Rico
Senior Member.
It's been several years since I've visited metabunk. Back then, I used to comment a lot on the Chemtrail conspiracy theory. Since then, I moved my aviation career over to Asia, and began experiencing the eastern perspective on a lot of things--on culture, and on the media. I've also become a communist (just kidding). However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, there seems to be a lot of media narratives that exist online, some of which are blatantly conspiracy theories, and others not so much. One of the things that have come out of these narratives has resulted in a lot more critique of China, and also a lot of racism against Asians across the globe.
Now, why am I bringing this up? Because there is currently a narrative that is pretty mainstream, and it seems to be the crux at which this critique of China is born. People online often cite this as the reason why China should be blamed for the COVID-19 pandemic. Before I get started, I must confess that I don't know the full story of anything. What I wanted to do was to post this, to hear what rational debunkers have to think with my own take on this. I am welcome to anyone pointing out problems with the information I am about to provide, and to see if there are any further insights.
Some doctors in China, notably by the names of Dr. Li Wenliang, and Dr. Ai Fen, are widely hailed by the media as the whistleblowers of COVID-19. On wikipedia, Dr. Li Wenliang is known for "Discovering COVID-19", and Dr. Ai Fen was given the nickname "The Whistlegiver," for issuing a medical report that Dr. Li acted upon. Had China not suppressed their voices, and reprimanded them, then perhaps the outcome of the pandemic would have been different. But is this really the case?
Working backwards from the timeline, we know that by December 31st, the WHO had already been notified of a possible new coronavirus associated with the seafood market in Wuhan at the China County Office. By January 1st, the market was shutdown (source: https://www.who.int/csr/don/12-january-2020-novel-coronavirus-china/en/).
Dr. Li Wenliang (an Ophthalmologist), on December 30, 2019, saw a patient's report from Dr. Ai Fen, director of the emergency department at Wuhan Central hospital, after she had seen some patients with flu-like symptoms whom did not respond to conventional treatment. Dr. Li, subsequently wrote in a private chat group to a number of classmates, about this report (telling them that there are confirmed reports, and for friends and family to take caution. He did not intend the message to spread. However, this message began spreading and practically became viral. On January 1st, Wuhan police summoned eight "rumormongers", and by January 3rd, Dr Li was issued a warning letter as his reprimand. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Wenliang#Whistleblower_in_2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic). Dr. Li subsequently died of the virus on January 7th, and became a whistleblower ever since.
Now, the timeline here is very interesting, considering that literally a day after Dr. Li received the report from Dr. Ai, the WHO was already notified. Surely, there must have been something else going on in the background. Was Dr. Li the first person to have let information about the virus release, or was there someone else? Meet Dr. Zhang Jixian, a figure that I find is almost never talked about in the media outside of China. Officially, in China, she was the first doctor to sound the alarm. On December 26, she encountered an elderly woman who had symptoms. On December 27th, which is the day she sounded the alarm, the woman's husband and her son were also tested (source: Source: https://youtu.be/IQH4zHX0_aA
).
Dr. Zhang Jixian appears to be important here, because if she was the first person to report report the virus, which subsequently led to the WHO being notified, then there are two important implications: 1) The western mainstream media is wrong that Dr. Li discovered the virus, and the timeline of China's response would not have have changed anyways; 2) It might provide insight as to why Dr. Li, and a number of "rumormongers" were issued reprimands. Additionally, it sheds further insight to the western narrative that this was any large scale coverup.
Regarding point 1, I don't know how much more I can say about this. The Chinese government likely made some mistakes, but nonetheless, appeared to have reported the virus to the right authority (WHO) regardless of Dr. Li's involvement. The response appears to be quick, in only 4 days.
Regarding point 2, because there is likely an investigation going on behind the scenes, it seems plausible that the local government (or indeed higher) would not like information to be leaked. Doing so could cause potential panic, which could lead to potential spread. I do not have a source for this, but this logic sounds reasonable to me.
As a side note, we know that there were patients sick with the coronavirus by December 1, 2019, or as early as November 17, 2019. By December 12, Chinese state broadcaster noted that a "new viral outbreak was first detected in the city of Wuhan". It wasn't until December 18, that Dr. Ai Fen herself, first came into contact with a patient showing "multiple patchy blurry shadows scattered in the lungs" (likely suffering from ARDS due to the infection) on December 18, 2019). It was around this time that viral genome sequencing began. From all this information, it appears that the Chinese did not know what they were dealing with until December 12 at the earliest, with an investigation beginning about a week soon after. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic_from_November_2019_to_January_2020).
So again, why is this all important? Because everywhere on the news, I'm seeing the media saying that the Chinese attempted to cover this up and that this coverup would have changed the course of this pandemic. "China lied and people died" is what is often spread on social media. But did they lie, did they take unreasonable action, or were their actions actually kind of logical? While the response to this virus in January could be up to debate, what I can gather is that their response during the month of December does not appear unreasonable. Dr. Li, and indeed Dr. Ai Fen would not have changed the timeline of events. Using Dr. Li as a "whistleblower" also does not seem to carry much merit, since he only reported Ai Fen's information in a private group, and it was only the information that leaked out that became so prominent in western mainstream media.
Now, to the debunkers of this forum: Is anything of what I said here bunk or is there indeed some issues with the current media narrative calling this a Chinese coverup? Even rationalwiki seems to echo this coverup narrative. I am welcome to any input and thoughts. I've never been so critical of the media in the past as I have now, so I need to check and see if I am going crazy here. Thanks in advance.
(On a completely other note, the media also reports that Dr. Ai Fen went missing on April 1, 2020, and the media went crazy saying that she got "disappeared". Some Chinese people on reddit discovered that she was still posting on social media (https://i.redd.it/kn6s4vrs9aq41.png), and she spoke at a conference on April 2 (https://i.redd.it/kn6s4vrs9aq41.png)
Now, why am I bringing this up? Because there is currently a narrative that is pretty mainstream, and it seems to be the crux at which this critique of China is born. People online often cite this as the reason why China should be blamed for the COVID-19 pandemic. Before I get started, I must confess that I don't know the full story of anything. What I wanted to do was to post this, to hear what rational debunkers have to think with my own take on this. I am welcome to anyone pointing out problems with the information I am about to provide, and to see if there are any further insights.
Some doctors in China, notably by the names of Dr. Li Wenliang, and Dr. Ai Fen, are widely hailed by the media as the whistleblowers of COVID-19. On wikipedia, Dr. Li Wenliang is known for "Discovering COVID-19", and Dr. Ai Fen was given the nickname "The Whistlegiver," for issuing a medical report that Dr. Li acted upon. Had China not suppressed their voices, and reprimanded them, then perhaps the outcome of the pandemic would have been different. But is this really the case?
Working backwards from the timeline, we know that by December 31st, the WHO had already been notified of a possible new coronavirus associated with the seafood market in Wuhan at the China County Office. By January 1st, the market was shutdown (source: https://www.who.int/csr/don/12-january-2020-novel-coronavirus-china/en/).
Dr. Li Wenliang (an Ophthalmologist), on December 30, 2019, saw a patient's report from Dr. Ai Fen, director of the emergency department at Wuhan Central hospital, after she had seen some patients with flu-like symptoms whom did not respond to conventional treatment. Dr. Li, subsequently wrote in a private chat group to a number of classmates, about this report (telling them that there are confirmed reports, and for friends and family to take caution. He did not intend the message to spread. However, this message began spreading and practically became viral. On January 1st, Wuhan police summoned eight "rumormongers", and by January 3rd, Dr Li was issued a warning letter as his reprimand. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Wenliang#Whistleblower_in_2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic). Dr. Li subsequently died of the virus on January 7th, and became a whistleblower ever since.
Now, the timeline here is very interesting, considering that literally a day after Dr. Li received the report from Dr. Ai, the WHO was already notified. Surely, there must have been something else going on in the background. Was Dr. Li the first person to have let information about the virus release, or was there someone else? Meet Dr. Zhang Jixian, a figure that I find is almost never talked about in the media outside of China. Officially, in China, she was the first doctor to sound the alarm. On December 26, she encountered an elderly woman who had symptoms. On December 27th, which is the day she sounded the alarm, the woman's husband and her son were also tested (source: Source: https://youtu.be/IQH4zHX0_aA
).
Dr. Zhang Jixian appears to be important here, because if she was the first person to report report the virus, which subsequently led to the WHO being notified, then there are two important implications: 1) The western mainstream media is wrong that Dr. Li discovered the virus, and the timeline of China's response would not have have changed anyways; 2) It might provide insight as to why Dr. Li, and a number of "rumormongers" were issued reprimands. Additionally, it sheds further insight to the western narrative that this was any large scale coverup.
Regarding point 1, I don't know how much more I can say about this. The Chinese government likely made some mistakes, but nonetheless, appeared to have reported the virus to the right authority (WHO) regardless of Dr. Li's involvement. The response appears to be quick, in only 4 days.
Regarding point 2, because there is likely an investigation going on behind the scenes, it seems plausible that the local government (or indeed higher) would not like information to be leaked. Doing so could cause potential panic, which could lead to potential spread. I do not have a source for this, but this logic sounds reasonable to me.
As a side note, we know that there were patients sick with the coronavirus by December 1, 2019, or as early as November 17, 2019. By December 12, Chinese state broadcaster noted that a "new viral outbreak was first detected in the city of Wuhan". It wasn't until December 18, that Dr. Ai Fen herself, first came into contact with a patient showing "multiple patchy blurry shadows scattered in the lungs" (likely suffering from ARDS due to the infection) on December 18, 2019). It was around this time that viral genome sequencing began. From all this information, it appears that the Chinese did not know what they were dealing with until December 12 at the earliest, with an investigation beginning about a week soon after. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic_from_November_2019_to_January_2020).
So again, why is this all important? Because everywhere on the news, I'm seeing the media saying that the Chinese attempted to cover this up and that this coverup would have changed the course of this pandemic. "China lied and people died" is what is often spread on social media. But did they lie, did they take unreasonable action, or were their actions actually kind of logical? While the response to this virus in January could be up to debate, what I can gather is that their response during the month of December does not appear unreasonable. Dr. Li, and indeed Dr. Ai Fen would not have changed the timeline of events. Using Dr. Li as a "whistleblower" also does not seem to carry much merit, since he only reported Ai Fen's information in a private group, and it was only the information that leaked out that became so prominent in western mainstream media.
Now, to the debunkers of this forum: Is anything of what I said here bunk or is there indeed some issues with the current media narrative calling this a Chinese coverup? Even rationalwiki seems to echo this coverup narrative. I am welcome to any input and thoughts. I've never been so critical of the media in the past as I have now, so I need to check and see if I am going crazy here. Thanks in advance.
(On a completely other note, the media also reports that Dr. Ai Fen went missing on April 1, 2020, and the media went crazy saying that she got "disappeared". Some Chinese people on reddit discovered that she was still posting on social media (https://i.redd.it/kn6s4vrs9aq41.png), and she spoke at a conference on April 2 (https://i.redd.it/kn6s4vrs9aq41.png)
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