Chinese virologist slams Beijing COVID-19 ‘cover-up’
A leading Chinese doctor who specialises in virology and immunology has fled Hong Kong for the US to deliver a ‘message of the truth of COVID’.
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A leading Chinese doctor, who specialises in virology and immunology, has fled Hong Kong for the United States to deliver a “message of the truth of COVID”, amid fears she will be ‘disappeared’.
Li-Meng Yan, who was based at the Hong Kong School of Public Health before fleeing overseas on April 28, believes China knew about the novel coronavirus well before its communist leadership has claimed it did.
She has also claimed her supervisors ignored research that could have saved countless lives.
Yan told Fox News, she feared she “will be disappeared and killed” because of her revelations but felt an obligation to tell the truth.
“The reason I came to the US is because I deliver the message of the truth of COVID,” she said.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 10, 2020
Speaking to the news outlet from an undisclosed location, Yan said the coronavirus cover-up goes to the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party and reveals the lengths President Xi Jinping has gone to in an attempt to control the narrative of COVID-19.
“The China government refused to let overseas experts, including ones in Hong Kong, do research in China,” Yan said.
“So I turned to my friends to get more information.”
Yan said she spoke to a friend at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in China on December 31, who said human-to-human transmission of the virus was possible, well before China or the WHO said it was.
On January 9, the WHO released a statement that leaned on information from Chinese authorities that said: “the virus in question can cause severe illness in some patients and does not transmit readily between people”.
That information, of course, has since been flipped 180 degrees.
Yan said shortly after that, her fellow medical professionals began to avoid talk about the virus, amid claims they had been warned not to speak about what was going on.
“We can’t talk about it, but we need to wear masks,’” Yan said she was told by fellow doctors.
“There are many, many patients who don’t get treatment on time and diagnosis on time,” Yan said.
“Hospital doctors are scared, but they cannot talk. CDC staff are scared.”
On January 16, when Yan again reported her findings on the virus to her supervisor she was allegedly told: “to keep silent and be careful”.
“He warned me before, ‘Don’t touch the red line [the government]. We will get in trouble and we’ll be disappeared.”
The claims back up the thoughts of many in the global scientific and political communities and pose even more questions about China’s and the World Health Organisation’s handling of the pandemic.
SHOCKING POSSIBILITIES FORECAST FOR VICTORIA
Doomsday modelling forecasts that Victoria will record up to 1,349 new coronavirus cases every day by the end of July unless the state can bring its new outbreak under control, according to a new study.
Exclusive modelling by the University of NSW for The Australian shows there will be at least 500 new cases every day by the end of next week, with infections doubling every five days.
Mathematical biologist Deborah Cromer of the University of NSW’s Kirby Institute forecasts the number of new cases each day could hit 1000 by July 21, and a frightening 1,349 every day by the end of the month if the reinstated lockdown can’t halt the spread.
While she is optimistic that case numbers will peak next week, she said COVID-19 could “take off” just like it’s done around the world.
“This is community transmission, a really serious problem,” Dr Cromer said. “The lockdown is important. If nothing is done, then it will continue to take off, as we have seen elsewhere in the world.
“The lockdown that is happening across Melbourne should work. In the past it did work. You would hope to see some impact next week in the slowing down of the numbers, somewhere between the 13th (of July) and the 18th.”
Victoria has gone back into lockdown for the next six weeks as the State recording 288 new cases on Friday - the biggest daily spike in cases in Australia since the pandemic erupted.
Nobel laureate Peter Doherty, namesake and patron of the University of Melbourne’s Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, said the rate of spread in Victoria was consistent with a basic reproductive rate of 2.5 for the virus, The Australian reported.
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This meant each infected person could be expected to transmit the disease to 2.5 others.
“I have been asking this question over and over of the epidemiologists, whether they are seeing anything above that,” he said.
“And it does seem to be about 2.5, which makes it about as infectious as a bad flu, but infinitely less infectious than measles.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews admitted the new outbreak would not be easy to control.
“We knew it would need to get worse before it got better, and that unless we took those steps we simply wouldn’t be able to bring a sense of control to this,” Mr Andrews said.
“We would not be able to see a stabilisation and then a driving down of those numbers. At the same time, no one should underestimate how significant, how big a challenge it is that we all face. It is very significant, and that is why each of us (has) to play a part.”
QUARANTINE PROCESS TO BE REVIEWED
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said there will be a national review of hotel quarantine procedures and national cabinet agreed to a reduction in inbound arrivals into Australia.
He said inbound flights were being cut by half, equating to a reduction of more than 4000 people.
The change will come into place on Monday.
Returning travellers will also need to pay for the cost of the 14-days mandatory hotel quarantine.
“There is also a view across the National Cabinet that they are all effectively moving to a charging system for the hotel quarantine that is in place for those returning businesses,” he said.
“Some states already have it, other states are moving towards that, and I will leave that to them to make their announcements at the appropriate time and where possible, we will seek to have some sort of national uniformity across those pricings and we are sharing those information is with the states and territories.
“The decision that we took to reduce the number of returned travellers to Australia at this time was to ensure that we could put our focus on the resources needed to do the testing and tracing and not have to have resources diverted to other tasks.
“We will review that as the weeks go by but for now, that is where we have reduced it. It is a reduction of over 4,000 people coming each week and that is spread across those ports of entry and that will take affect from Monday.”
Mr Morrison said there was not an exact figure on the number of international arrivals being allowed into Australia and it would depend on whether there were enough hotels to accommodate them for the quarantine period.
Chief Medical Officer Prof Paul Kelly also said those going outside in Melbourne today should be wearing a mask.
“That is the advice if you cannot guarantee physical distancing. In these circumstances, some of you might want to consider that,” he said.
Mr Morrison said the rising number of cases in Victoria remains “very concerning”.
“The premier will stand-up through the day and update the situation there, but it is concerning,” he said.
“They have called for help, they are getting help, but the key here is that all states and territories again reaffirmed their support for Victoria in providing whatever resources they needed to deal with the outbreak in Victoria.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the state had recorded 288 new COVID-19 cases, with the “vast majority being investigated by the public health team”.
Mr Andrews said 26 cases were to “contained unknown outbreaks”, while 262 were still under investigation by the state’s public health team.
He said 37,588 coronavirus tests were conducted yesterday.
VICTORIA ‘STUFFED UP’: BIRMINGHAM
It comes as Victoria has “stuffed up” the nation’s fight against COVID-19 and set back plans to have lucrative international students return to Australia, Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham says.
Asked on ABC Radio Adelaide if the Victorian Government has “stuffed up” its handling of the pandemic, Senator Birmingham said “Yes.”
“There has clearly been a stuff up in Victoria and failures to quarantine,” he said.
“The fact is that throughout the pandemic here in South Australia we can be proud our state has had among the highest testing rates in the county which has enabled us to pick up cases quickly and ensure we don’t see a spread through the community.
“Victoria has had much lower levels of testing, failures in quarantine and got itself into a right royal mess, and we want to get them out of that mess.”
Senator Birmingham noted the federal government has sent 220 Defence Force personnel in to Victoria to help and another 150 would arrive on Sunday, while the South Australian government had sent testing and contact tracing experts to assist.
“People in Victoria and the Victorian Opposition will spend their time trying to highlight the failures of (Premier) Dan Andrews and his government — our priority is to help fix it,” he said.
Problems with supervised quarantine of people returning from overseas in Melbourne has set back national plans to have international students return to Australia under similar 14-day supervised mandatory quarantine, Senator Birmingham noted.
National Cabinet will now discuss the issue after seeing the consequences of a breakdown of such quarantine.
It comes after Victorian health officials reportedly did not adhere to national guidelines for COVID-19 contact tracing — a bungle that lead to increased virus transmission rates and a lockdown of metropolitan Melbourne.
The Australian reports the deficiency - where state health officials did not conduct daily follow ups with close contacts to check for flu-like symptoms - was identified by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) as one of several “areas of improvement” in their probe of what happened in Victoria.
The AHPPC has provided advice and recommendations to Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services over its second coronavirus wave response.
“Every case, every day, must be followed,” said a senior health official familiar with the matter, according to The Australian.
“It is the national standard. We have highlighted the areas of improvement through the AHPPC.”
The news follows an earlier report by the publication that a lack of contract tracing specialists in Victoria’s public health workforce was largely responsible for its struggle to contain the second wave of infections.
Quizzed about claims Victoria’s public health system was under resourced and unable to cope with a surging number of cases, the state’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton said his focus “is absolutely on addressing the pandemic”.
“There will be time for a review and for contemplation about any structural or resourcing issues long-term after this,” Professor Sutton said. “A pandemic of this type challenges absolutely everyone. Actually, Victoria drove down cases in the same way as the rest of Australia, so I think we’ve done as well if not better than any other jurisdiction in Australia.”
‘DIVIDED’ US NOT HELPING VIRUS FIGHT
White House health adviser Dr Anthony Fauci has said that states with sudden coronavirus outbreaks should consider “shutting down” like the US did when the virus first hit in March.
White House health Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.
His comments come as the US continues to see daily records for new case, and in the case of Florida, 120 in one day — a record for the state.
“What we are seeing is exponential growth. It went from an average of about 20,000 to 40,000 and 50,000. That’s doubling. If you continue doubling, two times 50 is 100,” Dr Fauci said on a Wall Street Journal podcast.
“Any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down. It’s not for me to say because each state is different.”
Dr Fauci also said that if America weren’t such a “divisive society” it would have handled the pandemic better and not seen such a drastic death toll.
In an interview with FiveThirtyEight, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that if there wasn’t so much divisiveness, the U.S. would have a more coordinated approach to suppressing COVID-19.
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) July 9, 2020
*The full interview will publish later today on PODCAST-19: https://t.co/jMTi6KaS13 pic.twitter.com/kA1f0NUWoE
The US reported a record single-day spike of 60,021 confirmed cases this week and the states of Arizona, California, Florida and Texas account for nearly half of all new cases in the US.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday local time that he disagreed with Dr Fauci on the dire situation the US faces as cases of coronavirus continue to spread.
Mr Trump, speaking in a TV interview, said, “I think we are in a good place,” telling the anchor of “Full Court Press”: “I disagree with him.”
“Dr. Fauci said don’t wear masks, now he says wear them,” he continued, adding that the immunologist has “said numerous things” that according to Mr Trump were bad advice.
“So we’ve done a good job. I think we are going to be in two, three, four weeks, by the time we next speak, I think we are going to be in very good shape,” Mr Trump added.
More than 130,000 have lost their lives in the highest death toll in the world by far.
Many states are experiencing a surge in cases corresponding with the national reopening.
Mr Trump has blamed the spike in cases on increased testing.
It comes as the director-general of the World Health Organisation warned that the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating globally and the virus has not yet reached its peak.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “The virus is not under control. It is getting worse … The pandemic is still accelerating. The total number of cases has doubled in the last six weeks.”
Dr Ghebreyesus hit out at divisions in the international community, warning of the consequences.
“Make no mistake: the greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself -- rather, it's the lack of leadership and solidarity at the global and national levels,” he said.
“We cannot defeat this pandemic as a divided world. The virus thrives on division but is thwarted when we unite.”
The new coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 550,000 lives worldwide, with nearly 12.1 million people infected since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to an AFP tally on Thursday.
“How is it difficult for humans to unite to fight a common enemy that’s killing people indiscriminately? he said.
“Together is the solution, unless we want to give the advantage the enemy, to the virus that has taken the world hostage -- and this has to stop.”
ACTU PUSHES FOR PAID PANDEMIC LEAVE
Australians returning home from overseas have been warned they may face delays during a review of the nation’s hotel quarantine system.
The Federal Government along with the states and territories are considering whether the number of Australians coming home in any given week should be reduced, and each state’s capacity reviewed.
It comes amid a suspension of Victoria’s hotel quarantine system as the state battles a second wave of COVID-19 infections, which national cabinet is reportedly considering extending.
“For Australians who are coming now, five months after the virus first started, then obviously each will have their own circumstances. And if they do have to wait, we ask them to be patient,” Mr Hunt told the ABC.
Mr Hunt said 70,000 people had been brought through the hotel quarantine system, and the majority of states had done a “magnificent job”.
“In seven out of eight states and territories, there’s been a magnificent job,” he told 2GB radio.
“Over 400 cases have been detected and prevented from getting out into the community so that has protected lives and saved lives.”
It comes as the Australian Council of Trade Unions continues to push for paid pandemic leave.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus repeated calls this morning for a sick pay scheme for workers who may not have enough days leave to cover their self-isolation period.
Queensland and Victoria have introduced schemes, but it is paid at the rate of the minimum wage.
“People have gone to work when they have been sick,’’she told the ABC. “We now that from some of the outbreaks.”
She said some people may refuse tests because of fears they would lose income during isolation.
“We can’t penalise people for needing to isolate. Or even if you have been in contact with someone, you need to isolate. They are protecting all of us, protecting our jobs and lives.”
“People will make rational decisions, they’ll say ‘oh, maybe that bit of a scratchy throat is fine and I don’t need to get tested,’ and really in the back of their minds they’re scared about losing their jobs and losing their income.”
VICTORIA’S SECOND LOCKDOWN WILL BE HARDER: DEPUTY CMO
Australia’s deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth says the Victorian lockdown will harder the second time around, with other states and territories confirming new cases of COVID-19.
The federal government’s peak health body has recorded a further 147 new cases, largely coming from Victoria.
In Victoria, 134 new cases have been reported, while three new COVID-19 diagnoses were recorded in the ACT.
The confirmed cases in other states and territories come after the NSW and Victorian border was closed Tuesday night as a result of the outbreak.
“This is not just a Victorian problem; it is a national problem and a shared problem,” Dr Coatsworth said.
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“This is clearly harder the second time around when only a short time ago we were lifting restrictions, when other parts of Australia are still lifting restrictions. It is a difficult thing to have to do the second time around.”
Dr Coatsworth noted it would be up to the respective state governments to determine whether Victorians travelling interstate should be forced into quarantine.
The federal government is urging anybody who has left Victoria to limit their interaction with other people until they get tested.
“This outbreak is markedly different to any of those in that it has originated and emerged in households, in young families, large culturally diverse families and is now within the community,” Dr Coatsworth said.
SOCIAL DISTANCING ‘IS NOT OVER’
Australians are being put on notice and urged to continue social distancing as Victoria reintroduced restrictions last night.
Deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd has called on people in states with few or zero coronavirus cases to adhere to social distancing and cough and hand hygiene to stop the spread of coronavirus.
“After the stage three restrictions were lifted … many people felt that COVID-19 perhaps was over in Australia and clearly it is not,” he told ABC Breakfast.
“It remains a very serious risk for us all and re-enforces for everybody the importance of the measures.
“We are all on notice.”
Prof Kidd has encouraged people with loved ones in metropolitan Melbourne who will be forced back into isolation for six weeks from midnight on Wednesday to contact them.
He has also encouraged Victorians to download the COVIDSafe app if they hadn’t already.
Victoria has recorded 134 new virus cases, as total infections for the state rise to 2942.
A massive number of cases, 123, remain under investigation, while 11 were linked to contained outbreaks, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said this morning.
A total of 75 infections are related to the nine locked-down public housing towers.
One million COVID-19 tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic, while 41 Victorians remain in hospital and seven in intensive care.
Meanwhile, the six-week lockdown in Victoria will wipe $1 billion a week from the Victorian economy.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg today revealed the reintroduction of restrictions across metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire was a blow to the nation’s economic recovery.
“Victoria is about a quarter of the national economy and obviously what happens in Victoria matters to the rest of the nation,” he told Sky News.
“Particularly, it goes to consumer and business confidence and the speed and trajectory of the recovery.”
He said the government would continue to provide support for “those who need it” but would reveal more details about the JobKeeper and Jobseeker schemes in his July 23 mini-Budget.
Originally published as Chinese virologist slams Beijing COVID-19 ‘cover-up’