Leaked Documents Allegedly Reveal How China Mishandled COVID-19 During Its Early Stage

China has shown itself to be one of the few which managed to overcome the Covid-19 virus, even going as far as to test the entire city of Wuhan within a span of weeks to prevent an outbreak.

However, was everything as smooth-sailing as the Chinese government makes it out to be?

Well, it’s not, according to leaked internal documents which CNN reported on.

There were several inconsistencies that happened at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that people didn’t know.

From understating numbers, an inefficient health system to an undisclosed influenza outbreak, here’s everything you need to know about what is now known as The Wuhan Files.

Slow Reporting

At the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Hubei authorities gave the impression that they were efficiently and quickly taking care of matters.

However, the leaked documents gave a different impression.

Health authorities in the region depended on “flawed testing and reporting mechanisms”.

The process was so slow that in early Mar 2020, the average time taken from the onset of symptoms to a person being reported is 23.3 days.

Twenty. Three. Point. Three. Days.

Not only does this hamper China’s efforts to combat Covid-19 before it worsens, but it also affects China’s efforts in keeping an eye on the coronavirus.

This could’ve also led to the Chinese authorities delivering optimistic numbers to the rest of the world, giving off the impression that it’s not that serious. Yet.

False-Negative Results

Part of the reason why it takes so long for a person to be diagnosed with the coronavirus is because of the inaccuracy of the tests.

A leaked document from 10 Jan said that the nucleic acid test used on Covid-19 patients regularly gives false-negative results.

Another document, which was seemingly updated on 19 Feb, said that samples which tested negative on the SARS kit tested positive for Covid-19.

In an effort to avoid false-negative results, the authorities resorted to testing suspected cases “repeatedly”.

Eventually, China incorporated other clinical diagnosis methods such as conducting a CT scan and adding people who test positive to an internal list called the “clinically diagnose cases”.

Which will lead to another problem down the road, but first things first:

An Already Strained Health Care System

Now, if it was simply a matter of testing, that might’ve been okay, but when you add in an overstretched health care system? Yes, it could get really bad.

The internal documents also revealed that back in Dec 2019, Covid-19 wasn’t the only virus running rampant in the Hubei province.

During the same period where Covid-19 was believed to have started, Hubei was also dealing with a “significant influenza outbreak”.

According to the report, in the week of 2 Dec, a spike in influenza cases saw the number of cases rise by 2,059% compared to the same week the year before.

Wuhan was the third-largest hit by the unknown influenza outbreak while the nearby cities of Yichang and Xianning were the hardest hit.

Experts are of the belief that even if the influenza spike isn’t Covid-19, it would’ve contributed greatly to the early spread of the Covid-19 virus when people gathered in hospitals for treatment.

Hampered Early Warning System

Every country has a team of infectious diseases experts who are needed for this a scenario like Covid-19, and China isn’t any different.

Except, Hubei’s Chinese Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) was underfunded, doesn’t possess the right equipment and is staffed with unmotivated employees.

An audit in Oct 2019, before the pandemic began, showed that the CDC in Hubei was ill-equipped to deal with matters of public health. The review had urged health authorities to find the “weak link in the work of disease control”, to analyze the situation and to try and cover up for “shortcomings” more than a month before the first Covid-19 cases popped up.

In a CDC internal report, there were complaints that the staffing budget is 29% short of its yearly target, with no operational funding from the Hubei provincial government.

Despite authorities moving swiftly to assess and solve the problems identified, more appeared even after four months of hard work.

During the CDC’s attempt to investigate the initial outbreak, the staff were hampered by bureaucracy and relegated to completing the orders issued by superiors and not use their expertise to try and solve the problem.

The report revealed that while the CDC is supposed to be the main unit for public health, it just doesn’t have the power to do so.

Slow & Lagging IT Infrastructure

But wait, there’s more.

After the 2003 Sars outbreak, China spent US$167 million (S$223.44 million) to install the China Infectious Disease Direct Reporting System.

The system, in theory, enables regional hospitals and the various CDCs to report infectious diseases to a central managed system.

The information will then be shared instantly with CDCs and relevant health departments across China.

However, when it came time to crunch, health authorities were dismayed to find that it was slow and cumbersome to use, and has many “bureaucratic procedural restrictions” that restricted the fast entry of data recording and gathering.

Under-Reporting

Last, but not least, is the significant under-reporting of numbers early in the pandemic on 10 Feb 2020 and 7 Mar 2020.

Analysts are of the opinion that this happened because of two factors: a “highly dysfunctional” reporting system and the impulse to curb bad news.

On 10 Feb, public officials said there are “just over 3,900” new cases.

However, the leaked documents showed that on 10 Feb, there were close to 6,000 new cases.

On 7 Feb, the publicly released number is 83 new cases.

However, it was actually 115 new cases, and it seems like the cases which tested positive were left out of the official tally.

Similarly, the number of deaths were allegedly under-reported by almost 500 cases.

On 17 Feb 2020, Chinese authorities reported a death toll of 93, while the leaked documents revealed the number to be 196.

However, it’s not clear cut as on two other occasions, the number of deaths was “narrowly” over-reported by five and one.

The leaked documents also seem to suggest that in 2019, over 200 cases were detected, and not the “44 cases of unknown origins” reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

365 Days From The Beginning Of The Disease

It’s been about a year since the first case, according to Lancelet, surfaced on 1 Dec 2020 and now, China has contained the coronavirus somewhat successfully.

Experts are of the opinion that what has appeared in China’s leaked documents could have appeared in many other countries, especially those who took funding away from public health initiatives.

They also aren’t surprised that the Chinese authorities are under-reporting. For one, China has an image to protect and two, the lower-level public figures have an incentive to be under-reporting, or at least, to be seen as under-reporting.

Previously, a doctor who tried to raise the alarm was penalised by Chinese authorities. He has since died of Covid-19, the same disease he tried to warn others about.

One thing that is noted, however, is that nowhere in the leaked documents did China show they knew it would become a global pandemic.

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