China was supposed to sequence Covid two weeks before the whole world was informed – Liberation

According to the Wall Street Journal, a Chinese researcher transmitted to her country's authorities on December 28, 2019, an almost complete sequence of the virus. But Beijing only informed the WHO on January 11.

More evidence, if more evidence is still needed, of the Chinese authorities' lack of transparency regarding the pandemic. According to the Wall Street JournalAfter getting its hands on documents obtained by a US parliamentary committee from the Ministry of Health, Beijing wasted valuable time at the beginning of the epidemic by not sharing certain information about Covid-19.

It could have been downloaded by a Chinese researcher “a sequence Almost complete structure of the virus in the database maintained by the US government on December 28, 2019 »at a time when the government was still speaking publicly about A “viral pneumonia of unknown cause”. The Chinese authorities did not share the virus sequence with the World Health Organization until January 11, an additional two weeks. The latter is not exactly identical to what the Chinese researcher mentioned, but it will be very close.

to Wall Street JournalBased on the testimonies of specialists, “These extra two weeks could have been crucial in helping the international medical community determine how Covid-19 spreads, develop medical defenses and begin development of a potential vaccine.”. Jesse Bloom, a virologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, wrote on GitHub that “Immediate deployment of the sequence could have accelerated by several weeks the development of COVID-19 vaccines that have saved thousands of lives each week.”.

Questions remain about the origin of the virus

If the researcher contacted by the American newspaper did not respond, the Chinese embassy in the United States announced, for its part, through its official spokesman, that her country “It has continued to improve its Covid response based on scientific data to make it more targeted.” and that “China's COVID-19 response policies are science-based, effective and consistent with national realities.”.

If this information “Does not clarify the debate on the question of whether If the coronavirus originated from an infected animal or a laboratory leak»The newspaper indicates, “They indicate that the world still does not have a complete explanation of the origin of the epidemic.”. For Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-elect (Republican) to the House of Representatives, this discovery proves that the U.S. “None of the so-called ‘facts’ or data provided by the Chinese Communist Party can be trusted.”.