China says 'immoral and irresponsible' U.S. officials shift coronavirus blame

 

FILE PHOTO: Chinese and U.S. flags flutter near The Bund, before U.S. trade delegation meet their Chinese counterparts for talks in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China criticised U.S. officials for “immoral and irresponsible” comments that blamed Beijing’s response to the coronavirus for worsening the global impact of the pandemic.

 

On Wednesday, U.S. national security advisor Robert O’Brien accused China of a slow response to the initial emergence of the coronavirus, saying this had probably cost the world two months when it could have been preparing for the outbreak.

 

Asked about O’Brien’s comments, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a news conference in Beijing on Thursday that “immoral and irresponsible” remarks by certain officials would not help U.S. epidemic efforts.

 

China’s efforts to slow the spread had bought the world time to prepare against the epidemic, said Geng.

 

“We wish that a few officials in the U.S. would at this time concentrate their energy on responding to the virus and promoting cooperation, and not on shifting the blame to China.”

 

The coronavirus emerged in December in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province, where around two thirds of global cases so far have been recorded. But in recent weeks the vast majority of new cases have been outside China.

 

The Chinese authorities credit firm measures they took in January and February, including to a near total shutdown of Hubei, for preventing outbreaks in other Chinese cities on the scale of Wuhan and slowing the spread abroad.

 

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has pointed to a decision to limit air travel from China at the end of January to fend off criticism that it responded too slowly to the disease. Critics say Trump played down the disease in public and the federal government was slow to roll out tests.

 

“Unfortunately, rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up,” Trump’s national security advisor O’Brien said during a think-tank appearance on Wednesday.

 

“It probably cost the world community two months to respond,” during which “we could have dramatically curtailed what happened both in China and what’s now happening across the world,” he said.

 

More than 119,100 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and 4,298 have died, the vast majority in China, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has 975 cases and 30 people have died.

 

“We have done a good job responding to it but ... the way that this started out in China, and the way it was handled from the outset, was not right,” said O’Brien.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-12

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7 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Asked about O’Brien’s comments, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a news conference in Beijing on Thursday that “immoral and irresponsible” remarks by certain officials would not help U.S. epidemic efforts.

I see, the virus comes out of China.  China covers it up by stalling for well over a month.  China doesn't let anyone in from the USA to help them or survey the situation, and no one wants to talk about the FACT that the only level 4 biolab gifted from the French is located in Wuhan.

 

What a coincidence.  Yeah, a lot of blame shifting going on.

Bit rich coming from China as they tried to hush it up to start with and there are top virologists starting to come forward about this virus and questioning whether it's even possible to exist in nature, implying that it has been tampered with. The Chinese have much to explain but they are doing their evil empire thing and denying it with gusto.

What goes around comes around. China tried to spin blame for the locals on the CIA when this virus first appeared. Did China forget that fact?! 

 

 

15 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

“We wish that a few officials in the U.S. would at this time concentrate their energy on responding to the virus and promoting cooperation, and not on shifting the blame to China.”

 

No one needs to "shift" the blame to China. The blame always has been, and will remain, on China for the origins of this particular pandemic. It was local conditions and practices in China that allowed the virus to jump from animals to humans there and contributed to its spread there.

 

What the Chinese did thereafter -- AFTER concealing the truth and threatening and muzzling those who knew what was occurring, and are still doing now in muzzling public communication and information -- has been primarily aimed at preserving their own control over the country and its people, and its place as a world power. 

 

Of course, if you don't buy the animals to humans theory, there's always the conspiracy theory about the virus having originated in and been released from the Chinese bio lab in the Wuhan area. But they'd get the blame and deserve the blame in that case too!

Edited March 12, 20206 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

morality and responsibility has somewhat eluded most nations in the last few thousand years..

2 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Of course, if you don't buy the animals to humans theory, there's always the conspiracy theory about the virus having originated in and been released from the Chinese bio lab in the Wuhan area.

Maybe lab origin then released into animals destined for human consumption theory?

Conspiracy troll posts removed

8 minutes ago, Chrysaora said:

Seriously?  You still believe this nonsense? 

 

I have no idea on the real origin of the virus, and neither does anyone posting here.

 

But I know what I can read:

 

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/scientists-strongly-condemn-rumors-and-conspiracy-theories-about-origin-coronavirus

 

 

Quote

 

Scientists ‘strongly condemn’ rumors and conspiracy theories about origin of coronavirus outbreak

 

A group of 27 prominent public health scientists from outside China is pushing back against a steady stream of stories and even a scientific paper suggesting a laboratory in Wuhan, China, may be the origin of the outbreak of COVID-19. “The rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins,” the scientists, from nine countries, write in a statement published online by The Lancet yesterday.

 

 

Trump and Xi and those that work for them, I don't believe a bit. But independent scientists, I'm more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt.

 

 

 

The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2

Corresponding author:

Kristian G. Andersen
Department of Immunology and Microbiology,
The Scripps Research Institute,
La Jolla, CA 92037,
USA.

 

http://virological.org/t/the-proximal-origin-of-sars-cov-2/398

 

Quote

 Importantly, this analysis provides evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct nor a purposefully manipulated virus.

 

Quote

 

Theories of SARS-CoV-2 origins

It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of an existing SARS-related coronavirus. ...  Further, if genetic manipulation had been performed, one would expect that one of the several reverse genetic systems available for betacoronaviruses would have been used. However, this is not the case as the genetic data shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not derived from any previously used virus backbone¹⁷.

 

Edited March 12, 20206 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

12 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2

Corresponding author:

Kristian G. Andersen
Department of Immunology and Microbiology,
The Scripps Research Institute,
La Jolla, CA 92037,
USA.

 

http://virological.org/t/the-proximal-origin-of-sars-cov-2/398

 

 

 

Fascinating report. Thanks for sharing. 

 

It is still possible that test animals that had been infected with the virus at the lab were sold of to vendors at the market rather than incinerate the animals at the lab.

Human greed can be creative in China.

They tryed imo to down play ie cover up at first but after that failed they should be given credit for acting decisively that imo takes great courage to shutdown your country and economy knowing full well what the repercussions on the world would be 

1 minute ago, Tug said:

They tryed imo to down play ie cover up at first but after that failed they should be given credit for acting decisively that imo takes great courage to shutdown your country and economy knowing full well what the repercussions on the world would be 

So they failed, is what you are saying. It is now spreading relentlessly worldwide.  They waited on SARS and people thought the CCP would have learned their lesson. They did not.

Blame game can’t stop the virus from spreading. Get your own house in order and get those testing kits out are better use of your focus & resist trying to impress your boss. 

I see Xinhua reporters and trolls have been released from quarantine. They really might be getting a handle on the epidemic.

This is going to turn into a financial issue in the coming years.

 

China will be made to pay dearly for the creation (regardless of source) and subsequent cover up followed by the export of this virus around the world.

 

Think of war reparations, they will pay one way or another. Probably in the form of punitive taxes.

 

How China can deny and have the audacity to make those comments. But even here in China the Chinese are starting to blame the Koreans.

 

If honesty, cleanliness and and the eradication of eating dirty animals took place, maybe we wouldn't be were we are today.

A troll post has been removed.

10 hours ago, Tug said:

imo takes great courage to shutdown your country

No it takes a dictatorship not answerable to anything but their murderous ideology.

 

 

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

This is going to turn into a financial issue in the coming years.

 

China will be made to pay dearly for the creation (regardless of source) and subsequent cover up followed by the export of this virus around the world.

 

Think of war reparations, they will pay one way or another. Probably in the form of punitive taxes.

100%, if that group thinks they'll just CCP their way out of financial blow back down the road, they're sadly mistaken. They'll be receiving some worldly invoices and they'll pay them, one way or another. 

 

Some nonsensical conspiracy posts with trolling references has been removed as well as the replies. 

 

An offensive post and a reply has been removed.

It's a sobering thought that a single individual from China caused the entire pandemic, all the billions of losses in the financial markets, by slaughtering a bat or some other wild animal in an unhygienic way, getting blood on their hands and touching their face.

 

 

14 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Maybe lab origin then released into animals destined for human consumption theory?

Or maybe an accidental exposure in the lab, and then contact at the market with an animal that started the spread.  You can speculate all you want, but the truth is unless everyone comes clean and all evidence is traced back to origins, patient zero will never be located.  Instead, now is the time to hold all governments responsible for treating their citizens and truthfully reporting the numbers and testing.  This 25,000 baht to be tested here at Bangkok Hospital is a joke, and another money making scheme aimed at panicked people.

6 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Or maybe an accidental exposure in the lab, and then contact at the market with an animal that started the spread.  You can speculate all you want, but the truth is unless everyone comes clean and all evidence is traced back to origins, patient zero will never be located.  Instead, now is the time to hold all governments responsible for treating their citizens and truthfully reporting the numbers and testing.  This 25,000 baht to be tested here at Bangkok Hospital is a joke, and another money making scheme aimed at panicked people.

The Koreans got it right.

 

The firm is making about 10,000 kits a week and each kit can test 100 patients. So it is making enough to test one million patients each week, at a cost of under $20 per test.  

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/asia/coronavirus-south-korea-testing-intl-hnk/index.html

13 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Fascinating report. Thanks for sharing. 

 

It is still possible that test animals that had been infected with the virus at the lab were sold of to vendors at the market rather than incinerate the animals at the lab.

Human greed can be creative in China.

Any analysis, prevention control etc. must come from experimentation. (indeed the 4th paragraph of the said report confirms this). There are various methods of disposal after experiments such as incineration, chemicals etc. along with tight controls and monitoring. The latter are probably the most expensive part of disposal procedures and where mistakes can happen.

A post with a link to a pseudo-science conspiracy site has been removed. 

I agree with Chinese authorities.

With sick statements like this, the Commies might not realise it, but they are uniting the west against China.

 

Chinese Official Pushes Conspiracy Theory U.S. Army Behind Virushttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/chinese-official-pushes-conspiracy-theory-u-s-army-behind-virus

 

3 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

With sick statements like this, the Commies might not realise it, but they are uniting the west against China.

 

Chinese Official Pushes Conspiracy Theory U.S. Army Behind Virushttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/chinese-official-pushes-conspiracy-theory-u-s-army-behind-virus

 

Just settle down there Herbert Hoover.  

 

"Commies"  ????

8 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

With sick statements like this, the Commies might not realise it, but they are uniting the west against China.

 

Chinese Official Pushes Conspiracy Theory U.S. Army Behind Virushttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/chinese-official-pushes-conspiracy-theory-u-s-army-behind-virus

 

 

That's extraordinary. A chinese government official is seriously suggesting the American Army brought the virus to Wuhan, without providing any evidence whatsoever.

 

He does have a point though about one thing, the US has not published info on patient zero in the US. Or has it?