CCP Contradicts Earlier Response to WHO in Latest Health Update

Chinese health authorities have admitted that a new COVID-19 variant has been causing infections amid a fast-worsening pneumonia outbreak across China after telling the World Health Organization (WHO) in late November that there wasn’t any new pathogen spreading in the country.

The Chinese communist regime’s National Disease Control and Prevention Administration released a Q&A about the JN.1 variant of COVID-19 on Dec. 15. It said that since the local JN.1 variant was first discovered in November, and as of Dec. 10, authorities have detected seven local cases in China.

However, according to earlier reports by mainland Chinese media such as Economic Observer and The Paper, data from the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) National Biological Information Center showed that JN.1 variant infection cases were reported in Shanghai as early as Oct. 11.

The wave of pneumonia started to be noticed spreading in China in September, spiked in mid-October, and further worsened in November, while continuing to sweep across the country. The CCP has attributed the outbreak to cross-infections of influenza, mycoplasma pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, and other respiratory infections, while avoiding and downplaying COVID-19.

In November, several countries in Asia, Europe, and the United States reported that their number of pneumonia cases among children had spiked compared to October.

.

JN.1 Variant

Dr. Dong Yuhong, a European virology and infectious disease expert and Epoch Times contributor, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 18 that mainland Chinese media said that JN.1 had already been reported in China in October, but the CCP later said it was first discovered in November. However, according to official data from Chinese authorities, there have only been seven cases in two months.

The CCP has been accused by the international community of seriously underreporting COVID-19-related data and covering up the scale of the COVID-19 outbreak in China since the initial outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019. COVID-19 was originally called “Wuhan pneumonia” because of the disease’s origins and symptoms.

Dr. Dong believes that COVID is a large contributing factor to the wave of pneumonia impacting residents in China. However, she pointed out that in many hospitals, "when they see severe cases with 'white lung' syndrome, the doctors directly say that it is 'mycoplasma pneumonia,' and do not even test for the COVID-19. This is unreasonable in terms of statistical epidemiology."

China's CDC has mostly blamed "mycoplasma pneumonia" for the current pneumonia outbreak.

Dr. Dong said that JN.1 has multiple features. In addition to its fast transmission speed, which is seven to eight times faster than the original XBB, it also has enhanced immune evasion capacity because of two new mutations.

On Dec. 12, Wang Pengfei, a researcher at the School of Life Sciences at Fudan University in Shanghai, told The Paper that considering the decline in antibody levels after the previous wave of COVID-19 infection and the strong immune evasion of JN.1, it may be possible to see a peak in disease from January to March in 2024 in China. However, due to the complex infection background of the current population, it is difficult to predict the intensity of the new round of disease outbreak.

.

The JN.1 sub-variant was first detected in samples collected in Luxembourg on Aug. 25. It has since been reported in more than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland, and others.

Dr. Dong said, "With such rapid growth in infection abroad, it sounds very strange that China's growth is so slow and the number of cases is still at a single-digit level. Because we have seen during the pandemic in the past few years, the outbreak in China is basically synchronized with the outbreaks abroad."

Regarding the timing of the CCP admitting the new variant causing infection, current affairs commentator Zhong Yuan told The Epoch Times on Dec. 18 that the CCP had previously refused to acknowledge COVID-19 variants could be causing the outbreak because they were hoping to shift the blame to other countries.

"The CCP does not admit that it’s another wave COVID in the country, and only says it’s influenza or pneumonia. However, it has reintroduced prevention measures exactly the same as the COVID epidemic prevention requirements, and quietly restarted COVID-19 PCR testing," he said.

.

Fast-Worsening Outbreak

An attending physician of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department at a tertiary hospital posted a video on her verified account "TCM Inheritance Health” that has 1.31 million followers, saying on Dec. 15 that “the new COVID-19 mutant strain has come, and the infection is increasing explosively. There may be a peak of infections around New Year's Day."

She added that the recent outbreak of "mycoplasma pneumonia" in Xi’an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi, has continued. Once a child is infected, it will be very painful, and if not careful, it will cause "white lungs."

.

Tao Yuan, deputy chief physician of the Ophthalmology Department of Jinan Second People's Hospital, said in a video on Dec. 13 that the “mycoplasma pneumonia” outbreak in Anhui Province in east China has become increasingly severe recently. And “mycoplasma pneumonia” has begun to spread on a large scale in Shaanxi Province in northwest China, where many hospitals are full of children who are coughing and have fevers.

The deputy chief physician of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine said in a social media post on Dec. 15 that there has been a major outbreak of “mycoplasma pneumonia” in Shaanxi Province.

Ms. Hong, who lives in Weicheng District of Xianyang City in central Shaanxi Province, told the Epoch Times on Dec. 13: "I also have cold-like symptoms and feel very uncomfortable. Many neighbors are infected. My relatives who were infected went to the hospital but couldn't get a hospital bed. I didn’t expect the outbreak to be so serious now. It’s beyond my imagination and it’s another big wave."

.

Xianyang authorities have recently issued a notice requiring all residents to get the new COVID-19 vaccinations.

Ms. Wang from Xianyang City told The Epoch Times, "In the afternoon of Dec. 12, our community issued the notice. But it seems that no one is willing to get vaccinated. Restarting the vaccination shows that the COVID-19 epidemic is spreading again, and it’s already been very serious."

A netizen in Guizhou Province in southwest China, whose account name is "Ginseng Tree Takes You Travel,” said in her program on social media on Dec. 15 that her twin daughters were both infected with "mycoplasma pneumonia." The younger daughter's condition is more serious. A chest X-ray showed that her “mycoplasma pneumonia” had progressed into emphysema. Zunyi Medical University Hospital was very short of beds and they could only stay in the outpatient clinic for observation. It was not until the next day that the twin girls were admitted to the ward.

Mycoplasma pneumonia infections do not typically lead to severe respiratory conditions like emphysema or "white lung" syndrome.

The netizen revealed that the roads to the hospital were very crowded, with people coming from surrounding counties and towns going to the top hospital in the province to seek treatment.

Ning Haizhong, Luo Ya, Fang Xiao, and Li Xi contributed to this report.