China Coronavirus Cover-Up Cost World 2 Months of Preparation - US Nat'l Security Advisor

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2020) China's initial cover-up of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak probably cost the world two months that could have been used to better prepare and respond, US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said at a Heritage Foundation event on Wednesday.

"Unfortunately rather than using best practices this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up," O'Brien said. "It probably cost the world community two months to respond. Those two months, if we had those... I think could dramatically curtailed what we have both in China and what's now happening across the world.

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Citing open-source reporting, O'Brien accused China of silencing and isolating doctors who initially tried to ring the bells about the novel coronavirus outbreak "so that the word of this virus could not get out."

According to the latest official data collected by Johns Hopkins University, more than 1,000 cases of novel coronavirus have been registered in the United States, resulting in the death of 31 people. Globally, the number of confirmed cases exceeds 121,000 and 4,300 people have died from the disease.