The Chinese Communists are fudging mortality statistics and withholding gene sequencing data from international health authorities during the massive COVID outbreak following the CCP’s relaxation of its oppressive pandemic restrictions.
This isn’t surprising, of course. But it’s gotten so bad that the government has stopped publishing daily death totals from the virus — totals that the World Health Organization says were false anyway.
“We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive real-time viral sequencing,” said the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination including booster shots to protect against hospitalization, severe disease, and death.”
Part of the problem is definitional. What constitutes death from COVID? We’ve had our own debate about that in the United States, but China has narrowed the definition of a COVID death to what most health authorities consider to be unacceptable parameters.
Late last month, the world’s most populous country narrowed its definition for classifying deaths as COVID-related, counting only those involving COVID-caused pneumonia or respiratory failure, raising eyebrows among world health experts.
The WHO says deaths should be attributed to COVID-19 if they result from a “clinically compatible illness” in a patient with a probable or confirmed infection, and no other unrelated cause of death – like trauma – is involved.
China has reported five or fewer deaths a day since the policy U-turn. But many Chinese funeral homes and hospitals say they are overwhelmed, and international health experts predict at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year without urgent action.
That one million deaths this year would be added to what most experts think is anywhere from 50,000 to 250,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The “official” number is 5,242 — a ludicrous claim when you consider that the coronavirus was running wild in China for at least six months in 2019-2020.
Related: Security Risk? Elon Musk Makes China Chief His Top U.S. Exec
What the WHO is most concerned about is getting the latest genetic sequencing so they can identify any potential variations in the bug’s DNA that might make it more transmissible or deadlier.
Ryan added that even though there don’t appear to be any new variants circulating in the country, poor surveillance and poor vaccine coverage will lead to missed cases and more deaths.
During the same briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated calls for more data transparency from Chinese authorities.
“We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing,” Tedros said.
China is angry at nations that require travelers from China to get tested before allowing them entry and has threatened to retaliate by forcing travelers to China to get tested as well. That might make them feel better but it doesn’t solve anything. China brought this tragedy on itself by locking up its citizens for two years while several variants of the virus swept across Europe and the U.S. Whatever herd immunity we have is far better than what China is experiencing today.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member