A series of actions by the Chinese government and reports coming out of the region indicate that the communist regime is covering up the true scope of the threat posed by the coronavirus, which has already triggered the quarantining of 11 million people and a massive travel ban.
In an in-depth report Thursday detailing the latest developments regarding the deadly virus, which has already taken the lives of 17 people and infected over 600, The Washington Post describes the city of Wuhan, whose 11 million inhabitants are now quarantined, as “pulsat[ing] with fear and anger” upon the announcement of the extreme measure imposed on the city.
And it’s not only Wuhan’s 11 million being impacted by the virus; it’s also the millions of people living in the surrounding areas, as the government is now expanding the quarantine to Huanggang and Ezhou, shutting down modes of travel and thus restricting the movements of some 20 million people.
A virologist who worked on the SARS outbreak in 2003, is “conservatively” estimating that the coronavirus outbreak will be 10 times worse. “A bigger outbreak is certain,” Guan Yi told Caixin magazine, citing “the holiday traffic rush and a dereliction of duty from certain officials,” as some key reasons the situation is even worse this time.
Actions by authorities have indeed been troubling, as the Post chronicles, including initially claiming the coronavirus could not be transmitted by human, which proved to be untrue, and taking steps that indicate that they are reverting back to their manipulative handling of past disasters:
The ruling Communist Party, which initially tried to show transparency after being criticized for covering up the SARS virus outbreak 17 years ago, has now shown signs of reverting to its default position of censoring bad news.
The Wuhan Health Commission admitted Thursday evening that it was struggling under the strain of the outbreak. “At present, there is an obvious increase in the number of patients with fever in the city, and it is true that there are long queues and a shortage of beds in fever clinics,” the commission said in a post that was online for less than an hour.
A post from Wuhan Railway saying that 300,000 people traveled by train out of Wuhan on Wednesday, headed to every corner of the country, was also quickly deleted.
The Post quotes some residents who have expressed feeling “petrified” and suspecting that “there must be some things about this virus that remain undisclosed.” (Read the Post’s full report here.)
Along with shutting down the train station, ferry, subway and bus services in Wutan, police are checking all incoming vehicles, though not fully closing down the roads, at least yet. As reported by the Associated Press Thursday, Chinese authorities have announced that “similar measures would take effect Friday in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou,” and in Huanggang, “theaters, internet cafes and other entertainment centers were also ordered closed.”
“In the capital, Beijing, officials canceled ‘major events’ indefinitely, including traditional temple fairs that are a staple of holiday celebrations, in order to ‘execute epidemic prevention and control,'” AP reports. “The Forbidden City, the palace complex in Beijing that is now a museum, announced it will close indefinitely on Saturday.”