a porous purveyor

[GoodTaste]

What does "a porous purveyor" mean? Sound like to be "a brooder."

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This is what allowed the virus to spread across the globe. Because the Chinese Communist Party was pretending that there was little to be concerned about, Wuhan was a porous purveyor of the virus. The government only instituted a lockdown in Wuhan on January 23—seven weeks after the virus first appeared. As events in Italy, the United States, Spain, and France have shown, quite a lot can happen in a week, much less seven. By then, mayor Zhou Xianwang admitted that more than 5 million people had already left Wuhan.

Source: From The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/china-trolling-world-and-avoiding-blame/608332/

 

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher
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I might be wrong, but I think it's metaphorical.

Porous means it's got little holes in/on it. A porous rock is rough to the touch because of that. In this case, I think it refers to Wuhan as being holey, untight, leaky, as in the government failed to contain the virus within Wuhan, and it leaked out to other places.

Purveyor is someone who promotes and spreads, say, an idea of a lifestyle. In this case, it's not an idea that was spread but the virus.

So, the virus got out of Wuhan because the CCP failed to properly seal the city (so, porous), and the city was the place from which the virus was spreading to other places (so, purveyor).

 

[SoothingDave]

The writer is trying to be clever with alliteration. Porous = stuff is not contained. Purveyor = someone who spreads an idea, or sells certain goods.