Hacker News Reader

Comment by abhisuri97 | Hacker News Reader

This is (imo) the right course of action to (at minimum) alert countries wrt the gravity of this outbreak; however, I was disappointed to see the tiptoeing around potentially offending China. From the press conference, it seemed that Dr. Tedros made it painfully (maybe even unnecessarily) clear that this action wasn't faulting China for their handling of this situation. It's just weird to see that global politics is creeping into these public health decisions.

View on HN

It's not just politics. This is matter of trying to placate China so that they don't hide numbers from international/outside health organizations to save face.

My understanding is that China was less than forthcoming about actual infection/death rates when SARS was making it's rounds.

Disclaimer: I do not have a source for this. This is heresay from the hubub around the current crisis so take it with a grain of salt.

“Save face”. Unfortunately there is a LOT to unpack in that statement, and will continue to be a difficult problem throughout the coming century.

That wasn't necessarily meant to be derogatory. And you are right, there is indeed a lot to unpack. My wording there might be a bit too glib.

I was surprised by an NPR blurb yesterday talking about how China may have to put off its annual Communist party planning meeting, and how that would be an embarrassing concession by the Chinese.

I was so disappointed in them. How should it be embarrassing to take a deadly and contagious pneumonia outbreak seriously? Do you want them to feel they should hide it?

(You being NPR). I know you don't mean anything bad by it.

I think you’re reading that incorrectly. NPR is likely not saying they should be embarrassed, they’re saying they would be embarrassed. That’s just a fact.

Unfortunately global politics has always crept into global public health decisions. There's no avoiding it.

Seeing current situation, what positive things that can be gained from faulting China?

Imo it may cause china to become hostile and turn off cooperation.

Or they are just concentrating on stopping the diseas and don't really care about the politics. If sucking up to China will help then why not? Less serious people (like Trump) can bluster about after lives have been saved.

Health care is rife with problems of shame, and how it prevents people from getting treatment, from STDs to drug dependency to psychological conditions.

The WHO is simply simply scaling up some tactics used in routine care to the nation-state level. Which, incidentally, is pretty close to their original charter.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com