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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: 2, Interesting) by legont on Tuesday December 01 2020, @11:06PM (38 children)
The US had the outbreak in mid December 2019 https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-likely-in-u-s-in-mid-december-2019-cdc-scientists-report-11606782449 [wsj.com]
but did not recognize it.
Note that this is not a president's job to recognize a new and dangerous pathogen. It's a job of very liberal doctor's of NYC. What the president should have done was to hold them accountable.
Directly comparing the situation to Wuhan, the president should have executed the mayor of NYC and the governor on NY along with NJ and Connecticut's.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @11:48PM
Wooooow
#FBI #CIA #NSA #APA [apa.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 02 2020, @02:51AM (21 children)
Accountable for what? You don't actually have the disease spreading for a month after it allegedly first appeared. Diseases that don't spread don't merit "executions".
(Score: 3, Insightful) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:09AM (20 children)
Look, there was an outbreak of virus pneumonia in Russia - in Siberia if I remember correctly - in the spring of 2019. It was dealt with as usual. Some schools were closed, some quarantine established, and everything normalized within two months. That's how local doctors and authorities are supposed to react if they want to avoid pandemic. Was it covid? Was it some other unknown virus or bug? Nobody knows nor cares that much. Chinese behaved exactly the same just on a somewhat bigger scale.
If the US requires the president to deal with such simple matters, the US is doomed. We are now in the connected world so we either adapt to ways people deal with epidemics or close our borders for good. There is no alternative. The president is not out there to wipe everybody's ass.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:22AM (2 children)
If only Trump had done nothing at all.
Instead, he actively and forcefully played down the virus and encouraged people to ignore it. He then took it a step further and politicized the wearing of masks and social distancing. Not even his own infection (remember he was briefly in the ICU before being hit with a cocktail of experimental drugs) and the near death of friends (such as Chris Christie) stopped him lying to the public about the dangers of the disease.
If he had shut his big orange mouth from the beginning, people may have listened to the health advice coming out from medical experts who knew what they were talking about rather than trying to drink bleach.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:35AM
And I believe it would be the best course of action if implemented. We should have treated sick, protect vulnerable, and let the rest do as they please.
Instead we implemented a lock-down for strong and healthy, while - and I am not going to say we here, but the governors of tri state area - send covid to the most vulnerable - homes for elderly. They are murderers and should be executed for this, period. They did it to save hospitals beds for their rich and healthy friends. Death for them.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @07:50AM
Yep -- the Democrats would have done great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFCzoXhNM6c [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtFNuI2kT_E [youtube.com]
https://youtu.be/a-ZK29G674Y?t=84 [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/_mCg8eWPS04?t=59 [youtu.be]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 02 2020, @06:39AM (14 children)
Why ask when it clearly wasn't covid? Because if Russia had COVID-19 that early, then it would have gone global long before February 2020.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:07PM (7 children)
Because there are dozens of outbreaks that normal medical authorities deal with every year. One of them one day becomes "covid". The reason to ask is because the US is totally incapable to deal with it. The US outsourced this to China similar to iPhone production. The US - no matter what politicians are in power - believes all the bugs come from China or Russia or whatever and it makes them Chinese responsibility. However, the fact is the bugs know no borders and this particular covid one is likely was discovered in China; not appeared over there.
Trump was at least honest about it as his answer was to close the border. Democrats are still denying the issue; be it infection or economy destruction.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 03 2020, @01:27AM (6 children)
We already know covid wasn't dozens of outbreaks that normal medical authorities deal with every year.
Why not get some evidence for that assertion before you continue? Because contrary to assertions made here and elsewhere, no one has yet discovered COVID-19 before its presence in Wuhan last December.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday December 06 2020, @12:44AM (5 children)
SARS-CoV-2 was discovered in archival sewage from March, 2019, in Barcelona.
It's anybody's guess whether this was a false positive.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 06 2020, @04:13PM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday December 07 2020, @01:19AM (3 children)
I found it interesting that they kept deep=frozen archival sewage to test later.
There were also old blood samples from September 2019 in Italy that tested positive. And some epidemiologists think this correlates with an increased incidence of flu in the fall of 2019. Some of those flu cases might have been misdiagnosed covid-19.
And some in New York in December 2019.
It these are real, covid-19 may not have originated in China, but we can say it was first reported in China.
But you're right, this demands an explanation why the epidemic didn't explode back then. I don't know enough epidemiology to begin to speculate on that.
-- hendrik
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 07 2020, @04:59AM (2 children)
"IF". Again, as I repeatedly note, if covid-19 originated elsewhere, then what was special about Wuhan that it became a highly infectious disease there rather than many months earlier elsewhere? There is something very wrong with the narrative.
The pandemic makes sense starting with Wuhan. The first cases are reported there, and then as additional cases are discovered, they were initially discovered to be tied to travel from Wuhan, and then later, travel from regions that had earlier reported cases tied to Wuhan. If covid-19 had been present in these various cities earlier in the year, then how and why did the disease disappear rather than become a pandemic months earlier than it actually did?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday December 12 2020, @11:53AM (1 child)
Your interpretation is indeed the most likely.
So they might be just false positives. And likely are.
But it might also be that the tests react to predecessors of covid-19 that aren't massively contagious. If so, that would be an interesting avenue for investigation in the theories of viral mutation.
I haven't heard of any attempts to retest these early samples from Barcelona, Italy, or New York. That may be impossible if the testing ended up being destructive.
Italy and New York have apparently during the fall of 2019 had a greater than normal incidence of "flu" cases that might have been misdiagnosed.
-- hendrik
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 12 2020, @10:06PM
Remember coronavirus has long been among us as one of the contributors to the "common cold". COVID-19 is new.
That misdiagnosis would probably have to be at the viral level too. Remember that 2019 was a worse than normal flu year. So one would expect to see a greater incidence of flu cases.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday December 04 2020, @06:01PM (5 children)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-spain-science/coronavirus-traces-found-in-march-2019-sewage-sample-spanish-study-shows-idUSKBN23X2HQ [reuters.com]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 05 2020, @03:25AM (4 children)
This. Or maybe error.
(Score: 2) by legont on Saturday December 05 2020, @10:38AM (3 children)
https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-17/COVID-19-was-spreading-in-Italy-by-September-2019-study-indicates-VuSqUttP8s/index.html [cgtn.com]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 05 2020, @09:05PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by legont on Saturday December 05 2020, @10:28PM (1 child)
They are not stories, but scientific research, as opposed to stories that Covid started in China.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 06 2020, @06:44AM
There is some sort of scientific research there, sure, but the stories aren't scientific. If COVID-19, rather than some error in those studies or a disease with a few similar antibodies, were present, then we would have seen vastly more cases in January. Hospitals would be overwhelmed, among other things.
The narrative doesn't fit the evidence. No amount of such studies will change that.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday December 02 2020, @01:48PM (1 child)
Well it's past election day and the virus is still here. Trump claimed it would disappear by then.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:27PM
No, it's not. January 6th is when Congress starts counting votes. Only starts, mind you.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Immerman on Wednesday December 02 2020, @04:15AM (13 children)
Right, it's not the President's job. Nor is it the job of doctors in NYC or elsewhere. It's the job of the CDC and pandemic response team - parts of the executive branch.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @04:58AM (12 children)
Well, this opinion of yours makes the US much more totalitarian country than China as in China it is the job of agencies that report to local authorities. The whole point of the article was that local authorities mislead the central ones in China. In the US local authorities simply did nothing, which is wrong.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 02 2020, @06:40AM (6 children)
So it's totalitarian for national level agencies to treat national level problems? Do tell.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @12:06PM (3 children)
I can't imagine anything more authoritarian today than a body that presides over 300 million+ people restricting their movements to their homes, but I guess that's just me.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 02 2020, @02:53PM (2 children)
Because that's the only way to address national level health problems?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:12PM (1 child)
Large scale central authoritarianism is? It's fine if you think so, but call it what it is.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 03 2020, @01:18AM
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:12PM (1 child)
One typically does not know if a problem is nation level. The whole idea of totalitarianism is to treat any issue as a nation level one.
Nation level issue has to be an extremely rare occurrence when it the US any issue is a nation level one. This makes the US totalitarian all right and way more than China.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 03 2020, @01:51AM
Why would you think that? Does your country's media not inform you enough of such things?
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:07PM (4 children)
What do you mean they did nothing? They informed the CDC, whose job it is to organize national level pandemic responses because we *know* from past pandemics that localized responses can't handle them.
The CDC put out guidelines, and then the President told everyone to ignore them and helped dramatically worsen the problem.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:21PM (3 children)
You sound so much Soviet it's even not funny.
They - locals - should have find out about it in December. They should have, for example, close affected schools - mostly Jewish religious in this case - and advise orthodox to stay home on Saturdays. They should not be afraid of doing it and enforce if necessary. There should be no fear of another "national issue" - different groups "rights" - in this case. Normally in 99% cases the outbreak would be closed and forgotten without the president even informed. That's how normal reaction should be.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:48PM
Check your timeline - it was the last day of December when China reported dozens of cases of a new form of pneumonia, and Jan 11th before the first reported death (maybe China was hiding info - but that's irrelevant to a discussion of our response) The first US case was reported January 21st. Jan 22nd Trump said we had it totally under control, beginning a long trend of systematic lies convincing half the population to resist all attempts at controlling the spread.
And what do you mean by "normally"? There hasn't been a serious pandemic-class disease since the 1918 flu, which the US mismanaged almost as badly as this one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @05:32PM
Lol, closing Jewish religious schools? That is your "this should be the normal way to handle it"?
Funnily enough the SCOTUS just put the kibosh on those sorts of things.
Who on the SCOTUS would be so Soviet that they would suggest this isn't the way to handle things? Well it wasn't Sayotomyer that is for sure.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 03 2020, @01:54AM
Why? We've already established that China didn't inform anyone about the dangers of COVID-19 until well into January. I'm aware that you assert that there were covid cases in the US in December, but haven't given any evidence for that or for the claim that the locals should have found out about it then.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday December 02 2020, @07:21PM
Pop quiz: What branch of government does the Centers for Disease Control reside in?