Ian Inkster: don't forget China suppressed news of very early cases, going back to at least October 2019. This despite the fact that China's own CDC required that novel pathogens had to be reported promptly. Had the government done this, the pandemic might have been stopped in its tracks. (Sadly we shall never know. And China continues to block research into the early-days spread of the virus).I have followed the pandemic closely and I do *not* agree that we should emulate the way China has handled it. Also don't forget China's Zero Covid policy was partly forced in it because of their relatively undeveloped health care system, and relative lack of Intensive-care beds.
ADDED: Funny how Inkster’s paean of praise to authoritarian virus suppression comes just as (1) cases in China are shooting up (as everyone outside China predicted), (2) just as Chinese folks are demonstrating, across the country, against the Covid lockdowns that Inkster praises, and (3) just as China is having to relax the lockdowns because of the public push back. Odd timing.
