|
 At a panel held by the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think tank, Birx
said the United States would have been more focused on identifying
COVID-19 patients without symptoms if China has shared information
about the frequency with which COVID-19 patients, particularly young
people, are asymptomatic.
"I have to say if we had known about the level of asymptomatic
spread, we would have all looked at this differently," Birx said at
the panel. "That's usually the initial countries' responsibility ...
and I think that did delay across the board our ability to really
see or look for this."
Birx said that public health officials had originally assumed that
only 15 to 20% of COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic when in fact
that number is at least 40%.
"We were looking for people with symptoms. We should have looked for
anyone who would have been exposed," she said.
President Donald Trump has leveled blame at China for the outbreak,
saying the country should have warned the world much sooner.
[to top of second column] |
China's United States embassy told Reuters in a statement that China has been
open, transparent and responsible since the pandemic broke out.
"We notified the [World Health Organization] of the epidemic, shared the genome
sequencing of the virus, carried out international cooperation and helped other
countries affected, all at the earliest time possible," the statement said.
"These are plain, internationally recognized facts, which cannot be denied or
erased by anyone."
The United States saw a 27% increase in new cases of COVID-19 in the week ended
July 5 compared with the previous seven days.
(Reporting by Carl O'Donnell; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Richard Pullin)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
