Before Coronavirus, China Bungled Swine Epidemic With Secrecy

Before Coronavirus, China Bungled Swine Epidemic With Secrecy
Two surviving pigs are pictured in a pigpen at a village in Henan Province, China, on Jan. 13, 2020. Jason Lee/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

When the deadly African swine fever was first discovered in China, authorities told the people in the know to keep quiet or else. Fearing reprisal from Beijing, local officials failed to order tests to confirm outbreaks and didn’t properly warn the public as the pathogen spread death around the country.

All this happened long before China’s coronavirus outbreak. For the past 19 months, secrecy has hobbled the nation’s response to African swine fever, an epidemic that has killed millions of pigs. A Reuters examination has found that swine fever’s swift spread was made possible by China’s systemic under-reporting of outbreaks. And even today, bureaucratic secrecy and perverse policy incentives continue undermining Chinese efforts to defeat one of the worst livestock epidemics in modern history.