The World Health Organization (WHO) tried to cam fears of a pandemic on Jan. 14 by repeating China’s claim that coronavirus was not contagious among humans.
“Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China,” the WHO tweeted.
Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China????????. pic.twitter.com/Fnl5P877VG
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 14, 2020
Just 60 days later, the global death toll from coronavirus had topped 8000 and continued to climb. Over 200,000 cases had been documented in 145 countries. (RELATED: MSNBC Analyst Suggests Using Coronavirus To Prosecute Trump For ‘Negligent Homicide’ — Gets An Assist From Former Democratic Candidate)
But the virus’ means of transmission was far from the only misinformation coming from Chinese officials.
Beijing reported that the first known cases of the novel coronavirus were recorded in mid-December — but later reporting from outside sources suggested that the earliest cases were tracked in November and kept under wraps.
China’s first confirmed Coronavirus case was on November 17, 2019.
China knew about the virus and the rest of the World didn’t find out about the virus until months later.#ChinaLiedPeopleDied
https://t.co/KIn1cbLyt5— Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 18, 2020
In addition, Caixin Global reported that Chinese officials had identified the virus as early as mid-December — but were instructed to destroy both their test results and their samples.
The UK Times reported:
A regional health official in Wuhan, centre of the outbreak, demanded the destruction of the lab samples that established the cause of unexplained viral pneumonia on January 1. China did not acknowledge there was human-to-human transmission until more than three weeks later.
The WHO announced that China had provided the necessary data on the virus in mid-January, a full month after initial data and information had been reportedly destroyed and a week after officials had reported that it still had not been identified.
Chinese authorities informed WHO that they have ruled out a number of causes of the outbreak of #pneumonia in Wuhan City, ????????. The pathogen is not influenza, avian flu, adenovirus, SARS or MERS. Work continues to identify the cause.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 5, 2020
BREAKING: WHO has received the genetic sequences for the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) from the Chinese authorities. We expect them to be made publicly available as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/h1w7A0jBm2
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 11, 2020
Despite the lack of cooperation from China as other nations began to grapple with the spread of coronavirus, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for China’s response with regard to testing protocols and quarantines.
The South China Morning Post noted that one British member of the WHO had referred to the shuttering of Wuhan under a mass quarantine — affecting some 11 million people — as “heroic.”
Fending off criticism that he made the appreciative remarks just to save China “face,” Tedros insisted that China “doesn’t need to be asked to be praised” for its efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
“China has done many good things to slow down the virus,” Tedros said. “The whole world can judge. There is no spinning here.”
In addition to its apparent failure to press the Chinese government on the lack of cooperation and refusal to provide all available data, the WHO gave Beijing an assist in pushing back against American outlets — and even President Donald Trump — claiming that it was “racist” to comment about the virus’ origin.
DO – talk about the new #coronavirus disease (#COVID19)
DON’T – attach locations or ethnicity to the disease, this is not a “Wuhan Virus”, “Chinese Virus” or “Asian Virus”.
The official name for the disease was deliberately chosen to avoid stigmatizationhttps://t.co/yShiCMfYF3 pic.twitter.com/belHrq5HVo— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 2, 2020
A number of public figures also joined the rallying cry, blaming Trump for “renaming” the virus to place blame unfairly on China.
The #Coronavirus has now been very deliberately renamed the “Chinese Virus” by Trump to deflect his incompetent handling of a pandemic. If you’re cool with this, and his incitement of hate towards innocent Asian-Americans, it’s simply because you’re a fucking racist. Period.
— Richard Marx (@richardmarx) March 17, 2020
He’s calling it the Chinese virus because he’s a racist pic.twitter.com/dNaW3hr9xo
— Molly Jong-Fast???? (@MollyJongFast) March 18, 2020
If you refer to it as The Chinese Virus you are a racist and an asshole.
— Ed Solomon (@ed_solomon) March 18, 2020
But as some were quick to point out, American media outlets — some of the same who later pivoted to call it “racist” — referred to the coronavirus as “Wuhan coronavirus” before its rapid spread.
Liberal media pundits want you to think referring to the coronavirus as the “Wuhan” or “Chinese” virus is racist.
Here’s just a few of the times the liberal media did just that. pic.twitter.com/ss3kV5smSP
— MRCTV.org (@mrctv) March 12, 2020
Even Chinese state media did the same before engaging in a pivot as well.
Chinese state media initially called it “Wuhan virus”; now China says that’s racist. Meanwhile WHO won’t call the coronavirus by its name, SARS-CoV-2, which some Chinese scientists say hurts social stability. On the fraught geopolitics of naming the virus:https://t.co/kcrz3NavOm
— Mary Hui (@maryhui) March 18, 2020
