--- title: "The Deadly Coronavirus Is Tearing Through Chinese Prisons" description: "The NYT reports that COVID-19 is tearing through China's prison system — a hint that even in the epidemic's epicenter, we don't understand its toll." date: "2020-02-21" modified: "2020-02-21" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/deadly-coronavirus-tearing-chinese-prisons" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "Pathogens" - "Viruses" tags: - "china" - "coronavirus" - "covid-19" - "prison" --- # The Deadly Coronavirus Is Tearing Through Chinese Prisons ![The NYT reports that COVID-19 is tearing through China's prison system — a hint that even in the epidemic's epicenter, we don't understand its toll.]() *\Image: NIAID/Victor Tangermann\* As the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus [spreads worldwide](), it continues to leave a trail of destruction in China, where efforts to care for the sick and curtail new infections are [straining health care resources](). Now, in a grim update, *The* *New York Times* [reports that]() the novel pathogen is tearing through the country's prison system as well — a troubling hint that even in its epicenter, we still don't understand the full toll the epidemic's actually had. Chinese authorities acknowledged on Friday that they knew of at least 500 infections among prisoners and guards. A particular guard with a bad cough may have been a superspreader, according to the *Times.* On Friday, state-owned Chinese newspaper *People's Daily* [reported that]() the government had dispatched an investigative team to evaluate the scope of the problem. Benjamin Cowling, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong, told the *Times* that prisons are a particularly grave setting for an epidemic, because inmates are housed in close proximity — and even authorities have restricted access to isolated housing that could prevent transmission. "It’s a really difficult situation to prevent transmission from occurring," he told the paper. And the situation may be even worse than it appears, according to Human Rights Watch spokesperson Yaqiu Wang, as it could compound already-poor medical care in the Chinese prison system. "Prisoners are routinely denied of access to adequate medical care even during normal times," Wang told the *Times*. "Now with medical resources stretched to the limit in many areas in China, it is hard to imagine prisoners’ medical needs would be a priority of the government." ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()