US Senator Marco Rubio and his colleagues called on US President Joe Biden to stop flights to China from the US due to the growing epidemic of “new pneumonia”.
“A new mysterious respiratory disease is emerging in China, and the mistakes of Covid-19 cannot be repeated. Sent a letter to President Biden along with fellow Republicans urging him to implement a travel ban on China until we learn more about this virus,” Rubio wrote in X.
Earlier, the global outbreak surveillance system ProMED warned of an epidemic of new “undiagnosed pneumonia” in children in China. The WHO sent a formal request to Beijing in November for details about the rise in respiratory illnesses and reports of outbreaks of pneumonia in children.
The WHO request and the public nature of the request were “a little unusual” but “not surprising”, said Christine Jenkins, professor of medicine at the University of New South Wales.
“For infections such as [когда] SARS first occurred and subsequently, when [SARS-CoV-2] happened in China, it was initially extremely difficult to get information,” she told ABC.
“For infections such as [когда] SARS first occurred and subsequently, when [SARS-CoV-2] appeared in China, it was initially extremely difficult to obtain information,” she said. “I think WHO is taking a much more proactive approach to surveillance.”
China had 24 hours to respond. Health authorities from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Beijing Children’s Hospital provided WHO with data indicating that “no unusual or new pathogens or unusual clinical manifestations were detected.”
The mysterious respiratory disease does not appear to be spreading across China, but a combination of pathogens, the lifting of restrictions and the onset of winter could all contribute to a surge in cases.
Chinese authorities have stressed the need to strengthen disease surveillance in health care facilities and in the community, as well as strengthen the health system.
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