By Aidan Orr ‘20, Commentary Writer

According to Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the World Health Organization, China is setting a “new standard for outbreak response.” At a glance, it is easy to see why he made this claim. Recent news suggests China has been successful in limiting the spread of the virus, and is actively reducing the number of new infections within its borders. They are now even sending aid to other countries suffering across the globe, presenting themselves as a leader in the fight against the novel coronavirus. However, when you dig a little bit deeper, we see that China hasn’t exactly been the altruistic hero which they have made themselves out to be. Instead, the current regime will go down in history for their early deceitful mishandling and continued opaqueness in dealing with what came to be the generation-defining pandemic that is Covid-19.

On December 30, 2019, Dr. Li Wenliang, an opthamologist at Wuhan Central Hospital in his early thirties, noticed in a patient what he thought to be symptoms of a coronavirus (at this point thought to be SARS but later determined to be Covid-19). He then decided to share the patient report with his colleagues, rightfully concerned that this could be the sign of an outbreak. Instead of commending him and taking his discovery seriously, Chinese government officials threatened him with prosecution for “spreading false rumors” and forced him to sign a letter of admonition, stating that his actions were illegal. Dr. Li would eventually contract and pass away from Covid-19 in early February while treating patients, and would be hailed by many throughout China and the world as a hero in the fight against the disease. How did the Chinese government respond to this? By censoring thousands of users on platforms such as WeChat from praising Dr. Li’s work and using his story as a call for freedom and increased transparency. Only after mounting criticism from Chinese people and the international community did China recognize Dr. Li’s work and sacrifice. 

Dr. Li’s unfortunate story reveals to us another thing: China was familiar with the potential risk of a coronavirus as early as December. Instead of acting quickly to try and identify the risk it could have posed, the Chinese government did everything in its power to censor and detain anyone who spread news of the virus, thinking they could keep it under control without letting the world know. They even allowed Lunar New Year celebrations to go forward in Wuhan, which involved tens of thousands of people flocking in and out of the city in order to visit family, well after doctors were suspicious of human-to-human transmission. The Chinese government chose to put at risk the lives of thousands to maintain the facade of control, ignoring the wishes of doctors and civilians alike. They didn’t even break news of the novel coronavirus until January 9th, well after several international news outlets already published articles from whistleblowers within Wuhan. Additionally, it took until January 12th for China to share the Covid-19 genome with the rest of the world, leaving researchers virtually no time to prepare before the virus would soon sweep through their own respective countries. Only after more and more countries saw the risk of this virus did China decide to act. However, although the numbers (released by China) indicate relatively good containment of the virus, many researchers and journalists are skeptical. Some measures, such as the implementation of mass quarantine centers, disincentivize Chinese citizens from reporting themselves or others as sick, for fear of being put into one of these centers and getting sick if they weren’t already. China also came under fire as the number of deaths recorded seemed unusually low, with locals in Wuhan painting a much more dire picture of events. Several experts at the University of Hong Kong even suggested there were nearly 4 times as many casualties than actually reported by the local government. Rather suspiciously, China even made a recent change to their death count, increasing it by almost half, seemingly in response to the claims of falsified numbers from abroad. In spite of all the missteps and shadiness in China’s approach to dealing with Covid-19, the WHO consistently maintains China is “leading the charge” against the virus. This is especially horrifying, as it is largely the WHO’s responsibility in giving the international community ample time to prepare for and defend against pathogens such as this, and when they act as a mouthpiece for China, the implications were and continue to be deadly. On January 14, well after China was familiar with the possibility of human-to-human transmission, the WHO tweeted out that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” Tedros also stated at a press conference that Covid-19 could easily be contained thanks to the efforts of the Chinese government. What’s more, on February 14, Tedros was quoted as saying, “We appreciate the seriousness with which China is taking this outbreak, especially the commitment from top leadership, and the transparency they have demonstrated, including sharing data and genetic sequence of the virus.” Laughable, isn’t it? All it takes is a little bit of skepticism to recognize that China and the WHO have seriously endangered the rest of the world, and must be held accountable for its actions.