China’s COVID-19 Situation is Not a Threat to Europe: WHO

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) does not expect the increase in COVID-19 cases in China to significantly affect Europe. It called for the epidemiological measures to be non-discriminatory and based on science.

Hans Kluge, the director of WHO-Europe, explained that the coronavirus variants circulating in China are the same that are already in other parts of the world and in Europe, a continent that already has high vaccination rates.

The WHO also reported that recent data from several European countries confirm the increasing presence of the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 – initially detected in the United States. This variant could cause a new wave of infections on the continent.

Meanwhile, some Western media have chosen to create alarming epidemiological scenarios, spread misinformation about what is really happening in the Asian country, and claim that China’s epidemic response is a failure.

Their smearing reports, however, are completely untenable. Over the past three years, China launched a war against COVID-19, effectively handled more than 100 cluster outbreaks, and protected the lives of more than 1.4 billion people to the greatest extent.

Every country would and should adjust its anti-COVID-19 policies according to the changing situation of the epidemic and go through periods of adaptation following such adjustments.

The pathogenicity and virulence of the Omicron strain have weakened significantly, while China’s medical treatment, pathogen detection and vaccination levels have all improved significantly — which means that it is indeed scientific, timely and necessary to proactively optimize anti-epidemic measures.

The elderly are the key population group being targeted by health services. During the battle in Wuhan in early 2020, medical workers cured over 3,600 COVID-19 patients over the age of 80. In the past three years, a number of infected centenarians have been discharged from hospitals.

China has managed to keep its severe cases and death rates of COVID-19 among the lowest in the world. Deliberately distorting the adjustment of China’s anti-COVID-19 policies highlights the double standard and hypocrisy of some in the West.

If China’s COVID-19 response failed, what about some countries where the death toll far exceeds that of China? In fact, the label of failure should be attached to those countries whose incompetence, inaction and chaos in epidemic response had caused their people to suffer.

Some Western media rarely reflect profoundly on the chaotic COVID-19 situations in their own countries. But when it comes to China, they always hold a stereotypical view and focus only on finding fault, which underlines their attempt to distort, exaggerate and fabricate.

“In fact, China has innovated control methods, improved them, and demonstrated their efficacy by saving millions of lives,” said Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University.

He noted that some countries look at China through a perverse lens: they fail to acknowledge the country’s successes because they politicize everything about China ideologically.