LogFAQs > #961332023

Damn_Underscore posted...

The response to them every time was that they said they werent effective until research told them otherwise.

In the early days, only China had any significant number of cases so other authorities around the world had to rely solely on what China told us. China frequently lied - for example the whole claim that there's "no human-to-human transmission" persisting until late-Jan / early-Feb, even though China had known this since before they even admitted the virus existed.

Once information from non-China countries started flowing in, the advice very quickly got MUCH better. And likewise, the countries that did well in the very very early stages, such as Taiwan, did so by ignoring the China-influenced advice and going with best assumptions for an unknown virus.