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China and the rest of the world understood that Wuhan's "mysterious lung disease" was a bomb when Beijing claimed the services of the 84-year-old pulmonologist and epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan , who is considered "the SARS hero." It was on January 18, the Hubei metropolitan authority insisted that only 41 people had symptoms linked to an unknown infection and that the virus was not transmitted between people , that it was confined to a focus in the popular animal and food market. Wild of Wuhan. Professor Zhong Nanshan, on January 18, traveled to Wuhan to investigate and as soon as his phone arrived, it did not stop ringing: other doctors and students warned him that the situation in the city was more serious than previously thought in Beijing.

Wuhan authorities "did not want to tell the truth at the time," the professor explained in an interview with CNN. Zhong did not believe that there were only 41 infected, the patients that those responsible for the Chinese city insisted on declaring. Above all, he did not believe that the epidemic in mid-January was "preventable and controllable . " Too much time had been lost since the first relevant cases in December; In Japan and Thailand, travelers from Wuhan with obvious lung symptoms had been isolated.

" That January 18, I asked the local authorities for the real numbers, but they were reluctant, " he recalls. So Zhong Nanshan returned to Beijing, reported what he had seen, and two days later, on June 20, China reported that the coronavirus was transmitted from person to person. The catastrophe was approaching. The Chinese city of the first Sars-CoV-2 outbreak was quarantined, which lasted 76 days. Party leaders in the city and in Hubei province were purged in February. And Zhong says the numbers of infections and deaths reported from Beijing since then are transparent.

The old epidemiologist assures that the Government has learned the lessons of SARS, the first coronavirus epidemic discovered in 2002 and that lasted until 2003: "Then, 17 years ago, some relevant events were hidden for a period of two and three months " , he has told CNN. Zhong Nanshan is considered one of the world's leading epidemiologists specializing in respiratory diseases. But above all, he is a brave scientist who tells the truth even if it bothers the political powers. In 2003, after the SARS disease killed 800 Chinese citizens and spread to 30 different countries, Zhong was first requested and took command of the command that led health operations in Guangdong province, the epicenter of the crisis. .

"There was no leak from a laboratory"

He dared to reveal the truth: that the virus had been underestimated, that the local authorities, first, had not understood it and, second, they tried to hide the gravity of the situation. Although they understood it late, SARS was finally brought under control. Dr. Zhong, won the battle, told Chinese television: "What is the use of competing for the strongest GDP if eating, drinking and breathing represent a danger to the Chinese?" 17 years have passed. China's GDP has tripled. The death toll in this pandemic has exceeded 300,000.

In 2003, Zhong was 67 years old, although older than he is quite lucid and in perfect physical shape, the Beijing newspapers describe him with a photo in the gym while holding weights and on the basketball court, jumping to the basket. Zhong says that this time he has also found mistakes at the local level, in the early stages of the epidemic, but denies that Beijing has covered anything: "We have quickly sought collaboration with experts from the rest of the world , we learned from 2003."

The American channel has asked the professor to comment on the famous Wuhan virus research laboratory. Zhong rejects the suspicion that the coronavirus has escaped from there. He says he has asked Dr. Shi Zhengli, who is dedicated to the study of bats, if the virus was created in the laboratory and spread due to a security breach. "He has assured me that this is absolutely ridiculous, that they did not have the scientific means to do such an experiment ." In February, the Beijing authority investigated and found nothing in Wuhan's laboratory, Zhong insists. In the interview, now that China has managed to control the epidemic and records very few cases a day, Zhong has warned: " The majority of the Chinese population is still at risk of getting Covid-19 disease because they are not immune. I don't think that we are in a better position with respect to the rest of the countries of the world at the moment. "

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

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