China must have majorly downplayed their figures, right?

[Louise000000]

We are now over 5,000 deaths and China just over 3,000. This isn't even possible is it, how have they managed to cover up their true numbers here?

The Head of the WHO has praised the Chinese for their 'quick' response, but also criticised other countries for their response.
There seems to be a very close relationship between Tedros (WHO head) and the Chinese.
No way can European Countries such as Italy, Spain (and UK, of course), have more deaths than the Chinese.
We know the original doctors in China were criticised for speaking out about the virus - one of whom is now dead himself from the disease.
So, No Way, do I believe their figures.
I am of course, referring to the actual numbers of deaths, not the testing, which will only say if you have it at the time of the test.
There may be some downplaying of the UK figures, as they are recording only those deaths reported to them from hospitals.

To the people saying China carried out a successful lockdown, would you approve of welding people into a confined space for having suspected covid symptoms in London??

Any animosity toward China as regards Covid-19 has been well-earned. If China had done a better, faster job at containment and been honest about the virus from the beginning, maybe it wouldn't have spread as far as it has.

They gave the first doctor to try to report the new illness a very hard time.

I’m not feeling very charitable either right now.

There have also been many more funeral urns delivered to funeral parlours, than recorded deaths

China deaths per million are half that of South Korea, 10x lower than Germany, over 65x lower than France and over 100x lower than Spain and Italy.

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Just a bit of an outlier then!

I never trust figures from China, they have a long history of massaging figures to save face, the 2016 earthquake that they initially denied although at least 250,000 people died, the 2008 earthquake where their reported figures were a lot lower than even the most conservative estimates . I think that attitude still persists .

I don't believe a word coming out of China and they need to be come down on like a tonne of bricks for this. Whether they made it in the lab or spread it by their sickening disgusting evil wet markets they need to be held accountable.

For those defending China’s response; the treatment of the doctor who raised concerns is well known...

Isnt the UK in dispute with China over the tests they sent because theyve turned out to be useless? If that’s what theyve been using then no wonder the ‘positives’ and deaths have been under reported.

I also think most countries are under reporting as they dont want to be accused of failing to cope and held accountable.

I agree with pp who said the WHO are corrupt. They seem to be China’s lapdog.

Most countries have screwed up containing this! We could have all done better.

at the same time if they’d been more transparent couldn’t other countries have been better warned and therefore better prepared for understanding the serious nature of it?

Would other countries have taken any notice though?

Look how they all shilly-shallied when the warming's did come through.

Hubei locked down on January 23rd when they’d had 24 recorded Coronavirus deaths in China, all of them elderly people. Do I believe that China ordered lockdown and risked their entire economy on the basis of 24 dead pensioners? Absolutely not. There were far more at that point, and tens of thousands rather than the few hundred confirmed cases they claim.

If China had done a better, faster job at containment and been honest about the virus from the beginning, maybe it wouldn't have spread as far as it has.

It was on my radar from mid January, and there was extensive news coverage from there on in. And still our government did sweet nothing.

For weeks, the preppers board was advising people for prepare, and being roundly mocked, by just about everyone.

The failure here wasn't China's. It was ours.

For those defending China’s response; the treatment of the doctor who raised concerns is well known...

and the reaction of all the countries when they were 1st warned about the situation was...? You know, MONTHS ago when they first got warnings

Chinese figures are not correct, they have massively downplayed the numbers. Not to mention how they treated the doctors who tried to raise the matter much earlier. If they had allowed that th9ngs might be different b

There are some interesting articles around about the numbers of Chinese mobile phone accounts that are now inactive.

Figures from China are rubbish. They knew of the disease in dec but did nothing but arrest the whistle blower. (Who has now died of Cv). The second whistle blower has mysteriously disappeared. The figures I do believe are from Taiwan. When they heard China had an issue way before the WHO were involved they locked the island down and no banned flights from China. They took massive steps from the beginning. I suggest you watch “China in focus “on YouTube. Some interesting viewing.

"I read the difference between UK and Germany death rates is died 'with' COVID vs died 'from' COVID. Lies, damn lies, and statistics."

Then you read wrongly, @Keepwashingthosehands
Just some of those reasons for the lower German death rate

• Germany's public health authority say anyone dying "with" COVID is counted as dying "of" COVID

• Germany is doing nearly 100,000 per day and has a test total in the millions
  The UK struggles to do 10,000 tests per day

This means the German tests pick up far more cases - currently over 100,000 confirmed -
so the death rate is a % of that much larger number

• Germany monitors confirmed cases closely, so they receive prompt treatment if there is any deterioration.
  This helps reduce deaths

• Germany has 3 x the doctors, ICU beds, hospital beds as the UK
  So patients can be admitted early for maximum treatment, instead of waiting until they become seriously ill, as MNers on the "Burning lungs" threads have reported
  Earlier hospital admission helps reduce deaths

Reading the Time article I wonder if anything bad will happen to Gong Xiaoming who criticises the lack of credibility at the end..

I don't know I think its a tin foil hat thing - let me dig out the news story quote

Wuhan is home to the Institute of Virology, the most advanced laboratory of its type in mainland China. The £30million institute is just ten miles from the wildlife market which is believed to have been at the centre of the outbreak.

So just a coincidence?

BUT China also obsessively and repeatedly tested.

Well, the test they used wasn't accurate for a start. And they didn't test as widely as they'd have you believe.

China didn’t downplay their numbers, they LIED about them. People on here called me a scaremonger for raising this when it first started coming to light in early February. There is no way that country with that type of government would close down for a few thousand deaths. There were countless videos on twitter and other sites showing the true scale of how bad it was. Meanwhile the rest of the world sat and believed Tedros as he commended them on their actions and keeping their numbers so low. Madness. Utter madness.

Now look where we are, our PM is on life support and the country is in lockdown. But it’s just the flu and not that bad. 🙄

Statistics, as I found out in my first academic job after completing postgrad research degree, do indeed exist to prove whatever point you wish to make, regardless of what you are actually taught whilst training as a researcher.

The answer is x, your data regardless of what it is will prove x and if your data collection doesn't prove x then you simply "lose" the proof.

The entire situation, frankly stinks.

I'm not remotely surprised.

China is orderings hundreds of thousands of body bags from Taiwan.

There are some interesting articles around about the numbers of Chinese mobile phone accounts that are now inactive.

Yes. 14.5 million lost in January and February. Which, oddly enough, is roughly 1% of the Chinese population.