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China has a history of rejecting scientific studies that they feel reflect badly on their nation. It was in late 2006 when the flap over the `Fujian Strain' of avian flu made headlines, with the Chinese government denying its existence, and attacking the researchers.
China Denies Existence of 'Fujian-like' Bird Flu Virus
China's Ministry of Agriculture Critical of Hong Kong Scientist
By Zhang Yi
Asia Times
Nov 14, 2006
China's Ministry of Agriculture is caught in a controversy sparked by the possible existence of a variant of the H5N1 bird flu virus. The Ministry is making serious accusations about the findings published by Chinese and American researchers.
Virologists Guan Yi and Malik Peiris, of the University of Hong Kong, and Rob Webster of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in the United States published a study in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal. The report indicated that in the past year, a new strain of bird flu virus, the "Fujian-like virus," has become dominant amongst poultry and has shown up in human infection cases in six Chinese provinces.
At a press conference held by China's Ministry of Agriculture on November 10, Chinese officials criticized Guan's study and claimed that Guan "quoted untrue information," "used unscientific research methods" and "made unsubstantiated speculations."
China's Ministry of Agriculture claimed that there was no new strain of bird flu virus. Although China previously agreed to help epidemiological studies by providing specimens to the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the WHO, since 2004, the Ministry has not provided any specimens of the "Fujian-like" strain of the bird flu virus.
According to Guan, China's Ministry of Agriculture issued orders to stop the study of the new virus in Guangdong Shantou University, and to destroy samples of the virus.
Eventually, after much diplomatic intervention, the Chinese government admitted that the `Fujian strain' did exist, but they objected to the use of the word `Fujian' in describing it.
The Chinese government denied the virus existed because they felt the name given to it unfairly stigmatized the Chinese Province.
Now, once again, we have a scientific study (appearing in the Lancet) that states that last December's Father-Son case in Nanjing likely involved limited H2H (Human-to-Human) transmission.
And once again, the Chinese are rejecting the findings.
China rejects human-to-human bird flu report
Sat Apr 12, 1:35 AM ET
BEIJING (AFP) - China has rejected a study which found a probable case of human-to-human bird flu transmission in the country, state media reported.
The study, published in British medical magazine The Lancet this week, said a 24-year-old man was likely to have infected his father with H5N1 before dying, raising the spectre of a feared flu pandemic.
But health ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an said there was no clear evidence to support the findings.
"So far no evidence has been found in China to support the idea that the H5N1 virus can easily pass from one person to another," he said, according to Xinhua news agency on Friday.
The case, in the eastern city of Nanjing in December, is one of a handful worldwide in which the H5N1 virus is suspected to have spread from one person to another.
Interestingly, the Health Ministry spokesman rejects the idea that the H5N1 virus can `easily pass from one person to another', when the Lancet Study made no such claim. This is what is known as a straw man argument, a debate tactic that has little value in the scientific world.
China is reportedly spending billions of dollars to rehabilitate its world image in time for this summer's Olympics. Becoming less obstructionist when it comes to scientific data would be a cost effective step in that direction.
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