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Leaked documents show China mishandled early COVID-19 pandemic: report
Leaked documents from China show the country mishandled the early COVID-19 pandemic through misleading public data and three-week delays in test results, CNN reported Monday.
A whistleblower, who worked in the Chinese health care system, provided 117 pages of internal documents from the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to CNN.
The files, which CNN had verified by six experts, showed how the region struggled to manage the coronavirus between October 2019 and April 2020 – a critical time period in which the virus spread from China to cause a worldwide pandemic.
[2020-12-01 23:22:03 UTC; Ed. update follows.]
The referenced CNN article is nearly 5,000 words long. In addition there are numerous graphs and graphics. I strongly encourage the community to read the entire article before drawing any conclusions or making comments. Here are some excerpts taken from near the end of the article:
It is not clear to what extent the central government was aware of the actions taking place in Hubei at that time, or how much information was being shared and with whom. The documents offer no indication that authorities in Beijing were directing the local decision-making process. However, Mertha, the JHU academic, said the mismatch between the higher internal and lower public figures on the February death toll "appeared to be a deception, for unsurprising reasons."
"China had an image to protect internationally, and lower-ranking officials had a clear incentive to under-report -- or to show their superiors that they were under-reporting -- to outside eyes," he said.
Conversely, however, the leaked documents also provide something of a defense of China's overall handling of the virus. The reports show that in the early stages of the pandemic, China faced the same problems of accounting, testing, and diagnosis that still haunt many Western democracies even now -- issues compounded by Hubei encountering an entirely new virus.
[...] China and its healthcare workers were under immense strain as the outbreak took hold, said Yang, from the Council of Foreign Relations.
"They had a massive run on the medical system. They were overwhelmed. There was truly despair among medical professionals by the end of January, because they were extremely overworked and they were also enormously discouraged by the high number of deaths that were occurring with a disease they had not treated previously," he added.
Hubei, which lags far behind Beijing, Shanghai and other major Chinese administrative divisions in terms of GDP per capita, was the first region to confront a virus that would go on to confound many of the world's most powerful countries.
Schaffner, from Vanderbilt University, said many of the comments in the documents might have been made in the US, "where, over the past 15 to 20 years, at particularly the state and the local level, public health funding has become constrained."
The documents show health care officials had no comprehension as to the magnitude of the impending disaster.
[...] Tuesday marks exactly 12 months since the first patient in Wuhan started showing symptoms, according to the Lancet study.
Lastly, there are likely to be strong feelings about the situation; I strongly encourage folk to try and keep things civil. Let one's anger be directed at the disease; not at fellow Soylentils. We are all struggling to various degrees to make sense of these highly disturbed circumstances. Please wear a mask, maintain physical distancing, and maintain proper hand washing practices. I can attest these practices help; I live in a state with one of the lowest rates of infection and death in the US. Even with that, I have a friend who was hospitalized for a couple weeks with COVID-19 and of a couple more acquaintances who have lost loved ones to this pandemic. There are the occasional exceptions, and I know people are growing tired and just want things to go back to normal. It is all the more important to do what we can to reduce the spread of this disease. --martyb
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday December 01 2020, @10:10PM (42 children)
Why not both? China fucked it up and so did the US.
I will never understand why it has to be either/or. Both countries have some seriously fucked-up leaders and seriously fucked-up attitudes toward their own citizens.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @10:24PM (39 children)
Everyone fucked it up. No exceptions.
(Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday December 01 2020, @10:52PM (8 children)
Well, Russia has started mass vaccination this week. Just saying...
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @11:21PM (7 children)
And that's not a fuckup in-the-making?
(Score: 3, Informative) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @01:34AM (6 children)
Well, I am following a telegram chat room which has a few thousands early testers. Apparently for a couple of months already anybody could get vaccinated with a catch - 25% get placebo. That's the place where they share their experiences. While I don't read the whole thing - there are tens of thousands messages - and I don't have time to dig through them, my impression is that it works well. Some people report fevers and persistent headaches, some got infected, but 92% advertised efficiency and no major side effects appear to be true statements.
The bad news is that the antibody counts do go down - yes, many of them do biweekly tests at their expenses - and it looks like the vaccine can't be repeated. They would have to switch to another one eventually, which so far is not approved.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 02 2020, @02:41AM (5 children)
How does that differ from 100% placebo?
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @04:50AM (2 children)
Vast majority of people report no infection even when they have sick coworkers or family members.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @04:53AM (1 child)
Also, nobody reports severe cases.
I am sorry I did not mention this as I keep forgetting that most people here believe that everything Russian is poison. There is no doubt in my mind that the vaccine works. The question is how well or with what side effects, if any.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 02 2020, @06:37AM
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday December 02 2020, @12:01PM (1 child)
92% fewer cases among the vaccinated? So if there were 20% cases among the placebo-ed there would be 1.6% cases among the actually vacinnated?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:07PM
Again, how does that differ from a 100% placebo? It's easy to cook numbers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Wednesday December 02 2020, @12:40AM (19 children)
New Zealand? 3 current cases, all people in quarantine [health.govt.nz]
Australia? 8 locally acquired (all known sources), 57 in quarantine [health.gov.au]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @01:36AM (16 children)
Accomplished by eliminating civil liberties = fail.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:13AM (13 children)
Civil liberties eliminated? Like what? Your freedom to kill my mother with impunity? Your freedom to create overwork the heath care workers? Your freedom to extract money from my taxes to pay for this extra care?
Thanks God those liberties were temporary suspended, I can now go to the beach without needing a mask, with 0 new cases with local transmission for 33 days [7news.com.au] today.
You say fail, I say success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:52AM (6 children)
You stinking disgusting hypocrite rat.
How many mothers died when governments ordered hospitals to stop providing medical help to cancer patients and other chronic cases "because COVID"?
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 02 2020, @04:08AM (2 children)
None in Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 4, Informative) by Mykl on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:08AM (1 child)
I can confirm (personal anecdote) that hospitals in Victoria, Australia continued to run effectively in the height of the crisis back in July.
I was having chest pains (turns out it was stress-related from simultaneously trying to work and home-school our youngest). Went to a GP, who then recommended I visit the Emergency Department. I was kept overnight while they ran a series of ECGs, blood and X-Rays (lung). They kept me over because I was _just_ above the threshold number in a couple of tests and they wanted to be absolutely sure there were no heart problems. At no point was there any discussion of me leaving due to COVID/availability.
Oh, by the way, under the Australian health care system the entire visit cost me $0. I have private health insurance, but it was not needed for this visit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @08:57AM
I have a family member that works overseas. He always jokes that the biggest bill they got when their child was in the hospital for two weeks was from stress eating out of the vending machines.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:35AM (1 child)
1. at no point have any Australian or New Zealand hospitals been turning anyone away.. 'regional' hospitals have been having problems [abc.net.au], but that has been an ongoing issue for decades (not helped by State Government wage freezes and lack of training opportunities in the bush [pc.gov.au], nothing to do with Covid-19.
2. "Mothers"/"cancer" - Huh?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:59AM
His use of "mothers" part come from my
(my mother is in the extreme risk bracket due to age/preconditions)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2020, @05:47AM
huh what? I'm in Oz, when did that happen?
My dog has cancer and not even the vet were closed during the pandemic. We must wear mask, sanitize our hands and have keep distancing strictly - a minor inconvenience to liberty most sane australians are more than happy to oblige.
My wife have ongoing thyroid problems and we continued to have access to our GP no dramas there either.
The only dramas we had were folks near border rural areas where the closest critical med. access is across the borders and when the borders closed the numb nut officials didn't make provisions for those exceptions.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @11:57AM (5 children)
Imagine believing telling people not to see their families for a year is reasonable policy. Imagine thinking giving up your rights this year means you'll be given them back next year. Next Thanksgiving your grandmother will be one year older and you still won't be allowed to see her, assuming she had another year left to begin with. I hope last year's celebrations were special at least. If she dies at the hands of the police you might be allowed a funeral.
You people are modern day abstinence-only educators. How many more months of your ideas not working anywhere not a remote island do we need to go through?
(Score: 3) by c0lo on Wednesday December 02 2020, @12:25PM (4 children)
The worst that Australia had was about 160 days in strict isolation, and this was the Victoria/Melbourne case. Incidentally, this is were I live.
Now, imagine South Korea, which didn't have a strict lockdown until now [wikipedia.org], so the people could see their family.
I don't need to imagine, I already have my rights restored now and I can enjoy them without fear that I may kill someone doing it.
I no longer have grandparents, but I do have parents in the age bracket.
I brought my parents with me, so my isolation was their isolation, can you imagine that?
And they'll continue to live with me, they're already too old to let them live without support.
Well, mate, there seems to be a problem with the police in your country. Maybe it's time to start working on it.
There are a number of countries not on a remote island where they managed to do it. Maybe start looking how they made and make it work before declaring the impossibility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @02:39PM
Weren't there several instances of police brutality in the last few months due to lockdown? Something about ripping people from their cars, running a man over and stomping on his head, forcing their way into a woman's home and arresting her over Facebook posts?
Enjoy your summer, you're a fool if you think this isn't an annual event. If we could cure diseases with lockdowns and masks we would have done it long before 2020. Have fun next flu season.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @02:42PM (2 children)
What do you think Peru did wrong? They're still locked down, 8 months later, and have one of the worst global fatality rates.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday December 02 2020, @10:52PM
Didn't respect the epidemiological countermeasures. That or they installed to much 5G. Which one do you think is more plausible?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday December 03 2020, @01:01AM
What's gone wrong in Peru: [bbc.com]
queuing at banks and at markets (both 'essential', but without social distancing, there has been huge amount of infection)
many people living together - not just multi-generational housing, but multi-family houses (ie, shacks)
Parts of rural Peru doesn't have clean water [water.org] or sanitation [waterforpeople.org]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by julian on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:44AM (1 child)
People who insist on, "liberty or death" will get both.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @12:19PM
And people who insist on neither will still get the latter.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday December 02 2020, @01:44PM (1 child)
For the record the Trump administration has more cases than entire countries.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday December 03 2020, @01:05AM
White House: "more than 45 cases" [wikipedia.org]
18 countries have fewer total cases [worldometers.info]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 02 2020, @01:03AM (5 children)
Actually, the numbers say differently. New Zealand has fared pretty well through all of this. Australia has done better than several other nations. Senegal, Iceland, Denmark, and, oh yeah, Saudi Arabia.
Does anyone care to speculate how COVID might have spread if the annual pilgrimage to the Grand Mosque had gone off as usual? You usually see millions upon millions jostling each other, waiting for an opportunity to get into, or at least close to, the square with the Kaaba.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/countries-with-best-covid-responses/ [globalcitizen.org]
This page has some nice charts and maps and graphs showing who did better, and who did worse.
Hmmm - deaths per million show that Belgium and Peru have been the hardest hit of all nations on that chart, 1348 and 1078 respectively.
https://www.biznews.com/health/2020/12/01/covid-19-countries [biznews.com]
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:14AM (2 children)
Kudos to those who cancelled this event rather than spouting off about "muh freedumz". They recognized an exceptional circumstance that changed the risk/benefit equation and determined that the sensible course of action was to call it off this year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @12:03PM (1 child)
You think next year will be different? Not only do I still have to take my shoes off at the airport, now they have a machine that can see under my clothes.
You aren't getting your "freedumz" back because you've demonstrated how much you value them. I'm sure ridiculing people who don't want to be corralled into their homes for a year is exactly the kind of truth to power you thought you'd be speaking today. I have to wonder what "freedumz" you'll give up for the rest of us in another twenty years.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:49PM
You seem to have a problem with a specific country - your own,
Don't judge the rest of the world based upon your own (apparently) limited experiences. Why don't you sort your country out before you try giving people living elsewhere the benefit of your views regarding how your own government(s) have treated people?
Now, can we get back to discussing the topic rather than having to put up with your views on how you have been mistreated please?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @12:22PM (1 child)
And yet Peru locked down early and hard. Guess they weren't Australian enough?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday December 03 2020, @01:09AM
correct.. Australians don't live crowded in hovels, everyone has fresh water and sanitation, and a bank account..
https://soylentnews.org/politics/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=40902&page=1&cid=1083446#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday December 02 2020, @01:03AM (3 children)
I dunno about everyone.
Vietnam has done pretty well so far, and New Zealand is kind of (sorta) back to normal. In fact, our government handled it so well I have been attending rugby matches, in crowds of thousands no masks needed.
Of course we locked down really hard right at the beginning, and because our government asked nicely, and reminded us to be kind to each other, we listened.
So far, so good.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @01:14AM (2 children)
Thailand have done very well, which is a serious achievement given how many tourists were out there and at that precise time.
It's even more surprising as Thailand is painted as bureaucracy that can't efficiently govern. Apparently they can and much better than Western world.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:09AM (1 child)
I was under the impression that Thailand was essentially a military dictatorship? Wasn't there a coup of some sort a decade ago?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:21AM
Thailand is a constitutional monarchy similar to England. However every now and then liberals get too much power and question the established ways. The solution is always the same and simple - military coup that dismisses the government which is blessed by the King. After a few months new elections are called, more reasonable people are elected and military goes back to what Thai military typically does - making money. Thai military owns banks and many profitable businesses so it's keen to protect it's investments. One should view military coups in Thailand as the way of Thai King to dismiss the parliament, the government or both; nothing more.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @02:17AM (1 child)
Right now USA still has a great leader. By USA standards, he is the best in over a century. (past that the comparison is difficult because it really was a very different world)
Things do take a turn for the worse soon it seems, but the Wuhan virus could partially save us. Biden isn't immune, unlike Trump.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday December 02 2020, @02:38AM
That leaves us with the person who attempted to use the power of the state to commit the murder of American citizens. Granted -- that's pretty much par for Democrats these days but from a utilitarian perspective, it isn't a step up.
https://theappeal.org/kamala-harris-criminal-justice-record-killed-her-presidential-run/ [theappeal.org]
https://www.salon.com/2010/04/07/assassinations_2/ [salon.com]