Re:Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus...
by tremon on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @08:46AM
(#22422796)
They should have done something - but then again, what?
Well, arresting the doctors that were comparing cases in a group chat seems like a good start.
/s
Re:Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus...
by toyg on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @10:15AM
(#22423626)
That's actually the critical difference. Incompetence and carelessness are normal - public administration and epidemiological control are difficult activities in any country - but active repression of medical personnel is not.
I do agree that China and especially Wuhan could have acted faster - perhaps by 2 weeks though not month and a half. 1st December there was a case of pneumonia admitted to a hospital - that happens probably more than millions times a year. After 3 days it was clear that it's a viral pneumonia. That's more severe but still not uncommon. Only by the middle of the month it became clear to doctors that there are more and more such cases - but still spread through different hospitals of the 11 million Wuhan.
Obviously it takes time for this information to get to the bureaucrats. They should have done something - but then again, what? There are perhaps ~50 cases of viral pneumonia in a city the size of small country during an influenza season. If China hasn't gone through SARS it would take months to act on this information.