'Wuhan' analyzes China's management and response to the COVID-19 pandemic

NPR's Book of the Day

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

It's been four years since the world went into lockdown mode as COVID-19 rapidly spread across the globe. But a new book by political scientist Dali Yang dives into the information about, and mitigation of, the disease in its earliest days in China. In today's episode, Yang speaks with Here & Now's Scott Tong about the research that went into Wuhan, the way local governments and medical officials abstained from disclosing crucial intelligence in the early days, and the strict lockdown that followed.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's book at the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. It's kind of wild how little we know about the
0:08.0	beginnings of the COVID-19 outbreak. But Dali Yang's new book is hoping to fill in some of the blanks.
0:14.0	It's titled Wuhan, how the COVID-19 outbreak in China spiraled out of control. And in this interview
0:19.9	with here and now, Scott Tong,
0:21.1	Yang points out that there were some critical early weeks
0:24.1	into the COVID outbreak where the system was going pretty well.
0:28.0	You know, everything was working until it wasn't anymore.
0:31.0	Because in part, Yang says,
0:32.9	the leadership wanted certain things to look good.
0:36.9	Hear more about what happened after the break.
0:39.4	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:44.3	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.
0:50.9	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand
0:55.3	why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get
1:01.6	your podcasts. Four years ago this month, you remember when the world stopped. We have therefore
1:08.5	made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
1:16.8	Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. We know, of course, that the first cases of
1:26.6	pneumonia of unknown origin came from the Chinese
1:29.6	city of Wuhan. A new book on those early critical days and weeks lays out what the author
1:35.2	calls profoundly disturbing actions and delays on the part of some Chinese officials.
1:40.8	The title of the book is Wuhan, how the COVID-19 outbreak in China spiraled out of control.
1:46.9	And the author is Dali Yang, political scientist at the University of Chicago. Daliang, very good
	...

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