Downing Street was famously defining itself as ‘China’s best partner in the West’ and was committed to intensifying its proclaimed ‘golden era’ of relations with Beijing,” reported The Diplomat in an October article. Unlike the current U.S. Administration, which has taken a series of concrete actions to counter the CCP – such as its immigration policy and sanctions against Chinese military-related businesses -- initiatives by the U.K. government to counter the CCP are relatively limited. 

“We're not always going to be able to agree on everything, but basically there's so much that we have to do together,” remarked Caroline Wilson during an interview in a high profile summit in Shanghai in October 2020, one month after she became the British Ambassador to China. While many Western countries, including the U.S., have shut down Confucius Institutes across continents, Wilson attended the opening ceremony of Manchester Metropolitan University’s Chinese headquarters in Wuhan in December. Wilson's presence at the ceremony was highly celebrated by the CCP’s propaganda powerhouse Global Times as the “first ambassador from a Five Eyes country to visit Wuhan despite continued pressure from the intelligence alliance on a wide range of issues, from Hong Kong affairs to the coronavirus.”

The number of CCP Virus cases shot up drastically, first in October, with another wave in December when the new variant went out of control. By January 5, 2021, the number of new cases in the U.K. has been between 50,000 and 60,000 per day. 

It took the U.K. six months (from January 27 to June 27, 2020) to reach 301,000 cases, but 311,000 new cases were confirmed within six days, between December 29, 2020 and January 3, 2021. This made the U.K. the country with the highest number of cases in Europe, triggering Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose a national lockdown starting January 4 until at least mid-February. 

Sharp Increase in Coronavirus Deaths in Germany

Data shows that Germany is China’s biggest trading partner and technology exporter in Europe. China is also Germany's largest trading partner, superseding the United States since 2017. This has put Germany in a unique position relative to efforts to counter the CCP's increasing aggressiveness. 

“As Europe weighs what course to take in the face of Beijing’s growing belligerence at home and abroad, it has become increasingly clear that the decision depends on Berlin, far and away China’s most important counterpart in the region. Equally clear is that Germany’s economic entanglement with China has become so extensive that reversing it is no longer a realistic option,” stated a Politico article in September, titled “How Germany opened the door to China — and threw away the key.”

Since October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been pushing for the European Union to agree to a major trade deal with China. The deal was quietly sealed in the final weeks of 2020, potentially hampering joint U.S.-European efforts to address CCP challenges. This occurred “in an increasingly black-and-white world where liberal democracies face an existential challenge from authoritarians and populists,” stated a Foreign Policy article in late December, “The history books may not be kind.”

The number of total infections and deaths in Germany has skyrocketed since October. As shown in the graph below, among all 34,000 coronavirus-related deaths, 16,000 occurred in the month of December, with over 3,600 per week. 

Weekly deaths in Germany caused by the coronavirus since August 2020. Data from World Health Organization (WHO) website. 

Between June and September 2020, about 1,000 people in total died of the coronavirus in Germany. However, 1,100 Germans died on December 29, 2020 alone. 

The business partnership between Germany and communist China has also extended to vaccines. China announced on December 16 that it was sourcing 100 million vaccines from Germany’s BioNTech. “Communist China has been divulging very little about its vaccine development programme to the outside world. Even without final approval, more than 1 million healthcare workers and others who are seen as facing a high risk of infection in China have received experimental vaccines under emergency use permission. But the developer has yet to disclose how effective their vaccines are and the possible side effects that they may have,” stated a Businesses Insider Indian article on December 17. “Health experts also question why China is using experimental vaccines on such a vast scale now that the coronavirus outbreak is largely under control in the country.”

Inside Germany, more than 130,000 people had received vaccines by the end of 2020. German officials have been criticized for not purchasing enough doses of BioNTech vaccines. Sandra Ciesek, Director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt, is an expert in the field. She said there are still many unknowns about the disease, for example, the virus could change in a way in which the vaccine would no longer work. “Personally, I don’t think there will be a breakthrough in 2021. That there is a pill that you take at the beginning of the disease and that prevents you from getting seriously ill – I don’t believe that for next year,” she said in an interview at year's end 2020.

Young People Becoming Susceptible Population

Neil Ferguson, a professor and infectious disease epidemiologist at Imperial College London, said that the new variant tends to infect young people including those under 15, reported Reuters on December 21, 2020. Two days later, he said in a video that, based on evidence from Denmark, a country with a relatively low infection rate, it was “almost certain” that the new virus variant had spread to the “great majority if not all” European countries.

Similar patterns were also observed on other continents. Zweli Mukez, South African Health Minister, said on December 27 that the total cases in the country had exceeded one million with over 9,500 cases reported in the past 24 hours alone. He confirmed that the new virus variant seems to infect young people more readily and develop complications. 

Former Japanese transport minister, Yuichiro Hata, had symptoms of flu and fever on December 24. After being taken to a hospital three days later, he died of coronavirus at the age of 53, making him the first sitting member of the Japanese Parliament to lose his life to the disease. He was the son of former Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata. 

The United States is no exception. Four-year-old Xavier M. Harris died in New York on December 26, becoming the youngest victim. Luke Letlow, 41, member-elect of the U.S. House of Representatives, died on December 29 before being sworn in. 

How Bad Is the Next Wave?

Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, warned that the coronavirus pandemic is a “wake-up call,” saying that “this is not necessarily the big one. If there's one thing we need to take from this pandemic, with all of the tragedy and loss, is that we need to get our act together. We need to get ready for something that may even be more severe in the future.” 

The U.K. Health Authority said the variant could be up to 70% more transmissible than the original strain of the virus. A statement from the U.S. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) also considered that the new strain could “potentially be more rapidly transmissible than other circulating strains.”

Given the new strain, combined with holiday travel and other factors, Anthony Fauci, Director of the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview on January 3, “I think we just have to assume that it’s going to be worse.” 

Richard Urso from American’s Frontline Doctors had warned of side effects of vaccines. Carol Karmen, a physician in New York, found that side effects have included hair loss, chest pain, and other symptoms that affect every system of the body. “We don’t know why some people have gotten so much sicker," she said in an interview with ABC in January. “Why does one person have a cold or flu-like symptoms for two days, and the other is in the ICU?”

Lessons from History

To some degree, the new wave of infection seen in the U.K. and Germany is similar to the situation with the Spanish Flu in 1918. Occurring in two successive waves, the Spanish Flu infected 500 million people, about one-third of the world population at the time, with a death toll between 20 and 50 million. 

The first wave took place in the spring of 1918 and was similar to the seasonal flu, with recovery generally occurring in a few days. When the more highly contagious wave struck in the fall of 1918, it was very different. “Victims died within hours or days of developing symptoms, their skin turning blue and their lungs filling with fluid that caused them to suffocate. In just one year, 1918, the average life expectancy in America plummeted by a dozen years,” stated a History Channel article in May 2020.

Similar to the coronavirus, the new variant of the Spanish Flu spread to countries all over the world in just a few months, even including remote areas. The number of cases increased sharply. The most vulnerable population was the young and fit, leaving many elderly and children unattended. 

Commonality of Prophecies

French astrologer and physician Nostradamus predicted the French Revolution, Napoleon, the Nazis, Marxism, and the 9/11 Terrorist Attack. Japanese journalist and writer Ben Goto found that 99% of Nostradamus’s prophecies have been accurate.

Nostradamus alluded to the 2020 pandemic and wrote that the following year would be more destructive. “Fathers and mothers dead of infinite sorrows / Women in mourning, the pestilent she−monster: / The Great One to be no more, all the world to end,” he wrote in Les Prophéties, “Few young people: half-dead to give a start.”

Similar prophecies also existed in other cultures. Abhigya Anand, a child astrologer who foresaw the coronavirus pandemic, made more predictions in November 2020. He said there could be wars, plagues, epidemics, economic collapse, and other calamities. He also added that these disasters would be revealed by February 2021.

Dato Anthony Cheng, a prophesier from Malaysia, listed 14 predictions in late 2019, among which 13 have become reality. They include the coronavirus pandemic, the economic slowdown, and massive unemployment. As for 2021, he said new virus variants would dramatically increase the number of infections. With viruses or disease, people would face multiple challenges.

Dimujing, one of the ancient Chinese prophecies, also had similar predictions. It said that lots of people would die by the end of 2020, while the situation would deteriorate in 2021 – “only half of the people would survive,” similar to Nostradamus's prediction. 

Solution and Hope

As analyzed above, coronavirus infections did not occur randomly. With both the U.K. and Germany, the situation quickly deteriorated after these countries strengthened ties with the CCP. 

The Virus Follows CCP Infiltration

Similar patterns were also observed in 2020. As the first and only G7 country that collaborated with the CCP on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Italy was hit hard by the virus. Iran was a crucial hub for the CCP’s expansion and a strategic partner, whose infection rates and deaths have remained high. 

The United States, on the other hand, has been a major player in helping the CCP to become a global power, inadvertently facilitating the spread of its communist ideology. The two states that have been infiltrated by the CCP the most, New York and California, were also struck the hardest by the virus. Germany, France, and Spain have all collaborated with the CCP in various ways and suffered badly in the pandemic. In contrast, Taiwan had much lower numbers of cases all along and did not need to enforce a stay-at-home policy. This could be due to the tough position that Taiwan takes against the CCP, both politically and ideologically. 

Inside China, similar patterns were also seen. For example, based on the coronavirus fatalities from a large enterprise in February 2020, 88% of those who died were CCP members. The deaths were distributed evenly across age groups with nearly one-half being young people. In another list circulated in March 2020, among the 315 coronavirus victims on the list, more than 200 were CCP members. Overall, CCP members make up only 6% or 7% of the entire Chinese population. These data suggest that the disease primarily targets CCP members. 

The virus follows the path of communist influence. In the U.S., the CCP has severely infiltrated society in many areas including the economy, news media, education, and politics. Data from May 1 to November 11 shows that many states that advocate a socialist ideology have a much higher death rate compared to states that oppose socialism. In particular, “Red States' Average COVID-19 Death Rate Half of That in Blue States.”

After the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published in November 2004, over 370 million people have quit the CCP and its junior organizations the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers. Outside China, including in the United States, many people have also begun to understand what the CCP really is and have started to reject the regime. 

Cherishing Traditional Values and Faith 

Throughout the thousands of years of Chinese traditional culture, people believed in the harmony of heaven, earth, and mankind. As such, they revered the divine, cherished the environment, and practiced kindness to others. In turn, they were blessed with health, safety, and prosperity for their honesty and integrity. 

But the situation changed after the CCP took power in China several decades ago. Through massive propaganda campaigns and violent political movements, the CCP forcibly pushed through the communist ideology of hatred and lies and nearly wiped out traditional Chinese culture. 

Among the groups suppressed by the CCP, the largest is Falun Gong, a meditation system based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Consistent with traditional Chinese values, Falun Gong practitioners apply these principles in their daily life to become better citizens. But the CCP has been brutally suppressing the group since July 1999, leaving tens of millions of practitioners and their families in misery over the past 21 years.

Liu Bowen, one of the most renowned prophesiers in Chinese history, also predicted the coronavirus pandemic in the Taibai Mountain Monument Inscription. More specifically, he predicted that the outbreak would be around November or December 2019 with a location around Hubei Province, before spreading to other locations. These predictions coincided with the situation in 2020. Through a Chinese word puzzle, Liu told people that, by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, one would be blessed in the calamity. Likewise, Abhigya Anand also emphasizes the importance of faith. 

Nostradamus mentioned in his prophecy that the doctrines of Marx (Mars) would dominate the world in the name of providing a better life for people, which is similar to the CCP’s global influence, its communist ideology. 

We have all learned a lot from the coronavirus pandemic, and the danger of the CCP has become more and more apparent. American astronomer and planetary physicist, Robert Jastrow, once said, “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

We sincerely hope that more people will follow their conscience and embrace faith and traditional values in facing these challenges, so that all may be blessed with health and safety.