Chinese leaders must be held to account

I COULDN’T agree more with RL Cooper’s remarks about the need to condemn those responsible for the monumental Covid-19 catastrophe (Letters, Oct 30).

Quite rightly, he points out that “scientific advice was ignored or too little of it was taken and that too late”.

Total responsibility for this worldwide disaster lies with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

China lied to its own people early in January, claiming the virus was not infectious.

On December 30, 2019, Dr Li Wenliang had sent a message to fellow Wuhan doctors warning them of the threat of catching a new virus. He was reprimanded for “spreading false rumours” and police forced him to sign a statement that he had “seriously disrupted social order” and breached the law.

Taiwan was already warning the World Health Organisation by this stage that something frightening was happening in China, but the CCP pressurised the WHO into agreeing that it was not a dangerous epidemic.

Knowing all this it still allowed thousands of Chinese to return after the New Year to work and study in Europe and elsewhere, thus unleashing a global epidemic.

It wasn’t until January 20 that Chinese authorities admitted the virus could be passed between people and three days later the city of Wuhan was put into lockdown.

A Southampton University study has concluded China could have prevented 95 per cent of its coronavirus cases if it had imposed its restrictions just three weeks earlier.

Eventually, when the Chinese authorities realised what they were dealing with, they reacted efficiently, even brutally. By this point the damage was done. The virus had escaped and become a global crisis.

The economies of the Western world are seriously damaged, confidence in governments shaken, there’s social instability, health systems at breaking point in many countries and there have been thousands of unavoidable deaths.

P Lindahl Long Eaton