Obama’s former White House chief of staff broke diplomatic ranks, calling on China to end the “deception” and show transparency about a new disease outbreak.
Chinese hospitals in a number of cities have been “overwhelmed” by an increase in childhood pneumonia that began in May but has not yet been reported to international authorities.
In an unusual move that has raised questions about transparency, the World Health Organization (WHO) publicly called on China to release health records earlier this week.
On Thursday, Chinese authorities said they had no evidence of “unusual or new” pathogens and that the rise in respiratory illnesses was due to common infections that had rebounded after the country’s brutal lockdowns.
Last night, Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former White House chief of staff and former mayor of Chicago who is now US ambassador to Japan, said there were still “serious questions” about the outbreak.
said Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan
Emanuel previously served as White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama and was also mayor of Chicago
Chinese officials insist no new pathogen is to blame, instead blaming an increase in common winter beetles as the country faces its first full winter without anti-Covid measures.
In a tweet on
“It’s time to leave behind Covid fraud and delays, because transparent and timely information saves lives.” Full cooperation with the international community is not an option; This is a public health need. Will Beijing go a step further?’
Doctors and health authorities in China believe Covid, RSV, influenza and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial disease also known as “walking pneumonia”, are responsible for the surge.
Pictured: Crowded hospital waiting rooms in China
It is the disturbing images of hospitals in China full of children and their worried parents that are causing outrage worldwide.
They claim that these diseases are causing more serious illnesses because children’s immunity has been weakened during the country’s strict lockdowns – not unlike last year in the US and the UK.
However, doubts remain about China’s transparency, with many pointing to the eerie similarities between this outbreak and the early weeks of the Covid crisis.
China covered up the original SARS epidemic in 2003, and the delay in reporting Covid in late 2019 left countries stalling in their response.
Local media reported earlier this week that hospitals in Beijing and 800 kilometers northeast of Liaoning were “overflowing with sick children” showing unusual symptoms, including pneumonia and high fever, but no cough.
The situation prompted a warning from ProMed – a disease surveillance system that also sounded the alarm about a mysterious infection in Wuhan in the last days of 2019 that would later develop into the global Covid pandemic.
After making an unusual “official request” for more information, the WHO said Thursday it had spoken with officials at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Beijing Children’s Hospital.
The data submitted indicates that there has been an increase in cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia since May and an increase in cases of RSV, adenovirus and influenza since October.
The WHO said in a statement: “Chinese authorities have notified that no unusual or new pathogens or unusual clinical manifestations have been detected.”
Hospitals in Beijing and nearly 500 miles northeast of Liaoning are among those “overflowing with sick children,” according to local news
She added: “Some of these increases are occurring earlier in the season than in the past, but are not unexpected given the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, as also seen in other countries,” the WHO said in a statement .
“No changes in the clinical picture have been reported by the Chinese health authorities.”
The statement read: “They further stated that the increase in respiratory illnesses has not resulted in patient loads exceeding the hospital’s capacity.”
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
