[sean2]

I don't know what inspired GP's question, but I think he's getting at the fact that China is known to be faking their numbers from the beginning of the outbreak to show how effective the leaders are in combating the virus. So, in reality, we have no idea whether their methods are successful or not. Same with a vaccine, if China reports an extremely effective vaccine, available immediately, invented thanks to Xi's vision and leadership; Then do we just start using it here in the US, or do we have another year of hiding in our houses while we run trials while the rest of the credulous world gets back to work?

[perl4ever]

"China is known to be faking their numbers"

I haven't seen an explanation of South Korea then. Are they faking their statistics too? If not, then China's reported stats don't seem so incredible.

[TeMPOraL]

Personally I haven't even seen a more detailed accusation than "China is faking their numbers [because they obviously are, they're China]" - that is, other than flat-Earth level "oh look at the mobile phone number cancellation data that's definitely trustworthy and definitely indicates people being erased".

Not to mention any attempts at quantifying what's the level of the alleged manipulation of the data. Is it suspected to be undercounted by an order of magnitude? Two orders? Three orders? Why?

[sean2]

Sorry, I do see I've been living in a shrinking echo chamber of the news seen by me and my shrinking list of contacts and I should have provided some sources, e.g.: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/china-con...

I happen to believe SK's report's (long explanation), I happen not to believe China's (looonger explanation), but my opinion really doesn't matter; US officials don't believe the China and that's before considering the US's response may have already been hampered by NIMBYism (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/us-coronavirus-test/)

[naveen99]

Trump said he doesn’t believe China numbers. And he probably knows the real numbers from the NSA.