The Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee released the full version of their investigation into the origins of the new coronavirus, the outbreak process, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) response, and the Chinese government’s handling of the situation after the outbreak. The report cites evidence and details that accuse the Chinese government of concealing the outbreak and the threat of the virus, and accuses WHO of failing to act as a gatekeeper for global health.
The final version of the investigation released Monday (Sept. 21) by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a continuation of the “Minority Interim Report on the Origins of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic, Including the Role of the Chinese Communist Party and WHO,” which was released in June by the same research team.
In addition to updating the timeline of events over the nine months since the outbreak of the new coronavirus global pandemic, the report provides new evidence of the Chinese government’s concealment of the outbreak and the WHO’s response to several letters and phone calls of inquiry from McCall’s office. In contrast to the interim report, the final version of this report extends the timeline of the outbreak to March 11, 2020, the date of the WHO pandemic declaration, and discusses the major events since then.
McCall: The first step in uncovering the truth must be holding China and WHO accountable.
Representative McCaul, who is also chairman of the House China Task Force, said in a statement Monday, “As we continue to investigate the origins of the neo-coronavirus pandemic, we have uncovered more disturbing evidence that the Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up and World Health Organization Director-General Tan Desai’s mishandling of the virus allowed everything to turn into a deadly global pandemic. “
McCall, who has repeatedly called for the resignation of WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also blamed the WHO again for its incompetence during the outbreak in a statement. “It is clear that many lives could have been spared and the massive economic devastation could have been mitigated if the Chinese Communist Party had been transparent and if WHO leaders had been more concerned about global health than how to appease the Chinese Communist Party.”
“The first step in uncovering the truth is that we must hold the Chinese Communist Party, as well as World Health Organization Director General Tan Desai, accountable for the suffering the world has endured,” McCall said.
Trump: China stops virus from spreading inside but not out
The investigative report from Republicans on the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee echoes President Trump’s criticism of China’s handling of the outbreak.
President Trump also said in a Fox TV interview Monday morning that his outlook on China has changed dramatically in the wake of the neo-crown virus pandemic.
“I have a completely different feeling about China, a very different feeling,” Trump said on the show. “I’m angry about it, and they could have stopped it, they could have easily stopped it. They stopped it from spreading further within their borders, but they didn’t stop it (the virus) from spreading to the rest of the world, including us.”
“188 countries (affected) to be exact, they didn’t stop it, and all of them were hit hard,” said a disgruntled Trump.
“In sum, a global neo-coronavirus pandemic could have been avoided if the Chinese Communist Party had acted in a transparent and responsible manner,” the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s investigative report said.
The cumulative number of new coronavirus diagnoses in the United States is now approaching 7 million, and the number of deaths will soon surpass 200,000, making it one of the most severe neo-coronavirus epidemics in the world.
Report: WHO’s Rhetoric Varies
The 90-page report states that the WHO responded to McCall’s office with a letter and a note to the public that on February 16, a joint WHO-China team of experts began a nine-day study tour in China, visiting Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and even Wuhan.
The joint team consists of 25 Chinese and foreign experts, including two American experts. They were Clifford Lane, clinical director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Zhou Weigong, medical officer of the Influenza Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, only three experts, all non-American, actually entered Wuhan, where the new coronavirus outbreak originated. Upon arrival in Beijing, the experts were reportedly divided into two teams, one to Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and the other to Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, to visit local agricultural produce markets, medical centers, and other locations.
McCall’s office told VOA by email that WHO claimed that the U.S. could also send a team, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told them that the U.S. experts were excluded from the list of those selected for the Wuhan trip.
In addition, the report questions the timing of WHO’s declaration of the Neocon outbreak as a “public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
According to the report, WHO Director-General Tan Desai reconvened the emergency meeting on January 30. According to the meeting, the new coronavirus outbreak was declared a “public health emergency of international concern”. According to the WHO, the decision was made “after receiving further information from outside China.
The report notes that it was only after repeated requests and inquiries from the House Foreign Affairs Committee that WHO confirmed that the first case of human-to-human transmission from outside China in Vietnam was the trigger for the declaration of a “public health emergency of international concern”. In fact, however, at the time of the announcement, there were nearly 10,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus worldwide, including 83 cases in 18 countries outside of China, and three countries had confirmed human-to-human transmission within their borders.
On the same day, January 30, the first case of human-to-human transmission was confirmed in the United States, the report further said. And WHO Director General Tan Desai did not declare the 2019 new coronavirus epidemic a global pandemic until March 11, 41 days after the declaration of a “public health emergency of international concern.
Another Example from the Report: China Continues to Silence Health Care Workers About New Coronavirus Epidemic
The investigative report also notes that it is troubling that the Chinese Communist Party continues to harass and pressure any health care worker who attempts to warn others about the realities of the outbreak.
The report published a Jan. 27 disciplinary notice from Taizhou Second People’s Hospital in Jiangsu Province to a nurse working in the hospital’s emergency department. The report reads, “On January 26, 2020, Li Min, a nurse in the emergency department, ignored the discipline of epidemic prevention and control work and talked about epidemic prevention and control information with classmates on WeChat without permission. It was decided to give Li Min the whole hospital to notify and criticize the treatment, the follow-up treatment to be determined by further research.”
The report also warned health care workers “not to accept media interviews or release information about epidemic prevention and control without permission, and not to release sensitive information in family groups, classmates groups and other WeChat groups.”
The report further emphasizes that it is noteworthy that the notification was issued two days before WHO’s Tan Desai arrived in Beijing for the visit. The report says, “This example also highlights another question: How many other Chinese health care workers or frontline personnel have been disciplined or forced to remain silent by the Chinese Communist Party?”
Report: U.S. Should Remain in WHO, Calls on WHO to Restore Taiwan’s Observer Status
The report concludes with four recommendations, including the removal of WHO leadership, reinstatement of Taiwan’s observer status at WHO, cooperation between the United States and WHO like-minded member states to investigate early response to a new coronavirus outbreak, and reform of the International Health Regulations (IHR).
The reinstatement of Taiwan’s observer status at WHO is a new recommendation compared to the interim report released in June of this year.
The report also argues that the United States should remain a member of the WHO and use U.S. participation in the organization to push for substantive and meaningful reform of the WHO.
The report concludes, “Research suggests that the ongoing pandemic that could have reduced the number of cases in China by up to 95 percent would likely have been preventable if the Chinese Communist Party had fulfilled its obligations under international law and responded to the outbreak with the most compliant practices.”
“Despite WHO’s internal discussions in response to the CCP’s lack of transparency and cooperation, WHO continues to applaud CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping and the People’s Republic of China for their handling of the virus,” the report continues, “and therefore the United States and like-minded WHO member states have a responsibility to Ensure that WHO undertakes the accountability and reforms necessary to prevent China’s malfeasance from triggering another third pandemic in the 21st century.”
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