ICYMI, this weekend I wrote that it would have been relatively easy for China to contain COVID-19 early on, but authoritarianism, including their use of tech surveillance, made it harder—and perhaps Xi Jinping didn't know all the details until too late.https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/02/coronavirus-and-blindness-authoritarianism/606922/ …
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zeynep tufekci Retweeted Josh Chin
A new excellent report out of WSJ (whose reporters were expelled from China recently) that reinforces this: China chose to hide and cover-up human-to-human transmission till things got out of hand. That's the reason we have the pandemic in the first place.https://twitter.com/joshchin/status/1235985382644150273 …
zeynep tufekci added,
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The Chinese government is trying to cover-up how their own initial cover-up led to this pandemic in the first place. Yes, US and others are bungling it in their own way. Please remember Chinese health workers who put everything on the line to warn us before letting that happen.
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zeynep tufekci Retweeted Jonathan Cheng
Thread with timeline. By the end of December, there was ample evidence of human-to-human transmission of a SARS type virus in Wuhan. Chinese authorities lied and *punished* the doctors who were desparately trying to act. IT COULD HAVE BEEN CONTAINED THEN.https://twitter.com/JChengWSJ/status/1236186210533425152 …
zeynep tufekci added,
Jonathan ChengVerified account @JChengWSJDespite ample evidence to the contrary, the Wuhan branch of China's National Health Commission said Dec. 31 that they had "not found any obvious human-to-human transmission or infection of medical staff…The disease is preventable and controllable.” https://on.wsj.com/2VRb2fyShow this thread4 replies 64 retweets 127 likesShow this thread -
It would be deeply disturbing if media & others erased the profound personal sacrifices of Chinese whistleblower health care workers, some of whom died fighting this virus, by letting the Chinese government off the hook. Do these people not exist? Do they not count?


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zeynep tufekci Retweeted
See thread. Please don’t erase these brave Chinese doctors and whistleblowers by absolving the Chinese leadership of culpability for the pandemic they unleashed on the world through their early cover-up. https://twitter.com/yiqinfu/status/1237222757940596739 …
zeynep tufekci added,
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zeynep tufekci Retweeted Stephen Dziedzic
Letting the Chinese government erase its culpability in unleashing this pandemic—as it is clearly trying to do— means erasing the massive sacrifices of whistleblower medical workers in Wuhan. They put everything on line to warn us and were shut down.https://twitter.com/stephendziedzic/status/1237568007884255233 …
zeynep tufekci added,
Stephen DziedzicVerified account @stephendziedzicConfirmation. Investigative piece in French daily La Croix International says Chinese embassies around the world were issued confidential instructions to "raise doubts" about the genesis of coronavirus and suggest it might have come to China from abroad https://bitterwinter.org/de-sinicizing-the-virus-how-ccp-propaganda-is-rewriting-history/ …3 replies 54 retweets 122 likesShow this thread -
zeynep tufekci Retweeted Yanzhong Huang
Wow. In February, I wrote a piece outlining that scenario which threaded together a plausible scenario that fit known evidence/authoritarianism. Now China's best investigative outlet on the pandemic says that may be what happened. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/02/coronavirus-and-blindness-authoritarianism/606922/ …https://twitter.com/YanzhongHuang/status/1249005171436388352 …
zeynep tufekci added,
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Wow. AP says Wuhan authorities covered up *up the chain as well* until Jan 14th (clearly spreading human-to-human by then). Then, only after a Thailand case, top leadership was forced to consider the possibility. Still unclear what happened till Jan 20th. https://twitter.com/gerryshih/status/1250318531050131461 …pic.twitter.com/dxgzww5TNU
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Updating my February 22 piece with latest information. Top Chinese scientist Dr. Zhong Nanshan says that Wuhan authorities did cover up information about the epidemic. "The local authorities, they didn't like to tell the truth at that time," Zhong said. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/16/asia/zhong-nanshan-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html …pic.twitter.com/B1pDQ03ibd
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Updating thread with new details on how Chinese authorities blocked crucial information. But note: once again, Chinese scientists defied the authorities. A professor published the SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequence without authorization. His lab was shuttered. https://apnews.com/3c061794970661042b18d5aeaaed9fae …pic.twitter.com/QFjqDktHpQ
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Well. US intelligence agencies have reportedly concluded the same thing as my February article on top of this thread: that local Wuhan officials kept central Chinese government in the dark, well into mid-January. Authoritarians encourage lying to them. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/world/asia/china-coronavirus-beijing-trump.html …pic.twitter.com/wuGKhIJDoo
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