For almost 2 weeks, I have been watching and reading about the corona virus on different Chinese news channels and social media platforms. It’s the only thing I care about lately and I have talked so much about it that my non-Asian friends are sick over me. Most people don’t think this is a big deal and won’t believe in its potential. I have two Wechat groups with my closest friends who are Chinese. There are three types of people among us: 1) people who are hysterical, reading every article about the virus and sharing alarming messages to everyone; 2) people who think that the virus is nothing but a flu, therefore not digging into every angle of the matter; 3) people who are currently in China visiting their family. They only have access from “official” channels, therefore seemingly optimistic. I am the first group. I think this will be or already is, a crisis of historical scale on a global level and people here are not prepared enough. I am here to share what I learned so far. My sources come from: official news channels and programs in Taiwan, HK and abroad; Youtube bloggers and journalists who are in Ground Zero Wuhan; and official numbers and facts published by the Chinese government. I did not make up any of these. I am simply gathering all the information I found. Being fluent in both language and culture, I want to give you insights on what you don’t hear from local media. More importantly, I want to be a voice for people who live inside the epicenter. I hope you will share this to people who still don’t think this is a big deal. As you will find out, from one patient on Day 1, within 40 days, the outbreak was out of hand.
WHEN AND HOW
The first Wuhan patient was hospitalized on December 1, 2019. Then, four more were hospitalized on December 8. By mid-December, taxi drivers in the city started to warn among themselves to avoid going to Huanan Seafood Market, because after talking to lots of locals every day at work, they learned that there was a mysterious disease spreading from that market. My family first heard about this illness from one of our friends whose brother went to that exact market. He didn’t even get out of his car. He was waiting in the parking lot. He was one of the first 37 people to be quarantined.
By the end of December, a local doctor told his colleagues via Wechat group that there were 7 confirmed cases of corona virus in his hospital. It appeared to be similar to SARS. The second day, he was asked to submit a letter saying that it was a false report. On January 3, he was asked to go to the police station to sign an official document. He was warned not to spread any more rumours. Eleven days after his original discovery, this doctor showed symptoms of fever and coughing. He was sent to ICU on January 24th and remains there still. Aside from this doctor, there were 7 other doctors warning their network about this emerging disease. All of them received different degrees of discipline and no one dared to say anything anymore. There were many social media messages talking about their family members being sick. Doubts were raised about whether or not the government was hiding something. All of these messages and accounts were quickly deleted. It was then that the critical period to contain the outbreak was missed.
The end of December and the beginning of January was the busiest travel period in China. Countless people are on the road home for the Lunar New Year or travel to other parts of the world. Millions of people left Wuhan not knowing that they were carriers of this disease. If you look at China’s map. Wuhan is literally the heart of China. It has direct connections to 9 other provinces by flights, trains, highways and boats. It’s been found that more than 60,000 people have gone to Shanghai and 40,000 have gone to Beijing before the quarantine.
By Jan 10th, “rumours” were everywhere. The government had to say something. An announcement was made by a renowned medical specialist, he said that an outbreak is preventable and things are under control, it won’t transmit from person to person! Ironically, he was infected with the virus a few days later. Researchers in London and HongKong predicted that by Jan 17th, there were between 1300 to 1723 infected cases in Wuhan and 300 cases in other parts of China.
On Jan 19th, a local community held a huge feast to celebrate Lunar New Year. It was an epic pot-luck party, more than 40,000 family participated and 13,986 dishes were shared among them. The city also handed out 200,000 free admissions for people to visit over 30 attractions during the Lunar New Year. (People didn’t get a chance to use them because they were all shut down a few days later).
The most trusted epidemiologist in China, Zhong Nan Shang, played a pivotal role in the SARS outbreak in 2003. He was sent by President Xi to Wuhan. And on January 20th, Xi Jing Ping finally made his official announcement and demanded that every local government to take extreme measures to contain the virus, get to the bottom of it, maintain peace, etc. At the same time, scientists finally confirmed that the disease could spread from person to person, symptoms are very similar to SARS, the outbreak was worse than imagined. The “official” number of infected cases suddenly skyrocketed from 67 in Wuhan to more than 500.
No comments:
Post a Comment