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.

Chinese government labs only released the genome after another lab published it ahead of authorities on a virologist website on Jan. 11. Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on providing WHO with detailed data on patients and cases, according to recordings of internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency through January — all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed.

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.

“We’re going on very minimal information,” said American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, now WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, in one internal meeting. “It’s clearly not enough for you to do proper planning.”

“We’re currently at the stage where yes, they’re giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV,” said WHO’s top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in another meeting.

The story behind the early response to the virus comes at a time when the U.N. health agency is under siege, and has agreed to an independent probe of how the pandemic was handled globally. After repeatedly praising the Chinese response early on, U.S. President Donald Trump has blasted WHO in recent weeks for allegedly colluding with China to hide the extent of the coronavirus crisis. He cut ties with the organization on Friday, jeopardizing the approximately $450 million the U.S. gives every year as WHO’s biggest single donor.

Continue reading. https://apnews.com/3c061794970661042b18d5aeaaed9fae

FarahAideed:
Trump is always right , the guy has a great hunch

FarahAideed:
Trump is always right , the guy has a great hunch

waledeji:

FarahAideed:


Lemme spoil your day small Yoruba Moozlim

waledeji:
All this noise about nothing

FarahAideed:


Lemme spoil your day small Yoruba Moozlim

BeLookingIDIOT:
As if trump didn't also praise China for their response before

proxillin:


Based on misinformation from WHO

BeLookingIDIOT:
As if trump didn't also praise China for their response before

Blackmann001:
.. The world is a surker for China especially the gullible Europe....

If you want progress as a nation, cut China off... Every nation of the world shld unite against Chinese imports... Then they will feel responsible to things....

The government is arrogant, bullish, dubious, curny, domination, too aggressive ND lives in self denial...

250k bribery by China coy in zamfara, the country leaders said nothing, not evn a condemning statement.......

China will eventually ruin Nigeria

Elimon:

After Cutting China off what next...did WHO or the West tell you they ever cared about this African continent...
China is the only country holding Africa in the hand... The West did more harm than good

Elimon:

After Cutting China off what next...did WHO or the West tell you they ever cared about this African continent...
China is the only country holding Africa in the hand... The West did more harm than good

FarahAideed:
Trump is always right , the guy has a great hunch

proxillin:


Based on misinformation from WHO

Minsk24:


Lol... You see how biased you are... Daang.. Did you not complete the article to see that the WHO has no rights to engage in independent investigation and must rely on info from their host country.. WHO was trying to extract info from China and hence they praised them publicly which yielded results... The same inefficient Trump was briefed about the virus early but did nothing..
Now he blames the WHO,
Right wing people have an issue of using their brains to think for themselves... Sorry for the harsh words tho, but it's pathetic..

proxillin:


DO you have mental decadence ? You said WHO was trying to get info from China, but because china did not cooperate, WHO had to lie to the world including Trump.

How is that too hard for your thick brain to understand?

FarahAideed:


Lemme spoil your day small Yoruba Moozlim

AllenSpencer:


Same Forbes! https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/02/01/trumps-deficits-are-racing-past-obamas/#41d2eef48199