A Chinese Puzzle

For months the World Health Organization has been negotiating with China to obtain samples of the H5N1 virus collected within China. And for months, China has stalled, sending `bit’s and pieces’ of information, but never sending the information requested.

What, exactly, is China hiding?

They’ve admitted to detecting Avian flu in poultry, and in wild birds. They’ve even admitted to having 10 human victims. Something is rotten in Beijing.

There are persistent, but unconfirmed rumors, that far more human victims of avian flu exist (or at least, did exist) in China than are being reported. Accurate news, however, is hard to get. China is a highly regulated society, and has jailed more journalists than any other country.

Many of these reports come from dissidents, and so their veracity is difficult to measure. They have an agenda, and would like nothing more than to paint the Chinese government in a bad light. We are left with little concrete evidence one way or the other.

What we do know is that China covered up the SARS epidemic early on, back in 2003, and their failure to deal with the problem allowed it to spread. Now they are holding back vital information from WHO. Information that could tell us how the virus is mutating.

With the world possibly on the brink of a pandemic, China is playing a very dangerous game, with all of our lives.