WHO experts travel to China for virus origins probe
Experts from the World Health Organisation are due to arrive in China this week for a long-anticipated investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese government said yesterday.
The experts will arrive on Friday and meet with Chinese counterparts, the National Health Commission said in a one-sentence statement that gave no other details.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the experts would travel to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019.
Negotiations for the visit have long been under way. WHO directorgeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment last week over delays, saying that members of the international scientific team departing from their home countries had already started on their trip as part of an arrangement between WHO and the Chinese government.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China had approved the visit following consultations between the sides and called it an opportunity to “exchange views with Chinese scientists and medical experts on scientific co-operation on the tracing of the origin of the new coronavirus”.
China’s government has strictly controlled all research into the origins of the virus, while state-owned media have played up fringe theories that suggest the virus could have originated elsewhere.
The AP investigation found China’s government was giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to scientists researching the virus’ origins in southern China. But it is monitoring their findings and the publication of any data or research must be approved by a new task force managed by China’s Cabinet, under direct orders from President Xi Jinping, according to internal documents obtained by the AP.
The culture of secrecy is believed to have delayed warnings about the pandemic, blocked the sharing of information with WHO and hampered early testing. There was considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, AP has found.