WHO:China Delayed Releasing Virus Info 06/02 06:21

   Chinese officials sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the deadly 
virus for over a week after multiple government labs had fully decoded it, not 
sharing details key to designing tests, drugs and vaccines. Strict controls on 
information and competition within the Chinese public health system were 
largely to blame, The Associated Press has found from internal documents, 
emails and dozens of interviews.

   (AP) -- Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised 
China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus and thanked 
the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus "immediately,."

   But in fact, Chinese officials sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, 
of the deadly virus for over a week after multiple government labs had fully 
decoded it, not sharing details key to designing tests, drugs and vaccines. 
Strict controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health 
system were largely to blame, The Associated Press has found from internal 
documents, emails and dozens of interviews.

   Health officials only released the genome after a Chinese lab published it 
ahead of authorities on a virology website on Jan 11. Even then, China stalled 
for at least two weeks more on giving WHO the details it needed, according to 
recordings of multiple internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency in 
January  all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been 
dramatically slowed.

   Although WHO continued to publicly commend China, the recordings obtained by 
the AP show they were concerned China was not sharing enough information to 
assess the risk posed by the new virus, costing the world valuable time.

   "We're currently at the stage where yes, they're giving it to us 15 minutes 
before it appears on CCTV," said WHO's top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, 
referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in one meeting.

   The story behind the early response to the pandemic comes at a time when the 
U.N. health agency is under siege. U.S. President Trump cut ties with WHO on 
Friday, after blasting the agency for allegedly colluding with China to hide 
the extent of the epidemic. Chinese President Xi Jinping said China has always 
provided information to WHO and the world "in a most timely fashion."

   The new information does not support the narrative of either the U.S. or 
China, but portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying 
to solicit more data. Although international law obliges countries to report 
information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the U.N. agency 
has no enforcement powers. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member 
states.

   The AP has found rather than colluding with China, WHO was itself largely 
kept in the dark, as China gave it only the minimal information required. But 
the agency did attempt to portray China in the best light, most likely to coax 
the country into providing more outbreak details.

   WHO officials worried about how to press China for more information without 
angering authorities or jeopardizing Chinese scientists, whom they praised for 
decoding the genome with astonishing speed. Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies 
chief, said the best way to "protect China" was for WHO to do its own 
independent analysis, because otherwise the spread of the virus between people 
would be in question and "other countries will take action accordingly."

   From the time the virus was first decoded on Jan. 2 to when WHO declared a 
global emergency on Jan. 30, the outbreak grew by a factor of 100 to 200 times, 
according to retrospective Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention 
data.

   WHO and officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by 
the AP without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the 
AP was unable to supply to protect its sources.

   "Our leadership and staff have worked night and day....to support and share 
information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright 
conversations with governments at all levels," a WHO statement said.

   China's National Health Commission and Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no 
comment. But in the past few months, China has repeatedly defended its actions, 
and many other countries  including the U.S.  have responded to the virus 
with even longer delays of weeks and even months.

   In late December, doctors noticed mysterious clusters of patients with 
unusual pneumonia. Seeking answers, they sent samples to commercial labs. By 
Dec. 27, one company, Vision Medicals, had pieced together most of the genome 
of a new virus with striking similarities to SARS. They alerted Wuhan 
officials, who, days later, issued internal notices warning of the unusual 
pneumonia.

   On Dec. 30, Shi Zhengli, a renowned coronavirus expert at the Wuhan 
Institute of Virology, was alerted to the disease, and by Jan. 2, her team had 
fully decoded it.

   But when it came to sharing the genome with the world, things went awry. 
China's top medical authority, the National Health Commission, issued a 
confidential notice forbidding labs from publishing about the virus without 
authorization. The order barred Shi's lab from publishing the sequence or 
warning of the possible danger.

   Commission officials later said the order was to prevent any accidental 
release of the then-unknown pathogen, and to ensure consistent results by 
giving it to four state labs to identify at the same time.

   By Jan. 5, two other government labs sequenced the virus, and another lab in 
Shanghai led by Zhang Yongzhen had also decoded it. Zhang warned the National 
Health Commission the virus was "likely infectious." The Chinese CDC raised its 
emergency level to the second highest, but did not have the authority to alert 
the public.

   Suspicious cases starting surfacing across the region. In Thailand, airport 
officials pulled aside a woman traveling from Wuhan with a runny nose, sore 
throat and high temperature. Scientists at Chulalongkorn University soon 
figured out she was infected with a new coronavirus, but did not have a 
sequence from China to match it.

   WHO officials, meanwhile, grumbled in internal meetings that China was 
stalling on providing crucial outbreak details even though it was technically 
meeting its obligations under international law. Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, 
said it was time to "shift gears" and push for more information.

   "The danger now is that despite our good intent...there will be a lot of 
finger-pointing at WHO if something does happen," he said.

   On Jan. 11, Shanghai's Zhang finally published the coronavirus sequence 
ahead of health authorities on virological.org, used by researchers to swap 
tips on pathogens. It was only then that the Chinese CDC, Wuhan Institute of 
Virology and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences raced to publish their 
sequences, doing so on Jan. 12.

   On Jan. 20, Chinese authorities warned the virus spread between people. WHO 
dispatched a small team to Wuhan from its Asia offices. China representative 
Galea told colleagues the Chinese were "talking openly and consistently about 
human-to-human transmission."

   WHO's emergency committee of independent experts met twice that week and 
decided against recommending an emergency. But the agency's concern prompted an 
unusual trip to Beijing by WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and 
top scientists.

   At the end of Tedros' trip, WHO convened another emergency meeting, finally 
declaring a global emergency on Jan. 30. Tedros thanked China profusely, 
declining to mention any of WHO's earlier frustrations.

   "We should have actually expressed our respect and gratitude to China for 
what it's doing," he said. "It has already done incredible things to limit the 
transmission of the virus to other countries."