So what really happened with COVID-19 in China?

The wrong questions are being asked in regards to China. Where and when did the COVID-19 breakout occur. Wuhan is not some small village, but the 7th largest city in China. They have an international airport to cities across the globe, including major cities in China, like Beijing. Without independent testing in every major city in China, it is impossible to know where it began, let alone when. COVID-19, much like COVID-2, does not stand out and can go easily missed for years. BobRyan

F/N: Smoking gun? From the article: >>A recent Washington Post article on the Wuhan Institute of Virology shows that the laboratory was dinged by the U.S. Embassy in 2018 for poor management and shoddy practices: What the U.S. officials learned during their visits concerned them so much that they dispatched two diplomatic cables categorized as Sensitive But Unclassified back to Washington. The cables warned about safety and management weaknesses at the WIV lab and proposed more attention and help. The first cable, which I obtained, also warns that the lab’s work on bat coronaviruses and their potential human transmission represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic. Josh Rogin, “State Department cables warned of safety issues at Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses” at Washington Post (April 14, 2020) So the cables indicate that the Wuhan lab was in fact doing virus research, probably intended to prevent another SARS outbreak, but also that it was poorly managed and lacked appropriate personnel for a lab with its high-level designation (BSL-4). Agence France Presse had reported very little activity inside the lab and a sign on the door that read, “Strong Prevention and Control, Don’t Panic, Listen to Official Announcements, Believe in Science, Don’t Spread Rumors.” A statement issued by the lab in February claimed, however, that the story was a rumor. ( Medical Xpress, AFP, April 17, 2020)>> There is more: >>As a member of the World Health Organization, China had signed the 2005 International Health Regulations document, which requires members to notify the WHO within 24 hours of assessment of anything that would constitute a “public health emergency of international concern.” The documents acquired by Associated Press indicate that China knowingly violated the terms of this document. The Washington, DC, non-profit Victims of Communism report on the coronavirus timeline shows that, even though the Chinese government (as well as the WHO) maintained that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission until January 20, for a week prior to that, China was amassing large amounts of medical supplies from other countries, with a focus on personal protective equipment. This chain of events implies that China knew that the virus was contagious and was violating the IHR in order to procure equipment from other countries. The Lancet study on the first patients hospitalized in Wuhan for Covid-19 also indicated that medical professionals knew about human-to-human transmission as early as December, with forty-one patients admitted to the same hospital by January 2, 2020, with symptoms that resembled SARS-CoV.>> Sad, and a grim warning. KF PS: See a case in point why first duties of reason are inescapable, starting with truth, right reason, prudence, sound conscience, neighbour, fairness, justice etc? kairosfocus

D, this means we have to be extra careful in evaluating China-connected information. It also colours how we should understand early responses as until things were going on in less censored, less Orwellian settings, we could not trust information. This also goes to the destructive implications of lying becoming dominant in a situation: existentially vital communication is fatally compromised. KF kairosfocus