Photo: Tanjug"I'm not going to push the panic button on the pandemic based on what we know so far, but I'm very interested to see China's response and to see the WHO's assessment after that," said Brian McCloskey, a public health expert.
Leading scientists have urged caution amid fears of another pandemic, after the World Health Organization asked China for more information on a rise in respiratory illnesses and pneumonia among children.
"We have to be careful." We really need more information, especially diagnostic information," said Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who advised the WHO on Covid.
Scientists say that the similarity of these two warnings causes, for now, unfounded concerns that the increase in the number of patients could be caused by another new pathogen that could cause a pandemic. Based on the information so far, they say it is more likely to be an increase in other common respiratory infections such as the flu, as seen in many parts of the world after covid measures were lifted. It could also be a signal of the re-emergence of covid itself.
WHO always requests information from countries when undiagnosed or unknown diseases are reported, which happens quite regularly. However, it doesn't always issue a press release about it like it did on Wednesday.
Brian McCloskey, a public health expert who has also advised the WHO on the pandemic, says the WHO's system of international health regulations is at work, referring to the rules governing how countries cooperate with the WHO on potential outbreaks.
"I'm not going to push the panic button on the pandemic based on what we know so far, but I'm very interested to see China's response and to see the WHO's assessment after that," he said.
Both the WHO and China faced questions about transparency during the early days of Covid. The WHO also criticized China at the time for withholding data on infections and deaths when it ended its zero-tolerance policy on Covid, as well as the origins of the pandemic.
According to regulations, China has 24 hours to respond to the WHO.
Some say it is unclear whether the reported illnesses are actually undiagnosed. The information that prompted the ProMED alert came from Taiwan's FTV News on Tuesday. In China itself, there has recently been much reporting on the rise of respiratory illnesses, including among children. Authorities there attribute this to the lifting of Covid-19 measures and the circulation of flu-like viruses, as well as mycoplasma pneumonia, a common bacterial infection that usually affects younger children.
"It is conceivable that this could be what we have seen in other parts of the world when restrictions have been lifted," Koopmans said, echoing the views of all scientists contacted by Reuters.
Virologist Tom Peacock of Imperial College London, who has closely followed the emergence of new coronavirus variants, said there are good tools for detecting new strains of flu or coronavirus fairly quickly, so it seems unlikely that this would happen undetected.
"I suspect it could be something old or a combination of covid and groups, but hopefully we'll find out more soon," he said.
The WHO says it is still unclear whether there is a link between the reported spread of pneumonia and the overall rise in respiratory disease cases registered by Beijing.
They also urged people in China to take basic precautions such as getting vaccinated, using protective masks and washing hands.
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