The reporter, Chen Qiushi, describes his observations in Wuhan, a city of more than 10 million.
His preamble:
"My name has been flagged in China."
"If the content contains 'Chenqiushi' or 'CQS', or my face, it will not be sent on Wechat. ... if you [share on wechat], your wechat account will be deleted, like mine.""
He describes visits he made to hospitals in Wuhan and the general state in the city.
It is well worth listening to / reading.
Some points that stuck with me:
People cannot get to hospital because there is a critical lack of transportation.
There is a critical lack of test kits, so residents do not believe they will be diagnosed, so they stay home.
The original (not translated) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXozpbomAns
(thanks Roritharr)
How far does the censoring actually go?
That said you aren't going to be blacklisted for a single comment on HN. That sounds like the kind of thing the US would do.
If you don't want to read subtitles for 26 minutes here's all the subtitles copy-pasted from the video: https://pastebin.com/6hJ4h4rm
(You can hit the "..." above the red subscribe button and select "open transcript", but it shows up in a tiny window).
I suppose the WHO saying they're very impressed with how China is handling the situation is because they felt the pressure to save China's face.
Reading through it made it clear that:
1 - Wuhan's health care system is overwhelmed
2 - There's not enough transportation, test kits, masks, and hospital beds, or volunteers
3 - Many sick people are not even bothering to go to the hospital
4 - There's poor communication and rumors flying around
5 - People are frightened, panicking, and suspecting the worst
This tells me that:
A - there are likely way more people infected than there are confirmed cases, but possibly more deaths too of those who never made it in to hospitals
B - Many wouldn't have died had they had more adequate health care, better transportation and more test kits
So, for the rest of us who are sitting on our hands now, glued to social media or the television waiting to see how this will unfold, our time would be much more productively spent planning for when the outbreak hits our local area.
Volunteer. Get connected with volunteer organizations. Donate. See what you can do to ensure there's adequate transportation, communication and resources when the outbreak hits your area.
One thing I'm really curious about that I haven't heard covered yet is if people who get sick and recover become immune. If so, they should feel safe in volunteering to come in contact with the sick and help them directly after they've recovered themselves.
Cooperation, preparation, organization, and mutual aid are crucial.
Yes the WHO are playing politics when they focus on the good things China is doing and ignore the bad. But personally I think they are closer to the truth than those who present an entirely negative version of events. China's response has been 70% good :)
Not really, they jailed the experts who told them that they needed to act quickly, sat on it for a month, and finally did something about it when it was already out of hand.
If you don't mind me asking, where did you see that info?
I watched the CDC press conference today and saw nothing but fear written on their faces. And that is with far more advanced notice than the Chinese had.
[1] http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/fulltext/pellegrino/Pellegri...
Any numbers we've seen so far seem very tame to me, compared to the pictures out of Wuhan.