Concerns that China is not sharing adequate information with the international community about an increase in "clusters" of respiratory illness in children have prompted members of the medical community to describe the situation as "eerily familiar."
In a statement on Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that Chinese officials had reported an increase in incidences of respiratory disease in the east Asian nation last week, which it had attributed to a lifting of COVID restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens—but was seeking additional information, including laboratory results.
China has previously been criticized for withholding information about the severity and extent of the spread of the coronavirus in the early stages of the pandemic—which many believe would have helped other nations prepare and contain the spread of the virus—and has been accused of supressing evidence of surges in deaths since then.
Earlier in the year, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus openly criticized China's lack of clarity over the immunological situation in the nation. Beijing has previously stressed it has been "open and transparent" about its data.
Newsweek approached the Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) via email for comment on Thursday.
In its latest statement, the WHO said officials from the NHC reported an increase in respiratory diseases on November 13, which they ascribed to already understood diseases like influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae—a bacterial infection which predominantly affects children and the elderly—respiratory syncytial virus, which causes cold-like symptoms, and COVID-19.
On November 21, media outlets and ProMED, a global outbreak surveillance system, reported the clusters of "undiagnosed" pneumonia in children in the northern region of China. The WHO said it was "unclear if these are associated with the overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities, or separate events."
The following day, the WHO said it requested epidemiological and clinical information, as well as lab results from the clusters and further details of the apparent rises in known diseases, but intimated that it had yet to receive a response.
Respiratory illness tends to increase through the winter as the cold leads to an increased spread in viruses and other infections as immunity is lower.
"I'm hearing many insiders tell me that Chinese doctors are told by government authorities to not report any numbers and not test patients and not report any tests," Eric Feigl-Ding responded to the statement.
The American epidemiologist and public health scientist has faced criticism for unnecessary alarmism at times during the coronavirus pandemic. "This sounds eerily familiar," he said of the current situation.
Feigl-Ding has previously shared videos and images, which Newsweek could not immediately verify, of hospital waiting rooms crowded with patients and children on intravenous drips, apparently illustrating the extent of the "clusters."
"I personally find it ABSURD that WHO has been asking China for details for dozens of days and we still don't have an answer," Aureliano Stingi, scientific director of a cancer diagnostics firm and a researcher in molecular biology at the University of Geneva, wrote.
"It is neither acceptable nor understandable that in 10 days the nature of the emergency is not known."
"Well, it was a good run," Sean Mullen, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Virginia, said.
China's hesitancy to share information on the COVID pandemic has prompted theories that the virus may have resulted from a lab leak in Wuhan, where the virus is thought to have first emerged.
Two U.S. agencies have said it was a possibility, while others maintain that the virus most likely emerged by jumping the animal-to-human species barrier in a wet market in the city.
Confusingly, in March, Chinese researchers suggested the wet market was the site of an amplification of the spread of the already-existing virus, while earlier data it removed from an international database suggested it was the origin point.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more
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