Let's be honest, do you think China is reporting the actual coronavirus cases and deaths? After all, Beijing has been the master of falsifying its economic growth figures for years, what makes you think they'll change in the reporting of the deadly virus outbreak?

Balaji S. Srinivasan, angel investor and entrepreneur, also former CTO of Coinbase, tweeted Saturday that a top news organization in China, Caijing, had one of their articles banned by Beijing after it noted Chinese officials were significantly underreporting coronavirus confirmed cases and deaths, especially among the elderly.

Caijing is one of the most reputable outlets in China. Their article on the #coronavirus was censored today. It claims significant underreporting of both cases & deaths, especially among the elderly.



Here it is:https://t.co/W3NHvbFfjM



Translation:https://t.co/7rM69CWPkF pic.twitter.com/ygCJkTsboK — Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) February 2, 2020

Srinivasan said, "If half the claims in this article are true, #nCoV2019 seems to have completely overloaded Wuhan's healthcare system. It appears particularly deadly for the elderly. But this 45-year-old had to be anesthetized and intubated in order to breathe."

"In the past two days, he had seen a 45-year-old patient, a family of five, his parents had died of the new coronavirus pneumonia, and his son was infected. The patient's condition was very serious. She used high-flow oxygen inhalation and non-invasive mask ventilation, but her blood oxygen saturation was only 50%. Finally, she had to be anesthetized and intubated with ECMO. "Before intubation and anesthesia, she watched us prepare, tears kept flowing down, and that fear made people feel very distressed," said Shen Jun. There are still many cases like this, "Our doctors have made a decision Determined to do everything possible to treat all patients," Caijing wrote.

Srinivasan points out that the Chinese newspaper found hospitals in Wuhan and elsewhere were intentionally recording coronavirus deaths as "general pneumonia" to keep the death count low.

Key points:



- some deaths being recorded as "general pneumonia"

- lack of test kits

- people going home to die

- 7 hospitals with "no beds"



Most importantly: "the number of confirmed and fatal cases that people can see...does not fully reflect the full picture of the epidemic" pic.twitter.com/8xdy73zQHO — Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) February 2, 2020

The article also notes test kits for the virus were in low supply, which allowed those who were infected, to continue their daily lives during a 7-10-day incubation period, enabling the virus to spread even more.

The healthcare system was so overloaded in Wuhan, which forced hospital officials to send the dying home; hospitals didn't have enough beds to house the sick.

This undercover journalist secretly filmed 8 bodies in 5 minutes in 1 hospital ward, #Wuhan, #China.



Cause of death, #coronavirus.pic.twitter.com/6zmKvQusWq — Darren of Plymouth 🇬🇧 (@DarrenPlymouth) February 1, 2020

"Caijing understands that at least five suspected deaths at the hospital have not been diagnosed, so it does not count towards the confirmed deaths. This means that the number of confirmed and fatal cases that people can see at present does not fully reflect the full picture of the epidemic," the article noted.

And then there's this, from SixthTone's David Paulk: "The 8 people detained in Wuhan for "spreading rumors" — who we wrote about in a Jan. 2 article that was censored — were doctors trying to raise the alarm about a new SARS-like virus."

This is one of the more infuriating sentences I’ve written on Twitter:



The 8 people detained in Wuhan for “spreading rumors” — who we wrote about in a Jan. 2 article that was censored — were doctors trying to raise the alarm about a new SARS-like virus. https://t.co/CAb1Z6YMRU https://t.co/qleiKpWlMU — David Paulk 波大卫 (@davidpaulk) January 31, 2020

We leave the last word to Zeng Guang, the chief scientist of epidemiology at China's CDC, who, on Jan. 29 made a rare candid admission about why Chinese officials cannot tell people the truth in an interview with the state-run tabloid Global Times: "The officials need to think about the political angle and social stability in order to keep their positions," which is all one needs to know about any "facts" coming out of China.

And to hide the truth, China has decided to burn the evidence: