World Medical Assoc. Dismisses China’s Figures

BERLIN — The chairman of the World Medical Association says China’s figures on the new coronavirus infections aren’t credible.

But German doctor Frank Ulrich Montgomery says the numbers aren’t credible in many other countries, either.

Montgomery says the recent low Chinese numbers were “nonsense” and suggested Beijing was intentionally providing false figures. The radiologist and former head of the German Medical Association says other countries are also working with uncertain figures because better data often isn’t available.

Montgomery cited the lack of proper testing as one reason why many developing countries are reporting low infection rates.

He called for the World Health Organization to do more to impress on governments in poorer nations the need to take measures to restrict the spread of the pandemic.

Montgomery warned that if the virus takes hold in megacities such as Cairo, “then it’s going to get really dangerous.”