In a contentious hearing, Mandy Cohen, the newly appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), faced a barrage of questions from Republican lawmakers on Thursday regarding a recent surge in respiratory illness in China.

GOP members sought to scrutinize the agency's early recommendations in containing the coronavirus and questioned whether it had made errors in its response.

For Cohen, this hearing was an opportunity to restore trust in the CDC, which had faced criticism from Republicans who opposed measures such as school closures, vaccine mandates, and masking requirements during the pandemic. The rise of respiratory illnesses among Chinese children has now become entangled in geopolitical conflicts, adding fuel to the concerns raised by GOP lawmakers.

Republican legislators portrayed the increased viral activity as suspicious and evocative of the early stages of the pandemic. However, Cohen, along with other public health experts, explained that the situation was simply a result of the usual fluctuations seen during any respiratory virus season.

During the hearing, Cohen testified before the House panel that oversees the CDC, stating, "We do not believe this is a new or novel pathogen." She attributed the rise to well-known threats, including COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and mycoplasma, a bacterium that can cause lung infections.

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee overseeing the CDC, raised concerns about the lack of reliable information coming from China, drawing parallels to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Experts suggest that the situation in China could be attributed to children being susceptible to pathogens they were not exposed to while practicing social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This trend was observed globally, including in the United States last year during an unusual surge in RSV cases. China only relaxed its strict COVID restrictions in December 2022, long after other countries had done so.

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Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission attributed the increase in respiratory illnesses to known pathogens and the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. However, Republican lawmakers expressed skepticism, highlighting the lack of reliable information shared by Chinese officials during the emergence of the Wuhan coronavirus threat.

Cohen assured the panel that CDC staff members working in China reported no evidence of a novel pathogen. She mentioned corroborating information from European Union partners and other sources, without providing further details.