the documents are from where they thought the virus started from hubei.hree weeks to diagnose the new cases and much more. nick paton-walsh with the report. >> reporter: unprecedented leak of internal chinese documents to cnn reveals for the first time what china knew in the opening weeks of the covid-19 pandemic but did not tell the world. a whistle-blower said they worked inside the chinese health care system share the documents with cnn online which show a chaotic local response from the start. >> lack of transparency sort of also contributed to the crises. >> seeing information in black and white was very revealing and instructive. >> reporter: cnn verified them with half a dozen experts and european security official and using complex digital forensic analysis looking at the source code. the documents provide will the home to the center of hebie and some of the death tolls were off. the worst day in these reports is february 17th where these say 196 people who confirmed cases died but that day they only announced 93. china was also circulating intern

woodruff: one year ago today, the first known case of coronavirus infection was recorded in china's hubei province, home to wuhan, now known the world over as the original virus epinter.nd special correst patrick fok went to wuhan to try and piece together parts of the puzzle, and sehow china is shaping the story of what happened there. >> reporter: it's hard to imagine this place was once on coronavirus outbrehina's jinyintan hospital, in the north of wuhan, treated some of the world's first covid-19 patients nearly a year ago. few cars, or even people, come in and out of the premises now. in the early days of the outbreak, wards here were bursting. just a short walk around the m the hospital, authorities converted this expo center into a shelter to treat wuhan was the hardest-hit place in china, accounting for more than h cases, and the bulk of its officially-reported, roughlyde 4,50hs. the center is now housing an exhibition commemorating china's battle against the virus. >> ( translated ): i think pride belongs to every one of us chese, because we have successfully fought against the

the person is said to be a 55—year—old living in hubei province.orities, we should add, is that the first case wasn't confirmed until december last year, one month later. fast forward to today, more than 1.3 million people have died from covid—19, with more than 55 million confirmed cases globally. chinese leaders were seen as slow to react to the outbreak that began in the city of wuhan, suppressing information and even punishing those who raised the alarm. and it seems it is still intent of pursuing citizen journalists who covered the initial stages of the pandemic. the first to be publicly charged is zhang zhan, a former lawyer who reported from wuhan in february. she faces up to five years in jail. joining me to talk about zhang zhan‘s case is yaqiu wang. she is a writer and researcher on human rights in china, especially regarding dissidents, with human rights watch based in new york. tell us more about zhang zhan, who she was and what she did in those initial stages of the outbreak there. zhang zhan is a former lawyer and she has been outspok

the person is said to be a 55—year—old living in hubei province.authorities, we should add, is that the first case wasn't confirmed until december last year, one month later. fast forward to today, more than 1.3 million people have died from covid—19, with more than 55 million confirmed cases globally. chinese leaders were seen as slow to react to the outbreak that began in the city of wuhan, suppressing information and even punishing those who raised the alarm. and it seems it is still intent of pursuing citizen journalists who covered the initial stages of the pandemic. the first to be publicly charged is zhang zhan, a former lawyer who reported from wuhan in february. she faces up to five years injail. i spoke earlier to yaqiu wang, a writer and researcher on human rights in china, from human rights watch. she told me more about zhang zhan. zhang zhan is a former lawyer, and she has been outspoken and been critical of the chinese government before. so, she has her youtube channels on her social media channels, where she used those platforms to v

mysterious respiratory infection started to make its way around wuhan out of the fish market and through hubei province and crept over the country and changed all of our lives so that i'm talking to you now on zoom and on facetime and you're living in different places and our kids aren't going to school and 20 million people on unemployment, 230,000 dead and all that's happened and it's all the same and it just drives the stake through my head. but at the same time, i think it also probably contributes to the fact the president right now is not favored to win. how do you understand that central fact, rebecca? >> well, in some ways i understand it as being reflective of the fact that even prior to this completely universe altering pandemic, the feelings about donald trump were pretty cemented, right. it's not like his presidency had been going great up until march. >> correct. >> and there was so much -- you know, the past four years have been a period of so much political engagement and activation amongst people who had not previously been activists. and people felt very strongly how they felt

the person is said to be a 55—year old living in hubei province.er. fast forward to today more than 1.3 million people have died from covid—19, with more than 55 million confirmed cases globally. the us has been the worst hit, with over 11 million cases and nearly a quarter of a million deaths. but in china, where the coronavirus outbreak began, they have reported fewer than 5,000 deaths, and just over 92,000 cases. authorities there say there is currently no domestic transmisison of the virus. president xi jinping spoke earlier today about the fight against the virus — beyond china's borders. translation: coordination and come together to meet the covid—19 challenge. the coronavirus is still causing havoc in many places. securing a worldwide victory against the pandemic remains an uphill journey. what is important is that we put peoples life and health 1st. it is important to step up international coordination and response and support who does crucial leadership role in this endeavor. hello, what is the chinese view of how the rest of the world ha

it's been nearly a year since the first cases of covid—19 were detected in hubei province, china.inging untold misery around the world. doctors say the light at the end of the tunnel will be a vaccine. early studies from pfizer and moderna show their vaccines are highly effective against the virus — and they're waiting for the green light from regulators in the us and the eu to starting rolling out the doses. but experts say most of us won't get a coronavirus vaccine until the spring. and right now the number of americans in hospital with covid—19 is higher than at any other time in the pandemic. today the us has inched ever closer to its next grim milestone — nearly a quarter of a million people here have died from covid. as the fall turns to winter, with temperatures falling and people huddling indoors, the latest surge is projected to kill many thousands more. we're going to spend the next 30 minutes of this programme focusing on the race for a vaccine and some of the key issues with three very important experts. first among them, someone you will be familiar with, with dr anth