[Goose]

Isn’t it Trump that likes to recite the poem of “the snake?”

It ends with:

“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in

If only we’d have had epidemiologists from the NIH and CDC on the ground in Wuhan, we would not have been dependent on China to report the virus.  Alas...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...er/608911/

So, I agree with Lex; China’s instinct to cover up and minimize reporting was predictable.  So why would we have left ourselves in the position of having to depend on them to report it to the WHO?  And now, like the poisoned woman from “the snake”, we are asking “why?”

BC

I think that if we had the CDC/NIH people on the ground in China we would have known more but not much more. First, the Chinese themselves were initially pretty confused, and second the information flow to the observers would have been immediately cut off when the powers that be recognized there was a potentially embarrassing situation developing. That in  itself would have been a data point. Whether I am right or wrong about this isn't too important. Removing whatever visibility we had, even limited visibility, was just plain stupid. It may not have helped much, but it may have, and we voluntarily denied ourselves the information.

[Goose]

Isn’t it Trump that likes to recite the poem of “the snake?”

It ends with:

“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in

If only we’d have had epidemiologists from the NIH and CDC on the ground in Wuhan, we would not have been dependent on China to report the virus.  Alas...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...er/608911/

So, I agree with Lex; China’s instinct to cover up and minimize reporting was predictable.  So why would we have left ourselves in the position of having to depend on them to report it to the WHO?  And now, like the poisoned woman from “the snake”, we are asking “why?”

BC

I think that if we had the CDC/NIH people on the ground in China we would have known more but not much more. First, the Chinese themselves were initially pretty confused, and second the information flow to the observers would have been immediately cut off when the powers that be recognized there was a potentially embarrassing situation developing. That in  itself would have been a data point. Whether I am right or wrong about this isn't too important. Removing whatever visibility we had, even limited visibility, was just plain stupid. It may not have helped much, but it may have, and we voluntarily denied ourselves the information.