[burger]

This is not shocking:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...gence-says

I'm not going to cut the POTUS any slack for the federal level mismanagement of this pandemic crisis, but I do believe it is quite possible that federal planners were skeptical about the severity of this outbreak in part due to China's numbers.

In fact, I believe the whole world underprepared based on China's faulty numbers. It is infuriating that people like me had to go to "boutique" sources of information to really understand what was coming with this pandemic, in part because I stopped believing Chinas's numbers very early in the game. The U.S. and other countries would have been much more likely to mobilize sooner had China been transparent.

A few things here.  First, US intelligence lost most of its credibility years ago.  It's well known that they will slant their findings to suit whoever is in charge.  And Trump and his people have basically done nothing but blame China.

Also, who cares if the numbers are wrong. The world had plenty of warning that this was incredibly serious.  Would China turn Wuhan into a prison if it wasn't?  Building all of those temporary hospitals?  Epidemiologists were sending out warnings in January, but they were ignored. 

WTF did China have to gain by purposely lying about the severity of its outbreak? How is it benefitting from the rest of the world being economically nuked as a result of its truly unhelpful reporting?

You've answered your own question.  If they had nothing to gain, why lie?   It's not like tourists are going to be traveling to China now because it's supposedly virus free.

And, again, the argument that the outbreak only happened because China lied is so specious that I am almost embarrassed to see it here.  We had advance warning from Italy, South Korea, etc., and Trump used that time to mainly lie about the "hoax."  Were those other countries fudging numbers, too?  Come on.

[burger]

This is not shocking:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...gence-says

I'm not going to cut the POTUS any slack for the federal level mismanagement of this pandemic crisis, but I do believe it is quite possible that federal planners were skeptical about the severity of this outbreak in part due to China's numbers.

In fact, I believe the whole world underprepared based on China's faulty numbers. It is infuriating that people like me had to go to "boutique" sources of information to really understand what was coming with this pandemic, in part because I stopped believing Chinas's numbers very early in the game. The U.S. and other countries would have been much more likely to mobilize sooner had China been transparent.

A few things here.  First, US intelligence lost most of its credibility years ago.  It's well known that they will slant their findings to suit whoever is in charge.  And Trump and his people have basically done nothing but blame China.

Also, who cares if the numbers are wrong. The world had plenty of warning that this was incredibly serious.  Would China turn Wuhan into a prison if it wasn't?  Building all of those temporary hospitals?  Epidemiologists were sending out warnings in January, but they were ignored. 

WTF did China have to gain by purposely lying about the severity of its outbreak? How is it benefitting from the rest of the world being economically nuked as a result of its truly unhelpful reporting?

You've answered your own question.  If they had nothing to gain, why lie?   It's not like tourists are going to be traveling to China now because it's supposedly virus free.

And, again, the argument that the outbreak only happened because China lied is so specious that I am almost embarrassed to see it here.  We had advance warning from Italy, South Korea, etc., and Trump used that time to mainly lie about the "hoax."  Were those other countries fudging numbers, too?  Come on.