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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: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @11:22PM (4 children)
Thank you for continuing to remind us that we're complete fucking idiots and need someone to order us around. That with proper information from China, we still couldn't have figured out what to do. That we have only one governmental leader, and we obey him or her only. Asshole.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @11:46PM (3 children)
So you're saying you understand the science about why wearing masks and social distancing is important? That you understand why large gatherings are so dangerous?
No? Cause your convenience is more important than your fellow citizens' lives?
And I'm the asshole because I criticized Trump's lies about the virus while not saying we need to lock you in your house with concrete like China did? Enjoy beating up those straw men, here in CA most every business is open in my small town and most people wear their masks. There are still some idiots like yourself, but for some strange reason the big bad state of CA hasn't thrown them into prison!
Oh, and people who actually live in Portland and Seattle were quite amused by their relatives who were terrified they would be dead due to the entire city being a warzone. I can barely handle these increasingly paranoid separations from reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @01:22AM (1 child)
Yup, been wearing masks, social distancing, and washing hands, sanitizer, and being careful to not touch my face, etc.
Oops, your bullshit train went off the rails again. If you can get it back on the rails, which I doubt, I'll discuss like an adult.
As I've commented many times here, I don't take my medical advice from politicians.
I just wish you Trump haters would just be open and honest- just say you hate Trump, and stop trying to justify it with swiss-cheese arguments and non sequiturs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @10:12AM
Trump is a criminal and very likely traitor, seem like pretty good reasons to not like the guy, but let us stay on topic. The criticisms here are for his lies and dangerous medical advice that has killed literally thousands or more who don't think they should worry about COVID if the POTUS is saying not to worry.
I'm glad you are being safe, but Trump's lies which are verified facts have harmed US citizens. Sure would be nice if you could acknowledge objective reality instead of assuming all criticisms of Trump are purely emotional fabrications. But he did tell you to not believe your eyes and ears, to only listen to him.
You might wonder why I brought up Trump in this story about China's actions, and the answer is simple. For months the WH has been trying to avoid responsibility by blaming China so I wanted to dismiss that BS right away.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:43PM
Yeah, my dad was all worried about me (live in a Minneapolis suburb), and I was like, don't worry we are staying home and masking up whenever we do shopping. He was like, "What are you even talking about? I mean the rioting?" I was pretty confused because there wasn't anything like that anywhere outside a few blocks of the precinct. Later found out it was started by right-wingers, just as the cherry on top.