Following the Associated Press reporting that the World Health Organization requested that China provide more data on a ”potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children” publicly, AIDS Healthcare Foundation expresses concern today and urges China to be transparent and cooperate with the WHO unequivocally.
“China has a history of a lack of disclosure of pertinent epidemiological data dating back to the SARS outbreak in 2002 and more recently with COVID-19. The world cannot risk the repeat of a deadly infectious disease outbreak – we urge China to be transparent and cooperate with the WHO fully by releasing all data it has on respiratory illness cases in the country immediately,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein. “The novel coronavirus pandemic was made incalculably worse because the world did not have a global public health framework based on transparency, accountability, and cooperation. If governments and public health institutions refuse to learn from our past mistakes and correct them, we will continue to be ill-prepared for future deadly infectious disease outbreaks.”
AHF was an outspoken advocate for transparency on SARS-CoV-2 before it was officially declared a pandemic. That advocacy continued throughout the crisis, including contributions to the peer-reviewed Lancet article “A Global Public Health Convention for the 21st Century” and the creation of its Vaccinate Our World campaign to address the gross disparity of COVID-19 vaccine access between wealthy and lower-income countries.
