TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Chinese government Tuesday (Dec. 20) narrowed its definition of a COVID death to only cases who died from pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by the virus, quickly resulting in a decline in the number of COVID deaths reported, despite a well-documented surge in cases nationwide, drawing scathing criticism from Chinese netizens.
As the number of new deaths reported by the commission clearly deviates greatly from probabilities due to the massive surge in cases and accounts on the ground reported by AP, Wang Guiqiang, the head of infectious disease at Peking University's No. 1 Hospital, attempted to explain this discrepancy at a State Council press conference on Tuesday by saying that only cases in which pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by a COVID infection were deemed to be the primary cause of death will be counted as deaths from the disease.
Wang further explained that deaths caused by other diseases and underlying conditions, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, myocardial infarction, and other diseases, are not classified as deaths caused by COVID.
However, Wang's comments were bitterly criticized by Chinese netizens:
"Car accidents don't kill people. The causes of death are internal organ rupture, excessive blood loss, organ failure, and cardiac arrest."
"It is equivalent to saying that the failure of the immune system caused by AIDS and the underlying diseases are not counted as death, only a direct death from AIDS is counted, which is ridiculous.”
"This is not the way the number of COVID deaths is calculated in foreign countries..."
"There is a kind of data called Chinese data, don't worry, the number of deaths from COVID China must not exceed one million."
In addition, eyewitness accounts, photos, and videos continue to proliferate on social media platforms such as Twitter clearly show the number of COVID cases and deaths are far higher than official government statistics. For example, long lines of people can be seen waiting in line outside funeral parlors in Tianjin as they wait to receive the cremated remains of their loved ones.
In another video, a man counts orange body bags containing recently deceased patients on the floor of the morgue of China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing. The man counts at least 19 bodies lying outside of the standard refrigerated cabinets that appear to have already been filled to capacity.
Yesterday in Tianjin
At the gate of the crematorium, a large crowd of people lined up and shouted their numbers to receive the urns of their deceased relatives.
#ChineseCovidDeaths #China #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/YnrCrhZAix
— China Lockdown 2022 (@2022_Lockdown) December 20, 2022
At China-Japan Friendship Hospital in #Beijing, man counts how many bodies are in the corridor: 1,2,3...19.#chinalockdown #ZeroCOVIDpolicy#CCPChina #COVID19 #CCPVirus #AmazingChina #COVID #ZeroCovid#lockdown #XiJinping #CCP #China pic.twitter.com/kFauRG31cT
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferzeng97) December 19, 2022
