The Washington Post’s editorial board published a rundown today of how China’s entire system conspired to keep information on the coronavirus under wraps in the first weeks of 2020 (and beyond). The information in this piece isn’t new but it’s nice to see it presented in the context of how China’s one-party system was intentionally geared to lying, first to their own people and then to the entire world. The Post’s coverage is all based on a 193-page report released by DRASTIC, the online researchers who have been digging into the origin of Covid for the past several years.

In editorials last year, we called attention to how the virus was spreading in November and December 2019, earlier than China has admitted; how China had carried out genomic sequencing of the virus in late December 2019; and we pointed to additional cases that were not reported to a joint mission of China and the WHO. It is still not known precisely how or where the pandemic began, whether from zoonotic spillover or a laboratory leak. But by the end of December 2019, the growing caseload set off alarms in Wuhan.

…by Dec. 30, 2019, seven patients were at the Houhu branch.

That afternoon, at 3:10 p.m., the Wuhan health commission — the political level — issued an “urgent notice” to health institutions to look out for PUE cases. Another notice followed at 6:50 p.m., warning “not to disclose information to the public without authorization.”

At Wuhan Central that evening, ophthalmologist Li Wenliang examined the medical report of a patient whose condition seemed strikingly like SARS. He shared it with his former medical school friends in their class WeChat group, so they could be prepared. “Seven cases of SARS confirmed,” he wrote. On Jan. 1, Li was detained by police, along with seven other doctors. He was accused of “making untrue comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order.” He was reprimanded for “this illegal activity” and signed a paper promising not to do it again.

Before anyone in the world knew what was happening, the Chinese political minders were already covering it up. Doctors were supposed to report new infections on cards which were available to other doctors in other hospitals. But the political people began telling doctors in early January not to write anything down. Information on suspected COVID patients could only be shared verbally, in person or on the phone.

The initial seven patients at Wuhan Central had been reported only by telephone, and the public health doctor was eager to file the electronic report cards. But he was instructed by political officials and higher-ups to wait. Although the cases were in the hospital in late December, they were not entered into the system until Jan. 8, according to the chronology…

On Jan. 13, a meeting was held at the hospital, and the doctors and public health officials were warned that cases of infection can be reported only with the consent of the city and provincial health commissions — the political level. These layers of approval only clogged the system more…

“In mid-January, everyone was covering their eyes,” a doctor from Wuhan Central told Caixin. “From the province to the city to the hospital: the province did not allow the city to report, the city did not allow the hospital to report, and the hospital did not allow the hospital department to report. It was just covered up layer by layer, causing the golden period of prevention and control to be missed again and again.”

The editorial board concludes, “China’s dictatorship bottled up the truths and published lies. The party’s quest for absolute control — through fear, threats and intimidation — blocked action precisely when the virus spread might have been slowed or stopped.”

And China has kept on lying right up through this year. Just last month there was an accidental release of data on the death toll in one province. We know it was an accident because soon after the data appeared it was pulled down:

Official data from China offered a rare, but brief, glimpse of the true toll of Covid, indicating that nearly as many people may have died from the virus in a single province earlier this year as Beijing has said died in the mainland during the entire pandemic.

The data was deleted from a provincial government website just days after it was published on Thursday. But epidemiologists who reviewed a cached version of the information said it was the latest indication that the country’s official tally is a vast undercount.

Nothing China says about any topic with the possibility to embarrass the party or the president can be trusted. This is a dictatorship built on lies and strict control of information. It’s an outrage that after carelessly spreading this disease to the entire world we allow them to stonewall investigations into what really happened.