The evidence of this crisis being China’s Chernobyl keeps piling up. The latest example was reported by a German paper.
The WHO has denied the allegations.
First, the claim:
The German news outlet, Der Spiegel, published a report citing intelligence from the country’s Federal Intelligence Service, known as the ‘Bundesnachrichtendienst’ (BND), that China “urged” the WHO to “delay a global warning” about the coronavirus outbreak. As per the report, the intelligence found that Xi and Tedros spoke by phone on January 21 during which the Chinese President “urged” the WHO chief to “hold back information about a human-to-human transmission and to delay a pandemic warning.” “The BND estimates that China’s information policy lost four to six weeks to fight the virus worldwide,” the report further added. — Indian Express
If true, that would certainly help us make sense of some of the data we’ve got, particularly a series of massive failures on the part of WHO, especially the issuing several guidance statements that were not simply inaccurate or unhelpful but exposed anyone who believed them to increased risk of pandemic exposure.
WHO has released a statement in reply.
Der Spiegel reports of a 21 January, 2020, telephone conversation between WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and President Xi Jingping of China are unfounded and untrue.
Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on 21 January and they have never spoken by telephone.
Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO’s and the world’s efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
To note: China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus on 20 January. Indian Express
20 January?
They sure as hell knew about it a long time before that, chumps.
The real question we need answered is, how much of this was credulous belief, and how much of this was a deliberate conspiracy of silence.
