Covid pandemic could have been avoided and contained to Wuhan, professor claims: Expert’s book lifts the lid on Chinese blunders that allowed the virus to spread across the globe

The Covid pandemic could have been prevented and contained to Wuhan, a professor claims in a scathing book that lifts the lid on Chinese blunders that allowed the virus to spread around the world and kill millions of people.

‘Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control’, by lead author Professor Dali Yang, was published on Friday and examines the pandemic in forensic detail.

Professor Yang draws the devastating conclusion that the pandemic, which started in late December 2019 with the first known patients in the eastern Chinese city, was not inevitable.

The book examines key events that took place before Wuhan’s lockdown, including how a mass banquet bringing together more than 100,000 people was held on January 18, despite health officials knowing the virus was spreading.

Prof Yang provides an in-depth analysis of who knew what and when about the virus, but barely addresses the origins of Covid-19. The Telegraph reports.

Professor Dali Yang draws the devastating conclusion that the pandemic, which started in late December 2019 with the first known patients in the eastern Chinese city, was not inevitable

Instead, it looks at the individual heroism witnessed during the pandemic, as well as the flawed decision-making and lack of clarity as officials tried to deal with a mysterious “pneumonia of unknown etiology.”

Professor Yang concludes that the global pandemic, which led to the deaths of an estimated 13.3 to 16.6 million people worldwide, could have been prevented.

“I think there was a meaningful chance that the pandemic could have been prevented,” Prof. Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, told The Telegraph.

The professor believes that Chinese health authorities were dealt “remarkably strong cards” in the early days of the virus outbreak.

“China is a country with significant capabilities, which could have developed knowledge and response more quickly by the end of December 2019,” he added.

But he says any gains were offset by an authoritarian political system unprepared for the emergency.

The pandemic dates back to when several Wuhan doctors at some of China’s top hospitals discovered that a “pneumonia of unknown cause” in the city was showing signs of “human-to-human” transmission.

Experts feared the virus was linked to the SARS coronavirus that ravaged East Asia between 2002 and 2004. A doctor told the local Center for Disease Control (CDC): ‘It is a disease that we have never encountered before, it is also a family (cluster of) infections. Something is definitely wrong!’

The coronavirus was confirmed by Vision Medicals, a laboratory based in Guangzhou, which tested ‘Patient A’ – a 65-year-old man with severe pneumonia and ‘multiple scattered, patchy, weak opacities in both lungs’.

Workers manage food supplies at the Tiantongyuan residential complex where residents are under lockdown to halt the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus on November 3, 2021 in Beijing

Workers line up to get tested for COVID-19 at the Foxconn factory in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province on August 5, 2021

‘Due to the sensitivity of the diagnostic results’, the laboratory only confirmed the positive test result for a SARS-like coronavirus to the hospital by telephone and not in writing.

Doctors found it was 81 percent similar to the first SARS coronavirus outbreak. And screenshots appearing online showed the virus was immediately recognized as something that should be “treated in the same class as the plague” to contain it.

Despite mounting evidence pointing to a possible pandemic, the local CDC was slow to respond.

Gao Fu, the director general of the national CDC, did not report on the Wuhan outbreak on social media until December 30.

And although he acted quickly with emergency measures, the following weeks were marred by errors, censorship and political interests that failed to stop the spread of the virus.

Medical staff perform hemodialysis treatment for a uremic patient recovering from COVID-19 infection at Hankou Hospital in Wuhan in March 2020

‘The first week of January became a crucial turning point for tackling the outbreak. Just the wrong kind,” the book said. “The lack of action before January 20 was monumental.”

One of the biggest mistakes was failing to respond to several cases in Wuhan that were not linked to the Huanan Seafood Market – the location of the first clusters.

Professor Yang suggests that when the market was closed because of this, people believed the virus was under control and that the virus could spread out of a false sense of security.

Other factors that contributed to the fight against the virus included China’s political tradition of suppressing information to maintain social stability.

“It’s clear that many doctors are heroes, but if you read between the lines, they also operated within the constraints,” Prof. Yang said.

‘It is clearly not a black and white photo, but shades of gray. Some of the most heroic doctors also happened to be those who might not have spoken out as they could have. It’s a very complicated picture.’

Doctors who did speak out were reprimanded by the police and infections among hospital staff were covered up.

Even as Wuhan moved closer to a lockdown, high-profile events such as the Chinese New Year celebrations were still showcased to try to prove that everything was under control.

This photo taken on February 24, 2020, shows medical staff treating patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province

It was Taiwanese Dr Chuang Yin-ching who said on January 13, 2020 that the outbreak was much worse than feared. When he returned, Taiwan issued a travel warning for Wuhan and tightened border controls.

But back in Wuhan, the seriousness of the virus continued to be downplayed, leaving it to Dr Zhong Nanshan, 83, a trusted veteran of the first SARS epidemic, to warn that Covid was “certainly transmissible from human to human.”

He confirmed that cases were seen in Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai and Zhejiang and even abroad in Japan, South Korea and Thailand. At that time, China was alerted and citizens were advised to wear face masks.

However, New Year celebrations continued to take place in Wuhan and Hubei provinces, with residents invited to apply for 200,000 free passes to visit historical sites. Local media praised artists for continuing despite being ill.

By the time Wuhan was sealed off from the rest of the world on January 23, some 500,000 people had left the country for the holidays.