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

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So the next question is "How is the world going to punish China for this?"

18 ( +27 / -9 )

China owes the entire world and needs to write a very large check.

17 ( +26 / -9 )

"Doctors in Wuhan were afraid . . . It was truly intimidation of an entire profession."

China should be punished for this somehow. And it's not like this is the first time it's happened. This kind of thing has happened again and again. The only difference is that it's getting much worse.

16 ( +19 / -3 )

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus,

Top Chinese officials = elite (so called)

Xi declared ruler for life

Chinese Communist Party is the sole party backing the leader for life

No political opposition allowed, i.e. no democracy

State controls media, public has info and data parceled out after state censorship

One more example of an authoritarian system. And what can happen to not just that system's people, but to the entire planet when something like a pandemic is covered up.

18 ( +18 / -0 )

Every day more evidence mounts of the CCP's culpability in the pandemic. They are 100% responsible for all the deaths, illness and economic mayhem resulting from this virus, and must be made to pay the bill.

Perhaps diplomatic isolation, refusal to repay loans owed to China, confiscation of all mainland-Chinese owned assets in affected countries, banning of PRC citizens from owning property in affected countries and more might help them to readjust their thinking. Not much scares them other than losing face.

These measures might hurt us for a while, but they'll hurt China more, and could eventually lead to the CCP's downfall.

12 ( +16 / -4 )

Should have listened to the experts from the start.

18 ( +18 / -0 )

Every day more evidence mounts of the CCP's culpability in the pandemic. They are 100% responsible for all the deaths, illness and economic mayhem resulting from this virus, and must be made to pay the bill.

They of course bear responsibility for how they dealt with this.

This of course doesn’t get certain world leaders off the hook for incompetent responses once this virus got loose.

A lot of leaders have questions to answer regarding this.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

The chinese leader and his cronies are guilty as hell of a cover up and complicit in the deaths of 10s of 1,000s of innocent people, the destruction of many peoples lives, economies, families, business,, jobs, mental health and so on there is no way chinas top bunch should get away scotfree their is a very big price to pay for the destruction that has followed their terrible behaviour .

Once Xi or ping or what he is called has been taken to task then the heads of WHO need to be also held accountable.

Every other person in this world has to take responsibility for their decisions and their work position and so do these people.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

While it is indisuptable that China was the origin of the virus and no doubt they mishandled it, that is still no excuse for how other countries made their own mistakes.

9 ( +17 / -8 )

The Chinese government lied about the number of deaths and people infected with COVID-19 throughout the entire coronavirus epidemic.These lies led the entire world to be unprepared for this current COVID-19 health crisis.

I hope the world will judge them harshly, and extract a high toll on China's global expansion plans.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

No, no, this can't be right. China actually messed this all up?

The Chinese government, plus its apologists at the WHO, are ultimately responsible for the incompetence and secrecy surrounding the mishandling of this outbreak and the failure to warn the world about it.

That's why, when I read about Trump cutting all funding of the WHO, I said "good!"

The U.S. will now save at least $400 million a year that can be better spent on other things, like coronavirus treatments and medical supplies and so on.

-7 ( +11 / -18 )

These lies led the entire world to be unprepared for this current COVID-19 health crisis.

The world was unprepared but competent leaders quickly got their ducks in a row and acted quickly. Incompetent ones did not.

No excuses for China. No excuses for incompetent reactions either.

This is not a partisan view on my side to attack leaders I didn’t like in the first place. Certain leaders who I didn’t respect before gained some respect from me for their reaction to this.

A pity my country, the UK, is paying the price for incompetent leadership.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

So I wonder what all the people who screamed this was a "conspiracy theory" think now?

3 ( +6 / -3 )

During this period, teams of experts dispatched to Wuhan by Beijing said they failed to find clear signs of danger and human-to-human transmission.

“China has many years of disease control, there’s absolutely no chance that this will spread widely because of Spring Festival travel,” the head of the first expert team, Xu Jianguo, told Takungpao, a Hong Kong paper, on Jan. 6. He added there was “no evidence of human-to-human transmission” and that the threat from the virus was low.

I remember many people, even MSM "experts" whos interviews have suddenly vanished, saying the same thing just a few months back. It was only after NYC and NO got hit hard that fingers were pointed at Trump and the blame game started. Some of us have a memory longer than 15 minutes.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

You only have to believe half of the above story to know and its already well documented that the initial cover up, silencing of Doctors in Hubei province etc and the the mass travel over Chinese New Year, whch effectively is an enormous migration of a country tured this very into a disaster. The WHO were pretty useless too, but tryuing to operate properly in an authoritarian country is challenging at best. To say it was a disaster doesn't ven begin to cover it.

It will of course be fruitless, but the CCP as of this morning are approx on the hook for $7 Trillion in damages - rising every day. Nobody will ever see a penny. BUT - if we do stop relying on China and are are prepared to pay more for a lot of products then we can perhaps isloate then over time. Of course this could well be Chinas Chernobyl moment that does destroy the country eventially and lead them down a better path.

1 ( +8 / -7 )

@BigYen - when the new Chinese middle class who have only ever prospered under this regime and leadership have had enough, then thats the time the house will start to crumble. They have had their eyes/ears closed, quite on purpose as would you if you lived there. Would you want to be spirited away and lose everything? As much as information IS censored - it is of course out there. Its not 1989, they can't cover up or hide EVERYTHING from their populace. I live in hope.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

just ban ALL Chinese nationals from entering other countries. clearly they cannot be trusted to concern themselves over spreading disease. that and all countries demand compensation from china who let this happen.

the world is in the mess that its in today because of china.

1 ( +10 / -9 )

There will be a reckoning for the Government of China.

President Trump will hammer down an election campaign on the very subject. And Trump will not be alone. When the eight Doctors, Specialists attempted to warn the Chinese public, all were incarcerated.

The Government of China will be held to account, no escape, or the Global Debts they hold could be cancelled.

And the Country totally politically and economically isolated, condemned as a global pariah state

7 ( +10 / -3 )

So many China haters here and on on other platforms, why. are you and your own governments so perfect. Wether you like or dislike the policies of China or their one party system, as a country they have done more for their own people in the last forty years that most countries worldwide. People tend to believe all negative media coverage without seeing facts about China. At the moment in other so called rich and democratic countries , we see the rise in poverty, homelessness , drug abuse, gun deaths, falling education and health care, so please look in your own backyard before making judgement on others.

-13 ( +7 / -20 )

Sorry I don’t buy this 6 day delay. There needs to be an investigation on the lab and virus “unleashed” or not. 6-day delay is assuming this was merely not handled very well as opposed to a thought out plan.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

@Jimizo: Right - what media should be following. I'd really like to know.

I basically read Reuters, Bloomberg, The Times (UK) The New York Times - I watch Sky News from the UK. I avoid Fox News (totally), CNN(totally), and the BBC. Although I will read the BBC website as that does seem fairly neutral.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

The only government to quickly realize that the Chinese were in dire straits was Taiwan.

They know well the machinations of the CCP.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

@Minello: In actuality you are correct. I dislike the CCP immensely but they have pulled out so many people from poverty, and have hidden the rest really well. The Western part of the country especially and the mountains in Tibet. Nobody wants to complain but those that do get put in their place and that is fantastic.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

Request WHO ask China to up its payments to equal the GDP in comparison to Japan and the US and then they can humbly apologize.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

The first few weeks maybe. From what I have read in Western papers like the Guardian and NYTimes this started cropping up in early/mid December 2019, possibly November. By late December there were patients that had spent weeks in a Wuhan hospital. There is enough governmental blame to go around but by the time that airlines started cancelling flights in early February it was basically too late.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

 Wether you like or dislike the policies of China or their one party system, as a country they have done more for their own people in the last forty years that most countries worldwide.

15 or 20 years ago I would have agreed with you. I constantly told friends China is not in a good place, but it's getting better every year. I was extremely optimistic.

No more though. The new leaders are more bent on fantasies of world domination without and oppression within. They have changed course from improving the lives of Chinese to pursuing money, revenge and absolute power.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Jenni

You clearly have no understanding of what the WHO does.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Well beyond 6 days. Day 23:

“We reiterate our call to all countries not to impose restrictions that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade.

Such restrictions can have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit"-@DrTedros #2019nCoV #EB146”

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Compared to the UK, the US, Japan and probably a few other countries, China's response was Bolt-like in its speed.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

What China is being accused of may very well be true and they should be held accountable. However, what did Trump do for nearly two months? His own new henchman, Peter Navarro, warned of a pandemic in early January. Six days is nothing compared to two months.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

commanteer:

Wether you like or dislike the policies of China or their one party system, as a country they have done more for their own people in the last forty years that most countries worldwide.

More than Taiwan, which has the same culture but no CCP? I think we should stop believing that talking point.

And besides, which Chinese people do you mean? Do the Tibetans, the Uiguirs, the Mongols and the Falung Gong members in China as "their own people"?

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

''as governments around the world have dragged their feet for weeks and even months''

Just in case it wasn't clear, they are talking about YOU, Mr.Abe.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

How will you punish them though?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Let’s call in the boogie man. I don’t think anything would have been different if Japan had known it for 60 days earlier.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

There's a podcast by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post journalist Gary Liu who gives an in-depth talk about the dates of the spread & reaction to the virus by the PRC.

He said that classified government documents have the PRC dating the the origin of the outbreak to November 17th.

So there might actually have been about a month and a half before the first public acknowledgment by the PRC and their initial contact with WHO.

If you're interested in listening to it, it's a TedTalks Daily episode titled, "What the world can learn from China's response to the coronavirus." You can find it on Spotify.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Sure as in theres been multiple tough decisions that he's had to make, as he is the POTUS, and in his quest to keep the economy going and play politics at the same time, yes it's really likely he would have dragged his feet.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Inexcusable.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

There WILL be a reckoning. How many times do we have to suffer these authoritarian baffoons mistakes? This time they broke the whole world.... when will enough be enough? Absolute power corrupts, absolutely. This knowledge is not new. Thanks again CCP. 谢谢

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@BigYen...Exactly!

Yes, China messes up but they were dealing with something new! Other countries had ample time to prepare for the outbreak by closing borders earlier and having really tight quarantine measures. But this didn’t happen! Other countries put in half measures which were not enough! Then the other sensitive issue of evacuation of its citizens when Wuhan was already in lockdown! That shouldn’t have been done because a lockdown is a lockdown. Take Japan for example whereby the first flight of evacuees were just sent back home without proper quarantine. Then countries were still accepting Chinese tourist for their money to keep the economy going and this also led to the massive spread! Then the worst thing was that some world leaders were the least bit bothered about the outbreak by calling it a hoax, saying it will disappear by April and even praising the Chinese Government for praising them ( China is doing very well and have it under control were the words of President Trump in February ). Mr. Abe was still keeping Japan’s borders open to the Chinese until so late and when America had an infection rate of 145,000 people still Japan didn’t close its border for Americans ( yet, they closed it for South Korea and some EU countries at that stage ). Now these same world leaders are looking for a scrape goat for not devising proper, tighter measures to deal with the outbreak!

6 ( +8 / -2 )

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.

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 BAQUET for tens of thousands of people; millions BEGAN traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.

The Chinese government knew in November that they had just unleashed a very contagious, and very deadly, virus, and the Chinese government rushed to do everything they could do to cover this up. Six days after Chinese officials finally admitted to themselves that they had created a pandemic, THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT HOSTED A PARTY FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. In the very same area where the Wuhan virus was killing people.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The detailed research carried out by the Los Alamos National Labs/CDC…Credit to poster Zeram1

High Contagiousness and Rapid Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0282_article

Indicates where the Government of China, faced with clear evidence of the rapid infection rate spread coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) however neglected to contain the spread.

Scroll down to ….. Estimating the Growth Rate of the Outbreak in Wuhan in January 2020

Quote…..

Moving from empirical estimates of basic epidemiologic parameters to an understanding of the early growth rates of COVID-19 requires model-based inference and data. We first collected real-time travel data during the epidemic by using the Baidu Migration server, which provides real-time travel patterns in China based on mobile-phone positioning services (Figure 2, panel A; Appendix 1 Table 2, Methods). We estimated that, before the January 23 lockdown of the city, ≈40,000–140,000 people in Wuhan traveled to destinations outside Hubei Province (Figure 2, panel B). The extensive travel before the Lunar New Year was probably an important driver of the spread of COVID-19 in China………….

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Jim - Yes, China messes up but they were dealing with something new! Other countries had ample time to prepare for the outbreak by closing borders earlier and having really tight quarantine measures.

"Ample time"? Are you serious? The virus from Wuhan was only two months old when the rest of the world FINALLY began to hear about it. There has been no "ample time" to even discover the actual numbers of infected persons. There has been no "ample time" to determine the actual numbers of the dead. There has been no "ample time" a vaccine. Governments are trying to slow, or stop, the spread this virus from Wuhan. Governments must also try to keep their economies from collapsing. Fresh water must keep flowing. Electricity must be provided. Food must still travel from farm to market.

The bottom line is that No Country was prepared for this Chinese disaster, or the WHO's utter failure to act as a "world" organization who's goal is to protect the world's health, and not just cover up for China's failures.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@arrestpaul, “The bottom line is that No Country was prepared for this Chinese disaster, …” Blaming China and WHO for your own government’s failures is ridiculous. Two months is an ample time to prepare, some countries had achieved lower rates of infection because they were well-prepared. Heck, China even got blamed for only 6 days delay, I guess it is a psychological thing, it is a way people are coping with this crisis. Even the opening up of wet markets seems to be a problem, not thinking that wet markets have been in existence for thousands of years. Just, more sanitization and pre-cautions have to be put in place, that’s all. New York’s just announced that everybody has to wear face masks when social distancing is not applicable after so many people have died, why didn’t they think of this right in the beginning? In some hospitals in the West, staff were not allowed to wear face masks because it might scare the patients, what kind of the logic is that? You tell me. Using Covid-19 as a political game is also disgusting, Taiwan said it had lower infection rates because it is democratic, tell me how democratic system helped achieve the lower rates, I am really curious. Some other provinces in China even achieved better rates than Taiwan. How can “WHO is China-centric” when it consists of experts from all over the world and the US is one of the largest contributors which supposed to have the most influence, why would it damage it’s own reputation? This doesn’t make any sense to me.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Flowers, this is a classic strategy that we see from China and used time and time again. You attempt to shift the focus on others trying to justify your own countries terrible misdeeds and negate responsibility. It may have worked in the past, but we can see right through it, unless your collective and selective minds can come up with something else, the game is up.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Xi, Putin, Trump - not much difference between them. They're all lying thugs who think ruling by fear makes them invincible.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Anybody hear about the 21 million disapeared cell phone contracts in China from november to march

Cell phones are utility people jut get rid of their phones ...

unless their dead

and not reported

Snopes

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/china-cellphones-coronavirus/

0 ( +0 / -0 )

flowers - ...Two months is an ample time to prepare, some countries had achieved lower rates of infection because they were well-prepared. Heck, China even got blamed for only 6 days delay, I guess it is a psychological thing, it is a way people are coping with this crisis.

Six day AFTER the Chinese government definitely knew that they had a deadly pandemic on their hands, the Chinese government still chose to host a banquet for tens of thousands, also knowing that millions more would be traveling thru the area.

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

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.

Yes, China should be blamed for allowing the virus from Wuhan to escape from the Wuhan area, and China should be held responsible for the spread of the virus through out China, and China should be held responsible for not preventing the virus from ending up in countries around the world.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

flowers - ...Even the opening up of wet markets seems to be a problem, not thinking that wet markets have been in existence for thousands of years. Just, more sanitization and pre-cautions have to be put in place, that’s all.

Has the WHO been made aware that it's only a matter of more sanitization and pre-cautions? Problem solved?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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