China, the enemy of the entire world

Ah, I see the downvote abuse and bullying of conservatives and anti-Marxists here hasn't changed one bit in my absence.

"That's why they call me Slim Shady, I'm back, I'm back"

China waited 6 days to issue warning about likely coronavirus pandemic

The Communist Chinese government delayed for six days before warning its citizens that the coronavirus outbreak in the city of Wuhan had likely become a pandemic, allowing thousands of people to become infected, according to a report on Wednesday.

President Xi Jinping warned the public on Jan. 20 – nearly a week after Chinese officials had privately determined on Jan. 14 that the virus had evolved into a pandemic, the Associated Press reported, citing expert estimates based on infection data.

During those crucial days, more than 3,000 people came down with the coronavirus, as tens of thousands of people attended a mass banquet in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, and millions of Chinese began traveling for Lunar New Year celebrations.

The first case of coronavirus in Wuhan was officially reported on Dec. 31.

The coronavirus outbreak has since surged around the world, infecting more than 2 million people and causing more than 127,000 deaths.

“This is tremendous,” Zuo-Feng Zhang, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the AP. “If they took action six days earlier, there would have been much fewer patients and medical facilities would have been sufficient. We might have avoided the collapse of Wuhan’s medical system.”

That nearly weeklong delay came after China’s version of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for two weeks didn’t register any cases from local officials.

Yet, during that period from Jan. 5 to Jan. 17, hundreds of people were showing up at hospitals in Wuhan and across the country.

The report said it’s unclear whether local officials failed to report the cases or whether government officials didn’t record them. According to other reports, US spy agencies “have concluded that the Chinese government itself does not know the extent of the virus and is as blind as the rest of the world … Midlevel bureaucrats in the city of Wuhan … and elsewhere in China have been lying about infection rates, testing and death counts, fearful that if they report numbers that are too high they will be punished, lose their position or worse.”

But, according to experts interviewed by the AP, it’s clear that Beijing’s bureaucratic hurdles, stranglehold on information, lack of transparency and reluctance to deliver bad news up the chain of command stifled early warnings.

The report noted that eight doctors were punished for “rumor-mongering” — an announcement broadcast on national television on Jan. 2.

“Doctors in Wuhan were afraid,” said Dali Yang, a professor of Chinese politics at the University of Chicago. “It was truly intimidation of an entire profession.”

China denied a “cover-up” or “lack of transparency,” according to the AP report, quoting foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian calling the allegations “groundless” last week.

The Chinese Communist Party didn’t fully respond to the possible pandemic and launch a national plan until the first case was reported outside China on Jan. 13 in Thailand.

It then began distributing testing kits, eased the criteria for confirming cases and ordered more screenings for patients — all without notifying the public.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/15/china-waited-6-days-to-warn-about-likely-coronavirus-pandemic/

China’s Export Restrictions Reportedly Delaying Medical Supply Shipments To U.S.

New restrictions on China’s exports that were designed for quality control are instead delaying medical supply shipments to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, as the U.S. fights to control the world’s largest coronavirus outbreak and healthcare workers face shortages of the supplies.

Face masks and coronavirus tests are among the goods being held up, the WSJ reported, citing an obtained U.S. State Department memo and businesses.

Among the companies impacted: 3M, Cellex, Inc., Emory Healthcare, General Electric, Owens & Minor Inc. and PerkinElmer, Inc., according to the WSJ.

China’s new export restrictions were implemented in April, and require goods to be certified by the country’s National Medical Products Administration as a stamp of quality control, and requires some products, such as masks, to be checked multiple times.

Some companies were able to get products shipped following negotiations with the Chinese government, while others remain in limbo, the WSJ reported.

General Electric circuit boards designed for ventilators were delayed for five days due to confusion over the new export rules, the WSJ reported, and if they had not shipped, would have held up its Wisconsin production line.

China’s Washington, D.C. embassy told the WSJ that worldwide demand for supplies has caused “a big challenge for China’s efforts of quality control and regulation of export.”

BIG NUMBER
43%. That’s how much of the world’s imports of medical supplies were made by China in 2018, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

CRUCIAL QUOTE
“Every single day we don’t have the proper protective equipment is a new healthcare worker exposed, is a new hole in the ship that is our current hospital system and ICU bed structure,” Illinois Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell, who is leading procurement for the state, told the WSJ.

KEY BACKGROUND
As coronavirus spread across the U.S. this spring, shortages of masks and other medical supplies forced hospitals and state governments to compete with each other in obtaining them, while begging the Trump administration to intervene with help. China ramped up manufacturing of medical goods and equipment in response. The country’s new rules for exports were put into place after European countries complained about the quality of the products they received, the WSJ reported. Despite the demand for masks, gloves, gowns and other medical goods, exports from China to the U.S. declined nearly 24% in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to the Associated Press.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/04/16/chinas-export-restrictions-reportedly-delaying-medical-supply-shipments-to-us/#1b9492911ba4

US explores possibility that coronavirus started in Chinese lab, not a market

US intelligence and national security officials say the United States government is looking into the possibility that the novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory rather than a market, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter who caution it is premature to draw any conclusions.

The theory is one of multiple being pursued by investigators as they attempt to determine the origin of the coronavirus that has resulted in a pandemic and killed hundreds of thousands. The US does not believe the virus was associated with bioweapons research, and officials noted that the intelligence community is also exploring a range of other theories regarding the origination of the virus, as would typically be the case for high-profile incidents, according to an intelligence source.


The theory has been pushed by supporters of the President, including some congressional Republicans, who are eager to deflect criticisms of Trump's handling of the pandemic.


An intelligence official familiar with the government analysis said a theory US intelligence officials are investigating is that the virus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and was accidentally released to the public. Other sources told CNN that US intelligence hasn't been able to corroborate the theory but is trying to discern whether someone was infected in the lab through an accident or poor handling of materials and may have then infected others.


US intelligence is reviewing sensitive intelligence collection aimed at the Chinese government, according to the intelligence source, as they pursue the theory. But some intelligence officials say it is possible the actual cause may never be known.


Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Mark Milley acknowledged this week that US intelligence is taking "a hard look" at the question of whether the novel coronavirus originated in a lab.


"I would just say, at this point, it's inconclusive although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural (origin). But we don't know for certain," Milley told reporters on Tuesday.


Asked about the intelligence, which was first reported by Yahoo and Fox News, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US is "doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation that happened" but refused to discuss what he had been told about the findings.
The lab theory has been denied by the Chinese government and many outside experts have also cast doubt on the idea, CNN has previously reported.


"China's position has been clear on the origin and transmission routes of the novel coronavirus," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Thursday. "The head of the World Health Organization has repeatedly stated that there hasn't been any evidence pointing to the virus being lab-created. Many renowned medical experts around the world have also described theories such as 'lab leaks' as lacking any scientific proof."


A source close to the White House coronavirus task force also cautioned that "every time there is an outbreak someone proposes that the virus or other pathogen came out of a lab."


One official called the way China has handled dealing with the virus "completely reprehensible" -- and intelligence investigators are determined to build a fuller picture of how it originated.


The Washington Post has reported on State Department cables from 2018 demonstrating concerns about the safety and the management of the Wuhan Institute of Virology biolab. When asked about those cables, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- who has continued to call the coronavirus the "Wuhan virus" -- did not dismiss them, but neither did he say that they show any legitimate linkage to Covid-19.


"The Chinese Communist Party didn't give Americans access when we needed it in that most timely point at the very beginning," Pompeo said earlier this week. "Then we know they have this lab. We know about the wet (fresh food) markets. We know that the virus itself did originate in Wuhan. So all those things come together. There's still a lot we don't know, and this is what the President was talking about today. We need to know answers to these things."


Some of the officials said the US intends for China to pay a price, but recognize the US has to be careful not to inflict a cost on China before the pandemic is under control and until they have more information about its creation.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/politics/us-intelligence-virus-started-chinese-lab/index.html