New Delhi: Even as the world struggles to find a vaccine to cure the Covid-19, a year after its first case was detected, Cable News Network (CNN) said on Wednesday that China deliberately misled the world in the early stages of Wuhan’s pandemic outbreak, suppressed evidence, and mishandled the crisis.
Citing what it called “The Wuhan Files”, a CNN report disclosed evidence of mishandling and purported to destroy of evidence, basing its findings on a 117-page document marked “internal document, please keep confidential”.
Local health authorities in Hubei Province, where cases of the virus were first detected, listed a total of 5,918 new cases on February 10, according to the document. However, the confirmed cases announced officially on the same date were less than half of the actual number, suggesting the numbers were tampered with, in the very early stages, media reported.
A large and unknown outbreak of influenza was reported in Hubei in early December but went undisclosed. The files also elaborated on the region’s struggle to manage the coronavirus spread between October 2019 and April 2020, the most crucial time period which swelled the virus into a global pandemic.
Before release, the report was verified by six experts. It is based on internal documents from the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The whistle-blower worked in the Chinese healthcare system, CNN said.
China took an average of 23 days to diagnose confirmed patients. Delayed testing and testing failures meant the magnitude of confirmed cases was not realized until January 10, before which many received negative results. Moreover, a history of understaffing and a bureaucratic model of governance led China to ignore early warnings.
Cases of coronavirus were first reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan. The virus has since infected more than 63.2 million people and caused 1.45 million deaths globally, according to Johns Hopkins University coronavirus resource center.
It corroborates global speculation over China deliberately suppressing evidence about the outbreak. The origin of the virus, although largely unconfirmed, is thought to be from Wuhan’s notorious wet markets that house and sell dead and live animals for food. Patients who had been exposed to a common infection source in the market had fallen ill, but the pathogen was not ruled out as contagious until January 20.
Recently, in an attempt to deflect the blame, Chinese scientists claimed that the virus likely originated from India or Bangladesh in the summer of 2019. Authorities have also previously placed blame on the US and other European countries as well.
China has been denying all accusations against any mishandling or obfuscation of evidence by the United States and other countries. US President Donald Trump had, however, christened the pandemic due to the “Chinese virus”, clearly placing the responsibility and accountability for the mayhem it caused across over 200 countries.
(VP)