US house panel report reconfirms thenews21 expose of China-WHO cover-up of Covid-19 pandemic

On March 22, 2020, thenews21 had expose as to how China and WHO tried to do a cover-up of the outbreak of Corona pandemic in China. A US Congressional panel report of September 21, 2020 reconfirms what we had said seven months ago.

@prashanthamine

Mumbai: What we at thenews21 had on March 22 earlier this year exposed as to how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had in collusion with the World Health Organisation (WHO) tried to cover-up the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic in China, which later was complicitly allowed to be spread throughout the world killing tens and thousands of people, has now been reconfirmed by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Minority Staff Report on September 21.

Also Read: Leaders, experts demand action against China over coronavirus pandemic

The US Congressional panel – the House Foreign Affairs Committee Minority Staff Report in its Final Report “The origins of the Covid-19 global pandemic, including the roles of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the World Health Organisation (WHO)”, of Lead Republican Michael T McCaul, claims that the earliest case (of Coronavirus) was detected by the PRC was on November 17, 2019. However, it took nearly four months for the PRC and WHO to publicly notify to the world on March 11 about the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was around this time that the first instance of China’s crackdown on whistleblowers began with a Nurse in Taizhou of Wuhan province being slapped with a discipline notice for discussing the outbreak of Covid-19 in her city with her classmates and family via WeChat. If that was not enough, Zhou Xianwang, Mayor of Wuhan defended his role in the cover-up stating “As a local government official. I could disclose information only after being authorised”.

On December 16, 2019, a 65 year old man was admitted to Wuhan Central, a local hospital, with fever and infections in both the lungs. He worked in the Hunan Seafood Wholesale Market. By December 20, 2019, nearly 60 people had contracted the virus, including family members. This was the earliest sign of human-to-human transmission. On December 27, 2019, hospital and health officials in Wuhan were notified by a local laboratory that the disease was caused by a new strain of Coronavirus.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese media reports of an outbreak of a typical pneumonia cases began to appear online. Despite the public reporting to the contrary, the PRC never notified the WHO about the outbreak in Wuhan. This was in clear violation of Article 6 of the International Health Regulations (IHR). Instead of notifying the WHO, China began censoring keywords on WeChat that were critical of China.

On January 1, 2020, CCP ordered closure of Hunan wet market. The Hubei Provincial Health Commission ordered Labs to stop testing and destroy patient samples. Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had completed the genetic mapping of SARS-Co-V-2 virus, but never published it. China kept on denying it till May 15 that it had issued any such orders.

It was only on January 9 that China did admit that the outbreak was caused by Novel Coronavirus, but argued that there was no evidence to suggest human-to-human transmission.

Dr Ai Fen had alerted her supervisors about her findings. She then circled the positive results in red and sent the results and video of lung scan to a classmate from her medical school. The news reached fellow whistleblower Dr Li Wenliang from Wuhan Central who warned his former classmates through WeChat that seven cases of SARS had been confirmed. Dr Ai Fen was coerced into signing a declaration that her own findings were false.

On January 14, WHO official twitter account published tweet stating that Chinese authorities have found no human-to-human transmission, despite the fact that Chinese health workers were contracting the virus from the patients.

Despite having sufficient knowledge WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did not declare (on January 22) Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). On the same day (January 22) the CCP imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, halting all public transport in and out of Wuhan. China even stopped internal group travel for Spring festival, knowing fully well that hardly any Chinese travel in groups.

In the next few days cases were reported from France, Australia and Canada. The first known case of human-to-human transmission was detected in Vietnam. By the time PHEIC was declared there were more than 10,000 cases reported in China alone and further 83 cases in 18 countries outside of PRC. Yet Dr Tedros did not declare Covid-19 a global pandemic until March 11 – a good 41 days later. On February 1, the first death of a man from China occurred in the Philippines, two days before Wuhan was locked down by the PRC.  

On February 2, all quarantine efforts in Wuhan failed as Hospitals were overwhelmed and patients were told that they were in queue. On February 7, Dr Li Wenliang died of Covid-19. He too had been threatened and forced to sign a confession that his statements were false. On February 20, Hubei province changed its case counting method whereby only 349 cases were reported as against 1,700 cases reported a day earlier on February 19! Two days later on February 22, China allowed entry to “select team members” of WHO-China joint mission into Wuhan.

On March 11, after more than 4,000 deaths and with more than 1.18 lakh cases reported across 114 countries, WHO Director General Dr Tedros finally declared Covid-19 a global pandemic! Almost four months late after the first case was detected on November 17, 2019.

According to the US Congress, House Foreign Affairs Committee, the glaring example of China’s cover-up was that “for 6 days in January, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping and other CCP officials kept secret their knowledge that human-to-human transmission was happening and pandemic was likely”.

On January 24, CCP officials in Beijing prevented the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) from sharing virus samples with biosafety Lab at University of Texas, medical branch in Galveston. The CCP publicly and privately criticised countries for imposing travel bans and restrictions.

But at the same time it requested Senator Roger Roth, president of Wisconsin Senate, asking that Senate to pass a resolution praising the PRC’s response to the pandemic. Similar requests were also made by Chinese diplomats in Germany. At the same time the officials of the European Union (EU) were censured and forced to rewrite a report that was critical of China at the demand of the CCP.

According to the US panel report, on March 22, classified CCP data showed that by the end of February, nearly 43,000 asymptomatic people in China had tested positive for the Coronavirus. Hankou Funeral Home had received shipment of 5,000 new urns from suppliers in a single day. Large funeral homes in Wuhan reportedly cremated remains to families of 500 people to their families each day!

By mid-December and later than December 27, the CCP had enough of information to assess it was legally obligated to inform the WHO that the outbreak in Wuhan constituted a PHEIC which it failed to do so. As per WHO and IHR guidelines, member states (China) were duty bound to inform WHO. By December 30, 2019, CCP health authorities knew that at least seven patients in Wuhan met with the WHO, IHR requirements.

The University of Southampton research revealed that China had implemented 3 Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) – travel restrictions, containment measures and contact restrictions (social distancing, wearing masks, hand sanitizers) prior to January 23 lockdown in Wuhan.

Interestingly enough, according to the US house panel report the controversial Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) Lab of WIV was constructed under a bilateral agreement between China and France in 2003. The BSL-3 Lab of WIV was being controlled by Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of the PRC.

France was suspicious that China was having a Biological Warfare program and the French military intelligence was worried about the dual use technology used to build BSL-4 could be misused by China. Shi Zhengli (called as the Bat Woman of China) had self-described anxiety that her Lab may have been the source of the outbreak.

The WHO on its part failed to take note or pay heed to warnings issued by Dr Ho of University of Hong Kong on January 4 of possible human-to-human transmission. Similarly, WHO also did not transmit a similar report from Taiwan to other member states. The CCP too also suppressed and failed to transmit critical scientific evidence to WHO.

The US house panel has slammed WHO Director General Dr Tedros for his decision to not to declare PHEIC on January 23 “appears to be of a political nature, and not scientific. It argued that Dr Tedros had similarly failed to notify PHEIC in 2019 during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Worst still, WHO did not recommend the use of Face Masks to general public until June 5, a good 137 days after the CCP confirmed it, of human-to-human transmission.

The WHO China country office was informed by WHO headquarters in Geneva on Jan 5 of cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology detected in Wuhan city, and not by PRC! At the April 20 press conference WHO DG Dr Tedros clarified that the first information had not come from Taiwan, but first information report had come from China, from Wuhan itself!

On the other hand, CCP and China pushed its propaganda of disinformation claiming that it had informed WHO China office on December 31, 2019 itself. The US panel report remarks “WHO’s public statements were “heavily influenced by the CCP”. Before January 22, WHO argued that there was no “suggestion” or evidence of human-to-human transmission.

On April 13, WHO Covid-19 Technical lead Dr Maria Van KerKhove had said that on December 31, 2019, she knew that “of course human-to-human transmission could be occurring”. However, WHO in its January 13 statement said that there has been no suggestion of human-to-human transmission.

Accusing WHO DG Dr Tedros of seriously erring in his handling of the Covid-19, the US house panel report stated that Dr Tedros should accept responsibility for his detrimental impact on the Covid-19 response and resign. It also called for the re-inclusion of Taiwan as an Observer and need for concrete reforms to IHR.

On May 19, the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted a resolution co-sponsored by 130 countries calling for independent, comprehensive evaluation of WHO’s handling of Covid-19. Countries like Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the EU have supported the call for an independent investigation of the pandemic.