Alex Azar, secretary of health and human services, on Thursday strongly underlined the distrust in Chinese leadership and presented an almost daily report of federal steps taken to control coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, as officials called the non-cooperative communist counterpart.
Azar said the genetic sequence for SARS-CoV-2 was only shared on January 9, ten days after the virus was reported in the media, and probably about two months after it surfaced.
“If we could investigate the virus in January, it would have helped the United States and the world develop a scientific and data-driven response,” Azar said. “Instead, we flew blind, with the transmission of the virus from human to human only officially confirmed until January 20.”
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‘On December 30, we learned of an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan, China, not through the country’s official channels, as required by international health regulations, but through media monitoring we do, as well as by a notice from Taiwan’s economic and cultural office here in the United States, ‘Azar said during a virtual conversation with The Heritage Foundation. “One of the very first ways in which the US government was notified of a new virus in mainland China was by people from Taiwan.”
“Even when we conveyed the American people to the American people, we suspected that we could not trust the reports from China,” Azar continued. “According to reports from China, the virus probably originated there in November, and the Chinese government’s statement for the outbreak did not make sense.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks at a news conference in the White House Information Room in Washington on Friday, November 20, 2020.
(AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
While dr. Robert Redfield, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the China CDC, was informed that the virus originated in a Wuhan market from animals, there were several clusters of cases among families in the first week of January arise. Azar said it is likely that these clusters did not occur from close encounters with animals, but it does indicate human-to-human transmission.
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“There was so much we needed to know, and so little information came from China,” the secretary continued. He explained how China did not recognize requests to send a team of CDC technical experts to help with the investigation until the end of January.
A team from the World Health Organization has also been delayed with the deployment until the end of February.
“Our teams also put pressure on the Chinese government to send viral isolates from patients there, and China has not yet one year later succeeded in providing first-generation viral isolates.”
Azar said the U.S. is being denied the opportunity to learn more about COVID-19 from the country where it probably originated. He also defended the government’s earlier praise for China, saying it needed to seek cooperation, with U.S. officials allegedly pushing them in the private direction. Azar applauded the WHO for continuing this praise for China, saying: “WHO has never made the shift we have made, and has continued to this day with praise for China.”
However, months of diplomatic talks with Chinese officials threatened the head of the United Nations health agency to voice a rare criticism of China, saying he was “very disappointed” that the Chinese government did not approve the current visit on January 5. not. The investigation will investigate the origin of the virus, including a visit to Wuhan, where a team of 13 WHO officials is now under a two-week quarantine.
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“In May, member states of the World Health Organization had to give permission for an investigation into the origin of the virus by means of a resolution. It is unbelievable that the investigators were only allowed in China this week. Furthermore, these investigators will largely investigate the analyzes done by “Chinese scientists,” he said.
Azar suggested that if a new virus emerged in a democratic country, a global outbreak could be avoided – as opposed to an authoritarian government in China.