China didn't warn public of likely pandemic for 6 key days

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.

President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press and expert estimates based on retrospective infection data.

Six days.

That delay from Jan. 14 to Jan. 20 was neither the first mistake made by Chinese officials at all levels in confronting the outbreak, nor the longest lag, as governments around the world have dragged their feet for weeks and even months in addressing the virus.



In this Tuesday, March 10, 2020, photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping talks by video with patients and medical workers at the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. Top Chinese officials secretly determined they were likely facing a pandemic from a novel coronavirus in mid-January, ordering preparations even as they downplayed it in public. Internal documents obtained by the AP show that because warnings were muffled inside China, it took a confirmed case in Thailand to jolt Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/68a9e1b91de4ffc166acd6012d82c2f9

[Blues Heron]

1. They did better than we did that's for sure

Trump diddled for months

[Chainfire]

2. And then, when we did get the information

Our government did nothing for a month. Trying to blame our failed response to the virus on China is a diversion.

[still_one]

5. We got the information from various sources at least in late December, and even those

within his own administration warned trump of the seriousness of this, and he willfully brushed it aside

[Roy Rolling]

3. Where's the Man Bites Dog Story?

Only Trump and his cult were surprised (Communist) China kept secrets.

For God’s sake, hiding things from the news media is the whole Chinese communist government policy. The government writes the news—what they report happened, what they don’t report never happened at all.

Keeping secrets is their whole modus operandi, only morons expect different.

Enter Donald Trump.

[still_one]

4. All valid criticisms of China, however, it ignores the fact that from multiple sources, including

those within the trump administration, warned that this was a serious problem that needed to be addressed, and the trump administration not only ignored it, but lied and said everything was good

[NewJeffCT]

6. If I recall, some US intelligences agencies started sending out warning signals

back in NOVEMBER

[still_one]

8. I wouldn't be surprised. Almost everything he has touched has been a disaster

[Igel]

9. One news article said this.

They cited two anonymous sources (which may have the same source). It was denied, and nobody can produce a copy of it. The ABC story lives on, but has no confirmation beyond those two sources. It was a report, in one agency, which somehow was widely briefed throughout the entire government. It's like the "black swan" thing, where apparently black swans are routine occurrences.

The report was that it was a major event causing major disruption with a lot of infections and consequences in November. The first reported hospitalization that we know of is Dec. 1. *That* got the person writing it in trouble, and saying 11/20 would have been no more disruptive or troublesome. I don't see a reason to lie about that date--it saves nobody's reputation, it hurts nobody's "dignity".

Imagine the following: NY is ravaged by disease, causing massive economic and health-care disruption. But for the month when this happens, nobody goes to the hospital. Hundreds, thousands die--but the medical system ignores it. Even unofficially. Seems crazy? Yes. The report is an outlier, unconfirmed. Two sources? Unless you can confirm that they independently saw the report, are reporting it correctly, and didn't discuss it with each other, you might only have one source.

Most of the rest of what China did "right" they punished the people for. The first Lancet report had the doctor who made the report arrested. The genome was shared, and the next the researcher who shared it was in trouble and the information source shut down. China didn't confirm person-to-person transmission, which locals knew in December, until 1/20.

The world isn't the US. Trump dawdled--few said it was a problem until late January, but if you look at the best and the brightest you don't see much going on besides a few countries in February. Even in early March you still had non-Trump governments doing what many said were good things--inclusion, solidarity, openness. February was a lost month--and it really cost the US. And Europe. And South America. And Russia. And India. Narrowing the focus to just Trump helps domestic politics and helps China (surely we're not going to do the whole "China is not a foe" and "the '70s wants their foreign policy back" crap again, are we?), but erases 6 billion people while highlighting a few countries--all of which started doing good things because they really distrusted China and figured they were not trustworthy.

In other words, success = China lies and therefore botches things. And now we're saying "sure, it lies, but it did a great job."

[NewJeffCT]

10. I know of people coming back from China in December

that were self-quaranting when they came back to the US for safety reasons - and, they were not anywhere near Wuhan when in China.

And, I"m certain that China downplayed the virus. Didn't the Washington Post recently calculate via various public records that in Wuhan alone, deaths were probably around 40,000, meaning that infected were probably upwards of 2 million in just that one city.

[lunasun]

13. I also knew people who came back from China before the article's date who were well aware of

the virus . So the virus was a known already maybe just not declared a pandemic with a greater needed warning I guess until too late

[keithbvadu2]

7. Six days - That's almost immediate compared to Trump.

Six days - That's almost immediate compared to Trump.

[TomCADem]

11. What Is Odd Is Republican Can Complain About a Few days Delay...

In China, but the cover up for Trump’s delay of over a month when he refused to do anything to prepare.

[pwb]

12. Who shit on China more than trump before this virus?

The world is treating trump like they have been treated. Who could have seen it?????

[tirebiter]

14. We have intel and they told Trump this was coming

China was protecting their market. You know, like Trump.

[SunSeeker]

15. And Trump let Spring Break and Mardi Gras happen well after the shit had hit the fan.

Trump sycophant DeSantis still won't do a lockdown in Florida.

[Eugene]

16. Takeaways from internal documents on China's virus response

Source: Associated Press

Takeaways from internal documents on China’s virus response

The Associated Press
April 16, 2020

-snip-

Takeaways from the internal documents:

THAILAND JOLTS CHINA AWAKE

For almost two weeks, China’s Center for Disease Control did not register any cases from local officials, internal bulletins obtained by the AP confirm. Yet during that Jan. 5-17 period, hundreds of patients were appearing in hospitals not just in the city of Wuhan but across the country.

Doctors and nurses in Wuhan say there were many signs the coronavirus could be transmitted between people by late December. But officials muzzled medical workers who tried to report such cases. They required staff to report to supervisors before sending information higher. And they punished doctors who warned about the disease.

The muffling of warnings left top leaders in the dark. It took the first confirmed case outside China, in Thailand on Jan. 13, to jolt leaders in Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them. An internal memo cites China’s top health official, Ma Xiaowei, as saying the situation had “changed significantly” because of the possible spread of the virus abroad.

“THE MOST SEVERE CHALLENGE SINCE SARS”

The memo, on a secret Jan. 14 teleconference held by Ma, shows that Chinese officials were deeply alarmed and had come to a much grimmer assessment than they were letting on in public.

For weeks, officials had stuck to the line that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission,” calling the disease “preventable and controllable.” But during the teleconference, Ma said that “clustered cases suggest human-to-human transmission is possible.”

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/a75e4e452f5a2d0ecaa241ca2045599e