It's not really in the interests of any government to be truthful. Even our government official figures are nonsense, I mean there is simply no reason to say that if you die 28 days after contracting covid then it wasn't covid that killed you. It's arbitrary and ignores the damage that we know this disease can cause long term.
My brother lives in Hong Kong- we talk most days. He and his friends are quite aware of how much is going on covid wise. In fact you can see as well. Last year I put the app up on here and it shows every case in every street and every apartment block. It is still live now but I cannot remember the address. It is so much more advanced than our technology. China uses technology that is way ahead of what we use also. As soon as they get an individual case in Hong Kong then that area of the city becomes a No Go Zone. And that has been going on since the very start of 2020. Lockdown there is total. Quarantine is really strict. Whatever we see about the Chinese stranglehold on Hong Kong, the people there are totally aware of what is going on especially regarding COVID. As you say a city state of 7.5million people, there is no way you can hush up a pandemic when everyone is living on top of each other.
this ... of course the official data isn't to be believed. But if you are in contact with people who live in china (inc. HK), you do get a picture of very clear lockdown rules, high compliance (little choice usually), swift response to any new cases and, as Rob is saying, wide use of "tech". Again, little choice usually.
Didnt they react the same with the sars virus though? Probably having that experience with it, plus the facilities to build hospitals in a few days, as well as being able to enforce a military lockdown, I dont think their numbers are anywhere near accurate but its still easy to see why they have been able to contain things better than most other countries.
very true. my experience is that many people there know that (Chinese nationals included). It is also the reason that the world data/john hopkins site no longer use them
Fairly certain the real number of deaths will be 5x higher than what is reported, how many deaths will have happened away from hospital and wont be registered
If the deaths are 5 times higher it would be the 175th worst country in the world with a total death rate less than one day in the UK at the peak of the epidemic.
I was going to say exactly this. I have seen a number of reports from expats working in China, who also say people are going about their lives as normal (and have done so for the last 8 months or so) with no sign of any widespread CoVid-19 infections either at the hospitals they visit or within local communities.
