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?
They knew about the problem in October ("Experimental bio-weapon escapes from lab"). Bureaucratic infighting, finger-pointing, "CYA", and wishful thinking paralyzed effective responses. They had containment plans by early December but just could not bring themselves to shut down their national economy right before the holidays.
They hesitated and were overtaken by events.