U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delays public disclosure of suspected new crown spread, government documents show

　　U.S. government documents show CDC delayed public disclosure of suspected new coronavirus spread

　　According to the National Geographic website of the United States on the 5th, the latest batch of declassified US government documents disclosed the investigation of a "suspected new crown virus spread incident" in Michigan, the United States at the end of 2020.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delayed releasing the information for months after it knew that minks raised on a fur farm may have been infected with the new coronavirus and had spread, according to emails in the declassified documents.

　　Declassified documents show that a request for help was sent to the CDC as early as October 8, 2020, after Michigan public health officials confirmed that minks at a local fur farm had contracted the virus.

The CDC collected virus samples a few days later, and genomic analysis of the virus samples from two farm workers and two people not associated with the farm showed that they were all infected with the virus, which is known only in "mink-to-human transmission." A unique variant of the coronavirus.

　　According to the US "National Geographic" website, during the investigation, a spokesperson for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly told "National Geographic" that "there is no evidence that there is a 'mink-to-human transmission' event in the United States."

However, internal emails revealed by the declassified documents show that was not the case.

According to the report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that the related virus is also present in two people who are not related to the mink farm, which means that the mutant strain has spread to areas outside the farm.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delayed the content of "suspected virus spread" for several months until March 2021, before quietly updating it on its official website.

　　In this regard, the researchers said that the delay in publicizing this suspected virus spread may hinder the ability of humans to effectively monitor the spread of the new coronavirus.

The information on the suspected spread of the outbreak could have helped other countries improve surveillance and response, said Scott Weiss, director of the Centre for Public Health at Goulver University in Canada.