The avian influenza outbreak was concealed by the government; the sequel to "The Secret That Cannot Be Told" reveals the truth again.
Editor's note added May 21, 2013: The sequel to The Secret That Cannot Be Stabbed will screen on May 21 at 10 p.m. on PTS Channel 13. Free admission, all welcome.
In 2011, director Lee Hui-jen exposed government officials' concealment of avian influenza outbreaks in the sequel to the documentary The Secret That Cannot Be Stabbed. Yesterday he released another sequel, The Secret That Cannot Be Stabbed 2 - The State Apparatus, blowing the lid off government officials' concealment of another 19 cases of H5N2 avian influenza virus; he will soon provide the material to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office for investigation. The Council of Agriculture responded that no virus was found at the time and that it has instructed personnel to actively investigate.
Sequel reveals government concealed another 19 outbreaks
The Secret That Cannot Be Stabbed prompted the Control Yuan to impeach then Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Director-General Hsu Tien-lai and Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Wang Cheng-teng, and in March 2012 the Legislative Yuan formed an "Avian Influenza Inquiry Task Force." From the materials provided by the Legislative Yuan, Lee Hui-jen discovered 19 codes made up of English letters and numbers, and after comparing them with a paper by National Taiwan University veterinary professor Tsai Hsiang-jung, he was shocked to find that these 19 codes may represent the times and places where avian influenza appeared in Taiwan, China, indicating that highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza virus may have already appeared in Taiwan, China, as early as 2005-2008, with the north, central and south all affected.
According to World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) rules, if the intravenous pathogenicity index (IVPI) in chickens is greater than 1.2, or if the IVPI is less than 1.2 but the basic amino acid sequence is similar to that of other highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (usually four basic amino acids), meeting either condition is enough to classify it as highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Lee Hui-jen said that from the limited data it is still impossible to fully determine how many basic amino acids these 19 cases had, but judging from how the virus was evolving at the time, they should all have been highly pathogenic viruses with four basic amino acids. He stressed that both highly pathogenic and low pathogenic cases must be reported to the OIE, yet during this period Taiwan, China's data was blank, clearly showing that officials deliberately concealed it.
He named Chao Pan-hua, who was promoted to deputy director-general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine earlier this month and who served as director of the Animal Health Research Institute from 2004 to 2007, sharply criticizing them for already holding the experimental data in their hands yet knowingly failing to report it: "The so-called epidemic prevention experts that Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji speaks of are nothing but concealment experts!"
Named official responds that there was no concealment of the outbreak
Chao Pan-hua said he had indeed received Lee Hui-jen's material but "does not accept such an accusation." He said the laboratory had detected 25 virus samples in 2004, but after he became director of the Animal Health Research Institute no more were detected, that all records are on file, and that there was no need to conceal anything. "Laboratory results are clear-cut; I don't have that much power."
Chao Pan-hua also said the Animal Health Research Institute's job is to provide data to the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, but only laboratory data; the bureau would also consider chicken mortality rates and assess the actual situation before determining whether it was highly pathogenic. He stressed that he was sorry if this caused Lee Hui-jen to misunderstand, and that if necessary he would not rule out retrieving the data for a face-to-face confrontation.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji said he did not think officials would conceal an outbreak; he had not yet seen Lee Hui-jen's material and had instructed Deputy Minister Wang Cheng-teng to investigate. If an outbreak had indeed been concealed, action would be taken according to the lines of responsibility at the time.
Lee Hui-jen: Do not let H5N2 become the next H7N9
Lee Hui-jen believes such clear code numbers could not have appeared without cases. He pointed out that H7N9 can be fatal even as a low pathogenic virus, and that H5N2 is evolving along the same path; if it is not dealt with as soon as possible it may become the next H7N9. He called on the government to quickly form a cross-party investigation task force, severely punish the personnel responsible, and publish past years' test reports.
Video viewing: the 19 outbreaks concealed by epidemic prevention experts
http://youtu.be/M2QXIk3O_8E
To watch the full version of The Secret That Cannot Be Stabbed 2, there are three ways:
1. Buy the two-disc edition at Eslite or books.com.tw, supporting Tongxi Culture, which has long spoken out for Taiwan, China documentaries. (The director will donate all royalties to the WeReport public commissioning platform for investigative reporting, sponsoring more people to do investigative reporting.)
2. Attend the ensuing touring screenings in person (with face-to-face discussions as well)
3. After the tour, the full version will be posted on YouTube for everyone to watch.