THURSDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2026

The Pulse

Leaked documents reveal Chinese government early mishandling of pandemic

We have now been living with the Covid-19 virus for a year. Most of the world went into lockdown at the beginning of March, and as a consequence of the pandemic, lost billions of dollars. As everyone already knows, the virus likely started at a wet-market in Wuhan, China.

Sources already revealed that Wuhan authorities tried to silence the doctors who first discovered Covid-19. However, an unprecedented leak of official Chinese documents reveals deeper manipulation.

A Chinese healthcare worker leaked the documents to CNN earlier this week. The documents revealed that the government had manipulated the number of cases and deaths. They also covered up a massive “influenza” outbreak in the province in December. Many people had flu-like symptoms but did not match any known flu strain. The document also showed that Chinese governmental officials were reporting false numbers of potential cases even in February: there were 5,918 new cases, but the government only reported half of them to the public.

These documents confirm that the Chinese government was trying to avoid announcing a new disease originating in China during the early stages of the pandemic.

These documents come at a time when the Chinese government is still being criticised by many worldwide governments. The US and European governments, particularly, accuse China of misreporting their Covid-19 numbers. This leak proves that China attempted, in some way, to manipulate the numbers in their favour.  

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