The hearing was one of Cohen’s first public opportunities to restore trust in authorities, but the response to the coronavirus pandemic has led to school closures, mandatory vaccinations and mandatory mask-wearing. It became a punching bag for Republicans who opposed it. Cohen’s appearance comes as an outbreak of pneumonia among children in China has emerged as the latest public health issue embroiled in geopolitical conflict.
Republican lawmakers have criticized the rise in virus activity as suspicious and reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic. But Cohen, along with other public health experts, described the situation as a common fluctuation during seasons of respiratory viruses.
“We do not believe this is a new or novel pathogen,” Cohen testified before the House committee that oversees the CDC.
He said the increase was driven by familiar threats such as COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and mycoplasma, a bacterium that can infect the lungs.
Experts say what is happening in China could be the result of children becoming more susceptible to pathogens to which they have not been exposed while social distancing to avoid the coronavirus. It states that there is. This was a trend observed around the world, including in the United States last year during an unusual surge in RSV.China has finally eased strict coronavirus restrictions December 2022, long after other countries had done so.
“We’ve got three years worth of these cases as a flashpoint for these respiratory viruses,” said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “This makes biological sense and is not surprising given what many countries in the world experienced last year.”
In November, China’s National Health Commission said the cause of the increase was as follows: Respiratory diseases for known pathogens, and lifting of coronavirus restrictions.
Republican lawmakers said assurances from the Chinese government should not be trusted, especially after Chinese authorities have shared little information about the threat of the new coronavirus originating from Wuhan.
“Sadly, we are back to the early days of COVID-19,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the CDC. I’ll put it away.” “The lack of reliable information coming out of China is as alarming as it was in 2020,” she said.
But public health experts who have criticized China’s opaque response to the coronavirus say they see no such similarities.
“Both things could be true. China could be deceptive, China could be very opaque, China could hide a lot of information. But , it is possible that this outbreak is normal,” Adalja said.
Cohen told the committee that CDC staff working in China have reported no new pathogens. He said this was backed up by “information from our European Union partners and other sources to ensure we have the full picture.” A CDC spokesperson did not immediately elaborate on what supporting information Cohen was referring to.
The World Health Organization has called on China to share more epidemiological and clinical information on the outbreak of pneumonia in children. Lawmakers who lack confidence in the WHO due to its handling of the coronavirus pandemic have called on the Biden administration to take further action.
“We hope that there will be some pressure on China to make sure it doesn’t mislead the world as it did with COVID-19,” said the chairman, Rep. H. Morgan Griffiths (R-Va.). Stated. The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which conducted the hearing, told Cohen.
Huang Yanzhong There is no evidence so far to suggest that the Chinese government’s explanation for the recent rise in respiratory viruses is unreliable, said a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. But he noted that the agreement that emerged from President Biden’s recent meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping did not include public health, and concerns about health information sharing post-COVID-19 remain valid. said.
“We can’t just take what the government says because the problem is still there,” Huang said. “There is no serious dialogue between the two governments about how they should work together.”
With the U.S. also seeing a rise in respiratory viruses, Cohen said officials are projecting hospitalizations at levels similar to last season. He said that while respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is nearing its peak, influenza season has just begun in most parts of the country, and COVID-19 continues to be the leading cause of hospitalizations due to respiratory illness, accounting for 15,000 hospitalizations per week. He said he was hospitalized.
Although the hearing was largely peaceful, Cohen also faced sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers who tried to pin the CDC’s previous guidelines on mask-wearing in schools and coronavirus prevention measures into error. He also answered questions. She remained unfazed, pointing out that in the early stages of the pandemic, public health officials were working with little information and without a vaccine.