![]() ![]() “Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organization’s rules and regulations to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels,” a WHO statement said.Ĭhina’s National Health Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment. WHO and its officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by The Associated Press without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the AP was unable to supply to protect its sources. The virus has now infected over 6 million people worldwide and killed more than 375,000. 30, the outbreak spread by a factor of 100 to 200 times, according to retrospective infection data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 2 and the day WHO declared a global emergency on Jan. The lack of detailed patient data also made it harder to determine how quickly the virus was spreading - a critical question in stopping it.īetween the day the full genome was first decoded by a government lab on Jan. The delay in the release of the genome stalled the recognition of its spread to other countries, along with the global development of tests, drugs and vaccines. “We need to see the data….It’s absolutely important at this point.” “This would not happen in Congo and did not happen in Congo and other places,” he said, probably referring to the Ebola outbreak that began there in 2018. ![]() Ryan also noted that China was not cooperating in the same way some other countries had in the past. Ryan said the best way to “protect China” from possible action by other countries was for WHO to do its own independent analysis with data from the Chinese government on whether the virus could easily spread between people. ![]() “WHO barely got out of that one with its neck intact given the issues that arose around transparency in southern China.” “This is exactly the same scenario, endlessly trying to get updates from China about what was going on,” he said. Michael Ryan, told colleagues it was time to “shift gears” and apply more pressure on China, fearing a repeat of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that started in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people worldwide. In the second week of January, WHO’s chief of emergencies, Dr. Galea noted WHO could not indulge China’s wish to sign off on information before telling other countries because “that is not respectful of our responsibilities.” Under international law, WHO is required to quickly share information and alerts with member countries about an evolving crisis. WHO staffers debated how to press China for gene sequences and detailed patient data without angering authorities, worried about losing access and getting Chinese scientists into trouble. And WHO experts genuinely thought Chinese scientists had done “a very good job” in detecting and decoding the virus, despite the lack of transparency from Chinese officials. However, the agency did try to portray China in the best light, likely as a means to secure more information. The recordings suggest that rather than colluding with China, as Trump declared, WHO was itself kept in the dark as China gave it the minimal information required by law. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member states. agency has no enforcement powers and cannot independently investigate epidemics within countries. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the U.N. or China, but instead portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying to solicit more data despite limited authority. The new information does not support the narrative of either the U.S. In the meantime, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to pitch in $2 billion over the next two years to fight the coronavirus, saying China has always provided information to WHO and the world “in a most timely fashion.” ![]()
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