
Failure by WHO team to visit Wuhan sparks concerns over virus probe - abc-xyz
https://www.ft.com/content/f9dea077-66fb-4734-9d1d-076dc93568e1
======
rapjr9
So they think there is one specific animal path from bats to humans? It's
already been shown that several types of animals can become infected, so why
not multiple paths? I don't understand why they think it necessarily started
in the Wuhan area either; that's where it first started spreading rapidly and
was noticed, but as we've seen in the US sometimes it spreads fast and
sometimes it doesn't and even with testing there appear to be a lot of excess
deaths where no one realized the cause was COVID-19. Could have been around
long before Dec 2019 and then flared up in Wuhan. I'm not an expert though,
maybe they have other clues such as from gene sequencing.

------
disgruntledphd2
I normally like the FT, but this article smells very like the standard
Australian/US saber-rattling around China's responsibility for Covid-19.

It sortof smacks of looking for someone to blame, which is weird given that
China dealt with Covid-19 far far better than most Western countries.

~~~
marcusverus
Compare the 'Active Cases' graph in each of the links below. Does the Chinese
graph seem credible to you?

China:
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/)

Japan:
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Japan/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Japan/)

Italy:
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Italy/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Italy/)

Denmark:
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Denmark/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Denmark/)

Iran:
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Iran/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Iran/)

Russia:
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Iran/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/Iran/)

~~~
disgruntledphd2
I completely agree that the data from China is not particularly reliable. In
fact, I remember noticing this in early March.

That being said, it's clear that they have dealt with Covid 19 much better
than much of the West.

Like, I guess I got sucked into geo-political flamebait here, but this FT
article is quite poor by their standards and it's a shame that it's getting
covered on HN.

~~~
kop316
Well yeah, the PRC can literaly weld people into their apartments to force
people to be quarantined:

[https://www.the-sun.com/news/378365/](https://www.the-sun.com/news/378365/)

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-
quarantine-i...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-quarantine-
idUSKCN20G0AY)

When a government has that sort of power, of course they can handle a forced
quarantine. That is, when they actually have to admit there is an issue, which
is this not the first pandemic they have attempted to cover up:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002%E2%80%932004_SARS_outbrea...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002%E2%80%932004_SARS_outbreak)

I am happy to live in a western society where they government doesn't have
that sort of power.

~~~
bobdole12345
Yeah, I love the fact that Karen can decide to kill my friends and family with
negligence.

Yay freedom.

~~~
kop316
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

I'd ask for you to post a reply comment that isn't snarky, per the guidelines.
I cannot have much of a productive conversation with your comment as it is.

~~~
bobdole12345
If you didn't want to be made fun of, you should have made a better argument.

It's not a black and white freedom vs authoritarianism, it turns out that
society works a lot better when people aren't needlessly contrary about things
they don't understand.

Which is why the American morons can't imagine that Chinas numbers are real,
because they can't imagine the Chinese people aren't festering shitbags
shouting "FEREEEDOMZ" at every opportunity.

Chinas numbers, and numbers in many other places show the AWESOME POWER OF
DOING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AS A GROUP.

There is one freedom that is sorely lacking in America, it's the freedom to
act as a whole for the good of your countrymen. You literally can't do it.
It's illegal in half the country, and you risk being shot in an altercation
with an armed moron if you're conspicuously not being a festering cunt.

Why don't you fight for that freedom?

~~~
kop316
....what? I have read through your comment several times and it is non-
sensical.

