US accuses China of intentionally concealing the spread of coronavirus

China has concealed the scale of the outbreak of coronavirus in its country, underestimating both common and fatal cases, according to US intelligence officials in a secret report, according to three US officials. Writes about this Bloomberg.

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Officials asked not to give their names, because the report is secret, and they refused to detail its contents. But, they said, the main thing is that China’s public reporting of infections and deaths is intentionally incomplete. Two officials said the report concluded that China’s data is fake.

An outbreak of coronavirus infection began in the Chinese province of Hubei at the end of 2019. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, this country has publicly reported only 82 infections and 000 deaths, while in the US there are already more than 3300 confirmed infections and over 200 deaths (given that the first infected was detected in January 5).

U.S. President Donald Trump said the data on viruses in China appears to be a little understated, although he did not receive intelligence reports that the country had concealed the extent of its outbreak.

“The figures seem to be a little understated,” he said at the White House’s daily coronavirus briefing.

Trump added that the US and China are in constant contact, and Beijing will spend $ 250 billion on the purchase of American products.

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“The reality is that we could be in a better position if China were more frank,” said Vice President Mike Pence. “It’s already obvious: long before the world learned about coronavirus in December, China had dealt with it much earlier.”

Despite the strict quarantine imposed by China, there was considerable skepticism regarding the reported numbers of people infected in the country. The Chinese government has repeatedly revised its methodology for counting cases, excluding people without symptoms for several weeks, and only on March 31 added more than 1500 asymptomatic cases to the total.

Piles of thousands of urns near funeral homes in Hubei provoked public doubt about the veracity of the data.

“The claim that there are more deaths from the coronavirus in the US than in China is false,” said Senator Ben Sass, a Nebraskan Republican. “I am not commenting on any secret information, but it’s obvious: the Chinese Communist Party has lied, is lying and will continue to lie about coronavirus in the name of protecting the regime.”

Deborah Birks, an immunologist at the Department of State who advises the White House about his response to the outbreak, said China’s reporting has influenced speculation about the nature of the virus in other parts of the world.

"The medical community interpreted the Chinese data as 'it's serious, but it's smaller than anyone expected,'" she said at a news conference. “We were missing a significant amount of data.”

Suspicious reporting

The withdrawal of US intelligence services is an attempt to divert attention from a sharp increase in mortality in the United States and other Western countries, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Chinese state newspaper Global Times, said in a statement.

According to him, modern China could not fake serious data, especially given the incident that received such a resonance. He said that China has managed to reduce the death toll in Hubei province, where the virus first appeared at the end of last year, thanks to authorities sending medical workers and equipment from other parts of the country there.

“To fake victim data, which departments should be deployed? Who should have implemented the plan? Hu asked. - In order to obtain general data, it was required to involve a great many different departments in many places. If one of them made a mistake once, the risk of spoiling everything was very great. ”

China is not the only country with suspicious reporting. Western officials nodded to Iran, Russia, Indonesia, especially North Korea, which did not report a single case of the disease. There are suggestions that Saudi Arabia and Egypt may also play down their numbers.

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US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo publicly called on China and other countries to be transparent about their data. He has repeatedly accused China of concealing the extent of the problem and of non-operational exchange of information, especially within a few weeks after the appearance of the virus, and of blocking offers of assistance from American experts.

“This data matters,” he said. The development of medical therapy and public health measures to combat the virus “so that we can save lives depends on confidence in information about what really happened,” the Secretary of State is convinced.

“I urge every country to do everything possible to collect accurate data. Try to share this information, ”he said. - We doing this".

Bats are thought to have been the source of the virus, but propagandists from countries such as China, Iran, and Russia are promoting pandemic conspiracy theories. Among other things, it is alleged that COVID-19 was created and distributed worldwide by the US military, writes "Voice of America".

“We have already seen that Iran, Russia, China and other countries are trying to offer their interpretations,” Pompeo told reporters during a telephone round table, according to a transcript published by the State Department.

“Interpretations are different, but each of them has one and the same component: try to avoid responsibility and cause confusion in the world, say, about the place of origin of the virus, or how different countries react to it, which countries really provide assistance around to the world, ”added the Secretary of State.

“It seems important to us that these interpretations be adjusted. President Trump has clearly put everything in place with regard to part of this misinformation, and we are also trying to do this work. This is important, ”continued Pompeo.

In an interview with President Donald Trump, they were asked to comment on recent publications in the Washington Post that said China, Iran, and Russia were misinforming, accusing the US of provoking the epidemic and criticizing their efforts to combat it.

In response, Trump criticized the Washington Post, suggesting that her publications should not be trusted. As for misinformation, "every country does this."

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“They are doing this, and so are we - just calling it differently.” I make very harsh statements to China, including the coronavirus, which has been circulating for a long time, and I won’t say that they are delighted with this statement, ”Trump said.

Meanwhile, the State Department announced that following a telephone conversation between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 30, the United States agreed to purchase from Russia the medical supplies they need, including fans and personal protective equipment.

The statement said the materials were handed over to representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in New York on April 1.

“In the past, both countries provided humanitarian assistance to each other in times of crisis and will undoubtedly do so in the future,” said Morgan Organagus, representative of the Department of State. “Now is the time when we must join hands to cope with a common enemy that has endangered the lives of each of us.”

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