Barbs fly over WHO’s probe of outbreak

BEIJING — China fired back at the U.S. on Sunday over allegations from the White House that Beijing withheld some information about the coronavirus outbreak from World Health Organization investigators.

In a statement on Saturday, White House national security

adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington had “deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them.”

“It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government,” he said, referring to the WHO mission investigating the origins of the pandemic in the central city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected late in 2019.

China responded Sunday with a statement from its Washington Embassy that said the U.S. had already “gravely damaged international cooperation on COVID-19” and was now “pointing fingers at other countries who have been faithfully supporting the WHO and at the WHO itself.”

Following allegations of Chinese withholding of data in the New York Times and other media outlets, investigation team member Peter Daszak tweeted, “This was NOT my experience on (at)WHO mission.”