China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO
Source: Associated Press
Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus immediately, and said its work and commitment to transparency were very impressive, and beyond words.
But behind the scenes, it was a much different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found.
Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents.
[...]
WHO officials were lauding China in public because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings obtained by the AP suggest. Privately, they complained in meetings the week of Jan. 6 that China was not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time.
Read more: https://apnews.com/3c061794970661042b18d5aeaaed9fae
Skittles
(152,964 posts)the problem I have now is that when *TRUMP* HAD THE INFORMATION he*STILL* failed to act
iluvtennis
(19,756 posts)Pobeka
(4,999 posts)No mystery how serious China took the infection rate to be, nor the seriousness of the disease, even if they were not completely forthcoming with some of the data.
It was not a secret. I don't believe for a second our security folks, and news reporters in Wuhan were not telling lots of folks in the U.S. how bad this was.
Trump's response was not only non-extistent, but encouraged public denial for nearly another two months.
Igel
(35,191 posts)It seems to be standard practice--ridicule and talk down to people, then be stunned that they aren't just ready to go the extra mile to help.
Makes sense with WHO v China. Makes sense in all kinds of places. It's the flip version that makes no sense to me at all.
Doug.Goodall
(1,241 posts)It is Trump who wants to retaliate against the Chinese. This is wrong. I still eat Chinese food and have respect for Chinese people. I do think we should be cautious with any dealing with the Chinese Government though.