Caixin just dropped two bombshells
The RNA of SARS-Cov-2 was first sequenced by a private biotech company on Dec 27 from a sample collected on Dec 24 by a hospital in Wuhan. The company immediately alerted the hospital and Wuhan health authority and flied an executive to Wuhan to warn the hospital and local CDC on Dec 29. Subsequently multiple private and public labs, including the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan, sequenced the virus. They all alerted the CDC, but was forbidden from publishing the results because according to Chinese law on infectious disease control only labs affiliated with the Chinese CDC has the authorization to conduct pathogenic research on infectious diseases. Note that the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan is a public lab but not affliated with the Chinese CDC. The sequence eventually published by CDC on Jan 11 was the same sequence obtained by the private lab on Dec 27.
Perhaps the law need to be updated? Nowadays China has a large private biotech sector, the old law seems unnecessarily restrictive.
Damning testimonies from the National Health Commission experts that Hubei health authority was deliberately hiding evidence of human-to-human transmission. The expert team was very eager to know whether there were infections among healthcare workers, but was always told by hospitals that no there wasn't. When they pushed for more information, the top health official in Hubei directly confronted them and asked if they are accusing him of withholding information. As the team was sent by National Health Commission to assist Hubei authorities, not to investigate them, they had no power to dig further.
What I don't understand was the motivation behind Hubei health commission's decision to hide human-to-human transmission.
Of course this was a one-sided story from the National Health Commission.
The RNA of SARS-Cov-2 was first sequenced by a private biotech company on Dec 27 from a sample collected on Dec 24 by a hospital in Wuhan. The company immediately alerted the hospital and Wuhan health authority and flied an executive to Wuhan to warn the hospital and local CDC on Dec 29. Subsequently multiple private and public labs, including the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan, sequenced the virus. They all alerted the CDC, but was forbidden from publishing the results because according to Chinese law on infectious disease control only labs affiliated with the Chinese CDC has the authorization to conduct pathogenic research on infectious diseases. Note that the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan is a public lab but not affliated with the Chinese CDC. The sequence eventually published by CDC on Jan 11 was the same sequence obtained by the private lab on Dec 27.
Perhaps the law need to be updated? Nowadays China has a large private biotech sector, the old law seems unnecessarily restrictive.
Damning testimonies from the National Health Commission experts that Hubei health authority was deliberately hiding evidence of human-to-human transmission. The expert team was very eager to know whether there were infections among healthcare workers, but was always told by hospitals that no there wasn't. When they pushed for more information, the top health official in Hubei directly confronted them and asked if they are accusing him of withholding information. As the team was sent by National Health Commission to assist Hubei authorities, not to investigate them, they had no power to dig further.
What I don't understand was the motivation behind Hubei health commission's decision to hide human-to-human transmission.
Of course this was a one-sided story from the National Health Commission.
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