We do know that the Covid 19 virus is natural and not genetically engineered.That however doesn't mean that the virus was unknown before December 2019.A deal of evidence that the disease was present in at least mid November 2019.With the incubation period the first infection would have taken place in early November.Nothing is known about these early patients.
Li Wenliang made his publicised statement on December 30th and we know what happened to him.There were a group of 9 doctors who spoke out in December/January.7 have now died.
However less publicised was a WeChat post by Li Wenliang on December 5 when he said he was treating unusual cases of pneumonia and they had been in hospital for 2 weeks.
Then there is this-
"A research paper released this week describes a surprising trend on the Chinese social-media platform WeChat: Usage of keywords related to the new coronavirus spiked more than two weeks before officials confirmed the first cases.
The authors, five infectious-disease researchers in China, analyzed the prevalence of the terms “SARS,” its Chinese equivalent “Feidian,” “coronavirus,” “shortness of breath,” “dyspnea,” and “diarrhea” in posts and searches on WeChat from November 17 to December 31. Their findings suggest “abnormal spikes and increases” in the usage of all the keywords during that time."
wechattraining.com
The official time line is this.
Serious measures were delayed for about 3 weeks.
www.axios.com
Even with this there are things that stand out such as on January 1st doctors knew it was a corona virus but Hubei officials told them to stop testing.
Also 2 other important things happened on 31/12.
Taiwan informed the WHO that they had had the first human to human transmission of the virus.
However also on that day Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who works for the WHO and since 2013 has studied the MERS-Cov virus heading the team for WHO in Geneva, said that the new virus would have human to human transmission.
en.wikipedia.org
So knowing that what would have happened if Wuhan was locked down then.Certainly seems very possible that this pandemic would be much less severe.
Now to what various countries have done.Taiwan from December 31 sent health officials on to every plane from Wuhan testing temperatures and symptoms.
Jan 22 entry permits from Wuhan cancelled.
Jan 23 Wuhan residents banned.
Jan 25 tours to China suspended.
Jan 30 tours to or transiting China suspended.
Jan 31 All Chinese tourists to leave.
Then Russia,Pakistan,Japan and Italy restricted flights from China.On Jan 31 Singapore the USA.Feb 1 Australia.
Now Taiwan learnt from SARS and were ready.Masks and sanitiser had been stockpiled.Made it illegal to raise prices of those or to hoard.
Schools,shops open and from March 9-29 held the World Orchid Conference's Annual show.
Yet a country of 23 million has had 395 cases and 6 deaths as of April 14.
their graph is impressive.
.
So lessons for the future.Get Taiwans action plan and implement it as soon as an epidemic is likely.