Sorry, but that’s huge. China’s actions will become known and exposed eventually. The truth has a sneaky way of finding its way into the light eventually. If the rest of the world is brave enough to hold China accountable, then their economy is finished, and CX with it.
I wouldn’t want to get in the way of a good conspiracy theory, and there is little doubt they did lose some precious time, a few weeks at least.
The virus first appeared at the very end of November/beginning December. It is a matter of public record the WHO was officially informed by the 31st of December, and by the first week of January Chinese scientists had also sequenced it and revealed it to be a novel form of coronavirus, transmissible from human to human.
Since early January then, the ball has been in our court, and frankly, as western countries we’ve generally not done too well. While HKG, Macao and Taiwan reacted immediately (as in, beginning January) by tightening screening and imposing isolation on travelers from the affected areas, as late as end-February some western heads of state were still downplaying the risks and failing to prepare.
It’s more immediately satisfying (and career-serving for our politicians) to point fingers, blame others and absolve ourselves, but it would be more useful to look to countries that have successfully dealt with the issue before us (think S Korea) and try to mimic their methods (namely aggressive testing and contact tracing).
This is the only rational course of action, and the one that would save most lives (not to mention jobs) in the long run. So I won’t hold my breath.