How Museums in Central and Eastern Europe Tell the Complicated Story of Life Behind the Iron Curtain
Apr 24
International Human Rights Org: China And World Health Organization Coverup Fueled Global Pandemic
Report: “The PRC’s actions and WHO’s inaction precipitated a pandemic [that was] not only foreseeable, but entirely avoidable..."
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros and China's President Xi Jinping. (Getty Images)
WASHINGTON D.C. — A groundbreaking new report by an international human rights organization revealed for the first time today the extent of China’s and the World Health Organization’s coverup of the initial COVID-19 outbreak and how it contributed to making the global pandemic far worse than it would have been with transparency and international cooperation, as mandated by existing treaty obligations.
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) released its Situation Brief [PDF available upon request] on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s culpability in causing the coronavirus pandemic (report is available here). VOC’s report examines in detail the timeline and facts of the COVID-19 outbreak since it first appeared in late 2019 against China’s ongoing disinformation campaign about the pandemic’s origins and spread.
The conclusion is that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government’s lack of communication, disregard for human life (both within and outside of its borders), and outright deception caused the deaths of millions of people who contracted the virus unnecessarily. The global pandemic was “not only foreseeable but entirely preventable,” in the words of the report. The WHO, meanwhile, abandoned their mission to protect global health by taking the Chinese Communist Party at its word.
“We knew China was lying and misleading the rest of the world about the virus that originated in Wuhan, but the extent of their continued deceit and their predatory behavior shocks the conscience,” says Marion Smith, VOC’s executive director. “The WHO has abdicated its responsibility to the entire world population in order to carry water for the Chinese Communist regime. While the pandemic’s final human toll is still unknown, those who have perished from the outbreak must be included in the global count of 100 million deaths at the hands of Communism. Any cursory look at the facts show that the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, and WHO Director Tedros are continued threats to global public health. We call on all western media to verify any claims from these discredited organizations before parroting them.”
Among the revelations in the report:
-
The world first learned of the pneumonia-like virus coming from Central China in late December of 2019, but recent reporting indicates that the first case was actually recorded in Wuhan on November 17th — a fact that the PRC has yet to acknowledge. The PRC finally alerted the rest of the world of the virus’ human transmission roughly two months later on January 20th despite readily available information and a rapidly spreading outbreak.
-
On December 31st, Taiwan alerted the WHO about a new virus in Wuhan spreading between humans. On January 1st the WHO asked China for more information, yet on January 14th the WHO was still reporting that “preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission”, maintaining this argument until January 23rd, three days after the PRC admitted human-to-human transmission.
-
Beginning in January, the PRC and state-owned companies activated a predatory global campaign acquiring medical supplies from North America and Europe for urgent shipment to China, with special attention given to protective equipment such as masks and gloves.
-
PRC oppression significantly increased in late January — independent Chinese journalists were detained and disappeared, foreign journalists were expelled, and the internet was shut down in certain areas as state censors were simultaneously given more powers to remove online content.
-
CCP Chairman Xi Jinping stated on February 3rd that he “made requests for prevention and control of the new coronavirus pneumonia” on January 7th, but the evidence indicates that the PRC had deliberately blocked this information from spreading by silencing individuals in China’s scientific and health communities like Dr. Li Wenliang who warned about the dangers of the virus in December.
-
In February Chinese communist officials began a global disinformation and propaganda campaign — a senior spokesman for the CCP made the outrageous claim in mid-March that U.S. Army members visiting Wuhan were actually the source of the virus. The PRC also began shipping faulty medical supplies to foreign countries while the WHO continued to tout Chinese efforts and spread erroneous data, praising PRC transparency and cooperation in late January.
-
On March 26th, WH Trade Advisor Peter Navarro stated that Beijing “did not tell us early to mid-December that there was a crisis of human-to-human transmission with a new novel coronavirus. That has set the world back six weeks.” Dr. Deborah Birx of the WH Coronavirus Taskforce stated on March 31st that experts modeling the virus’ spread “were missing a significant amount of the data” from China. Most notably, on April 2nd, the New York Times reported that the CIA had warned the White House since early February that PRC officials had been “lying about infection rates, testing, and death counts.”
-
The WHO has yet to criticize China for refusing to let it verify the PRC’s data, and it quickly praised China in glowing terms, noting that the quality of the Chinese investigation of the virus “can be guaranteed.” China also failed to notify member states of the WHO within 24 hours about information they had that may constitute a “public health emergency of international concern”, violating guidelines laid out in the 2005 International Health Regulations.
-
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that China systematically hid the real number of infected patients as well as the number of deaths despite the CCP’s insistence of no new cases in Wuhan. According to a study by the University of Southampton, if Beijing had acted three weeks earlier, the number of COVID-19 cases could have been reduced by 95 percent, and its geographic spread would have been severely limited.
-
The PRC’s statements that the coronavirus is under control in China are highly unlikely, especially its claim that Wuhan has experienced virtually no new cases since March 18th. Several factors indicate the opposite: mandatory quarantine is still in effect in Wuhan, new cases are not being reported, Chinese test kits are notoriously unreliable (at least three European countries have stopped using Chinese tests, which have error rates as high as 80 percent), asymptomatic patients are not counted (contrary to global standards), medical teams were called back to Wuhan without explanation, local funeral homes are receiving 2,500-plus cinerary caskets a day (even though the total official PRC death count in Wuhan is 2,531), and there has been a spike in volume of incineration and untested bodies with daily incineration four to five times higher than usual.
The full version of the Situation Brief is available here.
