Robert O’Brien, a White House official and US national security adviser, compared a situation with the lack of critical information about the coronavirus at the beginning of pandemic to censorship of the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR.
Robert O’Brien criticized China saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press” (see this video at 4:24 below): “The cover-up that they did of the virus is going to go down in history, along with Chernobyl. We’ll see an HBO special about it ten or 15 years from now.”
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is known as an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. There are at least 5 204 508 cases and 337 687 deaths globally (as of May 24, 2020), according to the World Health Organization.
COVID-19 death is defined for surveillance purposes as a death resulting from a clinically compatible illness in a probable or confirmed COVID-19 case. It is recorded unless there is a clear alternative cause of death that cannot be related to COVID-19 disease (e.g. trauma). There should be no period of complete recovery between illness and death.
Caution must be taken when interpreting all data presented. Differences are to be expected between information products published by WHO, national public health authorities, and other sources using different inclusion criteria and different data cut-off times. While steps are taken to ensure accuracy and reliability, all data are subject to continuous verification and change. Case detection, definitions, testing strategies, reporting practice, and lag times differ between countries/ territories/ areas. These factors, amongst others, influence the counts presented, with variable underestimation of true case and death counts, and variable delays to reflecting these data at a global level.
WHO launched the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund with the United Nations Foundation and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation. It has raised so far more than U$214 million from more than 375,000 individuals, corporations and foundations.