Wuhan : How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control

"Dali L. Yang's Fateful Choices offers a penetrating study of China's management of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, a momentous event that has reverberated globally as the severe pandemic in a century. Yang's work sheds light on the advantage Chinese health decision-makers had, including access to the novel coronavirus's genomic sequences from several laboratories, as early as the end of December 2019. It was at this time that an emergency action program was initiated to combat the burgeoning outbreak in Wuhan"-- The definitive account of the Chinese government's response to the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan. The Covid-19 pandemic, which began as an outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, has claimed millions of lives and caused unprecedented disruptions. Despite its generation-defining significance, there has been a surprising lack of independent research examining the decisions and measures implemented in the weeks leading up to the Wuhan lockdown, as well as the missteps and shortcomings that allowed the novel coronavirus to spread with minimal hindrance. In Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, Dali L. Yang scrutinizes China's emergency response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, delving into the government's handling of epidemic information and the decisions that influenced the scale and scope of the outbreak. Yang's research reveals that China's health decision-makers and experts had an excellent head start when they implemented a health emergency action program to respond to the outbreak at the end of December 2019. With granular detail and compelling immediacy, Yang investigates the political and bureaucratic processes that hindered information flows and sharing, as well as the cognitive framework that limited understanding of the virus's contagiousness and hampered effective decisions. Yang's research uncovers that urgent warnings from sources outside Wuhan helped shift the Chinese health leadership's focus towards epidemic control. Once this shift occurred, China's party-state mobilized resources and enforced a lockdown in Wuhan. This lockdown was divided into two phases: providing additional medical resources and enforcing community-level lockdowns and home confinement. The 76-day lockdown contained the virus within China's borders, but the leadership and public later faced the challenge of reopening China in a world still grappling with SARS-CoV-2. Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control also critiques the Chinese authorities for prioritizing dominance and control in their response to the Wuhan outbreak. This preoccupation led to the suppression, distortion, and neglect of crucial disease information, fostering an atmosphere of organized silence. The punishment of whistleblowers and the banning of the immediate release of research findings on the novel coronavirus further contributed to this silencing. Yang emphasizes the importance of retaining public trust during a pandemic and underscores the need for transparency, openness to new information, and direct communication of risk with the public. Cover Wuhan Copyright Dedication Contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations Note on Names, Dates, Online Sources, and Translations 1. Thinking about China’s Response to the COVID-​19 Outbreak 2. The Party-​State, Fragmented Authoritarianism, and the Health Emergency Response Regime 3. The Wuhan Alarm: Unusual Pneumonia Cases and a SARS-​Like Coronavirus 4. The New Year’s Eve Meeting: The Huanan Seafood Market and the Health Emergency Action Program 5. The Stability Imperative and the Silencing of Doctors 6. The National Health Commission, Laboratory Regulation, and Pathogen Verification 7. The China CDC, the Huanan Seafood Market, and Epidemiological Tunnel Vision 8. Fragmented Authoritarianism, Inclusion–​Exclusion Criteria, and Suppression of Case Submissions 9. The Wall of Silence Surrounding Health Worker Infections 10. Conducting Public Health Emergency Response in Stealth 11. The Decision to Seal Off Wuhan 12. “The Battle for Wuhan” 13. The Real Wuhan Lockdown 14. Was the COVID-​19 Pandemic Inevitable? Fragmented Authoritarianism, Leadership, and the Question of Preventability Appendix 1: A Chronology of the COVID-​19 Outbreak in Wuhan, China Appendix 2: Notable Officials during and after the Wuhan Outbreak Notes Index