July 31, 2020
In a weekly series for IranWire, Jianli Yang analyses Chinese disinformation around the origin of coronavirus and its handling to date, and other recent affairs.
Shocking new claims by Hong Kong’s leading disease control expert about a potential “cover-up” of coronavirus by local officials in China were broadcast by the BBC this week. In fact, as our recently-published study shows, the BBC could have gone a lot further.
Professor Yuen Kwok-Yung is the chair of infectious diseases at the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong. He visited Wuhan in January to help diagnose cases in what was then the epicenter of China’s outbreak. In an interview for the BBC’s investigative series Panorama, he told reporters that he had warned health officials of suspected potential human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 as early as January 12. [Continue Reading]