[bmitc]

I find it completely disappointing and disheartening that the west has done almost nothing to curb the virus, thus increasing the chance of mutation and continued spread. It's just hard to see the pointing of fingers at China that's happened, especially in hindsight when it's unclear if it even began in China (which doesn't really matter anyway if it was a naturally occurring zoonotic crossover event) and not somewhere else like Italy, but the west has just rolled over to the threat of the virus in its response. Meanwhile, life in China has been basically normal for a while.

It further drives me crazy because I am still disconnected from my family because the U.S. still refuses to allow my fiancée to travel back (she lives and works in the U.S.) from the country best dealing with this to to the worst. It's just sickening there's no support for people like us, and now it looks like it can only get worse in the west.

[porknubbins]

Some of the finger pointing at China may be unfair but clearly they knew a lot about the virus while letting their citizens travel outside. Not that the West would’ve handled it any better necessarily but when you seed the world with virus there is going to be some blowback.

[cma]

China restricted international flights out of Wuhan on January 23rd. The US didn't restrict flights out even now with much higher incidence.

[bmitc]

They were also highly restricting travel internally as well, already doing temperature checks on major roads.

[hammock]

Not only this, they restricted travel from Wuhan region to other parts of China, while at the same time not restricting travel abroad.

[cma]

They did restrict travel abroad. The US had to send a special plane to evacuate people because they had stopped international flights. And then the Us failed to strictly quarantine them and also the evacuating team according to a whistleblower didn't use proper PPE.

[strogonoff]

It should be kept in mind (without unnecessary enmity or antagonism, just as a fact) that almost a year later we still do not definitively know the origins of the virus. That position is reflected in WHO’s Terms of References for the relevant study[0], for example.

Note that the document appears to imply that WHO’s team will not be allowed to operate on the ground in China to collect evidence (see Phase 1 of Implementation plan, the paragraph about building on existing information and not duplicating existing efforts).

Note that the document does not mention the possibility of lab escape, despite documented evidence of SARS-CoV previously escaping from a lab in Beijing and resulting in at least one death years earlier, and the fact that Wuhan is home to another one of the very few BSL–4 labs.

I am tired of uninformed “who dealt it” finger-pointing as much as the next guy. First, we currently lack information. Second, even if we had that information, we should accept that mistakes happen (human factor and so on).

The only valid grounds for finger-pointing, as far as I’m concerned, is if someone attempts to undermine an effort aimed to make humanity better equipped to deal with a similar scenario in future.

[0] https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/who-convened-global-...

[saberdancer]

China had much more experience with SARS and could understand the risk it poses to their economy and population. With strict government control they can exert and massive resources, they could curb the spread. It's almost comical to look at their total number of cases (80 000) compared to new daily cases today (in USA alone 200 000).

[mns]

I also find it disappointing that people still think that blindly applying measures that may work in one case, will work in any other case. It's like countries don't have different cultures, different climate, geography, demography, political systems and so on. And people still think that taking one set of rules that work in one context we can just apply them anywhere and have the same result.

I heard this quote on a podcast recently, and somehow stuck with me, because it's quite amazing how we think that we can control somehow such a force of nature like a new virus: “Man cannot control the current of events. He can only float with them and steer.” Otto Von Bismarck.

[bmitc]

> I also find it disappointing that people still think that blindly applying measures that may work in one case, will work in any other case. ... And people still think that taking one set of rules that work in one context we can just apply them anywhere and have the same result.

Where was that suggested?

[cwhiz]

The US is a free country. China is an authoritarian dictatorship.

The most alarming thing to me is the public appetite for authoritarian policies.

[4gotunameagain]

I mean, you're not wrong about China and authoritarianism, but calling US free at this point I think is a mild exaggeration. Corporatocracy might be more apt

[bmitc]

You totally underestimate the amount of influence and propaganda enacted by corporations and the government in the U.S.

Secondly, why is this an excuse to totally fail at handling the pandemic and to let the economy fail?

[cwhiz]

Always err on the side of freedom and individual liberty, always.

[jnxx]

And Taiwan?