(Newswire.net— May 11, 2020) — The World Health Organization (WHO) has rejected, as it stated “false” accusations that the organization kept information from the public about the new coronavirus pressured by China.
A statement from the United Nations agency claims that the information published today by the German news agency Der Spiegel about the alleged telephone conversation between the director of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in which China’s president urged the WHO director to halt information on the Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
Mr. Ghebreyesus said that information of the conversation that allegedly took place on January 21 is “unfounded and inaccurate”.
Jinping asked Ghebreyesus not to disclose information that the coronavirus is transmitted from person to person and to postpone the declaration of a global pandemic, Der Spiegel reported. The newspaper stated that it obtained the information from the German security agency BND.
The German paper claims that because of the behavior of China, the world lost six weeks, in which it could have prepared much better for the pandemic.
“Dr. Tedros and President Xi did not speak on January 21 and they have never spoken by phone. Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO’s and the world’s efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic,’ the WHO statement read.
The report, however, raised suspicions regarding the truthfulness of the report as they believe the alleged cover-up makes no sense particularly when the Chinese government had already publicly revealed human-to-human transmission the day before.
China confirmed on January 20 that the COVID-19 virus strain is transmittable from person to person and the WHO officially announced it two days later, noting that it is only data from Wuhan and that additional research is necessary.
Also, there was no information relevant to such a call on the official timeline of China’s COVID-19 response that the Chinese government released on April 6.
China’s deputy director of the Center for US Studies at Fudan University, Xin Quiang, blames Western media for the spread of fake news.
“Groundless and false reports are also part of a disinformation campaign being waged against China by some Western media and politicians,” he said.
Such a campaign has been fueled by intensive US-led anti-China rhetoric as the pandemic continued worsening in the US, Quiang said. It is not clear how exactly Germany would profit from attacking China and what was the motive of BND for launching such info to the media.