You can't believe communist numbers, go figure

It’s now clear that you can’t believe a word coming out of China.

Supposedly, the first case was detected in Wuhan on 12 December. But a Hong Kong newspaper claims that officials knew of it nearly a month earlier. They informed the World Health Organisation only on 31 December. On 6 January they rejected a request by the Centre for Disease Control asked to send experts.

By then Wuhan had already clumsily punished ten doctors for raising the issue. Some media claim that Hubei Province Health Board ordered laboratories to stop testing the virus and destroy all samples.

And throughout the New Year festivities, people continued to gather, and planes continued to fly in and out of Wuhan, spreading the virus to the rest of the world. 

China’s statistics on the disease informed global research, including the Imperial College modelling that shocked Britain into its own lockdown. But now it’s clear that the figures were fantasy—many times below the experience of other countries.

Initially, cases were reported only if victims displayed a range of symptoms, including pneumonia, AND had recently visited a Wuhan market. Now, there are reports that the number of relatives turning up at morgues outstrips the death statistics many times over. And of local officials saying that they dare not report the true figures because they would be stripped of their jobs, imprisoned, or even executed.

That is entirely plausible.  And exactly what you expect under communism, where central authority is maintained by force and intimidation, and truth comes second.