“The Communist Party’s refusal to act to publicly contain the virus and repeated denials of the scale of the contagion contributed significantly to the high death toll.”
As a free American, I have to ask why would a political party have any say in how to conduct a response to a viral outbreak? Yes, I know, it is one of the little “joys” of living in a one-party state. It reminds me of the reaction portrayed in “Chernobyl”. The party decided how to deal with the crisis with the party’s interests as the first priority in decision-making.