China PCR test orders soared before first confirmed Covid case

asia.nikkei.com

68 points·nradov··4 comments

I have wondered how likely it is for a government like CCP to go ahead and complain to WHO so soon after detecting the virus.

It took them 3 months (!) with the original, presumably deadlier, SARS[0]. Did things change for the better during those almost 20 years, or were they indeed aware & intending to hold off for as long as possible until Taiwan shooting an email to WHO on December 31st forced their hand?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002–2004_SARS_outbreak#Novemb...

Taiwan emailed the WHO in response to an official announcement from Chinese authorities that there was an outbreak of viral pneumonia in Wuhan. It was even on the evening news on CCTV.[1,2,3]

> Did things change for the better during those almost 20 years

What changed is that the top health officials in China nowadays all lived through the original SARS outbreak. Zhong Nanshan, for example, caught the original SARS back in 2003 and then spoke out about it.

1. http://tv.cctv.com/2019/12/31/VIDE9N8qRty36PkLirFVxMW6191231...

2. https://www.france24.com/en/20191231-china-probes-pneumonia-...

3. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-pneumonia-id...

Multiple dupes of this (from different sources) oldest and most commented discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28751538

Now let’s not try to imagine the skeletons in the closets, when it comes to the Chinese economy.

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