Is the Coronavirus Outbreak China's Chernobyl?

To refresh our memories, it was in 1986 when the No. 4 nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded and was burning as the solid fuel rods of Uranium melted down. The smoke and steam from the fire and firefighting spread across Northern Europe and the Russian steppes. The number of deaths attributed to this disaster could be as high as 100,000 but accepted estimates are closer to 27,000.

It was the failure of the Soviet system in dealing with a coordinated response that shook the faith of the people. They began to question whether the Soviet government had abandoned the interests of the people in favor of propaganda. The conclusion was that it certainly was not the health and welfare of the people which was first and foremost in Soviet governmental policy. Gorbachev himself wrote in 2006:

“The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl… was perhaps the true cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

It is clear that Gorbachev could not bring himself to admit that it was Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy which was the underlying cause. Regardless of the causes of the collapse, it seems history is about to repeat itself.

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