The pandemic is to set the stage for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. There are things they need to do in order to ready society for it. A near-future inquiry into the pandemic will claim everything they want to get rid of, like tangible money, was responsible for the spread.

It is their belief that we wouldn't embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution willingly and that we would reject every aspect of it the way we rejected Climate change. So they end up disguising it as other things which makes it appear even more sinister.

The West fears other regions will overtake as the superpower and that, if they initiate the Fourth Industrial Revolution, they will be the ones to control it. Mainly China. So they're trying to rush a Western version through to rebalance power.

The countries or regions of the world are in a secret competition as to who will be the first to implement the Fourth Industrial Revolution and become the capital of it. The first Industrial Revolution shifted our reliance on animals to fossil fuels and mechanical power.