新冠肺炎｜袁国勇BBC访问：武汉官员曾掩饰疫情　内地淡化严重性

香港大学微生物学系讲座教授袁国勇周一（27日）接受英国广播公司（BBC）访问时表示，相信湖北武汉市官员曾掩饰新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）肺炎疫情，未有即时对外公布信息，当时抵达武汉时，只见“犯罪现场”已被打乱破坏 ；他又指虽然病毒有人传人的证据，惟内地当局不断淡化疫情的严重性。
有关报道获多间英国传媒转载，如英国《THE SUN》 （太阳报）有全篇报道，惟不见BBC网页有原始报道，原上载于BBC YouTube频道的影片，不迟于本港时间今日凌晨2时半转为私人影片，无法浏览。
就该新闻片段下架，BBC发言人于今日下午(28日)回复称，因有关新闻片段材料的权限未厘清。（The news clip was removed because correct permissions for the material had not been fully cleared.）

袁国勇在1月18日以获邀专家身份，亲身到武汉了解。他受访时称，当日他们前往被视为爆发疫情源头的华南海鲜市场时，见到市场已经完全清理好，没有什么可以看，“就像‘犯罪现场’已被打乱破坏，让我们无办法确认导致人类受感染的病毒动物宿主。我的确怀疑他们（武汉市官员）曾掩饰疫情，未有即时对外公布信息。”

(I do suspect that they have been doing some cover-up locally in Wuhan. The local officials who are supposed to be immediately relaying the information has not allowed this to be done as rapidly as it should.)

(When we went to the Wuhan seafood market, of course there was nothing to see because the market was cleaned already.

So you may say that the crime scene was already disturbed because the seafood market was cleared we cannot identify the animal host which is giving the virus to humans.)

袁国勇又说，虽然病毒有人传人的证据，惟内地当局不断淡化疫情的严重性，“我知道这种病毒传播得非常有效率，亦知道它可以与人一起透过飞机散播至千里之外。（在SARS爆发期间）我明白了一件事，如果你没有把握好每分每秒，后果会非常严重。”

(I know how efficient the virus was spreading and I know that it is acquired in hospital and I know that it can go with people by flights from one city, thousands of miles away.

There is one thing that I learned [during the SARS outbreak] … if you don’t make use of every hour, you are in big, big trouble.)

(以上英语版本引述英国《THE SUN》报道)

中国驻英国大使刘晓明5月14日曾表示，中方及时与世卫组织和国际社会分享了疫情信息，“根本不存在任何隐瞒”，强调中国采取“早发现、早报告、早隔离、早治疗”的举措十分有效，不能因为中国死亡人数较低，就指责中国“掩盖数据”或“隐瞒事实”。