Many commentators, especially those on the anti-SJW side, have strongly blamed China for allowing the current coronavirus pandemic to become as widespread as it has, due to China delaying reporting about it. Many of these commentators have suggested and even demanded strong sanctions against China because of this.
There are a lot of things that China has done wrong, and still is doing wrong, about this situation, but I have to strongly disagree with the above sentiment.
The Chinese government did initially try to censor the spread of rumors and information about the new possible epidemic, it did severely mistreat several Chinese medical professionals and press reporters (up to borderline or even outright human rights violations), and it did (and to a large extent still does) mistreat the residents of Wuhan (in many cases also up to borderline or even outright human rights violations). There are many actions taken by the Chinese government related to this situation that are questionable and condemnable.
However, them announcing the discovery of the virus earlier would have made little to no difference in the spread and speed of the pandemic, unlike these sociopolitical commentators are claiming.
The initial signs of the epidemic were noticed by a Chinese doctor in December 26th of 2019. On December 30 a group of doctors alerted their colleagues of a "SARS-like virus".
Chinese government officials proceeded to censor this information up until about January the 7th, ie. about a week, when Chinese scientists publicly announced the discovery of the new coronavirus. Among others, the American CDC took notice of this. On January 9th both the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control made public announcements about the situation.
Thus, it's quite clear that while China did initially try to censor information about the possible epidemic, they did relatively quickly recant and informed health organizations around the world, by about the 7-9th of January, after which several such health organizations started to monitor the development of the situation.
How long did it take for countries other than China to start strict measures to try to prevent the spread of the disease?
The first country to restrict their border control was Hong Kong, on February 2 (no doubt because of their past experience with the 2002 SARS epidemic).
The next countries to implement any sort of border control were Turkey and Pakistan (which closed their borders with Iran). On February 23. Azerbaijan closed their border with Iran on February 29.
Italy, which was the European country that was hit first and hardest, didn't institute lockdowns until February 21st, and a countrywide quarantine until March 9th. In France lockdowns were first put in place on March 13th. Finland declared a state of emergency on March 16th. And so on and so forth.
So no, I don't think that if China had announced the discovery of the virus to the world one week earlier, it would have made any difference. It's not like any country engaged in any sort of counter-measures immediately when they did announce it, on the second week of January.
This is all just barking up the wrong tree.
There are a lot of things that China has done wrong, and still is doing wrong, about this situation, but I have to strongly disagree with the above sentiment.
The Chinese government did initially try to censor the spread of rumors and information about the new possible epidemic, it did severely mistreat several Chinese medical professionals and press reporters (up to borderline or even outright human rights violations), and it did (and to a large extent still does) mistreat the residents of Wuhan (in many cases also up to borderline or even outright human rights violations). There are many actions taken by the Chinese government related to this situation that are questionable and condemnable.
However, them announcing the discovery of the virus earlier would have made little to no difference in the spread and speed of the pandemic, unlike these sociopolitical commentators are claiming.
The initial signs of the epidemic were noticed by a Chinese doctor in December 26th of 2019. On December 30 a group of doctors alerted their colleagues of a "SARS-like virus".
Chinese government officials proceeded to censor this information up until about January the 7th, ie. about a week, when Chinese scientists publicly announced the discovery of the new coronavirus. Among others, the American CDC took notice of this. On January 9th both the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control made public announcements about the situation.
Thus, it's quite clear that while China did initially try to censor information about the possible epidemic, they did relatively quickly recant and informed health organizations around the world, by about the 7-9th of January, after which several such health organizations started to monitor the development of the situation.
How long did it take for countries other than China to start strict measures to try to prevent the spread of the disease?
The first country to restrict their border control was Hong Kong, on February 2 (no doubt because of their past experience with the 2002 SARS epidemic).
The next countries to implement any sort of border control were Turkey and Pakistan (which closed their borders with Iran). On February 23. Azerbaijan closed their border with Iran on February 29.
Italy, which was the European country that was hit first and hardest, didn't institute lockdowns until February 21st, and a countrywide quarantine until March 9th. In France lockdowns were first put in place on March 13th. Finland declared a state of emergency on March 16th. And so on and so forth.
So no, I don't think that if China had announced the discovery of the virus to the world one week earlier, it would have made any difference. It's not like any country engaged in any sort of counter-measures immediately when they did announce it, on the second week of January.
This is all just barking up the wrong tree.
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