Starting in November 2002, SARS a virus related to COVID-19 started to spread in China. It was transmissible as COVID and was much more deadly. COVID has a case fatality rate of just over 1.2 percent.
In comparison SARS infected roughly 10,000 people and had a 10 percent case fatality rate.
The WHO moved into China immediately and the transmission was limited as the borders were locked down almost immediately. They had the ability and knowledge to stop COVID, but politics got in the way.
It is possible that COVID19 had hopped across borders before China told the world about the virus. However, I think it is important that people understand the difference between closing borders and locking down communities.
Regardless it is important for people to realize the difference between closing borders and lockdowns. These are two different policies and they have different effects.
Unfortunately, many people see the world through political filters and they are more atuned to who is imposing a policy and not on the results of the policy.
!HIVEBITS
Before the virus was announced at the end of November, there was a revolt in a town a couple of hundred miles from the Hong Kong border. The protest was the decision to build a crematorium capable of cremating 1000 bodies per day. At the time, I thought it was related to the Hong Kong protests, although now I am not sure. In December, the doctors started sharing information about this new pneumonia attacking people. If I could draw your attention to the date on this article:
It is a certainty the virus had hopped the border before China admitted the seriousness. China closed the land borders to neighbouring areas, but they kept international flights going.
Closing borders was effective with both SARS and MERS. It limited the spread to a few thousand people. They didn't isolate China or the subsequent countries that found the infection, and millions have died.
Was that incompetence, malice or venality?