Mid-April 2020
As of mid-April 2020,
there are 2 million cases
and 130,000 deaths.
The World Health
Organization
( WHO )
was too slow
to recommend
travel restrictions, and
accepted false information
from China at face value.
The WHO, an agency of the
United Nations, has long been
swayed by Beijing’s political
preferences.
Its current head, Dr. Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
is a former member
of a Maoist group
in Ethiopia.
November 19, 2019
( approximately ):
COVID-19 broke out Wuhan.
December 31, 2019:
The WHO has said
Chinese authorities
first informed them.
The WHO conveyed
nothing to the world
that day.
Taiwan started monitoring
travelers coming on flights
from Wuhan.
Taiwan authorities told
the WHO that their doctors
learned from their mainland
counterparts that health care
workers had been catching
a mysterious new virus.
That indicated the virus
was spreading from
person to person.
The WHO ignored it,
Taiwan officials later said.
China considers Taiwan
a breakaway province
and presses the U.N.
to ignore Taiwan’s existence
as an independent country.
Taiwan has been denied
membership in the WHO,
whose personnel
are prohibited
from using documents
or even information from
official Taiwan sources
without prior
special permission,
according to a leaked
2010 WHO memo.
The situation in Wuhan
was quickly deteriorating.
But a Wuhan Health Commission
directive prohibited all medical
facilities in the city
“from publicizing
medical information
without permission,”
and online discussions about
the outbreak were censored.
January 1, 2020
Wuhan police said they detained
eight locals who had spread
“rumors” about the outbreak.
Some of the suppressed
whistleblowers were doctors
who had tried to warn colleagues
about the new virus.
Panicked locals
cleared Wuhan pharmacies
of surgical masks and
over-the-counter preventive
Chinese medicines.
January 3, 2020:
The WHO was informed by
Chinese authorities
of 44 cases, with 11 severe.
The WHO commented for the
first time about the outbreak,
disclosing that it had known
about an outbreak of a
“pneumonia of unknown cause”
in Wuhan for five days and
recommending that it
should be “handled prudently.”
But the agency
didn’t recommend
“any specific measures
for travelers.”
It did the opposite.
“WHO advises against
the application of any travel
or trade restrictions on China
based on the information
currently available
on this event,”
January 8, 2020:
The WHO said:
“From the currently available
information, preliminary investigation
suggests that there is no significant
human-to-human transmission,
and no infections among health
care workers have occurred.”
“WHO does not recommend
any specific health measures
for travelers.”
The WHO released
general information
on how to deal
with virus infections.
January 12, 2020:
WHO said there was
“no clear evidence of
human-to-human
transmission.”
Taiwan had already arranged
for its own fact-finding team
to travel to Wuhan.
“They didn’t
let us see
what they didn’t
want us to see,
but our experts
sensed the situation
was not optimistic,”
Taiwanese government
spokesperson Kolas Yotaka
told NBC News.
Soon after the team returned,
Taiwan initiated testing and
reporting requirements
for its hospitals.
January 17, 2020:
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC)
sent personnel to screen travelers
coming from Wuhan to three major
U.S. airports - JFK, Los Angeles
International, and San Francisco
International, which were getting
the highest traffic from Wuhan.
More airports were later added.
January 20, 2020:
The WHO only managed
to get its team to Wuhan for
“a brief field visit”.
China confirmed there was
human-to-human transmission.
January 23, 2019:
The Chinese government put Wuhan
on lockdown, the WHO announced
that it would NOT declare the outbreak
a “public health emergency
of international concern.”
Cases had already started
to crop up around the world,
including in the United States.
January 26, 2020:
Taiwan banned flights from Wuhan
and arranged special flights
to return its people from the city.
January 28, 2020:
While visiting China,
the WHO’s Tedros
urged the countries
of the world
“to remain calm and
not to overreact,”
expressing confidence
in China's epidemic control.
February 3, 2020:
Three days after
President Trump
prohibited foreigners,
who had recently
been in China,
from traveling to
the United States,
Tedros opposed
the travel bans, saying
measures that would
“unnecessarily interfere
with travel and trade”
weren’t needed.
March 20, 2020:
In a Tweet, Tedros repeated
Chinese propaganda, saying that
“for the first time, #China
has reported no domestic
#COVID19 cases yesterday.”
Tedros touted
that fake news as:
“an amazing achievement,
that gives us all reassurance
that the #coronavirus
can be beaten.”
Statistical modeling,
eyewitness accounts,
and documents have
all shown that Chinese
authorities concealed
the true scale of the
outbreak in Wuhan
and other parts of China.
Tedros repeatedly
praised China
for “transparency”
in its response
to the outbreak.
Tedros is a former
Politburo member
of the Tigray People’s
Liberation Front,
a Maoist group
that had waged
a guerrilla war
in the 1980s,
against the
Soviet-backed
Mengistu regime
in Ethiopia.
“The nearest you would put
[Tigray’s ideology] to would be
North Korea today,”
according to Trevor Loudon,
an expert on communist
movements and front groups.
Tedros scored the WHO’s
top post in 2017 with
strong backing by China,
despite allegations that he
had covered up three cholera
outbreaks during his tenure
as health minister.
When an adviser to his British
opponent for the WHO leadership
brought up the cholera coverups,
Tedros accused him of having a
“colonial mindset.”
When Taiwan called out Tedros
for ignoring its information
about the Wuhan virus,
Tedros accused Taiwan
of racist attacks.
The Trump administration
is considering cutting off
its funding to the WHO
- the United States is by far
the largest benefactor,
providing over
$110 million a year
in regular funding,
plus hundreds
of millions more
in voluntary
contributions.
