Lancet refutes Trump’s claims
UK medical journal says it did not put out virus reports at time stated by president
A prestigious medical journal has refuted claims made by US President Donald Trump in a letter that criticized the WHO’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and threatened a permanent cut to funding.
Trump wrote on Monday to the international health body that it had ignored “credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from The Lancet medical journal”.
He also criticized the World Health Organization’s relationship with China and gave it 30 days to “commit to major substantive improvements” or he would permanently withdraw US funding and membership.
In response to the letter, The Lancet issued a statement on Tuesday calling Trump’s mention of the reports “factually incorrect”.
“The Lancet published no report in December 2019, referring to a virus or outbreak in Wuhan or anywhere else in China,” the journal said in its statement. The first two such reports published by The Lancet were on Jan 24, and both studies were led by scientists and physicians from China, according to the journal.
“The allegations leveled against WHO in the president’s letter are serious and damaging to efforts to strengthen international cooperation to control this pandemic,” said The Lancet. “It is essential that any review of the global response is based on a factually accurate account of what took place in December and January.”
Julie Tang, a civil rights advocate and retired Superior Court judge in San Francisco, said Trump is “trying to create drama and hate toward China to deflect his own incompetence and inability to deal with the pandemic”. “He should stop his provocation with China and start cooperative and peaceful engagements with China to address this crisis.”
Despite the call for collaboration with China from US and international scientists, some US politicians have been aggressively blaming China for the pandemic.
“We are proud of what China did to stop the virus and tried to prevent its spreading. We wish our president can do half as good a job as China has done. If he had, we wouldn’t be still sheltering,” said Tang.
Global public good
While Trump threatened the WHO, China pledged to the international organization on Monday that it will provide $2 billion over two years to help other countries respond to the impact of the pandemic and produce a vaccine for the global public good.
The pledges demonstrate “China is doubling down on its commitment to WHO and the multilateral system. The US really risks not only being left behind by China but by the rest of the world,” Alexandra Phelan, assistant professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University, wrote on Twitter.
In contrast to China’s pledges, the US administration’s accusations against the WHO could damage “America’s reputation and global standing over COVID-19”, warned Tom Fowdy, a British political and international relations analyst. “Its (China’s) pledges of support for others and international cooperation still paints a massive contrast to the absolute disaster in the United States,” he said.
Evan Feigenbaum, vice-president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, suggested that there’s more to the US’ threat to the WHO.
“If you really think that letter to (WHO Director-General) Tedros (Adhanom Ghebreyesus) had anything to do with a deep desire to ‘reform global institutions’ then you haven’t been paying sufficient attention for the last three years,” Feigenbaum said on Twitter.