World News

22058 readers

71 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

119

Today 4 years ago, Dr. Li Wenliang warned of a suspected SARS patient in a Wuhan WeChat group. Soon later, he was arrested for “making false comments on the Internet about unconfirmed SARS outbreak.” (harakahdaily.net)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Dr. Wenliang's message went viral, becoming the earliest warning of what we now know today as Covid-19. He returned to work, but contracted Covid from a patient, and died on February 7, 2020.

Four years later, investigations about the virus’s origins aren't going forward, largely due to China’s reluctance to facilitate a comprehensive investigation by the WHO, the World Health Organization. Beijing hesitates to provide access to critical raw data which would not only help to identify the exact cause of the virus but would also facilitate the preparation for future pandemics.

top 15 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] HootinNHollerin@slrpnk.net 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (9 children)

As I lay here on NYE with plans canceled because of covid and think back of the >$150,000 USD covid has cost me over these years from destroying my small business, I will never forgive or forget the PRCs role in this.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)

That's the takeaway here. Your travel plans ruined. Not the personal tragedies, lives lost, political destabilization.

[–] HootinNHollerin@slrpnk.net 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Geez you people are grumpy

[–] tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It was one comment and you got 15 upvotes with no down lol. For the record I think it sucks that you lost your business, that is a tragedy, but my first thought was that it did sound pretty callous, like ignoring the hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.

[–] explodicle@local106.com 3 points 10 months ago

I don't think you can down vote on Beehaw.

[–] wahming@monyet.cc 8 points 10 months ago

Losing your business is a very personal tragedy

[–] Joker@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 months ago

Hey, everyone was impacted and it was all personal. It doesn’t have to be about who was impacted more or which experiences are more legitimate than others. $150k is a lot to lose. I’m in that boat myself and, in some ways, we haven’t recovered from that. The timing of it caused a lot of changes in our lives and spoiled long term plans that were important to us and our kids. It took a while to pick up the pieces and pivot. There’s always going to be that “what if” feeling so there’s a real sense of loss.

load more comments (8 replies)

[–] bermuda@beehaw.org 7 points 10 months ago

I was in 12th grade and I remember my English teacher was weirdly prophetic about it. He told us that it would be the worst pandemic in decades, and this was before the US had its first case. Looking back, he was the only teacher I had who mentioned anything about it