Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Situation Report – 28
SITUATION IN NUMBERS
total and new cases in last 24 hours
Globally
71 429 confirmed (2162 new)
China
70 635 confirmed (2051 new)
1772 deaths (106 new) †
Outside of China
794 confirmed (111 new)
25 countries
3 deaths
The Chinese Vloggers Documenting The Coronavirus Outbreak Have Vanished
From day one, you knew they were lying. The Chinese figures on the coronavirus are garbage. This is an authoritarian state. They monitor most, if not all, internet communications coming in and out of the country. This is a very ethnocentric nation. National pride is major—and the state being unable to contain a viral outbreak and needing Western help is a blow to that mindset. So, it shouldn’t shock us, sadly, that the two brave Chinese vloggers who documented the outbreak have disappeared. One of them is said to have been forced into quarantine protocols by the government, but who knows (via NYT):
The beige van squatted outside of a Wuhan hospital, its side and back doors ajar. Fang Bin, a local clothing salesman, peered inside as he walked past. He groaned: “So many dead.” He counted five, six, seven, eight body bags. “This is too many.”
That moment, in a 40-minute video about the coronavirus outbreak that has devastated China, propelled Mr. Fang to internet fame. Then, less than two weeks later, he disappeared.
Days earlier, another prominent video blogger in Wuhan, Chen Qiushi, had also gone missing. Mr. Chen’s friends and family said they believed he had been forcibly quarantined.
Before their disappearances, Mr. Fang and Mr. Chen had recorded dozens of videos from Wuhan, streaming unfiltered and often heartbreaking images from the center of the outbreak. Long lines outside hospitals. Feeble patients. Agonized relatives.
[…]
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said last month that officials needed to “strengthen the guidance of public opinion.” While Chinese social media has overflowed with fear and grief, state propaganda outlets have emphasized Mr. Xi’s steady hand, framed the fight against the outbreak as a form of patriotism and shared upbeat videos of medical workers dancing.