Senior health official says virus exposed ‘weak links’ in way country manages epidemics

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China will reform its disease prevention and control system to address weaknesses exposed by the coronavirus outbreak, a senior health official has said.

China has been criticised domestically and abroad for being initially slow to react to the outbreak, which started in Wuhan. The virus has now infected almost 4 million people around the world, and almost 250,0000 people have died from the Covid-19 disease it causes.

The trove of emails show the nation's top public health experts at the CDC spending weeks working on guidance to help the country deal with a public health emergency, only to see their work quashed by political appointees with little explanation.

Patarnello, Pierpaolo, author