Chapter 474 Accountability and Blame-shifting
If European governments were guaranteed to win before June, then starting from August, governments are like ants on the hot pot. It is not an exaggeration to even describe them as panicking.
The high death toll made the church clergy almost overwhelmed. Because almost all funerals in Europe require priests to preside over the deceased and baptize them to wash away their sins.
But the problem is that the number of deaths in various countries has soared, but the number of priests has remained basically unchanged. Even many priests are within the scope of influenza infection. After all, they need to come into contact with corpses, so they are naturally at high risk.
Fortunately, there is no tradition of hanging white sails in Europe. Otherwise, Europe at this time would be a sea of white.
Funerals in many areas are even collective activities. A priest often needs to preside over several funerals at the same time to allow the deceased to meet God in groups.
There is no way around this. If the deceased are not allowed to form a group to meet God, I am afraid that the priest will go to meet God.
Fortunately, Arthur had some morals and did not hoard supplies in advance for sale like in previous wars.
Apart from anything else, the coffin dealers made a lot of money this time. Coffins became one of the most urgently needed supplies in Europe overnight, and the price even doubled or tripled.
If Arthur really had no conscience, hoarding coffins in advance and selling them would have earned at least millions of Australian dollars.
However, doing so would indeed result in a loss of prestige, and it was unnecessary for Arthur, who was already extremely wealthy.
National disaster wealth and wealth from dead people are Arthur's taboos. People who make such wealth really have no conscience.
When European countries began to implement various systems to curb the spread of influenza, they realized that copying homework was not easy.
It is very difficult to completely isolate a country. The attitude of the people, the security of supplies, and the implementation of governments at all levels all need to be controlled by the government.
Even if European countries completely close their ports and stop trade with foreign countries at this time, it is already too late.
The virus cannot be stopped by stopping it. Even if Australasia took preventive measures two months in advance, thousands of cases of influenza still broke out, and the death toll exceeded double digits.
European countries are even more miserable. The death toll in the UK has exceeded 300,000. After it spread from the UK to India, the death toll in India is even more unknown.
You know, the sanitary conditions in Europe are world-class. In a colony like India, sanitary conditions were pitifully poor.
It is no exaggeration to say that the death toll in India is at least 20 times that of the UK, and there is no upper limit.
Even colonies far away from India, such as the Dutch East Indies, began to spread influenza, causing a tragic record of hundreds of people in a small village being infected and all dying.
European streets start to become deserted in August, and it is no exaggeration to say that there are hundreds of miles of empty streets.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the wailing over the city. It is unknown how many people have lost their family members. Funerals can be seen everywhere in the city. One village even held nearly 20 funerals a day at most, setting a new record in France.
It is really no exaggeration to say that Europe is a hell, because people feel that their current life is more miserable than hell.
But there is a key issue. In distant Oceania, there is a country whose current situation is completely different from that of Europe, and has not even been affected too seriously.
As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. People originally had a favorable impression of the government's free supplies during the influenza period. However, with the comparison of Australasia, most Europeans only feel that their country's government has done nothing because the government The carelessness in the early stage led to such a serious crisis now.
At this time, the French resumed their own traditions, and a large number of people began to march in the streets, but some people wore masks, and some were still the same as before the flu.
I don’t even admire that Europeans are really not afraid of death when they protest against the government. The flu is so severe that some people really don’t wear masks.
Popular protests have caused a headache for the French government. If a strict quarantine system was implemented, as in Australasia, people would protest against the government taking away their rights to liberty.
But if looser management is implemented, the French will protest against the government's inaction. This is simply a difficult choice.
In order to calm the public's anger, the French government could only find another way and announced that it would invest 4 billion francs to save the influenza crisis, of which 2.5 billion francs would be used to purchase materials and distribute them to the people, and 1.5 billion francs would be used for drug research.
Now the people's anger has subsided. At least the government has spent real money, which can be considered as making a difference.
Seeing that there were fewer people marching on the streets, the French government breathed a sigh of relief and urgently communicated with other countries in an attempt to purchase some supplies.
As one of the countries with the largest casualties in World War I, France's material consumption was also very huge.
France even relied on material support from Britain in the middle and late stages, which allowed the French government to persevere.
After the victory of the war, the French naturally received no support from the United Kingdom and could only rely on the transportation of supplies from the colonies to replenish their blood.
But the question is, when the flu is so serious now, do the French dare to let colonial ships dock?
You must know that through British tracking, the second round of the epidemic officially began on merchant ships from West Africa heading to British ports. This also means that the epidemic in Africa is far more severe than in Europe, but the statistical capabilities of the colonies and indigenous countries are not that strong.
It's like Britain and India. At present, the total number of deaths from influenza in the UK has exceeded 400,000, and the total death toll in India is almost 500,000.
But who dares to believe that this data is true? Just talking about India, the number of deaths must be at least ten times larger. After all, India’s statistical capabilities are obvious to all.
The British colonial government's statistics on Indian casualties included some mixed-race Indians, but the British did not care about the casualties of most real Indians.
After all, India has the second largest population in the world, which is a wealth that cannot be spent all.
For European countries, there is basically no progress in current drug research. Although the British government has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in researching drugs, the problem is that there are hundreds of types of influenza viruses raging in Europe alone, and they are still increasing.
A conservative estimate is that there are at least hundreds of influenza viruses currently existing in the world. It is impossible to develop a drug for each influenza virus, right?
Let’s not talk about whether it is possible to develop a drug for each influenza virus. The cost of developing more than 300 drugs alone is enough to give any country a headache.
As for whether it is possible for countries to share drug research progress, such an idea may be realized thousands of years later, but definitely not now.
The competition between countries is terrible, far more terrible than this flu. It is no exaggeration to say that any country that develops a drug will never choose to disclose it to the public. Instead, it will use it as a trump card, and other countries will receive several or even dozens of times the benefits in exchange.
As scientific research institutions in various countries began to declare the difficulty of drug research, European countries have also entered a state of pessimism about this influenza.
Arthur felt that the atmosphere was almost high, and asked the intelligence personnel to disclose the ins and outs of the flu and the first location of the outbreak to the European media, and emphasized that the U.S. government was aware of the influenza outbreak, but still chose to hide the information, leading to this world disaster. the result of.
Businessmen are all driven by profit, and the media and newspapers are no exception. After spending a little money, hundreds of European media published news reports on the culprit of the flu on the same day, and pointed the culprit of the flu directly at the United States, declaring: "If it weren't for the carelessness and concealment of the US government, It is impossible for the world to face such a serious crisis."
This report not only emphasized the responsibility of the United States, but also held the United States accountable openly.
As these newspapers were bought or learned about by many Europeans, the United States instantly became the target of public criticism. Many European countries even began to protest, demanding humanitarian compensation from the United States and asking the United States to bear the losses suffered by various countries in this influenza.
The United States does not care about the voice of one country, but if it is several countries or even more than a dozen countries, even the United States, as one of the great powers, has to stand up and explain.
But unfortunately, European media and countries do not accept the American explanation. Because the report provided enough evidence to prove that the flu first started in the Kansas Army Camp in the United States.
For the sake of traffic, many media began to make their own suspicions, and even openly accused the United States of researching biological weapons, which was accidentally leaked, which led to this worldwide pandemic.
It doesn't matter if you spread rumors with just one mouth, you will lose your legs if you refute the rumors. Regardless of whether the United States has conducted research on biological and chemical weapons, the current United States is like mud in its crotch, which is impossible to explain clearly.
Many small and medium-sized European countries have clamored for the World Alliance to convene a meeting to impose collective sanctions on the United States, and for the United States to compensate all countries in the World Alliance.
Britain and France, who initially promoted these media, actually knew it. After all, the intelligence agencies of Britain and France were not vegetarians.
But the problem is that the flu is so serious that Britain and France also need a blame-bearer to ease the blame of the domestic people.
It is a fact that the British and French governments did not pay attention to the epidemic in the early stage of the epidemic. They could only use a bigger news to cover up the government's responsibility. The Americans were very suitable.
Anyway, some European countries and people already believe that Americans are the culprit of this flu, and Britain and France do not mind continuing to push for the Americans to be completely blamed for this.
Regardless of whether Americans are innocent or not, Americans are and must be the culprits now.
Within a few days, research institutions in Britain and France also published reports one after another. However, the report did not mention Americans as the culprits of the flu, but it also metaphorically suggested that the second round of influenza viruses is very similar to the first round of influenza, and most of the first round of influenza strains came from the United States.
This time, the Americans were completely proven guilty. The Europeans shared the same hatred and held demonstrations one after another, demanding that the World Alliance sanction the United States.
The British and French marching teams also changed from protesting against the government's inaction to protesting against the United States, and even demanded that the United States declare war on the United States without compensation.
I dare not say how much Europeans’ favorable impression of the United States has dropped, but at least within two or three years, Americans are unlikely to become the most popular immigrant region among Europeans.
Even many Americans were influenced by European media reports and began to hold demonstrations to protest the government's cover-up in the early stages of the influenza.
You must know that the death toll from influenza in the United States is not low. The current death toll has exceeded 300,000, which is five times the death toll in the United States during World War I.
The number of casualties in wars has not been as high as this flu. This has also made many Americans extremely dissatisfied with the government. Many newspapers have even shouted: Wilson step down!
Although Arthur did not publicize the preventive measures in Australasia in order to avoid suspicion.
But it is a sharp contrast after all. Many Europeans have seen Australasia's efforts during this influenza, especially the Australasian army's personal participation in material transportation and door-to-door delivery, which has made a large number of people European people are envious.
If there were a questionnaire at this time about which countries European people wanted to travel to or immigrate to, Australasia would definitely be ranked number one, and there would be no competitors.
Speaking of tourism, we have to mention those tourists who were dissatisfied with Australasia’s quarantine system and chose to return to their home countries during the early stages of the flu.
Most of these people were Europeans and they had successfully returned to their home countries.
If you want to ask these people how they feel at this time, you can see how much they regret it from the expressions on their faces.
On the contrary, the small number of tourists who choose to stay in Australasia are extremely lucky at this time.
After learning about the current situation in Europe, they did not hesitate to choose to become Australasian citizens and enjoy Australasia's free treatment for influenza.
The supplies for their isolation are free, their food, clothing, housing and transportation are all borne by the Australasian government, and their treatment is also free.
Thanks to Australasia's preventive measures, the number of infections among the remaining tourists has been low. Although there are some individuals who died, compared to the current situation where most people are safe and sound, staying is definitely the best choice.
These people no longer dare to have any dissatisfaction with Australasia's segregation policy, but tout the Australasian system in any venue.
This situation was also disclosed to their relatives in Europe, and it was quickly learned by European newspapers and more Europeans.
After learning that Australasia not only provides free supplies of all materials, but also provides free treatment for influenza, a large number of Europeans have only one thought at this time, and that is: It would be great if they were Australasians!
Although this influenza prevented them from immigrating to Australasia in a short period of time, many people have firmly decided to immigrate to Australasia, and the attractiveness of Australasia for immigrants has increased dramatically overnight.
Some of the more extreme people are even ready to buy ferry tickets to Australasia immediately.
Although Australasia has long since closed its borders, the colonies are not completely closed. There are still individual ports developed that can receive some immigrants.
It's just that these immigrants will be completely isolated in the colony. After the influenza is completely over, they can choose the area they really want to go to.
But no matter what, these immigrants will also enjoy free materials, which also makes many Europeans feel excited.
It is not easy to buy a ticket during the flu period, especially for a ticket that spans half the world. It will inevitably have to stop at other ports. It is easy to be infected with the flu at the docking place, increasing the risk of influenza infection.
It is precisely this reason that prevents a large number of Europeans from immigrating to Australasia. Otherwise, Australasia could receive millions or even millions of European immigrants in a short period of time just by relying on free supplies and free treatment.
The third update of 4200 words, please vote for me and support!
Today, it is 10,000 per day. It has been updated to 11,200/10,000. The task has been exceeded. Please vote for me and support me!
(End of chapter)