That is only partly true. They did know of it, and tried to hide it. However they succeeded in containment. They told the W.H.O. other countries all about how they contained it, and offered help. Only Korea and Japan paid attention. The Japanese doctors say they learned many lessons and many practical techniques from their Chinese colleagues. If the U.S. and the EU had paid attention, we would have contained it. There is no question these techniques work. It cannot be a coincidence that three large countries have only 50 to 100 cases a day, no pressure on their hospitals, and practically no deaths. This is containment.
The Chinese government has been evil, but the medical establishment and the scientists have performed magnificently. Plus, we must give credit to the political leaders for handing over control to the medical establishment, mobilizing resources, building hospitals overnight, and moving army medics and others into Wuhan.
jed,
You simply cannot compare South Korea and Japan to Europe and the US.
These 2 countries are surrounded by water,
the only way to get there is by boat and plane. Their containment was infinitely easier than than what Europe and the US
had to deal with.
Containment is critical here but it must be taken in context of what exactly is being contained.
South Korea is slightly larger than Indiana,
Imagine Indiana surrounded by water, how easy would containment be compared to say Illinois?
The geographical conditions of those 2 countries worked in their favor, not so in Europe and the US.
