Relatives of Wuhan’s coronavirus dead have said Chinese authorities deleted their social media group and told them to keep quiet while a World Health Organization team was in the city preparing to begin an investigation into the pandemic’s origins.
Scores of people had banded together online in a shared quest for accountability from the Wuhan officials they blame for mishandling the Covid-19 outbreak that tore through the city a year ago, and caused more than 4,000 officially recorded deaths there.
Many relatives of those who died distrust the official death toll, saying the scarcity of testing during the outbreak’s chaotic early days meant many were likely to have died without being confirmed as having had coronavirus.
The quest for accountability has thus far been thwarted by official obstruction, monitoring of social media groups and intimidation, say families of the dead.
The suppression of the Wuhan relatives’ group follows calls by some for the WHO team to meet with them, including Zhang Hai, whose father died from Covid-19 on 1 February after travelling to Wuhan and becoming infected.
The WHO mission was repeatedly delayed by negotiations and setbacks, one of which prompted an unusual public complaint by the head of the organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
A group on the social media platform WeChat used by 80 to 100 family members over the past year was suddenly deleted without explanation about 10 days ago, Zhang said.
Many, like Zhang, are angry how the Chinese authorities played down the threat of the virus at the beginning of the outbreak, and have attempted to file lawsuits against the Wuhan government.
The WHO experts are due to emerge from a 14-day quarantine on Thursday, when their keenly watched investigation is meant to start under what is expected to be tight security.
uthorities came to her door on Tuesday “and sang the same old tune and gave me 5,000 yuan [£564] in a ‘condolence payment’”, she added, requesting anonymity.
Coronavirus is believed to have emerged from bats and to have initially spread from a wet market in Wuhan where wild animals were sold as food.❐
The Gurdian
