appassionato ,
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Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control by Dali L. Yang, 2024

The definitive account of the Chinese government's response to the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan.

@bookstodon




The Covid-19 pandemic, which began as an outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, has claimed millions of lives and caused unprecedented disruptions. Despite its generation-defining significance, there has been a surprising lack of independent research examining the decisions and measures implemented in the weeks leading up to the Wuhan lockdown, as well as the missteps and shortcomings that allowed the novel coronavirus to spread with minimal hindrance. In Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, Dali L. Yang scrutinizes China's emergency response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, delving into the government's handling of epidemic information and the decisions that influenced the scale and scope of the outbreak. Yang's research reveals that China's health decision-makers and experts had an excellent head start when they implemented a health emergency action program to respond to the outbreak at the end of December 2019. With granular detail and compelling immediacy, Yang investigates the political and bureaucratic processes that hindered information flows and sharing, as well as the cognitive framework that limited understanding of the virus's contagiousness and hampered effective decisions. Yang's research uncovers that urgent warnings from sources outside Wuhan helped shift the Chinese health leadership's focus towards epidemic control. Once this shift occurred, China's party-state mobilized resources and enforced a lockdown in Wuhan.
ALT
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    • samohTmaS ,

    @appassionato @bookstodon

    I have -not- read the book. Allow me to guess...

    1. local officials prioritized business over health, until the central government stepped in.

    2. They failed to recognize the importance of the virus in January, which delayed response.

    3. China had the misfortune of having the pandemic begin in earnest just as the largest holiday in the freaking world - Chinese New Year - was about to begin, with the largest mass movement of people globally each year.

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