Did Xi Jinping personally act to demand that the World Health Organization hide the virulent transmission qualities of COVID-19? German intel service BND has concluded that Xi pressured WHO director Tedros Ghebreyesus to delay declaring a pandemic for four to six weeks even though the organization had clear evidence of the novel coronavirus’ potential for global catastrophe. According to Der Spiegel and translated by the Daily Caller, BND estimates that Xi’s intervention cost the world four to six weeks of preparation:

Xi met with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on January 21 to request that he withhold information about human-to-human transition and delay the declaration of a global pandemic, according to German magazine Der Spiegel. The news comes amid rising sentiment that China should be held financially responsible for the pandemic.

“The BND’s verdict is harsh: At least four, if not six, weeks have been lost in Beijing’s information policy in the fight against the virus,” Der Spiegel reported. …

BND is the native German acronym for its Federal Intelligence Service. Four to six weeks of additional preparation time could have avoided the global pandemic entirely, according to a study published in early March. Researchers at the University of Southampton found that if China had acted and gone public with its information just three weeks sooner, it could have reduced spread of the disease by as much as 95%.

Der Spiegel has its article behind a paywall and only available in German, but world reaction to it suggests that the Daily Caller’s translation is accurate. The timeline fits, too. Taiwan had warned WHO in late December of community transmission cases in a message that should have prompted serious concern at the UN subsidiary agency. Doctors in China had already been trying to get the word out on the Wuhan virus earlier than that, only to be suppressed.

And yet, despite all of these red flags, WHO didn’t declare a pandemic until weeks later, at the end of January. Even worse, they sent out an infamous message declaring that they had seen no evidence of community transmission well after Taiwan had warned of it and doctors in China began disappearing after their own warnings. Up to now it had been assumed that China leaned on Tedros, and a “Five Eyes” intel assessment has already concluded that China has engaged in a malicious propaganda campaign to distract from that conclusion. This is the first serious allegation that Xi personally acted to suppress vital medical information at WHO.

WHO calls the BND report “false allegations,” and says Tedros and Xi have never spoken by telephone:

Der Spiegel reports of a 21 January, 2020, telephone conversation between WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and President Xi Jingping of China are unfounded and untrue.

Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on 21 January and they have never spoken by telephone.

Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO’s and the world’s efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

To note: China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus on 20 January.

China’s Foreign Ministry — the outlet for its COVID-19 propaganda campaign — issued a thirty-page rebuttal over the weekend as well. That included a quote from Abraham Lincoln that just drips with irony after spokesman Zhao Lijian’s efforts to pin COVID-19 on the US Army:

The Chinese foreign ministry, in a 30-page article published on its website, refuted claims in the Der Spiegel article, saying it had responded in a “timely” manner and was “open and transparent” about alerting nations around the world about the outbreak.

It also responded to comments made by President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that China misled other countries about the pandemic and claimed the virus began in a lab in the city of Wuhan.

The foreign ministry quoted President Abraham Lincoln in its defense, according to Reuters.

“As Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people all the time and fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time,” it said in the article.

That has been China’s problem all along. They’re trying to fool all the people all the time, and it’s just not working. Unfortunately for everyone, it did work on the fools and stooges at WHO. That organization is hopelessly compromised and their insistence on carrying water for China should inform our funding decisions for Tedros and his team in the future.

Update: Jeryl Bier notices that WHO still can’t get its story straight:

I've harped on this a number of times, but decided to bring out the harp again after reading Ed's post:https://t.co/WGrqkvVH7q

— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) May 11, 2020

Tough to keep all the lies straight, apparently.