Associated Press: China Withheld Data on Coronavirus from WHO

The WHO internal documents obtained by journalists indicate that the international agency did not enter into a conspiracy with China: in fact, Beijing delayed transmitting data on the coronavirus genome and clinical data for several weeks Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for its “speedy” response to the new coronavirus. The WHO representatives repeatedly thanked Chinese authorities for sharing information on the new virus genome “immediately” and for their “impressive” transparency. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the WHO leadership was discussing a completely different situation: China delayed releasing the genetic map of the virus, and as a result the agency did not get timely information needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. According to internal WHO recordings, China in fact shared information about the genome of the virus more than a week after three different labs had fully decoded the coronavirus genetic map. Chinese government lab shared the genome of the virus only after another lab published this information on a specialized virologist site on January 11th. Even then, China stalled for at least two more weeks on providing WHO with detailed data on patients and cases. These facts were discussed at internal meetings held by WHO through January. If this information had been provided in a timely manner, the spread of the disease around the world could have been dramatically slowed down. The WHO leadership praised China in public, because in this way the agency wanted to get more information from Beijing, documents show. During closed meetings, WHO officials complained that China was not sharing enough data to the agency to assess the degree of the virus’s contagiousness, the possibility of its transmission from person to person, and to understand the risk the new disease posed to the rest of the world. The new information indicates that the agency tried to get more data from China, despite limits to its own authority. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO relevant to public health, the agency has no enforcement powers and cannot independently investigate epidemics that occur in individual states. WHO must rely on collaboration with member countries in these matters. The recordings obtained by the Associated Press show that WHO wasn’t colluding with China, being unaware of the scale of the coronavirus outbreak in China, as Beijing provided the agency with the minimum information required by law. Nevertheless, WHO tried to portray China in a better light, probably counting on Beijing's favor to secure more information. WHO staff members debated how to put pressure on China to obtain information about the virus genome and detailed patient data without angering Beijing, and worried about losing access to Chinese scientists. Under international law, WHO is obligated to quickly share information and alerts with member countries about an evolving crisis. The delay in releasing the genome information hindered the ability of other countries to prevent the spread of the virus, and also hindered the development of tests, drugs and vaccines against coronavirus. The lack of detailed patient data also made it harder to determine how quickly the virus was spreading. This information is critical for epidemiological actions.