China's silence on coronavirus pandemic left world 'flying blind,' Azar says - Fox News

"Being able to investigate the virus in January would’ve helped the United States and the world develop a science and data-driven response," Azar said.

"We learned about an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan, China, on December 30, not through that country’s official channels, as required under the international health regulations, but through media monitoring that we do, as well as through a notification from Taiwan’s Economic and Cultural office here in the United States," Azar said during a virtual discussion with The Heritage Foundation.

government was notified of a novel virus in mainland China, was by people from Taiwan.".

"Even as we were relaying what we knew to the American people, we suspected we could not trust the reports out of China," Azar continued.

"Reports from China suggested the virus had likely emerged there by November, and the Chinese government’s explanation for the outbreak did not make sense.".

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was reportedly informed by the China CDC that the virus stemmed from animals in a Wuhan market, several clusters of cases cropped up among families in the first week of January.

He also defended the administration’s early praise for China, saying it was required to gain some cooperation, with U.S.

Azar slammed the WHO for continuing this praise for China, saying, "Unfortunately WHO never made the shift we did, continuing to lavish praise onto China even to this day."

However, months of diplomatic wrangling with Chinese officials drove the head of the United Nation’s health agency to voice a rare criticism of China, saying he was "very disappointed" the Chinese government hadn’t authorized the now-ongoing visit on Jan

Azar suggested that if a novel virus emerged in a democratic nation, a global outbreak could have been avoided -- as opposed to an authoritarian government in China