China’s Coronavirus Information Cover-up Unveiled

What if China’s is conducting a misinformation campaign?

Chinese authorities have put protective measures in place as the new coronavirus spreads. But what is it protecting us from exactly?

As fear of the Wuhan coronavirus seizes China, what if China’s information apparatus of censorship actually makes matters worse? As “rumors” are squashed and martyrs are made, what if China is executing a major cover-up of the severity of the Wuhan coronavirus?

If this were true, this would explain the exaggerated panic of the actual people in China and the surrounding areas.

In a world of misinformation, the media and government want to reduce panic in the world, and thus could create official figures that to medical experts and onlookers, make no sense.

I think this is what we are seeing from China, with this outbreak that is clearly worse than SARS. This is why citizen journalists needs to be rounded up and shut-up (let’s just say he was quarantined).

As of mid February 2020 there is so much media coverage of the novel coronavirus, it’s literally a spam of headlines, and so little actual information.

This is problematic for a world of algorithms that doesn’t value the truth. Investigative journalism truly does appear dead. I say this as a communications and journalism aspirant and it hurts to live in such a world.

In recent days more bizarre rumors are making more sense than the official numbers backed by the World Health Organization.

All of these “rumors” produce reasonable doubt that the Chinese numbers are accurate. As citizens we need to be skeptical of authoritarian regimes and statistics on all levels.

Medical Experts and Media Coverage Show a Significant Divergence

Professor Neil Ferguson, director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London, says that the number of cases is ‘going up all the time’. He believes that cases are mounting at a rate of 50,000 a day.

“It’s very, very transmissible, and it almost certainly is going to be a pandemic,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

China’s lock-down approach would not be happening if true numbers of deaths were just under 1,000, as is being reported to the West. These are drastic measures that don’t justify the (likely false) data we are being fed.

Today on February 10th, 2020, even many factories and schools are still shutdown, even after Lunar Festivity holidays are over (after an extension). From Reddit to other parts of the internet, it’s not hard see many major Chinese cities are becoming like Wuhan in terms of vigilance against the new virus.

China’s supply chains and manufacturing for the most part are shut down, with cities turning into ghost-towns. We are talking about cities the likes of which don’t even exist in places like the United States. This would not be happening if the coronavirus were so much less dangerous than SARS, with a mortality rate of close to 2% and hardly 40,000 of infected cases. Use your common sense.

The Tencent leak (said to be false by the company itself), reported figures of 24,589 deaths as of February 1st. If those are true, what would be the real numbers today?

We have to consider the possibility that China is not collaborating easily with the United States due to the significant cover-up of the severity of the virus that is taking place now, in most regions of China.

The coronavirus will likely grow into a pandemic, but it’s not too late to prevent the disease from becoming an epidemic in America, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned.

From an epistemological angle, it’s probable that only 10% of all infections (Neil Ferguson, director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London) in China are being detected at the current time. This means official numbers are likely low caused by lag, inability to test at this scale, and from being censored — so by multiple factors.

This means the new coronavirus is causing fear for a valid reason and it likely spreads by community transmission into populations from one week to three weeks before detection even first occurs! Those locations where community transmission first occurs are most likely to have new family clusters.

The idea that any government intervention could combat a contagious virus is pretty absurd. Any virologists will assure you that quarantines and travel bans don’t prevent a pandemic, especially those where millions of people left Wuhan before the January 23rd lock-down at a time of mass migration.

China isn’t just perpetuating a lie to its own citizens, it’s deceiving the entire world over the severity of the virus. We must consider this possibility. Of course, on the other hand all of these rumors and this science, may be wrong.

So does rising sulfur dioxide levels in air around Wuhan really suggest Chinese government could be burning thousands of bodies to contain coronavirus outbreak?

If the Wuhan martyr died for this, an exiled Chinese businessman, Guo Wengui, recently revealed leaks from Wuhan crematoriums.

“It seems like the virus has got out of hand in China, spread too far, too quickly to really be contained,” Ian Mackay, associate professor at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia told Nature.

The world doesn’t need more martyrs, whistle-blowers or conspiracy theories, but it does need more critical thinkers.

The WHO suggests rumors are counter-acting the efficacy of medical workers, but if it turns out the WHO have been working with the Chinese to suppress real numbers, it’s pretty serious.

This is a different internet than in 2003 when the SARS outbreak occurred, and fear is more contagious than the virus.

China values social stability and obedience to its hierarchy above all else. Here is a world of information control, bribery and censorship. The truth is no country is well equipped to deal with a new coronavirus that is this contagious or this deadly.

In an internet like this it’s easier to conceal the truth than it is to attack fear-mongering. But few scientists, let along concerned citizens, trust the official numbers that China is producing. Why is that?

Some infectious disease experts are warning that it may no longer be feasible to contain the new coronavirus circulating in China. If 2019-nCoV is 80% similar to the genetic structure of SARS, but more contagious we should err on the side of caution.

China was six weeks late to deal with the new coronavirus at the busiest time of the year for travelers, you could not have planned a better outbreak for a new pandemic.

Scientists are particularly concerned about fresh outbreaks emerging outside China. Luckily, so far that has not occurred to our knowledge as of February 10th, 2020. Though the cruise ship off the coast of Japan and community transmission in Singapore and Hong Kong are all red flags.

The disease is spreading quickly. China’s health minister, Ma Xiaowei, told reporters last month that there is evidence it’s already mutated into a stronger variation that is able to spread more easily among humans.

China has struggled to contain the virus despite unprecedented measures, the reality could be more grim that it appears. China cover-up? There’s a medium to high probability that we live in such a world. Not everything made in China is cheap, the economic impact of this new virus could be immense, at least for Q1 of 2020.

When the Wuhan Martyr Dr. Li died, millions of Chinese citizens saw the hashtag #IWantFreedomOfSpeech on Mandarin language social media. It’s all gone now, all we are left with is a contagious virus that could become more deadly as it mutates.