How China Unleashed The Pandemic and Its Global Impact

By the 27th Dec 2019, a Chinese laboratory had identified a SARS like virus in samples provided by doctors in Wuhan. By which time, internal reporting on Chinese government websites noted that 180 people had been identified with the infection; and in early Jan 2020, those Chinese government websites were updated to show that there were 266 identified cases, according to reports by the SCMP in Jan 2020.

Within days, Chinese doctors started posting about this new SARS-like virus on Wechat. But, by the 1st Jan 2020, Wuhan police had warned eight doctors about fabricating and spreading rumours, including Dr. Li Wenliang who was made to sign a confession about rumour mongering.

On the 30th Dec 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission notified hospitals of a “pneumonia of unclear cause” and ordered them to report any related information, and to not disclose information to the public. On the next day, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued a statement confirming 27 pneumonia-like cases of unknown origin in an online health bulletin; but did not issue an International Health Regulation (IHR) notification to the WHO.

ProMED, a global surveillance system conducting global reporting of infectious diseases outbreaks, detected the online notification from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, and reports in Chinese media.

On the 1st Jan 2020, the WHO IHR contact requested detailed information from their Chinese counterpart, since they had not yet received an IHR notification.

However, on the same day, the Hubei Provincial Health Commission ordered labs, which had already determined that the novel virus was similar to SARS, to stop testing samples and to destroy existing samples. [SCMP]

On the 2nd Jan 2020, the WHO repeated requests for information, and requested formal verification, and activation of the Incident Management System. Multiple countries requested details from WHO about activating the IHR. However, the China CDC was unresponsive to requests.

On the 5th Jan 2020, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued an updated bulletin which stated no deaths, no evidence of human-to-human transmission, and no health workers affected. On the same day, based on this bulletin, the WHO reported 44 known cases in Wuhan by 3rd Jan with no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

On the 8th Jan 2020, an infected traveller arrived in Thailand from Wuhan, but this is not confirmed until the 13th Jan.

On the 9th Jan 2020, in a deliberate attempt to downplay the situation, Chinese authorities announced a new coronavirus in a hospitalised person in Wuhan.

On the 9th Jan 2020, the WHO requested China to share PCR primer, and genome sequence details. However, China was still not voluntarily sharing details.

On the 9th Jan 2020; three EU airports had direct flight connections to Wuhan. Base upon WHO reports that there was no indication of human-to-human transmission and no cases detected outside Wuhan, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control considered the likelihood of introduction to the EU to be low.

On the 10th Jan 2020, based on available Chinese information, the WHO recommended no specific health measures for travellers?

On the 11th Jan 2020, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued an updated bulletin which downgraded the number of cases to 41, with one death, and no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

This updated bulletin was inconsistent with other internal Chinese government websites which stated much higher numbers of cases. Also, at this time, Chinese citizen journalists posted videos from Wuhan hospitals which clearly showed overwhelming numbers of people in the hospital waiting rooms and corridors. In addition, Chinese social media posts commented on people being turned away from hospitals because the hospitals were already overwhelmed, and could not receive any more patients. The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission understated the real number of infections.

On the 29th Jan 2020, retrospective analysis of the first 425 confirmed cases confirmed human-to-human transmission since mid Dec 2019. And later retrospective analysis (2/6/2020, in https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7264924/) estimated that there were 52,381 cases of human-to-human transmission between 8th Dec 2019 and 9th Jan 2020.

On the 14th Jan 2020, in a confidential teleconference, China’s top health official ordered the country to prepare for a pandemic. The China CDC internally declared a level one emergency. Chinese officials repeated that the chance of sustained human-to-human transmission was low.

On the 20th Jan 2020, a Chinese medical expert publicly confirmed human-to-human transmission to Chinese media, but not to the WHO.

On the 23rd Jan 2020, Wuhan and three other cities were placed in lockdown.

Between Jan. 24–30, China celebrated the Lunar New Year holiday. Hundreds of millions of people were in transit around the country as they visited family.

Although China internally declared a level one pandemic emergency on the 14th Jan, Wuhan was not placed in lockdown until the 23rd Jan; in all likelihood, to allow Chinese to reach home for Chinese New Year. And during this interval, approximately 5 million people left the city - including taking international flights -?without being screened.

On the 24th Jan, the WHO still recommended no travel restrictions. However, on the 25th Jan the WHO suddenly declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak was a level 3 emergency - the highest level.

China did not notify the WHO that it had declared a level one pandemic emergency on the 14th Jan., and it did not notify the WHO that Wuhan had been placed in lockdown on the 23rd Jan.- the WHO found out about this two days later.

As COVID-19 infections began to spread across the globe in January and February 2020, China imported more than 2.46 billion pieces of medical items, including masks and PPE, between Jan 24 and Feb 29 2020?

Immediately after Wuhan was placed in lockdown, China tasked Chinese companies globally to buy up all available masks, PPE and other relevant medical items. In Australia, Chinese-owned property developer Risland Australia had flown 80 tonnes of medical supplies on a corporate jet to Wuhan by late February. And Chinese company, Greenland Group, re-tasked its employees to purchase face masks, hand sanitisers, antibacterial wipes, thermometers, Panadol and other medical items in bulk for shipment to China. Greenland bought up three million surgical masks, 500,000 pairs of gloves and bulk supplies of sanitiser and antibacterial wipes in Australia and other countries. Greenland Group told Chinese language media in Australia the company collected 3,000,000 protective masks, 700,000 hazmat suits and 500,000 pairs of medical gloves during the global effort.

Many countries, including Australia, experienced serious shortages of masks and PPE at the start of the global pandemic as a result. Later, Chinese opportunism took advantage of countries in distress through mask diplomacy; it was a way of deflecting criticism away from China with propaganda that China was leading the fight against the pandemic.

Within China there was growing anger on social media about the management of the situation, especially following the arrest and later death of Dr. Li Wenliang who raised the alarm about the virus. In order to defuse international criticism, gain control of the domestic Chinese narrative and deflect criticism from Xi Jinping, the CCP launched a massive domestic and international disinformation campaign that deliberately sowed doubt about the Chinese origins of the virus, and promoted conspiracy theories that the virus came from the U.S. and even Europe.

Also, China responded aggressively to demands for an open investigation into the origins of covid-19. For example, when the Australian government called for an international inquiry into the origins of covid-19, China launched a merciless barrage of national insults, threats, and economic boycotts of Australian exports that are ongoing to this day.

Under international pressure to facilitate an investigation into the origins of covid-19, China finally allowed a WHO team to travel to Wuhan; but China stage managed the whole investigation, restricted the team’s movements, and did not satisfy requests for information from the team. The whole event was an inconclusive charade.

The IMF forecast that the global cost of the Covid-19 pandemic may reach US$28 trillion by 2025, with 120 million jobs lost, and 65 to 75 million people forced into poverty, while the virus continues to mutate.?

To date, there have been 5.8 million Covid-19 reported deaths; and by Jan 2022, 12.5 million attributable Covid-19 deaths including unreported deaths.?

Forecasts of reported plus unreported covid-19 deaths to April 1, 2022 suggest at least 13.5 million deaths; however, analysis by The Economist suggests an upper estimate of 22 million deaths.?

The global number of Covid-19 cases at 15th Jan 2022 is 326 million.?[Our World In Data, IHME, Congressional Research Service]

The impact of Covid-19 and variants is now comparable with the 1918 pandemic in terms of deaths and cases. The 1918 pandemic resulted in 20 million to 75 million deaths globally, and approximately 500 million people, nearly 30% of the world’s population at the time, were infected.

From late Dec 2019, Chinese government departments downplayed the severity of the outbreak in Wuhan. They ignored WHO requests for information, publicly underreported the number of infections, and repeatedly failed to comply with International Health Reporting (IHR) and incident management requirements.?

Local Chinese government officials moved to block disclosure of the outbreak, which included the arrest of doctors and citizen journalists, and they ordered laboratories to stop testing and to destroy samples.

On the 14th Jan 2020, China internally declared a level one pandemic without informing the WHO; but then, over the next ten days, allowed millions of Chinese to travel from Wuhan to overseas destinations without health screening - in all likelihood to allow them to reach their destinations for Chinese New Year - before initiating a lockdown in Wuhan on the 23rd Jan 2020.

Immediately following the Wuhan lockdown, China tasked Chinese companies overseas to buy up as much medical supplies as possible, effectively stripping the world of essential medical supplies - in all 2.46 billion items of medical supplies were shipped to China by the end of Feb 2020.

And the outrage continued as the CCP launched a massive domestic and international disinformation campaign that sowed doubt about the Chinese origins of the virus, and promoted conspiracy theories that the virus came from the U.S. and Europe.

When Australia called for an international inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, China launched a barrage of national insults, threats, and economic boycotts of Australian exports that are ongoing to this day.

China blocked attempts to investigate the origins of the virus. And, to this day, denies any responsibility for the pandemic, and has displayed no remorse for the catastrophic human and economic cost; instead, it has ridiculed several countries as their health systems have become overwhelmed.

Over the past century, China has been the origin of at least eight pandemic outbreaks including covid-19. China has all of the conditions for another pandemic: wildlife trade, farmed wild species, close proximity of farmed animals and human settlement - China will be the origin of more pandemics.

How can China’s unconscionable conduct in this be ignored as if it was of no consequence?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00104-8?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=628f2b80d3-briefing-dy-20220118&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-628f2b80d3-43344837

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/R46270.pdf

https://covid19.healthdata.org/global?view=cumulative-deaths&tab=trend

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-covid-cases-region

Covid-19 Timeline:

https://theindependentpanel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/COVID-19-The-Authoritative-Chronology_final.pdf

24th Dec 2019, Chinese doctors become aware of pneumonia like infection that does not respond to treatments. Samples are sent to private laboratory.

26th Dec, a Chinese laboratory identifies a SARS like virus in samples

27th Dec, Chinese doctors report cases to the Wuhan CDC

27th Dec.,?Dr. Zhang Jixian, from Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, told China’s health authorities that the disease was caused by a new coronavirus. By that date, more than 180 people had been infected (published data on Chinese government websites seen by the SCMP and reported in Jan 2020). Doctor Zhang Jixian raised concerns with Wuhan CDC about human-to-human transmission.

30th Dec Dr. Ai Fen, a director at Wuhan Central Hospital, posted information on WeChat about the new virus. She was reprimanded for doing so and told not to spread information about it. Dr. Li Wenliang also shared information on WeChat about the new SARS-like virus. He is called in for questioning shortly afterward.

The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission notified hospitals of a “pneumonia of unclear cause” and ordered them to report any related information, and not to disclose information to the public.

31st Dec, Chinese media started reporting on a new pneumonia-like infection.

31st Dec, The Taipei CDC were monitoring mainland Chinese government websites, and became aware of a possible outbreak; they then requested information from the WHO.

31st Dec, The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued a statement confirming 27 pneumonia-like cases of unknown origin in an online health bulletin; but do not issue an International Health Regulation (IHR) notification to the WHO.

ProMED the global surveillance system conducting global reporting of infectious diseases outbreaks detected the online notification from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, and reports in Chinese media.

1st Jan 2020, the WHO IHR contact requested detailed information from their Chinese counterpart.?

1st Jan, the Wuhan police warn eight doctors about fabricating and spreading rumours.

1st Jan, the Hubei Provincial Health Commission ordered labs, which had already determined that the novel virus was similar to SARS, to stop testing samples and to destroy existing samples. [SCMP]

2nd Jan, the WHO repeated requests for information, and requested formal verification, and activation of Incident Management System. Multiple countries request details from WHO, and enquire about activating the IHR. The China CDC is unresponsive to requests.

3rd Jan, the Chinese CDC provided the WHO with details of the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission bulletin.

5th Jan, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission updated bulletin stated no deaths, no evidence of human-to-human transmission, and no health workers affected.

5th Jan, based on Chinese data, the WHO reported 44 known cases by 3rd Jan with no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

6th Jan, the WHO was still not receiving adequate and timely information from Chinese authorities.

7th Jan, the Wuhan Institute of Virology had fully sequenced the virus

8th Jan, the WHO requested the Chinese IHR counterpart to confirm a new coronavirus with full details.

8th Jan, an infected traveller arrives in Thailand from Wuhan, but this is not confirmed until the 13th Jan.

9th Jan, Chinese authorities announce a new coronavirus in a hospitalised person in Wuhan.

9th Jan, three EU airports have direct flights to Wuhan. As there is no indication of human-to-human transmission and no cases detected outside Wuhan, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control considers the likelihood of introduction to theEU to be low.

9th Jan, the WHO requested China to share PCR primer, and genome sequence details. China was still not voluntarily sharing details.

10th Jan, based on available Chinese information, the WHO continued to recommend no specific health measures for travellers.

11th Jan, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission updated bulletin downgraded the number of cases to 41, with one death, and no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

14th Jan, in a confidential teleconference, China’s top health official ordered the country to prepare for a pandemic. The China CDC internally declared a level one emergency. Chinese officials continued to state that the chance of sustained human-to-human transmission was low.

https://apnews.com/article/3c061794970661042b18d5aeaaed9fae

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-timeline-of-chinas-response-in-the-first-days-of-covid-19/

20th Jan, a Chinese medical expert publicly confirms human-to-human transmission to Chinese media.

23rd Jan, Wuhan and three other cities are placed in lockdown. Around this time, approximately 5 million people leave the city without being screened.

Jan. 24–30, China celebrated the Lunar New Year holiday. Hundreds of millions of people were in transit around the country as they visited relatives.

24th Jan, the WHO continued to recommend no travel restrictions

25th Jan, the WHO declared the?SARS-CoV-2 outbreak is a level 3 emergency - the highest level.

29th Jan, analysis of the first 425 confirmed cases confirms human-to-human transmission since mid Dec 2019. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2001316

China Has Been The Origin of Historical Pandemics:

The 1918 pandemic resulted in the deaths of 20 million to 75 million people globally. Some 500 million people, nearly 30% of the world’s population at the time, were infected. The importation in 1918 of 96,000 Chinese labourers to work behind the British and French lines might have been the true origin of the pandemic, “as previously isolated populations came into contact with one another on the battlefields of Europe.” Many of the workers were transported to Europe by way of Canada, where at least 3,000 were documented en route to have a flu-like respiratory illness. [Indo-Pacific Defence Forum]

The pandemic of 1957-1959, known as the 'Asian flu' resulted in at least 3 million deaths worldwide in a two-year period. The Asian flu was caused by the H2N2 subtype of the influenza A virus, and was traced to Guizhou province in 1956, although the virus was first reported in Singapore in February 1957 [Reuters, Indo-Pacific Defence Forum]

In 1968 the H3N2 virus, known as the 'Hong Kong Flu’, was detected in Hong Kong. Estimated deaths totalled 2.2 million. While there was a large outbreak in Hong Kong, the WHO concluded that it may have spread from the mainland of China. [Reuters]

The 1977 Russian flu was an influenza pandemic that was first reported by the Soviet Union in 1977 and lasted until 1979. The outbreak in northern China started in May 1977, slightly earlier. The pandemic resulted in approximately 700,000 deaths worldwide. It was caused by an H1N1 flu strain.

The WHO states that the H5N1 (Bird Flu) virus was first detected in geese in Guangdong in 1996. The first human infection was reported in 1997 in Hong Kong, with outbreaks continuing through 2006. [Reuters]

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-viral-outbreaks-china-idUSKBN22V2ZB

https://ipdefenseforum.com/2020/03/china-a-hotbed-for-pandemics-historically-experts-say/

SARS (2002-2003); was first identified in November 2002 in the Guangdong province of southern China. SARS infected 8,098 people in 26 countries worldwide and killed 774, according to the CDC. Researchers traced the SARS outbreak to civets in China, according to CNN.

SARS 2004; The WHO confirmed that breaches of safety procedures on at least two occasions at one of Beijing's top virology laboratories were the probable cause of the outbreak of SARS which infected nine people, one of whom died.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC416634/

COVID-19, the illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged in China. It was first detected in December 2019, in the Chinese city of Wuhan.