Once widely criticized, the Wuhan quarantine bought the world time to prepare for Covid-19
“Could cause panic.” “Will not help end the crisis.” “Could backfire.”
When the Chinese government blocked most travel into and out of the city at the center of the Covid-19 outbreak in late January, many public health experts took to social media and op-ed pages to decry the measure as not only draconian and a violation of individual rights but also as ineffective: This largest quarantine in history — the city, Wuhan, has a population of 11 million, and the lockdown has been expanded — would have little effect on the course of the epidemic, they argued.
