China Is Facing Calls For An Inquiry Into The Truth Behind The Outbreak Of The Coronavirus After A Post-mortem Found That An 84-year-old Man In Britain Died Of The Virus In January
China is facing calls for an inquiry into the truth behind the outbreak of the coronavirus after a post-mortem found that an 84-year-old man in Britain died of the virus in January.
Beijing has long claimed the virus was first recorded in a wet market in Wuhan just before Christmas, kynghidongduong.vn with the Chinese government not reporting it to the World Health Organisation until December 31.
However, the death of Peter Attwood, 84, from Chatham, Kent, has raised new questions about an alleged Chinese cover-up after it emerged he had symptoms of the virus on December 28, with his daughter falling ill two weeks earlier.
Jane Buckland, 46, says her father's death suggests the virus could have been spreading in Britain as early as November and added: 'If China hadn't lied to the rest of the world and kept this hidden for so long, it could have saved countless lives.'
Tory former leader Iain Duncan Smith told MailOnline: 'This shows that there has been a major cover up in China over this from the word go.
'There needs now to be a full investigation both into the role of China in the covering up of this virus and its human to human transfer capabilities, and questions need to asked about an inquiry into the behaviour of the WHO.
'Once they knew there was a problem why didn't they go public with it?'
Initially, the virus was thought to have come from bats sold at a wet market in Wuhan, before scientists and politicians - most notably US President Donald Trump - accused the Chinese government of hiding the fact that it came from a Wuhan virology lab.
Scientists researching the genetic make-up of the virus claim it must have been made in a laboratory as its coding is drastically different to even its closest naturally-occurring relatives.
Leaked Chinese government records also previously revealed that the first case of the virus can be traced back to November 17 in the province of Hubei.
The date is more than seven weeks before Chinese officials announced they had identified a new virus and over two months before various cities in the region went into lockdown to contain the spread of the bug.
Now, Mr Attwood's death will increase pressure on China over the origins of the pandemic, which has killed millions of people around the world.
It will also raise more questions for the WHO, which has been accused of defending and supporting China's alleged cover-up of the origins of the outbreak.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has previously come under fire for praising China for its 'transparency' early in the outbreak.
He has also faced accusation of bias, after he was elected to lead the WHO in 2017 amid allegations of heavy lobbying by Chinese diplomats.
Mr Atwood, who never left the UK, died on January 30 more than a month before what was previously thought to be the UK's first virus death on March 5.
Doctors had been mystified by his illness, originally believing he may have died of asbestosis, a lung condition caused by working around asbestos. Deaths from the illness have to be referred to a coroner.
However, his post-mortem instead detected [/news/coronavirus/index.html coronavirus] in his lung tissue, leading the Kent coroner to record his cause of death as 'Covid-19 infection and bronchopneumonia'.
Daughter Jane believes she fell ill with coronavirus symptoms on December 15, before her father developed a dry cough on December 28 - just one week after cases of the virus were first recorded in Wuhan, according to the Chinese government.
He was admitted to hospital on January 7 with a bad cough before dying a few weeks later, making him the first person outside of China to die of the virus.
Mr Attwood's case will now bolster claims from critics of Beijing who believe the virus may have spread there as early as October.
In May, it was revealed that a patient treated in a hospital near Paris on December 27 for suspected pneumonia actually had coronavirus. The patient, who later recovered, said he had no idea where he caught the virus as he had not travelled abroad.
A man wearing a protective face mask in Chatham, south-east England.
It has emerged that Peter Attwood, 84, from Chatham, was the first Briton to die of coronavirus. He died on January 30 after battling symptoms for several weeks
Beijing has long claimed the virus was first recorded in a wet market in Wuhan just before Christmas.
However, Mr Attwood's death will raise questions as to whether China is covering up the true timeline
Under the current Chinese version of events, several cases of a pneumonia-like illness were recorded in the country in late December.
On December 31, Beijing reported the first cluster to the WHO, who officially identified the first coronavirus case on January 8, after some 41 people in Wuhan had fallen ill with pneumonia with an unknown cause.
Around 44 cases were reported in Wuhan in December in total, including one case that emerged later of a man who reported symptoms on December 8.
Officially, tour phượng hoàng cổ trấn China recorded its first death on January 11, believed to be linked to a wet market in Wuhan, the day before the genetic sequence for the coronavirus was made available for scientists globally.
On January 14, the WHO said there was 'limited' human to human transmission of the virus, two days before it later claimed there was 'no clear evidence of human to human transmission'.
Imperial College estimated 4,500 people could have had the virus in Wuhan, despite official Chinese figures reporting only 48.
On January 20, China's National Health Commission admitted there was evidence of human to human transmission.
Two days later, the WHO finally accepted human-to-human transmission in Wuhan, though it insisted more research was required.
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By the next day, Wuhan and several other cities had been placed under lockdown, with the virus being found in every province in China by January 29.
On January 30, the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, with the first death outside China, in the Philippines, recorded on February 1.
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news halfRHS" data-version="2" id="mol-217da730-f2a5-11ea-8185-dd472e818ec2" website man died in JANUARY from coronavirus
