The idea that a BL4 lab technician screwed up a containment protocol in late September, and the Chinese bureaucracy tried to hide it until late December is 100% believable to me.
The "Chinese Apology" is a belligerent denial, in great detail, of everything that they just did. And the people who just did it, get fired. Or shot, depending on the severity of the problem.
The people who directly caused this problem are most likely dead now.
100% agreed.
If the disease didn’t kill them, the CCP/PLA did.
Probably their next of kin too. Just because.
right. i can imagine each higher layer of bureaucracy sitting on this a while trying to argue it away. heck I have worked for people and groups that handled things this way.
I will likely never factually know but I am satisfied this came out of their lab. vaccine research, something new, something cobbled together, who knows. we will never know.
now the delay between late December and the january quarantine is another matter. at that point they know they have it bad already. do they wait for late January travel pattern leaving to make sure the rest of the world gets a big dose? it worsens it domestically for them as well but presumably they are already sunk, just a matter of timing.
or in other words, they clearly knew about this in late december. was the delay until late january more bureaucratism or does it have an element of timing?