The Chinese Communist Party’s public statistics for COVID-19 deaths may be less than half of the true number, according to leaked documents obtained by CNN.
CNN reportedly got its hands on 117 pages of internal documents from the Hubei Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention detailing the spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan and the greater Hubei Province between October 2019 and April 2020. The documents reportedly show that health authorities in China internally discovered 5,918 new COVID-19 cases on Feb. 10. The public number for that day, however, was just 2,478, according to CNN.
The documents, which CNN says it obtained from a whistleblower who requested anonymity, also reportedly show Wuhan and surrounding cities suffered a massive spike in “influenza” late in 2019 that rose to epidemic status. Influenza cases rose to more than 20 times the amount Hubei suffered in 2018. The documents don’t posit a connection between the coronavirus and influenza outbreaks, however.
(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 28, 2019, China’s President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with US President Donald Trump before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
China has consistently denied wrongdoing in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, going so far as to baselessly suggest U.S. soldiers brought the disease to its shores, or that the pandemic actually started in Italy. The regime has released internal studies suggesting the regime was forthright about the virus and the threat it posed to the world. (RELATED: China Asked The WHO To Help Cover Up Coronavirus, German Intelligence Concludes)
“While making an all-out effort to contain the virus, China has also acted with a keen sense of responsibility to humanity, its people, posterity, and the international community. It has provided information on Covid-19 in a thoroughly professional and efficient way. It has released authoritative and detailed information as early as possible on a regular basis, thus effectively responding to public concern and building public consensus,” the study says, according to CNN.
CNN’s report is only the most recent in a string of credible accusations that the CCP willfully suppressed information regarding the severity of the coronavirus. President Donald Trump has joined with leaders in Japan, Australia and elsewhere to demand compensation from the regime. A study conducted in March found that global cases could have been reduced by up to 95 percent had China both acted and communicated with the global community just three weeks earlier.