- The World Health Organization changed its chronology of the coronavirus to say that its China office first discovered the new coronavirus from local reports of “viral pneumonia,” rather than from Chinese officials.
- The review, released June 30, comes as multiple reports found that China withheld key information about the coronavirus outbreak from the public and the WHO for several days.
- For months, China has been accused of covering up its knowledge of the coronavirus in its early days, and the WHO of helping it do so. Both sides have repeatedly refuted these allegations.
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The World Health Organization changed its coronavirus timeline to say it first heard about the coronavirus in an online press release, rather than a report by Chinese authorities.
In the review, published on June 30, the WHO said that on December 31, 2019, “the WHO Country Office in the People’s Republic of China picked up a press release from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission of its website on ‘viral pneumonia’ cases in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China. “
On the same day, the WHO open source intelligence platform also picked up a Chinese news report from Finance Sina, a Chinese media outlet, on the same group of cases in Wuhan, attributed to “unknown cause pneumonia,” he said. the agency. .
The WHO requested more information on China’s reports the next day, on January 1, 2020, but only received a response two days later, on January 3.
In an earlier timeline, published in April, the WHO had said it discovered cases from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, without specifying where or how it was reported, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
WHO chief Tedros and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on January 28, 2020.
NAOHIKO HATTA / AFP via Getty Images
The revised timeline now shows that the WHO office in China, not the Chinese authorities, has raised the first alert.
According to AFP, WHO emergency director Michael Ryan told reporters on Friday that countries have 24 to 48 hours to verify an event and tell WHO about it, and that the Chinese authorities contacted immediately. with the WHO as soon as the agency asked about the reports.
China has been accused of covering up the coronavirus in its early days, suppressing key information for its citizens and the WHO.
The Associated Press (AP) reported last month that China delayed the release of critical information about the outbreak to the public and to the WHO for several days, and waited more than a week to release the virus genome, actions that likely delayed vaccine development. , medications and diagnostic tests.
The AP also reported in April that top Chinese leaders knew for six days in January that the coronavirus could become a deadly pandemic, but they told the world that the virus posed a low risk to people and could not be transmitted from human to human.
At the same time, the WHO, which relies on countries to provide its own data, took China at its word and offered the same advice, which has since proven to be incorrect.
—World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 14, 2020
China has long denied the allegations of a cover-up, saying it released information and genome sequences as soon as possible.
The WHO has also been accused of helping China cover up the outbreak in its early days.
President Donald Trump, who repeatedly highlighted the allegations, has since withdrawn $ 400 million of US funds from the WHO and threatened to cut ties with the agency.
Meanwhile, China has pledged billions of dollars in additional funds to the agency. Experts previously told Business Insider that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, WHO director-general, was “deeply committed.”
The health agency has repeatedly denied the allegations.
The WHO announced last week that it would send a team to China to investigate how the coronavirus started, but did not give details on the composition of the team or what exactly it plans to find.
Conducting independent investigations in China is notoriously difficult, especially if it could embarrass the ruling Communist Party. Teams investigating Chinese human rights allegations have previously met on highly choreographed and accompanied tours, and have been banned from conducting investigations.
The WHO did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for further comment on the schedule and the upcoming investigation.
