Decision to close Wuhan’s Huanan seafood market back in Jan. made ‘after heated arguments’
Global Times
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The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province and the epiccenter of the novel coronavirues, is believed to be the origin of the virus. (Photos: CNS photo)

The closure of Wuhan's Huanan seafood market early on in the epidemic has been shown to be the right decision made by Chinese experts and government officials, after heated arguments that lasted under 12 hours, a top epidemiologist revealed.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, revealed on Wednesday that experts from Beijing and local experts in Wuhan had heated disputes over whether to close Wuhan's Huanan seafood market, but reachedinked an agreementconsensus in less than 12 hours.

On December 31, 2019, Wuhan had only identified 27 infections connected to the market. The decision to close the market was made on midnight of January 1, he said.

Wu described how experts argued and how the decision was made on Wednesday. He said that initially, some local experts argued that it would look like "we were making a fuss" if the Huanan seafood market were closed. He added that persuading each other was not easy, especially when there wasn't sufficient evidence to back their decisions.

The discussion on whether to close the market lasted until 4 am on January 1. Eventually it was Liang Wannian, an official from the National Health Commission, who made the final call. Liang said that they had to see the closure of the market as a bottom-line way of thinking.

"We could close it right now. If we are wrong, we can reopen it. But if we don't close it, we could miss the opportunity," Wu revealed, quoting Liang's comments at that time.

"The closure of the market determined the scale of the Wuhan epidemic," Wu noted.