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Timeline: The early days of China's coronavirus outbreak and cover-up

F-22Raptor

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Axios has compiled a timeline of the earliest weeks of the coronavirus outbreak in China, highlighting when the cover-up started and ended — and showing how, during that time, the virus already started spreading around the world, including to the United States.

Why it matters: A study published in March indicated that if Chinese authorities had acted three weeks earlier than they did, the number of coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95% and its geographic spread limited.

This timeline, compiled from information reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the South China Morning Post and other sources, shows that China's cover-up and the delay in serious measures to contain the virus lasted about three weeks.

Dec. 10: Wei Guixian, one of the earliest known coronavirus patients, starts feeling ill.

Dec. 16: Patient admitted to Wuhan Central Hospital with infection in both lungs but resistant to anti-flu drugs. Staff later learned he worked at a wildlife market connected to the outbreak.

Dec. 27: Wuhan health officials are told that a new coronavirus is causing the illness.

Dec. 30:

  • Ai Fen, a top director at Wuhan Central Hospital, posts information on WeChat about the new virus. She was reprimanded for doing so and told not to spread information about it.
  • Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang also shares information on WeChat about the new SARS-like virus. He is called in for questioning shortly afterward.
  • Wuhan health commission notifies hospitals of a “pneumonia of unclear cause” and orders them to report any related information.
Dec. 31:

  • Wuhan health officials confirm 27 cases of illness and close a market they think is related to the virus' spread.
  • China tells the World Health Organization’s China office about the cases of an unknown illness.
Jan. 1: Wuhan Public Security Bureau brings in for questioning eight doctors who had posted information about the illness on WeChat.

Jan. 2: Chinese researchers map the new coronavirus' complete genetic information. This information is not made public until Jan. 9.

Jan. 7: Xi Jinping becomes involved in the response.

Jan. 9: China announces it has mapped the coronavirus genome.

Jan. 11–17: Important prescheduled CCP meeting held in Wuhan. During that time, the Wuhan Health Commission insists there are no new cases.

Jan. 13: First coronavirus case reported in Thailand, the first known case outside China.

Jan. 15: The patient who becomes the first confirmed U.S. case leaves Wuhan and arrives in the U.S., carrying the coronavirus.

Jan. 18:

  • The Wuhan Health Commission announces four new cases.
  • Annual Wuhan Lunar New Year banquet. Tens of thousands of people gathered for a potluck.
Jan. 19: Beijing sends epidemiologists to Wuhan.

Jan. 20:

  • The first case announced in South Korea.
  • Zhong Nanshan, a top Chinese doctor who is helping to coordinate the coronavirus response, announces the virus can be passed between people.
Jan. 21:

  • The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms the first coronavirus case in the United States.
  • CCP flagship newspaper People’s Daily mentions the coronavirus epidemic and Xi's actions to fight it for the first time.
  • China's top political commission in charge of law and order warns that “anyone who deliberately delays and hides the reporting of [virus] cases out of his or her own self-interest will be nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity."
Jan. 23: Wuhan and three other cities are put on lockdown. Right around this time, approximately 5 million people leave the city without being screened for the illness.

Jan. 24–30: China celebrates the Lunar New Year holiday. Hundreds of millions of people are in transit around the country as they visit relatives.

Jan. 24: China extends the lockdown to cover 36 million people and starts to rapidly build a new hospital in Wuhan. From this point, very strict measures continue to be implemented around the country for the rest of the epidemic.

The bottom line: China is now trying to create a narrative that it's an example of how to handle this crisis when in fact its early actions led to the virus spreading around the globe.

https://www.axios.com/timeline-the-...-up-ee65211a-afb6-4641-97b8-353718a5faab.html
 
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China must be sued by the rest of the world for the irresponsible and callous handling combined with criminal deception for misleading and hiding the facts until too late.
 
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As I have said before, hindsight is 20/20. China could've done better. But judging from the approach of Western countries in recent weeks, I've come to the conclusion that the West wouldn't do much better despite the transparency, due to complacency among key officials.

I will repost:
Hindsight is 20/20. How much sooner should the lockdown be, if you're in charge?

The first known patient back then was diagnosed in December and the virus was still unknown. No one knows how fatal it is or whether does it transmit through humans, and if so, how does it transmit and how many has been infected. No test was available as well. China had to do research & development, then mass production of test-kits, and deliver them to healthcare institutions. It takes time.

The lockdown of Wuhan happened on 23 Jan.

From the diagnosis of an unknown virus to an unprecedented lockdown, it took around 1-2months. If the outbreak started in the West, would the West do better? Would the West dare to take the initiative to do an unprecedented lockdown on their cities within 1 or 2 months?

The West had months to prepare. Even in late Feb with all the info from China on the characteristics of the virus and the modes of transmission, you have politicians like Trump still downplaying the Covid19 as "just the flu bro". And in March you have several Western countries including the US which can't even get their test kits ready. Now you have the UK basically giving up and going for 'herd immunity' strategy.

Be realistic. Yes, I agree that China indeed could've done better with greater transparency, but that's hindsight. I look at things as a whole. After looking at the approach of the West these few days, you think the West would've take action more promptly and handle the situation better?

I would think that the West would be even more complacent.

So why is Europe and the US worse off than the rest of China outside of Hubei, despite the obvious geographical distance and having more than a month's time to prepare?

Singapore started screening travelers from Wuhan since Jan 3 and formed a multi-ministry taskforce on Jan 22 (which means the planning and coordination must have been done before that) before the first imported case is confirmed on Jan 23. Contact tracing team was also set-up.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...y-on-viral-pneumonia-outbreak-in-chinas-wuhan
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...singapore-avoid-non-essential-travel-to-wuhan

On the same day the first imported case is confirmed, Singapore started acquiring facilities to prepare for quarantine centers should the numbers spike in the coming months. Many measures followed after that, such as reactivating 900+ clinics (PHPC scheme) which are decentralized over the island to better detect and isolate cases.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...-being-prepared-as-singapore-fights-spread-of

WhatsApp-Image-2020-02-18-at-8.25.34-AM.jpeg

https://mothership.sg/2020/02/covid-19-phpc/

But what have the US and Europe been doing in the meantime? Basically inaction.

Why? Complacency.

 
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@Mista - nobody is equipped to handle such a highly contagious thing. The best and one of the very few advantages one can hope for is timely and accurate information. China's crime effectively snuffed out that.
 
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Chinese governance has far surpassed Western governance and the response to COVID-19 is proof of that.
 
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if Chinese authorities had acted three weeks earlier than they did, the number of coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95%

Lol. Why not say they could've acted 4 weeks earlier and the number of cases could've been reduced by 99%?

China locked down Wuhan on Jan 23. So the study is expecting China to lock down on Jan 1 when basically nothing is known? Type of virus, fatality, whether it transmit through humans, if so what's mode of transmission, how many have already been infected, how to test, production and delivery of tests, etc.

Let's be frank here and do away with the politicking. Which country would do a lockdown after 2-3 weeks of discovery of a novel virus, as suggested by the study of what China could've done?
 
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Chinese governance has far surpassed Western governance and the response to COVID-19 is proof of that.

what governance? let's see the series of utter failures:
* they did not have the controls to keep the virus getting public
* they did not release upfront information when it started and HID the truth
* they then proceeded to murder the whistleblower

If you call the way wuhan was cordoned off, sure, that's the least they could do after things became uncontrollable and unhidable. If that's your idea of great governance, sure.
 
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let me show you how stupid the chinese response was with just the following:

Jan. 7: Xi Jinping becomes involved in the response.
....
Jan. 19: Beijing sends epidemiologists to Wuhan.

50 days pass before epidemiologists go to wuhan !
the great leader is involved even before, 2 weeks before, even epidemiologists! what did he expect to do? make the virus read the red book?
 
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the point that you're trying to hide and drown by reproducing pages of published reports is that China tried to hide facts until it wasn't able to.
 
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@Mista - nobody is equipped to handle such a highly contagious thing. The best and one of the very few advantages one can hope for is timely and accurate information. China's crime effectively snuffed out that.

Transparency is one thing, action is another thing. Transparency without action is useless.

Asian countries started taking this seriously since the start of Jan. Like I pointed out, Singapore started forming a multi-ministry taskforce before our first case is even confirmed, and acquiring and converting quarantine centers right after that.

What have the West done? Why is Europe worse off than Asia despite the advantage of time, info and geography? Why are some Western countries still unable to produce enough tests in March, despite all the information of genome sequencing which 'transparency' has made available for other countries to produce their test kits in Jan?

It's simple. Complacency. With this level of competency of public officials, you'd expect Western countries to do better if the virus appeared in December in the West?
 
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what governance? let's see the series of utter failures:
* they did not have the controls to keep the virus getting public
* they did not release upfront information when it started and HID the truth
* they then proceeded to murder the whistleblower

If you call the way wuhan was cordoned off, sure, that's the least they could do after things became uncontrollable and unhidable. If that's your idea of great governance, sure.
Talk is easy. For flu like, long window time, new disease, it's very hard to handle it perfectly when it broke out. Even till today, with all known information about the virus, western countries performed terribly in front of it.
 
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Transparency is one thing, action is another thing. Transparency without action is useless.

Asian countries started taking this seriously since the start of Jan. Like I pointed out, Singapore started forming a multi-ministry taskforce before our first case is even confirmed, and acquiring and converting quarantine centers right after that.

What have the West done? Why is Europe worse off than Asia despite the advantage of time, info and geography? Why are some Western countries still unable to produce enough tests in March, despite all the information of genome sequencing which 'transparency' has made available for other countries to produce their test kits in Jan?

It's simple. Complacency.

that I can agree with - Europe could have acted with more alarm especially considering they are more connected to China. HOWEVER some of them were busy criticizing Trump for acting arbitrarily when he stopped China travel.

Europe is broken. The Euro experiment has made them all ineffective.
 
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