The thesis of this article is that China has not actually controlled the spread of the coronavirus, and instead claimed it had while it continued to spread. The article hypothesises that the reason this lie has not been uncovered is coronavirus is mostly not harmful to 99.9% of the population, and hence small negative effects can be concealed.<p>I believe the logic in this article to be false. The negative effects on hospital overload of well characterised in the west. The sudden peak in number of people with an acute infection as a product of exponential spread leads to clear peaks of hospital need and associated reduced capacity. While this is most significant in nations with a significant number of elderly, it is also visible in the younger population.
I therefore find it unlikely to be feasible to conceal this level of spread, although I concede Chinese control over the media may allow it to do even this.<p>We will find out eventually with the presence of Covid antibody studies in the Chinese populace compared to say the USA.