WHO recordings reveal officials irked with China's delayed COVID-19 information

Behind the plaudits by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for China’s swift transfer of the information regarding the novel coronavirus early in the pandemic, the internal records suggest otherwise. As per the Associated Press report, the internal meeting recording has exposed a story that was drastically different from the “very impressive, and beyond words” transparency previously touted of the Chinese government because they, in fact, did delay the information on COVID-19. The United Nations (UN) health agency officials showcased considerable frustration on receiving ‘very minimal information’, not enough to formulate a global response, from China where the novel coronavirus first originated in December 2019.

China reportedly sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome of SARS-CoV-2 for over a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the same information. And according to dozens of interviews and internal documents, it was Chinese authorities’ tight control on information and competition within the public health systems were responsible. Reportedly, the Chinese government only released the genome after another lab had published ahead of the authorities on a virologist website on January 11, 2020. 

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Information delayed at a crucial time

China reportedly stalled for at least two weeks more on providing WHO with detailed data on both patients and cases of COVID-19 in the Asian country, revealed by the recordings of UN health agency’s internal meeting held in January 2020 and obtained by the news agency, a time when the pandemic could have been slowed. Despite the internal reality, the WHO officials throughout the pandemic have lauded Chinese authorities publicly because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings suggest. 

As per the AP report, the WHO officials privately complained in the meetings held in the week of January 6, 2020, that China shared limited information on a possible outbreak, costing a valuable time and a great cost as the global cases of COVID-19 have now surpassed the grim milestone of 100 million. As per Johns Hopkins University tally, at least 2,157,790 have died of novel coronavirus infection, first found in China’s Wuhan province. 

“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.

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