He could not have imagined a fire like this. Mysterious new cluster of pneumonia cases. They couldnt count the bodies. The moment when the worldwide catastrophe was born. Chaos in wuhan. What did the chinese hide . The government of wuhan was saying shut up. Be quiet about this. The virus was silently moving through the population. The men who hid the truth. They made it much worse for the Chinese People. They contributing to a pandemic that swept the globe. One man who told the truth. You know, this could be me. Whistles for a whistleblower. Grief from a devastated people. Outpouring of grief. Chinas furious battle to stop the killer covid. They used brutal measures. No question about it. The country and a leader desperate to hold on to newfound global stature. The greatest threat to their control since the square uprise. Words of praise turn to darker rhetoric. You should have china. China was very secretive. Very, very secretive. As the battle that began in china becomes a world war. Holy [ bleep ]. This is going pandemic. Good evening. Im fareed zakaria. Once upon a time, there was just one person, a single patient in wuhan china with a fever and a cough. How did we go from that first case to a global catastrophe . Could the virus have been stopped or slowed down . What happened in the earliest days when doctors and local officials knew they were at war with a brandnew virus, untreatable, contagious, deadly . This is the story of china and covid19. What did the Chinese Government know, and when did they know it . The story begins on a beautiful night last fall. The biggest celebration in chinas history, the 70th anniversary of the peoples republic of china. A spectacular eruption of joy and pride and victory for a country that had risen from third world deprivation to dazzling first world power in just a few decades. 70 years ago, china was desperately poor. They had a very low standard of living. The Life Expectancy was among the poorest countries in the world. Today, here you are in beijing at a moment when you are rivaling the United States for power and economic splendor. At the center of it all, president xi jinping, a leader with new extraordinary powers. In china today, people call xi jinping the chairman of everything. He is in charge of the military. Hes in charge of the party. Hes in charge of the state. He runs all of the most important institutions that oversee the judiciary, the press, public life, private life. China hasnt had a leader with this much authority since chairman mau was alive in the 1970s. Xi rules the most contradictory land on earth. A proudly communist country, exploding with hypercapitalism under a secretive authoritarian regime. In just a few weeks, all of those forces would come together in a perfect storm when an unseen enemy invaded wuhan, china. It is middecember when sick people begin streaming into hospitals with a mysterious illness. You dont know what your patients have. All you know is they suddenly had a bunch of pneumonia patients, and it seemed to be quite dangerous. These patients were very sick. Wuhan is home to 11 Million People, about the size of new york city and los angeles together. It is a gleaming modern city with dozens of shiny skyscrapers, eightlane highways. Like much of china, the new and old are all mixed together in a tug of war between explosive growth and ageold customs. Like wet markets, some are dangerously unsanitary, with wild animals slaughtered on site. Such markets can be ideal breeding grounds for animaltohuman transmission of a virus. And some who had the mystery illness had been to that same wuhan wet market. On december 30th, with case numbers growing, doctors at wuhan Central Hospital begin to raise alarms. So, these doctors started talking to each other. 27 cases of a strange pneumonia in wuhan, china. Wow. One of them tells us a small chat group of doctors on social media. He sent it out as an advisory to other doctors to say hey, be on the lookout for this. Something is happening. He asked them not to circulate the news, but it got out. With rumors swirling, Health Officials decide to go public. December 31st, china tells the World Health Organization about the illness. Officials claim it is not spreading. The virus was silently moving through the population while the Political Leadership was continuing on business as usual. The next day, eight doctors are detained and interrogated for spreading rumors about the disease. Chinese officials have arrested several people for spreading fake news online. Then an order from the wuhan health commission, doctors cannot report new cases without approval from high level officials. The government of wuhan was saying shut up, keep quiet about this. Baked in to the essence of chinese politics is the sense that you dont air dirty laundry. January 9th. Scientists have identified the illness as a new coronavirus. Still, they say it does not appear to be transmissible. This, even though family members of patients are now falling ill. Over the course of the next couple of weeks while this piece of information was being suppressed, the virus continued to grow. All of this is happening during the season of celebration around chinese new year. It is a time when hundreds of millions of people travel. Its also a time when the communist party holds important meetings and events. In wuhan, they held a banquet for thousands of people altogether eating dinner at one place. It was a political pageant. The local political leaders were determined not to disrupt the political dinner. A pot luck dinner to get that dinner into the guinness book of world records. Thats right. With the virus racing through the city, local officials are trying to break a record for the largest ever pot luck dinner. Which turned into a giant super spreader event and increased the epidemic enormously. Disaster. During this time, early to mid january, wuhan hospitals are filling with covid patients, yet City Health Authorities report no new cases for weeks. Sort of shut it down as shut it down. There is strong incentive to keep the information away from the public. Yen jeng wang. Evidence suggesting human to human transmission indeed occurring makes the situation even worse. Meanwhile, the virus becomes international news. Mysterious pneumonia outbreak in wuhan, china. With limited information, cnn files its first report. Ruled out sars, ruled out hers, but they dont know what it is. And one Health Expert we talked to here at the Chinese University of hong kong says its likely eye brandnew viral pneumonia. As the story spreads around the world beijing gets word, a team of cdc investigators is dispatched to wuhan. And the team leader gets sick. The leader of that Investigation Team himself was infected. He said had i known how serious that was, i would be more careful. What happens next may be the moment when a worldwide pandemic is born. First, a major development. The virus appears in another country. Thailand has reported the first case of the wuhan coronavirus found outside of china. Then a critical meeting. Top medical officials in beijing and wuhan hold a teleconference. By that time already the local governments knew their Health Care Workers had been infected. The Associated Press obtained documents revealing that during that teleconference, officials acknowledged that the virus could become a pandemic. The highest level Emergency Response was issued but only inside the government. It would be six more days, january 20th, before president xi jinping would warn the world that china has a problem. All Chinese People should stay away from wuhan. Why did chinas leadership wait until six days after that teleconference to tell the Chinese People and the world . In those six days tens of thousands of people travel in and out of wuhan. Do you think that the people, the local officials of wuhan and hubei, were they covering this up . I believe theres a cover up going on. Theres no question theres a cover up. Everything we know about the way the chinese political system works tells us that the local government was probably a scapegoat. There is no question the crisis was handled from the top. Whether or not xi jinping knew about it in the very beginning or whether he heard about it a few days later, i find it implausible to imagine that the Central Government was not aware of the epidemic from its earliest moments. China has created a system of information transfer. Don mcneal of the New York Times sees it differently. This notion that everything happens from the top, that the emperor knows where every sparrow falls, is ridiculous. That has been glomed on to by the Trump Administration who is desperate to shift the blame. A spokesman for the Chinese ForeignMinistry Says there was no cover up. [ speaking Foreign Language ] but whether because of fear, indecision, or an instinct to suppress bad news, beijing waited before revealing what it knew. January 21st, the first known case in america. Its on the west coast. A man in Washington State has the same virus that has sickened about 300 people in china, killing at least 6. American Intelligence Services are worried. They have been warning the white house this is worse than were being told. Donald trump would repeatedly dismiss those concerns. Its going to disappear. One day, its like a miracle, it will disappear. Because of all weve done, the risk to the American People remains very low. Were working very closely with china and other countries, and we think its going to have a very good ending for us. And as hes pushing a long sought trade deal with china, trump speaks of president xi in glowing terms. He loves his country and hes doing a very good job with a very, very tough situation. Then the american president tweets to thank china for its transparency. Come here. Days later, one of trumps top china trade officials would write a memo warning the virus could become a pandemic. Still, trump down played the danger. January 23rd. Finally, the order comes down from beijing. Lock down wuhan. Now the city where the virus began will be cut off from the world. All the flights, all the trains, all the highways, all the buses. Crowds swarmed train stations and airports. Residents who may carry the infection are given a few hours to leave. Cnn correspondent david culver is in wuhan as thousands are fighting to get out. This gives an idea of how seriously people are taking this idea to leave wuhan and get out before Public Transportation is strictly limited. As the city turns into a ghost town, all hell breaks loose at hospitals. The people were dying. It was total chaos in the hospitals in wuhan. Thats why the numbers were so bad. They couldnt count the bodies. They didnt have tests. Western journalists have little access to what is going on inside the fight against covid. But New York Times reporter Donald Mcneal is following it closely. Holy [ bleep ], this is going pandemic. It looked like the beginning of what a pandemic looks like, chaos, terrified people, people running into the hospital, everyone saying get out, get out, stay home, youre infecting each other. I couldnt sleep that night. Stop. Up next, whistles for a whistleblower. The decision to silence dr. Li proved to be a catastrophe. For a doctor who dared to tell the truth. vo switch to sprint and get four lines of unlimited for just 100 a month. Plus, were throwing in four Samsung Galaxy phones. On us. And now, sprint customers enjoy access to expanded coverage on the tmobile network. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. For an everyday item to become dangerous. Tide pods childguard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. To close, twist until it clicks. Tide pods childguard packaging. [ engines revving ] its amazing to see them in the wild like th shhh. For those who were born to ride, theres progressive. On december 30th, a on op that meteorologist at wuhan Central Hospital sent a private message in a group chat. It was an advisory to other doctors warning about a terrifying and deadly new virus. He asked them not to circulate the news, but of course it got out. Immediately it caught fire on social media. Had a young doctor who was trying to do the right thing, and yet rather than celebrate him, the Chinese Government detains him. Chinese authorities summoned dr. Li wenliang to the Police Station in the middle of the night and interrogated him. He was told to keep his mouth shut and he was forced to sign a document that described what he had done as a mistake. Dr. Li had broken a rule in china. Under xi jinping, the consequences for saying the wrong thing had become much harsher. The decision to silence dr. Li proved to be a catastrophe. Over the next few weeks, as the disease spread across wuhan, citizens uploaded scenes of a medical system that was completely overwhelmed. Hundreds of people lined up in hospital corridors crowding their way in, dead bodies on the hospital floors, people screaming. Rows of red stools people sitting on all way too close together. Among the infected patients was dr. Li himself. First he was persecuted for sounding the alarm. Dr. Li wenliang has died of the coronavirus infection. He was killed by the same virus he bravely tried to stop. Li wenliang was an ordinary man who believed in the truth, his mother said. She said her son never told a lie, even when he was a child. [ speaking Foreign Language ] days before his death, dr. Li said i believe there should be more than one voice in a healthy vote. I think that is a statement that is going to stay with the Chinese People for a very long time. It became an anthem for a remarkable digital uprising. The death of dr. Li was the trigger for an extraordinary outpouring of public anguish. Any ordinary chinese would find resonance in dr. Li, that there could be me. They blew whistles to honor li as a whistleblower and a national hero. Around the world, people joined the chorus. Millions posted tributes to dr. Li on chinese social media. We saw the government go and take down posts. The wewantfreedomofspeech was briefly trending online. Remember how extraordinary that is in a country known for the largest and most sophisticated online sensorship system in the world. It was such an outpouring of outrage that it swamped the usual chinese sensorship system. They simply could not keep up. The Chinese People were furious about dr. Lis death and the initial cover up of the severity of the outbreak. As the virus spread, peoples anger got even louder. [ speaking Foreign Language ] theres no question the Chinese Communist party looked at the outpouring of rage about their handling of the virus in wuhan and saw this as the greatest threat to their control since the Tiananmen Square uprising. China of course. They needed to maintain some kind of safety valve, allow this outpouring of grief and rage to spill out in the relative confines of the internet. Otherwise it was going to end up in the streets. The regime quickly turned to another tool in its arsenal, propaganda. Overnight they made a switch. Instead of dr. Li being an enemy of the state, all of a sudden he became a hero. In some ways what they did was an act of political desperation. The Chinese Government pointed out that dr. Li was a proud member of the communist party. The government awarded dr. Li wenliang one of the countrys highest honors. It called him a martyr. As chinas measures to contain the virus seemed to work, a sense of National Pride began to grow. In early march with the disease seemingly under control, xi went to wuhan himself. They wanted to create this very clear impression of this one man leading this National Response against the virus. This is the man who has led you out of harms way. And all of the powers of propaganda and political engineering were directed to fortify the image of his leadership. Chinas Eventual Success in containing the virus and its efforts to reframe the narrative appear to have worked within its own borders. Propaganda works. People forget about the mistakes, and they forgive them for the errors they make. Coming up, the man at the center of this story. Ffice, and. Home is playground,gym, and concert hall. And cvs health is helping, with free home prescription delivery, telehealth from aetna, and support for caregivers. Were doing all we can to help you stay well, as you stay in. Because now more than ever, home is where the heart is. Cvs health. Show me what youre made of. 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