
WHO admits China never reported the existence of coronavirus outbreak - Markoff
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/who-admits-china-never-reported-the-existence-of-coronavirus-outbreak
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mytailorisrich
Reading between the lines, what I gather happened is that the WHO learned
about the outbreak and started to work with China before China notified the
WHO through the formal notification procedure, at which point there was no
longer any point in practice of using that procedure.

China may have tried to downplay the problem at first (and maybe not only at
first) but this is a political game by US politicians.

To insist on referring to the "Chinese Communist Party" instead of the
"Chinese government" is also a transparent rhetorical trick.

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tomohawk
December 21: Wuhan doctors begin to notice a “cluster of pneumonia cases with
an unknown cause.”

December 25: Chinese medical staff in two hospitals in Wuhan are suspected of
contracting viral pneumonia and are quarantined. This is additional strong
evidence of human-to-human transmission.

December 30: Dr. Li Wenliang sent a message to a group of other doctors
warning them about a possible outbreak of an illness that resembled severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), urging them to take protective measures
against infection.

December 31: The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission declares, “The
investigation so far has not found any obvious human-to-human transmission and
no medical staff infection.” This is the opposite of the belief of the doctors
working on patients in Wuhan, and two doctors were already suspected of
contracting the virus.

January 1: The Wuhan Public Security Bureau issued summons to Dr. Li Wenliang,
accusing him of “spreading rumors.” Two days later, at a police station, Dr.
Li signed a statement acknowledging his “misdemeanor” and promising not to
commit further “unlawful acts.” Seven other people are arrested on similar
charges and their fate is unknown.

January 3: The Chinese government continued efforts to suppress all
information about the virus: “China’s National Health Commission, the nation’s
top health authority, ordered institutions not to publish any information
related to the unknown disease, and ordered labs to transfer any samples they
had to designated testing institutions, or to destroy them.”

Roughly one month after the first cases in Wuhan, the United States government
is notified. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, gets initial reports about a new coronavirus from Chinese
colleagues, according to Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar. Azar,
who helped manage the response at HHS to earlier SARS and anthrax outbreaks,
told his chief of staff to make sure the National Security Council was
informed.

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mytailorisrich
OK. What point are you trying to make with respect to my comment?

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tomohawk
China actively covered up what was going on, going so far as suppressing
information from doctors involved by using the police.

Dr Li was made to recant his statements about the disease, and was punished by
the police, and eventually died of the disease.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Wenliang_(doctor)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Wenliang_\(doctor\))

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mobilio
So in short - Trump was right?

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bediger4000
No. He dismantled the CDC apparatus for discovering and reporting such
outbreaks. If WHO is unreliable and politically influenced, the USA has enough
money to fund a few people doing pandemic forensics, or whatever it's called.

Magical thinking doesn't make you "right".

