到了2020年2月3日，中國強烈施壓各國解除或預先阻止旅遊禁令。您當天發布的錯誤聲明支持了中國的作法，您告訴全世界，病毒在中國以外的傳播「微乎其微而且非常緩慢」，「病毒傳到中國以外的任何地方的機率非常低」。
As of February 3, 2020, China was strongly pressuring countries to lift or forestall travel restrictions. This pressure campaign was bolstered by your incorrect statements on that day telling the world that the spread of the virus outside of China was 「minimal and slow」 and that 「the chances of getting this going to anywhere outside China [were] very low.」
2020年3月3日，世界衛生組織引述中國官方數據來淡化無症狀傳播的嚴峻風險，世衛還向全球表示，「新冠肺炎不會像流感那樣有效傳播」，而且新冠肺炎與流感不同，主要不是經由「被感染但未生病的人」來傳播。世衛還告訴全世界，中國的證據顯示「通報案例中僅有1%的病例沒有症狀，大部分病例在2天內都會出現症狀」。然而，許多專家引述日本、韓國與其他國家的資料，強烈質疑這些說法。現在很清楚的是，世衛反覆向全世界強調的中國說法完全不準確。
On March 3, 2020, the World Health Organization cited official Chinese data to downplay the very serious risk of asymptomatic spread, telling the world that 「COVID-19 does not transmit as efficiently as influenza」 and that unlike influenza this disease was not primarily driven by 「people who are infected but not yet sick.」 China‘s evidence, the World Health Organization told the world, 「showed that only one percent of reported cases do not have symptoms, and most of those cases develop symptoms within two days.」 Many experts, however, citing data from Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere, vigorously questioned these assertions. It is now clear that China’s assertions, repeated to the world by the World Health Organization, were wildly inaccurate.
