Coronavirus – Credit CDC PHIL
# 7224
It’s been just over 24 hours since Saudi Arabia first announced their discovery of a number of novel coronavirus (nCoV) cases (see hCoV-EMC: Saudi Arabia Reports 7 Cases, 5 Fatal). Disappointingly, their announcement contained pathetically little in the way of useful epidemiological information.
Since then journalists, public health experts, and bloggers have expressed deep concerns over what appears to be ongoing and serious deficits in the Saudi government’s reporting of cases.
Maryn McKenna addressed these issues in New Diseases And National Transparency: Who Is Measuring Up?, yesterday Helen Branswell sought reaction from Dr. Keiji Fukuda in her article Saudi Arabia announces 7 new coronavirus cases, and I had a few choice words of my own in WHO: Novel Coronavirus Update – Saudi Arabia.
Today, we’ve got a `twofer’; one of my favorite journalists, Jennifer Yang of the Toronto Star, interviewing one of my favorite experts, Dr. Jody Lanard (of The Peter M. Sandman Risk Communication Website) on the obvious lack of transparency being shown by the Saudi government in regards to these (and earlier) coronavirus cases.
Follow the link below to read the latest on the novel coronavirus, and extended remarks from Jody Lanard.
New SARS-related virus kills five more in Saudi Arabia
By: Jennifer Yang Global health reporter, Published on Thu May 02 2013
Saudi Arabia has revealed seven new cases of a novel coronavirus, including five deaths — a surprise announcement that is raising transparency concerns and seems to have caught even the World Health Organization off-guard.
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But to Dr. Jody Lanard, a Brooklyn-based risk communication expert who has consulted for the WHO in the past, it appears the Saudi government has been demonstrating a lack of transparency since the new coronavirus first came to public attention in September.
“Having analyzed communication as an expert in so many disease outbreaks, Saudi Arabia is showing all the signs of hiding information (and) delaying reports of information,” Lanard said. “We had the SARS outbreak in 2003 and we saw the repercussions of its widespread reach that partly resulted from delayed information — that’s a lesson that should already be learned.”
