I realise that they and other Countries didn't have hindsight so what would have made a difference then?
The first mistake was that China has practices (and possibly some other Countries which allow including high intensity pig and poultry farming) which are likely to induce a pandemic. This is a known and nothing has been done. It started there so I do attribute blame and responsibility for that on China.
But ask yourself this. Let's assume China followed what you think should have happened.
They became concerned that something odd was occurring in Wuhan in late December , early January. It appears that the local Government tried to suppress this and caused a two week shutdown delay in Wuhan. SO let us say they knew exactly what it was in late December and shut all borders and told the World they had isolated a virus in the state of Wuhan. The rest of the World would now be in exactly the same position as they had been with Sars and previous similar viruses. They didn't do anything then either. They then quite quickly told the rest of the World what the genome of this virus was. Doubt that could have been done much faster. So then there would have been a fewer number of people visiting Europe or being able to return from China. But there are some.
Are you honestly and seriously saying that all of the rest of the World would then have shut all their international borders then? That would have been the only way to control it better. The reality was that China shut its border in late January and most of the World decided to wait and watch and see what happened, generally playing it down until March!
China closing its borders sooner would only have helped if the International community followed suit immediately and we all know they wouldn't have. That's not the area the future investigations should focus on with China.
Originally Posted by: fairweather