2020.2.27 The 36th Day of the Wuhan City Closure 中文日记最下
The shipping date for a product I ordered at JD.com on February 12th kept slipping. At first, the estimated delivery date was February 22nd, then a few days later became February 28th. When I looked at it today, it had become March 9th. I called Jingdong （JD.com) customer service and found that although delivery was to have been from a local warehouse, inventory was exhausted, and the manufacturer had not started production because of the epidemic situation. So it will have to wait until production is resumed before delivery can be scheduled. Once I understood what was happening, I canceled the order.
This call taught me something. Many of Hema Supermarket‘s fresh products were sold out but I had assumed that the stock would be replenished but ignored another possibility: that there would be no stock to replenish with. After realizing this, I took a close look at our daily supplies at home. Some things that I didn’t t think were in short supply I also listed. I’ll see if I can buy some of those things now, even though they are more expensive then usual. That’s better than having them turn into a headache if later the are not to be found.
Several friends are talking about having joined more than a dozen group buying groups. Every day from when they get up, they read the news in their groups, fill in the ordering forms, pay, and get their orders. I hadn’t participated in group buying until now. Shopping for what I needed myself wasn’t hard before the city closed. Moreover, when I placed a group order I ended up being required by the group order package to buy some things I didn’t want. I wasn’t satisfied and I was pretty fast at ordering things online and so I bought from the Hema Supermarket. I was afraid of getting infected if I got together with a lot of people. Now there are almost no infection-free communities. Sometimes I heard stories that some people in close contact with infected people participated in these groups or that someone in strict isolation would go out to collect their shipment. If I were to say that I wasn’t afraid, I would be lying.
I did, however, join several group buying groups. I’d read the group’s news where typically there the community workers would be scolded and the volunteers praised. Occasionally, I could be a bystander to a few quarrels. That is a bit of entertainment for us, banished as we are to our own homes. It’s a real shame we haven’t anyone who comes up to the level of that sister-in-law of Binjiang Park.
Today, I saw a video in our WeChat group. A patient in the Fangcai Hospital not far from my home snuck out and wandered aimlessly on the street while very pleased with himself, shooting a video.
The community was enraged. I felt angry too. Why had we hidden ourselves away at home for over a month? Isn’t is because we are afraid of catching the virus? These infected people, however are out there swaggering along as they wander the streets.
In these days of resentments and discontent, I look to the impassive face and warm heart of Lu Xun, who wrote “The people of a weak and backward country, however strong and healthy they may be, can only serve to be made examples of, or to witness such futile spectacles; and it doesn’t really matter how many of them die of illness.”
As early as February 15, the news that the director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention Gao Fu was being investigated was circulating on the Internet. Many official media microblogs also reposted it. Before long, many anti-rumor messages about that news came out. Then the “anti-rumor” messages themselves were quietly deleted.
This is an old routine that we have seen too many times before. Just like the news of the urgent actions taken on the night of Dr. Li Wenliang’s death in the line of duty, in order to suppress public opinion, to avoid “over interpretation”, deliberately creating rumors to serve an agenda, to oppose rumors and to boost the effectiveness of rumor suppression, the deliberately put twists and turns into the story so people’s interest in the story will naturally become less interested and so that, by the time the real story comes out, it will have become old news that people don’t pay much attention to.
There has been a lot of news recently. Professor Lu Hongzhou of the Shanghai Public Health Center said in an interview that they submitted a report on January 5 regarding their investigation of the origins of the the unexplained pneumonia in Wuhan. Someone found the microblog that carried the report when it came out. Naturally the report was simply labeled a “rumor”. The funny thing, of course, is the messages denouncing that report as a rumor is that the sign of this “rumor” has been quietly deleted.
Looking back a month, and you can even boldly push it a month further back, there is good reason to believe that the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Health and Construction Commission and the local government of Wuhan all knew about the existence and outreak of an unidentified virus. Those good-for-nothing “expert leaders” of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention are absolutely deserve to be nailed to the pillar of shame and publicly condemned.
But if you were to ask me, are they the only ones responsible? I know too that that is absolutely not the case.
Long experience tells me that news items have to be read in combination with other news items. Two news items of note appeared recently. The first is Dr. Bruce Aylward, the leader of the World Health Organization – China Joint Expert Mission, said that [we need to take good advantage
“of time, but we have to be using that time better than we are today. In this country, outside, we have long lists of research projects and studies. But we’ve got to prioritize those things that could get the knowledge we need to stop this faster and the tools we need to reduce the morbidity and mortality. And I’ll give you one good example. There’s only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy. And that’s Remdesivir, as you’ve heard about.
[Note: Dr. Aylward continues
“And Cao Bin is having trouble recruiting patients not just because the numbers are falling, but also because we’re doing lots of other studies with things that are less promising. We have got to start prioritizing enrollment into those things that may save lives and save them faster. And that’s a
global issue, not China, it’s a global issue.
Date: February 24th, 2020 (evening) End note.]
Although we have a very long research agenda to complete, I do want to insist that we need to prioritize the items on that list so that we can as quickly as possible learn what we need to further reduce the further transmission of the virus, reduce the number of serious cases and reduce the death rate. Currently there is only one drug that may be effective, Ridsivir. We need to start prioritizing research projects that may help us save lives quickly. “
The other item is Caixin ’s report, “Cao Bin, who oversees clinical trials in China and is Deputy Director of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and a specialist in respiratory and critical care medicine said that recruiting patients for clinical trials is difficult now because drugs with little promise are competing with (Redivevir) for clinical resources.”
I feel like pointing a finger at the nose of Chinese traditional medicine and saying, “Scram!” For the sake of profits (or so-called international influence), we should recklessly discard human lives. This is being one in plain sight. Everyone should remember this.
2月27日 武汉封城第36天
2月12日我在京东下单的一件商品，当时系统提示的预计送达时间是2月22日，过几天变成2月28日，今天再看，变成了3月9日。打电话问京东客服，才知道虽然是本地仓库发货，但是库存已经告罄，而厂家因为疫情没有开工生产，所以得等到复工以后生产恢复才能发货。问明白情况以后我就把这笔订单取消了。这个电话给了我一个提醒，这段时间盒马生鲜有好多产品都售罄，我原本以为过一段时间会补货，却忽略了另一个可能：根本没货可补。意识到这一点后，我赶紧盘算了家里的日用物资，有些之前觉得并不急缺的东西也列了清单，趁现在还能想办法买到赶紧买回来，虽然比平时贵一些，但至少有用的，总比买不到了再头疼要好。几个朋友都在说加了十几个团购群，每天从起床开始就在看群里的消息、填写接龙资料、付款、拿东西。我到现在都没有参加过团购，一来封城前采购的物资已经基本足够，二来团购的套餐多少有些搭售强卖的产品，不太满意，三来我的手速还算不错，能在盒马生鲜上买到东西，其四嘛，我也怕人扎堆，现在几乎没有无感染小区，偶尔还听说一些密接人员、居家隔离人员参加团购出门拿东西的情况，我要是说自己不害怕，那肯定是假的。不过我也加了几个团购群，会看看群里的消息，骂社区的和赞美志愿者的都是基本配置，偶尔还能围观几场吵架，也算是无聊的禁足生活中的一点消遣，只可惜还没有遇上过滨江苑那位嫂子的水准。今天在微信群里看到一个视频，离我家不远的方舱医院有病人偷偷跑出来在大街上晃荡，还洋洋得意地拍小视频。社区群里一片愤怒声讨，我也觉得气愤，我们在家里躲了一个多月是为了什么？不就是怕遇到病毒吗，可是这些感染者还大摇大摆地往外跑。这种愤懑时候只能祭出面冷心热的鲁迅先生：“凡是愚弱的国民，即使体格如何健全如何茁壮，也只能做毫无意义的示众的材料和看客，病死多少是不必以为不幸的”。早在15日左右，国家疾控中心主任高福被查的消息就在网上流传，很多官媒微博也进行了转发，没过多久后发出了“辟谣”消息，又没过多久，有些媒体的“辟谣”消息默默删掉了。熟悉的配方、熟悉的套路，多像李文亮医生殉职那晚的操作，为了压制舆论，避免“过度解读”，人为制造谣言、辟谣、反辟谣的效果，每经历一次“反转”，关注度就会削弱一部分，最后当真实情况浮出水面时，已经观者了了。最近的新闻特别多，有上海公卫中心卢洪洲教授接受采访时说，他们1月5日提交过一份报告，内容关于武汉不明原因肺炎疫情的病原学调查；微博上有人找出当时发布报告的微博，竟然被判定为“谣言”。当然，更好笑的是，现在这个“谣言”的标志已经默默去掉了。现在回看一个月前，甚至可以大胆地再往前推一个月，有充足的理由相信，不论是国家疾控中心、卫建委，还是武汉本地政府，对于不明病毒的存在和爆发都是有认知和预期的，尤其是国家疾控中心那些尸位素餐的“专家领导”们，绝对有资格钉上历史的耻辱柱遭人唾弃。但是，如果问我，只有他们要承担责任吗？我也知道，绝对不是。长久的经验告诉我，新闻要连在一起看，最近就有值得记录下来的两条。一是世界卫生组织联合专家考察组组长Bruce Aylward博士说“中国争取来的这一段宝贵时间要用好，尽管我们列出来很长的研究清单，但也强调研究项目应该有优先次重，以便快速地掌握知识以进一步阻断病毒传播，进一步降低重症率及病死率。目前只有一种药可能有效，就是瑞德西韦。我们需要开始优先那些可能帮助我们快速挽救生命的研究项目。”另一条是财新的报道“中国临床试验的一位负责人、中日友好医院副院长、呼吸与危重症医学科专家曹彬透露，现在招募病人变难，原因是一些希望并不太大的临床试验在于这个药物（瑞德西韦）竞争临床资源。”几乎就差指着中医的鼻子说“滚”了吧。为了经济利益（或所谓的国际影响力）草菅人命，所有人都该看到、都该记住。
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