Anatomy of a conspiracy: With Covid, China took leading role

‘From Beijing and Washington to Moscow and Tehran, political leaders and allied media effectively functioned as superspreaders, using their stature to amplify politically expedient conspiracies already in circulation. But it was China -- not Russia – that took the lead in spreading foreign disinformation about COVID-19’s origins, as it came under attack for its early handling of the outbreak.

‘A nine-month Associated Press investigation of state-sponsored disinformation conducted in collaboration with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, shows how a rumor that the U.S. created the virus that causes COVID-19 was weaponized by the Chinese government, spreading from the dark corners of the Internet to millions across the globe. The analysis was based on a review of millions of social media postings and articles on Twitter, Facebook, VK, Weibo, WeChat, YouTube, Telegram and other platforms.’

Read here (Associated Press, Feb 15, 2021)

WHO experts slam NYT for twisting, misquoting their words on virus origins probe

‘WHO experts who recently visited Wuhan slammed the New York Times for twisting their words and casting shadows over the efforts to uncover the origins of the virus, after the newspaper accused China of refusing to hand over sensitive data to WHO experts.

‘The report by New York Times titled “On WHO Trip, China Refused to Hand Over Important Data” accuses China of failing to share important data that may help in identifying the origins of the virus and prevent future outbreaks.

 ‘After the report was published, two WHO experts [Peter Daszak, British zoologist and Thea Kølsen Fischer, a Danish epidemiologist] slammed New York Times for misquoting them in the report to fit its own narrative, with the report casting a shadow over the scientific work of seeking for virus origin.’

Read here (Global Times, Feb 14, 2021)

US and UK in a spat with China over WHO probe on Covid-19

• White House cites 'deep concerns' about WHO Covid-19 report, demands early data from China (read here)
• UK says it shares US concerns over WHO COVID-19 mission to China (read here)
• China fires back at US allegations of lack of transparency over Covid-19 probe (read here)

All reports on Channel News Asia, Feb 14, 2021

On WHO trip, China refused to hand over important data

‘Chinese scientists refused to share raw data that might bring the world closer to understanding the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, independent investigators for the World Health Organization said Friday.

‘The investigators, who recently returned from a fact-finding trip to the Chinese city of Wuhan, said disagreements over patient records and other issues were so tense that they sometimes erupted into shouts among the typically mild-mannered scientists on both sides.

‘China’s continued resistance to revealing information about the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, the scientists say, makes it difficult for them to uncover important clues that could help stop future outbreaks of such dangerous diseases.

“If you are data focused, and if you are a professional,” said Thea Kølsen Fischer, a Danish epidemiologist on the team, then obtaining data is “like for a clinical doctor looking at the patient and seeing them by your own eyes.”

‘For 27 days in January and February, the team of 14 experts for the WHO led the mission to trace the origins of the pandemic. Several say their Chinese counterparts were frustrated by the team’s persistent questioning and demands for data.’

Read here (New York Times via Economic Times, India, Feb 13, 2021)

WHO says all hypotheses still open in probe into COVID-19 origins

‘All hypotheses are still open in the World Health Organization's search for the origins of COVID-19, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing on Friday (Feb 12), after Washington said it wants to review data from a WHO-led mission to China.

‘The mission, which spent four weeks in China looking into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak, said this week that it was not looking further into the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab, which it considered highly unlikely.

‘The previous US administration of President Donald Trump, which left office last month, had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing strongly denies.’

Read here (Channel News Asia, Feb 13, 2021)

Is China to blame for Covid-19: Interview with The Lancet's editor Richard Horton

‘Whether it's Donald Trump, Tom Tugendhat or Paul Joseph Watson, various voices during this pandemic have blamed China for the mess we're in. How true is this? Editor-in-chief of the Lancet medical Journal, Richard Horton, argues that much of this stems from anti-Chinese racism and that we owe a debt of gratitude to the doctors, nurses and scientists of China.’

View here (Youtube, Novara Media, Feb 8, 2021)

China, Russia steal a vaccine diplomacy march

‘Russia and China are rising to the rich versus poor challenge by supplying much-needed vaccines to nations that would otherwise be far down on the global list. While the US and EU remain preoccupied with their own Covid-19 problems, Russian and Chinese companies are forming partnerships with each other and countries around the world.

‘That “vaccine diplomacy” success, however, is already starting to raise concerns in the West. Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, originally poo-pooed in the West as a mere publicity stunt by President Vladimir Putin, has not only proved to be one of the most effective vaccines – providing over 90% protection – but also is inexpensive and easy to use...

‘Until recently, China’s vaccine industry was considered a relatively minor player on the international scene. But the race to develop and deploy Covid-19 vaccines has provided China the impetus to massively upgrade its capacities while establishing itself as a major global supplier. 

‘Covid-19 vaccines by at least four Chinese producers are in final, Phase III trials in a dozen countries, with more in the pipeline. More importantly, the two presently leading Chinese vaccines, produced by the Sinovac and Sinopharm companies, have already been administered to many millions of people in emergency vaccination campaigns in the developing world.’ 

Read here (Asia Times, Feb 8, 2021)

It’s time to trust China’s and Russia’s vaccines

‘The fact is that no Covid-19 vaccine has been developed or released as transparently as it should have been. And while China and Russia may have botched their rollouts more than some Western companies, that doesn’t necessarily mean their vaccines are shoddy. The mounting evidence showing that the Chinese and Russian vaccines are reliable should be taken seriously, and fast, especially considering supply issues throughout the world...

‘What’s more, most big pharmaceutical companies in the West have resisted licensing their vaccines to non-Western manufacturers, and several wealthy countries are blocking a proposal by India and South Africa that the World Trade Organization temporarily suspend some intellectual property protections for Covid-19-related vaccines and treatments.

‘On the other hand, according to our latest analysis of data provided by the analytics firm Airfinity, Sinovac has already signed deals to export this year more than 350 million doses of its vaccine to 12 countries; Sinopharm, around 194 million doses to 11 countries; Sputnik V, about 400 million doses to 17 countries. All three manufacturers have stated publicly that they will have the capacity to produce up to 1 billion doses each in 2021. And all three have licensed their vaccines to local manufacturers in several countries.’

Read here (New York Times, Feb 5, 2021)

Sinovac applies for conditional approval of Covid-19 vaccine in China

‘China's medicine regulator is reviewing a second domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine for conditional approval. The CoronaVac inoculation, developed by Sinovac Biotech, has been given to tens of thousands of people in China under an emergency use program launched in July targeting specific groups with high infection risks. Regulators are also reviewing for approval a similar vaccine created by state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group, known as Sinopharm...

‘China's COVID-19 vaccines have won approval in a dozen countries for emergency use, but the failure to publish detailed trial data could undermine public trust, a leading Chinese researcher said in a recent interview.

‘Ding Sheng, dean of Tsinghua University's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and director of the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute (GHDDI), called for the original clinical trial data from Chinese experimental vaccines to be made public so that experts can better assess their efficacy and eliminate lingering safety concerns in China and abroad.’

Read here (Nikkei, Feb 4, 2021)

Why has Britain failed on Covid? | Richard Horton, editor, The Lancet

‘A year after the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic, with Britain enduring more than a 100,000 deaths since, a number of major questions remain unanswered. Why was the response of the UK among the worst in the world? How is it possible that the death toll of countries in Europe and North America is so much higher than poorer countries in Asia such as Thailand and Vietnam? And when will things go ‘back to normal’? Discussing that, and more, is Richard Horton – editor of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet and author of ‘The Covid-19 catastrophe, what’s gone wrong and how to stop it happening again’.

View here (Novara Media, Feb 2, 2021)

Covid-19: Five days that shaped the outbreak

‘A year ago, the Chinese government locked down the city of Wuhan. For weeks beforehand officials had maintained that the outbreak was under control - just a few dozen cases linked to a live animal market. But in fact the virus had been spreading throughout the city and around China. This is the story of five critical days early in the outbreak.’

Read here (BBC, Jan 26, 2021)

Independent Covid-19 review panel critical of China, WHO delays

‘An independent panel said on Monday (Jan 18) that Chinese officials could have applied public health measures more forcefully in January to curb the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for not declaring an international emergency until Jan 30.

‘The experts reviewing the global handling of the pandemic, led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, called for reforms to the Geneva-based United Nations agency.’ 

Read here (Channel News Asia, Jan 19, 2021)

Chinese and Russian vaccines in high demand as world scrambles for doses

‘Sales represent coup for Beijing and Moscow, even as concerns over pharma standards linger... 

‘Chinese and Russian manufacturers are seeing growing appetite from foreign buyers for their Covid-19 vaccines as the international scramble for jabs intensifies, despite lingering concerns over incomplete trial data and the rigour of domestic approval processes.

‘Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology has agreed to sell its Sputnik V vaccine to countries including Algeria, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, while the two leading Chinese manufacturers, Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech, have signed deals with more than a dozen countries including Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Philippines, Indonesia and Hungary.’

Read here  (Financial Times, Jan 18, 2021) 

World questions whether China’s Covid jab is safe

‘Although Turkish researchers found that the Sinovac vaccine was 91.25 percent effective in preventing the onset of the coronavirus, trials in the United Arab Emirates found it to be somewhat lesser, at 86 percent effective, while Indonesian trials found the drug was only 61 percent effective. The Turkish trials were conducted on only 29 subjects. Even worse news emerged from Brazil, where the Chinese vaccine was found to be effective in only 50.4 percent of cases in clinical trials numbering13,000 participants. Too many across Asia and elsewhere believe there wasn’t sufficient scientific rigor, the trials were too short and too rushed, and that, in the words of one observer who declined to be named, “poor Asians and others are being given a shoddy vaccine because Beijing wants to score political points with its crappy jab.”

‘Whether that is true or not, those countries going ahead with the Chinese vaccine, however, seem to be proceeding on the basis that, while it may only be 50 percent effective, it’s better than zero percent without a vaccine. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been found to be more than 90 percent effective, but it’s a question of availability and price. Although legions of common citizens from the Philippines to Indonesia to Turkey to Brazil are shying away from China’s vaccine, governments are sticking with it. Singapore has announced it will continue with the Chinese products, as will Thailand although authorities have also bought 26 million doses of the UK-based AstraZenica vaccine – which won’t arrive until June. It will still need to be approved by the Thai FDA.’

Read here (Asia Sentinel, Jan 17, 2021)

Coronavirus: Chinese study finds most patients still show signs of ‘long Covid’ six months later

‘Most patients who received hospital treatment for Covid-19 developed long-term health problems, according to a large-scale study from China. Researchers found that 76 per cent of those discharged from one hospital in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, still showed at least one symptom associated with the disease six months later.

“Fatigue and sleep difficulties, which occurred in 63 per cent and 26 per cent of the patients respectively, were the most common problems. To the surprise of the researchers, over a third of the patients showed signs of kidney malfunction, which led to problems such as an increase in bodily waste in the blood and increased the risk of sexual dysfunction.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, Jan 10, 2021)

A second Chinese coronavirus vaccine is said to be effective

‘Brazilian officials said Thursday that a coronavirus vaccine made by a Chinese company was effective, bolstering the chances of approval for a second Chinese inoculation that could be rolled out in much of the developing world. Officials in the state of São Paulo, where a prominent medical research institute carried out a large study of the vaccine made by the Beijing-based Sinovac, said the inoculation had an efficacy rate of 78 percent.

‘The vaccine prevented all participants from developing serious and mild complications from the virus, officials said, calling it a highly effective preventive tool. Sinovac Biotech has sold more than 300 million doses to the developing world, filling a gap left by Western countries.’

Read here (New York Times, Jan 7, 2021)

WHO team blocked from entering China to study origins of coronavirus

‘The World Health Organization said that China has blocked the arrival of a team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, in a rare rebuke from the UN agency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said two scientists on the United Nations team had already left their home countries for Wuhan when they were told that Chinese officials had not approved the necessary permissions to enter the country. The arrangements had been jointly agreed with China in advance.’

Read here (CNN, Jan 6, 2021)

China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins

‘The government is handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to scientists researching the virus’ origins in southern China and affiliated with the military, the AP has found. But it is monitoring their findings and mandating that the publication of any data or research must be approved by a new task force managed by China’s cabinet, under direct orders from President Xi Jinping, according to internal documents obtained by the AP. A rare leak from within the government, the dozens of pages of unpublished documents confirm what many have long suspected: The clampdown comes from the top.’

Read here (AP, Dec 31, 2020)

From terrified to triumphant: How China flipped 2020

‘If your neighbor’s house is on fire, you should help them. In Jan/Feb, the US gleefully watched China burn and bragged about American exceptionalism. That’s when the US and the EU should have given generous aid to China to contain the pandemic. Then, from April on, western societies refused to learn anything from China. Filled with hubris and undeserved overconfidence, the West kept fumbling for months. Incompetent governments and irrational public couldn’t agree upon simple things like wearing masks or even if COVID-19 is real.

‘As the West imploded, China soared to the skies.

‘To put it succinctly, China had a stellar year. And with Trump’s loss, the U.S. is more polarized than ever before. By the time Biden’s administration gets its geopolitical strategy together, everyone from Asia to Europe would see the writing on the wall — that China will inevitably be the #1 economy soon. 2020 started out as a terrifying year, but ended up as the most pivotal year that sealed China’s unique status in the 21st century.’

Read here (World Affairs, Dec 31, 2020)

China vaccinates a million (interim target: 15 million by mid-February) but some take a jab back

‘Workers kept in the dark about the vaccine injected and are warned not to take any photos of the process...

‘At least a million priority or at-risk Chinese have had their first shots of indigenous Covid-19 vaccines after guidelines kicked in on December 15. Several populous provinces and gateway cities from Guangdong to Shandong and Henan to Shanghai are included as Beijing triages vaccine distribution to regions more exposed to Covid flare-ups and “backflows.” The interim goal, cited by the National Health Commission (NHC) and Xinhua, is to immunize at least 15 million police officers and medical and customs personnel by the Chinese New Year in mid-February...

‘Yet initial feedback from those chosen for the pilot scheme appears to be less than ideal. As seen on forums and WeChat groups popular among medical workers and immigration officers and through Asia Times’ interviews of airport workers in Shanghai, major complaints center around the elusive manner in which these drugs are produced and administered.’

Read here (Asia Times, Dec 30, 2020)