Rumor 3: The novel coronavirus is a Chinese virus because it came from Wuhan.

Fact: The official name for the virus is SARS-CoV-2. Wuhan is where the COVID-19 case was first reported, but it is not necessary the place where the virus originates.

In Dec 2019, Wuhan reported the first COVID-19 case, which was then called pneumonia of unknown cause. But scientists so far do not know the exact origin of the virus. Historically speaking, a place where a virus was first reported is often not where it had originated. For example, cases of HIV infection were initially reported in the United States, but its origin was most likely in West Africa. The Marburg virus was first discovered in Marburg, Hesse, Germany, but it was most likely originated in Uganda.

In order to avoid stigmatization, the WHO issued recommendations on the naming of human infectious diseases and pathogens in 2015, discouraging the use of regions, countries, individuals and animals in the naming. The novel coronavirus was officially named SARS-CoV-2 on Feb 11.

Renowned scientific journal Nature published an editorial on April 7, saying it is irresponsible and stigmatizing to associate COVID-19 with specific locations.

In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated racism and discrimination, especially against the Chinese and Asian people. The number of assaults toward Asian people in Germany is rising as a result.

Rumor 4: As early as mid-November, China has known about the COVID-19 outbreak but withheld the information for 45 days.

Fact: Chinese authorities first received a report of the pneumonia case of unknown cause on Dec 27 and released its first outbreak notice on Dec 31.

On Dec 27, 2019, Zhang Jixian, director of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, reported three pneumonia cases of unknown cause to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention at Jianghan district in Wuhan. This was the first time that Chinese authorities obtained information about the disease. Zhang shared the reporting process at a recent interview.

Based on the epidemiological investigation of nucleic acid testing, a team of Chinese scientists conducted a retrospective study on the first batch of COVID-19 patients in Wuhan in Dec 2019. The research results were published in the authoritative medical journal the Lancet on Jan 24.

After three days of epidemiological investigation, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission released a briefing on its website about the pneumonia with unknown cause in the city on Dec 31, confirming 27 cases and telling the public not to go to enclosed public spaces or hold gatherings. It suggested wearing face masks when going out.

Winter is the season of cold, flu and pneumonia, and COVID-19 is a new type of infectious disease with symptoms similar to the flu. Wuhan has 11 million residents, so it is not easy to quickly detect and diagnose patients. The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan wrote in a paper at the Lancet, praising Chinese doctors and health departments for their rapid discovery of the new coronavirus during the flu season.

Rumor 5: China has withheld key information about the epidemic, which has led to a worldwide pandemic.

Fact: China has notified the world as early as possible, and resorted to the strictest epidemic control measures, which gave at least six weeks for other countries to get prepared for the outbreak.

China has notified the WHO at an early stage.

1. On Dec 31, China notified the WHO China Representative Office of an unknown pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei province.

2. Starting Jan 3, China began to share epidemic data with the WHO, Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, and other countries including the United States.

3. On Jan 8, the National Health Commission expert panel made an initial judgement that the novel coronavirus caused the epidemic.

4. On Jan 12, China submitted to the WHO the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus, which was published by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data and shared globally.

5. On Jan 16, China optimized the PCR Diagnostic Reagent

6. On Jan 20, the National Health Commission notified that the novel coronavirus could pass among humans, based on clinical evidence.

The timeline was confirmed by the WHO on its website.

The subtext to accuse China for withholding information is that China had known the virus is dangerous and didn't want to be honest about it, which is not true. For a completely new virus, there was limited scientific evidence indicating the pathogen could lead to a pandemic.

Moreover, when the virus was later confirmed to be transmissible among humans and that it was potentially more dangerous than the seasonal flu, China adopted the strictest and most comprehensive control measures, including locking down the city of Wuhan on Jan 23, and restricting movement of the entire 60 million residents in Hubei province two days later. A latest article published on Science said the travel quarantine of Wuhan had a marked effect on the international scale, where case importations were reduced by nearly 80 percent until mid-February.

When Wuhan was placed on lockdown, 571 domestic infections on the Chinese mainland and 9 total overseas cases had been reported, none of them in Europe, according to the National Health Commission. When China suspended all outbound tourist travel on Jan 27, the Chinese mainland had 2,744 infections, China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan had 17 infections, and the rest of the world had reported 33, three in Europe. By Feb 23 – a month after Wuhan was put on lockdown – the global tally was 78,811, of which only 2.2 percent were outside China. Between this period, only a handful of countries, save for East Asian nations, had adopted any form of effective prevention measures.

The Trump administration had been downplaying the severity and danger of COVID-19 until early March. The surge of confirmed cases in China within a month and half, as well as the unprecedented lockdown of the Wuhan city, could not have sent a clearer and louder warning. The New York Times has published an investigative piece on April 11 on this topic.