Meddling sees report dropped
The World Health Organisation has scrapped plans to release an interim report on its investigation into the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, amid criticism of the influence of Beijing.
The WHO team that returned last month from its tightly controlled visit to the city at the centre of the original outbreak said it had no clear finding on the genesis of the virus. It said the evidence gathered suggested that the virus did not originate in a laboratory and probably jumped from an animal to humans.
A WHO spokesman said it would publish a full and final report with a summary of its findings.
Ben Embarek, the Danish scientist who led the team, told The Wall Street Journal that ‘‘since there [is] so much interest in this report, a summary only would not satisfy the curiosity of the readers’’.
The decision to cancel an interim report comes amid rising tensions between Beijing and Washington over the WHO’s mission.
China yesterday portrayed the WHO mission as a collaborative research project between international and Chinese scientists rather than an independent investigation. Beijing hailed the initial findings, but the United States expressed ‘‘deep concerns’’ about what the team learned, and pressed China for more information.
Two dozen scientists from countries including the Britain, the US, Europe and Australia called for a new inquiry in a letter released yesterday. They said the WHO team had insufficient access to adequately investigate possible sources of the virus.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said: ‘‘Experts from the two sides have had sufficient candid exchanges, and the conclusions reflect the consensus of experts on both sides, which are objective, scientific and authoritative.’’
The ministry described the letter from the two dozen scientists as assuming guilt and lacking scientific credibility.
Meanwhile, the WHO’s director-general has renewed calls to waive some intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines, a move he says is needed to boost global supply and ensure greater access for poorer countries to help end the coronavirus pandemic.
In an op-ed piece published in
The Guardian yesterday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus railed against ‘‘a ‘me first’ approach to vaccination’’.
Tedros has called for the waiver of some patents for coronavirus vaccines and medical supplies.
The 164-member World Trade Organisation is deadlocked over a proposal to do so, put forward by India and South Africa on behalf of countries with little or no vaccine doses. The idea has been roundly opposed by the US and largely other Western countries, where major pharmaceutical companies are based.