Is China’s Reporting of Coronavirus Stats Believable?

Data Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

(Click on  the image to enlarge)

The above data graph shows how linear China's rate of growth was between 2/1 and 2/20, rising from 14,380 to 75,465 -- an eye-popping 425%. Then, between 2/20 and 3/1, the growth tapered to a total of 80,026, registering a mere 6% growth. 

Amazingly, in March, this highly contagious and longer-living virus suddenly disappeared from there, crossing the country-line like a large family of migratory birds and moving on to a far-away continent called Europe. In the last 29 days, the total hardly moved up - from 80,026 to 81,470 - revealing an astonishing move sideways, with a total of 1,444 cases (or a daily average of 50 cases).

In a tweet yesterday (see above), Senator Ted Cruz rightly called out China's recent reporting: "China is lying." In fact, China is simply playing a deflection game, pointing fingers at other countries including the US. Worse yet, while reporting the 50/daily, they are claiming that these are being imported (from outside). 

Additionally, China has been reporting a death rate of 4.06% (as of 3/30), whereas the reported death rates for Italy, Spain and France have already been at 11.39%, 8.77% and 6.79%, respectively. Likewise, China's reported recovery rate stands at 92%, while Europe's has been in mid-teens. Of course, the WHO has yet to update it's worldwide death rate. 

All said and done, China's highly dubious reporting must be thoroughly investigated, hopefully the US, Italy, Spain and France, the four hardest-hit countries, spearheading the investigation. The WHO must also be investigated for it's less-than-adequate proactive role from the beginning of this outbreak. The global community does not need the WHO if they play a reactive role. 

Data Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

-Sid Som
homequant@gmail.com