In February and March<\/i>, scientists collected samples at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and at a makeshift temporary medical facility used to quarantine and treat patients with mild symptoms. They also sampled the air in public areas around Wuhan, including a residential building, a supermarket and two department stores.<\/p>\n
Very little virus was detected in the air of the isolation wards or in the patient rooms of the hospital, which were well ventilated. But elevated concentrations were measured in the small toilet areas, about one square yard in size, which were not ventilated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hmm. \u201cIn February and March, scientists collected samples . . . .\u201d I’m guessing that means the PRC had preliminary results providing evidence of viral RNA spread by airborne droplet transmission by, oh, no later than mid-March – and maybe even before the end of February.<\/p>\n
Now, I understand the need for peer review of scientific research prior to release. And I understand the reluctance to release information concerning said research prior to publication.<\/p>\n
I can understand it under normal circumstances, that is. But the emergence of a previously-unknown deadly disease that may spread via airborne droplet transmission (like the common flu) – and which thus has epidemic if not pandemic potential – is hardly \u201cnormal circumstances\u201d. <\/p>\n
Yet the Nature<\/i> article wasn\u2019t released until three days ago<\/u> \u2013 on 27 April 2020. And I don’t recall seeing anything concerning this research until on or after that date.<\/p>\n
It certainly looks to me like the preliminary results of that research were kept \u201cclose hold\u201d until those Chinese researchers could publish an article concerning their research first, the rest of the world be damned. Such behavior is . . . reprehensible.<\/p>\n
Specifically, it means the PRC almost certainly withheld hard scientific evidence for a month and a half or longer<\/i> during a global pandemic caused by a previously-unknown disease organism<\/u> that airborne droplet transmission of the disease is at least possible, and most probably is happening. Knowing that in early March would quite likely have changed the way many nations managed their response to the disease.<\/p>\n
We shouldn’t be surprised, though. The PRC doing something like that is eminently plausible.<\/p>\n
Why? Because this would be the second<\/i> time the PRC has done something along those lines. <\/p>\n
PRC authorities are known to have previously suppressed evidence of likely person-to-person spread of the virus for roughly a month on a second, earlier occasion during the outbreak. They did so from late December 2019 to late January 2020. <\/p>\n
PRC medical personnel in Wuhan began warning around Christmas in 2019 that the then-unidentified deadly disease in Wuhan (later identified to be the coronavirus causing the current worldwide pandemic) appeared to spread person-to-person, with many new cases having no connection whatsoever to the claimed Wuhan \u201cwet market\u201d origin. Instead of acting on that information (and releasing it to the world), PRC authorities instead kept that info close-hold – and also persecuted those who raised the alarm. <\/p>\n
In fact, the PRC didn\u2019t even start effective control measures to limit spread of the virus until nearly a month later. They finally began quarantine measures in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, on 23 January 2020<\/i> \u2013 after the problem had finally become too big to hide.<\/p>\n
The disease has claimed over 217,000 lives worldwide to date, with 58,000+ of those deaths in the US. <\/p>\n
Most of that blood is on the PRC\u2019s hands. Had the PRC disclosed on what they knew about this virus in late December instead of suppressing the info, the death toll from this pandemic would almost certainly have been dramatically lower. And this second incident further demonstrates their reprehensible lack of concern for the rest of the world, adding to their culpability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recent reports indicate that the PRC had hard scientific evidence months ago regarding the 2019 Wuhan … More Evidence of PRC Coronavirus Culpability<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296,484],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-covid-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99007,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98968\/revisions\/99007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}