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China’s cover-up aided virus spread, Fauci tells Australian audience
Ronald MizenReporter
Apr 14, 2021 – 7.30pm
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The gagging of scientists and obfuscation by Chinese officials concealed the true nature of COVID-19 and slowed global efforts to stem the pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci says.
Following a spike in anti-Chinese sentiment, the chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden stressed he was not talking about the Chinese people.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious diseases expert. Bloomberg
“One of the things that prevented us from knowing right off it was going to be a big deal was the early lack of transparency on the part of China, which is really unfortunate,” he said.
“Not all Chinese, but the Chinese officials. The scientists, that had been our colleagues for years, in some respects, some of them were not allowed to really openly talk about it.”
Speaking at the first UNSW Kirby Institute David Cooper Lecture, Dr Fauci said a record 4.6 million Americans getting an injection in a single day meant most would be vaccinated in “the next few months”.
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As of Tuesday, Australia had delivered a total of 1,234,681 vaccine doses.
But Dr Fauci said Australia was “one of the better countries in the entire world” in responding to the virus, attributing this success to people’s willingness to accept hard lockdowns.
“When you shut down you really shut down, very effectively,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have not done nearly as well as we should have done.”
“We are living right now in a country, in a time of profound divisiveness,” he said. “If there’s anything you want, you want people to be pulling together.
“We still have situations where governors, because of their independence, are essentially defying some of the recommendations and the guidelines of public health.
“Which is one of the reasons, together with the variants, why I believe, despite our great success with vaccines, we are sort of in a race between the potential for a real surge in cases and the fact we’re putting vaccines into people’s arms efficiently.“
Actions louder than words
On China’s failure to be fully transparent, Dr Fauci said global health officials knew there was a real problem when Beijing began taking drastic actions.
“It was a gradual issue,” he said. “The standard line then was it doesn’t really spread very efficiently from human to human, it’s merely just jumping from animal to human.
“After a little bit, it was that it goes from human to human; and then after another little bit, it goes really efficiently from human to human; and then finally, and by the way, it’s a very unusual virus because it spreads from people who aren’t even symptomatic.
“We knew there was a problem when China was doing all the things they were doing, like building field hospitals practically overnight. They wouldn’t be doing that unless there was a situation they felt it was really dire.”
Dr Fauci warned a failure to quickly vaccinate poorer countries could come back to bite wealthier nations that believed they had eradicated the virus.
“As long as there’s the dynamic of virus replication somewhere, there will always be the threat of the emergence of variants which could then come back,” he said.
“Even though most of the rest of the world is vaccinated, it could threaten the world, which felt it has controlled the virus, when it still vulnerable.”
The inaugural David Cooper Lecture honours the legacy of the Kirby Institute’s Founding Director and internationally renowned scientist and HIV clinician professor David Cooper, who passed away in 2018.
www.afr.com
Ronald MizenReporter
Apr 14, 2021 – 7.30pm
Save
Share
The gagging of scientists and obfuscation by Chinese officials concealed the true nature of COVID-19 and slowed global efforts to stem the pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci says.
Following a spike in anti-Chinese sentiment, the chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden stressed he was not talking about the Chinese people.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious diseases expert. Bloomberg
“One of the things that prevented us from knowing right off it was going to be a big deal was the early lack of transparency on the part of China, which is really unfortunate,” he said.
“Not all Chinese, but the Chinese officials. The scientists, that had been our colleagues for years, in some respects, some of them were not allowed to really openly talk about it.”
Speaking at the first UNSW Kirby Institute David Cooper Lecture, Dr Fauci said a record 4.6 million Americans getting an injection in a single day meant most would be vaccinated in “the next few months”.
Advertisement
As of Tuesday, Australia had delivered a total of 1,234,681 vaccine doses.
But Dr Fauci said Australia was “one of the better countries in the entire world” in responding to the virus, attributing this success to people’s willingness to accept hard lockdowns.
“When you shut down you really shut down, very effectively,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have not done nearly as well as we should have done.”
Lauding the Biden administration’s “science to rule” approach to combating the pandemic, Dr Fauci warned pockets of politically motivated resistance continued to pose a risk to public health.
“We are living right now in a country, in a time of profound divisiveness,” he said. “If there’s anything you want, you want people to be pulling together.
“We still have situations where governors, because of their independence, are essentially defying some of the recommendations and the guidelines of public health.
“Which is one of the reasons, together with the variants, why I believe, despite our great success with vaccines, we are sort of in a race between the potential for a real surge in cases and the fact we’re putting vaccines into people’s arms efficiently.“
Actions louder than words
On China’s failure to be fully transparent, Dr Fauci said global health officials knew there was a real problem when Beijing began taking drastic actions.
“It was a gradual issue,” he said. “The standard line then was it doesn’t really spread very efficiently from human to human, it’s merely just jumping from animal to human.
“After a little bit, it was that it goes from human to human; and then after another little bit, it goes really efficiently from human to human; and then finally, and by the way, it’s a very unusual virus because it spreads from people who aren’t even symptomatic.
“We knew there was a problem when China was doing all the things they were doing, like building field hospitals practically overnight. They wouldn’t be doing that unless there was a situation they felt it was really dire.”
Dr Fauci warned a failure to quickly vaccinate poorer countries could come back to bite wealthier nations that believed they had eradicated the virus.
“As long as there’s the dynamic of virus replication somewhere, there will always be the threat of the emergence of variants which could then come back,” he said.
“Even though most of the rest of the world is vaccinated, it could threaten the world, which felt it has controlled the virus, when it still vulnerable.”
The inaugural David Cooper Lecture honours the legacy of the Kirby Institute’s Founding Director and internationally renowned scientist and HIV clinician professor David Cooper, who passed away in 2018.
China’s cover-up aided virus spread, Fauci tells Australian audience
The gagging, obfuscation and lack of early transparency on the part of Chinese officials was very unfortunate, the chief medical adviser to the US President says.
