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by nl 2082 days ago
> I don’t think it’s possible to claim that you have the ‘correct’ source of information.

What does this mean? I read the WHO reports at the time, and they are still the same. They are "incorrect" in the sense they didn't know things at the start, but they are a correct historical record.

> It is well reported that a doctor who identified the virus early on was forced to lie and claim he was mistaken.

Indeed. And look what happened to the officials who forced him to do that.

> Are you really so certain that your timeline is accurate?

Yes, absolutely - which is why I'm so surprised at the "blame China" narrative.

I'd be quite interested to understand why you think it could be wrong? It was less than a year ago, and the information is all publicly accessible.

I was following Covid from early and ordered masks in late January. The WHO started publishing daily updates at[2] from Jan 21 and prior to that on[3]. People knew and were making preparations for a SARS type epidemic - I'd suggest you read some to see how much people knew and how seriously they were taking it.

Their update on Jan 21 reports:

Additional investigations are needed to determine how the patients were infected, the extent of human-to-human transmission, the clinical spectrum of disease, and the geographic range of infection. [4] (note the human-to-human transmission bit)

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/20/chinese-inquir...

[2] https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2...

[3] https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situati...

[4] https://www.who.int/csr/don/21-january-2020-novel-coronaviru...