China Falsifying Health Statistics

 

Wuhan Residents Dismiss Official Coronavirus Death Toll: ‘The Incinerators Have Been Working Around the Clock’

Wuhan residents are increasingly skeptical of the Chinese Communist Party’s reported coronavirus death count of approximately 2,500 deaths in the city to date, with most people believing the actual number is at least 40,000.

To massively distort a country’s health statistics during a pandemic is to damage the accurate planning of other countries who must now fight the same illness. China’s misbehavior should be formally called out at the UN. Nikki Haley would have been the perfect UN Ambassador to do it. Kelly Craft will have to rise to this occasion.

I can’t imagine that with the technology available and the number of legitimate sources we have in China that these allegations can’t be confirmed by solid reporting. If the news media doesn’t do the job it will be because the news media refuses to. No news of the obvious can be the fakest of fake news.

UPDATE: It looks like the Wall Street Journal is stepping up. At least they are trying to do a real story on this subject.

A Wuhan Writer Takes On China’s Communist Machine and Becomes an Online Star – WSJ.com

UPDATE 2: Another shoe drops.

U.S. Intel Confirms China Hid Severity of Coronavirus Outbreak

Communist officials in China have hidden the severity of the coronavirus outbreak within their borders, under-reporting both total cases and fatalities linked to the disease, the U.S. intelligence community reportedly confirmed in a classified report to the White House.

Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province, is the birthplace of the novel coronavirus illness (COVID-19).

During the early stages of the epidemic in China that was later deemed a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), Beijing hid the extent of the viral outbreak, muzzling and jailing whistleblowers and critics in a move that allowed the disease to gain a firm foothold across the world.

Citing three officials familiar with the classified report issued by the American intelligence community, Bloomberg revealed on Wednesday:

The officials asked not to be identified because the report is secret and declined to detail its contents. But the thrust, they said, is that China’s public reporting on cases and deaths is intentionally incomplete. Two of the officials said the report concludes that China’s numbers are fake.The report was received by the White House last week, one of the officials said.

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  1. OmegaPaladin Moderator
    OmegaPaladin
    @OmegaPaladin

    China is not even slightly trustworthy.

    • #1
  2. DonG (skeptic) Coolidge
    DonG (skeptic)
    @DonG

    There is a story in the Washington Times about the OTHER virus lab in Wuhan.  We all know about the BSL-4 superlab, but the OTHER lab specializes in studying bat viruses.  This BSL-2 lab is the world leader in finding and studying bat viruses.  What is scarier than a wet market in Wuhan?  A low-level bio lab that has spent the last decade gathering as many viruses as they can find.  They have doubled the number of known viruses in the last decade, but it is not clear they can contain them. 

    • #2
  3. Chris O. Coolidge
    Chris O.
    @ChrisO

    And some, admittedly interested, sources out of Iran claim 15,000 deaths there, or five times what its national government is reporting. Of course the great irony here is these regimes want to be seen as legitimate players and have clout on the international stage. The CCP, after all, killed tens of millions under Mao to try and realize his vision of China. Essentially, this is no different. The CCP wants an image of China presented and they will have it no matter the human cost.

    I guess our only real guide model, in terms of trusted information, will have to be Italy.

    • #3
  4. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    There is a story in the Washington Times about the OTHER virus lab in Wuhan. We all know about the BSL-4 superlab, but the OTHER lab specializes in studying bat viruses. This BSL-2 lab is the world leader in finding and studying bat viruses. What is scarier than a wet market in Wuhan?

    Nice Pick up Don.  We likely will never know the whole story but what the ChiComs were doing with CoronaViruses in Wuhan was way beyond anything reasonable. And then to add to that the bad habit of the Chinese of selling lab animals in these wet markets!

    According to that RightWing BitterClinger Newsrag Newsweek in the  article “Wuhan COVID-19 Death Toll may be in Tens of Thousands , Data on Cremations and Shipment of Urns Suggest”:

    A stack of urns at a funeral home in Wuhan, the city’s official cremation rates, and reports of an overwhelmed health care system have prompted speculation that Wuhan’s real COVID-19 death toll could be in the tens of thousands—despite the Chinese government reporting 2,535 deaths from just over 50,000 coronavirus infections.”

    Photos began circulating across Chinese social media this week of urns arriving in the epicenter of the outbreak, after families who had lost loved ones to the novel coronavirus were instructed to pick up cremated ashes from one of the local funeral homes in the city. “

    “Trucks dropped off roughly 2,500 urns on Wednesday and again on Thursday local time to one of the eight local funeral homes, a driver told Chinese media outlet Caixin. The news site also published another photo showing 3,500 urns stacked inside the facility. The number of urns that arrived in that one funeral home was far greater than the city’s official overall death COVID-19 toll.”

    “Some Wuhan residents estimate that the coronavirus death toll could be 26,000, based on the amount of urns being delivered and distributed across the city. Citizens on Chinese social media have said that seven Wuhan funeral homes will likely distribute 3,500 urns per day on average from March 23 to April 4, which marks Qing Ming, the traditional tomb-sweeping festival. By that estimate, 42,000 urns would be given out in the 12-day period.”

    “By subtracting the expected deaths of roughly 16,000 in Wuhan, based on China’s annual death rateover two and a half months, they estimate that the urns show that the coronavirus outbreak could have resulted in approximately 26,000 deaths. It is currently unclear, however, how many of the urns have been used.”

    “Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas cited the urn deliveries on Sunday to accuse China of misrepresenting the impact of the virus. “A *single mortuary* in Wuhan reportedly ordered more urns in two days than the Chinese Communist Party has reported total deaths in the whole country,” he tweeted. “I’m sure you’re shocked by evidence of Chinese lies.””

    • #4
  5. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    There is a story in the Washington Times about the OTHER virus lab in Wuhan. We all know about the BSL-4 superlab, but the OTHER lab specializes in studying bat viruses. This BSL-2 lab is the world leader in finding and studying bat viruses. What is scarier than a wet market in Wuhan? A low-level bio lab that has spent the last decade gathering as many viruses as they can find. They have doubled the number of known viruses in the last decade, but it is not clear they can contain them.

    Is this the same lab that Harvard professor Charles Lieber worked for, supplying his knowledge of nano bit technology to the Chinese? And supposedly that facility is only several  hundred feet from the now famous exotic animal species food market we have all heard about over the last 6 weeks.

    • #5
  6. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    An interesting memo from Homeland Security concerning flights from China (11 US airports received those flights) dated Feb 2, 2020  The memo states risk to Americans is low, and lays out screening procedures.  It’s interesting in hindsight, and you could say reliant on information from China. Fairly short one page read.

    https://www.dhs.gov/news/2020/02/02/dhs-issues-supplemental-instructions-inbound-flights-individuals-who-have-been-china

    • #6
  7. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    The reporting that is ongoing in more or less hysterical terms here in the USA needs to be examined as well.

    Those of us questioning the methods of auditing how many in any given populace are suffering from COVID, and whether their infections are asymptomatic, mild, a bit troublesome or serious understand that our butt-backward methods of acquiring statistics are sloppy at best and totally over the top  misleading.

    Since in areas where there is wide spread exposure and illness, only people who admit to being very ill get tested, this totally skews the rates of mortality to be much higher than anyone wanting realistic ciphering would agree with.

    Both Germany and South Korea seem to have  done the best audits of people, as they have managed to undertake a larger survey of the entire populace, and not just those who can be admitted to a hospital. The story those audits tell is a mortality rate of 0.6 to 0.7% over all identified cases. This is a far cry from the ridiculous 3.4% mortality rate touted by the WHO official whose mis- calculations started the entire collapse of the world’ s societies.

    Also take a gander at this news story about CBS’ news coverage and the “mistake” CBS made.
    https://www.foxnews.com/media/cbs-news-admits-mistake-after-airing-footage-of-overcrowded-nyc-hospital-that-was-actually-in-italy?fbclid=IwAR1jUowvAIGkxVhrrkj1rjH6lsv2l55VhuDYp8LWdh9vZ2XQZRqJ0I0_Vjw

    CBS News admits ‘mistake’ after airing footage of overcrowded Italian hospital in their  report about NYC

    CBS News admitted to a “mistake” on Monday after airing footage of an overcrowded hospital room that was allegedly in New York City but was actually from a hospital in Italy.

    “It was an editing mistake. We took immediate steps to remove it from all platforms and shows,” a CBS News spokesperson told Fox News.

    Last Wednesday, “CBS This Morning” included a brief clip showing several patients and medical professionals in one room during a report about the rising threat of the COVID 19  outbreak in New York City.

    However, that same footage aired days prior on Sky News.
    (Full article at link above.)

     

    Somewhere on social media, my spouse reports some guy had been watching one of the pandemic or “Contagion” movies, & the scene where  bodies are to be carried out to a huge warehouse of coffins stayed in the movie watcher’s brain. He then flipped to the news. That scene from the thriller movie was being aired on the news as actual footage of the results of the “catastrophic death toll” here in some American city.

    • #7
  8. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    5000 urns at one crematorium.   Huge lines at the other 9 in Wuhan as well.

    China Lied.

    People Died.

     

    • #8
  9. David Carroll Thatcher
    David Carroll
    @DavidCarroll

    James Gawron:

    I can’t imagine that with the technology available and the number of legitimate sources we have in China that these allegations can’t be confirmed by solid reporting. If the news media doesn’t do the job it will be because the news media refuses to. No news of the obvious can be the fakest of fake news.

    If I remember correctly, China booted out American reporters who were interested in telling the truth.

     

    • #9
  10. Chris O. Coolidge
    Chris O.
    @ChrisO

    David Carroll (View Comment):
    If I remember correctly, China booted out American reporters who were interested in telling the truth.

    And shut down a Chinese newspaper that was reporting on it.

    • #10
  11. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    From a friend off Facebook:

    “Basically that the current rate of COVID-19 infections is 2X cases every six days, i.e. the number of cases doubles every six days.

    However, when China went on full lockdown, the doubling rate fell to every 3000 days. The presumption, however, is that as soon as the lockdown is lifted, the infection doubling rate would increase to 6 days in a short time.

    So, in order for us to be completely sure that everyone on Earth is protected, and the virus completely runs its course, never to return, all humans would have to stay on complete lockdown for 131 years.”

    ###

    I can only imagine how much glee some bureaucrats would have if we were to LockDown for 131 years.

    • #11
  12. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    David Carroll (View Comment):

    James Gawron:

    I can’t imagine that with the technology available and the number of legitimate sources we have in China that these allegations can’t be confirmed by solid reporting. If the news media doesn’t do the job it will be because the news media refuses to. No news of the obvious can be the fakest of fake news.

    If I remember correctly, China booted out American reporters who were interested in telling the truth.

    Dave,

    In WWII the media didn’t sit on its @ss in the Rose Garden trying to gotcha the President. They took risks too.

    They want credit for things they haven’t done. All they are good for is a daily cheap shot at Trump. Pathetic. They need to earn their bloated salaries. I don’t want to hear that the Chinese government won’t like it. So what!

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #12
  13. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    China is like the suicide bomber who accidentally blows himself up before he gets to the target. 

    I am beginning to think this virus just might be one of those Biblical disasters that befalls a sinful world.

    The AF Academy backed off its lockdown after two cadets committed suicide. Isolation isn’t good for people under pressure. 

    No crime in my neighborhood, yet. Governor says everything closes tomorrow at 5pm if nonessential. There goes my karate. 

    • #13
  14. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    I am pretty sure they are all lying about the numbers.

    • #14
  15. Ray Kujawa Coolidge
    Ray Kujawa
    @RayKujawa

    This is an interesting topic of conversation to happen during Lent. The priest blesses with Ashes on Ash Wednesday, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” I think the leadership in China has finally come to terms with the reality of human to human transmission of virus after many denials. The dead cannot exhale.

    • #15
  16. Chris O. Coolidge
    Chris O.
    @ChrisO

    EHerring (View Comment):
    No crime in my neighborhood, yet. Governor says everything closes tomorrow at 5pm if nonessential. There goes my karate. 

    Off topic, but my Tae Kwon Do studio is doing classes through Zoom. It’s a bit awkward, but it’s something. I’ll add this: don’t try a full workout on carpet…tweaked my knee a bit.

    • #16
  17. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Chris O. (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):
    No crime in my neighborhood, yet. Governor says everything closes tomorrow at 5pm if nonessential. There goes my karate.

    Off topic, but my Tae Kwon Do studio is doing classes through Zoom. It’s a bit awkward, but it’s something. I’ll add this: don’t try a full workout on carpet…tweaked my knee a bit.

    I will miss the big wooden floor, for sure. I was wondering if that zoom stuff would work. The Monday class was just a few of us adults. We haven’t been doing blocking, just kata, rank exam fundamentals, and kicking.  The bottoms of my bare feet can handle wood but I think the rug would tear them up. At least I can roll it back. 

    • #17
  18. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    James Gawron: and the number of legitimate sources we have in China

    The latest issue of National Review has a discussion about how Chinese journalists reporting the facts are being “disappeared”.  Here are a couple of examples of reporting and an arrest:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMy7TvZB8i8

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTkKVOaClto

    • #18
  19. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Stad (View Comment):

    James Gawron: and the number of legitimate sources we have in China

    The latest issue of National Review has a discussion about how Chinese journalists reporting the facts are being “disappeared”. Here are a couple of examples of reporting and an arrest:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMy7TvZB8i8

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTkKVOaClto

    Stad,

    This is the full horror of a totalitarian state. Marxism doesn’t believe in rights. One of the oldest and most basic rights going back to English Law is Habeas Corpus. Definition: “a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.” At least you would know where he is being held and for what. He should be able to gain legal counsel and communicate with his lawyer. A Marxist State might accept such responsibility but probably only from outside pressure to avoid embarrassment. That is why these stories need to be followed up by Western media.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #19
  20. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    Unsk (View Comment):
    We likely will never know the whole story but what the ChiComs were doing with CoronaViruses in Wuhan was way beyond anything reasonable.

    The very scientists who are now ensconced at Wuhan Virology Institute published studies a decade ago showing how to alter bat coronavirus DNA to increase the virus’ binding to human lung cells.  That is to say, to weaponize the virus.  I laid this all out in a Ricochet post about a week ago.  Although it was derided by head-in-the-sand types, no one has disproven the fact that the work was done, and published.

    This is deliberate.  The is biologic warfare against the west.  Wuhan’s dead are casualties of the home team.

    • #20
  21. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Alert to all,

    I have posted an update in this post (see above). A video that was posted today on the Wall Street Journal website is about the Chinese Government suppression of the real situation in China.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #21
  22. OmegaPaladin Moderator
    OmegaPaladin
    @OmegaPaladin

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):

    Unsk (View Comment):
    We likely will never know the whole story but what the ChiComs were doing with CoronaViruses in Wuhan was way beyond anything reasonable.

    The very scientists who are now ensconced at Wuhan Virology Institute published studies a decade ago showing how to alter bat coronavirus DNA to increase the virus’ binding to human lung cells. That is to say, to weaponize the virus. I laid this all out in a Ricochet post about a week ago. Although it was derided by head-in-the-sand types, no one has disproven the fact that the work was done, and published.

    This is deliberate. The is biologic warfare against the west. Wuhan’s dead are casualties of the home team.

    You were derided because you described standard microbiology research as proof of the Wuhan coronavirus being engineered.  People alter the tropism of viruses all the time.  Around here, you need to present the protocol to the biosafety committee first to make sure safety practices are in place.  I still do not see evidence of this being a bioweapon.  I do think China has a bioweapons program.

    That said, I would not be surprised if the virus escaped from the Wuhan institute.  China is legendary for poor safety practices.  I heard reports that used lab animal carcasses were being sold in markets.   China played a key role in worsening this crisis and I hope they are forced to pay for it.

    • #22
  23. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    To all,

    Check out the second update to the post. Things are moving forward fast.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #23
  24. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):

    Unsk (View Comment):
    We likely will never know the whole story but what the ChiComs were doing with CoronaViruses in Wuhan was way beyond anything reasonable.

    The very scientists who are now ensconced at Wuhan Virology Institute published studies a decade ago showing how to alter bat coronavirus DNA to increase the virus’ binding to human lung cells. That is to say, to weaponize the virus. I laid this all out in a Ricochet post about a week ago. Although it was derided by head-in-the-sand types, no one has disproven the fact that the work was done, and published.

    This is deliberate. The is biologic warfare against the west. Wuhan’s dead are casualties of the home team.

    You were derided because you described standard microbiology research as proof of the Wuhan coronavirus being engineered. People alter the tropism of viruses all the time. Around here, you need to present the protocol to the biosafety committee first to make sure safety practices are in place. I still do not see evidence of this being a bioweapon. I do think China has a bioweapons program.

    That said, I would not be surprised if the virus escaped from the Wuhan institute. China is legendary for poor safety practices. I heard reports that used lab animal carcasses were being sold in markets. China played a key role in worsening this crisis and I hope they are forced to pay for it.

    That will not happen.  America will do the paying and they will hate us for it.

    • #24
  25. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    James Gawron (View Comment):
    This is the full horror of a totalitarian state. Marxism doesn’t believe in rights.

    Nor did the Chinese Empire, at least not as the West does. My late Tai Chi teacher hailed from Hubei province, as did the lineage founder of the Kwang Ping Yang style. His grandteacher Yang Pan-hou

    was reportedly the official teacher for the Imperial court of the Manchus. The indigenous Chinese, known as the Han, had been subjugated by the Manchus and therefore Yang Pan-hou did not want to pass down the family’s true art to them.

    So he detuned the form and taught that.

    He was secretly observed by Wang Jiao-Yu while practicing the true form. After some time Yang Pan-Hou discovered this, and after confronting Wang agreed to teach him the secret form. If it had been discovered that the Imperial household was being defrauded in this way, I was told that Yang Pan-hou, Wang Jiao-Yu, and every member of their families would have been killed.

     

    • #25
  26. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Some of China’s collaborators will be falsifying other things:

    Hat tip Instapundit for the previous and following:

     

    • #26
  27. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Jim, and everyone else in the comments, thanks for all the valuable information and links in this post.  I am going to link to it on my own blog, since I couldn’t tell this sordid story any better.

    Great job, Ricochetti!

    • #27
  28. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):
    That said, I would not be surprised if the virus escaped from the Wuhan institute. China is legendary for poor safety practices. I heard reports that used lab animal carcasses were being sold in markets. China played a key role in worsening this crisis and I hope they are forced to pay for it.

    Any sources on the carcasses sold in markets? I can’t imagine a scientist doing that. I can imagine the guy in charge of putting them in the furnace doing it.

    If so, that’s messed up, as the kids used to say. “Hey, you got any bats for supper?”

    “No, but my guy’s bringing by a bag of desiccated, hacked-up bats from the Disease Lab up the road, so if you want to hang out for a while I can set you up.”

    “Cool, thanks”

    • #28
  29. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):
    That said, I would not be surprised if the virus escaped from the Wuhan institute. China is legendary for poor safety practices. I heard reports that used lab animal carcasses were being sold in markets. China played a key role in worsening this crisis and I hope they are forced to pay for it.

    Any sources on the carcasses sold in markets? I can’t imagine a scientist doing that. I can imagine the guy in charge of putting them in the furnace doing it.

    If so, that’s messed up, as the kids used to say. “Hey, you got any bats for supper?”

    “No, but my guy’s bringing by a bag of desiccated, hacked-up bats from the Disease Lab up the road, so if you want to hang out for a while I can set you up.”

    “Cool, thanks”

    Several scandals at labs in China over the past 15 years.  It was not the researchers but those charged with disposal of the animal who instead sold them to markets.  I remember because one of the scandals broke while I was on one of my trips to China.  The animals were sold live into the wet markets.

    • #29
  30. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):
    Several scandals at labs in China over the past 15 years.

    It’s irrelevant, because the wrong people are saying it. Mediamatters:

    I saw the segment. He did, indeed, preface the entire segment by saying exactly that. From the headline you might think he was contacted later and admitted he didn’t read what he said on the air. From the headline you might think that the idea that COVID originated in a lab, instead of a filthy bloody open market, is an illegitimate line of inquiry, because it’s a “conspiracy theory” – a meaningless term that just alerts the right-thinking people to wave it away. (Unless it’s one of the 3,036 Chomsky-approved conspiracy theories.) 

    Don’t mean to sound all crazy and nutso, but it’s almost as if there’s a class of people inculcated with loathing of their own culture and country who reflexively defend a foreign state they know is corrupt, but provides a shining path model of what a single-party autocratic clique can accomplish. Can’t let that model be discredited.

    • #30
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