Mistrust Puts World on Alert Amid Widespread Respiratory Ailment in China

07th Dec 2023

The emergence of a mysterious respiratory illness in China has once again put the global community on high alert, triggering memories of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is compounded by a prevailing sense of mistrust fueled by Beijing’s past lack of transparency and delayed information sharing during the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak.

There are contexts that the world could have avoided the Covid-led devastation had Beijing not covered up the Covid outbreak and shared essential information in time. Now, people are concerned that the new respiratory illness pandemic in China will not bring a new pandemic. Hsu Li Yang, Vice Dean of Singapore-based Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said “China’s secrecy and delays in releasing information to WHO during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic will unfortunately colour perceptions of the country’s transparency for some time to come.”

Now, hospitals in China are full of mask-covering crowds as pneumonia and similar severe ailments have seen a surge. The Beijing Children’s Hospital is recording over 7,000 patients daily, far exceeding the capacity. “Right now, we have a lot of kids here. Those who booked an emergency appointment yesterday still weren’t able to see the doctor this morning,” a staff member said.

China’s National Health Commission has claimed that respiratory illness is caused by known pathogens, and not by a novel virus. However, doubts continue to linger as other countries are witnessing similar cases of respiratory ailments. The World Health Organisation (WHO) raised concerns over the growing cases of “undiagnosed pneumonia” in China.

Six European countries, mainly, the Netherlands and Denmark, have seen a rise in pneumonia cases amid experts trying to find if these are linked to the current health crisis in China. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it was “closely monitoring” the situation in China. “We need to keep an open mind about the cause of any increased reporting of clusters of disease including of this illness in Chinese children,” it said.

China’s neighbours India, Nepal, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand have begun taking preventive measures as they increase surveillance.

Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, the Head of Kathmandu-based Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, said “In light of the growing number of tourists visiting Nepal in recent weeks, I believe it’s crucial for us to prepare for a potential outbreak originating from China.”

The US said it was monitoring the uptick in respiratory illnesses in China. Five American senators have demanded a travel ban between the US and China. “We should immediately restrict travel between the United States and (China) until we know more about the dangers posed by this new illness,” they wrote to the US President Joe Biden.

Social media platforms saw heightened searches and posts about the “mysterious” illness in China. WHO’s Covid technical lead Van Kerkhove said “I think a lot of people were immediately drawn back to the beginning of the COVID pandemic and thought: ‘oh God, not again’”. The WHO appeared to agree with China’s response to global concerns about respiratory ailments.

This however did not go well with many. Annie Sparrow, associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine, said. “WHO has dutifully repeated this reassurance, as if it learned nothing from Beijing’s disastrous cover-up of the Covid-19 outbreak.” She recalled how China denied coronavirus infections, obstructed an independent investigation into Covid-19 origins and punished whistle-blower doctors. Australian epidemiologist Catherine Bennett said feared that the respiratory illness in China may indicate a new pathogen or new levels of disease severity.

While global experts have not hit the panic button yet, nobody wants to remain unaware and take things lightly. A group of Australian scientists have expressed worries over the reports of multiple human cases of various avian flu strains in China this year. “With large and continual outbreaks in birds and mammals, there is a greater likelihood of mutations and mixing of bird and human influenza genetic material, which could lead to a new pandemic influenza virus,” they said.