Documentary claims to expose Chinese coronavirus cover-up.
An explosive UK documentary has revealed undercover footage of Chinese medics admitting they were pressured by government officials to stay quiet about the contagiousness of the coronavirus.
The ITV investigation, which aired today, showed how some senior medics in Wuhan were forced to stay silent on the human-to-human transmission of the virus.
Health officials were aware the coronavirus was causing human death in December 2019, well ahead of Chinese New Year celebrations in late January 2020 when the world’s most populous country was gearing up for extensive internal travel.
The medics told the documentary about an alleged Chinese government cover-up from the start of the pandemic, which began to sweep across the world in February last year, causing more than 2 million deaths so far.
“We knew this virus transmitted from human to human. But when we attended a hospital meeting, we were told not to speak out,” one medic said.
“The provincial leaders told the hospitals not to tell the truth.”
The Chinese medics said authorities knew that new year celebrations in January would “accelerate the spread of the virus”.
“People suggested at city level that it shouldn’t go ahead, but it did because such an event would present a harmonious and prosperous society,” the medic said.
Last year Chinese New Year fell on January 25.
The documentary presented evidence the virus was spreading across China between January 5 – 17, but how no new cases were officially reported in the country during that 12-day period.
A doctor from Taiwan’s Infectious Diseases Prevention and Treatment Network was interviewed by ITV, and he detailed his attempts to visit Wuhan for answers early on in the pandemic.
Dr Yin-Ching Chuang said the key question he wanted answered was if there was human-to-human transmission.
He said, once in Wuhan, he was repeatedly given frustratingly obtuse answers.
“While we were at the meeting, we asked a lot of questions, very unwillingly they finally came out and said, ‘Limited human-to-human transmission can’t be ruled out.'”
Dr Chuang said China should have informed the world far sooner that humans spread the virus.
A virologist Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, likened the rapid spread of COVID-19 like an Australian bushfire.
“What might’ve taken two, three, four, five years to spread a couple of hundred years ago can spread in 24 hours, it really is like a forest fire in the Australian Outback,” he said.
Australia recorded its first cases of coronavirus on January 25, one case in Victoria and three in New South Wales.
Less than one week later, on February 1, travellers from China were blocked from entering Australia.
On February 27, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the outbreak will become a pandemic.