Are we allowed to be angry at China about COVID-19?

[Blinder Data]

Lots of people are rightly taking issue with the Trump administration's desperation to paint this as a "Chinese" virus, when it's clearly now a global problem.

However, if certain Chinese people didn't go round eating exotic animals kept in unsanitary conditions MAYBE THIS NEVER WOULD'VE HAPPENED. And then there's the CCP's secretive approach that helped to spread the virus.

Is it not fair to say to the people in China who enjoy wet markets etc. that "OK, you've had your fun but knock that on the head now for the good of all mankind"?

Basically, is it OK to ask them to stop eating dirty bats and that or is that racist. Asking for a friend

[Hand Solo]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1899191/

[idunnosomename]

No

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yes but only in the sense everyone else is allowed to tell you you're a fucking idiot for taking that position.

[Sebastian Cobb]

However, if certain Chinese people didn't go round eating exotic animals kept in unsanitary conditions MAYBE THIS NEVER WOULD'VE HAPPENED. And then there's the CCP's secretive approach that helped to spread the virus.

Didn't it come from pigs?

Also a bit rich from a nation lobbying other nations into accepting meat that's been washed in chlorine to wash all the rancid shit off it.

[bgmnts]

Yes, it's racist and stupid.

[Butchers Blind]

That's wacist.

[idunnosomename]

i give all my bats a bloody good scrub

[El Unicornio, mang]

"The Chinese Virus" is unhelpful and only likely to cause more racism towards the Asian population, but if we don't hold China at least partially accountable for this, we can't hold any country accountable for anything ever again.

But also, China isn't the only country where those kinds of markets operate, it's a global problem.

[Fambo Number Mive]

The Chinese government have handled this well and the compliance people in China have showed with the measures put in place should be and example to people in other countries. My understanding was that certain people in the Wuhan and Hubai authorities handled the situation badly, but aside from that China has done well.

Plenty of government across the world deserve criticism for how they handled the virus but I do not think the Chinese government is one of them. I am often critical of the Chinese government but not for this.

[Pingers]

It's reasonable to criticize the Chinese government for its obsession with suppressing bad news and stifling free speech with imprisonment and worse, both of which gave the virus a head start. But then it's always been reasonable to criticise them for that and a load of other things. It's always irrational to criticise every inhabitant of a country for something you don't like, more so when there are 1.4 billion of them.

[El Unicornio, mang]

The Chinese government have handled this well and the compliance people in China have showed with the measures put in place should be and example to people in other countries. My understanding was that certain people in the Wuhan and Hubai authorities handled the situation badly, but aside from that China has done well.

Plenty of government across the world deserve criticism for how they handled the virus but I do not think the Chinese government is one of them. I am often critical of the Chinese government but not for this.

The government  has handled it well aside from suppressing information early on, even doctors in China were vocal about that, and the people have organized themselves as well as they could. The issue is with the lax attitude to hygiene (not to mention animal welfare, but that's a separate issue) at some of these markets which caused it in the first place. But again, that's a problem that exists outside China too.

[Pingers]

I reckon most of us can agree that live animal markets and transportation are undesirable and unnecessary. We can definitely agree that the illegal trade in wildlife is an outrage. A lot of us could agree that eating animals is wrong. As you say, these are not exclusively Chinese problems, although the Chinese government needs to urgently address the illegal wildlife trade for all manner of reasons.

[Fambo Number Mive]

It's always irrational to criticise every inhabitant of a country for something you don't like, more so when there are 1.4 billion of them.

I second this.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I think the initial livestock stuff could happen in the west too. It's not like we haven't had BSE and foot and mouth.

[idunnosomename]

ahhhh but they eat cream of sum yung gi

[Buelligan]

Speaking as a vegetarian of many years standing, I blame the meat-eaters.  Dirty evil fucks who brought me this disease through their disgusting practices.  Not the first time either.

[Hand Solo]

2007 - An article entitled "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus as an Emerging and Reemerging Infection"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2176051/

"The presences of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb."

[El Unicornio, mang]

I think the initial livestock stuff could happen in the west too. It's not like we haven't had BSE and foot and mouth.

True, but strict laws were put in place as a result. Kind of like after Dunblaine, we banned guns, whereas the USA continues to have gun laws which the rest of the world criticises due to regular mass shootings. SARS and the avian flu both started in wet markets and they've continued to operate as usual since.

[idunnosomename]

wet markets sound a bit gross and kinky

[Pingers]

wet markets sound a bit gross and kinky

"Just off for a bit of spit 'n shove at the wet market"

[El Unicornio, mang]

wet markets sound a bit gross and kinky

You'll defo want to wear protection

[Captain Z]

If you're going blame people eating bats then really you have to point the finger at Ozzy Osbourne.

[idunnosomename]

god bite the head off a bat live on stage just ONE TIME and everyone BANGS ON ABOUT IT FOREVER

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It seems weird that such a notoriously iron fisted regime wouldn't crack down on these wet markets, if they're as riddled with germs as people say.

[massive bereavement]

"Pangolins smuggled INTO China" what done it, says the BBC.
So I guess we've got to bomb some sense into Malaysia instead.

[rue the polywhirl]

It seems weird that such a notoriously iron fisted regime wouldn't crack down on these wet markets, if they're as riddled with germs as people say.

Doesn't seem that weird for such a regime to care about the control of people politically but absolutely not caring about the welfare of animals and most people.

[Lemming]

Can't believe this all started because some idiot undercooked their illegal pangolin.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Doesn't seem that weird for such a regime to care about the control of people politically but absolutely not caring about the welfare of animals and most people.

I don't expect them to do it for humanitarian reasons, much less animal welfare, more just pragmatism.

[hamfist]

Surely it's like blaming gay men for AIDS. They unknowingly behaved in ways which helped spread it, but they didn't invent it. They were victims of it. Calling this Chinese Flu is like calling AIDS the gay plague, and it were deffo cunts who called it that.