The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- John Furner
The eyes of the world are once again locked on China as it suffers another mysterious respiratory outbreak that is ‘overwhelming’ some hospitals.
Chaotic scenes of mask-wearing crowds in hospitals in Beijing have eerie echoes of the early days of the Covid outbreak four years ago that also began with an ‘undiagnosed pneumonia.’
Chinese authorities insist they are simply dealing with a rebound in severe flu and respiratory illnesses that were suppressed by lockdowns, rather than a novel virus like the one that caused the Covid-19 pandemic.
China had the world’s longest and harshest lockdown measures and is only now experiencing its first winter in years without them. The curbs are believed to have suppressed the population’s immunity and left them vulnerable to seasonal illnesses.
While Chinese officials said they have no evidence of ‘unusual or novel’ pathogens, Obama’s ex-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has said Beijing’s history of cover ups is a cause for skepticism.
BEIJING, 2023: An image shows a crowded children’s hospital in Beijing on October 30 amid a surge in respiratory illnesses in some areas of China
WUHAN, 2019: The above shows the scene in Wuhan in January 2020 amid growing concern about the mysterious pneumonia in the city
China has not revealed how many people have been hospitalized or died in the outbreak, but it appears to be mainly affecting children.
Doctors on the ground say they are seeing children with high fever and lung inflammation, but without a cough or pulmonary nodules — lumps on the lungs that are usually the result of a past infection.
There have been reports of overwhelmed pediatric hospitals in several Chinese cities including Beijing and 500 miles away in the north-east province of Liaoning.
The alarm was first raised over the outbreak internationally on November 21, when the disease surveillance system ProMED issued a notification about reports of an ‘undiagnosed pneumonia’ in China.
The system — which was also the first to raise the alarm in December 2019 over the emergence of Covid — works to detect unusual health events related to emerging infections.
It relies on a global network of healthcare experts who are on the look out for health notices and tips, social media discussions, health department announcements and reports from local media.
The alert it issued last week cited a local media report from FTV News, a Taiwanese media outlet, which described sick children crowding into hospitals in two Chinese cities suffering from symptoms associated with pneumonia.
When the alert was issued last week, there were immediate comparisons to the 2019 Covid outbreak.
Like in 2019, it was left to independent health authorities rather than China itself to report the outbreak.
The alert six days ago prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to send an official request two days later to Chinese authorities asking for official data and information on the outbreak.
The WHO, responding quickly and putting the pressure on China, is still reeling from criticism that it protected Beijing and parroted the country’s official line that Covid could not spread between people despite no evidence supporting the claim.
Chinese officials have insisted no new pathogen is to blame and instead have blamed a surge in common winter bugs as the country faces its first full winter without anti-Covid measures
