It's easy to point fingers from the sidelines. I'm curious how this would've progressed if the virus had originated in the US instead and how much better it would've been handled.
These viruses don't originate in China by random chance.
Although, ironically, they originate in China because of too little government control over hygiene in wet markets and game meat, not too much authoritarianism.
Isn't it interesting that these deadly viruses don't tend to originate from India? Even though they're supposed to have worse sanitation and are poorer, and a similarly large population, both in density and total.
The Chinese government promotes "traditional medicine" for nationalistic reasons, and I suspect it's playing a significant role in these zoonotic diseases -- not to mention the extinction of rhinos and whatnot.
The last few have all come from miss handled wild and exotic meats/animals. Countries that have proper handling of meat, and rules around what can be eaten and owned don't have these problems.
Granted, there's an underground in every country I'm sure, and if all things were equal with the rules and enforcement, your argument would be much more reasonable.
> I'm curious how this would've progressed if the virus had originated in the US instead and how much better it would've been handled.
The federal and local governments in the U.S. do not have the same power as CCP to suppress the "rumor". The eight doctors would not have been reprimanded by the local police for discussing the new virus in private online groups. The Trump administration would not have power to tell the CDC to shut up. The Trump administration would not have power to force the CDC to under-report counts. The states would not cooperate with the federal government to under-report counts.
You should remember how the AIDS epidemic was handled in the US. A lot of people died before govt even acknowledged it was a problem, there was much lack of coordination between the federal and state/city governments in handling it.
AIDS had the unfortunate coincidence of (at least initially) mostly targeting marginalized groups that governments at the time had no problem with throwing under any bus that came. COVID-19 is spreading to everyone who can catch it across all socioeconomic groups.
The CDC is a federal agency, no? The larger point is that the US, being a democracy is “messier”, to its potential advantage. It’s harder to suppress information.
The dust-up with the NOAA and the White House last year over a hurricane is probably a good model for what a CDC / White House disagreement might look like. Recall that during that episode, the White House directed NOAA to disavow the claims of forecasters that went against the president’s claim that Alabama was in Dorian’s line of fire.
And there’s no way in hell a few states with a total population of 50 million would agree to be quarantined. Imagine they’ll tried to stop all flights from O’Hare and Detroit.
