among the dead: eye doctor li wenliang, who had first raised the alarm about an outbreak.es could be lost to the virus. >> one person now dying every six minutes. ♪ ♪ >> january 20 is the dividing line. before that, the chinese could have done much better. after that, the rest of the world should be really on high alert and do much better. >> i don't think it's clear right now exactly how history is going to view this pandemic. if the chinese authorities had acted earlier, would it have de a difference? i think that's the key question. and i don't think there's an answer to that right now. it might have been a case where it was already too late by the time we realized that this virus was spreading. but i think what we can say, based on what we know right now, it's clear that there were mistakes that were made, there were clear delays, and many people did suffer the consequences. >> narrator: t chinese government continues to defend its response to the outbreak. >> (speaking chinese): >> if the great coronavirus pandemic of 2020 teaches us anything, it teaches us that we ab