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Documents leaked from China show that the country in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic reported fewer cases than actual cases, even less than half, as it underestimated the severity of the virus and was unable to quickly detect new infections, according to an exclusive report. . CNN.
A public health witness working in the Chinese health system leaked to CNN 117 pages of internal documents from the Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the Chinese province of Hubei, whose capital is Wuhan, the city since which is a covid-19 pandemic.
The documents, which CNN released to six experts for confirmation, show that the Communist Party of China withheld vital information about the coronavirus from October 2019 to April 2020, a critical period during which SARS-CoV -2 spread from China to the whole world and caused the pandemic.
China has repeatedly denied accusations by the United States and other countries that it deliberately withheld information about the coronavirus.
CNN noted that these documents do not show an intentional concealment of information, but they do show that there were large discrepancies between what officials believed and what they announced to the public.
On February 10, Chinese officials announced 2,478 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases worldwide to more than 40,000. But for a document labeled “internal document, please keep it confidential”, the Hubei CDC recorded 5,918 new cases, with 2,345 “confirmed cases”, 1,772 “clinically diagnosed cases” and 1,796 “suspected cases”.
A report from early March states that the median time between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis is 23.3 days. Experts told CNN that this would make it harder for experts to deal with the spread of the virus.
The documents also reveal that in late 2019 a flu epidemic broke out in Hubei, with an incidence 20 times higher than the previous year. This epidemic affected Wuhan, but more to the cities of Yichang and Xiang.
CNN notes that according to the documents, the flu epidemic and the coronavirus outbreak are not linked, but the extent of the flu epidemic was not previously reported. Experts told the US television network that the flu epidemic may have made it difficult for Chinese authorities to detect and pay attention to new viruses.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, the National Health Commission and the Hubei Health Commission have not commented on the CNN revelations, although they have been asked.
“It was clear that they made mistakes, and not just mistakes made in dealing with a new virus, but also politically motivated and bureaucratic mistakes in the way they dealt with the epidemic,” said Yangzong Huang of the Foreign Affairs Council.
“These errors have had a global impact. You can never guarantee 100% transparency.” It doesn’t have to be a deliberate cover-up, a new virus limits you to technology and other issues. “
Critics
It should be noted that some analysts and Trump supporters focused on the fact that CNN delayed – as they claim – the release of secret documents and preferred to do so after the presidential elections, as if it did before. reinforced what Donald Trump stood for.
New York Times columnist Drew Holden re-posted a series of CNN tweets in recent months relaying information from Chinese authorities, commenting: “So maybe now is a good time for CNN to stop” repeating how parrots “what is transmitting your Communist Party. China for the coronavirus?”
Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin commented on Twitter: “Shocking. The more correct question for CNN is why they expected after the election to bring to the public sphere that China misled the world about the coronavirus. This is not new news.”
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