Chief US epidemiologist says China lacked transparency in Covid-19 measures

The chief epidemiologist of the US government United StatesAnthony Fauci, said this Sunday, the 27th, that the government of China in its strategy to combat Covid-19🇧🇷 “In everything we’ve had to deal with in decades, whether it’s avian flu or the original SARS in 2002, even when there’s nothing to hide, they act suspiciously and not transparently,” Fauci said. The epidemiologist, who will leave his post in the government in December, said he believed that the Chinese authorities may have adopted this course of action so as not to be seen as to blame for the pandemic. “It’s not your fault if something evolves in your country, but let’s find out what happened so that we can be transparent about it and prevent it from happening again in the future,” he said.

The epidemiologist, the public face of the US government’s response to the pandemic, added that containment in China has been particularly severe, but without the objective being clearly communicated to the population. “The ultimate goal was for everyone to be vaccinated. So you can understand temporary confinements (like the ones at the beginning). But they went into prolonged confinements for no apparent gain, which makes no sense from a public health point of view,” he said. Fauci added that seniors were not protected, with authorities “making sure they were vaccinated”. The American epidemiologist emphasized that although the scientific evidence strongly suggests that the virus had a natural origin and not due to a leak in a laboratory, the only way to put an end to possible conspiracy theories is the full transparency and cooperation of Beijing, something that it has not been possible.

China is facing a wave of popular protests against the lockdown imposed by the “Covid zero” policy implemented by the government. The demonstrations spread across the country’s main cities and challenge the strength of the Chinese political regime, even calling for an end to the hegemony of the Chinese Communist Party and also the resignation of the nation’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping🇧🇷 The protests would have been motivated by the death of ten people in the last week in a fire inside an apartment. The rescue of the victims would have been delayed because of the lockdown policy imposed by the Chinese authorities.

*With information from EFE