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Letters | China’s coronavirus battle is no time to play politics
- The experience of South Korea and Italy disproves the theory that the freedom of speech would have stopped the outbreak in China
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Some argue that if China had not silenced Dr Li Wenliang, who had warned of the return of a Sars-like virus, the Covid-19 outbreak would not have taken such a deadly turn. Therefore, this has bolstered demands for the freedom of speech.
The experience of South Korea and Italy, which are currently battling their own coronavirus outbreaks, disproves the theory that freedom of speech would have stopped the outbreak in China.
Both South Korea and Italy have democracy and freedom of speech, as does the United States. South Korea actively advised its people on what to do from the start, but some people decided to ignore the government. Italy has initiated an investigation into hospitals in the region at the centre of the outbreak, after reports that doctors delayed testing “patient one”.
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In 2009, there was an outbreak of swine flu in the US, resulting in 200,000 deaths worldwide, more than 12,000 of them in the US. A month before the outbreak in the US, there had been an outbreak in Mexico. In 1968, the Hong Kong flu resulted in over 1 million deaths worldwide, with over 500,000 cases of the infection reported in the then British colony.
The US underestimated the number of swine flu cases and also struggled to balance public health imperatives with maintaining social stability by preventing panic and protecting the economy. The United Kingdom may have also underestimated Hong Kong flu.
It is easy to complain about government incompetence, and the lack of transparency and freedom of speech in China’s case. But the reality is that it is hard to evaluate an emergency. We can study the experiences and data of our ancestors, but each emergency is different.
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