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Chen Guoqiang, Dean of the Medical School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, led the school’s medical team in publishing, “Reflections on the Novel Coronavirus Infection” in the magazine Scientia Sinica Vitae. The article listed the following problems and shortcomings in China’s handling of the coronavirus:

1. Didn’t report the national major public health epidemic promptly to the public; lacked plan to prevent and control the coronavirus at the early stage.
2. The public health and disease prevention and control system does not match the need to support the scale of economic development
3. The emergency response mechanism cannot respond to life-threatening, major public health emergencies
4. Scientific and technological innovation is disconnected from solving clinical problems, lacks channel for data sharing, transformation, and utilization, and lacks laboratory with relative safety level
5. Insufficient medical supplies and strategic reserves to respond to major public health emergency
6. Some officials do not have specialized skills and the capability to make decisions
7. There is a large deficiency in responding to the public’s sentiments regarding public health emergencies and in directing public opinion
8. Need to improve the response mechanism on studying and responding to the “secondary disaster” after epidemic outbreak
9. The ecological civilization concept is missing and wildlife market supervision is weak
10. The general public’s civilized quality and scientific knowledge need to be improved urgently.

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As the novel coronavirus outbreak continued in South Korea, news about South Koreans fleeing to China to seek a safe haven was spreading on China’s Internet. It would boost the confidence of the Chinese people in trusting the government’s handling of the epidemic.

The news said, “Due to the exploding number of novel coronavirus infections in South Korea, a large number of Koreans have rushed to Qingdao City, Shandong Province in China. Because the epidemic is under control in China and the treatment is free, many Koreans have fled to China. Airfare has jumped from a few hundred yuan to 6,000 yuan.”

Beijing News, a media based in Beijing, then inquired at the National Immigration Administration of China to verify the news. The office responded that, based on its statistics, airlines have cut some flights due to the coronavirus epidemic, which might have caused some increase in airfares, but overall, the number of people flying from Korea to China has increased only marginally and 70 percent of those people are Chinese citizens. “There is no sign that a large number of Koreans are rushing into China yet.”

SET News, a news media in Taiwan, reported this information.

Related posting on Chinascope:

• World Outbreak: Iran Vice President Confirmed with Coronavirus Infection

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Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of the four Vice Presidents of Iran and the highest-ranking woman in the government, was confirmed as having the coronavirus infection and quarantined at home on February 27, 2020.

Ebtekar, was known to Americans as “Mary” during the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981. As a young revolutionary, she was a spokeswoman for the captors of the 52 Americans held at the United States Embassy.

Besides Ebtekar, six other high-ranking Iranian officials are also infected with the virus:

• Mojtaba Zolnour, a member of Parliament from Qom and head of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee
• Mahmoud Sadeghi, an outspoken member of Parliament from Tehran
• Iraj Harirchi, the Deputy Health Minister who had been leading the effort to contain the coronavirus
• Morteza Rahmanzadeh, the Mayor of a Tehran district
• Dr. Mohamad Reza Ghadir, head of Coronavirus Management in Qom and Director of the city’s State Medical University
• Hadi Khosroshahi, a prominent cleric and former Ambassador to the Vatican.

A search, revealed that Iran had total of 54 deaths from the coronavirus as of March 1, including Elham Sheikhi, who was in her early 20s, a professional athlete, and a member of the women’s national soccer team.

Source: New York Times, February 27, 2020

After Zhong Nanshan, a high-profile doctor in China, suggested on February 27, 2020, that the Coronavirus could have originated from outside of China, another high-profile doctor, Zhang Wenhong, disagreed with that idea.

Zhang Wenhong is the Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, at Fudan University, Shanghai. He was tasked with leading the medical expert team to fight the novel coronavirus in Shanghai. Many Shanghainese call him, “Daddy Zhang” for his outspokenness and the care he has for people.

On February 28, 2020, China Daily, a state-controlled newspaper that publishes both Chinese and English versions, interviewed Zhang. In the interview, when responding to a question regarding claims that the virus was imported from elsewhere, Zhang said that he believed the virus originated in Wuhan. Zhang argued, “If that was the case (that the virus was imported), we should have seen patients emerging from different regions in the country around the same time rather than seeing their concentration in Wuhan.”

Sina republished the article from China Daily, which contains the Chinese following the English translation.

However, most of the Chinese media that reported Zhang’s disagreement saw that his comments were taken down afterwards.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Virus Origin: Southern Medical University Found The Coronavirus Is Unlikely to Evolve from Bat
• Virus Origin: Zhong Nanshan Said Coronavirus May Originate Outside China
• Virus Origin: Chinese Researchers Said That Wuhan Seafood Market Is Not the Origin
• Virus Origin: SARS Virus Was Leaked in Beijing in 2004
• Virus Origin: Chinese Researcher Sentenced for Selling Experimental Animals

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