this is exactly what I was saying previously. I have worked with China on medical research projects before and the culture is not compatible with the kind of flat structure he talks about. You train people, they nod, and then they do it their way. It’s not that people aren't smart -I’ve worked with really smart Chinese researchers and medics, it’s that they are hampered by this hierarchical system to the point you cannot work safely on certain things. More specifically, you cannot be sure sure of open honesty, early reporting of errors, correct reporting of negative results, correct reporting of safety data.
When you do certain things you’re looking for a null hypothesis, ie NewDrug is no superior to ExistingDrug. If you have a ‘yes culture’ the pressure is on to make NewDrug come out on top.
If errors happen , or rather when, because all biology is chaotic, you need to spot them early and look at them. We have a culture where a minion can say ‘hey otterly, I think something weird is happening here and it’s not good, can we look?’ And minion will get a reply of yes certainly, thank you, can you explain more and show me what’s up? Then it goes up the chain.
In a society where the end result is success regardless of if it actually works, the minion won’t report because they know they’ll be punished. The mid level people won’t report and will cover up and keep passing positive reports up the line.
It is really hard to work with, and it’s a shame because once you take people out of that cultural context, they work fine.
I wouldn’t trust anything that comes out of China simply because it all goes through CCP. I feel really sorry for the medics on the front line. Once the CDC and the European equivalents start reporting (which you’ll notice they are not committing to anything because they don’t know yet) it’ll be more reliable.
The more I’m reading about the labs involved, the more I think it could well be a cock up. It doesn’t even have to be a bio weapon - just a sample that has been wild collected for study and accidentally released. After SARS, people will have been collecting coronaviruses for study. Fuck knows how you do level 3-4 containment in a country where safety culture is secondary to party culture
www.cnet.com
Not even fucking Chinese and the stares are coming. Hopefully it'll keep everyone the fuck away on the train at least, especially hoping my fashionable p100 mask, gloves ,and goggles combo will prompt commuters to give me a wide berth.
