zlacker

I don't know anyone who associated the lab escape theory with racism or xenophobia. Closing down flights from China (and only China) after it spread throughout Europe, that I do understand being associated with racism.

I do know that, unless you want to advocate nuking China (the official US government response to biowarfare) or you think they have a secret cure, it's meaningless.

And, yes, I'm glad that it got ignored while Trump was in power. I think the odds that he would decided to launch nukes in response was unacceptably high (as in, not zero.)

>>HWR_14+(OP)
The closing of flights from China took place on January 31st. There was no notion of a spread through Europa whatsoever at that time.

You might be interested to know, that Trump was already informed about the seriousness of the outbreak in Wuhan in early January. However at that time he chose not to act on it because it might harm the ongoing negotiations over a trade deal with China. So if you want to blame Trump for something, it would actually make more sense to blame him for closing the flights from China too late.

>>HWR_14+(OP)
There are other solutions, like handing them a bill for damages, and nationalizing all their property we can get our hands on if they don't pay it.

>>epicur+we
That's not something that has happened in over a century between countries, because last time it was attempted some Austrian guy convinced Germany that the best way to get back the financial losses was to start a second world war.

>>epicur+we
We gain so much more by fomenting international resentment toward China. The whole situation exemplifies how authoritarianism and lackadaisical safety practices can reduce costs and improve efficiency while increasing the incidence of disasters that wipe out all those benefits.

Trying to quantify harms and seize assets makes the pandemic seem like a unary problem rather than the result of profound ideological weaknesses.