Editor’s note for Friday, February 28, 2020

Dear Access member,

First, a correction: Yesterday, I wrote: “Three articles published in the last 24 hours point to a cover-up — or at best a mess-up — in Wuhan, which delayed reporting of the emerging coronavirus outbreak to China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” The first article I cited, by scholar Dali Yang, was actually published on February 24.  

If you’re looking for a way to donate money or medical supplies to Wuhan, the China General Chamber of Commerce – U.S.A. has appropriated $30,000 to purchase surgical-grade masks and other essential medical supplies to donate to hospitals in Wuhan, and is taking donations of both cash and medical supplies.

A renowned epidemiologist has “cautious optimism” that a diagnostic kit being tested in Guangzhou and Beijing will be more sensitive than existing options in identifying COVID-19 cases. In an interview with Yáng Lán 杨澜 published by Caixin, Walter Ian Lipkin, the director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, said that his team’s new test kit would also be able to differentiate between the coronavirus and other infections with similar symptoms. (Yang Lan is a speaker at our Women’s Conference on May 5 — click here for details or to buy discounted early-bird tickets.)

A vaccine is further away, but scientists are doing their best to collapse what is normally a “five to ten year” process to perhaps half a year to develop and test a novel vaccine, David Ho of Columbia University told NBC New York in an interview today.

Our word of the day is Apple Daily (蘋果日報 píngguǒ rìbào), the name of the tabloid publication whose founder was arrested today in Hong Kong.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief