Wuhan at New Year's Eve

[AKissAndASmile]

Has anyone seen the pictures of NYE celebration s in Wuhan?

I've screenshot because the only places that seem to be running this story are The Sun and the Daily Mail

OMG, how have we managed to get it so wrong while the place this virus originated from is back to normal?

And it’s China’s failure. Let’s not lose sight of that—they used the WHO to downplay the whole thing

If so that is so bad.

There’s plenty of information out there about China pressuring the WHO to downplay the virus:

The report published over the weekend said Xi urged the WHO chief to “delay a global warning” about the pandemic and hold back information on human-to-human transmission of the virus

The BND estimated that China’s action to conceal information resulted in a loss of four to six weeks in the fight against COVID-19

Here’s the source: www.nypost.com/2020/05/10/china-pressured-who-to-delay-global-coronavirus-warning

It’s not just the WHO either, they’ve been pressuring the EU as well:

www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/world/europe/disinformation-china-eu-coronavirus.amp.html

No doubt part of their propaganda efforts are targeted to get media outlets to blame their own governments instead of China.

I used to work for a Chinese news outlet in the Mainland so am well familiar with how this is done.

It’s a shame they never really learned from SARS and instead chose to hide, delay and obfuscate

We are an island, like New Zealand we could have closed our borders and stayed safe a long time ago. After our government knew about the virus they let 21 million people on flights move about freely seeding it all over the UK.
During the flu pandemic of 1918 -20 Australia closed its borders even back then and was barely affected.
If China is to be distrusted as much as everyone says our government could have shown caution and shut borders as a temporary measure but instead they played it down.
By Feb March it was rife it must have been huge numbers already affected if the deaths in April had a time lag from March. Still they played it down.
Its a bit ' Donald Trump' to blame China and huge resentments building is what starts wars such as in 1939 so do we really want a pandemic a period of roaring 20's then a world war?
Its all been shit but our government have been utterly useless and like the USA will have to answer a lot of questions in years to come.

@AKissAndASmile

Yeah well, we've had a shit year here and 2021 is set to be at least the same, probably worse with the NHS being overwhelmed.

And anyway lots of other countries didn't do the barricading thing and they're pretty much back to normal. Just admit it, our county is run by morons

Go live in China if it seems so great. And if the government pisses you off do let us know how it goes when you criticise them publicly.....

@happystone

Our government got it wrong.anyone whith common sense would not have done what ours have.

So how should we have done it then????

@MangoFeverDream

There’s plenty of information out there about China pressuring the WHO to downplay the virus:

The report published over the weekend said Xi urged the WHO chief to “delay a global warning” about the pandemic and hold back information on human-to-human transmission of the virus

The BND estimated that China’s action to conceal information resulted in a loss of four to six weeks in the fight against COVID-19

Here’s the source: www.nypost.com/2020/05/10/china-pressured-who-to-delay-global-coronavirus-warning

It’s not just the WHO either, they’ve been pressuring the EU as well:

www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/world/europe/disinformation-china-eu-coronavirus.amp.html

No doubt part of their propaganda efforts are targeted to get media outlets to blame their own governments instead of China.

I used to work for a Chinese news outlet in the Mainland so am well familiar with how this is done.

It’s a shame they never really learned from SARS and instead chose to hide, delay and obfuscate

It is a shame I agree

Even if as pp said we shouldn’t have trusted China there is no doubt the WHO was highly trusted by all (or nearly all). In the first stages they took centre stage.

One thing I question is that Nabarro said it was reasonable for countries to react to new variant recently. This appears different to initial guidance on keeping borders open from and the same organisation.

We are an island, like New Zealand we could have closed our borders and stayed safe a long time ago

WHO was under pressure from China not to recommend border closures. You can read about this is any reputable outlet.

The USA actually did take some initiative and ban flights from China, going against the WHO.

Do you actually think the UK would have had the backbone to go against WHO recommendations?

After our government knew about the virus they let 21 million people on flights move about freely seeding it all over the UK

Information about the coronavirus was very uncertain in the early days (again, you can thank China for that one) and many reputable news outlets compared it to a mild flu. By the time we knew what we were dealing with, it was everywhere.

During the flu pandemic of 1918 -20 Australia closed its borders even back then and was barely affected

What an isolated land mass of barely 20 million people do is really irrelevant.

If China is to be distrusted as much as everyone says our government could have shown caution and shut borders as a temporary measure but instead they played it down

Even if you didn’t trust China (as Taiwan clearly didn’t, they shut the borders to China very early on), people trusted the WHO. You are supposed to trust the experts, are you not?

By Feb March it was rife it must have been huge numbers already affected if the deaths in April had a time lag from March. Still they played it down

Yes, the WHO did play it down, under pressure from China.

Its a bit ' Donald Trump' to blame China and huge resentments building is what starts wars such as in 1939 so do we really want a pandemic a period of roaring 20's then a world war?

It doesn’t have to come to war, but China needs to be held accountable. This is their second global outbreak in less than 20 years. They clearly learned nothing from SARS and they’ll learn nothing again as long as people look the other way and victim-blame other countries.

Its all been shit but our government have been utterly useless and like the USA will have to answer a lot of questions in years to come

China is the one with lots of answering to do. And sadly they’ll never come clean

www.google.com/amp/s/www.thestar.co.uk/news/people/isolate-yourself-sheffield-university-issues-urgent-advice-coronavirus-death-toll-passes-130-1378842%3famp

@MangoFeverDream this was from 6th Feb 2020 already in 16 countries by then. The fact it was bad was already well in the media by then...

However they managed it well done we will never get out of this if our government keep differing. We need a harsh lockdown, it will be hell but will serve us well in the end. Fed up with coming in and out of lockdown when it clearly was to blasé to work. Shut everything except places that sell proper groceries and everything else click & collect. Too many people treating B&M and Homebargains for example as a day out with their entire family ie mum/dad & kids. We could one day be be like new zealand and wuhan but we need to batten down the hatches for some time to make this happen unfortunately.

And the experts told us travel bans were unnecessary. Here is a release from the WHO at the END of February:

WHO continues to advise against the application of travel or trade restrictions to countries experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks.

In general, evidence shows that restricting the movement of people and goods during public health emergencies is ineffective in most situations and may divert resources from other interventions. Furthermore, restrictions may interrupt needed aid and technical support, may disrupt businesses, and may have negative social and economic effects on the affected countries

www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/updated-who-recommendations-for-international-traffic-in-relation-to-covid-19-outbreak

Do you really think it would have been possible for the UK to go against WHO advice at that time?

We are an island, like New Zealand we could have closed our borders and stayed safe a long time ago

The Auz / NZ comparison does my head in. Just look at the thousands of trucks that are lined up at Dover to understand why we cannot close bordered.

To answer what we should have done:
Test - we didn’t, we told people with symptoms to stay at home
Trace - too little, too late
Isolate- too late, the govt allowed events such as crufts and Cheltenham racing to go ahead when it was clear we were facing a huge crisis. We also allowed entry to the country with no quarantine. Those countries which have been successful have quarantine measures in place: Thailand, Australia, HK, China, Taiwan

@ShanghaiDiva exactly! They are still letting people go skiing even now!
Maybe time to start investigating funded orgs such as WHO.
What if in a couple of years a new even more deathly virus appears do we just let everyone move about unchecked?
The reason I put Australias response to 1918 flu pandemic is the even 100 years ago it was clear thats how viruses slow containment. Its not rocket science. But money and economy trumps common sense.
The money the government has spent on furlough/lockdowns/NHS etc could have been easily diverted to allowing essential supplies into UK everything else stopped. Use money to prop up travel/airlines. But the people in uproar would have been wealthy with holidays booked skiing winter in Carribean and god forbid we stop their entitlement to travel/ go horse racing.
If we ever encounter another pandemic we are screwed then

Exactly everything except flights of imports and exports should be banned. Swanning off on holiday cannot be helping

The way that wuhan has seen the new year in is a bit distasteful really. Seeing as how it was a screw up at their end that has caused so much disruption and death across the entire planet. And now they are celebrating like everything is fine while the rest of the world is on it's knees

This but I’d say seeing these image is sickening frankly Chinese government and WHO have blood on their hands- completely mishandled at the start and the consequences in the UK will impact on the most vulnerable for generations.
I say that as someone who has worked in epidemiology for several years- China and WHO need to be investigated and held accountable ASAP

I am just concerned at what being held accountable entails?
The WHO yes a shitpot org like that deserves to be disbanded and replaced but China? North Korea? Do we really want to even go there? Havent we all been through enough??

I am just concerned at what being held accountable entails?

What do you think it means?

Hit the government where it hurts: refuse visas to CCP members and their family, don’t allow government officials to use Western banks (don’t forget a lot of their money is stolen from ordinary Chinese), scupper business deals and block land/home purchases. I don’t want to see China fail but there needs to be consequences for their actions.

FFS they have literal concentration camps full of Muslims and no one seems to care.

The government bashing on your post op isn’t the reason why ‘we got it so wrong’ ... are you aware of what lockdown meant in China? Literally locked in your house. And people did what they were told. Unlike here with the ‘oh can I just do this and I can just do that and oh let’s go to the shops to buy (non essential) clothes, go on holiday, attend a protest’ etc ...

To a pp sayings its racist, how is it? We are critisising the chinese government regime not the chinese people who are just as much victims (more so) of the regime as the rest of the world.