Coronavirus: US diplomats cautiously praised China’s transparency in early days
- Diplomatic cables sent soon after the first Covid-19 cases emerged in Wuhan credited Chinese officials for releasing ‘timely and open general information’
- But the cables, obtained by This Week in Asia under the Freedom of Information Act, also reveal US frustration at gaps in information
In January last year, as the first cases of Covid-19 were detected in Wuhan, US diplomats based in China offered guarded praise for Beijing’s level of transparency compared to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2002, which officials “publicly denied”.
The documents provide a window into how American diplomats in China reacted to news of virus cases emerging in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late December 2019, before spreading across the world.
A cable sent from the Beijing embassy to the State Department back in Washington on January 7 said: “While [Chinese] health officials have released timely and open general information about the outbreak, a lack of epidemiological data – including an ‘epi curve’ [a summary of dates of onset of the illness], characteristics of infected individuals, and other basic epidemiological information – hinders better risk assessment and response by public health officials.
“Authorities have also not released information on how they are defining a ‘case’. Given these gaps in detailed information to date, and lack of a final confirmed pathogen, the risk to the United States and global health is difficult to assess at this time,” the cable read.
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The documents were obtained by This Week in Asia from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of State under the Freedom of Information Act.