Well said Chris Lewis :)

plantagenet,

I never said that I believe China is mishandling its COVID response.

But I do have confidence in the scuttlebutt I got about the source and nature of Covid-19.

Time will tell. Maybe we will just have to wait until historians and sociologists are in a position to explain what happened.

Dear MOPEY

Yes all you have left is belief in "scuttlebutt" slang usage meaning "rumor or gossip".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttlebutt

Yes "time will tell" most things eg. whether you fail to graduate High School :)

UPSWING IN COVID IN CHINA - BUT STILL DOING MUCH BETTER THAN US

China source say to me:

As Chinese authorities struggle to keep the country’s coronavirus-free status mostly intact, a new outbreak has left more than 22 million people under lockdown. Over the past few weeks, China has reported 109 cases per day — a TINY FRACTION OF THE 250,000 DAILY CASES IN THE US, but a serious concern in a country whose leaders understand exponential growth.

The outbreak is concentrated in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei province, WHICH SURROUNDS BEIJING. Shijiazhuang is a critical transport and manufacturing hub for the region. As a result of its close proximity to the outbreak, parts of the capital are now under lockdown, too.

The lockdown is likely to widen, for two reasons. First, there are concerns about more contagious variants of the virus getting a foothold in China, such as the one that originated in the United Kingdom. While China still imposes significant restrictions on travel and a mandatory supervised quarantine period, there is enough movement, especially overland, to make that a plausible fear.

Second, the Lunar New Year—the most important annual festival for Chinese families—is approaching on Feb. 12. Last year, the coronavirus erupted just before the holiday. Making sure people don’t have to spend another festival week in lockdown by crushing the outbreak now is critical, both for China’s own public relations and for the benefit of the domestic economy. The Lunar New Year is a big spending week.

CHINA DEVOLOPED VACCINE NOT AS GOOD

Another blow. Beijing suffered another setback this week after the Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccine proved far less effective than its foreign counterparts. The vaccine was already lagging behind in trials, in part because China’s relative coronavirus success left it with a smaller pool of data to draw on, forcing it to outsource to countries such as Brazil.

But at 50.2 percent efficacy, the final product is only just over the standard for deployment. Earlier results claimed higher efficacy, but the Brazilian trial authorities downgraded the results when applying better standards.

Chinese state media is trying to spin the failure as a success, but it is a big hit for Beijing as vaccine diplomacy heats up and countries without homegrown efforts seek to inoculate their populations. China has already promised tens of millions of doses to Belt and Road countries, but elites in those countries are now likely to seek more effective U.S. or European vaccines.

It’s likely that China will try to develop a second vaccine using the techniques that were so successful in the United States—and possibly by reverse-engineering other countries’ technologies or stealing intellectual property. By that point, it will hopefully be less needed.

See "United States and China clash over WHO investigation of coronavirus orgins in Wuhan" of 19 Jan 2021

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-19/us-and-china-clash-over-who-covid-19-mission-in-wuhan/13069016