Taiwan said they thought there was a high risk of it, not that it definitely was.
On the cover up, the genome was shared the day the first patient died. That’s not exactly indicative of a cover up nor is it that long into a lifecycle of a new virus. As soon as China did confirm H2H transmission they went into lockdown three days later, far earlier in their cycle than a lot of subsequent countries have done.
They absolutely could have been more transparent at the beginning (although hindsight is a wonderful thing to an extent with that) and the shunning of Taiwan in general, although a separate point, is always a depressing story.
The reason you’ll get some defending China to an extent though is a pushback against the narrative being set in some western countries (ourselves and the States in particular) to pin even more blame on them to distract from their own failings and to also sow the first seeds in the next battle, which will be the economic one to come after this.
China aren’t accountable for the guidance that the WHO sets. It was them that said to continue with international travel post China’s lockdown and took so long to call a pandemic, both of which caused far more damage than how long it took for the confirmation of H2H transmission. It was some of the western governments that dragged their heels to react whilst not just Taiwan but South Korea and Singapore in particular got their act together.
Ultimately though, right now none of that matters. How we get through this and how we recover from it is down to ourselves as a society and our own government. So far they’ve done some things badly (only sorting out the testing of front line workers late last week as a prime example) and some things very well. The blame game right now means nothing apart from dealing with the pr sent as that’s all that matters, the full post mortem needs to come a long way down the line yet.
First of all I’m inside all day every day, who I post about on here makes zero difference in the outside world and the response to this disease. All we’re doing is chatting about it. So playing the blame game or not makes little difference. I’d hope we’re all obeying the advice and rules and that’s all we can do.
The pushback is purely down to an anti-western, pro-east approach some of the modern left has nailed its flag to. The same poster I’m arguing with who’s refusing to even acknowledge any wrong doing of the country in which this spread from, is running up records for anti-UK government posts.
Back to the actual topic. Taiwan obviously knew it was transmissible of H2H as they stopped travel from China and considering their location, they’ve had the greatest response to this out of everyone.
They knew very early the dangers and yet it escaped the Chinese Government and WHO? Not a chance mate, not a chance.
Japan are arguing the WHO and China are allies and involved together. I’m absolutely certain China lied, I’m reasonably confident the WHO protected them.
China did enforce a lockdown after the first published death, again I’m not having their figures, but this was already far too late and was spread to thousands of people. They enforced the lockdown when they had no choice as they’d lost control.
It’s important to tell the truth with your figures and nobody, not even their own poor citizens, believe a word they’re saying. Other countries may have thought they’d beat it and have copied their strategy, that’s how important it is.
The UK government does deserve criticism, the PPE, testing and the fact people were walking through our airports without any further regulations was a disgrace.
But they’re not even half as culpable as China is.