“A national scandal”.
2018
December 31, 2019, China informs the WHO about the virus and sent information to the WHO office in Beijing and
January 3, 2020, China informed Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan and relevant countries and regions.
January 4, on its Twitter account, the WHO summarized a “cluster” in Wuhan and said investigations were underway.
January 7, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) identified the novel coronavirus (nCoV).
January 9, the Chinese authorities told the WHO about initial progress toward determining the cause of viral pneumonia since, at that time, there was no clarity about the virus. The WHO posted a note on its website and made two points:
Chinese investigators had made a preliminary identification of the novel virus, “a notable achievement, demonstrating China’s increased capacity to manage new outbreaks”;
Such viruses are complex, since “some transmit easily from person to person, while others do not. According to Chinese authorities, the virus in question can cause severe illness in some patients and does not transmit readily between people.”
January 11, the WHO informed the public that it has received “the genetic sequences for the novel coronavirus from the Chinese authorities”;
January 11, The WHO issued interim guidance for the virus spreading widely.
January 13, based on The Who notice and increased understanding of the virus, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) told Wuhan City to reduce public gatherings and check people’s temperature at transport hubs. This was in the public domain.
January 14, the WHO’s technical team told the press there was “limited human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus in the 41 confirmed cases, mainly through family members, and that there was a risk of a possible wider outbreak.”
January 14, the NHC and the WHO publicly reiterated that it was a new kind of coronavirus with a limited human-to-human transmission capability. It had been restricted within China, with one person taking the infection to Thailand from Wuhan. (Two months later, on April 15, AP ran a story arguing that the Chinese government did not report the news of the outbreak to the public for six crucial days from January 14 to 20).
A Public Health Emergency
January 21, After Dr. Zhong Nanshan’s announcement, and based on more epidemiological work, the WHO said on that there was evidence of human-to-human transmission. However, there was still no conclusive evidence that the transmission happened consistently. While Dr. Zhong made this statement, a WHO team was in Wuhan conducting a field visit.
January 22, the WHO team’s mission statement noted, “Data collected through detailed epidemiological investigation and the deployment of the new test kit nationally suggests that human-to-human transmission is taking place in Wuhan. More analysis of the epidemiological data is needed to understand the full extent of human-to-human transmission.”
January 22, the WHO director-general convened the WHO’s International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee, which decides to declare a “public health emergency.” The 15-member committee comprises officials from the United States, France, Australia, Singapore, Canada, and Thailand. The committee was divided; it eventually declined to declare an emergency but suggested that it reconvene ten days later to assess the situation. The committee gave countries worldwide advice: “It is expected that further international exportation of cases may appear in any country. Thus, all countries should be prepared for containment, including active surveillance, early detection, isolation and case management, contact tracing and prevention of the onward spread of 2019-nCoV infection, and to share full data with the WHO.”
January 30, WHO declared a “public health emergency of international concern.” Such an emergency is defined as an “extraordinary event” that is a risk due to “international spread of disease” and that requires “a coordinated international response,” signaling that a pandemic might be imminent. Few countries heeded the WHO’s call for testing, tracing and social distancing and, by mid-March, it had spread around the world. Health officials and researchers are now evaluating why the organization’s warning system failed and how to overhaul it. Many say the organization should have declared a PHEIC about a week earlier than it did. But the largest failing, researchers agree, is that so many countries ignored it. Investigations — by the WHO and by an independent panel — are attempting to understand why.
February 16. WHO team visits China.
February 28 WHO publishes reports detailing the lengths China went to fight this disease. Dr. Tim Eckmanns (Koch Institute, Germany), Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove (WHO, Switzerland) were there, on the ground, doing the investigation themselves. They knew the numbers. They saw the infectiousness. They observed the critical demand for ICUs and PPEs. Their recommendations for countries with outbreaks of COVID-19
Immediately activate the highest level of national Response Management protocols to ensure the all-of-government and all-of-society approach needed to contain COVID-19 with non-pharmaceutical public health measures;
Prioritize active, exhaustive case finding and immediate testing and isolation, painstaking contact tracing and rigorous quarantine of close contacts;
Fully educate the general public on the seriousness of COVID-19 and their role in preventing its spread;
Immediately expand surveillance to detect COVID-19 transmission chains, by testing all patients with atypical pneumonia, conducting screening in some patients with upper respiratory illnesses and recent COVID-19 exposure, and adding testing for the COVID-19 virus to existing surveillance systems (e.g. systems for influenza-like-illness and SARI); and 22
Conduct multi-sector scenario planning and simulations to deploy even more stringent measures to interrupt transmission chains as needed (e.g. the suspension of large-scale gatherings and the closure of schools and workplaces).
February 28, Europe followed the WHO advice. Or did it? Remember that, on February 28, Europe reported 339 Covid-19 cases – exceeding China’s disease density on the day China locked down (Jan. 23). If Europe had done this, it would not get hit harder than China, would it? And it would come out of it a month after China did, i.e., sometime in April.
April 15, AP ran a story arguing that the Chinese government did not report the news of the outbreak to the public for six crucial days from January 14 to 20 – though China and the WHO jointly issued exactly that warning on January 14, above.
2023
A NATIONAL SCANDAL?
Offline: COVID-19 and the NHS—“a national scandal.”
Comprehensive Updates on COVID-19. Peter Ben Embarek, zoonotic disease authority says the WHO has four hypotheses:
Covid jumped directly from a source animal to humans;
it entered human populations via an unknown intermediary reservoir of host animals close to humans;
food chain, in particular, cold chain logistics and food-related infections that acted as an ‘interface’ for Covid’s spread; and
a lab leakage or incident that unleashed the virus.
He said the second scenario is the most likely and that frozen food from outside of China could have caused the first cases at Wuhan’s Huanan market. WHO ruled out Covid laboratory accident: “Nowhere was SARS-CoV-2 researched or worked upon at any labs across the world before the pandemic and there were no publications about the virus… We have visited labs in Wuhan and talked to staff there and we believe a lab leakage was the least likely cause”.
WHO China team member, American Peter Daszak said, “US intelligence on the supposed origin of the coronavirus pandemic is not reliable. Please don’t rely too much on US intel: increasingly disengaged under Trump & frankly wrong on many aspects.”
Media coverage and WHO responses
The New York Times: “For months, China resisted allowing World Health Organization experts into the country to trace the origins of the global pandemic”. WHO: “We were in China from Day One. Large WHO teams also visited in February, 2020, and again in June”.
AFP, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, The Express, Al Jazeera and The Times said the Chinese Government acted uncooperatively during the WHO visit. WHO: “The Chinese government has fully cooperated and behaved impeccably”.
The Chinese government has ‘threatened’ witnesses. WHO: “Our officers had access to any who wanted to give evidence without prior arrangement or limitation. Not one Chinese citizen spoke of being ‘forced’ in any way.
The Chinese government would not allow ‘full’ access to the virology lab at the centre of the controversy. WHO: “We received full access and security clearance to ALL staff and areas of the virology lab concerned.
The Chinese government tried to prevent access to the ‘wet’ markets in Wuhan. WHO: “We travelled wherever and whenever we wanted – always being greeted by friendly Chinese citizens willing to help and assist”.
The Chinese government stage-managed the interviews with surviving members of families who have lost loved-ones to Covid19. WHO: “We interviewed any one we wished without prior arrangement or appointment. WHO officers were ‘touched’ by the continuous kindness and concern they received from the Chinese people who were very grateful that they had risked their lives to travel during this pandemic and try to assist China!”.
China’s Ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, suggested that WHO experts visit the US: “There have been numerous media reports about early cases in other places in the world. So there’s certainly a need for more tracing to be done all over the world”.
FIRST APPEARANCES
The content below was originally paywalled.
The CDC found that Covid was endemic in the US by December, 2019, when1.4% of Americans had Covid-19 antibodies.
France, Italy, and Spain found confirmed cases and traces of the virus in late 2019. See COVID-19-related dermatosis in November 2019. Could this case be Italy’s patient zero?
The WHO says China was Covid-free before December, 2019.
Below: note two peaks of positivity for Covid antibodies: late September, 2019, peaking in October, and February 2020 peaking in the second week. Out of 16 positive samples, 11 (68.7%) originated in Lombardy:
It appears that Covid-19 in the US, Italy and France before it reached China.
