Wang Hesheng, director of China’s State Administration for Disease Control and Prevention, claimed at a press conference this weekend that the Chinese Communist Party is preparing for future pandemics caused by an unknown “disease X.”
“Disease X is difficult to avoid, but the pandemic it could cause is preventable. We need to be better prepared,” Wang said. claimed It took place on the sidelines of China’s “Two Sessions,” the annual gathering of the Congress, the National People’s Congress, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body. Wang met with reporters to discuss the possibility of new pandemics and how China is said to be on the front lines of preparing to avoid sparking new disease outbreaks with global impact. We talked.
Chinese President Xi Jinping gives a speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on February 8, 2024. (Ju Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“Disease WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeatedly raised the possibility of a pandemic caused by “Disease He has encouraged the world to accept it. state.
The last time China faced ‘Disease It was when Doctors’ silence over concerns about spread of new disease, local population allowed to participate in large-scale ‘superspreader’ events, WHO says chance of person-to-person transmission of highly contagious disease is low Several Chinese government decisions, including the government’s decision to inform the public, have exacerbated the spread of infection. The spread of infectious diseases will eventually lead to the coronavirus pandemic, 7 million He is alive at the time of reporting.
WHO declared coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
king Said Reporters said China is working to “implement a comprehensive approach to national security” in preparation for the discovery of new diseases.
“We will (also) build and improve multi-channel surveillance and early warning systems to strengthen infectious disease risk assessment and identify infectious diseases early,” he added, according to the Malaysian news agency. Sun.
A medical worker hands over a vial used for nucleic acid testing to detect the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Beijing, China, October 14, 2022. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
of Global TimesChina’s National Propaganda Agency, be familiar with Wang’s proposal to prevent new pandemics encourages efforts to “establish a relevant legal and regulatory system, carry out prevention and control in accordance with the law, optimize resource allocation, and improve the emergency transformation mechanism” It started with doing.
State media has said that China has “currently built the world’s largest net-based direct reporting system for infectious diseases” and has “developed 20 national epidemic acute infectious disease prevention and control measures to improve the ability and level of infectious disease response.” He claimed to have established a “control team”. ”
Wang called on the Communist Party to invest in “mass prevention and control systems” and “widely disseminate science and education to comprehensively raise public health awareness.”
During various official engagements in January and February, Mr. Tedros worked closely with the Chinese government in the early days of the Wuhan pandemic, only to later callously suggest that China should reconsider its brutal lockdown and isolation camp policies. The comprehensive global plan against “Disease X” has attracted some criticism.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a press conference at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, December 14, 2022. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
“We lost a lot of people [during the coronavirus pandemic] Because we have no control over them,” Tedros argued in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January. “We could have saved them, but we didn’t have the space. We didn’t have enough oxygen. So how do we build a system that can scale when we need it?”
At the World Government Summit held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in February, Tedros said the outbreak of “Disease They called for the establishment of a global pandemic treaty that would provide
“The world is not prepared for a pandemic,” Tedros said. “As attention turns to the many other crises facing our world, the painful lessons we have learned are in danger of being forgotten… We will pay a high price next time.” , and there will be another one.”
On January 27, 2021, Shanghai’s Huangpu district went into lockdown after medical workers in protective gear sprayed disinfectant after several new coronavirus cases were detected nearby and residents were evacuated. come out of the area where it was. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
According to subsequent research, the new coronavirus infection, which the WHO has identified as COVID-19, began to spread in Wuhan in October 2019. The issue first attracted significant attention in the West in January 2020, when reports began to spread that the city’s hospitals were overwhelmed and the Communist Party’s response was in disarray. By the time the virus began to spread internationally, Chinese authorities had taken several measures that were later found to have the potential to worsen the spread of the disease. In January of that year, for example, Wuhan residents took part in an attempt to break the record for the world’s largest banquet, with 130,000 people enjoying a family-style meal indoors. Wuhan’s mayor at the time, Zhou Xianwang, admitted in a press conference that same month that 5 million people left the city to travel for the Lunar New Year holiday, spreading the virus around the world.
Chou tendered his resignation in January 2020, taking responsibility for the inadequate response to the pandemic. Currently Mr. Chou. serve As a member of the Political Consultative Association representing Wuhan and Hubei Province.
In addition to these blunders, Wuhan police harassed and questioned people who suggested that a new epidemic was brewing in the city. In January 2020, Chinese police made at least one arrest. 8 people Doctors including 34-year-old Li Wenliang, who suddenly died of the coronavirus in February 2020, were forced to make humiliating apologies for “spreading rumors” and advising medical workers to wash their hands thoroughly. engage in other activities to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
