Medical workers take swab samples from residents to be tested for COVID-19 in a street in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, May 15, 2020. WUHAN: Secrecy and cronyism at China's top disease control agency led to widespread test shortages and flaws that hampered the early response to the coronavirus outbreak, an Associated Press investigation has found.
In the meantime, the CDC and its parent agency, the National Health Commission, tried to prevent other scientists and organisations from testing for the virus with their own homemade kits. They took control of patient samples and made testing requirements to confirm coronavirus cases much more complicated.The flawed testing system – at a time when the virus could have been slowed – stopped scientists and officials from seeing how fast it was spreading.
But interviews and documents suggest that a culture of backdoor connections quietly flourished in a top-down, underfunded public health system. Though none of the first three diagnostics companies tapped to make test kits were well-known in the industry, there were extensive ties between the companies and top China CDC researchers.
GeneoDx did not respond to requests for comment or interviews. The National Health Commission did not respond to a request for a comment or an interview with Tan.The last company, Huirui, is a longtime partner with Tan, the CDC official in charge of test kits. In an interview, CEO Li Hui said the CDC routinely contracted his company to make emergency testing chemicals. He denied any personal relationship with Tan or any payments to the CDC.
They raise questions around potential violations of bribery laws, along with rules against abuse of authority, self-dealing and conflicts of interest, said James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based corporate attorney and former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
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