> “There was strong evidence of human-to-human transmission but they were not able to release this information in a timely way. I don’t know what happened then,” he says. “But people have died.”
This is one of the negatives about a permission-based (e.g., ask first before you do anything or you risk being punished) environment. It isn't just China's government that is permission-based. Some federal government agencies (and likely some state and local government agencies) are run in a similar manner. (I'm sure some corporations are likewise run in this manner, but I've not been in non-government employment in almost two decades.)
When some action needs to be taken, the people proximate to the situation are unwilling to act, because higher-ups have not instructed them to do so.