
Coronavirus Lockdown in Wuhan Is a 'Living Hell' - _bxg1
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/03/809965742/personal-essay-from-wuhan-living-in-hell
======
cameldrv
Not a fan of authoritarian governments, and China's initial coverup of the
virus is deplorable, BUT:

1\. The reason they didn't pre-announce the quarantine was that it would
defeat the purpose -- people would rush to leave ahead of the deadline.

2\. Guy being kicked out of his college dorm: they had so many cases that they
needed more space to isolate confirmed cases. They may have built a pre-fab
hospital in a week, but that was nowhere near the capacity necessary. A
college dorm is one of the better buildings if you need a building to turn
into a makeshift hospital immediately. You've got a bunch of small individual
rooms, kitchen facilities, and common areas that can be repurposed. The
government determined that it was necessary to appropriate the building for
the good of the city and did it.

And look at where we are here in the U.S. We had a two month head start, and
we still can't do widespread testing, the virus is spreading undetected. China
was strongly criticized for providing unreliable numbers, and here we are, now
the CDC has simply stopped providing state by state data on testing, and
stopped providing a total count of tests done. It's truly shameful, and I pray
for the health of people in this country, especially older people.

~~~
_bxg1
I don't think the corruption and bureaucratic incompetency in today's United
States lessens the story about that in China. At least we're allowed to talk
about it.

~~~
c789a123
I think US gov has done quite well by cut air traffic with China after CCP
announced that there is a plague going on around Jan 2x. But the problem is
the plague has gone on at least 2 months in China until that time, so even
North Korean which closed its border immediately after CCP announcement now
has an outbreak. Before CCP made the announcement they suppressed info as much
as possible and did nothing to control the spread. Until around the Jan 2x
when it can not hide it anymore. Even after this, CCP still made WHO to lower
the alert level of the world. Today's situation is the sole result of CCP's
wrong doings and they should do a full accounting of it in the world court.

~~~
Jommi
Two months before January would be November. What source do you have saying
that the outbreak started already then?

~~~
koheripbal
The Virologists that host the TWIV podcast cited some studies suggesting that
the first cases were likely in October or November, which went undetected.

~~~
Jommi
Right, got a link?

~~~
koheripbal
twiv.tv

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_bxg1
Despite the title, the heart of the article is really about a Wuhan man's
disenchantment with his authoritarian government, by way of the Coronavirus
crisis

~~~
whatshisface
It is not off the mark, if the CCP had been better about seeing the truth they
could have eliminated the virus when only 100 people had it. Instead they
suppressed news of it while doing nothing, all while the virus ran around
getting the better of them. It is too bad for the CCP that the Chinese people
are not the only things in China to control!

~~~
bakuninsbart
Honest question though: Which country would handle it better?

A commenter below mentioned the US, but the reaction here in Germany has also
been ridiculously slow and very lacking in both the political department as
well as healthcare officials.

An overwhelming majority of NHS medics doesn't think the UK is prepared
either.
[[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/02/coronavirus-...](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/02/coronavirus-
just-eight-out-of-1600-doctors-in-poll-say-nhs-is-ready))

Our lower population densities and much higher hygene standards make it less
likely for a breakout to start here, but our dealing with a pandemic is at
least as frighteningly incompetent as the chinese response.

~~~
GekkePrutser
From the article: "From former schoolmates who now work in the medical
profession, I learned that medical workers were not given medical supplies and
were exposed to a risk of death. Many people wonder: Why didn't they go on
strike? It is because they were informed that if they went on strike, their
licenses to practice medicine would be revoked and their family members' jobs
would be affected."

I'm sure that this kind of thing will not happen in Germany and UK.

It's not really the handling of the virus situation, it's his realisation that
he's living in a totalitarian state that he's writing about.

~~~
_bxg1
* it's his realization that the totalitarian state he's living in isn't worth the supposed benefits

------
dirtyid
Grass is greener on the other side when people are disgruntled. These stale
China collapse because XYZ recent disaster always gets pushed by western MSM
because it's easier to find dissenting voices during times of crisis and
hysteria. Then shit hits the fan in comfortable democracies and people wonder
why we can't build a triage hospital in 10 days.

>Why were we notified about the city lockdown at 2 a.m. on the second to last
morning before the Lunar New Year?

...

>We tried every method to escape from Wuhan, but the cage was already locked.

This is why.

...

>But people are not thinking critically. They do not understand that if we had
human rights, democracy and freedom, we would have learned about what happened
in Wuhan one month earlier. And the first whistleblower would not have died
for nothing.

See Japanese response. CDC just removed testing statistics from their website.
Now that initial hysteria has died down and the virus seemingly contained,
Chinese social media is noticing the containment failures abroad from
countries with ample warning and commenting that CPC central government might
not be so incompetent after all. The WHO report from today is going to
reinforce those notions.

~~~
backupcavalry
I have a hard time believing China actually has it under control when they've
already been caught fiddling with their number of infected / dead constantly.
That, and WHO has been spending all of their time trying to avoid offending
China.

~~~
dirtyid
China is opaque so you have to look at oblique indicators, in this case school
has resumed. Kids going back to school indicates the leadership has some
confidence that the party thinks the crisis is near the end. Even though kids
are at low risk, after SiChuan earthquake school scandal, the political cost
of risking children's health for political points is too high even for China.

E: Also Xi visited Wuhan recently, and the annual two sessions meeting is
happening in a few days while events are being cancelled around the world.
It's the biggest annual political event. Xi is basically over if we get a
bunch of infected kids or politicians like in Iran. I guess we'll see if it's
confidence or calculus.

------
williw
Should probably fact check this before publishing, but the lockdown was
rumored ahead of time on wechat. They didn't enforce it for like 8 hours.
That's why there were lots of people who managed to flee Wuhan. That's a well-
known fact.

~~~
terrycody
Exactly, and I am shocked that today's journalism can publish what they want,
regardless of the real truth, and from what I know, no one in wuhan "locked
down" by government, they just can't go outside of the province, and this is a
must in such an emergency, as for an unknown deadly virus, what can you expect
then? We are sane human, first we need to be alive.

------
ailife
This article is obviously biased or lacks understanding of the facts. If it is
written by a Chinese, its purpose is only to complain about his own condition,
but it does not help the current situation. Chinese people's efforts have
earned time for the people of the world. If you want to condemn China, may I
ask, which country in the G7 did not rely on colonization and became a
developed country?

------
rdtwo
Seattle is on track for its own “potluck. Comic con is in 2 weeks if it
doesn’t get cancels it will disastrous for spreading sicknesses

------
mosseater
Of course it's hard living in Wuhan during this outbreak/pandemic. There are
sacrifices to be made and they are the Wuhan residents. But this doesn't make
China an evil authoritarian government mishandling the situation. China is
doing the best it can to stop this outbreak where it stands. Yes that means
quarantining the hot spot. Yes that means taking over dorms for room to
quarantine people. Yes that means medical care at hospitals will be stretched
extremely thin.

But what is the alternative? Letting things run rampant because you didn't
want to impose upon peoples human rights? The greater good of the whole
population means more than the convenience of the Wuhan people. I just hope
America falls in line.

And yes, they didn't act immediately when they had patients in December. That
could have been handled better. Hindsight is 20/20\. But their mindset, about
not wanting to start an unwarranted panic, about wanting to investigate things
fully, is understandable.

~~~
unishark
> But what is the alternative? Letting things run rampant because you didn't
> want to impose upon peoples human rights?

Yes this is the alternative. We trade security, another form of it in this
case, for freedom. I didn't think the author made a very good case for "living
hell", or for that matter have a very good list of egregious things the govt
did. But they made a good point at the end with "one day you may be the price
that is paid".

Anyway the US won't have to face the issue as China did because it will arrive
everywhere if it gets bad, not one starting point that can be contained. And
then all the govt here has to do is scare people enough with warnings of
danger to lock things down pretty well. Fears of liability will do most of the
rest when it comes to schools and other things shutting down.

~~~
bronipstid
Your alternative sounds an awful lot like what has been done in china by other
means.

------
socialdemocrat
A reminder to those who all to easily marvel at the “efficiency” of
dictatorships

------
golergka
I already stocked up for and supplies, and was very interested in this article
to know what else can lie ahead – but turns out, it's not really about living
hell, but just a political piece about Chinese government. Now, I hate Chinese
government just as much as any other libertarian whose family has survived a
communist regime, but that's some very clickbaity title.

